PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Works of John Owen — Volume 1
John Owen · 319,122 words · 321 reading sections
Section 1
L I B R- uft. I?, "ST PniXCETON, N. J. The Stephen Collins Donation, j BX 9315 .08 1850 v.l Owen, John, 1616-1683. The works of John Owen y^^4^ ^j;^^ THE WORKS OP JOHN OWEN, D.D. EDITED BY THE REV. WILLIAM H. GOOLD, EDINBURGH. VOL. I. \ I^EW YOEK: ROBERT CARTER & BROTHERS, 285 BROADWAY. M.DCCC.L. IV C…
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XXIV.— Of the Lord's Supper XXV. — Of the Communion of Saints — the Fifth Privilege of Believers XXVI.— Of Particular Churches XXVII. — Of the Last Privilege of Believers, — being the Door of Entrance into Glory ......... Page 489 490 491 491 492 493 493 GENERAL PREFACE. It would be presumption to enter upon an…
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It was to be expected, if such was their value, that his works should enjoy an extensive circulation. Nor was their popularity confined to England. They have repeatedly appeared in the language of Hol- land; and by the Dutch divines the most favourable mention is made of the various treatises of our pious and learned P…
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Several treatises of Owen have won for themselves a high place in XII GENERAL PREFACE. the standard tlieology of our country, and have, accordingly, during the last century, passed through innumerable editions ; but it was not till 1826 that another and more successful effort was made to enrich our theological litera…
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XIV GENERAL PREFACE. rash intermeddling with the costume of his thoughts, and to adhere with scrupulous jealousy to the ancient text. The punctuation has undergone a thorough revisal. Passages which, from negligence in this respect, were previously veiy obscure, have brightened into significance, so as even to impart…
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XVI GENERAL PREFACE. appended at the foot of the pages, in regard to any statements or aUusions that general readers might fail to understand. The editor, however, has been anxious not to overlay the text in any instance with a parade of authorities and references, seeking in his duties to be under the influence of th…
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did much to secure for us the rich inheritance of freedom and civil privilege in which we rejoice, and whose theology has stamped a deep and lasting impress on the religious character and tendencies of his nation. W. H. G. EDiarBUBon, August 1850. LIFE OF DR OWEN. BY EEV. ANDEEW THOMSON, B.A., EDINBURGH. "Semp…
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Little is known regarding the childhood of Owen ; and no records whatever have descended to tell us of the mother to Avliom was com- mitted the training of his most susceptible years, and who was to be ' Asfy's Memoir, p. ii. Anonymous Memoir, p. v. ^ Ibid. HIS STUDENT-LIFE. "XXIIl the Monnica to tliis future Augusti…
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' Asty, p. iii. Orme, p. 9. "^ Bogue and BenneL's History of Dissenters, ii. 211, 226. HIS STUDENT-LIFE. XXV And here let us pause for a moment, to look at the circumstances of another student, who was destined at a future day to shine with Owen in the same brisjht constellation. While Owen was walkinsc amid the maj…
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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 wer…
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HIS STUDENT-LIFE. XXIX which he tempers and fashions his most chosen instruments. But " there is no man that hath left house, or parents, or brethren, or wife, or children, for the kingdom of God's sake, who shall not receive manifold more in this present time, and in the world to come life everlasting." Ten years aft…
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HIS PASTOKATE. XXXI condition. The prayer was lieard, for the preacher stated and an- swered the very doubts that had long perplexed Owen's mind ; and by the time that the discourse was ended, had succeeded in leading him forth into the sunshine of a settled peace. The most diligent efforts were used by Owen to discov…
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HIS PASTORATE. XXXIII lous ministers, Owen was invited by the same committee to occupy the vacant parish. Not long after his removal to Fordham, he was married to a lady of the name of Rooke. But nearly all the information that has descended to us regarding this union, from the earlier bio- graphies, amounts to this, …
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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 Acts xvi. 9, " A vision ' Preface, p. 10, ed. 1644. = P. 38. ^ p. 49. ■* Owen …
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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 li…
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In those parts of the present treatise in which he exhil )its the glo- rious 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 argum…
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But is there not a considerable amount of undue severity in all this? In ail likelihood those who had demanded this service of Owen blamed him for an opposite reason, and hoped that this theo- logian of high renown and untainted reputation would, in the hour of their extremity, have surrounded their daring act with som…
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In the interval between these arrangements and his departure for Ireland, we discover Owen once more preaching before the oflficers of state and the House of Commons, on occasion of the destruction of the Levellers;^ and about the middle of August we find the army ready to embark for Ireland. On the day before the emba…
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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 ^ Sermon on the Steadfastness of Promises, and the Sinfulness of Staggering, preached before Parliament after his return from Ireland, on a day of humiliation, Rom. iv. 20. ' Wood's Athen.…
