3. Hence, those professors are not elect believers.15
3. Hence, those professors are not elect believers.15
Next, Owen explained the doctrine of perseverance in relationship to:
(1) The immutable nature of God as well as His promises and eternal purposes, which extend to His elective love and covenant. The gifts and calling of God are irrevocable (Romans
11:29).16 Those gifts include perseverance, for God is bonded to His people through His promises, which form the heart of the covenant of grace.17 The covenant then becomes an unconditional promise of grace and perseverance for the believer through the mediatorial work of Christ.18 God's foreknowledge, power, promises, covenant, and immutability are all part of His sovereign, eternal love. And perseverance is part of the unbreakable chain of salvation granted to the elect.
(2) The nature of grace itself, which always triumphs in Scripture. Since grace perseveres, God Himself perseveres with the believer, making grace a conquering thing and Christ a conquering King.19 Christ has also granted the Spirit to Christians. This Spirit secures their perseverance, for in fulfilling the covenant of grace, the Comforter shall dwell with the elect forever (John 14:16).20
(3) The integral unity of the plan of salvation. If the outcome of God's salvation activity in the believer is questionable, the entire enterprise of salvation must fail. If the Holy Spirit does not keep believers in grace, neither can He call, regenerate, sanctify, and assure them, for all these are indissolubly linked.21 Christ must also then be an impotent intercessor.22
Goodwin's second argument against perseverance was based on Scriptures that urge Christians to maintain themselves in a state of grace. Goodwin said such texts prove that perseverance is the sole responsibility of the believer.
Owen's reply was that Goodwin failed to see that obligation does not entail ability. In other words, even though sinners are obligated to repent and believe, this doesn't prove they have the power to do so. Similarly, just because God commands his saints to use the means of grace and to persevere in faith doesn't mean they can do that in their own strength. Granted, they must strive to enter the narrow gate (Luke 13:24), must hold fast the Word preached (1
Corinthians 15:2), and must be diligent to make their calling and election sure (2 Peter 1:10), but it is only through God, who will perform this in His elect. Believers work out their salvation with fear and trembling, not of doubt and uncertainty but of holy awe, for it is God Himself who is at work in them both to will and do (Philippians 2:12-13). As Owen wrote: "It is utterly denied, that
15 11:113ff.
16 Owen similarly treated the everlasting covenant of God, the irrevocable promises and oath of God, and the irresistible grace of God (11: chps. 4-8).
17 11:227.
18 11:289ff.
19 11:172-73.
20 11:308-315.
21 6:145-46.
22 11:499.
men, the best of men, have in themselves, and of themselves, arising upon the account of any considerations whatsoever, a power, ability, or strength, vigorously or at all acceptably to God, to incline their hearts to the performance of anything that is spiritually good, or in a gospel tendency to walking with God."23
To believe, like the Arminians, that the saints maintain their own faith is to minimize the doctrine of total depravity, for even after regeneration the believer does not have perfect knowledge of the good, much less the desire or ability to carry it out.24 The believer works at salvation, but only through God's eternal power, which works mightily in him (Colossians 1:29).
In short, Owen taught that assurance is to perseverance what perseverance is to divine election and faithfulness. Election therefore must be a motive for perseverance, holiness, and assurance.
He wrote:
[Election] hath the same tendency and effect in the assurance we have from thence, that notwithstanding all the oppositions we meet withal, we shall not utterly and finally miscarry. God's "election" will at last "obtain," Rom. xi. 7; and "his foundation standeth sure," 2 Tim. ii. 19. His purpose, which is "according unto election," is unchangeable; and, therefore, the final perseverance and salvation of those concerned in it are everlastingly secured. . . . And there is no greater encouragement to grow and persist in holiness than what is administered by this assurance of a blessed end and issue of it.25
Goodwin offered two more objections to perseverance. The first was the danger of antinomianism. He said widespread teaching of the doctrine of perseverance would give rise to lawlessness and disregard for the moral code of Scripture. The second objection was that perseverance minimizes the importance of God's exhortations and commands. Goodwin wrote,
"If it is absolutely certain that God will preserve his people from apostasy, and he intends so to do, why then does he appeal to them to strive and to use the means of grace? This doctrine empties God's every command of all meaning."26
The essence of Owen's reply to Goodwin concerning antinomianism was simple: God preserves His saints in holiness. Christ saves His people from, not in, their sins. Justification is inseparable from sanctification; new birth necessarily results in new life. Far from promoting loose living, perseverance promises the assurance of eternal salvation by the only path that will get the believer to heaven: the King's highway of holiness.27 The doctrine of perseverance stimulates love, which can only yield obedience, for "it is the Spirit of Christ in the gospel that cuts [sin's] throat and destroys it," Owen wrote.28 Though the Christian may fall into occasional
23 6:165.
24 Owen based this on Romans 7:17-21 and John 15:5 (6:153-56).
25 3:601-602. Cf. Hebrews 4:155-57.
26 11:243.
27 11:254ff.
28 11:393.
sin, Christ effectually prays that his faith may not fail.29 Consequently, perseverance guarantees the believer's continued sanctification and eventual glorification.30
Owen responded to Goodwin's concern that perseverance minimizes God's exhortations by stating that it is the moral duty of everyone to obey God's commands, and when believers do so, that signifies God's work within them. Hence, the sovereign activity of God neither negates the means of grace nor their efficacy. God has created the universe to work through the medium of cause and effect. Consequently, no one has an excuse to disobey God's moral imperatives. As Owen wrote: "As well might we argue that it is unnecessary for us to breathe because God gives us breath, or that Hezekiah need no longer to eat and drink because God had promised he should live another fifteen years. . . . Grace does not annul our responsibility but fits us to discharge it; it relieves from no duties, but equips for the performance of them."31
Setting the Stage for Elaboration on Assurance
In his defense of perseverance, Owen offered three particulars on assurance, which he later developed more fully:
First, unlike what he stated in his early catechisms, Owen now seemed to allow some distinction between faith and assurance by describing several degrees of, and foundations in, assurance. With degrees of assurance, he distinguished the weakest witness, "one of the lowest voices of all [the believer's] store" from stronger forms of witness.32 In addition, he said that the foundation of assurance must not be limited to "the testimony of [the believer's] own conscience concerning his own regular walking in ways of righteousness."33 Rather, it was evident, "and the saints acknowledge it," that Scripture built assurance on other foundations.34 The reflex act of faith, which forms an essential role in the practical syllogism, is therefore not an integral part of every kind of assurance. Owen's space here between faith and assurance was not as great as it would later become. He wrote: "Yea, in the very graces themselves of faith and uprightness of heart, there is such a seal and stamp, impressing the image of God upon the soul, as, without any reflex act or actual contemplation of those graces themselves, have an influence into the establishment of the souls of men in whom they are unto a quiet, comfortable, assured repose of themselves upon the love and faithfulness of God."35
Second, Owen stated for the first time his conviction that doubts and fears are possible in the believer without a substantial loss of assurance. He wrote: "Neither is the spiritual confidence of the saints shaken, much less cast to the ground, by their conflicting with fears, scruples, and doubtful apprehensions, seeing in all these conflicts they have the pledge of the faithfulness of
29 11:495.
