The Church and Liberty of Conscience

And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. COLOSSIANS 1:18

Owen is remembered today mostly for his writing on the inner life. In his own time he was just as well known as a churchman: a leader of the Congregational churches, a framer of their confession, and one of the most persistent advocates of liberty of conscience in seventeenth-century England. These were not side interests. They grew from the same root as everything else he taught: the conviction that Christ alone is Lord of His church and of the conscience.

This chapter gathers what he wrote on these subjects across many works, including his treatises on the nature of a gospel church, his writing on schism, and the many pamphlets he wrote after 1662 pleading for toleration for Dissenters.

A gathered church

As a young pastor at Coggeshall, Owen’s study of the New Testament led him to the Congregational, or Independent, view of the church. In brief, he came to believe that a local church is a company of believers who have voluntarily joined together, under Christ, to worship Him and keep His ordinances; that each such congregation has from Christ all it needs to govern itself, choosing its own officers and exercising its own discipline; and that churches should hold fellowship with one another in counsel and love, without being ruled by any authority above them except Christ and His Word.

For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. MATTHEW 18:20

This was a minority view. Most English Puritans were Presbyterians, who wanted a national church governed by assemblies of elders, and the Church of England was governed by bishops. Owen argued his case with learning and some warmth, and in 1658 he was among the leaders of the assembly at the Savoy Palace which produced the Savoy Declaration, a confession of faith and order for the Congregational churches, closely based on the Westminster Confession but with its own account of church government.

Christ alone appoints worship

Closely tied to this was Owen’s conviction that Christ alone has the right to appoint how He is to be worshipped. The church may order things of mere convenience, such as the time and place of meeting; but it may not add ceremonies or rites of its own devising and impose them on the consciences of believers as part of the worship of God. This was the heart of the Puritan objection to the imposed ceremonies of the Church of England, and it was one reason Owen could not conform in 1662.

In The Mortification of Sin he makes a related point in a different setting. Speaking of devotional practices that God has never appointed, he applies to them God’s question through Isaiah: “Who hath required these things at your hand?”

When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? ISAIAH 1:12

Readers who worship in liturgical traditions will not share all Owen’s objections, and many devout Christians have found set forms of prayer a great help to their devotion. But his underlying concern deserves a hearing in every church: that nothing be made a condition of fellowship which Christ Himself has not required.

Liberty of conscience

Owen wrote on toleration as early as 1649, in a short treatise attached to one of his sermons before Parliament, and he returned to it repeatedly for the rest of his life. His arguments were drawn from Scripture and from long experience.

Conscience, he argued, is subject to God alone. The civil power has its proper sphere, and may punish crimes against the peace of society; but it cannot compel belief, and when it tries, it produces not converts but hypocrites. Christ’s kingdom is not of this world, and it does not advance by the sword.

Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight. JOHN 18:36

After 1662, when he and his brethren were themselves the persecuted, he wrote a stream of pleas for indulgence. He argued that the Dissenters were loyal subjects who asked only to worship God according to their consciences; that persecuting them was unjust, unwise and contrary to the spirit of the gospel; and that the peace and prosperity of the nation would be better served by liberty than by force.

Not for that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy: for by faith ye stand. 2 CORINTHIANS 1:24

The limits of his view

Honesty requires two qualifications. First, Owen’s idea of toleration was generous for his century but narrower than most Christians would hold today. During the Commonwealth, when he had influence, he supported liberty for orthodox Protestants of different kinds, but he did not extend it to those who denied the Trinity, and he did not favour the public practice of Roman Catholic worship. He believed the magistrate had a duty to uphold the fundamentals of the Christian faith. His arguments for liberty were, in the end, broader than his own application of them.

Second, it must be said plainly that Owen argued most eloquently for liberty when he and his friends were the ones denied it. That is not a charge of hypocrisy; his early treatise shows that his convictions on the matter predated his own persecution. But it is a reminder that every Christian, and every church, finds it easier to see the value of liberty from below than from above.

Charity among the churches

There is another side to Owen’s churchmanship that is easily forgotten. In his writing on schism, he argued that the New Testament word refers to divisions within a church, among those who ought to be united, rather than to separation from a national establishment; and he pleaded for peace and charity among Protestants who differed on church order. He believed firmly in his own view of the church, but he did not unchurch those who disagreed.

Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling. EPHESIANS 4:3–4

His friendship with John Bunyan, a Baptist who differed from him on baptism and on church membership, is a small picture of this. The learned Oxford divine and the unschooled tinker disagreed on important matters of church order, and yet Owen went to hear him preach, valued his ministry, and is said to have worked for his release from prison.

What we may learn

Few Christians today will need to argue for toleration before a king. But Owen’s concerns remain. Christ is still the only Head of the church. Churches are still tempted to bind consciences with rules Christ never gave. Believers are still tempted to despise those who worship differently. And Christians who have known what it is to be in the majority still need to remember how it feels to be in the minority. Owen’s example, flawed as it was, points in a good direction: hold your convictions firmly, let others hold theirs, and do not ask the sword to do what only the Spirit can.

We ought to obey God rather than men. ACTS 5:29

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. Ask whether your church, or you yourself, has made anything a condition of fellowship that Christ has not required.

2. Think of a Christian tradition different from your own. Name one thing you could learn from it, and pray for its members this week.

3. Consider whether you have ever supported pressure on others’ consciences that you would resent if applied to your own.

4. If you belong to a local church, thank God for it, and consider what you can do to strengthen its fellowship and its care for its members.

A PRAYER

Lord Jesus Christ, You are the Head of the church, and You alone are Lord of the conscience.

Forgive us where we have bound one another with burdens You never laid on us, and where we have despised brothers and sisters who worship You differently.

Keep Your church faithful to Your Word, and give us grace to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Strengthen those who suffer for conscience’ sake, and let Your kingdom advance, not by force, but by Your truth and Your Spirit. Amen.