PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Works of John Owen — Volume 5
John Owen · 250,432 words · 247 reading sections
Section 1
3L, I B PI .A. It "ST PBINCETdX. X. J. Collins Donation. J 'C.»V^^*'tft«hfin Collins Uonat BX 9315 .m 1850 V.5 Owen, John, 1616-1683. The works of John Owen THE WORKS JOHN OWEN, D.D. EDITED BY THE REV. WILLIAM H. GOOLD, EDINBURGH. VOL. V. l^EW YORK: ROBERT CARTER & BROTHERS, 285 BROADWAY. M.DCCC.U. CONT…
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Eighthly, Influence of the doctrine of justification into the first Reformation — Ad- vantages unto the woi-ld by that Reformation — State of the consciences of men under the Papacy, with respect unto justification before God — Alterations made therein by the light of this doctrine, though not received — Alterations in…
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VI CONTENTS. CHAPTER IV. The proper sense of these words, justification, and to justify, considered — Necessity thereof— Latin derivation of justification — Some of the ancients deceived by it — From "jus," and "justum; " "Justus filius," Avho— The Hebrew P"'"^"— Use and signification of it— Places where it is used e…
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CHAPTER YII. Imputation, and the nature of it — The first express record of justification deter- mineth it to be by imputation. Gen. xv. 6 — Reasons of it— The doctrine of im- putation cleared by Paul ; the occasion of it— Maligned and opposed by many — Weight of the doctrine concerning imputation of righteousness, on…
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CONTENTS. IX Vnge obligeth both unto piinishracnt jvnd obedience — How, and in what sense — Pardon of sin gives no title to eternal life — The righteoiisness of Christ, who is one, imputed unto many — Arguments proving the -imputation of the obedience of Christ unto the justification of life . . . ' . . .251 CHAPTER…
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Phil. iii. 8, 9. Heads of argument from this testimony— Design of the context — Righteousness the foundation of acceptance with God — A twofold righteoiisness considered by the apostle— Opposite unto one anothei-, as unto the especial end inquired after— Which of these he adhered unto, his OAvn righteousness, or the ri…
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384 GOSPEL GEOUNDS AND EVIDENCES OF THE FAITH OF GOD'S ELECT. Prefatory Note by the Editor . To the Reader .... Evidences of the faith of God's elect The first evidence of the faith of God's elect The second evidence of the faith of God's elect The third evidence of the faith of God's elect The fourth evidence …
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A host of opponents sprung up in reply to Baxter and Bull; but they were not left without help in maintaining their position. In support of Baxter, Sir Charles Wolsley, a baronet of some reputation, who had been a member of Cromwell's Council of State, and wlio sat in several parliaments after the Restoration, pub- lis…
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At this stage, the second division of the treatise may be held to begin, — the previous disquisitions being more of a preliminary character. The scope of what follows is to prove that the sinner is justified, through faith, by the imputed righteousness of Christ. This part of the work embraces four divisions ; — genera…
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1 . Although there are at present various contests about the doctrine of jus- tification, and many books published in the way of controversy about it, yet this discourse was written with no design to contend with or contradict any, of what ^ TO THE READER. sort or opinion soever. Some few passages which seem of that …
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4. Finding that not a few have esteemed it compliant with their interest to publish exceptions against some few leaves which, in the handling of a subject of another nature, I occasionally wrote many years ago on this subject, I am not without apprehensions, that either the same persons, or others of a like temper and …
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That the apostle doth thus, and no otherwise, state this whole matter, and, in an answer unto this inquiry, declare the nature of justification and all the causes of it, in the third and fourth chapters of the Epistle to the Eomans, and elsewhere, shall be afterward de- clared and proved. And we shall also manifest, th…
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7. For the doctrine of justification is directive of Christian practice, and in no other evangelical truth is the whole of our obedience more concerned; for the foundation, reasons, and motives of all our duty towards God are contained therein. Wherefore, in order unto the due improvement of them ought it to be taught,…
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12 ON JUSTIFICATION. ance unto the revelation made hereof in the Scripture, and an exami- nation of our own experience thereby, is the sum of what is required of us for the right understanding of the truth herein. And eveiy true behever, who is taught of God, knows how to put his whole trust in Christ alone, and the g…
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14 ON JUSTIFICATION. generality of men are secure, and do not much question but that they shall come off well enough, one way or other, in the trial they are to undergo. And as such persons are altogether indifferent what doctrine concerning justification is taught and received ; so for the most part, for themselves, …
