p. 219Five points of prophetic testimony.—The general elements of a kingdom constituents of the kingdom of Christ.—The promise made of God to the fathers, the hope of Israel, and the gospel, the same.—Who the fathers are.—Abram originally from Babel, and an idolater.—The Lord preaches the gospel to him in Mesopotamia.—He believes it, and emigrates westward in consequence.—Becomes a wanderer in the land of Canaan, which is promised to him and Christ for ever.—His faith counted to him for righteousness.—The promise of a resurrection to eternal life.—Confirmation of the covenant of promise.—The extent of the land defined in the Covenant.—The personal re-appearance of Christ necessitated by the nature of things.—The phrases “in thee,” “in him,” and “in thy seed,” explained.—The nations God’s people in no sense.—Abraham, Christ, and the saints, “heirs of the world.”—The token of the covenant.—The signification of circumcision.—Modern Israel under the curse of the law.—Circumcision of the heart.—The Allegory.—The two seeds.—Parable of the Seed.—Summary of Abraham’s faith.
It is written in the prophet Micah, that “the Lord shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off (from Jerusalem);” and as the result thereof, “they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into scythes: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid.” And “in that day, saith the Lord, I will assemble” Israel, “and make them A STRONG NATION: and the Lord shall reign over them on Mount Zion FROM HENCEFORTH, even for ever.” And “Unto thee, O Zion, shall it come, even the FIRST DOMINION; the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem.”a And the Judge, who shall be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from everlasting, “shall stand and feed in the strength of Jehovah, in the Majesty of the Name of the Lord his God; and Israel shall abide; for now shall He be great to the ends of the earth. And this man (Christ the Lord) shall be the peace when the Assyrian (the Russo-Assyrian) shall come into our (Israel’s) land.” And “Assyria shall be wasted with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof; thus shall He (the Judge of Israel) deliver us from the Assyrian (Gog) when he cometh into our land.” “And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from the Lord, as the showers upon the grass, that tarrieth not for man, nor p. 220 waiteth for the sons of men. And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the Gentiles in the midst of many people as a lion among the beasts of the forest, as a young lion among the flocks of sheep; who, if he go through, both treadeth down, and teareth in pieces, and none can deliver. Thine hand shall be lifted up upon thine adversaries, and all thine enemies shall be cut off.” And I will execute vengeance in anger and fury upon the heathen, such as they have not heard.”a
From this passage, which is only a specimen of the general tenor of the law and the testimony, we are informed,
1. That the nations are to be subdued, and that universal peace shall prevail in consequence;
2. That when this shall occur, the Israelites shall become a strong nation;
3. That they shall then constitute A KINGDOM;
4. That the Judge of Israel, formerly treated with indignity, shall be their King;
5. That Jerusalem shall be the metropolis, and Mount Zion the throne, of the kingdom.
Such is the revealed purpose of the Most High. But a consummation like this requires preparation; and that, too, a very long one; especially as it is to be developed upon certain moral, as well as political, principles. When the time shall come for the kingdom to be possessed, it will be said to the heirs of it, “Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” From this, it appears that the work of preparing the kingdom takes from the foundation of the world to the resurrection of the dead. All this time the kingdom is preparing; but when the King descends, and rebukes the nations, and wastes the land of Nimrod with the sword, and makes Israel a strong nation, it will then be said that the kingdom is prepared.
The reader will probably inquire, what does this work of preparation consist in that it should take so long a time? This is an important question, and, in reply, I remark that if physical force only were employed in preparing the kingdom, it need not take so long. A kingdom may be set up in a few days, and abolished as speedily, as we have witnessed in our own time. But it is not so with the Kingdom of God. The physical is subordinated to the intellectual and moral; and as men, among whom it is being prepared, are so earthly and sensual, the mental progresses much more slowly than the physical; and, therefore, a kingdom founded upon moral principles requires longer to prepare, but is more enduring when completed. In the following pages my endeavour will be to set forth an answer to the question in detail.
p. 221 A kingdom is the dominion of a king. An empire is also the dominion of a king, but with this difference: the kingdom proper, or “the first dominion,” is restricted to a regally constituted territory; while the empire, or secondary dominion, though belonging to the same king, extends over other peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues, than those of the royal domain. This is illustrated in the case of the British kingdoms and empire. The kingdoms are restricted to England and Scotland, which are by constitution regal territories; but the empire is a secondary dominion of the same united crowns, extending over Canada, Hindostan, and other parts of the globe, with all the nations, languages, and people, they contain.
There are various elements necessary to the constitution of a well-organised kingdom. In the first place, a kingdom must have a territory. This is only saying, in other terms, that something must be somewhere. To maintain the opposite would be to contend, that something is nowhere. A kingdom is not located in a feeling, or, in heart; though a belief of its future existence, a comprehension of its nature, or an attachment to it, may exist there. It must have a place, a locality, as well as a name.
It would be highly absurd to say, that the kingdom of England and the throne of her sovereign were in Spain; yet this would be as reasonable, as to say that the kingdom and throne of David are beyond the skies!—an orthodox dogma contained in the fiction, that Jesus is now sitting upon the throne of his father David! What conceit after this is too ridiculous for creed-makers and systematisers to promulge?
