John Owen · 41 of 157

Sermon V. Hebrews xii. 27. · Part 2

II. The next thing is the apostle’s proof of this assertion. And he tells you, “This word, Once more,” the beginning of this sentence he urged from the prophet, “signifies no less.”

The words in the prophet are, עוֹד אַחַת מְעַט הִיא‎, “Yet once it is a little.” מְעַט הִיא‎, “It is a little,” is left out by the apostle, as not conducing to the business in hand. Ἔτι ἅπαξ, as he rendereth עוֹד אַחַת‎, are a sufficient demonstration of the assertion. In themselves they hold out a commutation of things, and, as they stand in conjunction in that place of the prophet, declare that that shaking and commutation must be for the bringing in of the kingdom of the Lord Christ. In brief, being interpreted by the same Spirit whereby they were indited, we know the exposition is true.

III. The last head remaineth under two particulars:— 1. What are “the things that cannot be shaken?” 2. What is their remaining?

1. For the first, “the things that cannot be shaken,” verse 27, are called “a kingdom that cannot be moved,” verse 28, — a kingdom subject to none of those shakings and alterations which other dominions have been tossed to and fro withal. Daniel calls it, a not giving of the kingdom to another people, Dan. ii. 44; — not that œcumenical kingdom which he hath with his Father, as king of nations; but that œconomical kingdom which he hath by dispensation from his Father, as king of saints. Now this may be considered two ways.

(1.) As purely internal and spiritual; which is the rule of his Spirit in the hearts of all his saints. This “cometh not with observation,” it is within us, Luke xvii. 20, 21, — consisting in “righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost,” Rom. xiv. 17.

(2.) As external, and appearing in gospel administrations. So is Christ described as a king in the midst of their kingdom, Rev. i. 14–17, as also chap. iv. and chap. xi. 15. And both these may be again considered two ways.

[1.] In respect of their essence and being; and so they have been, are, and shall be continued in all ages. He hath built his church upon a rock, “and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it,” Matt. xvi. 18.

[2.] In reference to their extent in respect of subjects, with their visible glorious appearance, which is under innumerable promises to be very great in the latter days: “And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it,” Isa. ii. 2.

These, then, are the things which cannot be shaken; which we may reduce to three heads.

1st. The growth of righteousness, peace, and joy in the saints, being filled with light and love from the special presence of Christ; with a wonderful increase of the number of them, multitudes of the elect being to be born in those days, the residue of the Jews and fulness of the Gentiles meeting in one fold, and there “dwelleth righteousness,” 2 Pet. iii. 13.

2dly. The administration of gospel ordinances, in power and purity, according to the appointment and unto the acceptation of the Lord Jesus. The temple of God and the altar being measured anew, the outward court, defiled with Gentile worship, is left out, Rev. xi. 1, 2.

3dly. The glorious and visible manifestation of those administrations in the eyes of all the world, in peace and quietness, — none making afraid or hurting in the whole mountain of the Lord, Isa. lxv. 25.

For the personal reign of the Lord Jesus on earth, I leave it to them with whose discoveries I am not, and curiosities I would not be, acquainted, Acts iii. 21.

But as for such who from hence do, or for sinister ends pretend to fancy to themselves a terrene kingly state unto each private particular saint, — so making it a bottom “vivendi ut velis,” for every one to do that which is good in his own eyes, to the disturbance of all order and authority, civil and spiritual, — as they expressly clash against innumerable promises, so they directly introduce such confusion and disorder as the soul of the Lord Jesus doth exceedingly abhor.

It is only the three things named, with their necessary dependencies, that I do assert.

2. And lastly, of these it is said, — they must remain; that is, continue and be firmly established, as the word is often used, Rom. ix. 11.

The words of the text being unfolded, and the mind of the Holy Ghost in them discovered, I shall from them commend to your Christian consideration this following position:—

Observation. The Lord Jesus Christ, by his mighty power, in these latter days, as antichristian tyranny draws to its period, will so far shake and translate the political heights, governments, and strength of the nations, as shall serve for the full bringing in of his own peaceable kingdom; — the nations so shaken becoming thereby a quiet habitation for the people of the Most High.

Though the doctrine be clear from the text, yet it shall receive farther scriptural confirmation, being of great weight and concernment. Dan. ii. 44, “And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.” That this is affirmed of the kingdom of Christ under the gospel, none ever doubted.

