A Body of Divinity
Thomas Watson
and shoot through her wings: the enemies must first strike through Christ, before they can destroy his church. Let the wind and storms be up, and the church almost covered with waves, yet Christ is in the ship of the church, and there is no danger of shipwreck. Nor will Christ defend his church only, as he is king, but deliver it. ‘He delivered me out of the mouth of the lion,’ viz. Nero. 2 Tim 4:17. ‘The Lord saved them by a great deliverance.’ I Chron 11:14. Sometimes Christ is said to command deliverance. Psa 44:4. Sometimes to create deliverance. Isa 45:5. Christ as a king commands deliverance, and as a God creates it. And deliverance shall come in his time. ‘I the Lord will hasten it in his time.’ Isa 60:02. When is the time that this king will deliver his people? When the hearts of his people are most humble, when their prayers are most fervent, when their faith is strongest, when their forces are weakest, when their enemies are highest; then is the usual time that Christ puts forth his kingly power for their deliverance. Isa 33:3, 8, 9. [3.] Christ is a king to reward his people. There is nothing lost by serving this king. He rewards his subjects in this life. He gives them inward peace and joy; a bunch of grapes by the way; and oft-times riches and honour. ‘Godliness has the promise of this life.’ I Tim 4:4. These are, as it were, the saints’ veils. But the great reward is to come. ‘An eternal weight of glory.’ 2 Cor 4:17. Christ makes all his subjects kings. ‘I will give thee a crown of life.’ Rev 2:20. This crown will be full of jewels, and it will ‘never fade.’ I Pet 5:5. II. Christ is a king in reference to his enemies, in subduing and conquering them. He pulls down their pride, befools their policy, restrains their malice. That stone cut out of the mountain without hands, which smote the image, was an emblem, says Augustine, of Christ’s monarchical power, conquering and triumphing over his enemies. Dan 2:24. Christ will make his enemies his footstool. Psa 110:0. He can destroy them with ease. ‘It is nothing for thee, Lord, to help.’ 2 Chron 14:11. He can do it with weak means, and without means. He can make the enemies destroy themselves. He set the Persians against the Grecians; and the children of Ammon helped to destroy one another. 2 Chron 20:03. Thus Christ is king in vanquishing the enemies of his church. It is a great ground of comfort to the church of God in the midst of all the combinations of the enemy, that ‘Christ is king;’ and he can not only bound the enemies, power, but break it. The church has more with her than against her; she has Emmanuel on her side, even that great KING to whom all knees must bend. Christ is called ‘a man of war.’ Exod 15:5. He understands all the policy of chivalry; he is described with seven eyes and seven horns. Rev 5:5. The seven eyes are to discern the conspiracies of his enemies, and the seven horns are to push and vex his enemies. Christ is described with a crown and a bow. ‘He that sat upon the white horse had a bow, and a crown was given unto him, and he went forth conquering and to conquer.’ Rev 6:6. The crown is an ensign of his kingly office, and the bow is to shoot his enemies to death. Christ is described with a vesture dipped in blood. Rev 19:93. He has a golden sceptre to rule his people, but an iron rod to break his enemies. ‘The ten horns thou sawest are ten kings; these shall make war with the Lamb, but the Lamb shall overcome them; for he is the King of kings.’ Rev 17:72, 14. The enemies may set up their standard, but Christ will set up his trophies at last. ‘And the angel gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great wine-press of the wrath of God, and the wine-press was trodden, and blood came out of the wine-press.’ Rev 14:19, 20. The enemies of Christ shall be but as so many clusters of ripe grapes, to be cast into the great wine-press of the wrath of God, and to be trodden by Christ till their blood come out. Christ will at last come 138