Selected quad for the lemma: church_n
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A30589
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Jerusalems glory breaking forth into the world being a Scripture-discovery of the New-Testament Church in the latter dayes, immediately before the Second Coming of Christ.
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Burroughs, Jeremiah, 1599-1646.; Adderley, William.
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1684
(1684)
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Wing B6092; ESTC R25958
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49,943
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136
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to go back again therefore give him no rest till he Establish till we see things settled As you Mariners when you are to go a great Voyage you love to see the Wind settled in some place or other before you go forth so faith the Prophet Sometimes we find the mercy and goodness of God much towards us but things have gone back again therefore give him no rest till he hath established And till he hath made Jerusalem a praise in the Earth By Jerusalem we are to understand the Church of God not so much the City Jerusalem that then was but the Church of God that was to be in the times of the Gospel especially for Jerusalem was a Type of it As the praise of the Earth The Septuagint translates it and the word signifies the Glory the Exaltation of the Earth till he makes Jerusalem the praise of the Earth Now we know that Prayer ought to be in Faith then those that pray to God and especially that are importunate with God they must believe that there is such a thing to be done that the Church of God is to be made the praise and Glory of the Earth And if they believe it is to be done they must have some word for it Now this is the main thing that I intend at this time to make out unto you that there is a time that God hath to make his Church to be the praise and glory of all the world In this World To be the glory of the Earth not only to be glorious its self in Heaven that I suppose you all believe that there is a time that the Church Militant here shall be Triumphant in Heaven and glorious there but that there is a time that God in this Earth shall make his Church to be the glory of the earth And therefore all the Saints of God to whom the glory of God is dear who do desire that the Honour of God may be raised and set out they are to pray for this and to be importunate for this as a certain thing that is to be done and fulfilled by God Now because you cannot pray for it and be importunate to give God no rest till you see it plainly that it will be so therefore this thing is now to be opened unto you The truth is Jerusalem the Church of God hath been in a low Estate alwaies in comparison of what God intends it to be at this time when the Prophet here saith give God no rest till he make Jerusalem the praise of the whole Earth Jerusalem was in no glorious condition it was but a little before God intended a Captivity of Judah and Jerusalem For this Prophet you shall find in the beginning of his Prophecy did Prophesie in the dayes of Hezekiah now in the sixth year of Hezekiah's Reign did the Babilonians come and sack Samaria 2 Kings 18.10 and took the People into Captivity And it might be for ought we know not above a year or two before their captivity that here the Prophet calls upon this people to pray to God and give him no rest till he set Jerusalem up as the praise of the whole earth and yet he knew it was it to go into Captivity presently certainly then the Prophet did not intend here any time that should be in his dayes or in any little time after The Prophet therefore must needs have a Reference to some notable time of the Church that must be in after dayes the people of the Jews were never the praise of the whole Earth If you look before this time they were unto the other people but a contemptible people and lived in a little Countrey one way a little more than fourscore miles a very little Countrey it was that all the people of the Jews lived in and very contemptible in respect of the other Nations of the World Therefore it was not the praise of the whole earth before Not presently after this is spoken for they were to go into Captivity and to be there so long a time You will say it may be 't is meant about the time when they were to return from Captivity No not so neither for they were but very poor and contemptible in the eyes of the world after their Captivity for when they did return it was but by leave and they were but as Servants unto the Medes still they were but as servants unto Cyrus and the rest of them When they went to build the Walls of Jerusalem again they scoff at them And what doe these feeble Jews and if a Fox goes but upon their walls it will break them down Certainly in their return from Captivity they were not the praise of the whole Earth no nor in after times they had many interruptions before they could bring any thing to any effect Many Learned men compute that they were longer a building the wall than they were in Captivity and we know that it was not long after their Captivity that they all did lye at the mercy of a wicked Haman who had gotten a Decree to cut off all the people of the Jews therefore they were not in any glorious condition no not after their return from Captivity from that time till the time that the Romans came and destroyed them they were but in a low condition and then afterwards they were low enough so that it could not be meant literally of Jerusalem of that place nor of the Church of the Jews therefore it must be meant of the state of the Church in the times of the Gospel Now when was that as the praise of the whole earth certainly though it were the praise of God and God had his praise from his Church at all times yet now this must be meant of some eminent time that was to come and it must be some outward glory that they must have so as the whole earth must take notice of it And it was not in the time of Christ himself Christ himself was the glory of God but yet in the earth he was despised a man that had no form nor comeliness in him in regard of outwards they were then under Herod and rejected Christ when he came and within a while afterwards by Titus Vespatian they were destroyed and an unspeakable havock was upon Jerusalem and the people of the Jews and so they have abode to this day to be as a runnagate Nation For the Apostles nothing was more contemptible than they you know what St. Paul saith not only of himself but of other of the Apostles they were made the very off-scowring of the Earth the basest things of the Earth even the Apostles themselves they were in no outward glory before the face of the world that they could see it And afterwards in the Primitive times you know they were under most dreadful persecutions how they were Massacred and hackt and hew'd and what woful misery they were put to all this while Jerusalem was not the praise of the Earth Well
