John Owen · 59 of 157

Sermon IX. Daniel vii. 15, 16. · Part 1

Sermon IX. Christ’s kingdom and the magistrate’s power.

“I Daniel was grieved in my spirit in the midst of my body, and the visions of my head troubled me. I came near unto one of them that stood by, and asked him the truth of all this. So he told me, and made me know the interpretation of the things.” — Dan. vii. 15, 16.

What there is of concernment for the right understanding of these words in that part of the chapter which goes before, may be considered in the opening of the words themselves; and therefore I shall immediately attend thereunto.

There are in them four things considerable:— I. The state and condition which Daniel, the penman of this prophecy, expresseth himself to be in, wherein he hath companions in the days wherein we live: “He was grieved in his spirit in the midst of his body.” II. The cause and means whereby he was brought into this perplexed frame of spirit: “The visions of his head troubled him.” III. The remedy he used for his delivery from that entangled condition of spirit wherein he was: “He went nigh to one of them that stood by, and asked him the truth of all this.” IV. The issue of that application he made to that one that stood by for redress: “He told him, and made him know the interpretation of the things.” — All these I shall briefly open unto you, that I may lay a foundation for the truth which the Lord hath furnished me with to hold out unto you this day.

I. In the first, the person spoken of is Daniel himself: “I Daniel.” He bears this testimony concerning himself, and his condition was, — “He was grieved in his spirit.”

The person himself was a man highly favoured of God above all in his generation; so richly furnished with gifts and graces that he is once and again brought forth as an example, and instanced in by God himself upon the account of eminence in wisdom and piety. Yet all this preserves him not from falling into this perplexed condition, Dan. i. 17–20; Ezek. xiv. 14, xxviii. 3. Now, as the principal work of all the holy prophets, which have been since the world began, Luke i. 70; 1 Pet. i. 10–12, was to preach, set forth, and declare the Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah who was for to come; so some especial concernments of his person, righteousness, and kingdom, were in especial manner committed unto them respectively; — his passion and righteousness to Isaiah; the covenant of grace in him to Jeremiah; and to this Daniel, most eminently, the great works of the providence of God in the shaking and overturning of kingdoms and nations in a subserviency to his kingdom. With the revelation hereof, for the consolation of the church in all ages, did the Lord honour him of whom we speak.

For the present he describes himself in a somewhat perplexed condition. His spirit (mind and soul) was grieved, sick, troubled, or disquieted in the midst of his body; that is, deeply, nearly, closely:— it sets out the greatness of his trouble, the anxiety of his thoughts within him. Like David, when he expostulated with his soul about it, — “Why art thou so sad, my soul? and why art thou so disquieted within me?” Ps. xliii. 5, — he knew not what to say, what to do, nor wherewith to relieve himself. He was filled with sad thoughts, sad apprehensions of what was to come to pass, and what might be the issue of the things that had been discovered unto him. This, I say, is the frame and temper he describes himself to be in, — a man under sad apprehensions of the issues and events of things and the dispensations of God (as many are at this day); and upon that account closely and nearly perplexed.

II. The cause of this perturbation of mind and spirit was from the visions of his head: “The visions of his head troubled him.”

He calls them “visions of the head,” because that is the seat of the internal senses and fantasy, whereby visions are received. So he calls them “a dream,” verse 1, “and visions of his head upon his bed.” Yet such visions, such a dream it was, as, being immediately from God, and containing a no less certain discovery of his will and mind than if the things mentioned in them had been spoken face to face, he writes them by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, verse 2, for the use of the church.

I shall not take the advantage of going forth unto any discourse of dreams, visions, oracles, and those other divers ways and manners (Heb. i. 1) of revealing his mind and will, which God was pleased to use with his prophets of old, Num. xii. 6–8. My aim lies another way:— it sufficeth only to take notice, that God gave him in his sleep a representation of the things here expressed, which he was to give over for the use of the church in following ages. The matter of these visions, which did so much trouble him, falls more directly under our consideration. Now, —

1. The subject of these perplexing visions is a representation of the four great empires of the world, which had, and were to have, dominion in and over the places of the church’s greatest concernments, and were all to receive their period and destruction by the Lord Christ and his revenging hand.

And these three things he mentions of them therein:— (1.) Their rise; (2.) Nature; (3.) Destruction.

