John Owen · 32 of 123

Chapter VI. The manner of conversion explained in the instance of Augustine. · Part 1

As among all the doctrines of the gospel, there is none opposed with more violence and subtlety than that concerning our regeneration by the immediate, powerful, effectual operation of the Holy Spirit of grace; so there is not scarce any thing more despised or scorned by many in the world than that any should profess that there hath been such a work of God upon themselves, or on any occasion declare aught of the way and manner whereby it was wrought. The very mentioning hereof is grown a derision among some that call themselves Christians; and to plead an interest or concern in this grace is to forfeit all a man’s reputation with many who would be thought wise, and boast themselves to be rational. Neither is this a practice taken up of late, in these declining times of the world, but seems to have been started and followed from days of old, — possibly from the beginning; yea, the enmity of Cain against Abel was but a branch of this proud and perverse inclination. The instance of Ishmael in the Scripture is representative of all such as, under an outward profession of the true religion, did or do scoff at those who, being, as Isaac, children of the promise, do profess and evidence an interest in the internal power of it, which they are unacquainted withal. And the same practice may be traced in succeeding ages. Hence, holy Austin, entering upon the confession of his greater sins, designing thereby to magnify the glory and efficacy of the grace of God in his conversion, provides against this scorn of men, which he knew he should meet withal. “Irrideant,” saith he, “me arrogantes et nondum salubriter prostrati et elisi a te, Deus meus, ego tamen confitear tibi dedecora mea, in laude tua,” Confess. lib. iv. cap. 1; — “Let arrogant men deride or scorn me, who were never savingly cast down nor broken in pieces by thee, my God, yet I will [rather, let me] confess my own shame, unto thy praise.” Let none be offended with these expressions, of being “savingly or wholesomely cast down and broken of God;” for, in the judgment of this great person, they are not fanatical. We may not, therefore, think it strange if the same truth, the same practice, and profession of it, do still meet with the same entertainment. Let them deride and scorn it who were never humbled savingly, nor broken with a sense of sin, nor relieved by grace; the holy work of God’s Spirit is to be owned, and the truth to be avowed as it is in Jesus.

Of the original depravation of our nature we have treated so far as is needful unto our present purpose; yet some things must be added concerning the effects of that depravation, which will conduce unto the right understanding of the way and manner whereby the Spirit of God proceedeth for the healing and removal of it, which we have now under especial consideration. And we may observe, —

First, That the corrupt principle of sin, the native habitual inclination that is in us unto evil, worketh early in our natures, and for the most part preventeth all the actings of grace in us. Though some may be sanctified in or from the womb, yet in order of nature this native corruption hath first place in them; for a clean thing cannot be brought out of an unclean, but “that which is born of the flesh is flesh:” Ps. lviii. 3, “The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.” It is to no purpose to say that he speaks of wicked men, — that is, such who are habitually and profligately so; for, whatever any man may afterward run into by a course of sin, all men are morally alike from the womb, and it is an aggravation of the wickedness of men that it begins so early, and holds on an uninterrupted course. Children are not able to speak from the womb, as soon as they are born; yet here are they said to speak lies. It is, therefore, the perverse acting of depraved nature in infancy that is intended; for everything that is irregular, that answers not the law of our creation and rule of our obedience, is a lie. And among the many instances collected by Austin of such irregular actings of nature in its infant state, one is peculiarly remarkable: Confess. lib. i. cap. 6, “Paulatim sentiebam ubi essem, et voluntates meas volebam ostendere eis per quos implerentur, et non poteram … Itaque jactabam membra, et voces, signa similia voluntatibus meis, pauca quæ poteram, qualia poteram; et cum mihi non obtemperabatur, vel non intellecto, vel ne obesset, indignabar non subditis majoribus, et liberis non servientibus, et me de illis flendo vindicabam.” This again he repeats, cap. 7: “An pro tempore illa bona erant, flendo petere etiam quod noxie daretur; indignari acriter non subjectis hominibus, liberis et majoribus, hisque a quibus genitus est; multisque præterea prudentioribus, non ad nutum voluntatis obtemperantibus, feriendo nocere niti, quantum potest, quia non obeditur imperiis quibus perniciose obediretur? Ita imbecillitas membrorum infantilium innocens est, non animus infantium.” Those irregular and perverse agitations of mind, and of the will or appetite, not yet under the conduct of reason, which appear in infants, with the indignation and little self-revenges wherewith they are accompanied in their disappointments when all about them do not subject themselves unto their inclinations, it may be to their hurt, are from the obliquity of our nature, and effects of that depraved habit of sin wherewith it is wholly possessed. And by the frequency of these lesser actings are the mind and will prepared for those more violent and impetuous motions which, by the improving of their natural capacities, and the incitation of new objects presented unto their corruptions, they are exposed unto and filled withal. God did not originally thus create our nature, — a condition worse than and inferior unto that of other creatures, in whose young ones there are none of these disorders, but a regular compliance with their natural instinct prevails in them. And as the dying of multitudes of infants, notwithstanding the utmost care for their preservation, whereas the young ones of other creatures all generally live, if they have whereby their nature may be sustained, argues the imputation of sin unto them, — for death entered by sin, and passed upon all, inasmuch as all have sinned, — so those irregular actings, peculiar unto them, prove sin inherent in them, or the corruption of their nature from their conceptions.

