John Owen’s Theology of Public Worship

The 17th-century “Prince of Puritans,” John Owen (1616–83), committed his life to the work of ministry as a pastor, theologian, vice chancellor, chaplain, and statesman. He desired to worship the triune God freely—without any external regulations not explicitly found in Scripture.

What was Owen’s theology of public worship, and how should it be practiced in a worship service?

Behold the Glory of God for Worship

Owen regularly taught that worship, private or public, is beholding God’s glory. This glory motivates and creates worship, and for Owen, this all centers on the person of Christ.

“Some men speak much of the imitation of Christ, and following his example,” Owen explains. “But no man shall ever become ‘like unto him’ by bare imitation of his actions, without that view or intuition of his glory which alone is accompanied with a transforming power to change them into the same image.”

Through this “view or intuition of [Christ’s] glory,” Christians begin to be conformed to the Son’s image (Rom. 8:29). This is why the nature of worship is connected not to the external works one does but to the heart’s affections. The inevitable result is worshipful action—a life of holiness. Owen wants people to truly see Christ’s beauty as the theological foundation and motivation for worship.

Worship on the Lord’s Day

For Owen, the Lord’s Day is a continuation of the fourth commandment in the Old Testament—to keep the Sabbath—making Owen a Sabbatarian. He argues in his Hebrews commentary that the fourth commandment continues into the new covenant predominantly in his treatise Exercitations Concerning the Name, Original, Nature, Use, and Continuance of a Day of Sacred Rest.

God created the Sabbath to ensure worship of him is holy and pure, and Christians must not distort the glory that belongs to the Lord.

Owen wants people to truly see Christ’s beauty as the theological foundation and motivation for worship.

According to Owen, the Sabbath is sanctified, because the Lord authoritatively declares it holy, and his church responds by keeping it holy. The day wouldn’t be holy if the Lord didn’t authoritatively proclaim it holy through his revealed Word, with the church rightly responding to his authority by expressing appropriate worship.

Scripture Alone as the Liturgical Criterion

The doctrine of Sola Scriptura, according to Owen, determines how the church is to worship. Horton Davies picks up on this idea when he explains, “The Puritans were the champions of the authority of the ‘pure Word of God’ as the criterion not only for church doctrine, but also for church worship and church government.” This Puritan legacy rested on their conviction that Scripture alone is authoritative, infallible, and sufficient in all matters of life, including worship.

The Sabbath is sanctified, because the Lord authoritatively declares it holy, and his church responds by keeping it holy.

Throughout his treatise Communion with God, Owen regularly points Christians to the necessity of knowing Christ for communion with God, and this knowledge is revealed, declared, and delivered in Scripture alone. Owen further explains, “Without the knowledge of the person of Christ . . . as revealed and declared in the Scripture, there is no true, useful, saving knowledge of any other mysteries or truths of the gospel to be attained.”

Owen cared about worshiping the triune God properly. His theology of public worship is established on the triune God and beholding him by faith now. It’s practiced in a church’s worship service by actively communing with Christ—by looking at him—through the prescribed ordinances of worship found in God’s Word. Expressing spiritual affections by faith in God is the way to abide in Christ, to have communion with him. When our affections are received and expressed by the Spirit, through the Son, to the Father, God receives acceptable worship.