John Owen · 40 of 123

Chapter V. The filth of sin purged by the Spirit and the blood of Christ. · Part 2

IV. Purging from sin is likewise in the Scripture ascribed unto afflictions of all sorts. Hence they are called God’s “furnace,” and his “fining pot,” Isa. xxxi. 9, xlviii. 10, whereby he taketh away the dross and filth of the vessels of his house. They are also called “fire” that trieth the ways and works of men, consuming their hay and stubble, and purifying their gold and silver, 1 Cor. iii. 12, 13. And this they do through an efficacy unto these ends communicated unto them in the design and by the Spirit of God; for by and in the cross of Christ they were cut off from the curse of the first covenant, whereunto all evil and trouble did belong, and implanted into the covenant of grace. The tree of the cross being cast into the waters of affliction hath rendered them wholesome and medicinal. And as, the Lord Christ being the head of the covenant, all the afflictions and persecutions that befall his members are originally his, Isa. lxiii. 9, Acts ix. 5, Col. i. 24; so they all tend to work us unto a conformity unto him in purity and holiness. And they work towards this blessed end of purifying the soul several ways; for, — 1. They have in them some token of God’s displeasure against sin, which those who are exercised by them are led by the consideration of unto a fresh view of the vileness of it; for although afflictions are an effect of love, yet it is of love mixed with care to obviate and prevent distempers. Whatever they are else, they are always chastisements; and correction respects faults. And it is our safest course, in every affliction, to lodge the adequate cause of it in our own deserts, as the woman did, 1 Kings xvii. 18; and as God directs, Ps. lxxxix. 30–32, Lam. iii. 33. And this is one difference between his chastisements and those of the fathers of our flesh, that he doth it “not for his pleasure,” Heb. xii. 9, 10. Now, a view of sin under suffering makes men loathe and abhor themselves for it, and to be ashamed of it; and this is the first step towards our purifying of ourselves by any ways appointed for it. Self-pleasing is sin in the highest degree of our pollution; and when we loathe ourselves for it, we are put into the way at least of seeking after a remedy. 2. Afflictions take off the beauty and allurements of all created good things and their comforts, by which the affections are solicited to commit folly and lewdness with them; that is, to embrace and cleave unto them inordinately, whence many defilements do ensue, Gal. vi. 14. This God designs them for, even to whither all the flowerings of this world in the minds of men, by discovering their emptiness, vanity, and insufficiency to give relief. This intercepts the disorderly intercourse which is apt to be between them and our affections, whereby our minds are polluted; for there is a pollution attending the least inordinate actings of our mind and affections towards objects either in their own nature sinful, or such as may be rendered so by an excess in us towards them, whilst we are under the command of loving the Lord our God with all our minds, souls, and strength, and that always. 3. Afflictions take off the edge and put a deadness on those affections whereby the corrupt lusts of the mind and flesh, which are the spring and cause of all our defilements, do act themselves. They curb those vigorous and brisk affections which were always ready pressed for the service of lust, and which sometimes carry the soul into pursuit of sin, like the horse into battle, with madness and fury. There are no more such prepared channels for the fomes of concupiscence to empty itself into the conversation, nor such vehicles for the spirits of corrupted lusts and inclinations. God, I say, by afflictions brings a kind of death unto the world and the pleasures of it upon the desires and affections of the soul, which render them unserviceable unto the remainder of defiling lusts and corruptions. This in some, indeed, endures but for a season, as when, in sickness, wants, fears, distresses, losses, sorrows, there is a great appearance of mortification, when yet the strength of sin and the vigour of carnal affections do speedily revive upon the least outward relief. But with believers it is not so, but by all their chastisements they are really more and more delivered from the pollution of sin, and made partakers of God’s holiness, 2 Cor. iv. 16–18. 4. God doth by them excite, stir up, and draw forth all the graces of the Spirit into a constant, diligent, and vigorous exercise; and therein the work of cleansing the soul from the pollution of sin is carried on. A time of affliction is the especial season for the peculiar exercise of all grace, for the soul can then no otherwise support or relieve itself; for it is cut short or taken off from other comforts and reliefs, every sweet thing being made bitter unto it. It must, therefore, live not only by faith, and love, and delight in God, but in some sense upon them; for if in their exercise supportment and comfort be not obtained, we can have none. Therefore doth such a soul find it necessary to be constantly abounding in the exercise of grace, that it may in any measure be able to support itself under its troubles or sufferings. Again, there is no other way whereby a man may have a sanctified use of afflictions, or a good issue out of them, but by the assiduous exercise of grace. This God calls for, this he designs, and without it afflictions have no other end but to make men miserable; and they will either have no deliverance from them, or such an one as shall tend to their farther misery and ruin.

