July 27

In that day shall the Lord of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty, unto the residue of his people.—Isaiah 28:5.

The Lord of hosts.—This style of his, you know, is frequent in the prophets, in their predictions of mercy and judgment; intimating both his greatness and majesty, and his supreme power for accomplishing his word. No created power can resist him; yea, all must serve him. The most excellent creature can have no greater honor: the greatest are not exempted, nor the meanest excluded from serving him. In Acts 12:23, you find one of the noblest creatures, and a number of the vilest, made use of at the same time in the same service. Because Herod did accept of the sacrilege of the people, and gave not back to this Lord of hosts his own glory, the angel of the Lord smote him, and the vermin devoured him. And in Egypt, you know the employing of the destroying angel, and what variety of hosts this Lord of hosts did employ to plague them. What madness, then, is it to oppose and encounter this great General!—even in doubtful cases, to run on blindly, without examining, lest peradventure a man should be found a fighter against God. And on the other side, it is great weakness to admit any fear under his banner. If a man could say, when he was told of the multitude of the ships the enemy had, "Against how many do ye reckon me?" how much more justly may we reckon this Lord of hosts, against multitudes of enemies, how great soever! They are to him as the drop of a bucket, and the smallest dust of the balance. It is ignorance and mean thoughts of this mighty Lord, that make his enemies so confident; and it is the same evil, in some degree, or, at the best, forgetfulness of his power, that causeth diffidence in his followers. I, even I, am he that comforteth you: who art thou, that thou shouldst be afraid of a man that shall die, and forgetest the Lord thy Maker? Now this same Lord of hosts, you know, is likewise called the God of peace: he is indeed, "splendid both in peace and war." The blessing of peace, and the success of war, are both from him; and to him alone is due the praise of both.

Shall be for a crown of glory.—He shall dignify and adorn them by his special presence: to wit, in the purity of his ordinances and religion among them; the profession and flourishing of that, shall be their special glory and beauty. For as the other two benefits, in the sixth verse, concern their civil good, justice flourishing within, and wealth and opulency from without, so, doubtless, this first, this glory and beauty, is religion, as the chiefest of the three, and the other two are its attendants. In Psalms 26:8, the sanctuary, the place of their solemn worship, is called the place where God's honor dwelleth, or the tabernacle of his honor, and, Psalms 96:9, the glorious sanctuary, or the beauty of holiness. And the ark of God, you know, was called the glory. The glory is departed from Israel, for the ark of God is taken. Pure religion and a pure worship is the glory of God among his people, and, consequently, their glory. Now, referring this prophecy to Hezekiah's time, the accomplishment of it is evident, in that work of reformation whereof you have the full history, 2 Chronicles 29:30.

If it be thus, that the purity of religion and worship is the crown and glory of a people; and, therefore, on the other side, that their deepest stain of dishonor and vileness is the vitiating of religion with human devices; then, to contend for the preservation or the reformation of it, is noble and worthy of a Christian. It is for the crown of Jesus Christ, which is likewise a crown of glory, and a diadem of beauty to them, he being their head. It is, indeed, the true glory both of kings and kingdoms. Labor, then, for constancy in this work: let no man take your crown from you. You know how busy the emissaries of the church of Rome have been to take it from us, or, at least, to pick the diamonds out of it, and put in false, counterfeit ones in their places. I mean, they stole away the power of religion, and filled up the room with shadows and fopperies of their own devising. It is the vanity of that church to think they adorn the worship of God when they dress it up with splendor in her service, which, though some magnify it so much, yet may most truly be called a glistering slavery and captivity. Then is she truly free, and wears her crown, when the ordinances of God are conformable to his own appointment. It is vanity in man, I say, when they dress it up with a multitude of gaudy ceremonies, and make it the smallest part of itself; whereas, indeed, its true glory consists not in pomp, but in purity and simplicity. In the twelfth chapter of the Apocalypse, we find the church, under the name of a woman, richly attired, indeed, but her ornaments are all heavenly; the sun her clothing, and her crown of twelve stars. Needs she, then, borrow sublunary glory? No, she treads upon it: the moon is under her feet. There is another woman, indeed, in that same book, arrayed in purple and scarlet, decked with gold and precious stones, and having a golden cup in her hand, but that golden cup is full of abominations and filthiness; and she herself the mother of abominations. The natural man judges according to his reach; but to a spiritual eye there is a most genuine beauty in the service of God, and the government of his house; and when they are nearest to the rule, the word of God, then it is that the Lord himself is the crown and diadem of his church.