THE LIFE

OF

MR. JOHN HOWE.

whom he was well known, and whom he admitted to freedom in conversation; and partly from some letters and papers, copies whereof were carefully preserved in the hands of his relations, friends, and acquaintance; and partly also from such hints and passages as he has left behind

THE lives of persons of worth and eminence, when use. But after all, partly from the memories of some to drawn up with faithfulness and care, have been ever thought very entertaining and improving; and where there has been no hope of recovering any exact account of one of a distinguished character, most people have rather chosen to have some short memorials of him, than that such particulars as might be retrieved, should be al-him in the many writings he has published, such fragtogether buried in oblivion.

opinion, that it would be unhappy for them not to be put together, and preserved.

ments may be gathered up, as cannot, I think, but be It may be questioned whether any one now living is agreeable to those to whom his memory is precious. And capable of doing complete justice to the memory of the though in the memorials of him that are thus recovered, truly reverend Mr. John Howe; though there is good there will appear several gaps which could not be filled reason to believe, that the number of those who would set up; yet are some of the papers and things preserved so a value upon an exact account of his significant life significant and worthy of notice, that I cannot help ex(could such a thing be compassed) is far from being small.pecting to have a good number concurring with me in The history of it could not have been drawn up to advantage by any but himself, or one that had his personal direction and assistance; or at least to whom he had given the free use of his papers, with a liberty of transcribing and inserting what might be likely to give entertainment to the curious and inquisitive: whereas it has unhappily fallen out, that he has been so far from leaving behind him any directions for such a purpose, or narrative of the most material passages of his life, or hints of what occurred in his general and extensive conversation, or even committing his papers to the care of one that was fit to make use of them for the benefit of the public, that before his death he (as we shall hereafter see in the course of these memorials of him) destroyed a number of writings, that might have afforded good materials towards the giving a true historical account of him to after ages. 'Tis not easy for us to judge what particular reasons he might have for this part of his conduct, and therefore it becomes us to be sparing in our censures: and yet I must own I cannot see why we that are yet living should here-assisted by many. And yet having been at consideraupon slight or throw away, or they that come after us should be deprived of, what is still preserved, and may be recovered.

Most people, I doubt not, will readily conclude, that the world has this way lost what might have been of no small

■ Preface to Mr. Chorlton's Funeral Sermon for Mr Henry Newcome.

It is no difficult thing to foresee that it will occasion no small regret, in some whose respect for the deceased rises high, to find the account given of one that was so eminent in his profession, and who would indeed have shined bright in any station, is so very defective and imperfect: and if it may contribute any thing to their satisfaction, the compiler of this life is free to own, he should have been heartily glad to have been in a capacity of drawing it up in such a manner as the subject deserved. He himself had that knowledge of Mr. Howe, that he can readily say of him, as he did of the celebrated Mr. Newcome of Manchester, that "they that knew him best, could know but a small part of his true and great worth, and might always apprehend when they knew most of him, there was still much more that they knew not." He laments he could not be better furnished with materials in this undertaking, to which he was encouraged, and in which he was

ble pains, in collecting and putting together what is here offered to public view, thinks he may be allowed to hope, that such defects as are observed will be easily overlooked, because he can with safety say, it would have been no small pleasure to him to have been able to have supplied them; and that any mistakes he may have run into will be readily pardoned, because he

would gladly have avoided them, had he but known how. this occasion guard that life, which was afterwards mad so serviceable to great and considerable purposes. Bein driven from thence by the war, which continued for some years, the father returned back into his native country and settled in the county palatine of Lancaster; and there it was that our Mr. Howe went through the firs rudiments of learning, and was trained up in the knowledge of the tongues, though I have not been able to get any certain information who were his particular instructors, nor any further notices relating to his infancy and childhood.

And if it should so happen, that any into whose hands these papers fall, should find some things represented in a manner that may not be suited to their particular gust, | they are desired to consider, that the compiler acted but the part of an historian, upon the best informations he could get, which he would not have regarded, if he had not thought them fairly credible; but if any are furnished with better accounts, and better vouchers, he not only can readily submit, but shall be glad to be favoured with their intelligence.

