PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Works of John Owen — Volume 9
John Owen · 335,461 words · 337 reading sections
Section 61
108 OF WALKING HUMBLY WITH GOD. to perform good works because I was to be saved by them; now, because I am saved without them." God saving us in Christ, by grace, hath appointed that we shall perform that in a way of acknowledg- ment of our free salvation, which before we were to do to be saved. Though works left no r…
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This is the way to walk with God, — to be ready and willing to un- dergo any duty, though never so much above or beyond our strength, 110 OF WALKING HUMBLY WITH GOD. so we can see that in Christ there is a supply. The truth is, he that shall consider what God requires of believers, would think them to have a stock of…
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(2.) Doth this always abide in our thoughts, and upon our spirits, — that, by all we have done, do, or can do, we cannot obtain righteous- ness to stand in the presence of God ; so that in the secret reserves of our hearts we place none of our righteousness on that account ? Can we be content to suffer loss in all our …
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The ways of God are, we know, all perfect. He is our rock ; and his work is j^erfect : nothing can be added to them, nor taken from them; yea, they are all comely and beautiful in their season. There is not any thing comes out from him, but it is from wonderful counsel ; and all his ways will at length be found to prai…
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[2cZ/y.] Comparing them with others was the hard case of old ; the pleading whereof by Job, David, Jeremiah, and Habakkuk, is so known, that I shall not need farther to insist upon it. I shall not farther manifest this from the variety which is in the dispensations of God towards the men of the world, which the wisest…
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Second. His wisdom. He is wise also, as he speaks in derision of men's pretending to be so ; indeed, God is only wise. Now, he hath undertaken to make " all things work together for good to them that love him," Rom. viii. 28 ;— that we shall not be in heaviness unless it be needful, 1 Pet. i. 6. In many dispensations o…
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Fourthly. His goodness, kindness, love, tenderness. Our souls must submit themselves to believe all these to be in all God's dis- OF WALKING HUMBLY WITH GOD. 119 pensations. I shall but name that one place wherein the apostle disputes for it, Heb. xii. 1-6 ; and add that wherewith Hosea closes his declaration of God'…
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(2.) Constant, abiding reverence of God will help the soul in this universal resignation, and humbling of itself. Now, this reverence of God is an awful spiritual regard of the majesty of God, as he is pleased to concern himself in us, and in our walking before him, on the account of his holiness, greatness, omniscienc…
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This is the import of the expression at the beginning of the verse, — " What doth the Lord thy God require of thee?" Thou mayest cast about in thy thoughts to other things, wherein either thyself may be more delighted, or, as thou supposest, may be more acceptable to God. Be not mistaken; this is the great thing that h…
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(3.) This gives God the glory of his law, whereby he requires this obedience at our hands. The obedience of them that are subject to it, sets forth the glory of the wisdom, goodness, and power of the lawgiver in that law. But this may be referred to the first head. (4.) It gives him the glory of his justice, even in t…
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3. It is our great concernment, because this makes us alone emi- nently conformable to Jesus Christ. When the church is raised up to an expectation of his coming, she is bid to look for him as one " meek and lowly," Zech. ix. 9. And when he calls men to a con- formity to his example, this he proposes to them. " Learn o…
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[2.] All this hath been done by them who have perished. Many who are now in hell have done all these things, and went down to the pit with the burden of their profession and duties at their back. I could reckon up instances. And let me but try this foundation, which safely I may,- — namely, that whatever excellencies h…
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(2.) We shall also find comfort. Mephi-bosheth cried, " Let all go, seeing the king is come in peace; which was all that I desired/' When a man shall see, in the worst state and condition, that his great concernment is safe; that though all is lost, God, who is all, is not lost ; that this can never be taken from him ;…
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Now, though the persons to whom the apostle wrote were stran- gers in the first sense, — pilgrims, whose conversation and country was in heaven, — yet they were no more so than all other believers in the world ; so that there was no just cause of saluting them peculiarly under that style and title, were there not some …
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I shall only observe, by the way, not to look into the difficulties of these verses, that I be not too long detained from my principal in- tendment,— that the apostle makes a distribution of the world into heaven and earth, and saith, they " were destroyed with water, and perished." We know that neither the fabric or s…
