Chapter 23

prescribed, as interpreters unanimously agree. And hereupon are those promises to the church, "The sons of strangers shall build up thy walls, and their kings shall minister unto thee," Isa. lx. 10; "and thou shalt suck the breast of kings," Isa. lx. 16. Now, this nursing, protecting care of magistrates towards the church, puts forth itself in these or like acts, viz: He,

1. Removes all external impediments of true religion, worship of God, &c., by his civil power, whether persons or things, whether persecutions, profaneness, heresy, idolatry, superstition, &c., that truth and godliness may purely flourish: as did Jehoshaphat, Asa, Hezekiah, Josiah. And hereupon it is that God so oft condemns the not removing and demolishing of the high places and monuments of idolatry, 1 Kings xv. 14, with 2 Chron. xv. 17; 1 Kings xxii. 44; 2 Kings xii. 3: and highly commends the contrary in Asa, 2 Chron. xv. 8, 16: in Jehoshaphat, 2 Chron. xvii. 3, 4, 6-10: in Hezekiah, 2 Chron. xxxi. 1; 2 Kings xviii. 4: in Manasseh, 2 Chron. xxxiii. 15: in Josiah, 2 Kings