Life of Dr Owen
by Rev. Andrew Thomson, B.A.,
Edinburgh
“Semper quidem operæ pretium fuit illustres sanctorum describere vitas, ut sint in speculum et exemplum et quoddam veluti condimentum vitæ hominum super terram. Per hoc enim quodammodo apud nos etiam post mortem vivunt, multosque ex iis qui vivntes mortui sunt, ad veram vitam provocant et revocant.”
It
is matter of just regret and complaint that no elaborate contemporary memoir of
this great Puritan was ever written.
Twenty years after his death, Cotton Mather, in his “Magnalia Americana Christi,” declared “that the church of God was wronged, in that the life
of the great John Owen was not written;” and it was only when twenty years more
had elapsed that a life of Owen at length appeared, from the pen of Mr Asty, a
respectable Independent minister in London; which, though written under the eye
of Sir John Hartopp, a particular friend of Owen, and for many years a member
of his church, is chargeable with numerous inaccuracies, and so scanty withal,
as “not to contain so many pages as Owen has written books.” Orme’s
Memoirs of Owen, p. 2.
The
genealogy of the subject of our memoir leads us back to a family of high rank
and reputation in Wales, whose remoter links connect it with the five regal
tribes. In the reigns of Henry VIII.,
Edward VI., and Queen Mary, we meet with the name of Lewis Owen as
Vice-chamberlain and Baron of the Exchequer in North Wales, and High Sheriff of
the county of Merioneth; as honoured by correspondence with those monarchs in
reference to the affairs of Wales and as going forth on a commission to clear
the country of those felons and outlaws who had sought refuge in great numbers
among its mountains, during the turbulence and relaxed authority that had
arisen from the long wars between the houses of York and Lancaster. At a later period this honoured ancestor
fell a sacrifice to his fidelity as a magistrate; for, on his return from the
assizes in Montgomeryshire, he fell into the hands of a band of outlaws, who
had taken a vow of revenge against him on account of the capture of their
companions, and, deserted by all but one faithful friend, was murdered by them
in the woods of Monthrey. Asty’s
Memoir, p. ii. Anonymous Memoir, p. v.
Humphrey
Owen, a branch of this same family, married Susan, a granddaughter of Lewis
Owen; and to him there were born in succession fifteen sons, the youngest of
whom was Henry Owen. Henry was
dedicated by his parents to office in the church, and having received an
education, in language, philosophy, and divinity, at Oxford, in the course of
time became vicar of Stadham, in Oxfordshire.
Here he proved himself so “painful a labourer in the vineyard of the
Lord,” and so uncompromising an advocate for reformation in the church, as to
receive testimony to his fidelity in the jealousy and displeasure of the
dominant ecclesiastical powers, and to be branded with the name of
“Puritan.” To this worthy vicar there
was born, at Stadham, in the year 1616, a second son, John Owen, the subject of this memoir, who was destined to
shed a new renown on their ancient house, and to eclipse, by the more
substantial glory of his virtues, learning, and genius, the dim lustre of their
regal lineage. Ibid.
Little
is known regarding the childhood of Owen; and no records whatever have
descended to tell us of the mother to whom was committed the training of his
most susceptible years, and who was to be Wood’s Athenæ Oxoniensis,
p. 97. Orme, p. 7. Hamilton’s
Memoir of Bishop Hall, p. viii. Urwick’s
Life of Howe, p. vi.
Few men
of great eminence appear to have occupied the chairs of the university at this
period; but Owen was fortunate enough to have his studies in mathematics and
philosophy superintended by a tutor of solid attainments and subsequent high
distinction, — Thomas Barlow, then a fellow of Queen’s College, afterwards its
provost, and who, in course of time, was elevated to the see of Lincoln. We have
additional authority for many of the above facts in one of the larger
epitaphs on Owen by his friend the Rev. T. Gilbert of Oxford; some lines of
which we subjoin:— Asty, p.
iii. Orme, p. 9.
Still,
the hours which are taken from needful rest are not redeemed, but borrowed, and
must be paid back with double interest in future life; and Owen, when he began
to feel his iron frame required to pay the penalty of his youthful enthusiasm,
was accustomed to declare that he would willingly part with all the learning he
had accumulated by such means, if he might but recover the health which he had
lost in the gaining of it. And he was
wont to confess with a far profounder sorrow, not unmixed with shame, that no
holy oil at this time fed his midnight lamp; but that the great motive which
had borne him up, during those days and nights of consuming toil, was an
ambition to rise to distinction and power in the church. We can well believe that the severity of
this self-condemnation would, by a judge more tender than himself, have so far
been mitigated by the knowledge of another motive, which must have had
considerable influence upon his mind, arising from the fact that his father had
been unable to render him any adequate pecuniary assistance, and that he had
hitherto been indebted for his support to the liberality of an uncle in
Wales. But still, when more amiable
motives have been allowed their full force, a mere earthly ambition must be
acknowledged to have been the mainspring of all his past efforts; and we cannot
doubt that, when he returned to the university at a future period, these
condemnatory reminiscences arose strongly in his mind, and that, like Philip
Henry in similar circumstances, while thanking God that his course had been
unstained by vices, he could insert in his book, “A tear dropped over my
university sins.” Bogue and
Bennet’s History of Dissenters, ii. 211, 226.
Jenkyn’s
Essay on the Life of Baxter, pp. iii.–v.
We have
no minute information regarding the means by which his mind was first turned
with serious personal interest to the supreme subject of religion. Perhaps the dormant seeds of early
instruction that had been lodged in his mind under the roof of the humble
vicarage now began to live; perhaps some of those truths which he was storing
in his mind as matter of mere intellectual furniture and accomplishment had
unexpectedly reached his heart; or the earnest struggles on religious questions
that were beginning to agitate the
While
his mind was undergoing this great change, events were occurring in the
government of the university which were fitted to put his religious principle
to the test, and to try it, as it were, by fire. William Laud having, by a succession of rapid advancements, been
raised to the chancellorship of Oxford, hastened to introduce into it those
Romish innovations which, as the privy councillor and principal adviser of
Charles, and the intimate associate of Strafford, he had already done much to
infuse into the general ecclesiastical policy of the nation. The naturally arrogant and domineering
spirit of this narrow-minded ecclesiastic, whom even Clarendon describes as
“rough of temper, impatient of contradiction, and arbitrary,” Heylin’s
Life of Laud, p. 252.
This
bold innovation at once dragged Owen from the privacy of his student-life into
all the stern struggles of a public career.
And his mind, delivered by the fear of God from every other fear, was
not slow in resolving on resistance to the bigoted prelate’s intolerant
statutes. Many of the rites which Laud
imposed were such as he in conscience believed to be divinely forbidden; and
even things which, if left unimposed, might have been borne with as matters of
indifference, when authoritatively enjoined as of equal obligation with divine
appointment, he felt ought to be resisted as an invasion of the divine
prerogative
“They [believers] will receive nothing, practise nothing, own nothing in His worship, but what is of His appointment. They know that from the foundation of the world he never did allow, nor ever will, that in any thing the will of the creatures should be the measure of his honour, or the principle of His worship, either as to matter or manner. It was a witty and true sense that one gave of the Second Commandment, ‘Non imago, non simulachrum prohibetur, sed, non facies tibi;’ — it is a making to ourselves, an inventing, a finding out ways of worship, or means of honouring God, not by him appointed, that is so severely forbidden. Believers know what entertainment all will-worship finds with God. ‘Who has required this at your hand?’ and, ‘In vain do ye worship me, teaching for doctrines the traditions of men,’ is the best it meets with. I shall take leave to say what is upon my heart, and what (the Lord assisting) I shall willing endeavour to make good against all the world, — namely, that that principle, that the church has power to institute and appoint any thing or ceremony belonging to the worship of God, either as to matter or to manner, beyond the orderly observance of such circumstances as necessarily attend such ordinances as Christ himself has instituted, lies at the bottom of all the horrible superstition and idolatry, of all the confusion, blood, persecution, and wars, that have for so long a season spread themselves over the face of the Christian world; and that it is the design of a great part of the Book of the Revelation to make a discovery of this truth.
“And I doubt not but that the great controversy which God has had with this nation for so many years, and which he has pursued with so much anger and indignation, was upon this account, that, contrary to the glorious light of the Gospel, which shone among us, the wills and fancies of men, under the name of order, decency, and authority of the church (a chimera that none knew what it was, not wherein the power did consist, nor in whom reside), were imposed on men in the ways and worship of God. Neither was all that pretence of glory, beauty, comeliness, and conformity, that then was pleaded, any thing more or less than what God does so describe in the Church
of Israel, Ezek. xvi. 25 , and forwards. Hence was the Spirit of God in prayer derided, — hence was the powerful preaching of the gospel despised, — hence was the Sabbath-day decried, — hence was holiness stigmatized and persecuted. To what ends that Jesus Christ might be deposed from the sole power of lawmaking in his church, — that the true husband might be thrust aside, and adulterers of his spouse embraced, — that taskmasters might be appointed in and over his house, which he never gave to his church,Eph. iv. 11 , — that a ceremonious, pompous, outward show-worship, drawn from Pagan, Judaical, and Antichristian observances, might be introduced; of all which there is not one word, tittle, or iota in the whole book of God. This, then, they who hold communion with Christ are careful of, — they will admit nothing, practise nothing, in the worship of God, private or public, but what they have his warrant for. Unless it comes in his name, with ‘Thus saith the Lord Jesus,’ they will not hear an angel from heaven.”Owen on Communion with God, pp. 309, 310, fol. ed.
While
the well-informed conscience of Owen thus distinctly forbade conformity, every
consideration of seeming worldly interest strongly pleaded for pliant
acquiescence in the statutes of Laud.
To abandon Oxford, was to dash from him at once all those fair prospects
which had hitherto shone before him in his career as a student, — to shut
against himself the door, not only of honourable preferment, but, as it
probably at this time appeared to his mind, of Christian usefulness, — to incur
the inevitable displeasure of that prelate, whose keen and sleepless efforts to
search out all who were opposed to his policy had already subjected every
corner of the realm to a vigilant and minute inspection, and whose cruel and
malignant spirit was already finding desolating scope in the unconstitutional
measures and atrocities of the Star Chamber and the High Commission. And even though these latter perils might
seem to be remote as yet from his head, yet could he not be blind to the fact,
that, by such a step, he might incur the implacable displeasure of his Royalist
uncle in Wales, who had hitherto supplied him with the principal means of
support at Oxford, and expressed his intention, in case of continued
satisfaction with his conduct, of making him heir to his estates. Yet all these probable consequences of
non-compliance Owen was willing to incur, rather than violate his sense of
duty, “esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than all the treasures
of Egypt;” and, at the age of twenty-one, might have been seen leaving behind
him all the daydreams and cherished associations of more than ten youthful
years, and passing through the gates of Oxford self-exiled for conscience’
sake. God was now educating him in a
higher school than that of Oxford, and subjecting him to that fiery discipline
by
Owen had
“commenced master of arts” in his nineteenth year, and not long before leaving
Oxford, had been admitted to orders by Bishop Bancroft. He now found a home unexpectedly opened to
him in the house of Sir Philip Dormer of Ascot, who invited him to become chaplain
to his family, and tutor to his eldest son; “in both which respects,” says one
of the oldest notices of Owen, “he acquitted himself with great satisfaction to
Sir Robert and his family.” Anon. Mem.,
p. ix. Wood’s
Athen. Oxen., p. 97. Vaughen’s
Memorials of the Stuart Dynasty, I., ch. vii.–xi.
Leaving
Berkshire, Owen now removed to London, and took up his residence in
Charter-House Yard. Here he continued
to suffer from that mental depression which had begun with his earliest
religious anxieties at Oxford; and which, though partially relieved at
intervals, had never yet been completely removed. Some influence is no doubt
But the
time had come when the burden was to fall from Owen’s shoulders; and few things
in his life are more truly interesting than the means by which it was
unloosed. Dr Edmund Calamy was at this
time minister in Aldermanbury Chapel, and attracted multitudes by his manly eloquence. Owen had gone one Sabbath morning to hear
the celebrated Presbyterian preacher, and was much disappointed when he saw an
unknown stranger from the country enter the pulpit. His companion suggested that they should leave the chapel, and
hasten to the peace of worship of another celebrated preacher; but Owen’s
strength being already exhausted, he determined to remain. After a prayer of simple earnestness, the
text was announced in these words of Asty, p.
v. Anon. Mem., p. x.
There is a marked divine selection visible in the humble instrument that was thus employed to bring peace to Owen’s mind. We trace in it the same wisdom that sent a humble Ananias to remove the scales from the eyes of Saul, and made the poor tent-maker and his wife the instructors of the eloquent Apollos. And can we doubt that when the fame of Owen’s learning and intellectual power had spread far and wide, so that even foreign divines are said to have studied our language in order that they might read his works the recollection of the mode of his own spiritual deliverance would repress all self-dependence and elation, and make him feel that the highest form of success in preaching was in no respect the monopoly of high intellectual gifts; but that in every instance it was, “not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord?”
The mind
of Owen, now effectually relieved from the burden of spiritual distress, soon
recovered its elasticity and vigour; and in March 1642 he gave to the world his
first literary production, — “The Display of Arminianism.” In all likelihood he had been silently
labouring at this work while in the families of Sir Philip Dormer and Lord
Lovelace; more especially as his mental distress may have had some connection
with a misunderstanding of certain of those points of which the Arminian
controversy touches, and have led to their more full examination. But we may discover the principal occasion
of the work in the ecclesiastical policy of the period, and in the strain of
doctrinal sentiment which that policy had long aimed to foster and to
propagate. Laud and his party had shown
themselves as zealous for the peculiar dogmas of Arminianism, as for Romish
rites and vestment and for passive obedience; and the dogmas had been received
into royal favour because of their association with the advocacy of
superstitious ceremonies and the defence of despotic rule. Arminianism having thus been constituted the
exclusive way to preferment, had become
A remark by Owen, in his address to the reader, correctly describes the Laudean policy: “Had a poor Puritan offended against half so many canons as they opposed articles, he had forfeited his livelihood, if not endangered his life.” And in another passage he explains the progress of Arminianism in England: “The chief cause I take to be that which Æneas Sylvius gave, why more maintained the pope to be above the council than the council above the pope; — because the popes gave archbishoprics and bishoprics, &c, but the councils sued ‘in forma pauperis,’ and therefore could scarce get an advocate to plead their cause. The fates of our church having of late devolved the government of it on men tainted with this poison, Arminianism became backed with the powerful arguments of praise and preferment, and quickly beat poor naked Truth into a corner.”
Owen’s “Display” is a barrier raised against prevailing opinions. Each chapter contains a statement of the Arminian doctrine on the point discussed, with Owen’s answer; while at the end of each chapter the Arminian doctrine is more briefly stated, in the language of some Arminian writer, and confronted in opposite columns by passages of Scripture. Undoubtedly there are some things charged upon the Arminianism of those times which belong rather to the family of Pelagian errors, and which the pious Arminian of our own day would at all events repudiate. Nor is it to be denied that the work is not free, in some parts, of the fault which clings to so much theological controversy, — that of making individuals responsible, not only for the opinions they avow, but for all the consequences that you may deduce from them; yet, withal, it is rich in matter which must have staggered the courtly theologians of the age, — is hung all round with massive Calvinistic armour; and, though written in a more scholastic form than most of Owen’s subsequent works, gives indication of that spirit which was so characteristic of the Puritans, and pre-eminently of Owen, and which gave such a depth to their piety, — the spirit which connected all events with God, and bent with lowly and awe-struck feeling before the divine sovereignty.
Owen
dedicated his work to “The Lords and Gentlemen of the committee for Religion;”
who appointed it to be printed by the Committee of the House of Commons for
regulating the printing and publishing of books. Its publication is interesting on another account, — as having
been the means of introducing him to his first pastoral charge. The incumbent of Fordham in Essex having
been ejected from his living by the committee for purging the church of
scandalous
This
period of Owen’s early pastorate appears to have been one of the happiest of
his life. Fordham is a secluded
village, overhanging the fertile and pleasing valley of the Stour, which
divides Suffolk from Essex. Its
inhabitants, at the present day, number about seven hundred; but in the days of
Owen they could not have been by any means so numerous. In this retreat, and surrounded by a not
very dense rural population, We are indebted
for this information regarding the first scene of Owen’s ministry to the Rev.
Alexander Anderson, pastor of a Baptist Church, Colchester; who also informs us
that the signature of Owen is still to be seen in the parochial parish register
at Fordham (four miles distant), and that it has this peculiarity attached to
it, that whilst all preceding it, and also succeeding, so far as he continued
his examination, sign themselves “Parson,” the usual designation of the time,
his signature has the word “Pastor” invariably attached to it; showing that he
deliberately, and from the first, “preferred the more scriptural term of
‘pastor,’ to the presuming designation of parson, more especially if we accept
its common derivation, ‘Persona
ecclesiæ.’ ”
The productions of his pen at this period indicate the current of
his thoughts, and the liveliness of his evangelic zeal. The first of these is entitled, “The Duty of
Pastors and People Distinguished,” and was published in 1643. Its main design is to “describe the means to
be Preface, p.
10, ed. 1644. P. 38. P. 49. Owen quotes
with approbation (p. 54) the judgment and practice of the Church of Scotland,
as expressed in their Act of Assembly at Edinburgh, anno 1641. “Our Assembly also commandeth godly conference
at all occasional meetings, or as God’s providence shall dispose, as the Word
of God commandeth, providing none invade the pastor’s office, to preach the
Word, who are not called thereunto by God and his church.”
We still
trace the signs of the busy pastor in his next publication, which is entitled,
“The Principles of the Doctrine of Christ Unfolded, in Two Short Catechisms;”
the first being intended for young persons, the second for adults, and as an
aid to parents in domestic instruction.
We are reminded, as we look on the stalworth Puritan, who is soon to
mingle in the great theological discussions of the day, thus preparing “milk
for babes,” of Johnson’s admiring sentence on Isaac Watts: “Providing
instruction for all ages, from those who were lisping their first lessons, to
the enlightened readers of Malebranche and Locke.” Lives of
the Poets, iv. 164.
During these years of his laborious and unostentatious pastorate,
the solid reputation of Owen was extending, and on April 29, 1646, he was
appointed to preach before Parliament, on occasion of its monthly fast. The discourse is founded on Owen’s
Sermons, fol. ed., p. 214. Hume’s
History of England, vi. ch. li.
Vaughn’s Stuart Dynasty, ii. 74.
