126 O W 
royal bounty the doctor received with proper acknow¬ 
ledgments, and faithfully applied it to the obiedfs inten¬ 
ded. Dr. Owen had likewife fome friends among the 
biihops, particularly Dr. Wilkins of Chefter, and Dr. 
Barlow of Lincoln, who had been formerly his tutor. In 
the latter part of his life, Dr. Owen’s health became very 
infirm, and he was often confined to his bed, or cham¬ 
ber; yet, whenever he was able to fit up, he would be 
continually writing, when not prevented by company. 
Finding himfelf grow' worfe, he went to Kenfington for 
the benefit of the air, and lived there fome time. From 
Kenfington he removed to a houfe of his own at Ealing, 
where he died, on the 7.4th of Auguft, 1683, in the fixty- 
feventh year of his age. 
Dr. Owen was tall and graceful in perfon, of a grave 
and majeftic countenance, and pofieffed a genteel deport¬ 
ment and manners. His temper was ferene and even ; 
his difpofition liberal, generous, and friendly ; and his 
conduit in the domeltic relations was peculiarly amiable 
and affectionate. Of his ardent and unaftefted piety, and 
of his firm integrity, his whole hiltory affords fufficient 
evidence. To his great learning and induftry his works 
bear abundant witnefs, as well as the teftimonies of his 
biographers. Dr. Calamy fays, “lie was a man of uni- 
verfal reading, and had digefted it. He was efpecially 
converfant in thofe fciences that are affiflant to divinity, 
and matter of them in an unufual degree. He was rec¬ 
koned the brighteft ornament of the univerfity of Ox¬ 
ford.” The writer of his life referred to below, obferves, 
that “he was a perfedf mailer of the Latin, Greek, and 
Hebrew, tongues. He was a great philofopher; and alfo 
well bead in the civil law'. A great hiftorian, ; having a 
perfect comprehenfion of church-hiftory in particular. 
He was thoroughly verfed in all the Greek and Latin 
poets ; well {killed in the rabbis, and made great ufe of 
them as there was occafion.” And Anthony Wood, 
though he treated his memory with the molt opprobrious 
language, yet acknowledges that “ he. was a perfon well 
/killed in the tongues, rabbinical learning, Jewifh rites 
and cuftoms ; that he had a great command of his Eng- 
lifh pen, and was one of the moft genteel and faireft wri¬ 
ters w'ho have appeared againft the church of England, 
as handling his adverfaries with far more civil, decent, and 
temperate, language, than many of his fiery brethren, and 
by confining himfelf wholly to the caufe, without the unbe¬ 
coming mixture of perfonal Handers and reflection.” 
He alfo adds, “he had a very graceful behaviour in the 
pulpit, an eloquent elocution, a winning and infinuating 
deportment, and could, by the perfualion of his oratory, 
i.n conjunction with fome other outward advantages, 
move amt wind the aftedtions of his admiring auditory 
almoft as he pleafed.” Dr. Owen’s w'orks are very volu¬ 
minous, amounting to feven volumes in folio, twenty in 
quarto, and about thirty in odtavo. In this number are, 
3. An Expolition on the Epiftle to the Hebrews, 1668, 4 
vols. folio. 4. A Difcourfe of the Holy Spirit, 1674, 
folio. 5. QioXoyaij.lv/ii ; five de Natura, Ortu, Progreffu, 
et Studio, verse Theologiae, 1661, 4to. 6. An Enquiry 
into the Original, Nature, Inllitution, Power, Order, and 
Communion, of Evangelical Churches, 1681, 4to. 7. A. 
Vindication of the Nonconformifts from the Charge of 
Schifm, in reply to Dr. Stillingfleet, t i686, 4to. 8. An 
Account of the Nature of the Proteftant Religion, 4to. 
9. The Divine Original and Authority of the Scriptures, 
1659, 8vo. 10. A Complete Collection of Sermons, and 
feveral TraCts, with Memoirs of the Author prefixed, 
publifiied in 1721, folio; from which moft of the above 
particulars are collected. See alfo Wood’s Athen. Oxon. 
vol. ii. Calamy’s Account of Ejedted Minifters, vol. ii. 
and Granger’s Biog. Hilt. England, vol. ii. 
O'WEN (Henry), a learned divine of the church of 
England, was the fon of a gentleman in North Wales, and 
born at his father’s houfe, near Dolgelly in Merioneth¬ 
shire, in the year 1716.. He was inilruCted in grammar- 
learning at Ruthin-fchool in Denbighfiiire; and at the 
£ N. 
age of nineteen he entered of Jefus-college, Oxford. 