And so have we taken a view of the first part of our sanctification and holiness; which I have the more largely insisted on, because the consideration of it is utterly neglected by them who frame us a holiness to consist only in the practice of moral virtue. And I do not know but what hath been delivered may be looked on as fanatical and enthusiastical; yet is there no other reason why it should be so, but only because it is taken from Scripture. Neither doth that so much insist on any consideration of sin and sanctification, as this of the pollution of the one and the purifying of it by the other. And to whom the words of the Holy Ghost are displeasing, we cannot in these things give any satisfaction; and yet I could easily demonstrate that they were well known to the ancient writers of the church; and, for the substance of them, were discerned and discussed by the schoolmen, in their manner. But where men hate the practice of holiness, it is to no purpose to teach them the nature of it.

But we may not pass over these things without some reflections upon ourselves, and some consideration of our concernment in them. And, first, hence we may take a view of our own state and condition by nature. It is useful for us all to be looking back into it, and it is necessary for them who are under it to be fully acquainted with it. Therein are we wholly defiled, polluted, and every way unclean. There is a spiritual leprosy spread all over our natures, which renders us loathsome to God, and puts us in a state of separation from him. They who were legally unclean were separated from the congregation, and therein from all the pledges of God’s gracious presence, Num. v. 2. It is so virtually with all them who are spiritually defiled, under that pollution which is natural and universal; they are abhorred of God and separated from him, which was signified thereby. And the reason why so many laws, with so great severity and exactness, were given about the cleansing of a leprous person, and the judgement to be made thereon, was only to declare the certainty of the judgement of God, that no unclean person should approach unto him. Thus is it with all by nature; and whatever they do of themselves to be quit of it, it doth but hide and not cleanse it. Adam cured neither his nakedness nor the shame of it by his fig-leaves. Some have no other covering of their natural filth but outward ornaments of the flesh; which increase it, and indeed rather proclaim it than hide it. The greatest filth in the world is covered with the greatest bravery. See Isa. iii. 16–24. Whatever we do ourselves in answer unto our convictions is a covering, not a cleansing; and if we die in this condition, unwashed, uncleansed, unpurified, it is utterly impossible that ever we should be admitted into the blessed presence of the holy God, Rev. xxi. 27. Let no man deceive you, then, with vain words. It is not the doing of a few good works, it is not an outward profession of religion, that will give you an access with boldness and joy unto God. Shame will cover you when it will be too late. Unless you are washed by the Spirit of God and in the blood of Christ from the pollutions of your natures, you shall not inherit the kingdom of God, 1 Cor. vi. 9–11. Yea, you will be a horrid spectacle unto saints and angels, yea, to yourselves, unto one another, when the shame of your nakedness shall be made to appear, Isa. lxvi. 24. If, therefore, you would not perish, and that eternally; if you would not perish as base, defiled creatures, an abhorring unto all flesh, then when your pride, and your wealth, and your beauty, and your ornaments, and your duties, will stand you in no stead, — look out betimes after that only way of purifying and cleansing your souls which God hath ordained. But if you love your defilements; if you are proud of your pollutions; if you satisfy yourselves with your outward ornaments, whether moral, of gifts, duties, profession, conversation, or natural, of body, wealth, apparel, gold, and silver, — there is no remedy, you must perish for ever, and that under the consideration of the basest and vilest part of the creation.

Seeing this is the condition of all by nature, if any one now shall inquire and ask what they shall do, what course they shall take, that they may be cleansed according to the will of God, in answer hereunto I shall endeavour to direct defiled sinners, by sundry steps and degrees, in the way unto the cleansing fountain. There is a “fountain set open for sin and for uncleanness,” Zech. xiii. 1. But it falleth out with many, as the wise man speaketh, “The labour of the foolish wearieth every one of them, because he knoweth not how to go to the city,” Eccles. x. 15. Men weary themselves and pine away under their pollutions, because they cannot find the way; they know not how to go to the cleansing fountain. I shall, therefore, direct them from first to last, according to the best skill I have:—