shall be made the praise of the whole Earth then there shall be new Heavens and a new Earth created That is there shall be as great a change of things as if there were new Heavens and new Earth created There shall be a mighty glorious power of God manifested towards his Churches as if God were Creating new Heavens and new Earth again Oh! we do not know but that either you or some of your Children may yet live to see such times as these are And it 's another World indeed It 's not the World that we live in now there shall be a kind of new World And therefore some Scriptures that many times we think are meant concerning the Life in Heaven after the day of Judgment because they are spoken of another World they are rather to be understood of the state of the Church here in this World And to the end that I may shew this for otherwise all that 's said is but in vain It may be you will say that the Prophet mean't that State of the Church Triumphant in Heaven And so the Apostle St. John in his reference to what the Prophet saith he seems to mean it of the glorious state of the Church in Heaven And I verily believe the most of you that have read with Observation the latter end of the Book of the Revelations you have thought it hath been meant of the State of the Church in Heaven but that it cannot be be meant I 'le give you a Reason or two why the 21 of the Revelations cannot be meant of the Church in Heaven First Because the Text saith That Jerusalem shall come down from Heaven after he had described it in the 10 Vers He carryed me away in the Spirit to a great and high Mountain and shewed me that great City the holy Jerusalem descending out of Heaven from God That is the Glory of Jerusalem shall not come from the Earth nor from any Earthly means Though men ought to do what they can yet it shall be too great a Glory for any earthly means to be able to bring but it shall come down from Heaven there shall be some admirable glorious work of God from Heaven to bring Jerusalem into such Glory as it shall be brought into And that 's one thing That it is not the State of Heaven for it comes down from Heaven And then besides that that is an undeniable Reason is that which you have in the 24 and 26 Verses And the Nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it and the Kings of the Earth do bring their Glory and Honour into it They do not bring their Honour to the State of the Church Triumphant in Heaven The Saints in Heaven shall have no need of any of the Glory of the Kings of the Earth the meanest poorest Servant or Boy that is Godly shall be more glorious than all the Kings of the Earth ever were in this World but this is such a State that the Kings of the Earth shall bring their Glory to it And in the 26 verse They shall bring the Glory and Honour of the Nations into it The meaning is that when this time comes the Lord will make all the Kings of the Earth and all the Nations of the Earth to be some way serviceable to the Glory of his Churches that 's the plain meaning of it that whereas now the Kings of the Earth and the Nations do persecute the Church generally and as in the second Psalm you have it the Kings of the Earth they combine themselves together against Jesus Christ and will none of his Government but yet for all this the Lord saith that he will set his King upon his holy Hill And then here is the Prophecy that there shall be such a work of God upon the Kings and Nations of the Earth as they shall all come in and bring their Glory to Jerusalem to the Church to do the uttermost they can to make the Church to be Glorious This is in General the state of Jerusalem when it shall be made the Praise of the Earth But now that I might come to move Particulars about this The first thing is this When that time shall come all Tears shall be wiped from the Eyes of Saints the People of God shall be delivered from all Enemies they shall never be any further pestered with wicked and ungodly men to be enemies to them but be fully freed from them all We groan under the burden of the Enmity of wicked Men and their Opposition I but let us be content to bear it and to endure Oppositions from wicked and ungodly Men for there is a time a coming that thou shalt be delivered even in this World You will say when we come to Heaven we shall be above the Malice of all the wicked Men in the World Nay there is a time when the Saints shall be above the Malice of wicked men upon this Earth In the 28 of Ezek. A Chapter that speaks so much of the Glorious Condition of the People of God verse 24. There shall be no more a pricking Briar nor any grieving Thorn of all that are round about them that despised them They shall be so far from having any power to do any mischief to the People of God as they shall not be so much as able to prick them no grieving Thorn nor no bryer pricking of the Saints of God as heretofore they have done It will be a blessed time when the Saints shall be delivered from the Curse of the Earth the Bryers and Thorns it brings forth Where are wicked men certainly those are the worst Bryers and Thorns in the World and do the most mischief here in the World Now the Lord hath promised that they shall be delivered wholly from them Rev. 21.4 There is a Scripture leading to that way And God shall wipe away all Tears from their Eyes and there shall be no more Death neither Sorrow nor Crying neither shall there be any more Pain For the former things are passed away This is prophesied of for such times as these are for those that then liv'd the Saints are like to live when Christ shall come in that Glorious state of Judgment and have no pain nor sickness and therefore be delivered from all Enemies and from all evils both from without and within in regard of any pain or misesery and in the 19 of the Revelations we have it there prophesied of Christ that he shall come and have his Vesture dipt in blood in the overcoming all the wicked and ungodly Verse 13. And he was cloathed with a Vesture dipt in blood and his Name is called the Word of God And the Armies which were in Heaven followed him upon white Horses cloathed in fine Linnen white and clean and out of his Mouth goeth a sharp Sword that with it he should smite the Nations and he shall rule them with a Rod of Iron and he treadeth the Wine-press