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Discussion of George Gillespie's Wholesome Severity Reconciled with Christian Liberty

Subject: JOSIAH, ERASTIANISM, AND NATIONAL COVENANTING: Final
  Installment
From: Chris Coldwell 
Date: Fri, 20 Jun 1997 18:15:09 -0500

Al Hembd is still having trouble posting so I'm forwarding this
to the westminster list.

Chris Coldwell


Fwd From: Albert Hembd <

Subject: Josiah, Erastianism, and National Covenanting: Final
Installment

To: westminster@fpcr.org


JOSIAH, ERASTIANISM, AND NATIONAL COVENANTING: Final Installment


In this final installment of my paper, I wish to consider the final

point: CAN a civil magistrate make his citizens to stand to the

covenant of God?  That is, is there any POWER or ABILITY promised from

God to enable the magistrate to endeavor such a thing?


Remember that the second part of the original question was, what could

a magistrate do today to make his citizens stand to the covenant of

God?  In the word "could,' there are two considerations: MAY he, and

CAN he?  That is, does he have a warrant in the Word of God for

causing his citizens to stand to the covenant? and, CAN he do it: that

is, whence comes ability and empowerment for such a humanly impossible

undertaking?


In the previous three installments of my paper, we showed conclusively

how that Josiah was no Erastian, how there there always was a

distinction between ecclesiastical and civil government in the OT, and

how that Josiah in essence caused Israel to stand to the covenant

which God had already made with them. This Josiah did by making them

swear  to honor and uphold it, in their public and private persons, by

keeping their duties as commanded by the Law.  In making them thus to

stand to the covenant, Josiah did not usurp the unique authorities and

responsibilities delegated to the Levites alone: the regular teaching

and preaching of the Word, the administration of the sacraments, and

church discipline.  But he certainly did exhort the Levites to their

duty, and he did make the SWEAR to uphold their covenant

responsibilities.  Certainly, a civil magistrate could do this today.


In the second place, we showed that civil magistrates, as ministers of

God, are duty bound to kiss the Son.  They are bound, not as ministers

of Christ's Church, but as ministers to God (Rom. 13:1-8), and

therefore to Christ as God the Son, to honor Christ's Gospel and

Christ's Law (Ps. 2:10-12).  Accordingly, civil magistrates not only

MAY but even MUST endeavor to cause their citizens to swear to a

covenant nationally to God, to His Word, and to His Christ.  Nations

as nations owe their homage and allegiance to Christ the King: Ps.

72:11 and Is. 60:12.


However, we now come to the third point.  How CAN a civil magistrate

realistically labor to do such a humanly impossible task as this?  How

can a magistrate bring his citizens into subjection to the covenant of

God, to the Gospel of God, and to the Law of God, when "the carnal

mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the Law of God,

neither can be," Rom. 8:7?


In examining this topic from the Scriptures, we will find the

following four points:


1)  The civil magistrate CANNOT cause his people to stand to the

covenant, independent of Gospel grace.


2)  Gospel grace flows from the preaching of faithful ministers of the

Gospel, blessed by the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven.  Hence, the

reformation of a land, of a nation, is something that originates

within the walls of the true Church within a land, from her pulpits. 

It is by the sharp, two-edged sword of Law and Gospel that the

enthroned Christ slays His enemies to Himself, to bring them to

subjection to the rule of His Word: as persons, as particular

churches, and as nations.


3)  The mere preaching of Law and Gospel itself will not subdue a

people to the rule of Christ.  Hence it is that the Holy Ghost,

purchased by Christ, must work almightily, to apply the Word

faithfully preached to sinners' hearts, and so must make the Word

effectual so as to cause them to bow willingly to the rule of Christ,

personally, ecclesiastically, and civilly.  And so it is that national

covenanting is something that ultimately rests in the sovereign will

of God, Who sovereignly sends His Spirit whithersoever He will, and to

the degree that He wills, to bless a faithful preaching of the Word to

that nation with heaven-sent revival.  Thus, ultimately it is the

enthroned Christ Who Himself causes "kings to bow down before Him, and

nations to serve Him" (Ps. 72:11), by making the arrows of Law and

Gospel sharp in the hearts of His enemies, to slay them to themselves,

and to win them to Himself.


4)  The help of civil magistrates to the Cause of Christ in a land is

a promise made TO A RISING, REFORMING CHURCH in a land; not to a

declining, apostasizing church.  "And the Gentiles shall come to thy

light, AND KINGS TO THE BRIGHTNESS OF THY RISING," Is. 60:3.  Kings

are sent by God, in His sovereign timing, that they should bring their

forces to the Cause of a UNITED, REFORMING Church in a land.  


