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 quotes witli approbation (p. 54) the judo;ment and ])ractice of the Church of Scotland, as expressed in their Act of Assembly at Edinburgli, anno 1641. " Otir Assembly also comxiMindeth po/i I ;i conference at all occasional meet- ings, or as God's providence shall dispose, as the Word of God comniandeth, pro- viding none invade the pastor's office, to preach tlie Word, wlio are not called thereunto by God and his church."
* Lives of the Poets, iv. 1(J4.
HIS PASTORATE. XXXV
appeared to Paul in the niglit: there stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia, and help us;" and is written in a style of popular eloquence by no means characteristic of the usual strain of Owen's writings. The thanks of the House were conveyed to Owen by Mr Fenner and Sir Philip Wentworth, and the discourse commanded to be printed. The evangelic zeal of the pastor of Fordham breaks forth, towards the close, in behalf of those parts of the empire which were destitute of religious instruction, and especially in behalf of his ancestral country, Wales : "' When manna fell in the wilderness from the hand of the Lord, every one had an equal share. I would there were not now too great an inequality when secondarily in the hand of man, whereby some have all, and others none ; some sheep daily picking the choice flowers of every pasture, — others wandering upon the barren mountains, without guide or food."^ The crlowinsf terms in which he dedicates his sermon to the Long Parliament, as " most deservedly celebrated through the whole world, and to be held in everlasting remembrance by all the inhabi- tants of this island," have drawn forth the disapprobation of some. But what contemporary opinion has been more justified by the calm judgment of later history? What English Parliament ever bore upon its roll such a list of patriots, or surrounded the immunities of the people with such constitvitional guards? Even the grudging concession of Hume goes so far as to say that their conduct, with one exception, was such as " to entitle them to praise from all lovers of liberty."^
Not long after this, Owen's pastoral connection with Fordham was brought to a close. The " seqviestered 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 be- came 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 invita- tion which the patron, the Earl of Warwick, immediately confirmed. Unlike Fordham, this new charge had previously been diligently cul- tivated 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 suiTounded by a congTOgation 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.'
Contemporaneously with these outward changes in Owen's position,
' Owen's Sermons, fol. ed., p. 214.
^ Hume, History of England, vi. ch. li. Vauglian's Stuart Dynasty, ii. 74.
' Wood's Athen. Oxon., iv. 100.
XXXVI LIFE OF DR OWEN.
considerable changes also took place in his opinions on church go- vernment. His removal to Coggeshall is named as the period at which he renounced Presbytery; and the order of his church there is said to have been brought into a closer conformity with the Inde- pendent or Congregational model.
There were principles, however, retained by Owen, both on the sub- ject 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 Con- gregationalism was of a somewhat modified character, and which a moderate Presbyterian of our own times, though not vaunting as iden- tical with his views, would yet hail as evidence that the gulf between himself and the Congregationalist is not impassable. But the Presby- terians 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 West- minster Confession and Catechisms, must w^e be grateful to the Pres- byterians, who took so prominent and cordial a part in those delibe- rations 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.