The Subjection of Kings and Nations to Messiah. A sermon, preached on Monday, December 6, 1819, immediately after the dispensation of the Lord's Supper, in the Reformed Presbyterian Church, in the city of New York. By James R. Wilson, A.M. Minister of the Reformed Presbyterian Congregation, Newburgh. The kings of the earth shall bring their glory and honor into it, be wise now, therefore, O ye kings, be instructed, ye judges of the earth serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice in trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Sermon. All kings shall bow down before him all nations shall serve him. Psalm 72, 11. The person, offices and administration of Messiah receive, even at the present time, much illustration from typical exhibitions of them under the law. To apprehensions so slow and imperfect as ours, the dignity of the mediatorial person, and the importance of his mission, are displayed with wonderful emphasis in the sacrifices, sprinklings, holy places, and priestly and royal functions of the Mosaic economy. How illustrious must he be, and whom all these unite! wherein one type failed, another came into its aid. Of this we have a striking example, in the reigns of David and Solomon, of whom the former was a man of war from his youth, typically representing Jesus in the character of the Lion of the tribe of Judah, crushing all his enemies, while the latter, as his name imports, sways a peaceful scepter over all the surrounding nations, voluntarily subjecting themselves to his dominion, and thus representing Immanuel as king of peace, reigning over all nations, cheerfully submitting to his royal authority, during a thousand years of universal repose. To this event our text refers. The aged monarch indeed refers to his son Solomon in this psalm, but he has in view a greater than Solomon, When David intended to build a house unto the Lord, and was forbidden, God promised that a son should be born to him, who should build a house, and gave him this promise I will be his father, one which Paul applies to Christ too I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. With such authority, we are in no danger of misinterpretation, in applying our text to the subjection of all kings and of all nations to the dominion of Messiah. Leaving Solomon out of the question, it is perfectly safe to proceed in the discussion, as if the psalm had been indicted with a view to Christ Jesus only. In relation to him, the declaration all kings shall bow down before him, all nations shall serve him, may be interpreted 1. As a promise for the consolation of those devout followers of Jesus, who are interested for the honor of his crown, while they, at the same time, grieve to see attempts made to trample it in the dust. 2. As a prediction of a state of things, which shall certainly be brought to pass in the providence of God, who will cause the kingdoms to bow down before His Son. 3. As a duty commanded. In this view of the text, it would be translated, Let all kings bow down, before Him let all nations serve Him. As the discussion in this discourse shall be limited to the third view of the text, it becomes necessary to verify it. David says of Judas, three another shall take key his office. The verb is in the future tense, as in our text. Peter renders four key by Laboy, equivalent to an imperative, let him take. Again, David says, five let their habitation be desolate. Let eat is the future tense, in the original. By the same apostle it is rendered, Jevct, the imperative mood. We have a similar instance in the same verse, let another dwell therein. It is true, that every Hebrew future is not necessarily an imperative, does not necessarily commend, but in the description of Messiah's reign, given in this psalm, the whole aspect of the composition evinces, that such parts as the 11th verse are commands issued by the Eternal Father enjoining obedience to His Son. We shall explain the duty in choir, how it is performed and apply the subject. You have our plan. I explain the duty. The command is given to kings, in their official capacities, and not in their private characters only. The title given them, Michael Kings, is a title of office, denoting the heads of commonwealths, whether denominated presidents, kings, or emperors. It is also a generic word, embracing all who are in civil authority, in the legislative, judiciary, and executive departments of government. The type illustrates and enforces this extensive import of the title. kings, as such, were tributary to Solomon, and bowed down before him in homage to his authority over them. It is not merely then that the men, who are kings ought to do homage personally to Messiah, as their Lord, but that with their crowns on their heads and their scepters in their hands, they must acknowledge Jesus, by whom kings reign, and princes decree justice, even all the nobles of the earth. The latter clause of the verse illustrates this interpretation. All nations shall serve Him, not merely a majority of the individuals who compose all nations, but all kingdoms in their organized and national capacities, shall obey the Lord Jesus, who, sitting on the throne of His holiness, rules the nations. The original word, Me'ev, translated here nations, properly signifies a body, such as the human body, fitly compacted by that which every joint supplieth. Bhimav then are organized national bodies, moral persons, compacted by civil bonds, bodies, of which kings are the heads. As there is nothing in the context, to limit either the word kings or nations, to the private persons who are kings, and those that compose nations, we are not only warranted, but bound to extend their signification to all that they properly embrace. The command is to all two states, republics, kingdoms, and empires, in whatever quarter of the world they may be found, from whatever branch of the human family they may be descended, and whatever may be their local peculiarities and pursuits let all bow down before the mediator and serve him. But we must be more particular. 1. It is their duty to bind themselves to Him by covenant engagement, conscrating themselves to Him, swearing allegiance to Him as their King and Lord, binding themselves to one another, and, as united together in social compact, to seek the protection and the blessings of Messiah, Heaven's Almighty Vicegerent. if it be true, that by him kings reign and princes decree justice, princes rule, and nobles, even all the judges of the earth six that, all power in heaven and on earth is given to him, by the father seven that God hath highly exalted him, and given him a name, that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, of things on earth, and of things under the earth eight, that he is made head over, all things to his body, the church, that he alone the Father is accepted, who did put all things under him nine, that he hath set him far above all principality and power, and might and dominion, and every name that is named and that he is to rule in the midst of his enemies, that kings and judges of the earth are commanded to kiss the Son, whom God hath anointed, tend unassuredly it is the duty of every civil commonwealth, of every