John Owen · 44 of 73

Chapter X. The improvement of the doctrine. · Part 1

That which remains to complete our intendment, as to that part of the work which now draws towards a close, is the importment of that doctrine so long insisted on (having in some measure vindicated and cleared up the truth of it) as to the effectual influence it hath into the obedience and consolation of them that are concerned therein; and this I shall do in the order that I have named, giving the pre-eminence unto their obedience, which, more immediately respecting the glory of God and the honour of the gospel, is to be preferred before their consolation. Yea, though God should never afford his saints any drop of that consolation which we affirm to stream from the truth discussed, yet it is honour unspeakable for them that he is pleased to admit them and enable them to do him service in this life, and it will be their infinite consolation that they have done so, to eternity.

For the making our way clear to the demonstration of that influence which the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints hath into their obedience and close walking with God, and so to manifest what weight is to be laid upon it on that consideration, I shall give some previous observations, which may direct and give us light in our passage, both concerning gospel truths, gospel obedience, and gospel motives thereunto. I hope it will not be thought amiss if I look a little backward, to fortify and clear this part of our progress, there being no concernment of our doctrine that is more clamoured [against] by the adversaries of it; nor can any respect of it or any truth of God more causelessly meet with such entertainment, as I hope will abundantly, in the progress of our business, be evinced to the consciences of all who know indeed what it is to walk before God in a course of gospel obedience, and who have their communion with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ. For the first:—

1. Every truth revealed from God is to be received not only with faith and love, but with equal reverence to any that is revealed, though we are not able to discern such an immediate tendency unto usefulness in our communion with him as in some others we may. The formal reason whereinto our faith, love, and reverence unto the word of God is resolved is that it is His. Now, this is common to the whole, for he is the author of every part and portion alike; and though perhaps we may want some part of it at a less fatal, price than some other, yet to reject any one tittle or jot of it, as that which is revealed of God, is a sufficient demonstration that no one jot or tittle of it is received as it ought. Upon whatever this title and inscription is, Verbum Jehovæ, there must we stoop and bow down our souls before it, and captivate our understandings to the obedience of faith. Whatsoever, then, may hereafter be spoken concerning the usefulness of the truth under consideration, and the comparative regard which, in respect of others, ought on that account to be had thereunto, doth not in the least exalt it, as it is in itself, in respect of the faith and reverence due thereunto, above arty other truth whatsoever that is in Scripture revealed.

2. That next to the revelation of God, his will and his grace, the grand immediate tendency of the whole Scripture is to work them to whom the revelation is made into a conformity to himself, and to mould them into his own image. “All Scripture,” the apostle tells us, 2 Tim. iii. 16, 17, “is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.” Hereunto all Scripture tends, and is useful and profitable for this end. And the gospel is called “the truth that is according to godliness,” Titus i. 1; as “the end of the law is charity out of a pure heart, and a good conscience, and faith unfeigned,” 1 Tim. i. 5. That which in respect of the prime Author of it is λόγος Θεοῦ, “the word of God,” 1 Thess. ii. 13; and in respect of the principal matter of it is ὁ λόγος ὁ τοῦ σταυροῦ, “the word of the cross,” 1 Cor. i. 18; in respect of its end and tendency towards us is λόγος εὐσεβείας, “the word,” or truth, “that is according to godliness.” The word is that revealed will of God, which is our sanctification, 1 Thess. iv. 3, and the instrument whereby he works our holiness, according to that prayer of our Saviour, “Sanctify them by thy truth: thy word is truth,” John xvii. 17. And that which, when we are cast into the mould of our obedience, is in some measure wrought, Rom. vi. 17, the substance also or matter being written in our hearts, is the grace and holiness promised unto us in the covenant, Jer. xxxi. 33. And that this is the improvement which ought to he made by believers of every gospel truth, or rather, that it hath an efficacy to this purpose, the apostle tells us, 2 Cor. iii. 18, “We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” By apprehensions of the glorious truths discovered in the glass or mirror of the gospel, we are changed and moulded into the frame and image therein discovered by the power of the Spirit, effectually accompanying the word in the dispensation thereof. And unless this be done, whatsoever we may pretend, we have not received any truth of the gospel as it is in Jesus, in the power of it: Eph. iv. 20–24, “Ye have not,” saith the apostle, “so learned Christ; if so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: that ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” Whatsoever men may profess, if we have learned the truth as it is in Jesus, it will have these effects in us, even universal relinquishment (as to sincerity) of all ungodliness, and a thorough change, both as to principles and practices, unto holiness and to righteousness, which’ the gospel teaches us; which if we have not learned, we have not yet learned it “as it is in Jesus” Titus ii. 11, “The Mace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world.”

