RTC Thesis

GRACE IN AFFLICTION:
WILLIAm COWpER, pOET OF OLNEy
Introduction: Why This Study?
William Cowper’s life has attracted a host of interpreters who in many cases have
misunderstood and misrepresented his Christian faith expressed so passionately and
plaintively in much of his verse and prose.
This misunderstanding and misrepresentation is in part due to:
(i) The suppression of certain biographical and literary information essential for any
honest evaluation.
(ii) A misunderstanding of the nature and extent of his mental illness.
(iii) An unenlightened and therefore unsympathetic and prejudiced appraisal of his
Calvinistic theology.
In addressing these matters particularly, it will be necessary to review his early life
focusing especially on his mental affliction and then his conversion to Christ. This will
be followed by a discussion of his relationship with John Newton coupled with the
misconceptions that have arisen concerning Newton’s supposed disastrous influence
upon Cowper. After a consideration of the origin of the Olney Hymns the focus will be
upon his own longings for an assured faith in the face of the ‘constitutional melancholy’
that marked much of his life. Then follows a brief overview of the ‘doctrines of grace’
as found in the poems of Olney, whilst at the same time interacting with and refuting a
number of the misconceptions that have been promulgated by some of his editors and
biographers.
In pursuing this goal, two recent publications have been of particular assistance. The
first of these is the 1980 publication entitled The Poems of William Cowper, Volume I
(1748-1782).1
Amongst other things this volume contains an excellent textual
1
John D. Baird & Charles Ryskamp (eds.), The Poems of William Cowper, Volume I: 1748-
1782, (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1980)
1

introduction, a discussion of the Olney Hymns and a critical apparatus with textual
variants, as in some instances there are several versions of the same poem, words having
been altered and verses either added or deleted. This is a helpful volume textually and
thankfully its editors appear to be unaffected by the prejudice of others, having sought
to include all of the available material for the period under review. This is refreshing
indeed.
The latest and by far the most comprehensive study has come to us from Dr George Ella
who has researched Cowper for his doctoral thesis. This has been published in 1993 in
biographical form by Evangelical Press.2
Though not well known, Ella has made a
number of contributions to such magazines as the Evangelical Quarterly and The
Banner of Truth Trust.
The late S.M. Houghton described Ella as ‘a man who knew, loved and understood
William Cowper.3
In another place Houghton said of Dr Ella, ‘he knew more about
Cowper than anyone else in the world’.4
Sylvia Bull, the Curator of the Cowper
Memorial Museum, Olney, has described Ella’s thesis Paradise and Poetry as ‘deep,
serious and scholarly’.5
John Rubens, General Manager of the publishing house
Evangelical Press, tells us that Ella’s life of Cowper is ‘his best work … it is balanced
and thorough’.6
We have in Ella a researcher who has had at his disposal more information about
Cowper than any previous biographer. He knows Cowper through and through. He is
in tune with Cowper’s Christian faith and is an upholder of the doctrines of grace which
Cowper heartily espoused and so eloquently proclaimed. Dr Ella’s analysis is to be
respected. His appreciation of Reformed Theology furnishes him with a clarity of
understanding and judgment not apparent in many other interpreters of the poet.
It has been necessary to establish Ella’s credentials, for whilst drawing upon other
available information from various sources, undoubtedly Ella’s research is important in
our present study.
2
George Melvyn Ella, William Cowper, Poet of Paradise, (Darlington, Evangelical Press,
1993)
3
As quoted in T.D. Martin, ‘Paradise and Poetry’, A review article and reflection upon
Cowper’s work, Bible League Quarterly, April-June, 1990, p. 321
4
Ella, Cowper, (dust cover comment)
5
Martin, ‘Paradise and Poetry’, p. 321
6
John Rubens, private correspondence to James A. Cromarty, 26.10.1998.
2

As the Olney Hymns of Cowper are to be our focus in the latter part of this study, it
must be remarked that there is some dispute concerning the number of hymns to be
included. Even Ella appears a little uncertain, as in 1986 he speaks of ‘Cowper’s sixty-
seven contributions to the Olney Hymns’7
whilst in his biography (1993) he refers to the
sixty-eight that John Newton published.8
In fact Baird and Ryskamp to whom Ella
refers in numbering them at sixty-seven, state that Hymn 33 The Waiting Soul is one of
Newton’s, thus leaving Cowper’s contribution at sixty-six.9
It appears that Ella has
misread Baird and Ryskamp, not noticing that Hymn 33 belongs to Newton. The other
poem included in most collections of Cowper’s Olney Hymns but excluded by Baird and
Ryskamp is, To Jesus the Crown of My Hope, which was found in a manuscript after
Cowper’s death in 1800. Though probably written at Olney in 1771 it was not included
in Newton’s earliest editions.10
Each reference to the Olney Hymns will be from the Baird and Ryskamp edition and
designated by its corresponding number (see Appendix A). It is to be understood that
for the purpose of this study much biographical and literary information must be
omitted in order to achieve the established goals.
7
George Melvyn Ella, ‘William Cowper: A Review Article on Major New Editions of
Cowper’s Works’, The Banner of Truth magazine, Issue 274, (Edinburgh, Banner of Truth,
1986) p. 21
8
Ella, Cowper, p. 195
9
Baird & Ryskamp, The Poems, p. xxix, p. 173
10
Baird & Ryskamp, The Poems, p. xxx, p. 479. (This poem is included in Appendix A)
3

Chapter 1 - The Early Years
In this chapter we shall draw attention to particular occurrences in Cowper’s earlier
days which had a lasting influence upon his life and writings.
(i) Seasons of Darkness
William Cowper (pronounced ‘Cooper’, 1731-1800) lost his beloved mother when he
was six years of age. She was a brilliant woman and a daughter of the poet Donne. A
number of Cowper’s poems and letters reflect the lasting effects of this bereavement.
Five brothers and sisters died in their infancy and at the age of twenty-four his father
was taken and then his stepmother. His romance with his cousin, the delightful
Theadora whom he loved intensely, was broken off in 1756 by her father and not long
after this his closest friend was accidentally drowned. To this point his life was one of
profound disappointment and deep personal pain.
Coupled with these tragic events we find in Cowper an ever increasing proneness to
melancholia and more frequent and worsening periods of depression. In 1763 he was
admitted to Dr Nathaniel Cotton’s ‘Collegio Insanorum’. He was then thirty-two years
of age. The deeply troubled young man had sought to end his life when called upon to
undergo a public examination in pursuing his legal studies.
Such was the dark cloud that settled upon him that in his anguish of mind he penned a
poem of total forsakenness. No words could portray a person in deeper despair. It was
entitled Hatred and Vengeance, My Eternal Portion. Even when passing through the
most severe affliction, Cowper retained the ability to write poetry which attained great
heights of literary excellence.
In order to appreciate the transforming grace of God in the poet’s life and to understand
in part the abject darkness of mind and spirit into which the light of the gospel was soon
to shine so radiantly, the five verses are included below.
4

Ella tells us that most critics acclaim these tragic verses as Cowper’s ‘first really great
poem’. Ella continues, ‘This seems an ironic mockery as they portray the poet in the
very depths of despair’.11
Hatred and vengeance, my eternal portion,
Scarce can endure delay of execution –
Wait, with impatient readiness, to seize my
Soul in a moment.
Damn’d below Judas; more abhorr’d than he was,
Who, for a few pence, sold his holy master.
Twice betray’d, Jesus me, the last delinquent,
Deems the profanest.
Man disavows, and Deity disowns me.
Hell might afford my miseries a shelter;
Therefore hell keeps her everhungry mouths all
Bolted against me.
Hard lot! Encompass’d with a thousand dangers,
Weary, faint, trembling with a thousand terrors,
Fall’n, and if vanquish’d, to receive a sentence
Worse than Abiram’s:
Him, the vindictive rod of angry justice
Sent, quick and howling, to the centre headlong;
I, fed with judgments, in a fleshly tomb, am
Buried above ground.12
No words can be more expressive of a soul convinced of his irrevocable dereliction.
Such information as this is essential if we are to engage in a meaningful consideration
of his poems of grace.
Cowper was now both mentally and physically afflicted with wild and
haunting thoughts … constant flame-like flashings in front of his eyes and
great hammering pains in his head … he could only stagger around … (and
he) began to believe that he had committed the unpardonable sin.13
In the first two lines of Hymn 19, Cowper recalls these disturbing times before he found
contentment and peace in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Fierce passions discompose the mind,
As tempests vex the sea…
11
Ella, Cowper, p. 85 – Ella disagrees with Baird and Ryskamp concerning the year when this
poem was penned.
12
Baird & Ryskamp, The Poems, p. 210 – Baird & Ryskamp favour a later dating of this poem.
It was ‘written after the breakdown of 1773’. p. xxx
13
Ella, Cowper, pp. 85,86
5

