PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Works of John Owen — Volume 12
John Owen · 372,421 words · 377 reading sections
Section 1
L Z B I^ .A. It ^5r ©hcalogiciil Jnuinavjj, PRTNCETOX. X. J. The Stephen Collins Donation, BX 9315 .08 1850 v. 12 Owen, John, 1616-1683. The works of John Owen THE WORKS ,- OF JOHN t)WEN, D.D. EDITED BY THE REV. WILLIAM H. GOOLD, EDINBURGH. YOL. XII. JS-EW YORK: EGBERT CARTER & BROTHERS, 2 8 5 BROADWAY. …
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M-/)Ss Ifioi 7M TOtuTot kiyeuTt carXus siffTlCtryi;, la-v TY,y arriSli^iv tSiv aocrxyyiXXouivav a-ro Biia fJiM XoeSsjs ■ypa/fSv. — Cyril. IliEROS., Catech. 4. OXFORD: 1655. VOL. XT I. PREFATORY NOTE. In 1654 the commands of the Council of State were laid upon Owen to undertake the x'efutation of Socinianism, which …
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Hugo Grotius is a name which reminds us of a sadly chequered history, diversified gifts of the highest order, and a strangely piebald and ambiguous creed. We need not allude to the well-known incidents of his eventful career, — the liigh ofiiccs he held in his native country, his connection with the disputes between th…
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THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY. *J of Scripture contended about by the learned Grotius, as also, on several occasions, the arguments and answers of most of the chief propugners of Mr Biddle's religion. Now, besides your interest in the truths pleaded for, there are other considera- tions also inducing me to a persuasion that …
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From thence \\hence in the thoughts of some I am most likely to suffer, as to my own resolves, I am most secure. It is in meddling with Grotius' Annotations, and calling into question what hath been delivered by such a giant in all kinds of literature. Since my engagement in this business, and when I had well-nigh fini…
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For his being a Papist, I have not much to say. Let his epistles (published by his friends) written to Dionysius Petavius the Jesuit be jJerused, and you will see the character which of himself he gives, ^ as also what in sundry writings he ascribes to the pope. What 1 have performed, through the good hand of God in t…
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John Owen. OxoN, Cii. Ch. Coll., Aj)rU 1, [1655.] THE PEEFACE TO THE PtEADEE. To those that labour in the word and doctrine in these nations of Eng- land, Scotland, and Ireland, with all that call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, John Owen wisheth grace and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus C…
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Those, then, who of old opposed the doctrine of the Trinity, especially of the deity of Christ, his person and natures, may be referred to three heads, and of them and their ways this is the sum : — The first sort of them may be reckoned to be those who are commonly esteemed to be followers of Simon Magus, known chief…
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* l::ocin. ad Weik, cap. ix. p. 151 ; Smalc. Rcspon. ad lib. Sir.iglec. lib. i c:ip. i. p. 1. 1 4 THE PREFACE TO THE READER. time wherein some of them acted their parts in tlie service of their master. "Wliat could possibly be more desired, for the safeguarding of any truth fi-om the attempts of succeeding generation…
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With these Arians,^ as was said, do our Socinians refuse communion, and will not be called after their name : not that their profession is better than theirs, or that they have much to blame in what they divulge, though they agree not with them in allowing a pre-existing nature to Christ be- fore his incarnation; but t…
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Those Avho have formerly communicated their thoughts and oliscrvations to us on tliis subject liave commonly given rise to their discourses from Servetus, with the transactions about him in Helvetia, and the ending of hi.s tragedy at Geneva. The things of him being commonly known, and PEEFACE TO THE READER. 17 my des…
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" I jirofess myself to believe in one God the Father, and in one Lord Jesus Christ, his Son, and in one Holy Ghost, whereof each is essentially God. I detest the plurality of Gods, seeing to us there is one only God, indivisible in essence. I confess three distinct persons, the eternal deity and generation of Jesus Chr…
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2 " Monendum lectorem bamm rcrum ignarum censui, Blandratam baud paulum ante mortem suam vivente adhuc Stephano rege Polonige, in illius gratiam, et quo ilium erga se libcraliorem (ut fecit) redderet, plurimum remisisse de studio suo in ecclesiis nostris Transilvanicis nostrisque bominibus juvandis: imo eo tandem deveu…
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He was, as the author of the life of Faustus Socinus relates, in a readi- ness to have published his notions and conceptions, when God, by his merciful providence, to prevent a little the pouring out of the poison by so skilful a hand, took him oft" by sudden death; and Faustus himself gives the same account of the sea…
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1 " Nulla jam alia propositione nobis opus est, cum htec se obtulerit; nos autem, Deo volcnte, et voluinus, et pai'ati sumus demonstrare, quod Spiritus Sanctus nou alium nos Dcum in Scriptura doceat, nisi solum Patrem, Filium, et Spiritum Sanctum, id est, Deum ununi in trinitate." 2 " Nos (juidein o amici hand difficu…