30 Cf. 2 Thessalonians 1:3-5, 2:13; Hebrews 12:14; 1 Peter 1:2; 1 Corinthians 6:9-11; Ephesians 5:3-6.
31 11:280.
32 11:85.
33 11:86.
34 11:84.
35 11:83.
God that they shall be more than conquerors. Though they are exercised by them, they are not dejected with them, nor deprived of that comforting assurance and joy which they have in believing."36
Owen stated God Himself is glorified by such "trials and exercises of their graces whereunto he calls them." He may even use these fears to establish His saints. "It is no singular thing for the saints of God to be exercised with a thousand fears and jealousies, and through them to grow to great establishment," he wrote.37
Finally, Owen acknowledged that some degree of assurance was normal in the believer.
In response to Goodwin's comment, "There is not one true believer of a hundred, yea, of many thousands, who hath any such assurance of his faith as is built upon solid and pregnant foundations," Owen stated:
I no way doubt but many thousands of believers, whose apprehensions of the nature, properties, and conditions of things, as they are in themselves, are low, weak, and confused, yet, having received the Spirit of adoption, bearing witness with their spirits that they are the children of God, and having the testimony in themselves, have been taken up into as high a degree of comforting and cheering assurance, and that upon the most infallible foundation imaginable (for "the Spirit beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth," 1 John v.6), as ever the most seraphically illuminated person in the world attained unto.38
Owen later modified this remarkable statement, though he maintained its principle throughout his career.
Communion with God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost (1657)
In addition to providing a foundation for assurance of salvation through the doctrine of divine preservation rooted in eternal election, Owen offered a subjective approach to assurance by describing the communion between the Christian and the three Persons of the Trinity. In Of Communion with God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, Each Person Distinctly, in Love, Grace, and Consolation, Owen said that the believer communes with God, not in general, but with God's three Persons. The believer communes with each Person distinctly,39 which, in turn, promotes assurance.
Owen found scriptural support for "distinct communion" in such texts as John 14:23; 1
Corinthians 1:9, 12:4-6; 2 Corinthians 3:14; 1 John 1:3, 5:7; and Revelation 3:20. Sinclair
Ferguson writes of Owen's use of such passages: "Owen adds the axiom that all the activity of faith has reference to one distinct person of the Trinity, as do all receptions of grace. This is what
36 11:83-84.
37 11:85.
38 11:83.
39 2:9ff.
he means by fellowship or communion. Thus the Father communicates by original authority, the Son from a purchased treasury and the Spirit in immediate efficacy. This is the classical doctrine of Appropriations."40
Before examining this treatise, here are some comments about the context in which it was written. First, the theme of communion with God was critically important to Owen's generation of Puritan divines. Their preoccupation with the subject of communion between God and His elect was not an attempt to humanize God or to deify man, however.41 Rather, Owen and his colleagues wanted to explain, from within a Trinitarian framework, how God deals with needy sinners. The divines were not so much concerned with religious experience as an end in itself
(which often is today's concern in a kind of negative pietism), as they were with religious experience as a revelation of God and His astonishing grace (or positive pietism). J. I. Packer rightly stated: "In modern spiritual autobiography [for example], the hero and chief actor is usually the writer himself; he is the centre of interest, and God comes in only as a part of his story. His theme is in effect 'I—and God.' But in Puritan autobiography, God is at the centre throughout. He, not the writer, is the focus of interest; the subject of the book is in effect 'God — and me.'"42
Second, Owen's theme of having communion with distinct divine Persons was a familiar one in Puritan literature.43 In The Object and Acts of Justifying Faith, for example, Thomas
Goodwin wrote of an intimate connection between assurance of faith and distinct communion:
In assurance. . . a man's communion and converse is . . . sometimes with the Father, then with the Son, and then with the Holy Ghost; sometimes his heart is drawn out to consider the Father's love in choosing, and then the love of Christ in redeeming, and so again the love of the Holy Ghost, that searcheth the deep things of God, and revealeth them to us, and taketh all the pains with us; and so a man goes from one witness to another distinctly. . . . We should never be satisfied till all three persons lie level in us, and all make their abode with us, and we sit as it were in the midst of them, while they all manifest their love unto us.44
Third, Owen's Communion with God was unique in how it worked the idea of communion with distinct Persons of the Trinity into a systematic treatise. That is what prompted
40 John Owen on the Christian Life, pp. 75-76.
41 E.g., see Dale Arden Stover, "The Pneumatology of John Owen: A Study of the Role of the Holy Spirit in Relation to the Shape of a Theology" (Ph.D. dissertation, McGill University, 1967), pp. 304-305.
42 "The Puritan Idea of Communion with God," in Press Toward the Mark (London: n.p., 1962), p. 7.
43 E.g., consult any Puritan commentary on the Song of Solomon (Richard Sibbes, John Dove, Nathaniel Homes,
James Durham, and John Collinges). Collinges wrote 909 pages on chapter 1 and 530 on chapter 2 (The Intercourses of Divine Love betwixt Christ and the Church [London: A. Maxwell for Tho. Parkhurst, 1676]) on the communion of Christ and His church as represented by the communion of the Bridegroom and his bride.