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' Asty, p. X. 2 His preacliing before Parli.inieiit, about tbe period of tbese ai)i)ointnients, ap- pears to have been frequent. On October 24, 1651, being the day of thanksgiving for the victory of Worcester, we find him preaching his sermon entitled, " Tiie Advantage of the Kingdom of Christ in tlie Sliaking of the …
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* Vaughan's Modern Pulpit, p. 87. ' " Authority of tlie IMagistrate in Religion Discussed," &c., by J. H.; whom Anthony Wood (Atheti. 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 gra…
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The facts that have been preserved by Owen's biographers suffi- ' Oratio prima, translated by Orme, pp. 12S-131. PUS VICE-CHANCELLORSHIP. LI ciently prove tliat this inaugural address was no mere language of dignified ceremony. By infusing that tolerant spirit into his admi- nistration which he had often commended in…
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But the combined duties of his two onerous offices at Oxford did ■ Asty, pp. xi. xii. ^ Lifg and Times of Philip Henry, p. 60. HIS VICE-CHA5S'CELL6ESHIP. ltit not absorb all the energies of Owen. His mind appears to have expanded with his position, and to have shown resources that were literally inexhaustible. The fe…
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In the midst of these engagements, Dr Owen produced and pub- lished, 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 mor…
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" Monte decurrens velut amnis, imbres Quern super notas aluere ripas, Fervet, immensusque ruit profundo Find aims ore." ' Preface, p. xx. HIS VICE-CHANCELLORSHIP. LYU The treatise, however, would be almost as complete were every part of it that refers to Goodwin expunged, and undeniably forms the most masterly vindi…
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to the communication of his love in Jesus Christ, and the merciful, {gracious dis- tribution of the unsearchable riches of his grace, and the hid treasures thereof l)urchased by his blood, he kfiows no repentance. Of both these you have liad full experience. And though your concernment in the former hath been as emi- n…
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I HIS \aCE-CHANCELLOESKIP. LXl tion in those whom they examined, and somewhat too lax in admit- ting of unlearned and erroneous men that favoured Antinomianism or Anabaptism; yet, to give them their due, they did abundance of good in the church. They saved many a congregation from ignorant, ungodly, drunken teachers,…
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HIS VICE-CHANCELLORSHIP. LXTII light after another, leaving you at length in midnight darkness. An accomplished modem writer has pointed out a mortifying identity between the dogmas of our modern Pantheists and those of the Bhud- dists of India.^ It would be easy to show that the discoveries of our modern Neologists a…
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Owen's work is a noble illustration of the Gospel method of sanc- tification, as we believe it to be a living reflection of his own experi- ence. 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 int…
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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 1 Wood's Fasti, part ii., pp. 169-197. ^ Ornie, …
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The next great public transaction in which we find Dr Owen en- gaged, 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 flourishe…
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What would have been the effects of these proceedings upon the policy of the Protector, had his Ufe 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 Whitehall. The death of his favourite daughter, Lad…
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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-chan- cellorship, and is another evidence of his " clos…
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LXXIV LIFE OF DE OWEN. exhaustive, and yet not marked by that discursiveness which is the fault of some of his writings, and bringing into play some of his greatest excellencies as a writer, — his remarkable exegetical talent, his intimate knowledge of Scripture, and mastery of the stores of ecclesiastical history. Dr…
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' Owen published a third tract in this little volume, " Exercitationes adversus Fanaticos," in which he handled the Quakers with some severity. 2 Marsh's Michaelis, i. ch. vi. Taylor's History of the Transmission of Ancient Books; appendix. VOL. L F LXXVI LIFE OF DK OWEN. self most rashly into a combat, and under a…
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' 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 under- stood 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. Nonco…
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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 Home, as the only infallible reme…
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But neither the representations of Owen nor of others who were friendly to the Nonconformists, had any influence in changing the pohcy of those who were now in power. The golden age to which Clarendon and his associates sought to bring back the government ' " I am informed," says the author of the Anonymous Memoir, " …
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" Preached as though he ne'er should preach again ; And like a dying man to dying men." There was no possibility of silencing these preachers at such a mo- ment. And the fall of Clarendon and the disorace of Sheldon soon afterwards helped to prolong and enlarge their precarious liberty. Many tracts, for the most part…
