PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Works of John Owen — Volume 12
John Owen · 372,421 words · 377 reading sections
Section 61
Presence in a place is the actual existence of a person in his place, or, as logicians speak, in his uhi, that is, answering the inquiry after him where he is. Though all bodies are in certain places, yet per- sons only are said to be present in them. Other things have not pro- perly a presence to be ascribed to them ;…
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Of that which we affirm in this matter this is the sum: God, who in his own being and essence is infinite and immense, is, by reason thereof, present in and to the whole creation equally, — not by a diffusion of his substance, or mixture with other things, heaven or earth, in or upon them, but by an inconceivable indis…
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2. Again ; if God be now "in a certain place in heaven," I ask where he was before these heavens were made ? These heavens have not always been. God was then where there was nothing but God, — no heaven, no earth, no place. In what place was God when there was no place ? When the heavens were made, did he cease this ma…
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I suppose that Mr B. knows that in this his circumscription of God to a certain place, he transgresses against the common consent of man- kind ; if not, a few instances of several sorts may, I hope, suffice for his conviction. I shall promiscuously propose them, as they lie at hand or occur to my remembrance. For the J…
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According to the method I proceeded in, in consideration of the precedent questions, shall I deal with this, and first consider briefly the scriptures produced to make good this monstrous, horrid assertion. The places urged and insisted on of old by the Anthropomorphites' were such as partly ascribed a shape in general…
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The sura of Mr B.'s reasoning from these places is: "God, in the OF THE SHAPE AND BODILY FIGURE OF GOD. 101 creation of the lower world and the inhabitancy thereof, making man, enduing him with a mind and soul capable of knowing him, serving him, yielding him voluntary and rational obedience; creating him in a condit…
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How improperly, and with what little reason, these places are in- terpreted of a corporeal similitude or shape, hath been showed. Wherein the image of God consists the apostle shows, as was de- clared, determining it to be in the intellectual part, not in the bodily,^ Col. iii. 10, 'Ei/fiuCa/iefo/ tIv viov {avOpwTtov^)…
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OF THE SHAPE AND BODILY FIGURE OF GOD. 105 stands the terms of it, as hath been declared. Yet, lest any should hastily apprehend that the essence of God were not therefore neces- sarily infinite, the Holy Ghost saith, Ps. cxlv. 3, that " his greatness hath no end," or is "inconceivable," which is infinite ; for seeing…
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Likewise the heathens, who termed God vouv, and -^i^hy^MSiv and' 'TTViufMa, and dvm/j.oToiov or bmafiiv, had the same apprehensions of him. Thus discourses Mercurius ad Tatium, in Stobaeus, serm. 78 : Qth fiiv voriGai yju.'ki'xhv, fpaSai hi advvaroV rh yap affufxarov gdo/u-aTi e^/MriVCii aBvvarov' xat to tsXhov tui ars…
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' Crell. de Deo : sou Vera Eclig., cr.p. xxix. p. 295. OF THE ATTRIBUTION OF PASSIONS, ETC., TO GOD. 1 09 of old, Tavra dvdpoj'TO'radcoc /xh Xiyovrai, '^iO'rpi'Trooc, hi vooZvrai. But this, I fear, will not serve Mr B/s turn. The very phrase and manner of expression used in this question, the plain intimation that is…
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Corel. To ascribe affections propeidy to God is to make him weak, imperfect, dependent, changeable, and impotent. Secondly, Let a short view be taken of the particulars, some or all of them, that Mr B. chooseth to instance in, " Anger, fury, wrath, zeal" (the same in kind, only differing in degree and circumstances), …
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4. Mr. B. hath given us a rule in his preface, that when any thing is ascribed to God in one place which is denied of him in another, then it is not properly ascribed to him. Now, God says expressly that " fury" or anger "is not in him," Isa. xxvii. 4; and therefore it is not properly ascribed to him. 5. Of all the pl…
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7. Of God's jealousy and hatred, mentioned from Ps. v. 4, 5, Exod. XX. 5, Deut. xxxii. 21, there is the same reason. Such effects as these things in us produce shall they meet withal who provoke him by their blasphemies and abominations. Of love, mercy, and grace, the condition is something otherwise : principally they…
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116 VINDICIiE EVANGELICiE. tures that " God knoweth not our free actions until they come to pass." Why doth not this "mere Christian," that is of no sect, name his companions and associates in these learned collections from Scripture ? Would not his so doing discover him to be so far from a mere Christian, engaged in …
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aiunt, quia alias non essct omniscius : cum potius, ideo ilia determinate futura non coucipiat, quia est omniscius." — Crell. de Vera Relig. lib. i. cap. xxiv. p. 201. * " Nam si omnia futura, qualiacunque sunt, Deo ab omni octernitate determinate cognita fuisse contendas ; nocesse est statuerc omnia necessario fieri,…