(1.) In verse 2 he describes their rise and original: it was “from the strivings of the four winds of the heavens upon the great sea;” he compares them to the most violent, uncontrollable, and tumultuating things in the whole creation. Winds and seas! — what waves, what horrible storms, what mixing of heaven and earth, what confusion and destruction must needs ensue the fierce contest of all contrary winds upon the great sea! Such are the springs of empires and governments for the most part amongst men, — such their entrances and advancements. In particular, such were the beginnings of the four empires here spoken of. Wars, tumults, confusions, blood, destruction, desolation, were the seeds of their greatness: “Ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem adpellant,” Galgac. apud Tacit. [Agr., 30.] Seas and great waters do, in the Scripture, represent people and nations, Rev. xvii. 15, “The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.” As “waters,” they are unstable, fierce, restless, tumultuating; and when God mingleth his judgments amongst them, they are as “a sea of glass mingled with fire,” — brittle, uncertain, devouring, and implacable. It is a demonstration of the sovereignty of God, that he is above them, Ps. xciii. 3, 4, “The floods have lifted up, O Lord, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their waves. The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea.” Now, from these, tossed with the winds of commotions, seditions, oppressions, passions, do flow the governments of the world, the Spirit of God moving upon the face of those waters, to bring forth those forms and frames of rule which he will make use of.

(2.) Unto verse 9 he describes them in order as to their nature and kind; — one of them being then ready to be destroyed, and the other to succeed, until the utter desolation of them all, and all power rising in their spirit and principle.

I shall not pass through their particular description, nor stay to prove that the fourth beast, without name or special form, is the Roman empire; which I have elsewhere demonstrated, and it is something else which at this time I aim at. This is that which troubles and grieves the spirit of Daniel in the midst of his body. He saw what worldly powers should arise, — by what horrible tumults, shakings, confusions, and violence they should spring up, — with what fierceness, cruelty, and persecution, they should rule in the world, and stamp all under their feet.

(3.) Their end and destruction is revealed unto him, from verse 10 unto verses 12, 13; and this by the appearance of “the Ancient of days” (the eternal God) in judgment against them; which he sets out with that solemnity and glory, as if it were the great judgment of the last day; — God, indeed, thereby giving a pledge unto the world of that universal judgment he will one day exercise towards all, “by the man whom he hath ordained,” Acts xvii. 31. And this increaseth the terror of the vision, to have such a representation of the glory of God as no creature is able to bear. God also manifests hereby his immediate actings in the setting up and pulling down the powers of this world; which he doth as fully and effectually as if he sat upon a throne of judgment, calling them all by name to appear in his presence, and, upon the evidence of their ways, cruelties, and oppression, pronouncing sentence against them. “Be wise, therefore, O ye kings; be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling,” Ps. ii. 11, 12. “He changeth the times and seasons,” Dan. ii. 21. “He ruleth in the kingdom of men, and setteth over it whom he pleaseth,” chap. v. 21.

And this is the first thing in this vision at which the prophet was perplexed.

2. There is the approach of the Lord Christ unto the Father, with his entrance into his kingdom and dominion, which is everlasting, and passeth not away, verse 14.

This being the end of the vision, I must a little insist upon it; not that I intend purposely to handle the kingdom of Christ as mediator, but only a little to consider it as it lies here in the vision, and is needful for the right bottoming of the truth in our intendment.

Various have been the thoughts of men about the kingdom of Christ in all ages. That the Messiah was to be a King, a Prince, a Ruler, — that he was to have a kingdom, and that the government was to be on his shoulder, — is evident from the Old Testament; that all this was and is accomplished in Jesus of Nazareth, whom God exalted, made a Prince and a Saviour, is no less evident in the New; — but about the nature of this kingdom, its rise and manner of government, have been, and are, the contests of men.

The Jews to this very day expect it as a thing carnal and temporal, visible, outwardly glorious, wherein, in all manner of pleasure, they shall bear rule over the nations at their will; — such another thing, of all the world, as the popedom, which the Gentile or idolatrous worshippers of Christ set up for his kingdom: and of some such thing it may be supposed the apostles themselves were not without thoughts, until they had conversed with the Lord after the resurrection, Luke ix. 46; Acts i. 6. Neither are all amongst us free from them at this day.

Those who with any simplicity profess the name of Christ, do generally agree that there are three parts of it.

(1.) First, and principally, in that which is internal and spiritual, in and over the souls of men, over spirits both good and bad, in reference unto the ends which he hath to accomplish upon them. Of that which is direct and immediate upon the hearts and souls of men, there are two parts.

