observes, "It was well their power was then feebler than their inclinations, or they would probably have substituted the author in the place of his writings.' The effect of this sermon on parliament was such, that Owen was appointed, within three months, to preach before the house again. On this occasion he produced his celebrated discourse, on the "Shaking and Translation of the Heavens and the Earth." This seems to have led to his acquaintance with Crom-were not confined to that period. On well, who heard him then, probably, his return to England, in a sermon befor the first time. Oliver's acuteness fore the parliament, he made a most soon discovered Owen's abilities; he powerful.and effectual appeal in behalf fixed on him immediately to accompany of that destitute island, which discohim to Ireland; and notwithstanding vered the deep interest he took in its Owen's objections, and those of the welfare. church at Coggelshall, to this proposal, Cromwell's authority succeeded when argument was exhausted:-"He told them, he inust and should go." never to have meddled with him, but in the way of self-defence. Whatever were his reasons, Baxter seldom omitted an opportunity of hitting a blot in Owen's conduct or writings; and not content with wrangling during his life, left a legacy of reproach on the memory of his brother, which should continue to operate long after his death." But whatever Owen's exertions effected during his residence in Ireland, they This was a most important step, and was followed with very important consequences to Owen. To enter on an enquiry into the character of Cromwell, would be foreign to our purpose. The opinions entertained respecting that extraordinary man are various: doubtless Owen must have viewed him in a very different light from that of an accomplished hypocrite; - "the strangest compound of villany and virtue, baseness and magnanimity, absurdity and good sense, that we find upon record in the annals of mankind," as Smollet has represented him. We would direct the attention of the reader to Mr. Orme's remarks on the subject, at p. 114, which, for their candour, justice, and comprehensiveness, are entitled to particular regard. By In consequence of Owen's representations on this subject, an ordinance was passed, for the encouragement of religion and learning in Ireland. this act, certain lands were devoted to the support of Trinity College, and the endowment of its professors; for erecting another college in Dublin, and maintaining its teachers; and for the erection of a Free School, and the support of the master and scholars." After this, Owen, with much apparent reluctance, accompanied Cromwell to Scotland, where he remained about the space of six months. Nothing very particular is stated respecting Owen's labours in Scotland; but the reader will perceive that Mr. Orme, in referring to his visit, introduces some valuable and interesting information, respecting the very low state of religion in Scotland, for some time previous to the English invasion, and the striking alteration that took place afterwards, under the rule of the Commonwealth. It must not, however, here be concealed, that Owen, in his sermon before parliament, on the thanksgiving-day for the destruction of the Scotch army at Worcester-Oliver's "crowning mer cy"-strangely underrates the Scotch Presbyterians, in representing them as pleading a necessity from an oath of God, to most desperate undertakings against God, Mr. Orme apologizes for Owen on this occasion, by remarking that his views on this subject were in The station which Owen filled under the Protector, was that of chaplain; to which he was appointed by commission from parliament. How Owen was occupied during his residence in Ireland, does not very clearly appear; the ostensible purpose of his going thither, was to assist Cromwell in regulating the affairs of Trinity College, Dublin. His stay in Ireland was only for a few months, during which time little could possibly be effected; and what was done is unrecorded. But it is obvious he was not idle. It was while in Dub-fluenced by the persons with whom he lin that he commenced his controversies with Richard Baxter; respecting which Mr. Orme observes,-"Justice obliges me to state, that Baxter was invariably the aggressor; as Owen seems generally acted. This was, no doubt, the case; but notwithstanding all that Mr. Orme mentions respecting the provoking nature of the conduct of the Scotch leaders, we cannot help wishing, that Owen had, by the firmness and candour of his own conduct, exerted, as their spiritual instructor, a little more influence over them. It is far from being with any invidious view that we make the remark, but our readers must know, that the discourse here alluded to, was the first that the Doctor delivered before parliament, after they had passed an order that he should be raised to the Deanery of Christ Church. Owen now began to rise rapidly, and to move in the highest stations which his profession would admit of his filling; while every mark of honour and respect was readily conferred on him, which his superior talents and unwearied exertions merited. Within the short space of two years, we find the Dean of Christ Church made ViceChancellor of the University of Oxford, created Doctor in Divinity, and elected Member of Parliament for the University of Oxford. What a load for a minister of the gospel to carry! We confess, we should not like the task of attempting to reconcile all this with the principles of Independency, much less with those of the New Testament. Mr. Orme has done his utmost in this respect; and although we cannot expect that all his readers will feel perfectly satisfied with his