times with a great degree of kindness towards liim, for which, and his prayers for him, he heartily thanked him" (Rogers's Life of Howe, p. 183). In August, l(j.s5, he went to the Continent with lord Wharton, and in 1G8G l)ccame one of the preachers to the English church at Utrecht. When James II published his "declara- tion for liberty of conscience," Howe returned to London, and at the Revolution, the year following, he headed the deputation of dissenting ministers who presented their petition to the throne. In 1G89 he again pleaded the cause of the Nonconformists in an anonymous pamphlet entitled The Case of the Protestant Dissenters represent- ed and argued. In 1G91 he became involved in the Antinomian controversy by a recommendation which he gave to the works of Dr. Crisp. He soon, however, cleared his reputation by a strong recommendation of Flavel's Blow at the Root, a work against Antinomian- ism, then in the course of publication. In 1701 he be- came entangled in a controversy with the Puritan De Foe (q. V.) on account of one of Howe's members, who had been elected lord mayor, and who, in order to (jual- ify himself for that office, had taken the Lord's Supper in an Established church. The manner in which Howe answered {Some Considerations of a Preface to an In- quinj, etc.) the objections of De Foe, who opjioscd com- munion in the Established Church by Nonconforniists, is to be regretted by all who venerate the name of John Howe. He died April 2, 1705. Among the Puritans, John Howe ranks as one of the most eminent. He was also unquestionably a man of great general learning. " The originality and compass of Howe's mind, and the calmness and moderation of his temper, must ever in- spire sympathy and awaken admiration in reflective readers: his Platonic and Alexandrian culture com- mends him to the philosophical student, and the prac- tical tendency of his religious thinking endears him to all Christians" (Stoughton [John], Eccles. Hist, of Engl. ii, 422, 423). " Perhaps it may be considered as no un- fair test of intellectual and spiritual excellence that a person can relish the writings of John Howe ; if he docs not, he may have reason to suspect that something in his head or heart is wrong. A j'oimg minister who wishes to attain eminence in his profession, if he has not the Morks of John Jlowe, and can procure them in no other way, should sell his coat and buy them ; and, if that will not suffice, let him sell his bed and lie on the floor ; and if he spends his days in reading them, he will not complain that he lies hard at niglit" (Bogue and Bennett, Hist, of Dissenters, i, 437). " Howe seems to have understood the Gospel as well as any uninspired writer, and to have imbibed as much of its sjiirit. There is the truest sublimity to be found in his writings, and some of the strongest pathos; yet, often obscure, gener- ally harsh, he has imitated tlie worst parts of Boyle's style. He has a vast number and variety of uncommon thoughts, and is, on the whole, one of the most valuable writers in our language, or, I believe, in the world" (Dr. Doddridge). "I have learned more from John Howe than from any other author I ever read. There is an astonishing magnificence in his conceptions" (Robert Hall). " This great man was one of the few who have been venerated as much by their contemporaries as by their successors. Time, which commonly adds increa.^ed lustre to the memory of the good, lias not been able to magnify any of the qualities for which Howe was so conspicuous. His strong and capacious intellect, his sublime elevation of thought, his flowing eloquence, the holiness of his life, the dignity and courtesy of his man ■ ners, the humor (^f his conversation, won f<)r him from the men of his own time the title of ' the great Howe' " (Skeats, Hist, of the Free Churches of England, p. 1G9). Howe's most important works are. The Liriiig Temple (many editions; first in 1G7G), in which he proves the existence of God and his conversalileness with men, and which occupies one of the highest places in Puritan tlieology : — The Redeemer's Tears over lost Souls [Luke xix, 41, 42], with an Ajyi'endix on the Blasphemy against
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the Holy Ghost (Lond. 1684; often reprinted), in which Howe does not, unlike many liigh Cah-inistic theolo- gians, enter at all into the predestination controversy, but confines himself to a solution of the question of God's omniscience and man's responsibility : — Inquiry concerniny the Trinity, etc.: — OJfice and Work of the Holy Spirit, These, Avith his Sermons and other writ- ings, are to be found in his Collected Works, with Life by Br. Calumy (1724, 2 vols, folio) ; and in The zchole Works of the Rev. John Hoice, M.A ., edited by Hmit (London, 1810-22, 7 vols. 8vo, with an eighth vol., con- taining a ^Memoir and additional works), and again in The Works of the Rev. John Hoice, M.A., as published during his life, comprising the whole of the two folio vol- umes, ed. 1724, tvith a Life of the A uthor, by the Rev. J. P. Hewlett (London, 1848, 3 vols. 8vo). There is also an edition of his Works in 1 vol. imp. 8vo (London, 1838), and an American edition (Phila. 2 vols. imp. 8vo). See also Wilson, Selections from Howe, with his Life (Lond. 1827, 2 vols. 12mo) ; Taylor, Select Treatises of John Howe (1835, 12mo) ; Rogers, Life of John Howe, with an Analysis of his Writiiigs (Lond. 1836, r2mo) ; Dunn, Howe's Christian Theology (Lond. 1836, r2mo) ; English Cyclopcedia ; Allibone, Hict. of A uthois, i, 002 ; Quar- terly Review (Lond.), xxxvi, 167 ; Literary and Theolog- ical Review, iv. 538 ; Meth. Quart. Rev. Oct. 1862, p. 676 ; Hook, Eccl Biog. vi, 198 sq. (J. H. W.)