shall he speak unto them in his wrath, Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Sion: be wise, therefore, ye kings; kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish!" In the opening of the Epistle to the Hebrews, we read that "God hath appointed his Son, who is the brightness of his glory, the heir of all things ;" and that, "to the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever; a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom: and thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundations of the earth; and the heavens are the work of thy hands: they shall perish, but thou remainest!". It seems as if the Divine Mind were concentrated—as if all the Deity were busied and intent in the scene of redemption and the person of the Redeemer! It seems as if the Great Eternal could find no other medium in which he might pour out the whole treasury of his perfections,-satisfy his infinite conceptions and desires, display and harmonize all his various attributes-his holiness, his justice, his mercy, and his love,—than Jesus Christ," the power and the wisdom of God!" Here he shines in his complete and blended glory,—at once the "just God," and the justifying Saviour of him that believeth in Jesus Christ. Here, doubtless, is presented an object the most glorious and delightful in the universe of God! There is reason to believe that, in a moral (that is, in the highest) point of view, the Redeemer, in the depth of his humiliation, was a greater object of attention and approbation, in the eye of his Father, than when he sat in his original glory at God's right-hand; the one being his natural, the other peculiarly his moral elevation.

Encompassed by so great a cloud of witnesses, summoned by so many powerful voices, let us all more earnestly than ever attend to this incomparable object: so shall we be prepared for the trials of life, the agonies of death, the solemnities of the judgment, and the felicities of the eternal world; so shall we inherit the unsearchable treasures of grace and glory.

XIV.

THE ADVANTAGES OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT CONTRASTED WITH THE BLESSINGS OF THE SPIRITUAL KINGDOM OF JESUS CHRIST.*

2 SAM. vii. 16, 17.-Thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever. According to all these words, and according to all this vision, so did Nathan speak unto David.

[PREACHED AT BRIDGE-STREET MEETING, BRISTOL, SEPTEMBER, 1822, for the BENEFIT OF THE LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY.]

THESE words, you are aware, are part of the message which the Lord addressed to David by the mouth of Nathan, at the time when

*Printed from the notes of the Rev. Thomas Grinfield.

David meditated the raising of a temple to the Lord. He was not indeed permitted to execute that design, but the Lord accepted him "according to all that was in his heart;" and commissioned the prophet Nathan to assure him, that his throne and kingdom should be confirmed, without interruption or termination, to his lineal successors, without ever again suffering such an instance of the departure of Divine favour as that which had occurred in the removal of the family of Saul from the throne: 66 Thy throne shall be established for ever." This promise was verified to the successors of David in so extraordinary a manner, as compels us to regard their history as an example of the particular intention and interposition of God's providence. The direct line of succession was preserved unbroken (with a single exception, that of Athaliah, which was of short continuance), in the house of David; and, while the history of the kings of Israel (after the separation of the ten tribes under Rehoboam's reign) becomes a subject of some perplexity by perpetual irregularities in the succession, it is remarkable that the kings of Judah succeed each other in perfect order, during a period of five hundred years. It is true, that during a long interval,-from the captivity to the incarnation of our blessed Lord, the throne of Judah, as well as that of Israel, fell into a state of deep decline and depression, so that the traces of its history are almost extinct: yet still the house of David existed, it was still preserved and known; the kingdom was in a state of abeyance,-of suspended, not abolished exercise: and it was resumed and renewed, and improved into higher glories in the person of Jesus Christ, the true, spiritual, substantial David; of whose kingdom (it cannot reasonably be doubted by any) that of David himself was at once a type and a part. The empire of Christ was the sequel and consummation of that which had originated in the son of Jesse; and hence our Saviour is so often styled the Son of David. The angel at his nativity announced him as "He who should be great, and should sit upon the throne of his father David, and of whose kingdom there should be no end;" while the evangelists, for the same reason, take pains to convince us that he descended from David by an exact genealogy. The perpetuity so emphatically promised in the text and many other places to the kingdom of David immediately pointed to the everlasting reign. of Messiah, to which alone that attribute could strictly belong. Our Saviour inherited this empire, not in consequence of his essential divinity, but of his incarnation and his mediatorial undertaking. His divinity, of which I trust all present are deeply convinced, was a requisite indeed, but it was not (properly speaking) the cause of his receiving and exercising this spiritual dominion. Unless he had been a person of the most Holy Trinity, it is evident he could not have sustained a sovereignty which requires universal knowledge and power: but his Deity could not have been the reason of his sustaining it; or else the Father and the Holy Spirit, being each Divine, must have inherited this throne as well as the Son of God. If all power was committed to him, it was (as he declares) because he was the Son of Man.

