Preface.
The two following volumes contain, it is believed, the most complete collection of Dr Owen's Sermons which has ever been published.
The first volume (vol. viii.) includes all the Discourses which were published during the lifetime of the author. Among these there will be found his "Humble Testimony to the Goodness and Severity of God;" which — though, from its length, it might rank as a separate treatise — is comprehended in this volume, as it was the substance of some discourses, and is entitled by Owen himself a Discourse. Another valuable sermon, which we have discovered in the "Morning Exercises against Popery, at Southwark," though omitted in every previous collection of his Sermons, and in Russell's edition of his Works, we have not hesitated to include in the present collection, our conviction that it belongs to Owen resting on the high authority of Calamy, who must have had the best opportunities of knowing what sermons, in a publication so important and celebrated as the "Morning Exercises," were the productions of our author. We are strengthened in this conviction by the circumstance, that the Rev. T. H. Horne, also, in the recent admirable edition of the "Morning Exercises," expressly ascribes this sermon to Owen. It is entitled, "The Testimony of the Church not the only nor the chief Reason of our Believing the Scripture to be the Word of God." On the contrary, we have assigned to the subsequent volume, which contains the Posthumous Discourses of our author, a sermon entitled, "Human Power Defeated," though we find it mentioned by Mr Orme in his list of the works which Owen himself committed to the press. Our reason for accounting it posthumous, is not simply that we have not met with it in its original form (for in a few other instances we have been unable to discover copies of original editions), but in the folio volume of Owen's Sermons, published in 1721, and edited so carefully by five Independent ministers, who assure us that the posthumous sermons contained in it were the genuine productions of Owen, "a great part of them having been transcribed from his own copies, and the rest taken from his mouth by a gentleman of honour and known integrity," it is ranked among the posthumous sermons, which had then for the first time been given to the public.
The other volume (vol. ix.) embraces all the Posthumous Sermons of our author, — viz., the "Seasonable Words for English Protestants," printed separately in 1690; the posthumous sermons published in 1721; others which issued from the press in 1756, and were prepared from the manuscripts of Sir John Hartopp, which his granddaughter, Mrs Cooke of Stoke Newington, had supplied for the purpose; and, finally, the sermons derived through the same channel, and published in 1760.
An attempt has been made in this edition, by prefatory notes and running annotations, to connect the different sermons (especially in vol. viii.) with the life of Owen, and with the circumstances in which they were originally delivered. Much of the interest and value of a discourse lies in its suitableness to the occasion which called it forth.
There are discourses attributed to Owen on Ps. cxvi. 12, and on 2 Sam. xviii. 20; and said to have been published, the former in 1742, and the latter in 1746. They are not mentioned by Mr Orme. There is a reference to them in Cooke's "Preacher's Assistant;" but after a diligent search, we have failed to recover them.
The merits of Owen as a preacher have not been sufficiently appreciated. In this respect he seems to have stood higher in the estimation of his contemporaries than he has subsequently done. No edition of his Sermons has been published in a form and at a price which placed them within the reach of all classes in the community. Perhaps the value of his other works diverted attention from his minor productions; and his style of careful and elaborate, though often prolix and cumbrous, discussion, was deemed incompatible with the condensation of statement and the vigour of appeal which constitute the main value and charm of a good discourse. From the accounts transmitted to us, however, whether by his various friends and admirers, such as Clarkson, his colleague and successor, or by those even who were quite opposed to him in principle and sentiment, such as Anthony Wood, the ability with which Owen could secure and sustain the attention of an audience must have been great. The effects of his preaching in some instances attest his usefulness in this department of his public labours. John Rogers, in his singular work, "The Heavenly Nymph," records the cases of two individuals, Dorothy Emett and Major Mainwaring, who ascribed their conversion to the preaching of Owen when he was in Dublin. Mr Orme remarks, that the circumstance confutes a saying attributed to Owen, that he never knew an instance of a sinner converted through his instrumentality; though the saying might so far be true, that he himself might be ignorant of the extent of his own usefulness. His congregation in London after the Restoration, though, from the severe measures adopted against Dissent, necessarily small, seems to have been made up of persons altogether superior in character and attainments. Another source of evidence as to the popularity and acceptance of our author in preaching the gospel, presents itself in the frequency with which he was called to officiate in this capacity before the House of Commons. He was generally summoned to this duty in connection with some event or crisis of great importance. On examining the journals of the House, we have found that he preached before it on several occasions besides those on which he delivered sermons that were afterwards published. He usually receives the thanks, or "the hearty thanks," of the House, for "his great pains" taken in the discourses preached before them. Nor were such "orders" of the Parliament, that he should be thanked for his services, mere form and indiscriminate courtesy. There is a curious record which we may quote, as showing that the Parliament exercised some measure of discrimination in voting thanks on these occasions:--
"Die Veneris, 14 Martii, 1650.
