John Owen · 45 of 73

Chapter X. The improvement of the doctrine. · Part 2

(2.) It is exceedingly suited to the deliverance of the souls of the saints from all such hard thoughts of God as are apt to impair and weaken their love towards him and delight in him; so setting the two principles of all their obedience, faith and love, at liberty, and free from their entanglements, to act in the duties they are called unto. He that had hard thoughts of his absent lord as an austere man, though he was not excused in his disobedience by it, yet was evidently discouraged as to his obedience. When men shall be taught that God takes no more care of his children in his family, but that the devil may enter in among them and take them away, making them children of hell, when he might with the greatest advantage of glory and honour to himself imaginable prevent it; that the Lord Jesus Christ, “the great shepherd of the sheep,” takes no more care of his flock and fold, but that the lion, bears, and wolves, may enter in, and make havoc, and spoil at their pleasure; — may they not think that God is little concerned in the salvation of his, and that all that which is so gloriously expressed of his peculiar and special love carries nothing but an empty noise, the burden of their preservation being thrown solely upon their own shoulders? And are not such thoughts fit only to cast water upon their flames of love to God, and insensibly to weaken that delight which they ought always to take in the riches of his grace and love? Is there any thing possible more endearing to the heart of a creature than to hear such a testimony as that, Zeph. iii. 17, concerning the stability of the love of God, and its excellency, “The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing? God’s resting in his love towards his saints fixes their souls in their love to him.

2. It puts high and unspeakable obligations on the saints to live to God, and to “perfect holiness in the fear of God.” Saints we suppose to have their birth from above, to be begotten of the will of God, through the immortal seed of the word, and to be quickened with a noble, child-like ingenuity, befitting the family of God; neither is there any thing more injurious to the work of God’s grace than to suppose that those whom God calls “children, friends, heirs of heaven and glory, his crown, his diadem, brethren of his only Son,” are to be dealt withal, or that God deals with them, as if they were wholly acted by a servile, slavish principle, and were wholly under the power of such an unworthy disposition.

There are two things usually spoken to the prejudice and disadvantage of the truth we have under consideration, much insisted on by Mr Goodwin, chap. ix.; as, —

(1.) “That a persuasion of the certain continuance of the love of God to any one is a ready way to make them careless, negligent, and to give up themselves to all manner of abominations.”

But what vipers, snakes, and adders, do such men suppose the saints of God to be, theft their new nature, their heavenly principles (for what the flesh in them is prone unto we now consider not), should conclude that it is good to sin “that grace may abound;” that because God “loves them with an everlasting love,” therefore they will hate him with a perpetual hatred; that because he will assuredly give them “grace to serve him with reverence and godly fear,” therefore they will despise him and trample on all his goodness; that because he will “never forsake them,” they will no more abide with him What is in the inner man, what is in the new creature, what is in the nature of any grace wherewith they are endowed, that is apt or inclinable to make such hellish conclusions? If we hear of any such thing among the sons of men, — if we see a child or a servant resolving to be profligate, wicked, stubborn, prodigal, because his father or master is kind, loving, and will not disinherit him or put him away, — we look upon him as a monster in nature, and think that it would be good service to the interest of mankind to take him off from the face of earth; and yet such monsters are all the saints of God supposed to be, who, if their Father once give them the least assurance of the continuance of his love, they presently resolve to do him all the dishonour, despite, and mischief they can! I appeal to all the experience of all the saints in the world whether, if any such thought at any time arise in them, that they may “continue in sin because grace hath abounded,” that they may live in all filth and folly because God hath promised never to forsake them nor turn away his love from them, they do not look upon it as a hellish abuse of the love of God, which they labour to crucify no less than any other work of the flesh whatsoever. Presuppose, indeed, the saints of God to be dogs and swine, wholly sensual and unregenerate, that is, no saints, and our doctrine to be such, that God will love them and save them continuing in that state wherein they are, and you make a bed for iniquity to stretch itself upon; but suppose that we teach that the “wrath of God” will certainly come upon the “children of disobedience,” that “he that believeth not shall be damned,” and that God will keep his own “by his power through faith unto salvation,” and that, in and by the use of means, they shall certainly be preserved to the end, and the mouth of iniquity will be stopped.

(2.) They say, “It takes away that strong curb and bridle which ought to be kept in the mouth of the flesh, to keep it from running headlong into sin and folly, — namely, the fear of hell and punishment, which alone hath an influence upon it to bring it to subjection and under obedience.”