44 The Works of Thomas Goodwin 8:379.
Daniel Burgess to write, "This treatise . . . is the only one extant upon its great and necessary subject."45
Fourth, Communion with God was favorably received from the time of its 1657 printing until its 1674 reprinting, after which it drew a rather inept attack from William Sherlock. Owen responded with A Vindication46 but seemed genuinely surprised that this work should be subject to criticism, since it was "wholly practical, designed for popular edification, without a direct engagement into things controversial." He added, "I do know that multitudes of persons fearing
God, and desiring to walk before him in sincerity, are ready, if occasion require to give testimony unto the benefit which they received thereby."47
Communion with God was popular among Dutch Calvinists as well. It was translated into Dutch by J. H. Hofman and published in 1717.48 For many of English and Dutch descent, the work merited Daniel Burgess's commendation: "The very highest of angel's food is here set before thee."49 No doubt this book was also angelic food for Owen, who was at the time of its writing, extremely busy serving as Vice-Chancellor at Oxford University.50
Andrew Thomson's criticism that Owen carried the idea of distinct communion between the believer and each of the Persons of the Godhead beyond Scripture,51 did not do justice to Owen's careful, biblical scholarship. Reginald Kirby's assessment was more accurate: "Owen is but setting forth what is the experience of those who do enter into communion with God, and shows that the doctrine of the Trinity has its basis in human experience as well as Divine revelation."52
Owen's concept of communion with "distinct Persons" was innocent of Dale Stover's charge that "when God is known in this philosophical way, then epistemology is inevitably detached from soteriology."53 As we shall see, Owen's Communion with God actually merged epistemology and soteriology spiritually and biblically. His treatise was more like a sermon than a philosophy lecture.
For Owen, communion between a believer and any Person of the Trinity represented a living relationship of mutual exchange. This mutual communication must be in and through
45 2:[4].
46 2:275-365.
47 2:277.
48 Cf. J. van der Haar, Van Abbadie tot Young: Een Bibliografie van Engelse, veelal Puritaanse, in het Nederlands vertaalde Werken (Veenendaal: Uitgeverij Kool, 1980), p. 89.
49 2:[4].
50 Cf. A. Thomson's synopsis, 1:lxxii-lxxiii, and Reginald Kirby, The Threefold Bond (London: Marshall, Morgan, and Scott, n.d.), p. 25.
51 1:1xxii.
52 Threefold Bond, p. 25.
53 "The Pneumatology of John Owen," p. 304.
Christ, for without Christ no communion between God and man can exist.54 From the outset
Owen established a Christological focus for his Trinitarian framework. He said fellowship, or communion with God, "consisteth in his communication of himself unto us, with our return unto him of that which he requireth and accepteth, flowing from that union which in Jesus Christ we have with him."55 Owen did not stress Christ at the expense of the Father and the Spirit, however, for that would have been false Christomonism. For Owen, theocentricity and Christocentricity walk together as friends, not as rivals. As F.R. Entwistle noted: "It is sometimes suggested that modern, Christological theology is more honouring to Christ than the older
Trinitarianism, and in such a suggestion lies its appeal to the Christian. But this is not so. Owen's full Trinitarianism is not less honouring to Christ: to give glory to the Father and the Spirit does not detract from the glory of the Son."56
Within that framework, Owen taught distinct roles or economies for the Father, Son, and Spirit. He said the first Person, the Father, is initiator, who chooses whom and how He will save. The second Person is the Son and Word of God, who images the Father and does His will as Mediator to redeem sinners. The third Person proceeds from the first two as their executive, conveying to God's elect their sure salvation.
Since all three Persons are active in salvation, bestowing distinct gifts according to their roles, the believer should distinctly acknowledge each Person. Owen explained the biblical, experiential basis for that through two principles: First, "there is no grace whereby our souls go forth unto God, no act of divine worship yielded to Him, no duty or obedience performed, but they are distinctly directed unto Father, Son and Spirit"; and second, "by what act soever we hold communion with any Person there is an influence from every Person to the putting forth of that act."57
Communion with the Father: Love
Owen described the distinctive relationship saints have with the Father as preeminently a communion of love. Though careful not to present Christ's love as "winning over" a reluctant
Father's love, Owen insisted that divine love has its deepest roots in the bosom of the Father.
The Father delights to bestow divine love on the elect (Philippians 1:28), Owen said. And Scripture's references to the love of God most frequently mean the love of the Father. Christ's words "The Father himself loveth you" (John 16:27) assure the believer of God the Father's role in his salvation.58
54 For Owen, all such "communion is entered only through the 'door' of 'grace and pardoning mercy,' purchased for the elect by the merit of Christ" (Wallace, "Life and Thought of John Owen," p. 265).
55 2:8. Consequently, for Owen "both the union with Christ which gives the Christian his status before God, and the communion with God which is the fruit of that status, are thus subsumed under the notion of communion, and this is the sense in which Owen generally employs the expression" (Ferguson, John Owen on the Christian Life, p. 75).
56 "Some Aspects of John Owen's Doctrine of the Person and Work of Christ," Faith and a Good Conscience
(papers read at Puritan and Reformed Studies Conference, 1962), p. 51.
57 2:15, 18.
58 2:20.
The way to exercise communion with the Father is to receive His love by faith, and to return this love to Him by faith.59 This twofold act of faith always takes place through the Son.
As Owen wrote: "Jesus Christ in respect of the love of the Father, is but the beam, the stream, wherein though actually all our light, our refreshment lies, yet by him we are led to the fountain, the sun of eternal love itself [i.e., the Father]. The soul being thus by faith through Christ . . . brought unto the bosom of God, into a comfortable persuasion, and spiritual perception and sense of his love, there reposes and rests itself."60
In resting in the bosom of the Father through Christ, the believer returns the Father's love in his heart to the heart of the Father, from whom it originated. This returned love consists of rest, delight, reverence, and obedience.
