And this suggests another of his most remarkable excellencies, — the power, namely, of bringing the various doctrines of the Christian system, even the most abstruse, to bear, in the form of motive and con- solation, upon the affections and active powers of our human nature. Great as Owen is when we see him as the gigantic polemic, putting forth his intellectual might in " earnestly contending for the faith once delivered unto the saints;" we have not seen him in all his gr€5g,tness until, in such practical works as his treatise on the " Mortification of Sin in Believers," he brings the truth into contact, not so much with the errors of the heretic, as with the corruption and deceitfulness of the human heart. Then we have hesitated which most to admire, — his intimate knowledge of the Word of God, or his profound acquaint- ance with the heart of man, or the skill with Avhich he brings the
HIS KETIREMEInT AND LAST DAYS. CXI
one into vigorous and healing action upon the otlier; while all his great qualities, as the expositor of the Scriptures, as the defender of the faith, as the profound theologian, and as the wise practical in- structor, have seemed to manifest themselves at once in single and united gi'eatness, in that noble intellectual pyramid, his " Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews."
Yet some of the excellencies that we have named stand closely connected Avith Owen's chief defect, — which is to be found in his manner, rather than in his matter. His wish to exhaust his par- ticular theme has made him say every thing on a subject that could be said, and betrayed him into an occasional prolixity and discursive- ness, the absence of which would have made his works far more popular, and far more useful. He wants per'spective in composition, and does not seem to know the secret of touching on themes, without laboriously handling them. This, with an occasionally involved and parenthetical style, has formed, as we conceive, the chief barrier to Owen's yet wider acceptance. The sentiment of Dr Vaughan is a just one, that had the fluency and elegance of Bates been united to the massive thoughts of Owen, we should have had a near approach to the perfect theological writer. But let us admit this occasional defect; and let us even farther concede, that in other qualities he is not equal to others of the Puritans, — that he is suqoassed by Baxter in point and energy, by Flavel in tenderness, by Howe in majesty, by both the Henrys in proverb and epigram, by Bates in beautiful similitudes; — still, where shall we find, in the theological writers of his own or of any age, so much of the accumulated treasures of a sanctified learning, — of the mind of God clearly elucidated and invin- cibly defended, — of profound and massive thought? His works are like a soil wliich is literally impregnated Avith gold, and in Avhich bur- nished masses of the \drgin ore are sure to rcAvard him Avho patiently labours in it.
John OAven belonged to a class of men who have risen from age to age in the church, to represent great principles, and to revive in the church the life of God. The supreme authority of the Scriptures in all matters of religion, — the headship of Christ, — the rights of conscience, — religion as a thing of spirit, and not of form, resulting from the personal belief of certain revealed truths, and infallibly manifesting itself in a holy life, — the church as a society distinct from the Avorld; — these principles, often contended for in flames and blood, were the essence of that Puritanism which found one of its noblest examples in Oavcu. Puritanism, it has been finely said, Avas the feeling of Avhich Protestantism Avas the argument. But even then, it was an old spirit under a ncAV name, AA'hich, heaven-enkindled, has ever borne the tAvo mai'ks of its celestial origin, in blessing the Avorld and
CXIV APPENDIX TO THE
Die, a Terrenis Potestatibus, Plurimis facto Fatal! ; Illi, a Coelesti Numine, Felici reddito;
Mensis Scilicet August! XXIV°. Anno a Partu Virgineo. MDCLXXXIIP, JEtat. LXVIF.
TRANSLATION.
John Owen, D.D., born in the county of Oxford, the son of .an eminent minis- ter, himself more eminent, and worthy to be enrolled among the first divines of the age ; furnished with human literature in all its kinds, and in its highest degrees, he called forth all his knowledge in an orderly train to serve the interests of religion, and minister in the sanctuary of his God. In divinity, practic, polemic, and casu- istical, he excelled others, and was in all equal to himself. The Arminian, Socinian, and Popish errors, those hydras, whose contaminated breath and deadly poison infested the church, he, with more than Ilcrcuhan labour, repulsed, vanquished, and destroyed. The whole economy of redeeming grace, revealed and applied by the Holy Spint, he deeply investigated, and communicated to others, hanng first felt its divine energy, according to its draught in the holy Scriptures, transfused into his own bosom. Superior to all terrene pursuits, he constantly cherished, and largely experienced, that blissful communion \\'ith Deity he so admirably describes in his writings. While on the road to heaven, his elevated mind almost compre- hended its full glories and joys. When he was consulted en cases of conscience, his resolutions contained the Avisdom of an oracle. He was a sci'ibe every way in- structed in the mysteries of the kingdom of God. In conversation he held up to many, in his public discourses to more, in his publications from the press to all, who were set out for the celestial Zion, the effulgent lamp of evangelical truth, to guide their steps to immortal glory. While he was thus diffusing his divine li^ht, with his own inward sensations, and the obsei-vations of his afflicted friends, his earthly tabernacle gradually decayed, till at length his deeply-sanctified soul, long- ing for the fruition of its God, quitted the body. In younger age, a most comely and majestic form ; but in the latter stages of life, depressed by constant infirmities, emaciated with frequent diseases, and above all cinished under the weight of intense and unremitting studies, it became an incom.modious mansion for the vigorous ex- ertions of the .spirit in the service of its God. He left the world on a day dread- ful to the church by the cruelties of men, bvit blissful to himself by the plaudits of his God, August 24, 1683, aged 67. — Translated by Dr Gibbons.