"The question being propounded, That thanks be given to the ministers that preached yesterday before the Parliament, and the question being put, That that question be now put?' it passed with the negative."
There are no means of ascertaining what ministers actually preached on the occasion here referred to. The ministers who had been appointed to preach were Mr Owen, Mr John Simson, and Mr Leigh; but it is clear from the journals, that Owen sometimes was not in circumstances to fulfil such appointments after they had been made. Perhaps, were all the facts known, it would have been to his credit that he had incurred what wears the aspect of a vote of censure from the House; although we learn, from certain entries elsewhere in its journals, that he was so much of a favourite with Parliament, that they settled "lands of inheritance of the clear value of £100 per annum in Ireland on John Owen, Doctor of Divinity, and his heirs."
His Discourses themselves, however, will best illustrate the position and rank to which he is entitled among the lights and ornaments of the British pulpit. In judging of them, we must remember how often his singular aptitude for the management of affairs drew him into public business, interrupting and disturbing the leisure requisite for elaborate composition. The amount of time and thought expended on more important works might interfere with the care due to the preparation of a single discourse. He himself informs us that his public discourses were frequently delivered under some sudden call to the duty, and at the spur of some great emergency, when brief space was allowed him to prepare them carefully; so that, to use his own similitude, they were often "like Jonah's gourd, the offspring of a night." Although they cannot, therefore, be regarded as models of finished composition and careful preparation, they nevertheless abound in many cardinal excellencies. The doctrine illustrated and urged in them is commonly founded on a sifting and masterly exposition of that portion of Scripture from which the text is selected. So much was it his habit to investigate Scripture, with the view of ascertaining the precise import of its statements, that he often sheds new and striking light on other passages besides the one which it may be the object of the sermon to explain and enforce. Singular tact is evinced in eliciting the general truths or principles raised for consideration by the text. While there are many indications of haste and negligence, it may be safely affirmed, that there is not a paragraph of worthless or frivolous matter which any reader could have wished away, and passages often occur conceived in no common strain of eloquence; while, even amidst the tamest sentences, burning thoughts are found, thrown out freely and at random by the author, as if unconscious of the effect they would produce, or careless whether they produced any effect at all. The depths of Christian experience are admirably unfolded, and the general spirit and tenor of his statements are calculated to tell with power upon the unconverted, and to commend themselves with acceptance to the enlightened conscience. No feature, indeed, in his sermons is more prominent and remarkable, — especially in the sermons delivered towards the close of his life, and which labour under the disadvantage of never having been intended for the press, — than the skill with which he can scrutinize character and motives, till his hearers must have felt as if, in gauging, their inward being, the preacher had laid his hand, with intuitive discernment, on the deepest secrets of their bosom. Nor does this result from an affected refinement of metaphysical discussion and analysis; but from the simple adaptation of truth, so as to tell on the wide variety of human character. Among uninspired authors, it is pre-eminently true of Owen, that, by the manifestation of the truth, he commends himself to every man's conscience in the sight of God. At the same time, the highest qualities of thought and a rare knowledge of human nature are often evinced; and on perusing the sermons on Popery, "The Chamber of Imagery," and, "On the Authority of Scripture," the reader will be struck with the powers of sagacious and philosophic analysis displayed in the former, and with the logical point and acumen of the latter, — stamping on them a freshness and value as continued and enduring as the importance of the great controversy itself to which they relate. The more, in short, these Discourses of Owen are studied, it will be found that their chief blemish — if it be a blemish — is the tendency of the author, in the fertility of his resources, to compress within the limits of one sermon what, to minds less affluent, would have furnished precious materials for several sermons; and though some may desiderate in them the minor graces of composition, it would be unwise to forget that, apart from any shapes of elegance and utility into which it may be fashioned by art, sterling gold, in the broad market of the world, will always command a value of its own.