Both Ella and Murray furnish us with helpful, balanced and biblical analyses of
Cowper’s prevailing depression and his few periods of insanity.14
This is in marked
contrast to Routley who speaks of Cowper’s insanity lasting for twenty years.15
The
truth of the matter is that ‘Cowper was mentally ill for a total of about four years in a
relatively long life, yet many biographers wrote as if he had always been mad’.16
Murray’s article on Cowper’s affliction and why it is that God permits such illness in
his children is worthy of further study.
As one considers Ella’s careful research and his compelling conclusions we are
introduced to a vastly different Cowper than has been generally understood. Except for
the relatively few years of severe mental anguish, the person who comes to view is
basically a healthy, normal, humorous, level-headed, business-wise man with many
charming graces. His many letters which attain to great heights of literary excellence,
bear special testimony to this. Cowper engaged in sport, loved the countryside, his
garden and his pet animals. He engaged in social interaction with town and church folk
and is far removed from the shy, timid, closeted, effeminate type that some authors have
made him out to be.17
Ella removes the many misconceptions and distortions that for too long have governed
people’s opinions of the poet.
(ii) The Light of the Gospel
Cowper’s conscience had been alarmed on many occasions in his early years and whilst
in Dr Cotton’s ‘College’ his sense of lostness coupled with his mental illness reached
indescribable depths. His own memoir of this period of his life is heart-rending to
read.18
However his close friends Martin Madan (his cousin) and Dr Cotton directed
14
Iain Murray, ‘William Cowper and His Affliction’, The Banner of Truth magazine, Issue 96,
(Edinburgh, Banner of Truth, 1971) pp. 12-32
15
Eric Routley, I’ll Praise My Maker, (London, Independent Press Ltd., 1951) p. 65. Routley’s
treatment of Cowper will receive further comment, and his statement that Cowper ‘spent
perhaps twenty of his sixty-eight years in insanity’ cannot be substantiated. In fact Ella
refutes it.
16
Ella, as quoted in Martin, ‘Paradise and Poetry’, p. 321
17
Gilbert Thomas, William Cowper and the Eighteenth Century, (London, Allan & Unwin,
1948) p. 13; Noel Davidson, How Sweet the Sound, (Belfast, Ambassador Productions, 1997)
p. 5
18
T.S. Grimshawe, (ed.,) ‘Memoir of the Early Life of William Cowper, Esq., The Life and
Works of William Cowper, (London, William P. Nimmo, 1875) pp. 449 - 460
6

him to God’s word, and over a period of months ‘the cloud of horror … was every
moment passing away’.19
In mid July 1764 Cowper read Romans 3:25, ‘Whom God hath set forth to be a
propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of
sins that are past, through the forbearance of God’. He received strength to believe.
The full beams of the Sun of Righteousness shone upon me. I saw the
sufficiency of the atonement he had made, my pardon sealed in His blood,
and all the fulness and completeness of His justification. In a moment I
believed and received the gospel. Unless the Almighty arm had been under
me I think I should have died with gratitude and joy … My heavenly Father
in Christ Jesus was pleased to give me the full assurance of faith and out of a
strong, stony, unbelieving heart, to raise up a child unto Abraham.20
His testimony is far better known in the following verses,
Hark, my soul! it is the LORD;
‘Tis thy Saviour, hear his word;
JESUS speaks, and speaks to thee;
‘Say, poor sinner, lov’st thou me?
I deliver’d thee when bound,
And, when wounded, heal’d thy wound;
Sought thee wand’ring, set thee right,
Turn’d thy darkness into light. (Hymn 18)
Here is Cowper’s testimony expressed in his own unique way. The light of the glorious
gospel had dispelled the oppressive gloom that had enshrouded him. He would soon be
recovered to spend the remainder of his days as a servant and ambassador of Jesus
Christ. Though his way would be ‘thorny’ and ‘tempest tossed’ and though his mind
would once again be assaulted and severely tormented, he would extol the saving power
of the Lord Jesus in a manner that would touch the hearts of countless thousands.
One of the poet’s biographers who was not sympathetic to 18th
Century evangelicalism
has written of Cowper’s conversion experience in the following words, ‘The fears and
pains of his troubled thirty years had fallen off him like rags. Sin and sorrow and
disillusion, madness itself, were nothing, and less than nothing in the transcendent glory
of his spiritual reconciliation.’21
19
Grimshawe, Cowper Memoirs, p. 457
20
Grimshawe, Cowper Memoirs, pp. 457-458
21
Lord David Cecil, The Stricken Deer, (London, Constable & Co. Ltd., 1944) pp. 74,75
7

(iii) Arrival at Olney - 1767
In the providence of God, Cowper’s path was to lead him into close contact with the
godly Unwin family who took him into their care. Mary Unwin’s untiring support of
him both physically and spiritually would prove to be a great source of strength and
comfort in the years ahead. His deeply touching poem To Mary (Mrs Unwin) written in
1793, seven years prior to his death, ranks amongst the most moving expressions of
devotion, gratitude and love found in English verse. In the second verse Cowper
acknowledges how she had so selflessly sustained him in his affliction.
Thy spirits have a fainter flow,
I see thee daily weaker grow,
‘Twas my distress that brought thee low,
My Mary!22
When Rev. William Unwin was tragically killed in a horse riding accident, the Church
of England curate in the nearby parish of Olney, John Newton, came to their home to
offer his sympathy and assistance. His visit in a time of overwhelming need was the
commencement of a friendship that was to last throughout the remaining thirty-three
years of Cowper’s life.
Soon after, in 1767, the widowed Mary Unwin and William Cowper shifted to Olney to
live in close proximity to Newton. His pastoral care of Cowper during another dark and
distressing bout of mental illness in 1773-74 was exemplary. Newton’s ‘shepherd’s
heart’ knew no boundaries. He opened his own home to Cowper and tenderly cared for
him.
(iv) A Further Period of Darkness – 1773-74
It was while Cowper was writing his Olney Hymns that he was once again overtaken by
his affliction. In a state of derangement and utter despair he dreamt that God had said to
him, ‘“Actum est de te, periisti” which Cowper understood to mean, “It is all over with
thee, thou hast perished”’.23
This dream was to recur throughout the rest of his days and
it is sadly true that whenever he was in a state of depression Cowper was convinced that
22
William Cowper, The Poetical Works of William Cowper, (Edinburgh, Gall & Inglis, 1858)
p. 367
23
8

the Lord had cast him out. These thoughts which continually disturbed his fragile mind
were to find their expression in subsequent letters and poems.24
In the final verse of possibly his last poem The Castaway written in 1799 we read,
No voice divine the storm allay’d,
No light propitious shone;
When, snatch’d from all effectual aid,
We perish’d, each alone:
But I beneath a rougher sea,
And whelm’d in deeper gulfs than he.25
It is one of the many tragic experiences in Cowper’s life that he spent his latter years
bereft of that assurance so needful for a believer’s inner comfort. Though trusting in the
saving grace of God in Christ, his mind was repeatedly tortured by the cruel
hallucinatory dream. He could not blot it out. He was The Castaway.
It is in Cowper’s mental condition, which in his later years alternated between assurance
and despair, that we discover the fundamental reason for his fears and distresses.
Though believing that the Christian was eternally secure, he remained convinced that he
was the exception. This conflict of mind exacerbated his distress. He was a godly man,
yet greatly afflicted. The grace of the gospel had entered his soul, but in the darker
periods his depressed mind would not permit him to think that he would inherit the
glory about which he wrote and which he himself had as his inheritance. There were no
more Olney Hymns from his pen after 1773-74.
In Cowper it is evident that true faith in Christ is not always an assured faith. And
though the assurance of faith is necessary for a Christian’s well-being, there are some
whose struggles of mind and soul are such that they are akin to the person of whom
Isaiah writes in the 50th
chapter verse 10, ‘Who among you fears the LORD? Who
obeys the voice of his Servant? Who walks in dark and has no light? Let him trust in the
name of the LORD and rely upon his God.’
In 1773 Cowper entered that ‘darkness’, after which ‘his life was to become a
permanent interchange of silver linings and clouds’.26
Yet it must be noted that in some
24
We have already noted Baird and Ryskamp’s contention that the poem ‘Hatred and
Vengeance, My Eternal Portion’ was composed at this time. This fact though, is disputed by
Ella (see footnote 11 & 12)
25
The Poetical Works of William Cowper, pp. 368-370 (Appendix C contains the full text of
this poem.)
26
9

of the Olney Hymns prior to this second major breakdown there are a number of
expressions indicating that the poet even in those ‘happier days’, had seasons of doubt.
This we shall see in more detail in chapters three and five.
10

Chapter 2 - The Poet of Olney
A number of biographers and editors have spoken unkindly concerning John Newton’s
influence upon Cowper. We shall address this and related issues. The chapter will
conclude with a brief discussion of the origin of the Olney Hymns and the reasons which
prompted their composition.
(i) Some Misconceptions
It must be remembered that William Cowper lived during the momentous years of the
Evangelical Revival with which we associate the names of Whitefield, the Wesleys,
Grimshaw, Romaine, Rowlands, Venn and many others. His Christian poetry is a
reflection of the Christ-centredness of the preaching that he was now privileged to hear.
As well, we see a man with deep convictions concerning the doctrines of grace, which
we know as Calvinism. Here was a whole system of biblical truth which Cowper had
embraced some two years prior to meeting John Newton.
Cowper had been grounded in the Scriptures as a child, had an intimate knowledge of
Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, was conversant with a large number of Puritan authors
since his teenage years and in his family circle were some Evangelicals of Calvinistic
persuasion.27
It was Cowper’s clear understanding of the Scriptures and his grasp of Reformed truth
that made such an impression upon John Newton and which helped cement their
friendship. Yet despite this, we are confronted with the many critics of John Newton
who unfairly and even maliciously have accused him of being the most dangerous
adviser that could have been found for Cowper.
Ella has carefully documented and effectively answered those prejudiced authors whose
unbelief or Arminianism have led them to the conclusion that Newton’s Calvinism kept
27
George Ella, ‘John Newton’s Friendship with William Cowper’, The Banner of Truth
magazine, Issue 269, (Edinburgh, Banner of Truth, 1986) p. 14; George Ella, ‘William
Cowper: A Burning Bush which was not Consumed’, The Banner of Truth magazine, Issue
256, (Edinburgh, Banner of Truth, 1985) p. 6; Thomas, Cowper, p. 129
11

