These things are matter of fact. The whole question is, Whether we are greatly to be concerned in these things or not? " They are the sins of wicked men, and they are the sins of the persecutors of God's people, and the like ; and what have we to do with them V
The psalmist of old said, that " rivers of waters ran down his eyes, because men did not keep the law of God/' And you know that God doth set a special mark upon those, not that are free from the abo- minations of the age, but upon those that mourn for the abominations that are in the midst of us. It will not be enough for us, that we are free from those abominations, unless we are found to mourn for them. Brethren, our own hearts know we are guilty in this matter, and that we had need seek the face of God this day to give us a deeper sense of these things than we have obtained. The name of God is blas- phemed, the Spirit of God reproached, a flood of iniquity spreads itself over the nation, the land of our nativity, over the inheritance of Christ, over a nation professing the reformed religion ; — all things go back- ward,— every thing declines. Indeed, brethren, if you will not, I do acknowledge here before you, and to my own shame, I have great guilt upon me in this matter, that I have not been sensible of the abominations of the nation, so as to mourn for them and be humbled for them, as I ought to have been. And you will do well to search your hearts, and consider how it is with you ; — whether indeed you have been affected with these things; or whether you have not thought all is well, while all hath been well with yourselves and families, and, it may be, with the church, that may have no trouble upon that account. The security that is upon the nation is dismal ; and, I may
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say, I see no way or means whereby the nation should be freed from this security. The conduct of the ministry, which they are under generally, is not able to free them from this security ; nor the dispen- sation of the word. : [so] that it seems to be a security from God to lead on the nation to judgment ; the means for the removal of it and the awakening of us being laid aside. And if it comes this way, or that way, any way, though we see not the morning of it, you will find yourselves concerned in it. — " Who may abide the day of his coming?" We may do well, brethren, to consider the state of the church of God in the world, among ourselves, and our own condition. I need not tell you how it is in the world ; but this I can say, that to my ap- prehensions, the interest of Christ and. the gospel was never so fast going down in the world since it came into it, as at this day. I will give you my reason of what I say : When the gospel was first planted and brought into the world, the devil was not able to bring the church into its apostasy, under six, or seven, or eight hundred years, and that by degrees. Since the time of the Reformation, the church was pro- gressive for about seventy years; it stood at a stay about the same proportion of time; and ever since, it hath been going backward, straitened in all places : the power of it decays, and the peace of it is taken away, and destruction everywhere seems to lie at the door. Many, indeed, are in great miseiy and distress: some I have heard of lately sold for slaves,1 for the testimony of their conscience. How is it with the church of Christ in this nation ? Truly, some [are] in great poverty, in great affliction, in great distress ; and I am afraid we and others have not hearts to relieve them, as we ought to do, in a due manner: however, lot us help them with our prayers. And that which is worst of all, there seems to me, I must acknowledge it, to be a very great decay in all churches of Christ in the nation, espe- cially among those of us who have had most peace, most prosperity. That which we call zeal for God is almost quite lost among us. Some of us have almost forgot whether there be such a thing as the cause and interest of Christ in the world. We who have cried and prayed about it, and had it upon our hearts, have sat down in our narrow compass, and almost forgot there is such a thing as the interest of Christ in the world, so as to have an active zeal for the ordinances of
1 No date is assigned to this discourse. It was about the time, however, in which these discourses seem to have been delivered, that many of the Scottish Cove- nanters were banished. They were crowded into vessels bound for the West Indies or North America; and, after enduring fearful sufferings on the passage, were sold, when they reached Jamaica or Carolina, to work as slaves on the plantations. By a refinement of cruelty, it w;;s provided that this punishment should be reserved for " such rebels as were penitent " ! From the language of Owen, it would seem that he alludes to some occurrences that had taken place at a distance, and not within the sphere of his own observation. It is probable, therefore, that he refers to the proceedings of the government in Scotland. — Ed.