and " all the kingdoms of the world become the kmgdom of our God and his Christ." " Terrible things will God work," either in a way of mercy or of judgment. He has sworn, that " unto his Messiah every knee shall bow^." And every soul that bows not to the sceptre of his grace shall be " broken in pieces, as a potter's vessel*^."]
Methinks you will now be disposed to ask —
1. How shall I know whether this kingdom be yet begun within me ?
[Consider only wherein this kingdom consists ; and you will be at no loss to ascertain the state of your souls before God. Has the truth of the Gospel been so revealed in your hearts, as to *' bring you out of darkness into marvellous light" ?
Have you been so humbled by it, as to put your
hand on your mouth, and your mouth in the dust, with a deep consciousness of your vileness, and of your desert of God's
wrath and indignation ? And, lastly, are you so under
*' the constraining influence of the love of Christ, that you die daily unto sin, and live altogether, not unto yourselves, but unto Him who died for you, and rose again ? " These are questions wliich, if put to your consciences with fidelity, and answered with truth, will shew you at once whose you are, and whom you serve. Truly, by such marks we may infallibly " distin- guish the children of God from the children of the devil':" and I entreat you to examine yourselves by them with all imaginable care ; because, if you still continue to cast off" the Saviour's yoke, the time will quickly come when he will say, " Bring hither those that were mine enemies, who would not that I should reign over them, and slay them before me '^."j
2. How shall I get it established in my soul ?
[You have seen the frame of David's mind. You have seen how he contemplated the Saviour's love, till his soul was ravished with it, and he burst forth into the devout raptures which we have been contemplating. And this is the way in which the Saviour will acquire an ascendant over our souls. The Apostle tells us : " We, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the LordV I am far from saying that we ought not to search out our own evil ways, and to mourn over them before God ; for it is by such repentance that the preparatory work is usually wrought within us : but I say, that nothing but the love of Christ will ever perfect that work, or bring us into the full liberty of the children of God.
g Isai. xlv. 23. ^ Pg. ii. 8, 9. * 1 John iii. 9, 10.
k Luke xix. 27. '2 Cor. iii. 18.