00.3. Editor’s Note

Editor’s Note

While this is a restatement and simplification of Owen’s original work; it is not a paraphrase or a condensed version. The old English wording has been updated, so that “thee” and “thou” are now “you” and “yours.” Owen’s wordiness is made economical. The difficult structure and syntax are simplified. Obscure passages have been reworded as necessary to clarify his ideas – which other modernizations have perhaps left undone. Rarely-used words have been replaced with simpler ones as well. Sentences have been shortened, and in many cases split into several sentences for clarity. Parallelism has been employed to maintain rhythm and clarity. Unreferenced pronouns and “understood” words are made explicit. The passive voice has been changed to active in most cases. Again, this is not a synopsis, but the entire treatise presented in the original work. As a result, the expository style remains. The old King James passages of Scripture are often been employed but modernized. This was to ensure that Owen’s rendering of the biblical text would be largely maintained, as well as the scriptural basis for his statements. Where Owen cites the Greek, it has been footnoted and Anglicized, along with bracketed Strong’s numbers [NT:xxxx]. Many referenced but unquoted verses are fully quoted in footnotes for your convenience; many remaining verses that had no reference are now referenced in the body of the text using superscripts.

Note: A number of Scripture citations were added by editor William Goold in 1853; Owen simply quoted the bible verses. Goold also moved some verses from the body of the text into footnotes. Those verses have been restored to the body as constituting part of Owen’s arguments, proved by Scripture. I felt this was necessary because of today’s widespread unfamiliarity with the content of the bible. It also relieves the reader from constantly checking the footnotes. My purpose is to preserve Owen’s original text as much as possible, but more importantly, to make his teaching and wisdom more accessible to a modern audience. It would be a shame if that modern audience did not benefit from his labors because the language was too complex or arcane to comprehend. This book is an exceptional help in understanding the incessant conflict in our hearts and minds between the law of sin (which has an accomplice in our flesh), and the law of grace (which operates through the Spirit). These two laws are ever at work in the believer, operating against each other. That makes it necessary to fight the good fight of faith day by day. And so I hope the restatement of this helpful work reveals the depth and seriousness of the war that began at our conversion between the flesh and the Spirit. In taking this to heart, may the outcome be a life of increasing godliness in those who have taken up their cross to follow after Christ. He is always at work in his people, so we are always to be at work in him, to God’s glory.

Through Him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for His name, among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ; (Romans 1:5-6 NKJ) William H. Gross