SERMON XVI.
AN HUMBLE TESTIMONY
UNTO THE GOODNESS AND SEVERITY OF GOD IN HIS DEALING WITH SINFUL CHURCHES AND NATIONS ;
OR,
THE ONLY WAY TO DELIVER A SINFUL NATION FROM UTTER RUIN BY mrENDENT JUDGMENTS:
IN A msCOUESE ON THE WORDS OF OUR I.ORII JESUS CHRIST, Luke xiir. 1—5.
'■ Cry akuil, spare not; lift up thy voice liUo a t'umpet, and shnw tny ppi'ple thi>if transgrcssii
' aiwl the home of Jiic.b their sins "-Isa. \viii. 1. •' 111 piiLli.o iJi«rii'.iine oiniiis homo miles n5t,"
VOL. VI IL S8
PREFATORY NOTE.
In liis own preface to the le.ider Dr Owon very briefly alludes to the circum- Rtances which had induced him to deliver to "a private cougrei^^ation " several discourses on Luke xiii. 1-5, and afterwards to i)ublisii the substance of tliem in tlie following discourse. For obvious reasons, he evinces great caution in referring to passing events, which, about the time the discourse was publislied, excited "continual apprehensions of public calamities" in the minds of all the friends of liberty and order. The nation had been agitated with stormy discussions about the Exclusion Bill. The Whig party were beat on preventing the accession of James, the Duke of York, to the Britisii throne on the demise of Charles II. In the agitation which shook the country in consequence of this atten.pt, " a whole year," says jMacaulay, " elapsed, — an eventful year, which has left lasting traces in our manners and language. . . . On the one side, it was maintained that the constitution and religion of the state would never be secure under a Popish king; — on the other, that tlie right of James to wear the crown in his turn was derived from God, and could not be annulled, even by the consent of all the branches of the Legislature."
Tlie bill had been several times introduced into the House of Commons, — in 1679, in November IGSO, a tliird time in the following January, and finally, in the Par- liament which met at Oxford in March IGSl, when the "Whig measures were de- feated by tlie dissolution of the Parliament only seven days after it had met.
Whatever judgment be formed as to the expediency of the Exclusion Bill, the strenuous exertions which the Wiiigs and Nonconformists made to secure the success of that measure, enable us to estimate the alarm and forebodings which filled their minds, when the power of the Court had triumiihcd.
Apart, however, from this defeat, there were other causes of anxiety and appre- liension. Dissenters were subjected to severe and increasing oppression; and while the friends of the popular cause were disconcerted and baffled, a manifest reaction w.as taking place throughout England in favour of the Court. It was this change of public sentiment, and decay of jiatriotic zeal — arising in some degree from growing indifterence to religious principle — that led our author to entertain, at this juncture, gloomy views in regard to the prosjiects of the nation, and to issue a solemn and urgent warning to his countrymen.
Tiie discourse of Dr Owen is extremely suitable to the crisis which had elicited it. While he makes no reference to tlie proceedings of the government, he dwells upon evangelical truths and duties, in a strain peculiarly fitted to elevate his readers above unworthy fears, and to make the danger to which they might feel them- selves exposed a motive to repentance and godliness. "The ' Testimony,'" says Orme, " contains much of that jiractical wisdom which the Doctor had acquired from his long and deep study of the Word of Cod, and from liis extensive expe- rience in the ways of Providence." The discourse was iiublished in the yvnr ICSl.— Ed,
TO THE READER.
The ensiling discourse contains the substance of sundry sermons preached in a pri- vate congregation. Some who heard them, considering the suhjeet-matter treated of, and tlie design in them with respect unto the present state of things in this nation, did judge tliat it miglit be convenient and seasonable to make them more pubHc, for the use and benefit of otliers : but, knowing how remote I was from any such intention in their first composure, and how naked they were of all ornaments that might render them meet for public view, I was unwilling for a season to com- ply with their desires. Neither was it their importunity (\\-hich, as they did not use, so I should not in this ca^^e have valued), but their reasons, that prevailed with me, to consent that they might be published by any that had a mind thereunto; which is all my concernment therein. For they said, that whereas the land wherein we live is filled with sin, and various indications of God's displeasure thereon, yet there is an unexempllfied neglect in calling the inhabitants of it unto repentance, for the diverting of impendent judgments. The very heathen, they said, upon less evidence of the approaches of divine vengeance than is now amongst us, did always solemnly apply themselves to their deities, for the turning it away. Wherefore, this neglect amongst us they supposed to be of such ill abode,^ as that the weakest and meanest endeavour for relief under it might be of some use ; ami of that nature I cannot but esteem this discourse to be.
They added, moreover, that whereas, on various accounts, there are continual apprehensions of public calamities, all men's thoughts are exercised about the ways of deliverance from them ; but whereas they fix themselves on various and oppo- site ways and means for this end, the conflict of their counsels and designs increaseth our danger, and is like to prove our ruin. And the great cause hereof is, a general ignorance and neglect of the only true way and means whereljy this nation may be delivered from destruction under the displeasure of God. For if their thoughts did agree and centre therein, as it would insensibly work them off from their pre- sent mutual destructive animosities ; so also it is of such a nature as would lead them into a coalescence in those counsels, whose fruit would bo the establishment of truth, with righteousness and peace. Now, this way is no other but sincere repentance, and universal reformation in all sorts of persons throughout the nation.