DISCOURSE. -"Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God; being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the DISCOURSE.-"Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."-MATT. xxviii. 20 571 DISCOURSE." That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death."-PHIL. DISCOURSES." For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread: and, when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat; this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."-GAL. ii. 20 DISCOURSE.- -"And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge."-—EPH. DISCOURSE." As often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup," etc.-1 COR. 609 615 PREFATORY NOTE. THE following is the first of Owen's posthumous Sermons. It was preached on the occasion of a fast, December 22, 1681; and was published separately, in 1690, with the subjoined quaint preface by Daniel Burgess. The latter was the son of an excellent Nonconformist minister, Daniel Burgess, who was ejected from Collinburn, Wiltshire, under the Bartholomew Act, 1662. The son was a somewhat eccentric but celebrated and much-respected preacher in London,-a kind of Latimer among the Nonconformists of his time. He died in 1713, and his funeral sermon was preached by Matthew Henry: "TO THE READER,-Upon the desire of some interested in the publication of this sermon, I have perused it, and do communicate these my thoughts concerning it. "There appear unto me in it those two things, which do above all others commend any sermon, or any other book,-namely, most weighty and seasonable argument, with very judicious and methodical management. "If I am able to judge, the management speaks arma virumque, the man and his furniture; and it is, like its great author, well known to this age, and like to be so unto future ones by his writings, in more than one language. There is a favour due unto all posthumous pieces,—of which sort this is; but there is little need that this piece seems to have of it. "As for its argument, it is very salvation; and that not merely personal or domestical, but national. This, if any thing, will be acknowledged momentous; and now, if ever, it must be acknowledged seasonable;-now, in this our day, 'known only to the Lord;'-nay, now, that it is neither day nor night, as the prophet speaks;-now, that city and country are crying, ' Watchman, what of the night watchman, what of the night?'-now, that the three frightful signs of approaching night are so upon us; I mean, shadows growing long, labourers going apace home, and wild beasts going boldly abroad. Quis talia fando temperet à lachrymis ?' "In a word, here is that which will sufficiently recommend itself to all serious readers. It is the complaint of many, that our booksellers' shops are become heaps of dry sand, in which many a rich stone is lost: but it is known to all, that diamonds will be found out by their own lustre; and I make no great question but so this sermon will be. That it may be so, and may go much abroad, and do good wherever it comes, is the prayer of "Thy servant in Christ Jesus, "From my house in Bridges Street, in Covent Garden, Aug. 7, 1690." "D. BURGESS." POSTHUMOUS SERMONS. SERMON. SEASONABLE words FOR ENGLISH FROTESTANTS. "For Israel hath not been forsaken, nor Judah of his God, of the LORD of hosts; though their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel.”—JER. li. 5. THIS chapter and the foregoing are an eminent prophecy and prediction of the destruction of Babylon and of the land of the Chaldeans,--of the metropolitical city of the empire and of the nation itself. There is a double occasion for the inserting of these words. The first is, to declare the grounds and reasons why God would bring that destruction upon Babylon, and upon the land of the Chaldeans. The words of verse 4 are, "The slain shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans, and they that are thrust through in her streets." Why so? "For," saith he, Israel hath not been forsaken." The reason why God will destroy the empire of Babylon is, because he will remember Israel, and what they have done against him. This lies in store for another Babylon, in God's appointed time. The second reason is, that it may be for the comfort, for the supportment of Israel and Judah under that distress which was then befalling them, upon the entrance of this Babylon in the land of the Chaldeans. "Notwithstanding all," saith he, "yet Israel is not forsaken, nor Judah of his God.' We are called this day to join our cries with the nation in the behalf of the land of our nativity. And though it hath been, as most of you know, my constant course, on such solemn days as these are, to treat in particular about our own sins, our own decays, our own means of recovery; yet, upon this occasion, I shall, as God shall help me, from these words, represent unto you the state of the nation wherein we live, and the only way and means for our deliverance from universal destruction. To declare our interest herein, some things must be observed concerning this Babylon, whose destruction is so solemnly prophesied of in this and the foregoing chapter; and I must observe three things concerning it:— First. That Babylon was the original of apostasy from the natural |