Semper Ubi Sub Ubi

Owen's "Display of Arminianism"

I began reading Owen's masterful Display of Arminianism last night, and found that, as usual, Owen takes off right out of the gate and lays down his main points in clear and stunning fashion. He has put his finger immediately upon the root of the Arminian error: serving man's PRIDE rather than God Himself. He speaks in 1642 as though it were today... I recommend this treatise highly to any and all - it can be found in volume 10 of his collected works by Banner of Truth, or individually for sale by other publishers.
In his first paragraph, he begins:

As a desire of self-sufficiency was the first cause of this infirmity, so a conceit thereof is that wherewith he still languisheth; nothing doth he more contend for than an independency of any supreme power, which might either help, hinder, or control him in his actions. This is that bitter root from whence have sprung all those heresies and wretched contentions which have troubled the church, concerning the power of man in working his own happiness, and his exemption from the over-ruling providence of Almighty God. All which wrangling disputes of carnal reason against the word of God come at last to this head, Whether the first, and chiefest part, in disposing of things in this world, ought to be ascribed to God or man? Men for the most part have vindicated this pre-eminence unto themselves, by exclamations that so it must be, or else that God is unjust, and his ways unequal. Never did any men, “postquam Christiana gens esse caepit,” more eagerly endeavor the erecting of this Babel than the Arminians, the modern blinded patrons of humanself-sufficiency...

Now Owen never is one to mince terms, and this paragraph is no exception to the norm. Some may want take issue with the directness with which he addresses the issue in the last line here, but I cannot find any reason that any can take issue with his reasoning. It is likely that an Arminian today might say "well, but I don't go so far as Owen says I go in denying God's sovereignty. I don't like the way he takes our principles and extends them to ridiculous conclusions."

My response to that is to ask whether Owen is REALLY extending Arminian thought to its ridiculous end, or is he simply MAKING CLEAR what Arminian principles REALLY DO say about God? I am firmly convicted of the latter option.