defence of the Doctor, it must be allowed that his remarks are both just and ingenious, and produce a favourable impression on the mind. As might have been expected, Owen did not long remain in the quiet possession of his newly acquired honours and emoluments. His seat in parliament was held but for a very short period, in consequence of his election being questioned by the committee of privileges. Their objections were founded on his being in the ministry; and his enemies took occasion from this circumstance, to affirm, that when he was chosen a parliament-man, he refused to answer whether he was a minister, or not." The only ground on which we think this infamous assertion deserved the least attention from Owen, was its being rested on the public rumour of Oxford. As to Cawdry, the author of it, he was a kind of religious blackguard, who styled himself "Preacher of the word, at Billingmagn, Northamptonshire;" whose very element was contradiction, and who seemed to live for the sole purpose of abusing those whose virtues he could not even emulate. But the most conspicuous light in which we are now called to contemplate the character of Owen, is that of ViceChancellor of the University of Oxford. Cromwell, who was Chancellor of Oxford, being mostly in Scotland with the army, and finding it inconvenient to attend to the affairs of the University, nominated Owen to be Vice-Chancellor; and he was accordingly chosen by the unanimous suffrage of the senate. During the civil wars, the affairs of the University had fallen into the most deplorable state imaginable. "The colleges and halls had gone to ruin: five of them were perfectly deserted; some of them were converted into magazines, and the rest were in a most shattered state; while the chambers were filled with officers and soldiers, or let out to townsmen. There was little or no education; poverty, desolation, and plunder-the effects of war-were to be seen in every corner; the bursaries were emptied of the public money, the plate melted down for the king's service, and the colleges involved in debts which they were not able to discharge. Such was the wretched state of the University, when Oxford fell into the hands of the parliament, in 1646." From the very interesting extracts from the speeches of Owen, which Mr. Orme has given in Chap. VII. of the work, it would appear that this office was entered on with much fear and trembling. But there was no man, in that period, better qualified to do justice to its arduous and numerous duties, than John Owen. His first attempts at reformation, were directed towards the moral conduct of the students. On a public occasion an event occurred, which, as it at once exhibits the degraded state of religion and morals among them, the firmness and authority requisite to preserve order and subjection, and affords a fine specimen of the Doctor's general character, we shall, for the sake of those who may not have access to the work itself, insert at length. "At a public Act, when a student of Trinity College was Terre filius, the Doctor, before he began, told him, that he should have liberty to say what he pleased, provided he would abstain from profaneness, obscenity, and personalities. The Terra filius began, but soon transgressed all the rules which had been prescribed to him. The Doctor several times desired him to forbear, but still he went on; till at in the place of Owen, and Manton, a Presbyterian, prayed. Cromwell's death soon followed; and when his son Richard succeeded him as Chancellor, Owen was dismissed, and a Presbyterian, of the name of Manton, appointed in his stead. Do not these circumstances clearly evince the truth of Owen's repeated declarations, that he entered on these high stations with reluctance? And do they not also shew, that he preserved his disinterested and manly spirit to the very last? We must now proceed to take some notice of the numerous writings of Dr. Owen; but our readers must excuse us from even attempting to give the titles of them all; this they will find done in chronological order, at the end of Mr. Orme's narrative. While filling the high station of Vice-Chancellor of Oxford-discharging his duties as Dean of Christ Church-and attending numerous meetings, and despatching various and urgent public business, Owen never lost sight of the grand and original object of his pursuit: his mind was set for the defence and confirmation of the gospel; and the times in which he lived afforded him ample scope, and room enough for the exercise of his talents as a scribe, in this department of Theology. It appears, that at this time the prevalence of the Socinian tenets excited much alarm in England: in consequence of which," the Provincial Assembly of London issued parti cular instructions for the education and catechising of youth; and the Council of State, conceiving that some more complete exposure of Socinianism was necessary, laid its commands on Dr. Owen, to undertake this important task." last, seeing him obstinate, he sent the beadles to pull him down. On this the scholars interposed, and would not suffer them to come near him. The Doctor determined to pull him down himself; and though his friends near him dissuaded him, lest the scholars should do him some mischief,—' I will | not see authority trampled on, in this manner,' said he,-and actually pulled him down, and sent him to Bocardo, (the common prison); the scholars standing off, surprised at his resolution." During the Vice-Chancellorship of Owen, the affairs of the University underwent a thorough reformation; and before he resigned his office, it flourished with a great number of excellent scholars :-men who were truly eminent in every departinent of