set all previous calculation at defiance-' to consult Arbuthnot or any other successor of his would be mere illusion,' p. 324.

"Nor are you more fortunate in your historical researches. Aware that the chances are always incalculably great against finding an obscure fact of ancient history substantiated by any other evidence than that of the narrator, you would insinuate that, at the time of Paul's conversion, there was no such personage as Aretas, p. 136. Now if you had consulted either Josephus, or Dion Cassius, you would have found this same Aretas mentioned by them, as king of that part of Arabia; and that the reason for there being a garrison placed by him in Damascus, was on account of the offence which he had given to the Roman power, by making war on Herod.

"Really, Doctor Gamaliel,' after such a display of your wonderful prowess-you should not feel quite so confident that you were born to give the death warrant to the apostleship of St. Paul, p. 380." Grinfield, p. 115.

ART. IV. Memoirs of the Life, Writings, and Religious Connexions of John Owen, D.D. Vice Chancellor of Oxford, and Dean of Christ Church, during the Commonwealth. By W. Örme. 8vo. 12s. Hamilton. 1820.

No clerical person figured more extensively or variously, during the evil times of the grand rebellion, than did Dr. Owen, the Episcopalian, the Presbyterian, the Independent Vice-Chancellor of Oxford. The remarkable pliancy of his principles in regard to church government, and the uniform subserviency of his views, both to his own interest and to the favourite objects of the leading men in power, excite in the mind of the most candid reader no small degree of suspicion, that a divine who changed so often and always coincided with the dominant faction, must have occasionally listened to other counsellors than the mere abstract love of truth, or the still small voice of conscience. He excelled most men of his age in that valuable gift which the ancients called προγνωσις μελλοντων--the power of discerning the signs of the times, and the talent of being always ready to avail one's self of approaching contingencies.

We are furnished in some degree with a key to his character, in the declaration made by his biographer, apparently on the authority of some family document, that his conduct in the outset of life was influenced entirely by a strong movement of ambition" to raise himself to some emi

nent station in church or state, to either of which he was then indifferent." He used afterwards to acknowledge, says Mr. Orme, that being naturally of an aspiring mind and very desirous of honour and preferment, he applied very closely to his studies, in the hope of accomplishing these ends; and that then the honour of God and the good of his country were objects subservient to the advancement of his own glory or interest. Soon after this period, no doubt, he became the subject of religious impressions, was melancholy and abstracted; and, in a word, passed through a course of spiritual conflict," as preparatory for the distinguished part he was about to act as the confidant of Oliver Cromwell and the patron of the Independents."

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5. He appears to have received holy orders at a very early' age; being ordained by Bishop Bancroft before he had completed his twenty-first year. It is remarkable," too, that it' was whilst he was a prey to the painful convictions just mentioned, that he received, from the hands of a bishop, power and authority to minister in the church; a preof, it may be presumed, that among the numerous topics which perplexed his religious contemplations, the lawfulness of episcopal government, is not to be included. But the measures adopted' by Archbishop Laud to prevent innovations in the university over which, as chancellor, he presided at that unhappy period, irritated the impatience of the young divine; for, says the author of his life, though the mind of Owen was not sufficiently enlightened to see the glory of his gospel, his' conscience was brought so far under the authority of Divine Revelation, that he could not submit to these human exactions.

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"The result of his refusing to submit, and of the opposition of Laud's party, was his leaving the university, never to return, until he who disposes equally the lot of nations and of individuals, sent Haman to a scaffold and raised Mordecai to fill his place."

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It is but justice to mention that Owen had to view attentively both sides of the question, and to balance motives of no inconsiderable weight, before he finally determined to place himself on the side of the parliament, and desert the church of which he had so recently become a member. An uncle, upon whom he had long relied for pecuniary assistance, was a decided royalist; and who immediately, upon hearing of the defection of his nephew, cut him off, not only from his usual supplies, but also from the hope of inheri tance to which he had been encouraged to look forward. K...

VOL. XXI. FEB. 1824.

This, no doubt, was a very considerable sacrifice; and, as we know not what were his immediate inducements to espouse the popular cause, candour requires that we should suspend our opinions, if we are not disposed to give him credit for an heroic effort of generosity and self-denial.

It appears not, however, that his mind was yet emancipated from the captivity of its own gloomy thoughts. The spiritual conflict still continued; and it was not until he went to Aldermanbury Church to hear a presbyterian minister, that his soul was comforted and his resolution confirmed. It may, perhaps, occur to some captious reader, that the simple fact of his going to seek consolation in a presbyterian conventicle, manifested, not unequivocally, the bias of his predilections; and, as that class of Christians had a fair prospect, at the period in question, of an established ascendancy, the religious convictions which had so long tortured the sensitive spirit of the juvenile priest, may have been brought to maturity by the seasonable developement of political events. Mr. Orme remarks, with much pious simplicity, that now "Jehovah's time of mercy had arrived, and the truth was received, not as the word of man, but as the word of the living and true God."