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2. I must crave leave once more to mind him of the rule he hath given us in his preface, namely, "That where a thing is improperly as- cribed to God, in some other place it is denied of him," as he instances in that of his being weary; so that whatever is denied of him in any one place is not properly ascribed to him i…
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Neither is this the only place insisted on by Mr B. where the inquiry ascribed unto God, and the trial that he makes, is not in reference to things to come, but punctually to what is present : Deut. viii. 2, xiii. 3, " The Lord your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the Lord your God with all your heart and with…
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' " Nimis longe a propria verborum significatione recedcndum est, et sentciitiarum vis enervanda, si eas cum definita ilia futurorum contingentium prsescicntia conciliare veils, ut Gen. xviii. 21, xxii. 12. Quicquid enim alias de utriusque loci seiitentia statuas, illud tamcn facile est cernere, Deum novum quoddani, et…
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The proposure of a question to succeed in the room of that remov- ed, with a scriptural resolution thereof, in order to a discovery of what God himself hath revealed concerning his knowledge of all things, is the next part of our employment. Thus, then, it may be framed : — Ques. Doth not God know all things, whether …
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For the clearer handling of the matter under consideration, the terms wherein it is proposed are a little to be explained : — 1. That p7^escience or foreknowledge is attributed to God, the Scripture testifieth. Acts ii. 23, Eom. viii. 29, xi. 2, 1 Pet. i. 2, are ^ TlVi /z'iXXu 0fiva iTxv Ka^opav, o-^iv aSuffiTiv, — …
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128 'VINDICIiE EVANGELIC^. even all that he pleaseth, are future} The creation itself, and all things that have had a being since, were so future before their creation. Had they not some time been future, they had never been. Whatever is, was to be before it was. All things that shall be to the end of the world are no…
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1 " Dixit R. Juchanan : Omnia videntur uno intuitu. Dixit Rab. Nachman filius Isaaci : Sic etiam nos didicimus; quod scriptum est Ps xxxiii. 15, Formans simul cor eorum, bitdligens omnia opera eorum : quomodo intelligcndum est ? Dicendum est, dici, Deum adunare simul corda totius mundi ? Ecce, videmus non ita rem se ha…
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' Vide Didac. Alvarez, de Auxiliis Gratis, lib. iii. disput. 25, Aquinat. part. 2, qutest. 112, art. 3, E. 1. Part, quaest. 19, art. 8, ad 3. ' Crell. de Vera Rclig. lib. i. cap. xxiv. Smalc. ad Franz, disput. 12. ' " In has angustias Cicero coarctat animum religiosum, ut unum eligat e duobus, — aut esse aliquid in n…
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" Nullum nutnen abest,' si sit prudentia : nos to, Nos facimus, Fortuna, Deam." If he had to do with it, as Joseph thought he had, when he affirmed plainly that " God sent him thither, and made him a father to Pha- raoh and his house," Gen. xlv. 5-8, then the whole was known to God before, for " Known unto God are all…
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OF god's prescience or foreknowledge. 135 us, because our God is not among us?" etc. The sum of a good part of what is recorded in the Book of Judges is here foretold by God. The people's going a whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land, their forsaking of God, their breaking his covenant, the thoughts of t…
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OF god's prescience or foreknowledge. 137 (4.) The fourth proposition, That God by the free actions of men (some whereof he foretelleth) doth fulfil his own counsel as to judg- ments and mercies, rewards and punishments, needs no farther proof or confirmation but what will arise from a mere review of the thino-s befor…
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' Anonymus adv. cap. priora Matth., p. 28. " Ncgo consequent iam : Deus dicere potuit se scire quid facturus erat Abraham, etsi id certo non prasnoverit, sed probabi- liter, Inducitur enim Deus saepius humano more loquens. Solent autem homines afiBrmare se scire ea futura, qiiaj verisimiliter futura sunt," etc. OF god…
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A. Gen. ii. 24. Q. Where did God put man after he was created? A. Gen. ii. 8. ' Vid. Rod. de Arriaga. disp. Log. xiv. sect. 5, subsect. 8, p. 20-5 ; Suarez. in Opus, lib. i. de Prsescientia Dei, cap. ii. ; Vasquez. 1, Part. disp. G6, cap. ii. ; Pet. Hurtado de Mend. disp. 9, de Anima. sect. 6. OF MAN S CONDITION BE…
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I ' " Poterat ct illud de angelis intelligi, Faaamus hominem, etc., sod quia sequitur, ad imaginem nostram, nefas est credere, ad imagines angelorum hominem esse factum, aut candem esse imaginem angelorum et Dei. Et ideo recte intelligitur pluralitas Trinitatis. Qua2 tamen Trinitas, quia unus est Deus, etiam cum dixis…
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Although it may justly be supposed that Mr B. is not without some thoughts of deviation from the truth in the following questions, yet the last being of most importance, and he being express therein in denying all the effects of the first sin, but only the curse that came upon the outward, visible world, I shall insist…
