At this juncture, Owen felt it his duty to oppose the innovations on the received doc- trine of the church, by the publication of a work in which the views of the Ai-minians are exhibited on all the leading topics of the controver.«y, with the exception of three points, relating to universal grace, justification, and the perseverance of the saints. He substantiates his statements regarding the Arminian tenets by copious quotations from the works of the Dutch Remonstrants; and contrasts them, at the close of each chapter, with passages from Scripture. Exception may be taken to this course, as the sentence of any author, detached from the context, may convey a meaning which is essentially modified by it. Some of these quotations are so far accommodated by Owen as to present a full statement of a particular opinion, instead of appearing in the paren- thetic and incidental form which they present in the original works, as merely parts of a sentence. We did not feel it needful to interfere with them in this shape ; for, so far as we can judge, our author evinces perfect integrity in all the quotations to which he has recourse, and the slight alterations occasionally made on them never superin- duce a dishonest or mistaken gloss on the views of the authors from whom the passages are selected. It may be questioned if Owen sufficiently discriminates the doctrine of Arminius from the full development which his system, after his death, received in the hands of his followers. Sometimes, moreover, opinions possessing the distinctive fea- tures of Pelagianism are confounded with Arminiauism, strictly so called. Our author, perhaps, may be vindicated on the ground that it was his object to exhibit Arminiau- ism as curi'ent and common in his day; and his quotations seem to prove that his Dis- play of it was not far from the truth, though, from the refinement of modern discrimi- nation on some of the points, many an Arminian would hardly subscribe to some of the statements as a correct representation of his creed, and a Calviuistic author is under obvious temptation to run up Arminian views into what he may esteem their legitimate consequences in the extravagance of the Pelagian theory. The style is sim- ple ; some polish appears in the composition ; and occasionally a degree of ornament and pleasantry is employed (as when he enters on the question of Free-will, chap, xii.), which is rare with Owen, who perhaps prided himself on the studious rejection of literary elegance. It could be wished that he had risen superior to the vice of the age in such discussions, by manifesting less acerbity of temper and diction in the re- futation of the views which he combats in this work. It was Owen's first publication (1G42), and immediately brought him into notice. The living of Fordham in Essex was conferred upon him by the Committee of Religion, to whom the work is dedicated. —Ed.
2 Martii, anno Domini 1C42. It is this day ordered, by the Committee of the House of Commons in Parliament for the Regulating of Printing and Publishing of Books, That this book, entitled " A Dis- play of Armiuianism," be printed. John White.
TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
THE LORDS AND GENTLEMEN OE THE COMMITTEE EOR RELiaiON.'
The many ample testimonies of zealous reverence to the providence of God, as well as affectionate care for the privileges of men, which have been given by this honourable assembly of parliament, encourage the adorers of the one, no less than the lovers of the other, to vindicate that also from the encroachments of men. And as it was not, doubtless, without divine disposition that those should be the chiefest agents in robbing men of their privileges who had nefariously attempted to spoil God of his providence; so we hope the same all-ruling hand hath disposed of them to be glorious instruments of re-advancing his right and supreme dominion over the hearts of men whose hearts he hath prepared with courage and constancy to establish men in their inviolated rights, by reducing a sweet harmony between awful sovereigntij and a well-moderated liberty. Now, the first of these being demandated to your particular care, I come unto you Avith a bill of complaint against no small number in this kingdom, who have wickedly violated our interest in the providence of God, and have attempted to bring in the foreign power of an old idol, to the great prejudice of all the ti'ue subjects and servants of the Most High. My accusation I make good by the evidence of the fact, joined with their own confessions. And because, to waive the imputation of violent intrusion into the dominion of another, they lay some claim and pretend some title unto it, I shall briefly show how it is contrary to the express terms of the great charter of Heaven to have any such power introduced amongst men. Your known love to truth and the gospel of Christ makes it altogether needless for me to stir yovi up by any motives to hearken to this just complaint, and pro\dde a timely remedy for this growing evil; especially since experience hath so clearly taught us here, in England, that not only eternal but temporal happiness also dependeth on the flourishing of the truth of Christ's gospel.
Justice and reli.gion were always conceived as the main columns and upholders of any state or commonwealth ; lilie two pillars in a building, whereof the one can- not stand without the other, nor the whole fabric without them both. As the philosopher spake of logic and rhetoric, they are artes avriffTftxpat, mutually aiding each other, and both aiming at the same end, though in different manners ; so they, without repugnancy, concur and sweetly fall in one with another, for the reigle- ment and direction of every person in a commonwealth, to make the whole happy and blessed : and where they are both thus united, there, and only there, is the blessing in assurance whereof Hezekiah rejoiced, — truth and peace. An agreement without truth is no peace, but a covenant with death, a league with hell, a con- spiracy against the kingdom of Christ, a stout rebellion against the God of heaven ; and without justice, great commonwealths are but great troops of robbers. Now, the result of the one of these is civil peace; of the other, ecclesiastical: betwixt which