Duties of Christian Fellowship, by John Owen, published by the Banner of Truth Trust in their Puritan Paperbacks series, 95 pages, £5.00.
This addition to the Puritan Paperbacks series is a modernised edition of John Owen’s treatise Eshcol; A cluster of the fruit of Canaan, or Rules of direction for the walking of the saints in fellowship, according to the order of the gospel, printed in volume 13, pages 51-87, of the edition of The Works of John Owen edited by William Goode and reprinted by the Banner of Truth Trust in 1967.
The historical background to this little treatise of Owen is not made entirely clear in this modernised edition. After Owen’s graduation from Oxford, and following a period as a private tutor, he became in 1643, at the age of 27, the minister of the Anglican church at Fordham in Essex, around five miles from Colchester. Three years later he became the minister of nearby Coggeshall. A vacancy had occurred due to the removal of Obadiah Sedgewick, the previous Puritan minister, to St Paul’s in Covent Garden, London.
It was whilst he was at Coggeshall that Owen finally adopted Independent views on church polity. This led to him forming a congregation on congregational principles which met for nearly 20 years in the parish church. Bryan Dale in The Annals of Coggeshall writes, “Never perhaps was this edifice more truly the church of the parish than at this time, when two thousand people constantly assembled in it for worship, and often listened for hours to Owen in the prime of his days”. This practice of forming a church within a church was a relatively common occurrence at the beginning of a time of renewal in the Church. It happened at the Reformation, in the days of the Puritans, and among the early Methodists prior to John Wesley’s death.
It was for the use of this church set up on Congregationalist principles that Owen prepared this little volume, giving guidance on the duties of Christian fellowship. The book is divided into two sections. The first details seven rules on walking in fellowship with the pastor or minister of the congregation, whilst the second contains 15 rules on walking in fellowship with others in the congregation. In each of the 22 rules, Owen first states the rule, then prints in full a number of verses from Scripture that supports the rule and concludes with what the original text called an “explication” of the rule. The first three rules regarding walking in fellowship with the minister are as follows: Attending regularly on the preaching of the Word and the administration of the ordinances committed to him by virtue of his ministerial office (Rule 1). His walk and conversation is to be observed and diligently followed, so far as he walks in the steps of the Lord Jesus Christ (Rule 2). Prayer and supplications are continually to be made on his behalf for assistance and success in the work committed to him (Rule 3).
Three examples of the rules to be observed in walking in fellowship with others in the congregation are: Church members are to exercise affectionate, sincere love in all things, without dissimulation, towards one another, like that which Christ bore to His Church (Rule 1); they are to exercise sedulous care and endeavour to preserve unity, both in particular and in general (Rule 4); they are to engage in frequent spiritual communication for edification, according to the measure of their gifts (Rule 6).
Without question, the principles Owen enunciates in his 22 rules are timeless and if prayerfully applied would enhance the fellowship in any congregation. William Goode has commented, “Several editions of this treatise have appeared; and we cannot wonder at its favourable reception with the religious public, for it is as remarkable as any work of our author, for deep piety, sound judgement, lucid arrangement, and a comprehensive knowledge of Scripture, and forms a manual on church-fellowship which is to this day unsurpassed”.
With regard to this modernised reprint we have some observations:
1. The version of the Scriptures has been changed from the Authorised Version to the English Standard Version. This we regard as very regrettable, the more so as each rule is followed by the printing in full of several verses of Scripture. This will undoubtedly stand out to Free Presbyterian readers.
2. Each rule is followed by a number of questions for “consideration and discussion” that formed no part of Owen’s original text. The stated purpose in making these additions is to facilitate the use of the book for Bible study and discussion in house groups. These questions for discussion form a significant part of this modernised edition – each rule is followed by up to five questions. We regard the language used in some of these questions, in a book originally of Puritan origin, as inappropriate. An example is a question following Rule 12 in the second section of the treatise. It describes those who wrongly discriminate between people in the Church as “toadies, sycophants, crawlers, back-scratchers, flunkeys, hangers-on” and adds, “Discuss the wrong motivations which tempt us into such behaviour” (p 81).
3. We accept that the modernisation and editing of Owen’s text makes the book easier to read. The result, however, is that it ceases to be the language of Owen. In addition, we question the accuracy of some of this modernisation. Just one example is the substitution of the word believers for Owen’s term professors. This is not accurate. In Owen’s view, these were people who professed belief, not necessarily believers.
4. If an author or a publisher wishes to modernise the original author’s text completely, add a significant number of discussion questions and change the version of the Scriptures used by the original author, surely the correct procedure is to say that this is a new book based on a work – in this instance, by John Owen. Although he did not change the version of the Scriptures, this is what Ernest Kevan did when he wrote his book, The Moral Law. He stated explicitly that it was based on Anthony Burgess’ book, Vindiciae Legis.
We heartily recommend the reading of Owen’s original treatise as an admirable guide to the duties of Church fellowship. However, for the reasons detailed above, we are unable to recommend this modernised reprint to readers of The Free Presbyterian Magazine.
Roy Middleton