A53699:45
The glory and interest of nations professing the Gospel preached at a private fast,…
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.
London: printed for Philemon Stephens, 1659
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
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 where there is the most of them, there is the most glory: and where ⟨p. 10⟩they are diminished, there the glory is eclipsed. Christ mystical, the Head, and his body is all the glory that is in the world. If any nation be glorious and honourable above others, it is because of this presence of Christ in that nation. Christ is the glory of his Saints. Isa. 4. 2. In him they glory: Isa. 45. 25. And the Saints are Christs glory, 2 Cor. 8. 23. They are the glory of Christ: and he glories in them, as God of Job, to Satan, Seest thou my servant Job, Chap. 1. 8. He doth as it were glory in him against the wickedness of the world; and Christ in them, and they in him, are all the glory of this world.
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 where there is the most of them, there is the most glory: and where