“A man preacheth that sermon only well unto others which preacheth itself in his own soul. And he that doth not feed on and thrive in the digestion of the food which he provides for others will scarce make it savoury unto them; yea, he knows not but the food he hath provided may be poison, unless he have really tasted of it himself. If the word do not dwell with power in us, it will not pass with power from us.” – John Owen, Works Vol: XVI, 76.
Category Archives: John Owen
Look Here, Not There
“On Christ’s glory I would fix all my thoughts and desires, and the more I see of the glory of Christ, the more the painted beauties of this world will wither in my eyes and I will be more and more crucified to this world. It will become to me like something dead and putrid, impossible for me to enjoy.” – John Owen, The Glory of Christ, 7.
He’s Got It
Book Recommendation: For Church Members
One of the few things I’m certain of is the spiritual usefulness of John Owen. He is worth every fighting moment of consideration and meditation. He rewards the reader’s rigorous attention with untold treasures for the soul.
But not all of his books are like wading through a literary slog. Owen does occasionally puts the cookies on the lower shelf for those of us more feeble in mind. One such work was recently republished by Reformation Heritage under the title of Rules for Walking in Fellowship.
DON’T UNDERESTIMATE THIS GEM
RHB says, “In Rules for Walking in Fellowship, John Owen supplies struggling congregations with biblical guidelines for making church life in the present a foretaste of heavenly fellowship to come. He discusses both the responsibilities congregations have toward pastors as well as the duties members have toward one another. Together, Owen presents twenty-four rules for fostering gospel fellowship, supporting them with numerous proof texts, brief explanations, and words of motivation to keep them. His simple approach makes this book ideal for personal or small group study. Here, then, is a collection of indispensable biblical rules that will challenge Christians in any given congregation, of whatever denomination—a little gem that is at the same time doctrinal, practical, and ecumenical.”
The book’s usefulness is quite clear when you browse the Table of Contents . . .
PART 1: Rules for Walking in Fellowship, with Reference to the Pastor or Minister Who Watches Over Your Souls
- Attending to the Ordinances Dispensed by Your Pastor
- Following Your Pastor’s Example
- Praying for Your Pastor
- Esteeming Your Pastor
- Paying Your Pastor’s Salary
- Standing by Your Pastor in His Trials
- Gathering to Worship when Summoned
PART 2: Rules to Be Observed By Those Who Walk in Fellowship, to Remind Them of Their Mutual Duties Toward One Another
- Loving One Another
- Praying for the Church
- Taking a Stand for the Church
- Preserving Unity
- Separating from the World
- Engaging in Spiritual Conversation
- Bearing with One Another’s Faults
- Bearing One Another’s Burdens
- Helping the Poor
- Being Wary of Those Who Divide the Church
- Sharing the Church’s Lot, No Matter What
- Associating with the Lowly
- Praying for the Afflicted
- Keeping Each Other Accountable
- Being Holy
In many ways, this is the Puritan answer to the question of, “What is a Healthy Church Member?” Grab a few copies, a few friends, and tolle lege!
The Essence of a Man
Owen’s Advice to Preachers
In his day John Owen was called the “prince of the English divines,” “the leading figure among the Congregationalist divines,” “a genius with learning second only to Calvin’s,” and “indisputably the leading proponent of high Calvinism in England in the late seventeenth century.”
Have you read any of his works?
“HEAVY AND HARD TO READ”
If you haven’t, you are in the vast majority. Owen is notoriously hard to read. Spurgeon said, “I did not say that it was easy to read [Owen’s works]!—that would not be true; yet I do venture to say that the labour involved in plodding through these ill-arranged and tediously-written treatises will find them abundantly worthwhile.” To discover Owen’s abundant usefulness you simply need to read his timeless work The Mortification of Sin. Just how helpful is this “little” book?
Jerry Bridges said, “John Owen’s treatises on Indwelling Sin in Believers and The Mortification of Sin are, in my opinion, the most helpful writings on personal holiness ever written.” JI Packer feels indebted to Owen, for he once wrote, “I owe more to John Owen than to any other theologian, ancient or modern, and I owe more to this little book [The Mortification of Sin] than to anything else he wrote.”
