Brief
Biography
OWEN, John (1616-1683), theologian, was born of Puritan
parents at Stadham in Oxfordshire in 1616. At twelve years of age he was
admitted at Queen's College, Oxford, where he took his B.A. degree in 1632 and
M.A. in 1635. During these years he worked with such diligence that he allowed
himself but four hours sleep a night, and damaged his health by this excessive
labour. In 1637 he was driven from Oxford by his refusal to comply with the
requirements of Laud's new statutes. Having taken orders shortly before, he
became chaplain and tutor in the family of Sir Robert Dormer of Ascot in
Oxfordshire. At the outbreak of the civil troubles he adopted Parliamentary
principles, and thus lost both his place and the prospects of succeeding to his
uncle's fortune. For a while he lived in Charterhouse Yard, in great
unsettlement of mind on religious questions, which was removed at length by a
sermon which he accidently heard at St Michael's in Wood Street. His first
publication, in 1642, The Display of Arminianism, dedicated to the committee of
religion gained him the living of Fordham in Essex, from which a "scandalous
minister" had been ejected. Here he was married, and by his marriage he had
eleven children. Although he was thus formally united to Presbyterianism,
Owen's views were originally inclined to those of the Independents, and, as he
acquainted himself more fully with the controversy, he became more resolved in
that direction. He represented, in fact, that large class of persons who,
falling away from Episcopacy, attached themselves to the very moderate form of
Presbyterianism which obtained in England as being that which came first in
their way.
At Fordham he remained until 1646, when, the old incumbent
dying, the presentation lapsed to the patron, who gave it to someone else. He
was now, however, coming into notice, for on April 29 he preached before the
Parliament. In this sermon, and still more in his Thoughts on Church
Government, which he appended to it, his tendency to break away from
Presbyterianism is displayed. The people of Coggeshall in Essex now invited him
to become their pastor. Here he declared his change by founding a church on
Congregational principles, and, in 1647, by publishing Eshcol, as well as
various works against Arminianism. He made the friendship of Fairfax while the
latter was besieging Colchester, and urgently addressed the army there against
religious persecution. He was chosen to preach to Parliament on the day after
the execution of Charles, and succeeded in fulfilling his task without
mentioning that event, and again on April 19, when he. spake thus:-"The time
shall come when the earth shall disclose her slain, and not the simplest
heretic shall have his blood unrevenged; neither shall any atonement or
expiation be allowed for this blood, while a toe of the image, or a bone of the
beast, is left unbroken."
He now became acquainted with Cromwell, who
carried him off to Ireland in 1649 as his chaplain, that he might regulate the
affairs of Trinity College; while there he began the first of his frequent
controversies with Baxter by writing against the latter's Aphorisms of
Justification. In 1650 he accompanied Cromwell to Scotland, and returned to
Coggeshall in 1651. In March Cromwell, as chancellor, gave him the deanery of
Christ Church, and made him vice-chancellor in September 1652. In December in
the same year he had the honour of D.D. conferred upon him by his university.
In the Parliament of 1664 he sat, but only for a short time, as member for
Oxford university, and, with Baxter, was placed on the committee for settling
the "fundamentals" necessary for the toleration promised in the Instrument of
Government. He was, too, one of the Triers, and appears to have behaved with
kindness and moderation in that capacity. As vice-chancellor he acted with
readiness and spirit when a general rising in the west seemed imminent in 1655;
his adherence to Cromwell, however was by no means slavish, for he drew up, at
the request of Desborough and Pride, a petition against his receiving the
kingship . During the years 1654-58 his chief controversial works were The
Perseverance of Saints (against Goodwin) and Vindiciae Evangelicae
(against the Socinians).
He appears to have assisted in the restoration of
the Rump Parliament, and, when Monk began his march into England, Owen, in the
name of the Independent churches, to whom Monk was supposed to belong, and who
were keenly anxious as to his intentions, wrote to dissuade him from the
enterprise. In March 1660, the Presbyterian party being uppermost, Owen was
deprived of his deanery, which was given back to Reynolds. He retired to
Stadham, where he wrote various controversial and theological works, in
especial the laborious Theologoumena Pantodapa, a history of the rise
and progress of theology. Glarendon now offered Owen perferment if he would
conform. Owen's condition for making terms was liberty to all who agree in
doctrine with the Church of England; nothing therefore came of the negotiation.
In 1663 he was invited by the Congregational churches in Boston, New England,
to become their minister, but declined. The Conventicle and Five Mile Acts soon
drove him to London; and in 1666, after the Fire, he, as did other leading
Nonconformist ministers, fitted up a room for public service and gathered a
congregation, composed chiefly of the old Commonwealth officers.
Meanwhile
he was incessantly writing; it was now, too, that he published the first part
of his vast work upon the Epistle to the Hebrews. In this or the
following year Harvard university invited him to become their president; he
received similar invitations from some of the Dutch universities. When Charles
issued his Declaration of Indulgence in 1672, Owen drew up an address of
thanks. This indulgence gave the dissenters an opportunity for increasing their
churches and services, and Owen was one of the first preachers at the weekly
lectures which the Independents and Presbyterians jointly held in Plummer's
Hall. Charles gave him 1000 guineas to relieve those upon whom the severe laws
had chiefly pressed. In 1674 Owen was attacked by one Dr Sherlock, whom he
easily vanquished, and from this time until 1680 he was engaged upon his
ministry and the writing of religious works. From this time to his death he was
occupied with continual writing, disturbed only by an absurd charge of being
concerned in the Rye House Plot. His most important work was his Treatise on
Evangelical Churches in which were contained his latest views regarding church
government. During his life he issued more than eighty separate publications,
many of them of great size. Of these a list may be found in Orme's Memoirs of
Owen. For some years before his death Owen had suffered greatly from stone and
asthma. He died quietly, though after great pain, at Ealing, on August 24,
1683, and was buried on September 4th in Bunhill Fields, being followed to the
grave by a large procession of persons of distinction.
Read Andrew
Thomson's "Life of Owen"
Useful
Links
http://www.theocentric.com/johnowen/
Everything Owen
http://www.ccel.org/o/owen/ More on Owen
- biography, works list etc.
http://www.efn.org/~davidc/packer.html
Packer's Introduction to "Death of death"
http://www.puritansermons.com/banner/fergus01.htm
Ferguson on Owen's Spiritual Growth
http://www.graceonlinelibrary.org/christian-living/full.asp?ID=569
On the normal Christian Life.