When the Christian encounters obstacles in loving God, he must contemplate the nature of the Father's love, Owen said. First, the believer must remember not to invert God's order of love, thinking that the believer's love comes first. Second, he should meditate on the eternal quality and unchangeableness of the Father's love. Third, he should remember that the cross of Christ is the sign and seal of God's love, assuring him that the Father's antecedent love wins his consequent love through the Mediator.61 He who returns to the Father with such meditations will find assurance of the Father's love. As Owen wrote: "Never any one from the foundation of the world, who believed such love in the Father, and made returns of love to him again, was deceived. . . . If thou believest and receivest the Father as love, he will infallibly be so to thee."62
Communion with the Son: Grace
The special gift of the second Person of the Trinity is communion of grace. According to Owen,
Christ is the Mediator of the new covenant, and the new covenant is of grace. Grace is in Him and everywhere ascribed to Him (John 1:14). The believer receives grace by receiving Christ. As John 1:16 says, "Of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace." Christ's very Person is the essence of grace.63 What's more, Christ is pleased to manifest His gracious Person to sinners out of the free favor of His merits despite their demerits.
Christ's grace is the same as mediatorial, "purchased" grace,64 for the distinct communion believers have with Him involves Christ as Mediator. As Mediator, Christ lays His hand on God (Zechariah 13:7) and on man (Hebrews 2:14-16), thereby becoming the "daysman" or "umpire" for His elect. Christ is eminently suited to accomplish this, for He has the true likeness of both natures in one Person (Acts 3:21).
59 2:26-40.
60 2:22-23.
61 2:29.
62 2:36-37.
63 2:47; 3:414.
64 For Owen's usage of and safeguards on the expression "purchased grace," see Ferguson, John Owen on the Christian Life, pp. 86-88.
Conjugal Relationship In explaining how the Christian comes to know this fellowship of Christ's mediatorial grace, Owen emphasized the conjugal relationship between Christ and His people in terms of Song of Solomon 2:1-7 and chapter 5.65 Christ woos and wins His bride, drawing His elect "to receive, embrace and submit unto the Lord Jesus as their husband, Lord, and Saviour,—to abide with him, subject their souls unto him, and to be ruled by him for ever,"66 Owen said. The inevitable result of receiving Christ is communion with Him. Owen explained:
When the soul consents to take Christ on his own terms, to save him in his own way, and says, "Lord, I would have had thee and salvation in my way, that it might have been partly of mine endeavours, and as it were by the works of the law; I am now willing to receive thee and to be saved in thy way,—merely by grace: and though I would have walked according to my own mind, yet now I wholly give up myself to be ruled by thy Spirit; for in thee have I righteousness and strength, in thee am I justified and do glory;"— then doth it carry on communion with Christ as to the grace of his person. This it is to receive the Lord
Jesus in his comeliness and eminency.67
In short, the same faith that responds to the Father, responds to Christ. That response is brought to fruition by faith acting in marital chastity towards Christ. Such chastity trusts in Christ alone for acceptance with God. It cherishes the Spirit of Christ and relishes pure worship of Christ.
Mutual resignation is intrinsic to that relationship. "Christ having given himself to the soul, loves the soul, and the soul having given itself to Christ loveth Him also," Owen wrote.68 A sweet mystical knowledge and communion flows into this reciprocal relationship, which Christ initiates by giving Himself to the soul. All of Christ's excellencies, preciousness, and everything that grace entails are poured into the believer when Christ becomes Savior, Head, Husband, and Indweller.
In return, the believer receives grace to receive Christ, not only in initial trust, but also in intimate communion, in a continued loving of Him with his will and all his affections. In communing with Christ, the believer's will becomes subordinate to Christ's, and his love uplifted by Christ's. And increasingly, the believer's experiences with Christ make him more conscious of the love of the Father.
This communion results in deliberate, daily submission to Christ as gracious Lord. In resigning himself to Christ, the believer brings each day's sins to Christ for forgiveness, each day's mercies to Christ for praise, each day's needs to Christ for the sanctifying and purifying
65 Cf. note 43 above. This is not to say that Owen developed his Christology or its experimental aspects from the Song of Solomon. Rather, he illustrated the believer's experience of communion with Christ through its poetry.
Ferguson notes, "He does not subjectivize Christ to the point of mysticism, but rather tries to describe the subjective experience of the objective Christ to whom the rest of Scripture bears witness" (John Owen on the Christian Life, pp. 78ff.).
66 2:58.
67 2:58-59.
68 2:56ff.
supply of His Spirit.69 It is this daily returning that brings peace and fellowship and such intimacy that Owen could write: "There is not anything in the heart of Christ wherein those friends of his are concerned that he doth not reveal to them."70
Through fellowship with Christ the believer comes to know both Christ and himself.
Christ becomes the mirror of the believer's soul, the unveiler of the secret intuitions of the believer's heart. In revealing Himself, Christ also reveals the believer's self. In making his mind known to Christ in confession and praise, the child of God may enjoy constantly renewed forgiveness and friendship. As Owen wrote: "This does he who hath communion with Christ: he watcheth daily and diligently over his own heart that nothing creep into its affections to give it any peace or establishment before God, but Christ only."71
The result of this mutual giving—Christ to the believer, and the believer in gratitude to Christ— is deep, constant assurance of faith.
Adoption The most direct result of communion with Christ that enhances assurance is adoption.72
Adoption is what makes sanctification possible and becomes the crowning work of grace in the final analysis. Thus, adoption is both the means by which we enter the family of God and the result of it. As Owen wrote: "Adoption is the authoritative translation of a believer, by Jesus
Christ, from the family of the world and Satan into the family of God, with his investiture in all the privileges and advantages of that family."73
In the matter of adoption, Owen stressed that communion with Christ is central. Our standing in God is made possible by our adoption through Christ. Through fellowship with Him, we share the benefits of God's family. In the process of adoption and the assurance that follows,
Christ is essential as the Person who carries out the Father's will.
Adoption involved five things for Owen, which Sinclair Ferguson summarized as follows: "(1) that the person first belongs to another family; (2) that there is a family to which he has no right to belong; (3) that there is an authoritative legal translation from one family to another; (4) that the adopted person is freed from all the legal obligations of the family from which he came; (5) and that by virtue of his translation he is invested with all the rights, privileges, and advantages of the new family."74
Through Christ the Christian experiences the annulment of sin's penalty, victory over sin, and new family privileges such as liberty, a title to all adoptive blessings, boldness with God, and correction through fatherly dealings.75 The child of God gains acquaintance with God as
69 2:197-207.