But now, if there be nothing in the world that is of use for the mortification and crucifying of the flesh and the lusts thereof but it receives improvement by this doctrine, this crimination must of necessity vanish into nothing.

(1.) Then, it tells us that the flesh and all the deeds thereof are to be crucified and slain, God having ordained good works for us to walk in; that for the works of the flesh, the wrath of God cometh upon the children of disobedience; and if any say, “Let us continue in sin, because we are not under the law, or the condemning power of it for sin, but under grace,” it cries out, “God forbid!” Rom. vi. 14, 15, and saith, this is argument enough and proof sufficient that sin shall not have dominion over us, “because we are not under the law, but under grace.” It tells you, also, that there is a twofold fear of hell and punishment of sin; — first, Of anxiety and doubtfulness in respect of the end; secondly, Of care and diligence that respecteth the means.

And for the first, it saith that this is the portion of very many of the saints of God, of some all their days. Though they are so, yet they know not that they are so; and therefore are under anxious and doubtful fears of hell and punishment, notwithstanding that they are in the arms of their Father, from whence, indeed, they shall not be cast down; — as a man bound with chains on the top of a tower cannot but fear, and yet he cannot fall. He cannot fall, because he is fast bound with strong chains; he cannot but fear, because he cannot actually and clearly consider oftentimes the means of his preservation.

And for the latter, a fear of the ways and means leading to punishment, as such, that continues upon all the saints of God in this life; neither is there any thing in this doctrine that is suited to a removal thereof. And this, it says, is more, much more of use for the mortification of the flesh than the former.

(2.) It says that the great and principal means of mortification of the flesh is not fear of hell and punishment, but the Spirit of Christ, as the apostle tells us, Rom. viii. 13, “If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.” It is the Spirit of Christ alone that is able to do this great work. We know what bondage and religious drudgery some have put themselves unto upon this account, and yet could never in their lives attain to the mortification of any one sin. It is the Spirit of Christ alone that hath sovereign power in our souls of killing and making alive. As no man quickeneth his own soul, so no man upon any consideration whatsoever, or by the power of any threatenings of the law, can kill his own sin. There was never any one sin truly mortified by the law or the threatening of it. All that the law can do of itself is but to entangle sin, and thereby to irritate and provoke it, like a bull in a net, or a beast led to the slaughter. It is the Spirit of Christ in the gospel that cuts its throat and destroys it. Now, this doctrine was never in the least charged with denying the Spirit of God to believers; which whilst it doth grant and maintain in a way of opposition to that late opinion which advanceth itself against it, it maintains the mortification of the flesh and the lusts thereof upon the only true and unshaken foundation.

(3.) It tells you that the great means whereby the Spirit of Christ worketh the mortification of the flesh and the lusts thereof is the application of the cross of Christ, and his death and love therein, unto the soul, and says that those vain endeavours which some promote and encourage for the mortification of sin, consisting, for the most part, in slavish, bodily exercises, are to be bewailed with tears of blood as abominations that seduce poor souls from the cross of Christ; for it says this work is only truly and in an acceptable manner performed when we are “planted into the likeness of the death of Christ, having our old man crucified with him, and the body of sin destroyed,” Rom. vi. 5, 6, and thereupon by faith “reckoning ourselves dead unto sin, but alive unto God,” verse 11. It is done only by “knowing the fellowship of the sufferings of Christ, and being made conformable to his death,” Phil. iii. 10. “By the cross of Christ is the world crucified unto us, and we unto the world,” Gal. vi. 14. The Spirit brings home the power of the cross of Christ to the soul for the accomplishing of this work, and without it it will not be done. Moreover, it says that, by the way of motive to this duty, there is nothing comes with that efficacy upon the soul as the love of Christ in his death; as the apostle assures us, 2 Cor. v. 14, 15, “For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: and that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.” Now, it was never laid to the charge of this doctrine that it took off from the virtue of the death and cross of Christ, but rather, on the contrary, though falsely, that it ascribed too much thereunto; so that, these importune exceptions notwithstanding, the doctrine in hand doth not only main-rain its own innocency as to any tendency unto looseness, but also manifestly declareth its own usefulness to all ends and purposes of gospel obedience whatsoever: for, —

(4.) It stirs up, provokes, and draws out into action, every thing that is free, noble, ingenuous, filial, and of a heavenly descent, in the saints of God. Thus, —

