however, after he had lost his speech, unexpectedly recovered it, and, to use his son's words, " called me to him, and gave me a key, and ordered me to bring all the papers (which were stitched up in a multitude of small volumes), and made me solemnly promise him, notwithstanding all my reluctance, immediately to destroy them, which I accordingly did." Thus all were at once irrecoverably lost. Seldom has a more precious treasure been sacrificed; or filial obedience to a revered parent's dying injunction, been put to a severer test; or posterity had forced upon them an occasion of more just complaint against a man whom, on every other account, they held in unqualified esteem. Mr Howe's close connexion with Cromwell, and his standing with the leading persons of the religious parties of his day, together with his own integrity and judgment, must have made his statements first-rate authorities for the historian and the biographer. Nor, considering the union of sound sense with devotional feeling which distinguished him throughout, would his "memorials" have been less precious for use in the closet, as helps to spiritual edification. Indeed the more we reflect on the "manner of man he was," the more is our regret increased that a regard to what was due to others did not prevail to spare, in opposition to the fatal sudden impulse to destroy them, "the multitude of small volumes" which he had prepared for the benefit of survivors.

The leading facts to be put down in an account of Mr Howe are contained in his "Life" by Dr Calamy. Nearly the whole of this, with some additional matter and much able and excellent remark, appeared about ten years ago in "The Life and Character of John Howe, M.A., with an Analysis of his Writings. By Henry Rogers." Professor Rogers' volume leaves little further to be hoped for of information respecting Mr Howe. From these sources, with occasional resort to others, the materials for the following sketch have been obtained.

Mr Howe was born May 17, 1630, at Loughborough, in Leicestershire; a place then, as it is still, only second in importance to the county-town. Whether valued or not by its inhabitants, it is no trifling distinction that their town was the birth-place of the author of "The Living Temple." He was named after his father, who was minister of the parish; and he was baptized, according to the entry in the parish-register, yet extant, on the third day after his birth. The father had been appointed to his charge by Archbishop Laud. Unfortunately, as some would think, John Howe the senior was "puritanically" inclined, while

Laud's predilections were "papistical." Matters, therefore, soon came to a crisis between the patron and the patronized.

Besides scrupling the prescribed "ceremonies," the worthy minister committed what was, in the arch-prelate's reckoning, a heinous crime. King Charles and his hierachy required the working clergy to encourage among the people the desecration of the Lord's day, by dancing, archery, may-games, whiston-ales, or morrice-dances," or any such harmless recreations." But the pastor of Loughborough dared to pray in his pulpit, as Laud himself reported it," that God would preserve the prince in the true religion, of which there was cause to fear." This was a flagrant outrage upon all the loyalty and piety then in vogue. The case was brought into the High-commission court, and on the 6th of November 1634, Mr Howe was sentenced to be "imprisoned during his Majesty's pleasure, suspended from every part of his ministry, fined five hundred pounds, required to make a public recantation before the court, and condemned in costs of suit." Happily he made his escape.

Ireland often became an asylum for the English puritans. Walter Travers, expelled from being joint-lecturer with Hooker at the Temple, and forbidden by Whitgift, archbishop of Canterbury, to preach any where in England, was invited to Ireland. He became provost of Trinity-College, Dublin, and tutor to the afterwards celebrated Archbishop Usher, who probably was much indebted to him for sound views of doctrine and liberal opinions on church order. To this country Mr Howe fled, taking with him his son John, then a child about four years and a half old. When thirty-five years more had rolled by, the son, persecuted for non-conformity, again found a home in Erin. Here the father and the child continued till the breaking out of the Rebellion in 1641. The father does not appear to have exercised his ministry during his stay, which may have been owing to the circumstance that Laud's influence was beginning to be felt there. His place of sojourn is not named; but from the statement that "it was besieged by the rebels for several weeks together, though without success," it appears to have been Drogheda, a considerable sea port town, about thirty (English) miles north of Dublin, and then a place of strength. When the siege was abandoned, Mr Howe, fearing that he could not longer remain safely in Ireland, returned with his boy to England, and settled in Lancashire.

It is to be presumed that during their exile in the sister-land the

father had not neglected the education of his son. On their coming back to England, it was proceeded with, and young Howe was "trained up in the knowledge of the tongues;" but who were his instructors is unknown. He made such proficiency at school that on May 19, 1647, he entered Christ College, Cambridge, having just completed his seventeenth year. He entered as a "sizar," which implies that his parents were in humble circumstances, but which also indicates their son's respectable attainments, if then, as now, "sizarships" could be had only as the reward of worthily standing a severe examination. At Cambridge young Howe became acquainted with Doctors Cudworth and Henry More, besides other distinguished men. In the year after his entrance he took the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and then removed to Oxford. Wood states that he became " Bible-clerk " of Brazen-nose College there, in Michaelmas term 1648, and then was made "Demy" a scholar raised to the rank of "halfFellow"-in Magdalen College, by the parliamentary visitors. In a short time he was elected Fellow, and in 1652 he "proceeded" Master of Arts. All this bespeaks successful progress. What was his industry in study then and afterwards, may be gathered also from the familiarity which his writings manifest with authors ancient and modern; pagan, infidel, and christian; classics, historians, moralists, critics, philosophers; and both orthodox and heterodox divines of every age and country.