Among the favourite fubjeCts of his purfuit, on his firft 
entrance upon academic itudies, was that of the mathe¬ 
matics, which he profecuted with great ardour and ap¬ 
plication. Having taken his degrees in arts at the ftatute- 
-able periods, he turned his attention to the ftudy of phy- 
fic, and was admitted to the degree of bachelor of me¬ 
dicine in the year 1746. For three years he praftifed as 
a phyfician ; but being compelled, both by his feelings 
and his health, to relinquifh that profeffion, his views 
were entirely directed to the clerical calling. We are 
not informed when he was admitted into holy orders; 
but we are told that, early in life,-he was made chap¬ 
lain to fir Matthew Featherflonehaugh, who prefent- 
ed him to the living of Torling in -Efiex. In the year 
1748 he fent into the world his firft publication,’en¬ 
titled “ Harmonia Trigonometric# ; or a.fhort Treatife 
on Trigonometry,” 8vo. In 1750, he was prefented to 
the reCtory of St. Olave, Hart Street, in thocity of Lon¬ 
don, when he refigned his living of Torling. Soon after 
this.he was appointed chaplain to the bifhop'of. LandafF, 
afterwards bilhop of Durham. In the year 1753, our au- 
■ thor proceeded doClor of pbyfic at Oxford. Dr. Owen’s 
next publication appeared i 11 1755, and confifted of fome 
excellent “ Obfervations on the Scripture Miracles.” In 
1760, he entered into the matrimonial connexion with 
a daughter of Dr. Butts, who had been firft bifhop of 
Norwich, and afterwards of Ely. Four years after this, 
he publifhed “ Obfervations upon the Four Gofpels,” 8vo. 
which were followed, in 1766, by fome valuable “ Direc¬ 
tions to young Students in Divinity.” In 1760,1-iepub- 
lillied his “Enquiry into the State of the Septuagint 
Verfion ;” a work that afforded fatisfadfory evidence of 
the diligence and judgment with which he had proiecu- 
ted the ftudy of facred literature, and of the very re- 
fpedtable abilities which he pofleffed for engaging in the 
department offeripture criticifm. He Was now appoint¬ 
ed to preach the ledture founded by the Hon. Robert 
Boyle; and in 1773 publifhed the difeourfes which he 
delivered, under the title of “The Intent and Pro¬ 
priety of the Scripture Miracles coniidered and explained, 
in a Series of Sermons preached in the Parifh Church of 
St. Mary-le-Bow,” &c. in two volumes, 8vo. During 
the courfe of the following year, he publifiied his “ Cri- 
tica Sacra ; or a fhort Introdudfion to Hebrew Criticifm,” 
fvhich was afterwards followed by “A Supplement,” in 
anfwer to fome remarks on it by Mr. Raphael Baruh, a 
learned Jew. In the year 1775, Dr. Owen was prefented 
by bifhop Barrington to the vicarage of Edmonton in 
Middlefex. In 1778, he conferred an obligation upon the 
learned world by the attention and accuracy which he 
beftowed in editing the collation of the valuable Cotton 
MS. of the Book of Genefis with the Vatican copy 
which was made by the learned Grabe in 1703, but left un- 
publifhed at his death. It is entitled “ Collatio Codicis 
Cottoniani Genefeos cum Editione Romans, a viro Cla- 
riffimo Joanne Ernefto Grabe jam olim fadta ; nunc de- 
mum fumma cura edita ab Henrico Owen, M. D. &c.” 
What renders this collation the more important, is the 
circumftance, that the MS. in queftion, which perhaps is 
the moft ancient in Europe, was almoft entirely deftroyed 
by the fire that happened in the Cotton library in 1731. 
In 1785, Dr. Owen rendered- a frefh fervice to the 
learned reader, by the care and labour which he employed- 
in puhlifhing the odfavo edition of' Xenophon’s Memo¬ 
rabilia, left unfinished by Dr. Edward Edwards, of Jefus- 
college, Oxford, who had only lived to print the text and 
verfion. Some time before the appearance of the work 
laft mentioned, he had publifhed two “Critical Difquifi- 
tions the firft containing fome remarks on Mafius’s 
edition of the Book of Jofhua ; and the fecond, on Ori- 
gen’s celebrated Hexapla ; which are acute and fenfihte, 
and contributed to increafe the reputation of the author 
among biblical fcholars. This piece, and his Enquiry 
mentioned- above, proved introdudfory to another work. 
on, 
4 
