John Owen · 48 of 123

Chapter VI. The positive work of the Spirit in the sanctification of believers. · Part 6

Whereas, therefore, the Spirit of Christ, communicated from him for our union with him, is the cause and author of all grace and evangelical holiness in us, it is evident that we receive it directly from Christ himself; which gives it the difference from all other habits and acts pleaded for.

(2dly.) The second work of the Spirit is, to communicate all grace unto us from Christ by virtue of that union. I shall take it for granted, until all that hath been before discoursed about the work of the Holy Spirit in our regeneration and sanctification be disproved, that he is the author of all grace and holiness; and when that is disproved, we may part with our Bibles also, as books which do openly and palpably mislead us. And what he so works in us, he doth it in pursuit of his first communication unto us, whereby we are united unto Christ, even for the edification, preservation, and farther sanctification of the mystical body, making every member of it meet for the “inheritance of the saints in light.” And in those supplies of grace which he so gives, acted by us in all duties of obedience, consists all the holiness which I desire any acquaintance withal or a participation of.

(3dly.) There is a mystical, spiritual body, whereof Christ is the head, and his church are the members of it. There is, therefore, a union between them in things spiritual, like unto that which is between the head and members of the body of a man in things natural. And this the Scripture, because of the weight and importance of it, with its singular use unto the faith of believers, doth frequently express. “God hath given him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all,” Eph. i. 22, 23. “For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ,” 1 Cor. xii. 12. “Christ is the head, from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love,” Eph. iv. 15, 16. And the same apostle speaks again to the same purpose, Col. ii. 19, “Not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God.” Now, it hath been always granted by all them who acknowledge the divine person of the Son of God, or the union of the human nature unto the divine in his person, that the Lord Jesus is the head of his church, in the double sense of that word; for he is the political head of it in a way of rule and government, and he is the really spiritual head, as unto vital influences of grace, unto all his members. The Romanists, indeed, cast some disturbance on the former, by interposing another immediate, ruling, governing head, between him and the catholic church; yet do they not deny but that the Lord Christ, in his own person, is the absolute, supreme king, head, and ruler of the church. And the latter the Socinians cannot grant; for denying his divine person, it is impossible to conceive how the human nature, subsisting alone by itself, should be such an immense fountain of grace as from whence there should be an emanation of it into all the members of the mystical body. But by all other Christians this hath hitherto been acknowledged; and, therefore, there is nothing belongs unto gospel grace or holiness but what is originally derived from the person of Christ, as he is the head of the church. And this is most evidently expressed in the places before alleged; for, 1 Cor. xii. 12, it is plainly affirmed that it is between Christ and the church as it is between the head and the members of the same natural body. Now, not only the whole body hath guidance and direction in the disposal of itself from the head, but every member in particular hath influences of life actually and strength from thence, without which it can neither act, nor move, nor discharge its place or duty in the body. “So also is Christ,” saith the apostle. Not only hath the whole mystical body of the church guidance and direction from him, in his laws, rules, doctrine, and precepts, but spiritual life and motion also; and so hath every member thereof, — they all receive from him grace for holiness and obedience, without which they would be but withered and dead members in the body. But he hath told us that “because he liveth we shall live also,” John xiv. 19: for the Father having given him to have “life in himself,” chap. v. 26, whereon “he quickeneth” with spiritual life “whom he will,” verse 21, from that fountain of spiritual life which is in him supplies of the same life are given unto the church; and, therefore, because he liveth we live also, — that is, a spiritual life here, without which we shall never live eternally hereafter. And, Eph. iv. 15, 16, the relation of believers unto Christ being stated exactly to answer the relation and union of the members of the body unto the head, it is expressly affirmed that as in the natural body there are supplies of nourishment and natural spirits communicated from the head unto the members, by the subserviency of all the parts of the body, designed unto that purpose, to the growth and increase of the whole in every part: so from Christ, the head of the church, which he is in his divine person as God and man, there is a supply of spiritual life, strength, and nourishment, made unto every member of the body, unto its increase, growth, and edification; for “we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones,” chap. v. 30, being made out of him as Eve was out of Adam, yet so continuing in him as to have all our supplies from him; “we in him, and he in us,” as he speaks, John xiv. 20. And, Col. ii. 19, it is expressly affirmed that from him, the head, there is nourishment ministered unto the body, unto its increase with the increase of God. And what this spiritual nourishment, supplied unto the souls of believers for their increase and growth from Christ their head, can be, but the emanation from his person and communication with them of that grace which is the principle and spring of all holiness and duties of evangelical obedience, none has as yet undertaken to declare; and if any do deny it, they do what lies in them to destroy the life and overthrow the faith of the whole church of God. Yea, upon such a blasphemous imagination, that there could be an intercision for one moment of influences of spiritual life and grace from the person of Christ unto the church, the whole must be supposed to die and perish, and that eternally.

