man appears to have understood the Scriptures better, or to have possessed equal skill in throwing light on a passage, by two or three words. These brief illustrations are like a sun-beam. And there is scarcely a writer in the whole compass of English theological literature, in whom a greater number of new and uncommon, but useful thoughts are to be found.

His style is, in many places, stiff and involved, and in some obscure; but it has a dignity, an energy, a splendour, and a sublimity which produce the most powerful effects on the reader's mind.

Besides the two folio volumes, consisting of treatises and sermons, which were published in his lifetime, there have since appeared two in octavo, the one on love to God and our neighbour, and the other on miscellaneous subjects; two on the work of the Spirit, the one, in particular persons, and the other on his influence in producing the glory of the latter days; and a duodecimo volume on family worship. All these discourses were taken from his lips by a shorthand writer, without having been ever committed to paper by Mr. Howe, who possessed the talent of forming and retaining an extensive plan in his mind and was accustomed to preach wholly from premeditation, and the thoughts suggested in the time of delivery. But they bear the stamp of their author's superior genius, and are such as none but a great man could preach. It is remarkable, that in his posthumous works there is a perspicuity of style, and a simplifying of ideas which are exceedingly striking, and which the reader of his former pieces could not have expected to find. With all their disadvantages they are valuable remains of one of

England's greatest men, and confirm the ancient adage, "that the gleanings of Ephraim are better than the vintage of Abiezer."

Perhaps it may be considered as no unfair test of intellectual and spiritual excellence that a person can relish the writings of John Howe: if he does not, he may have reason to suspect that something in the head or heart is wrong. A your minister who wishes to attain eminence in his profession, if he has not the works of John Howe, 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 spend his days in reading them, he will not complain that he lies hard at night.

JOHN OWEN, D. D.

The name of Dr. John Owen may seem to be placed beyond the limits of our history as he died five years before the revolution, but as he was equally out of the catalogue of the nonconformist's memorial, never having been ejected from any living in the establishment, it seemed proper to give him a place in our work, that it might not be remarked, that the only very eminent person whom we have left unnoticed, was a man for whose sake the order of any history might with propriety be slightly violated.

From the last family of the five regal tribes of Wales, Lewis Owen, esq. of Llwyn, near Dolgelle, was descended, and from him sprang Henry Owen, who was for some time minister of Stadham, in Oxfordshire. This clergyman, who was reckoned

a strict puritan, was blessed, while at Stadham, in the year one thousand six hundred and sixteen, with a second son, whom he named John, who was destined to prove a divine of such eminence as to eclipse, with sacred lustre, all the regal honours of this ancient house. An early proficiency in elementary studies admitted John Owen to the university when only twelve years of age. Here he pursued his academical labours with unquenchable ardour, allowing himself only four hours sleep in a night; though, alas! no holy oil fed his lamp; for he afterwards confessed with blushes that his sole stimulus to mental exertion was the ambitious hope of rising to some distinguished station in church or state. How often has the eye of Omniscience seen this odious mildew sprinkled over the academic laurels of those who have shone with envied lustre in the church! Mr. Owen would doubtless have carried his point, had not God in mercy convinced him of the sin of aiming at his own glory, which called him off from his former pursuits, and induced him to consecrate his future life, with all his mighty talents, to the honour of God, and the reformation of his church. This rendered him averse to the superstitious rites which Laud was then introducing into the university; and thus alienated from him all his former friends, who fled from him as one infected with puritanism, a disease, in their eyes, more dreadful than the plague; so that he was at length obliged to leave the college. He was thus thrown into the hands of the parliamentary party, which so incensed his uncle, who had supported him at the university, that he for ever abandoned him, and settled his estate upon another person.

Mr. Owen, now cast upon the providence of God, went to live with a gentleman as his chaplain; but he, though the friend of this puritan, being a zealous royalist, went into the king's army, and thus left his chaplain once more to seek a maintenance. He went to London where he was a perfect stranger, and had to struggle through his temporal difficulties with the additional burden of a troubled spirit. After he first discovered the evil of sin, this towering genius, who had been the admiration of the university, was so broken down, that for three months he could scarcely speak a word to any one; and for five years the anguish of his mind embittered his life. Under this burden he went one Lord's-day to hear Mr. Calamy, at Aldermanbury church; but after waiting some time, a country minister, of whom he could never afterwards receive the least information, ascended the pulpit, and preached from Matt. viii. 26. "Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith," which happily removed all his doubts, and introduced him to the enjoyment of that sacred peace which, without interruption, blessed all his future days.

"A merry heart doth good like a medicine," says the royal preacher, and Mr. Owen now found his peace of conscience diffuse health through his debilitated frame, and restore the former tone of his mind; so that he soon wrote his " Display of Arminianism," which introduced him to notice and esteem. Induced by the merits of this performance, the committee for ejecting scandalous ministers presented him to the living of Fordham, in Essex, where he laboured for a year and a half to the great satisfaction and advantage of the parishioners. But the patron of the living removed him from it,

which gave the inhabitants of Coggeshall, about five miles distant, an opportunity to invite him to be their minister; and as the earl of Warwick, the patron, gave him the living, he consented, and preached to a very judicious congregation of two thousand persons with great success. Here his researches into the Scriptures induced him to abandon the presbyterian system of church government, and to adopt the principles of the independents: so that he not only formed a congregational church upon the plan which appeared to him to be dictated by Christ in the New Testament, but became the most able vindicator of those sentiments which have so much prevailed among dissenters.

His name, like a rich perfume, could not be concealed, so that he was now called to preach before the parliament; and on the twenty-ninth of April, in the year one thousand six hundred and forty-six, delivered to them a discourse on Acts xvi. 2: "A vision appeared to Paul in the night: there stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, come over into Macedonia, and help us." It is a bold and energetic appeal to the wisdom and benevolence of the legislature in behalf of those parts of the empire which were destitute of the light of evangelical instruction. Those who are only acquainted with the general strain of Dr. Owen's writings, would not suppose him capable of pouring forth that flood of lucid glowing popular eloquence which is displayed in this sermon. The day after the death of Charles the first, he was called to the difficult task of preaching before the parliament again, when he chose for his text Jeremiah xv. 19, 20. Instead of courting the favour of the ruling powers, by applauding the execution of