Not long
after this, Owen’s pastoral connection with Fordham was brought to a
close. The “sequestered incumbent”
whose place he had occupied died, and the right of presenting to the living
having in this way reverted to the patron, it was given to another. The event became the occasion of introducing
him to a wider sphere. The people of
Coggeshall, an important market-town of Essex, about five miles distant, no
sooner received the tidings of his deprivation than they sent a pressing
invitation to him to become their minister, — an invitation which the patron,
the Earl of Warwick, immediately confirmed.
Unlike Fordham, this new charge had previously been diligently cultivated
by a succession of faithful ministers; so that his work was not so much to lay
the foundation as to build. He soon
beheld himself surrounded by a congregation of nearly two thousand people,
whose general religious consistency and Christian intelligence were a delight
to his heart, and whose strong attachment to him subsequent events gave them
abundant opportunities of testifying. Wood’s
Athen. Oxon., iv. 100.
Contemporaneously
with these outward changes in Owen’s position,
There were principles, however, retained by Owen, both on the subject of the ruling elder and of synods, — as we shall have occasion to show in noticing some of his later writings, — which prove that his Congregationalism was of a somewhat modified character, and which a moderate Presbyterian of our own times, though not vaunting as identical with his views, would yet hail as evidence that the gulf between himself and the Congregationalist is not impassable. But the Presbyterians of Owen’s early days in general went much farther than those of the present age; and we deem it not the least of his honours that he refused to follow in their course. Not that we have any sympathy with those terms of unqualified censure with which the Presbyterians of that age have too often been characterized. During the period of their brief supremacy, they accomplished much for England. In proportion as we value those noble statements of doctrine, the Westminster Confession and Catechisms, must we be grateful to the Presbyterians, who took so prominent and cordial a part in those deliberations which produced them. Well-informed and candid men of other religious parties have not been slow to admit that those districts of England which were brought under a Presbyterian pastorate and polity, made visible progress in Christian intelligence and piety; and many of those measures which were adopted by them in opposition to Cromwell, and which have often been ascribed to hostility to liberty, were, in fact, honest endeavours on their part to restore a constitutional government. But the intolerant spirit which animated them at this particular juncture is neither to be extenuated nor denied.
Having
recently risen to power, they had become dazzled by the dream of an
impracticable uniformity, and, as Baxter, himself a Presbyterian, complains,
had shown too great a readiness to invoke to their aid in realizing this
ambitious dream the arm of secular power.
The endless diversity of opinion which the growing liberty and the
general ferment at the public mind had occasioned was regarded by them as evidence
of the dangers of unlimited toleration, and they imagined that amid such
discordant sounds truth must be indistinguishable, and even perish from the
earth. Owen’s mind had, meanwhile, far
advanced beyond these narrow views, and risen above these imaginary fears. He had boundless confidence in the vitality
of truth, — strong convictions of the power of its own spiritual weapons, and
of the utter impotence of every other: and while so many of those with whom he
hitherto been associated saw only, Owen’s
Sermons, fol. ed., p. 229.
“Eshcol”
was the work of Owen as a pastor; in the following year he was once more to
appear as a theologian and Christian polemic, in a work on which he had long
been secretly engaged, — “Salus
Electorum, Sanguis Iesu; or, the Death of Death in the
Death of Christ.” The great subject of
this treatise is the nature and extent of the death of Christ, with especial
reference to the Arminian sentiments on the latter subject. It is dedicated to the Earl of Warwick, the
good patron who had introduced Owen to Coggeshall, and warmly recommended by
two Presbyterian ministers as “pulling down the rotten house of Arminianism
upon the head of those Philistines who would uphold it.” The names
of these ministers are, Stanley Gower and Richard Byfield. Address to
the Reader. Gower’s
Attestation.
In those
parts of the present treatise in which he exhibits the glorious union and
co-operation of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in the work of redemption,
and represents the death of Christ as part of the divine plan which infallibly
secures the bringing of many sons unto glory, he has shown a mastery of
argument and a familiarity with the subject-matter of revelation, that leave
even the kindred treatise of Witsius far behind. Many modern Calvinists have, indeed, expressed a doubt whether,
in thus establishing the truth, he has yet established the whole truth; and
whether his masterly treatise would not have more completely exhibited the
teaching of Scripture on the relations of the death of Christ, had it shown
that, in addition to its more special designs, and in harmony with them, it
gave such satisfaction to the divine justice as to lay a broad and ample
foundation for the universal calls of the Gospel. It is quite true that the great object of the book is to prove
that Christ died for the elect only; and yet there are paragraphs in which
Owen, in common with all Calvinists worthy of the name who hold the same view,
argues for the true internal perfection and sufficiency of the sacrifice of
Christ, as affording a ground for the indiscriminate invitations of the Gospel,
in terms as strong and explicit as the most liberal Calvinist would care to
use. Book iv.
ch. i. sect. 1. The
controversy was protracted through many treatises, particularly on the side of
Baxter, in the appendix to his “Aphorisms on Justification,” in his “Confession
of Faith,” and in his “Five Disputations of Right to the Sacrements;” and, on
Owen’s part, in a small treatise, “Of the Death of Christ,” &c., and in the
close of his “Vindicæ
Evangelicæ.”
Various technical distinctions were introduced in the progress of the
discussion, — such as, whether the death of Christ was, “solutio ejusdem,
or only tantundem.” The frequent bandying of this and similar
scholastic phrases, in the theological controversies of the age, caught the ear
of the author of “Hudibras,” and served him at times as matter for ridicule:—
Neal, iii.
407. Asty, p. viii.
But in
the course of a few months, Owen was called to officiate in circumstances
unspeakably more critical. Charles I.
had been brought to trial before the High Court of Justice, on the charge of
being a traitor, tyrant, and murderer; and, in execution of its daring
judgment, beheaded before the gates of Whitehall. On the day following this awful transaction, Owen preached by command
before Parliament; and the manner in which he discharged this unsought and
perilous duty, it has been not unusual to represent as one of the most
vulnerable points in his public life.
His sermon, which is entitled, “Righteous Zeal Encouraged by Divine
Protection,” is founded on M’Crie’s
Miscellaneous Works, p. 502.
But is
there not a considerable amount of undue severity in all this? In all likelihood those who had demanded
this service of Owen blamed him for an opposite reason, and hoped that this
theologian of high renown and untainted reputation would, in the hour of their
extremity, have surrounded their daring act with something more than the
dubious sanction of his ominous silence.
But to ascribe his silence to cowardice, is to assume that he secretly
regarded the destruction of Charles as an indefensible act of crime. And was this necessarily Owen’s
judgment? It was surely possible that,
while believing that the party which had brought Charles to the scaffold had
violated the letter of the constitution, he may also have believed that it was
in righteous punishment of one whose whole career as a monarch had been one
long conspiracy against it, and who had aimed, by fourteen years of force and
perfidy, to establish despotism upon the ruins of popular liberty. He may have thought that treason was as
possible against the constitution as against the crown, and to the full as
criminal; and that where a king rejected all government by law, he could no
longer be entitled to the shelter of irresponsibility. He may have looked upon the death of Charles
as the last resource of a long-tried patience, — the decision of the question,
Who shall perish? the one, or the
million? We do not say that these were
actually Owen’s sentiments, but it is well known that they were the thoughts of
some of the purest and loftiest minds of that earnest age; and if Owen even
hesitated on these points, on which it is well known Milton believed, Milton’s
Tenure of Kings and Magistrates, Defence of the People of England.
Whatever
opinion may be formed of Owen’s conduct in the matter of the sermon, there are
few, we imagine, that will not look on the publication of his “Discourse on
Toleration,” annexed to the sermon, and presented to the Parliament along with
it, as one of the most honourable facts in the public life of this great
Puritan. The leading design of this
essay is to vindicate the principle, that errors in religion are not punishable
by the civil magistrate, with the exception of such as in their own nature, not
in some men’s apprehensions, disturb the order of society. Owen’s
Sermons, fol. ed., p. 291. Hess, Life
of Zwingle, pp. 148, 159–161. M’Crie’s
Miscellaneous Works, p. 473. Robertson’s
Charles I., iv. 131. M’Crie’s
Miscellaneous Works, p. 474.
On the
19th of April we find Owen once more summoned to preach before
Parliament, the chiefs of the army being also present; on which occasion he
preached his celebrated sermon, “On the Shaking of Heaven and Earth,” Asty, pp.
ix., x.
In the
interval between these arrangements and his departure for Ireland, we discover
Owen once more preaching before the officers of state and the House of Commons,
on occasion of the destruction of the Levellers; The title
of the sermon was, “Human Power Defeated,” Whitelock,
p. 434. Neal, iv. 4–6. Macaulay’s History of England, i. p. 121. Carlyle’s
Cromwell, i. p. 341.
It is no
task of ours to follow the course of Cromwell in his rapid and terrible
campaign, in which he descended upon Ireland “like the hammer of Thor,” and by
a few tremendous and almost exterminating strokes, as before the walls of
Drogheda, spread universal terror throughout the garrisons of Ireland, saving
more blood than if he had adopted a more feeble and hesitating course. His policy in Ireland finds its explanation
in two circumstances, — the impression that he had come as the instrument of a
just God to avenge the innocent blood of more than a hundred thousand
Protestants, — and the conviction that, in repressing a rebellion which
threatened the existence of the infant Commonwealth, the “iron hand,” though
the least amiable, was the most merciful, and would save the necessity of a
wider though more prolonged vengeance. D’Aubigné’s
Protector, ch. vi. Orme, p.
88. Sermon on
the Steadfastness of Promises, and the Sinfulness of Staggering, preached
before Parliament after his return from Ireland, on a day of humiliation,
But the
release which he was to enjoy was short.
Cromwell had scarcely returned from Ireland, when the state of Scotland
demanded his presence. That nation,
which had begun the resistance to the tyranny of the Stuarts, and to the worse
tyranny of Rome, had almost unanimously disapproved of the death of Charles,
and now looked with jealousy and hostility upon the government of the
Commonwealth. They had actually invited
Charles from the midst of his debaucheries of Breda to become their king; and,
deceived by his signing of the Covenant, were now meditating an attempt to
restore him to his father’s throne. In
all this Cromwell saw, on the part of the best of the Scottish people, an
honest and misguided zeal, which was aiming substantially at the same ends as
himself; but he saw in it not the less the most imminent danger to the liberty,
religion, and morality of England, and hastened to assert and establish in
Scotland the authority of the Commonwealth.
Simultaneously with this, an order passed the Commons requiring Joseph
Caryl and John Owen to attend on the Commander-general as ministers; Wood’s
Athen. Oxon., iv. 98.
We are
able to trace but a few of the steps of Owen in Scotland. He appears to have joined Cromwell at
Berwick, where he preached Carlyle’s
Cromwell, ii. 18. His second
sermon, on Carlyle’s
Cromwell, ii. 59. Ibid., ii.
79.
But long
ere Cromwell’s campaign in Scotland was over, and that last battle, in which he
gained “Worcester’s laureate wreath,” had Asty, p. x. His
preaching before Parliament, about the period of these appointments, appears to
have been frequent. On October 24,
1651, being the day of thanksgiving of the victory of Worcester, we find him
preaching his sermon entitled, “The Advantage of the Kingdom of Christ in the
Shaking of the Kingdoms of the World,”
The
office of dean of Christ Church involved in it the duty of presiding at all the
meetings of the college, and delivering lectures in divinity; while that of
vice-chancellor virtually committed to the hands of Owen the general government
of the university. A charge of
inconsistency has sometimes been brought against him, as an Independent, for
accepting such offices, especially that of dean; and even some sentences of
Milton have been adduced to give sanction to the complaint. But the whole charge proceeds on a mistake. It should be remembered that the University
of Oxford during the Commonwealth shared in those changes which befell so many
other institutions, and had ceased to be a mere appendage and buttress of
Episcopacy, and that the office as held by Owen was separated from its
ecclesiastical functions, and retained nothing, in fact, of Episcopacy Discourse
of Toleration, Owen’s Sermons, fol. ed. p. 308.
His
scruples in accepting office in Oxford, and especially in consenting to be
raised to the high position of vice-chancellor, arose from other causes; and it
needed all the authority of Cromwell, and all the influence of the senate,
completely to overcome them. It
required him to do violence to some of his best affections and strongest
predilections to tear himself away from the studious days and the happy pastorate
of Coggeshall; and perhaps it demanded a higher pitch of resolution still to
undertake the government of a university which had been brought to the very
brink of ruin by the civil wars, and from which, during the intervening years,
it had very partially recovered. During
those years of commotion, learning had almost been forgotten for arms; and
Oxford, throwing itself with a more than chivalrous loyalty into the cause of
Charles, had drained its treasury, and even melted its plate, in order to
retrieve his waning fortunes. The
consequence had been, that at the end of the civil war, when the cause of the
Parliament triumphed, many of its halls and colleges were closed; others of
them had been converted into magazines for stores and barracks for soldiers;
the studious habits of its youth had been completely disturbed, and the
university burdened with a debt of almost hopeless magnitude. Some of the worst of these evils still
remained, — others of them were only partially diminished; and when we add to
this the spirit of destructive Vandalism with which a noisy party began to
regard those ancient seats of learning, the licentiousness and insubordination
which the students had borrowed from the armies of the Royalists, as well as
the jealousy with which Owen was regarded by the secret friends of Episcopacy,
and by Presbyterians who had been displaced by Cromwell from high positions in
order to give place to Independents, it is easy to see that it required no
common courage to seize the helm at such a moment, to grapple with such varied
and formidable difficulties, and to reduce such discordant elements to peace. Neal, iii.
360, 361. Walker’s Sufferings of the
Clergy, pp. 122, 123, 128. Owen’s Oratio Quinta ad Academicos, anno
1657. “Per primum biennium vulgi fuimus
et vulgaris fabula.”
It is
only too evident that even at the present day it requires, in the case of many,
something like a mental effort against early prejudice, to conceive of this
Puritan pastor occupying the lofty eminence to which he was now raised with a
suitable amount of dignity and grace.
Not only the Vaughan’s
Modern Pulpit, p. 87.
But it
is remarkable, that all the leading men among the Puritan clergy were such as,
even in the matter of external grace and polish, might have stood before
kings. The native majesty of John Howe,
refined by intercourse with families of noble birth, and his radiant
countenance, as if formed meliore luto, linger even in his
portraits. Philip Henry, the playmate
of princes, bore with him into his country parish that “unbought grace of
life,” which, in spite of his sterner qualities, attracted towards him the most
polished families of his neighbourhood.
Richard Baxter was the chosen associate of Sir Matthew Hale; and,
contrary even to the popular notions of those whose sympathies are all on the
side of Puritanism, Owen bore with him into public life none of the uncouth and
lumbering pedantry of the recluse, but associated with his more solid qualities
all the lighter graces of courtesy and taste.
He is described by one contemporary as “of universal affability, ready
presence and discourse, liberal, graceful, and courteous demeanour, that speak
him certainly (whatsoever he be else) one that was more a gentleman than most
of the clergy.” “Authority
of the Magistrate in Religion Discussed,” &c., by J. H.; whom Anthony Wood
(Athen. Oxon., iv. 101) supposes to be John Humphrey. Wood’s
Athen. Oxon., ibid. — We subjoin Wood’s own caricature: “While he [Owen] did
undergo the same office, he, instead of being a grave example to the
university, scorned all formality, undervalued his office by going in quirpo
like a young scholar, with powdered hair, snakebone bandstrings (or bandstrings
with very large tassles), lawn bands, a very large set of ribbons pointed at
his knees, and Spanish leather boots with large lawn tops, and his hat mostly
cock’d.” — Ibid. 98.
“I am well aware,” said he, “gentlemen of the university, of the grief you must feel that, after so many venerable names, reverend persons, depositaries and preceptors of the arts and sciences, the fates of the university should have at last placed him as leader of the company who almost closes the rear. Neither, indeed, is this state of our affairs, of whatever kind it be, very agreeable to myself, since I am compelled to regard my return, after a long absence, to my beloved mother as a prelude to the duties of a laborious and difficult situation. But complaints are not remedies of any misfortune. Whatever their misfortune, groans become not grave and honourable men. It is the part of an undaunted mind boldly to bear up under a heavy burden. For, as the comic poet says, —
Terence, Adelph. iv. 7, 21.
“The academic vessel, too long, alas! tossed by storms, being almost entirely abandoned by all whose more advanced age, longer experience, and well-earned literary titles, excited great and just expectations, I have been called upon, by the partiality and too good opinion of him whose commands we must not gainsay, and with whom the most earnest entreaties to be excused were urged in vain, and also by the consenting suffrage of this senate; and, therefore although there is perhaps no one more unfit, I approach the helm. In what times, what manners, what diversities of opinion (dissensions and calumnies everywhere raging in consequence of party spirit), what bitter passions and provocations, what pride and malice, our academical authority has occurred, I both know and lament. Nor is it only the character of the age that distracts us, but another calamity to our literary establishment, which is daily becoming more conspicuous, — the contempt, namely, of the sacred authority of law, and of the reverence due to our ancestors; the watchful envy of Malignants; the despised tears and sobs of our almost dying mother, the university (with the eternal loss of the class of gownsmen, and the no small hazard of the whole institution); and the detestable audacity and licentiousness, manifestly Epicurean beyond all the bounds of modesty and piety, in which, alas! too many of the students indulge. Am
I, then, able, in this tottering state of all things, to apply a remedy to this complication of difficulties, in which so many and so great heroes have, in the most favourable times, laboured in vain? I am not, gentlemen, so self-sufficient. Were I to act the part of one so impertinently disposed to flatter himself, nay, were the slightest thought of such a nature to enter my mind, I should be quite displeased with myself. I live not so far from home, nor am such a stranger to myself, I use not my eyes so much in the manner of witches, as not to know well how scantily I am furnished with learning, prudence, authority, and wisdom. Antiquity has celebrated Lucullus as a prodigy in nature, who, though unacquainted with even the duty of a common soldier, became without any difficulty an expert general; so that the man whom the city sent out inexperienced in fighting, him the army received a complete master of the art of war. Be of good courage, gentlemen. I bring no prodigies; from the obscurity of a rural situation, from the din of arms, from journeys for the sake of the gospel into the most distant parts of the island, and also beyond sea, from the bustle of the court, I have retreated unskilful in the government of the university; unskilful, also, I am come hither. “ ‘What madness is this, then?’ you will say. ‘Why have you undertaken that which you are unable to execute, far less to adorn? You have judged very ill for yourself, for the university, and for this venerable senate.’ Softly, my hearers; neither hope nor courage wholly fails one who is swayed by the judgment, the wishes, the commands, the entreaties of the highest characters. We are not ourselves the sources of worthy deeds of any kind. ‘He who ministereth seed to the sower,’ and who from the mouths of infants has ordained strength, is able graciously to supply all defects, whether caused from without or felt within. Destitute, therefore, of any strength and boldness of my own, and of any adventitious aid through influence with the university, so far as I know or have deserved, it nevertheless remains to me to commit myself wholly to Him ‘who giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not.’ He has appointed an eternal fountain of supply in Christ, who furnisheth seasonable help to every pious endeavour, unless our littleness of faith stand in the way; thence must I wait and pray for light, for strength, and for courage. Trusting, therefore, in his graciously promised presence, according to the state of the times, and the opportunity which, through divine Providence we have obtained, — conscious integrity alone supplying the place of arts and of all embellishments, — without either a depressed or servile spirit, I address myself to this undertaking.”