Editor.
See Calamy's Account of Ministers Ejected, vol. ii. p. 56.
Sir John Hartopp. See vol. ix., p. 18.
See some excellent observations on his character as a pulpit orator, in the "Life of Owen," vol. i. p. 106.
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 gospel unto this nation, in the midst of oppositions and contingencies, is discovered; his distinguishing mercy in this great work 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.
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 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. 2, 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.
AMPLISSIMO
SENATUI,
INCLYTISSIMO POPULI ANGLICANI CONVENTUI,
PRISCA ANGLO-BRITANNORUM JURA STRENUE ET FIDELITER ASSERTA;
LIBERTATEM PATRIAM (NEFARUS QUORUNDAM MOLITONIBUS PAENE PESSUNDATAM) RECUPERATAM;
JUSTITIAM FORTITER, isos, epieikos, aprosopoleptos ADMINSITRATAM;
Archen IN ECCLESIASTICIS anieroturanniken DISSOLUTAM,
RITUS PONTIFICIOS, NOVITIOS, ANTICHRISTIANOS ABOLITOS; PRIVILEGIA PLEBIS CHRISTIANAE POSTLIMINIO RESTITUTA;
POTISSIMUM
PROTECTIONEM DEI O. M. HIS OMNIBUS, ALUSQUE INNUMERIS, CONSILIO, BELLO, DOMI, FORAS GILATIOSE POTITAM;
TOTO ORBE JURE MERITISSIMO CELEBERRIMO, TOTI HUIC INSULAE AETERNA MEMORIA RECOLENDO,
VIRIS ILLUSTRIBUS, CLARISSIMUS, SELECTISSIMIS, EX ORDINE COMMUNIUM IN SUPREMA CURIA PARLIAM, CONGREGATIS,
CONCIONEM HANC SACRAM, HUMILEM ILLAM QUIDEM, IPSORUM TAMEN VOTO JUSSUQUE PRIUS CORAM IPSIS HABITAM, NUNC LUCE DONATAM,
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 license under their handwriting.
H. Elsyinge, 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, [4] — 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 plant 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, [12] — yet stands unshaken, at least unshivered.
The main ground and foundation of all this is laid out, verses 6-9 of this chapter, — containing a rich discovery how all things here below, especially such as concern the gospel and Church of Christ, are carried along through innumerable varieties and a world of contingencies, according to the regular motions and goings forth of a free, eternal, unchangeable decree: as all inferior orbs, notwithstanding the eccentrics and irregularities of their own inhabitants, are orderly carried about by the first Mover.
In verse 6, the planters of the gospel are "forbidden to preach the word in Asia" (that part of it peculiarly so called); and, verse 7, assaying to go with the same message into Bithynia, they are crossed by the Spirit in their attempts; but in my text are called to a place on which their thoughts were not at all fixed:-- which calling and which forbidding were both subservient to His free determination "who worketh all things according to the counsel of his own will," Eph. i. 11.
And no doubt but, in the dispensation of the gospel throughout the world, unto this day, there is the like conformity to be found to the pattern of God's eternal decrees; though to the messengers not made known aforehand by revelation, but discovered in the effects, by the mighty working of Providence.
Amongst other nations, this is the day of England's visitation, "the Dayspring from on high" having visited this people, and "the Sun of righteousness" arising upon us "with healing in his wings;" [14] — a man of England hath prevailed for assistance, and the free grace of God hath wrought us help by the gospel.
Now, in this day three things are to be done, to keep up our spirits unto this duty, of brining down our souls by humiliation.
First, To take us off the pride of our own performances, endeavours, or any adherent worth of our own: "Not for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord God, be it known unto you: be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel," — O house of England! Ezek. xxxvi. 32.