Around this time last year I had a few dozen men in my church read The Mortification of Sin (the Puritan Paperback version from Banner) a good handful of them said something to the effect of, “This is one of the most useful books I’ve ever read!”
Indeed.
LAY DOWN THE AXE
The book is also oh so useful for pastors in their personal pursuit of holiness and faithfulness in pastoral ministry. Here’s what I mean. Chapter seven closes with a luscious aside directed to preachers who aim to be instruments of mortification in the hearts of their hearers. The Prince of Puritans warns,
Let me add this to them who are preachers of the word, or intend, through the good hand of God, that employment: It is their duty to plead with men about their sins, to lay load on particular sins, but always remember that it be done with that which is the proper end of law and gospel;—that is, that they make use of the sin they speak against to the discovery of the state and condition “wherein the sinner is; otherwise, haply, they may work men to formality and hypocrisy, but little of the true end of preaching the gospel will be brought about. It will not avail to beat a man off from his drunkenness into a sober formality.
A skillful master of the assemblies lays his axe at the root, drives still at the heart . . . To break men off particular sins, and not to break their hearts, is to deprive ourselves of advantages of dealing with them.
. . . Can sin be killed without an interest in the death of Christ, or mortified without the Spirit? . . . If such directions should prevail to change men’s lives, as seldom they do, yet they never reach to the change of their hearts or conditions, they may make men self-justiciaries[sic] or hypocrites, not Christians.
I believe the margin next to this section in my copy reads, “Boom! and Amen.”
Book to Look For: On John Owen’s Piety
Reformation Heritage Books has quietly amassed a goldmine for piety in its “Profiles in Reformed Spirituality Series.”
The “series is designed to introduce the spirituality and piety of the Reformed tradition by presenting descriptions of the lives of influential Christians with select passages from their works. This combination of biographical sketches and primary sources gives a taste of each subject’s contribution to the Reformed tradition’s spiritual heritage and direction as to how the reader can find further edification through their works.”
The next installment, due in just over a month, is entitled “The Foundation of Communion with God: The Trinitarian Piety of John Owen.” Ryan McGraw, who did his PhD on Owen’s liturgical theology, offers up a digestible feast from the Prince of the Puritans. Which is no small accomplishment!
AN ACCESSIBLE OWEN
Owen is notoriously difficult do read, and so RHB and McGraw ought to be commended for their hard work in making Owen accessible to the average church member.
The book’s forty-one chapters are broken down into the following four sections:
- Knowing God as Triune
- Public Worship and Scripture
- Heavenly Mindedness and Apostasy
- Covenant and Church
I have read quite a few of the other volumes in this series and each one has been fantastic. They are great for discipling and are also suited nicely for morning devotions. Make sure to grab this one when it comes out and then consider which installment you might read next.
Tolle lege!
I hope I may own in sincerity that my heart’s desire unto God, and the chief design of my life . . . are, that mortification and universal holiness may be promoted in my own and in the hearts and ways of others, to the glory of God, that so the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ may be adorned in all things. – John Owen
The Business of Obedience
After calling Christians to store up gospel treasure in their hearts, John Owen provides the normative response of such a heart – universal obedience:
He that, having a due acquaintance with the gospel in its excellencies, as to him a word of mercy, holiness, liberty, and consolation, values it, in all its concernments, as his choicest and only treasure,–makes it his business and the work of his life to give himself up unto it in universal obedience, then especially when opposition and apostasy put the patience of Christ to the utmost,–he shall be preserved from the hour of temptation.
– Owen, Overcoming Sin & Temptation, 211-212.
Store the Heart
In Of Temptation, John Owen encourages Christians to store up their hearts with truth in order to stand against temptation:
But store the heart with a sense of the love of God in Christ, and his love in the shedding of it; get a relish of the privileges we have thereby,–our adoption, justification, acceptation with God; fill the heart with thoughts of the beauty of his death;–and thou wilt, in an ordinary course of walking with God, have great peace and security as to the disturbance of temptations.
– Owen, Overcoming Sin & Temptation, 202.