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 Puritan. We are in- formed by Dr Steven,^ that his Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews was so highly prized by Mr Simon Commenicci, an opu- lent merchant in Rotterdam, that he ably translated the work,
* The Christian Miuistry, p. 42-44, by the Rev. Charles Bridges, A.M.
* See his interesting History of the British Churches in the Netherlands. VOL. I. li
X GENERAL PREFACE.
and had it printed in seven volumes quarto (Amsterdam, 1733- 1 740), and gratuitously circulated most of the impression. His work which bears the title, ©EOAOrOTMENA nANTOAAHA, &c., ori- ginally pubhshed at Oxford in 1661, must have been highly esteemed abroad, as it was reprinted at Bremen in 1684, and at Franeker in 1700.'
In Scotland, the influence exerted by Owen's writings has been very great. They imbued with their own manly, solid, and scrip- tural character, the warm and evangelical theology of the early fathers of the Scottish Secession,— in some respects the only distinctive school of theology which Scotland has produced. The best modern edition of his commentary on the Hebrews we owe to the care and industry of Dr Wright, a minister of the Established Church in Stir- ling. In the list of subscribers to a folio volume of Owen's works, there are twenty names connected with the nobility, and of these fifteen belong to Scotland.
So early as the year 1721, the project seems to have been seriously entertained of collecting and publishing, in a series of uniform volumes, a complete edition of his works. A large and elegant folio, to which we have just referred, then issued from the London press, containing his Sermons, his Tracts (either already published or existing hitherto as manuscript in the possession of his friends), and the Latin Orations which he delivered when vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford. Prefixed to it is an excellent likeness of Owen, and it is dedicated to Sir John HartojDp, who had been his intimate friend, and who, at the advanced age of eighty-four, still survived him,
1 Mr Ryland of Northampton entertained a strong opinion in regard to the value of the same work. In a tract entitled, "A Select Library for a Student of Divinity," he gives an estimate of its merits with an amusing intensity of expres- sion. " This book," says he, " bears the same rank, and has the same relation to the study of divinity, which the ' Principia ' of Sir Isaac Newton bears to the true system of the world, in the study of natural philosophy; and it is of equal import- ance to all young divines which that great man's work is to young philosophers. — Dr Owen wrote this most learned of all his works in the meridian of his life, when he was vice-chancellor of Oxford, and published it soon after he quitted that office. This book gives an account of the nature, source, and study of true divinity in all ages, but especially since the Christian dispensation of the glorious Gospel. The last chapters of the book are peculiarly sweet and excellent ; his directions to students how to proceed in attaining furniture for their sacred office, are wise, serious, and evangelical in the highest degree. Nothing can be more rich, savoury, and divine. I am ashamed of my countrymen for their ignorance of this incomparable woik, — perhaps the vei-y greatest of the kind that ever was written by a British divine; and it now lies buried in dust, amidst the lumber of a book- seller's garret, whilst a thousand volumes of wretched trash in divinity, vvith their pompous bindings, stand as monuments of human folly, in our book-cases and libraries." See Dr Cotton Mather's " Student and Preacher," republished by John Ryland, A.M. of Northampton, 1781.
GENERAL PREFACE. XI
and contributed the most important materials in the Memoir of his Life by Asty, which appears at the commencement of the volume. Although Asty signed the epistle dedicatory, and wrote the memoir, the preface is subscribed by other names as well as his own, — JohnNes- bitt, Matthew Clarke, Thomas Ridgiey, D.D., and Thomas Bradbury, eminent Independent ministers in London. From this preface we learn that these gentlemen were desirous to publish all the treatises of Owen in volumes corresponding in size and appearance with the one ushered under their auspices into public notice. There was a large body of subscribers to it, amounting in number to three hun- dred and seventy-five. The editors, accordingly, felt themselves bound to acknowledge the " uncommon encouragement "' which as yet they had received to persevere in their undertaking. The scheme, however, proved abortive ; — nothing appeared in addition to the volume which we have just described. The circumstance is much to be regretted, as the editors evince a laudable degree of care in their task, so far as it had proceeded. The memory of Owen was yet fresh, and no difficulty at that time would have been experienced in col- lecting all the genuine productions of a divine to whose literary indus- try the Church of Christ had been so largely indebted. It would seem to have been the practice of that age, whenever any author died whose works had commanded an extensive circulation in religious society, immediately to issue a collected edition of them in volumes of folio size, according to the prevailing taste. Manton died in 1677, and during the years 1681-1691 his works were collected into five such volumes. Thomas Goodwin died in 1679, and the five volumes of his collected works were issued from 1681 to 1696. Char- nock died in 1680, and forthwith, in 1684, his works were jDublished in two volumes. Flavel died in 1691, and in 1701 the edition of his works in two volumes was printed. Bates died in 1699, and in the following year a volume, including all his productions, was given to the public. Howe died in 1705, and a complete edition of his works, in two volumes, appeared in 1724. It may seein strange that it should have fared differently with the works of Owen, whose name towers into just pre-eminence among all his venerable compeers in Puritan literature. It serves to illustrate the comparative extent of his labours, as well as to indicate, perhaps, the special difficulty -which may have prevented the same honour and service being rendered to his memoiy by the publication of his collected works, when we bear in mind that one of them, his Exposition of the Epistle to the He- brews, occupies of itself alone — four goodly fohos.