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LXXXVI LIFE OF DR OWEN. to follow the apostle, so as to keep close to his design or fully to under- staud his meaning."^ The result has been, a work unequalled in ex- cellence, except, perhaps, by Vitringa's noble Commentary on Isaiah. It is quite true, that in the department of verbal criticism, and even in the expos…
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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."* A scheme was soon after devised for giving to this liberty a l…
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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 eccle- ' Defence and Continuation of Ecclesiast. Polity, and Preface to Bramhall. Onne, p. 261. 2 Campbell's Essay on English Po…
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' A*t f, p- xx'x- Xoncsn, Mem,, L 202, ' Jeukjo'e Eesa/ on life of Bajuer, p, zx. VOL. L G XCII LIFE OF DR OWEX. left comparatively unmolested, — probably owing to the influences we have specified ; and it is interesting to learn from an adversary with what zeal and constancy he employed his advantages to warn and su…
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• Anon. Mem., p. xxix. ' 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 XCIV LIFE OF DR OWEN. tudes who had mere…
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2 Anon Mem., p. xxxiv. Her epitaph by Mr Gilbert helps to fill up the por- trait : — "Prima setatis virilis consors Maria, Rei domesticae perite studiosa. Rebus Dei di)nius se totum additendi; Copiam illi fecit gratissimain." There is a touching passage in a small work, remarkably well written, but little known, that…
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' 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 grave Howe to witty Alsop. Stillingfleet replied in a clever work o…
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Then followed his heart-searching, heart-inspiring treatise on " The Grace and Duty of being Spiritually-minded," first preached to his own hear-t, 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 pilgTimage, — eminen…
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" The next thing I would i-ecommend 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 doth o…
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I HIS KETIREMENT AND LAST DAYS. CIII nanimous and heavenly-minded Puritan ! In one of his latest writings, when referring to the near approach of the daily expected and ear- nestly desired hour of his discharge from all farther service in this world, he had said, " In the continual prospect hereof do I yet live, and …
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' Vindication of Owen by a fiiendly Scrutiny, etc., p. 38. ' Stoiighton's Spiritual Heroes. ' " Funeral Sermon on the most lamented death of the late reverend and learned •lohn Owen, D.D., preached the next Lord's day after his interment." By David Clarkson, B.D. I HIS RETIREMENT AND LAST DAYS. CV spontaneously, a…
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aiS RETIREMENT AND LAST DAYS. CVII Indeed, the sermons of Owen and his compeers, not only compel us to form a high estimate of the preachers, but of the hearers of those times, who could relish such strong meat, and invite its repe- tition. And seldom perhaps on earth has a preacher been called to address more select …
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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 theo- logical Avriter. 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 incre…
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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 con- solation, upon the affections and active powers of our human nature. Great as Owen is when we see him as the giga…
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II. The following LettePvS embrace all the Correspondence of Dr Owen which has been preserved, and is of any importance : — TO M. DU MOULIN. Sin, — 1 have received your strietvares upon our Confession, wherein ^-ou charge it with palpable contradiction, nonsense, enthusiasm, and false doctrine, — that is, all the ev…
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eXVI APPENDIX TO THE putation of the active righteousness of Christ unto our justification. Why, you say, it is contrary to reason ; for that we are freed from satisfying God's justice by being punished by death, but not from the fulfiUing of the law : therefore the ful- filhng of the law by Christ is no satisfaction …
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TO MRS FOLHILL. 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…
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Stadham, July 8. J. Owen. TO CHARLES FLEETWOOD, ESQ. 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…
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London, March 16. TO MR BAXTER. 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 r…
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III. A List of Dr Owen's Works, according to the years in which they appear to have been pubhshed. Display of Arminianism, 4to, . , . The Duty of Pastors aud People Distinguished, 4to, . The Principles of the Doctrine of Christ, in two Catechisms, i2i A Vision of Unchangeable Alercy : a Sermon, 4to, Eshcol; or, R…
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The treatise was first i)ublished in 1679. We are not informed under what particular circumstances Owen was led to prejiare it. There is internal evidence in the work itself that he laboured under a strong impression of the peril in which evangelical religion would be involved, if views of the jierson of Christ, either…
1,155 wordsSource & rights
Public-domain historical edition (1850–1870); OCR text from Internet Archive. OCR may contain scanning/transcription errors. Verify quotations against page images when precision matters.
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Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.