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] 6 ON JUSTIFICATION. faith, hope, and trust in God, of sincerity in obedience, which with so much earnestness he before insisted on, are now quite laid aside. He saw well enough that they were not pleadable at the tribunal before which he now appeared, so that God should enter into judg- ment with him thereon, with r…
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18 ON JUSTIFICATION. iniquitates attendas Domine, quis sustinebit/" lib. vi. in Isa. xiii. 6, 7; — " When the day of judgment or of death shall come, all hands will be dissolved" (that is, faint or fall down); " unto which it is said in another place, ' Be strengthened, ye hands that hang down.' But all hands shall be…
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Wherefore I cannot but judge it best (others may think of it as they please), for those who would teach or learn the doctrine of justi- fication in a due manner, to place their consciences in the presence of God, and their persons before his tribunal, and then, upon a due consideration of his greatness, power, majesty,…
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Against such as these the doctrine of justification may be defended, 22 ON JUSTIFICATION. as we are obliged to contend for the faith once dehvered unto the saints, and as the mouths of gainsayers are to be stopped; but to endeavour their satisfaction in it, whilst they are under the power of such appre- hensions, is …
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24 ON JUSTIFICATION. retulit; nimirum recte. Propter virtutem enim jure laudamur, et iu virtute recte gloriamur, quod non contingeret, si donum a Deo, non a nobis haberemus," Tull. de Nat. Deor. Fourthly. The opposition that the Scripture makes between grace and works in general, with the exclusion of the one and the…
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2. He considers the Jeius, who enjoyed the written law, and the privileges wherewith it was accompanied, especially that of circum- cision, which was the outward seal of God's covenant : and on many considerations, with many ai'guments, he excludes them also from any possibility of attaining justification before God, b…
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The foundation of the whole is laid in the first promise ; wherein the destmction of the work of the devil by the suffering of the seed of the woman is proposed as the only relief for sinners, and only means of the recovery of the favour of God. " It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel," Gen. iii. 15.…
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will not impute sin," cliap. iv. 2-8. " But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment …
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But it is replied, — These things are not to be understood absolutely, and without limitations. Sundry distinctions are necessary, that we may come to understand the mind of the Holy Ghost and sense of the Scripture in these ascriptions unto grace, and exclusions of the law, our oivn works and righteousness from our ju…
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So died that great emjDcror, Charles V., as Thuanus^ gives the ac- count of his Novissima. So he reasoned with himself: " Se qui- ' For a notice of Tluuuuis, see vol. viii. G12. GENERAL CONSIDERATIOXS. 33 dem indigniim esse, qui propriis mentis regnuni cceloriim obtiue- ret; sed Dominum Deum suum qui illud duplici ju…
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GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. S5 BO as to transfer their own guilt to him, but washed their hands over him, to declare their personal innocency. By these means, as in all other expiatory sacrifices, did God instruct the church in the trans- ferring of the guilt of sin unto Him who was to bear all their iniquities, with thei…
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GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. S7 lJi.r\ i^ spyuv (oral/ -/.ai x))X/8a avdyXTj riva, fxrj ivpsdj^vai) aXV octo ^dpirog di-/,aiudS)//ySv, hSa Taffa kfiapzia. ricpdvidTai, 2 Epist. ad Corinth, cap. v. Horn. 1] ; — " What word, what speech is this? what mind can com- prehend or express it? for he saith, ' He made him who was ri…
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GENERAL CONSIDERATIONrj. 89 pcrfecta est, quos Dei sustinere conspectum potest, ita iinam pro no- bis sisti oportet tribunali divini judicii et veluti causae nostrse inter- cessorem eidem repra^sentari : qua subnixi etiam Lie obtinerenius remissionem peccatorum nostrorum assiduam: cujus puritate velatse non imputantur…
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' Stanislaus Ilosius was a Roman Catholic author. Ilis collected works passed through several editions, of whicli the earliest seems to have been one published at I'aris in 1552. His treatise, " Do Expresso Dei Verbo," was also published separately in 1610. — Ed. GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS, 41 of sin. So the psalmist com…
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GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 43 same I say concerning all the reviling and contemptuous expressions that his ensuing pages are filled withal. But as to the present occa- sion, I beg his excuse if I believe him not, that the reading of the passages which he mentions out of my book filled him with " horror and indignation/' …
