The Chamber of Imagery in the Church of Rome Laid Open; or, An Antidote against Popery. By John Owen, D.D. – About The Author
laid open; or,
An Antidote against Popery.
BY
JOHN OWEN, D.D.
AND
VICE CHANCELLOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD,
1652.
‘Many of the Puritans were men of great erudition, deep views of religion, and unquestionable piety; and their writings contain a mine of wealth, in which any one, who will submit to some degree of labour, will find himself well rewarded for his pains.’ —WILBERFORCE’s Practical View of Christianity.
‘The idolaters of antiquity and the Papists of modern times are much upon a footing. The Church of Rome is at this day a corrupt church, a church corrupted with idolatry; with idolatry very much the same in kind and in degree with the worst that ever prevailed among the Egyptians or the Canaanites.’—BISHOP HORSLEY,
‘Make peace if you will with Popery; receive it into your Senate; shrine it in your churches; plant it in your hearts. But be ye certain, as certain that there is a heaven above you and a God over you, that the Popery thus honoured and embraced is the very Popery that was loathed and degraded by the holiest of your fathers, the same in haughtiness, the same in intolerance, which lorded it over kings, assumed the prerogatives of Deity, crushed human liberty, and slew the saints of God.’—CANON MELVILL.
‘THE cause of truth recompenses those who embrace and defend it; and so it has proved with the nations who embraced the Reformation. In the eighteenth century, at the moment when Rome was anticipating her triumph through her Jesuits and her scaffolds, victory slipt through her hands! Rome, like Naples, Portugal, and Spain, fell into interminable difficulties, while at the same time two Protestant kingdoms arose in Europe, and began to exercise an influence which till then had belonged to Roman Catholic states. England came forth victorious from the Spanish and French assaults, which the Pope had so long stirred up against her; and the Elector of Brandenburgh, in spite of the wrath of Clement XI, encircled his head with a royal crown. From that period England has extended her dominion in every quarter of the world, and Prussia has taken a new rank among continental states…. Let Evangelical states be well assured that to Protestantism they owe their greatness. Should they abandon the position which God has given them, or incline anew towards Rome, that moment they lose their power and glory. Rome is now striving to gain them; alternately employing flattery, and threatening, she would, like Delilah, lull them asleep upon her knees;… but it is to rob them of their locks, that thus their enemies may be able to put out their eyes and bind them with fetters of iron.’—D’AUBIGNÉ’s Reformation in England.
‘It has been well said by a high authority that the battle of the Reformation must be fought over again on English soil. Every sign of the present day, of a religious aspect, confirms this surmise. The power and arrogance of Popery are becoming yearly more daring and more aggressive. A universal empire is the aim of her whole policy, and nothing save this final object will content her. But it is the common error of the times to suppose that as Rome claims to be infallible, therefore she must be immutable. On the contrary, no phase of a corrupt Christianity was ever more changeable. Every new Council changes her faith, every aspect of political affairs changes her policy, every whim of a new Pontiff changes her traditions, and every crazy dream of her fanatical prelates changes her creed; but the misfortune is that the changes are all in one direction—the direction of error, monstrosity, exaggeration, and credulity, to suit the capacity of those who dream that the more incredible the creed is which they are called upon to believe, the more of merit is to be given to the faithful soul that believes in it. We doubt, however, if Popery can ever go a step further in its downward career of exalting credulity at the expense of reason, common sense, and even of the Word of God, than by the present establishment of its dogma of the personal Infallibility of the Pope. This is the culminating climax of its most overgrown folly, of its most extreme fanaticism. In the palmiest days of Papal Rome, when she was armed with the sovereignty of Europe, and adorned with all the splendours of its civilization, she never dared to utter the unspeakable folly, or to tell the world in the language of blasphemy to God and insult to reason, that the thoughts of a sinful old man wearing a triple crown on the banks of the Tiber are inspirations from Heaven, and that the words of his mouth are oracles from Heaven. Who will now say that there is no work for a Reformation Society to do, when the Majesty of Heaven itself can be so insulted and so outraged by those who call themselves its vicegerents, and, like Judas, kiss the Redeemer even when they betray him?’—The Rock, May 13, 1870.
‘THE doom of the mystical Babylon is written by the finger of God, by a hand as sure as that which traced the writing on the wall of the king of the literal Babylon. In that very hour, when she is saying in her heart, “I sit a Queen, and am no widow (as I once was in this isle), and shall see no sorrow,” in that very day shall her plagues come; for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her; and when she falls, she will fall to rise no more.’-Advance of Popery, by J.C. PHILPOT, M.A., formerly Fellow of Worcester College, Oxford.
MEMOIR.
