" Monte decurrens velut amnis, imbres Quern super notas aluere ripas, Fervet, immensusque ruit profundo Find aims ore."
' Preface, p. xx.
HIS VICE-CHANCELLORSHIP. LYU
The treatise, however, would be almost as complete were every part of it that refers to Goodwin expunged, and undeniably forms the most masterly vindication of the perseverance of the saints in the English tongue. Even Goodwin, with all his luxuriant eloquence, is sadly shattered when grasped by the mailed hand of the great Puritan.
" Luxuriant artus, effusaque sauguine laxo Membra natant."
The style of argument is much more popular than that of the former treatise ; partly because of the insinuating rhetoric of his adversary, and also because Owen knew that Arminian sentiments had found their way into many of the churches, and that if he was to convince the people, he must write for the people. The following weighty sentence refers to his avoidance of philosophical terms and scholastic forms of argument, and is worthy of Owen's sanctified wisdom : "That which we account our wisdom and learning may, if too rigorously attended, be our folly: when we think to sharpen the reason of the Scripture, we may straiten the efficacy of the spirit of it. It is often- times more effectual in its own liberty, than when restrained to our methods of arguing ; and the weapons of it keener in their own sofb breathings, than when sharpened in the forge of Aristotle."'^
No part of this elaborate work is more characteristic of Dr Owen than his preface to the reader, which extends over forty folio pages, until you begin to fear that " the gate shall become wider than the city." It contains an account of the treatment which the doctrine had received from the first Christian century to his own ; and in its pages, which are hterally variegated with Greek and Latin citations, displays an immense research. But what most surj^rises the reader, is to find the Doctor, when about the middle of his way, deliberately turning aside to discuss with Dr Hammond the genuineness of the Epistles of Ignatius, and to weigh the evidence which they would afford, on the supposition of their genuineness, for a primitive Episco- pacy. One is tempted to trace a resemblance between the theological writing of those times and their modes of journeying. There was no moving in those days with all possible directness and celerity to the goal. The traveller stopped when he pleased, diverged where he pleased, and as often as he pleased, whenever he wished to salute a friend or to settle a controversy. — -The work is dedicated to Cromwell. The strong language in which Owen speaks of his religious sincerity is interesting, as showing the estimate which was formed of the Pro- tector's character by those who had the best opportunities of judging regarding it.^
' Epistle Dedicatory to the Heads of Colleges, etc., at Oxford, p. 8. ' " In the midst of all the changes and mutations which the infinitely wise pro- vidence of God doth daily effect in the greater and lesser things of this world, as
LVIII LIFE OF DR OWEN.
The mention of Cromwell's name naturally brings us back to public events, and to an occurrence whicli, more than almost any other in Owen's life, laid him open to the reproaches of his enemies. Crom- well having dissolved the Long Parliament in the end of 1653, had a few months after issued writs for a new election. The university of Oxford was empowered to return one member to this Parliament, and Dr Owen was elected. That he did not evince any decided un- willingness to accept this new office may be presumed from the fact that he at once took his seat in the House, and continued to sit until the committee of privileges, on account of his being a minister of religion, declared his election annulled. His systematic detractors have fastened on this part of his conduct with all the instinct of vultures, and even his friends have only ventured, for the most part, on a timid and hesitating defence. Cawdrey and Anthony Wood, not satisfied with commenting on the fact of his seeming eagerness to grasp at civil power, accuse him, on the authority of public rumour, of refusing to say whether he was a mmister or not, — a charge which he left at first to be answered by its own absurdity, but which, on find- ing some actually crediting it, he repelled with a pardonable amount of vehement indignation, declaring it to be " so remote from any thing to give a pretence or colour to it, that I question whether Satan have impudence enough to own himself its author."^
But there have been others, who, while disowning all sympathy with these birds of evil omen that haunted the path of the noble Puritan, have questioned the propriety and consistency of one in Owen's circumstances, and with all his strongly-professed longings for the duties of a tranquil pastorate, so readily "entangling himself with the affairs of this life;" and this is certainly a more tenable ground of objection. And yet, to judge Owen rightly, we must take into view all the special elements of the case. All except those who see in ordina- tion a mysterious and indissolul)le spell, and hold the Romish figment of " once a priest, always a priest," will admit that emergencies may arise in a commonwealth when even the Christian minister may, for the sake of accomplishing the highest amount of good, place in abey- ance the peculiar duties of his office, and merge the pastor in the legis- lator. Persons had sat with this conviction in the immediately pre- vious Parliament ; and in the last century, Dr Witherspoon, one of the