In the last section of our paper, we proved that the sword of the

civil magistrate is ineffectual to accomplish national revival in a

land, which revival is essential to true reformation.  The enactment

of just and equitable laws in conformity to the Moral Law, accompanied

with reasonable penalties, will not alone bring about the reformation

of a people, for they will not submit to the rule of Christ(Rom. 8:7),

until Christ subdue a goodly number of them with the sharp, two-edged

sword of His mouth: namely, His two-edged sword of Law and Gospel. 

And that sharp, two-edged sword proceeds out of the mouth of His

Gospel ministers, those who preach His Word.  However, even that

sword--the sword of Law and Gospel--is ineffectual, unless the Holy

Ghost, sent down from heaven from the enthroned Christ, sends that

Word home to the sinner's heart, and thus the "arrows of the King,"

even King Jesus (cf. Ps. 45:5) "are made sharp in the hearts of His

enemies, making them to fall down before them."  Thus it is that the

enthroned Christ Himself applies His Word irresistibly to the hearts

of sinners, bringing "conviction of sin, righteousness, and judgment,"

John 16:8; when the sinner's eyes are opened to the reality of "Him

with Whom we have to do," Heb. 4:13; when the sinner's eyes are opened

to the reality of his sin, and odiousness of it; when the sinner's

eyes are opened to the just, righteous anger of a holy God against him

and his sins.  And then, when also Christ opens the sinner's eyes to

Himself, in all His mercy, Law-obedience, and Curse-satisfaction,

which He stands ready to impart and to impute to lost, perishing

sinners, to rescue them from the righteous sentence of the Law, and

from the bondage of their corruption in their sin under the Law.  Then

it is that the sinner sees, not only the justifying mercies of Christ,

but also the beauties of His holiness, and His readiness to give

saving repentance to all that come to Him for it; so that the sinner

can now begin to walk "in newness of life."  And so also Christ, by

His saving light, transforms the sinner's heart into a new heart, a

new heart that willingly embraces Christ and His saving benefits,

freely offered in the holy Gospel.


Then it is that the sinner, now translated from the kingdom of

darkness, becomes a willing subject of the Lord Jesus Christ.  But

now, when the Lord Jesus is at work in a nation, in a land, to

establish His Name and Cause there, He raises up a goodly company of

such faithful ones, a true Church, marked by the pure preaching of the

Word, the right adminstration of the sacraments, and church discipline

faithfully maintained.  And though at first the people of that land

may persecute that true Church, in time, they will come to respect and

even to honor them.  "But the people magnified them," says the Spirit

in Acts 5:13 of the people of Jerusalem outside the Church.  Many in

Jerusalem were not regenerate or converted; some were adherents of the

Church, though not yet living members, and others were perhaps

occasional interested hearers.  But the people at large respected and

even admired the witness of that faithful Church in their midst, a

Church faithful even in great persecution.


So it comes to be, as the LORD blesses the faithful witness of a

faithful Church in a land that He is visiting in mercy.  "And the

Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy

rising," Is. 60:3.  We now come to consider this verse, Is. 60:3, more

closely.


This verse, Is. 60:3, is a promise made to the reconstituted and

reformed Church.  Specifically, this verse found a partial fulfillment

in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, when Cyrus gave forth his decree to

rebuild Jerusalem, the temple, the streets, and its walls.  Then it

was that "kings brought their forces into Zion," Is. 60:11. 

"Therefore shall thy gates be open continually; they shall not be shut

day nor night; that men may bring unto thee the forces of the

Gentiles, and that their kings may be brought...Thou shalt also suck

the milk of kings, and shalt suck the breast of kings," Is. 60:11, 16.

 In the days of Cyrus, the brightness of Jehovah's shining, the

shining of the favor of His countenance, was seen upon His Zion.  This

favor was first seen in the desire of the "tenth" (Is. 6:13 compared

to Ezra 1:5), to return to Jerusalem, to restore the divinely

instituted worship commanded by God.  Prior to this, before the

Babylonish captivity, "the glory of the LORD had departed" from

Jerusalem, Ezek. 11, esp. verses 22 adn 23.  The Spirit of the LORD,

and the glory of the LORD had "gone up from the midst of the city"

because of all the abominations there were therein, because of all the

idolatries that were then being practiced by even the priests and

elders within the Temple gates.  Then, it was "Ichabod" with

Jerusalem.  The city was still standing, but the LORD and His glory

had left them. The Church was still in existence in outward form, but

the favor of the LORD had long departed, leaving them over, in time,

to temporal judgments.