Three things are here remarkably intimated of it:— 1. The time wherein it shall most eminently be established; and that is, “In the days of these kings,” of which Daniel was speaking; 2. The efficacy of its being set up: “It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms;” 3. Its own stability: “It shall never be destroyed.”

1. For the first, there is great debate about the principal season of the accomplishing of this prediction; — much hesitation who those kings are in whose days the kingdom of Christ is eminently to be established. In the days when the two legs of the Roman empire shall be divided into ten kingdoms, and those kingdoms have opposed themselves to the power of Christ, — that is, in the days wherein we live, — say some; yea, most of the ancients took this for the Roman empire, and to these the bringing in of the kingdom of Christ is the establishment of it in these days. Others understand the Syrian and Egyptian branches of the Grecian monarchy, and the bringing in of Christ’s kingdom to be in his birth, death, and preaching of the gospel; wherein certainly the foundations of it were laid. I will not contend with any mortal hereabout; only I shall oppose one or two things to this latter interpretation. As, —

(1.) The kingdom of Syria was totally destroyed and reduced into a Roman province sixty years before the nativity of Christ; and the Egyptian, thirty; — so that it is impossible that the kingdom of Christ by his birth should be set up in their days.

(2.) It is ascribed to the efficacy of this kingdom, that, being established, it shall break in pieces all those kingdoms: which how can it be, when, at the first setting of it up, they had neither place nor name, nor scarce remembrance?

So that it must needs be the declining, divided Roman empire, shared among sundry nations, that is here intimated: and so, consequently, the kingdom of Christ to be established, is that glorious administration thereof which in these days he will bring in.

2. Be it so or otherwise, this from hence cannot be denied, that the kingdom of Christ will assuredly shake and translate all opposing dominions, until itself be established in and over them all, — ὄπερ ἕδει, — which is all I intend to prove from this place. The ten-partite empire of the west must give place to the stone cut out of the mountain without hands.

Dan. vii. 27, “The kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him.” Hitherto is the end of the matter. Either Antichrist is described in the close of this chapter, or one very like him, St John painting him in the Revelation with all this man’s colours; plainly intimating, that though, in the first place, that mad, raging tyrant, Antiochus the Illustrious, was pointed at, yet that another was to rise in his likeness, with his craft and cruelty, that, with the assistance of the ten horns, should plague the saints of the Christians no less than the others had done those of the Jews. Now, what shall be the issue thereof? His dominion with his adherents shall be taken away and consumed, verse 26. And then shall it be given to the people of the Most High, as before; or, they shall enjoy the kingdom of Christ in a peaceable manner, their officers being made peace, and their exactors righteousness.

3. It is clearly evident, from these and other places in that prophecy, that He who is the only potentate will sooner or later shake all the monarchies of the earth, where he will have his name known, that all nations may be suited to the interest of his kingdom; which alone is to endure.

Isa. lx. 1 in many places, indeed throughout, holds out the same. Verse 12, “The nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish;” that is, all the nations of the earth. Not a known nation, but the blood of the saints of Christ is found in the skirts thereof. Now, what shall be the issue when they are so broken?

Verses 17, 18, “I will make thy officers peace, and thine exactors righteousness. Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders: but thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise.” See at your leisure to this purpose, Amos ix. 11–15; Jer. xxxi. 23–25; Isa. xxxiii. 20–24.

I shall only add that punctual description which you have of this “whole matter,” as Daniel calls it, in the Revelation, with respect unto its accomplishment. Chap. xvii., the Roman harlot having procured the ten kings or kingdoms, into which the last head of the Roman empire sprouted, about the year 450, by the inundation of the northern nations, to join with her, they together make war against the Lamb. Verse 12, “The ten horns which thou sawest” upon the last head of the great beast, the Roman monarchy, “are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet,” — to wit, when John saw the vision, — “but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.” About four hundred years after this, the pope ascended to his sovereignty, and these western nations grew into distinct dominions about the same time. Verse 13, “These have one mind,” — that is, as to the business in hand, for otherwise they did and do vex one another with perpetual broils and wars, — “and shall give their power and strength unto the beast,” or swear to defend the rights of holy church (which is no other than Babylon), and act accordingly. Verse 14, “These shall make war with the Lamb;” — having sworn and undertaken the defence of holy church, or Babylon, they persecuted the poor heretics with fire and sword; that is, the witnesses of the Lamb, and in them the Lamb himself, striving to keep his kingdom out of the world; — “and the Lamb shall overcome them,” shaking and translating them into a new mould and frame; “for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings, and they that are with him,” whose help and endeavours he will use, “are called, and chosen, and faithful.” Verse 16, “The ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast,” being now shaken, changed, and translated in mind, interest, and perhaps government, “these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate” — are instrumental in the hand of Christ for the ruin of that antichristian state which before they served — “and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.”