3. Some truths have a more immediate, direct, and effectual tendency to the promotion of godliness and gospel obedience than others. This the apostle emphatically ascribes as a privilege to that doctrine that reveals the love of Christ unto us: 2 Cor. v. 14, “The love of Christ constraineth us.” Other things effectually persuade, but the love of Christ constrains us to live to him. It hath an importunity with it not to be denied, an efficacy not to be put off or avoided. And what is in the things themselves, as in the love of Christ, that is in its manner, in “the word of truth,” whereby it is revealed.

4. That there is, by all that walk with God, great weight to be laid on those doctrines of truth which directly and effectually tend to the promotion of faith, love, fear, reverence of God, with universal holiness in their heart, and ways; this being that whereunto they are called, and whereby God is glorified, Jesus Christ and the gospel exalted, wherein his kingdom in them consists, on which their own peace in their own bosoms, their usefulness unto others in this world, their being made meet for the inheritance of the saints in light, do much depend. If these things be of weight or moment unto them (as surely they are all that is so to believers), then, doubtless, great valuation and dear esteem will be entertained of those helps and assistances which they have, leading and carrying them on thereunto.

5. That a judgment of what truths and doctrines are peculiarly conducing unto the promotion of piety and godliness is not to be made upon the apprehensions and reasonings of men, wrested with a thousand corruptions and prejudices, full of darkness and vanity, but according to what the Scripture itself holds forth, and the nature of the things themselves (that is, the evidence and consequence that is between the truth revealed and obedience) doth require. If the testimonies of the sons of men must be admitted in this case, to determine what doctrine is according to godliness, the cry and noise of them will be found so various, discrepant, confused, and directly contradictory to itself, that none will ever thereby be led to establishment. Then Papists will cry out for their merits, penance, vows, purgatory; the Socinians, familists, formalists, all contend, upon the foundation of their own persuasions, as to the tendency to godliness of their abominations. That doctrine Which hath no other proof of its truth and worth but that men, some men, profess it tends to godliness and holiness of conversation, I dare say is a lie and vanity, and did never promote any thing but vain, legal, superstitious, counterfeit holiness. Indeed, upon a supposition of its truth, it is of concernment, for the advancement of any doctrine in the esteem and opinion of the saints, to manifest that it leads to godliness; but to prove it to be true because men who perhaps never knew any thing beyond formal, legal, pharisaical holiness nit their days, say it tends to the promotion of holiness, is but to obtrude our conceptions upon others that are no way moulded into the frame of them. “That the embracement of such a truth will further us in our obedience and walking with God, therefore value and prize it,” is good arguing; but, “That such a doctrine will further us in a way of godliness, therefore it is a truth,” when we may be mistaken both in godliness itself and in the motives to it and furtherances of it, is but a presumption. To commend, then, the truth which we have at large otherwise confirmed to the hearts and consciences of the saints of God, and to lay a foundation for the full removal of those vain and weak exceptions which, on this account, are laid against it, I shall manifest what influences it hath into their obedience, and with what eminent efficacy it prevails upon their souls to “perfect holiness in the fear of God.” For the more clear declaration whereof I shall give the reader the sum of it, under the ensuing considerations concerning gospel obedience, and the motives that are proper thereunto.

That which I call gospel obedience, wherein the saints of God are furthered by the belief of the truth we have in hand, is variously expressed in the Scripture. It may in general be described to be a voluntary orderly subjection to the whole will of God. I call it obedience in reference unto the will of God, which is the rule and pattern of it, and whereunto it is in a regular subjection. The psalmist expresses it to the full, both as to the root and fruit: Ps. xl. 8, “I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.” The law in the heart gives us to do, and to delight in doing, the will of God. Peter calls it being “holy in all manner of conversation,” 1 Pet. i. 14, 15; Paul, a “cleansing of ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit in the fear of God,” 2 Cor. vii. 1; or, as it is more eminently described, Rom. xii. 1, 2, in that pathetical exhortation of the apostle thereunto, “I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed unto this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God,” as he had formerly at large described it in the sixth chapter of that epistle throughout. And I call it gospel obedience, not that it differs in substance, as to the matter of it, from that required by the law, which enjoins us to “love the Lord our God with all our heart,” but that it moves upon principles and is carried on unto ends revealed only in the gospel.