Oratio prima, translated by Orme, pp. 128–131.
The
facts that have been preserved by Owen’s biographers sufficiently
Among
other honourable facts, it is recorded that he allowed a society of
Episcopalians to meet every Lord’s day over against his own door, “At the
house of Dr Willis the physician, not far from his own lodgings at
Christchurch.” — Biograph. Dict., x. 103. Asty, pp.
xi., xii. Calamy’s Noncon. Mem., i.
201. Wood’s Fasti, ii. 788.
But,
amid these generous and conciliatory measures, Owen knew how, by acts of
wholesome severity, to put a curb upon licentiousness, and to invigorate the
whole discipline of the university. At
a public Act, when one of the students of Trinity College was Terræ filius, he stood up before the student began, and told him in Latin that
he was at liberty to say what he pleased, on condition that he abstained from
all profane and obscene expressions and personal reflections. The student began, but soon violated all the
conditions that had been laid down to him.
Owen repeatedly warned him to desist from a course so dishonouring to
the university; but the youth obstinately persisting in the same strain, he at
length commanded the beadles to pull him down.
This was a signal for the students to interpose; on Asty, pp.
xi., xii.
But the
aims of the vice-chancellor rose far above the mere attempt to restrain
licentiousness within moderate bounds; — his whole arrangements were made with
the anxious desire of awakening and fostering among the students the power of a
living piety. His own example, as well
as the pervading spirit of his administration, would contribute much to this;
and there are not wanting individual facts to show with what earnestness he
watched and laboured for the religious well-being of the university. It had been customary for the Fellows to
preach by turn on the afternoon of the Lord’s day in St. Mary’s Church; but, on
its being found that the highest ends of preaching were often more injured than
advanced by this means, he determined to undertake this service alternately
with Dr Goodwin, the head of Magdalen College, and in this way to secure to the
youth of Oxford the advantage of a sound and serious ministry. It is interesting to open, nearly two
hundred years afterwards, the reminiscences of one of the students, and to read
his strong and grateful testimony to the benefits he had derived from these
arrangements of the Puritan vice-chancellor.
We have this privilege in the “Memoir of Philip Henry, by his son.” “He would often mention, with thankfulness
to God,” says the quaint and pious biographer, “what great helps and advantages
he had then in the university, — not only for learning, but for religion and
piety. Serious godliness was in
reputation; and, besides the public opportunities they had, many of the
scholars used to meet together for prayer and Christian conference, to the great
confirming of one another’s hearts in the fear and love of God, and the
preparing of them for the service of the church in their generation. I have heard him speak of the prudent method
they took then about the university sermons on the Lord’s day, in the
afternoon, which used to be preached by the fellows of colleges in their
course; but that being found not so much for edification, Dr Owen and Dr
Goodwin performed that service alternately, and the young masters that were
wont to preach it had a lecture on Tuesday appointed them.” Life and
Times of Philip Henry, p. 60.
But the
combined duties of his two onerous offices at Oxford did
On the
25th of August 1653 we again find him preaching, by command, before
Parliament, on occasion of that celebrated victory over the Dutch fleet which
established the reputation of the arms of the Commonwealth by sea, and paved
the way for an honourable and advantageous peace with Holland. In October of the same year he was invited
by Cromwell to London, to take part, along with some other ministers, in a
conference on Christian union. The
matter is stated in such interesting terms in one of the newspapers of the day,
and, besides, affords such a valuable incidental glimpse of Cromwell’s administration,
that we prefer giving it in the words of that document:— “Several ministers
were treated with by his Excellency the Lord-General Cromwell, to persuade them
that hold Christ, the head, and so are the same fundamentals, to agree in love,
— that there be no such divisions among people professing godliness as has
been, nor railing or reviling each other for difference only in forms. There were Mr Owen, Mr Marshall
(Presbyterian), Mr Nye (Independent), Mr Jessey (Baptist), Mr Harrison, and
others; to whom the advice and counsel of his Excellency were so sweet and
precious, and managed with each judgment and graciousness, that it is hoped it
will much tend to persuade those that fear the Lord in spirit and truth to
labour for the union of all God’s people.” Cromwelliana, Orme, p. 109.
It does
not appear that any immediate practical measures resulted from this
conference. The mistake, by which many
such laudable attempts were defeated, was that of attempting too much
incorporation was sought, when they should have been satisfied with mutual
Christian recognition and co-operation up to the point of agreement; and
sometimes a constrained silence on matters of difference, where there should
rather have been a generous forbearance.
But it is wrong to speak of such conferences and communing, when they
failed of their immediate object, as either useless or fruitless. To the good men who mingled in them, it must
have deepened the feeling of unity even where it did not increase its
manifestation, and even unconsciously to themselves must have lowered the walls
of division. Nor is it without interest
and instruction to remark, that the best men of His spirit
is expressed in the following tender words, with which he closed one his
debates: “While we wrangle here in the dark, we are dying, and passing to the
world that will decide all our controversies; and the safest passage thither is
by a peaceable holiness.”
It was
in all likelihood while Owen was attending in London on the meetings of this
conference, that the senate embraced the opportunity of diplomating him Doctor
of Divinity. For we find it recorded by
Wood in his “Fasti
Oxoniensis,” that, “On Dec 23, John Owen,
M.A., dean of Ch. Ch., and vice-chancellor of the university, was then (he
being at Lond.) diplomated doct. of div.”
He is said in his diploma to be “in
palæstra theologia exercitatissimus, in concionando assiduus et potens, in
disputando strenuus et acutus.” Wood’s
Fasti, ii. 179. Wood’s
Athen. Oxon., iv. 98.
In the
midst of these engagements, Dr Owen produced and published, in Latin, one of
his most abstruse dissertations, — “Diatriba
de Divina Justitia, etc.; or, the Claims of
Vindicatory Justice Asserted.” The
principle which it is the design of this treatise to explain and establish is,
that God, considered as a moral governor, could not forgive sin without an
atonement, or such provision for his justice as that which is made by the
sacrifice of Christ. It had fallen to
his lot Preface, p.
viii. Orme, p.
153.
In
pursuing his argument, he evidently felt himself dazzled at times by the lustre
of those interior truths to which his thoughts were turned. “Those points,” he remarks, “which dwell in
more intimate recesses, and approach nearer its immense fountain, the Father of
light, darting brighter rays by their excess of light, present a confounding
darkness to the minds of the greatest men, and are as darkness to the eyes
breaking forth amidst so great light.
For what we call darkness in divine subjects is nothing else than their
celestial glory and splendour striking on the weak ball of our eyes, the rays
of which we are not able in this life, which is but a vapour and shineth but a
little, to bear.” Many
readers will be struck by the resemblance between this noble passage and that
of Owen’s greatest contemporary:—
In other
places we can trace indications, that when he was rising Preface, p.
xx.
The usual number of replies followed the appearance of this treatise, in which Baxter once more stood forth equipped in his ready armour.
In the following year Dr Owen gave to the world another work, of much greater magnitude, extending over nearly five hundred folio pages. He has himself supplied its best description and analysis in its ample title-page, — “The Doctrine of the Saints’ Perseverance Explained and Confirmed; or, the certain permanency of their acceptation with God and sanctification from God manifested and proved, from the eternal principles, the effectual causes, and the external means thereof; in the immutability of the nature, decrees, covenant, and promises of God; the oblation and intercession of Jesus Christ; the promises, exhortations, and threats of the Gospel: improved in its genuine tendency to obedience and consolation.” The work was immediately called forth by the “Redemption Redeemed” of John Goodwin, an Arminian writer, to whom Owen allows nearly all the most brilliant qualities of a controversialist, except a good cause. He describes him as not only clothing every conception of his mind with language of a full and choice significance, but also trimming and adorning it with all manner of signal improvements that may render it keen or pleasant, according to his intendment and desire, and happily applies to him the words of the Roman poet:—
The style
of argument is much more popular than that of the former treatise; partly
because of the insinuating rhetoric of his adversary, and also because Owen
knew that Arminian sentiments had found their way into many of the churches,
and that if he was to convince the people, he must write for the people. The following weighty sentence refers to his
avoidance of philosophical terms and scholastic forms of argument, and is worthy
of Owen’s sanctified wisdom: “That which we account our wisdom and learning
may, if too rigorously attended, be our folly: when we think to sharpen the
reason of the Scripture, we may straiten the efficacy of the spirit of it. It is oftentimes more effectual in its own
liberty, than when restrained to our methods of arguing; and the weapons of it
keener in their own soft breathing, than when sharpened in the forge of
Aristotle.” Epistle
Dedicatory to the Heads of Colleges, etc., at Oxford, p. 8.
No part
of this elaborate work is more characteristic of Dr Owen than his preface to
the reader, which extends over forty folio pages, until you begin to fear that
“the gate shall become wider than the city.”
It contains an account of the treatment which the doctrine had received
from the first Christian century to his own; and in its pages, which are
literally variegated with Greek and Latin citations, displays an immense
research. But what most surprises the
reader, is to find the Doctor, when about the middle of his way, deliberately
turning aside to discuss with Dr Hammond the genuineness of the Epistles of
Ignatius, and to weigh the evidence which they would afford, on the supposition
of their genuineness, for a primitive Episcopacy. One is tempted to trace a resemblance between the theological
writing of those times and their modes of journeying. There was no moving in those days with all possible directness
and celerity to the goal. The traveller
stopped when he pleased, diverged where he pleased, and as often as he pleased,
whenever he wished to salute a friend or to settle a controversy. — The work is dedicated to Cromwell. The strong language in which Owen speaks of
his religious sincerity is interesting, as showing the estimate which was
formed of the Protector’s character by those who had the best opportunities of
judging regarding it. “In the
midst of all the changes and mutations which the infinitely wise providence of
God doth daily effect in the greater and lesser things of this world, as to the
communication of his love in Jesus Christ, and the merciful, gracious
distribution of the unsearchable riches of his grace, and the hid treasures
thereof purchased by his blood, he knows no repentance. Of both these you have had full experience. And though your concernment in the former
hath been as eminent as that of any person whatever in these later ages of the
world, yet your interest in and acquaintance with the latter is, as of
incomparably more importance in itself, so answerably of more value and esteem
into you.” —Dedication to His Highness, Oliver, Lord Protector.
Wood’s
Athen. Oxon., iv. 99. Pref. to Cotton’s
Defence, Orme, p. 112.
But
there have been others, who, while disowning all sympathy with these birds of
evil omen that haunted the path of the noble Puritan, have questioned the
propriety and consistency of one in Owen’s circumstances, and with all his
strongly-professed longings for the duties of a tranquil pastorate, so readily
“entangling himself with the affairs of this life;” and this is certainly a
more tenable ground of objection. And
yet, to judge Owen rightly, we must take into view all the special elements of
the case. All except those who see in
ordination a mysterious and indissoluble spell, and hold the Romish figment of
“once a priest, always a priest,” will admit that emergencies may arise in a
commonwealth when even the Christian minister may, for the sake of
accomplishing the highest amount of good, place in abeyance the peculiar duties
of his office, and merge the pastor in the legislator. Persons had sat with this conviction in the
immediately previous Parliament; and in the last century, Dr Witherspoon, one
of the Life of Dr
Witherspoon, prefixed to works, pp. xix.–xxiii.
In the
“Instrument of Government” presented by Cromwell to this Parliament, it was
proposed that all who professed faith in God by Jesus Christ should be
protected in their religion. In the
debates which took place on this part of the instrument, its language was
interpreted as recommending toleration to those only who were agreed on the
fundamentals of Christian doctrine, — an interpretation which, there is reason
to think, injuriously restricted the Protector’s meaning. But the question immediately arose, what
were fundamentals? and a committee of fourteen was appointed to prepare a
statement for the House on this subject; who, in their turn, committed the work
to fourteen divines of eminence. Owen
was on this committee; and, according to Baxter, had the principal share in
“wording the articles.” He has been
blamed for seeking to limit the blessings of toleration, on the now
generally-admitted principle, that a man’s religious belief ought not to be
made the condition of his civil privileges.
But the censure is misplaced.
Owen was responsible for the correctness of his answers, — not for the
use which the Parliament might make of them; but the abrupt dissolution of the
Parliament which, disappointed Cromwell’s expectations, prevented their being
embodied in any legislative measure. Baxter’s
own Life, p. 205. Neal, iv. 88–91.
About
the same period Dr Owen was invited by the Protector and his Council to form
part of a committee, from whose labours the cause of religion in England reaped
great and permanent advantage. We refer
to the commission appointed to examine candidates for ordination; whose powers
soon after included the ejection of ministers
About forty ministers, “the acknowledged flower of Puritanism,” were united with a few Puritan laymen, and appointed to this most delicate office. Undoubtedly, the power committed to them was tremendous, and, in the hands of unscrupulous men, might have been turned to purposes the most inquisitorial and vile. But seldom has power been less abused, or the rare and incidental mischief arising from its exercise, more immeasurably outweighed by its substantial benefits. It afforded, indeed, a tempting theme for the profane genius of Hudibras, to represent the triers, in their inquiries regarding the spiritual life of candidates, as endeavouring —
and high
Royalists and partisans like Bishop Kennet, who had probably smarted under
their investigations, in their eagerness to find matter of accusation against
them, might blunder out unconscious praise.
But the strong assertion of the historian of the Puritans has never been
disproved, — that not a single instance can be produced of any who were
rejected for insufficiency without being first convicted either of immorality,
of obnoxious sentiments in the Socinian or Pelagian controversy, or of
disaffection to the present government.
Cromwell could, before his second Parliament, refer to the labours of
the commissioners in such strong terms as these: “There has not been such a service
to England since the Christian religion was perfect in England! I dare be bold to say it.” And the well-balanced testimony of Baxter,
given with all his quaint felicity, may be held, when we consider that he had
looked on the appointment of the triers with no friendly eye, as introducing
all the shadings necessary to truth: “Because this assembly of triers is most
heavily accused and reproached by some men, I shall speak the truth of them;
and suppose my word will be taken, because most of them took me for one of
their boldest adversaries. The truth
is, though some few over-rigid and over-busy Independents among them were too
severe against all that were Arminians, and too particular in inquiring after
evidences of sanctification Neal, iv.
92–97. Baxter’s own Life, part i. p.
72. Orme, pp. 116–119. Vaughan’s Stuart Dynasty, pp. 247–250. D’Aubigné’s Protectorate, pp. 231–236.
Every
student of the Puritan history is familiar with the magnanimous act of Howe, in
recommending Fuller the historian for ordination, though a Royalist, because he
“made conscience of his thoughts;” Calamy’s
Life of Howe, prefixed to works, p. v.
Neal, iv. 97. Biog.
Dict., x. 103. Orme, p. 118.
Owen’s
wisdom in council involved the natural penalty of frequent consultation; and,
accordingly, we find him in the following year again invited to confer with
Cromwell on a subject which, in addition to its own intrinsic interest,
acquires a new interest from recent agitation.
Manasseh Ben Israel, a learned Jew from Amsterdam, had asked of Cromwell
and his government permission for the Jews to settle and trade in England, from
which they had been excluded since the thirteenth century. Cromwell, favourable to the proposal
himself, Whitelock’s
Memorials, p. 673. Neal, iv. 126–128.
In the
midst of these public events, Owen’s pen had once more been turned to
authorship by the immediate command of the Council of State. The catechisms of Biddle, the father of
English Socinianism, had given vogue to the errors of that school; and though various
writers of ability, such as Poole and Cheynel in England, and Cloppenburg,
Arnold, and Maretz on the continent, had already remarked on them, it was
deemed advisable that they should obtain a more complete and sifting exposure;
and Owen was selected, by the high authority we have named, to undertake the
task. His “Vindiciæ
Evangelicæ,” a work of seven hundred quarto
pages, embracing all the great points of controversy between the Socinian and
the Calvinist, was the fruit of this command; and was certainly a far more
suitable and efficient way of extinguishing the poor heresiarch, than the
repeated imprisonments to which he was subjected. Dr Owen, however, does not confine himself to the writings of
Biddle, but includes in his review the Racovian catechism, which was the
confession of the foreign Socinians of that age; and the Annotations of
Grotius, — which, though nowhere directly teaching Socinian opinions, are
justly charged by him with explaining away those passages on which the peculiar
doctrines of the Gospel lean for their support, and thus, by extinguishing one Vaughan’s
Age and Christianity, pp. 79–82. Princeton
Theol. Essays, First Series. Essay on
the Doctrines of the Early Socinians.
You pass
into the body of this elaborate work through one of those learned porticoes in
which our author delights, and in which the history of Socinianism is traced
through its many forms and phases, from the days of Simon Magus to his
own. No part of this history in of more
permanent value than his remarks on the controversial tactics of Socinians;
among which he especially notices their objection to the use of terms not to be
found in Scripture; and to which he replies, that “though such terms may not be
of absolute necessity to express the things themselves to the minds of
believers, they may yet be necessary to defend the truth from the opposition
and craft of seducers;” their cavilling against evangelical doctrines rather
than stating any positive opinions of their own, and, when finding it inconvenient
to oppose, or impossible to refute a doctrine, insisting on its not being
fundamental. How much of the secret of
error in religion is detected in the following advice: “Take heed of the snare
of Satan in affecting eminency by singularity.
It is good to strive to excel, and to go before one another in knowledge
and in light, as in holiness and obedience.
To do this in the road is difficult. Many, finding it impossible to emerge into any consideration by
walking in the beaten path of truth, and yet not able to conquer the itch of
being accounted τινες μεγαλοι,
turn aside into by-ways, and turn the eyes of men to them by scrambling over
hedge and ditch, when the sober traveller is not at all regarded.” Preface,
pp. 64, 65, quarto ed. Preface, p.
69.
This
secret communion with God in the doctrines contended for was the true key to
Owen’s own steadfastness amid all those winds of doctrine which unsettled every
thing but what was rooted in the soil.