Hence, chap. xviii. 2, Babylon, and that whole antichristian state which was supported upon their power and greatness, having lost its props, comes toppling down to the ground: “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen.” And the saints take vengeance on the whore for all her former rage and cruelty: “Double unto her double, according to her works,” verse 6. And verse 9, “And the kings of the earth,” — being some of them shaken out of their dominion for refusing to close with the Lamb, — “who have committed fornication, and lived deliciously with her,” — learning and practising false worship of her institution, — “shall bewail her, and lament for her,” — as having received succour from her, her monasteries and shavelings, in their distress, whereunto indeed they were brought for her sake, — “when they shall see the smoke of her burning,” — beholding her darkness, stink, and confusion, in her final desolation.

Now, all this shall be transacted with so much obscurity and darkness, Christ not openly appearing unto carnal eyes, that though “many shall be purified, and made white, and tried, yet the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand,” Dan. xii. 10. There shall be no such demonstration of the presence of Christ as to open the eyes of hardened men; but at length, having suffered the poor, deceived wretches to drink of the cup prepared for them, he appears himself gloriously, Rev. xix. 13, in a more eminent manner than ever before, to the total destruction of the residue of opposers. And that this will be the utmost close of that dispensation wherein now he walketh, I no way doubt.

The assertion being cleared and proved, the reasons of it come next to be considered. And, —

(1.) It shall be done by the way of recompense and vengeance. It is the great day of the wrath of the Lamb, Rev. vi. 17. “Their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness. For it is the day of the Lord’s vengeance, and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion,” Isa. xxxiv. 7, 8. The day of vengeance is in his heart, when the year of his redeemed is come, Isa. lxiii. 4.

The kings of the earth have given their power to Antichrist, endeavouring to the utmost to keep the kingdom of Christ out of the world. What, I pray, hath been their main business for seven hundred years and upwards, — even almost ever since the man of sin was enthroned? How have they earned the titles, Eldest Son of the Church, The Catholic and Most Christian King, Defender of the Faith, and the like? Hath it not been by the blood of saints? Are there not, in every one of these kingdoms, the slain and the banished ones of Christ to answer for? In particular, —

Hath not the blood of the saints of Jesus (eclipsed by Antichrist and his adherents), Wickliffites and Lollards, cried from the ground for vengeance upon the English “heaven and earth” for a long season Did not their bodies lie in the streets of France, under the names of Waldenses, Albigenses, and poor men of Lyons? Hath not Germany and the annexed territories her Huss and Hussites, Jerome, and Subutraquians, to answer for? Is not Spain’s inquisition enough to ruin a world, much more a kingdom? Have not all these, and all the kingdoms round about, washed their hands and garments in the blood of thousands of Protestants? and do not the kings of all these nations as yet stand up in the room of their progenitors with the same implacable enmity to the power of the gospel? Show me seven kings that ever yet laboured sincerely to enhance the kingdom of the Lord Jesus, and I dare boldly say, “Octavus quis fuerit, nondum constat.” And is there not a cry for all this, — “How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?” Rev. vi. 10. Doth not Zion cry, “The violence done to me and my flesh be upon Babylon;” and, My blood upon those heavens of the nations? And will not the Lord avenge his elect, that cry unto him clay and night? will he not do it speedily? Will he not call the fowls of heaven to eat the flesh of kings, and captains, and great men of the earth? Rev. xix. 18. Will he not make these heavens like the wood of the vine, — not a pin to be taken off them to hang a garment on in his whole tabernacle? The time shall come wherein the earth shall disclose her slain, and not the simplest heretic (as they were counted) shall have his blood unrevenged: neither shall any atonement be made for this blood, or expiation be allowed, whilst a toe of the image or a bone of the beast is left unbroken.

(2.) A second reason is, That by his own wisdom he may frame such a power as may best conduce to the carrying on of his own kingdom among the sons of men.

He hath promised his church that he will give unto it holy priests and Levites, Isa. lxvi. 20, 21, which shall serve at the great feast of tabernacles, Zech. xiv. 16, — a sufficient demonstration that he will dwell still in his churches by his ordinances, whatsoever some conceive; — so also, that he will “make her civil officers peace, and her exactors righteousness,” Isa. ix. 17, 18. They shall be so established that the nations, as nations, may serve it, and the kingdoms of the world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord, Rev. xi. 15.