potentate, to swear allegiance, to him who possesses, as mediator, such a title to absolute and universal lordship over the nations. King and subject are correlates. When the father, as a reward of the sufferings of his son, gave into his hand the government of all principalities and powers, of all magistrates and kingdoms, he imposed upon them an obligation to acknowledge him explicitly, as their sovereign such explicit acknowledgment is what we call national covenanting. on the supposition that Jesus is indeed their King, who can offer any reason that they should not so recognize Him. Parents are the natural governors of their children. Masters have a right from God to govern their servants, husbands, their wives, magistrates, their subjects, and ministers, their people. Who will say that children may refuse to recognize the government of their parents, servants, their masters, wives, their husbands, subjects, their lawful magistrates, and people, their ministers? all admit that those inferiors are bound to submit to their respective governors, and to act under the influence of a principle of voluntary obedience in all things. The reason is plain, and will be understood. The superiors have a right to rule them, to demand and enforce obedience and the right is from God, the ultimate fountain of all law, all right, all government. No earthly ruler in any of all the relations of life, can plead so absolute, so explicit, and so immediate a title to dominion, as that which Jesus possesses to govern the nations. Every possible reason then, that can be plead for voluntary and explicit subjection and obedience to earthly power, applies with handful emphasis to the duty of the nations bowing before Emmanuel. Let not men deceive themselves, God is not mocked. He regards the honor of His Son's government and the prerogatives of His crown, and He will assert them. We have not only the exaltation of Jesus by the Father, to rule the nations, His call upon them to submit to His scepter, and prophetic declarations, that they will do so, but we have also the principle and the manner exemplified most perspicuously, in the history of His peculiar people. Abraham had a promise that his posterity should become a great nation, as the stars of heaven for multitude. After the departure of the patriarchs descendants from Egypt, at the foot of Mount Sinai, they put on a complete national and ecclesiastical organization, with a body of laws for the regulation of all their national concerns. The whole of this organization is not only formed under the immediate inspection, but according to the express laws of Jesus Christ, who came down upon the mount amidst thousands of his angels, to direct some momentous an affair. The whole Sinai transaction is called a covenant. When the law is proclaimed, the people repeatedly promise, all that the Lord hath said, we will do. As a people, they stand trembling in the presence of an array of the divine glory, to receive a civil constitution and organization from the hands of Messiah. They accept it, solemnly promise obedience to Him who gives it, and adherence to its forms. Under this covenant subjection to the Son of God, as mediator, they vanquished the Canaanitish nations, take possession of the promised land, manage their polity, and continue their national existence, until the destruction of their city by the Romans. This very destruction of the last remains of their national organization, was on account of their rejection of Messiah. No principle is more distinctly visible none could be rendered more so in the Sinai Constitution than the covenant subjection of the nation to the mediator. Now, consider the state of the world, and especially the age of the nations at the time of this transaction. The patriarchal power was everywhere yielding to a different and more extended plan of civil government, in which kings, not claiming parental authority, were beginning to exercise regal authority over associated provinces. At that period, God selects one people, forms them into a kingdom under his immediate superintendence, and gives them possession of a wealthy and ample territory in the very center of the population of the world, and surrounded by the rising empires of the East, such empires as Phoenicia, Egypt and Babylon. Is it conceivable, that the whole organization of that nation, and the laws by which they were to be governed, would not be the best and wisest, and that they were not designed as a model for contemporary and future nations? Was not human nature the same in the Israelites, and in other nations? Was it not the same then as it is now? Had not men then the same faculties, the same social powers, the same passions, the same rights, that men have now? What was adapted to promote national prosperity then, is so now. The obligation to know, acknowledge worship and glorify God, was not greater in that age, than it is in ours, in Judea, or at the root of Mount Sinai, than in England or America. God did not say to Israel only, Obey the angel that I send before you, for my name is in him. He does not say to the nations now, though Israel was commanded to obey My Son, yet I release you from all obligation to obey and serve Him. He has not now any claims upon your homage. The subjection of Israel to the government of God, was to him an immediatorial person and character, for the relation in which he stood to them, and they to him, was a gracious covenant relation a relation which God, absolutely considered, cannot sustain to any of the guilty race of Adam, either individually or nationally. whatever may be said of their national polity, of the connection, or rather as some ignorantly assert, of the perfect saneness of their church and civil state, still it is abundantly evident that they had a civil government, a national territory and property, and civil relations and rights, and that all these were completely subjected to the government of the Son of God, in his character of mediator. Is there any intimation in the whole volume of inspiration, that other nations should not copy after the examples set them in Judea? Any hint, that the honors there claimed by Messiah, and conceded to Him, were peculiar to the territory, and that He does not demand them in other quarters of the world? Nothing like it, but quite the reverse. The uttermost parts of the earth are given to him for inheritance. He is the governor among the nations. Sheba's and Sheba's kings shall offer gifts. Yea all kings shall fall down before him. The isles shall wait for his law. The gathering of the people shall be to him. The Lion of the Tribe of Judah has the volume of providence committed to Him, and He prevails to open the seals of the Book, in which the destiny of the nations is recorded He is Prince of the Kings of the Earth, and hath on His vesture and on His thigh written, King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. Indeed, it's not easy to conceive how God could have expressed His will more plainly, or have more fully and distinctly asserted the claims of the Son to universal dominion, and the duty of nations to acknowledge Him. that such was his will relative to the Jews, and that they acted upon