Selected quad for the lemma: glory_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A53699
|
The glory and interest of nations professing the Gospel preached at a private fast, to the Commons assembled in Parliament / published by their command, by J. Owen.
|
Owen, John, 1616-1683.
|
1659
(1659)
|
Wing O756; ESTC R36623
|
17,858
|
32
|
Covering the law from the eye of justice as to those that are interested in him he was the tabernacle and temple wherein dwelt the Glory of God and which was recompenced with all pledges of his gracious presence Apply then this promise to Gospel times and the substance of it is comprehended in these two propositions 1. The presence of Christ with any people is the Glory of any people This is the glory here spoken of as is evident to any one that will but read over the second verse and consider its influence into these words The branch of the Lord shall be to them beautiful and glorious and upon all the glory shall be a defence 2. The presence of God in special providence over a people attends the presence of Christ in grace with a people if Christ the glory be with them a defence shall be upon them what lies else in allusion to the mercy-seat not drawn forth in these propositions may be afterwards insisted on For the first what I pray else should be so This is their Glory or they have none is it in their number that they are great many and populous God thinks not so nor did he when he gave an account of his thoughts of his People of old Deut. 7. 7. The Lord did not set his love upon you nor chose you because you were more in number then any people for you were the fewest of all people God made no reckoning of numbers he chose that People that was fewest of all He esteemed well of them when they were but a few men in number yea very few and strangers Psal. 105. 12. You know what it cost David in being seduced by Sathan into the contrary opinion He thought the glory of his People had been in their number and caused them to be reckoned but God taught him his error by taking off with a dreadful judgement no small portion of the number he sought after There is nothing more common in the Scripture then for the Lord to speak contempt of the multitude of any people as a thing of nought and he takes pleasure to confound them by weak and despised means Is it in their wisdome and counsel their understanding for the ordering of their affairs Is that their glory Why see how God derides the Prince of Tyrus who was lifted up with an apprehension hereof and counted himself as God upon that account Ezek. 27. 3 4 5. 6. c. The issue of all is Thou shalt be a man and no God in the hand of him that slays thee God will let him see in his ruin and destruction what a vain thing that was which he thought his glory Might I dwell upon it I could evince unto you these two things 1. That whereas the end of all humane wisdom in nations or the Rulers of them is to preserve humane society in peace and quietness within the several bounds and alotments that are given unto them by the providence of God it so comes to pass for the most part through the righteous judgment and wise disposal of God that it hath a contrary end and bringeth forth contrary effects throughout the world Do not the inhabitants of the earth generally owe all their disturbance sorrow and blood to the wise contrivances of a few men not knowing how to take the Law of their proceedings from the mouth of God but laying their deep counsels and politick contrivances in a subserviency to their lusts and ambition And what Glory is there in that which almost constantly brings forth contray effects to its own proper end and intendment 2. That God delights to mix a spirit of giddinesse error and folly in the counsels of the wise men of the world making them reel and stagger in their way like a drunken man that they shall not know what to do but commonly in their greatest concernments fix upon things as devoid of true reason and sound wisdom as any children or fools could close withal He taketh the wise in their own craftinesse and the Counsel of the froward is carried headlong Job 5. 13. 14. so at large Isa. 19. 11. 12 13 14. and now where is their glory I could give instances of both these and that plentifully in the dayes and seasons that have passed over our own heads The like also may be said of the strength the power the armies of any people if their number and wisdom be vain be no Glory their strength which is but the result or exurgency of their number and wisdom must needs be so also But you have all this summed up together Jer. 9. 23. 24. Thus saith the Lord Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom neither let the mighty man glory in his might let noâ— the rich man glory in his riches but let him that glorieth glory in this that he understandeth and knoweth me that I am the Lord It is neither Wisdom nor might nor riches that is our Glory but our interest in Jehovah onely This I say is in the presence of Christ only Now Christ may be said to be present with a people two wayes 1. In respect of the dispensation of his Gospel amongst them the profession of it and subjection to the Ordinances thereof The Gospel of Christ is a blessed Gospel a glorious Gospel in its self and unto them that embrace it But yet this profession seperated from the Root from which it ought to spring is not the Glory of any people Christ is not their glory who are his shame Empty profession is the shame of Christ in the world and shall not be others glory The Apostle tells us that this may consist with a litter of unclean lusts making them in whom it is abominable to God and man 2 Tim. 3 4. c. If the bare profession of the truth would render a nation Glorious Oh how glorious were this nation So would have been the people of old who cryed the temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord But when men professe the truth of Christ but in their hearts and wayes maintain and manifest an enmity to the power of that truth and to all of Christ that is in reality in the world this is no Glory 2. Christ is present with a people in and by his spirit dwelling in their hearts by his spirit and faith uniting them to himself I do not distinguish this from the former as inconsistent with it for though the former may be without this yet where this is there will be the former also Profession may be without union but union will bring forth profession There may be a form of Godliness without power but where the power is there will be the appearance also Now when Christ is thus present with a people that is they are united to him by his spirit they are members of his mystical body that is their glory Be they few or many in a nation that are so they are the Glory of that nation and nothing else and
