John Owen · 46 of 73

Chapter X. The improvement of the doctrine. · Part 3

Now, whether such considerations as these, of the oblation and intercession of Christ, do not fill his love in them with a more constraining efficacy, and more draw out the hearts of the saints unto faith and love, than any instruction can do informing men of the uselessness of the one or other of these eminent acts of his mediation for any of the ends and purposes mentioned, let believers judge. That which men repose upon in their greatest necessities, and for the things of the greatest concernment, thereof they have the greatest valuation, and the thoughts of it are most fixed in their minds. What is there of so great concernment in this world unto the saints as their abiding with God unto the end? How many, how great, urging, pressing, are the difficulties, dangers, troubles, they meet withal in their so doing! What, then, they have most frequent recourse unto, and what they rest most upon under their pressures, in the things of that concernment before mentioned, that will deserve the name of their treasure, where their hearts will and ought to be. Now, if this (setting aside, as things of no consideration in such a case, the purposes, covenant, and promises of God, the oblation and intercession of the Lord Christ) be men’s own rational abilities to consider what is for their good, and what will be hurtful and destructive to them, what can hinder but that men will, yea, and that they often should, spend the flower and best of their affections upon and about themselves and their own wisdom in and for their preservation? — that doubtless will take up their hearts and thoughts, so that there will be very little room left for the entertainment of the Lord Jesus Christ with any regard or respect on this account. If that, then, may pass which was formerly laid down, — namely, that the doctrines and things which are apt and suited to the ingenerating, quickening, increasing, and building up, of faith and love towards God and our Lord Jesus Christ, are the most eminent gospel motives to spiritual, acceptable obedience (as it is an unquestionable truth and certainty), — doubtless that doctrine which represents the Father and Son so rich in mercy, so loving and lovely to the soul, as that doth which we insist upon, must needs have a most effectual influence into that obedience.

(5.) The doctrine insisted on hath an effectual influence into the obedience of the saints, upon the account of giving it its proper place, and setting it aright upon its basis, carrying it on in due order. It neither puts upon it the fetters of the law, nor turns it loose from the holy and righteous rule of it. Let men be as industrious as can be imagined in the performance of all commanded duties, yet if they do it on legal motives and for legal ends, all their performances are vitiated, and all their duties rejected. This the apostle asserts against the Jews, Rom. ix. 31, 32, “They sought for righteousness, but as it were by the works of the law;” and therefore he tells them, chap. x. 3, that “being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, they did not submit to the righteousness of God.” And the Papists will one day find a fire proceeding out of their doctrine of merits, consuming all their good works as “hay and stubble.” There are also many other ways and principles whereby obedience is vitiated, and rendered an abomination instead of sacrifice, wherein our doctrine is no sharer; but this I must not enter into, because it would lead me into other controversies, which with this I shall not intermix.

(6.) It naturally and sweetly mixeth with all the ordinances of Christ instituted for the end under consideration; in particular, with that great ordinance, the ministry of the gospel, in reference to the great fruit and effect of it mentioned Eph. iv. 12, 13, “The perfecting of the saints, the edifying of the body of Christ: till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.” That which the Lord Jesus aimed at and intended principally in giving pastors and teachers to his church was, that they might carry on the work of the ministry for the perfecting of the saints, and their filling up the measure allotted unto them; and this they do by revealing the whole counsel of God unto them, keeping back nothing that is profitable for them; as was the practice of Paul, Acts xx. 20, 27. Of this counsel or will of God, as by them managed, there are two parts:—

[1.] The discovery of God and his will to them, as to the state and condition whereunto he calls them, and which he requires them to come up unto; and this consists in doctrines revealing God and his will, which, contain rules and precepts for men to walk by and yield obedience unto.

[2.] That which is suited to the carrying on of men in the state and condition whereunto they are called, according to the mind of God, as also to prevail with them to whom the word doth come to enter into the state of obedience and walking with God; and this is usually branched into three general heads, of promises, exhortations, and threatenings. The management of these aright with power and efficacy, with evidence and demonstration of the Spirit, is no small part, yea, it is the greatest part, of the work of the ministry, the greatest portion of what is doctrinal in the word or book of God relating to these heads. And of this part of that ordinance of Christ, the “ministry of the word,” the pressing of men into a state of obedience and to a progress in that estate, by promises, exhortations, and threatenings, I shall briefly speak, either by way of demonstration and proof of what lieth before me, or in vindication of what is affirmed in the same kind from the objections and exceptions of him in particular with whom I have to do; aiming still at my former assertion, that the doctrine I have insisted on naturally and clearly closeth with those promises and exhortations, to help on their efficacy and energy for the accomplishment of the work intended.