1. Labour after an acquaintance with it, to know it in its nature and effects. Although the Scripture so abounds in the assertion and declaration of it, as we have showed, and believers find a sense of it in their experience, yet men in common take little notice of it. Somewhat they are affected with the guilt of sin, but little or not at all with its filth. So they can escape the righteousness of God, which they have provoked, they regard not their unanswerableness unto his holiness, whereby they are polluted. How few, indeed, do inquire into the pravity of their natures, that vileness which is come upon them by the loss of the image of God, or do take themselves to be much concerned therein! How few do consider aright that fomes and filthy spring which is continually bubbling up crooked, perverse, defiled imaginations in their hearts, and influencing their affections unto the lewdness of depraved concupiscence! Who meditates upon the holiness of God in a due manner, so as to ponder what we ourselves ought to be, how holy, how upright, how clean, if we intend to please him or enjoy him? With what appearances, what outsides of things, are most men satisfied! yea, how do they please themselves in the shades of their own darkness and ignorance of these things, when yet an unacquaintedness with this pollution of sin is unavoidably ruinous unto their souls! See the danger of it, Rev. iii. 16–18. Those who would be cleansed from it must first know it; and although we cannot do so aright without some convincing light of the Spirit of God, yet are there duties required of us in order thereunto; as, — (1.) To search the Scripture, and to consider seriously what it declareth concerning the condition of our nature after the loss of the image of God. Doth it not declare that it is shamefully naked, destitute of all beauty and comeliness, wholly polluted and defiled? And what is said of that nature which is common unto all is said of every one who is partaker of it. Every one is “gone aside,” every one is become “altogether filthy,” or stinking, Ps. liii. 3. This is the glass wherein every man ought to contemplate himself, and not in foolish, flattering reflections from his own proud imaginations; and he that will not hence learn his natural deformity shall live polluted and die accursed. (2.) He who hath received the testimony of the Scripture concerning his corrupted and polluted estate, if he will be at the pains to try and examine himself by the reasons and causes that are assigned thereof, will have a farther view of it. When men read, hear, or are instructed in what the Scripture teacheth concerning the defilement of sin, and give some assent to what is spoken, without an examination of their own state in particular, or bringing their souls unto that standard and measure, they will have very little advantage thereby. Multitudes learn that they are polluted by nature, which they cannot gainsay; but yet really find no such thing in themselves. But when men will bring their own souls to the glass of the perfect law, and consider how it is with them in respect of that image of God wherein they were at first created, what manner of persons they ought to be with respect unto the holiness of God, and what they are, — how vain are their imaginations, how disorderly are their affections, how perverse all the actings of their minds, — they will be ready to say, with the leprous man, “Unclean, unclean.” But they are but few who will take the pains to search their own wounds, it being a matter of smart and trouble to corrupt and carnal affections. Yet, (3.) Prayer for light and direction herein is required of all as a duty. For a man to know himself was of old esteemed the highest attainment of human wisdom. Some men will not so much as inquire into themselves, and some men dare not, and some neglect the doing of it from spiritual sloth, and other deceitful imaginations; but he that would ever be purged from his sins must thus far make bold with himself, and dare to be thus far wise. And in the use of the means before prescribed, considering his own darkness and the treacheries of his heart, he is to pray fervently that God by his Spirit would guide and assist him in his search after the pravity and defilement of his nature. Without this he will never make any great or useful discoveries. And yet the discerning hereof is the first evidence that a man hath received the least ray of supernatural light. The light of a natural conscience will convince men of, and reprove them for, actual sins as to their guilt, Rom. ii. 14, 15; but the mere light of nature is dark and confused about its own confusion. Some of the old philosophers discerned, in general, that our nature was disordered, and complained thereof; but as the principal reason of their complaints was because it would not throughout serve the end of their ambition, so of the causes and nature of it, with respect unto God and our eternal condition, they knew nothing of it at all. Nor is it discerned but by a supernatural light, proceeding immediately from the Spirit of God. If any, therefore, have a heart or wisdom to know their own pollution by sin, — without which they know nothing of themselves unto any purpose, — let them pray for that directing light of the Spirit of God, without which they can never attain to any useful knowledge of it.

