John Owen · 58 of 123

Chapter III. Holiness necessary from the commands of God. · Part 2

[2.] In general, let us all endeavour to carry a constant regard unto the authority of God in his commands into all those seasons, places, societies, occasions, wherein we are apt to be surprised in any sin or a neglect of duty. And I may reduce this instruction or point it unto three heads or occasions, — namely, secrecy, businesses, and societies. 1st. Carry this along with you into your secret retirements and enjoyments. Neglect hereof is the next cause of those secret actual provoking sins which the world swarms with. When no eye sees but the eye of God, men think themselves secure. Hereby have many been surprised into folly, which hath proved the beginning of a total apostasy. An awe upon the heart from the authority of God in the command will equally secure us in all places and on all occasions. 2dly. Let us carry it into our businesses, and the exercise of our trades or callings. Most men in these things are very apt to be intent on present occasions, and having a certain end before them, do habituate themselves into the ways of its attainment; and whilst they are so engaged, many things occur which are apt to divert them from the rule of holiness. Whenever, therefore, you enter into your occasions, wherein you may suppose that temptations will arise, call to mind the greatness, power, and authority over you of Him who hath commanded you in all things to be holy. Upon every entrance of a surprisal, make your retreat unto such thoughts, which will prove your relief. 3dly. Carry it with you into your companies and societies; for many have frequent occasions of engaging in such societies, as wherein the least forgetfulness of the sovereign authority of God will betray them unto profuseness in vanity and corrupt communication, until they do with delight and hear with pleasure such things as wherewith the Holy Spirit of God is grieved, their own consciences are defiled, and the honour of profession is cast to the ground.

Secondly, The command of God that we should be holy is not to be considered only as an effect of power and authority, which we must submit unto, but as a fruit of infinite wisdom and goodness also, which it is our highest advantage and interest to comply withal. And this introduceth a peculiar necessity of holiness, from the consideration of what is equal, reasonable, ingenuous; the contrary whereunto is foolish, perverse, ungrateful, every way unbecoming rational creatures. Where nothing can be discerned in commands but mere authority, will, and pleasure, they are looked on as merely respecting the good of them that command, and not at all theirs who are to obey, which disheartens and weakens the principle of obedience. Now, though God, because his dominion over us is sovereign and absolute, might have justly left unto us no other reason or motive of our obedience, and, it may be, did so deal with the church of old, as to some particular, temporary, ceremonial institutions; yet he doth not, nor ever did so, as to the main of their obedience. But as he proposeth his law as an effect of infinite wisdom, love, and goodness, so he declares and pleads that all his commands are just and equal in themselves, good and useful unto us, and that our compliance with them is our present as well as it will be our future happiness. And that this is so, that the command of God requiring that we should be holy, as a fruit of wisdom and goodness, is equal and advantageous unto ourselves, appears from all the considerations of it:—

1. Look upon it formally, as a law prescribed unto us, and it is so, because the obedience in holiness which it requires is proportioned unto the strength and power which we have to obey, which declares it equal unto us, and an effect of infinite wisdom and goodness in God. The command, as we showed before, may be considered either as it belonged unto the old covenant, or as it is annexed unto, and so is a part of, the new. In the first way, as it belonged unto the old covenant, the strength of grace which we had originally from God under the law of creation was sufficient to enable us unto all that holy obedience which was required therein, and our not doing so was from wilful rebellion, and not from any impotency or weakness in us. We fell not from our first estate for want of power to obey, but by the neglect of the exercise of that power which we had. God made us upright, but we sought out many inventions. And in the latter way, as it belongs to the covenant of grace, there is, by virtue of that covenant, a supply of spiritual strength given in by the promise unto all them who are taken into it, enabling them to answer the commands for holiness, according to the rule of the acceptance of their obedience, before laid down. No man who is instated in the covenant of grace comes short or fails of the performance of that obedience which is required and accepted in that covenant merely for want of power and spiritual strength; for God therein, according to his divine power, gives unto us “all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue,” 2 Pet. i. 3.