it, has never been called in question by any Bible believer. But we are called upon to produce some example from the New Testament. This demand is not only unfair, but it is absurd. When the Apostles of Jesus organized the New Testament Church, and began to preach the Gospel among Gentile nations, the whole civilized world was under the dominion of the Romans an empire, hostile in its whole spirit, to the pure religion of Christ Jesus. There was not, during the ministry of the Apostles nor for several generations after them, a majority of any one nation converted to Christianity, and if there had been, the Romans would not have permitted them to model their government in their own way. Hence, as things were, it was impossible that we should be furnished with an example of any nation entering into covenant with God, and subjecting itself to the scepter of Messiah. It may be said, why then, if God intended that nations should be bound to this, as a duty under the new dispensation, did he not convert at least one nation? To this it were enough to reply, that God giveth account of none of his matters. So, to have converted the Roman Empire, during the days of Messiah's incarnation, would have prevented His crucifixion, and to have done this work in the days of His apostles, would have been contrary to that manner of operation, which characterizes all His doings. Both in nature and in grace, His works are progressive. The spread of the Gospel was gradual, and the influence, which it gained over the nations, was accomplished by progressive steps, like all the other works of God. Before it could have been possible to give an example of the application of the principle contained in our text, the majority of the whole Roman Empire must have been proselyted to the Gospel of Christ, by a miraculous interposition of the providence of God, the whole fabric of Roman superstition, idolatry and tyranny, must have been laid in ruins. the manner in which this was effected by the triumphant power of divine truth, gave a much more illustrious display of the efficiency of the gospel, and of the patience and heroism of the disciples of Jesus, than could have been given by a miraculous and instantaneous subversion of that great system of iniquity. But though we cannot give such an example, yet is not the God of the Old Testament, the God of the New? Is not the Redeemer of the Old Testament, and of the New, the same Redeemer? Are his claims to love, admiration and homage diminished by the fact of his actual incarnation? By the fact of his introducing a more glorious dispensation of truth? By the fact of his ascending far above all heavens, and of ascension at the right hand of the Majesty on high? It is sufficient for our purpose, that as extensive claims on the part of Messiah are exhibited in the New Testament, as we find anywhere in the Old, that there is a promise, that the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, 11 and that the Lamb is represented as making war upon the nations, filling the world with judgments, laying waste in His wrath the nations, and overturning thrones, because they refuse to obey Him. If more evidence is wanting, we have more the declarations of Old Testament prophets, relative to New Testament times. It is the language of national subjection, of covenant obedience to Christ Jesus the language of national swearing, to obey the Lord of hosts, in the mediatorial person of His Son. In whose name are sacrifice and adulation presented to God? In whom, are the vows, that we vow, accepted of Jehovah? In Jesus Christ, and through Him alone. Still more thou shalt no more be termed forsaken, neither shall thy land any more be termed desolate, but thou shalt be called Hafsaba, and thy land Beulah for the Lord delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married. 14. How shall our land be married? Civil rulers have the land, with all the wealth dug from its bowels, and all the produce of its soil, under their management. It must be through the civil governments, or by men in their civil capacities, that lands shall be married to God, or voluntarily surrendered to Him, by national covenant. It is in civil institutions, that men shall consecrate their gains to the Lord of the whole earth. In whom can men enter into covenant with God, in a way accepted and approved by Him, but through the Lord Jesus Christ? Doth not even nature itself teach you? The duty of national subjection to God, is deeply engraven on the moral constitution of man. Have the nations changed their gods, which yet are no gods? The nations, then, have gods. Yes, all the nations have had their gods. The city of Ephesus was a worshipper of their great goddess Diana. Rome was founded with rites of consecration to Jupiter's stator, and to Jupiter's stator, their order ascribes its preservation from conspiracy. Ashtaroth was the goddess of the Zidonians. Here are specimens. Every reader of history knows, that all the nations of antiquity acknowledged subjection, and looked for protection to some god or goddess, and that it has been reserved for modern times, and a people professing Christianity to form a constitution, and organize a civil community, without recognizing even the fact of the existence of any god. But what do I reason? The voice of nature speaking from the bosom of human society, the voice of God speaking the volume of inspiration, in the institutions of His chosen people speaks aloud, Let Jesus be crowned Lord of all. To this the voice of piety in the bosom of every lover of the Lord Jesus Christ, will joyfully and spontaneously accord Let the nations crown Jesus Lord of all. 2. the nations are bound to recognize the Bible as the supreme law of the land, as the standard of civil legislation. God's law, as recorded in the Bible, reaches all the possible relations of humanity, extends to every duty that can be performed, and fastens its claims on associated bodies of men, as well as upon individual persons. Were this not true, we should have this monstrous anomaly in Jehovah's government, that while men, as individuals, are bound by the laws recorded in the Bible, in their congregated capacities, they may set these laws at defiance, and even contemn as citizens, what as Christians they are bound to honor and obey. If we admit that kings, as such, are not bound by the laws contained in the Bible, they commit no sin in acting contrary to them, while they act in their official capacity. The moral laws recorded in the Holy Scriptures, are but a fairer copy, and more full and explicit declaration of the eternal and immutable principles of righteousness, which are contained in the law of nature. When God proclaimed, on the summit of Mount Sinai, His law, in the hearing of the congregation of Israel, it surely could not have entered into the heart of any pious or intelligent man among the people to believe, that while the private individual was bound by the law, the nation as such, the heads of the tribes, and all the civil rulers, were not to listen to it as directed to them. Everyone knows, that the influence of the public laws of a nation, is powerful over all the interests of the citizens, in relation to temporal prosperity, morality and religion. Who could believe, then, that the less important matters were contemplated in the laws of Jehovah, while the more important were utterly neglected? But why should we reason, when the declarations of scripture are expressed on the point, The whole code of civil and criminal law is directed to civil rulers, from their very nature and tenor, as to them alone property belonged the right to take cognizance of offenses, acquit, or condemn, and inflict punishment, as the nature of the action and the law required. Who could compel the restitution ordered? The magistrate. Who could pass the decree of death upon the murderer? The magistrate, and so of other laws. When Moses draws near his death, he delivers a written copy to the priests, the sons Levi, and unto all the elders of Israel. 