William Symington’s Messiah the Prince (1838) most fully stated this doctrine [Christ’s Mediatorial Reign] through detailed Biblical exegesis. That God the Father appointed his son Jesus Christ the head of the church, all Protestant denominations accepted. Beyond this principle, however, Symington believed that scripture mandated belief in “the headship of Jesus, as Mediator, over the nations of the world, or the political associations of men.” The Bible, Symington held, specifically taught that Jehovah, God the Father, delegated to Christ his Son “mediatorial dominion” to rule the nations. The Father did not create and generally rule all nations as a matter of natural law; rather, he specificially “‘hath put all things in subjection under [Christ’s] feet,’ as respects his right of sovereignty” over human socities.

“Church and State in the Early Republic: The Covenanters’ Radical Critique” by Robert Emery in Journal of Law and Religion, Vol. 25, Issue 2 (2009), 491.