Page:Imperialdictiona02eadi Brandeis.pdf/1009

colnshire, known in his time as an author; and it is related of his mother—as in the instance of most of those who have distinguished themselves by their intellectual endowments—that she was a woman of mind in an unusual degree. Obadiah Howe, the father, having been driven from his preferment by Laud, or at this prelate's instigation, on account of his repugnance to the superstitious practices which he was labouring to introduce, he with his family retired to Ireland, whence, however, he was soon driven by the breaking out of the rebellion there. In his seventeenth year John Howe was admitted as a sizar in Christ's college, Cambridge, where in 1648 he took his degree of B.A. During his college course he formed intimate friendships with some men of his own standing, who afterwards distinguished themselves, and whose turn of mind and line of reading in Greek philosophy appear to have greatly influenced his own. Such, among others, were Cudworth, the profound author of the True Intellectual System of the Universe, and Henry More, to whose Platonism he no doubt greatly inclined, and with whom he maintained friendship until the death of that eminent man. To his intimacy also with John Smith of Queen's college, he was perhaps still more indebted for the direction so early given to his tastes and studies. He was only in his nineteenth year when he went to Oxford, and there also took his degree, and formed several intimate friendships; among these was the erudite Theophilus Gale, author of the work "the Court of the Gentiles." At Oxford he took his master's degree, and obtained a fellowship in Magdalen college. He had then completed his twenty-second year; and by this time had so far matured his opinions on theological subjects, that he digested for himself a doctrinal scheme in which, as he affirms, he had in after life seen occasion to make very few alterations—probably none of any importance; for as Howe's mental structure, intellectual and emotional, was eminently symmetrical, and his tone of mind tranquil, and his training logical, according to the fashion of the times, he would—may we so speak?—at the earliest time of the maturing of his faculties shape himself in the mould of his nature, any considerable variation from which afterwards would have disturbed the very organization of his mind. Howe's adherence through life to his first-formed scheme of theology, was not that of obstination, or of an overweening self-esteem, or of polemic dogmatism; but it resulted rather from the permanent equilibrium and the vital coherence of the rational, the moral, and the spiritual nature; and in truth it is this perfect equilibrium, and this coherence and harmony, that are everywhere the characteristics of his writings. At an early age, three-and-twenty, John Howe gave evidence of that breadth of view in relation to differences of belief on ritual or less important matters, by refusing at Oxford to connect himself with associations resting on narrow puritanical grounds, but readily consorting with good men there who would admit him among them unfettered. His ordination at Winwick, Lancashire, took place of course during the time in which the puritan discipline was in force, and with the doctrine and church government of the Westminster Assembly Howe in the main agreed, although, as we shall see, he stood aloof throughout his course from whatever in that doctrine and discipline was rugged, rigorous, and intolerant. At a later time he became minister of the church of Great Torrington, Devonshire, where many years, and those the happiest of his life, were passed. It was here that this large-souled man not only healed divisions in the society over which he presided, but originated schemes of christian fellowship among ministers of different professions, for which in fact the church of that time was far from being prepared. Howe, whom episcopalians of the Ussher's stamp, and presbyterians like Baxter, and Independents too, would all claim as their own, lived among them respected, loved of all, and himself lovingly catholic, although dwelling as he did all his days in Mesech! Some time in the winter of 1656-57, Howe's personal affairs brought him to London, and attending the service at the chapel, Whitehall, his appearance and manner—so unlike that of most of the ministers who frequented the court of the Protector—fixed the eye of that eminent discern er of spirits. John Howe was summoned to attend in Cromwell's apartment; and there, notwithstanding his earnest remonstrances, he was compelled to engage himself for the next Sunday's sermon. Yielding to the will of one who would never yield, and whose expressed wishes were commands, he at length consented, with unconcealed reluctance, to abandon his chosen seclusion in Devonshire, and to take office as the Protector's domestic chaplain—a position this, full of perplexities and of distresses too, to a man like Howe, who, gifted as he was with the graces and blandishments of a courtier, was gifted also with those high moral qualities which must render the compliances and the obliquities of a courtier's life impossible. Nevertheless, such is the force of consistent principle, and such the authority wielded by those who fear God more than princes, that Howe while at Whitehall exercised, and Cromwell tacitly submitted to, an extent of influence in the household which few or none but he could have ventured to exert. Much was yielded to that dignity of personal demeanour and that refinement of manners which were his by endowment of nature, as well as by his habitudes and culture. Labouring amid the perplexities of his position as Cromwell's spiritual adviser—he was not the keeper of his conscience—Howe had asked advice from Richard Baxter, a man like himself in this one respect, that, in a world of pretensions, he was true and genuine. It is an edifying spectacle to see two such men struggling for peace and catholicism at once with themselves, and with the selfishness, and falseness, and perversity of almost all with whom they had to do. Thus writes Baxter to John Howe—"I would awaken your jealousy to a very careful (but very secret and silent) observance of yᵉ infidels and Papists, who are very high and busy under severall garbs, especially of Seekers, Vanists, Behmenists. Should they infest our vitals, or get into the saddle, where are we then? The Lord Protector is noted as a man of a catholic spirit, desirous of the unity and peace of all the servants of Christ." But it was not long to wait before Howe had convinced himself that his position in the household of Cromwell was at once intolerable to himself, and hopeless of good as to others. He says—"My time will not serve me long; for I think I shall be constrained in conscience, all things considered, to return ere long to my former station. . . . My call hither was a work I thought very considerable—the setting up of the worship and discipline of Christ in this family; but we affect here to live in so loose a way that a man cannot fixe upon any certain charge to carry toward them as a minister of Christ should: so that it were as hopeful a course to preach in a market, or in any assembly met by chance as here." In another letter to the same he says—"The affected disorderliness of this familie as to the matter of God's worship (whence arises my despair of doing good here) I desire as much as possible to conceal." The deep religious personal modesty of a great and devout mind, such as Howe's, led him to speak of himself to his friend in terms which we properly understand, when this language of christian humility is collated with the evidence which his writings everywhere afford of the loftiest qualities of the intellect, as well as of the moral nature. Pleading for his intended retirement he says, as proof of his unfitness for court life—"I am naturally bashful, pusillanimous, easily brow-beaten, solicitous about the fitness and unfitness of speech or silence; afraid, especially having to do with those who are constant in [conversant with?] yᵉ arcana imperii, of being accounted unciville or busie, and the distemper being natural, most intrinsically, is less curable." Howe nevertheless remained in his position until some time after Cromwell's death; and at length, with permission of Richard Cromwell, gladly threw up his undesired share in the favours of a court, and returned to his charge at Torrington. During his continuance at Whitehall he had, in a noble manner, befriended many of the distressed episcopal clergy: and in reference to these his efforts in behalf of others Cromwell is reported to have said—"You have obtained many favours for others; I wonder when the time is to come that you will solicit anything for yourself or your family." Unlike others in his disinterestedness, Howe also stood aloof from most by disapproval of the fanatical practices of the times, in obtaining, as they thought, immediate interpositions of God in their behalf. These abuses of a doctrine which himself firmly held, he inveighed against in a sermon—"On a particular Faith in Prayer"—which, preached before the Lord Protector, who himself favoured these extravagances, drew upon him some expressions of displeasure—at least so far as angry looks and a cool manner afterwards might convey the consciousness of having received a bold and well-merited rebuke. His practice of thus "seeking the Lord" was, with Cromwell, a main tool of government; it was the means of bearing down any expected opposition to his measures. Yet, notwithstanding any such estrangements, the Protector, who well knew his man, frequently employed his chaplain in