15 The elders or civil rulers have a copy delivered to them, that they many act agreeably to it, in the discharge of all their civil functions. God commands Joshua, as the chief magistrate of the nation be strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee, turn not from it, to the right, or to the left, that thou mayest prosper, whithersoever thou goest. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein. 16 The same command again and again reiterated to the kings and judges of Israel. When a good king is commended, it is said of him, that he claimed to the Lord, and departed not from following him, but kept his commandments, which the Lord commanded Moses. 17 When a bad king is censured, it is said, he forsook the Lord God of his fathers, and walked not in the way of the Lord. an excellent ruler is, in the vocabulary of the Bible, one who follows the Lord, and obeys the Lord, and keeps His commandments an evil ruler, one who forsakes the Lord and disobeys His law. Perhaps no reader and believer of the Bible ever doubted, that the civil ruler of Israel was bound to obey the law of God, revealed in the scriptures, but we are told that all this is done away under the New Testament the laws now bind only individuals, nations are not now bound to regard the Bible, But how was this discovery made? Not in the volume of inspiration. There we have no hint of the kind. If the prince and citizen are set free from the obligations of the divine law, we may safely infer that the Christian is so too. The whole word of God, then, as it stands at present, will be of no other value no other use, than to give us notice of the fact that we are released from all obligations to obey the precepts which it contains. We know, however, that kings and private persons were once bound to act agreeably to the revealed rule of God, that God has not set them free, that they are still bound by the law, and that however kings of the earth and princes may combine to burst asunder the bonds of moral obligation, and cast from them the cords of law that bind them to the throne of the Eternal, He that sits in heaven will laugh their attempts, and hold them in utter derision. Paul 18 instructs us to consider the penal laws of the Old Testament still binding. The law is not made for the righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for mensdealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and etc. What law is this? The law of Moses. It can be none other. The same apostle, in this connection, says of this law, it is good, if a man use it lawfully. Who can inflict the penalties too, which the great apostle alludes? The civil magistrate only, who is a terror, not to good works, but to evil. 19. What are good works? Those that fulfill God's law. What are evil works? Those that violate God's law. God's law is directed to every relation in life. who can make a wiser law. Shall man be more wise than his Maker? It is true, that some of the laws given by Moses, were peculiar to the Jews. Such were all the types, and all that immediately referred to them. Such were some laws adapted to the peculiar state of that people. But even these latter, as that relative to reaping the corners of the field were founded on some principle of justice or benevolence, and by ascertaining this principle, we shall be enabled to apply it, and we are bound to do so. Nations, where the holy scriptures are known, have not yet arrived at such a degree of hardyhood, as utterly to refuse the application of the principle here contended for. The Sabbath breaker and profane swearer are punished with civil pains. How did legislators know that these are crimes? By the revealed will of God, and by that only. Some, indeed, have wonderfully refined on the principle of the laws against vice and immorality. They say, it is not because these are laws of God, that we are bound to enforce them, but because they are offensive to a majority of our citizens. It is thus that some professing Christians, honor man and respect his feelings, while they dishonor God, and degrade his law. Were this, indeed, the principle of this branch of human legislation, then legislators would be bound to enforce the violation of the Sabbath and profane swearing, should public feeling ever become so depraved as to approve them. But let us call upon you to consider this subject, in view of the general judgment, when Jesus, to whom the Father hath committed all judgment, shall erect his great white throne in the air, shall assemble all nations before him, open the books, and enter upon a solemn and final canvas of every man's character what king, what potentate, will dare to set up as a plea for royal misdeeds, amenity from obligation to those laws, which God has published in the Scriptures. Nimrod, Ahab, Jeroboam, Herod, Phocas, Louis and Napoleon, will be arraigned at the bar of Jesus, and tried by the law in the testimony. Those who have sinned against the written law, shall perish by a sentence issued according to that law. Many will then learn, but too late, that the wisest policy would have been, to consult the Holy Scriptures in their cabinets and halls of legislation, and to derive their maxims of government from its infinitely wise and salutary precepts. O ye kings, ye judges of the earth, be wise, be taught out of the laws of heaven, kiss the sun, revere and practice his precepts, lest when his wrath is kindled but a little, ye perish speedily and utterly. 