To the contrary, in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, the glory of the

LORD graciously rose afresh upon His Zion, in the hearts of His

people, to raise the spirit of the people, to give them a new heart,

and a new spirit (Ezek. 11:9); a heart that would loathe itself for

its abominations, and sorrow for its former ways (Ezek. 36:31); that

would turn from its abominable idolatries; a heart that would turn,

yea from idols, to serve the living and true God.


Thus it was, that the distinguishing glory was seen upon Israel again,

in the stirring of the hearts of the people, while they were yet in

Babylon (Ps. 137), to turn from their abominations and lying vanities,

to serve again the LORD their God.  It was a distinguishing glory

indeed.  Darkness covered the rest of the earth, and gross darkness

was seen upon all the heathen peoples of the Babylonish and Persian

empires, Is. 60:2: both in their foolish idolatries, and also in their

wicked lifestyles.  But now, in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, the

distinguishing glory was seen upon Zion, in her desire to serve the

one and true living God, the Maker of heaven and of earth.  It was

seen in her loathing of her past sins, and in her turning to the LORD

of the whole earth.  It was seen in her renewed obedience to His

commandments and to His ways.


This glory of the LORD upon His people had already seen by the heathen

kings under whom they had dwelt, on certain individuals of Israel,

even before the days of Cyrus.  Nebuchadnezzar took note of the

godliness of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, as did Darius

after him.  Ahashuerus experienced the faithfulness of Esther and

Mordecai.  However, in time, the LORD also spread this vital godliness

which had been seen upon a few individuals to a large contingent of

the twelve tribes, in fulfillment of His Own promises to them, Jer.

31:31 and Ezek. 36:26.  The Spirit of the LORD breathed upon the

remnant of the election of grace of that time (Ezek. 37), and the

glory of the LORD was seen upon them, in raising them from their state

of spiritual death, to a living and vital godliness, as a great

company and a great army: some 43,000 of them.  And kings, favorably

impressed with their goodness and value as citizens of the realm, lent

their favor and support to their Cause, in rebuilding the walls of

Zion.


But these verses--Is. 60:1-3--speaking of the glory of the LORD

arising upon Zion--have a larger fulfillment in Christ's coming.  The

very context of Is. 60:1-3 militate that we understand these verses,

actually, to have their PRIMARY fulfillment in the coming of Christ,

and in His Mediatorial reign at the right hand of the Father. 

Immediately preceding the words found in Is. 60:1-3, we find in Is.

59:20-21 "And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn

from transgression in Jacob, saith the LORD.  As for me, this is my

covenant with them, saith the LORD; My Spirit that is upon thee, and

My words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy

mouth, nor out the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy

seed's seed, from henceforth and for ever."  It was to be when "the

Redeemer shall come to Zion" that the glory of the LORD should rise in

an unprecedented way; and that then, in a way not seen before, "kings

should rise to the brightness of her rising."


Thus it was that after some three hundred and fifty years after

Christ's ascension, the Roman Empire officially established the

Christian religion as the religion of the empire; and now the Roman

emperors and their satraps began to lend their hand to the Cause of

Christ.  The Christian Church, being long put to the sword by a

succession of wicked Caesars, being tried in the fire, and found

faithful, arose victorious.  The glory of the LORD, which was seen on

her throughout her persecutions, was invincible.  For every martyr,

ten arose in his place.  The steadfastness of the martyrs was too

great a witness to go unnoticed.  "The people magnified them." 

Eventually, the Empire itself came to recognize and establish the very

religion they had sought to extinguish by fire and sword.  And so it

was that all kings of that known world did bow down before Zion, and

serve Her Cause, to bring their forces unto her.


And yet, throughout the the New Testament Church age, there has not

been uremitting revival, nor continuous outpourings of the Holy Ghost.

 Within a very short amount of time after Christianity was established

as the official religion of the Roman Empire, the Church began a rapid

slide into apostasy.  Idolatry had already made inroads, even during

the persecutions; but after the establishment, it waxed exponentially.

 By the seventh century A. D., the Church had become very corrupted

under the rise of the Roman Papacy.  Very shortly thereafter, as a

righteous punishment for her wicked idolatries and doctrinal

corruptions, the Eastern Church was overrun by the Mohammedan

infidels.  The Western Church came under the tyrannous dominion of the

Popish Antichrist, ushering in the New Testament Babylonish Captivity

of the Church, Revelation 13, 14, and 17.  And so, also in the NT

Church, it became "Ichabod, the glory has departed."


