A90288:117
A sermon preached to the Honourable House of Commons, in Parliament assembled
A sermon preached to the Honourable House of Commons, in Parliament assembled: on January 31. A day of solemn humiliation. With a discourse about toleration, and the duty of the civill magistrate about religion, thereunto annexed. Humbly presented to them, and all peace-loving men of this nation. / By John Owen, pastor of the Church of Christ, which is at Coggeshall in Essex.A sermon preached to the Honourable House of Commons, in Parliament assembled: on January 31. A day of solemne humiliation. With a discourse about toleration, and the duty of the civill magistrate about religion, thereunto annexed. Humbly presented to them, and all peace-loving men of this nation. / By John Owen, pastor of the Church of Christ, which is at Coggeshall in Essex.
London: printed by Matthew Simmons for Henry Cripps, 1649
Title page typeset from the transcription.
A Sermon Preached to the Honourable House of Commons, Jan. 31. 1648.
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. Self-seeking, when men can be content to lay a Nation ⟨p. 21⟩low, that they may set up themselves upon the heaps and ruins thereof. Have not some sought to advance themselves under that power, which with the lives and blood of the People they have opposed? Seeming to be troubled at former things, not because they were done, but because they were not done by them. But innocent blood will be found a Tottering foundation for men to build their Honours, Greatness, and Preferments upon. O return not in this unto any. If men serve themselves of the Nation, they must expect that the Nation will serve it self upon them. The best security you can possibly have that the People will perform their duty in obedience, is the witness of your own consciences, that you have discharged your duty towards them, in seeking their good, by your own trouble, and not your own advantages in their trouble. I doubt not but that in this, your practice makes the admonition a commendation, otherwise the word spoken, will certainly witness against you.
2. Selfe-seeking, when men can be content to lay a Nation ⟨p. 21⟩low, that they may set up themselves upon the heapes and ruines thereof. Have not some sought to advance themselves under that power, which with the lives and blood of the People they have opposed? Seeming to be troubled at former things, not because they were done, but because they were not done by them. But innocent blood will be found a Tottering foundation for men to build their Honours, Greatnesse, and Preferments upon. O returne not in this unto any. If men serve themselves of the Nation, they must expect that the Nation will serve it selfe upon them. The best security you can possibly have that the People will performe their duty in obedience, is the witnesse of your own consciences, that you have discharged your duty towards them, in seeking their good, by your owne trouble, and not your owne advantages in their trouble. I doubt not but that in this, your practice makes the admonition a commendation, otherwise the word spoken, will certainly witnesse against you.