The kingdom of God taken by divines metaphorically, but in the Scriptures properly.
The Kingdom of God in the writings of divines, and specially in sermons and treatises of devotion, is taken most commonly for eternal felicity, after this life, in the highest heaven, which they also call the kingdom of glory; and sometimes for the earnest of that felicity, sanctification, which they term the kingdom of grace; but never for the monarchy, that is to say, the sovereign power of God over any subjects acquired by their own consent, which is the proper signification of kingdom.
To the contrary, I find the kingdom of God to signify, in most places of Scripture, a kingdom properly so named, constituted by the votes of the people of Israel in peculiar manner; wherein they chose God for their king by covenant made with him, upon God’s promising them the possession of the land of Canaan; and but seldom metaphorically; and then it is taken for dominion over sin; (and only in the New Testament;) because such a dominion as that, every subject shall have in the kingdom of God, and without prejudice to the sovereign.
From the very creation, God not only reigned over all men naturally by his might; but also had peculiar subjects, whom he commanded by a voice, as one man speaketh to another. In which manner he reigned over Adam, and gave him commandment to abstain from the tree of cognizance of good and evil; which when he obeyed not, but tasting thereof, took upon him to be as God, judging between good and evil, not by his creator’s commandment, but by his own sense, his punishment was a privation of the estate of eternal life, wherein God had at first created him: and afterwards God punished his posterity for their vices, all but eight persons, with an universal deluge; and in these eight did consist the then kingdom of God.
The original of the kingdom of God.
After this it pleased God to speak to Abraham, and (Gen. xvii. 7, 8) to make a covenant with him in these words, I will establish my covenant between me, and thee, and thy seed after thee in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be a God to thee, and to thy seed after thee; and I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession. In this covenant Abraham promiseth for himself and his posterity, to obey as God, the Lord that spake to him; and God on his part promiseth to Abraham the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession. And for a memorial, and a token of this covenant, he ordaineth (Gen. xvii. 11) the sacrament of circumcision. This is it which is called the old covenant or testament; and containeth a contract between God and Abraham; by which Abraham obligeth himself, and his posterity, in a peculiar manner to be subject to God’s positive law; for to the law moral he was obliged before, as by an oath of allegiance. And though the name of King be not yet given to God, nor of kingdom to Abraham and his seed: yet the thing is the same; namely, an institution by pact, of God’s peculiar sovereignty over the seed of Abraham; which in the renewing of the same covenant by Moses, at Mount Sinai, is expressly called a peculiar kingdom of God over the Jews: and it is of Abraham, not of Moses, St. Paul saith (Rom. iv. 11) that he is the father of the faithful; that is, of those that are loyal, and do not violate their allegiance sworn to God, then by circumcision, and afterwards in the new covenant by baptism.
That the kingdom of God is properly his civil sovereignty over a peculiar people by pact.
This covenant, at the foot of Mount Sinai, was renewed by Moses, (Exod. xix. 5) where the Lord commandeth Moses to speak to the people in this manner, If you will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar people to me, for all the earth is mine; and ye shall be unto me a sacerdotal kingdom, and an holy nation. For a peculiar people, the vulgar Latin hath peculium de cunctis populis: the English translation, made in the beginning of the reign of King James, hath a peculiar treasure unto me above all nations; and the Geneva French, the most precious jewel of all nations. But the truest translation is the first, because it is confirmed by St. Paul himself (Tit. ii. 14) where he saith, alluding to that place, that our blessed Saviour gave himself for us, that he might purify us to himself, a peculiar, that is, an extraordinary, people: for the word is in the Greek περιούσιος, which is opposed commonly to the word ἐπιούσιος: and as this signifieth ordinary, quotidian, or, as in the Lord’s Prayer, of daily use; so the other signifieth that which is overplus, and stored up, and enjoyed in a special manner; which the Latins call peculium: and this meaning of the place is confirmed by the reason God rendereth of it, which followeth immediately, in that he addeth, For all the earth is mine, as if he should say, All the nations of the world are mine; but it is not so that you are mine, but in a special manner: for they are all mine, by reason of my power; but you shall be mine, by your own consent, and covenant; which is an addition to his ordinary title, to all nations.
The same is again confirmed in express words in the same text, Ye shall be to me a sacerdotal kingdom, and an holy nation. The vulgar Latin hath it, regnum sacerdotale, to which agreeth the translation of that place (1 Pet. ii. 9) Sacerdotium regale, a regal priesthood; as also the institution itself, by which no man might enter into the Sanctum Sanctorum, that is to say, no man might enquire God’s will immediately of God himself, but only the high-priest. The English translation before mentioned, following that of Geneva, has, a kingdom of priests; which is either meant of the succession of one high-priest after another, or else it accordeth not with St. Peter, nor with the exercise of the high-priesthood: for there was never any but the high-priest only, that was to inform the people of God’s will; nor any convocation of priests ever allowed to enter into the Sanctum Sanctorum.
Again, the title of a holy nation confirms the same: for holy signifies, that which is God’s by special, not by general right. All the earth, as is said in the text, is God’s; but all the earth is not called holy, but that only which is set apart for his especial service, as was the nation of the Jews. It is therefore manifest enough by this one place, that by the kingdom of God, is properly meant a commonwealth, instituted, by the consent of those which were to be subject thereto, for their civil government, and the regulating of their behaviour, not only towards God their king, but also towards one another in point of justice, and towards other nations both in peace and war; which properly was a kingdom wherein God was king, and the high-priest was to be, after the death of Moses, his sole viceroy or lieutenant.