Frllai/, Ike 3lst October 1656. Ordered by the Parliament, That the thanks of this House be given unto Dr Owen, Dean of Christ Church and Vice-Clianccllor of the University of Oxon, for his great pains taken in his sermon before this House yesterday, in JIargaret's ('lunch, Westminster, being a day set apart for solemn fasting and humiliation; and tliathe be desired to print his sermon; and that he have t!ie like privilege \\\ l)rinting thereof as hath been formerly allowed to others in like cases. And Alajor-Geueral Kelsey is desired to give him the thanks of tliis House accordingly.
HiiN. ScoBELL, Clerk of (he Parliament.
PARLIAMENT OF THE COMMONWEALTH
OF
ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND SCOTLAND, WITH THE DOMINIONS THEREUNTO BELONGING.
Sirs, My hope that some impression may possihly remain upon your hearts and spirits of and from the thing's deUvered unto you in the ensuing sermon, makes nie wilUng unto the obedience of presenting it unto you, upon your command, in this manner. Were I not persuaded that your peace, interest, and concernment are expressed therein, and knew not with what simplicity of heai-t you were minded thereof, I shoukl have chosen, on many accounts, to have waived this duty. But having now performed what is incumbent on me to render this service useful, recommending it yet farther to the grace of God, I humbly beg that it may not, in this return unto you, be looked on as a thing of course, and so laid aside ; Imt he reviewed with that intension of spirit which is necessary in duties of this importance; whereby you may manifest that your command unto this service was grounded on a sense of some advantage to be made by that performance of it. Sundry things, I confess, that were spoken unto you are gone beyond my recovery, having had their rise from the present assistance which God was pleased to afford in the management of the work itself. The sum of what was provided beforehand, and no otherwise, without the least addition, is here presented unto you, with hearty desires that the vision of the truth herein considered may be to them that love you, and the accomplishment thereof be found in the midst of you. So prays
Your humblest Servant
In our dear Lord Jesus,
John Owen.
Nov. 17, 1G56.
SERMON XL
GOD'S PRESENCE WITH A PEOPLE THE SPRING OF THEIR PROSPERITY.
" And he went out to meet Asa, and said unto him, Hear yo me, Asa, and all .Tudah and Benjamin; The Lord is with you, while ye be with him; and if ye seek him, he will be found of you; but if ye forsake him, he will forsake you." — 2 ClIRON. XV. 2.
It will not, I am sure, seem strange to any, that I have taken a text to preach on, in a day of humiliation, out of a thanksgiving sermon, such as this discourse of Azariah seems to be ; if they shall but con- sider the suitableness of the instruction given therein to any great and solemn occasion, whether of humiliation or rejoicing. The words, indeed, are the sum of all directions that in such cases can be given, — the standard of all rules and exhortations wherein any nation or people, in any condition, are or may be concerned;— so plainly mea- suring out our fate and lot, the event and issue of our affairs, with all the great undertakings of the people of God in this nation, that of themselves I hope they will make some passage to the hearts of them to whom the inferences from them shall this day be applied.
In the foregoing chapter we have an account of a great victory that Asa and the people of Judah, fighting in faith and with prayer, obtained against the huge host of the Ethiojoians, with the abundant s})oils Avhich they took and carried away thereupon. In their trium- phant return to Jerusalem the Spirit of God stu's up a prophet to go out and meet them, to give them an account of the rise and cause of their success, and direction for their future deportment under the enjoyment of such mercies and deliverances. The Lord knows how apt even the best of men are to forget the spring of their mercies, — how negligent in making suitable returns, by a due improvement of the advantages put into their hands, unto the Lord of all mercies; therefore are they in all seasons to be minded of their proper interest and duty.
432 god's presence
This is done in my text to Asa and Judali by Oded ; and I desire in my sermon that it may with the same spirit and the same success he done by me unto you. The words I intend princijaally to insist on, having the same thing for substance three times repeated in them, the opening of the first clause, with the general tendency of the whole, will suffice as to their exposition, and the grounding of that general proposition which I shall improve. Two things are, then, principally to be inquired into : —
First. What it is for God to be tuith any people.
Secondly. What it is for a jjeople to be or abide tvith God.
And according to the analogy of these two, the following assertions, of seeking the Lord, and forsaking him, will be easily understood. For though the words differ in expression, yet they are all of the same way of assertion. They are three hypothetical propositions, or promissory assertions on supposition : — " If you abide with the Lord, he will be with you;" " If you seek the Lord, he will be found of you;" " If you forsake the Lord, he will forsake you." The same matter is trebled, for the fuller and surer confinnation of the thing asserted ; — only, whereas the last proposition supposeth a thing pos- sible,— namely, that they might forsake the Lord,— the first supposes a thing present; and therefore it is so expressed, — "whilst you are with him," — because they had abode with God in their late war and trial.