Prefatory note.

This sermon, from Heb. xii. 27, was preached before Parliament on a day set apart for extraordinary humiliation. It was in connection with this sermon that Owen for the first time was introduced to Oliver Cromwell; who, with other officers, listened to it, and afterwards made acquaintance with the preacher, under the circumstances mentioned in the “Life,” etc., vol. i. p. 42. Cromwell was preparing to go to Ireland, and procured the appointment of Owen to accompany him, in order that the affairs of Trinity College, Dublin, might be adjusted and placed on a proper footing. — Ed.