[1.] It strengthens their faith in God and in Jesus Christ; which is the bottom of all acceptable obedience whatsoever, all that which proceedeth from any other root being but a product of labouring in the fire, which in the end will consume both root and branch. That which prevails upon and draws out the soul to faith and believing, I mean as it is peculiar to the gospel and justifying, — that is, as it is in God as a Father, and in the Lord Christ as a Mediator, — is the discovery of the good-will of God to the soul in Christ, and his design to advance his glory thereby. I speak not of the formal cause of faith in general, but of the peculiar motive to faith and believing in the sense before mentioned. So our Saviour giving the command in general to his disciples, John xiv. 1, “Ye believe in God, believe also in me,” in the whole ensuing chapter provokes them to it with gracious discoveries of the good-will of God, — his Father’s and his own good-will towards them. And, indeed, propose what other considerations ye will, provoke the soul by all the fear and dread of hell, and the most dismal representation of the wrath to come, until it be convinced of this, it will never take one step towards God in Christ. Now, “our adversaries themselves being judges,” the doctrine we have had under consideration abounds above all others with the discoveries of the good-will and kindness of God to poor sinners; yea, the great crime that is laid to the charge of it is that it extends it too far. It doth not only assert that God freely “begins the good work in them,” but that he will also powerfully “perfect it to the day of Jesus Christ.” It assures the souls of the poor saints of God that he who “looked upon them in their blood, and said unto them Live, when no eye pitied them, who quickened them when they were dead in trespasses and in sins, begetting them of his own will by the word of truth, that they should be a kind of first-fruits to himself, washing them in the blood of his Son,” and delivering them from the old tyrant Satan, — that he will not now leave them to themselves and to the counsel of their own hands, to stand or fall according as they shall of themselves and by themselves be able to withstand opposition and seduction; but that he will keep them in his own hand, giving them such constant supplies of his grace and Spirit as that, in the rise of means, they shall wait upon him to the end; and that howsoever or whensoever, by the power of temptation and surprisals of corruptions, they are carried aside from him, he will “heal their backslidings, and love them freely,” and though they change every day, yet “he changeth not, and therefore they are not consumed.” And hereby, I say, it confirms and strengthens their faith in God as a Father in Jesus Christ, taking everlasting care of them.

[2.] Of their love there is the same reason. God’s love to us is of his free grace; he loves us because so it seems good to him. Our love to him is purely ingenerated by his love to us, and carried on and increased by farther revelations of his desirableness and excellency to our souls: “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us” first. There is no creature in the least guilty of sin that can put forth any acceptable act of love towards God, but what is purely drawn out upon the apprehension of his love and loveliness in his grace and mercy. A man, I confess, may love God when he hath no sense of his love to him in particular; but it must all be built upon an apprehension of his love to sinners, though he may come short in the application. It is the “terror of the Lord” that causes us to “persuade” others, but it is the “love of Christ that constraineth us” to live to him. She loved much to whom much was forgiven. Look, then, the more abundant discoveries are made of the loveliness and desirableness [of God] in the riches of his grace, the more effectual is the sole and only motive we have to love him with that filial, chaste, holy love, that he requires.

For the love of God to his saints, our doctrine of their perseverance sets it forth with the greatest advantage for the endearment of their souls, to draw out their streams of love to God; especially doth it give it its glory in three things:—

1st. In its freedom. It sets forth the love of God to his saints as that which they have no way in the least deserved, as hath been manifested from Isa. xlviii. 8, 9, 11, liv. 9, 10. As he “first loved them, not because they were better than others, being by nature children of wrath, and lying in their blood, when he said to them Live, quickening them when they were dead in trespasses and sins;” so he doth not continue his love to them, nor purpose so to do, because he foresees that they will so and so walk with him in holiness and uprightness (for he foresees no such thing in them, but what he himself purposeth effectually to work upon the account of his loving them), but he resolves to do it merely upon the account of his own grace. He neither resolves to continue his love to them on condition that they be so and so holy, at random, and with uncertainty of the event, but freely, that they may and shall be so. And this is the glory of love, the most orient pearl in the crown of it, Eph. i. 4. It is not mercenary, nor self-ended, nor deserved; but, as a spring and fountain, freely vents and pours out itself upon its own account. And what ingenuous, truly noble, heavenly-descended heart can hold out against the power of this love? It is effectually constraining to all manner of suitable returns. Let the soul but put itself into the actual contemplation of the love of God, as it lies represented in this property of it, every way free, undeserved, the great love of God to a poor worm, a sinner, a nothing, and it cannot but he wrought to a serious admiration of it, and delight in it, and be pained and straitened, until it make stone suitable returns of love and obedience unto God; if not, it may well doubt it never tasted of that love or enjoyed any fruits of it.