It is true, this grace or strength is administered unto them by certain ways and means, which if they attend not unto they will come short of it. But this I say, in the careful, diligent, sedulous use of those means appointed, none who belong to the covenant of grace shall ever fail of that power and ability which shall render the commands of the gospel easy and not grievous unto them, and whereby they may so fulfil them as infallibly to be accepted. This the Scripture is plain in, where Christ himself tells us that “his yoke is easy, and his burden light,” Matt. xi. 30; and his holy apostle, that “his commandments are not grievous,” 1 John v. 3: for if they should exceed all the strength which we either have or he is pleased to give unto us, they would be like the Jewish ceremonies, — a yoke which we could not bear, and a law not only grievous but unprofitable. But, on the contrary, our apostle expressly affirms (and so may we) that “he could do all things,” — that is, in the way and manner, and unto the end for which they are required in the gospel, — “through Christ that strengthened him. Some would confound these things, and cast all into disorder. They would have men that are under the old covenant to have a power and spiritual strength to fulfil the commands of the new; which God hath never spoken of nor declared, and which, indeed, is contrary to the whole design of his grace. They would have men who have broken the old covenant, and forfeited all their strength and ability which they had by it for obedience, and who are not initiated in the new covenant, yet to have a power of their own to fulfil the command of the one or the other; which God neither giveth nor is obliged to give. Nor is it necessary to prove that the command is equal and holy; for, as was observed, God giveth us no command for holiness and obedience but in, with, and by virtue of some covenant. And there is no more required to prove them to be just and equal, but that they are easy unto them who walk with God in that covenant whereunto they do belong, and that that performance of them shall be accepted which they have power for. If any will sinfully cast away their covenant interest and privilege, as we all did that of our original creation, we must thank ourselves if we have not power to answer its commands. Nor doth it belong unto the equity of the commands of the new covenant that those who are not yet made partakers of it by grace should have power to fulfil them. Nay, if they had so, and should do so accordingly (were any such thing possible), it would not avail them: for being supposed not as yet to belong unto the new covenant, they must belong unto the old; and the performance of the commands of the new covenant, in the way and manner which are required therein, would not avail them who are really under the rule and law of the old, which admits of nothing short of absolute perfection. But “what the law speaks, it speaks unto them that are under the law;” and what the gospel speaks, it speaks unto them “who are not under the law, but under grace.” And the formal transition of men from one of these states unto another is by an act of God’s grace, wherein themselves are merely passive, as hath elsewhere been demonstrated. See Col. i. 13.

This is that which I do intend: God at first made a covenant with mankind, the first covenant, the covenant of works. Herein he gave them commands for holy obedience. These commands were not only possible unto them, both for matter and manner, by virtue of that strength and power which was concreated with them, but easy and pleasant, every way suited unto their good and satisfaction in that state and condition. This rendered their obedience equal, just, reasonable, and aggravated their sin with the guilt of the most horrible folly and ingratitude. When by the fall this covenant was broken, we lost therewith all power and ability to comply with its commands in holy obedience. Hereupon the “law” continued “holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good,” as our apostle speaks, Rom. vii. 12; for what should make it otherwise, seeing there was no change in it by sin, nor did God require more or harder things of us than before? But to us it became impossible, for we had lost the strength by which alone we were enabled to observe it; and so “the commandment, which was ordained to life, we find to be unto death,” verse 10. Towards all, therefore, that remain in that state we say, “The commandment is still just and holy, but it is neither easy nor possible.” Hereon God brings in the covenant of grace by Christ, and renews therein the commands for holy obedience, as was before declared. And here it is that men trouble themselves and others about the power, ability, and free-will that men have as yet under the first covenant, and the impotence that ensued on the transgression of it to fulfil the condition of the new covenant, and yield the obedience required in it; for this is the place where men make their great contests about the power of free-will and the possibility of God’s command. Let them but grant that it is the mere work of God’s sovereign and almighty grace effectually to instate men in the new covenant, and we shall contend with them or against them, that by virtue thereof they have such spiritual strength and grace administered unto them as render all the commands of it to be not only possible but easy also, yea, pleasant, and every way suited unto the principle of a holy life, wherewith they are endued. And this we make an argument for the necessity of holiness. The argument we have under consideration is that whereby we prove the necessity of holiness with respect unto God’s command requiring it, because it is a fruit of infinite wisdom and goodness. It is so in an especial manner as it belongs unto the new covenant. And, therefore, by our disobedience or living in sin, unto the contempt of God’s authority we add that of his wisdom and goodness also. Now, that it is so a fruit of them appears, in the first place, from hence, that it is proportioned unto the strength and ability which we have to obey. Hence obedience in holiness becomes equal, easy, and pleasant unto all believers who sincerely attend unto it; and this fully evinceth the necessity of it, from the folly and ingratitude of the contrary. That these things, and in them the force of the present argument, may the better be apprehended, I shall dispose them into the ensuing observations:—