* 2 Kings chap. xi.

Like the typical David, He approached and ascended to his throne through much difficulty and suffering; he had to combat and conquer many and malicious enemies; though, during his ministry on earth, he gathered about him a few friends and followers (as David had also done, amid the persecutions of Saul), it was not until he had risen from the grave, and was ready to ascend to heaven, that he could use that triumphant language, "All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth!" The commencement of his reign may be dated from his resurrection, or from his session at the Father's right-hand: it was then the Father said, "Sit thou on my right-hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool." Ever since that era he has continued and advanced his empire; and (as the apostle observes), He must go on reigning until he hath put all enemies under his feet."

In the following remarks, let me request your candid attention,— first, to the principal advantages to be expected in a well-ordered government on earth; and then to the corresponding, and infinitely more important advantages which may be enjoyed under the spiritual government of Jesus Christ.

1. The first and primary advantage expected from every well-constituted human government is security, and the sense of security. The depravity of our nature has introduced such a universal selfishness and rapacity among mankind in their natural state, that men in every age and country have been convinced of the expedieney and necessity of attempting to organize some form of government for the purpose of their common security. While every individual is left to exert his own power as he chooses, none can be secure either in his property or person it becomes absolutely indispensable, therefore, if men would escape the intolerable evils of such a state, to collect and imbody this scattered and uncertain force of the many, in some public depositary of power: such a provision is necessary for the protection and preservation of every community. Hence almost all nations, even the most uncivilized, have attempted some constitution of this kind, however rude, for the prevention or the redress of those injuries to which the subjects were continually liable by the passions of our nature. Where the supreme power is lodged in the person of one, the government is called a monarchy; where it is reposed in the hands of a few, an aristocracy; and where the people share it in common among themselves, it becomes a democracy. Whatever may be the imperfections attaching to each of these modes of government, the worst is preferable to a state of society destitute of public authority and law: in such a state there can exist not only no security, but no tranquillity; it must be a state of perpetual apprehension and terror, in which none would feel themselves free to pursue either the arts of life or the acquisitions of trade. Even when an individual might himself escape for a time the assaults of rapacity, in such a state he would have to endure (what would be perhaps to some a still greater evil) the fearful expectation of his turn to suffer; and the nearer he beheld the acts of outrage, the deeper must be the impression of alarm on his mind, just as (if an humble illustration may be excused) when a stone is thrown

into water, while the agitation is greatest at the spot where it falls, the effect extends in the circles that are formed around, though it becomes more and more faint as they recede farther from the centre.