We have no particulars as to when, or by what means, young Howe was brought first under the power of the gospel. His funeral-sermon, by Mr Spademan, mentions "his very early and growing exemplary piety." It is probable that his conversion was the fruit of parental counsels and prayers. The religion prevalent in Oxford, while Howe was there, was Evangelical Protestantism-widely the contrast of its present Puseyism. The "streams that make glad the city of God," then flowed through that "city of colleges," as it is still watered and beautified by the Cherwell and the Isis. Howe drank of the piety of his alma mater as deeply as he did of her scholarship. Dr Thomas Goodwin was President of the college (Magdalene) in which Mr Howe was Fellow, and acted as the pastor of a church formed among the students. He was surprised that Howe did not propose to join their communion, whence it is evident that his religious character was well known. The Doctor took an opportunity of speaking to him alone upon the subject. He had supposed that the terms of admission laid too much stress on

some peculiarities of opinion. Discovering his mistake herein, he immediately united himself with the body. This church in Oxford University welcomed to its privileges all who had received Christ, while it knowingly admitted no others. And this was Howe's principle of "church-fellowship" from the outset to the end-a principle nobly affirmed and vindicated in more than one of his pieces republished in this volume. While at Oxford, besides his literary pursuits, he thoroughly studied the sacred scriptures, and compiled therefrom for himself a system of theology, which he said afterwards he had seen little reason to change or modify in consequence of what he met with elsewhere. Doubtless this gave him much of that facility, comprehensiveness, and masterly grasp in discussing religious subjects, displayed to so much advantage in his subsequent career.

tor.

In the close of his university course he became a preacher, and went to Lancashire, where his father still resided, for ordination. The ceremony took place at Winwick, the Rev. Charles Hearle, and several neighbouring ministers, uniting in the solemnities of the day. By what is described as an "unexpected conduct of Divine Providence," but is not explained, he was led to Great Torrington in Devonshire, and there engaged as pasHe entered upon his labours with signal proofs of the Divine favour. The town was not large; by the census of 1831 its population barely exceeded three thousand. The people “received him as an angel of God." Previous breaches in the congregation were healed. Crowds flocked to hear the word. Many found it the power of God unto salvation, and will be Howe's joy and crown of rejoicing at Christ's second coming. Though only about twenty-two years of age, and fresh from college, he seems to have been forthwith at home in his work, and to have brought into play the whole energies of his being. Nor was this ardour temporary excitement, awakened by novel circumstances and followed by collapse. It was an outworking of steadily-sustained, spontaneous, pleasurable, and healthful vitality, fed by the faith of immutable absorbing facts, operating on a renewed heart. Here were preached the sermons of which the substance, rewrought up and enlarged, was afterwards given to the world in his treatises on "Delighting in God," and the "Blessedness of the Righteous," in reading which we fail not to think the author, so far as mortal can be, kindred with angels in conception, and with seraphs in fervour. From Torrington Howe's affections were never afterwards estranged. Of the people there he could always

say, "God is my record how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ."

An impression exists in some quarters that the ministers of Mr Howe's day had less labour than their successors in our own. Nothing can be more erroneous. We have not the knowledge we desire of his regular engagements; but let us listen for a few moments to what he says of his friend the Rev. Richard Fairclough, in the noble sermon preached on the occasion of his death-a sermon worthy of being often read by every minister in his closet" His labours were almost incredible. Besides his usual exercises on the Lord's day, of praying, reading the Scriptures, preaching, catechising, administering the sacraments (as the occasions or stated seasons occurred), he usually five times in the week, betimes in the morning, appeared in public, prayed, and preached an expository lecture upon some portion of the holy scriptures, in course, to such as could then assemble, which so many did, that he always had a considerable congregation; nor did he ever produce in public any thing which did not smell of the lamp. And I know that the most eminent for quality and judgment among his hearers, valued those his morning exercises, for elaborateness, accuracy, instructiveness, equally with his Lord's-day sermons. Yet also he found time, not only to visit the sick (which opportunities he caught at with great eagerness), but also, in a continual course, all the families within his charge and personally and severally to converse with every one that was capable, labouring to understand the present state of their souls, and applying himself to them in instructions, reproofs, admonitions, exhortations, and encouragements, suitably thereto and he went through all with the greatest facility and pleasure imaginable; his whole heart was in his work. Every day, for many years together, he used to be up by three in the morning, or sooner, and to be with God (which was his dear delight), when others slept." Howe adds of his friend, and it renders our belief in the foregoing statements more easy, "Few men had ever less hindrance from the body, or more dominion over it; a better habited mind and body have rarely dwelt together."

As proof that Mr Howe never "spared" himself, when he thought that duty, or the edification of his flock, required that he should "spend" himself, we may quote his own account of his engagements on the public fast-days, then frequently observed. "He told me," says Dr Calamy, "it was upon these occasions his common way to begin about nine in the morning, with a prayer