examine the experience of past and present generations, persecution and see if all particular observations amount not to this sum, viz., that the great whore hath committed fornication with the kings of the earth, and made drunk thereof nations with the cup of the wine of her fornications: in which drunkenness and whoredom (as whores use to practise) she hath robbed the kings and nations of their power and strength, and, Jezebel like, having procured the kings' Christian names and seals, she drinks [herself] drunk, Rev. xvii. [6,] slaughtered. with the blood of Naboth, who, because he dares not part with his rightful inheritance in the land of Canaan, the blessed land of promise and salvation in Christ, as a traitor to the civil state and blasphemer against God, she, under the colour of a day of humiliation in prayer and fasting, stones to death. Naboths CHAP. CXVI. Peace. Dear Truth, how art thou hidden from the eyes of men in these mysteries! how should men weep abundantly with John, that the Lamb may please to open these blessed seals unto them! Truth. Oh that men more prized their Maker's fear! then should they be more acquainted with their Maker's councils, for his secret is with them that fear him, Ps. xxv. 14. I pass on to a second difference. Second difference. of the the kings of The kings of Israel and Judah were all solemnly The mystery anointed with oil, Ps. lxxxix. 20, I have found David anointing my servant, with my oil have I anointed him. Whence the Israel and kings of Israel and Judah were honoured with that mystical and glorious title of the anointed, or Christ of U Judah. The name the Lord, Lam. iv. 20, The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of Jehovah, was taken in their pits, &c. Which anointing and title however, the man of sin, together with the crown and diadem of spiritual Israel, the church of God, he hath given to some of the kings of the earth, that so he may in lieu thereof dispose of their civil crowns the easier: yet shall we find it an incommunicable privilege and prerogative of the saints and people of God. For as the Lord Jesus himself in the antitype was not anointed with material but spiritual oil, Ps. xlv. 7, with the oil of gladness; and Luke iv. 18, from Isaiah Ixi. 1, with the Spirit of God, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings, &c.; so also all his members are anointed with the Holy Spirit of God, 2 Cor. i. 21, and 1 John ii. 20. Hence is it that Christians rejoice in that name, as anointed carrying the very express title of the anointed of the Lord; which most superstitiously and sacrilegiously hath been applied only unto kings. A sacrilegi ous mono name Christian. Peace. O dear Truth, how doth the great Searcher of poly of the all hearts find out the thefts of the anti-christian world! how are men carried in the dark they know not whither! How is that heavenly charge, Touch not mine anointed, &c., Ps. cv. 15, common to all Christians, or anointed [ones] with Christ their head, by way of monopoly or privilege appropriated to kings and princes! The crown of Christ's kingly power. Truth. It will not be here unseasonable to call to mind that admirable prophecy, Ezek. xxi. 26, 27, Thus saith Jehovah God, remove the diadem, take away the crown; this shall not be the same; exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high; I will overturn, overturn, overturn, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it him. The matter is a crown and diadem to be taken from a usurper's head, and set upon the head of the right owner. Peace. Doubtless this mystically intends the spiritual crown of the Lord Jesus, for these many hundred years set upon the heads of the competitors and co-rivals of the Lord Jesus, upon whose glorious head, in his messengers and churches, the crown shall be established. The anointing, the title, and the crown and power, must return to the Lord Jesus in his saints, unto whom alone belongs his power and authority in ecclesiastical or spiritual cases. CHAP. CXVII. kings of Judah in a spiritual Truth. I therefore proceed to a third difference between Third. The those kings and governors of Israel and Judah, and all Israel and other kings and rulers of the earth. Look upon the vested with administrations of t kings of Israel and Judah, and well power. weigh the power and authority which those kings of Israel and Judah exercised in ecclesiastical and spiritual causes; and upon a due search we shall not find the same sceptre of spiritual power in the hand of civil authority, which was settled in the hands of the kings of Israel and Judah. David appointed the orders of the priests and singers, he brought the ark to Jerusalem, he prepared for the building of the Temple, the pattern whereof he delivered to Solomon: yet David herein could not be a type of the kings and rulers of the earth, but of the king of heaven, Christ Jesus: for, First, David, as he was a king, so was he also a prophet, Acts ii. 30; and therefore a type, as Moses also was, of that great prophet, the Son of God. And they that plead for David's kingly power, must also by the same rule plead David immediately for his prophetical, by which he swayed the sceptre of Israel in church affairs. Secondly, it is expressly said, 1 Chron. xxviii. 11, 12, inspired by, 13, that the pattern which David gave to Solomon, the Spirit of God, in his church mat ters. ordering of concerning the matter of the temple and worship of God, he had it by the Spirit, which was no other but a figure of the immediate inspiration of the Spirit of God unto the Lord Jesus, the true spiritual king of Israel, John i. 49, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; Rabbi, thou art the King of Israel. Solomon's deposing Again, what civil magistrate may now act as Solomon, Abiathar (1 a type of Christ, doth act, 1 Kings ii. 26, 27? Solomon thrust out Abiathar from being priest unto Jehovah. Kings ii. 26, 27,) discussed. Solomon's putting Abi Peace. Some object that Abiathar was a man of death, ver. 26, worthy to die, as having followed Adonijah; and therefore Solomon executed no more than civil justice upon him. Truth. Solomon remits the civil punishment, and inflicts athar from upon him a spiritual; but by what right, but as he was king of the church, a figure of Christ? the priest hood, examined. A case put upon occa thar's case. Abiathar's life is spared with respect to his former good service in following after David; but yet he is turned out from the priesthood. any But now put the case: suppose that of the officers sion of Abia of the New England churches should prove false to the state, and be discovered joining with a French Monsieur, or Spanish Don, thirsting after conquest and dominion, to further their invasions of that country; yet for some former faithful service to the state, he should not be adjudged to civil punishment:-I ask now, might their governors, or their general court (their parliament), depose such a man, a pastor, teacher, or elder, from his holy calling or office in God's house? Another case. Or suppose, in a partial and corrupt state, a member or officer of a church should escape with his life upon the commission of murder, ought not a church of Christ upon repentance to receive him? I suppose it will not be said, that he ought to execute himself; or that the church may use a civil sword against him. In these cases may such persons, spared in civil punishments for some reason of or by partiality of state, be punished spiritually by the civil magistrate, as Abiathar was. Let the very enemies of Zion be judges. Secondly, if Solomon in thrusting out of Abiathar was a pattern and precedent unto all civil magistrates, why not also in putting Zadok in his room, ver. 35? But against this the pope, the bishops, the presbyterians, and the independents, will all cry out against such a practice, in their several respective claims and challenges for their ministries. The liberties of of Christ's of We find the liberty of the subjects of Christ in the choice of an apostle, Acts i.; of a deacon, Acts vi.; elders, Acts xiv.; and guided by the assistance either the apostles or evangelists, 1 Tim. i., Tit. i., without the least influence of any civil magistrate: which shows the beauty of their liberty. churches in the choice of their offi cers. A civil influence dangerous to the saints' liber The parliaments of England have by right free choice of their speaker: yet some princes have thus far been gratified as to nominate, yea, and implicitly to commend a ties. speaker to them. Wise men have seen the evil consequences of those influences, though but in civil things: how much far greater and stronger are those snares, when the golden keys of the Son of God are delivered into the hands of civil authority! Peace. You know the noise raised concerning those famous acts of Asa, Hezekiah, Jehoshaphat, Josiah. What think you of the fast proclaimed by Jehoshaphat? 2 Chron. xx. 3. |