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improve us in Grace, and hereafter confummate us in Glory.

I must now in the fecond place fhew, in what sense this Kingdom for which we pray may be faid to come.

Now to understand this we must observe the several views under which it is represented in Matt.x. 7. Scripture. St. John preaches that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. And the fame words are us'd by the Apostles fent out by our Saviour. It is faid in another place to be already come, or as the Greek may be better render'd, now coming. Notwithstanding this Luke xi. approach of it our Saviour talks of it as fomething at a great distance, and that was not to happen till after great conflicts, and therefore makes it the subject of our Prayers to the end of the world, that this Kingdom may come. The Prophet Daniel seems to place this Kingdom at the greatest distance, by fixing it after the destruction of the fourth Empire: in the days of thofe Kings shall the God of Heaven, Dan. ii. Set up a Kingdom that hall never be deftroy'd; and the Kingdom fhall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces all thefe Kingdoms, and it shall stand for

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ever.

These paffages may be easily reconcil'd by obferving that this Kingdom was begun in John

But

John Baptift's preaching, and continu'd to grow by that of our Saviour and the Apostles. then as it is not yet come to that wideness in its extent, and that purity in its members that the Divine wisdom 'defign'd, and our Saviour's fufferings deferv'd; we therefore here pray that God would in his due time haften these bleffings. Those circumstances which are neceffary to make a government perfect, have hitherto been more or lefs wanting in the Christian Church. Thus if a Kingdom be abridg'd of its due extent, or if it be disturb'd in its inward peace and quiet by the disobedience of its members; or. if, laftly, by its diftrefs'd condition it be unable to reward the obedience of deferving fubjects; in all or any of these cases that Kingdom is not fo perfect as it should be. A good fubject would readily employ both his wishes and endeavours to fupply these several defects in that government under which he lives; and a good Christian by his daily Prayers wishes the fame to this Kingdom of God. That we That we may therefore know what we pray for, in defiring God's Kingdom to come, I fhall fhew in what senses it may be faid not yet to have come.

Firft, The Kingdom of God is not yet fully come from the narrow extent of Christianity.

It

34.

It is certain that the knowledge of the true God and his Son Jefus Christ hath never yet extended fo far as hath been foretold by the antient Prophecies. Tho' our Saviour himMat.xxiv. felf declar'd, that the Gospel should be preach'd to all the world, yet it hath hitherto been confin'd to a small part of it. The extent of his Kingdom is pathetically defcrib'd in the lxxii Pfalm, that he shall reign from the one fea to the other, and from the river to the world's end; all Kings shall fall down before him, all nations shall do him service. But very little of this hath been hitherto accomplish'd in the Chriftian Church, and the state of it hath as yet bore no proportion to the extent of God's promises, or the designs of his mercy. The influence of the Gospel hath but as yet chear'd a few in comparison 2 Cor. iv. of those far greater numbers in which the God of this world hath fo blinded their eyes, that the light of the glorious Gospel of Chrift might not shine upon them. If we look over the vast extent of the Turkish, Tartarian and Indian Empires, all whofe governments are either Heathenish or Mahometan, it cannot be faid with the truth of the letter that God hath given his Son the heathen for his inheritance, and the utmost parts of the earth for his poffeffion. The limits of Christianity

4

do

do not extend to one fixth of the known world; and tho' in fome parts of Afia the knowledge of Christ hath been establish'd, and afterwards extinguish'd by the hidden disposal of Providence, yet in a great part of those countries the fufficient means of that knowledge hath been hitherto wanting.

Are then these excellent things spoken of the city of God to no purpose? Is the greater part of the world to continue till its diffolution in the fame rebellious corrupt state? Are things ftill to remain as they were from the beginning, and the whole scene to be shut up with no more vifible fruits of Christ's redemption? but yet this uncertainty of the Promises, this low scheme of Christianity, this narrowness or disappointment of God's mercy are the confequence of believing that this Kingdom will be no larger than it now is, or hath been. If we are perfuaded (and that we have the utmost reason to be) that God can be neither delufive in his promises, nor partial in his compaffion, we must expect that reftitution of all things which was Spoof by the Prophets.

But there is one particular which portends the greater extent of the Christian Church, and in which the Prophecies are very express; and that is the calling of God's old peculiar

с

people the Jews. The children of Ifrael Hof.iii. 4 fhall be many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a facrifice, and without an image; (which could not be true till the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus;) afterwards fhall the children of Ifrael return, and feek the Lord their God, and David their king, and shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days. The Prophet Zachary foretels, that the whole people fhall hereafter bewail their fins in crucifying our Lord Jefus: I will pour upon the Zach. xii. house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Ferufalem the spirit of grace and fupplication; and they shall look upon him whom they have pierced; and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only fon; and fhall be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitternefs for his firft-born. Hereupon St. Paul fpends the whole xith chapter of his Epistle to the Romans upon this fubject, who for the perfecutions from the Jews at that time were very much inflam'd against them. Rom. xi. would not have you ignorant of this mystery,

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25.

I

c The prefent reading, without an Image, tho' follow'd by all the modern verfions, is very faulty; for the Jews were ever forbid the use of Images. The prefent Hebrew copies are therefore corrupted in the word, for the old reading was nam altare, as appears both from the Greek de voiasneis, and from the vulgar fine altari: read therefore, without an altar.

that