Selected quad for the lemma: nation_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nation_n	glory_n	lord_n	shake_v	1,255	5	9.9347	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93207	A short discourse concerning the work of God in this nation, and the duty of all good people, both governors and governed, in this their day.		1659 (1659)	Wing S3584; Thomason E986_19; ESTC R207794	8,134	16

we yet deviate from it whilest every one is apt to measure his Brother from his harmony or dissent in opinion and worldly interest rather then from the new Birth and a meek Godly conversation Such as worship God in Spirit rejoyce in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in flesh such are the true circumcision they have the end of the Law and of all Gods Ordinances and Institutions fulfilled in them Nor doth this consideration slightly concern our Magistrates Every sort almost of professours is eagerly desirous of your countenance and too many endeavour to monopolize it to themselves nor only so but they would engage your Authority in suppressing whatsoever is contrary to their way But I trust the Lord will fully open your eyes to see the falshood and deceipt of this spirit which is so much the more dangerous as the form wherein 't is enthroned is more glorious then others or the people in whom it rules more zealous and in appearance holy There is but two sorts of Religion in the general of those who call themselves Christian The one hath its center in self or nature I mean not degenerate and polluted nature as in the Fall for nothing can dwell there except irreligion but renewed through the common light and grace of God to its primitive lustre and purity in kinde though not in measure wherein man was first created This sort of Religious persons are cleansed from the common pollutions of the world through lust by the knowledge of Christ They are a knowing enlightened people forward in serving God and strict in the obedience of his Ordinances according to their interpretation of them But their fear of God is taught them by the precepts of man t is derived to them in a humane natural spirit and light Self is indeed the ultimate scope of these mens Religion And therefore they delight to distinguish themselves by somewhat in the formal part or outward circumstances of their Religion that may serve to embody them in a right understanding between themselves and an open distinction from other and then from their own interest as thus a simple distinct body make judgement of all dissenting parties favouring or dis-affecting them as they do or do not conform to their model and opinions This kind of Religion wherever it is will unavoidably harbour a persecuting spirit which is the brand of Antichrist self-love is the very soul of this Religion Those that are of it can follow God so far as some gain accrues to their fleshly mind by his service but no further they would have somewhat whereof to glory in the sight of God and before men and would not glory in God himself only prosperity detects their filthyness and destroyes their souls Affliction shakes them off like untimely fruit but they must and will grow together with the Wheat until the Lord root them up and consume them at his coming The second kind of Religion hath its foundation and center in the love of God and unity of Spirit with Christ who is the Head of the Church Such as are of this Religion love Christ for himself and all his members for the love of him They judge of the members by their proportion and Symmetry with their Head not by comparing others to themselves They would have none follow them further then they follow Christ Nor do they comply with any implicitly having mens persons in admiration for advantage but receive and cherish the truth wherever they meet it for the love of it self They fight against errour with spiritual weapons and their faith stands not in the wisdom nor strength of man but in the power and free grace of God The Kingdom of God in which they are is not in meat and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost He that in these things serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved of them so far as bodily exercise may profit themselves or their Brother in the best things they are willing to use it but Godliness is the thing they chiefly intend which hath the promises of this life and of the life to come The variety of forms cannot so disguise the true Saint as to deter these from acknowledging him nor so beautifie the natural man or carnal professor as to induce these to magnifie and exalt him Fulness cannot utterly alienate their hearts from God sufferings can never separate them from the love of Christ or a faithful patience in well-doing Gods out-goings in the midst of us have clearly discovered this distinction in Religion he now expects that the former of them which is outward in the letter and form only should not suffice us and the latter which is inward in the power and spirit should take place in us I know no greater sign of Christs hastning to set up his righteous Rule openly in the world then the embodying of all his Saints in a free fellowship with and hearty owning of one another in the substance of true Religion which is to do justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with God For when Zion the Mountain of the Lord his holy City shall once be raised out of the dust her King will soon shew himself in the midst of her in the apparent exercise of his glorious Dominion upon the earth Now the constitution of this Holy City the New Jerusalem is such as is described Rev. 20. at the end First it is comprehensive of all Saints so as to receive and gather into the Unity of the Spirit all godly and righteous ones every where whom God acknowledges to be his Beloved Seed though their measures be divers their haltings and blemishes great The Nations if them that are saved shall walk in the light of the glory of God and the Lamb which lightens this City And the Rings of the Earth do bring their glory and honour into it And the Gates of it shall not be shut at all by day for there shall be no night there and they shall bring the glory and honour of the Nations into it All the children of light must have free admittance into this New Jerusalem they are by the New birth made free of this City None may upon any pretence deny them free commerce in it Those Societies therefore that have not this largeness of heart to receive into the bonds of Brotherhood all the members of Christ from the most honourable to the most abject and the out-cast are not to be thought the Heavenly Zion or Holy City of God wherein God shall tabernacle with men as is promised in order to subject the Kingdoms of the world to his Scepter 'T is true such Societies may have many in them that are precious to God and actually Saints but they lie yet among the pots scattered abroad in the rubbish of Babel they are not framed together and built up in the visible frame and constitution proper to Zion This Holy City when she shall once manifestly appear in her beauty will send forth a collective influence able to attract and knit together the hearts of all Gods dear children out of every tongue Nation Language and people Secondly This New Jerusalem from above hath also in its constitution an exclusive power by which all the wicked and hypocritical are kept out of her vers 27. And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie but they which are written in the Lambs Book of Life That very light and glory of Zion which unites and gathers into one profest Body her own children shall be as a thick cloud and gloomy darkness to all her enemies And this by reason of the opposition between Zions constitution which is publique large and capacious for the receipt and entertainment of all the meek subjects of her King and the constitution of the worldly Church which is private and restrained within the compass of self glorying principles The Lord I hope hath begun this great work of uniting his Saints and embodying them to the view of all in the Spirit of holiness and in that love which is the Bond of perfectness the speedy progress whereof all the godly ought to endeavour As the defection of the Churches from their Primitive simplicity came through their cleaving to the persons opinions Ministry or Interests of men though good men saying every one I am of Paul I am of Apollo and I of Cephas and I of Christ so their return to the same simplicity will be by ceasing to glory in men and cleaving entirely to their Head Christ Jesus In so doing they shall have a sanctified use of all things All is theirs they are Christs Christ is Gods Happy are we if after all the shaking work that God hath wrought in these Nations we can be brought to sit looser from whatsoever may be shaken and removed that so an entrance may be given us into the Kingdom of Christ that cannot be moved But if upon the proof which the Lord is now bringing the good people of the Nation to they start aside from him and corrupt through prosperity and power if they apply not themselves with self denyal and singleness of heart to the advancement of liberty common good the power of godliness and the unity of all Saints we may well expect that God will yet proceed to shake us more terribly then ever FINIS