(1.) We do not say that anyone hath this power and ability in himself or from himself. God hath not in the new covenant brought down his command to the power of man, but by his grace he raiseth the power of man unto his command. The former were only a compliance with the sin of our nature, which God abhors; the latter is the exaltation of his own grace, which he aimeth at. It is not men’s strength in and of themselves, the power of nature, but the grace which is administered in the covenant, that we intend. For men to trust unto themselves herein, as though they could do any thing of themselves, is a renunciation of all the aids of grace, without which we can do nothing. We can have no power from Christ unless we live in a persuasion that we have none of our own. Our whole spiritual life is a life of faith; and that is a life of dependence on Christ for what we have not of ourselves. This is that which ruins the attempt of many for holiness, and renders what they do (though it be like unto the acts and duties of it) not at all to belong unto it; for what we do in our own strength is no part of holiness, as is evident from the preceding description of it. Neither doth the Scripture abound in any thing more than in testifying that the power and ability we have to fulfil the commands of God, as given in the new covenant, is not our own, nor from ourselves, but merely from the grace of God administered in that covenant: as John xv. 5; Phil. ii. 13; 2 Cor. iii. 5. It will be said, then, “Where lies the difference? Because it is the mere work of grace to instate us in the covenant, you conclude that we have no power of our own to that purpose. And if when we are in covenant, all our strength and power is still from grace, we are, as to any ability of our own to fulfil the command of God, as remote from it as ever.” I answer, The first work of grace is merely upon us. Hereby the image of God is renewed, our hearts are changed, and a principle of spiritual life is bestowed on us. But this latter work of grace is in us and by us. And the strength or ability which we have thereby is as truly our own as Adam’s was his which he had in the state of innocency; for he had his immediately from God, and so have we ours, though in a different way.

(2.) There is no such provision of spiritual strength for any man, enabling him to comply with the command of God for holiness, as to countenance him in the least carnal security, or the least neglect of the diligent use of all those means which God hath appointed for the communication thereof unto us, with the preservation and increase of it. God, who hath determined graciously to give us supplies thereof, hath also declared that we are obliged unto our utmost diligence for the participation of them, and unto their due exercise when received. This innumerable commands and injunctions give testimony unto, but especially is the whole method of God’s grace and our duty herein declared by the apostle Peter, 2 Epist. i. 3–11; which discourse I have opened and improved elsewhere. The sum is, That God creating in us a new spiritual nature, and therewithal giving unto us “all things pertaining unto life and godliness,” or a gracious ability for the duties of a holy, godly, spiritual life, we are obliged to use all means, in the continual exercise of all grace, which will ascertain unto us our eternal election, with our effectual vocation, whereon we shall obtain an assured, joyful entrance into the kingdom of glory.

(3.) This administration of grace and spiritual strength is not equally effectual at all times. There are seasons wherein, to correct our negligences in giving place to our corruptions and temptations, or on other grounds, to discover unto us our own frailty and impotency, with other holy ends of his own, God is pleased to withhold the powerful influences of his grace, and to leave us unto ourselves. In such instances we shall assuredly come short of answering the command for universal holiness, one way or other. See Ps. xxx. 6, 7. But I speak of ordinary cases, and to prevent that slothfulness and tergiversation unto this duty of complying with all the commands of God for holiness which we are so obnoxious unto.

(4.) We do not say that there is in the covenant of grace spiritual strength administered, so as that by virtue thereof we should yield sinless and absolutely perfect obedience unto God, or to render any one duty so absolutely perfect. If any such there are, or ever were, who maintain such an imputation of the righteousness of Christ unto us as should render our own personal obedience unnecessary, they do overthrow the truth and holiness of the gospel. And to say that we have such supplies of internal strength as to render the imputation of the righteousness of Christ unto our justification unnecessary, is to overthrow the grace of the gospel and the new covenant itself. But this alone we say, There is grace administered by the promises of the gospel, enabling us to perform the obedience of it in that way and manner which God will accept. And herein there are various degrees, whereof we ought constantly to aim at the most complete, and so to be “perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” And where we signally come short of the best rules and examples, it is principally from our neglect of those supplies of grace which are tendered in the promises.

