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 argument and a familiarity with the subject-matter of revelation, that leave even the kindred treatise of Witsius far behind. Many modern Calvinists have, indeed, expressed a doubt whether, in thus establishing the truth, he has yet established the whole truth; and whether his masterly treatise would not have more completely exhibited the teaching of Scriptm-e on the relations of the death of Christ, had it shown that, in addition to its more spe- cial designs, and in harmony with them, it gave such satisfaction to the divine justice as to lay a broad and ample foundation for the universal calls of the Gospel. It is quite true that the gi-eat object of the book is to prove that Christ died for the elect only ; and yet there are para- graphs in which Owen, in common with all Calvinists worthy of the name who hold the same view, argues for the true internal perfection and sufficiency of the sacrifice of Christ, as affording a ground for the indiscriminate invitations of the Gospel, in terms as strong and explicit as the most liberal Calvin ist would care to use.^ This gTeat work was the occasion of much controversy; and it is worthy of especial notice, that it was the first production that turned towards Owen the keen eye of Richard Baxter, and brought the two great Puritans at length to measure arms.*
' Address to the Reader. ^ Gower's Attestation. ' Book iv. cli. i. sect. 1. * Tlie controversy was protracted through many treatises, particularly on the
HIS PASTORATE. XXXIX
Eventful and anxious years were now passing over the land, in which the long struggle between prerogative and popular right con- tinued to be waged with various success ; and at length Owen beheld war brought almost to his door. The friends of Charles, having suddenly risen in Essex, had seized on Colchester, and imprisoned a committee of Parliament that had been sent into Essex to look after their affairs. Lord Fairfax, the leader of the Parliament's forces, had in consequence been sent to recover Colchester and deliver the com- mittee, and for nearly ten weeks maintained a strict siege before its walls. Coggeshall, being not far distant, was chosen as the head quar- ters of the genera] ; and intercourse having been begmn between him and Owen, it became the foundation of a lasting friendship, which, we shall soon find, was not without important fruits. At the close of the ten weeks' siege, of which Owen describes himself as having been an "endangered spectator," he preached two sermons; the one to the army at Colchester on a day of thanksgiving for its surrender, and the other at Rumford to the Parliamentary committee on occasion of their deliverance. These were afterwards published as one dis- course on Hab. i. 1-9.^
But in the course of a few months, Owen was called to officiate in circumstances unspeakably more critical. Charles I. had been brought to trial before the High Court of Justice, on the charge of being a traitor, tyrant, and murderer; and, in execution of its daring judgment, beheaded before the gates of Whitehall. On the day following this awful transaction, Owen preached by command before Parhament; and the manner in which he discharged this unsought and perilous duty, it has been not unusual to represent as one of the most vul- nerable points in his pubhc life. His sermon, which is entitled, "Righteous Zeal Encouraged by Divine Protection," is founded on Jer. XV. 19, 20, " I will make thee unto this people a fenced brasen wall ; and they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee : for I am with thee to save thee, and to deliver thee,
side of Baxter, iii the appendix to liis " Aphorisms on .Justification," in his " Con- fession of Faith," and in his " Five Disputations of Right to the Sacraments;" and, on Owen's part, in a small treatise, " Of the Death of Christ," &c., and in tiie close of his " Vindicise Evangelicaj." Various technical distinctions were introduced in the progress of tiie discussion, — such as, whether the death of Christ was " solutio ejusdem, or only tantundem." The frequent bandying of these and similar scho- lastic phrases, in the theological controversies of the age, caught the ear of the author of " Hudibras," and served him at times as matter for ridicule : —
" The question, then, to state it first, Is, Which is better, or which worst, — Synod or bears ? Bears I avow To be the worst, and synods thou; But to make good th' assertion. Thou sav'fct th' are really all one. If so, not worst ; for if th' are idem, Wliy then tantundem dut tantidem."
Canto iii. ^ Neal, iii. 407. Asty, p. viii.
XL LIFE OF DR OWEN.
saith the Lord," — a passage which obviously gave him ample opportu- nity for commenting on recent events. It is remarkable, however, that there is throughout a systematic and careful confining of himself to general statements, the most explicit allusion to the event of which, doubtless, every mind at the moment was full, being in that two- edged sentence, "To those that cry, Give me a king, God can give him in his anger; and from those that cry, Take him away, he can take him away in his wrath;" and the charge founded on this con- strained silence, from the days of Owen to our own, is that of selfish and cowardly temporizing. Even one eminent Scottish historian,- dazzled, we presume, by the picture of his own Knox, with Bible in hand, addressing Mary, and of other stern presbyters rebuking kings, imagines one of these to have occupied the place of Owen, and with what fearless fidelity he would have addressed those august com- moners, " even though every hair of their heads had been a spear pointed at his breast." ^