It is the administration of the kingdom of Christ in the world that this truth principally respects, Great is the enmity of this world against it; great the opposition that is and hath always been made unto it. But this will be the assured issue of it,—ruin to the ene- mies, joy to the saints, glory to Christ. This is that which is typed unto us in the prophecy of Gog. That prophecy is a recapitulation of all the enmity that is acted in the world against the interest of Christ. What his counsel is the prophet declares: Ezek. xxxviu. 11, “JT will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates.” They look upon the church of Christ as a feeble people, that hath no visible power or defence, and therefore easy to be destroyed; this encourageth them to their work. Who or what can deliver them out of their hand? With this reso- lution they come up on the breadth of the earth, and compass the camp of the saints, and the beloved city, Rev. xx. 9. They go about their work with glory and terror, as if they would do it in a day. So they have done in all ages; so they continue to do to this day. And what is the issue? The city, which they look on as an unwalled town, no way defensible or tenable, is not yet taken by them, nor ever shall be; but there they fall before it, one after another, and their bones lie under the walls of the city they oppose. They fall upon the mountains of Israel, and leave a stink behind them, the shame and reproach of their names unto eternity. Sometimes, they seem to have prevailed, and to have done their work; but still the issue is that they die, or are destroyed and go down to the pit, and come under the feet of Christ, leaving the city untaken. Disap- pointment, shame, and everlasting punishment, is their portion. And they find at last by experience that this “feeble folk,” whom they so despise, are wise, and have their habitation in a rock. This pledge we have already of the truth proposed, that all who have formerly risen up in enmity to the kingdom of Christ are dead, gone,
VER. 18.] EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 235
perished under his feet, and have left their work undone, as far from accomplishment as the first day they undertook it. The same shall be the lot of those that are, and those that follow, to the end of the world, And when they have all done their utmost, then shall the end be; then shall all their misery be completed, the joy of the saints filled, and the glory of Christ exalted.
For the enemies themselves, what can be more shameful unto them, than to be so stupid as not to learn from the experience of so many hundreds of years to give over a work wherein never any pros- pered? more miserable, than to engage in that design wherein they must necessarily fail and be ruined? more woful, than to work out their own eternal destruction under the wrath of Christ, in a busi-~ ness wherein they had no success?- And what profit is it if for the present they grow a little rich with the gain of oppression, if there be a worm in it that will devour both it and them? what advan- tage if they drink a little precious blood and find sweetness in it, if it make them sick, and swell, and die? The beloved city still abides, and their misery shall never end.
For the saints, what more joyful thing can there be, than for them to take a view of these things, to look backward and see all the Nimrods of the earth, that have opposed the kingdom of Christ, lying in shame and misery, with their necks under the footstool of his feet? There they may see Pharaoh lying, and Nebuchadnezzar, Nero, Domitian, Diocletian, with all their multitudes, and all that have walked in their steps, “brought down to the sides of the pit,” in shameand eternal misery, for their opposition tothe kingdom of Christ. There are they fallen and perished “all of them, who laid their swords under their heads, and caused terror in the land of the living.”
And the like prospect may they take of what is to come. ‘They may by faith see Babylon fallen, the whole conspiracy that is in the world against them and their Lord disappointed, and all his enemies that shall arise, even to the consummation of all things, brought to ruin. How may they triumph in a glorious prospect of this certain and unavoidable issue of the opposition that is made to the kingdom of their Redeemer! And this must be the issue of these things; for,—
1. God hath promised unto the Lord Christ from the foundation of the world that so it should be. It was part of his eternal cove- nant and compact with him, as hath been declared. And after the first promise of breaking the serpent’s head, and prevailing therein against the enmity of his seed, no season of the church passed wherein the promises of the same success and issue were not re- newed; and hereunto do the writings of Moses, the Psalms, and the prophets bear witness. And hereof it was that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied so expressly unto the old world before the flood, Jude 14, 15. Other prophecies and promises to the same purpose occur everywhere in the Scripture. And this God also in