1st. For the first, let us take a taste of the promises, which are, as it were, the very life and beauty of the covenant of grace, and the glory of the ministry committed unto men; and they are of two sorts, both of which have their effectual influence into the obedience of saints:—

(1st.) There are promises which express only the work of God’s grace, and what he will freely do in and upon the hearts of his thereby, as to the working holiness and obedience in them, as also of his pardoning mercy in his free acceptance of them in Jesus Christ; and these are in a peculiar manner those “better promises” of the covenant of grace, upon the account whereof it is so exceedingly exalted above that of works, which by sin was broken and disannulled, Heb. viii. 6–12.

(2dly.) There are promises of what good and great things God will farther do unto and for them who obey him; as, that he will keep them and preserve them that they shall not be lost, that their labour and obedience shall end in the enjoyment of God himself, with an immortal crown of glory which shall never fade away, Heb. xi. 9, 10.

Now, the doctrine of the saints’ perseverance, and the stability of the love of God unto them, closeth with the promises of both these sorts, as to the end of carrying on and increasing obedience and holiness in them. Take an instance in the first. The promises of the work of God’s grace in us and towards us are effectual as appointed to this end: so in that great word, Gen. xvii. 1, (which the apostle calls “The promise,” Gal. iii. 17,) “I am the Almighty God;” — “I am so, and will be so to thee, and that for and to all ends and purposes of the covenant whatsoever.” The inference is, “Walk before me, and be thou perfect.” Walking with God in uprightness and sincerity is the proper fruit in us of his promise to be our all-sufficient God in covenant; as, Jer. xxxi. 33, our becoming the “people of God” in walking with him in all ways of obedience is the effect of his promise “to be our God, and to write his law in our hearts,” not only because by the grace of the promise we are brought into a state of acceptance, and made the people of God, but also upon the account of the engagement that is put upon us by that gracious promise to live unto him; whence in the close it is affirmed “we shall be his people.” The word of the gospel, or the word of faith, doth mainly consist in this; and what the aim of that is the apostle declares, Titus ii. 11, 12, “The grace 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.” Which general purport of the promises in this way is farther asserted, 2 Cor. vii. 1, “Having,” saith he, “these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” And most eminently is this assigned to the promises of that sort which we now peculiarly insist upon, 2 Pet. i. 3, 4. To know the way whereby these or any other promises are effectual to the end and purpose intimated, two things are considerable:— First, What is required to make them so effectual; Secondly, Wherein and how they do exert that efficacy that is in them. For the first, the apostle acquaints us on what account alone it is that they come to be useful in this or any other kind: Heb. iv. 2, “The word of the gospel,” the promise preached to them of old, “did not profit them,” did them no good at all. And the reason of this sad success in the preaching of the gospel and declaration of the promises he gives you in the same verse; it is that the word was “not mixed with faith in them that heard it.” It is the mixing of the promises with faith that renders them useful and profitable. Now, to whatever faith is required, the more firm, strong, and stable it is, the more effectual and useful it is. That, then, which is apt to establish faith, to support, and strengthen it, to preserve it from staggering, that renders the promise most useful and effectual for the accomplishment of any work whereunto it is designed, Rom. iv. 20. Now, faith in the promises respects the accomplishment of the things promised, as the apostle tells us in that commended and never-enough-imitated example of the faith of Abraham: Rom. iv. 19–21, “Being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb: he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; and being fully persuaded that what he had promised he was able also to perform.” Laying aside all considerations that might tend to the impairing of his confidence, he firmly believed that it should be to him as God had promised. That the doctrine we insist on is clearly conducing to the establishing of faith in the promises cannot tolerably be called into question. Whatsoever is in those promises, whatsoever considerations or concernments of Him whose they are, as his faithfulness, unchangeableness, and omnipotency, that are apt to strengthen faith in them, it preserves entire and exalteth. It is a wild assertion, which men scarce search their own hearts (if, indeed, men know what belongs to believing in sincerity) when they make, that the efficacy of the promises unto our obedience should arise from hence, that the things promised may not be fulfilled, and that the weakness of faith (and every such supposal doth at least weaken it, yea, and tends to its subversion) should render the promise useful, which hath no use at all but as it is “mixed with faith.” For instance, the promise that God will be an all-sufficient God unto us, that he will “circumcise our hearts and write his law in them, that we shall fear him,” is, as was manifested before, a useful meditation for the ingenerating and quickening of obedience and holiness in us. That it may be such a means, it is required that it be “mixed with faith in them that hear it,” as was declared. According as faith is strong or weak, so will its usefulness be. I ask, then, whether this be a proper way to set this promise on work for the end proposed, namely, to persuade them that should believe it that all this may be otherwise, — God may cease to be their God, their hearts, may not be circumcised, nor the law mentioned written in theme. Is this the way to strengthen their faith and to keep them from staggering? or rather, to subvert and cast down all their confidence to the ground? The doctrine we have under consideration continually sounds in the ears of believers that “God is faithful” in all his promises, 1 Cor. i. 9; that he can, that he will, make them good; that his own excellencies, his own perfections, require no less at his hands. And this it doth, not on any grounds that carry any thing with them that may seem to incline to the least neglect of God, or contempt of any property, excellency, or word of his, and so be apt to breed presumption, and not faith, but on such only as give him the glory of all that he hath revealed of himself unto us. And therefore its genuine tendency must be to beget and increase precious and saving faith in the hearts of men; which we conceive to lie in a more direct way of efficacy towards holiness and obedience than the ingenerating of servile fears gendering unto bondage can do.

