Quoting The Puritans

The Church

"If Jesus so loved the church as to give himself for her, much more what he has is settled on her."

- John Flavel, The Fountain of Life Opened Up, pg 530

 "Thou art not saved for being a member of the church of Rome, or Corinth, or Ephesus, or Philippi, or Thessalonica, or of any other such; but for being a member of the universal church or body of Christ, that is, a Christian."

- Richard Baxter, A Christian Directory, pg 52-53

"There is no entering in God's church but by coming into Christ's church; nor are any looked upon as members of the kingdom of God among men but those that are willing to submit to the grace and government of the Redeemer."

- Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, pg 1583

"As Christ was, so His church is to be in this world.  Christ came into this world not to be ministered unto, but to minister, not to be honored, but to save others.  His church, when she understands her work, will perceive that she is not here to gather to herself wealth or honor, or to seek any temporal aggrandizement and position; she is here unselfishly to live, and if need be, unselfishly to die for the deliverance of the lost sheep, the salvation of lost men."

- Charles Spurgeon, from his sermon "The First Cry From The Cross"

The Life and Thought of John Owen

"I owe more, I think, to John Owen than to any other theologian, ancient or modern."

- J.I. Packer, Introduction to John Owen's The Mortification of Sin, pg 5

The 17th century Puritan John Owen is considered to be one of the most brilliant and in-depth Christians in church history.  Even among other fiercely intelligent and strongly devoted Puritans, Owen was referred to as the "Prince of the Puritans."  My own exposure to Owen's writings is by way of his book "The Mortification of Sin" which is a collection of sermons Owen preached in the year 1656 concerning the killing or "mortifying" of personal sins, as well as my current reading of his two monumental works called "Pneumatologia" (which is completely devoted to the person and work of the Holy Spirit), as well as Owen's large theological volume entitled "Biblical Theology - The History of Theology from Adam to Christ."  I have myself only scratched the surface of the wealth of biblical wisdom that Owen was gifted with, and yet I've already been greatly blessed by his mind which was wholly devoted to bringing glory to God.

What I would like to do in this post is to link a video here that I have uploaded to my YouTube channel, which is John Piper giving a biographical sketch of the "Life and Thought of John Owen."  Piper wrote a book entitled "Contending For Our All" in which he wrote three mini-biographies on three men who fought hard to maintain doctrinal integrity both within their lives as well as in the church; one of the those theological warriors is John Owen.  It is my hope that this sermon/biography by Piper on Owen will birth a strong interest in the writings of John Owen which I have no doubt God will use to anoint the hearts and minds of modern-day Christians to seek more hungrily after personal holiness and the glory of God.

"No teaching may truly be called theology which does not rely on, and trust in, a revelation from God by which the theologian may be pleasing to God and at last enjoy Him forever."

- John Owen, Biblical Theology, Book 1, Chapter 3, pg 16

"There is, if I may say, a secret instinct of faith, whereby it knows the voice of Christ when he speaks indeed; as the baby leaped in the womb when the blessed virgin came to Elisabeth, faith leaps in the heart when Christ indeed draws nigh to it."

- John Owen, The Mortification of Sin, Chapter 13, pg 158