THE INQUIRER.

DECEMBER, 1840.

What saith the Scripture?-ROм. iv. 3.

THE SUBJECTION OF THE WORLD TO COME.

"He must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet." 1 Cor xv. 25.

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§ 2. CHRIST THE HEAD OF THE HEATHEN."

HITHERTO I have rested upon the testimony of Scripture, concerning the subjection of the world to come to the Son of Man. The wideness of this dominion is shewn from the minuteness of some of the particulars, such as the cattle, the fowls, the fish, &c. This dominion strikingly resembles not only the power committed to Adam (to which I have already referred), but also that which had been given to Nebuchadnezzar: his dominion is thus stated: "Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field, and the fowls of the heaven, hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all" (Dan. ii. 37, 38). In this wide committal of authority, there was that declared which leads onward to Christ; this was all given to Nebuchadnezzar, but he knew not how to use it aright; and thus this deposit of authority is to be looked at as one of the many stewardships which fail in the hands of man, and which must ever fail until they shall be taken up by Christ.

Now in what is insubjection to God and his Christ most remarkably presented to the eye? Surely it is in the course in which the nations of the earth are going on. Then if they especially exhibit this want of subjection, the bringing of them into subordination will especially manifest the power and the glory of Christ.

In the 7th of Daniel, we find the Son of Man taking the actual authority and dominion over the nations; the account of the vision given by the prophet runs thus," I saw in the night visions, and behold one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before Him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve Him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed" (Dan. vii. 13, 14). This is evidently an earthly kingdom, and it is taken at a certain given time; the references which are made to this passage in the New Testament will point out definitely when that time is. Ist, When the Lord was taken up, (Acts i.) and a cloud received him out of the sight of the Apostles, the promise was given to them, by the two men who stood by them in white apparel-“ This

2nd, In

same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." Thus the church has this prospect set before it to see the Lord coming in the clouds, as he was taken up. Matt. xxiv. 30. our Lord says, that immediately after the unequalled tribulation, certain signs shall take place, "and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man, in heaven; and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send forth his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." Thus the time when Christ so comes "with clouds," will be one of dismay to the world, but of joyful gathering to the church. 3rd, Just similar to this is what we read in Rev. i. 7: " Behold he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen." Thus there is the marked contrast between the saints and others; the latter wail, the former respond joyfully to the promise that he will so come. 4th, Our Lord, when before the high priest, made an allusion to this very passage in Dan. vii., as direct as any of those which I have just cited :-" Hereafter ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven" (Matt. xxvi. 64). These testimonies suffice to shew that it is when the day of the coming of the Lord (for which the church is taught to wait) shall arrive, that he will take in actual exercise the whole of this authority over the nations.

What then will be the state of the nations, when he thus takes this kingdom? Dan. vii. gives us the account; I have already referred to the dominion to be taken by our Lord, being like to that which was committed to Nebuchadnezzar ; now in this chapter we have the account of power in the hands of the heathen [or Gentiles, for the terms are interchangeable and synonymous] up to the time of the Lord's coming and taking his kingdom. The Gentile powers which should arise, were seen by the prophet in his vision under the symbol of four beasts; concerning the last of these there is a much larger detail given than of the other three, it had ten horns on its head, among which another little horn sprang up, before whom three of the former were destroyed: this little horn had "a mouth speaking great things," and it was "because of the voice of the great words which the horn spoke," that "the beast was slain, and his body destroyed and given to the burning flame." This is followed by what I have already quoted respecting the coming of the Son of man to the Ancient of days, and his receiving his earthly kingdom. It is to be remembered that this beast is the last form of Gentile power, and the ten horns are those amongst whom this dominion (the Roman earth) is to be divided, the little horn being one who exerts the power of the whole, and stands at their head in opposition to the Lord: his actings are directed against the saints, "I beheld and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them until the Ancient of days came," &c. I do not now rest upon the history of him who is here called "the little horn," I merely advert to the fact of his sway, and blasphemy, up to the time of Christ taking the kingdom.

Dominion, from its committal to Nebuchadnezzar, has gone on in the hands of men; and this truth will become more and more marked, that it is impossible for man, simply as man, to hold the power so committed and to exercise it aright. In Daniel ii., where this stewardship of power to Nebuchadnezzar is spoken of, what do we find as the issue of the earthly rule so given? The metals in the image, which symbolised the rule of the Gentiles, become increasingly deteriorated, until at length it is iron mingled with potter's ware,

which denotes its character; and the toes so framed are in a ten-fold state of division; and at that time, a little stone cut out of the mountain without hands, falls upon these tocs of the image, and the whole is broken to pieces; and then the stone becomes a great mountain and fills the whole earth. This crisis of the image is thus interpreted :-" In the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever" (ii. 41).

On this fact, then, I rest; that the Son of man takes His dominion over the nations at a time when power in their hands has most manifestly proved a failure, and when he who is called "the little horn," bears dominion over the earth. In fact, the Lord lets the rule of the Gentiles become corrupted to the uttermost, and then he takes it into His own hands as a trust given to him of the Father, He being the only one who can exercise it aright.

