POSTHUMOUS SERMONS.

PART III.

SERMONS PUBLISHED

M.DCC.LVI.

"He being dead yet speaketh."—HEB. xi. 4.

PREFATORY NOTE.

ALL the information needed in regard to the following thirteen Discourses is given in an advertisement prefixed to them when they were first published, in 1756. It is as follows:

"TO THE READER,-The following Discourses were preached by that truly venerable divine in the last century, Dr John Owen: and, in order to be fully satisfied they are genuine, Mrs Cooke of Stoke Newington, by this means informs the reader that her pious grandfather, Sir John Hartopp, Bart., wrote them in shorthand from the Doctor's own mouth, and then took the pains to transcribe them into long-hand; as thinking them worthy of being transmitted down to posterity. It is from his manuscripts this collection is now made public."

With the exception of the fourth and fifth, which are given in connection with the third, as these three Discourses relate to the origin, qualifications, and duties of the Christian minister, the rest of the Discourses under this division appear in chronological order. The division thus contains two Sermons on "the Everlasting Covenant the Believer's Support under Distress;" three Sermons preached at the ordination of ministers; four on "the Excellency of Christ;" and four on "the Use and Advantage of Faith.”—ED.

POSTHUMOUS SERMONS.

SERMON I.1

The Everlasting covenant, the believer's supfort under

DISTRESS.

"Although my house be not so with God; yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure: for this is all my salvation, and all my desire, although he make it not to grow."-2 SAM. xxiii. 5.

BEFORE I open these words, I shall read the whole context, from the 1st verse unto the end of the 7th: "Now these be the last words of David. David the son of Jesse said, and the man who was," etc.

"Now these be the last words of David;"-not absolutely, for you will find, both in the book of Samuel and also in the book of Chronicles, that David spake many words after these: but these were the last prophetical words of David; or this is the last prophecy of David. And he gives an account in this prophecy of all the faith and experience he had had in the world; and it comprises also the sum and substance of all he had prophesied of;-prophesied of as a king, the anointed of the God of Jacob; and prophesied of as a psalmist, as he was "The sweet psalmist of Israel.”

Now there are three parts of this last prophecy of David:

The first of them concerns the subject of all prophecy and promises that he had preached about and declared; and that is Christ himself, in the 3d and 4th verses; the second of them concerns himself, as he was a type of Christ, verse 5; and the third part concerns Satan and the enemies of the church, in opposition unto the kingdom of Jesus Christ.

The first part of his prophecy concerns Christ himself, verses 3, 4, "The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spake to me, He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God." So we have rendered the words; but if you look into the Bible, that "must be" is put into the text by the misunderstanding of them by interpreters.

This sermon was preached June 27, 1669.

The words are, Y DIN ;"The ruler in or over men is the Just One;" which is Christ himself, who alone is this this "ruler." The word may be two ways interpreted (for to interpret it of a man that ruleth over men, the word will no way bear it, nor the prophecy); -the DT must be, either, "He that rules in the human nature is the Just One;" or, "He that rules over the human nature" (in all saints), "he is just," saith he; " and he rules in" or by " the fear of God.” As, in Isa. xi. 3, it is prophesied of him, " He shall be of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD;" so here it is prophesied of him, that he shall rule in or by the fear of God;—that is the sceptre he shall have in the hearts of men,-that is the law he shall put upon the souls of his subjects: he shall rule them neither by outward violence nor force, nor any thing of that nature; but he shall rule them by the fear of God. Verse 4 declares, by sundry comparisons, what he shall be: Why, saith he, "He shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds; as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain." You know how often these things are applied unto Christ. He is called in Malachi, "The Sun of righteousness that ariseth," chap. iv. 2; he is called "The Day-spring from on high," Luke i. 78; and he is called "The bright and morning Star," Rev. xxii. 16. He is both a sun, and morning star, and day-spring. He shall be as the morning, that brings light, comfort, joy, refreshment to the church. "He shall be as a morning without clouds;"--there is no darkness in the kingdom of Christ. And he shall be as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain; "--the same with that in Isaiah, "He shall spring up as the tender branch out of the earth." You know the reason of the allusion: when the grass hath been long dried, and there comes a great rain upon it, and clear shining upon that rain, how will the grass spring up! There was to be a great drought upon the church; but Christ comes, and he was as the rain, and as the sun shining upon the rain; then there was a springing up with great glory, and unto great fruitfulness.

It is a duty to apprize the reader, that the passage from which the text of Owen is selected has occasioned much embarrassment to critics. On the strength of a patient collation of old manuscripts, Kennicott has proposed important changes on the present rendering in our authorized version. The changes principally relate to the insertion of "Jehovah" in verse 4, the omission of the negative in the first clause of verse 5, and the connection of the last words of the same verse with the first words of the verse that follows. Michaelis affirms, "that, in the latter chapters of the Second Book of Samuel, the manuscripts have come down to us more disfigured with mistakes than in any other part of the Old Testament." The alterations proposed in the present instance serve to evince the prophetic character of the passage, as descriptive of the Messiah, and to strengthen the evidence of his divinity. The reader must be referred to the discussion of this passage by a master in Israel, Dr Pye Smith, in his profound and exhaustive work on "The Scripture Testimony to the Messiah," etc. We add his proposed version

I will at present overlook the 5th verse, to which I am to return; and only show that the 6th and 7th verses do contain a prophecy of the enemies of the church; as this does of Christ. "Belial shall be thrust away as thorns." We render it, "The sons of Belial;" but it is only Belial;-" Belial all of it, the whole name of Belial." Sometimes the word is taken for wicked men, and sometimes for the prince of wicked men; as here for the devil and all his agents. And he follows on his allusion, that "they cannot be taken with hands;" Satan and his seed are so full of thorns and prickles against the church, that you can never seize them by the hand to bring them to any order. And the next verse gives caution how well we must be fenced if we touch them. This is the design of the prophecy.

I now return unto that part which I shall a little more distinctly open unto you, that concerns David himself, as he was chosen to be the great type of Christ. Saith he, "This Ruler of men, he shall be as the clear morning without clouds; although my house be not so with God."

There are two things in the words:-First, A supposition of a great disappointment and surprisal. Secondly, A relief against and under that disappointment and surprisal.

FIRST. A great surprisal and disappointment: "Although my house be not so with God." "I have looked that it should be otherwise," saith he,-"that my house should have a great deal of glory, especially, that my house should be upright with God; but I begin to see it will be otherwise." You may observe, David's heart was exceedingly set of the passage; which agrees substantially with the version proposed by Ken

nicott:

Owen himself, as will be seen above, very properly corrects the authorized version in one point; and thus warrants our reference to subsequent discoveries, by which greater accuracy has been imparted to the original text in this part of Scripture. His own reasoning in the discourse principally depends upon the negative in the beginning of verse 5, which Kennicott would omit, on the slender autho rity, as it appears, of one manuscript dating from the close of the thirteenth cen. tury. It is a fair question, therefore, if the external evidence for the rejection of the negative be as strong as for the insertion of " Jehovah" in the preceding verse. Boothroyd, attaching an interrogative sense to the particle ", throws the clause into the form of a question, and elicits the best meaning with the least violence to the text," Is not my house thus with God?"

It will be found, however, that the chief aim of Owen is to educe from the covenant of grace considerations fitted to sustain and console the minds of Christians under the grief of blighted hope. His argument is conclusive, whatever becomes of the mere criticism of his text.-ED.