Cowper in a state of constant depression, some even going so far as to say that
Calvinism was the cause of Cowper’s insanity.28
Routley’s prejudice is evident, ‘The very last thing he (Cowper) needed was the
Calvinism of John Newton’.29
Lucas is typical, ‘It is generally acknowledged that the society of Newton was
disastrous for Cowper’. He speaks of Cowper as Newton’s ‘victim … who wanted only
happiness … Converted slavers have little imagination, and no mercy. The result was
that Cowper’s morbidity increased’.30
Benham31
and Thomas32
are more intense in their criticism. The Wesleyan bias of
Thomas emerges as he argues that while Calvinism was harmful to Cowper,
Arminianism would have helped him. After quoting an extract from Cowper’s Truth,
Grace leads the right way: if you choose the wrong,
Take it, and perish; but restrain your tongue.
Charge not with light sufficient, and left free,
Your wilful suicide on God’s decree.
Thomas continues, ‘Such a view of salvation is, to our minds, a relic of ancient
magic’.33
Thomas’ view is that had Cowper known the Wesleys he may have been able
to discard the chains that held him captive.
Such sentiments as these abound in many of the standard works on Cowper and
consequently have coloured the thinking of the reading public. As Ella’s research
becomes more widely read and appreciated it will dispel much of the misunderstanding.
Newton’s Calvinism was no sterile system of theology but was warm and practical and
was cherished by Cowper, as was the bond that united them. It would be difficult to
find a closer, more trusting and self-denying relationship between two Christian men
than we have in this renowned friendship.
28
George Ella, The Banner of Truth magazine, Issue 269, pp. 10-19
Also Ella, Cowper, pp. 123-242
29
Routley, I’ll Praise My Maker, p. 64
30
E.V. Lucas, (ed.,) William Cowper’s Letters, (n.d.), (London, Oxford University Press) p. x
31
W. Benham, (ed.,) Letters of William Cowper, (London, MacMillan & Co., 1899), p. xii
32
Thomas, Cowper, pp. 150-162, pp. 264-270
33
Thomas, Cowper, p.266
12

It is at this point that a brief reference must be made concerning the negative influence
of Lady Hesketh (Cowper’s cousin and legatee). Whilst many of Cowper’s biographers
‘have been either ignorant of the gospel or even enemies of it’,34
it was Lady Hesketh
who insisted that his biographers should omit everything indicating Cowper to be a
‘Visionary, Enthusiast or Calvinist’.35
Lady Hesketh had no sympathy at all for
Cowper’s evangelicalism and Calvinism. This wrongful yet purposeful suppression of
certain letters and poems, some of which have only surfaced this century, has meant that
many biographers have told only part of the story and have therefore presented the
reading public with a greatly biased and unbalanced picture of the poet.
With the publication of the recent volumes by Baird, Ryskamp and others a more
balanced picture of Cowper has emerged. It is these publications particularly, that Ella
draws upon in his research.
Cowper himself enunciates a principle which is relevant in this discussion. When in
1792 Newton wrote to Cowper seeking to dissuade him from editing Milton’s Paradise
Lost, Cowper responded saying that the two great poems of Milton were of such a
nature that they required an editor who knew and believed the gospel. Cowper, being
well grounded in gospel truth saw himself to be eminently suited to the task.
The same principle applies when we come to Cowper’s own writings. There have been
those who have sought to make comment and interpret his vast literary output without
appreciating his Christian (and Calvinistic) beliefs. Hence they have been unable to
provide a fair picture of Cowper’s life and writings. In his well known and assuring
words on the providence of God Cowper tells us that,
‘Blind unbelief is sure to err,
And scan his work in vain.’ (Hymn 35)
Here Cowper is telling us that it is impossible to interpret God’s mysterious providences
from a perspective of unbelief. Similarly, those critics who have endeavoured to
evaluate Cowper’s godly life have failed because of their own ignorance or prejudice.36
34
Ella, The Banner of Truth magazine, Issue 256, p. 4
35
As quoted by Ella, The Banner of Truth magazine, Issue 256, p. 4
36
Ella, The Banner of Truth magazine, Issue 269, p. 11
13

For instance, there has been the perpetuation of the myth that Cowper as a Christian
attempted suicide. Reference is made to the very dark period in 1773-74 when the poet
(whilst at Olney) in a seriously depressed state and suffering terrible nightmares was
supposed to have attempted once again to take his own life.37
There is no evidence to support this, other than a comment in a letter to Lady Hesketh
(16th
January 1786) which may be construed as saying that he was tempted to commit
suicide at this time.38
As recently as 1982 in addressing the subject of depression and suicide, John White
adds to the misunderstanding. Having given a detailed account of Cowper’s efforts in
1763 to take his own life, White concludes,
Here then we are presented with a gifted and godly man, a man the Holy
Spirit used to produce hymns that exalt the Lamb of God and argue the
effectiveness of ‘a fountain filled with blood’, yet whose pitiful humiliation
remains for us all to see. Let us be instructed by it, for Cowper is only one of
the many Christians who have struggled against the shame and horror of
trying to take their own lives – some successfully, others unsuccessfully. 39
[Emphasis mine.]
This is faulty research, for White has failed to understand that the attempts at suicide to
which he makes detailed reference occurred about 18 months to 2 years prior to
Cowper’s conversion in July 1764. Here is but one example of the factual inaccuracies
that confront us when endeavouring to evaluate the life and writings of William
Cowper.
One cannot overestimate the effect that such mishandling of the data has had upon
people’s understanding of the great poet. Lady Hesketh’s contribution in this regard is
considerable. This has had a ‘domino effect’ in many of the biographies and published
works of Cowper.
As a consequence numerous editions of his works ‘have been renowned for what they
suppressed rather than what they published’.40
37
Thomas, Cowper, p. 197
38
We are indebted to Ella for this information, (Ella, Cowper, pp. 409-412). In the published
Letters of William Cowper, the section of the letter to which Ella refers is omitted. The
reason for the omission is provided in the Introduction ‘… nearly everything has been
omitted which bears upon his own unhappy spiritual state… The book has been arranged to
display Cowper at his happiest…’ Lucas, Letters of William Cowper, p. 234 and p. v. The
reader is deprived of the complete Cowper. It is this imbalance that Ella has sought to rectify.
39
John White, The Masks of Melancholy, (Illinois, Inter-Varsity Press, 1982) pp. 142-146
40
Ella, Banner of Truth magazine, Issue 274, p. 16
14

(ii) The Origin and Purpose of the Hymns
John Newton’s ministry was amongst the village people of Olney, and a large number
of his congregation were lace-workers. Davidson has an interesting discussion on the
lace-making tradition in Olney.41
It was initially for the lace-makers and village folk
that the poems were written. Truth in verse is more readily learnt and remembered than
in its prose form. The thought was that if a poem could be composed either by Cowper
or Newton which would convey the meaning of the text and sermon for the week-night
worship service, then the village people, including the lace-workers, could take the truth
and share it with others in this easily memorised and precise form.
Houghton tells us that the hymns were for the use of plain people,42
it having been
agreed by the two men that, ‘perspicuity, simplicity and ease should chiefly be attended
to, and the imagery of poetry, if admitted at all, should be indulged very sparingly and
with great judgment.’43
Baird and Ryskamp, Ella, Routley and others are united in informing us that initially the
‘hymns’ were used as a form of exposition of the text of Scripture being expounded by
Newton.44
They were ‘for personal edification and instruction rather than for the more
formal gathered church worship’.45
Baird and Ryskamp warn us against imposing upon
the word ‘hymn’ the modern sense of the word. What Cowper wrote was ‘in the first
place a vivid effusion of the heart … which had come into being to express the feelings
of a grateful heart’.46
Hymns in the modern sense of the word, ‘were rarely, if ever, sung in church in
Cowper’s day. There was a widespread feeling that the word of God alone should be
used in public worship, which meant in effect that only the Psalms might be sung’.47
This information is given not to engage in polemic but to assist in understanding the
individuality of a number of Cowper’s hymns and the unsuitability of many of them for
41
Davidson, How Sweet the Sound, pp. 115-126
42
Elsie Houghton, Christian Hymn-Writers, (Bridgend, Evangelical Press of Wales, 1982) pp.
152-153
43
R. Cecil, The Works of John Newton, Volume 3, (Edinburgh, Banner of Truth, 1985) p. 302
44
Baird & Ryskamp, The Poems, pp. xvii, xviii.
Ella, Cowper, pp. 193-195
45
46
Baird & Ryskamp, The Poems, p. xvii
47
Baird & Ryskamp, The Poems, p. xvii
15

congregational use. This will be evident in our analysis of some of the very personal
expressions used by Cowper.
(iii) The Great House
When the small church at Olney became overcrowded for the weeknight meetings,
Newton moved his congregation to a larger room in what was known as the Great
House. This was a little-used country residence of Lord Dartmouth, the evangelical
patron of the parish.
These were the busiest five or six years in Cowper’s life. He was Newton’s chief
assistant, leading prayer meetings, visiting the poor and writing his poems.
To celebrate the opening of the Great House for the mid-week prayer meetings, both
Newton and Cowper wrote poems. Though Newton was particularly gifted, Cowper
excelled, as is evident when one compares their hymns for this occasion.
The clarity of expression, grasp of biblical truth, the sense of utter dependence upon
God, the broad scope of reference gathering in a number of essential teachings, together
with the strong note of appeal to God to be present with them in his saving and
sanctifying power set this hymn apart as one of his very best. It was composed in
March/April 1769.
16