2. Those who would indeed be purged from the pollution of sin must endeavour to be affected with it, suitably to the discovery which they have made of it. And as the proper effect of the guilt of sin is fear, so the proper effect of the filth of sin is shame. No man who hath read the Scriptures can be ignorant how frequently God calls on men to be ashamed and confounded in themselves for the pollutions and uncleannesses of their sin. So is it expressed in answer unto what he requires: “O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God, for our iniquities are increased over our head,” Ezra ix. 6. And by another prophet: “We lie down in our shame, and our confusion covereth us: for we have sinned against the Lord our God,” Jer. iii. 25. And many other such expressions are there of this affection of the mind with respect unto the pollution of sin. But we must observe that there is a twofold shame with respect unto it:— (1.) That which is legal, or the product of a mere legal conviction of sin. Such was that in Adam, immediately after his fall; and such is that which God so frequently calls open and profligate sinners unto, — a shame accompanied with dread and terror, and from which the sinner hath no relief, unless in such sorry evasions as our first parents made use of. And, (2.) There is a shame which is evangelical, arising from a mixed apprehension of the vileness of sin and the riches of God’s grace in the pardon and purifying of it; for although this latter gives relief against all terrifying, discouraging effects of shame, yet it increaseth those which tend to genuine self-abasement and abhorrency. And this God still requires to abide in us, as that which tends to the advancement of his grace in our hearts. This is fully expressed by the prophet Ezekiel, chap. xvi. 60–63, “I will remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth, and I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant. Then shalt thou remember thy ways, and be ashamed. And I will establish my covenant with thee; and thou shalt know that I am the Lord: that thou mayest remember, and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame, when I am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord God.” There is a shame and confusion of face for sin that is a consequent, yea, an effect of God’s renewing his covenant, and thereby giving in the full pardon of sin, as being pacified. And the apostle asks the Romans what fruit they had in those things whereof they were now ashamed, chap. vi. 21. Now, after the pardon of them they were yet ashamed, from the consideration of their filth and vileness. But it is a shame in the first sense that I here intend, as antecedent unto the first purification of our natures. This may be thought to be in all men; but it is plainly otherwise, and men are not at all ashamed of their sins, which they manifest in various degrees: for, —

(1.) Many are senseless and stupid. No instruction, nothing that befalls them, will fix any real shame upon them. Of some particular facts they may be ashamed, but for any thing in their natures, they slight and despise it. If they can but preserve themselves from the known guilt of such sins as are punishable amongst men, as to all other things they are secure. This is the condition of the generality of men living in sin in this world. They have no inward shame for any thing between God and their souls, especially not for the pravity and defilement of their natures, no, although they hear the doctrine of it never so frequently. What may outwardly befall them that is shameful, they are concerned in; but for their internal pollutions between God and their souls, they know none.

(2.) Some have such a boldness and confidence in their condition, as that which is well and pure enough: “There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, yet are they not washed from their filthiness,” Prov. xxx. 12. Although they were never sprinkled with the pure water of the covenant, or cleansed by the Holy Spirit; although their consciences were never purged from dead works by the blood of Christ, nor their hearts purified by faith, and so are no way “washed from their filthiness;” yet do they please themselves in their condition as “pure in their own eyes,” and have not the least sense of any defilements. Such a generation were the Pharisees of old, who esteemed themselves as clean as their hands and cups, that they were continually washing, though within they were filled with all manner of defilements, Isa. lxv. 4, 5. And this generation is such as indeed despise all that is spoken about the pollution of sin and its purification, and deride it as enthusiastical, or a fulsome metaphor not to be understood.

(3.) Others proceed farther, and are so far from taking shame to themselves for what they are, or what they do, as that they openly boast of and glory in the most shameful sins that human nature can contract the guilt of. “They proclaim their sins,” saith the prophet, “like Sodom,” where all the people consented together in the perpetration of unnatural lusts. They are not at all ashamed, but glory in the things which, because they do not here, will hereafter fill them with confusion of face, Jer. vi. 15, viii. 12. And where once sin gets this confidence, wherein it completes a conquest over the law, the inbred light of nature, the convictions of the Spirit, and in a word God himself, then is it ripe for judgment. And yet is there a higher degree of shamelessness in sin; for, —

(4.) Some content not themselves with boasting in their own sins, but also they approve and delight in all those who give up themselves unto the like outrage in sinning with themselves. This the apostle expresseth as the highest degree of shameless sinning: Rom. i. 32, “Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.” When open profligate sinners do, as it were, make themselves up into societies, encouraging and approving one another in their abominable courses, so that no company pleaseth them but such as have obtained an impudence in sinning, then is the greatest defiance given unto the holiness and righteousness of God.

Now, such as these will never seek after cleansing; for why should they do so who are sensible of no spiritual pollution, nor have the least touch of shame with respect thereunto? It is necessary, therefore, unto the duty of purifying our souls that we be affected with shame for the spiritual defilements which our nature, under the loss of the image of God, is even rolled in; and where this is not, it will be but lost labour that is spent in the invitation of men to the cleansing fountain.

