In short, the Kingdome of God is a Civill Kingdome; which consisted,
first in the obligation of the people of Israel to those Laws, which
Moses should bring unto them from Mount Sinai; and which afterwards the
High Priest of the time being, should deliver to them from before the
Cherubins in the Sanctum Sanctorum; and which kingdome having been cast
off, in the election of Saul, the Prophets foretold, should be restored
by Christ; and the Restauration whereof we daily pray for, when we
say in the Lords Prayer, "Thy Kingdome come;" and the Right whereof we
acknowledge, when we adde, "For thine is the Kingdome, the Power, and
Glory, for ever and ever, Amen;" and the Proclaiming whereof, was
the Preaching of the Apostles; and to which men are prepared, by the
Teachers of the Gospel; to embrace which Gospel, (that is to say, to
promise obedience to Gods government) is, to bee in the Kingdome of
Grace, because God hath gratis given to such the power to bee the
subjects (that is, Children) of God hereafter, when Christ shall come
in Majesty to judge the world, and actually to govern his owne people,
which is called the Kingdome of Glory. If the Kingdome of God (called
also the Kingdome of Heaven, from the gloriousnesse, and admirable
height of that throne) were not a Kingdome which God by his Lieutenant,
or Vicars, who deliver his Commandements to the people, did exercise on
Earth; there would not have been so much contention, and warre, about
who it is, by whom God speaketh to us; neither would many Priests have
troubled themselves with Spirituall Jurisdiction, nor any King have
denied it them.
Out of this literall interpretation of the Kingdome of God, ariseth also
the true interpretation of the word HOLY. For it is a word, which in
Gods Kingdome answereth to that, which men in their Kingdomes use to
call Publique, or the Kings.
The King of any Countrey is the Publique Person, or Representative of
all his own Subjects. And God the King of Israel was the Holy One of
Israel. The Nation which is subject to one earthly Soveraign, is the
Nation of that Soveraign, that is, of the Publique Person. So the Jews,
who were Gods Nation, were called (Exod. 19.6.) "a Holy Nation." For by
Holy, is alwaies understood, either God himselfe, or that which is Gods
in propriety; as by Publique is alwaies meant, either the Person of the
Common-wealth it self, or something that is so the Common-wealths, as no
private person can claim any propriety therein.