(5.) There is a twofold gracious power necessary to render the command for holiness and obedience thereunto easy and pleasant: —

[1.] That which is habitually resident in the hearts and souls of believers, whereby they are constantly inclined and disposed unto all fruits of holiness. This the Scripture calls our “life,” a new principle of life, without which we are dead in trespasses and sins. Where this is not, whatever arguments you constrain and press men withal to be holy, you do, as it were, but offer violence unto them, endeavouring to force them against the fixed bent and inclination of their minds. By them all you do but set up a dam against a stream of water, which will not be permanent, nor turn the course of the stream contrary to its natural inclination. Unto such the command for holiness must needs be grievous and difficult. But such a disposition and inclination, or a principle so inclining and disposing us unto duties of holiness, we have not in or of ourselves by nature, nor is it to be raised out of its ruins; for the “carnal mind” (which is in us all) “is enmity against God,” which carrieth in it an aversation unto everything that is required of us in a way of obedience, as hath been proved at large. And yet without this habitual principle, we can never in a due manner comply with any one command of God that we should be holy. Want hereof is that which renders obedience so grievous and burdensome unto many. They endure it for a season, and at length either violently or insensibly cast off its yoke. Light and conviction have compelled them to take it on themselves, and to attend unto the performance of those duties which they dare not omit; — but having no principle enabling or inclining them unto it, all they do, though they do much, and continue long therein, is against the grain with them; they find it difficult, uneasy, and wearisome. Wherein they can by any pretence countenance themselves in a neglect of any part of it, or bribe their consciences into a compliance with what is contrary unto it, they fail not to deliver themselves from their burden. And, for the most part, either insensibly, by multiplied instances of the neglect of duties of obedience, or by some great temptation before they leave the world, they utterly leave all the ways of holiness and respect unto the commands of God, or if they continue in any, it is unto external acts of morality, which pass with approbation in the world; the inward and spiritual part of obedience they utterly renounce. The reason hereof, I say, is, because having no principle within, enabling them unto a compliance with the commands of God with delight and satisfaction, they grow grievous and intolerable unto them. So unto many, on the same ground, the worship of God is very burdensome, unless it be borne for them by external additions and ornaments.

[2.] There is an actual assistance of effectual grace required hereunto. We are not put into such condition by the covenant as that we should be able to do any thing of ourselves without actual divine assistance. This were to set us free from our dependence on God, and to make us gods unto ourselves. The root still bears us, and the springs of our spiritual life are in another. And where both these are, there the command is equal, not only in itself but unto us, and obedience unto it as easy as just.

(6.) And both these sorts of grace are administered in the new covenant, suited unto the holy obedience it requires:—

[1.] For the first, it is that which God so frequently, so expressly promiseth, where he says that “he will take away the heart of stone, and give us a heart of flesh;” that “he will write his laws in our hearts, and put his fear in our inward parts;” that we shall “fear him,” and “never depart from him;” that he will “circumcise our hearts” to “know” and “love” him; — which promises, and the nature of the grace contained in them, I have before at large explained. It is sufficient unto our present purpose that in and by these promises we are made partakers of the divine nature, and are therein endowed with a constant, habitual disposition and inclination unto all acts and duties of holiness; for our power followeth our love and inclinations, as impotency is a consequent of their defect.

