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who is invefted with all Power in Heaven

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as well as in Earth; who is as much Lord where God is feen, as where he is not feen; to whom every Creature, not only on Earth and in the Sea and under the Earth, but in Heaven too, afcribeth Bleffing and Honour and Glory and Power for ever and ever? Surely it were strange if they who are fubject to him here, where Satan hath fix'd his Throne, should cease to be fubject to him when they are removed from hence into that City, in which fhall be the Throne of God and of the Lamb.

IT is clear therefore that Chrift's delivering the Kingdom to the Father, does not imply the Refignation of his Authority, if by the Kingdom which he shall deliver be meant those Perfons, the Dominion over whom he hath purchased with his Blood. Which Interpretation may be farther fupported by the Authority of a very antient Writer, Irenæus; who at the end of his laft Book against Herefies has these remarkable Words; "The Pres"byters the Disciples of the Apostles

fay,

SERM.

VII, VIII

SERM,

VIVIH

fay, that this is the Order and Method of Man's Salvation, and that by these Steps they rife to Perfection. By the "Spirit they afcend unto the Son, and by the Son unto the Father; the Son afterwards delivering unto the Father his own Workmanship, as alfo it is faid by the Apostle; For he must reign " till he hath put all his Enemies under his Feet." And fo he goes on citing the Words of my Text. Now it is ob fervable, that this Father in citing the firft Part of the Text varies the Apostle's Phrafe, and by his Variation of it fhews how he understood it. For inftead of faying as the Apostle had faid, The Son fhall deliver the Kingdom to the Father ; he fays, The Son fhall deliver to the Father his own Workmanship. Whence it is evident, that by the Kingdom here mentioned Irenæus understood thofe Perfons who are the Kingdom of God and of Chrift; whom he ftyles God's Workmanship in oppofition to the Hereticks against whom he had been Difputing, who denied that God the Father of Jefus

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VII, VIII

Chrift was the Maker of the World, andof the Creatures in it. According then SERM, to the Doctrine of Irenæus, which is also the Doctrine of the facred Writers, Men are brought unto the Son by the Guidance and Influence of the Holy Spirit; and the Son having prepared them for the beatific Vision, shall deliver them unto the Father; who fhall then by an immediate Manifeftation of Himself communicate unto them the Things which Eye hath not feen, nor Ear heard, neither have entred into the Heart of Man. Which agrees exactly with what I before faid.

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BUT fuppofing the Word Kingdom to fignify Royal Authority, the Son's delivering the Kingdom to the Father may perhaps mean, not the laying down that fubordinate Authority which he receiv'd from the Father, but the abolish. ing the ufurp'd Authority of Satan, and putting the Empire of the World into the Father's Hands, by bringing all Things into Subjection to Him.

INDEED

SERM.

VII, VIII

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INDEED in ftrictnefs of Speech the Father cannot be faid to receive any new Authority; for he is Himself the Fountain of all Authority, and hath by Necef fity of Nature all Authority over all. The Kingdom and the Power are always his, and while there are Creatures in the World, he cannot but reign over them. But the Devil and his Angels have long fince withdrawn their Allegiance from their Sovereign, and erected a Kingdom of their own in Oppofition to His; and have made this World which we inhabit, the Seat of their ufurp'd Dominion, and drawn in Mankind to revolt from their Maker, and to take Part with them. It is one Branch of the Son's Kingly Office, to wage War with thefe Rebels and Ufurpers, and to bring back the Kingdom to his Father. And when the Enemies of God receive any fignal Defeat, and a number of Perfons are rescued from their Tyranny, and submit themfelves to the Dominion of the Father and of Chrift; then in the Language of Scripture the Kingdom of God is come; then

the

SERM.

Y

the Kingdoms of the World become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Chrift; then the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth, VII, VII and taketh to him his great Power and reigneth. Now if the Kingdom of God is faid then to come, when the Dragon and his Angels are overcome; if the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth, when Babylon the Great is fallen; if the Kingdoms of the World do become the Kingdoms of the Lord, and God taketh to him his great Power and reigneth, when Chrift turneth the Nations from the Worship of Devils, to the Worship of the True God his Father; Why may not the Son in like manner be faid to deliver the Kingdom to the Father, when he fhall wreft all this World out of the Hands of Satan, and his Accomplices fhall furvive only to endure the Punishment of their Apoftacy; when he fhall put an End to the Reign of Death, and fhall deliver many Millions of his Father's Subjects from their Captivity under it, and conduct them to the City of God, there to ferve and worship Him for ever

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