[1.] That which he exerciseth towards his elect, who are given unto him of his Father, converting, ruling, preserving them, under and through great variety of dispensations, internal and external, until he brings them unto himself: “He stands and feeds them in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God,” Mic. v. 4; — even he who is the “Ruler in Israel,” verse 2. He is exalted and made “a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance to Israel, and the forgiveness of sins,” Acts v. 31. He makes his people “a willing people in the day of his power,” Ps. cx. 3, — sending out his Holy Spirit to lead them into all truth, and making his word and ordinances “mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds” in their hearts, “casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God; and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of himself,” 2 Cor. x. 4, 5. He takes possession of their hearts by his power, dwelling in them by his Spirit, making them kings in his kingdom, and bringing them infallibly into glory. Oh, that this rule, this kingdom of his, might be carried on in our hearts! We busy ourselves about many things; we shall find at length this one thing necessary. This is that part of the kingdom of Christ which we are principally to aim at in the preaching of the gospel: “We preach Christ Jesus the Lord,” 2 Cor. iv. 5, — him to be Lord and King, though others have had dominion over us. They are the grains of Israel which the Lord seeks for in his sifting the nations by his word, as well as by his providence: and we are, in the work of the gospel, to “endure all things for the elect’s sakes,” 2 Tim. ii. 10.

[2.] In the power which he exerciseth towards others, to whom the word of the gospel doth come, calling, convincing, enlightening, hardening many, whom yet, being not his sheep, nor of his fold, he will never take to himself; but leaves to themselves, under aggravations of condemnation, which they pull upon themselves by the contempt of the gospel, 2 Cor. ii. 16; Heb. x. 29. He sends his Spirit to convince even the perishing “world of sin, righteousness, and judgment,” John xvi. 8. He sendeth sharp arrows into the very hearts of his enemies, Ps. xlv. 5, — making them stoop, bow, and fall under him; so bounding their rage, overbearing their lusts, leaving them without excuse in themselves, and his people oftentimes not without profit from them:— with some dealing even in this life more severely; causing the witnesses of the gospel to torment them by the preaching of the word, Rev. xi. 10, yet giving them up to “strong delusions, that they may believe lies, and be damned,” 2 Thess. ii. 11, 12, etc.

[3.] In carrying on of this work towards the one and the other, he puts forth the power, rule, and dominion, which he hath of his Father over spirits, both good and bad.

1st. Being made head of principalities and powers, and exalted far above every name in heaven or earth, being made the “first-born of every creature,” and all the angels of God being commanded to worship him, Heb. i. 6, and put in subjection under his feet; — he sends them forth, and uses them as ministering spirits for them who shall be heirs of salvation, verse 14, — appointing them to behold the face of his Father, ready for his commands on their behalf, Matt. xviii. 10, — attending in their assemblies, 1 Cor. xi. 10, and to give them their assistance in the time of danger and trouble, Acts xii. 9, destroying their adversaries, verse 23, with innumerable other advantageous administrations, which he hath not thought good to acquaint us withal in particular, that our dependence might be on our King himself, and not on any of our fellow-servants, though never so glorious and excellent, Rev. xxii. 9.

2dly. For Satan, as he came to bind the strong man armed, and to spoil his goods, Matt. xii. 29, — to destroy him that had the power of death, Heb. ii. 14; and being made manifest to this end, that he might destroy his works (1 John iii. 8) in the souls of men in this world, 2 Cor. x. 4, 5; so, having in his own person conquered these principalities and powers of darkness, making an open show of them in his cross, and triumphing over them, Col. ii. 15, he continues overruling and judging him and them, in their opposition to his church, and will do so until he bring them to a full conquest and subjection, that they shall be judged and sentenced by the poor creatures whom in this world they continually pursue with all manner of enmity, 1 Cor. vi. 3.

And this looketh to the inward substance of the kingdom of Christ, which is given him of his Father, and is not of this world, though he exercise it in the world to the last day; — a kingdom which can never be shaken nor removed. “The government of it is upon his shoulder, and of the increase of it there shall be no end.”

(2.) That rule or government which in his word he hath appointed and ordained for all his saints and chosen ones to walk in, to testify their inward subjection to him, and to be fitted for usefulness one to another. Now, of this part the administration is wrapped up in the laws, ordinances, institutions, and appointments of the gospel, — and it is frequently called “The kingdom of God.” That Jesus Christ doth not rule in these things, and is not to be obeyed as a king in them, is but a late darkness, which, though it should spread as a cloud over the face of the heavens, and pour forth some showers and tempests, yet it would be as a cloud still, which will speedily scatter and vanish into nothing.