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(2.) The evils that are now incumbent upon men in their natural condition (which what they are shall be afterward considered) were either incumbent on them at their first creation, before the sin and fall of our first parents, or they are come upon them since, through some interposing cause or occasion. That they were …
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] 48 VINDICItE EVANGELTCtE. The " defacing of the image of God in us" by this sin, as it is usually asserted, is in the next place denied. That man was created in the image of God, and wherein that image of God doth consist, were before declared. That we are now born with that character upon us, as it was at first ens…
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The last thing denied is its " causing mortality." God threaten- ing man with death if he sinned. Gen. ii, 1 7, seems to instruct us that if he had not sinned he should not have died ; and upon his sin, aflfirming that on that account he should be dissolved and return to his dust. Gen. iii. 19, no less evidently convin…
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For a close, then, of this chapter and discourse, let us also propose a few questions as to the matter under consideration; and see what an- swer the Scripture will positively give in to our inquiries: — ' " Quoestio est de iminortalitate hominis hujus concreti, ex anima et coifore conflati. Quando loquor de morte, de…
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Q. 6. How came we into this miserable state and condition t A. " Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me," Ps. li. 5. "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one," Job xiv. 4. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh," John iii. 6. "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into …
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And this is the account these gentlemen give us concerning the condition and state wherein the first man was of God created : A heavy burden of the earth it seems he was, that had neither righteous- ness nor holiness whereby he might be enabled to walk before God in reference to that great end whereunto he was created,…
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2 "Ista sapientia rerum divinarum, ct sanctimonia, quam Adamo ante lapsum tri- buit Franzius, una cum aliis, idea quaedam est, in cerebro ipsorum nata." — Smalc. ubi sup. 3 Socin. Ep. 5, ad Johan. Volkel., p. J 89. OF man's condition before AlsD AFTER THE FALL. 157 righteousness, and holiness, is evident on the ensu…
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Fourthly. That all men sinned in Adam, and that his sin is im- puted to all his posterity, is by them denied, but is easily evinced ; for, — 1. By whom sin entered into the world, so that all sinned in him, and are made sinners thereby, so that also his sin is called the "sin of the world," in him all mankind sinned, …
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It is not, then, our want of interest in immortality upon the ac- count whereof we know not of ourselves the way to immortality by the blood of Christ. But there are two other reasons that enforce the truth of it : — 1. Because it is a way of 'inere grace and mercy, hidden from all eternity in the treasures of God's i…
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162 VINDICI^ EVANGELIC^. The argument for that state and condition wherein we affirm man to have been created from the consideration of the image of God wherein he was made, and whereunto in part we are renewed, was formerly insisted on. Let the reader look back unto it, and he will quickly discern how little is here …
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2. This is farther evident from the comparison between Christ and Adam, instituted by the apostle; for as we are all dead without 1 " Quid porro ad tertium respondeois ? — Apostolus eo in loco non agit de inimor- talitate [mortalitate], verum de morte ipsa. Mortalitas vero a morte multuni dissidet; siquidem potest ess…
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8. It is not impossible that one act should be so high and intense in its kind as to induce a habit into the subject, and so Adam's na- ture be vitiated by it ; and he begot a son in his own likeness. The devils upon one sin became obstinate in all the wickedness that their nature is capable of. (2.) This one act was a…
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OF man's condition before and after the fall. 167 ing principle and predominant habit from whence they so uniformly proceed. 2. Why it doth not agree to original sin that the account [is] men- tioned, verse 6, of God's repenting that he had made man, and his resolution to destroy him, these gentlemen offer not one wo…
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' " At Paulus ait Rom. v. 12, In Adamo, etc Non habetur eo loco, In Adamo omnes peccdsse ; vcrum in Grssco vei'ba sunt \ip' S, quae passim interpretes reddunt Latine, in quo, quae tamen redtU possuut per particulas quoniam aut quatenus, ut e locis simili- bus. Rom. viii. 3, Phil. iii. 12, Heb. ii. 18, 2 Cor. v. 4, vid…
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L Distinction of persons (it being an infinite substance) doth no way prove difference of essence between the Father and the Sou. Where Christ, as mediator, is said to be another from the Father or God, spoken jyersonalli/ of the Father, it argues not in the least that he is not partaker of the same nature with him. Th…
