The Church and the Bible

Works of John Owen #16

by John Owen

Despite his other achievements, Owen is best famed for his writings. These cover the range of doctrinal, ecclesiastical and practical subjects. They are characterized by profundity, thoroughness and, consequently, authority. Andrew Thomson said that Owen ‘makes you feel when he has reached the end of his subject, that he has also exhausted it.’ Although many of his works were called forth by the particular needs of his own day they all have a uniform quality of timelessness. Owen’s works were republished in full in the nineteenth century. Owen is surely the Prince of the Puritans. ‘To master his works’, says Spurgeon, ‘is to be a profound theologian.’

Genres: Theology

616 pages, Library Binding

First published January 1, 1968

About the author

John Owen was an English theologian and "was without doubt not only the greatest theologian of the English Puritan movement but also one of the greatest European Reformed theologians of his day, and quite possibly possessed the finest theological mind that England ever produced" ("Owen, John", in Biographical Dictionary of Evangelicals, p. 494)

Reviews

[Daniel]

The first half of this volume consists of John Owen's book on church government. Owen was a Congregationalist, but it is actually very hard to see how he differs from Presbyterianism. While the editor (William H. Goold) rightly dismisses attempts to re-Presbyterianize Owen based on unverifiable anecdotes, Owen was much closer to Presbyterianism than most modern Congregationalists. His arguments for ruling elders and synods being two such cases in point, though, obviously, on the latter issue, he would not grant as much authority to Synods as Presbyterians and other Reformed divines.

There is a very short tract on divorce and remarriage, which effectively refutes what is known as the "permanence" view of marriage (i.e. that a justly divorced person cannot remarry). Likewise, Owen's tract on infant baptism is an excellent introduction to the subject. The remainder of the volumes consists of Owen's writings on the Polyglot controversy. Owen was responding to those, such as the great Louis Cappel, who were taking too many liberties when it came to correcting the Hebrew text in light of ancient translations. The editor seeks to defend Owen from those who mock his position on the vowel points and other minor issues. Even if some of Owen's arguments were a bit weak in places, his basic point was correct concerning the essential integrity of the Hebrew and Greek text of the original scriptures as transmitted to us via God's providential preservation of his word.

The posthumous sermons published at the end of volume 16 in the Banner of Truth edition are originally from volume 17.

[Daniel Poe]

This volume mainly discusses topics on church government, divorce, infant baptism and Scripture, all of which have been excellent and helpful.

His treatises on the Scriptures are especially valuable. His defence of the purity and God's providential preservation of the entire Hebrew Masoretic OT and Greek Reformation-era NT texts are most excellent, which texts are the Church's final appeal and the very standards that all translations into the various languages of the world ought to come from.

Examples of such translations include Luther's German Bible, the Authorised Version in English, the Spanish Reina-Valera 1602, the Dutch Statenvertaling, the Scottish Gaelic Bible and the Afrikaans Ou Vertaling.

Sadly, this doctrine of the Scriptures, as expressed in the Westminster Standards, the Savoy Declaration and the 1689 London Baptist Confession, has been largely forgotten and ignored in our day, even rejected by some. May more return to this truly Protestant position on the Holy Scriptures.

Definitely worth reading and I highly recommend it.

[Ronnie Nichols]

This was one of the toughest volumes in his works for me to read. The last 100 pages or so were orations written in Latin. I would suggest a good translator app if you plan to read them. The Nature of the Church and the Divine origins of Scripture were both a challenge and joy. This was not my favorite volume, but now on to the Commentary to the Hebrews Volumes 17-23!

[Jason Farley]

I read "On the Divine originals" - It is like everything by Owen. Thorough, insightful, and complete.

Really helpful stuff, but I need to brush up on my Greek. Owen always reminds me that I am dumb (which is one of my favorite things about him).