" The next thing I would i-ecommend to you at this season, is the increase of mutual love among yourselves ; for every trial of our faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ is also a trial of our love towards the brethren. This is that which the Lord Christ expects from us, — namely, that when the hatred of the world doth openly manifest and act itself against us all, we should evidence an active love among ourselves. If there have been any decays, any coldness herein, if they are not recovered and healed in such a season, it can never be expected. I praj God, therefore, that your mutual love may abound more and more in all the effects and fruits of it towards the whole society, and every member thereof. You may justly measure the fi'uit of your present trial by the increase of this grace among }0u; in particular, have a due regard to the weak and the tempted, — that that which is lame may not be turned out of the way, but rather let it be healed.
" Furthermore, brethren, I beseech you, hear a word of advice in case the perse- cution increases, — which it is like to do for a season. I could wish that, because you have no ruling elders, and your teachers cannot walk about publicly with safety, that you would appoint some among yourselves, who may continually, as their occa- sions will admit, go up and down, from house to house, and apply themselves pecu- liarly to the weak, the tempted, the fearful, — those that are ready to despond or to halt, and to encourage them in the Lord. Choose out those to this end who are endued with a spirit of courage and fortitude ; and let them know that they are happy whom Christ will honour with this blessed work. And I desire the persons may be of this number who are faithful men, and know the state of the church ; by this means you will Imow what is the frame of the members of the church,
CII LIFE OF DR OWEN.
which will be a great direction to you, even in your prayers. Watch, now, brethren, that, if it be the will of God, not one soul may be lost from under your care. Let no one be overlooked or neglected; consider all their conditions, and apply your- selves to all their circumstances.
Finally, brethren, that I be not at present farther troublesome to you, examine yourselves as to your spiritual benefit which you have received, or do receive, l)y your present fears and dangers, which will alone give you the true measure of your condition ; for if this tends to the exercise of your faith, and love, and holiness, if this increases your valuation of the privileges of the Gospel, it will be an undoubted token of the blessed issue which the Lord Christ will give unto your troubles. Pray for me, as you do ; and do it the rather, that, if it be the will of God, I may be restored to you, — and if not, that a blessed entrance may be given to me into the kingdom of God and glory. Salute all the church in my name. I take the bold- ness in the Lord to subscribe myself your unworthy pastor, and your servant for Jesus' sake, J. Owen."
" P.S. — I humbly desire you would in your prayers remember the family where I am, from whom I have received, and do receive, great Christian kindness. I may say, as the apostle of Onesiphorus, ' The Lord give to them that they may find mercy of the Lord in that day, for they have often refreshed me in my great dis- tress."
His infirmities increasing, he soon after removed from London to Kensington, for country air; occasionally, however, he was able still to visit London; and an incident which happened to him on one of these visits presents us with another picture of the times. As he was driving along the Strand, his carriage was stopped by two in- formers, and his horses seized. Greater violence would immediately have followed, had it not beeii that Sir Edmund Godfrey, a justice of the peace, was passing at the time, and seeing a mob collected round the carriage, asked what was the matter ? On ascertaining the circumstances, he ordered the informers, with Dr Owen, to meet him at the house of another justice of the peace on an appointed day. When the day came, it was found that the informers had acted so irregularly, that they were not only disappointed of their base reward, but severely reprimanded and dismissed. Thus once more did Owen escape as a bird from the snare of the fowler.
Retiring still farther from the scenes of public life, Owen soon after took up his abode in the quiet village of Ealing, where he had a house of his own and some property. Only once again did perse- cution hover over him, and threaten to disturb the sacredness of his declining days, by seeking to involve him and some other of the Nonconformists in the Rye House plot ; but the charge was too bold to be believed, and God was about, ere long, to remove him from the reach of all these evils, and to hide him in his pavihon, from the pride of man and from the strife of tongues. Anthony Wood has said of Owen,that "he did very unwillingly lay down his head and die ;" but how different was the spectacle of moral sublimity presented to the eyes of those who were actual witnesses of the last days of the mag-