HOWE, JOHN (163o-17o6), English Puritan divine, was born on May 17, 1630 at Loughborough, Leicestershire, where his father was vicar. He studied at Christ's college, Cambridge, became fellow and chaplain of Magdalen college, Oxford, and held a Devonshire curacy. In 1657 Howe became domestic chap lain to Cromwell. In this position his conduct was such as to win the praise of even the bitterest enemies of his party. Without overlooking his fellow-Puritans, he was always ready to help pious and learned men of other schools. Seth War (afterwards bishop of Exeter) and Thomas Fuller were among those who profited by Howe's kindness, and were not ashamed subsequently to ex press their gratitude for it. On the resignation of Richard Crom well, Howe returned to Great Torrington, to leave it again in 1662 on the passing of the act of Uniformity. For several years he led a wandering and uncertain life, until he found a home with Lord Massereene, of Antrim castle, Ireland, with whom he lived for five or six years as domestic chaplain. Here he produced the most eloquent of his shorter treatises, The Vanity of Man as Mortal, and On Delighting in God, and planned his best work, The Living Temple. In 1676 he became joint-pastor of a non-conform ist congregation at Haberdashers' hall, London ; and in the same year he published the first part of The Living Temple, entitled Concerning God's Existence and his Conversableness with Man: Against Atheism or the Epicurean Deism.
For five years after his settlement in London Howe enjoyed comparative freedom, and was on not unfriendly terms with many eminent Anglicans, such as Stillingfleet, Tillotson, John Sharp and Richard Kidder ; but in 1685 he left England with Philip, Lord Wharton. In 1686 he determined to settle for a time at Utrecht, where he officiated in the English chapel. Among his friends there was Gilbert Burnet, who introduced him to William of Orange. In 1687 Howe returned to England. He died in London on April 2, 1706. Richard Cromwell visited him in his last illness.
The works published in his lifetime, including a number of sermons, were collected into 2 vols. fol. in 1724, and again reprinted in 3 vols. 8vo. in 1848. A complete edition of the Whole Works, including much posthumous and additional matter, appeared with a memoir in 8 vols. in 1822 ; this was reprinted in 1 vol. in 1838 and in 6 vols. in 1862-63. E. Calamy's Life (1724) forms the basis of The Life and Character of Howe, with an Analysis of his Writings, by Henry Rogers (1836, new ed. 1863) . See also a sketch by R. F. Horton (1896) .