70 2:59.
71 2:146.
72 Other benefits believers gain from communing with Christ include: approving of the divine way of salvation, maintaining a sense of continuing sinfulness, and yielding to holiness as a response to the holiness of Christ (2:187207).
73 2:207; cf. 2:173.
74 John Owen on the Christian Life, pp. 90-91; cf. 2:207-208.
75 2:211ff.
Father76 and Christ as Elder Brother, which is accompanied by a deepening conviction that Christ belongs to him and he to Christ.77
The bond between communion with Christ and assurance of salvation is inseparable,78 though Owen didn't make much of that link here. Thomas Goodwin stressed assurance that flows out of communion with Christ, but Owen preferred to focus on the believer's duty to grow in communion with Christ and His grace.79
Owen would have agreed with Goodwin's view of certain steps in grace being more advanced than others and that advancement in assurance roughly parallels advancement in grace, but Owen did not dwell on the steps in grace. Rather, he branched out of his experimental theology often covering nearly the entire order of salvation as he did under his consideration of adoption. Ultimately Owen wanted to stress that "the Spirit of Christ testifies to the heart and conscience of a believer that he is freed from all engagement unto the family of Satan, and is become the son of God, which enables him to cry, 'Abba, Father.'" He thus wrote of adoption applied to the conscience, but also in a broader sense as being brought by Christ from Satan's family into the family of God, with all the privileges of that family.80 Within that framework,
Owen stressed that every mark of grace is possessed in principle by each Christian from regeneration onward, despite the fact that its consciousness may not be yet realized. For example, in A Discourse of the Work of the Holy Spirit in Prayer, he wrote: "But believers have it [i.e., assurance or boldness] always in the root and principle, even all that have received the Spirit of adoption, and are ordinarily assisted in the use of it."81
Communion with the Spirit: Comfort
Finally, the third Person of the Trinity communes with the believer as Comforter. Though he acknowledged that the Spirit as Paraclete acts as both Advocate and Comforter, Owen chose to stress the role of Comforter.82 Later, in A Discourse on the Holy Spirit as Comforter, Owen wrote about the Spirit's role of Advocate, unction, and seal in assurance. We'll examine that later.83
At this point, Owen stressed how the Spirit as Consoler communes with the believer in these ways: (1) the Spirit helps the believer remember the words of Christ and teaches him what
76 Sinclair Ferguson, "Doctrine of the Christian Life in the Teaching of Dr John Owen [1616-83]," [Ph.D. dissertation, University of Aberdeen, 1979], pp. 175-76.
77 2:187.
78 2:218.
79 Cf. J. I. Packer, "Puritan Idea of Communion with God," p. 12.
80 2:207ff. Contra Stover, the Spirit of Christ was emphasized by Owen (2:207, 210). Owen also used the terminology, Spirit of the Father (2:241), particularly with regard to adoption. Cf. 4:265-69; 292-94.
81 4:294.
82 2:225.
83 See pp. 200-208 below. For Holy Spirit as advocate, see 4:361-68; as unction, 4:389ff.; as seal, 4:399-406.
they mean; (2) the Spirit glorifies Christ; (3) He spreads the love of God in the Christian's heart;
(4) He convinces the believer that he is a child of God; (5) He seals faith in the Christian, (6) assures him of that as his earnest, (7) anoints him, (8) adopts him, and (9) grants him the Spirit of supplication.84
Five of those comforting forms of communion directly contribute to personal assurance, and two of those here represent Owen's most definitive treatment. The two are the Spirit's witness to the believer's conscience that he is a justified child of God, and the Spirit sealing that promise as an earnest to the Christian.85
Witnessing in the Court of Conscience Owen said the witness of the Spirit, adoption into the divine family, and personal justification in the court of one's own conscience were some of the strongest promoters of assurance. Concerning the Spirit's witness in the believer's court of conscience, Owen wrote:
The soul, by the power of its own conscience, is brought before the law of God.
There a man puts in his plea,—that he is a child of God, that he belongs to God's family; and for this end produceth all his evidences, every thing whereby faith gives him an interest in God. Satan, in the meantime, opposeth with all his might; sin and law assist him; many flaws are found in his evidences; the truth of them all is questioned; and the soul hangs in suspense as to the issue. In the midst of the plea and contest the Comforter comes, and, by a word of promise or otherwise, overpowers the heart with a comfortable persuasion (and bears down all objections) that his plea is good, and that he is a child of God. . . . When our spirits are pleading their right and title, he comes in and bears witness on our side; at the same time enabling us to put forth acts of filial obedience, kind and childlike; which is called "crying, Abba, Father," Gal. iv. 6.
Owen explained that the believer's court case may last long before it is settled:
Sometimes the dispute hangs long,—the cause is pleading many years. The law seems sometimes to prevail, sin and Satan to rejoice; and the poor soul is filled with dread about its inheritance. Perhaps its own witness, from its faith, sanctification, former experience, keeps up the plea with some life and comfort; but the work is not done, the conquest is not fully obtained, until the Spirit, who worketh freely and effectually, when and how he will, comes in with his testimony also; clothing his power with a word of promise, he makes all parties concerned to attend unto him, and puts an end to the controversy. . . . When the Holy Ghost by one word stills the tumults and storms that are raised in the soul, giving it an immediate claim and security, it knows his divine power, and rejoices in his presence.86
84 2:236-49.
85 For the other three, see pp. 180-81 above for adoption and pp. 201-208 below for sealing and anointing.
86 2:241-42.
