Faith and Its Evidences (Vol 5) [HC]

Works of John Owen – Volume 5

Owen’s masterly account of justification by faith, first printed in 1677, is distinguished from the other two classical 17th-century English treatises on this subject (those of Downame and Davenant) by its non-speculative, non-scholastic character and its dominating pastoral concern. The resurgent Roman challenge, and current Protestant confusion, obliged Owen to write controversially at certain points, but the core of his discourse is straight forward biblical exposition, massive, fresh, compelling and practical.

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.’