THE

KINGDOM OF GOD.

But, if I with the finger of God caft out devils, na doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you.

Luke xi. 20.

SIN entered into the world by Satan, and death entered by fin. Sin feparated between God and our fouls: but the incarnation of the Son of God brought our nature back to God, which fin had separated; and the blood of Chrift made us nigh, whom wicked works had made far off. Sin had its beginning by the tree of knowledge, and it had its end on the accurfed tree. Adam finned and died, and paradife was loft; Chrift was made fin and died, and a better paradife was gained. The woman, being first in the tranfgreffion, was condemned to forrow in child-bearing, and that forrow brought forth the woman's great deliverer. Sin is the fole cause of all our misery, and a sense of this mifery renders us proper objects of God's mercy. By fin and death Satan aimed at the eter

nal destruction of men, and fin and death will be the eternal deftruction of Satan. Nothing pleased Satan fo well as bringing mankind under the fentence of death; and that fentence executed upon Chrift bruised Satan's head, and he himself and his works were deftroyed in the fame nature that he had ruined. By the incarnation of Chrift grace and mercy come to men, and by the death of Christ honour is brought to the juftice and holinefs of God. Satan is degraded, fin is condemned in Chrift's flesh, and the finner is faved; and yet God appears juft when he justifies the ungodly. Sin is freely pardoned, and yet vengeance is taken of our inventions; forgiving and cleanfing is of fice grace, and yet God is faithful and juft in forgiving and cicanfing; the finner is bought with a price, and yet faved and glorified by free grace. Sin brought us all under the wrath of God, but in pouring that wrath upon Chrift everlasting love was difplayed to men. All the works of devils have been to destroy human nature, and by a judge in human nature shall all devils be judged and destroyed. Devils are the accufers of the brethren, and the brethren fhall be the judges of the devils. Men, afpiring to be like gods, fell under the dominion of fallen angels; Chrift, by being made a little lower than the angels of light, raifed us to an honour above them.

Christ spoiled principalities; and therefore fome

fpoils out of the devil's kingdom the Lord Jefus Christ must have, according to an ancient ftipu lation. These are the objects of his love, the purchase of his blood, and therefore must be the trophies of his victory. He is not to have them without a price, nor will they fubmit to him. without conquest. "He fhall fee of the travail of his foul, and fhall be fatisfied: by his knowledge fhall my righteous servant justify many; for he fhall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his foul unto death." Ifa, liii. 11, 12. A portion with the great, is fome few selected fubjects out of the kingdoms of the great potentates upon earth; and the spoil that he is to divide with the strong, are God's own elect, which were given unto him, and which he takes by the dint of his fword from the ftrong man armed. He begins his conqueft,

First, By the light of his countenance.

Secondly, By the edge of the fword.

"The

people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light fhined." Ifa. ix. 2. This is the firft attack upon the ftrong man's palace, and is called the finner's tranflation for fo it is written, "Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated

D3

lated us into the kingdom of his dear Son." Col.

i. 13.

Secondly, The edge of his fword. "In that day the Lord, with his fore and great and strong fword, shall punish leviathan, the piercing ferpent, even leviathan, that crooked ferpent; and he fhall flay the dragon that is in the fea." Ifa. xxvii. 1. This light enrages the devil, and it likewife fhews the finner his awful ftate; and the word of the fpirit wounds the devil and the finner too. Satan's rage at the light rifes from a freth remembrance of his former ftate of blifs and happiness, which for a moment foftens him; but the confideration of all being irrecoverably loft, and the thoughts of future and endless torment, rekindles all his rage and defperation; and, finding the poor finner, who has long been his lawful captive, going into that light and blifs which he by his pride and rebellion had loft, provokes him to jealousy, and pierces every power of that infernal intelligence; and this he makes the poor finner know and feel, for he hurls at him all the foul, filthy, obfcene, defperate, rebellious, and blafphemous oaths, curfes, imprecations, and invectives, that he is mafter of-and all againft God; and then accufes the poor finner of it, to fink him in despair; though, at the fame time, it is the devil's own fin; for fuch things never entered the finner's heart till the devil lodged them