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AN ARGUMENT FOR UNIVERSAL HOLINESS. 135 heavens raid a new earth," etc. They had this expectation. But what is that promise? where may we find it? Why, we have it in the very words and letter, Isa. lxv. 1 7. Now, when shall this be that God will create these " new heavens and new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness?…
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1. The two general parts of that universal duty that we owe to God; and they are these: — (1.) Holiness of conversation; which is comprehensive of all holiness and righteousness, both in principle and practice ; for no conversation is holy but what comes from a holy heart, AN ARGUMENT FOR UNIVERSAL HOLINESS. 137 and …
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2. So is it also in reference to that other great work of God in the world relating to Christ and his church, which is the ocean of provi- dence whereinto all the rivulets of lesser alterations do run ; I mean, the destruction of Antichrist and his Babylonish kingdom. What a frame shall be in the saints on the close o…
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Ans. 2. The exhortation lies not unto holiness and godliness in general, but as to the degrees of it, — what manner of men we ought to be in them. It is not a godly conversation at an ordinary rate, that may find acceptance at another time, which will suffice to meet Christ at his coming; and that on sundry accounts, a…
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142 PEOVIDENTIAL CHANGES, day. So Jucle tells us that, in the destruction of Sodom and Gomor- rah, " God set forth an example of them that shall suffer the ven- geance of eternal fire," verse 7. And Peter calls the time of the destruction of the Jndaical church and state expressly " the day of judgment and perdition o…
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(3.) He doth exercise his judgment in blinding and hardening of wicked men ; yet they shall not see nor perceive what he is doing, but shall have advantages to do wickedly, and prejudices to blind them therein. So expressly, Dan. xii. 10, " They shall do wickedly, and they shall not understand." There are two parts of …
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Idly. On the account of some way or ways wherein they may have been unadvisedly, or through temptation, or want of seeking counsel aright from him, engaged. They may be got, in their employments, in their callings, in the work that lies before them in this world, into ways and paths wherein Christ is not pleased they s…
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By this means, I say, then, Christ pleads with his saints; secretly and powerfully judging their lusts, corruptions, failings, — consuming and burning them up. He first, by frequent motions and instruc- tions, gives them no rest in any unequal path ; then discovers to them the beauty of holiness, the excellency of the …
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I proceed now to the use. But to make way for the due improve- ment of the apostle's exhortation unto us, some previous considerations must be laid down : — First. It is known to all the world that we have had great provi- dential alterations and dissolutions in these nations. He must be a stranger, not in England onl…
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(1.) When the judgments that are exercised in such a dispensation flow from provocations given unto the Lord Christ, upon the account of his church. So Isa. xxxiv. 8. All the dissolutions mentioned of the heavens and the earth, verse 4, were on Zion's account, and the controversy that Christ had with Idumea about her. …
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AN ARGUMENT FOR UNIVERSAL HOLINESS. 153 may be hindered from exerting it; but when they do exert it, it is evident. Put a candle under a bushel, it cannot be seen; but take away the hinderance, and it manifests itself. It is so in faith, and its actings. They may be so clouded to the soul itself in which they act, tha…
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Ans. 3. Many who have really the power of this principle in them, have yet been overpowered by temptations, and have brought forth fruits directly opposite unto that obedience, and holiness, and self- denial, which the principle spoken of tends unto. This, for the most part, hath fallen out since deliverance came in; a…
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1. Satan pours out this flood of abominations on purpose to bring an ill report upon the truth and light that is sent out by Christ. The great prejudice against truth in the world is, that it is new. " He seems to be a setter forth of strange" (or new) " gods," say they of Paul, because he preached Jesus and the resurr…
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AN ARGUMENT FOR UNIVERSAL HOLINESS. 159 glory, — that Christ hath not conquered thee, — that thou hast hardened thyself against him? But passing them, let us inquire, whether the mind of Christ hath, in these dispensations, been answered in a due manner by the saints themselves? — -have they made it their business to…
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Now, there are five things wherein Christ calls for his own to be differenced from the world and the men thereof: — [1.] In spirit; [2.] In principle; [3.] In conversation ; [4.] In ends; [5.] In worship. [1.] In spirit. He tells us everywhere, that it is one Spirit that is in his, — another that is in the world. 1 Jo…