Secondly, With the increase of our natural faculties, and the strengthening of the members of our bodies, which by nature are become ready “instruments of unrighteousness unto sin,” Rom. vi. 13, this perverse principle acts itself with more evidence, frequency, and success in the production of actual sin, or inordinate actings of the mind, will, and affections. So the wise man tells us that “childhood and youth are vanity,” Eccles. xi. 10. The mind of man, in the state of childhood and youth, puts itself forth in all kinds of vain actings, in foolish imaginations, perverse and froward appetites, falseness in words, with sensible effects of corrupt inclinations in every kind. Austin’s first book of Confessions is an excellent comment on that text, wherein the “vanity of childhood and youth” are graphically described, with pathetical self-reflecting complaints concerning the guilt of sin which is contracted in them. Some, perhaps, may think light of those ways of folly and vanity wherein childhood doth, or left alone would, consume itself; — that there is no moral evil in those childish innocencies. That good man was of another mind. “Istane est,” saith he, “innocentia puerilis? non est, Domine, non est, oro to, Deus meus. Nam hæc ipsa sunt quæ a pædagogis et magistris, a nucibus et pilulis et passeribus, ad præfectos et reges, aurum, prædia, mancipia, hæc ipsa omnino quæ succedentibus majoribus ætatibus transeunt [sicuti ferulis majora supplicia succedunt],” lib. i. cap. 19. This is not innocency; it is not so. The same principle and habit of mind, carried over unto riper age and greater occasions, bring forth those greater sins which the lives of men are filled withal in this world. And who is there, who hath a serious reverence of God, with any due apprehension of his holiness, and a clear conviction of the nature of sin, who is not able to call over such actings in childhood, which most think meet to connive at, wherein they may remember that perversity whereof they are now ashamed? By this means is the heart prepared for a farther obduration in sin, by the confirmation of native obstinacy.

