Disputes among the Nonconformists.-Attempt to unite the Pres- byterians and Congregationalists." Heads of Agreement."- Agitation of the Antinomian Controversy.-Circumstances which led to it.-Dr. Crisp's Sermons.-Howe's Sermons on the Car- nality of Religious Contention.-Letter to Mr. Spilsbury.- Letters from the MSS. in Woburn Abbey.-Letters from the Ayscough MSS. in the British Museum.-Letters to Sir Charles and Lady Hoghton, and others.-Controversy on "Occasional Conformity."-Principles on which Howe defended that practice. 389 Introductory Remarks.- His Posthumous Works.-The Living Temple. The Treatise on Delighting in God.-The Blessed- ness of the Righteous.-The Vanity of Man as Mortal.-The Tractate on the Divine Prescience.-The Calm and Sober In- quiry into the Possibility of a Trinity in the Godhead.-The I. A few particulars respecting Howe's Family and Descendants.- II. Extract from the Register at Cambridge.-III. Outline of a Sermon preached before Cromwell.-IV. Letter to the Rev. Tho- mas Whitaker, of Leeds.-V. Preface to John Chorlton's Funeral LIFE OF JOHN HOWE, A.M. INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. THE MATERIALS FOR HOWE'S BIOGRAPHY COMPARATIVELY SCANTY. -REASONS OF THIS.-DESTRUCTION OF HIS MSS.-PROBABLE REA-. SONS OF HIS CONDUCT.-CHIEF DESIGN OF THE PRESENT VOLUME.PRINCIPAL ASPECTS UNDER WHICH HOWE'S CHARACTER IS TO BE CONTEMPLATED.-VALUE OF A CERTAIN SPECIES OF BIOGRAPHY. -THIS MODE OF PRESENTING IMPORTANT TRUTH ILLUSTRATED BY THE STRUCTURE OF THE SCRIPTURES. I AM ambitious, I confess, of rendering this volume something more than a bare detail of facts and dates. Indeed, if a simple narrative had been my only object, a volume so large as the present would have been quite unnecessary; since all that has descended to us of the personal history of John Howe, might have been comprised within half the compass. The materials for his biography are far more scanty than is usual in the case of men, who have occupied stations so prominent, and taken a part in scenes so interesting. This, it is true, was his own fault. If he had not in his last moments laid sacrilegious hands on the voluminous manuscripts which contained B the history of his public and private life, there would have been nothing to lament and nothing to desire on this point. We should have possessed a work as delightfully minute as that of Baxter or Burnet, characterized by a freedom from prejudice which did not belong to the former of these celebrated writers, and a depth of reflection which could not be expected in the latter. If these manuscripts had been preserved, we should probably have known more of the history of religion in Howe's time,-especially during the Protectorate of Cromwell,* the very interior of whose court he could have laid bare to us,-than can be obtained from any existing source. Intrinsically valuable as such information would have been, it would have derived an additional charm from the manner in which it would have been conveyed to us; we should have had it from one who was never even suspected of partiality or prejudice; who was free alike from the servility of the timeserver, and the blind zeal of the partisan. But these regrets are vain. The manuscripts in question were destroyed on his death-bed, by Howe's express desire. The account of this singular circumstance is still preserved in a letter from his son, Dr. George Howe, to his *See at a subsequent page, some very curious letters of Howe, throwing considerable light on this subject, and now published for the first time. The Author was fortunate enough to discover them amongst the "Baxter MSS.," deposited in Dr. Williams's Library, Red Cross Street. brother-in-law, the Rev. Obadiah Hughes, who had written to ask what manuscripts Howe had left behind him. This gratifying document is here presented to the reader. "SIR,-I am extremely concerned that some time before my honoured father's decease, I was utterly disabled to reap the advantage myself, and communicate it to his friends, of the large memorials he had collected of the material passages of his own life, and of the times wherein he lived, which he most industriously concealed till his last illness, when, having lost his speech, which I thought he would not recover, he surprisingly 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 accordingly I did; and have left me no other of his writings but his short sermon notes, excepting some passages in the frontispiece of the Bible he used in his study, which I here transmit to you, and know it will be very acceptable. I am sorry I can give no further account, but that is a ‘magnum in parvo,' &c. I am, "Your sincerely affectionate kinsman, and humble servant, "GEORGE HOWE." One feels almost tempted to regret that Howe should have recovered his speech at all, since he could find no better use for it.-His commands, however, were but too punctually obeyed, and it may be safely affirmed, that seldom has filial obedience been more exemplary, or cost a struggle more severe. Not a few would have been vehemently tempted to play the casuist on this occasion; and, if it did not imply some participation in the guilt of such conduct, I should heartily wish that Dr. George Howe had been of the number. What could be Howe's motives for thus defrauding posterity of these important documents, it is vain to inquire. Perhaps it was charity; for he might think, that the reputation of some of the parties mentioned in his narrative would suffer more from his honesty than the world could be benefited by it. Perhaps it was modesty; for he might possibly suspect himself of some touch of vanity, in permitting such a voluminous account of himself to go forth to the world. Most men are content so long as they do not know but that they have a good motive for their conduct; it was sufficient to disquiet the sensitive conscience of Howe, if he only suspected there might be a bad one. But though the materials for the biography of Howe are necessarily scanty, though it must be deficient in that minute particularity, which, |