3. The nations are bound to avenge their subjection to the Son of God, by filling all their official stations with upright, godly and able men. When the venerable priest of Midian came to Moses, his son-in-law, Beermoud-Horeb, and saw the labor to which he was subjected in judging the people, from morning until evening, he advised him to relieve himself from a part of the burden, by providing out of all the people, able men, such as feared God, men of truth, and hating covetousness, to be rulers over thousands, and etc. 20 adding, If thou do this thing, and God command thee so, Moses hearkened unto his father-in-law, and did all that he had said. These wise maxims of the Midianitish priest, are worthy of being copied into the constitution of every nation, to the end of the world. Let the rulers be able men, no idiots, no ignorant or weak men, but men of mind, information and firmness. Fearers of God, no infidels, no heretics, no profligate despisers of religion and righteousness, but men who have the fear of God before their eyes, who avoid the paths of iniquity, make a profession of the true religion, and walk in the commandments of the Lord, blameless. men of truth, not public deceivers, not men, who rise into elevated stations by coloniating their rivals, and who obtain the public favor by false and elusive professions of patriotism, not men, who despise the truth of God, and patronize errors and lies, but men who speak the truth, as they think in their heart, who all seek the public good, and who value the truth of God more than all earth they honors, and use all their influence derived from personal worth and official eminence, for promoting integrity among the citizens, and the love and practice of the truths of the gospel. Finally, hating covetousness not men who seek for offices, that by getting the public coffers, they may enrich and render themselves opulent by the oppression of the poor, but men who wish for no more than a competent remuneration for their labors, and who would rather sacrifice their own property for the advancement of the national prosperity, than grow rich upon the spoils of the community. how admirable an enumeration of magistratical qualifications. It has to the sanction of God himself, for God commanded Moses, otherwise he could not have done all things that Jethro advised, as the obtaining of the divine approbation was a part of the advice. The value of these precepts, is illustrated in the whole history of the Israelitish Commonwealth. When a wicked ruler was over the people, they found a wicked king to be a roaring lion and a ranging bear. 21 The idolatrous kings of Israel were what our modern infidel, swearing, gaming, Sabbath-breaking, and adulterous modern magistrates and statesmen are. When such a king ascended the throne, the whole nation, with the exception of a few devout men, sunk into idolatry and general profaneness, the worship of the true God was neglected, and divine judgments, like the rushing tornado, wasted their territory, pollution and abomination issued in torrents from the palace, and spread ruin over the land. For the sons of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, the armies of Assyria under Shalmaneser, wasted the land with fire and sword, and carried away the people captive into a strange land. Wasting and destruction were in all their borders. When Ahab reigns, and introduces the worship of Ashtaroth, the goddess of the Zidonians, there is a famine in the land. When the faithless Zedekiah reigns, the city is sacked, the men of war fly, terror fills every heart, and the people, whom the sword spares go into captivity. This is the history of a section of God's government of the world, and a specimen of the whole. who, indeed, can believe that God will permit men man with the Word of God in their hands men professing the religion of Jesus, to bestow their first honors and highest favors on His open and avowed enemies, and see them again, with all their vileness, in high places, encouraging the wicked to walk on each side. I say, who can believe that He will permit men to do all this unpunished? much less who can believe that he will approve of such insults offered to him in the elevation of his hardened enemies. What more preposterous than to place men on high as the guardians of public and private right of public and private virtue, men who are themselves notorious violators of both the former and despisers of both the latter. Never was there a more solemn mockery Let every minister of Jesus every friend of man, raise his warning voice to the highest pitch of remonstrance, against this deep and deadly sin this general scourge and curse of the nations. It is not enough, that in the few countries, where men have the high and responsible duty to perform a filling, by the exercise of the elected franchise, the public offices, that they are careful to select good men, and good men only, constitutional barriers must be erected around the chair of state, the bench of judgment, and the legislative hall, to save them from such pollution. Vicious men are impudent, forward, and intriguing, and will thrust themselves into the sanctuaries of law and justice, unless they are surrounded by ramparts that they cannot scale. Lucifer-like, did they believe the achievement practicable, they would attempt to scale the battlements of heaven, and ascend to the throne of God. Let the nations cut off all their hopes, blast all their intrigues, and paralyze all their energies by constitutional bulwarks, bidding defiance to all the prowess of the ungodly. Let them pass a decree, like the laws of the Medes and Persians, that altereth not, and let them record it among the fundamental laws of the land, that they will set over the none but able men, men fearing God, men of truth and hating covetousness. 4. In all their political institutions the nations are bound to subserve the interests of the Church of God and promote truth and godliness. It is a general law of the government of God that the material universe shall be rendered subservient to the interests of his moral empire. At first, there were two branches of God's providential government, the angelic branch and the human, both of which became deranged by the introduction of moral evil. God determined to form one consolidated government out of that part of the angelic province which had not revolted, and the part of the fallen race of men, to be redeemed by the blood of His Son, and sanctified by the operations of His Holy Spirit. At the head of this consolidated empire He decreed to place His Son, that it might forever be secured against all disorder, according to the declaration of the Apostle 22, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times He might gather together in one, all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth, even in Him. To promote the interests of this kingdom, Jesus Christ was made head over all things to His body, which is the Church. that he should render the whole administration of Providence subservient to the erection, progress and final perfection of his special kingdom, with the primary object of a universal dominion conferred on him by the Father. Hence the Church becomes the meridian line to which all events refer, in the vast enthroned map of Providence. All is yours. All things work together for good to them that love God. We have an excellent illustration of this principle in Edward's History of Redemption. To illustrate it, was the professed object of the writer an object which he has accomplished with his usual success. However adverse ungodly men, ungodly notions, and ungodly kings may be to advance the interest of the church, Messiah in his administration, effectually overrules all their plans and operations for accomplishing the objects which he has in view. But, how guilty nations are, in not governing themselves by such views, as accord with the declared plans and purposes of God, how greatly they err, in attempting to cut or act as plans, let wise men judge. God has given us ample intimations of His will on this point, in the structure of the Jewish commonwealth. It has often been