SERMON I. A VISION OF UNCHANGEABLE, FREE MERCY, IN SENDING THE MEANS OF GRACE TO UNDESERVING SINNERS: WHEREIN GOD'S UNCONTROLLABLE ETERNAL PURPOSE, IN SENDING AND CONTINUING THE EXALTED, ASSERTED AGAINST OPPOSERS, REPINERS. WHEREUNTO IS ANNEXED A SHORT DEFENSATIVE ABOUT CHURCH GOVERNMENT, (WITH A COUNTRY ESSAY FOR THE PRACTICE OF CHURCH GOVERNMENT THERE TOLERATION, AND PETITIONS ABOUT THESE THINGS. VOL. VIIL THE Occasion on which this sermon was delivered is mentioned in the "Life of Owen," vol. i. p. 34. From the title-page of the original edition of the sermon, Owen appears to have been "minister of the gospel at Coggeshall, in Essex," when it was published. By some inadvertency, Mr Orme, in his valuable memoir of our author, represents him as called to preach this sermon to the House of Commons before he left the parish of Fordham; a statement which can be reconciled with the original title-page only by the supposition that his removal to Coggeshall had occurred in the interval before the publication of the sermon. Asty, however, distinctly informs us that he was settled at Coggeshall when he first preached before the House of Commons. The sermon was preached on Wednesday the 29th of April 1646; and the time is important, as it was the close of the first civil war. During the previous month, Hopton and Astley, the last generals who kept the field in the interest of Charles I., had been compelled to surrender. "You have now done your work," said Astley to his victors," and may go to play,-unless you will fall out among yourselves." So truly was the work done, that Oliver Cromwell had returned to his place in Parliament on the 22d of April, and on the following Monday the king left Oxford in disguise, and, after some hesitation of purpose, found his way to the Scots army. A sufficient interval had hardly elapsed to give Owen an opportunity of exhibiting in his sermon any reflection of these memorable events. It is perhaps more to his credit, that, when summoned from the obscurity of his pastoral duties at Coggeshall to preach the gospel in "the chief place of concourse," and before the rulers of the land, he seizes the opportunity to portray the spiritual destitution which existed in Wales, and large districts of England, and to make an appeal for " help," in a strain of holy fervour and commanding eloquence, that will bear comparison with the best productions of the British pulpit. The reasoning at the outset is somewhat abstract,-not unsuited, perhaps, to an assembly of the leading men in the country; but throughout the discourse there is conspicuous that happy combination of argument and declamation which constitutes genuine oratory. Bogue and Bennett have remarked, "Those who are only acquainted with the general strain of Owen's writings, would not suppose him capable of pouring forth that flood of lucid, glowing, popular eloquence, which is displayed in this sermon."-History of Dissenters, vol. ii. p. 228. In the "Defensative," or preface to the "Country Essay," etc., Owen assigns reasons on account of which he had not felt himself free to petition Parliament in reference to the establishment of an ecclesiastical polity for England. In the "Country Essay," etc., he condemns very strongly the infliction of civil penalties for religious belief. In the first part of it, he describes a form of church government which commended itself to his judgment. Owen purposely refrained from describing it either as Presbytery or Independency, deeming himself competent to satisfy all men respecting it; "unless such as shall be so simple or malicious as to ask whether this way be that of the Presbyterians or Independents." By his own admission, the scheme proposed in the "Essay" would not exactly agree with either of the two forms of church government which were then competing for national favour and the sanction of the state. There can be no doubt, however, that he was at this time undergoing the change of view which led him in the end to profess Congregationalism. It is simple justice to add, that a comparison of the "Country Essay" with his "Inquiry into Evangelical Churches," published towards the close of his life, effectually redeems his name from any charge of vacillation in regard to his church principles. The peculiar modifications which appear in the Congregationalism of Owen, are conspicuous elements in the first scheme of ecclesiastical polity which he ever broached. See also his "Review of the Nature of Schism," chap. ii. vol. xiii.-ED. RITUS PONTIFICIOS, NOVITIOS, ANTICHRISTIANOS ABOLITOS; POTISSIMUM PROTECTIONEM DEI O.M. HIS OMNIBUS, ALIISQUE INNUMERIS, CONSILIO, BELLO, DOMI, FORAS GRATIOSE POTITAM; TOTO ORBE JURE MERITISSIMO CELEBERRIMO, TOTI HUIC INSULÆ ÆTERNA MEMORIA RECOLENDO, VIRIS ILLUSTRIBUS, CLARISSIMIS, SELECTISSIMIS, EX ORDINE COMMU NIUM IN SUPREMA CURIA PARLIAM. CONGREGATIS, CONCIONEM HANC SACRAM, HUMILEM ILLAM QUIDEM, IPSORUM TAMEN VOTO JUSSUQUE PRIUS CORAM IPSIS HABITAM, D.D.C. JOANNES OWEN. Die Mercurij, 29 Aprilis, 1646. ORDERED, by the Commons assembled in Parliament, That Mr Jenner and Sir Peter Wentworth do from this House give thanks to Mr Nalton and Mr Owen for the great pains they took in the sermons they preached this day, at the entreaty of this House (it being a day of public humiliation), at Margaret's, Westminster; and to desire them to print their sermons. And it is ordered that none shall presume to print their sermons without licence under their handwriting. H. ELSYNGE, Cler. Parl. D. Com. SERMON I. A VISION OF UNCHANGEABLE, FREE MERCY, IN SENDING THE MEANS OF GRACE TO UNDESERVING SINNERS "And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia, and help us."-ACTS xvi. 9. THE kingdom of Jesus Christ is frequently in the Scripture compared to growing things,-small in the beginning and first appearance, but increasing by degrees unto glory and perfection. The shapeless stone cut out without hands, having neither form nor desirable beauty given unto it, becomes a great mountain, filling the whole earth, Dan. ii. 35. The small vine brought out of Egypt quickly covers the hills with her shadow,-her boughs reach unto the sea, and her branches unto the river, Ps. lxxx. 8. The tender plant3 becomes as the cedars of God; and the grain of mustard-seed to be a tree for the fowls of the air to make their nests in the branches thereof. Mountains are made plains before it, every valley is filled, and the crooked paths made straight, that it may have a passage to its appointed period;—and all this, not only not supported by outward advantages, but in direct opposition to the combined power of this whole creation, as fallen and in subjection to the "god of this world," the head thereof. As Christ was a tender plant," seemingly easy to be broken; and "a root out of a dry ground," not easily flourishing, yet liveth for ever; so his people and kingdom,-though as a "lily among thorns," as "sheep among wolves," as a "turtledove" among a multitude of devourers,-yet stands unshaken, at least unshivered. 1 "Ecclesia sicut luna defectus habet, et ortus frequentes; sed defectibus suis crevit, &c. Hæc est vera Luna, quæ de fratris sui luce perpetua, lumen sibi immortalitatis et gratiæ mutuatur.”—Amb. Hex., lib. iv. cap. 2. Ps. lxviii. 13. Isa. liv. 11; Zech. iv. 7. * 1 John iii. 13; Rev. ii. 10; 2 Cor. iv. 4. • Heb. vii. 25. 7 Cant. ii. 2. 3 Isa. liii. 2-5. 8 Matt. x. 16. Ps. lxxiv. 19 |