ttention of the
Parliamentary "Committee for purging the Church of Scandalous
Ministers," it procured for its author a presentation to the living of
Fordham, in Essex. This was followed by his translation to the more
important charge of Coggeshall, in the same county; and so rapidly did
his reputation rise, that besides being frequently called to preach
before the Parliament, he was, in 1649, selected by Cromwell as the
associate of his expedition to Ireland, and was employed in re-modelling
and resuscitating Trinity College, Dublin. Most likely it was owing to
the ability with which he discharged this service that he was appointed
Dean of Christ Church in 1651, and in the following year Vice-Chancellor
of Oxford. It was a striking incident to find himself thus brought back
to scenes which, fourteen years before, he had quitted amidst contempt
and poverty, and a little mind would have been apt to signalize the
event by a vainglorious ovation, or a vindictive retribution. But Owen
returned to Oxford in all the grandeur of a God-fearing magnanimity, and
his only solicitude was to fulfil the duties of his office. Although
himself an Independent, he promoted well qualified men to responsible
posts, notwithstanding their Presbyterianism or their Prelacy; and
although the law gave him ample powers to disperse them, he never
molested the liturgical meetings of his Episcopalian neighbors. From
anxiety to promote the spiritual welfare of the students, in addition to
his engagements as a Divinity lecturer and the resident head of the
University, along with Dr. Goodwin he undertook to preach, on alternate
Sabbaths, to the great congregation in St. Mary's. And such was the zeal
which he brought to bear on the studies and the secular interests of the
place, that the deserted courts were once more populous with ardent and
accomplished students, and in alumni like Sprat, and South, and Ken, and
Richard Cumberland, the Church of England received from Owen's Oxford
some of its most distinguished ornaments; whilst men like Philip Henry
and Joseph Alleine, went forth to perpetuate Owen's principles; and in
founding the English schools of metaphysics, architecture, and medicine,
Locke and Wren, and Sydenham taught the world that it was no misfortune
to have been the pupils of the Puritan. It would be pleasant to record
that Owen's generosity was reciprocated, and that if Oxford could not
recognize the Non-conformist, neither did she forget t