Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem; behold, thy King cometh unto thee: the most natural sense of which phrase, thy King, is, he that is now thy King, not he that is hereafter to be so: and if then, when this prophecy was delivered, he was King of the daughter of Zion, or people of Israel, to be sure he was always so: and therefore the prophet Malachi calls the temple, which was the palace of the divine King of Israel, the temple of Christ, Mal. iii. 1. Behold, I will send my messenger, i. e. John Baptist, and he shall prepare my way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the angel of the covenant, whom ye delight in : behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. From whence I infer, first, that this Lord of hosts, which is the ordinary style of the God of Israel, was Christ, whose messenger and forerunner John Baptist was, vide Luke i. 76. and secondly, that the temple, which was the abode of this Lord of hosts, was the temple of Christ; the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple; which cannot be meant of God the Father, because in the next words he is called the angel of the covenant, which all agree is Christ. If then the temple of Jerusalem was the temple of Christ, and he was that Lord of hosts that dwelt in it, it necessarily follows, that he was that divine King of Israel, who under God the Father governed the Jewish church. And now, having proved at large this fourth proposition, which is the principal hinge upon which the whole argument turns, I proceed,

Fifthly, That after his coming into the world he still retained this his right and title of King of

Israel in particular, till they finally rejected him, and apostatized from that covenant on which his kingdom is founded. For he did not at all divest himself, by his incarnation, of that royal authority he was vested with, as he was the eternal Word, and Son of God, hereafter to be incarnate. For this his royal authority, as I shewed before, is necessarily implied in his mediatorship of the new covenant, of which, as I have also shewed, he was always Mediator without any discontinuance or interruption. So long therefore as the new covenant continued in force with the Jews in particular, so long he was their mediatorial king in particular, under God the Father. Now it is certain that the new covenant continued in force with them so long as they continued to be the church of God, because it was the new covenant that made them so; and it is certain they continued the church of God many years after the incarnation of our Saviour, even till such time as by their obstinate rejecting of our Saviour, and incurable apostasy from that covenant which made them the church and people of God, they had finally incensed him to reject them, to break off his covenant-relation to them, and utterly to dispark and unchurch them. And therefore we find that for several years both our Saviour and his apostles continued in close communion with the Jewish church, frequented their temple and synagogues, and joined with them in all the solemnities of their public worship by which they owned them to be the true church of God, and consequently to be yet in covenant with him. Since therefore they continued in the new covenant after Christ's incarnation, Christ must also continue the Mediator of that covenant to

them, and consequently their mediatorial king. And hence he is styled the King of the Jews in particular, after his incarnation; for so the wise men in their inquiry after him, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? Matt. ii. 2. And that he was born King of the Jews, not merely as he was descended from the loins of David, but by a title that he had antecedent to his birth, viz. as he was the Son of God, hereafter to be incarnate, is evident by that confession of Nathanael, John i. 49. Rabbi, thou art the Son of God, thou art the King of Israel; where his being the King of Israel is consequent to his being the Son of God; and so John xii. 13. they who attended him in his progress to Jerusalem salute him with a, Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord; which St. John makes the accomplishment of that forementioned prophecy, Zech. ix. 9. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion-Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, sitting on an ass's colt, John xii. 14, 15. And this title our Saviour assumes to himself in that good confession he made before Pontius Pilate, who asking him, Art thou King of the Jews? he answered him, Sayest thou this of thyself, or did others tell it thee of me? And when Pilate presses him for a more explicit answer, he tells him, My kingdom is not of this world: as much as if he had said, I know the Jews, mine enemies, have insinuated to thee, that by assuming to myself this title of King of the Jews, I design to usurp the temporal dominion of Cæsar thy master: but let not that trouble thee; for though it is most certain that I am King of the Jews, yet my kingship and Cæsar's are of a quite different nature, and do no way clash or interfere with one an

other; for whereas his kingdom is temporal, mine is purely spiritual, and not of this world: and when Pilate insists farther, Art thou a king then? Jesus answers, Thou sayest I am a king, i. e. sayest truly so. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth, John xviii. 33—37.

And as he retained the title of King of the Jews after his incarnation, so we frequently find him exercising his royal authority among them. For in the first place, he not only authoritatively explained to them those old and eternal laws of morality which he delivered to them from mount Sinai, and enforced them with new sanctions and motives; but he also gave them two new laws, viz. that of baptism and that of the Lord's supper, to be continued in force to the end of the world. Secondly, he erected a perpetual form of government and discipline in his church, and gave commission to his apostles to exercise and administer it, and to derive down their commission to all succeeding generations. Thirdly, he actually forgave sins, Matth. ix. 2. compared with the 6th, where he doth not only pronounce to one that was sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins are forgiven thee; but declares that he did it by that power and authority which he had upon earth to forgive sins. All which, being acts of regal power, do sufficiently manifest, that even whilst he was upon earth he was vested with royal authority, and that by assuming our nature he did not divest himself of his ancient royalty, but still continued King of the Jews, so long as they continued a church.

Sixthly, That though the main body of the people

of Israel rejected Christ, and were thereupon rejected by him, yet there was a remnant of them that received and acknowledged him for their rightful Lord and King. For so, as St. Paul observes, it is foretold of Isaiah concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved, Rom. ix. 27. and accordingly it proved in the event: for though the much greater part of the Jewish nation obstinately persisted in their infidelity and rebellion against the blessed Jesus their king, notwithstanding all those powerful arts and methods he had used to reclaim and save them; yet there was a great number of them that willingly received, and loyally adhered to him: for not only the disciples which he gathered whilst he was upon earth, but also the first converts after his ascension into heaven, were generally of the Jewish nation, within which, not only his own personal ministry was confined, but also the ministry of his apostles, for some time after his ascension for so St. Paul and St. Barnabas tell the Jews, that it was necessary the word of God should first have been spoken to them, Acts xiii. 46. But this proposition is so manifest from the whole gospel, that I shall not need to insist any farther upon it.

Seventhly, Therefore that this remnant still continued the same individual church or kingdom of Christ with the former, though very much reformed and improved for it still remained upon the same basis with the former, as having the selfsame covenant for its charter, which is the form that identifies all societies, and, notwithstanding the perpetual change and renovation of their parts, still continues I i

VOL. II.