Our Lord, in His reply to the High Priest, which I have already cited, refers not only to the 7th of Daniel, but likewise to other scriptures. For instance, in the expression, " sitting on the right hand of power," there is an evident allusion to Psa. cx. 1, which speaks of the place to which the rejected Messiah would be received: "The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool." This instructs us as to the first act of the Lord consequent upon the delivery of this kingdom into His hands: He has to subjugate those foes who are in rebellion against Him. Observe, it is Jehovah who makes the foes the footstool of the Son; this is an act distinct from His setting His foot on them: the one is simply preparatory to the other. I hardly need say, that this making of the enemies the footstool of Christ is not to be confounded with that putting of all things under Him which is mentioned in Eph. i. 22. The latter is that which has been done in the exaltation of Christ to the Father's right hand, while He waits there until the former (x.) the making of His foes His footstool-shall be done.

This making of Christ's foes the footstool prepared for His feet, is to be done, and then He leaves the Father's throne; then, when all things are ready, when the sin and rebellion of the nations is at its height, when they and their rulers are wearing out the saints of the Most High (Dan. vii.), when the nations are making Jerusalem their prey (Zech. xiv.), the Lord comes forth. The Father's right hand has been His place from the time of His rejection until this; but now He leaves it. His saints, who just before had been seen in suffering under the little horn, meet him in the air (1 Thess. iii.). Jerusalem is delivered, by His appearance with them: "The Lord my God shall come and all his saints with thee;" and the banded nations, who are now giving their glory and honour to the little horn, are crushed by his presence. God has gathered them judicially for this object, and thus they receive their righteous doom.

The 110th Psalm speaks of the Lord thus actually placing His feet on His prepared footstool: "The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion: rule thou in the midst of thine enemies." The Psalmist, in addressing Jehovah concerning Christ, tells us in verse 5 how He rules: "The Lord at thy right hand shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath. He shall judge among the heathen [i. e., Gentiles or nations, not merely idolators or the like]. He shall fill the places with the dead bodies. He shall wound the heads over many countries."

It is impossible to form an estimate at all approaching to the truth concerning the sin which calls forth such acts of destroying judgment on the part of the Lord, without taking into account the person and actings of THE MAN OF

SIN, whom I judge to be unquestionably identical with "the little horn." This is not, however, the place to take up again the detail of his awful history; I merely advert to him as being, at the time of which I speak, the holder of Gentile power, the head of apostate Christendom, at first owned and acknowledged by the Jews, and afterwards their cruel oppressor. The Lord, as coming forth, vindicates His own right to all these three headships; as Son of man, the kingdom over the nations is His, and this He takes, interfering in power. He is the Head of His body the Church; and He comes to gather His bloodredeemed saints to Himself, to be manifested in glory with Him, at the same time taking fearful vengeance upon apostate Christendom, or the professing Church; and He is the King of Israel, the heir of the throne of David; and this place He takes, avenging His own people of their enemies, by appearing as their deliverer, even though many of them are swept away in destroying judgment.

It is with the first of these three relations that I have now especially to do, although it is absolutely needful just to allude to the two others; because the circumstances and the synchronism so intimately connect them together.

The 2nd Psalm is one of great interest and importance in connection with the nations, and the dominion of Christ. It commences with speaking of the raging of the heathen. I must speak explicitly about this English word heathen, because it is most marvellously thought (even by many intelligent Christians) to mean idolators: how often do we hear about "Missions to the Heathen," and the like? Now the inhabitants of this land are, in the proper sense of this term, as much heathen as they were in the days when they did actually bow down to idols which their own hands had made. Nay, farther; an inhabitant of this land is as much a heathen (in the sense in which Paul declares himself to be a Jew) after he is converted to Christ, as is any idolator on the face of this earth. The simple fact which is absolutely necessary to be known, in order to apprehend such a portion of the Scripture as the 2nd Psalm, is that the word heathen is merely used as a synonym both in the Old and the New Testaments for rendering that which is otherwise translated, nations, or Gentiles; the three are but identical and equivalent terms.

"Why do the heathen rage and the people [pl.] imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his Anointed." We know from Acts iv., that, in principle, this began to be accomplished in the rejection of our Lord; but the entire fulfilment of these things did not take place then; the Psalm cannot be taken as though it were simply retrospective. I do not question that this principle, which then commenced in its working, has run on from that day to this, and that the Spirit of God especially contemplates in this Psalm the crisis to which it tends. Opposition to Jehovah and his Christ have gone on among the nations and their rulers, in spite of the preaching of the gospel. The exhortation in the end of the Psalm appears to be given in the contemplation of that destroying judgment to which this banded opposition will at length lead. After the impotence of the designs of the nations are spoken of in verses 3-5, Zion is mentioned as the place where God's king is to be set. In verse 7, the Lord in resurrection speaks of that decree which the Father gives forth concerning the person, glory, and dominion of the Son: "Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. [How often is the passage cut short here, to the utter marring of the sense!] Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron: thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." We see, from Rev. ii. 26, that this is a dominion to be exercised by Christ with the Church; just as in Zech. xiv. He comes forth and