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 un- imposed, might have been borne with as matters of indifference, when authoritatively enjoined as of equal obligation with divine appoint- ments, he felt ought to be resisted as an invasion of the divine prero-
1 Iloylin's Life of Laud, p. 252.
HIS STUDENT-LIFE. XXVII
gative and the rights of conscience, — " a teaching for doctrines of the commandments of men." This was the ground that had been occu- pied by the Puritans from the days of Elizabeth, when Eidley and Latimer had " played the man in the fire;" and though we have no record of Owen's mental exercise at this period, yet, with the course that was actually taken by him before us, we cannot doubt that he now unconsciously felt his way to this first Puritan standing-point, and that the following passage, written by him long afterwards, ex- presses the principles which animated his mind and decided his movements : —
" 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 Command- ment, ' Noil imago, non simulachruni prohihetur, sed, non fades tihi; ' — 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-wor- ship finds with God. 'Who hath 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 willingly endeavour to make good against all the world, — namely, that that principle, that the church hath 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 hath instituted, lies at the bottom of all the horrible superstition and idolatry, of all the confu- sion, 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 hath had with this nation for so many years, and which he hath 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, noi 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 doth so describe in the Church
VOL. I. C
XXVIII LIFE OF DR OWEN.
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 end? That Jesus Christ might be deposed from the sole power of law-making in his church, — that the true husband might be tlirust 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." ^
While the well-informed conscience of Owen thus distinctly for- bade conformity, every consideration of seeming worldly interest strongly pleaded for pliant acqviiescence 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 useful- ness,— 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 atro- cities 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 satis- faction with his conduct, of making him heir to his estates. Yet all these probable consequences of non-compliance Owen was will- ing 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 day-dreams 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 hisfher school than that of Oxford, and subjecting him to that fiery discipline by ' Owen on Communion with God, pp. 309, 310, fol. ed.