In reference to our design, there are these four things considerable in it:— First, The nature of it; Secondly, The principle in us from whence it proceeds; Thirdly, The motives that are proper to the carrying it on, the cherishing and increasing of it in them in whom it is; Fourthly, The persons who are to be moved and provoked to a progress therein.

By a brief consideration of these things, we shall make way for what we have undertaken, — namely, to manifest the efficacy of the doctrine we have insisted on for the promotion of this gospel obedience, it being accused and charged with the clean contrary tendency; whereof, God assisting, we shall free and discharge it in the progress of this discourse.

First, In the nature of it, I shall consider only these two things:— 1. The matter or substance of it; what it is as it were composed of, and wherein it doth consist. 2. The form or manner of its performance, whence it receives its distinct being as such.

1. The matter or substance of it contains those things or duties to God wherein it doth consist. Now, it consisting, as I said before, in conformity and submission to the will, that is, the commanding revealed will, of God, the matter of it must lie in the performance of all those things, and only those things, which God requireth of believers in walking before him; I say, all those things that God commandeth, with an equal respect to all his precepts. The authority of God, the commander and lawgiver, is the same in every command; and therefore was the curse denounced upon “every one that continued not in all things written in the law to do them;” and the apostle tells us that in the transgression of any one precept there is included the transgression of the whole law, because the authority of the lawgiver, both in the one and the other, is despised: James ii. 10, 11, “Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill.” And I say, it is only to the command, for “in vain do men worship him, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” The most stupendous endeavours of men, the most laborious drudgery of their souls, in duties not commanded, are so far from obedience that they are as high rebellions against God as they can possibly engage themselves into.

I might rather distinguish the matter or substance of this obedience into the internal elicit act of our souls, in faith, love, and the like acts of moral and everlasting obedience, — which are naturally, necessarily, and indispensably, required in us upon the account of the first commandment, and the natural subjection wherein we stand unto God as his creatures, improved and enlarged by the new obligation put upon us in being his redeemed ones (wherein, indeed, the main of our obedience doth consist), — and the outward instituted duties of religion, which God hath appointed for those former acts of obedience to be exercised in and exerted by; but the former description of it, with the intimation of its universality, may suffice.

2. The formality, if I may so speak, of this obedience, or that which makes the performance of duties commanded to be obedience, consists in these three things:—

(1.) The principle that begins it and sets it on work immediately in us, and that is faith: “Without faith it is impossible to please God,” Heb. xi. 6. Could a man do all that is commanded, yet if he did it not in faith, it would be of no value. Hence it is called “The obedience of faith,” Rom. i. 5; not “For obedience to the faith,” but “The obedience of faith,” which faith bringeth forth. Therefore are believers called “obedient children,” 1 Pet. i. 14, and we are said to “purify our souls in obeying the truth,” verse 22. “Christ dwells in our hearts by faith,” and “without him we can do nothing,” John xv. 5. All that we do is no better, seeing we can no way “draw near unto God with a trim heart” but “in full assurance of faith,” Heb. x. 22.

(2.) The manner of doing it, which consists in a due spiritual regard to the will of God in those ways whereby he calls men out to this obedience, — namely, in his precepts and promises. There is no obedience unto God but that which moves according to his direction; it must in every motion eye his command on the one hand, and his promise, whether of assistance for it or acceptance in it, on the other. Saith David, “I have respect unto all thy commandments,” Ps. cxix. 6; and saith the apostle, “Having these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God,” 2 Cor. vii. 1.

(3.) The principal end of it, which is the glory of God as a rewarder; for “he that cometh unto God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him,” Heb. xi. 6. The end of legal obedience was the glory of God as a rewarder according to merit in strict justice. The end of gospel obedience is the glory of God as a rewarder according to bounty, free grace, and mercy; under which consideration, neither needs the obedience rewardable to be commensurate to the reward, nor is the reward procured by that obedience. If it were, then it were of works, and not of grace, as the apostle tells us, Rom. iv. 4. So that the end of our obedience is to exalt God as a rewarder; yet that being as a rewarder of grace and bounty, the use of our obedience is not to procure that reward (for that were to work, and to have a reward reckoned to us of debt, and not of grace), but only to make the Lord gracious, and to exalt him in our present subjection and in his future gift of grace, in nature of a free, bounteous reward. This, I say, is that, gospel obedience which, by the doctrine insisted on, is promoted in the souls of believers.