We have an illustration of this in the next treatise, which he soon
after gave to the world, and in which he passes from the lists of controversy
to the practical exhibition of the Gospel as a life-power. It was entitled, “On the Mortification of
Sin in Believers;” and contains the substance of some sermons which he had
preached on Preface.
Owen’s
work is a noble illustration of the Gospel method of sanctification, as we
believe it to be a living reflection of his own experience. In his polemical works he was like the
lecturer on the materia
medica; but here he is the skilful
physician, applying the medicine to the cure of soul-sickness. And it is interesting to find the ample
evidence which this work affords, that, amid the din of theological controversy,
the engrossing and perplexing activities of a high public station, and the
chilling damps of a university, he was yet living near
To the
affairs of Oxford we must now return for a little. In the midst of his multifarious public engagements, and the
toils of a most ponderous authorship, Owen’s thoughts had never been turned
from the university, and his efforts for its improvement, encouraged by the
Protector and his council, as well as by the co-operation of the heads of
colleges, had been rewarded by a surprising prosperity. Few things, indeed, are more interesting
than to look into the records of Oxford at this period, as they have been
preserved by Anthony Wood and others, and to mark the constellation of great
names among its fellows and students; some of whom were already in the height
of their renown, and others, with a strangely varied destiny awaiting them,
were brightening into a fame which was to shed its lustre on the coming
age. The presiding mind at this period
was Owen himself, who, from the combined influence of station and character,
obtained from all around him willing deference; “He was
reckoned the brightest ornament of the university in his time.” — Dr Calamy. Wood’s
Fasti, part ii., pp. 169–197.
But
events were beginning to transpire in the political world which were to bring
Owen’s tenure of the vice-chancellorship to a speedy close. He had hitherto befriended Cromwell in all
his great measures, with the strong conviction that the liberties and general
interests of the nation were bound up with his supremacy. He had even, on occasion of the risings of
the Royalists under Colonel Penruddock in the west, busied himself in securing
the attachment of the university, and in raising a troop of horse for the
defence of the county, until one of his Royalist revilers, enraged at his
infectious zeal, described him as “riding up and down like a spiritual Abaddon,
with white powder in his hair and black in his pocket.” Orme, p.
120. Burnet’s
Own Times, i. 98. Ludlow’s Memoirs, p.
248. Neal, iv. 151, 152.
Many
circumstances soon made it evident, that by this bold step Dr Owen had so far
estranged from himself the affection of Cromwell. Up to this time he had continued to be, of all the ministers of
his times, the most frequently invited to preach on those great occasions Neal, iv.
157. Orme, p. 126. Neal, iv.
165.
Few
things in Owen’s public life more became him than the manner in which he
resigned the presidency of Oxford, and yielded up the academic fasces into the
hands of another. He “knew both how to
abound, and how to be abased.” There is
no undignified insinuation of ungracious usage; no loud assertion of
indifference, to cover the bitterness of chagrin; no mock humility; but a manly
reference to the service which he was conscious of having rendered to the
university, with a generous appreciation of the excellencies of the friend to
whom the government was now to be transferred.
In his parting address to the university, after stating the number of
persons that had been matriculated and graduated during his administration, he
continues: “Professors’ salaries, lost for many years, have been recovered and
paid; some offices of respectability have been maintained; the rights and
privileges of the university have been defended against all the efforts of its
enemies; the treasury is tenfold increased; many of every rank in the
university have been promoted to various honours and benefices; new exercises
have been introduced and established; old ones have been duly performed;
reformation of manners has been diligently studied, in spite of the grumbling
of certain profligate brawlers; labours have been numberless; besides
submitting to the most enormous expense, often when brought to the brink of
death on your account, I have hated these limbs, and this feeble body, which
was ready to desert my mind; the reproaches of the vulgar have been
disregarded, the envy of others has been overcome: in these circumstances I
wish you all prosperity, and bid you farewell.
I congratulate myself on a successor who can relieve me of this burden;
and you on one who is able completely to repair any injury which your affairs
may have suffered through our inattention…
But as I know not whither the thread of my discourse might lead me, I
here cut it short. I seek again my old
labours, my usual watchings, my Conclusion
of Oratio quinta,
translated by Orme. — Six Latin orations, delivered by Owen at Oxford while he
presided over the university, have been preserved, and used to be printed at
the end of the volume that contained his sermons and tracts. They will appear in the seventh volume of
the present edition of Owen’s works.
A wish has sometimes been expressed, that men who, like Owen, have contributed so largely to the enriching of our theological literature, could have been spared the endless avocations of public life, and allowed to devote themselves almost entirely to authorship. But the wisdom of this sentiment is very questionable. Experience seems to testify that a certain amount of contact with the business of practical life is necessary to the highest style of thought and authorship; and that minds, when left to undisturbed literary leisure, are apt to degenerate into habits of diseased speculation and sickly fastidiousness. Most certainly the works that have come from men of monastic habits have done little for the world, compared with the writings of those who have ever been ready to obey the voice which summoned them away from tranquil studies to breast the storms and guide the movements of great social conflicts. The men who have lived the most earnestly for their own age, have also lived the most usefully for posterity. Owen’s retirement from the vice-chancellorship may indeed be regarded as a most seasonable relief from the excess of public engagement; but it may be confidently questioned whether he would have written so much or so well, had his intellect and heart been, in any great degree, cut off from the stimulus which the struggles and stern realities of life gave to them. This is, accordingly, the course through which we are now rapidly to follow him, — to the end of his days continuing to display an almost miraculous fertility of authorship, that is only equalled by that of his illustrious compeer, Richard Baxter; and, at the same time, taking no second part in the great ecclesiastical movements of that most eventful age.
The next
great public transaction in which we find Dr Owen engaged, was the celebrated
meeting of ministers and delegates from the Independent Churches, for the
purpose of preparing a confession of their faith and order, commonly known by
the name of the Savoy Assembly or Synod.
The Independents had greatly flourished during Confess.
Pref., p. 6. Neal, iv. 173.
It was
with considerable reluctance, however, that Cromwell yielded his sanction to
the calling of such a meeting. He
remembered the anxious jealousy with which the proceedings of the Westminster
Assembly had been watched, and probably had his own fears that what now began
in theological discussion might end in the perilous canvassing of public
measures. But his scruples were at
length overcome, — circulars were issued, inviting the churches to send up
their pastors and delegates, and more than two hundred brethren appeared in
answer to the summons. They met in a
building in the Strand, which was now commonly devoted to the accommodation of
the officers of Cromwell’s court, but which had formerly been a convent and a
hospital, and originally the palace of the Duke of Savoy, from whom it took its
name. A committee, in which Owen and
Goodwin evidently bore the burden of the duties, prepared a statement of
doctrine each morning, which was laid before the Assembly, discussed, and
approved. They found, to their delight,
that “though they had been launched singly, they had all been steering their
course by the same chart, and been bound for one and the same port; and that
upon the general search now made, the same holy and blessed truths of all sorts
which are current and warrantable among the other churches of Christ in the
world, had been their lading.” Ibid. Baxter’s
Catholic Communion Defended, and Life, p. 104. Letter from
Rev. J. Forbes of Gloucester. Asty, p.
xxi. Of the
Institution of Churches, and the Order Appointed in them by Jesus Christ. Neal, iv.
178. One of the few letters of Dr Owen
that have been preserved has reference to this Confession. A French minister of some eminence, the Rev.
Peter du Moulin, wished to attempt a French translation of so valuable a
document; but before doing so, he ventured some animadversions on certain of
its sentiments and expressions. Owen’s
reply betrays some irritation, especially at Moulin’s misunderstanding and consequent
misrepresentation of the passages commented on. See Appendix.
What
would have been the effects of these proceedings upon the policy of the
Protector, had his life been prolonged, we can now only surmise. Ere the Savoy Assembly had commenced its
deliberations, Oliver Cromwell was struggling with a mortal distemper in the
palace of Whitewall. The death of his
favourite daughter, Lady Claypole, as well as the cares of his government, had
told at length upon his iron frame; and on September 3, 1658, the night of the
most awful Bishop
Kennet has long since given the true statement of the case in reference to the
ordinances against Episcopal worship during Cromwell’s government. “It is certain,” says he, “that the
Protector was for liberty and the utmost latitude to all parties, so far as
consisted with the peace and safety of his person and government; and even the
prejudice he had against the Episcopal party was more for their being Royalists
than for their being of the good old church.” — Neal, iv. 125. In point of fact, the ordinances were not
put in execution except against such clergymen as had become political
offenders. — Parr’s Life of Usher, p. 75.
Vaughan’s Stuart Dynasty, i. 246.
Owen,
and other leading men among the Puritans, have been represented, by writers
such as Burnet, as offering up the most fanatical prayers for the Protector’s
recovery; and after his death, on occasion of a fast, in the presence of
Richard and the other members of his family, as almost irreverently reproaching
God for his removal. It would be too
much to affirm, that nothing extravagant or extreme was spoken, even by
eminently good men, at a crisis so exciting; but there is every reason to think
that Owen was not present at the deathbed of the Protector at all; and Burnet’s
statement, Burnet’s Own Times, i. 116, 117. No
fanatical words are directly charged upon Owen by any of is accusers, but his
extravagance is freely surmised. — Biog. Dict., x. 103. Goodwin is represented as complaining in
these words, “Lord, thou hast deceived us, and we were deceived;” — words which
Burnet characterizes as impudent and enthusiastic boldness; but which, if used
at all, were evidently accommodated from
In 1657 he published one of his best devotional treatises, — “Of Communion with God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, each Person distinctly, in Love, Grace, Consolation, etc.” It forms the substance of a series of sermons preached by him at Oxford during his vice-chancellorship, and is another evidence of his “close walk with God” during the excitements and engagements of that high official position.
There
is, no doubt, some truth in the remark, that he carries out the idea of
distinct communion between the believer and each of the persons of the Godhead
to an extent for which there is no scriptural precedent; and this arises from
another habit, observable in some degree even in this devotional composition, —
that of making the particular subject on which he treats the centre around
which he gathers all the great truths of the Gospel; but, when these deductions
have been made, what a rich treasure is this work of Owen’s! He leads us by green pastures and still
waters, and lays open the exhaustless springs of the Christian’s hidden life
with Christ in God. It is easy to
understand how some parts of it should have been unintelligible, and should
even have appeared incoherent to persons whose creed was nothing more than an
outward badge; and therefore we are not surprised that it should have provoked
the scoffing remarks of a Rational ecclesiastic twenty years afterwards; Dr Sherlock, in a treatise entitled, “Discourse concerning the Knowledge of
Jesus Christ, and our Union and Communion with Him,” etc., 1674. To which Owen replied in “A Vindication of
some Passages concerning Communion with God, from the Exceptions of Willian
Sherlock, Rector of St George’s, Buttolph Lane.” The controversy drew a considerable number of other combatants
into the field, and appears to have been protracted through a series of years.
— Wood’s Athen. Oxon., iv. 105, 106. Preface to the reader.
In the
same year Owen was engaged in an important and protracted controversy on the
subject of schism, which drew forth from him a succession of publications, and
exposed him to the assaults of many adversaries. Foster has sarcastically remarked on the great convenience of
having a number of words that will answer the purposes of ridicule or
reprobation, without having any precise meaning attached to them; Essay on the application of the epithet Romantic. Owen’s Works, xix. 132, 133, Russell’s edition. Melius Inquirend., p. 209. Orme, p.
199. Wood’s description of Alsop makes
one suspect that he had smarted from his wit: “A Nonconforming minister, who,
since the death of their famous A. Marvell, hath been quibbler and punner in
ordinary to the Dissenting party, though he comes much short of that person.” —
Athen. Oxon., iv, 106. The other writings drawn from Owen in this controversy were provoked by
Cawdrey. — 1. A Review of the True Nature of Schism, with a Vindication of the
Congregational Churches in England from the imputation thereof, unjustly
charged on them by Mr Daniel Cawdrey, 1657.
2. An Answer to a late Treatise of Mr Cawdrey about the Nature of
Schism, 1658, prefixed to a Defence of Mr John Cotton, &c., against
Cawdrey, written by himself, and edited by Owen.
It was
not thus with the controversy which we have next to describe. Owen had prepared a valuable little essay, —
“Of the Divine Original, Authority, Self-evidencing Light and Power of the
Scriptures; with an answer to that inquiry, How we know the Scriptures to be
the word of God?” the principal design of which, as its title so far indicates,
was to prove that, independently altogether of its external evidence, the Bible
contains, in the nature of its truths and in their efficacy on the mind,
satisfactory evidence of the divine source from which it has emanated; — an
argument which was afterwards nobly handled by Halyburton, and which has
recently been illustrated and illuminated by Dr Chalmers with his
characteristic eloquence, in one of the chapters of his “Theological
Institutes.” Theological Institutes, x. b. iii. ch. 6. P. 153, duod. ed. Owen published a third tract in this little volume, “Exercitations adversus Fanaticos,”
in which he handled the Quakers with some severity. Marsh’s Michaelis, i. ch. vi. Taylor’s
History of the Transmission of Ancient Books; appendix.
Walton
saw that he had the advantage of Owen, and in “The Considerator Considered, and
the Biblia Polyglotta Vindicated,” successfully defended his position, and did what he
could to hold Owen up to the ridicule of the learned world. Though he was Owen’s victor in this
controversy, yet the arrogance of his bearing excites the suspicion that
something more than learned zeal bore him into the contest, and that the
exasperated feelings of the ecclesiastic made him not unwilling to humble this
leader and champion of the Puritans in the dust. The respective merits of the two combatants in this contest,
which excited so much commotion in the age in which it occurred, are admirably
remarked on by Dr Chalmers: “The most interesting collision upon this question
that I know of, between unlike men of unlike minds, was that between the most
learned of our Churchmen on the one hand, Brian Walton, author, or rather
editor of the ‘London Polyglott,’ and the most talented and zealous of our
sectarians on the other, Dr John Owen.
The latter adventured himself Institutes of Theology, i. 287 — On Scripture Criticism.
About the time of his emerging from this unfortunate controversy, Owen gave to the world his work on Temptation, — another of those masterly treatises in which he “brings the doctrines of theology to bear on the wants and principles of our moral nature,” and from which whole paragraphs flash upon the mind of the reader with an influence that makes him feel as if they had been written for himself alone.
In his
preface to that work, Owen (no doubt reflecting his impressions of public
events) speaks of “providential dispensations, in reference to the public
concernments of these nations, as perplexed and entangled, — the footsteps of
God lying in the deep, where his paths are not known.” And certainly the rapid and turbulent
succession of changes that took place soon after the removal of Cromwell’s
presiding genius from the helm, might well fill him with deepening anxiety and
alarm. These changes it is not our province
minutely to trace. Richard’s feeble
hand, as is well known, proved itself unfit to control the opposing elements of
the state; and a few months saw him return not unwillingly, to the unambitious
walks of private life. Owen’s sermon, “A Gospel Profession, the Glory of a Nation,” Dr Manton declared, that at Wallingford House he heard Dr Owen say with
vehemence, “He must come down, and he shall come down;” and this was understood
to refer to Richard; — but it is material to notice that Dr Manton did not so
understand it till after the event. — Palmer’s note to Calamy’s Life of Owen.
Noncon. Mem., i. 201. Add to this Owen’s
solemn denial of the charge, Vindic. of Animadversions on Fiat Lux,
p. 127; and the testimony of a “worthy minister,” preserved by Asty, that Dr
Owen was against the pulling down of Richard, and this his dissatisfaction at what
they were doing at Wallingford House was such as to drive his into illness. —
Asty, p. xix. Neal, iv. 191–220. Vaughan’s Stuart
Dynasty, ii. 266–271.
A few
months before the restoration of Charles, Owen had been displaced from the
deanery of Christ Church, and thus his last official connection with Oxford
severed. He now retired to his native
village of Stadham in the neighbourhood, where he had become the proprietor of
a small estate. During his
vice-chancellorship, it had been his custom to preach in this place on the
afternoons of those Sabbaths in which he was not employed at St. Mary’s; and a little congregation which he
had gathered by this means now joyfully welcomed him among them as their
pastor. It was probably while at
Stadham that he finished the preparation of one of his most elaborate
theological works, whose title will supply a pretty accurate idea at once of
its general plan and of its remarkable variety of matter, — “Theologoumena, etc.; or, six books on the nature, rise, progress, and study of
true theology. In which, also, the
origin and growth of true and false religious worship, and the more remarkable
declensions and restorations of the church are traced from their first
sources. To which are added digressions
concerning universal grace, — the origin of the sciences, — notes of the Roman
Church, — the origin of letters, — the ancient Hebrew letters, — Hebrew
punctuation, — versions of the Scriptures, — Jewish rites,” etc. It is matter of regret that the “Theologoumena” has hitherto been locked up in the Latin tongue; for though
parts have been superseded by more recent works, there is no book in the
English language that occupies the wide field over which Owen travels with his
usual power, and scatters around him his learned stores. A portion of the “Theologoumena”
was translated and published by the Rev. J. Craig of Avonbridge in Scotland;
but the encouragement was not such as to induce him to persevere.
In all
likelihood Owen hoped that he would be permitted to remain unmolested in his
quiet village, and that his very obscurity Wood’s Athen. Oxon., iv. 100.
Sir Edward Hyde, the future Lord Clarendon, was now lord chancellor, and the most influential member of the government, and means were used to obtain an interview between Owen and him, with the view, it is probable, of inducing him to relax the growing severity of his measures against the Nonconformists. But the proud minister was inexorable. He insisted that Owen should abstain from preaching; but at the one time, not ignorant of the great talents of the Puritan, strongly urged him to employ his pen at the present juncture in writing against Popery. Owen did not comply with the first part of the injunction, but continued to preach in London and elsewhere, to little secret assemblies, and even at times more publicly, when the vigilance of informers was relaxed, or the winds of persecution blew for a little moment less fiercely. But circumstances soon put it in his power to comply with the latter part of it; and those circumstances are interesting, both as illustrative of the character of Owen and of the spirit and tendencies of the times.
John
Vincent Cane, a Franciscan friar, had published a book entitled, “Fiat Lux; or, a Guide in Differences of
Religion betwixt Papist and Protestant, Presbyterian and Independent;” in
which, under the guise of recommending moderation and charity, he invites men
over to the Church of Rome, as the only infallible remedy for all church
divisions. The work falling in to some
extent with the current of feeling in certain quarters, had already gone
through two impressions ere it reached the hands of Owen, and is believed to
have been sent to him at length by Clarendon.
Struck with the subtle and pernicious character of the work, whose
author he describes Vindic. of Animad. on Fiat
Lux, p. 10.