Routley comments, ‘The fourth and sixth verses are irresistible’.48
Jesus, where’er thy people meet,
There they behold thy mercy-seat;
Where’er they seek thee thou art found,
And ev’ry place is hallow’d ground.
For thou, within no walls confin’d,
Inhabitest the humble mind;
Such ever bring thee, where they come,
And going, take thee to their home.
Dear Shepherd of thy chosen few!
Thy former mercies here renew;
Here, to our waiting hearts, proclaim
The sweetness of thy saving name.
Here may we prove the pow’r of pray’r,
To strengthen faith, and sweeten care;
To teach our faint desires to rise,
And bring all heav’n before our eyes.
Behold! At thy commanding word,
We stretch the curtain and the cord;
Come thou, and fill this wider space,
And bless us with a large increase.
Lord, we are few, but thou art near;
Nor short thine arm, nor deaf thine ear;
Oh rend the heav’ns, come quickly down,
And make a thousand hearts thine own! (Hymn 26)
48
17

Here was a greatly gifted man drawing upon a wealth of Bible knowledge which
permeates this poem. But not only do we perceive knowledge, there is also
understanding,
- of the gathered church
- of the reverence due to God
- of the place of prayer in worship
- of the nature of God as Spirit
- of his indwelling the believer
- of God as the Shepherd of his own flock
- of the expectation of blessing
- of the power of prayer
- of the need for a growing faith
- of the inwardness and spirituality of true worship
- that the Lord gives the increase as his people pray
- that the Lord meets with the ‘few’ as well as the many
- that there is in the Lord the power and willingness to save sinners.
There is revealed here a heart of longing for the salvation of men and women. This
reflects not only the evangelical mind of Cowper but is also a reminder of the
momentous days in which he lived. Cowper had heard Whitefield preach. Berridge,
Venn, Hill and Romaine would sometimes visit Olney and proclaim the gospel with
power, and Newton’s ministry was proving to be a great blessing.
Cowper was the poet of the Evangelical Revival expressing his heart’s desire that the
Lord would demonstrate his power in the salvation of men and women (cf. Isaiah 64:1).
Oh rend the heav’ns; come quickly down,
And make a thousand hearts thine own! (Hymn 26)
In those days such prayers were being realised.
(iv) Newton’s Initiative
In 1771 Newton had observed in his friend a growing instability and an increasing sense
of gloom. Seeking to divert Cowper’s mind from his anxieties, Newton suggested that
18

together they compile a collection of Christian verse to be used in the prayer meetings
and services at the Great House.
Many years later (1785) Cowper in a letter to Lady Hesketh wrote, ‘Dejection of spirits,
which may have prevented many a man from becoming an author, made me one’.49
Cowper welcomed Newton’s proposal as it gave the poet a further opportunity to serve
his Lord, as well as affording him an outlet for his literary gifts. This effort was to last
only two years, Cowper contributing about one fifth of the collection known later as the
Olney Hymns. In 1773 he was again seriously afflicted in his mind and made no further
contribution. Newton also ceased writing for a period and in his preface to the Olney
Hymns (1779) makes the following remarks.
A desire of promoting the faith and comfort of sincere Christians, though the
principal, was not the only motive to this undertaking. It was likewise
intended as a monument, to perpetuate the remembrance of an intimate and
endeared friendship. With this pleasing view, I entered upon my part, which
would have been smaller than it is … if the wise, though mysterious,
providence of God, had not seen fit to cross my wishes. We had not
proceeded far upon our proposed plan, before my dear friend was prevented,
by a long and affecting indisposition … My grief and disappointment were
great; I hung my harp on the willows, and for some time thought myself
determined to proceed no farther without him. Yet my mind was afterwards
led to resume the service …50
Had Newton not continued the work, though individual poems would have survived, the
collection known as the Olney Hymns may never have been published and this to the
church’s impoverishment.
49
Benham, Letters of William Cowper, p. 132
50
Cecil, Newton’s Works, vol. 3, p. 301
19

Chapter 3 - ‘Is mine a Contrite Heart, or no?’ (Hymn 9)
In this chapter we focus briefly upon Cowper’s expressions of uncertainty before
dwelling upon some of his great declarations concerning the sovereign grace of God in
Christ. To many it is a paradox that a man with such evident devotion to Christ and
holiness of character could ever doubt his being ‘in Christ’.
While the Apostle John raises this issue in his first Epistle51
and the Westminster
Confession of Faith allows for such uncertainty even in a true believer,52
Cowper’s case
is unusual. His doubts and fears were not theological, nor were they the consequence of
some recurring sin which robbed him of assurance. It was his constitutional affliction.
At times his troubled mind would not allow him the peace for which his heart yearned.
The uncertainty was in self. There was no uncertainty concerning Christ and the all-
sufficiency of his grace. He lacked no confidence in the power of God to save the
sinner, yet he wondered how it could be that he a ‘worm’ a ‘thorn’ and ‘tempest tossed’
could be a recipient of grace. At other times he wrote as though he himself stood in
glory. Professor Lodwick Hartley’s informative study The Worm and the Thorn 53
though showing a misunderstanding of Calvinism,54
points us to those particular hymns
in which Cowper tells us of his personal doubts whilst longing to know the peace of a
realised assurance.
The LORD will happiness divine
On contrite hearts bestow:
Then tell me gracious God, is mine
A Contrite heart, or no?
Thy saints are comforted I know
And love thy house of prayer,
I therefore go where others go,
But find no comfort there.
O make this heart rejoice or ache;
Decide this doubt for me;
51
I John 5:13
52
Westminster Confession of Faith, ch. 18, sect. 3,4, (Belfast, Graham & Heslip, 1933) pp.
62,63
53
Lodwick Hartley, ‘The Worm and the Thorn: A Study of Cowper’s Olney Hymns’, (The
Journal of Religion xxix, 1948-49) pp. 220-229
54
Hartley, ‘The Worm and the Thorn’, p. 224
20

And if it not be broken, break,
And heal it if it be. (Hymn 9)
The perplexity of mind is almost overwhelming. The struggles are deep and inward.
Though safe in Christ there is no assured realisation of this. Cowper can speak of God
as ‘gracious’ but it brings him no comfort. He is deprived of the felt presence of the
Lord.
Such a hymn is hardly suitable for congregational praise, again illustrating that the
purpose of the poems was instruction with a view to memorization. In this instance
there is also self-examination. This in itself is good. But here, it is the probing and
pleading of a soul beset by inward conflicts and haunting fears. It is a transcript of
Cowper’s mind at that time. It is personal and individual. This hymn is useful for
study, though not for corporate worship.
Elsewhere we find Cowper expressing his own longings for glory, the hymn ending
with these words,
Such JESUS is, and such his grace,
Oh may he shine on you!
And tell him, when you see his face
I long to see him too. (Hymn 34)
Hartley says that this is ‘one of the most pathetic notes in all the hymns’.55
Cowper
does not for one moment doubt the grace that is in Christ, only his own interest in that
grace.
Routley’s lengthy study of Cowper is spoiled by his own theological
misunderstandings, his Arminianism being evident in his comment on this hymn.
Routley tells us that Cowper is a man ‘who has known Christ, but has lost him’.56
The
consistent Arminian has no assured hope. His theology will not permit it. But it is
illegitimate to read Arminian theology into the writings of a Calvinist. It was Cowper’s
firm grasp of objective truth which kept him from sinking beneath the waves of total
and relentless despair. The Psalmist reminds us, ‘None of those who trust in Him shall
be condemned.’57
55
56
57
Psalm 34:22
21

When free of severe depression Cowper was upheld by the knowledge that the believer
in Christ is secure. And this was one of the great benefits of Newton’s ministry. It was
the reassurance that Cowper needed, a reassurance that he would not have known had
the wish of another biographer materialised. Thomas tells us, ‘We could wish that
Newton had emerged into the full Arminian sunshine.’58
However, the theology of Arminianism would not have sustained Cowper. In that
system of thought the believer may choose to opt out, in which case God is powerless to
keep him. We shall see in our next chapter how the great doctrines of grace were
Cowper’s mainstay.
Before finishing this brief chapter it must be pointed out that whether it is the Psalmist 59
or the poet Cowper, the doubts and fears arose because of changed circumstances, either
externally or within his own physical, emotional or spiritual state. The change was not
in God. Cowper never expresses a doubt concerning the character and grace of God.
He tells us that,
God moves in a mysterious way,
His wonders to perform.
And then continues,
Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
But trust him for his Grace,
Behind a frowning providence
He hides a smiling face. (Hymn 35)
Cowper’s doubts arose from the disposition of his own mind and soul. His doctrine was
biblical and he expressed it with clarity. Yet he himself could not cope with God’s
mysterious ways, and while he did not ‘judge the Lord by feeble sense’ he nevertheless
often judged himself by that erring standard.
It is here that we face an important issue. In a believer’s relationship with Christ there
is always a certain subjectivity. The witness of the Spirit, though by the use of means,
is an inward witness.60
But assurance of faith will come only when by the use of the
means of grace the focus is firmly fixed, not on ‘faith’, but upon faith’s great Object.
58
59
Psalms 22, 42, 43
60
Romans 8:16
22

