Farther I shall not need to suggest any thing of the ensuing discourse : they who take themselves to be concerned therein, will acquaint themselves with it, by its perusal. I shall only add, if the general principles asserted therein be in your hearts, if in pursuit thereof you endeavour, that in no corner of the nation it may be said. This is Zion that no man careth for ; but that those who love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, and are by faith and obedience separated from the perish- ing world, following the Lamb, according to the light which he is graciously pleased to impart unto them, and engaged by the providence of God in that work, which he hath undertaken to accomplish amongst us, be not overborne by a spirit of profaneness and con- tempt of the power of godliness, raging in the earth ; that they may be preserved and secured from the re-
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turn of a hand of violence, and encouraged in the tes- timony they have to bear to the kingdom of Christ, in opposition to the world, and all the ways which the men thereof have received by tradition from their fa- thers, that are not according to his mind ; you will un- doubtedly in your several conditions receive blessing from God. Which also that you may in all your con- cernments, is the daily prayer of,
Your humble servant
In the work of our dear Lord Jesus,
John Owen.
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516 GODS WORK IX FOUNDING ZION
SERMON XII.
What shall one then answer the messengers of the nation? That the Lord hath founded Zion, and the poor of his people shall trust in it. — Isaiah xiv. 32.
The head of the prophecy, whereof these words are the close, lies in ver. 28. ' In the year that king Ahaz died was this burden:' which gives us the season, and just time of its revelation and delivery. The kingdom of Judah was at that season low, and broken ; foreign invasions, and intes- tine divisions had made it so. An account hereof is given us, 2 Chron. xxviii. throughout; as it is especially summed up, ver. 19. of that chapter : •' For the Lord brought Judah low, because of Ahaz king of Israel; for he made Judah naked, and transgressed sore against the Lord.' Amongst their oppressing neighbours that took advantage at their low and divided condition, their old enemies the Philistines, the posterity of Cham in Canaan, had no small share, as ver. 18. of that chapter: 'The Philistines also had invaded the cities of the low country, and of the south of Judah, and had taken Beth-shemesh, and Ajalon, and Gederoth, and Shocho, with the villages thereof, and Timnah, with the villages thereof, Gimzo also, and the villages thereof; and they dwelt there.'
In this state of things God takes notice of the joy and triumphing of the whole land of Palestina, that is, the country of the Philistines. In that ' the rod of him that smote them was broken:' that is, the power of the kings and kingdom of Judah, which for many generations had prevailed against them, especially in the days of David, 2 Sam. V. and of Uzziah, 2 Chron. xxvi. 6. and kept them under, was made weak and insuflScient for that purpose, ver. 29. ' Rejoice not thou, whole land of Palestina, because the rod of him that smote thee is broken.'
It is no wonder if Palestina, that was to be smitten, and broken by the rod of God among his people, rejoice at their perplexities and distresses, when we have seen men so to do who pretend to dwell in Judah.
To take them off from their pride and boasting, their
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triumph and rejoicing ; the Lord lets them know, that from the people whom they despised, and that broken rod they trampled upon, their desolation was at hand ; though they seemed to be perplexed, and forsaken for a season, ver. 29 — 31. ' Rejoice not thou, whole Palestina, because the rod of him that smote thee is broken ; for out of the ser- pent's root shall come forth a cockatrice, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent. And the first-born of the poor shall feed, and the needy shall lie down in safety, and I will kill thy root with famine, and he shall slay the remnant. Howl, O gate, cry, O city, thou whole Palestina art dis- solved; for there shall come from the north a smoke, and none shall be alone in his appointed times.' That it is Hezekiah who is principally intended in these lofty allego- rical expressions, that was then rising up from the broken rod of Judah, is evident. He is termed a cockatrice, and a ' fiery flying serpent,' not from his own nature, which was tender, meek, and gentle, wherein the comparison doth not at all lie, nor hold ; but in respect of the mischief that he should do unto, the irrecoverable destruction that he should bring on the land of Palestina ; which accordingly he per- formed ; 2 Kings xviii. 8. ' He smote the Philistines even unto Gaza, and the borders thereof, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced cities;' that is, he wasted and de- stroyed the whole land, from one end even to the other.