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.
"Semper quideni operfe pretium fuit illustres sanctorum describere vitas, ut sint in speculum et exemplum et quoddam veluti condimentum vitse homiiium super terram. Per hoc enim quodammodo apud nos etiani post mortem vivuiit, multosque ex iis qui viventes niortui sunt, ad verani vitam provocant et revocant."
Berxakd.
LIFE OF DR OWEN.
CHAP. I.
HIS STUDENT-LIFE.
It is matter of just regi'et and complaint that no elaborate contem- porary 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 par- ticular 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 O^^en has written books." ^ In addition to this, an equally brief anonymous memoir has fallen into our hands, professing to have been written by one who " had the honour to know this eminent person well, and to hear him frequently; though he must confess that he had not then years and experience enough to conceive a suitable idea of the Doctor's great worth." But the student who should wish to search for voluminous contemporary records and early reminiscences of Owen, will look in vain for such full and accurate memorials as Dr Edmund Calamy has given us of Howe ; or for such an inexhaustible storehouse of incident, and almost redundance of mental portraiture, as Pichard Baxter has given us of himself. The sources from which the modem biographer must draw his notices of Owen, besides those already named, are to some extent the representations of adversaries, who could not be silent on so great a name, or withhold reluctant praise; the not infrequent allusions to Owen in the lives of his contemporaries ; the statements of general history and biography, — such as are to be found in the pages of Neal, Calamy, Middleton, Palmer, and others; and, perhaps the most ' Orme's Memoirs of Owen, p. 2.
XXn LIFE OF DR OWEN.
valuable and interesting of all, the many unconscious touches of autobiography which may be found in his prefaces to his various works. Of all of these Mr Orme has made excellent use in his Life of Owen; which is a remarkable specimen of untiring research, solid judgment and ability in the disposal of his materials, and, making some allowance for honest bias, of biographical fidelity: and from all of these, and especially from Mr Oime himself, we shall gather the details of our biographical sketch and estimate of Owen.
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 fi-om the assizes in Montgomery- shire, 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 com- panions, and, deserted by all but one faithful friend, was murdered b}!- them in the woods of Monthrey.'^
Humphrey Owen, a branch of this same family, manied Susan, a grand-daughter of Lewis Owen; and to him there were born in suc- cession fifteen sons, the youngest of whom was Henry Owen. Henry was dedicated by his parents to office in the church, and having re- ceived an education, in language, philosophy, and divinity, at Oxford, in the course of time became vicar of Stadham, in Oxfoi'dshire. 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 vv^as 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.^