Yet in Cowper we find this paradox. There is ‘grace abounding’ in Christ. Of this he is
certain and he wants others to know it, whilst at various stages in his life he is in abject
despair concerning his own interest in the Saviour. This in no small part was because of
his affliction which ebbed and flowed. His problem of assurance was not theological
but mental, and he suffered great anguish of mind and spirit. Yet there were lengthy
periods of sunshine. The clouds of doubt seemed to dissipate. His eye of faith was on
Christ and the benefits of his atonement. When Cowper writes of Calvary the doubts
are gone. He is lifted above the circumstances and his mind is elevated and assured.
There is a fountain fill’d with blood
Drawn from Emmanuel’s veins;
And sinners, plung’d beneath that flood
Lose all their guilty stains. (Hymn 15)
For the sinner, Calvary is the place of cleansing. Here is the climax of grace. Cowper
has no doubts at all. He can even say,
E’er since by faith, I saw the stream
Thy flowing wounds supply:
Redeeming love has been my theme,
And shall be till I die.
LORD, I believe thou hast prepar’d
(Unworthy tho’ I be)
For me a blood bought free reward,
A golden harp for me! (Hymn 15)
Outside of Scripture it would not be easy to find a more forthright and assuring
testimony of a person’s assurance of perseverance and of glory.
In the following chapter we shall return to this hymn, but for another reason.
Chapter 4 – Cowper’s Creed … And its Critics
The doctrines of grace have been differently explained by a variety of people. In
history, John Calvin is the great exponent of these particular doctrines. In Cowper’s
day it was Whitefield, Romaine, Newton and others who proclaimed the sovereignty of
grace in the salvation of the sinner. Man dead in trespasses and sins must be awakened
23

and savingly joined to Christ by a sovereign act of God the Holy Spirit. The faith which
a person is called upon to exercise in Christ is itself the gift of God and the life lived is
by God’s enabling.
It may well be summarised by the phrase, ‘the Sovereignty of God in all things’.
But where did Cowper stand?
Mine has been a life of wonders for many years, and a life of wonders I in my
heart believe it will be to the end. Wonders I have seen in the great deeps,
and wonders I shall see in the paths of mercy also. This … is my creed.’ 61
A creed is a declaration of what is believed. It may be spoken or written. It may be set
forth in an orderly manner or presented haphazardly. But which ever way it is
communicated, it bears testimony to the foundational principles that govern life.
To study the Olney Hymns of Cowper is to be introduced to ‘the great deeps’ as well as
‘the paths of mercy’.
What did Cowper believe? What were his views of God in creation, salvation and
providence? How did he understand man as a creature, a sinner and a saint? What did
he see as the Christian’s great hope? How did he view affliction in the Christian life?
What place did he give to God’s word? Ella informs us, ‘It is in Cowper’s contributions
to the famous Olney Hymns that we find some of the clearest statements of his
theology.’62
Cowper’s theology was his creed. And it is expressed with clarity in his Christian
poetry. The statements are succinct and often memorable. This is one of the real
advantages of poetic expression. The village folk of Olney and subsequently the
Christian world at large have been the beneficiaries.
What was his creed? In a word it was ‘avowedly Calvinistic’ says S.M. Houghton.63
For Cowper, salvation was all of grace. Conceived in the eternal counsels of the Triune
God, its purposes were accomplished in the perfect obedience and atoning death of the
‘dear dying Lamb’ (Hymn 15). The benefits thus procured are applied by the effectual
working of the Holy Spirit. The believer’s life is a sustained life and the grace of God
61
‘The Letters of Cowper’, January 1786, as quoted in Ella, Cowper, p. 411
62
63
Houghton S.M., ‘Olney Hymns, An Appreciation’, Bible League Quarterly, October –
December, 1979, p. 278
24

that saves is the very grace that leads to glory. But grace is not to be presumed. It is
grace that the sinner must seek and appropriate by faith in Christ.
Yet not unsought, or unimplor’d,
The plenteous grace shall I confer. (Hymn 13)
There is no hyper-Calvinism in Cowper. The offers of mercy are wide and free.
The vile, the lost, he calls to them
Ye trembling souls appear!
The righteous in their own esteem,
Have no acceptance here.
Approach ye poor, nor dare refuse
The banquet spread for you;
Dear Saviour, this is welcome news,
Then I may venture too. (Hymn 27)
There is the erroneous view that Calvinism rightly understood cannot include a genuine
overture of mercy to sinners, and that the doctrine of election is incompatible with the
sincere desire in God that men and women turn to him in repentance and faith.64
Cowper did not accept such a view. His doctrines of God and Man, Election and
Salvation are eminently Scriptural. There was no deviation from historic Calvinism as
formulated in the five key Reformed doctrines which occupied the Synod of Dort
(1618-19). This too was the position of most of the Puritans in the 17th
Century, as well
as Whitefield, Newton, Harris, Rowland and Grimshaw during the Evangelical Revival.
In the Olney Hymns, Cowper is expressing Reformation Theology in his unique poetic
style. He held to the Five Points of Calvinism, as they are commonly known. Yet his
critics are either ignorant or prejudiced, and persist in misrepresenting or caricaturing
his Reformed beliefs.
Whatever one’s convictions concerning Calvinism, it is inexcusable when a critic
misrepresents Calvin’s theology. Professor Hartley displays such an approach when he
says, ‘After the Fall, according to Calvinistic interpretation, God decreed that man’s
will should not work in harmony with the Divine will. But God became merciful,
allowing salvation to the elect by Christ’s sacrifice.’65
64
Ezekiel 33:11; Luke 13:34; John 6:37
65
25

Routley tells us that, ‘Calvinism – so uncongenial to Cowper’s temperament…broke his
heart.’66
Later on he says that Cowper was ‘immobilized by Calvinism’.67
To find a
sympathetic understanding, and balanced review of Cowper’s Calvinistic verse, one
would have to look beyond Routley. Yet his influence has been considerable.
William Benham, editor of the Globe Edition of Cowper’s Poems which Ella tells us
was ‘the once definitive’ edition, says,
It became as clear to me as any demonstration could make it, that the
Calvinistic doctrine and religious excitements threw an already trembling
mind off its balance, and aggravated a malady which but for them might
probably have been cured.68
Theologically, Cowper has been presented in a poor light by many editors and
biographers who have stumbled at his Reformed convictions.
The establishment of the Cowper Memorial Museum at Olney, the emergence of such
publishing houses as The Banner of Truth Trust and Evangelical Press whose
contributors and reviewers understand a full orbed Calvinism, and the research of Dr
George Ella have combined to address past misunderstandings. For this the Christian
Church should be particularly grateful.
We now turn to Cowper’s own expression of the Doctrines of Grace with particular
reference to the Five Points of Calvinism.
For a comprehensive statement in verse of his spiritual pilgrimage his Song of Mercy
and Judgment is worthy of careful study. It was written soon after his conversion.
The final two lines of each of the thirteen verses alternate the following expressions.
Grace Divine, how sweet the Sound,
Sweet the grace which I have found.
Sweet the Sound of Grace Divine,
Sweet the grace which makes me thine.69
66
Routley, I’ll Praise My Maker, pp. 70,71
67
68
As quoted by Ella, Banner of Truth magazine, vol. 269, p. 13
69
Baird & Ryscamp, The Poems, pp. 135-137. See Appendix A for the full text of this poem.
Also included is ‘To Jesus the Crown of My Hope’, written whilst at Olney in about 1771,
and probably incomplete. Baird and Ryskamp, The Poems, p. 479.
26

John Newton may well have had these words of Cowper in mind when some eight to
nine years later he wrote,
Amazing grace, (how sweet the Sound)
That saved a wretch like me!
27

Chapter 5 – The Doctrines of Grace
We shall consider a selection of Cowper’s verse under the familiar Five Points of
Calvinism. Reference is often made to these Five Points by use of the acronym TULIP.
(i) Total Depravity
By this is meant that no human faculty is free of sin’s blighting effects. Our iniquities
have separated us from God and have rendered us wholly incapable of any initiative in
salvation (cf. Romans 3:10-20; Romans 8:7, 8; I Corinthians 2:14; Ephesians 2:1-3).
When Martin Madan spoke the gospel to Cowper prior to his admission to Dr Cotton’s
Asylum, Cowper informs us,
He spoke of original sin, and the corruption of every man born into the world,
whereby everyone is a child of wrath. I perceived something like hope
dawning in my heart. This doctrine set me more on a level with the rest of
mankind, and made my condition appear less desperate.70
From his hymns we find the following expressions,
I hate the sins that made thee mourn
And drove thee from my Breast. (Hymn 1)
Deep wounded souls to thee repair
And, Saviour we are such. (Hymn 3)
No drop remains of all the curse,
For wretches who deserv’d the whole. (Hymn 5)
My God how perfect are thy ways!
But mine polluted are; (Hymn 11)
This heart a fountain of vile thoughts
How does it overflow? (Hymn 11)
I deliver’d thee when bound, (Hymn 18)
Fierce passions discompose the mind,
As tempests vex the sea. (Hymn 19)
Sin has undone our wretched race. (Hymn 23)
70
Grimshawe, Memoir, Life and Works, pp. 456-457
28

I feel, alas! That I am dead
In trespasses and sins. (Hymn 32)
Cowper speaks of ‘barren soil’ (Hymn 46), ‘bondage and distress’ (Hymn 55) and tells
us, ‘Sin enslav’d me many years’ (Hymn 56).
Our utter inability to perform any saving good is also established in Cowper’s The
Progress of Error where we read that the serpent so entwines error around human hearts
‘that not a glimpse of genuine light pervades’.71
John Murray reminds us that God’s grace is to the ‘undeserving’ and the ‘ill-deserving’,
to those whose sins have rendered them spiritually blind and destitute.72
This is the biblical truth that Cowper is conveying to us. For example, the phrase from
Hymn 32 (above) is found in Ephesians 2:1. Even those who disagree with Cowper are
forced to acknowledge that what he is declaring concerning sin and its damning effects
is biblical teaching.
Yet Routley overstates the case when he says, ‘Cowper’s profound sense of sin (is) the
very heart of his Calvinism’.73
[Emphasis mine.] Such an understanding as Routley’s,
fails to do justice to the many poems of Cowper which focus upon the grace of God that
abounds over our sin (cf. Romans 5:20, 21).
(ii) Unconditional Election
The Scriptures state that God’s sovereign choice of his people was not on the grounds of
foreseen acts of faith or obedience. Nothing at all in man drew forth his grace. God’s
electing grace is unconditional. It is wholly ‘according to His good pleasure which he
purposed in Himself’.74
This means absolute sovereignty. The Potter has ‘power over
the clay’,75
and this sovereign determination of God was ‘before the foundation of the
world’.76
71
Baird & Ryskamp, The Poems, p. 263
72
John Murray, The Claims of Truth, Collected Writings of John Murray, (Edinburgh, Banner
of Truth, 1976) p. 119
73
74
Ephesians 1:9
75
Romans 9:21
76
Ephesians 1:4
29