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Sixthly, We can never state our thoughts aright in this matter, unless we have a clear apprehension of, and satisfaction in, the intro- duction of grace hy Jesus Christ into the whole of our relation unto God, with its respect unto all par^ts of our obedience. There was no such thing, nothing of that nature or kind, in…
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GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 47 and capacity in these things, we are not to be " ashamed of the gos- pel of Christ, which is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth." Of this repugnancy unto the mystery of the wisdom and grace of God in Christ, and the foundation of its whole economy, in the dis- tinct…
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' See vol. ii. 349. The works of this Socinian author form one volume in the *' Bibliotheea Fratrum Polouorum."— Ed. 2 See vol. ii. 392. GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 49 in sacris monumentis scriptum extaret, non idcirco tamen ita prorsus rem se habere crederem, ut vos opinamini; cum enim id omnino fieri non possit, non se…
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But in the mystery of God and his grace, the harmony and suit- ableness of one thing unto another, with their tendency unto the GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 61 same end, is incomparably more excellent and glorious than that which is seen in nature or the works of it. For whereas God made all things at first in wisdom, yet…
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These and the like imaginations arise from tlie unwilHngness of men to admit of the introduction of the mystery of gi'ace into our relation unto God. For suppose us to stand before God on the old constitution of the covenant of creation, which alone natural reason likes and is comprehensive of, and we do acknowledge th…
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GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 65 then are they of no use unto our salvation. 8. That it is ridiculous to think that where there is no sin, there is not all the righteousness that can be required. 9. That righteousness imputed is only a, pu- tative or imaginary righteousness, etc. Now, although all these and the like object…
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But the judgment of most Protestants is not only candidly ex- pressed, but approved of also by Bellarmine himself in another place. " Non esset," saith he, " absurdum, si quis diceret nobis imputari Christi justitiam et merita; cum nobis donentur et applicentur; ac si nos ipsi Deo satisfecissamus." De Justif, lib. ii. …
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But this boldness is not only unwarrantable, but to be abhorred What place of Scripture, what ecclesiastical tradition, what single precedent of any one sober Christian writer, what theological reason, will countenance a man in making the comparison mentioned, and so determining thereon? Such juvenile boldness, such wa…
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(7.) The pretence itself is wholly false; for there are as many pregnant testimonies given unto this truth in one alone of the evan- gelists as in any other book of the New Testament, — namely, in the book of John. I shall refer to some of them, which will be pleaded in their proper place, chap. i. 12, 17, iii. 14-18, …
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That which is of real difference among persons who agree in the substance of the doctrine, may be reduced unto a very few heads; as, — (1.) There is something of this kind about the nature of faith ■whereby we are justified, with its proper object in justifying, and its use in justification. And an instance we have her…
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Wherefore, notwithstanding the differences that have been among some in the various expression of their conceptions, the substance of the doctrine of the reformed churches is by them agreed upon and retained entire. For they all agree that God justifieth no sinner, — absolveth him not from guilt, nor declareth him righ…
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GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 67 But to root tlie superstitions mentioned out of the minds of men, to communicate unto them the knowledge of the righteousness of God, which is revealed from faith to faith, and thereby to deliver them from their bondage, fears, and distress, directing convinced sin- ners unto the only way of…
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GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 69 do depend tliereon. They are all nothing but ways invented to pacify the consciences of men, or divert them from attending to the charge which is given in against them by the law of God ; sorry supphes they are of a righteousness of their own, for them who know not how to submit themselves t…
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CHAPTER I. Justifying faith ; the causes and oliject of it declared. The means of justification on our part is faith. That we are justified by faith, is so frequently and so expressly affirmed in the Scripture, as that it cannot directly and in terms by any be denied. For whereas some begin, by an excess of partialit…
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This faith I grant to be true in its kind, and not merely to be equivocally so called : it is not 'xierig ■vj/suSwi'u/xos. It is so as unto the general nature of faith ; but of the same special nature with justify- ing faith it is not. Justifying faith is not a higher, or the highest degree of this faith, but is of ano…