(4thly.) The whole of what we assert is plainly and evidently proposed in sundry instructive allusions, which are made use of to this purpose. The principal of them is that both laid down and declared by our Saviour himself: John xv. 1, 4, 5, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, and ye are the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me” (or, severed from me, apart from me) “ye can do nothing.” The natural in-being of the vine and branches in each other is known unto all, with the reason of it; and so is the way whereby the in-being of the branches in the vine is the cause and means of their fruit-bearing. It is no otherwise but by the communication and derivation of that succus, — that is, juice and nourishment, — which alone is the preservative of vegetative life, and the next cause of fruit-bearing. In this juice and nourishment all fruit is virtually, yea, also, as to the first matter and substance of it; in and by the branch it is only formed into its proper kind and perfection. Let any thing be done to intercept this communication from the vine unto any branch, and it not only immediately loseth all its fruit-bearing power and virtue, but itself also withereth and dieth away. And there is a mutual acting of the vine and branches in this matter. Unto the vine itself it is natural from its own fullness to communicate nourishment unto the branches, — it doth it from the principle of its nature; and unto the branches it is also natural to draw and derive their nourishment from the vine. “Thus is it,” saith the Lord Christ unto his disciples, “between me and you. ‘I am the vine,’ “saith he, “‘and ye are the branches.’ And there is a mutual in-being between us; I am in you, and ye are in me, by virtue of our union. That now which is expected from you is, that ye bring forth fruit; that is, that ye live in holiness and obedience, unto the glory of God. Unless ye do so ye are no true, real branches in me, whatever outward profession ye may make of your so being.” But how shall this be effected? how shall they be able to bring forth fruit? This can be no otherwise done but by their abiding in Christ, and thereby continually deriving spiritual nourishment, — that is, grace and supplies of holiness, — from him; “for,” saith he, χωρὶς ἐμοῦ, “separate,” or apart, “from me, ye can do nothing of this kind.” And that is, because nothing becomes fruit in the branch that was not nourishment from the vine. Nothing is duty, nothing is obedience in believers, but what is grace from Christ communicated unto them. The preparation of all fructifying grace is in Christ, as the fruit of the branches is naturally in the vine. And the Lord Christ doth spiritually and voluntarily communicate of this grace unto all believers, as the vine communicates its juice unto the branches naturally; and it is in the new nature of believers to derive it from him by faith. This being done, it is in them turned into particular duties of holiness and obedience. Therefore, it is evident that there is nothing of evangelical holiness in any one person whatever but what is, in the virtue, power, and grace of it, derived immediately from Jesus Christ, by virtue of relation unto him and union with him; and it may be inquired whether this be so with moral virtue or no. The same is taught by our apostle under the similitude of an olive-tree and its branches, Rom. xi. 16–24; as also where he is affirmed to be a living stone, and believers to be built on him, as lively stones, into a spiritual house, 1 Pet. ii. 4, 5.