remarked, as a wonderful peculiarity of that system of civil government, that every part of it was so modeled as to subserve the welfare of the ecclesiastical establishment. That remark is undoubtedly correct, but very incorrect inferences have been drawn from the fact. Some have thought the civil and religious institutions entirely blended. So utterly incorrect is this inference, that these institutions were then for the first time separated from each other, and the office of the civil magistrate rendered completely distinct from the spiritual ruler. Each officer had his own particular duties assigned him, and might not interfere with those of the other, as is abundantly evident in the instances of Saul's 23 offering a sacrifice, and of Uzziah's 24 burning incense. The case of Uzziah is very striking, it appertaineth not unto thee, Uzziah, to burn incense, but to the priests, the sons of Aaron, that are consecrated to burn incense. This never could have been said, had there been no distinction preserved between the church and state. For his transgression, in this affair, the king was smitten with a leprosy, and dwelt in a separate house unto the day of his death. Until the time of Moses, the government of the world had been generally patriarchal. The patriarch was king and priest, exercising a species of extended family government, in which, among the godly, as in godly families now, all temporal affairs are, or ought to be managed, in subserviency to religion. Civil government, indeed, is only a more extended plan of administering that part of family government, which refers chiefly to temporal things. what an ancient patriarch, and his patriarchate or family, were bound to do, for advancing among themselves the interests of godliness, every nation, as a body, is bound to do. The patriarchal government was of divine authority, and by divine authority, the civil government of the Jews succeeded that primitive institution. Where else than in those two, are we to look for a divine exemplar? where else to seek for light from heaven, shed upon our dark world, on a subject so momentous? And are we in danger of error, when we copy the examples set us by the God of heaven? That the subserviency of the Jewish civil polity to the religion of the Son of God, was not designed to be limited to that dispensation, is evident, from the consideration, that it was founded in reason in the immutable principles of Christian philosophy. Every man, individually, is bound to make religion his primary concern, to consider himself as a pilgrim and foreigner in a strange land, traveling towards an eternal residence, and to use all his earthly comforts with reference to futurity. He is here but for a short period his being only begins to dawn all his pursuits should look towards another world. As a member of a family as a merchant, a mechanic, a farmer, and etc. he is to keep his future destiny steadily in view, and is he to lose sight of it utterly, the moment he acts as a member of the civil community? Let him who can, believe it. Religion is vitally connected with all that should be done by him in this life, and it lies at the foundation of all that regards his prospects of future blessedness and glory. Its magnitude and importance swallows up every other consideration, and must he, as a magistrate, disregard all its claims? To do so, is to set a defiant right reason and sound philosophy. An immortal being should act everywhere, with reference to his immortality. This view of the subject is rendered still more luminous, from the fact that national prosperity, glory and happiness, are essentially connected with the purity of the Church of God, relative to doctrine, discipline and government. Well does the Christian poet sing, when nations are to perish in their sins, tis in the Church, the leprosy begins. Well does the present governor of Pennsylvania say, in an address to his legislature there is no security for national prosperity or morality, but in the Christian religion. Heresy, gross idolatry, and blasphemy, provoke the wrath of God, and call down his vengeance. By opening the floodgates of vice and immorality, they render divine judgments indispensable to assert the honor of God's government. Let Israel and modern Europe witness, Even a heathen poet could say Neek Parnashtra paid Amir Saleh's Iraqi and the Jove Mponar Fomina. Nor by our wickedness do we suffer Jove, to lay aside his vengeful thunderbolts. If, then, national prosperity is important, a nation, in its civil capacity, should watch over the interests of the religion of Jesus. The permanent morality of this principle of heaven-ordained polity, is settled by Old Testament prophecy, and New Testament declaration. the saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever. 25 And, the kingdom and dominion the greatness of the kingdom unto the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High. 26 All this was to take place after the destruction of the Babylonian, Persian, Grecian and Roman empires. Rome papal is included When all these are destroyed, Christians shall take the reins of civil government into their hands, and direct them on Christian principles. Again, to the church it is promised kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers. How? By chartering heresy, idolatry and blasphemy? This were to nurse the child by rocking in its cradle, the bear and the tiger. No, but by ruling for the Lord Jesus promoting the glory of His church restraining the boar that cometh from the forest to waste His heritage. Hear the language of the New Testament. The nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it the church the kings of the earth do bring their glory and their honor into it and they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it. 27 Here are glorious blessings promised the kings of the earth and the church the nations walking in the light of Zion, and the kings of the earth promoting the prosperity of the church, by conscrating the wealth and glory of their empires to the Son of God, to beautify the place of a sanctuary. that such are the views of the Confessions of Faith of the Protestant Churches, see the Westminster Confession of Faith 28 see them even as mutilated by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, and by the Associated Reform Synod. The whole fabric of that imperishable digest of religious truth must be demolished, before this glorious principle can be obliterated. Let me now add, how do men degrade the heaven-born ordinance of magistracy, by representing it as only conversant about the paltry affairs of animal gratification? This ordinance has descended from the throne of God, for the express purpose of preserving moral order among men, and yet are we to be told, that it shall not bow to that throne whence it has descended? Shall we be told that it is to have no aspect of friendship to that religion, without which all efforts for the preservation of moral order are forever vain and impotent? That it regards man merely as the creature of a day. Were man born for no higher end, and of no longer duration than to eat, drink, flutter a few moments like the insect of an hour, and then sink into the arms of entire and perpetual oblivion, all this might be true. 5. In all their civil, criminal, and international concerns, the kingdoms should have a supreme regard to the glory of God. We are commanded, whether we eat or drink, or whatever we do, to do all to the glory of God. If we are not to be moved to the ordinary actions of eating and drinking, by a motive less than the glory of God, much less should we, in a business of so much consequence, as legislating for the happiness of a nation, God in his providence raised Nebuchadnezzar to the throne, but he did not give the glory to him, in whose hand was his life and being. He glorified himself, saying is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of my kingdom, by the might of my power, and for the honor of my majesty? 