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And it is a manifest perverting and corrupting of the text which we have in Grotius' gloss upon the place, who interprets the rd wdvru referred to the Father of all things simply, but the to, tuvtu referred to Christ of the things only of the new creation,^ there being not the least colour for any such variation, the f…
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" Q. 6. Did not Jesus Christ approve himself to be God by his miracles ; and did he not those miracles hy a divine nature of his own, and because he was God himself? What is the determination of the apostle Peter in this behalf?—^. Acts ii. 22, x. 38." The intendment of Mr B. in this question, as is evident by his ins…
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So that though in regard of his divine personality as the Son he hath all things from the Father, being begotten by him, and as mediator doth all things by his appointment and in his name, yet he in himself is still one with the Father as to nature and essence, *' God to be blessed for evermore." And that it was "an et…
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The o-reat master of the herd himself, from whom, indeed, the rest do glean and gather almost all that they take so much pains to scatter about the world, gives continually this reason of Christ's be- ing called the "Son of God" and his "natural Son." " I say," saith he, " that Christ is deservedly called the ' natural…
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OF THE PERSON OF JESUS CHRIST. 181 scilicet semen illud, quod a Deo creatum, et cum semine Mariee con- junctum fuit, dicatur non virile, quia non a viro profectura sit, vel ex viro in uterum Virginis translatum, ut quidam opinantur, qui semen Josephi translatum in Virginis uterum credunt," cap. xviii. p. 158. And thus…
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The reasons they commonly add why in this sense Christ is called the " Son of God" are the same which they give why he is called " God." " He is the only-begotten Son of God," say the authors of the Compendium of the religion before mentioned, " because God sanctified him, and sent him into the world, and because of hi…
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Having thus discovered the mind of them with whom Ave have to do, and from whom our catechist hath borrowed his discoveries, I shall briefly do these two [three?] things: — I. Show that the filia- tion of Christ consists in his generation of the substance of his Father from eternity, or that he is the Son of God upon t…
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186 VINDICI^ EVANGELICiE. Romans/ the apostle had before mentioned other sons of God, who became so by adoption, verses 15, 16; but when he comes to speak of Christ in opposition to them, he calls him " God's own" or proper "Son," — that is, his natural Son, they being so only by adoption. And in the very words themse…
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1 " Sibi licere praedicans quicquiJ Deo licet; neque magis Sabbato se adstringi. Crassa calumnia." — Grot. Annot. Johan. v. 18. ' " Comparatio est sumpta a discipulo qui magistrum sibi praecuntem diligenter in- tuetur, ut imitari possit." — Id. ibid. v. 19. ' Zanchius de Tribus Eloliim, lib. v. cap. iv. p. 151. * "N…
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5. The farther description which we have given us of this Son makes it yet more evident : " He is the brightness of his Father's glory, and the express image of his person," Heb. i. 8. " The image of the invisible God," Col. i. 1 5. That Christ is the essential image of his Father, and not an accidental image, an image…
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But the most learned man's exposition of this place is admirable. " Jesus," saith he, " is many ways said to be the ' Son of God.' " This is begged in the beginning, because it will not be proved in the end. If this be granted, it matters not much what follows. " But most commonly, or most in a popular way, because he …
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2. He who was actually the Son of God before his conception, nativity, endowment with power or exaltation, is not the Son of God on these accounts, but on that only which is antecedent to them. Now, by virtue of all the arguments and testimonies before cited, as also of all those that shall be pi-oduced for the proof a…
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And this that hath been spoken may sufiice for the confirmation of the second assertion laid down at the entrance of this discourse. To the farther confirmation of this assertion two things are to be annexed: — First, The eversion of that fancy of Episcopius before mentioned, and the rest of the Socinianizing Arminian…
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By the way, Grotius' dealing with this text, both in his annota- tions on Isa. vii., as also in his large discourse on Matt. i. 21-23, is intolerable and full of offence to all that seriously weigh it. It is too large here to be insisted on. His main design is to prove that this is not spoken directly of Christ, but on…
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4. And this answers that expression which is so frequent in the Scripture, of God's sending his Son into the world, and that he came down from heaven, and came into the world. Gal. iv. 4, John iii. 13; all evincing his being the Son of God antecedently to that mission or sanctification whereby in the world he was decla…
949 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.