2dly. It gives the love of God the glory of its constancy and unchangeableness. This is another star of an eminent magnitude in the heaven of love. It is not a fading, a wavering, an altering thing, but abides for ever; God “rests in his love,” Zeph. iii. 17. It is a great thing, indeed, to apprehend that the great God should fix his love upon a poor creature, but add hereunto that he may love them one day and hate them the next, embrace them one hour and the next cast them into hell, one day rejoicing over them with joy, another rejoicing to destroy them; as it is dishonourable to God, and derogatory to all his divine excellencies and perfections, so, in particular, it clotheth his love with the most uncomely and undesirable garment that ever was put upon the affections of the meanest worm of the earth. What can ye say more contemptible of a man, more to his dishonour among all wise and knowing men, or that shall, render his respects and affections more undesirable, than to say, “He is free of his love, indeed, but he abides not in it. What a world of examples have we of those who have been in his bosom and have again been cast out!” Though among men something may be pretended in excuse of this, with respect unto their ignorance, the shortness of their foresight, disability to discern between things and appearances, yet in respect of God, “before whom all things are open and naked,” in whose eye all incidences and events lie as clearly stated as things that are already past and gone, what can be said of such a vain supposal for the vindication of his glory? It is said that “men change from what they were when God loved them, and therefore his love changeth also.” But who first made them fit to be beloved? did not the Lord? Do they make themselves differ from others? On what account did he do it? was it not merely on the account of his own grace? Can he not as well preserve them in a state of being beloved as put them into it? And if he determined that he would not preserve them in that condition, why did he set his love upon them when himself knew that he would not continue it to them? Was it only to give his love the dishonour of a change? I say, then, the doctrine contended for gives the love of God the glory of its immutability, asserts it to be like himself, unchangeable, — that there is not, indeed, in itself the “least shadow of turning.” It may be eclipsed and obscured, as to its beams and influences, for a season; but changed, turned away, it cannot be. And this consideration of it renders it to the souls of the saints inestimably precious. The very thought of it, considering that nothing else could possibly save or preserve them, is marrow to their bones and health to their souls, and makes them cry out to all that is within them to love the Lord and to live unto him.

3dly. It gives it the glory of its fruitfulness. A barren love is upon the matter no love. Love that hath no breasts, no bowels, that pities not, that assists not, deserves not that heavenly name. Will ye say she is a tender, loving, mother who can look on a languishing, perishing child, yea, see a ravenous beast, whom yet she could easily drive away, take it out of her arms and devour it before her face, and not put forth her strength for its assistance or deliverance? or will ye say she is a tiger, and a monster in nature? And shall we feign such a love in God towards his children (which is such that all the bowels of a tender parent to an only child are but as a drop to the ocean in comparison of it) as that he looks on whilst they languish and perish, fall, sink, and die away into everlasting calamity? yea, that notwithstanding it he will suffer the roaring lion to come and snatch them away out of his arms, and devour them before his face; that he will look upon them sinking into eternal separation from him, and such destruction as that it had been infinitely better for them never to have been born, without putting forth his power and the efficacy of his grace for their preservation? “O foolish people and unwise! shall we thus requite the Lord” as to render him so hard a Master, so cruel a Father to his tender ones, the lambs of his Son, washed in his blood, quickened by his Spirit, owned by him, smiled on, embraced ten thousand times, as to suffer them so to be taken out of his hands? Is there nothing in his love to cause his “bowels to move and his repentings to be kindled together” towards a poor dying child, that surely departeth not without some sad looks towards his Father? “Nemo repente fit turpissimus.” Is this the kindness which he exalteth above the love of a woman to her sucking child, of a mother to the fruit of her womb? Oh that men should dare thus foolishly to charge the Almighty, to ascribe such a barren, fruitless love to him who is love, towards his children, who are as the apple of his eye, his dear and tender ones, as would be a perpetual blot and stain to any earthly parent to have righteously ascribed to him! I say, then, our doctrine gives the love of God the glory of its fruitfulness. It asserts it to be such a fountain-love as from whence continually streams of grace, kindness, mercy, and refreshment do flow: “Because he loveth us with everlasting love, therefore with loving-kindness he draweth us,” Jer. xxxi. 3. From that love proceed continual supplies of the Spirit and grace by which those of whom it is said they “abide” are preserved lovely and fit by him to be beloved. It tells us that because God “loveth his people,” therefore are they “in his hand,” Deut. xxxiii. 3. It declares it to be such a love as is the womb of all mercy, whence pardon, healing, recovery from wounds, sicknesses, and dying pangs, do continually flow; a love upon the account whereof the persons loved may make conclusion that they shall lack nothing, Ps. xxiii. 1; a love whose fruitfulness is subservient to its own constancy, preserving the saints such as he may rest in it unchangeably, Rom. viii. 29, 30; a love whereby God “sings to his vineyard, watches over it, and waters it every moment,” Isa. xxvii. 2, 3. And now, what flint almost in the rock of stone would not be softened and dissolved by this love? When we shall think that it is from the love of God that our wasted portion hath been so often renewed, that our dying graces have been so often quickened, our dreadful backslidings so often healed, our breaches and decays so often repaired, and the pardon of our innumerable transgressions so often sealed, unless we suck the breasts of tigers, and have nothing in us but the nature of wolves and unclean, beasts, can we hold out against the sweet, gracious, powerful, effectual influence that it will have upon our souls? Thus, I say, doth the doctrine which we have in hand set out the love of God unto us in its eminent endearing properties, wherein, he being embraced through Christ, a foundation is laid, and eminent promotion given unto the holiness and obedience which he requireth of us.