Secondly, This being so, as was said, the gospel obedience whereof we speak, it is evident what principle it proceedeth from. Whereas there are two contrary principles in every regenerate man, as shall more fully afterward be declared, called in the Scripture “flesh and Spirit, the old and new man, indwelling sin and grace,” which have both of them their seats and places in all and the same faculties of the soul, it is most evident that this obedience flows solely and merely from the latter principle, the Spirit, the new or inner man, the new creature which is wrought in believers. The strengthening and heightening of this principle the Holy Ghost lays at the bottom of the renewal and increase of gospel obedience. Eph. iii. 16–19, “I pray,” saith the apostle, “that God would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God.” Their “strengthening with might by the Spirit in the inner man” is the foundation of their acting of and increasing in faith, love, knowledge, and assurance unto all the fullness of God. It is the “new man, which after God is created in righteousness and tree holiness,” that carries men out unto all acceptable obedience, as chap. iv. 24, of the same epistle. Look, whatsoever influences the other principle of the flesh hath into our obedience, so far it is defiled: for “that which is born of the flesh is flesh,” John iii. 6, and all the fruits of it are abominable; hence are all the pollutions that cleave to our holy things. Yea, if at any time poor and mere selfish considerations do put men upon duties of obedience and abstaining from sin, as fear of vengeance and destruction, and the like (which is made almost the only motive to obedience by the doctrine of the saints’ apostasy), their obedience in doing or abstaining is but as their fear of the Lord who were taught it by lions, and abominable unto him, 2 Kings xvii. 25, 32–34. This, then, being the nature of gospel obedience, and this the principle from whence it flows, it is evident, —

Thirdly, What are those motives which are suited to the promotion and carrying of it on in the hearts of believers; and what doctrines have an eminent and singular tendency thereunto is also to be considered. Now, these must all of them be such as are suited to the cherishing of that principle of the new or inner man in the heart, to the nourishing and strengthening of the new creature; such as are apt to ingenerate faith and love in the heart unto God; such as reveal and discover those things in his nature, mind, and will, which are apt to endear and draw out the heart to him in communion. Discouraging, perplexing doctrines do but ill manure the soil from whence the fruits of obedience are to spring and grow. Look, then, I say, whatsoever gospel truth is of eminent usefulness to warm, foment, stir up, and quicken, the principle of grace in the heart, to draw out, increase, and cherish faith and love, that doctrine lies in a direct, immediate tendency to the promotion of holiness, godliness, and gospel obedience. Yea, and whereas to the carrying on of that course of obedience, it is necessary that the contrary principle unto it, which we mentioned before, be daily subdued, brought under, crucified, and mortified; there are no doctrines whatsoever that are of such and so direct and eminent a serviceableness to that end and purpose as those which inwrap such discoveries of God and his goodwill in Christ as are fitted for the improvement also of the principle of grace in us. Hence the work of mortification in the Scripture is everywhere assigned peculiarly to the cross and death of Christ, — his love manifested therein, and his Spirit flowing therefrom. The doctrine of the law, indeed, humbles the soul for Christ; but it is the doctrine of the gospel that humbles the soul in Christ. It is “the grace of God that hath appeared, that teacheth us effectually to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world,” Titus ii. 11, 12. He that will but with a little heed read chap. vi. to the Romans will know from whence mortification flows: which truly, by the way, makes me admire at the extreme darkness and blindness of some poor men who have of late undertaken to give directions for devotion and walking with God; who, indeed, suitably to the most of the rest of their discourses, — all manifesting an “ignorance of the righteousness of God,” Rom. x. 4, and a zealous endeavour to establish their own, — coming to propose ‘ways and means for the mortifying of any sin or lust, tell you stories of biting the tongue, thrusting needles under the nails, with such like trash as might have befitted popish devotions five hundred years ago. Were not men utterly ignorant what it is to “know the Lord Jesus Christ, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, and to be made conformable to his death,” they could never feed on such husks themselves, nor make provision of them for those whose good they pretend to seek, Phil. iii. 10; Gal. vi. 14. Unto what hath been spoken add, —