But the utmost degree of personal security that can be enjoyed under any form of civil power is a most imperfect shadow of the safety which Jesus Christ bestows upon the subjects of his spiritual reign. Until a man submits to His mediatorial authority, he remains exposed to unutterable evils. He ought to feel perpetual anxiety and alarm; for, in the declared judgment of God, he is in a state of condemnation and death: "he that believeth not in the Son of God is condemned already;" he that is not "quickened together with Christ Jesus" is "dead in trespasses and sins:" he is a criminal under sentence of execution, and only respited for a brief and uncertain period; the sword of Divine justice, suspended over him, may fall at any moment, and he is lost for ever. This is certainly the condition of every unconverted sinner, every one that has not yielded himself a willing subject to Jesus Christ his Lord. But "kiss the Son;" yield yourself as such a subject to Him; and from that moment you are placed in a state of perfect security; you are saved with a great salvation, protected from the wrath of God, from the dread of eternity, from the misery of sin; according to the prophet's beautiful description of our Saviour," In that day a King shall reign in righteousness; and a Man shall be as a covert from the storm, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land." The subjects of Jesus Christ, justified by faith, have peace with God. The last donation he promised his disciples was peace:-"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you not as the world giveth give I unto you."- "My peace!"—the same peace which filled the bosom of the eternal Son of God, when, having finished his work, he was acknowledged by the Father as his "beloved Son in whom he was well pleased." For, "because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts,"of His Son, the first-born of many brethren. And (as the apostle argues) "if God be for us, who shall be against us? Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? Shall God that justifieth? Who is he that condemneth? Christ that died, yea, rather that is risen for us? Who shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord?" The church of Christ, as a collective society, is invested with absolute security; it is a city on whose walls is engraven the name, "JEHOVAH SHAMMAH, THE LORD IS THERE!" It stands fast "like Mount Sion that cannot be moved:" it is founded on a Rock, and that Rock is Christ: He has "all power in heaven and earth" for its preservation; and not "the gates of hell shall prevail against it." But a portion of this general security of the body belongs to every member of it; every believer in Christ enjoys the same; and, as he grows in grace and knowledge, he enjoys also the sense of this security; he feels himself at peace with God; this peace keeps and fortifies his heart and mind against every assailing trouble; and, on the most trying occasions, he learns to say with humble confidence, "I will go forth in the strength of the Lord."

2. The second benefit expected from human governments is liberty. So far as this advantage is consistent with the former, or with the public security, the more largely it is enjoyed the better. Every diminution of liberty, except such as is necessary to our protection from evils which might otherwise be apprehended, is itself just so much redundant evil. All wanton, all merely arbitrary restrictions upon the freedom of individuals are to be regarded as some of the greatest calamities which mankind can sustain from each other; inasmuch as they strike directly at those principles of free thought and action which are the sources of all noble enterprise, energy, and excellence. Restraint, that cannot be justified by the production of some greater benefit than could be attained without it, is not imperfection; it is injustice. But, suppose the utmost possible degree of civil liberty enjoyed, what is it in comparison with that spiritual, real freedom which Jesus Christ confers? The former is, at the best, only an external, circumstantial blessing; it does not enter into the inner man. But if the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed :" "where the Spirit of the Lord is," there is the only true liberty. The Christian is the genuine freeman, and none besides is such except in name. His indeed is a glorious liberty: from the moment he enters into the kingdom of grace and truth, he is loosed out of prison, and leaves his bonds behind; invigorated with a divine strength, he purposes, and it stands fast; he triumphs over himself; he is victorious over the world with all its allurements or afflictions; he tramples upon the greatest tyrants, -the powers of darkness, the rulers of the disobedient; from that moment he is emancipated from the spirit of bondage; he walks at liberty; he can look beyond the grave; humble and yet confident, prostrate and yet not confounded, even in the prospect of appearing before God; and having overcome all, he "sits down in heavenly places with Jesus Christ,"-even as He also, having overcome all by death, sat down in glory at the right-hand of his Father. This is a perfect liberty not an evil can be felt or feared but it may be thus removed. This is an immortal, everlasting liberty; a freedom which confers on its possessors the sublime title of "the sons and daughters of the Lord God Almighty."

3. The next advantage derived from a good government is plenty. To secure this advantage, you are aware that there are arrangements in nature, in a great measure independent of human institutions, and beyond the control of human policy. But perhaps, in this respect, there has been often much error on the part of those in power. In general, it may be asserted that human laws should not interfere too much: no set of men can be supposed to understand the interests of particular classes as well as the individuals concerned understand their own interests. Every one should be left at liberty, as far as possible, to choose his own way in pursuing his own prosperity; and the aggre gate prosperity of the nation will be best consulted by allowing the utmost scope to that of every individual. The prevailing tendency in every government is, to legislate too much: and here, it may just be remarked, there are two obvious evils to be avoided; those who