He was sent pretty early (I cannot say exactly in what year) to Christ College, in Cambridge, where falling among such persons as Dr. Henry More, and Dr. Cudworth, of both whom he was a great admirer, I think it is not to be wondered at, that in his early days he received that Platonic tincture, which so remarkably runs through the writings which he drew up and published in his ad

To begin, then, with the first appearance of this great man upon this earthly stage, our Mr. John Howe was born May 17, 1630, the 29th day of which month was remarkable for the nativity of king Charles II. and which very year, a few months after, gave birth to that excellent person, Archbishop Tillotson, with whom Mr. Howe, in his after-life, had a particular intimacy, and uncommon freedom. The place of his birth was Loughbo-vanced years. As for Dr. More, there was an intimacy rough, a noted market town, in the county of Leicester; of which town his father was for some time the worthy minister. I have heard his father commended as a person of singular piety and probity; and his mother as a woman of distinguished sense. The father and this son of his, were not the only ministers of the family. For there was one Mr. Obadiah Howe, vicar of Boston, in Lincolnshire, who upon several occasions appeared in print, and died in 1682, who was our Mr. John Howe's uncle. There was also one Mr. William Howe, of Gedney, in the same county, that was (I suppose) of the family, though I cannot be positive how related to him.

between him and Mr. Howe, that continued till the Doctor's death; which being known to Dr. Davis of Heyden, (who had the most profound veneration imaginable for the Doctor,) he the more respected Mr. Howe upon that

As to the father of our Mr. Howe, he was settled in the parish of Loughborough by Archbishop Laud, and afterwards thrust out by the same hand, on the account of his siding with the puritans, contrary to the expectation of his promoter. He was one of those who could not be satisfied to give in to that nice and punctilious conformity, upon which that prelate laid so great a stress; and therefore it was not thought fit to suffer him to continue in the exercise of his ministry in that populous town. Great was the rigour that was at that time used in the ecclesiastical courts, by which, as several were driven into America, and others into Holland, and other foreign parts, so was this worthy person from whom Mr. John Howe immediately descended, driven into Ireland, whither he took this his son (then very young) along with him. While they continued in that country, that execrable rebellion broke out, in which so many thousands of the poor protestants, who were altogether unprovided, were so miserably butchered, and a great number of flourishing families ruined and undone, by the enraged papists, whose very tenderest mercies were found to be cruelty. Both father and son were at that time exposed to very threatening danger, the place to which they had retired being for several weeks together besieged and assaulted by the rebels, though without success. A very special providence did upon

account.

He continued at Cambridge till he took the degree of B. A. and then removed to Oxford. Mr. Wood, the antiquary, says that he was of Brazen-nose College, in Oxon, and Bible Clerk there in Michaelmas term, 1648, and that he there took his Bachelor's degree, Jan. 18, 1649. It was a common thing then to take the same degree in both universities, and I suppose it is so to this day.

He followed his studies close, and his great attainments in learning, joined with his exemplary piety, so recommended him, that he was at length duly elected Fellow of Magdalen College, (of which famous society he was a bright ornament,) after he had been made Demy by the parliament visitors. Mr. Wood mentioning this of the visitors, intends it I suppose as a reflection; but I must own that may have been the case, and yet there may be no just matter of reflection in it either on them or on him. Not on them, supposing the person in whose room he succeeded deserved to be ejected; nor on him, supposing he did nothing unbecoming to get into his place when he was ejected.

He had several contemporaries in this college, that afterwards proved nonconformists, as Mr. Theophilus Gale, Mr. Thomas Danson, Mr. Samuel Blower, and Mr. John Spilsbury. Of the two first, Mr. Wood has given some account, among the Oxford Writers; as I also have done, in my memoirs of those who were ejected for nonconformity: but the two latter are wholly omitted by Mr. Wood, though they were both of them Oxonians, and both of them graduates, because they were not writers. Mr. Blower, who died pastor of a congregation of dissenters, in the town of Abingdon, in the county of Berks, was often used to say with pleasure, when Mr. Howe was at any time spoken of in his

company, that they two were born in the same town, philosophy, conversed closely with the heathen moral. went to the same school, and were of the same college ists, read over the accounts we have remaining of pagan in the university. And Mr. Spilsbury, who was eject- theology, the writings of the school-men, and several ed for nonconformity from Bromsgrove in Worcester- systems and common-places of the reformers, and the shire, was one with whom Mr. Howe kept up a most divines that succeeded them, but (as he himself sigintimate and endearing correspondence by letter to his nified to one from whom I had it) had thoroughly dying day. studied the sacred Scriptures, and from thence drawn up a body of divinity for himself and his own use, which he saw very little occasion afterwards to vary from, in compliance with the schemes of others.

I might also mention two others, who were Fellows of the same college, who were ejected in 1662, whom Mr. Wood wholly overlooks, viz. Mr. George Porter and Mr. James Ashhurst, who died at Newington After his taking his last degree, Mr. Howe became Green, near London. It is true that they were neither a preacher, and was ordained by Mr. Charles Herle at of them writers, and yet they were both graduates, the his church of Winwick in Lancashire, which Mr. former being B. D. and the latter M. A. and therefore Wood says is one of the richest churches in the kingsome notice ought to have been taken of them in his dom. This Mr. Herle was a very noted man in those Fasti. Such things as these make me apprehend that times; and upon the death of Dr. Twiss, was chosen that author designedly omitted several of the noncon-prolocutor of the Assembly of Divines at Westminster. formists, for fear their number should have appeared too In his parish there were several chapelries, and the large and considerable.