For the present, the government of the nations (as many of them as are concerned therein) is purely framed for the interest of Antichrist. No kind of government in Europe, or line of governors, so ancient but that the beast is as old as they, and had a great influence into their constitution or establishment, to provide that it might be for his own interest. I believe it will be found a difficult task to name any of the kingdoms of Europe (excepting only that remotest northward) in the setting up and establishment whereof, either as to persons or government, the pope hath not expressly bargained for his own interest, and provided that should have the chiefest place in all the oaths and bonds that were between princes and people. Bellarmine, to prove that the pope had a temporal power indirectly over all kings and nations (if he mean by indirectly, gotten by indirect means, it is actually true as to too many of them), gives sundry instances, in most of the most eminent nations in Europe, how he hath actually exercised such a power for his own interest.

There have been two most famous and remarkable changes of the government of these nations; and into both of them what an influence the pope had, is easily discernible.

The first was between the years 400 and 500 after Christ, when the Roman empire of the west — that which withheld the man of sin from acting his part to the life — was shivered to pieces by many barbarous nations; who, settling themselves in the fruitful soils of Europe, began to plant their heavens, and lay the foundations of their earth, growing up into civil states, — for the most part appointing them to be their kings in peace who had been their leaders in war. This furious inundation settled the Franks in Gaul, the Saxons in England, the West Goths in Spain, the East Goths and Longobards into Italy, and set up the Allemanns in Germany; from some whereof though for divers years the papal world was exceedingly tormented, and Rome itself sacked, yet in the close and making up of their governments, their manners and religion, they all submitted to the usurpation of the man of sin, so that in all their windings up there was a salve for him and his authority.

The second great alteration took up a long space, and was in action about three hundred years, — reckoning it from the translation of the French crown from Childeric IV. unto Pepin and his son Charles by papal authority, unto the conquest of England by the Normans; in which space the line of Charles in France was again by the same authority and the power of Hugh Capet cut off. No state in Europe — the choice patrimony of the beast — that did not receive a signal alteration in this space; nor was there any alteration but that the pope had a hand in every one of them; and, either by pretended collations of right, to pacify the consciences of blood-thirsty potentates in the undertaking and pursuing their unjust conquests, or foolish mitred-confirmations of sword-purchases, he got them all framed to his own end and purpose, — which was to bring all these nations into subjection to his Babylonish usurpations; which their kings finding no way inconsistent with their own designs, did willingly promote, labouring to enforce all consciences into subjection to the Roman see.

Hence it is, as I observed before, that such an interposition was made of the rights of holy church that is, Babylon, the mother of fornications — in all the ties, oaths, and bonds between princes and people. And for the advancement of the righteous judgments of God, that the sons of men may learn to fear and tremble before him, it may be observed, that that which doth and shall stick upon potentates to their ruin, is not so much their own or any other interest, as the very dregs of this papal, antichristian interest thrust into their oaths and obligations, for no end in the world but to keep the Lord Jesus out of his throne.

This is a second reason why the Lord Jesus, by his mighty power, at the bringing in of his immovable kingdom, “will shake the heavens and the earth of the nations;” even because in their present constitution they are directly framed to the interest of Antichrist, which, by notable advantages at their first moulding, and continued insinuations ever since, hath so riveted itself into the very fundamentals of them, that no digging or mining, but an earthquake, will cast up the foundation-stones thereof. The Lord Jesus, then, having promised the service of the nations to his church, will so far open their whole frame to the roots, as to pluck out all the cursed seeds of the mystery of iniquity, which, by the craft of Satan and exigencies of state, or methods of advancing the pride and power of some sons of blood, have been sown amongst them.

(3.) A third reason is, because as is their interest, so is their acting. The present power of the nations stands in direct opposition to the bringing in of the kingdom of Christ. Two things there are which confessedly are incumbent on him in this day of his advancement.