In many of his letters Cowper speaks of God’s unconditional election of his people,
much to the consternation of Lady Hesketh and a number of ‘his influential relations
who were mostly Arminian or believed that good works would save anyone’.77
To Cowper the source of salvation is in God alone. He asks,
What creature could have formed the plan,
Or who fulfil it but a GOD? (Hymn 5)
In Hymn 9 The Contrite Heart, Cowper longs to know his own election of God, and
pleads for an answer. In Hymn 14 Jehovah-Shammah, he refers to those whom the
Lord calls ‘his elect’.
Ella, in mentioning Cowper’s view of election lacks precision of terminology and
appears to confuse election with regeneration. He says, ‘Election, according to Cowper,
as he tells us time and time again in his verse is merely God breathing life into a
“groveling worm”.’78
Cowper, though, is speaking of regeneration when he uses this
terminology.
Cowper however, understands the apostolic emphasis that God ‘chose us in Christ
before the foundation of the world’.79
Now freely chosen in the Son,
I freely choose his ways. (Hymn 55)
And again he writes,
Oh Lord! We know thy Chosen Few,
Are fed with heav’nly Fare. (Hymn 61)
His poem The Narrow Way commences,
What thousands never knew the road!
What thousands hate it when ’tis known!
None but the chosen tribes of God,
Will seek or choose it for their own. (Hymn 62)
77
78
79
Ephesians 1:4
30

To Cowper it is God’s choice of a people to be saved that makes salvation definite (cf.
John 6:37). Hymn 62 speaks of an assured salvation for ‘the chosen tribes of God’.
Cowper’s Arminian critics, who make God’s choice subject to the exercise of man’s
free will, thus placing the initiative in man, have thereby denied the first ‘two points’
which Cowper affirms strongly in his poems.
Hartley misinterprets Cowper (Hymn 21) when he writes that Cowper ‘reasserts the
doctrine of election and introduces once again the baleful note of warning to those
outside election’.80
[Emphasis mine.]
This poem is based on Revelation 3:1-6, the letter to the church at Sardis. It is not a
‘warning to those outside election’, but rather a rebuke and a warning directed to a
disobedient and dying church. Warnings are to be directed to those outside of Christ as
well as to those within the Christian Church whose profession of faith may be insincere.
Hartley’s view betrays a misunderstanding of Cowper’s Calvinism. The consequence of
this misunderstanding is that ‘those outside election’, if there were such at Sardis, could
in heeding the warning, repent and become elect. Such a notion runs counter to the
doctrine of election itself, which speaks of an eternal and unalterable decree of God. (cf.
John 15:16; Acts 13:48; Romans 8:29,30 & 9:11,12; Ephesians 1:4,5; Revelation 13:8)
(iii) Limited Atonement (also ‘Definite Atonement’ or ‘Particular
Redemption’)
Limited atonement is the biblical teaching that Christ in his atoning work actually
procured and made definite the redemption of those chosen to salvation. It was not that
Christ’s sacrifice made possible the salvation of all, but rather that in his vicarious
sufferings he was securing the redemption of ‘as many as had been appointed to eternal
life’, ‘the sheep’, ‘the church’.81
It shall be shown that Cowper’s poems set forth the
‘definiteness’ of the atonement. By contrast the Arminian speaks only in terms of
‘possibility’.
80
81
Acts 13:48, John 10:11, Ephesians 5:25
31

It is here that the conflict rages over the free offer of the gospel. We have already noted
Cowper’s expressions,82
which are so similar to Newton’s supposedly ‘harsh
Calvinism’. Newton wrote,
You that weary are like me,
Harken to the Gospel call;
To the ark for refuge flee,
Jesus will receive you all!83
Newton’s Calvinism left the door of mercy wide open for sinners. Rather than
exacerbating Cowper’s affliction, the truth of Definite Atonement would have been for
him a ‘balm in Gilead’.84
Cowper’s (and Newton’s) understanding of Particular
Redemption in no wise limited them in urging men and women everywhere to embrace
the all-sufficient Saviour. They saw no contradiction between a limited atonement and
the free and genuine offer of the gospel to all mankind (cf. Ezekiel 33:11; Acts 17:30).
When speaking of Atonement we are referring to those great saving acts of Christ which
reached their climactic expression at Calvary. Atonement is by the shedding of blood,
the blood of Christ. It is at this point that we return to those statements of Cowper
concerning the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. We shall also focus briefly on the
‘limitedness’ or ‘particularity’ of the atonement.
In his poem JEHOVAH SHAMMAH, Cowper refers to the elect of God as ‘Jerusalem’.
As birds their infant brood protect,
And spread their wings to shelter them;
Thus saith the LORD to his elect,
‘So will I guard Jerusalem’.
And what then is Jerusalem
This darling object of his care?
Where is its worth in God’s esteem?
Who built it? Who inhabits there?
Jehovah founded it in blood,
The blood of his incarnate Son;
There dwell the saints, once foes to God,
The sinners whom he calls his own. (Hymn 14)
82
See p. 25 of this thesis
83
Cecil, Newton’s Works, vol. 3, p. 586
84
Jeremiah 8:22
32

These words are replete with Calvinistic atonement theology. The phrases used to
denote the objects of God’s salvation are particular. There is no universalism here.
Cowper proceeds to inform us of the extent of God’s esteem for ‘his elect’, ‘this darling
object of his care’, his ‘Jerusalem’.
Jehovah founded it in blood,
The blood of his incarnate Son;
Here is particular atonement, which by the purpose of God is limited in its design to
‘Jerusalem’ … the people of God. It is accomplished by the death of his Son.
The familiar, There is a fountain filled with blood (Hymn 15) has attracted a host of
critics who strongly resist the New Covenant teaching of redemption by ‘the precious
blood of Jesus, as a lamb without blemish and without spot’.85
Johansen informs us that this hymn ‘is now less used and is being omitted from some
new hymnals because of its extravagant imagery’. He continues,
Granted the image is crude … But then the reality is crude. Sin is not polite
or polished, and the measures which God took for man’s redemption were
not, in earthly terms, fit for fastidious minds to contemplate. If this hymn is
in bad taste, then Christianity itself is in bad taste.86
Fausset, one of Cowper’s major biographers tells us that the hymn is ‘barbarous’ and
that in such a hymn Cowper is blending ‘hysteria with a sectarian idiom… All such
writing has, of course, no poetic value’.87
Hartley speaks of ‘the seemingly barbaric cult
of blood sacrifice’.88
But it is here that Cowper brings his reader face to face with the
great doctrine which lay at the very heart of the evangelical preaching of his day.
Yet again the particularity of the atonement is found in this hymn in its third verse,
Dear dying Lamb, thy precious blood
Shall never lose its power;
85
I Peter 1:19
86
John Henry Johansen, ‘The Olney Hymns’, The Papers of the Hymn Society of America,
1956, p. 21
(Note: The major part of this statement is an unacknowledged quote from Routley p. 95
which was written some years before Johansen’s article.)
87
As quoted in Ella, Cowper, p. 19
88
33

Till all the ransom’d church of God
Be sav’d to sin no more.
The atoning work of Christ shall accomplish the purposes of God for his church.
(iv) Irresistible Grace
This doctrine teaches us that the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit cannot be resisted.
Jesus said, ‘All that the Father gives me will come to me…’89
If this grace were less
than ‘irresistible’ none would be saved, for the sinner by nature is at ‘enmity’ with
God.90
The grace of God therefore must ‘abound’ over our sin which has rendered us
spiritually incapacitated.91
Cowper sets forth this grand truth in a variety of expressions.
Divine desire, that holy flame
Thy grace creates in me. (Hymn 11)
Yet turn me, and I shall be turn’d,
Thou art the LORD my God. (Hymn 12)
I want the grace that springs from thee,
That quickens all things where it flows;
And makes a wretched thorn, like me,
Bloom as the myrtle or the rose. (Hymn 54)
Then my stubborn heart he broke,
And subdued me to his sway;
By a simple word he spoke
‘Thy sins are done away.’ (Hymn 56)
Lulled in a soft and fatal sleep,
They sin and yet rejoice;
Were they indeed the Saviour’s sheep,
Would they not hear his voice? (Hymn 59)
Hymn 13 is another in which the irresistibility of God’s special work of grace is found.
The LORD proclaims his grace abroad!
89
John 6:37
90
Romans 8:7, 8
91
Romans 5: 20,21
34