Particular testimonies do so abound in this case as that I shall only name some few of them: John i. 14, 16, He is “full of grace and truth. And of his fullness have all we received, and grace for grace.” It is of the person of Christ, or the “Word made flesh,” the Son of God incarnate, that the Holy Ghost speaketh. He was made flesh, and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth. It is not the fullness of the Deity, as it dwelt in him personally, that is here intended, but that which was in him as he was made flesh, — that is, in his human nature, as inseparably united unto the divine; an all-fullness that he received by the good pleasure or voluntary disposal of the Father, Col. i. 19, and, therefore, belongeth not unto the essential fullness of the Godhead. And as to the nature of this fullness, it is said to consist in “grace and truth,” that is, the perfection of holiness, — and knowledge of the whole mind, counsel, and mystery of the will of God. Of this fullness do we “receive grace for grace,” — all the grace, in every kind, whereof we are made partakers in this world. That this fullness in Christ expresseth the inconceivable fullness of his human nature, by virtue of his indissolute personal union, with all graces in their perfection, wherein he received not the Spirit by measure, John iii. 34, is, as I suppose, by all Christians acknowledged; I am sure cannot be denied without the highest impiety and blasphemy. Hence, therefore, the Holy Ghost being witness, do we derive and receive all our grace, everyone according to his measure, Eph. iv. 7. Wherefore, grace is given unto the Lord Christ in an immeasurable perfection by virtue of his personal union, Col. ii. 9; and from him is it derived unto us by the gracious inhabitation of his Spirit in us, 1 Cor. vi. 19, Eph. iv. 7, according unto the degree of participation allotted unto us. This, in the substance of it, is contained in this testimony. There was and is in Jesus Christ a fullness and perfection of all grace; in us of ourselves, or by any thing that we have by nature or natural generation, by blood, or the flesh, or the will of man, John i. 13, there is none at all. Whatever we have is received and derived unto us from the fullness of Christ, which is an inexhaustible fountain thereof, by reason of his personal union.

To the same purpose is he said to be “our life,” and “our life to be hid with him in God,” Col. iii. 3, 4. Life is the principle of all power and operation. And the life here intended is that whereby we live to God, the life of grace and holiness; for the actings of it consist in the setting of our affections on heavenly things, and mortifying our members that are on the earth. This life Christ is. He is not so formally; for if he were, then it would not be our life, but his only. He is, therefore, so efficiently, as that he is the immediate cause and author of it, and that as he is now with God in glory. Hence it is said that we live, that is, this life of God, yet so as that we live not of ourselves, but “Christ liveth in us,” Gal. ii. 20. And he doth no otherwise live in us but by the communication of vital principles and a power for vital acts; that is, grace and holiness from himself unto us. If he be our life, we have nothing that belongs thereunto, — that is, nothing of grace or holiness, — but what is derived unto us from him.

To conclude, we have all grace and holiness from Christ, or we have it of ourselves. The old Pelagian fiction, that we have them from Christ because we have them by yielding obedience unto his doctrine, makes ourselves the only spring and author of them, and on that account [it was] very justly condemned by the church of old, not only as false, but as blasphemous. Whatever, therefore, is not thus derived, thus conveyed unto us, belongs not unto our sanctification or holiness, nor is of the same nature or kind with it. Whatever ability of mind or will may be supposed in us; what application soever of means may be made for the exciting and exercise of that ability; whatever effects, in virtues, duties, all offices of humanity, and honesty, or religious observances, may be produced thereby from them, and wrought by us, — if it be not all derived from Christ as the head and principle of spiritual life unto us, it is a thing of another nature than evangelical holiness.

(3.) The immediate efficient cause of all gospel holiness is the Spirit of God. This we have sufficiently proved already. And although many cavils have been raised against the manner of his operation herein, yet none has been so hardy as openly to deny that this is indeed his work; for so to do is, upon the matter, expressly to renounce the gospel. Wherefore, we have in our foregoing discourses at large vindicated the manner of his operations herein, and proved that he doth not educe grace by moral applications unto the natural faculties of our minds, but that he creates grace in us by an immediate efficiency of almighty power. And what is so wrought and produced differeth essentially from any natural or moral habits of our minds, however acquired or improved.

(4.) This evangelical holiness is a fruit and effect of the covenant of grace. The promises of the covenant unto this purpose we have before, on other occasions, insisted on. In them doth God declare that he will cleanse and purify our natures, that he will write his law in our hearts, put his fear in our inward parts, and cause us to walk in his statutes; in which things our holiness doth consist. Whoever, therefore, hath any thing of it, he doth receive it in the accomplishment of these promises of the covenant: for there are not two ways whereby men may become holy, one by the sanctification of the Spirit according to the promise of the covenant, and the other by their own endeavours without it; though indeed Cassianus, with some of the semi-Pelagians, dreamed somewhat to that purpose. Wherefore, that which is thus a fruit and effect of the promise of the covenant hath an especial nature of its own, distinct from whatever hath not that relation unto the same covenant. No man can ever be made partaker of any the least degree of that grace or holiness which is promised in the covenant, unless it be by virtue and as a fruit of that covenant; for if they might do so, then were the covenant of God of none effect, for what it seems to promise in a peculiar manner may, on this supposition, be attained without it, which renders it an empty name.