29 The decree of judgment immediately went forth he was driven from among men, and made to eat grass like oxen. Daniel, in that memorable sermon which he preached the night that the city was taken, before the impious Belshazzar, upbraid him with disregarding the voice of providence. When his heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened with pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him. and thou his son, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this, but hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven, and they have brought the vessels of this house before thee, and thou and thy lords, thy wives and thy concubines, have drunk wine in them, and thou hast praised the gods of silver and gold, of brass, iron, wood and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know, and the God in whose hand thine breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hath thou not glorified till thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting. Here is, thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians. 30 In this, let all kings and kingdoms, who refuse to glorify God, by bowing before the throne of the sun, read their fate. ambassadors consult the honor of their sovereigns, and shall not magistrates consult the honor of him, by whom kings reign, and princes decree justice? Nations should place before them high, glorious and holy objects, and what more illustrious objects could they aim at, than the honor of the glorious and mighty Lord, who rides in heaven for the help of Israel, and in His Excellency, on the sky? 2. We proceed to examine the state of the nations, relative to the performance of the duty enjoined in our text. 1. They are all in a state of open rebellion against God. The mere neglect to acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ, in Christian countries, is rebellion on the part of the nation guilty of such neglect. When Jeroboam was made king of the ten tribes, we are not told that there was any direct act of declared rebellion against the God of Israel, indeed, we may assure ourselves, that the people would not have borne such a declaration from Jeroboam. There were many devout people among them, whose affection for the worship of God at Jerusalem, Jeroboam feared, would draw them back to the house of David. In order to prevent this event, he set up his calves at Dan and Bethel. But in the constitution of their government, the God of Israel was not acknowledged, and hence, God says of them, They have set up kings, but not by me, and princes, and I knew it not. 31 Thus God did not acknowledge the kings, that they set up, as His vicegerents they did not rule by His authority. Their whole civil establishment was erected without regard to God, and hence in a state of rebellion against Him. When the Israelites asked Samuel the prophet for a king, they did not formally reject God, yet God says to him, They have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. 32 As directed charge of rebellion, as could have been preferred against them, is here exhibited. The principle here stated, is recognized by all civil governments, in relation to their own authority. were any portion of their dominions to erect a government without any reference to their authority, they would speedily demolish the fabric and compel subjection at the point of the sword. This has lately been tried in the United States. A small colony of Frenchmen, a few years ago, attempted to establish themselves in the wilderness west of the Mississippi without obtaining permission from the general government and formed the Constitution for the regulation of the little Commonwealth. The United States government was not acknowledged, and it issued orders to employ, if necessary, a military force, to crush the infant Republic. Were any state of the Confederation to form a constitution on the same principle, it would interpret the act to be rebellion, and if negotiation should fail to bring it back to allegiance, its citizens would be treated as rebels. Britain and the United States are colonies within Jehovah's government, and if they refuse to acknowledge the authority of Messiah, he will treat them as rebel provinces of his empire. In the United States, the refusal to acknowledge God, has probably been more explicit than it ever was in any other nation. Soon after we had obtained, through the beneficial providence of God, liberation from the dominion of a foreign power, soon after the most eminent displays of Jehovah's goodness to our land, the Convention, elected to form articles of fundamental law for the Commonwealth, rejected the government of God, and with a degree of ingratitude, perhaps without a parallel, formed a Constitution, in which there is not the slyest hint of homage to the God of Heaven, in which God receives no more honor than the devil. They force all within their territories to bow before them, but they refuse to bow before the throne of God. This is a species of national atheism, almost as enormous as that of the French Republic, whose representatives voted that there is no God. It is too all intense practical atheism, and we cannot doubt that those who planned such rebellion against the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, were practical atheists and professed infidels. 33 In relation to this fact, we are more guilty than any nation of the old world, for they all make some acknowledgements of God, and though those acknowledgements may be as hollow and hypocritical as those of Yehu, yet they are in themselves good. In other points, however, they are as much more guilty before God than we, as they are older. No European kingdom legislates agreeably to the Holy Scriptures, for the honor of God, in subjection to Messiah, and for the interests of His Kingdom. The kings of Europe, and their subordinate officers, are generally notorious for the abandoned profligacy of their lives, for a disregard to the principles of justice, for merciless tyranny, and for dark superstition. They pollute, by their impure hands, every sacred thing which they touch, and impiously prostitute the religion of Jesus, for the purpose of binding the yoke of bondage upon the necks of their wretched subjects. Who, among them all, departs from the scent of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin? The thrones of the old world are filled with Ahabs, and they have filled the