3. Let persons so affected be fully satisfied that they can never cleanse or purify themselves by any endeavours that are merely their own, or by any means of their own finding out. According unto men’s convictions of the defilements of sin, so have and always will their endeavours be after purification, Hos. v. 13. And, indeed, it is the duty of believers to purify themselves more and more, in the exercise of all purifying graces, and the use of all means appointed of God for that purpose, 2 Cor. vii. 1; and their neglect thereof is the highest disadvantage, Ps. xxxviii. 5. But men in the state of nature, concerning whom we now treat, are no way able to cleanse their natures or purge themselves. He only who can restore, repair, and renew their natures unto the likeness of God, can cleanse them. But here many fall into mistakes; for when, by reason of their convictions, they can no longer satisfy and please themselves in the pollution of sin, they go about by vain attempts of their own to “purify their souls,” Hos. v. 13; Jer. ii. 22; Job ix. 30, 31. Their own sorrow and repentance, and tears of contrition, and that sorry amendment of life they can attain unto, shall do this work for them; and every especial defiling act, or every renewed sense of it, shall have an especial act of duty for its cleansing! But though these things are good in themselves, yet there is required more wisdom to the right stating of them, as to their causes, respects, ends, and use, than they are furnished withal. Hence are they so frequently abused and turned into an effectual means not only of keeping men off and at a distance from Christ, but also from a due and acceptable performance of the very duties themselves pretended unto: for legal sorrow or repentance, or mere legal convictions, being trusted unto, will infallibly keep the soul from coming up unto that evangelical repentance which alone God accepts; and mere reformation of life rested in proves opposite to endeavours for the renovation of our natures. But let these duties be performed, however, in what manner you please, they are utterly insufficient of themselves to cleanse our natural defilements; nor will any seek duly for that which alone is effectual unto this purpose until they are fully convinced hereof. Let, therefore, sinners hear and know, whether they will or will not believe it, that as by nature they are wholly defiled and polluted with those abominations of sin which render them loathsome in the sight of God, so they have no power by any endeavours or duties of their own to cleanse themselves; but by all they do to this end, they do but farther plunge themselves into the ditch, and increase their own defilements. Yet are all those duties necessary in their proper place and unto their proper end.

4. It is, therefore, their duty to acquaint themselves with that only remedy in this case, that only means of cleansing, which God hath appointed, and which he makes effectual. One great end of the revelation of the will of God, from the foundation of the world, of his institutions and ordinances of worship, was, to direct the souls and consciences of men in and unto the way of their cleansing; which as it argues his infinite love and care, so the great importance of the matter itself. And one principal means which Satan from the beginning made use of to keep men in their apostacy from God, and to encourage them therein, was, by supplying them with innumerable ways of purification, suited to the imaginations of their dark, unbelieving, and superstitious minds. And in like manner, when he designed to draw men off from Christ and the gospel under the Papacy, he did it principally by the suggestion of such present and future purgatories of sin as might comply with their lusts and ignorance. Of so great importance is it, therefore, to be acquainted with the only true and real way and means hereof! And there are two considerations that are suited to excite the diligence of sinners in this inquiry: (1.) The weight that is laid on this matter by God himself. (2.) The difficulty of attaining an acquaintance with it. And, — (1.) As hath been observed, any one by considering, [1.] The legal institutions of old will see what weight God lays hereon. No sacrifice had any respect unto sin but there was somewhat peculiar in it that was for its cleansing; and there were sundry ceremonious ordinances which had no other end but only to purify from uncleannesses. [2.] Among all the promises of the Old Testament concerning the establishment of the new covenant and the grace thereof, which are many and precious, there are none more eminent than those which concern our cleansing from sin by the administration of the Spirit, through the blood of Christ; some of them have been mentioned before; — which also farther manifests the care that God hath taken for our instruction herein. [3.] There is nothing more pressed on us, nothing more frequently proposed unto us, in the gospel, than the necessity of our purification, and the only way of effecting it. If, therefore, either instructions, or promises, or precepts, or all concurring, may evidence the importance of a duty, then is this manifested to partake therein. And those who will prefer the guidance of carnal reason and vain tradition before these heavenly directions shall live in their ignorance and die in their sins. (2.) The difficulty of obtaining an acquaintance with it is to be duly considered. It is a part of the “mystery of the gospel,” and such a part as is among those which the wisdom of the world or carnal reason esteemeth “foolishness.” It is not easily admitted or received, that we can no otherwise be cleansed from our sins but by the sprinkling of that blood which was shed so long ago; yet this and no other way doth the Scripture propose unto us. To fancy that there is any cleansing from sin but by the blood of Christ is to overthrow the gospel. The doctrine hereof are persons, therefore, obliged to inquire after and come to the knowledge of, that, being satisfied with its truth, and that this is the only way of cleansing [from] sin, appointed and blessed by God himself, their minds may be exercised about it, and so be taken off from resting on those vain medicines and remedies, which (having nothing else to fix upon) their own hearts and others’; blind devotions would suggest unto them.