man it waiteth not for the sons of man it will be a blessing let men do what they will it depends not on their uncertain and unstable Counsel on their weak and feeble strength This Remnant is as the Ark in the house of Obed Edom as Joseph in the house of Potiphar all is blessed and prospered for their sakes It is not the glorious battlements the painted windows the crouching Anticks that support a building but the stones that lie unseen in or upon the earth It is often those who are despised and trampled on that bear up the weight of an whole nation All the fresh springs of our blessings are in Sion It were easy to manifest that in all our late Revolutions we have turned on this hinge According as the presence of Christ with his people in the power of his spirit hath received entertainment in these nations so hath our state and condition been For many yeers before the begining of these troubles the Land had been full of oppression I mean in respect to the people of God Poverty imprisonment dangers banishment reproaches were their portion God was long patient at length the heighth of their Adversaries came to this that they set not themselves so much against their persons or wayes as against the spirit of Christ in and with them that was made their reproach that the by-word wherwith they were despised in the mouthes of their adversaries and the prophane multitude when things were come to this that the very presence of Christ with his people was made the direct object of the hatred of men the Lord could bear it no longer but sware by himself that time should be given them no more in this very house he raised up Saviours and deliverers on mount Sion to judge the mount of Edom and how did he carry on his work not by might nor by power but by the spirit of the Lord of hosts as Zac. 4. 6. Even by that very spirit which had been reviled and despised Give me leave to say the work of judging this nation was carried on by the presence of the spirit of Christ with his in faith and prayer it was not by prudence of counsels or strength of Armies above that of our enemies that we prevailed but by faith and prayer and if any one be otherwise minded I leave him for his resolution to the judgement of the great day when all transactions shall be called over again The Adversaries themselves I am sure acknowledged it when they openly professed that there was nothing left for them to overcome or to overcome them but the prayers of the fanatick Crew After some years contending when the Lord had begun to give us deliverance by breaking the power of the enemy at least in this nation besides those bitter divisions that fell out among the people of God themselves and the backsliding of some to the cause and principles they had opposed this evil was also found rising again amongst us slighting blaspheming contemning under several pretences of the Spirit and presence of Christ in and with his Saints You know what ensued what shakings what revolutions with new wars bloodshed and desolation over the three Nations And give me leave to remember you as one that had opportunity to make observations of the passages of providence in those dayes in all the three Nations in the times of our greatest hazards give me leave I say to remember you that the publick declarations of those imployed in the affaires of this Nation in the face of the enemies their addresses unto God among themselves their prayers night and day their private discourses one with another were that the preservation of the interest of Christ in and with his people was the great thing that lay in their eyes and that if it were not so they desired that God would stop them in their way yea rather cause their carcases to fall in the high places of the field then to prosper them in that which should be contrary thereunto and we know what ensued How we have used our mercies is another matter this was the Principle that prevailed with God and man Vse 1. If you desire the Glory of these Nations labour to promote the interest of Christ in these nations I am not speaking unto you about disputable things differences among the people of God themselves nor am I interposing my advise in your civil affaires but I speak in general about those with whom Christ is present by his spirit his chosen ones against whom there is an old enmity in Sathan and the world The glory of these nations is that there is a people in them that have Christ in the midst of them let it be your businesse to take care for that Glory But how shall we do it 1. Labour personally every one of you to get Christ in your own hearts I am very far from thinking that a man may not be lawfully called to magistracy if he be not a believer or that being called he should be impeded in the execution of his trust and place becanse he is not so I shall not suspend my obedience whilst I enquire after my Lawful Governors conversion but yet this I say considering that I cannot much value any good but what comes in by the way of promise I confesse I can have no great expectation from them whom God loves not delights not in if any be otherwise minded I shall not contend with him but for this I will contend with all the world that it is your duty to labour to assure Christ in your own hearts even that you may be the better fitted for the work of God in the world It is the promise of God to Sion that her officers shal be peace and her exactours righteousnesse Isa. 60. 17. and then shall she call her walls salvation and her gates praise v. 18. It will be little advantage to any to have the work of God raised in the world and not to have the foundation stone laid in their hearts If there should be in any of you an enmity unto Christ and the power of Godlinesse and hatred and contempt of the people of God an evil heart of unbelief an evil course of life worldlinesse oppression vanity of minde c. would it advantage you to be entrusted with power in these nations Would it not hasten your destruction and increase your account It is a noble promise that we have Isai. 32. 17. And the work of righteousnesse shall be peace and the effect of righteousnesse quietnesse and assurance for ever It is a Gospel righteousnesse that is spoken of and that not of the cause as such onely but of the Persons the Persons being righteous and that with the righteousnesse of Christ the effects mentioned shall follow their righteous undertakings we have peace now outward peace but alasse we have not quietnesse and if any thing may be done that may give us quietnesse yet perhaps we may not have assurance