[1.] The bringing home of his ancient people to be one fold with the fulness of the Gentiles, raising up the tabernacle of David, and building it as in days of old, in the accomplishment of innumerable promises, and in answer to millions of prayers put up at the throne of grace for this very glory, in all generations. Now, there be two main hinderances of this work that must be removed. The first whereof is, —

1st, Real: the great river Euphrates, the strength and fulness of whose streams doth yet rage so high that there is no passage for the kings of the east to come over. Wherefore this must be dried up, as other waters were for their forefathers in the days of old, Rev. xvi. 12. Doubtless this is spoken in allusion to Abraham’s coming over that river into Canaan, when the church of God in his family was there to be erected, — whence he was called the Hebrew (that is, the passenger, to wit, over that river, Gen. xiv. 13); — and then it may well enough denote the Turkish power; which, proud as it is at this day, possessing in peace all those regions of the east, yet God can quickly make it wither and be dried up; — or the deliverance of the Jews from Babylon, when it was taken and destroyed by the drying up of the streams of that river, and so the yoke of her tyranny broken from the church’s neck; — and so it can be no other but the power of the Romish Babylon, supported by the kings of the nations, which must therefore be shaken and dried up.

2dly, Moral, or the idolatry of the Gentile worshippers. The Jews stick hard as yet at this, that God should abolish any kind of worship which himself had once instituted; but, that he should ever accept any false worship, which he had once strictly prohibited, and nowhere to this day appointed, — to this they will never be reconciled. Now, such is all the invented idolatrous worship which the kings of the earth have sucked in from the cup of fornication held out to them in the hand and by the authority of the Roman whore; this still they cleave close unto, and will not hearken to the angel preaching the everlasting gospel, that men should worship Him who made the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters, Rev. xiv. 6, 7, — that is, the God of heaven in Jesus Christ, — in opposition to all their iconolatry, artolatry, hagiolatry, staurolatry, and mass abominations. This, then, must also be removed; and because, as you saw before, it is so riveted and cemented into and with all the orbs of the nations, heaven and earth, they must be shaken, and brought εἰς μετάθεσιν, before it can be effected.

[2.] The second thing he hath to accomplish is the tremendous, total destruction of Babylon, ( Ps. cxxxvii. 8, 9; Isa. xlvii. 7–9) the man of sin, and all his adherents, that are not obedient to the heavenly call, Rev. xviii. 4. Now, as Samson, intending the destruction of the princes, lords, and residue of the Philistines, who were gathered together in their idol-temple, effected it by pulling away the pillars whereby the building was supported, whereupon the whole frame toppled to the ground; so the Lord, intending the ruin of that mighty power, whose top seems to reach to heaven, will do it by pulling away the pillars and supporters of it, after which it cannot stand one moment. Now, what are the pillars of that fatal building? Are they not the powers of the world, as presently stated and framed? Pull them away, and, alas! what is Antichrist? It is the glory of the kings put upon her that makes men’s eyes so dazzle on the Roman harlot. Otherwise she is but like the Egyptian deities, whose silly worshippers through many glorious portals and frontispieces were led to adore the image of an ugly ape.

Add hereunto, that in this mighty work the Lord Jesus Christ will make use of the power of the nations, the horns of them; that is, their strength, Rev. xvii. 16. They must hate the whore, and make her desolate and naked, and eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. Now, whether this can be accomplished or no in their present posture, is easily discernible. Doth not the papal interest lie at the bottom of all, or the most ruling lines of Christendom? Can that be ejected without unbottoming their own dominion? Do they not use the efficacy of the Roman jurisdiction to balance the powers of their adversaries abroad, and to awe their subjects at home? Hath not the pope a considerable strength in every one of their own bosoms? Are not the locusts of their religious orders (all sworn slaves to him) for number sufficient to make an army to fight the greatest emperor in the world? Are not most potentates tied by oath, or other compact, to maintain either the whole or some part of the old power, under the name of rites of holy church, prelates, and the like? And can any expect that such as these should take up the despised quarrel of the saints against that flourishing queen? Doubtless no such fruit will grow on these trees, before they are thoroughly shaken.

(4.) A fourth reason is, that His own people, seeing all earthly things shaken and removing, may be raised up to the laying hold of that durable kingdom that shall not be removed. All carnal interests will doubtless be shaken with that of Babylon. Many of God’s people are not yet weaned from the things that are seen: — no sooner is one carnal form shaken out, but they are ready to cleave to another, yea, to warm themselves in the feathered nests of unclean birds. All fleshly dominion within doors, and all civil dominion that opposeth without doors, shall be shaken. Now, these things are so glued also to men’s earthly possessions, the talons of the birds of prey having firmly seized on them, that they also must be shaken with them; and therefore from them also will he have us to be loosed, 2 Pet. iii. 12, 13.