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2dly.. There is a particular end that regulates the public actings of men. This in the saints is their doing the work of their generation ; that, as Noah, they may walk with God in their generation. This is their integrity as to the special course of their lives, and their parti- cular employment, — how they may fulfil…
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(4.) Of the like nature are the scandalous offences of many. I sball not insist on the scandalous apostasies of many professors, who, some by one great sin, some by another, are fallen off from the pro- fession of the gospel. I wish that too many other instances might not be found among them that remain. Are there not …
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166 PROVIDENTIAL CHANGES, us by the virtue of the covenant, but that heightening and improve- ment of it which the season wherein we live, and the work that Christ hath to do, do require of us. These things being premised, let us now proceed to the manage- ment of our exhortation ; and observe, — (1.) That the apost…
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This is the first direction : — Let us make the matter of holiness and godliness suited to the coming of Christ a business of design, counsel, and common engagement; whereunto every one may contribute of the store which from God he hath received. Blessed will be those servants whom their Master, when he cometh, shall f…
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(1st.) When, under a design of holiness, there is an increase of a bondage-frame of spirit ; — when the mind begins to be enslaved to the duties which it doth itself perform ; — when that amplitude, free- dom, and largeness of mind which is in a gracious frame of heart decays, and a servile bondage-frame grows in the r…
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1st. What success this design prosecuted hath had in others. How quickly did it degenerate into wretched superstition, and was thereon blasted and rej ected of God ! Idly. God can suffer temptation to pursue us into a wilderness, that shall more obstruct us in the progress of holiness than all the difficulties we meet…
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Love enlarges the heart to Christ, and every thing of Christ: valuation, delight, satisfaction, accompany it. It makes the heart free, noble, ready for service, compassionate, — zealous. Nothing is more called for in such a day: and the decay of faith, in the trials and temptations of such a season, is called the " wax…
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1 7G PROVIDENTIAL CHANGES, a way to his bosom-love, and there repose the soul in rest and quiet- ness. i [2.] As to others, what Paul saith to Timothy in another case, about preaching of the gospel, may in some sense be spoken in this. " Take heed," saith he, " to the doctrine ; for thereby thou shalt save thyself, a…
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3dly. This is the most effectual way of standing in the gap, to turn away the indignation of the Lord against the nation. Whatever is required thereunto is contained in this design of holiness: there is reformation, there is wrestling by prayer, sundry promises improving our interest in Christ,— all included in this du…
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SERMON XIY. THE SIN AND JUDGMENT OF SPIRITUAL BARRENNESS. " But the miry places thereof, and the marshes thereof shall not he healed ; they shall be given to salt." — Ezek. xlvii. 11. This prophecy contains a vision of the glorious, holy, gospel state of the church, under the representation of a most glorious temple…
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It is this last proposition, as that which is the direct design and scope of the place, that I intend to insist principally upon. But yet I shall speak somewhat to the former. I. God is pleased oftentimes, in his infinite wisdom, to send the preaching of the word unto some places wherein it shall not put forth its qui…
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I shall not stay to mention all the particular distempers that rage in some, and that rule and reign in all before the coming of the gos- pel; as darkness, blindness, ignorance, worldly-mindedness, sensuality, hatred of God, envy, and malice, which are fixed in the souls of men by presumption and self-righteousness. Th…
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SPIRITUAL BARRENNESS. 185 new spiritual life by the word, they are as the unhealed places, over which the curse here mentioned hangs. (2.) The healing of these quickened souls consists in the curing and mortifying of their sinful distempers. This follows the other. Where there is life, there will be healing. Let not …
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[1.] He will sometimes utterly remove the gospel from them ; — turn the stream of the waters of the sanctuary, that they shall come to them no more. So he threatened the church at Ephesus of old, Rev. ii. 5, " Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen," etc., " or else I Avill come unto thee quickly, and will remo…
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Now, hence it is that God may at the same time remove his gospel from a place, judicially from some, and by a way of trial from others, whereby these contrary effects are produced: — Some are humbled under the hand of the Lord, mourn after his presence, and account them blessed who enjoy his ordinances; — others triump…