Thirdly, Unto those more general irregularities actual sins do succeed, — such, I mean, as are against the remaining light of nature, or committed in rebellion unto the dictates and guidance of our minds and consciences, the influence of those intelligences of moral good and evil which are inseparable from the faculties of our souls; for although in some they may be stifled and overborne, yet can they never be utterly obliterated or extinguished, but will accompany the nature of man unto eternity, even in that condition wherein they shall be of no other use but to add to and increase its misery. Amongst those we may call over one or two instances. Lying is such a sin, which the depravation of nature in youth is prone to exert itself by, and that on sundry reasons, not now to be inquired into: “They go astray from the womb, speaking lies.” The first inducement of our nature unto sin was by a lie, and we fell in Adam by giving credit thereunto; and there is in every sin a particular lie. But speaking falsely, contrary unto what they know to be true, is that which children are prone unto, though some more than others, according as other vicious habits prevail in them, whose actings they foolishly think to thatch over and cover thereby. This that holy person whom we instance in acknowledgeth, and bewaileth in himself: “Non videbam voraginem turpitudinis in quam projectus eram ab oculis tuis. Nam in illis jam quid me fœdius fuit, [ubi etiam talibus displicebam], fallendo innumerabilibus mendaciis, et pædagogum et magistros et parentes amore ludendi, studio spectandi nugatoria [et imitandi ludicra inquietudine?]” lib. i. cap. 19; — “I saw not (O God) into what a gulf of filth I was cast out from before thee; for what was more filthy than I, whilst out of love of plays, and desire of looking after vanities, I deceived teachers and parents with innumerable lies?” And this the good man was afterward exceedingly humbled for, and from it learned much of the vileness of his own nature. And we find by experience that a sense of this sin ofttimes accompanies the first real convictions that befall the souls of men; for when they seriously reflect upon themselves, or do view themselves in the glass of the law, they are not only sensible of the nature of this sin, but also how much they indulged themselves therein, partly whilst they remember how on the least occasions they were surprised into it, which yet they neglected to watch against, and partly understanding how sometimes they made it their business, by premeditated falsehoods, so to cover other sins as to escape rebuke and correction. The mention of these things will probably be entertained with contempt and scorn in this age, wherein the most prodigious wickednesses of men are made but a sport; but God, his holiness, and his truth, are still the same, whatever alterations there may be in the world. And the holy psalmist seems to have some reflection on this vice of youth, when he prays that God would take from him the “way of lying.” Of the same nature are those lesser thefts, in despoiling their parents and governors of such things as they are not allowed to take and make use of for themselves: “They rob their father or mother, and say, It is no transgression,” Prov. xxviii. 24. So saith the same person, “Furta etiam faciebam de cellario parentum et de mensa, vel gula imperitante, vel ut haberem quod darem pueris, ludum suum mihi, quo pariter delectabantur tamen, vendentibus,” lib. i. cap. 19. He sometimes stole from his parents, either to gratify his own sensual appetite, or to give unto his companions. In such instances doth original pravity exert itself in youth or childhood, and thereby both increase its own power and fortify the mind and the affections against the light and efficacy of conviction.

Fourthly, As men grow up in the state of nature, sin gets ground in them and upon them, subjectively and objectively. Concupiscence gets strength with age, and grows in violence as persons arrive to ability for its exercise; the instruments of it, in the faculties of the soul, organs of the senses, and members of the body, growing everyday more serviceable unto it, and more apt to receive impressions from it or to comply with its motions. Hence some charge the sins of youth on the heat of blood and the restlessness of the animal spirits, which prompt men unto irregularities and extravagancies; — but these are only vehicula concupiscentiæ, things which it makes use of to exert its poison by; for sin turns everything in this state unto its own advantage, and abuseth even “the commandment” itself, to “work in us all manner of concupiscence,” Rom. vii. 8. Again, the objects of lust, by the occasions of life, are now multiplied. Temptations increase with years and the businesses of the world, but especially by that corruption of conversation which is among the most. Hence sundry persons are in this part of their youth, one way or other, overtaken with some gross actual sin or sins. That all are not so is a mere effect of preventing grace, and not at all from themselves. This the apostle respects in his charge, 2 Tim. ii. 22, “Flee youthful lusts;” such lusts as work effectually and prevail mightily in those that are young, if not subdued by the grace of God. And David, in a sense and from experience hereof, prays that God would not remember “the sins of his youth,” Ps. xxv. 7. And a reflection from them is sometimes the torment of age, Job xx. 11: so he in whom we have chosen to exemplify the instances of such a course. He humbly confesseth unto God his falling into and being overtaken with great sins, such as fornication and uncleanness, in his younger days; in the mire whereof he was long detained. To this purpose he discourseth at large, lib. ii. cap. 1–3. And of the reason of this his humble and public acknowledgment he gives this holy account: “Neque enim tibi, Deus meus, sed apud te narro hæc generi meo, generi humano, quantulacunque ex particula incidere potest in istas meas literas. Et ut quid hoc? Ut videlicet ego et quisquis hæc legit, cogitemus de quam profundo clamandum sit ad te,” cap. 3; — “I declare these things, O my God, not unto thee, but before thee” (or in thy presence), “unto my own race, unto human kind, whatever portion thereof may fall on these writings of mine. And unto what end? Namely, that I and everyone who shall read these things may consider out of what great depths we are to cry unto thee.” So he, who lived not to see the days wherein humble confession of sin was made a matter of contempt and scorn.