Several comments are in order here:
First, Owen's concept of a "courtroom-conscience," complete with judge, plaintiff, prosecuting witnesses, and defense attorney, is not a unique illustration used by Reformed theologians to describe how justification is experienced.87 Though English Puritan divines made only passing references to this, Dutch theologians more frequently explained justification in the court of conscience as an advanced step of grace that illustrated reaching an established state of assurance.88
Nevertheless, for Owen (as well as anyone else who used that example), assurance that came from justification in the court of conscience represented a high certainty of divine acceptance applied to the believer's conscience. Owen later made a distinction in An Exposition
Upon Psalm CXXX between the state of adherence (i.e., a saving "persuasion or discovery of forgiveness in God, where there is no assurance of any particular interest therein . . . that our own sins in particular are pardoned"),89 and the state of assurance (i.e., a saving application that this discovery of God's forgiveness belongs to one's self through its being "testified unto the conscience in a word of promise mixed by faith").90 That distinction won whole-hearted acceptance among the Dutch divines. Owen's elaboration of how deeply one may be encouraged through personal discovery of forgiveness while remaining outside of the personal application of that forgiveness likewise received their approval.91 But some Dutch theologians' explanation of conversion went beyond Owen to a more detailed analysis of the steps in grace. Consequently, it is understandable that for Owen and others the higher step of grace in courtroom justification was more accessible to the average believer than for some Dutch divines, who viewed it as a scarce, sovereign gift that must nevertheless be sought by the conscientious believer.
Second, Owen offered several thoughts on justification in the court of conscience that differed in emphasis from the Dutch divines:
(1) Whereas justification in the court of conscience is sometimes regarded as an instantaneous divine act and an unforgettable, once-for-all experience by Dutch theologians,
Owen viewed it as a longer process that can be held in the balance for years before the plaintiff's case is settled. He wrote, "Hence sometimes the dispute hangs long,—the cause is pleading many years."92 Owen later reinforced that in his remarks on Hebrews 2:2-4: "The promise of the gospel, conveyed unto the soul by the Holy Spirit, and entertained by faith, completes the justification of a believer in his own conscience, and gives him assured peace with God."93
87 See p. 146 above.
88 See chapter 8 on Alexander Comrie's view of assurance. Cf. Joel R. Beeke, Jehovah Shepherding His Sheep
(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1982), pp. 90-98.
89 6:415, 426.
90 Ibid.
91 6:416-27.
92 2:241. Cf. Alexander Comrie, The ABC of Faith, trans. J. M. Banfield (Ossett, W. Yorks: Zoar, 1978), p. 74. See chapter 8 below.
93 Hebrews 3:300.
(2) Owen regarded the role of the plaintiff as self-defense based on God's saving work, whereas most Dutch theologians said the plaintiff comes before God the Judge as a selfcondemned sinner. True, Owen's plaintiff becomes self-condemning after the testimonies of witnesses, yet there is a tendency here that leads to another intriguing difference.
(3) For Owen, the plaintiff is justified in his conscience by the Holy Spirit's affirming
God's saving work within him by applying one or more scriptural promises. For some Dutch
Second Reformation divines, the plaintiff's attorney is not the Holy Spirit at all, but Jesus Christ as Mediator who demands the justification of the plaintiff by His Father as Judge on the basis of Christ's payment of the penalty of sin. The Father thus acquits the sinner on the basis of His
Son's mediation and advocacy. The Spirit then seals that pronouncement in the sinner's heart.
Owen stressed the role of the Spirit, whereas the Dutch divines stressed the role of God the Father as Judge. In addition, the Dutch distinguished between justification and adoption, saying justification is a judicial act of the Father as Judge, which results in reconciliation, whereas adoption is a paternal act of the Father as Father, which results in full restoration.94 To be fair, Owen further developed his position on the Father's role. Eleven years later, in An Exposition Upon Psalm CXXX, Owen stated that acquittal ultimately flows from the first Person.
He wrote, "The true nature of gospel forgiveness . . . flows from the gracious heart of the Father through the blood of the Son."95
The Believer's "Earnest"
Owen offered a concise description of how the Holy Spirit serves as earnest, or pledge, to the believer. He noted that in 2 Corinthians 1:22 and 5:5 believers are said to have the earnest of the Spirit, whereas in Ephesians 1:13-14 the Spirit Himself is said to be the believer's earnest.96
Owen wrote that the Spirit is the believer's earnest as the Spirit of promise, while distinguishing between the Spirit's role as earnest "on the part of God" and "on the part of believers."97
Describing the earnest as "part of that which is to come and but a part of it,"98 Owen argued that "the Spirit given us for the fitting of us for enjoyment of God in some measure, whilst we are here, is the earnest of the whole" inheritance to come.99 Thus, the Lord looks upon His elect and views their inheritance as integral with His grace. The Spirit is also an earnest within the Christian, teaching him about the inheritance that shall be his. All of this enhances assurance. As Owen wrote, "So is he in all respects completely an earnest,—given of God, received by us, as the beginning of our inheritance, and the assurance of it."100
94 Cf. Beeke, Jehovah Shepherding His Sheep, p. 95.
95 6:420; cf. 6:510, 538, 540.
96 2:243-44.
97 2:244-45.
98 2:244; cf. 4:407.
99 2:245.
100 2:246.
Thus, Owen saw the earnest of the Spirit not as an act, but as an office of the Spirit
Himself,101 particularly as a pledge of the believer's inheritance that was lost by the first Adam and regained by the last Adam. Through union with Christ, the Spirit becomes an earnest, thereby stabilizing the Christian, for his hope shall not be disappointed.102 As earnest, the Spirit assures the believer that though his experience of salvation is yet imperfect and will be until
Judgment Day103—perfection will surely come. The Spirit is Christ's own earnest (avrrabw.n) of this perfect inheritance.
In A Discourse on the Holy Spirit as a Comforter (written, according to Owen, to augment Communion with God and Perseverance of the Saints104), Owen reaffirmed his early convictions on how the Spirit's earnest leads to assurance. He wrote: "The meaning therefore . . . is that God gives unto us his Holy Spirit to dwell in us, and to abide with us, as an earnest of our future inheritance . . . wherein God intends our assurance only, and not his own."105
Owen also clarified his earlier suggestion about the role of the Father in giving the Spirit to show the believer that he is a co-heir with Christ. He wrote that the Spirit represents "the firstfruits of our spiritual and eternal redemption [because] He is the Spirit of adoption and the Spirit of the Son, [so that] in the giving of his Spirit unto us, God the Father making of us co-heirs with Christ, we have the greatest and most assured earnest and pledge of our future inheritance."106
In sum, Owen showed how the earnest, sealing, and anointing of the Spirit fortify the Christian's assurance of eternal salvation:
No one way, or thing, or similitude, can express or represent the greatness of this privilege, for in this one privilege of receiving the Spirit are all others inwrapped.