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24 PEEFACE TO THE READER. goods and a setting up of the kingdom of Christ, calling Racovia, where they met, the New Jerusalem, or at least professing tliat there they in- tended to build and establish the New Jerusalem, with other fanatical follies; which Satan hath revived in persons not unlike them, and caused to be…
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All the while he was at Basil and about Grermany he kept his opinions much to himself, being intent upon the study of his uncle Lfclius' notes, as the Polonian gentleman who wrote his life confesseth;^ whereunto he added the Dialogues of Bernardus Ochinus, as himself acknowledgeth, which about that time were turned int…
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* " Cum Basiliae degeret ad annum usque 1575 dum lumen sibi exortum, ad alios pro- pagare studct, ab amicis ad alienos sensim dilapso disserendi argumeuto, disputatiouem de Jesu Christo Servatore, ore primum inchoatam, postea scripto complexus est : cui anuo 1578 summam manum imposuit." — Eques. Polon. Vita Sociu. 2 "…
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To close the story of this book of Socinus, and the progress it hath made in the world: this I dare assure them who are less exercised in these studies, that though the whole of the treatise hath at first view a very plausible pretence and appearance, yet there is a line of sophistry running throu(;h it, Avhich being o…
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* "Ex nobili admodum familia, quoe etiam tres cardinalcs liabuit, natus, mercatura relicta se totura saciaruin litcrarum studio tradidit." ■^ " Quod ut comnodius faccrc posset in Angliam se contulit, ilique in Oxoniensi gj'mnasio aliquandiu se exerciiit," ttc. 30 THE PREFACE TO THE READER. the same circle, setting o…
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Being hardened in the contempt of Christ by the success they had against Socinus and his followers, with whom they conversed and dis- puted, some of the men before mentioned stayed not with him at the affirming of him to be a mere man, nor yet where they began, building on that supi^osition that he was not to be worshi…
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But neither yet did Satan stop here, but improved the advantage given him by these men to the utter denying of Jesus Christ: for unto the prin- ciple of Christ's being not God, adding another of the same nature, that the prophecies of the Old Testament were all concerning temi>oral things, some amongst them at length c…
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The reminding of these abominations gives occasion, by the way, to complain of the carnal apprehensions of a kingdom of Christ, which too many amongst ourselves have filled their thoughts and expectations withal. For my part, I am persuaded that, before the end of the world, the Lord Jesus, by his word and Spirit, will…
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' " Anno 1579, jam quadragenarius migravit in Poloniam." — Vita Faust. Socin. * " Extat apud me ipsius Blandratae epistola, non tamen scripta sine Theseo (Statorio) xm bene novi, in qua (iregorium Paulum a Tritheismo ad Samosateni dogma si Blandratum revocare nititur. Incidit enira Blandrata in Transylvaniam rediens…
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[As] for the leaders of them, they were for the most part unlearned, and so unable to defend their opinions in any measure against a skilful adver- sary. Blandrata, their great patron, was not able to express himself in Latin, but by the help of Statorius, who had some learning, but no judgment;^ and therefore, upon hi…
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1 " Ad te quod attinet, animo es tu quidem ad omnem doctringe rationem, ac veritatis investigationem nato, magna remim sopliisticarum cognitio, orator summus, et theologus insignis, linguas tenes maxime Latinam, ut possis cum proscipuis totius Europaj ingeniis certare."— Marcel. Squarcialup. Ep. ad. Faust. Socin. ' " …
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^ "Spei'O fore, ut, si quid ilium mecum sentire vetct intellexero, facile viam inveniam eum in mcam sententiam peiti-ahendi." — Ep. 2 ad Balcerovicium. 40 THE PREFACE TO THE READER. with him, he at length brought them all into subjection to himself, and got all his opinions enthroned, and his practice taken almost fo…
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To this height of atheism and blasphemy had Satan wrought up the spirit of the man ; so that I must say he is the only person in the world, that I ever read or heard of, that ever died upon the account of religion, in reference to whom the zeal of them that put him to death may be acquitted. But of these things God wil…
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Schlussolburgius, in his wonted respect and fiivour unto the Calvinists, tells us that from them and their doctrine was the occasion administered unto this new abomination ; also, that never any turned Arian but he was first a Calvinist: which he seems to make good by a letter of Adam Neu- THE PREFACE TO THE READER. 4…
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Neither are they a little confirmed to this day in their errors by sundry principles which, under the Roman apostasy, got footing in the minds of men professing the name of Jesus Christ; particularly, they sheltered themselves from the sword of the word of God, evidencing the deity of Christ by ascribing to him divine …