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Oh ! it is a woful thing to look on a place or persons that give evi- dences of their withstanding the season of their healing, as so many in this nation do ! How was our Saviour affected with it in reference to Jerusalem, Luke xix. 41, 42, " And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, saying, If t…
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[2.] Obstinacy in the will, or hardness of heart properly so called, is in this judgment of God also. God will give up unhealed persons to hardness of heart. So is it in that place of Isaiah, chap. vi. 10 : and it is the same with that which the apostle calls " a reprobate mind/' Rom. i. 28 ; that is, a mincl and heart…
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VOL. ix. 13 194 THE SIN AND JUDGMENT OF a space to repent in, Rev. ii. 21. This space and season, as I have showed you before, is not ofttimes all the while that the gospel is preached unto you. The word may be preached, and yet its efficacy wholly restrained from you, and that because your time and season is gone. A…
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[3.] Then is the season, when God moves, [as he does] at some sea- sons, more effectually upon your hearts and spirits in the dispensation of the word than at other times. This you alone can give an account of; — you only know how it is with you. You can tell whether you have not been moved by the word more than former…
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198 HUMAN POWER DEFEATED. was established as a monument of praise in the days of Hezekiah, when, by the immediate hand of God, Jerusalem was delivered from the army of Sennacherib. For a return of which mercy though good Hezekiah came short of the obligation laid on him, rendering not again according to the benefit do…
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Observation. The care of Salem, of Zion, lies at the bottom of all God's powerful actings and workings among the sons of men. Every mighty work of God throughout the world may be prefaced with these two verses. The whole course of affairs in the world is steered by Providence in reference to the good of Salem. Zion hat…
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I might farther observe, from both these things together, that among the people of God alone is the residence of his glorious pre- sence. This song is held out from Zion. " In his temple cloth every one speak of his glory/' Ps. xxix. 9. " Bless ye God in the con- gregations, the Loed, from the fountain of Israel," Ps. …
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render it &*o\a>*.txiris rfo nxpSiat. It is much better rendered by Symmachus, in the first instance, v#ipri$avoi t-w xxpllxv, — in the second, <rx\npox.dp$ioi. "v^x some- times signifies a lull (Ps. xxii. 13), — the symbol, when untamed, of stubbornness, Jer. xxxi. 18. It is an ingenious suggestion of Vitringa, adopte…
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[1.] Its weakness. A condition of slumber and sleep is a weak condition. A sleeping man is able to do nothing. Jael can destroy a drowsy Sisera. [2.] Its vanity. Men in their sleep are apt to have foolish, vain fancies. This, then, is that which the Lord holds out concerning the enemies of his church, his people, his …
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2. God will have it so, that the greater may be his glory in the powerful protection and defence of his own, with the destruction, disappointment, and nun of their enemies. If his enemies were all sottish, weak, foolish, childish, until he makes them so, where would be the praise of his great name? when would there be …
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208 HUMAN POWER DEFEATED. and Ephraim, the two grand extremes, but also of innumerable par- ticular fancies and designs ; so that if a man should have met them, (like him in the fable, the lion, the ass, and the fox), he could not but wonder " Quo iter una facerent," — whither they were travelling together. But, I say…
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But you will say, " Engage against the Lord ! That is true ; who- ever engageth against him shall surely fall. But who is so mad as to do so ? Very Rabshakeh himself affirms that he came not up to Jerusalem without the Lord, but that the Lord sent him to go up against the land to destroy it," Isa. xxxvi. 10. It is true…
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4. If they are supported by the prayer of a chosen people, who seek their welfare, not for their own interest and advantage, but for the advantage of the gospel and the ways of Christ, by them asserted. If God's own people pray for them in authority, that under them they may enjoy some share of their own, and obtain so…
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[2.] He will fill them with folly and giddiness; so taking away their counsel. Foolish and giddy undertakers do but conceive chaff, and bring forth stubble. " The princes of Zoan are become fools, the princes of Noph are deceived ; they have also seduced Egypt. The Lord hath mingled a perverse spirit in the midst there…
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JIUMAN POWER DEFEATED. 215 were against the Lord, and their hearts could not endure, neither could their hands be strong. I shall give some instances in their undertaking against the Lord : — (1.) In their declared enmity to the ministry of the gospel; — not to the persons of ministers, because engaged in some factio…
1,074 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.
Project Gutenberg source record →
Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.