But,
even after this good service had been done to the common cause of
Protestantism, there seemed a danger that this second work would not be
permitted to be published; and it is curious to notice the nature of the
objections, and the quarter whence they came.
The power of licensing books in divinity was now in the hands of the
bishops; and they were found to have two weighty objections to Owen’s
treatise. First, That in speaking of
the evangelists and apostles, and even of Peter, he withheld from them the
title of “saint;” and, secondly, That he had questioned whether it could be
proved that Peter had ever been at Rome.
Owen’s treatment of these objections was every way worthy of
himself. In reference to the former, he
reminded his censors that the titles of evangelist and apostle were superior to
that of saint, inasmuch as this belonged to all the people of God; at the same
time, he expressed his willingness to yield this point. But the second he could only yield on one
condition, — namely, that they would prove that he had been mistaken. Owen’s book at length found its way to the
press; not, however, through the concessions of the bishops, but through the
command of Sir Edward Nicolas, one of the principal secretaries of state, who
interposed to overrule their scruples. Asty, pp. xxiii., xxiv.
Dr
Owen’s reputation was greatly extended by these writings; and this led to a new
interview with Clarendon. His lordship
acknowledged that he had done more for the cause of Protestantism than any
other man in England; and, expressing his astonishment that so learned a man
should have been led away by “the novelty of Independency,” held out to him the
hope of high preferment in the church if he would conform. Owen undertook to prove, in answer to any
bishop that he might appoint, that the Independent form of “I am informed,” says the author of the Anonymous Memoir, “by one of the
Doctor’s relations, that King Charles II. offered him a bishopric; but no
worldly honour or advantage could prevail upon the Doctor to change his
principles.” — P. xxii. Owen’s Discourse of Toleration, passim.
A more
honourable way of deliverance from his troubles than conformity was, about the
same time, presented to Dr Owen, in an earnest invitation from the first
Congregational church of Boston, in New England, to become their pastor. They had “seen his labours, and heard of the
grace and wisdom communicated to him from the Father of lights;” and when so
many candles were not permitted to shine in England, they were eager to secure
such a burning light for their infant colony.
It does not very clearly appear what sort of answer Owen returned. One biographer represents him as willing to
go, and as even having some of his property embarked in a vessel bound for New
England, when he was stopped by orders of the court; others represent him as
unwilling to leave behind him the struggling cause, and disposed to wait in
England for happier days. Anthony Wood is amusingly cynical in his account of this matter: “Upon this our
author resolved to go to New England; but since that time, the wind was never
in a right point for a voyage.” — Wood’s Athen. Oxon., iv. 100.
But
neither the representations of Owen nor of others who were friendly to the
Nonconformists, had any influence in changing the policy of those who were now
in power. The golden age to which
Clarendon and his associates sought to bring back the government
In the
midst of these growing rigours, which were rapidly filling the prisons with
victims, and crowding the emigrant ships with exiles, the plague appeared,
sweeping London as with a whirlwind of death.
Then it was seen who had been the true spiritual shepherds of the
people, and who had been the strangers and the hirelings. The clerical oppressors of the Puritans fled
from the presence of the plague, while the proscribed preachers emerged from
their hiding-places, shared the dangers of that dreadful hour, addressed
instruction and consolation to the perishing and bereaved, and stood between
the living and the dead, until the plague was stayed. One thing, however, had been disclosed by these occurrences; and
this was the undiminished influence of the Nonconformist pastors over their
people, and the increased love of their people to them; nor could the pastors
ever be cut off from the means of temporal support, so long as intercourse
between them and their people was maintained.
This led to the passing of another act, whose ingenious cruelty
historians have vied with each other adequately to describe. In the Parliament at Oxford, which had fled
thither in order to escape the ravages of the plague, a law was enacted which
virtually banished all Nonconformist ministers five miles from any city, town,
or borough, that sent members to Parliament, and five miles from any place
whatsoever where they had at any time in a number of years past preached;
unless they would take an oath which it was well-known no Nonconformist could
take, and which the Earl of Southampton even declared, in his place in
Parliament, no honest man could subscribe.
This was equivalent to driving them into exile in their own land; and,
in addition to the universal severance of the pastors from their people, by
banishing them into remote rural districts, it exposed them not only to the
caprice of those who were the instruments of government,
Dr Owen suffered in the midst of all these troubles; and one anecdote, which most probably belongs to this period, presents us with another picture of the times. He had gone down to visit his old friends in the neighbourhood of Oxford, and adopting the usual precautions of the period, had approached his lodging after nightfall. But notwithstanding all his privacy, he was observed, and information given of the place where he lay. Early in the morning, a company of troopers came and knocked at the door. The mistress coming down, boldly opened the door, and asked them what they would have. — “Have you any lodgers in your house?” they inquired. Instead of directly answering their question, she asked “whether they were seeking for Dr Owen?” “Yes,” said they; on which she assured them he had departed that morning at an earlier hour. The soldiers believing her word, immediately rode away. In the meantime the Doctor, whom the woman really supposed to have been gone, as he intended the night before, arose, and going into a neighbouring field, whither he ordered his horse to be brought to him, hastened away by an unfrequented path towards London.
A second terrible visitation of Heaven was needed, in order to obtain for the persecuted Puritans a temporary breathing-time: and this second visitation came. The fire followed quickly in the footsteps of the plague, and the hand of intolerance was for the moment paralysed, if, indeed, its heart did not for a time relent. The greater number of the churches were consumed in the dreadful conflagration. Large wooden houses called tabernacles were quickly reared, amid the scorched and blackened ruins; and in these, the Nonconformist ministers preached to anxious and solemnized multitudes. The long silent voices of Owen, and Manton, and Caryl, and others, awoke the remembrance of other times; and earnest Baxter
There was no possibility of silencing these preachers at such a moment. And the fall of Clarendon and the disgrace of Sheldon soon afterwards helped to prolong and enlarge their precarious liberty.
Many
tracts, for the most part published anonymously, and without even the printer’s
name, had issued from Owen’s pen during these distracting years, having for
their object to represent the impolicy and injustice of persecution for
conscience’ sake. Of these Mr Orme enumerates the following:— 1. “An Account of the Grounds and
Reasons on which the Protestant Dissenters Desire their Liberty.” 2. “A Letter concerning the Present
Excommunications.” 3. “The Present
Distresses on Nonconformists Examined.”
4. “Indulgence and Toleration Considered, in a Letter to a Person of
Honour.” 5. “A Peace-offering, in an
Apology and Humble Plea for Liberty of Conscience.” — P. 234. The publication of this Catechism gave occasion to proposals for union among
the Presbyterians and Independents, addressed by the sanguine Baxter to Dr
Owen, and led to lengthened correspondence and negotiation. For reasons formerly adverted to, the scheme
proved abortive. One of Owen’s letters
on this subject has been preserved, and appears in the Appendix. We are not sure that in every part we could
vindicate the Doctor’s consistency.
First,
there is his treatise “On the Nature, Power, Deceit, and Prevalence of
Indwelling Sin in Believers;” on which Dr Chalmers has well remarked, that
“there is no treatise of its learned and pious author more fitted to be useful
to the Christian disciple; and that it is most important to be instructed on
this subject by one who had reached such lofty attainments in holiness, and
whose profound and experimental acquaintance with the spiritual life so well
fitted him for expounding its nature and operations.” Introductory Essay to Owen on Indwelling Sin, pp. xviii., xix.
Then
appeared the first volume of Owen’s greatest work, his “Exposition of the
Epistle to the Hebrews,” — a work which it would be alike superfluous to
describe or to praise. The second volume was published in 1674; the third in 1680; the forth was
posthumous, but was left fit for the press, and appeared in 1684.
“For the exposition of the epistle itself, I confess, as was said before, that I have had thoughts of it for many years, and have not been without regard to it in the whole course of my studies. But yet I must now say, that, after all my searching and reading, prayer and assiduous meditation have been my only resort, and by far the most useful means of light and assistance. By these have my thought been freed from many an entanglement, into which the writings of others had cast me, or from which they could not deliver me. Careful I have been, as of my life and soul, to bring no prejudicate sense to the words, — to impose no meaning of my own or other men’s upon them, nor to be imposed on by the reasonings, pretences, or curiosities of any; but always went nakedly to the Word itself, to learn humbly the mind of God in it, and to express it as he should enable me. To this end, I always considered, in the first place, the sense, meaning, and import of the words of the text, — their original derivation, use in other authors, especially in the LXX. of the Old Testament, in the books of the New, and particularly the writings of the same author. Ofttimes the words expressed out of the Hebrew, or the things alluded to among that people, I found to give much light to the words of the apostle. To the general rule of attending to the design and scope of the place, the subject treated of, mediums fixed on for arguments, and methods of reasoning, I still kept in my eye the time and season of writing this epistle; the state and condition of those to whom it was written; their persuasions, prejudices, customs, light, and traditions. I kept also in my view the covenant and worship of the church of old; the translation of covenant privileges and worship to the Gentiles upon a new account; the course of providential dispensations that the Jews were under; the near expiration of their church and state; the speedy approach of their utter abolition and destruction, with the temptations that befell them on all these various accounts; — without which it is impossible for any one justly
to follow the apostle, so as to keep close to his design or fully to understand his meaning.” Preface.
The
result has been, a work unequalled in excellence, except, perhaps, by
Vitringa’s noble commentary on Isaiah.
It is quite true, that in the department of verbal criticism, and even
in the exposition of some occasional passages, future expositors may have found
Owen at fault, — it is even true that the Rabbinical lore with which the work
abounds does far more to cumber than to illustrate the text; but when all this
has been conceded, how amazing is the power with which Owen has unfolded the
proportions, and brought out the meaning and spirit, of this massive
epistle! It is like some vast monster
filled with solemn light, on whose minuter details it might be easy to suggest
improvement; but whose stable walls and noble columns astonish you at the skill
and strength of the builder the longer you gaze; and there is true sublimity in
the exclamation with which Owen laid down his pen when he had finished it:
“Now, my work is done; it is time for me to die.” Perhaps no minister in Great Britain or America for the last
hundred and fifty years has sat down to the exposition of this portion of
inspired truth without consulting Owen’s commentary. The appalling magnitude of the work is the most formidable
obstacle to its usefulness; and this the author himself seems to have
anticipated even in his own age of ponderous and portly folios; for we find him
modestly suggesting the possibility of treating it as if it were three separate
works, and of reading the philological, or the exegetical, or the practical
portion alone. Address to the Christian Reader, vol. ii. Miscellaneous Gleanings from Hall’s Conversational Remarks, by the late Dr
Balmer of Berwick-on-Tweed. Hall’s
Works, vi. 147. Prelections on Hill’s lectures. Chalmer’s
Posthumous Works, ix. 282.
It has
been remarked, that there is no lesson so difficult to learn as that of true
religious toleration, for almost every sect in turn, when tempted by the power,
has resorted to the practice of persecution; and this remark has seldom
obtained more striking confirmation than in what was occurring at this time in
another part of the world. While in
England the Independents, and Nonconformists generally, were passing from one
degree of persecution to another, at the hands of the restored adherents of
Prelacy; the Independents of New England were perpetrating even greater
severities against the Baptists and Quakers in that infant colony. Whipping, fines, imprisonment, selling into
slavery, were punishments inflicted by them on thousands who, after all, did
not differ from their persecutors on any point that was fundamental in
religion. One of Owen’s biographers has
taken very unnecessary pains to show that the conduct of these churches had no
connection with their principles as Independents; but this only renders their
conduct the more inexcusable, and proves how deeply rooted the spirit of
intolerance is in human nature. Owen
and his friends heard of these events with indignation and shame, and even
feared that they might be turned to their disadvantage in England; and, in a
letter subscribed along with him by all his brethren in London, faithfully
remonstrated with the New England persecutors.
“We only make it our hearty request,” said they, “that you will trust
God with his truth and ways, so far as to suspend all rigorous proceedings in
corporeal restraints or punishments on persons that dissent from you, and
practice the principles of their dissent without danger or disturbance to the
civil peace of the place.” Sound advice
is here given, but we should have relished a little more of the severity of
stern rebuke. M’Crie’s Miscelleneous Works, p. 509. Magnalia Americana,
b. vii. p. 28. Orme p. 258.
We have
seen that the great fire of London led to a temporary connivance at the public
preaching of the Nonconformist ministers; “it being at the first,” as Baxter
remarked, “too gross to forbid an undone people all public worship with too
great rigour.” Own Life, part iii. p. 20. Burnet’s Own Times, i. 382. Duod. ed., p. 92. Duod. ed., pp. 78–81. Defence and Continuation of Eccleisast. Polity, and Preface to Bamhall. Orme, p. 261.
But the
controversy was not over. Parker had
not time to recover from the ponderous club of Owen, when he was assailed by
the keen edged wit of Andrew Marvell.
This accomplished man, the under-secretary and bosom friend of Milton,
reviewed Parker’s work in his “Rehearsal Transposed,” — a work of which critics
have spoken as rivalling in some places the causticity and neatness of Swift,
and in others equalling the eloquent invective of Junius and the playful
exuberance of Burke. Campbell’s Essay on English Poetry, p. 241.
D’Israeli’s Miscellanies of Literature, p. 238. Burnet, referring to this controversy, speaks of Marvell as “the liveliest
droll of his age, who writ in a burlesque strain, but with so peculiar and so
entertaining a conduct, that, from the king down to the tradesman, his books
were read with great pleasure.” — Own Times, i. 382. D’Israeli’s Miscellanies, pp. 234, 239.
It was
one thing, however, to conquer in the field of argument, and another thing to
disarm the intolerance of those in power.
The Parliament which met in 1671, goaded on by those sleepless
ecclesiastics A paper entitled, “The State of the Kingdom with respect to the present Bill
against Conventicles,” was drawn up by Owen, and laid before the Lords by
several eminent citizens; but without
success. Biographers make mention of letters addressed to Owen, inviting him to the
presidency of Harvard College, New England; and also to a professorship in the
United Provinces. But there is
considerable vagueness in respect to details, as well as uncertainty about
dates. A note, however, in Wood’s
Athen. Oxon., seems to place beyond reasonable doubt the general accuracy of
the statement. He is said by the same
authority to have been prevented from accepting the former invitation by an
order from court.
The
Nonconformists were prompt in improving their precarious breathing-time. A weekly lecture was instituted at Pinner’s
Hall by the Presbyterians and Independents, in testimony of their union of
sentiment on fundamental truths, and as an antidote to Popish, Socinian, and
Infidel opinions. Two lectures preached by Owen in this series appear among his works, — the
first entitled, “How we may Learn to Bear Reproofs,” Mr Orme supposes the place of worship to have been that in Bury Street, St Mary
Axe; but the meeting-house was in Bury Street was not erected until 1708, when
it was occupied by the same congregation under the ministry of Dr Isaac Watts.
— Wilson’s History of Dissenting Churches, i. 252, 273. Orme, pp. 277–285. Asty, p. xxix. Noncon. Mem., i. 202.
Owen’s intimacy with these noblemen probably accounts for that interview to which he was invited by the King and the Duke of York, and which has been faithfully chronicled by all his biographers. Happening to be at Tunbridge Wells when his majesty and the duke were also there, he was introduced to the royal tent. The king freely conversed with him on the subject of religious liberty, and expressed his wish to see the Dissenters relieved of their disabilities. On his return to London, he invited Owen to repeated interviews, uttering the same sentiments as he had done during the first conversation, and at length intrusted him with a thousand guineas, to be employed by him in mitigating the sufferings of his poorer brethren. The general policy of Charles sufficiently accounts for these gleams of royal sunshine.
But the
importance of those friendships is not seen by us until we have marked the use
which Owen made of them in the cause of his suffering brethren. It is well known that when the Parliament
again assembled, it expressed its strong displeasure at the king’s indulgence,
and never ceased its remonstrances until the licenses to places of worship had
been withdrawn. A disposition, it is
true, began to show itself to distinguish between the Protestant Nonconformists
and the Romanists, and to point restriction more particularly against the
latter; but the act, which was professedly intended to bear against them
was so clumsily constructed as to be capable of reaching all who did not
conform, and Churchmen were not slow in giving it this direction. The Nonconformists were exposed anew to the
persecuting storm; informers were goaded by increased rewards; and among thousands
of less illustrious sufferers, Richard Baxter suffered joyfully the spoiling of
his goods, and was condemned to what his ardent spirit did indeed feel
bitterly, — a year of almost unbroken silence. Jenkyn’s Essay on Life of Baxter, p. xx. Letter to a Friend, p. 34. Orme, p.
274.
There
was no sufferer in whose behalf Owen exerted his influence more earnestly than
John Bunyan. It is well known that, as
a preacher, Bunyan excited, wherever he went, an interest not surpassed even by
the ministry of Baxter. When he
preached in barns or on commons, he gathered eager thousands around him; and
when he came to London, twelve hundred people would be found gathered together
at seven on the dark morning of a winter working-day, to hear him expound the
Word of God. Among these admiring multitudes
Owen had often been discovered; — the most learned of the Puritans hung for
hours, that seemed like moments, upon the lips of this untutored genius. The king is reported to have asked Owen, on
one occasion, how a learned man like him could go “to hear a tinker prate;” to
which the great theologian answered “May it please your majesty, could I
possess the tinker’s abilities for preaching, I would willingly relinquish all
my learning.” Hamilton’s Life of Bunyan, p. xxix. Asty, p. xxx. Southey’s Life of Bunyan,
p. lxiv.
During
these chequered and anxious years, Owen’s untiring pen Anon. Mem., p. xxix.
And
there were other works whose origin dated from this period, in which we can
trace the faithful watchman, piously descrying the coming danger, or seeking to
rear bulwarks against the already swelling tide. Two of these were precious fragments broken off from his great
work on the Epistle to the Hebrews, and enlarged to meet present
exigencies. The first was his “Treatise
on the Sabbath;” in which he joined with Baxter, and all the other great
writers among the Puritans, in seeking to preserve this precious fence, which
the goodness of God has drawn around the vineyard of his church, and which he
found assailed on the one hand by fanatics, who denounced it as a mere
ceremonial and carnal observance, and by the more numerous and noisy disciples
of the “Book of Sports,” who hated it for its spirituality. The reader will be struck with the contrast
between the Puritan Sabbath, as it is depicted in its staid and solemn
cheerfulness by a Puritan divine, and as he often beholds it caricatured by the
modern popular writer; and as he finds Owen arguing with the same classes of
antagonists, and answering the same argument and objections as are rife at the
present day, he will be disposed to subscribe to the theory, that errors have
their orbits in which they move, and that their return may be calculated at a
given juncture. The other work of this
class to which we refer was, “The Nature and Punishment of Apostasy Declared,
in an Exposition of It is remarkable that in this treatise, p. 72–100, is to be found an
explication of the last clause of the 6th verse of the 6th
chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, which is strangely omitted in all
editions of the “Exposition.” The
author has had this fact pointed out to him by his learned and venerated
colleague, Dr Brown of Edinburgh. Burnet’s Own Times, i. 262–264.