Behold, I change your hearts of stone;
Each shall renounce his idol god,
And serve, henceforth, the LORD alone.
My grace, a flowing stream, proceeds
To wash your filthiness away;
Ye shall abhor your former deeds,
And learn my statutes to obey.
My truth the great design insures,
I give myself away to you;
You shall be mine, I will be yours,
Your GOD unalterably true.
Yet not unsought, or unimplor’d,
The plenteous grace shall I confer,
No – your whole hearts shall seek the LORD,
I’ll put a praying spirit there.
From the first breath of life divine,
Down to the last expiring hour;
The gracious work shall all be mine,
Begun and ended in my pow’r.
(Note: Cowper in this hymn expresses each one of the Five Points of Calvinism.)
The use of the word ‘shall’ is significant. That salvation is the outcome of the exercise
of man’s ‘free will’ is soundly refuted by Cowper. Even our pleadings to be saved are
the initiative of a sovereign God, and activated by him. ‘I’ll put a praying spirit
there.’ (4th
verse)
Cowper reminds us that the grace that is irresistible is also prevenient,
Father of mercies we have need
Of thy preparing grace. (Hymn 16)
Here is an undiluted and balanced Calvinism. It is the theology of Scripture which
alone gives hope to the sinner, lost and ruined. It is sovereign grace alone in its every
action which opens heaven’s doors to the prodigal.
35

(v) Perseverance of the Saints
The title of Ella’s biography of Cowper, Poet of Paradise tells us of the optimism that is
expressed in his poems. It is a gospel optimism based on the truth that those who are in
Christ are secure and shall persevere to the end (cf. John 10:28 ‘…they shall never
perish’).
While it is wholly biblical that ‘he who endures to the end shall be saved’,92
it is equally
true to assert that those who are saved shall endure.
Whilst holding firmly to the eternal security of the believer, Cowper knew of the abuses
and false constructions that were attached to this comforting doctrine. Hymn 61 is a
solemn warning against presumption of grace.
Too many Lord, abuse thy grace
In this Licentious Day,
And whilst they boast they see thy face,
They turn their Own away. (Hymn 61)
In reference to this, Routley charges Cowper with having a ‘truculent’ spirit and
expressing an ‘uncharitable judgment of other men’.93
He (Routley) appears not to
discern the distinction that Cowper draws between Christian liberty and licentiousness.
Cowper wants his readers to know that saving grace is known by its evidences.
Gilbert Thomas in reflecting upon Cowper’s emphasis on a sanctified lifestyle says,
‘These utterances are far indeed removed from Calvinism in any strict sense.’94
For Thomas, any mention of good works as the fruit of saving grace ‘contradicts the
Calvinistic letter with the spirit of the Sermon on the Mount’.95
He then makes the
amazing statement that Cowper has in his heart, shifted to the Arminian position!96
Thomas’ view is that the emphasis upon holiness of life is ‘the Arminian position’, and
that when Cowper speaks of sanctification he has at that moment abandoned his
Calvinism.
92
Matthew 24:13
93
94
95
96
36

However, perseverance is continuing in ‘holiness without which no one shall see the
Lord’.97
The end of God’s predestinating purpose is that the believer ‘be conformed to
the image of his Son’.98
This will come to its full realization and consummation in glory
when ‘we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is’.99
What Thomas does not
realize is that ‘everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure’.100
In Thomas’ view such an emphasis is foreign to Calvinism. In this regard Thomas has
misunderstood Calvin’s theology. The Reformation Creeds consistently emphasize the
need for the believer to persevere in holiness. Cowper writes,
Oh for a closer Walk with God,
A calm and heavenly frame. (Hymn 1)
I hate the sins that made thee mourn
And drove thee from my Breast. (Hymn 1)
Here Cowper portrays the struggle of a person, persevering in his Christian walk and
experiencing the warfare between flesh and spirit.101
For Cowper, perseverance in the
Christian life involved a constant mortifying of the flesh, a ruthless dealing with those
‘idols’ that divert the eye of faith from Christ.
The dearest idol I have known,
Whate’er that idol be,
Help me to tear it from thy throne
And worship only thee. (Hymn 1)
In a number of his poems Cowper speaks of himself as a ‘worm’ and of his life as a
pathway strewn with ‘thorns’. Hartley, in addressing this theme compares Cowper with
the other Christian poets of his day. He concludes, ‘his approach to God is more
tortured’.102
There appears to be little appreciation in Hartley of the conflict that
sometimes rages in the heart of a man who, whilst being a sinner, yearns for that
holiness of life which God requires. Granted, Cowper’s affliction must never be
forgotten, but Hartley fails to give due place to the Christian’s inner struggles.
97
Hebrews 12:14
98
Romans 8:29
99
I John 3:2
100
I John 3:3
101
Galatians 5:17
102
37

Yet the theme of the glory to come is also emphasized in the poems. Whilst suffering
from hallucinations, hearing strange voices and being convinced that God had
abandoned him, Cowper nevertheless expressed the conviction that a sinner once in
possession of Christ and life eternal was secure.
This is the paradox that we see in Cowper.
In a time of deep despair he wrote to Newton concerning the eternal security of the
believer. Cowper speaks of the saving possession of divine truth and then concludes,
‘He who once had possession of it should never finally lose it. I admit the solidity of
this reasoning in every case…but my own.’103
Yet here is the man who could write,
Redeeming love has been my theme
And shall be till I die.
Lord, I believe thou hast prepared
(Unworthy tho’ I be)
For me a blood-bought free reward,
A golden harp for me! (Hymn 15)
We note his use of the personal pronoun. Again he speaks of personal assurance and
perseverance.
A cheerful confidence I feel,
My well-placed hopes with joy I see;
My bosom glows with heavenly zeal
To worship him who died for me.
He will not fail, he cannot faint
Salvation’s sure, and must be mine. (Hymn 25)
There is abundant evidence that Cowper’s trust was in Christ. His problem was his
tragic affliction which on many occasions robbed him of the blessing of an assured
faith. We cannot analyse Cowper and his sense of forsakenness as we would the
Christian who is at times beset by certain doubts and fears. His was a fixation of mind
103
38

which at times caused him to imagine that ‘he was living with the eternal hell of
damned souls’.104
He constantly longed for comfort and peace. In his more balanced moments he
recognized that trials and afflictions have their purpose in the providence of God.
Trials make the promise sweet,
Trials give new life to prayer;
Trials bring me to his feet,
Lay me low and keep me there. (Hymn 36)
’Tis joy enough, my ALL in ALL,
At thy dear feet to lie;
Thou wilt not let me lower fall,
And none can higher fly. (Hymn 59)
Here is a humble, submissive Christian with the spirit of the Baptist, ‘He must increase
but I must decrease.’105
Cowper desired heaven and glory and saw the afflictions of the
righteous as part of the sanctifying process.
Did I meet no trials here,
No chastisement by the way;
Might I not with reason, fear
I should prove a cast-away: (Hymn 36)
That the last poem which he wrote was entitled The Castaway was indicative of those
final ‘eight long years of misery and terror before the blessed day dawned’.106
The comment of Martin is pertinent at this point.
104
105
John 3:30
106
Ella, Banner of Truth magazine, Issue 256, p. 11 (See Appendix B for the full text of this
poem.)
39

Our knowledge of God in Christ authorizes us to assert without hesitation
that Cowper was mistaken in his belief in divine desertion, wherever he got it
from. We remember that saying of St John: ‘If our heart condemn us, God is
greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.’ The delusions of men do not
change the reality of God’s love. Mrs Browning has a poem called Cowper’s
Grave, which does not lend itself to quotation but is full of a sympathetic
understanding. She reminds us that Christ Himself on the Cross uttered a
terrible ‘orphaned cry’ and that He surely went through that experience that
no such words of desolation should be used by those He came to save. And
she pictures a boy in the delirium of fever crying out for his mother, not
realizing that all the time she is there beside his bed caring for him. And
when he wakes from his fever it is to find her still there. So she sees Cowper
declaring that God has forsaken him, yet waking from his fevered dream of
life to find himself in His presence.107
Cowper’s final contribution to the Olney Hymns was his renowned poem dealing with
the providence of God. He had a premonition that he was about to be plunged into the
depths of mental derangement once again. He spoke of the ‘mysterious way’ in which
God moves. The ‘clouds’ were gathering, providence was ‘frowning’, yet even in these
despairing circumstances his trust was in God who ‘works his Sovereign will’. Though
we may fail to understand, there will be a time when ‘he will make it plain’.
God moves in a mysterious way,
His wonders to perform,
He plants his footsteps in the Sea,
And rides upon the Storm.
Deep in unfathomable Mines,
Of never failing Skill,
He treasures up his bright designs,
And works his Sovereign Will.
Ye fearfull Saints fresh courage take,
The clouds ye so much dread,
Are big with Mercy, and shall break
In blessings on your head.
Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
But trust him for his Grace,
Behind a frowning Providence
He hides a Smiling face.
His purposes will ripen fast,
Unfolding every hour,
The Bud may have a bitter taste,
But wait, to Smell the flower.108
Blind unbelief is sure to err,
107
Hugh Martin, They Wrote Our Hymns, (Great Britain, SCM Press, 1961) p. 80
108
Later versions read ‘But Sweet shall be the flower’.
40