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Such was the estate of things and men in those days wherein Socinianism, or the o])position to Christ of this latter edition, set forth in the world. Among the many that were convinced of the abominafions of Popery before they were well fixed in the truth, some were deceived by the cunning sleight of some few men that …
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2. Their whole business, in all their books and disputations, is to take upon themselves the 2>art of answerers, so cavilling and making exceptions, not caring at all what becomes of any thing in religion, so they may with any colour avoid the arguments whei^ewith they are pressed. Hence al- most all their books, unles…
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1. Hold fast the form of wholesome words and sound doctrine : know that there are other ways of peace and accommodation with dissenters than by letting go the least particle of truth. When men would accommo- THE PKEFACE TO THE READER. 49 date their own hearts to love and peace, they must not double with their souls, …
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3. Let not any one attempt dealing with these men that is not in some good measure furnished with those kinds of literature and those common arts wherein they excel; as, first, the knowledge of the tongues wherein the Scripture is loritten, namely, the Hebrew and Greek. He that is not in some mea- sure acquainted with …
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52 THE PREFACE TO THE READER. sense is given in to humble souls with more life, power, and evidence of truth, and is more effectual for the begetting of faith and love to the truth, than in a curious search after the annotations of men upon particular places. And truly I must needs say that I know not a more deplorabl…
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MR BIDDLE'S PEEFACE TO HIS CATECHISM. I HAVE often wondered and complained that there was no catechism yet extant (that I could ever see or hear of) from whence one might learn the true grounds of the Christian religion, as the same is delivered in the holy Scripture, all catechisms generally being so stuffed with the…
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MR BIDDLE S PEEFACE TO HIS CATECHISM. 57 consideration is so pressing, that a certain author (otherwise a very learned and intelligent man) perceiving the weight thereof, and not knowing how to avoid the same, took up (though very unluckily) one erroneous tenet to maintain another, telling us in a late book of his, en…
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the deaiby his own power, of the ubiquity of Christ's body, of apprehend- ing and applying Christ's righteousness to ourselves by faith, of Christ's being our surety, of Christ's paying our debts, of our sins imputed to Christ, of Christ's righteousness imputed to us, of Christ's dying to appease the wrath of God and r…
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Whether we have reason to stand to this determination, and acquiesce in this censure and sentence, the ensuing considerations of what Mr B. substitutes in the room of those catechisms which he here rejects will evince and manifest. But to give countenance to this humble entrance into his work, he tells his reader " Tha…
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All that have gone before him were knaves, fools, idiots, madmen. The proof of these assertions you are to expect. When a philosopher pressed Diogenes with this sophism, " What I am, thou art not ; I am a man, therefore thou art not," he gave him no other answer but, " Begin with me, and the conclusion will be true." M…
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3. As these are admirable men, so the way he takes for their satisfac- tion is admirable also; that is, by "asserting nothing!" He that asserts no- thing proves nothing; for that which any one proves, that he asserts. In- tending, then, to bring men to a certainty who yet understand not the truth of our religion, he as…
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Nor is that the only answer insisted on for the removal of IMr B.'s sophistry, which he mentions, p. 7, and pursues it for three or four leaves onward of his preface, namely, " That the scriptures which he urgcth do in the letter hold out such things as he allegcth them to prove, but yet they must be figuratively inter…
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But he adds, pp. 13, 14, " That this consideration is so pressing, that a certain learned author, in his book entitled 'Conjectura Cabalistica,' affirms that for Moses, by occasion of his writings, to let the Jews entertain a conceit of God as in human shape was not any more a way to bring them into ido- latry than by …
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* OLx Iv VXV; /"a^'AOv Iv havoia KiTrai h tt.\r.6iKi, — Greg. NaZ. TO HIS CATECHISM EXAMINED. 67 pose, alloAvs expositions of Scripture, or else I am sure he condemns him- self in Avhat he practises. His book is, in his own thoughts, an exposition of Scripture. That this cannot be done without varying the words and l…
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But yet, upon this acquaintance which he hath with the measure of all men's understandings, he informs his reader that " the only way to carry on the refoi-mation of the church, beyond what yet hath been done by Luther or Calvin, is by cashiering those many intricate terms and devised forms of speaking," which he hath …
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• Thcod. Hist. Ecclcs. Jib. iv. cap. xvii. p. 126; Socrat. lib. iv. cap. xxi. xxii, ; Sozom. lib. vi. cap. xv.-xvii. ' Theod. Hist. lib. ii. cap. xvii'.; Sozom. li'i. iv. cap. xiii. ; Niccpli. lib. ix. cap. xxxix. 70 THE PREFACE OF MR BIDDLE the things themselves signified by them that are the abominations decried? …