But the
greatest work of Owen at this period was one which we leave its elaborate title
to describe, — “A Discourse concerning the Holy Spirit; in which an account is
given of his name, nature, personality, dispensation, operations, and effects. His whole work in the Old and New Creation
is explained; the doctrine concerning it vindicated from opposition and
reproaches. The nature and necessity
also of Gospel holiness, the difference between grace and morality, or a
spiritual life to God in evangelical obedience and a course of moral virtues,
is stated and explained.” The better
part of two centuries have elapsed since this work of Owen’s was given to the
world, and yet no English work on the same vital subject has approached it in
exhaustive fulness. An excellent posthumous work on the Holy Spirit, by the late Dr Jamieson of
Edinburgh, edited with memoir by Rev. Andrew Sommerville, deserves to be better
known. It displays more than one of the
best qualities of Owen. Cecil’s Works, ii. 514 — Remains. Address to the readers, p. xli. The
whole of Owen’s comprehensive plan, however, was not completed in this central
treatise. New treatises continued to
appear at intervals, giving to some important branch of this subject a more
full discussion. In 1677 appeared “The
Reason of Faith; or, an answer to the inquiry, Wherefore we believe the Scriptures
to be the Word of God?” In 1678, “The
Causes, Ways and Means of Understanding the mind of God as Revealed in his
Word; and a declaration of the perspicuity of the Scriptures, with the external
means of the interpretation of them.”
In 1682, “The Work of the Holy Spirit in Prayer; with a brief inquiry
into the nature and use of mental prayers and forms.” At length, in 1693, two posthumous discourses, “On the Work of
the Sprit as a Comforter, and as he is the Author of Spiritual Gifts.” filled
up Owen’s elaborate outlines. — Orme, p. 293.
Few
glimpses are given us of Owen’s domestic history; but it appears that, in
January 1676, he was bereaved of his first wife. One of his early biographers says that she “was an excellent and
comely person, very affectionate towards him, and met with suitable returns.” Anon. Mem., p. xxxiv. Her epitaph by Mr
Gilbert helps to fill up the portrait:— There is a touching passage in a small work,
remarkably well written, but little known, that leads us to think of Owen as an
unusually tried parent. “His exercises
by affliction were very great in respect of his children, none of whom he much
enjoyed while living, and saw them all go off the stage before him.” —
Vindication of Owen by a friendly Scrutiny into the merits and manner of Mr
Baxter’s opposition to Twelve Arguments concerning Worship by the Liturgy, p.
38. Wood’s Athen. Oxon., iv. 100, 101.
Many
symptoms were now beginning to make it evident that Owen’s public career was
drawing to a close. The excitements and
anxieties of a most eventful life, and the fatigues of severe study, were
making themselves visible in more than one disease. Asthma afflicted him with such severity as often to unfit him for
preaching; and stone, the frequent and agonizing disease of studious men in
those times, gave no uncertain signs of its presence. In these circumstances it became necessary to obtain assistants,
both in the pastorate of the church in Leadenhall street, and also to act as
his amanuenses Orme, p. 301. Burnet sketches the
character of Ferguson with his usual bold distinctness: “He was a hot and bold
man, whose spirit was naturally turned to plotting,” etc. — Own Times, i. 542. Funeral Sermon by Mr Bates on
With the help of his amanuenses, Owen completed and published, in 1677, “The Doctrine of Justification by Faith, through the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ, Explained, Confirmed, and Vindicated,” — a work in which all the ratiocinative strength and command of resources of his best controversial days appear undiminished. We concur, indeed, to a certain extent, in the censure which has been charged against that part of it which treats of the nature of justifying faith, as tending to perplex a subject whose very simplicity makes explanation equally impossible and unnecessary. The censure, however, ought not to be confined to Owen; for on the subject of faith the Puritan divines, with their scholastic distinctions, were far inferior to the theologians of the Reformation. The great difficulty about faith is not a metaphysical but a moral one; and there is truth in the observation, that elaborate attempts to describe it are like handling a beautiful transparency, whose lustre disappears whensoever it is touched.
This
great work was probably the ripened fruit of many years of thought But as we
examine the productions of Owen during the few remaining years of his life, it
is easy to discover that they belonged principally to three classes, and two of
those especially, owed their origin to events that were occurring around him,
and to dangerous tendencies which his ever-vigilant eye was quick to
discover. First, there were his various
writings against Popery, such as his
In
addition to beholding the Protestants duly inspirited and alarmed on the
subject of Popery, Owen longed to see all alienations and divisions among them
dispelled, and the various parts of the great Protestant community so united
and mutually confiding, as to be prepared to resist their common
adversary. Not that he was the less
convinced of the necessity and duty of separation from the Episcopal Church;
for in a controversy with Stillingfleet, into which an ungenerous assault of
that able Churchman drew him, he had produced one of his best defences of
Nonconformity; This was a bulky pamphlet, entitled, “A brief Vindication of Nonconformists
from the Charge of Schism, as it was managed against them in a Sermon by Dr
Stillingfleet.” All the leading
Nonconformists appear to have taken part in this controversy, from the grave
Howe to witty Alsop. Stillingfleet
replied in a clever work on the “Unreasonableness of Separation;” against which
Owen brought his heavy artillery to bear with desolating effect, in “An Answer
to the ‘Unreasonableness of Separation,’ and a Defence of the ‘Vindication of
the Nonconformists from the Guilt of Schism.’ ” A second part of this treatise, “The True Nature of a Gospel Church, and its
Government,” was posthumous, and did not appear till 1689. The True Nature of a Gospel Church, etc., chap. xi. Anon. Mem., p. xxxiv. The same writer
adds, in illustration of this healing temper, “I heard him say, before a person
of quality and others, he could readily join with Presbytery as it was
exercised in Scotland.
But besides the outward dangers to Protestantism, which made Owen so eager for union among his friends, we discover another and more interesting explanation still in the increased occupation of his mind with the great central truths of the Gospel, and his growing delight in them. The minor distinctions among Christians come to be seen by us in their modified proportions, when we have taken our place within the inner circle of those great truths which constitute the peculiar glory and power of Christianity; and this inner and more radiant circle formed more and more the home of Dr Owen’s heart. This is evident from the three great doctrinal and devotional works which were produced by him at this period, and which we have yet to name.
First,
there appeared his “Χριστολογία, or Declaration of the Glorious
Mystery of the Person of Christ, God and man, with the infinite wisdom, love,
and power of God in the constitution thereof.
As also, of the grounds and reasons of his incarnation; the nature of
his ministry in heaven; the present state of the church above thereon; and the
use of his person in religion,” etc.
The root from which the whole discourse springs, is the memorable
declaration of our Lord to Peter,
Then
followed his heart-searching, heart-inspiring treatise on “The Grace and Duty
of being Spiritually-minded,” first preached to his own heart, and then to a
private congregation; and which reveals to us the almost untouched and
untrodden eminences on which Owen walked in the last years of his pilgrimage, —
eminences for reaching which, Introductory Essay to Owen on Spiritual-mindedness, by Dr Chalmers, p. xxiv.
The last
production of Owen’s pen was his “Meditations and Discourses on the Glory of
Christ.” “Weakness, weariness, and the near approaches of death, do call me off from any
farther labour in this kind.” — Preface to reader.
We have already mentioned Lord Wharton, as one of those noblemen who continued their kindness to the Nonconformists in the midst of all their troubles. His country residence at Woburn, in Buckinghamshire, afforded a frequent asylum to the persecuted ministers; just as we find the castles of Mornay and De Plessis in France opened by their noble owners as a refuge to the Huguenots.
During
his growing infirmities, Owen was invited to Woburn, to try the effect of
change of air; and also that others of his persecuted brethren, meeting him in
this safe retreat, might enjoy the benefit of united counsel and devotion. It appears that while here his infirmities
increased upon him, and that he was unable to return to his flock in London at
the time that he had hoped; and a letter written to them from this place, gives
us so vivid a reflection of the anxieties of a period of persecution, and so
interesting a specimen of Owen’s fidelity and affection to his people, in the
present experience
“Beloved in the Lord, — Mercy, grace, and peace be multiplied to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, by the communication of the Holy Ghost. I thought and hoped that by this time I might have been present with you, according to my desire and resolution; but it has pleased our holy gracious Father otherwise to dispose of me, at least for a season. The continuance of my painful infirmities, and the increase of my weaknesses, will not allow me at present to hope that I should be able to bear the journey. How great an exercise this is to me, considering the season, he knows, to whose will I would in all things cheerfully submit myself. But although I am absent from you in body, I am in mind, affection, and spirit, present with you, and in your assemblies; for I hope you will be found my crown and rejoicing in the day of the Lord; and my prayer for you night and day is, that you may stand fast in the whole will of God, and maintain the beginning of your confidence without wavering, firm unto the end. I know it is needless for me, at this distance, to write to you about what concerns you in point of duty at this season, that work being well supplied by my brother in the ministry; you will give me leave, out of my abundant affections towards you, to bring some few things to your remembrance, as my weakness will permit.
“In the first place, I pray God it may be rooted and fixed in our minds, that the shame and loss we may undergo for the sake of Christ and the profession of the Gospel is the greatest honour which in this life we can be made partakers of. So it was esteemed by the apostles, — they rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name’s sake. It is a privilege superadded to the grace of faith, which all are not made partakers of. Hence it is reckoned to the Philippians in a peculiar manner, that it was given to them, not only to believe in Christ, but also to suffer for him, — that it is far more honourable to suffer with Christ than to reign with the greatest of his enemies. If this be fixed by faith in our minds, it will tend greatly to our encouragement. I mention these things only, as knowing that they are more at large pressed on you.
“The next thing I would recommend to you at this season, is the increase of mutual love among yourselves; for every trial of our faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ is also a trial of our love towards the brethren. This is that which the Lord Christ expects from us, — namely, that when the hatred of the world does openly manifest and act itself against us all, we should evidence an active love among ourselves. If there have been any decays, any coldness herein, if they are not recovered and healed in such a season, it can never be expected. I pray God, therefore, that your mutual love may abound more and more in all the effects and fruits of it towards the whole society, and every member thereof. You may justly measure the fruit of your present trial by the increase of this grace among you; in particular, have a due regard to the weak and the tempted, — that that which is lame may not be turned out of the way, but rather let it be healed.
“Furthermore, brethren, I beseech you, hear a word of advice in case the persecution increases, — which it is like to do for a season. I could wish that, because you have no ruling elders, and your teachers cannot walk about publicly with safety, that you would appoint some among yourselves, who may continually, as their occasions will admit, go up and down, from house to house, and apply themselves peculiarly to the weak, the tempted, the fearful, — those that are ready to despond or to halt, and to encourage them in the Lord. Choose out those to this end who are endued with a spirit of courage and fortitude; and let them know that they are happy whom Christ will honour with this blessed work. And I desire the persons may be of this number who are faithful men, and know the state of the church; by this means you will know what is the frame of the members of the church,
which will be a great direction to you, even in your prayers. Watch, now, brethren, that, if it be the will of God, not one soul may be lost from under your care. Let no one be overlooked or neglected; consider all their conditions, and apply yourselves to all their circumstances “Finally, brethren, that I be not at present farther troublesome to you, examine yourselves as to your spiritual benefit which you have received, or do receive, by your present fears and dangers, which will alone give you the true measure of your condition; for if this tends to the exercise of your faith, and love, and holiness, if this increases your valuation of the privileges of the Gospel, it will be an undoubted token of the blessed issue which the Lord Christ will give unto your troubles. Pray for me, as you do; and do it the rather, that, if it be the will of God, I may be restored to you, — and if not, that a blessed entrance may be given to me into the kingdom of God and glory. Salute all the church in my name. I take the boldness in the Lord to subscribe myself your unworthy pastor, and your servant for Jesus’ sake,
J. Owen.
“P.S. — I humbly desire you would in your prayers remember the family where I am, from whom I have received, and do receive, great Christian kindness. I may say, as the apostle of Onesiphorus, ‘The Lord give to them that they may find mercy of the Lord in that day, for they have often refreshed me in my great distress.’ ”
His infirmities increasing, he soon after removed from London to Kensington, for country air; occasionally, however, he was able still to visit London; and an incident which happened to him on one of these visits presents us with another picture of the times. As he was driving along the Strand, his carriage was stopped by two informers, and his horses seized. Greater violence would immediately have followed, had it not been that Sir Edmund Godfrey, a justice of the peace, was passing at the time, and seeing a mob collected round the carriage, asked what was the matter? On ascertaining the circumstances, he ordered the informers, with Dr Owen, to meet him at the house of another justice of the peace on an appointed day. When the day came, it was found that the informers had acted so irregularly, that they were not only disappointed of their base reward, but severely reprimanded and dismissed. Thus once more did Owen escape as a bird from the snare of the fowler.
Retiring
still farther from the scenes of public life, Owen soon after took up his abode
in the quiet village of Ealing, where he had a house of his own and some
property. Only once again did
persecution hover over him, and threaten to disturb the sacredness of his
declining days, by seeking to involve him and some other of the Nonconformists
in the Rye House plot; but the charge was too bold to be believed, and God was
about, ere long, to remove him from the reach of all these evils, and to hide
him in his pavilion, from the pride of man and from the strife of tongues. Anthony Wood has said of Owen that “he did
very unwillingly lay down his head and die,” but how different was the
spectacle of moral sublimity presented to the eyes of those who were actual
witnesses of the last days of the magnanimous
“Dear Sir, — Although I am not able to write one word myself, yet I am very desirous to speak one word more to you in this world, and do it by the hand of my wife. The continuance of your entire kindness, knowing what it is accompanied withal, is not only greatly valued by me, but will be a refreshment to me, as it is, even in my dying hour. I am going to Him whom my soul has loved, or rather who has loved me with an everlasting love, — which is the whole ground of all my consolation. The passage is very irksome and wearisome, through strong pains of various sorts, which are all issued in an intermitting fever. All things were provided to carry me to London today, according to the advice of my physicians; but we are all disappointed by my utter disability to undertake the journey. I am leaving the ship of the church in a storm; but whilst the great Pilot is in it, the loss of a poor under-rower will be inconsiderable. Live, and pray, and hope, and wait patiently, and do not despond; the promise stands invincible, that He will never leave us, nor forsake us. I am greatly afflicted at the distempers of your dear lady; the good Lord stand by her, and support and deliver her. My affectionate respects to her, and the rest of your relations, who are so dear to me in the Lord. Remember your dying friend with all fervency. I rest upon it that you do so, and am yours entirely,
J. Owen.”
The
first sheet of his “Meditations on the Glory of Christ” had passed through the
press under the superintendence of the Rev. William Payne, a Dissenting
minister at Saffron Waldon, in Essex; and on that person calling on him to
inform him of the circumstance on the morning of the day he died, he exclaimed,
with uplifted hands, and eyes looking upwards, “I am glad to hear it; but, O
brother Payne! the long wished-for day is come at last, in which I shall see
that glory in another manner than I have ever done, or was capable of doing, in
this world.” Middleton, iii. p. 480. Vindication of Owen by a friendly Scrutiny, etc., p. 38. Stoughton’s Spiritual Heroes.
“We have
had a light in this candlestick,” said the amiable David Clarkson, on the
Sabbath following; “we have had a light in this candlestick, which did not only
enlighten the room, but gave light to others far and near: but it is put
out. We did not sufficiently value
it. I wish I might not say that our
sins have put it out. We had a special
honour and ornament, such as other churches would much prize; but the crown has
fallen from our heads, — yea, may I not add, ‘Woe unto us, for we have
sinned?’ ” “Funeral Sermon on the most lamented death of the late reverend and learned
John Owen, D.D., preached the next Lord’s day after his interment.” By David Clarkson, B.D.
Dr Owen
had only reached the confines of old age when he died; but the wonder is, that
a life of such continuous action and severe study had not sooner burned out the
lamp. It may be remarked of him, as
Andrew Fuller used to say of himself, that “he possessed a large portion of
being.” He is said to have stooped
considerably during the later years of his life; but when in his full vigour,
his person was tall and majestic, while there was a singular mixture of gravity
and sweetness in the expression of his countenance. His manners were courteous; his familiar conversation, though
never deficient in gravity, was pleasantly seasoned with wit; and he was
admired by his friends for his remarkable command of temper under the most
annoying provocations, and his tranquil magnanimity in the midst of all the
changes of fortune to which, in common with all his great Puritan contemporaries,
he was exposed. “His general frame was
serious, cheerful, and discoursive, — his expressions savouring nothing of
discontent, much of heaven and love to Christ, and saints, and all men; which
came from him so seriously and Vindication of Owen by a friendly Scrutiny, etc., p. 38.