Throughout the twelve hundred year reign of the Popish Antichrist,

there were only seasons of beginnings of a return to the LORD, to the

apostolic foundation of truth (as, for example, with the Waldenses,

Bernard of Clairveaux, and Huss and Wycliffe).  But it wasn't until

the conversion of a theological professor, Martin Luther, that it

pleased the LORD to visit His Church with renewed seasons of great

outpourings of the Spirit of truth.  "He shall come down like rain

upon the mown grass, as showers that water the earth," Ps. 72:6. 

Through the outpouring of the Holy Ghost, the apostolic preaching was

revived in the visible Church at large.  These outpourings of the Holy

Ghost ushered in "times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord,"

cf. Acts 3:19.  And so it pleased the Lord to revisit His Zion, to

shower His glory afresh upon her, with a series of Reformations and

Awakenings that caused newly-born justified souls to "spring up like

grass" in number, cf. Ps. 72:16.


And so the glory of the LORD arose afresh upon His Church in the First

and Second Reformations, and in the subsequent Awakenings of the

eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.  The glory of the LORD

having arisen again upon His Church, "kings [again] arose to the

brightness of Zion's rising," cf. Is. 60:3.  Prince Electors, like

Frederick the Wise,; kings, like Edward the Sixth; and Parliaments, as

in Holland and England, gave the right hand of their strength to the

Cause of Christ in their realms.


Now, it is important here that we note some essential truths

concerning the Establishment Principle as it is expounded in the Holy

Writ.  First of all, kings are not the prime movers in the Reformation

of a land or of a Church.  To the contrary, there is first an arising

in Zion, in the fresh outpouring of the Spirit of glory from the

ascended Christ, upon His Church.  THEN, kings arise, TO THE

BRIGHTNESS OF THE CHURCH'S RISING.  Reformations are not forged by

cunning political savvy and coalitions of sects.  Neither does the

LORD move the hearts of kings to put forth their civil power to

forward the cause of an apostate church, of a church riddled with

heresies, sects, schisms, and worldly disobedience.  No: the LORD

raises up magistrates to forward the Cause of an already rising

Church, a true Church united by the bond of truth.  Indeed, we may

safely presume that, in most instances, the conversion of the

magistrate, or, at least his common grace respect of the Cause of

Zion, is spawned by the revival of faithful preaching within the

Temple gates.  


As we said before, Gospel grace does not originate with magistrates. 

Gospel grace originates with the faithful, fearless preaching of men

called of God; themselves having been sifted by the Law, melted by the

Gospel, and forged in the fire of affliction; and their preaching then

also having been blessed by the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. 

When the glory of the LORD is again seen in Zion, through the faithful

preaching of the Holy Gospel, applied and blessed by the Almighty

workings of the sovereign Spirit of God, THEN, kings and nations arise

to Zion's glory, in the LORD's good time.  Hence, the prime

instruments for the initiation of reformation in a land are not

magistrates; magistrates are secondary instruments.  No: the primary

instruments whose means are blessed are the teaching Levites, the

preachers of the holy Gospel, the ministers of Jesus Christ.  How

greatly then does the welfare of a land depend upon a faithful Gospel

ministry.  And how little of that is there today in our pulpits,

overrun with man-made, Arminian, decisionalist preaching!  How can the

LORD send His glory upon Zion, when Zion is giving all the glory for

salvation (or even part of it) to man!  "I am the LORD; and MY GLORY

WILL I NOT GIVEN UNTO ANOTHER," Is. 42:8.  The righteous LORD will not

give the glory of salvation, which is all His, to another, that is, to

man's free will, to man's labours and gimmicky evangelistic

techniques, etc. etc.  And so it is that Arminian preaching can only

serve to quench true Biblical revival and reformation in a land.


Thus, it urgently behooves the magistrate to forward true Gopsle

preaching with all of his might.  And it must be TRUE preaching.  The

LORD blesses the Word of truth to beget sinners anew, cf. James 1:18.

How apt are the timely words of George Whitefield of old, in the

opening to his sermon "Method of Grace:"


"As God can send a nation or people no greater blessing than to give

them faithful, sincere, and upright ministers, so the greatest curse

that God can possibly send upon a people in this world, is to give

them over to blind, unregenerate, carnal, lukewarm, and unskilled

guides.  And yet, in all ages, we find that there have been many

wolves in sheep's clothing, many that daubed with untempered mortar,

that prophesied smoother things than God did allow."


May the LORD bless anything said in this paper that is according to

the mind of His blessed Spirit of truth.  





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