SERMON XL*
C H RIST'S KINGDOM
AND THE
MAGISTRATE'S POWER.
/ Daniel was grieved in my spirit in the midst of my body, and the visions of my head troubled me, J came near unto one of them that stood by, and asked him the truth of all this. So he told me, and made me know the interpretation of the things. — Dan. vii. 15, 16.
What there is of concernment for the right understanding of these words, in that part of the chapter which goes before, may be considered in the opening of the words themselves, and therefore I shall immediately attend thereunto.
There are in them four things considerable.
First. The state and condition which Daniel, the penman of this prophecy, expresseth himself to be in, wherein he hath companions in the days wherein we live : * He was grieved in his spirit in the midst of his body.'
Secondly, The cause and means whereby he was brought into this perplexed frame of spirit : ' The visions of his head troubled him.'
Thirdly, The remedy he used for his delivery from that entangled condition of spirit wherein he was : ' He went nigh to one of them that stood by, and asked him the truth of all this.'
Fourthly, The issue of that application he made to that one, that stood by for redress : ' He told him, and made him know the interpretation of the things.'
All these I shall briefly open unto you, that I may lay a foundation for the truth which the Lord hath furnished me with, to hold out unto you this day.
First, In the first, the person spoken of is Daniel him- self: ' I Daniel.' He bears this testimony concerning him- self, and his condition was : * He was grieved in his spirit.'
• This sermon was preached to Ihe parliament, Oct. 13, 1652, being a day of solemn humiliation.
Christ's kingdom, &c. 477
The person himself was a man highly favoured of God, above all in his generation : so richly furnished with gifts and graces that he is once and again brought forth as an examjjle, and instanced in by God himself, upon the ac- count of eminence in wisdom and piety. Yet all this pre- serves him not from falling into this perplexed condi- tion, Dan. i. 17. 20. Ez. ix. 24. xxviii. 3. Now as the principal work of all the holy prophets, which have been since the world began, (Luke i. 70. 1 Pet. i. 10 — 12.) was to preach, set forth, and declare the Lord Jesus Christ, the Messias, who was for to come ; so some especial concern- ments of his person, righteousness, and kingdom, were in especial manner committed unto them respectively. His passion and righteousness to Isaiah, the covenant of grace in him to Jeremiah, and to this Daniel most eminently the great works of the providence of God, in the shaking and overturning of kingdoms and nations, in a subserviency to his kingdom ; with the revelation hereof for the consolation of the church in all ages, did the Lord honour him of whom we speak.
For the present he describes himself in somewhat a per- plexed condition. His spirit (mind and soul) was grieved, sick, troubled, or disquieted in the midst of his body; that is, deeply, nearly, closely : it sets out the greatness of his trouble, the anxiety of his thoughts within him : like David when he expostulated with his soul about it. * Why art thou so sad, my soul? and why art thou so disquieted within me V Psal. xhii. 5. he knew not what to say, what to do, nor wherewith to relieve himself. He was filled with sad thoughts, sad apprehensions of what was to come to pass, and what might be the issue of the things that had been discovered unto him. This, I say, is the frame and temper he describes himself to be in : a man under sad apprehen- sions of the issues and events of things, and the dispensa- tions of God, as many are at this day : and upon that ac- count closely and nearly perplexed.
Secondly, The cause of this perturbation of mind and spirit was from the visions of his head : ' The visions of his head troubled him.'
He calls them 'visions of the head,' because that is the seat of the internal senses, and phantasy whereby visions are
478 Christ's kingdom and
received. So he calls them 'a dream,' ver. 1. ' and visions of his head upon his bed.' Yet such visions, such a dream it was, as being immediately from God, and containing a no less certain discovery of his will and mind, than if the things mentioned in them had been spoken face to face ; he writes them by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, ver. 2. for the use of the church.
I shall not take the advantage of going forth unto any discourse, of dreams, visions, oracles, and those other di- verse ways and manners, Heb. i. 1. of revealing his mind and will, which God was pleased to use with his prophets of old; Numb. xii. 6 — 8. My aim lies another way: it suf- ficeth only to take notice, that God gave him in his sleep a representation of the things here expressed, which he was to give over, for the use of the church in following ages. The matter of these visions, which did so much trouble him, falls more directly under our consideration. Now,