A53702:64
An humble testimony unto the goodness and severity of God in his dealing with…
An humble testimony unto the goodness and severity of God in his dealing with sinful churches and nations, or, The only way to deliver a sinful nation from utter ruin by impendent judgments, in a discourse on the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, Luk. 13, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 / by John Owen.An humble testimony unto the goodness and severity of God in his dealing with sinful churches and nations, or, The only way to deliver a sinful nation from utter ruine by impendent judgments, in a discourse on the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, Luk. 13, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 / by John Owen.
London: printed for Nathanael Ponder, 1681
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
2. Judgments on private men in such a season are warnings to the public. This is intimated by our Saviour in this place; Namely, that God uses a Sovereignty herein, by singling out whom he pleaseth to make them Examples unto others; this saith he, was the sole reason, as far as you are concerned to judge or know, why God brought these sore destructions upon them; namely, that by these Warnings he might call you to Repentance. Yet I judge God doth not ordinarily exercise his Sovereignty in this kind, unless it be when all have deserved to be destroyed; and then, as in the Sedition and Mutiny of Military Legions, they decimated them, or slew some for an example and terror unto others; so God calls out of a guilty multitude whom he pleaseth, to make previous Instances of approaching Judgments.
2. Judgments on private men in such a season are warnings to the publick. This is intimated by our Saviour in this place; Namely, that God uses a Soveraignty herein, by singling out whom he pleaseth to make them Examples unto others; this saith he, was the sole reason, as far as you are concerned to judge or know, why God brought these sore destructions upon them; namely, that by these Warnings he might call you to Repentance. Yet I judge God doth not ordinarily exercise his Soveraignty in this kind, unless it be when all have deserved to be destroyed; and then, as in the Sedition and Mutiny of Military Legions, they decimated them, or slew some for an example and terrour unto others; so God calls out of a guilty multitude whom he pleaseth, to make previous Instances of approaching Judgments.
3. Those who first fall under Judgments, are not always the worst that Judgments shall befall, nor are the first Judgments usually the most severe; so it is plain in these Instances. And because we have Instances of this nature amongst us, we should consider how to make a right Judgment concerning them; and these three things we may safely determine.