literature; whose exemplary conduct was an honour to their country; and whose names, many of them at least, are immortalized, by the signal services which they rendered to religion, philosophy, and general literature. Let the reader only run over the copious list of names which Mr. Orme has given, of men of celebrity in Oxford and its University, during that period, and we are persuaded he will freely admit the truth of his remark:-" It may be doubted, whether that University ever enjoyed a greater number of persons, eminent in their respective professions, or more distinguished for character, talents, and learning. They afford indubitable evidence of the truth of Thurloe's account of Cromwell, that he sought out men for places, and not places for men;' a remark by no means generally applicable to the kings of the earth." It would be doing injustice to the character of Owen, not to mention particularly the part he took in opposing the ambition of the Protector, when he aspired to the crown. Aithough his name was not affixed to the petition, which he drew up at the request of Colonel Pride, and Desborough, there can be no doubt but that Cromwell knew the part he acted in this affair. This, indeed, was evident, from his conduct towards Owen from that time till the day of his death; and we are much mistaken if it did not form the ground of his dis-ously to his day. Respecting this conmissal from the Vice-Chancellorship. From the time that Cromwell's designs were blasted, Owen was seldom seen with him; and when the inauguration took place, Lockyer preached, no doubt Owen was the very man to undertake this task; and instantly he brought all his erudition to bear upon the subject; and, in the course of one year, brought into the field no fewer than seven hundred quarto pages, to meet the catechism of John Biddle, M.A., and the united forces of Smalcius and Moscorovius, the authors of the notorious Racovian Catechism; and, indeed, to contend with all the Socinians that had written previ troversy, we do not hesitate fearlessly ob fallen into the common weakness too often observable in writers on this subject, namely, warmth of temper. Mr. Orme attempts to soften down this circumstance considerably, by allusions to the spirit of the times, and particularly of the individuals who opposed Owen. We are far, however, from charging him, as some journalists have done, with advancing this as an excuse for the Doctor. This he certainly does not do. We would, however, just notice it, as a hint to those who are called to enter on this controversy, either from the pulpit or the press, how seldom it has been conducted in the spirit of meekness. But a few years ago, we remember hearing a good Independent minister say, in the way of apologizing to his audience for having betrayed an undue degree of keenness in combating some of the Socinian sentiments, "If Jesus had been where I have sometimes been, and heard such things as I have heard said, derogatory to his character, he would have been angry too." ciety that offer less attraction than that of the editor of a Magazine-the humble drudge, who is beset from month to month with dull essays in prose, and still more tiresome effusions in the form of verse, which he is expected to read through carefully, and to report impartially to the world at large. We know, by painful experience, the irksomeness of such a post, and have fetched over it many a heart-felt sigh. Yet even this situation, which nothing but a regard for the public good could induce us to occupy for another month, is not without its alloy. In wading through the heaps of trash, of one sort or other, which come before us, we are now and then overtaken by the most agreeable surprise, in meeting with a work of genius and talent, in which important truths are stated, discussed, and illustrated with the ability which they merit. Under such circumstances, we feel compensated for much of our past toil and weariness; we return thanks to "the Father of lights, from whom cometh down every good and perfect gift," and are encouraged to proceed with our labours. Precisely such was the case, and similar were our feelings, on the first reading of Mr. Godwin's Discourse on the Signs of the Times. We took it up immediately after dinner, not exactly with the view of laying it under contribution as the means of procuring a napa stratagem to which our brother Journalists are said to have recourse occasionally--but certainly without the smallest intention of doing more than glancing A Discourse on the Signs of the Times; at a paragraph or two, in order to satisfy delivered at the Buckinghamshire Asso- ourselves as to what kind of stuff it was ciation of Baptist Churches, held at composed of. But, happening to begin Waddesdon Hill, May 23d, 1821, and with the title page and proceeding republished at their request. By B. GOD-gularly onwards, we found it impossible WIN, Great Missenden, Bucks. Lon- to lay it down till we had read every don, Cox and Son; and Simpkin and page, and then, ardently thirsted for Marshall, 56 pages, 8vo. pr. 1s. 6d. more of it! Nor shall we speedily forget the pleasing reverie into which the reading of it threw us-but we must wave the detail, and proceed to furnish our readers with some account of the contents of Mr. Godwin's Discourse. That this controversy may be conducted, as well as any other, in the true spirit of Christianity, which, while it enforces earnestness in contending for the faith, equally enjoins meekness, gentleness, and patience, in the servant of the Lord, is abundantly evident, from the masterly productions of Dr. Wardlaw on the subject. 