This, then, we have obtained:— first, That the promises peculiarly insisted on are motives to and furtherances of obedience; secondly, That the way whereby they become so is by being mixed with faith, and the stronger faith is, the more effectual will the working of those promises unto holiness be; thirdly, That the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, and stability of God’s love to them, giving him the glory of all his excellencies, which in his promises are to be considered, is suited to the carrying on of faith in its growth and increase. Indeed, that which makes our belief of the promises of faith divine is the rise it hath and the bottom whereinto it is resolved, — namely, the excellencies of Him who makes the promises, as that he is true, faithful, all-sufficient; the glory of all which is given him in believing, as the apostle informs us, Rom. iv. 20, 21. Yea, and all this he must be believed to be in reference to the accomplishment of his promises, or we believe them not with divine, supernatural (if that term may be allowed), and saving faith. Surely they must needs think us very easy of belief, and wholly unexperienced in any communion with God, who shall suppose that we will be persuaded that the doctrine which eminently asserts and ascribes unto God the glory of all his attributes, which he would have us to eye in his promises, strengthening faith on that account, doth annihilate the promises in the word of the ministry, as to their usefulness unto our obedience. Let us deal by instance: God hath promised to “begin and perfect a good work in us.” According as the promise is “mixed with faith,” so it will be useful and profitable to us. If there be no faith, it will be of no use; if little, of little; if more, of more. Let a man now be supposed to be wavering about his mixing this promise with faith, whereupon the issue of its efficacy and fruitfulness, as was said, doth depend, and let the doctrine we teach be called in to speak in this ease, and let us try whether what it says be prejudicial to establishment of faith, or whether it be not all that looks towards its confirmation. It says, then, unto the soul of a believer, “Why art thou so cast down, thou poor soul? and why are thy thoughts perplexed within thee? It is true, thou art weak, unstable, ready to fall away, and to perish. Thy temptations are many, great, and prevalent, and thou hast no strength to stand against the power and multitude of them. But look a little upon Him who hath promised that thou shalt never depart from Him, who hath promised to finish the good work begun. He is unchangeable in his purposes, faithful in his promises, and will put forth the ‘exceeding greatness of his power’ for the accomplishment of them; so that though thou failest, he will cause thee to renew thy strength, though thou fallest, thou shalt not be cast down. He hath undertaken to work, and who shall let him? The counsel of his heart, as to the fulfilling of it, doth not depend on any thing in us. What sins thou art overtaken withal he will pardon, and will effectually supply thee with his Spirit, that thou shalt not fall into or continue in such sins as would cut off thy communion with him.” And doth not this mix the forementioned promises with faith, and so render it effectual to the carrying on of the work of love and obedience, as was mentioned? And as this doctrine is suited to the establishment of the soul in believing, and to the stirring of men up to mix the promises with faith, so there is not any thing that is or can be thought more effectual to the weakening, impairing, and shattering, of the faith of the saints than that which is contrary thereunto, as shall afterward be more fully manifested. Tell a soul that God will write his law in him, and put his fear in his inward parts, that he shall never depart from him; what can ye possibly pitch upon to unsettle him as to a persuasion of the accomplishment of this promise, and that it shall be so indeed as God hath spoken, but only this: “According as thou behavest thyself (which is left unto thee), so shall this be made good or come short of accomplishment: if thou continue to walk with God (which that thou shalt do he doth not promise, but upon condition thou walk with him), it shall be well; and if thou turn aside, which thou mayst do, notwithstanding any thing here spoken or intimated, then the word spoken shall be of none effect, the promise shall not be fulfilled towards thee?” I know not what the most malicious devil in hell (if they have degrees of malice) can invent more suited to weaken the faith of men, as to the accomplishment of God’s promise, than by affirming that it doth not depend upon his truth and faithfulness, but solely on their good behaviour, which he doth not effectually provide that, it shall be such as is required thereunto. God himself hath long since determined this difference, might he be attended unto.

What hath been spoken of the promises of the first sort might also be manifested concerning those of the second; and the like might also be cleared up in reference to those other weapons of ministers’ warfare, in casting down the strongholds of sin in the hearts of men, to wit, exhortations and threatenings, But because Mr Goodwin hath taken great pains, both in the general, to prove the unsuitableness of our doctrine to the promotion of obedience and a holy conversation, and in particular its inconsistency with the exhortations and threatenings of the word, managed by the ordinances of the ministry, what is needful farther to be added to the purpose in hand will fall in with our vindication and rescuing of the truth from the false criminations wherewith it is assaulted and reproached as to this particular; and therefore I shall immediately address myself to the consideration of his long indictment and charge against the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints as to this very thing.