The slightest attention to the condition of things in the church and country at large will supply a motive for Owen's conversion, altogether independent of miraculous interposition. A strong tendency had already shewn itself in favour of Calvinistic doctrines and discipline, on the part of the popular leaders; and this aspiring divine, accordingly, whose mental depressions had not entirely subdued his “natural vanity and ambition," employed his talents in the composition of a book against Arminianism, which he forthwith dedicated to the Committee of Religion. The parliamentary, saints received the compliment in good part; ordered the work to be printed; and, as they were at that period em ployed in the pleasant duty of purging the church of scandalous ministers, they lost no time in securing preferment for Mr. Owen, by depriving the incumbent of Fordham, in Essex. This sequestered clergyman is described by Walker.. as a person of great learning, religion, and sobriety;" but not being so great a master of religious convictions, nor. so eminent for acting a successful part in what Mr. Orme calls the spiritual conflict, he was turned out to make way for a man who was depressed in, heart until he had mustereda courage to become a rebel, and who had laboured under a settled melancholy until he formed the resolution to oppose the church which he had sworn to defend. His biographer,

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however, in relating these occurrences, suspects no mixture of earthly considerations. His charity never permits him to imagine that, in becoming a presbyterian, in abetting the views of the parliamentary commission, and in accepting a living at their hands, as the reward of his well-timed exertions, Mr. Owen could possibly be influenced by any other motive than a desire to promote the glory of God." The faithful minister," says he, "will never pass unrewarded. In all situations God will acknowledge that portion of his own truth which is properly brought forward!"

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We would not heedlessly violate the trite maxim in regard to the characters of the dead. But when a young man whose "whole ambition," it is confessed, "was to raise himself to some eminent station in church or state, to either of which he was indifferent," barters his zeal and talents for preferment, and changes his views on several essential points as often as his patrons found it expedient to alter their course as ecclesiastical reformers, we must either shut our eyes altogether to the relation of cause and effect in human action, or take leave to express our doubts as to the sincerity and disinterestedness of Mr. Owen's conduct. By accepting the living of Fordham, he formally connected himself with the Presbyterian body, who at that period had attained the highest point of their popularity and power; and yet, when he afterwards became an Independent, he urges, as an san apology for his fickleness, that, though he had joined the Presbyterians and even written a tract in favour of their polity, he was in fact very imperfectly acquainted with their tenets. "I was then a young man," says Owen himself, "about the age of twenty-six, or twenty-seven. The controversy be. tween Independency and Presbytery was then young also; nor indeed, by me clearly understood." It is worthy of remark, too, that this unpardonable precipitancy; this attack upon his mother-church; and this ignorant, spontaneous defence of a system to which he was a stranger, marked the first steps of his progress in his converted state. "The time of Jehovah's mercy had arrived," says his biographer; but the new-born saint makes such a questionable use of that dispensation of grace that he only makes haste to eat the bread of another man; to join a communion which he was soon to abjure; and to publish a book on a subject which he had neglected to study!

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Mr. Orme is extremely eager to prove that Mr. Owen, even before he became an Independent, never entertained those intolerant and persecuting doctrines which distinguished the Presbyterians in the time of the long parliament.

It is clear, however, that Dr. Owen was not, in this respect, more liberal than the men of his age: and, in his Display of Arminianism, dedicated to that celebrated body of legislators, he informs them very intelligibly that the arm of secular power might be employed with great advantage to check the progress of error and the increase of sects. He soon discovered, it is true, that the leaders of the Commons had no intention of investing any denomination of professors with the authority of an establishment, that their object was rather to tolerate all and patronize none; and accordingly, his eyes were opened to the new light which was thus reflected from the wisdom of his superiors, and his mind became gradually accessible to the influence of gentler maxims, which, however, he had failed to derive from his theological tenets.

The Presbyterians of that period were certainly intolerant in the extreme, and they also embraced every opportunity to urge the adoption of their worst principles upon the men in power. Before parliament, as well as in their numerous publications, they represented,

"A toleration as the grand design of the devil-his masterpiece, and the chief engine he works by at this time to uphold his tottering kingdom. It is the most compendious, ready, sure way to destroy all religion, lay all waste, and bring in all evil. It is a most transcendant, catholic, and fundamental evil for this kingdom of any that can be imagined. As original sin is the most fundamental sin, having the original seed and spawn of all in it; so a toleration hath áll errors in it and all evils. It is against the whole stream and current of scripture, both in the Old and New Testament; both in matters of faith and manner; both in general and particular commands. It overthrows all relations, political, ecclesiastical, and economical. And whereas other evils, whether of judgment or practice, be but against some one or two places of Scripture, this is against all-this is the Abaddon, Apollyon, the destroyer of all religion, the abomination of desolation and astonishment, the liberty of perdition, and therefore the devil follows it night and day; working mightily, in many by writing books for it, and other ways; all the devils in hell and their instruments being at work to promote a toleration."

This miserable raving, which is quoted from Edward's Gangrena, expressed the sentiments of almost the whole presbyterian body. It was that party who, in the Westminster Assembly, defeated the attempt, recommended by the Committee of Lords and Commons, to promote a union with the Independents. They refused even to tolerate the churches of the latter denomination. And when, at length, they found