promise and oath to David is found, 2 Samuel vii. 12, 16: "And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. And thy house and thy kingdom shall be established forever before thee: thy throne shall be established forever." According to these strong testimonies, David's throne and house is to be perpetuated eternally in Christ. The temporal succession of kings of David's line have failed. But the everlasting succession has not failed, nor will it; this, David foresaw, and spoke before of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither did his flesh see corruption. The same flesh that went into the tomb came up, and is now in heaven. And he has "the key of David," (Rev. iii. 7,) signifying that he only has the heirship of that house so long shut, and can open and no man shut, and shut and no man open. That house was shut when Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem and carried Zedekiah captive to Babylon. God pronounced the doom thus, by Ezekiel, (xxi. 25, 27:) "And thou profane, wicked prince of Israel, whose day is come, when iniquity shall have an end." will overturn, overturn, overturn it; and it shall be no more, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it him." From Zedekiah's captivity and the ruin of Jerusalem, there has been no king of David's line reigning in Jerusalem. There never will be, until he comes whose right it is, and takes the kingdom. "The Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever,

"I

and of his kingdom there shall be no end." Luke i. 32, 33. "Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David and his kingdom, to order it, and establish it, with justice and judgment, henceforth and

forever."

2. His reign is to be personal and visible. This is clear from the fact that Christ is the Son of David according to the flesh, and is to sit on David's throne. That throne was on earth and at Jerusalem. And "The Lord of Hosts [is to] reign in Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously." Isai. xxiv. 23. "The tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them." Rev. xxi. 3. Were he, in his peculiar kingly character, a pure spirit, like the infinite God, without body or parts, his reign like God's, might be a purely spiritual reign. But not so; for, although all the fulness of the Godhead is in him, he is a man; and in his humanity consists his peculiar and everlasting kingly character; and a period is to arrive in the history of his existence, when in some subjected sense he is to reign as the Son, "and God be all and in all." 1 Cor. xv. Being then, a king "according to the flesh," and of David's line, and his reign being over the saints, it must be a personal and visible reign.

And for this purpose he is to come again on earth, just as he went into heaven, which was bodily and visibly; with a body of flesh and bones. Luke xxiv. 39. If it be objected to this, that Christ did not go into heaven with the same body in which he arose from the dead, but that it was spiritualized when he ascended to heaven; I

reply, I shall grant it when the law and the testimony can be produced which declares it. But the Bible not only affords no intimation of such a change, but the whole tenor of its testimony is, that he went up as he arose from the grave, and will come again in the same manner.

VI. THE TERRITORIAL DOMINION OF CHRIST.

1. It is to be all the territory now occupied by the great image of Nebuchadnezzar's dream. "Wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of heaven hath he given into thy hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all." Dan. ii. 38. "A stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image." "Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver and the gold broken to pieces together," "like the chaff of the summer threshing-floors, and the wind carried them away." "And the stone that smote the image became a great mountain and FILLED THE WHOLE EARTH." Dan. ii. 35. Then, in verse 44, when the explanation is given, it is said, "In the days of these kings the God of heaven shall set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed. It shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever." The stone is to break these kingdoms, and the kingdom of God is to do it. Then the stone, Christ, and the kingdom of God, are the same. The enlargement of the stone will be by gathering together, in the fulness of the dispensation of times, all things in him, whether they be things in heaven, or things in earth, or things un

der the earth, even in him. Eph. i. 10. Thus will his body be perfected and his kingdom organized. Then the meek will inherit the earth. The second Psalm is also another testimony on this point: "Yet have I set my king on my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree: the Lord hath said unto me thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the UTTERMOST PARTS OF THE EARTH for thy POSSESSION." The testimony here is decisive on the point, that the Son of God is to possess the uttermost parts of the earth. He adds, "thou shalt break them [the heathen] with a rod of iron, and shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." This is all the conversion of the heathen promised in the second Psalm.

2. The Saviour himself has taught us the same thing in Matt. xxv. 34: "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." There was a kingdom prepared for and given to man as soon as he existed, and even before he was brought into being. That kingdom or dominion was "all the earth;" and also all that earth, air, and sea contained. Gen. i. (See Sec. 1.) The Bible fur'nishes us with no hint that God ever prepared any other kingdom for man when he laid the foundation of the world. This kingdom, then, Christ is to restore and give to his saints.

3. A text already noticed, (Rev. xi. 15,) teaches the same doctrine: "There were great voices in heaven, saying, the KINGDOMS OF THIS WORLD are become the kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever." Numerous

other texts might be presented, all showing the same thing. But these must suffice for the present.

VII. THE METROPOLIS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD.

1. Its locality. It is Mount Zion and Jerusalem. Ps. ii. 6: "Yet have I set my king on my holy hill of Zion." Isai. xxiv. 23: "Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed. when the Lord of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously." The throne of David, which Christ is to inherit, and on which he is to reign forever, was established there, and is forever to be there. Ps. cxxxii. 11-18: "The Lord hath sworn in truth unto David, he will not turn from it, of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne. If thy children will keep my covenant, and my testimony that I shall teach them, their children shall also sit upon thy throne forevermore. For the Lord hath chosen Zion; he hath desired it for his habitation. This is my rest forever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it. I will abundantly bless her provision; I will satisfy her poor with bread. I will also clothe her priests with salvation; and her saints shall shout aloud for joy. There will I make the horn of David to bud: I have ordained a lamp for mine anointed, His enemies will I clothe with shame; but upon himself shall his crown flourish." Nothing can be more clear and strong than this declaration of the Lord that he will dwell there forever, and the throne of David be there, and his horn (kingdom) flourish there.