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(1.) As to the first, I say, the work oi conviction in general, whereby the soul of man hath a practical understanding of the nature of sin, its guilt, and the punishment due unto it; and is made sensible of his own interest therein, both with respect unto sin original and actual, with his own utter disability to deliv…
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[4.] The state of Adam, and God's dealing with him therein, is the best representation of the order and method of these things. As he was after the fall, so are we by nature, in the very same state and condition. Really he was utterly lost by sin, and convinced he was both of the nature of his sin and of the effects of…
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Bnt yet it must be said, that they are neither severally nor jointly, though in the highest degree, either necessary dispositions, prepara- tions, previous congruities in a way of merit, nor conditions of our justification. For, — [1.] They are not co?^rf^i^o?^s of justification. For where one thing is the condition o…
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This description of justifying faith and its object hath been so discussed, and on such evident grounds of Scripture and reason re- jected by Protestant writers of all sorts, as that it is needless to insist much upon it again. Some things I shall observe in relation unto it, whereby we may discover what is of truth in…
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4ithly. It is not a way of seeking relief unto a convinced sinner, whose mouth is stopped, in that he is become guilty before God. Such alone are capable subjects of justification, and do or can seek after it in a due manner. A mere assent unto divine revelation is not peculiarly suited to give such persons relief : fo…
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Many great divines, at the first Reformation, did (as the Lutherans generally yet do) thus make the mercy of God in Christ, and thereby the forgiveness of our own sins, to be the proper object of justifying faith, as svich; — whose essence, therefore, they placed in a fiducial trust in the grace of God by Christ declar…
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(1.) The Lord Jesus Christ himself is asserted to be the proper object of justifying faith. For so it is required in all those testi- monies of Scripture where that faith is declared to be our believing in him, on his name, our receiving of him, or looking unto him; whereunto the promise of justification and eternal li…
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And this answereth the experience of all that do truly believe. 88 ON JUSTIFICATION. For these things being united and made inseparable in the constitu- tion of God, all of them are virtually included in every one of them. (1.) Some fix their faith and trust, principally on the grace, love, and mercy of God; especial…
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The whole is expressed in that place of the apostle wherein the doctrine of justification is most eminently proposed unto us, Rom. iii. 24, 25, " Being justified freely by his grace through the redemjD- tion that is in Christ Jesus; whom God hath set forth to be a pro- pitiation tlu'ough faitli in his blood ; to declar…
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(2.) He is so, as he is the ordinance of God unto this end; which consideration is not to be separated from our faith in him : and this also is confirmed by several sorts of testimonies : — [1.] All those wherein the love and grace of God are proposed as the only cause of giving Jesus Christ to be the way and means of…
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THE NATURE OF JUSTIFYING FAITH, 93 is the cause; the pardon of sin, which is the effect; and the promises of the gospel, which are the means, of communicating the Lord Christ, and the benefits of his mediation unto us. The reader may be pleased to take notice, that I do in this place not only neglect, but despise, th…
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THE NATURE OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 95 ii. 3, — not giving it that admission which the excellency of it doth require. A disallowing of Christ, the stone h d'7rs6ozi/Masav o'l oJkooo- fMov\>Tsg, 1 Pet. ii. 7, — the " builders disapproved of," as not meet for that place and work whereunto it was designed. Acts iv. 11, — thi…
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Again : some there were at first, and such still continue to be, who rejected not this way absolutely, and in the notion of it, but compa- ratively, as reduced to practice; and so perished in their unbelief. They judged the way of their own righteousness to be better, as that which might be more safely trusted unto, — …
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And, if I mistake not, this is that which the experience of them that truly believe, when they are out of the heats of disputation, will give testimony unto. 4. To understand the nature of justifying faith aright, or the act and exercise of saving faith in order unto our justification, which are properly inquired afte…
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2. That which, in order of nature, seems to have the precedency, is the assent of the mind unto that which the psalmist betakes himself unto in the first place for reUef, under a sense of sin and trouble, Ps. cxxx. 3, 4, " If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?" The sentence of the law and j…
937 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.