And here we may stay a little to confirm our principal assertion. Upon the supply of this grace, which gives both strength for and a constant inclination unto holy obedience, the command for it becomes equal and just, meet and easy to be complied withal: for none can refuse a compliance with it in any instance, but their so doing is contrary unto that disposition and inclination of the new nature which God hath implanted in themselves; so that for them to sin is not only contrary to the law without them, to the light of their minds and warning of their consciences, but it is also unto that which is their own inclination and disposition, which hath sensibly in such cases a force and violence put upon it by the power of corruptions and temptations. Wherefore, although the command for holiness may and doth seem grievous and burdensome unto unregenerate persons, as we have observed, because it is against the habitual bent and inclination of their whole souls, yet neither is it nor can it be so unto them who cannot neglect it or act any thing against it, but that therein, also, they must crucify and offer violence unto the inclinations of the new creature in them, which are their own; for in all things “the spirit lusteth against the flesh,” Gal. v. 17, and the disposition of the new creature is habitually against sin and for holiness. And this gives a mighty constraining power unto the command, when it is evident in our own minds and consciences that it requires nothing of us but what we do or may find an inclination or disposition in our own hearts unto. And by this consideration we may take in the power of it upon our souls, which is too frequently disregarded. Let us but, upon the proposal of it unto us, consider what our minds and hearts say to it, what answer they return, and we shall quickly discern how equal and just the command is; for I cannot persuade myself that any believer can be so captivated at any time, under the power of temptations, corruptions, or prejudices, but that (if he will but take counsel with his own soul, upon the consideration of the command for obedience and holiness, and ask himself what he would have) he will have a plain and sincere answer, “That, indeed, I would do and have the good proposed, this holiness, this duty of obedience.” Not only will conscience answer, that he must not do the evil whereunto temptation leadeth, for if he do, evil will ensue thereon; but the new nature, and his mind and spirit, will say, “This good I would do; I delight in it; it is best for me, most suited unto me.” And so it joins all the strength and interest it hath in the soul with the command. See to this purpose the arguing of our apostle, Rom. vii. 20–22. It is true, there is a natural light in conscience, complying with the command in its proposal, and urging obedience thereunto, which doth not make it easy to us, but, where it is alone, increaseth its burden and our bondage; for it doth only give in its suffrage unto the sanction of the command, and add to the severity wherewith it is attended. But that compliance with the command which is from a principle of grace is quite of another nature, and greatly facilitates obedience. And we may distinguish between that compliance with the command which is from the natural light of conscience, which genders unto bondage, and that which, being from a renewed principle of grace, gives liberty and ease in obedience: for the first respects principally the consequent of obedience or disobedience, the good or evil that will ensue upon them, Rom. ii. 14, 15; set aside this consideration, and it hath no more to say; — but the latter respects the command itself, which it embraceth, delighteth in, and judgeth good and holy, with the duties themselves required, which are natural and suited thereunto.

[2.] Grace of the latter sort, also, actual grace for every holy act and duty, is administered unto us according to the promise of the gospel. So God told Paul that “his grace was sufficient for him.” And “he worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure,” Phil. ii. 13, so as that we “may do all things” through him that enables us; the nature of which grace also hath been before discoursed of. Now, although this actual working of grace be not in the power of the wills of men, to make use of or refuse as they see good, but its administration depends merely on the grace and faithfulness of God, yet this I must say, that where it is sought in a due manner by faith and prayer, it is never so restrained from any believer but that it shall be effectual in him, unto the whole of that obedience which is required of him, and as it will be accepted from him.

If, then, this be the condition of the command of holiness, how just and equal must it needs be confessed to be! and therefore how highly reasonable is it that we should comply with it, and how great is their sin and folly by whom it is neglected! It is true, we are absolutely obliged unto obedience by the mere authority of God who commands, but he not only allows us to take in, but directs us to seek after, those other considerations of it which may give it force and efficacy upon our souls and consciences. And among these, none is more efficacious towards gracious, ingenuous souls than this of the contemperation of the duties commanded unto spiritual aids of strength promised unto us; for what cloak or pretence of dislike or neglect is here left unto any? Wherefore not only the authority of God in giving a command, but the infinite wisdom and goodness of God in giving such a command, so just, equal, and gentle, fall upon us therein, to oblige us to holy obedience. To neglect or despise this command is to neglect or despise God in that way which he hath chosen to manifest all the holy properties of his nature.

2. The command is equal, and so to be esteemed from the matter of it, or the things that it doth require. Things they are that are neither great nor grievous, much less perverse, useless, or evil, Mic. vi. 6–8. There is nothing in the holiness which the command requires but what is good to him in whom it is, and useful to all others concerned in him or what he doth. What they are the apostle mentions in his exhortation unto them, Phil. iv. 8. They are “things true,” and “honest,” and “just,” and “pure,” and “lovely,” and “of good report.” And what evil is there in any of these things, that we should decline the command that requires them? The more we abound in them, the better it will be for our relations, our families, our neighbours, the whole nation, and the world, but best of all for ourselves. “Godliness is profitable unto all things,” 1 Tim. iv. 8. “These things are good and profitable unto men,” Tit. iii. 8, — good to them that do them, and good to those towards whom they are done. But both these things, — namely, the usefulness of holiness unto ourselves and others, — must be spoken unto distinctly afterward, and are, therefore, transmitted unto their proper place.