And this is that whose propagation, as the means of carrying on the former spiritual ends of Christ, you desire strength and direction for this day. Men may gather together unto Christ, and say, with heads full of hopes, poor souls, and eyes fixed on the right hand and left, “Lord, wilt thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” Take you his answer, and be contented with it, “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power,” Acts i. 6, 7, — but do your work faithfully. I know in this thing, it is far easier to complain of you for not doing, than to direct you what to do. The Lord be your guide, and give you straw wherever bricks are required of you!

(3.) In the universal judgment, which the Father hath committed to him over all, which he will most eminently exercise at the last day; — rewarding, crowning, receiving some to himself; judging, condemning, casting others into utter darkness, John v. 22–27; Acts ii. 36; Rom. xiv. 9; Acts xvii. 31. And of this universal, righteous judgment he giveth many warnings unto the world, by pouring forth sundry vials of his wrath upon great Nimrods and oppressors, Ps. cx. 6; Mic. iv. 3; Rev. xix. 11–13. And in the holding forth these three parts of the kingdom of the Lord Jesus doth the Scripture abound.

But now, whether over and beyond all these the Lord Christ shall not bear an outward, visible, glorious rule, setting up a kingdom like those of the world, to be ruled by strength and power; and if so, when or how it shall be brought in, — into whose hands the administration of it shall be committed, and upon what account, — whether he will personally walk therein or no, — whether it shall be clearly distinct from the rule he now bears in the world, or only differenced by more glorious degrees and manifestations of his power, — endless and irreconcilable are the contests of those that profess his name. This we find, by woful experience, that all who, from the spirituality of the rule of Christ, and delight therein, have degenerated into carnal apprehensions of the beauty and glory of it, have, for the most part, been given up to carnal actings, suited to such apprehensions; and have been so dazzled with gazing after temporal glory, that the kingdom which comes not by observation hath been vile in their eyes.

3. Now, because it is here fallen in my way, and is part of the vision at which the prophet was so much troubled, I shall give you some brief observations of what is clear and certain from Scripture relating hereunto, and so pass on. It is, then, certain, —

(1.) That the interest of particular men, as to this kingdom of Christ, is to look wherein the universal concernment of all saints, in all ages, doth lie. This, undoubtedly, they may attain, and it doth belong to them. Now, certainly, this is in that part of it which comes not by observation, Luke xvii. 20, but is within us, which “is righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost,” Rom. xiv. 17. This may be possessed in a dungeon as well as on a throne. What outward glory soever may be brought in, it is but a shadow of this; — this is the kingdom that cannot be moved, which requires grace in us to “serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear,” Heb. xii. 28. Many have failed in grasping after outward appearances: never any failed of blessedness who made this their portion. Oh, that this were more pursued and followed after! Let not any think to set up the kingdom of Christ in the world, while they pull it down in their own hearts by sin and folly. In this let the lines fall to me, and let my inheritance be among those that are sanctified. Yet, —

(2.) This is certain, that all nations whatever, which in their present state and government have given their power to the dragon and the beast to oppose the Lord Christ withal, shall be shaken, broken, translated, and turned off their old foundations and constitutions, into which the antichristian interest hath been woven for a long season. God will shake the heavens and the earth of the nations round about, until all the Babylonish rubbish, all their original engagements to the man of sin, be taken away.

This I have fully demonstrated elsewhere. All those great wars which you have foretold, wherein the saints of God shall be eminently engaged, are upon this account.

(3.) That the civil powers of the world, after fearful shaking and desolations, shall be disposed of into a useful subserviency to the interest, power, and kingdom of Jesus Christ. Hence they are said to be his kingdoms, Rev. xi. 15; that is, to be disposed of for the behoof of his interest, rule, and dominion. Of this you have plentiful promises, Isa. lx., and elsewhere. When the nations are broken in opposition to Zion, their gain must be consecrated to the Lord, and their substance to the Lord of the whole earth, Mic. iv. 13. Even judges and rulers, as such, must kiss the Son, and own his sceptre, and advance his ways. Some think, if you were well settled, you ought not in any thing, as rulers of the nations, to put forth your power for the interest of Christ: the good Lord keep your hearts from that apprehension! Have you ever in your affairs received any encouragement from the promises of God? have you in times of greatest distress been refreshed with the testimony of a good conscience, that in godly simplicity you have sought the advancement of the Lord Christ? do you believe that he ever owned the cause as the head of his church? Do not now profess you have nothing to do with him:— had he so professed of you and your affairs, what had been your portion long since!