It is anointing, it is sealing, it is an earnest and first-fruit,—every thing whereby the love of God and the blessed security of our condition may be expressed or intimated unto us; for what greater pledge can we have of the love and favour of God, what greater dignities can we be made partakers of, what greater assurance of a future blessed condition, than that God hath given us of his Holy Spirit?107
Owen also taught that, in response to the work of the Spirit, the believer must avoid grieving the Spirit by negligence or sin (Ephesians 4:30), quenching Him by opposing or
101 4:407; cf. 4:384 and 11:329ff. Also, Thomas Goodwin, Works 6:63-67, and John Preston, Sinnes Overthrow, 3rd ed., (London: F. Kingston for A. Crooke, 1635), p. 39, both of whom maintain the personal indwelling of the Holy
Spirit in opposition to R. Hollingworth, The Holy Ghost on the Bench, other spirits at the bar; or the judgment of the Holy Spirit of God upon the spirits of the times (London: J. M. for Luke Fawn, 1656), pp. 8, 10.
102 2:253.
103 4:411.
104 4:352.
105 4:408.
106 Cf. 4:407-412.
107 4:412.
hindering His work (1 Thessalonians 5:19), and resisting Him by refusing His word (Acts 7:51).
The Spirit deserves constant thanks and continual petitioning for ongoing peace, Owen said.108
Packer aptly summarized Owen's emphasis by writing: "This, then, according to Owen, should be the pattern of our regular communion with the three Persons of the Godhead, in meditation, prayer, and a duly ordered life. We should dwell on the special mercy and ministry of each Person towards us, and make our proper response of love and communion distinctly to each. Thus we are to maintain a full-orbed communion with God."109
The Savoy Declaration of Faith and Order (1658)
The Savoy Declaration of Faith and Order, which was written in 1658 to consolidate conservative independents, was strongly influenced by Owen.110 In addition to writing the Declaration's lengthy introduction, Owen made his theological mark throughout the Declaration proper, particularly in what it incorporated and changed from the Westminster Confession of Faith. Three of the changes it made were in reference to section 18.2 of the Confession. The Declaration said:
This certainty is not a bare conjectural and probable persuasion, grounded upon a fallible hope, but an infallible assurance of faith, founded on the blood and righteousness of Christ, revealed in the Gospel, and also upon the inward evidence of those graces unto which promises are made, and on the immediate witness of the Spirit, testifying our Adoption, and as a fruit thereof, leaving the heart more humble and holy.111
Though these changes did not depart from the doctrine of the Confession, they did add
Owen's particular emphases. For example, the first change linked the foundation of assurance to "the blood and righteousness of Christ revealed in the Gospel," rather than to the more general wording, "the truth of the promises of salvation." Obviously this isn't an essential change, as all the promises of God are "amen" only in and through Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 1:20); nonetheless, The Savoy Declaration's wording (later adopted by the Second London
Confession), like Owen's, was more pointed.
108 2:264-74; Packer, "Puritan Idea of Communion with God," p. 12.
109 Ibid.
110 For general information, consult The Savoy Declaration of Faith and Order, ed. A. G. Matthews (London:
Independent Press Ltd., 1959), which includes a helpful historical introduction and an accurate Savoy text highlighting each departure from or addition to the Confession. The working committee of the Savoy Declaration consisted of Thomas Goodwin, Philip Nye, William Bridge, William Greenhil, Joseph Caryl (all of whom were members of the Westminster Assembly), and John Owen, who, since the Westminster Standards, had attained the reputation of being one of the most influential theologians in England. For Owen's particular influence and leadership at Savoy, shared to a degree with Nye, see Wallace, "Life and Thought of John Owen," pp. 298-308. (See
Williston Walker, ed., The Creeds and Platforms of Congregationalism [New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1893], pp. 340ff. for general information and bibliographical material on The Savoy Declaration.)
111 Matthews, The Savoy Declaration, p. 98. I have italicized the changes from the Confession. Sections 18.3 and 18.4 of the Confession were left unchanged. In Section 18.1 "hypocrites" was changed to "temporary believers."
In The Doctrine of Justification by Faith, Owen made a point of discussing where
Reformed thought fixed assurance and trust. He said that was: (1) "principally on the grace, love, and mercy of God"; (2) "principally on the Lord Christ, his mediation, and the benefits thereof";
(3) "in believing on the promises"; and (4) on "the pardon of sin and eternal life." His conclusion was:
Allowing therefore their proper place unto the promises, and unto the effect of all in the pardon of sins and eternal life, that which I shall further confirm is, that the Lord Christ, in the work of his mediation, as the ordinance of God for the recovery and salvation of lost sinners, is the proper adequate object of justifying faith.112
Owen was concerned here with more than Socinianism, which he later refuted. He also was trying to hold back the winds of Quakerism, which taught that Christ formed within us justifies. Owen wanted to stress that Christ's blood secures salvation, and His righteousness covers sin. Hence, assurance does not come from anything we accomplish. Neither does it come primarily through Christ formed within us, for Christ only dwells in those who have learned by grace to trust in His saving death. Christ within does not justify—only His death does that. Christ within, together with its fruits, is the result of justification.
The second change, which substituted "and on the immediate witness of the Spirit" for "the testimony of the Spirit," filled in the silence of the Confession on whether this testimony is synonymous with or different from the practical syllogism. Both the "and," as well as the "immediate," were consistent with Owen's view. However, it may be that Thomas Goodwin should be credited with this change because of his insistence on separating the syllogisms from the immediate witness of the Spirit.113
The third change, which put "testify our adoption" in place of "whereby we are sealed," appeared to concede to Owen's view that the sealing of the Spirit is common to every believer.
"Testifying" is harmonious with Owen's conviction that in full assurance the Spirit testifies to the believer what he already possesses from God's side.
