SERMON XI.

GOD'S PRESENCE WITH A PEOPLE THE SPRING OF THEIR PROSPERITY;

WITH

THEIR SPECIAL INTEREST IN ABIDING WITH HIM.

PREFATORY NOTE.

BEFORE the same Parliament to which the last discourse was delivered, Dr Owen made a similar appearance on October 30, 1656. The close of the sermon gives a vivid picture of the religious state of Wales. We have seen that, in the first sermon he ever preached before Parliament, he took the opportunity of urging the necessity of some measures for promoting education and religion in that part of Britain. The circumstance that he was descended from a Welsh family, may account for the special interest which he evinced in the religious welfare of Wales. Great religious destitution prevailed in it. The Welsh at this time had neither Bibles nor Catechisms, and had scarcely sermon four times in the year. In 1649 an act was passed for the better propagation of the gospel, and the ejection of scandalous clergymen, in Wales. From the report of the commissioners in 1652, one hundred and seventy-five ministers had been ejected since 1645. Through the exertions of Parliament, one hundred and fifty preachers were appointed to officiate in thirteen Welsh counties; whose zeal in their duties may be judged of from the fact, that most of them preached three or four days every week. A schoolmaster was appointed for every market-town; and two of superior qualifications, educated at the university, were supported in all the larger towns. In addition to all this agency, six itinerant preachers were appointed for each county, at an allowance of £100; these were aided by the services of thirty-two ministers; and as all these arrangements were insufficient to meet the necessities of the case, pious laymen travelled through the counties, and conducted public devotion in the presence of the people. The first sermon of Owen had, accordingly, borne ample fruit. Whitelocke tells us, that in 1649 every Friday was devoted by Parliament to the purpose of consulting in regard to the spread and maintenance of religion. These facts deserve to be known to their credit, as evincing a lively and zealous interest in the highest welfare of the people, whatever view may be taken of the duty or competency of the state to make such provision for the support of the gospel and the spiritual enlightenment of a nation. For full details on these points, the reader may be referred to Neal, vol. iv. pp. 14 and 104, and the publications of the Rev. Vavasor Powell, one of the commissioners, in defence of their proceedings.-ED.

Friday, the 31st October 1656.

ORDERED by the Parliament, That the thanks of this House be given unto Dr Owen, Dean of Christ Church and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxon, for his great pains taken in his sermon before this House yesterday, in Margaret's Church, Westminster, being a day set apart for solemn fasting and humiliation; and that he be desired to print his sermon; and that he have the like privilege in printing thereof as hath been formerly allowed to others in like cases. And Major-General Kelsey is desired to give him the thanks of this House accordingly. HEN. SCOBELL, Clerk of the Parliament.

TO THE

PARLIAMENT OF THE COMMONWEALTH

OF

ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND SCOTLAND, WITH THE DOMINIONS

THEREUNTO BELONGING.

SIRS,

My hope that some impression may possibly remain upon your hearts and spirits of and from the things delivered unto you in the ensuing sermon, makes me willing 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 heart you were minded thereof, I should 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; but be 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

Nov. 17, 1656.

In our dear Lord Jesus,

JOHN OWEN.

SERMON XI.

GOD'S PRESENCE WITH A PEOPLE THE SPRING OF THEIR

PROSPERITY.

"And he went out to meet Asa, and said unto him, Hear ye me, Asa, and all Judah 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 CHRON. 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 consider 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 measuring 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 Ethiopians, with the abundant spoils which they took and carried away thereupon. In their triumphant return to Jerusalem the Spirit of God stirs 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.