(4.) Look, what kingdom soever the Lord Christ will advance in the world, and exercise amongst his holy ones, the beginning of it must be with the Jews; they are to be “caput imperii.” The head and seat of this empire must be amongst them; these are the “saints of the Most High,” mentioned by Daniel: and, therefore, in that part of his prophecy which he wrote in the Chaldean tongue, — then commonly known and spoken in the east, being the language of the Babylonish empire, — he speaketh of them obscurely, and under borrowed expressions; but coming to those visions which he wrote in Hebrew, for the sole use of the church, he is much more express concerning the people of whom he spake. The rod of Christ’s strength goes out of Zion, and thence he proceeds to rule those that were his enemies, Ps. cx. 2. All the promises of the glorious kingdom of Christ are to be accomplished in the gathering of the Gentiles, with the glory of the Jews. The Redeemer comes to Zion, and to them that turn from transgression (that great transgression of unbelief) in Jacob, Isa. lix. 20. Then shall the Lord rise upon them, and his glory shall be seen upon them. The Gentiles shall come to their light, and kings to the brightness of their rising, Isa. lx. 2, 3. I dare say there is not any promise anywhere of raising up a kingdom unto the Lord Christ in this world, but it is either expressed or clearly intimated that the beginning of it must be with the Jews, and that in contradistinction to the nations: so eminently in that glorious description of it, Mic. iv. 7, 8, “I will make her that halted a remnant, and her that was cast far off a strong nation; and the Lord shall reign over them in mount Zion from henceforth, even for ever. And thou, O tower of the flock, the strong hold of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion; the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem.” When the great hunter, Nimrod, set up a kingdom, the beginning of it was Babel, Gen. x. 10; and when the great Shepherd sets up his kingdom, the beginning of it shall be Zion: so farther it is at large expressed, Mic. v. 7, 8. Nothing is more clear to any, who, being not carried away with weak, carnal apprehensions of things present, have once seriously weighed the promises of God to this purpose. What the Lord Christ will do with them, and by them, is not so clear; this is certain, that their return shall be marvellous, glorious, — as life from the dead. When, then, Euphrates shall be dried up, Turkish power and Popish idolatry be taken out of the world, and these “kings of the east” are come, — when the seed of Abraham, being multiplied like the stars of heaven and the sands of the sea-shore, shall possess the gates of their enemies, and shall have peace in their borders, — we may lift up our heads towards the fulness of our redemption; but whilst these things are, or may be, for any thing we know, afar off, to dream of setting up an outward, glorious, visible kingdom of Christ, which he must bear rule in, and over the world, be it in Germany or in England, is but an ungrounded presumption. The Jews not called, Antichrist not destroyed, the nations of the world generally wrapped up in idolatry and false worship, little dreaming of their deliverance, — will the Lord Christ leave the world in this state, and set up his kingdom here on a molehill?

(5.) This is a perpetual antithesis and opposition that is put between the kingdoms of the world and the kingdom of Christ, — that they rise out of the strivings of the winds upon the sea; he comes with the clouds of heaven; — they are brought in by commotions, tumults, wars, desolations (and so shall all the shakings of the nations be, to punish them for their old opposition, and to translate them into a subserviency to his interest); the coming in of the kingdom of Christ shall not be by the arm of flesh, nor shall it be the product of the strifes and contests of men which are in the world, — it is not to be done by might or power, but by the Spirit of the Lord of hosts, Zech. iv. 6. Great wars, desolations, alterations, shall precede it; but it is not the sons of men that, by outward force, shall build the new Jerusalem:— that comes down from heaven adorned as a bride for Christ, fitted and prepared by himself. Certainly the strivings of men about this business shall have no influence into it. It shall be by the glorious manifestation of his own power, and that by his Spirit subduing the souls of men unto it; — not by the sword of man setting up a few to rule over others. Hence, it is everywhere called a creating of “new heavens, and a new earth,” Isa. lxv. 17, — a work, doubtless, too difficult for the worms of the earth to undertake. There is nothing more opposite to the spirit of the gospel, than to suppose that Jesus Christ will take to himself a kingdom by the carnal sword and bow of the sons of men. The raising of the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down, and the setting up the decayed places of it, Acts xv. 16, is done by his visiting the people with his Spirit and word, verse 14. It is by the pouring out of his Spirit in a covenant of mercy, Isa. lix. 21. Thus the Lord sets up one shepherd of his people, “and he shall feed them, even,” saith he, “my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd, and I the Lord will be their God, and my servant David a prince among them,” Ezek. xxxiv. 23, 24. He brings in the kingdom of his Son by making the children of Israel “seek the Lord their God, and David their king, and to fear the Lord and his goodness,” Hos. iii. 5. Who, now, can fathom the counsels of the Almighty? — who hath searched his bosom, and can by computation tell us when he shall pour out his Spirit for the accomplishment of these things?