Our
business, however, is more with Dr Owen in his various public relations, and it
seems to be a fit conclusion of this Memoir, that we should now attempt, in a
few closing paragraphs, to express the estimate which a review of his conduct
in these relations warrants us to form of his character. One of the most natural errors into which a
biographer is in danger of being betrayed, is that of asserting the superiority
of the individual who has been the subject of his memoir to all his
contemporaries; and it would probably require no great stretch of ingenuity or
eloquent advocacy to bring out Dr Owen as at least “primus inter pares.” In finding our way, however, to such
conclusions, almost every thing depends on the particular excellence on which
we fix as our standard of judgment; and we are persuaded that were we allowed
to select a separate excellence in each case our standard, we could bring out
each of the three great Puritans as, in his turn, the greatest. Let impressive eloquence in the pulpit and
ubiquitous activity out of it be the standard, and all this crowned with
successes truly apostolical, and must not every preacher of his age yield the
palm to Richard Baxter? Or let our task
be to search for the man in that age of intellectual giants who was most at
home in the philosophy of Christianity, whose imagination could bear
every subject he touched upwards into the sunlight, and cover it with the
splendours of the firmament, and would we not lay the crown at the feet of the
greatly good John Howe? But let the
question be, who among all the Puritans was the most remarkable for his
intimate and profound acquaintance with the truths of revelations who could
shed the greatest amount of light upon a selected portion of the Word of God,
discovering its hidden riches, unfolding its connections and harmonies, and
bringing the most abstruse doctrines of revelation to bear upon the conduct and
the life who was the “interpreter, one amongst a thousand?” or let other
excellencies that we are about to specify be chosen as the standard, and will
not the name of Dr Owen, in this case, obtain an unhesitating and unanimous
suffrage? Such a mode, therefore, of expressing our estimate is not only
invidious, but almost certain to fail, after all, in conveying a distinct and
accurate conception of the character we
The
first excellence we have to name is one in regard to which, we are persuaded,
the modern popular estimate has fallen considerably below the truth. We refer to the qualities of Owen as a
preacher. No one who is familiar with
his printed sermons, and has marked the rich ore of theology with which they
abound, will refuse to him the praise of a great sermon-maker; but this gift is
not always found united in the same person with that other excellence which is
equally necessary to constitute the preacher, — the power, namely, of expressing
all the sentiment and feeling contained in the words by means of the living
voice. And the general impression seems
to be, that Dr Owen was deficient in this quality, and that his involved
sentences, though easily overlooked in a composition read in secret, must,
without the accompaniments of a most perfect delivery, have been fatal to their
effect upon a public audience. It is
even supposed that his intellectual habits must have been unfavourable to his
readiness as an orator, and that while, like Addison, he had abundance of gold
in the bank, he was frequently at a loss for ready money. But Owen’s contemporaries report far
differently; and the admiring judgment of some of them is the more to be relied
on, that, as in the case of Anthony Wood, it was given with a grudge. Their descriptions, indeed, would lead us to
conclude his eloquence was of the persuasive and insinuating, rather than, like
Baxter’s, of the impassioned kind, — the dew, and not the tempest; but in this
form of eloquence he appears to have reached great success. His amiable colleague, Mr Clarkson, speaking
of “the admirable facility with which he could discourse on any subject,”
describes him as “never at a loss for language, and better expressing himself
extempore than others with premeditation;” and retaining this felicity of
diction and mastery of his thoughts “in the presence even of the highest
persons in the nation.” We have already
had occasion to quote Wood’s representation of Owen’s oratory, as “moving and
winding the affections of his auditory almost as he pleased;” The words seems to be Dodwell’s, but they are quoted by Wood with approval.
We
should form a very imperfect estimate of the character of Dr Owen, and of the
beneficent influence which he exerted, did we not advert to his greatness as a
man of affairs. In this respect we need
have no hesitation in asserting his superiority to all the Puritans. Attached from principle to that great party
whose noble mission it was to assert and to vindicate the rights of conscience
and freedom of worship, he soon rose to be its chief adviser on all occasions
of great practical exigency. He
combined in a remarkable degree that clear perception and firm grasp of great
abstract principles, that quick discernment of character and detection of
hidden motive in others, which acts in some men with all the promptitude and
infallibility of instinct, — that fertility of resources, that knowledge of the
times for vigorous action and of the times in which to economize strength,
which, when found in great prominence and happy combination in the politician,
fit him for the high duties of statesmanship.
He was the man who, by common consent, was called to the helm in a
storm. Baxter was deficient in more
than one of those qualities which are necessary to such a post; while his
ardent nature would, on some occasions, have betrayed him into practical
excesses, and at other times his love of nice and subtle distinction would have
kept him discussing when he should have been acting; — while Howe’s elevation
above the affairs of daily life, his love of solitude, which made him almost
wish even to die alone in some unfrequented wood, or on the top of some far
remote mountain, disinclined, if it did not unfit him, for the conduct of
public affairs. But Owen’s singular
excellence in this respect was early manifested, — and to no eye sooner than to
that of Cromwell. We have seen him
inviting his counsels on the affairs of Dublin University; taking him with him
to Scotland, not only as his chaplain, but as his adviser in the affairs of
that campaign,
Some
have accused Owen and other Nonconformists of his age as too political for
their office. But who made them
such? Was it not the men who were
seeking to wrest from them their dearest civil rights, and to make it a crime
to worship God according to their consciences?
With such base ingenuity of reproach were the Huguenots of France
accused of holding secret meetings, after they had been forbidden to meet in
public. It was no small part of Owen’s
praise, that he saw and obeyed the necessity of his position; and that perhaps,
of all the Puritans of his age, he was the most quick to “observe the signs of
the times, and to know what Israel ought to do.” This is the estimate we should be disposed to form from a simple
retrospect of the facts of our narrative; but it appears to have been the
judgment which some of the best of Owen’s contemporaries were not slow to
express. In that admirable letter to
Baxter from which we have already quoted, referring more particularly to Owen’s
vice-chancellorship, the writer says, “And though his years, piety, principles,
and strait discipline, with the interest he adhered to, affected many of the
heads and students with contempt, envy, and enmity at the first; his personal
worth, obliging deportment, and dexterity in affairs that concerned him in that
station, so mastered all, that the university grew not only content with, but
proud of such a vice-chancellor. And,
indeed, such were his temper and accomplishments, that whatever station or sort
of men his lot, choice, or interest, should place him in or among, it were no
small wonder that he were not uppermost:— that was his proper sphere, which
those with whom he was concerned generally courted him into, and few envied or
corrived.” “Corrived” is an obsolete English word for “rivalled.”
But the
aspect in which we most frequently think of Owen, and from which our highest
estimate of him is formed, is that of a theological writer. Even the mere material bulk of his works
fills us with surprise; and when we consider the intensely active life which
Owen led, their production strikes us as almost incredible. In Russell’s editions together with the
edition of his “Exposition” by Wright, his works fill no fewer than
twenty-eight goodly octavo volumes, though we almost sympathize with the
feeling that the folio form, in which many of them originally appeared, more
fitly represents their intellectual stature.
“Hew down the pyramids,” says Sir James
It is only, however, when we have acquired some considerable familiarity with the contents of these volumes, and when we remember that on almost every one of the great controversies, — such as the Arminian, the Socinian, the Popish, and the Episcopalian, — he has produced works which, after the lapse of nearly two centuries, are still regarded by unanimous consent as masterpieces on the themes on which they treat, that we feel unhesitating confidence in placing the name of Owen among the first names of that age of amazing intellectual achievement. In some of his controversies he had to do with men of inferior ability, of whom it might be said, as of some of Fuller’s opponents, that “they scarcely served him for a breakfast;” but in other controversies, such as that with Goodwin on the perseverance of the saints, he was called to grapple with some of the best and most accomplished men of his age. But he never quailed before any opponent. More than one of his works put an end to the controversy by driving his adversaries to despair; and only once — viz., in his rash encounter with Walton — did he retire undeniably vanquished from the field. It is unnecessary to repeat observations that have been made in the narrative on Owen’s various works; but this seems to be the place at which to indicate what seem to have been the most distinguishing qualities of Owen as a theological writer.
Perhaps
no better word could be found to express one of the most striking
characteristics of Owen, than that which Mackintosh has used to describe the
writings of Bentham, — exhaustiveness.
He goes through his subject “in the length thereof, and in the breadth
thereof.” It was his custom to read all
the works that had been written on his particular subject, — especially the
writings of opponents, — and then to pass deliberately from point to point of
his theme, and bring the whole concentrated light of Scripture to bear upon its
elucidation and establishment. He
leaves nothing to be added by one who shall follow in the same path, not even
little gleanings at the corners of the field.
— We venture to describe another feature of Owen’s works by the phrase,
Theological conservatism. In an age
remarkable for its intellectual excitement, which gave birth to all manner of
extravagances in opinion, like the ocean in a storm, bringing to the surface
monsters, and hydras, and chimeras dire, and then producing in due season a
reaction into the shallows of Rationalism, Owen displayed no disposition to
change. There is no writer in whose
opinions throughout life there is more of consistency and unity. There is everywhere
Allied to this, and in part accounting for it, was what we would style the devout Calvinism of Owen’s cast of thought. Baxter and he held substantially the same truths, their views, even when they seemed the most divergent, differing in form and complexion more than in substance; but still it is evident that the two great men had each his distinct and favourite standing-point. With Baxter, the initial thought was man in need of a great restorative system; and this led him outwards and upwards, from step to step of the Christian salvation. The initial thought with Owen was God in the past eternity devising a scheme of salvation through a Mediator; which he unfolded in its wondrous arrangements and provisions from age to age of the world, and whose glorious results were to continue to be enjoyed for ever and ever. This gave a comprehensiveness and an elevation to Owen’s whole theology, and accounts in part for the fact that Baxter seems greatest when bearing upon the duties of the sinner, and calling him to repentance, — “now or never;” while Owen comes forth in his greatest strength when instructing and building up those who have already believed.
And this
suggests another of his most remarkable excellencies, — the power, namely, of
bringing the various doctrines of the Christian system, even the most abstruse,
to bear, in the form of motive and consolation, upon the affections and active
powers of our human nature. Great as
Owen is when we see him as the gigantic polemic, putting forth his intellectual
might in “earnestly contending for the faith once delivered unto the saints;”
we have not seen him in all his greatness until, in such practical works as his
treatise on the “Mortification of Sin in Believers,” he brings the truth into
contact, not so much with the errors of the heretic, as with the corruption and
deceitfulness of the human heart. Then
we have hesitated which most to admire, — his intimate knowledge of the Word of
God, or his profound acquaintance with the heart of man, or the skill with
which he brings the
Yet some of the excellencies that we have named stand closely connected with Owen’s chief defect, — which is to be found in his manner, rather than in his matter. His wish to exhaust his particular theme has made him say every thing on a subject that could be said, and betrayed him into an occasional prolixity and discursiveness, the absence of which would have made his works far more popular, and far more useful. He wants perspective in composition, and does not seem to know the secret of touching on themes, without laboriously handling them. This, with an occasionally involved and parenthetical style, has formed, as we conceive, the chief barrier to Owen’s yet wider acceptance. The sentiment of Dr Vaughan is a just one, that had the fluency and elegance of Bates been united to the massive thoughts of Owen, we should have had a near approach to the perfect theological writer. But let us admit this occasional defect; and let us even farther concede, that in other qualities he is not equal to others of the Puritans, — that he is surpassed by Baxter in point and energy, by Flavel in tenderness, by Howe in majesty, by both the Henrys in proverb and epigram, by Bates in beautiful similitudes; — still, where shall we find, in the theological writers of his own or of any age, so much of the accumulated treasures of a sanctified learning, — of the mind of God clearly elucidated and invincibly defended, — of profound and massive thought? His works are like a soil which is literally impregnated with gold, and in which burnished masses of the virgin ore are sure to reward him who patiently labours in it.
John
Owen belonged to a class of men who have risen from age to age in the church,
to represent great principles, and to revive in the church the life of
God. The supreme authority of the
Scriptures in all matters of religion, — the headship of Christ, — the rights
of conscience, — religion as a thing of spirit, and not of form, resulting from
the personal belief of certain revealed truths, and infallibly manifesting
itself in a holy life, — the church as a society distinct from the world; —
these principles, often contended for in flames and blood, were the essence of
that Puritanism which found one of its noblest examples in Owen. Puritanism, it has been finely said, was the
feeling of which Protestantism was the argument. But even then, it was an old spirit under a new name, which, heaven-enkindled,
has ever borne the two marks of its celestial origin, in blessing the world and
in the Huguenots of France; and in the stern Scottish Covenanters; — and which God has sometimes sent down since, like a benignant angel, when the church at any time has begun to stagnate in a cold orthodoxy, to trouble the waters of the sanctuary, that the lame might be healed. It is a spirit which the inert orthodoxy and the superficial evangelism of the church even now greatly needs to have breathed into it from heaven. And the laborious and prayerful study of the writings of the Puritans might do much to restore it. Only let the same truths be believed with the same faith, and they will produce the same men, and accomplish the same intellectual and moral miracles. A due appreciation of the most pressing wants of our age, and a timely discernment of its most serious perils, would draw from us the prayer which is said to have once escaped the lips even of the cold and calculating Erasmus, — “O, sit anima mea cum Puritanis Anglicanis!”
This inscription is engraven on his tombstone.
Agro Oxoniensi Oriundus;
Patre insigni Theologo Theologus Ipse Insignior;
Et Seculi hujus Insignissimis annumerandus:
Communibus Humaniorum Literarum Suppetiis,
Mensura parum Communi, Instructus;
Omnibus, quasi bene Ordinata Ancillarum Serie,
Ab illo jussis Suæ Famulari Theolgiæ:
Theologiæ Polemicæ, Practicæ, &, quam vocant, Casuum
(Harum enim Omnium, quæ magis Sua habenda erat, ambigitur)
In illa, Viribus plusquam Herculeis, Serpentibus tribus,
Arminio, Socino, Cano, Venenosa Strinxit Guttera:
In ista, Suo prior, ad Verbi Amussim, Expertus Pectore,
Universam, Sp. Scti. Œconomiam Aliis tradidit:
Et missis Cæteris, Coluit Ipse, Sensitque,
Beatam, quam Scripsit, cum Deo Communionem:
In Terris Viator comprehensori in Cœlis proximus:
In Casuum Theologia, Singulis Oraculi instar habitus;
Quibus Opus erat, & Copia, Consulendi:
Scriba ad Regnum Cœlorum usquequoque Institutus;
Multis privatos infra Parietes, à Suggesto Pluribus,
A Prelo Omnibus, ad eundem Scopum collineantibus,
Pura Doctrinæ Evangelicæ Lampas Præluxit;
Et sensim, no sine aliorum, suoque sensu,
Sic prælucendo Periit,
Assiduis Infirmitatibus Obsiti,
Morbis Creberrimis Impetiti,
Durisque Laboribus potissimum Attriti, Corporis
(Fabricæ, donec ita Quassatæ, Spectabilis) Ruinas,
Deo ultrà Serviendo inhabiles, Sancta Anima,
Deo ultrà Fruendi Cupida, Deseruit;
Illi, à Cœlesti Numine, Felici reddito;
Mensis
Scilicet Augusti XXIVº. Anno à Partu
Virgineo.
MDCLXXXIIIº, Ætat. LXVIIº.
John Owen, D.D., born in the county of Oxford, the son of an eminent minister, himself more eminent, and worthy to be enrolled among the first divines of the age; furnished with human literature in all its kinds, and in its highest degrees, he called forth all his knowledge in an orderly train to serve the interests of religion, and minister in the sanctuary of his God. In divinity, practic, polemic, and casuistical, he excelled others, and was in all equal to himself. The Arminian, Socinian, and Popish errors, those hydras, whose contaminated breath and deadly poison infested the church, he, with more than Herculean labour, repulsed, vanquished, and destroyed. The whole economy of redeeming grace, revealed and applied by the Holy Spirit, he deeply investigated, and communicated to others, having first felt its divine energy, according to its draught in the holy Scriptures, transfused into his own bosom. Superior to all terrene pursuits, he constantly cherished, and largely experienced, that blissful communion with Deity he so admirably describes in his writings. While on the road to heaven, his elevated mind almost comprehended its full glories and joys. When he was consulted on cases of conscience, his resolutions contained the wisdom of an oracle. He was a scribe every way instructed in the mysteries of the kingdom of God. In conversation he held up to many, in his public discourses to more, in his publications from the press to all, who were set out for the celestial Zion, the effulgent lamp of evangelical truth, to guide their steps to immortal glory. While he was thus diffusing his divine light, with his own inward sensations, and the observations of his afflicted friends, his earthly tabernacle gradually decayed, till at length his deeply-sanctified soul, longing for the fruition of its God, quitted the body. In younger age, a most comely and majestic form; but in the latter stages of life, depressed by constant infirmities, emaciated with frequent diseases, and above all crushed under the weight of intense and unremitting studies, it became an incommodious mansion for the vigorous exertions of the spirit in the service of its God. He left the world on a day dreadful to the church by the cruelties of men, but blissful to himself by the plaudits of his God, August 24, 1683, aged 67. — Translated by Dr Gibbons.
The following Letters embrace all the Correspondence of Dr Owen which has been preserved, and is of any importance:—
Sir,
— I have received your strictures upon our Confession, wherein you charge it
with palpable contradiction, nonsense, enthusiasm, and false doctrine, — that
is, all the evils that can be crowded into such a writing; and I understand, by
another letter since, that you have sent the same paper to others, — which is
the sole cause of the return which I now make to you; and I beg your pardon in
telling you, that
First,
you say there is a plain contradiction between chap. iii. art. 6, and chap.
xxx. art. 2. In the first place it is
said, “None but the elect are redeemed;” but in the other it is said, “The
sacrament is a memorial of the one offering of Christ upon the cross for
all.” I do admire to find this charged
by you as a contradiction; for you know full well that all our divines who
maintain that the elect only were redeemed effectually by Christ, do yet grant
that Christ died for all, in the Scripture sense of the word, — that is, some
of all sorts, — and never dreamt of any contradiction in their assertion. But your mistake is worse; for in chap. xxx.
art. 2, which you refer to, there is not one word mentioned of Christ’s dying
for all; but that the sacrifice which he offered was offered once for all, —
which is the expression of the apostle, to intimate that it was but once
offered, in opposition to the frequent repetitions of the sacrifices of the
Jews. And pray, if you go on in your
translation, do not fall into a mistake upon it; for in the very close of the
article it is said, “That Christ’s only sacrifice was a propitiation for the
sins of all the elect.” The words you
urge out of
Something you quote out of chap. vi. art. 6, where I think you suppose we do not distinguish between the “reatus” and “macula” of sin; and do think that we grant the defilement of Adam’s person, and consequently of all intermediate propagations, to be imputed unto us. Pray, sir, give me leave to say, that I cannot but think your mind was employed about other things when you dreamt of our being guilty of such a folly and madness; neither is there any one word in the Confession which gives countenance unto it. If you would throw away so much time as to read any part of my late discourse about justification, it is not unlikely but that you would see something of the nature of the guilt of sin, and the imputation of it, which may give you satisfaction.
In your next instance, which you refer unto chap. xix. art. 3, by some mistake (there being nothing to the purpose in that place), you say, “It is presupposed that some who have attained age may be elected, and yet have not the knowledge of Jesus Christ; which is a pure enthusiasm, and is contrary to chap. xx. art. 2.” Why, sir! that many who are eternally elected, and yet for some season — some less, some longer — do live without the knowledge of Christ, until they are converted by the Word and Spirit, is not an enthusiasm; but your exception is contrary to the whole Scripture, contrary to the experience of all days and ages, overthrows the work of the ministry, and is so absurd to sense, and reason, and daily experience, that I know not what to say to it; only, I confess that if, with some of the Arminians, you do not believe that any are elected from eternity, or before they do actually believe, something may be spoken to countenance your exception: but that we cannot regard, for it was our design to oppose all their errors.
Your
next instance is a plain charge of false doctrine, taken out of chap. xi. art.
1, speaking, as you say, of the active obedience of Christ imputed to us, which
is contrary to art. 3, where it is said that Christ acquits by his obedience in
death, and not by his fulfilling of the law.