Now, there is commonly a twofold event of men’s falling under the power of temptations, and thereby into great actual sins: —

1. God sometimes takes occasion from them to awaken their consciences unto a deep sense not only of that sin in particular whose guilt they have contracted, but of their other sins also. The great Physician of their souls turns this poison into a medicine, and makes that wound which they have given themselves to be the lancing of a festered sore; for whereas their oscitancy, prejudices, and custom of sinning, have taken away the sense of lesser sins, and secure them from reflections from them, the stroke on their consciences from those greater provocations pierceth so deep as that they are forced to entertain thoughts of looking out after a release or remedy. So did they of old at the sermon of Peter, when he charged them with the guilt of a consent to the crucifying of Jesus Christ: “They were pricked in their heart, and said, Men and brethren, what shall we do?” Acts ii. 36, 37.

2. With others it proves a violent entrance into a farther pursuit of sin. The bounds of restraints, with the influence of natural light, being broken up and rejected, men’s lusts being let loose, do break through all remaining obstacles, and run out into the greatest compass of excess and riot; observing no present evil to ensue on what they have done, according to their first fears, they are emboldened to greater wickedness, Eccles. viii. 11. And by this means is their conversion unto God rendered more difficult, and men thus wander away more and more from him unto the greatest distance that is recoverable by grace; for, —

Fifthly, A course in, and a custom of, sinning with many ensues hereon. Such the apostle treats concerning, Eph. iv. 18, 19, “Being past feeling, have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.” Custom of sinning takes away the sense of it; the course of the world takes away the shame of it; and love to it makes men greedy in the pursuit of it. See Confess. lib. 2. cap. 6. And this last effect of sin, as incited, provoked, and assisted by temptations, hath great variety in the effects and degrees of it. Hence are the various courses of unhumbled sinners in the world, wherein the outrage and excess of some seems to justify others in their more sedate irregularities and less conspicuous provocations. Yea, some who are not in any better state and condition as to their interest in the covenant of God than others, will yet not only startle at but really abhor those outrages of sin and wickedness which they fall into. Now, this difference ariseth not from hence, that the nature of all men is not equally corrupt and depraved, but that God is pleased to make his restraining grace effectual towards some, to keep them within those bounds of sinning which they shall not pass over, and to permit others so to fall under a conjunction of their lusts and temptations as that they proceed unto all manner of evil. Moreover, there are peculiar inclinations unto some sins, if not inlaid in, yet much enhanced and made obnoxious unto incitations by, the temperature of the body; and some are more exposed unto temptations in the world from their outward circumstances and occasions of life. Hereby are some even precipitated to all manner of evil. But still “the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts,” is the same naturally in all. All difference as to good from evil, — I mean not as to the nature of the things themselves, but as to men’s interest in them, so as to adhere to the one and avoid the other, — is from the will of God. Thus he secretly prepares for some a better temperature of nature, docile and pliable unto such notices of things as may entertain their minds, and satisfy them above sensual delights. And some he disposeth, in their education, callings, societies, aims, and designs in the world, into ways inconsistent with open lewdness, which will much balance their inclinations, besides his secret internal actings on their hearts and minds, whereof afterward. This is excellently expressed by Austin, Confess. lib. ii. cap. 7: “Diligam te, Domine, et gratias agam, et confitear nomini tuo, quoniam tanta dimisisti mihi mala et nefaria opera mea. Gratiæ tuæ deputo et misericordia tuæ quod peccata mea tanquam glaciem solvisti, gratiæ tuæ deputo et quæcunque non feci mala; quid enim non facere potui qui etiam gratuitum facinus amavi? Et omnia mihi dimissa esse fateor, et quæ mea sponte feci mala, et quæ te duce non feci. Quis est hominum, qui suam cogitans infirmitatem, audet viribus suis tribuere castitatem atque innocentiam suam, ut minus amet te, quasi minus ei necessaria fuerit misericordia tua, quâ condonas peccata conversis ad te? Qui enim vocatus ad te secutus est vocem tuam et vitavit, et quæ me de meipso recordantem et fatentem legit, non me derideat ab eo medico ægrum sanari, a quo sibi prestitum est ut non ægrotaret, vel potius ut minus ægrotaret; et ideo te tantundem imo vero amplius diligat, quia per quem me videt tantis peccatorum meorum languoribus exui, per eum se videt tantis peccatorum languoribus non implicari;” — “I will love thee, O Lord, and thank thee, and confess unto thy name, because thou hast forgiven me my evil and nefarious deeds. I impute it to thy grace and mercy that thou hast made my sins to melt away as ice, and I impute it to thy grace as to all the evils which I have not done; for what could not I have done who loved wickedness for itself? All I acknowledge are forgiven me, both the evils that I have done of my own accord, and what through thy guidance I have not done. Who is there who, considering his own weakness, dare ascribe his chastity or innocency unto his own strength, that he may less love thee, as though thy mercy were less necessary unto him, whereby thou forgivest the sins of them that are converted to thee. For let not him who, being called of thee, and having heard thy voice, hath avoided the evils which I have confessed, deride me that, being sick, was healed of that physician from whom he received the mercy not to be sick, or not to be so sick; [and therefore let him love thee so much the more, as he sees himself prevented from having fallen into the great maladies of sin, through that God by whom he sees me delivered from the great maladies of the sin into which I had actually fallen.]”