temples with the priests of Baal. We speak things known to all the world, and which no intelligent Christian will dare to deny. However far the rulers of our own country are from the practice of the tyranny of European princes, and however decent many of them may be in their personal characters, and however devout some of them may be do they generally possess the evidence of more genuine godliness than even the present regent of England. Are they, generally, men fearing God and hating covetousness? Such rulers, both in the old world and in the new, are the genuine fruits of the constitutions which bring them forth A tree is known by its fruits diseased and almost rotten, must be the systems which habitually produce such bitter fruits. The constitution of the kingdom of the ten tribes was radically defective, and consequently never was there even one good king produced under its operation. Ungodly men rise from the bosom of civil society in every land, as the result of vitiated and habitually diseased constitutional action. The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. sores there may be, and, occasionally, violent attacks of diseases, in the healthiest bodies, as there were bad kings in the kingdom of Judah. But, that constitutions such as God approves, and administered on sound principles of moral order, should be always in the hands of the ungodly, is utterly incredible. Not only the rulers, but the majority of the citizens of those nations, which thus rebel against God, are ungodly. The example of men in high stations is copied by the lower orders, even down to the beggar. When you ask in vain for the king, president or governor who sanctifies the Sabbath, worships God in his family, devoutly receives the sacrament of the Lord's Supper you also took in vain for the performance of these duties among the majority of the citizens. Hence, as the nations are in a state of constitutional rebellion against God, personal rebellion and contempt of the ordinances of the gospel, and of Christian duty generally, are prevalent. Will anyone say that a majority of the citizens of the United States are devout disciples of Jesus? Even clarity frowns at such a declaration. 2. The nations of Christendom have given their power to Antichrist, the man of sin and son of perdition, and thus do homage to God's enemy. The decrees of Phocis and of Dristanian, sanctioning the pretended headship of the Roman Pontiff over the Church, are known. To them all the other princes of Europe accorded, all together uniting with the head of the ecclesiastical tyranny and solemn covenant, to advance the cause of idolatry and superstition, and constituting a great mystery of iniquity. This combination of the civil and ecclesiastical despotisms, fortifies both, produces an extraordinary depression of the human species, and imparts vast force to the power of oppression. The civil rulers are found by the poor people, to be roaring lions and ranging bears such a tremendous power, in which iniquity and tyranny should be systematized, for the violation of human right and for making war upon every sacred thing, we have been taught by many ancient prophecies to expect. Daniel saw it in the visions of his head, upon his bed. After this I saw, in the night, visions and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly, and it had great iron teeth and it devoured and brick in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns. 34 The first of the preceding beasts that arose out of the sea agitated by the striving of the four winds of heaven the great family of nations, rendered tempestuous by the rage of evil passions was the lion representing, in prophetic symbol, the Assyrian Empire, the second, a bear representing the Persian, and the third, a leopard the Macedonian. This fourth beast, for which it would seem, there was not among all beasts of prey anyone adequate to represent its terrible fierceness, is the Roman Empire, and its ten horns are the ten kingdoms of modern, anti-Christian Europe. To this interpretation we have the assent of all Protestant commentators. Thirty-five the little horns springing up among them, growing out of the head of the same dreadful beast of prey, is the Pope of Rome. Though this little horn does not harmonize with all the others, yet they are all united in the head of the same beast. They have a common origin and support. So far is this beast from being in a state of subjection to the God of Heaven, so far is God from acknowledging the power of the horns as of Him, that a fiery flame issues and comes forth from before the Ancient of Days, by which the body of the beast is consumed. The thrones are cast clown to prepare the way for the everlasting dominion of one like unto the Son of Man. These thrones have joined his enemies and made war upon the Lamb. The Lamb makes war upon them and overcomes them. This Reformation audio track is a production of Stillwater's Revival Books. You are welcome to make copies and give them to those in need. SWRB makes thousands of classic Reformation resources available, free and for sale, in audio, video, and printed formats. It is likely that the sermon or book that you just listened to is also available on cassette or video, or as a printed book or booklet. Our many free resources, as well as our complete mail-order catalog, containing thousands of classic and contemporary Puritan and Reform books, tapes, and videos at great discounts, is on the web at www.swrb.com. We can also be reached by email at swrb at swrb.com, by phone at 780-450-4255, 3730 by fax at 780-468-1096 or by mail at 4710-37A Avenue Edmonton that's E-D-M-O-N-T-O-N Alberta abbreviated capital A capital B Canada T-6-L-3-T-5. You may also request a free printed catalog and remember that John Kelvin in defending the Reformation's regulative principle of worship, or what is sometimes called the scriptural law of worship, commenting on the words of God, which I commanded them not, neither came into my heart. From his commentary on Jeremiah 731, writes, God here cuts off from men every occasion for making evasions, since he condemns by this one phrase, I have not commanded them, whatever the Jews devise. There is then no other argument needed to condemn superstitions than that they are not commanded by God. For when men allow themselves to worship God according to their own fancies, and attend not to His commands, they pervert true religion. And if this principle was adopted by the Papists, all those fictitious modes of worship in which they absurdly exercise themselves would fall to the ground. It is indeed a horrible thing for the Papists to seek to discharge their duties towards God, by performing their own superstitions. There is an immense number of them, as it is well known, and as it manifestly appears. Were they to admit this principle, that we cannot rightly worship God except by obeying His word, they would be delivered from their deep abyss of error. The Prophet's words, then, are very important, when he says that God had commanded no such thing, and that it never came to his mind. As though he had said, that men assume too much wisdom when they devise what he never required, nay, what he never knew.