Secondly, To root out that atheistical corruption which depresses the thoughts of men, not permitting them, in the highest products of Providence, to look above contingencies and secondary causes; — though God "hath wrought all our works for us," Isa. xxvi. 12; and "known unto him are all his works from the beginning of the world," Acts xv. 18.
Thirdly, To show that the bulk of this people are as yet in the wilderness, far from their resting-place, like sheep upon the mountains, as once Israel, Jer. l. 6, — as yet wanting help by the gospel.
The two first of these will be cleared by discovering how that all revolutions here below — especially every thing that concerns the dispensation of the gospel and kingdom of the Lord Jesus — are carried along according to the eternally fixed purpose of God, free in itself, taking neither rise, growth, cause, nor occasion, from any thing amongst the sons of men.
The third, by laying open the helpless condition of gospel-wanting souls, with some particular application; to all which my text directly leads me.
The words in general are the relation of a message from heaven unto Paul, to direct him in the publishing of the gospel, — as to the place and persons wherein and to whom he was to preach. And in them you have these four things:--
1. The manner of it; it was by vision — "A vision appeared."
2. The time of it, — "In the night."
3. The bringer of it, — "A man of Macedonia."
4. The matter of it, — help for the Macedonians, interpreted, verse 18, to be by preaching of the gospel.
A little clearing of the words will make way for observations.
1. For the manner of the delivery of this message, — it was by vision. Of all the ways that God used of old to reveal himself unto any in an extraordinary manner, — which were sundry and various, Heb. i. 1, — there was no one so frequent as this of vision. Wherein this did properly consist, and whereby it was distinguished from other ways of the discovery of the secrets of the Lord, I shall not now discuss. In general, visions are revelations of the mind of the Lord concerning some hidden things, present or future, and not otherwise to be known. And they were of two sorts.
(1.) Revelations merely by word or some other more internal species, without any outward sensible appearance; which, for the most part, was the Lord's way of proceeding with the prophets; — which transient light, or discovery of things before unknown, they called a vision. [17]
(2.) Revelations accompanied with some sensible apparitions, and that either, --
Of things; as usually, among the prophets, rods and pots, wheels and trees, lamps, axes, vessels, rams, goats, and the like, were presented unto them.
Of persons; and those, according to the variety of them, of three sorts.
1st, Of the second person of the Trinity; and this either, --
First, In respect of some glorious beams of his Deity; as to Isa. vi. 1, with John xii. 41; — to Dan. x. 5, 6, — as afterward to John, Rev. i. 13-15; to which you may add the apparitions of the glory of God not immediately designing the second person, as Ezek. i. 1.
Secondly, With reference to his humanity to be assumed; as to Abraham, Gen. xviii. 1, 2; — to Josh. v. 13-15, etc.
2dly, Of angels; as unto Peter, Acts xii. 7; — to the women, Matt. xxviii. 5; — to John, Rev. xxii. 8, etc.
3dly, Of men; as in my text.
Now, the several advancements of all these ways in dignity and pre-eminence, according as they clearly make out intellectual verity, or according to the honour and exaltation of that whereof apparition is made, are too fruitless a speculation for this day's exercise.
Our vision is of the latter sort, accompanied with a sensible appearance, and is called horama. There be two words in the New Testament signifying vision, horama and optasia, coming from different verbs, but both signifying to see. Some distinguish them, and say that optasia is a vision, — kath' hupar, an appearance to a man awake; horama, — kath' onar, an appearance to a man asleep, called sometimes a dream, Job xxxiii. 15, — like that which was made to Joseph, Matt. ii. 19. But this distinction will not hold, our Saviour calling that vision which his disciples had at his transfiguration, when doubtless they were waking, horama, Matt. xvii. 9. So that I conceive Paul had his vision waking; — and the night is specified as the time thereof, not to intimate his being asleep, but rather his watchfulness, seeking counsel of God in the night which way he should apply himself in the preaching of the gospel. And such I suppose was that of latter days, whereby God revealed to Zuinglius a strong confirmation of the doctrine of the Lord's supper, from Exod. xii. 11, against the factors for that monstrous figment of transubstantiation.