Many circumstances soon made it evident, that by this bold step Dr Owen had so far estranged from himself the affection of Cromwell. Up to this time he had continued to be, of all the ministers of his times, the most frequently invited to preach on those great occasions
1 Wood's Fasti, part ii., pp. 169-197. ^ Ornie, p. 120.
2 Burnet's Own Times, i. 98. Ludlow's Memoirs, p. 248. Neal, iv. 151, 152.
HIS VICE-CHANCELLORSHIP. LXVII
of public state which it was usual in those days to grace with a re- ligious service. But when, soon after this occurrence, Cromwell was inaugiu-ated into his office as Protector, at Westminster Hall, with all the pomp and splendour of a coronation, those who were accus- tomed to watch how the winds of political favour blew, observed that Lockyer and Dr Manton were the divines who officiated at the august ceremonial; and that Owen was not even there as an invited giiest.^ This was significant, and the decisive step soon followed. On the 3d of July Cromwell resigned the office of chancellor of the university; on the 18th day of the same month, his son Richard was appointed his successor; and six weeks afterwards Dr Owen was dis- placed from the vice-chancellorship, and Dr Conant, a Presbyterian, and rector of Exeter College, nominated in his stead.^
Few things in Owen's public life more became him than the manner in which he resigned the presidency of Oxford, and yielded up the academic fasces into the hands of another. He " knew both how to abound, and how to be abased." There is no undignified insinuation of ungracious usage ; no loud assertion of indifference, to cover the bitterness of chagxin ; no mock humility ; but a manly refer- ence to the service which he was conscious of having rendered to the university, with a generous appreciation of the excellencies of the friend to whom the government was now to be transferred. In his parting address to the university, after stating the number of persons that had been matriculated and graduated during his administration, he continues : " Professors' salaries, lost for many years, have been recovered and paid; some offices of respectability have been main- tained ; the rights and privileges of the university have been defended against all the efforts of its enemies ; the treasury is tenfold increased ; many of every rank in the university have been promoted to various honours and benefices ; new exercises have been introduced and estab- lished; old ones have been duly performed; reformation of manners has been diligently studied, in spite of the grumbling of certain profligate brawlers; labours have been numberless; besides submitting to the most enormous expense, often when brought to the brink of death on your account, I have hated these limbs, and this feeble body, which was ready to desert my mind ; the reproaches of the vulgar have been disregarded, the envy of others has been overcome : in these circum- stances I wish you all prosperity, and bid you farewell. I congratu- late myself on a successor who can relieve me of this burden ; and you on one who is able completely to repair any injury which your
affairs may have suffered through our inattention But as I
know not whither the thread of my discourse might lead me, I here
ciit it short. I seek again my old labours, my usual watchings, my
' Neal, iv. 157. Orme, p. 126. ' Neal, iv. 165.
LXViri LIFE OF DR OWEN.
interrupted studies. As for you, gentlemen of the university, may you be bappy, and fare you well."^
CHAP. IV.
HIS RETIREMENT AND LAST DAYS.
A wish bas sometimes been expressed, that men wbo, bke Owen, have contributed so largely to the enriching of our theological litera- ture, could have been spared the endless avocations of public life, and allowed to devote themselves almost entirely to authorship. But the wisdom of this sentiment is very questionable. Experience seems to testify that a certain amount of contact with the business of practical life is necessary to the highest style of thought and authorship ; and that minds, when left to undisturbed literary leisure, are apt to de- generate into habits of diseased speculation and sickly fastidiousness. Most certainly the works that have come from men of monastic habits have done little for the world, compared with the writings of those who have ever been ready to obey the voice which summoned them away from tranquil studies to breast the storms and guide the move- ments of great social conflicts. The men who have lived the most earnestly for their own age, have also lived the most usefully for pos- terity. Owen's retirement from the vice-chancellorship may indeed be regarded as a most seasonable relief from the excess of public engagement; but it may be confidently questioned whether he would have written so much or so well, had his intellect and heart been, in any great degree, cut off from the stimulus which the struggles and stern realities of life gave to them. This is, accordingly, the course through which we are now rapidly to follow him, — to the end of his days continuing to display an almost miraculous fertility of author- ship, that is only equalled by that of his illustrious compeer, Richard Baxter; and, at the same time, taking no second part in the great ecclesiastical movements of that most eventful a2:e.