John Owen · 95 of 157

Sermon XVI. Luke xiii. 1–5. · Part 7

I have heard that in the country, where a man is looked on to be a wise man and a good husbandman among his neighbours, they will note the times of his ploughing, sowing, and manuring his ground, and not undertake any thing until they find him going before them in it. And if men are looked on in a peculiar manner as professors of religion at such a time as this, under calls and warnings from God for repentance and reformation, the eyes of other men will be towards them, to see what they do on this occasion. And if they find them, as unto all outward appearance, careless and negligent, they will judge themselves unconcerned, and abide in their security. Wherefore, so far as I know, if such persons be not exemplary, not only in repentance, but also in the evidence and demonstration of it by its outward fruits, they may be, and are, the great obstructers of the reformation of the cities, towns, and places wherein they do inhabit; nor can any contract the guilt of a greater sin. And if God should bring an overflowing scourge on the inhabitants of this land, because they have not turned unto him at his calls, it is most righteous that they should share in the judgment also who were an occasion of their continuance in security, — a matter we have all just cause to tremble at.