This brief account of the actings of corrupted nature, until it comes unto the utmost of a recoverable alienation from God, may somewhat illustrate and set off the work of his grace towards us. And thus far, whatever habit be contracted in a course of sin, yet the state of men is absolutely recoverable by the grace of Jesus Christ administered in the gospel, 1 Cor. vi. 9–11. No state of sin is absolutely unhealable until God hath variously dealt with men by his Spirit. His word must be rejected, and he must be sinned against in a peculiar manner, before remission be impossible. All sins and blasphemies antecedent thereunto may be forgiven unto men, and that before their conversion unto God, Matt. xii. 31, 32; Luke xii. 10. Wherefore, the manner and degrees of the operations of this Spirit of God on the minds of men, towards and in their conversion, is that which we shall now inquire into, reducing what we have to offer concerning it unto certain heads or instances:—

First, Under the ashes of our collapsed nature there are yet remaining certain sparks of celestial fire, consisting in inbred notices of good and evil, of rewards and punishments, of the presence and all-seeing eye of God, of help and assistance to be had from him, with a dread of his excellencies where any thing is apprehended unworthy of him or provoking unto him; and where there are any means of instruction from supernatural revelation, by the word preached, or the care of parents in private, there they are insensibly improved and increased. Hereby men do obtain an objective, distinct knowledge of what they had subjectively and radically, though very imperfectly, before. These notices, therefore, God oftentimes excites and quickens even in them that are young, so that they shall work in them some real regard of and applications unto him. And those great workings about the things of God, and towards him, which are sometimes found in children, are not mere effects of nature; for that would not so act itself were it not, by one occasion or other, for that end administered by the providence of God, effectually excited. And many can call over such divine visitations in their youth, which now they understand to be so. To this purpose speaks the person mentioned: “Puer cœpi rogare te auxilium et refugium meum, et in tuam invocationem rumpebam nodos linguæ meæ, et rogabam te parvus non parvo affectu, ne in schola vapularem.” He prayed earnestly to God as a refuge, when he was afraid to be beat at school. And this he resolves into instruction, or what he had observed in others: “Invenimus homines rogantes te, et didicimus ab eis, sentientes te ut poteramus esse magnum aliquem; qui posses etiam non adparens sensibus nostris, exaudire nos et subvenire nobis,” lib. i. cap. 9. And hereunto he adds some general instruction which he had from the word, cap. 11. And from the same principles, when he was a little after surprised with a fit of sickness, he cried out with all earnestness that he might be baptized, that so he might, as he thought, go to heaven; for his father was not yet a Christian, whence he was not baptized in his infancy: “Vidisti, Domine, cum adhuc puer essem, et quodam die pressus stomachi dolore repente æstuarem pene moriturus; vidisti, Deus meus, quoniam custos meus jam eras, quo motu animi et qua fide baptismum Christi tui, Dei et Domini mei flagitavi,” cap. 11. Such affections and occasional actings of soul towards God are wrought in many by the Spirit. With the most they wear off and perish, as they did with him, who after this cast himself into many flagitious sins. But in some God doth, in and by the use of these means, inlay their hearts with those seeds of faith and grace which he gradually cherisheth and increaseth.