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And this may suffice to this exception of Mr B,, by the way, against the simplicity of the being of God ; yet, because he doth not directly op- pose it afterward, and the asserting of it doth clearly evert all his follow- ing fond imaginations of the shape, corporeity, and limitedness of the essence of God (to which en…
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These are some few of the grounds of tliis aflirmation of ours concerning the simplicity of the essence of God ; which when Mr B. removes and answers, he may have more of them, which at present there is no necessity to produce. From his being he proceeds to his subsistence, and expressly rejects his subsisting in thre…
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74 THE PREFACE OF MR BIDDLE the " Avorkls were made," Heb. i. 2, so that surely he had his sonship be- fore he took flesh in the fuhiess of time; and when he had hfe sonship he had his generation. He is such a Son as, by being partaker of that name, he is exalted above angels, Heb. i. 5 ; and he is the " first begotte…
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The communicatmi of properties, on which depend two or three of the following instances mentioned by Mr B., is a necessary consequent of the union before asserted ; and the thing intended by it is no less clearly de- livered in Scripture than the truths before mentioned.-*- It is affirmed of " the man Christ Jesus" tha…
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Of Christ's taking our nature upon him, which is again mentioned, we have spoken before. If he was "made flesh, made of a Avoman, made under the laAv ; if he partook of flesh and blood because the children partake of the same ; if he took on him the seed of Abraham, and was made like to us in all things, sin only excep…
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' Hah. i. 13; Eom. i. ?,2; 2 Thess. i. 6. » Job xxxiii. 24. •■' L^a liii. 5, fi, 10, II; iPet. ii. 2+; Matt. xx. 28; 1 Tim. ii. 6; 2 Cor. v. 21 ; Gal. iii. IP.; 1 Pet. i. 18, ii. 24; Eph. i. 7 ; Rev. i. 5, 6, etc. * Matt xix. 17; 1 Jolin i 8; James ii. 10. « Gal. iv. 4, 5; Horn. viii. 3, 4, v. 9, x. 4; I Cor. i. 30; P…
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Of Christ's being our surety, of Christ's paying our debt, of our sins im- puted to Christ, of Christ's righteousness imputed to tis, of Christ's dying to appease the wrath of God and reconcile him to us, enough hath been spoken already to clear the meaning of them who use these expressions, and to manifest the truth o…
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Spiritual desertions are nextly decried. Some poor souls would thank him to make good this discovery. They find mention in the Scripture of " Gods hiding his face, Avithdrawing himself, forsaking, though but for a moment," and of them that on this account "walk in darkness and see no light, that seek him and find him n…
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82 THE PREFACE OF MR BIDDLE doubt not but it will appear to eveiy person Avhatsoever, in the process of this business, who hath his senses any thing exercised in tlie word to dis- cern between good and evil, and whose eyes the god of this woild hath not blinded, that the glorious light of the gospel of God should not …
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What may farther be draw^n forth of the same kind with what is in these Catechisms delivered, with an imposition of it upon the Scripture, as though any occasion were thence administered thereunto, I know not, but yet do suppose that Satan himself is scarce able to furnish the thoughts of men with many more abomination…
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Having thus, as briefly as I could, washed oft' the paint that was put upon the porch of Mr B.'s fabric, and discovered it to be a composure of rotten posts and dead men's bones, — whose pargeting being removed, their abomination lies naked to all, — I shall enter the building or heap itself, to consider what entertain…
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OF THE NATUEE OF GOD. 87 his truly eternal divine nature, still affirm him to be " Homo Deifi- catus" and " Deus Factus,"^ and plead " pro vera deitate Jesu Christi," denying yet, with him, that by nature he is God, of the same essence with the Father ; so, indeed, grossly and palpably fall- ing into and closing with …
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To his fourth query, about a farther description of God by some of his attributes, I shall not need to subjoin any thing in way of animadversion ; for however the texts he cites come short of deli- vering that of God which the import of the question to which they ' "Significat enim Christus id, quod ratio ipsa dictat,…
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None of those texts of Scripture where mention is made of God's being in heaven are, in the coherence and dependence of speech wherein they lie, suited or intended at all to give answer to this question, or any like it, concerning the presence of God or his actual existence in any place, but only in respect of some dis…
933 wordsSource & rights
Public-domain historical edition (1850–1870); OCR text from Internet Archive. OCR may contain scanning/transcription errors. Verify quotations against page images when precision matters.
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Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.