Now, this shall not he as to the opposition which you do and shall yet farther meet withal ; but as to the causes, real or pretended, which are held forth as the bottom of that contradiction wherewith on every side you are encompassed.
The things in reference whereunto your precedence is laden with such domina- tions as these sad days of recompense have found to be comets portending no less than blood, are first civil, then religious.
For the first, as their being beyond the bounds of my calling gives them sanc- tuary from being called forth to my consideration ; so neither have I the least thoughts with Absalom of a more orderly carrying on of aff'airs, might my desires have any influence into their disposal. Waiting at the throne of grace, that those whom God hath intrusted with, and enabled for, the transaction of these things, may be directed and supported in their employment, is the utmost of my under- taking herein.
For the other, or religious things, the general interest I have in them as a C'nristian, being improved by the superadded title of a minister of the gospel (though unworthy the one name .and the other), gives me not only such boldness as accrueth from enjoyed favour, but also such a right as will support me to plead concerning them before the most impartial judicature.
And this I shall do (as I said before) luerely in reference to those criminations which are laid by conjectural presumptions on your honourable assembly, and made a cause of much of that opposition and contradiction you meet withal. Now, in particular, it is the toleration of all religions, or invented ways of worship, — wherein your constitutions are confidently antedated in many places of the nation ; the thing itself, withal, lieing held out as the mo.st enormous apprehension, and desperate endeavour, for the destruction of truth and godliness, that ever entered the thoughts of men professing the one and the other. The contest hereabout being " adhuc sub judicc," and there being no doul^t but that the whole matter, commonly phrased as above, hath (like other things) sinful and dangerous ex-
THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY. igj
tremes, I deemed it not amiss to endeavour the pouring a little cold water upon the common flau.es which are kindled in the breasts of men about this tZ And who knows whether the words of a weak nothing may not, by the po;e"of
a thl?:?" t^:r'' ^'""^ '"r 'f ' "'° ^'^ determfnation and establislmlnt o L r ml ^ ! .'^°"^^^-'™f"t ^f consequence as this is generally conceived to be ? What IS in this my weak undertaking of the Lord, I shall beg of him that it
a^Kl tt hf J 7 f §-';V7" t« P^ve all things that come unto you in his way, and to hold fast that which is good, granting you unconquerable assistance in constant perseverance, is the prayer of, . assistance in
Your devoted Servant
In our dearest Lord,
Joiix OVVE.N.
COGGESilALL, Fti'. 28.
SERMON III.
RIGHTEOUS ZEAL ENCOURAGED BY DIVINE PROTECTION.
" Let them return unto thee; but i-eturn not thou unto them. And I will make thee unto this people a fenced brasen wall ; and they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee : for I am with thee to save thee, and to deliver thee, saith the Lord." — Jer. xv. 19, 20.
The words of my text having a full dependence upon, and flowing out from, the main subject-matter of the whole chapter, I must of necessity take a view tliereof, and hold out unto you the mind of God contained therein, before I enter upon the part thereof chiefly intended. And this I shall do with very brief observations, that I may not anticipate myself from a full opening and application of the words of my text.
And this the rather are my thoughts led unto, because the whole transaction of things between the Lord and a stubbornly sinful na- tion, exceedingly accommodated to the carrying on of the controversy he is now pleading with that wherein we live, is set out (as we say) to the life therein.
Of the whole chapter there be these five parts : —
First, The denunciation of fearful wasting, destroying judgments against Judah and Jerusalem, verse 3, and so on to verse 10.
Secondly, The procuring, deserving cause of these overwhelming calamities, verses 4 and 6.
Thirdly, The inevitahleness of these judgments, and the inexorable- ness of the Lord as to the accomplishment of all the evils denounced, verse 1.
Fourthly, The state and condition of the prophet, with the frame and deportment of his spirit under those hitter dispensations of Pro- vidence, verse 10, and 15-18.
Fifthly, The answer and appearance of God unto him upon the making out of his complaint, verses 11-14, and 19-21.
My text lieth in the last part, but yet with such dependence on the former as enforceth to a consideration of them.
134 RIGHTEOUS ZEAL ENCOURAGED
First. There is tlic denunciation of fearful wasting, destroying judgments, to sinful Jerusalem, verse 2, and so onwards, with some interposed ejaculations concerning her inevitable ruin, as verses 5, 6.
Here's death, sword, famine, captivity, verse 2 ; — banishment, vc rse 4; — uupitied desolation, verse 5; — redoubled destruction, bereaving, fanning, spoiling, &c., verses 6-9. That universal devastation of the whole people which came upon them in the Babylonish captivity is the thing here intended, — the means of its accomphshment by parti- cular plagues and judgments, in their several kinds (for the greater dread and terror), being at large annumerated, — the faithfulness of God, also, being made hereby to shine more clear in the dispersion of that people ; — doing not only for the main what before he had threatened, but in pai-ticular executing the judgments recorded, Luke xxi. 24, &c.; Deut. xxviii. 15-57, — fulfilling hereby what he had de- vised, accomplishing the word he had commanded in the days of old, Lam. ii. 17.