(5.) Herein consists the image of God, whereunto we are to be renewed. This I have proved before, and shall afterward have occasion to insist upon. Nothing less than the entire renovation of the image of God in our souls will constitute us evangelically holy. No series of obediential actings, no observance of religious duties, no attendance unto actions amongst men as morally virtuous and useful, how exact soever they may be, or how constant soever we may be unto them, will ever render us lovely or holy in the sight of God, unless they all proceed from the renovation of the image of God in us, or that habitual principle of spiritual life and power which renders us conformable unto him.

From what hath been thus briefly discoursed, we may take a prospect of that horrible mixture of ignorance and impudence wherewith some contend that the practice of moral virtue is all the holiness which is required of us in the gospel, neither understanding what they say nor whereof they do affirm. But yet this they do with so great a confidence as to despise and scoff at any thing else which is pleaded to belong thereunto. But this pretence, notwithstanding all the swelling words of vanity wherewith it is set off and vended, will easily be discovered to be weak and frivolous; for, —

1. The name or expression itself is foreign to the Scripture, not once used by the Holy Ghost to denote that obedience which God requireth of us in and according to the covenant of grace. Nor is there any sense of it agreed upon by them who so magisterially impose it on others: yea, there are many express contests about the signification of these words, and what it is that is intended by them, which those who contend about them are not ignorant of; and yet have they not endeavoured to reduce the sense they intend unto any expression used concerning the same matter in the gospel. But all men must needs submit unto it, that at least the main part, if not the whole of religion, consists in moral virtue, though it be altogether uncertain what they intend by the one or the other! These are they who scarce think any thing intelligible when declared in the words of the Scripture, which one hath openly traduced as a “ridiculous jargon.” They like not, they seem to abhor, the speaking of spiritual things in the words which the Holy Ghost teacheth: the only reason whereof is, because they understand not the things themselves; and whilst they are “foolishness” unto any, it is no wonder the terms whereby they are declared seem also so to be. But such as have received the Spirit of Christ, and do know the mind of Christ (which profane scoffers are sufficiently remote from), do best receive the truth and apprehend it, when declared not in “the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which are taught by the Holy Ghost.” It is granted to be the wisdom and skill of men farther to explain and declare the truths that are taught in the gospel, by sound and wholesome words of their own; which yet all of them, as to their propriety and significancy, are to be tried and measured by the Scripture itself. But we have a new way of teaching spiritual things, sprung up among some, who, being ignorant of the whole mystery of the gospel, and therefore despising it, would debase all the glorious truths of it, and the declaration made of them, into dry, barren, sapless, philosophical notions and terms, and those the most common, obvious, and vulgar that ever obtained among the heathen of old. “Virtuous living,” they tell us, “is the way to heaven;” but what this virtue is, or what is a life of virtue, they have added as little in the declaration of as any persons that ever made such a noise about them.

2. That ambiguous term moral hath, by usage, obtained a double signification, with respect unto an opposition unto other things, which either are not so or are more than so; for sometimes it is applied unto the worship of God, and so is opposed unto instituted. That religious worship which is prescribed in the decalogue or required by the law of creation is commonly called “moral,” and that in opposition unto those rites and ordinances which are of a superadded, arbitrary institution. Again, it is opposed unto things that are more than merely moral, — namely, spiritual, theological, or divine. So the graces of the Spirit, as faith, love, hope, in all their exercise, whatever they may have of morality in them, or however they may be exercised in and about moral things and duties, yet because of sundry respects wherein they exceed the sphere of morality, are called graces and duties, theological, spiritual, supernatural, evangelical, divine; in opposition unto all such habits of the mind and duties as, being required by the law of nature, and as they are so required, are merely moral. In neither sense can it with any tolerable congruity of speech be said that moral virtue is our holiness, especially the whole of it. But because the duties of holiness have, the most of them, a morality in them, as moral is opposed to instituted, some would have them have nothing also in them, as moral is opposed to supernatural and theological. But that the principle and acts of holiness are of another special nature hath been sufficiently now declared.