DR. JOHN OWEN was a descendant of an ancient family in Wales. He was born in 1616, at Stadhampton, Oxfordshire, of which place his father was the minister. He had such an extraordinary genius, and made so great a proficiency in his studies at school, that he was admitted a member of Queen’s College, Oxford, when about twelve years of age, and took the degree of Master of Arts at the age of nineteen. He pursued his studies with so much diligence that he soon made considerable progress in learning. While he continued at College his whole aim was to raise himself to some eminence either in church or state; and he was afterwards ready to acknowledge with shame and sorrow that at that time the honour of God or serving his country, otherwise than he might thereby serve himself, was most remote from his intentions. Thus the wisdom of God was manifested in overruling his natural genius and inclinations for the laying in such a stock of learning, which was afterwards consecrated to the service of the Church of Christ, though he himself did not so design it. He lived in the College till he was twenty-one years of age; from that time he met with extraordinary changes, which, through the unsearchable wisdom of God, turned to his great advantage, and made way for his future adornment and eminent usefulness. About this time he was much exercised concerning his spiritual state, which, joined with outward discouragements, threw him into a deep melancholy, that continued in its extremity for a quarter of a year. Though his distress did not continue with such violence, yet he was held under very great trouble of mind and grievous temptations for nearly five years; during which time the all-wise God, who designed him for eminent service, was carrying on his work, and at last brought forth judgment unto victory. His very great trouble of soul was succeeded by a great degree of happiness and joy. The following circumstance was the means of bringing peace to his soul: he went one day to Aldermanbury Church to hear Mr. Calamy; but a country minister (of whom he could never hear anything more) came into the pulpit and preached on Matt. viii. 26, ‘Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith?’ The very reading of the words surprised him, and he secretly put up a prayer that God would be pleased to speak to his condition; and his prayer was heard, for in that sermon the minister was directed to answer those very objections which Dr. Owen had commonly formed against himself; but now the time was come when God designed to speak peace to his soul, and this sermon was blessed to the removing of all his doubts.
When the civil war broke out in England, Dr. Owen owned the parliament’s cause, which his uncle, who was a zealous royalist, and had maintained him at College, so greatly resented that he turned him out of his favour, settled his estate upon another, and died without leaving him anything. About 1645 he was presented to the living of Coggeshall, and preached several times before the parliament, for which he generally received the hearty thanks of the House. In 1651 he was appointed to the Deanery of Christ Church, Oxford, when he received the degree of Doctor of Divinity, and in the following year was chosen Vice Chancellor of the University.
Dr. Owen frequently preached at St. Mary’s Church, Oxford, and sometimes at Stadhampton and other adjacent places. He was a very voluminous writer, his published works amounting to nearly eighty, some of which are, ‘An Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews,’ ‘Discourse on the Holy Spirit,’ ‘On Communion with God,’ ‘Treatise on Original Sin,’ and ‘The Doctrine of Justification by Faith.’ He was an intimate friend of the Protector Cromwell. Owing to the persecutions which he received after the Protector’s death, he at one time had thoughts of leaving his native country, having received an invitation from his brethren in New England to go there; and in 1665 he made preparations for the voyage, but the providence of God diverted him from his purpose. Fresh invitations were given him to go to New England, but he had too great a love for his native country to quit it so long as there was any opportunity of his being serviceable in it.
Towards the close of his life he took up his abode at Ealing, Middlesex, where he wrote his ‘Meditations on the Glory of Christ,’ in which he breathed out the devotion of a soul continually growing in spirituality and heavenly-mindedness. Two days before his death he dictated a letter to a particular friend, in which are the following words: ‘I am going to Him whom my soul has loved, or rather, Who has loved me with an everlasting love, which is the whole ground of all my consolations. I am leaving the ship of the Church in a storm, but whilst the great Pilot is in it, the loss of a poor under rower will be inconsiderable. Live and pray, and hope and wait patiently, and do not despond: the promise stands invincible, that He will never leave us nor forsake us,’ &c. Mr. Payne, being entrusted by the Doctor to put his last work to the press, came to see him the morning of the day on which he died, and said, ‘Doctor, I have just been putting your book On the Glory of Christ to the press;’ to which he answered, ‘I am glad to hear that that performance is put to the press;’ and then lifting up both his hands and his eyes, as in a kind of rapture, he said, ‘But, brother Payne, the long looked-for day is come at last, in which I shall see that glory in another manner than I have ever done yet, or was capable of doing in this world.’ He died August 24th, 1683, aged 67; and was interred in Bunhill-fields, London, with marks of uncommon respect.
Continued in Introduction
Related posts:
James: The Epistle of Reality - By Philip Mauro - Chapter I.
Babylon Mystery Religion - By Ralph Woodrow Chapter One
Mystery Confusion - A Reformed Theonomy or Jesuit Vaticanomy?
Independence Day
Opposition to the Federal Reserve Eliminated by Mass Murder
The Six-Pointed Star – Appendices
Jesuit Attempts to Destabilize Popular Government
Catholic Victory in 1960? - By Peter J. Doeswyck
