VIII PREFACE,
The other volume (vol. ix.) embraces all the Posthumous Sermons of our author, — viz., the " Seasonable Words for English Protes- tants," printed separately in 1690; the posthumous sermons pub- lished in 1721; others which issued from the press in 1756, and were prepared from the manuscripts of Sir John Hartopp, which his granddaughter, Mrs Cooke of Stoke Newington, had supplied for the pui'pose ; and, finally, the sermons derived through the same channel, and published in 1760.
An attempt has been made in this edition, by prefatory notes and running annotations, to connect the different sermons (especially in vol. viii.) with the life of Owen, and with the circumstances in which they were originally delivered. Much of the interest and value of a discourse lies in its suitableness to the occasion which called it forth.
There are discourses attributed to Owen on Ps. cxvi. 12, and on 2 Sam. xviii. 20; and said to have been published, the former in 1 742, and the latter in 1 746. They are not mentioned by Mr Orme. There is a reference to them in Cooke's "Preacher's Assistant;" but after a diligent search, we have failed to recover them.
The merits of Owen as a preacher have not been sufficiently ap- preciated. In this respect he seems to have stood higher in the estimation of his contemporaries than he has subsequently done. No edition of his Sermons has been published in a form and at a price which placed them within the reach of all classes in the community. Perhaps the value of his other works diverted attention from his minor productions; and his style of careful and elaborate, though often prolix and cumbrous, discussion, was deemed incompatible with the condensation of statement and the vigour of appeal which con- stitute the main value and charm of a good discourse. From the accounts transmitted to us, however, whether by his various friends and admirers, such as Clarkson, his colleagi;e and successor, or by those even who were quite opposed to him in principle and sentiment, such as Anthony Wood, the ability with which Owen could secure and sustain the attention of an audience must have been great.^ The effects of his preaching in some instances attest his usefulness in this department of his public labours. John Rogers, in his singular work, "The Heavenly Nymph," records the cases of two individuals, Dorothy Emett and Major Mainwaring, who ascribed their conversion to the preaching of Owen when he was in Dublin. Mr Orme remarks, that the circumstance confutes a saying attributed to Owen, that he never knew an instance of a sinner converted through his instrumentality; though the saying might so far be true, that he himself might be ignorant of the extent of his own usefulness. His congregation in London after the Restoration, though, from the severe measures adopted against Dissent, necessarily small, seems to have been made up of persons altogether superior in character and attainments. Another
' See some excellent observations on liis character as a puli)it orator, in tlie " Life of Owen," vol. i. r- 106.
PREFACE. IX
source of evidence as to the popularity and acceptance of our autlior in preaching the gospel, presents itself in the frequency with which he was called to officiate in this capacity before the House of Com- mons. He was generally summoned to this duty in connection with some event or crisis of great importance. On examining the journals of the House, we have found that he preached before it on several occasions besides those on which he delivered sermons that were afterwards published. He usually receives the thanks, or " the hearty thanks," of the House, for " his great pains" taken in the discourses preached before them. Nor were such " orders" of the Parliament, that he should be thanked for his services, mere form and indis- criminate courtesy. There is a curious record which we may quote, as showing that the Parliament exercised some measure of discrimi- nation in voting thanks on these occasions: —
"Die Veneris, 14 Mariii, 1650. " The question being propounded. That thanks be given to the ministers that preached yesterday before the ParHament, and the question being put, ' That that question be now put?' it passed with the negative."
There are no means of ascertaining what ministers actually preached on the occasion here referred to. The ministers who had been ap- pointed to preach were Mr Owen, Mr John Simson, and Mr Leigh ; but it is clear from the journals, that Owen sometimes was not in cir- cumstances to fulfil such appointments after they had been made. Perhaps, were all the facts known, it would have been to his credit that he had incurred what wears the aspect of a vote of censure from the House ; although we learn, from certain entries elsewhere in its journals, that he was so much of a favourite with Parliament, that they settled "lands of inheritance of the clear value of £\i)0 per annum in Ireland on John Owen, Doctor of Divinity, and his heirs."
His Discourses themselves, however, will best illustrate the position and rank to which he is entitled among the lights and ornaments of the British pulpit. In judging of them, we must remember how often his singular aptitude for the management of affairs drew him into public business, interrupting and disturbing the leisure requisite for elaborate composition. The amount of time and thought ex- pended on more important works might interfere with the care due to the preparation of a single discourse. He himself informs us that his public discourses were frequently delivered under some sudden call to the dut}^, and at the spur of some great emergency, when brief space was allowed him to prepare them carefully ; so that, to use his own similitude, they were often " like Jonah's gourd, the offspring of a night." Although they cannot, therefore, be regarded as models of finished composition and careful preparation, they nevertheless abound in many cardinal excellencies. The doctrine illustrated and urged in them is commonly founded on a sifting and masterly ex- position of that portion of Scripture from which the text is selected. So much was it his habit to investigate Scripture, with the view of