1822. [To be concluded in our next.] Ir is an old and trite remark, that there is scarcely any situation in human life, however irksome and laborious, which has not some advantages attached to it, and that tend, in some measure, at least, to countervail its inconveniences. This is wisely ordered by Providence, who hath set the day of prosperity against the day of adversity, to the end that man should find nothing after him. We believe that, to the generality of readers, there are few stations in so Adopting for his text, our Lord's words, Matt. xvi. 3. "Can ye not discern the signs of the times?" he introduces his subject by a glance at the existing state of things among the Jews at the time of the Saviour's appearing; the violent animosities and frequent contentions which took place between the Pharisees and Sadducees, who, though greatly opposed to are groaning beneath a despotism which places fetters on the human mind, stops the march of knowledge, and drags in the dust the reason and the faith, the liberties and rights of millions:-or whether the invalua ble blessings of civil and religious freedom are elevating mankind to their proper station, and, under the guidance of Heaven, leading them forward to wisdom and happiness? Whether the fostering beams of truth, are cheering and fertilizing the moral each other in some important particulars, yet, in their opposition to Jesus, met as on common ground, and for a while forgot their party disputes in the strong feeling of hostility which actuated them both against that divine Teacher, who exposed the self-righteons spirit of the one, and the scepticism of the other. Sometimes united, and sometimes alone, the zealots of each sect pressed him with a supposed difficulty, in order to elicit a contradic-world ;-or, under the mists of prejudice the tion, involve him in a perplexity, or draw him into a snare. The words of the text were occasioned by something of this kind: they both came together, "and tempting, desired that he would shew them a sign from heaven." They had already been favoured with ample evidence of the divine mission of the Saviour-he had given sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf; he had cleansed their lepers and raised their dead; he had miraculously fed the hungry and preached the gospel to the poor; winds and the waves had confessed his power, and the subdued spirits of darkness had borne testimony to his divine mission. Instead, therefore, of yielding to their request, he appeals to their reason and experience, referring them to their ordinary mode of judging of the weather. From this view of the occasion of the text, the preacher proceeds, by a very natural transition, to apply the question to his cotemporaries, as an expression of very just surprise, " if, while it has fallen to our lot to live in so eventful a period of time, we sit down regardless of those mighty changes which are taking place in almost every part of the globe; which are altering the moral and political aspect of the world, and which are themselves, in all probability, the precursors of events still more extraordinary." To illustrate his subject, Mr. G. proceeds to establish the duty implied in the text the duty of attending to the signs of the times;-from this he proceeds to enquire what are the signs of the times in which we live? and concludes with reviewing the subject in its various practical bearings. Amongst the various reasons on which the duty of observing the "signs of the times" is founded, Mr. Godwin first notices, "Our connexion with the great family of mankind." Here he remarks that "It ought never to be a matter of indifference to ns, whether our fellow creatures and error, religion languishes, and virtue withers, and every noxious weed of depra vity grows rank? Whether God is visiting the nations in mercy or in wrath, punishing or blessing, giving them up to folly, or bringing them back to wisdom? Whether he is lighting up the world with Evangelical doctrine, or removing one after another his "candlesticks" from the churches? Oor connexion and our sympathies with the great family of mankind, should, therefore, deeply interest us in "the signs of the times." A second reason is, that " we should pay a becoming regard to the works of God." It is one mark of the wicked that they regard not the work of the Lord, neither consider the operations of his hands." In marking the course of events "God is not in all their thoughts:" they seek only for second causes, or substitute chance for divine government. The preacher, on the contrary, strikingly illustrates the absolute control of God over all human affairs, and by apt quotations from the prophetic writings, evinces the superintendance which Jehovah exercises over the concerns of individual and every empire. All the evolutions of his providence present us with some parts of his plan in a course of accomplishment, and are highly deserving of our notice. He next proceeds every to remark that "The prophecies of the scripture, also, necessarily suppose this to be a duty. These are to a certain degree, a disclosure of the intentions of God. They relate ultimately to the state of the church, the interests of true religion, the kingdom of God amongst changes of this world are connected with men; and, as far as the great political these more important objects, they are marked in the page of prophecy with more or less distinctness. Sometimes the prophe tic spirit fixes on some period in the succes sion of ages, the important occurences of which are presented in a vivid manner to the mind of the holy seer, and by him are briefly and rapidly sketched, in language, for the most part, glowing and highly figu rative. Instances of this occur in the writ ings of nearly all the prophets. In other |