And scan his work in vain,
God is his own Interpreter,
And he will make it plain. (Hymn 35)
William Cowper died on Friday, 25 April, 1800. When his elderly friend John Newton
heard the news he wrote some verses in anticipation of a reunion in the land of promise.
Having spoken of his close friendship with the poet, Newton continued,
My friend, my friend! and have we met again,
Far from the home of woe, the home of men;
And hast thou taken thy glad harp once more,
Twined with far lovelier wreaths than e’er before;
And is thy strain more joyous and more loud,
While circle round thee heaven’s attentive crowd?
Oh! Let thy memory wake! I told thee so;
I told thee thus would end thy heaviest woe;
I told thee that thy God would bring thee here,
And God’s own hand would wipe away thy tear.
While I should claim a mansion by thy side,
I told thee so – for our Emmanuel died.109
Newton rightly said that Cowper was a burning bush who was not consumed.110
Conclusions
In our concluding remarks we shall make a number of brief observations, some of
which need more detailed development.
First, there should always be a discerning study of all biographical information. That
the understanding of Cowper has suffered greatly from prejudiced biographers and
editors is evident. The Christian reader must always seek to cultivate fair-minded
judgments after a careful and balanced consideration of all the available information.
Secondly, the criticisms by many of Cowper’s biographers and editors cannot be
sustained in the face of the evidence that is now available. As well, we must treat as
109
As quoted in Ella, Cowper, p. 584
110
Murray, Banner of Truth magazine, Issue 96, p. 32
41

invalid the conclusions drawn by those who fail to appreciate Cowper’s Calvinism and
the doctrines of grace as expressed in the Five Points of Calvinism.
Thirdly, it was by the medium of verse that William Cowper called men and women
back to Christ. He was the poet of the Evangelical Revival. His influence then, and
ever since ‘has been estimated by historians to be even greater than that of Wesley,
Whitefield and other leading Evangelical preachers of his day’.111
This reinforces the
fact that gospel truth written in poetic form and published, remains a powerful
instrument in the hand of God.
That verse is more readily learned and remembered needs no proof. It was this fact
which lay behind Newton’s original suggestion concerning the writing of the Olney
Hymns. Cowper himself reminds us in a poem to Lady Austen,
No wonder I, who scribble rhyme,
To catch the trifles of the time,
And tell them truths divine, and clear,
Which couch’d in prose they will not hear.112
The Christian Church would do well to lay this to heart in its teaching ministry. In our
own experience, where one person may struggle to quote verbatim the 23rd
or the 100th
Psalm in its prose form, there are ten who can recite it in its metrical form. Truth in
verse (not necessarily sung) is a proven vehicle of memorization.
For those using such poems as vehicles of praise in public worship in preference to the
inspired psalms there must be constant and close supervision of the doctrinal content.
The prevailing spirit of our age and the clamour for novelty (from which the church is
not immune) will inevitably dilute the truth with the result that the songs of the church
will degenerate into superficial and repetitive choruses. This is highlighted by
Routley’s discerning observation. He is commenting upon one of Cowper’s hymns in
particular, There is a Fountain filled with Blood. Yet in our present day his words are
pertinent to all of Cowper’s hymns.
111
The review on the dust cover of Ella’s work on Cowper.
112
Baird & Ryskamp, The Poems, p.454
42

The only criticism that will stand against this hymn is a criticism not of the
hymn but of the untheological and uncompassionate age in which we at
present live, which makes necessary the careful use of hymns so heavily
loaded with theology and so uncompromisingly Scriptural in their
language.113
The Olney Hymns of Cowper are certainly not out-dated in their theology.
Fourthly, whilst an assured faith is necessary for a Christian’s well being, it must be
asserted that it is faith in Christ alone that constitutes a Christian. Though Cowper for
lengthy periods had a sense of forsakenness, it remains that Christ was always the object
of his faith and hope.
In an age of subjectivism and experience-centred Christianity, the Church in its
proclamation must point men and women to Christ alone as revealed in Scripture. He
must be the sole object of a believer’s confidence. When this is the case, though
contrary feelings, fears and severe afflictions may arise and assault the mind, the
believer rests secure in a righteousness not his own, even the righteousness of Christ
which the Father has been pleased to accept.
Fifthly, the Christian Church should seek to encourage its people to be as John Newton
was to William Cowper; sensitive, compassionate, self-denying, cross-bearing and
loving. Newton was wholly committed to his friend’s welfare. He fed him, counselled
him and shepherded him in the darkest of days. The presence of such openhearted
people in our fellowships who ‘esteem the other better than himself’,114
is a great
blessing from God.
Finally and most importantly, the grace of God in Christ was the predominant theme of
Cowper’s Olney Hymns. This was a reflection of the preaching which was so honoured
by the Lord during the 18th
Century Revival. Even so, the Church today must make the
sovereign grace of God in Christ the all-absorbing focus of its proclamation if it desires
and expects the gospel, by the power of God’s Spirit, to revive our churches and shake
our national life.
As a tribute to William Cowper, the Poet of Olney, the following verses have been
penned:
113
Routley, I’ll Praise My Maker’, p. 96
114
Philippians 2:3
43

And tho’ his way was ‘tempest toss’d’
His God has wiped away all tears.
The days of darkness now have gone,
And Light shall shine thro’ endless years.
Convinced he was ‘The Castaway’
From Christ, who sits upon the Throne,
His troubled mind was fill’d with fear,
But now he ‘knows as he is known’.
He sings ‘a nobler sweeter song’
Than e’er he penned whilst here below,
‘All glory to the Lamb who died
Salvation’s mine, and this I know!’
‘Worthy is the Lamb once slain’
With heav’nly host he joins his voice,
Redeemed to God, a Priest, a King,
He must, he will, he shall rejoice!
His voice not heard, yet he still speaks
Of Christ who died upon the Tree,
And of ‘A fountain fill’d with blood’,
And of the grace that set him free. (John Cromarty)
Bibliography
Books
Bailey, A. E., They Wrote our Hymns, (Great Britain, SCM Press, 1961)
Baird, J. D., & Ryskamp, C., (eds.), The Poems of William Cowper, Volume I: 1748-
1782, (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1980)
Balleine, G. R., A History of the Evangelical Party in the Church of England, (London,
Church Book Room Press, 1951)
Benham, B. D., (ed.), Letters of William Cowper, (London, MacMillan & Co., 1899)
Cecil, D., The Stricken Deer, The life of Cowper, (London, Constable & Company Ltd.,
1944)
44

Cecil, R., (ed.), The Works of the Revd John Newton, Volume 3, (Edinburgh, Banner of
Truth, 1985)
Cowper, W., The Poetical Works of William Cowper, (Edinburgh, Gall & Inglis, 1858)
Dallimore, A., George Whitefield, Volume II, (Edinburgh, Banner of Truth, 1980)
Davidson, N., How Sweet the Sound, (Belfast, Ambassador Productions, 1997)
Ella, G. M., William Cowper, Poet of Paradise, (Darlington, Evangelical Press, 1993)
Grimshawe, T. S., (ed.), The Life and Works of William Cowper, (London, William P.
Nimmo, 1875)
Houghton, E., Christian Hymn-Writers, (Bridgend, Evangelical Press of Wales, 1982)
Jeffrey, D. L., (ed.), A Burning and a Shining Light, English Spirituality in the Age of
Wesley, (Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 1987)
Loane, M. L., Oxford and the Evangelical Succession, (London, Lutterworth, 1950)
Lucas, E. V., (ed.), William Cowper’s Letters, A selection, (London, Oxford University
Press, n.d.)
Martin, H., They Wrote Our Hymns, (Great Britain, SCM Press, 1961)
Murray, J., The Claims of Truth, Collected Writings of John Murray, (Edinburgh,
Banner of Truth, 1976)
Routley, E., I’ll Praise My Maker, (London, Independent Press Ltd., 1951)
Thomas, G., William Cowper and the Eighteenth Century, (London, Allan & Unwin,
1948)
White, J., The Masks of Melancholy, A Christian Physician Looks at Depression and
Suicide, (Illinois, InterVarsity Press, 1982)
White, P. G., William Cowper, God’s Lonely Man, (Nashville, The Upper Room, 1960)
Wood, A. S., The Inextinguishable Blaze, Spiritual Renewal and Advance in the
Eighteenth Century, (Great Britain, Paternoster Press, 1967)
Holy Bible, New King James Version, (Korea, Thomas Nelson, 1987)
The Westminster Confession of Faith, (Belfast, Graham & Heslip Ltd., 1933)
Journals, Magazines and other Sources
Ella, G. M., William Cowper: ‘A Burning Bush which was not Consumed’, The Banner
of Truth magazine, Issue 256, (Edinburgh, Banner of Truth, 1985)
Ella, G. M., John Newton’s Friendship with William Cowper, The Banner of Truth
magazine, Issue 269, (Edinburgh, Banner of Truth, 1986)
45

Ella, G. M., William Cowper: A Review Article on Major New Editions of Cowper’s
Works, The Banner of Truth magazine, Issue 274, (Edinburgh, Banner of Truth,
1986)
Ella, G. M., The Olney Hymns and Their Relevance for Today, Bible League Quarterly,
April-June, 1986
Hartley, L., The Worm and the Thorn: A Study of Cowper’s Olney Hymns, The Journal
of Religion, xxix, 1948-1949, pp. 226-229
Houghton, S. M., Olney Hymns, An appreciation by the Editor, Bible League Quarterly,
October-December, 1979
Johansen, J. H., The Olney Hymns, The Papers of the Hymn Society of America,
1956Knight, G. L., William Cowper as a Hymn-Writer, The Hymn, Volume I, No.
4, pp. 5-20 (New York, The Hymn Society of America, 1950)
Martin, T. D., Paradise and Poetry, A review article and reflection upon Cowper’s work,
Bible League Quarterly, April-June, 1990 pp. 321-327
Murray, I., William Cowper and his Affliction, The Banner of Truth magazine, Issue 96,
(Edinburgh, Banner of Truth, 1971)
Piper, J., Insanity and Spiritual Songs in the Soul of a Saint, Reflections on the Life of
William Cowper, A talk delivered at the Bethlehem Conference for Pastors,
January 1992, (Internet).
Rubens, J., private correspondence to James A. Cromarty, 26.10.1998
46

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