THE BEAUTY AND STRENGTH OF ZION. SI 5
III. What are the causes and means of the preservation of Zion, and protection of the church, that we are to search out, and to con- sider, and trust unto?
It is but a little I can comply with the text in. I cannot go round about Zion, I cannot tell her towers; but we will consider some of her bulwarks, that will be a sure preservation against all opposition. And I will name four or five unto you: —
1. The designation and constitution of Jesus Christ to be king of the church, king of Zion, is the great bulwark of Zion. This is the fort-royal that never fails. Ps. ii., " Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set them- selves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lobd, and against his Anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion." — " Notwithstanding all this tumult, conspiracy, and rage, all these counsels and advices, yet," saith he, "Zion must stand; for I have set my king, I have anointed Christ, my eternal Son, to be king upon my holy hill of Zion." But though Christ be made king, it doth not follow but he may give over reigning; and so there will be no security from hence. The truth is, he will do so, he will give over reigning as to his mediatory kingdom;1 but not before he hath done with all his enemies, Ps. ex. 1, " Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool." And the apostle, 1 Cor. xv., saith, " He must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet." And when he shall have put down all power and authority, then he shall give up the kingdom. The great security of the church is from hence, that Christ is made king of Zion ; and if he be a king he must have subjects. The word is his law ; he rules by his Spirit : but rule and law together will not make a kingdom, unless there be subjects to yield obedience. If Christ be a king, if he sit upon Zion, the church must be preserved ; for he must have a kingdom. There is but one way in the world that looks probable to put an end to Christ's reign; and that is, to cease being his enemies : for the express terms of his reign is, " Till all Ins enemies be made his footstool." How easy were it for me to dwell upon this, that this king of the church hath power to preserve it to all ends, and in all circumstances; power to preserve it to eternal salvation, in visible profession, or in particular trials ! And what king is there
1 On the subject of the continuance of Christ's mediatorial office in heaven, Dr Owen gives a detailed exhibition of his views in the last chapter of his " Treatise on the Person of Christ," published four years after this sermon was delivered, vol. i. p. 271 Ed.
316 THE BEAUTY AND STRENGTH OF ZION.
among men that will not preserve his subjects in time of trial, when it is in his power so to do? The Lord Christ will preserve them. " I give unto them eternal life, and no man shall take them out of my hands/' He is able to save them to the utmost, even all that come unto God by him ; and he is given to be head over all things to the church, — to dispose of all as seems good unto him, for the end, use, and interest of the church.
This is the first bulwark and security we have for the preservation and protection of the church; and unless men can dethrone Jesus Christ, and cast him off from being king upon the holy hill of Zion, it is in vain to think of prevailing against Zion.
2. The second bulwark of Zion is the promises of God, which are innumerable. I will name but two of them. One is the foundation of the Old Testament, and the other of the New. One held it out for four thousand years, and was never impeached; and the other for these sixteen hundred years, and shall never be shaken.
The promise that was the foundation of the Old Testament, was the first promise of God, Gen. iii. 15, "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." There are these four things in that promise: — (1.) That there shall always be a two- fold seed in the world, — the seed of the serpent, and the seed of the woman ; they shall never fail while this world stands. (2.) That these two seeds shall always be at enmity; there shall be an everlasting conflict, from the entrance of sin to the end of it. " I will put enmity," saith God, and such an enmity as shall be carried on by the highest and most severe warfare. The enmity is spiritual, but the warfare oftentimes is outward. The first manifestation of this enmity was in blood. Cain slew Abel. Why ? Because he was of the evil one. And so it hath been carried on by blood from that day to this. (3.) That either seed hath a leader: there is " he and thou," " it and thou ;" that is, Christ and Satan. Christ is the leader of the seed of the woman, the captain and head of it in this great conflict ; and Satan, as he was the head of the apostasy from God, continues the head of his seed, the generation of vipers, to try out the contest with Christ unto the end. (4.) The victory shall always be to the seed of the woman. It is said, indeed, " Thou shalt bruise his heel," — Christ's heel, in his sufferings, both in his own person and those of the church. But on the contrary, it is said likewise, " He shall bruise thy head ; " — break thy power and strength, — conquer thee. Then Zion is safe. This was the foundation of the Old Testament : and though things oftentimes were brought to great distress,- — sometimes by apostasy, and sometimes by persecution, — yet this promise carried it, and de- livered over the church safe into the hand of Christ.