In addition to a territory, a kingdom requires subjects, which compose the nation over whom there is the king. But, simply to set up a man and call him “king” would be unwise. It would be consonant only with the barbarism of savage tribes. A well-regulated monarchy requires gradation of ranks, and orders of the best men, with whom the king may divide his power, and glory, and administer the laws of the kingdom. These laws should be in conformity with the provisions and spirit of the constitution; which defines the principles, and creates and combines the elements, of the State.
Now, it is worthy of remark, that the subjects of a kingdom do not possess the kingdom. They are simply the inhabitants of the territory, who are defended against external aggression, and protected as civilians by the power, and laws, of the State. The possessors of the kingdom are the king, and those with whom he is pleased to share his authority. This is an important distinction, and must not be forgotten in studying “the things of the kingdom of God.” The subjects of the kingdom and empire, are a totally different class from the heirs, or possessors, of the dominion.
From this brief view, then, of the nature and constitution of a kingdom, its elements may be stated as consisting of:
p. 222 1. A territory;
2. Subjects;
3. A king;
4. A constitution;
5. Laws, civil and ecclesiastical;
6. Aristocracy;
7. Attributes, or, prerogatives, rights, privileges, &c.
Now, “the kingdom of God and of his Christ” will consist of all these things; and will be as material an institution—as real and terrestrial a monarchy as those of Great Britain, Belgium, or Spain. It is not now an existent reality; for, though it once existed under a constitution, which hath waxed old and vanished away, its elements are dissolved from their previous combination, and remain dispersed. Their restitution is, however, a matter of promise, attested by two immutable things—the promise and the oath of the living God. His kingdom and empire on earth are a great truth, but not an existing fact; they are visible only to the eye of faith, and are required by their founder to be received in the “full assurance of hope,” with rejoicing and confidence to the end.a
In studying the things of the kingdom of God, the foundation laid in the beginning must not be forgotten; for at that epoch its preparation was commenced. The system of the world is an adaptation to man in his fallen state; and out of the things thus arranged, it is that Christ’s imperial dominion is being evolved. By the law of procreation has been provided a population, which, by the confusion of tongues, has been distributed into nations, whose habitations have been fixed by the controlling power of the Elohim. Thus nations have been formed which are destined to flourish in the blessedness of the Future Age. Their history records the fiery ordeal through which their generations have passed. For the most part, men see nothing in it but a strife for territory, and glory, for the advantage of their rulers; but the scriptures reveal the workings of an invisible machinery, whose activity is perceived by the believer, in the incidents which occasion the conflicts among them. He discerns the leaven, hid in the three measures of meal, at work leavening the minds of men, and developing the “enmity” between the seeds. And though the strife is terrible, he feels no dismay, but rejoices with firm and unwavering confidence in the certainty of the triumph of the truth and its adherents; because God has assured him in His word that the King He has provided shall crush the sin-power, and make the nations lick the dust like a serpent.b Now this implies their subjugation; and it is to this crisis that all things are at present tending. And what then? Obviously, the transfer of the conquered to the sceptre of Jehovah’s King, who overcomes them;c p. 223 as it is written, “The Gentiles shall wait for his law;”a and “He shall reign over them.”b The nations, then, are the subjects of the theocratic empire. By the truth and judgments of God brought to bear upon them, exciting and controlling their activity, they are being moulded like clay in the hands of the potter, for the dominion of the saints in the Future Age.
The hope of these things, whose seeds were sown in the constitution of the world at the beginning, was the hope of the gospel then in its most general enunciation. The subjects and territory of the empire, and the rulers thereof, were plainly marked out. The earth, and the conquered seed of the serpent, obedient to the victorious seed of the woman, was the gospel of the kingdom in its most simple form. No particular portion of the globe, however, was indicated as the territory of a kingdom. The Spirit began with universals; but, as the world became older, the particulars of the promise were unfolded to the eye of faith. But never, from the foundation of the world to the sealing up of the testimony of God, was such a kingdom, or dominion, promised, as that which is believed in, and glorified in the “sacred” psalmody of the Gentiles. Earth, and not the skies, is the region where alone it will appear. I shall show this abundantly; and thereby prove, that they who sing such ditties as those of which the following is a specimen, sing what ne’er was, nor is, nor e’er shall be:
“With thee we’ll reign, with thee we’ll rise,\ And kingdoms gain beyond the skies!”
“According to your faith be it unto you.” This is a first principle of religion delivered by the Great Teacher himself. It is just and right it should be so. No one can blame God for not bestowing upon them, what they do not believe in; and, consequently, do not want, or seek after. This is precisely the position of the present generation of religionists in relation to the kingdom of God. They have faith in a sort of kingdom which He hath not promised; and in the one He has promised they do not believe. Hence, they believe in a non-entity; and, believing in what is nothing, they will get nothing but confusion of face. But, we propose to show them a more excellent way; and in so doing invite their attention to