Howe, JOHN, the most philosophic of the Puritan divines, was born 17th May 1630, at Loughborough, in Leicestershire, to the living of which parish his father had been presented by Laud. He studied both at Oxford and Cambridge, where he made the friendship of the most distinguished professors and students of that day. After preaching for some time at Winwick, in Lancashire, and Great Torrington, in Devonshire, with much acceptance, he was appointed domestic chaplain to Cromwell in 1656, a position he occupied with great reluctance, but in which he discharged his difficult duties with rare firmness and courtesy, not fearing to speak his mind before Cromwell himself, and winning praise even from the enemies of his party. Indeed, throughout life he was on the most intimate terms with persons so wide apart as Baxter and other nonconformist divines, and the most distinguished ornaments of the Establishment, as Stillingfleet and Tillotson. At the Restoration he returned to Torrington, where he remained for about two years. But the Act of Uniformity ejected him from his parish, 24th August 1662; for though one of the most liberal-minded of the Puritans, and not troubled with morbid conscientiousness, he was also a man of strong principle. Like many others of the nonconformist ministers, he wandered about preaching in sequester till 1671. In 1668 he published his first work, The Blessedness of the Righteous, which was very popular. In 1671 he was invited by Lord Massereene, of Antrim Castle, in Ireland, to become his domestic chaplain, where he spent four years of great happiness, preaching every Sabbath at Antrim church, with the sanction of the bishop. Here he wrote his Vanity of Man as Mortal, and began his greatest work, The Good Man the Living Temple of God (1676–1702), which occupies one of the highest places in Puritan theology. In 1675 he was called to be pastor of the dissenting congregation in Silver Street, London, and went thither in the beginning of 1676. In 1677 he published, at the request of Mr Boyle, The Reconcilableness of God's Prescience of the Sins of Men with the Wisdom of His Counsels, and Exhortations; in 1681, Thoughtfulness for the Morrow; in 1682, Self-dedication; in 1683, Union among Protestants; and in 1684, The Redeemer's Tears wept over Lost Souls. In 1685 he was invited by Lord Wharton to travel with him on the Continent; and after visiting the principal cities, he resolved, owing to the state of England, to settle for a time at Utrecht, where he was admitted to several interviews with the Prince of Orange. In 1687 the Declaration for Liberty of Conscience induced him to return to England, and at the Revolution next year he headed the deputation of dissenting clergymen when they brought their address to the throne. Besides smaller works, he published, in 1693, Carnality of Religious Contention; in 1694–95, several treatises on the Trinity; in 1699, The Redeemer's Dominion over the Invisible World; and he continued writing till 1705, when he published a characteristic work, Patience in Expectation of Future Blessedness. He died 2d April 1705.
Howe was a man of a noble presence, with a finely-balanced mind, a profound thinker, yet gifted with great practical sagacity. His own convictions were very decided, yet he had large toleration for the opinions of others, and of one of his persecutors writes 'he did not doubt after all to meet him one day in that place where Luther and Zwinglins well agreed.' The value of his writings is greatly marred by a poor style and innumerable subdivisions and digressions, which led a woman once to say 'he was so long laying the cloth that she always despaired of the dinner.' But Robert Hall said of him, 'I have derived more benefit from the works of Howe than from those of all other divines put together.' A great admirer of Plato, 'though without the slightest pretension to the eloquence of the renowned Grecian, he bore no mean resemblance to him in loftiness of mind, sublimity of conception, and, above all, in intense admiration of all moral excellence.' 'Of the consummate ability with which he must have conducted himself no other proof is needed than the statement of the following facts: that he was often employed in the most delicate affairs by Cromwell, yet without incurring either blame or suspicion; without betraying confidence or compromising principle; that, though exposed to scrutinising eyes, he left not a rivet of his armour open to the shafts either of malice or envy, and that he could awe Cromwell into silence and move Tillotson to tears; that he never made an enemy and never lost a friend.' His works were published in 1724, 2 vols. folio, with a life by Dr Calamy; more than one edition has been published since. See H. Rogers' Life of John Howe (1836), and the short monograph by R. F. Horton (1896).