The famous Dr. Thomas Goodwin was President of the college, at the same time that Mr. Howe and the others whom I have now mentioned were Fellows. He had a gathered church among the scholars of that house, and finding Mr. Howe, who had an established reputation among them, did not offer himself to join with them, he took an occasion to speak to him about it, when they two were by themselves, without any other company with them; and signified his surprise that one of his character for serious piety should not embrace such an opportunity of Christian fellowship, which might be likely to have many good consequences attending it. Mr. Howe, with great frankness, told him that the true and only reason why he had been so silent about that matter, was because he understood they laid a considerable stress among them, upon some distinguishing peculiarities, of which he had no fondness, though he could give others their liberty to take their own way, without censuring them, or having any unkind thoughts of them; but that if they would admit him into their society upon catholic terms, he would readily become one of them. The Doctor embraced him, and told him he would do it with all his heart; and that, to his knowledge, it would be much to the satisfaction and edification of all that were concerned and he thereupon became a member of that society. It is with no small pleasure that I relate this passage, which is a proof that Dr. Goodwin was not so narrow and confined in his temper and principles as some people have represented him.

ministers that officiated in them assisted at Mr. Howe's ordination. And he would often say that this Mr. Herle was a primitive bishop, and the assistants in his several chapels were his clergy; and they joining in laying on hands upon him, he thought few in modern times had so truly primitive an ordination as he. And Mr. Howe always spoke of this Mr. Herle with a very great and particular respect.

Some time after, by an unexpected conduct of Divine Providence, he was called to the stated exercise of his ministry in the town of Great Torrington, in the county of Devon. Dr. Walkerm tells us that this place is a sort of donative or curacy, belonging to Christ Church in Oxford, but deemed equivalent to one held by institution. He says that Mr. Theophilus Powel was turned out here about 1646, and was succeeded by the famous independent Mr. Lewis Stukely; and after him came Mr. Howe.

He was but young at the time of his first settlement in that town, and yet even there did he wonderfully fulfil his ministry, and his labours were blessed with great success. When he first came thither, several of the inhabitants were members of the congregational church at Biddeford, of which Mr. William Bartlet" was pastor, who had been Mr. Howe's particular acquaintance at Oxford. Being weary of the fatigue of going five or six miles every sacrament day, and disposed to sit down under Mr. Howe's ministry, these people desired a dismission from the church at Biddeford, and Mr. Bartlet readily resigned them to Mr. Howe, in whom there was a general concurrence; and he had a numerous auditory, and a very flourishing Christian society under his pastoral care, and thought of no other than of living and dying with them.

Mr. Howe's promotion and reputation in the college, and through the university, added new spurs to his diligence and application, which was so great, that he furnished himself with a large fund of rational and I shall not easily forget the account he once gave theological learning, the fruits whereof were very con- me in private conversation, of the great pains he took spicuous in his following life. He took the degree of among them, without any help or assistance, on the M. A. July 9, 1652; Mr. Theophilus Gale, his fellow-public fasts, which in those days returned pretty frecollegiate, whom I was mentioning but now, having quently, and were generally kept with very great sotaken the very same degree but the month before. And lemnity. He told me it was upon those occasions his by this time he had not only gone through a course of common way to begin about nine in the morning, with

à Abridg. vol. ii. p. 772.

i Ib. p. 70. k Ib. p. 71. 1 Fasti Oxon. p. 99.

m Attempt, part ii. p. 329.

n See Abridg. vol. ii. p. 240.

a prayer for about a quarter of an hour, in which he cused. Cromwell told him it was a vain thing to atbegged a blessing on the work of the day; and after-tempt to excuse himself, for that he would take no wards read and expounded a chapter or psalm, in which he spent about three quarters; then prayed for about an hour, preached for another hour, and prayed for about half an hour. After this, he retired and took some little refreshment for about a quarter of an hour or more, (the people singing all the while,) and then came again into the pulpit, and prayed for another hour, and gave them another sermon of about an hour's length; and so concluded the service of the day, at about four o'clock in the evening, with about half an hour or more in prayer: a sort of service that few could have gone through without inexpressible weariness both to themselves and their auditories! But he had a strong head, a warm heart, and a good bodily constitution: and the more he spent himself in his Master's service, the more was he beloved by the inhabitants of his parish.