John Howe, Puritan divine, was born 17th May 1630 at Loughborough. He studied at Cambridge and Oxford, and, after preaching for some time at Winwick and Great Torrington, he was appointed domestic chaplain to Cromwell in 1656. In 1659 he returned to Torrington, but the Act of Uniformity ejected him in 1662, and he wandered about preaching in secret till 1671. In 1668 he published “The Blessedness of the Righteous,” in 1671 became domestic chaplain to Lord Massereene, of Antrim Castle in Ireland. Here he wrote his “Vanity of Man as Mortal,” and began his greatest work, “The Good Man the Living Temple of God” (1676–1702). In 1676 he became pastor of the dissenting congregation in Silver Street, London. In 1685 he travelled with Lord Wharton on the Continent, and settled at Utrecht, till in 1687 the Declaration of Indulgence recalled him to England. He died in London, 2d April 1705. He was a profound thinker, and gifted with great practical sagacity. His own convictions were very decided, yet he had large toleration for the opinions of others. His writings are marred by a poor style and innumerable digressions. See Life by Calamy prefixed to his works (1724), and that by Henry Rogers (1836; new ed. 1879).
Personal
He told me it was upon these occasions his common way to begin about nine in the morning, with a prayer for about a quarter of an hour, in which he begged a blessing on the work of the day; and afterwards read and expounded a chapter or psalm, in which he spent about three quarters of an hour, then prayed for an hour, preached for another hour, and prayed for 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, 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.
It is pleasant to contemplate such a man as Howe amid the fierce passions and rude and often petty conflicts of his age. He could not but bear their dint, living, as he did, in the very midst of them; but they touch him as little as possible. His countenance shows the traces of a refined and elevated nature, and of the same largeness and tenderness of soul that mark his writings. It would be difficult to conceive a more noble, spiritual, or gentle set of features. A native dignity of manner and character shine in them. The court of Cromwell may not seem the most fitting nursery of such a nature; but the presence of one who, like Howe, combined earnestness with refinement, and all the glow of the Puritan religious feeling with a chastened taste and a radiancy of imagination, is enough to show that we are not to judge this court according to any mere vulgar estimate. It must have been a pure and high atmosphere in which Howe moved freely and exercised influence. One who lived so much above the world, and on whose spirit dwelt so familiarly the awe and grandeur of the Unseen, would be a constant monitor, both of high principle and duty, in circumstances sufficient to try the one and seduce from the other.
Here is a life of true nobility, a simple unostentatious adherence to truth and principle, a brave endurance of the countless troubles into which the lover of truth is led. There is a purity of motive, a directness of aim, a width of understanding, an inclusive charity in the man. The scandal of an unsympathetic age can find nothing to say against him; the reverence and love of the friends who knew him cannot say enough in his praise. If it should be possible to draw the portrait with any fidelity, and to present the subject of it, not merely as a writer or a theologian, but as a man, a warm and living heart, a large and enterprising brain, the author would incur the benediction of many people in the present day for introducing them to so attractive a person.
General
One of the most learned and polite writers among the dissenters. His reading in divinity was very extensive: he was a good Orientalist, and understood several of the modern languages…. His “Blessedness of the Righteous” was the most generally-esteemed of his performances. He was an admired preacher, but was sometimes too profound for ordinary capacities. There is an uncommon depth of thought in several of his works.
For depth and originality of thought, John Howe has never been surpassed by any theological writer whatever. His principles were strictly evangelical, and his spirit eminently catholic and devout. His “Living Temple,” especially, is a masterpiece of profound argumentation…. His best pieces are “The Blessedness of the Righteous,” “Delighting in God,” “Enmity and Reconciliation,” “Redeemer’s Tears, and Dominion.” Some “Funeral Sermons,” and part of his “Living Temple,” are most excellent.
“The Blessedness of the Righteous” is a first-rate performance, and contains a vast extent of thought, of learning, but especially of piety…. His “Delighting in God” is one of the purest treatises of practical theology to be found in the English language…. 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 young 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.
Possessed of the learning of Cudworth, the evangelical piety of Owen, and the fervour of Baxter, with a mind of larger dimensions than what belonged to any of these distinguished individuals, every thing which fell from his pen is worthy of immortality. He delights while he instructs, and impresses while he enlightens. His “Living Temple,” “The Blessedness of the Righteous,” “Of Delighting in God,” “The Redeemer’s Tears,” are among the finest productions of uninspired genius, and must be read with high gratification by every Christian. His style is occasionally rugged and inharmonious; but the sentiment will richly repay the trifling annoyance of its harsh and involved structure.
None can peruse his writings without feeling that his mind was habitually filled with the contemplation of that peculiar but truly divine character, that comprehensiveness and all-pervading excellence, the ultimate development of which, in those who embrace Christianity, is the design of the mysteries it reveals, and of all the powerful motives by which it prompts to action.
A very extraordinary, original, sublime, and splendid writer, but sometimes obscure and heavy. Few writers will more strengthen and enlarge the reader’s mind; but he is deficient in evangelical statement and simplicity.
Few, if any, uninspired men have equalled him in what may be called a philosophic knowledge of Christianity, understanding thereby an extensive and harmonized acquaintance with the facts it embraces, derived from a diligent and impartial examination of the divine testimony which reveals it.
Though excelled by Baxter as a pulpit orator, and by Owen in exegetical ingenuity and in almost every department of theological learning, Howe compares favorably with either as a sagacious and profound thinker, while he was more successful in combining religious earnestness and fervor of conviction with large-hearted tolerance and cultured breadth of view. His style, moreover, though not altogether free from the literary faults which may almost be called characteristic of Puritanism, has often a stately yet graceful flow which the modern reader will look for in vain in most of Howe’s theological contemporaries.
His writings show an original mind, contemplative rather than profound, with considerable power of discrimination, and some warmth of fancy. His spirit is superior to his style; his diction rarely rises to the elevation of his thought; his sentences are negligent, and his punctuation seems devised for the ruin of perspicuity. He shines at his best in his consolatory letters … which are full of pathos and calm wisdom.
He formed his own system of divinity, and wrote many works, practical and polemical, marked by depth, solidity, and eloquent expression. His abilities and character won for him the high esteem of good men in all parties.