Fourthly, Who are the persons that are to be provoked to holiness and godliness by the doctrine insisted on. Now, they are such as do believe it, and are concerned in it. We say, the truth under consideration is of an excellent usefulness to further gospel obedience in the hearts of believers and saints of God, who are taught of God not to turn the doctrine of grace into wantonness. What use, or abuse rather, men of corrupt minds and carnal principles, who stumble at Jesus Christ, and abuse the whole doctrine of the gospel by their prejudices and presumptions, will make of it, we know not, nor are solicitous. “If the gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost,” 2 Cor. iv. 3, 4. It is sufficient that the food be good and wholesome for them for whom it is provided. If some will come and steal it that have no right to it, and it prove, through their own distempers, gravel in their mouths or poison in their bowels, they must blame themselves and their own wormwood lusts, and not the doctrine which they do receive, 2 Cor. ii. 16. It is provided for them that fear God, and love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, not for dogs, swine, — unbelievers. We shall not marvel if they trample on this pearl, and rend them that bring it. To such as these, then, I say, the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, or the stability or unchangeableness of the love of God unto believers, and of their continuation in faith and obedience, is full of exceeding effectual motives and provocations unto holiness, in all manner of gospel obedience and holy conversation, exceedingly advantaging the souls of men in a course thereof. Now, the influence it hath into the obedience of the saints floweth from it upon a twofold account:— By removing all discouragements whatsoever that are apt either to turn them aside from their obedience, or to render their obedience servile, slavish, or unacceptable to God; it sets them, through Christ, at perfect liberty thereunto. [And] by, putting unconquerable and indissoluble obligations upon them to live unto God and to the praise of his glorious grace; and evidently draws them forth unto the obedience required.

1. It removeth and taketh out of the way all discouragements whatsoever, all things which are apt to interpose to the weakening of their faith in God or their love to God; which, as hath been said, are at the bottom of all obedience and holiness that is acceptable to God in Christ. Now, these may all be referred unto two heads:— (1.) Of perplexing, anxious fears, which are apt to impair and weaken the faith of the saints. (2.) Of hard thoughts of God, which assault and shake their love.

(1.) That slavish, perplexing, troublesome fears are contrary to the free and ingenuous state of children, whereunto the saints are admitted, and (however sometimes, yea, oftentimes, they are at the bottom, and are the occasion of burdensome, servile, and superstitious obedience) impairers of their faith, I suppose I need not labour to prove. That kind of fear whereof we speak (of which more afterward) is the greatest traitor that lurks in the soul. To “fear the Lord and his goodness” is the soul’s keeper, Hos. iii. 5; but this servile, perplexing fear is the betrayer of it in all its ways, and that which sours all its duties, — a thing which the Lord sets himself against, in rebukes, reproofs, dehortations, as much as any failing and miscarriage in his saints whatever. It is the opposite of faith; hence the “fearful and unbelieving” are put together in their exclusion from the New Jerusalem, Rev. xx. 8. It is that which is direct contrary to that which the apostle adviseth the saints unto, Heb. x. 19–22. It is that which mixeth faith with staggering, Rom. iv. 20, prayer with wavering, making it ineffectual, James i. 6, 7.

Let us now suppose a man to have attained some assurance of the love of God, and, “justified by faith,” to have “peace with him” (which, as to his present condition, the adversaries of the doctrine of perseverance acknowledge that he may attain, though how, upon their principles, I understand not); consider a little how he can safeguard his peace for a moment, and deliver himself from perplexing thoughts and fears, renouncing any interest in the engagement of the love and faithfulness of God for his preservation, lie may say within himself, “I am for the present in some good state and condition; but were not the angels so that are now devils in hell? were not they in a far better and more excellent state than I am? and yet they are now shut up under chains of everlasting darkness to the judgment of the great day. Adam in paradise had no lust within him to tempt and seduce him, no world under the curse to entangle and provoke him, and yet, ‘being in that honour, he had no understanding, he abode not,’ but ‘became like the beasts that perish.’ Was it not in their power to persevere in that condition if they would? Did they want any means that were useful thereunto? And what hope is there left to me, in whom there ‘dwelleth no good thing, who am sold under’ the power of ‘sin,’ and encompassed with a world of temptations, that I shall endure unto the end? I see thousands before mine eyes, partakers of the same heavenly calling with myself, of the same grace in Jesus Christ, every day falling into irrevocable perdition. There is not any promise of God that! should be preserved, no promise that I shall never depart from him, no prayer of Christ that my faith may not fail, but I am rolled upon mine own hands; and what will be the end of this whole undertaking of mine in the ways of God I know not.” Let, I say, a man be exercised with such thoughts as these, and then try if any thing under heaven can bring his soul to any possible composure, until, it be “cast into the mould of that doctrine which hath been delivered.” But of this more directly afterward, when we come to treat of the consolation which from the breasts of it doth flow.