Sir, you still give me cause of some new admiration in all these
objections, and I fear you make use of some corrupt copy of our Confession; —
for we say not, as you allege, that Christ by his obedience in death did acquit
us, and not by his fulfilling of the law; but we say that Christ, by his
obedience and death, did fully discharge the debt of all those who are
justified, — which comprehends both his active and passive righteousness. But you add a reason, whereby you design to
disprove this doctrine of our concerning the imputation
In the last place, your friend wishes it could be avoided, and declined to speak any thing about universal grace, for that it would raise some or most divines against it. I judge myself beholden to your friend for the advice, which I presume he judges to be good and wholesome; but I beg your pardon that I cannot comply with it, although I shall not reflect with any severity upon them who are of another judgment; and, to tell you the truth, the immethodical new method introduced to give countenance to universal grace, is, in my judgment, suited to draw us off from all due conceptions concerning the grace of God in Jesus Christ; which I shall not now stay to demonstrate, though I will not decline the undertaking of it, if God gives me strength, at any time. And I do wonder to hear you say that many, if not most divines, will rise against it, who have published in print that there were but two in England that were of that opinion, and have strenuously opposed it yourself. How things are in France, I know not; but at Geneva, in Holland, in Switzerland, in all the Protestant churches of Germany, I do know that this universal grace is exploded. Sir, I shall trouble you no farther. I pray be pleased to accept of my desire to undeceive you in those things, wherein either a corrupt copy of our Confession or the reasonings of other men have given you so many mistaken conceptions about our Confession. — I am, Sir, yours,
J. Owen.
Dear Madam, — Every work of God is good; the Holy One in the midst of us
will do no iniquity; and all things shall work together for good unto them that
love him, even those things which at present are not joyous, but grievous; only
his time is to be waited for, and his way submitted unto, that we seem not to
be displeased in our hearts that he is Lord over us. Your dear infant is in the eternal enjoyment of the fruits of all
our prayers; for the covenant of God is ordered in all things, and sure. We shall go to her; she shall not return to
us. Happy she was in this above us,
that she had so speedy an issue of sin and misery, being born only to exercise
your faith and patience, and to glorify God’s grace in her eternal
blessedness. My trouble would be great
on the account of my absence at this time from you both, but that this also is
the Lord’s doing; and I know my own uselessness wherever I am. But this I will beg of God for you both that
you may not faint in this day of trial, — that you may have a clear view of
those spiritual
Only consider that sorrow in this case is no duty, it is an effect of sin, whose cure by grace we should endeavour. Shall I say, Be cheerful? I know I may. God help you to honour grace and mercy in a compliance therewith. My heart is with you, my prayers shall be for you, and I am, dear madam, your most affectionate friend and unworthy pastor,
J. Owen.
Dear Madam, — The trouble expressed in yours is a great addition to mine; the sovereignty of divine wisdom and grace is all that I have at this day to retreat unto; God direct you thereunto also, and you will find rest and peace. It adds to my trouble that I cannot possibly come down to you this week. Nothing but engaged duty could keep me from you one hour: yet I am conscious how little I can contribute to your guidance in this storm, or your satisfaction. Christ is your pilot; and however the vessel if tossed whilst he seems to sleep, he will arise and rebuke these winds and waves in his own time. I have done it, and yet shall farther wrestle with God for you, according to the strength he is pleased to communicate. Little it is which at this distance I can mind you of; yet some few things are necessary. Sorrow not too much for the dead: she is entered into rest, and is taken away from the evil to come. Take heed lest, by too much grief, you too much grieve that Holy Spirit, who is infinitely more to us than all natural relations. I blame you not that you so far attend to the call of God in this dispensation as to search yourself, to judge and condemn yourself: grace can make it an evidence to you that you shall not be judged or condemned of the Lord. I dare not say that this chastisement was not needful. We are not in heaviness unless need be; but if God be pleased to give you a discovery of the wisdom and care that is in it, and how needful it was to awaken and restore your soul in any thing, perhaps in many things, in due time you will see grace and love in it also. I verily believe God expects, in this dealing with you, that you should judge yourself, your sins and your decays; but he would not have you misjudge your condition. But we are like froward children, who, when they are rebuked and corrected, neglect other things, and only cry that their parents hate and reject them. You are apt to fear, to think and say, that you are one whom God regards not, who are none of his; and that for sundry reasons which you suppose you can plead. But, saith God, this is not the business; this is a part of your frowardness. I call you to quicken your grace, to amend your own ways; and you think you have nothing to do but to question my love. Pray, madam, my dear sister, child and care, beware you lose not the advantage of this dispensation; you will do so, if you use it only to afflictive sorrows, or questioning of the love of God, or your interest in Christ.
The time
will be spent in these things which should be taken up in earnest endeavours
after a compliance with God’s will, quickenings of grace, returns after
backsliding, mortification of sin and love of the world, until the sense of it
do pass away. Labour vigorously to
bring your soul to this twofold resolution:— 1. That the will of God is the best rule for all things, and their
circumstances. 2. That you will bring yourself into a fresh
engagement to live more to him: and you will find the reminder of your work
easy; for it is part of the yoke of Christ.
I shall trouble you no farther but only to give you the assurance that
you are in
J. Owen.
Dear Sir, — I received yours and am glad to hear of your welfare. There is more then ordinary mercy in every day’s preservation. My wife, I bless God, is much revived, so that I do not despair of her recovery; but for myself, I have been under the power of various distempers for fourteen days past, and do yet so continue. God is fastening his instruction concerning the approach of that season wherein I must lay down this tabernacle. I think my mind has been too much intent upon some things which I looked on as services for the church; but God will have us know that he has no need of me nor them, and is therefore calling me off from them. Help me with your prayers, that I may, through the riches of his grace in Christ, be in some measure ready for my account. The truth is, we cannot see the latter rain in its season, as we have seen the former, and a latter spring thereon. Death, that will turn in the streams of glory upon our poor withering souls, is the best relief. I begin to fear that we shall die in this wilderness; yet ought we to labour and pray continually that the heavens would drop down from above, and the skies pour down righteousness, — that the earth may open and bring forth salvation, and that righteousness may spring up together. If ever I return to you in this world, I beseech you to contend yet more earnestly than ever I have done, with God, with my own heart, with the church, to labour after spiritual revivals. Our affectionate service to your lady, and to all your family that are of the household of God. — I am, dearest sir, yours most affectionately whilst I live,
J. Owen.
Stadham, July 8.
Dear Sir, — The bearer has stayed long enough with us to save you the
trouble of reading an account of me in my own scribbling: a longer stay I could
not prevail with him for, though his company was a great refreshment to
me. Both you and your whole family, in
all their occasions and circumstances, are daily in my thoughts; and when I am
enabled to pray, I make mention of you all without ceasing. I find you and I are much in
complaining. For my part I must say,
And is there not a cause? So much
deadness, so much unspirituality, so much weakness in faith, coldness in love,
instability in holy meditations, as I find in myself, is cause sufficient of
complaints. But is there not cause also
of thanksgiving and joy in the Lord?
Are there not reasons for them?
When I begin to think of them, I am overwhelmed; they are great, they
are glorious, they are inexpressible.
Shall I now invite you to this great duty of rejoicing more in the
Lord? Pray for me, that I may do so;
for the near approach of my dissolution calls for it earnestly. My heart has done with this world, even in
the best and most desirable of its refreshments. If the joy of the Lord be not now strength unto it, it will
fail. But I must have done. Unless God be pleased to affect some person
or persons with a deep sense of our declining condition, of the temptations and
dangers of the day, filling them with compassion for the souls of men, making
them fervent in spirit in their work, it will go but ill with us. It may be these thoughts spring from
causeless fears, it may be none amongst us has an evil, a barren heart but
myself: but bear with me in this my folly; I cannot lay down these thoughts
until I die; nor do I mention them at present as though I should
J. Owen.
Dear Sir, — I received yours by Mr B., to whom I shall commit this return, and hope it will come safely to your hands; for although I can acknowledge nothing of what you are pleased out of your love to ascribe unto me, yet I shall be always ready to give you my thoughts in the way of brotherly advice, whenever you shall stand in need of it: and at present, as things are circumstanced, I do not see how you can waive or decline the call of the church either in conscience or reputation. For, to begin with the latter; should you do so upon the most Christian and cogent grounds in your own apprehensions, yet wrong interpretations will be put upon it; and so far as it is possible we ought to keep ourselves, not only “extra noxam,” but “suspicionem” also. But the point of conscience is of more moment. All things concurring, — the providence of God in bringing you to that place, the judgment of the church on your gifts and grace for their edification and example, the joint consent of the body of the congregation in your call, with present circumstances of a singular opportunity for preaching the word, I confess at this distance I see not how you can discharge that duty you owe to Jesus Christ (whose you are, and not your own, and must rejoice to be what he will have you to be, be it more or less) in refusing a compliance unto these manifest indications of his pleasure; only, remember that you sit down and count what it will cost you, — which I know you will not be discouraged by; for the daily exercise of grace and learning of wisdom should not be grievous unto us, though some of their occasions may be irksome. For the latter part of your letter, I know no difference between a pastor and a teacher but what follows their different gifts; — the office is absolutely the same in both; the power the same, the right to the administration of all ordinances every way the same: and at that great church at Boston, in New England, the teacher was always the principal person; so was Mr Cotton and Mr Norton. Where gifts make a difference, there is a difference; otherwise there is none. I pray God guide you in this great affair; and I beg your prayers for myself in my weak, infirm condition. — I am your affectionate friend and brother,
J. Owen.
London, March 16.
Sir,
— The continuance of my cold, which yet holds me, with the severity of the
weather, have hitherto hindered me from answering my purpose of coming unto you
at Acton; but yet I hope, ere long, to obtain the advantage of enjoying your
company there for a season. In the
meantime, I return you my thanks for the communication of your papers; and
shall on every occasion manifest that you have no occasion to question whether
I were in earnest in what I proposed, in reference to the concord you
design. For the desire of it is
continually upon my heart; and to express that desire on all occasion, I esteem
one part of that profession of the Gospel which I am called unto. Could I contribute any thing towards
For the present, upon the liberty granted in your letter (if I remember it aright), I shall tender you a few queries, which, if they are useless or needless, deal with them accordingly.
As, — 1. Are not the several proposed or insisted on too many for this first attempt? The general heads, I conceive, are not; but under them very many particulars are not only included, which is unavoidable, but expressed also which may too much dilate the original consideration of the whole.
2. You expressly exclude the Papists, who will also sure enough exclude themselves, and do, from any such agreement; but have you done the same as to the Socinians, who are numerous, and ready to include themselves upon our communion? The Creed, as expounded in the four first councils, will do it.
3. Whether some expressions suited to prevent future divisions and separations, after a concord is obtained, may not at present, to avoid all exasperation, be omitted, as seeming reflective on former actings, when there was no such agreement among us as is now aimed at?
4. Whether insisting in particular on the power of the magistrate, especially as under civil coercion and punishment in cases of error or heresy, be necessary in this first attempt? These generals occurred to my thoughts upon my first reading of your proposals. I will now read them again, and set down, as I pass on, such apprehensions in particular as I have of the several of them.
To the first answer, under the first question, I assent; so also to the first proposal, and the explanation; likewise to the second and third. I thought to have proceeded thus throughout, but I foresee my so doing would be tedious and useless; I shall therefore mention only what at present may seem to require second thoughts. As, —
1. To propos. 9, by those instances [what words to use in preaching, in what words to pray, in what decent habit] do you intend homilies, prescribed forms of prayer, and habits superadded to those of vulgar decent use? Present controversies will suggest an especial sense under general expressions.
2. Under pos. 13, do you think a man may not leave a church and join himself to another, unless it be for such a cause or reason as he supposes sufficient to destroy the being of the church? I meet with this now answered in your 18th propos., and so shall forbear farther particular remarks, and pass on.
In your answer to the second question, your 10th position hath in it somewhat that will admit of farther consideration, as I think. In your answer to the third question, have you sufficiently expressed the accountableness of churches mutually, in case of offence from maladministration and church censures? This also I now see in part answered, — proposition fifth. I shall forbear to add any thing as under your answer to the last question, about the power of the magistrate, because I fear that in that matter of punishing I shall somewhat dissent from you, though as to mere coercion I shall in some cases agree.
Upon the
whole matter, I judge your proposals worthy of great consideration, and the
most probable medium for the attaining of the end aimed at that yet I have
perused. If God give not a heart and
mind to desire peace and union, every expression will be disputed, under
pretence of truth and accuracy; but if these things have a place in us
answerable to that which they enjoy in the Gospel, I see no reason why all the
true disciples of Christ might not, upon these and the like principles,
condescend in love unto the practical concord and agreement, which
John Owen.
Jan. 26, 1668.
A List of Dr Owen’s Works, according to the years in which they appear to have been published.
Display of Arminianism, 4to, 1642
The Duty of Pastors and People Distinguished, 4to, 1643
The Principles of the Doctrine of Christ, in two Catechisms, 12mo, 1645
A Vision of Unchangeable Mercy: a Sermon, 4to, 1646
Eshcol; or, Rules for Church Fellowship, 12mo, 1647
Salus Electorum: a treatise on Redemption, 4to, 1648
Memorial of the Deliverance of Essex: two Sermons, 4to, 1648
Righteous Zeal — a Sermon; and Essay on Toleration, 4to, 1649
The Shaking and Translating of Heaven and Earth: a sermon, 4to, 1649
Human Power Defeated: a Sermon, 4to, 1649
Of the Death of Christ, in answer to Baxter, 4to, 1650
The Steadfastness of Promises: a Sermon, 4to, 1650
The Branch of the Lord: two Sermons, 4to, 1650
The Advantage of the Kingdom of Christ: a sermon, 4to, 1651
The Labouring Saint’s Dismission: a Sermon, 4to, 1652
Christ’s Kingdom and the Magistrate’s Power: a Sermon, 4to, 1652
De Divina Justitia: translated 1794, 12mo, 1653
The Doctrine of the Saints’ Perseverance, folio, 1654
Vindicæ Evangelicæ: Reply to Biddle, 4to, 1655
On the Mortification of Sin, 8vo, 1656
Review of the Annotations of Grotius, 4to, 1656
God’s Work in Founding Zion: a Sermon, 4to, 1656
God’s Presence with his People: a Sermon, 4to, 1656
On Communion with God, 4to, 1657
A Discovery of the True Nature of Schism, 12mo, 1657
A Review of the True Nature of Schism, 12mo, 1657
Answer to Cawdrey about Schism, 12mo, 1658
Of the Nature and Power of Temptation, 12mo, 1658
The Divine Original of the Scriptures, 12mo, 1659
Vindication of the Hebrew and Greek Texts, 12mo, 1659
Exercitationes adversus Fanaticos, 12mo, 1659
The Glory of Nations professing the Gospel: a Sermon, 4to, 1659
On the Power of the Magistrate about Religion, 4to, 1659
A Primer for Children, 12mo, 1660
ΘΟΛΟΓΟΥΜΕΝΑ ΠΑΝΤΟΔΑΠΑ, 4to, 1661
Animadversions on Fiat
Lux, 12mo, 1662
Vindication of the Animadversions, 8vo, 1664
Indulgence and Toleration Considered, 4to, 1667
A Peace-offering, or Plea for Indulgence, 4to, 1667
Brief Instruction in the Worship of God: a Catechism, 12mo, 1667
On Indwelling Sin, 8vo, 1668
Exposition of the 130th Psalm, 4to, 1668
Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews, vol. i., folio, 1668
Vindication of the Doctrine of the Trinity, 12mo, 1669
Truth and Innocence Vindicated, 8vo, 1669
On the Divine Institution of the Lord’s Day, 8vo, 1671
On Evangelical Love, 8vo, 1672
Vindication of the Work on Communion, 12mo, 1674
Discourse on the Holy Spirit, folio, 1674
Exposition of the Hebrews, vol. ii., folio, 1674
How we may Bring our Hearts to Bear Reproof, 4to, 1674
On the Nature of Apostasy, 8vo, 1676
The Reason of Faith, 8vo, 1677
On the Doctrine of Justification, 4to, 1677
The Ways and Means of Understanding the Mind of God, 8vo, 1678
ΧΡΙΣΤΟΛΟΓΙΑ, or the Person of Christ, 4to, 1679
The Church of Rome no Safe Guide, 4to, 1679
On Union among Protestants, 4to, 1680
Vindication of the Nonconformists, 4to, 1680
Exposition of the Hebrews, vol. iii., folio, 1680
Defence of the Vindication, 4to, 1681
Inquiry into Evangelical Churches, 4to, 1681
Humble Testimony, 8vo, 1681
On Spiritual-mindedness, 4to, 1681
The Work of the Holy Spirit in Prayer, 4to, 1682
The Chamber of Imagery, 4to, 1682
An Account of the Protestant Religion, 4to, 1683
Meditations on the Glory of Christ, part i., 8vo, 1684
Exposition of the Hebrews, vol. iv., folio, 1684
Of the Dominion of Sin and Grace, 8vo, 1688
True Nature of a Gospel Church, 4to, 1689
Meditations on the Glory of Christ, part ii., 8vo, 1691
Two Discourses on the Work of the Spirit, 8vo, 1693
Evidences of the Faith of God’s Elect, 8vo, 1695
Seventeen Sermons, 2 vols., 8vo, 1720
An Answer to Two Questions; with Twelve Arguments against any Conformity to
Worship not of Divine Institution, 8vo, 1720
Sermons and Tracts, folio, 1721
Thirteen Sermons, 8vo, 1756
Twenty-five Discourses suitable to the Lord’s Supper, 12mo, 1760
XIX XX XXI XXII XXIII XXIV XXV XXVI XXVII XXVIII XXIX XXX XXXI XXXII XXXIII XXXIV XXXV XXXVI XXXVII XXXVIII XXXIX XL XLI XLII XLIII XLIV XLV XLVI XLVII XLVIII XLIX L LI LII LIII LIV LV LVI LVII LVIII LIX LX LXI LXII LXIII LXIV LXV LXVI LXVII LXVIII LXIX LXX LXXI LXXII LXXIII LXXIV LXXV LXXVI LXXVII LXXVIII LXXIX LXXX LXXXI LXXXII LXXXIII LXXXIV LXXXV LXXXVI LXXXVII LXXXVIII LXXXIX XC XCI XCII XCIII XCIV XCV XCVI XCVII XCVIII XCIX C CI CII CIII CIV CV CVI CVII CVIII CIX CX CXI CXII CXIII CXIV CXV CXVI CXVII CXVIII CXIX CXX CXXI CXXII