Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 42.djvu/434

 Edinburgh, 1755, 1845, 8vo.  ‘A Dissertation on Divine Justice’ (translation of the ‘Diatriba de Divina Justitia’ by J. Stafford), 1770, 12mo.  ‘Of Temptation,’ Paisley, 1772, 12mo; London, 1805, 1831, 12mo.  Πνευματολογία, Glasgow, 1791, 2 vols. 8vo.  ‘Two Discourses concerning the Holy Spirit and His Work,’ Glasgow, 1792, 8vo.  ‘Two Treatises: (i.) “The Mortification of Sin in Believers;” (ii.) “Of Temptation,”’ 1809, 8vo.  ‘A Treatise on the Nature and Beauty of Gospel Worship,’ 1812, 8vo.  ‘A brief and impartial Account of the Protestant Religion,’ 1822.  ‘The Grace and Duty of being Spiritually-Minded,’ ed. T. Chalmers, Glasgow, 1826; London, 1834, 12mo.  ‘A Treatise on the Sabbath’ (being the ‘Exercitations concerning the Day of Sacred Rest’), ed. J. W. Brooks, 1829, 1831, 12mo.  ‘Of Communion with God,’ Edinburgh, 1849, 32mo; and London, 1859, 12mo.

Several volumes of selections from his more popular works have also appeared, viz.: ‘Oweniana,’ ed. Arthur Young, London, 1817, 8vo; ‘Selections from the Works of John Owen,’ ed. W. Wilson, London, 1826, 12mo; ‘Select British Divines,’ ed. Bradley, London, 1824–27, vols. xiii–xxv.; ‘Christian Library,’ ed. J. Wesley, vols. x. and xi.; a Dutch translation of the ‘Exercitations on the Epistle to the Hebrews,’ by Simon Commenicq, appeared at Amsterdam, 1733–40, 7 vols. 4to; an English abridgment of the original, entitled ‘Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews,’ with ‘Life’ of Owen by E. Williams, was published in London, 1790, 4 vols. 8vo; and a reprint of the entire work, with the treatise on the Sabbath, ed. Wright, Edinburgh, 1812–14, 7 vols. 8vo.



OWEN, JOHN (1766–1822), divine, was son of Richard Owen of Old Street, London. He entered St. Paul's school on 18 Oct. 1777, whence he proceeded in 1784, as Sykes exhibitioner, to Magdalene College, Cambridge (admitted a sizar 10 May). He migrated to Corpus Christi College, and was admitted a scholar on the old foundation on 17 Nov. 1784, graduated B.A. in 1788, became a fellow 11 April 1789, and proceeded M.A. in 1791.

In the spring of 1791 he went on the continent, at first as tutor to a young gentleman. In September 1792 he left Geneva for the south of France, and arrived in Lyons to find it in the hands of a revolutionary mob. He with difficulty escaped to Switzerland. On his return to England, early in 1793, Owen published some letters which he had addressed to W. Belsham as ‘Travels into Different Parts of Europe, in the years 1791 and 1792, with familiar Remarks on Places, Men, and Manners,’ London, 1796, 2 vols. Soon after his return he was ordained, and on 1 Sept. 1794 he married and settled at Cambridge. On 11 March and 5 Aug. 1794 Owen preached two assize sermons in the university church of St. Mary's. These were published at Cambridge in 1794. In the same year he published ‘The Retrospect; or Reflections on the State of Religion and Politics in France and Great Britain,’ London, 1794. At the end of 1795 Owen was presented by [q. v.], bishop of London, to the curacy of Fulham, Middlesex, where he resided for seventeen and a half years. Porteus had presented him in 1808 to the rectory of Paglesham, Essex; and when, in 1813, Dr. Randolph, Porteus's successor, required Owen's residence there, he resigned the Fulham curacy. He afterwards became minister of Park Chapel, Chelsea.

Owen's connection with the British and Foreign Bible Society is his chief claim to remembrance. From 23 April 1804—a few weeks after its foundation—until his death he was its principal secretary, although unpaid. He wrote, in defence of the society, a ‘Letter to a Country Clergyman, occasioned by his Address to Lord Teignmouth, &c., by a Suburban Clergyman;’ and to an attack by