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ver. 22, 23. 'Kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers.' Isa. Ix. looks wholly this way : taste of the nature and intendment of the whole. 'And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the bright- ness of thy rising. Therefore thy gates shall be open con- tinually, they shall not be shut day nor night, that men may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles, and that their kings maybe brought. Thou shalt also suck the milk of the Gentiles, and shalt suck the breast of kings, and thou shalt know that I the Lord am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty one of Jacob. For brass I will bring gold, and for iron 1 will bring silver, and for wood brass, and for stones iron : I will also make thy officers peace, and thine exactors righteousness;' ver. 3. 11. 16, 17. To which add the accom- plishment of all those promises mentioned, Rev. xi. 15. 21. 24.
You see here are glorious promises, in the literal ex- pression looking directly to what we assert concerning the subserviency of rulers to the gospel, and the duty of magis- trates in supporting the interest of the church. Let us con- cerning them observe these three things : as, 1st. To whom they are made. 2dly. On what occasion they are given. 3dly. What is the subject or matter of them in general. 1st. Then they are all given and made to the church of Christ after his coming in the flesh, and his putting an end to all ceremonial, typical, carnal institutions. For,
(1st.) They ar^g every way attended with the circumstances of calling the Gentiles, and their flowing into the church; which were not accomplished till after the destruction of the Jewish church. So is the case in that which you have, Isa. xlix. 20. * The children which thou shalt have, after thou hast lost the other, shall say again in thine ears. The place is too strait for me : give place to me that I may dwell.' It shall be when the church shall have received the new children of the Gentiles, having lost the other of the Jews : which he expresseth more at large, ver. 22. ' Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people : and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders.' So also are the rest,
502 Christ's kingdom and
When God gives the nations to be the inheritance of Christ, the Holy Ghost cautions rulers, and judges to kiss the Son, and pay the homage due to him in his kingdom; Psal. ii. 10, 11.
(2dly.) Because these promises are pointed unto, as ac- complished to the Christian church in that place of the "Re- velation before mentioned. 'And the seventh angel sounded, and there were great voices in heaven, saying. The king- doms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever ;' chap, xi. 15. 'And the nations of them which are saved, shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it ;' chap. xxi. 24. So that there are plainly promises of kings and princes, judges and rulers to be given to the church, and to be made useful thereunto, and kingdoms and nations, people in their rules and govern- ments to be instrumental in the good thereof: so that these promises belong directly to us, and our rulers, if under any notion, we belong to the church of Christ.
2dly. For the occasion of these promises ; it is well known what a trust by God's own appointment there was invested in the rulers, judges, kings, and magistrates of the judicial state and church under the Old Testament, in re- ference unto the ways and worship of God. The prosecution and execution of the laws of God, concerning his house and service being committed to them ; farther when they faith- fully discharged their trust, promoting the worship of God according to his institutions, encouraging, supporting, di- recting, reproving others, to whom the immediate and pe- culiar administration of things sacred were committed, de- stroying, removing whatever was an abomination unto the Lord, it was well with the whole people and church, they flourished in peace, and tire Lord delighted in them, and rejoiced over them to do them good: and on the other side, their neglect in the discharge of their duty, was then commonly attended with the apostacy of the church, and great breakings forth of the indignation of the Lord : this the church found in those days and bewailed. To hold out therefore the happy state of his people, that he would bring in, he promises them such rulers, and judges as he gave at first, who faithfully discharged the trust committed
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to them : not that I suppose them bound to the Mosaical rules of penalties in reference to transgressions and offences against gospel institutions, but only that a duty in general is incumbent on them in reference to the church and truth of God, which they should faithfully discharge ; of which afterward.