This doctrine renders Jesus Christ lovely to our souls, to the souls of believers. It represents him to them as the “standard-bearer to ten thousand,” as one “altogether lovely,” as exceeding desirable in the work of his oblation, and lovely and amiable in the work of his intercession, as hath been manifested.

1st. [As for his oblation], it imports him as one who, in his death, hath made an end of the controversy between God and our souls, Dan. ix. 24, becoming “our peace,” Eph. ii. 14, “having obtained for us eternal redemption,” Heb. ix. 12; that he hath not suffered all that sorrow, anguish, pain, torment, dereliction, whereunto for our sakes he was given up, and willingly exposed himself, for an uncertain end, not fighting in his death as one beating the air, nor leaving his work in the dust, to be trampled on or taken up as it seems good to us, in our polluted, dark, dead estate of nature; but hath filled it with such immortal seed, that of itself, by itself, and its own unconquerable efficacy, it bath sprung up to the bringing forth of the whole fruit intended in it, and the accomplishment of all the ends aimed at by it; — that is, that it shall certainly and infallibly bring all those to God for whom he offered himself, by justifying, sanctifying, and preserving them, through the communication of his own Spirit and grace to them for that end and purpose, “all his promises being yea and amen in him,” confirmed by his death, 2 Cor. i. 20; Heb. x. 12–17. Some of those who abuse the truth we have insisted on indeed pretend to grant “That by his death he made satisfaction for sin, but only on condition that men believe on him, and continue so doing; that they shall so believe, and so continue” (though he is said to be the “captain of our salvation,” and the “author and finisher of our faith,” though it be “given unto us for his sake to believe on him,” and we are “blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in him”), that he takes no care about beyond the general administration of outward means. He neither procured any such thing by his oblation, nor doth intercede for it. These things are left unto men, to be educed, drawn forth, and exercised, by virtue of sundry considerations that they may take upon themselves.” Never, doubtless, did men take more pains to stain the beauty and comeliness of our dying Saviour.

2dly. [As] for his intercession, the doctrine hitherto insisted on renders him therein exceeding lovely and desirable. It tells you that he doth “pray the Father,” who thereupon “sendeth us the Comforter,” the Holy Spirit, for all the gracious acts and works, ends and purposes, before mentioned, with innumerable other privileges that the saints by him are made partakers of, and that to “abide with us for ever,” never to leave us nor forsake us; that he continually “appears in the presence of God for us,” interceding that our faith may not fail, pleading for us in and under all our decays, making out to us suitable supplies in all our distresses, temptations, trials, troubles, taking care that “no temptation befall us,” but that “a way also of escape be given to us together with it;” — it tells us his eye, even now he is in glory, is still upon us, seeing our wants, taking notice of our weakness, and providing for us, as his only concernment in the world, that we be not lost; that he hath not left one jot of that kindness which he bare to his flock, his lambs, his little ones, but pursues with all his strength, and all the interest he hath in heaven, the work of their salvation, which he came from his Father’s bosom to enter on, and returned to him again to carry on unto perfection; that, as the high priest of old, he bears our names on his breast and on his shoulders continually before his Father: so that in all our falls and failings, when we are in ourselves helpless and hopeless, when there is nothing in us nor about us that can do us any good, or yield us any help or consolation, yet on this account we may say, “ ‘The Lord is our shepherd, we shall not want:’ he hath undertaken for us, and will bear us in his arms, until he bring us to the bosom of his Father.”