Secondly, God works upon men by his Spirit in outward means, to cause them to take some real and steady consideration of him, their own distance from him, and obnoxiousness unto his righteousness on the account of sin. It is almost incredible to apprehend, but that it is testified unto by daily experience, how men will live even where the word is read and preached; how they will get a form of speaking of God, yea, and of performing some duties of religion, and yet never come to have any steady thoughts of God, or of their relation to him, or of their concernment in his will. Whatever they speak of God, “he is not in all their thoughts,” Ps. x. 4. Whatever they do in religion, they do it not unto him, Amos v. 25. They have “neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape,” John v. 37; knowing nothing for themselves, which is their duty, Job v. 27. And yet it is hard to convince them that such is their condition. But when God is pleased to carry on his work of light and grace in them, they can call to mind and understand how it was with them in their former darkness. Then will they acknowledge that in truth they never had serious, steady thoughts of God, but only such as were occasional and transient. Wherefore God begins here with them. And thereby to subduct them from under the absolute power of the vanity of their minds, by one means or other he fixeth in them steady thoughts concerning himself, and their relation unto him. And there are several ways which he proceedeth in for the effecting hereof; as, —

1. By some sudden amazing judgments, whereby he “revealeth his wrath from heaven against the ungodliness of men,” Rom. i. 18. So Waldo was affected when his companion was stricken dead as he walked with him in the fields; which proved the occasion of his conversion unto God. So the psalmist describes the affections and thoughts of men when they are surprised with a storm at sea, Ps. cvii. 25–28; an instance whereof we have in the mariners of Jonah’s ship, chap. i. 4–7. And that Pharaoh who despised one day, saying, “Who is the Lord, that I should regard him?” being the next day terrified with thunder and lightning, cries out, “Entreat the Lord for me that it may be so no more,” Exod. ix. 28. And such like impressions from divine power most men, at one time or other, have experience of.

2. By personal afflictions, Job xxxiii. 19, 20; Ps. lxxviii. 34, 35; Hos. v. 15. Affliction naturally bespeaks anger, and anger respects sin. It bespeaks itself to be God’s messenger to call sin to remembrance, 1 Kings xvii. 18; Gen. xlii. 21, 22. The time of affliction is a time of consideration, Eccles. vii. 14; and if men be not obdurate and hardened almost unto practical atheism by a course of sinning, they cannot but bethink themselves who sends affliction, and for what end it is sent. Hence great thoughts of the holiness of God and of his hatred of sin, with some sense of men’s own guilt and especial crimes, will arise; and these effects many times prove preparatory and materially dispositive unto conversion. And not what these things are in themselves able to operate is to be considered, but what they are designed unto and made effectual for by the Holy Ghost.

3. By remarkable deliverances and mercies: so it was with Naaman the Syrian, 2 Kings v. 15–17. Sudden changes from great dangers and distresses by unexpected reliefs deeply affect the minds of men, convincing them of the power, presence, and goodness of God; and this produceth a sense and acknowledgment of their own unworthiness of what they have received. Hence, also, some temporary effects of submission to the divine will and gratitude do proceed.