Owing Owen

I recently enjoyed reading Andrew Thomson’s biography of John Owen (1616–1683), the great seventeenth-century puritan theologian. Despite the author being a Scottish Presbyterian minister, the old rivalry between the two expressions of church government failed to diminish Thomson’s evident admiration for the great man.

Owen’s books have been continually in print and are still widely read today, even if they are generally considered to be scholarly and deep, much like their author. Once a Presbyterian, he was persuaded by the Congregational Way of ‘doing church’ after reading John Cotton. He later helped draw up the Savoy Declaration, the Congregational basis of faith, which, for reasons unknown, is not the credal statement of Salem Chapel, but the Westminster (upon which he also worked, interestingly). He was Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University and accompanied Oliver Cromwell on his expeditions to Scotland and Ireland as his chaplain. He lost everything when the monarchy was restored in 1660, apart from his reputation for learning and natural intelligence.

King Charles II once asked Dr Owen, for whom he had some respect, why such an elevated person should waste time listening to the sermons of an uneducated tinker, by which he meant the Baptist, John Bunyan. The great doctor replied:

“Could I possess the tinker’s abilities for preaching, please your majesty, I would gladly relinquish all my learning.”

This is another reason why Owen was great. Despite his own immense abilities and achievements, he possessed humility and could see high value in others. Furthermore, he appreciated that preaching Christ was a far greater activity than cramming a large head with vast knowledge.

“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.”

-Owen, The Glory of Christ

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