3. It is, as was before intimated, somewhat uncertain what the great pleaders for moral virtue do intend by it. Many seem to design no more but that honesty and integrity of life which was found among some of the heathens in their virtuous lives and actions; and, indeed, it were heartily to be wished that we might see more of it amongst some that are called Christians, for many things they did were materially good and useful unto mankind. But let it be supposed to be never so exact, and the course of it most diligently attended unto, I defy it as to its being the holiness required of us in the gospel, according unto the terms of the covenant of grace; and that because it hath none of those qualifications which we have proved essentially to belong thereunto. And I defy all the men in the world to prove that this moral virtue is the sum of our obedience to God, whilst the gospel is owned for a declaration of his will and our duty. It is true, all the duties of this moral virtue are required of us, but in the exercise of every one of them there is more required of us than belongs unto their morality, — as, namely, that they be done in faith and love to God through Jesus Christ; and many things are required of us as necessary parts of our obedience which belong not thereunto at all.

4. Some give us such a description of morality as that “it should be of the same extent with the light and law of nature, or the dictates of it as rectified and declared unto us in the Scripture;” and this, I confess, requires of us the obedience which is due towards God by the law of our creation, and according to the covenant of works materially and formally. But what is this unto evangelical holiness and obedience? Why, it is alleged that “religion before the entrance of sin and under the gospel is one and the same; and therefore there is no difference between the duties of obedience required in the one and the other.” And it is true that they are so far the same as that they have the same Author, the same object, the same end; and so also had the religion under the law, which was, therefore, so far the same with them; but that they are the same as to all the acts of our obedience and the manner of their performance is a vain imagination. Is there no alteration made in religion by the interposition of the person of Christ to be incarnate, and his mediation? no augmentation of the object of faith? no change in the abolishing of the old covenant and the establishment of the new, the covenant between God and man being that which gives the especial form and kind unto religion, the measure and denomination of it? no alteration in the principles, aids, assistances, and whole nature of our obedience unto God? The whole mystery of godliness must be renounced if we intend to give way unto such imaginations. Be it so, then, that this moral virtue and the practice of it do contain and express all that obedience, materially considered, which was required by the law of nature in the covenant of works, yet I deny it to be our holiness or evangelical obedience; and that, as for many other reasons, so principally because it hath not that respect unto Jesus Christ which our sanctification hath.

5. If it be said that by this moral virtue they intend no exclusion of Jesus Christ, but include a respect unto him, I desire only to ask whether they design by it such a habit of mind, and such acts thence proceeding, as have the properties before described, as to their causes, rise, effects, use, and relation unto Christ and the covenant, such as are expressly and plainly in the Scripture assigned unto evangelical holiness? Is this moral virtue that which God hath predestinated or chosen us unto before the foundation of the world? Is it that which he worketh in us in the pursuit of electing love? Is it that which gives us a new heart, with the law of God written in it? Is it a principle of spiritual life, disposing, inclining, enabling us to live to God, according to the gospel, produced in us by the effectual operation of the Holy Ghost, not educed out of the natural powers of our own souls by the mere application of external means? Is it that which is purchased and procured for us by Jesus Christ, and the increase whereof in us he continueth to intercede for? Is it the image of God in us, and doth our conformity unto the Lord Christ consist therein? If it be so, if moral virtue answer all these properties and adjuncts of holiness, then the whole contest in this matter is, whether the Holy Spirit or these men be wisest, and know best how to express the things of God rationally and significantly. But if the moral virtue they speak of be unconcerned in these things, if none of them belongs unto it, if it may and doth consist without it, it will appear at length to be no more, as to our acceptance before God, than what one of the greatest moralists in the world complained that he found it when he was dying, — “a mere empty name.” But this fulsome Pelagian figment of a holiness, or evangelical righteousness, whose principle should be natural reason, and whose rule is the law of nature as explained in the Scripture, whose use and end is acceptation with God and justification before him, — whereby those who plead for it, the most of them, seem to understand no more but outward acts of honesty, nor do practice so much, — being absolutely opposite unto and destructive of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, being the mere doctrine of the Quakers, by whom it is better and more intelligibly expressed than by some new patrons of it amongst us, will not, in the examination of it, create any great trouble unto such as look upon the Scripture to be a revelation of the mind of God in these things.