' This was a bulky pamphlet, entitled, "A brief Vindication of Nonconformists from the Charge of Schism, as it was managed against them in a Sermon by Dr Stillingfleet." All the leading Nonconformists appear to have taken part in this controversy, from grave Howe to witty Alsop. Stillingfleet replied in a clever work on the "Unreasonableness of Separation;" against which Owen bronght his heavy artillery to bear with desolating effect, in " An Answer to the 'Unreason- ableness of Se'paration,' and a Defence of the 'Vindication of the Nonconformists from the Guilt of Schism.' "
2 A second part of this treatise, " The True Nature of a Gospel Church, and its Government," was posthumous, and did not appear till 1689.
XCVIII LIFE OF DR OWEN.
could come to meet tlie moderate Presbj^erian, and to lay down a platform on which united action, in those times of trouble and of perils, which all di^dsion aggravated, could consistently take place. Accordingly we find him, while admirably describing the true nature of a Gospel church, as a society of professed believers, and refusing to any man or body of men " all power of legislation in or over the church," avowing it as his conviction, that " the order of the officers which was so early in the primitive church, — viz., of one pastor or bishop in one church, assisted in rule and all holy ministrations with many elders, teaching or ruling only, — does not so overthrow church order as to render its rule or discipline useless." And in reference to the communion of churches, while repudiating every thing like autho- ritative interference and dictation on the part of any church or assem- bly of nders, he holds that " no church is so independent that it can always, and in ail cases, observe the duties it owes to the Lord Christ and the church catholic, by all those powders which it is able to act in itself distinctly, without conjunction of others; and the church which confines its duty to the acts of its own assemblies, cuts itself oft' from the external communion of the church catholic." He holds that " a synod convened in the name of Christ, by the voluntary consent of several churches concerned in mutual communion, may declare and determine of the mind of the Holy Ghost in Scripture, and decree the observation of things true and necessary, because revealed and appointed in the Scripture." And farther, that " if it be reported or known, by credible testimony, that any church hath admitted into the exercise of divine worship any thing superstitious or vain, or if the members of it walk, like those described by the apostle, Phil. iii. 18, 19, unto the dishonour of the Gospel and of the ways of Christ, the church itself not endeavouring its own reformation and repentance, other churches walking in communion therewith, by vir- tue of their common interest in the glory of Christ and honour of the Gospel, after more private ways for its reduction, as opportunity and duty may suggest unto their elders, ought to assemble in a synod for advice, either as to the use of farther means for the recovery of such a church, or to withhold communion from it in case of obstmacy in its evil ways."^ We do not attempt to measure the distance between these principles and the Presbyterianism of Owen's day, or the dimi- nished distance between them and the modified Presbyterianism of our own ; but we state them, with one of Owen's oldest biogi'aphers, as an evidence of his " healing temper in this matter;"^ and we even
' Tlie True Nature of a Gospel Cliurcls, etc., cliap. xi.
2 Auon. Mem., p. xxxiv. The tame wiiter adds, in illustration of this healing temper, "I heard liim say, bef'oie a person of quality and others, he could readily join with Presbytery as it was exorcised in Scotland."
HIS RETIREMENT AND LAST DAYS. XCIX
venture to suggest whether, at some future period of increased spiri- tuahty and external danger, they may not form the basis of a stable and honourable union among the two great evangelical sections of modern Nonconformists.
But besides the outward dangers to Protestantism, which made Owen so eager for union among its friends, we discover another and more interesting explanation still in the increased occupation of his mind with the great central truths of the Gospel, and his growing delight in them. The minor distinctions among Christians come to be seen by us in their modified proportions, when we have taken our place within the inner circle of those great truths which consti- tute the peculiar glory and power of Christianity; and this inner and more radiant circle formed more and more the home of Dr Owen's heart. This is evident from the three great doctrinal and devotional works which were produced by him at this period, and which we have yet to name.
First, there appeared his '" XpiffroXoyia, or Declaration of the Glorious Mystery of the Person of Christ, God and man, with the infinite wis- dom, love, and power of God in the constitution thereof As also, of the grounds and reasons of his incarnation; the nature of his mi- nistry in heaven; the present state of the church above thereon; and the use of his persdn in religion," etc. The root from which the whole discourse springs, is the memorable declaration of our Lord to Peter, Matt. xvi. 18, " And I say also unto thee. That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church ; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it:" — a declaration in which Owen finds three great truths, whose illustration forms the substance of the volume ; — that the person of Christ is the foundation of his church; that op- position will be made by the powers of earth and hell to the church, as built on the person of Christ; and that the church built on the person of Christ shall never be separated from it or destroyed. It is easy to see what a rich field of doctrinal statement, learned illustration, and devout reflection, is opened for Owen's mind in these themes; and he expatiates in it with all the delight of a mind accustomed to high and heavenly communion. It is pleasing to mark how he casts off the cumbrous armour of a sometimes too scholastic style, that had kept him down in some of his earlier treatises ; and, rising from the simply didactic into the devotional, aims to«catch joyful glimpses of the glory that is soon to be revealed.