The multiple authorship of The Savoy Declaration makes Owen's direct influence difficult to prove, however. So let us simply agree here that The Savoy Declaration retains and explains in its own way what's written in the Westminster Confession.114
An Exposition Upon Psalm CXXX (1668)
Personal Crises
Two crises in the life of Owen contributed to his most exhaustive treatment of assurance. Owen included that treatment of assurance in An Exposition upon Psalm CXXX, 75 per cent of which is
112 5:88-89.
113 Cf. The Works of Thomas Goodwin, 1:227-67. See pp. 259-65 below.
114 See Matthews, The Savoy Declaration, pp. 39ff. for the aftermath of Savoy.
devoted to the verse: "But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared." Hence
Owen's treatment of assurance is expository, not systematic.
One crisis that led to this exposition of Psalm 130 was Owen's five-year struggle for personal assurance of salvation. That struggle was not resolved until the winter of 1642-43, when
Owen was helped by a preacher, whose name we do not know. Owen's struggle had already intensified in 1637 when he left Oxford to become chaplain to Sir Robert Dormar of Ascot.
Owen's early biographer described the chaplain's spiritual state during this period as follows:
"About this time he was also exercised with many perplexing thoughts about his spiritual state, which joined with outward discouragements, threw him into a deep melancholy, that continued in its extremity for a quarter of a year; during which time he avoided almost all manner of converse, and very hardly could be induced to speak a word, and when he did speak, it was with such disorder as rendered him a wonder to many."115
Though some historians suggested that Owen's agony lessened substantially between 1638 and 1642, we know that "solid comfort"116 came quite suddenly to him through a sermon he heard in 1643 at Aldermanbury Chapel.
Owen had gone with a cousin to hear the famous Presbyterian minister, Edmund Calamy.
Calamy was unexpectedly absent, and Owen was disappointed to see a stranger ascend the pulpit. The stranger, who preached from Matthew 8:26, "Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith," answered all the objections Owen had raised against his own salvation. Wallace wrote, "This sermon . . . was blest for the removing of all his doubts, and laid the foundation of that solid peace, and comfort which he enjoyed as long as he lived."117
This experience of grace at the end of a long period of spiritual depression set the tone for writings of the 26-year-old Owen that would span the next four decades. Owen's stress on conviction of sin as a necessary prelude to experimental grace never diminished. More than a quarter of a century later, Owen's experience of personal assurance was still coloring his exposition of Psalm 130. Indeed, some writers have suggested that the entire exposition was largely an account of Owen's spiritual development.118
Another crisis in Owen's life prompted his exposition of Psalm CXXX. Owen said to a friend who visited him:
I myself preached Christ some years, when I had but very little, if any, experimental acquaintance with access to God through Christ; until the Lord was pleased to visit me with sore affliction, whereby I was brought to the mouth of the grave and under which my soul was oppressed with horror and darkness; but God graciously relieved my spirit by a powerful application of Psalm cxxx.4, 'But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared;' from whence I
115 Asty, "Memoirs," p. iv.; cf. Orme, Life of the Rev. John Owen, pp. 11-12.
116 Ibid., p. 17.
117 Wallace, "Life and Thought of John Owen," p. 115. See Orme, Life of the Rev. John Owen, pp. 12ff.; Godfrey
Noel Vose, "Profile of a Puritan: John Owen, 1616-1683" (Ph.D. dissertation, State University of Iowa, 1963), p. 34.
118 Kirby, Threefold Bond, p. 19; cf. Orme, Life of the Rev. John Owen, pp. 17-18. For the popularity of this work in the Netherlands, see van der Haar, From Abbadie to Young, p. 92.
received special instruction, peace, and comfort, in drawing near to God through the Mediator, and preached thereupon immediately after my recovery.119
William Goold wrote, "The incident to which he refers had occurred at an early period in his public life; and it is probable this Exposition is the substance of the discourses which he preached on his recovery from affliction, under the influence of enlivened faith in the mediation of Christ."120
Enlargement Upon the Westminster Confession
Owen's exposition on assurance in Psalm CXXX can best be understood within the framework of the Westminster Confession's teachings on assurance.
The Attainability of Assurance Owen plainly asserted the attainability of assurance. He wrote: "There may be a gracious persuasion and assurance of faith in a man concerning his own particular interest in forgiveness.
A man may, many do, believe it for themselves, so as not only to have the benefit of it but the comfort also."121
The attainability of assurance must be understood in relationship to faith, however. Owen unreservedly supported an organic relationship between faith and assurance but no confusion between the two. He believed faith included persuasion of the availability of divine forgiveness, but said that did not necessarily include the personal application of forgiveness—which alone gives rise to full assurance. He wrote, "There is or may be a saving persuasion or discovery of forgiveness in God, where there is no assurance of any particular interest therein."122
Of the element of trust in faith that cleaves to God, Owen wrote: "This a soul cannot do, without a discovery of forgiveness in God; but this a soul may do, without a special assurance of his own interest therein."123 For Owen, personal knowledge of inclusion in God's grace usually happens sometime after initial belief, according to God's sovereign timing. Consequently, Owen could write that regarding assurance of salvation and its accompanying phenomena of joy and glorying in the Lord as of the essence of faith, would result in soul deception:
It is this peace, this joy, this glorying in the Lord, that you would always be in the possession of. I say, you do well to desire them, to seek and labour after them,— they are purchased by Christ for believers; but you will do well to consider under what notion you do desire them. If you look on these things as belonging to the essence of faith, without which you can have no real interest in forgiveness or
119 6:324. Cf. Middleton, Biographia Evangelica 3:473.
120 6:324.
121 6:413.
122 6:415.
123 Ibid.
acceptance with God, you greatly deceive your own souls, and put yourselves out of the way of obtaining of them. These things are not believing, nor adequate effects of it, so as immediately to be produced wherever faith is; but they are such consequents of it as may or may not ensue upon it, according to the will of God.
Faith is a seed that contains them virtually, and out of which they may be in due time educed by the working of the word and Spirit; and the way for any soul to be made partaker of them is to wait on the sovereignty of God's grace, who createth peace in the exercise of faith upon the promises.124
Assurance Normative but not Common Like the Westminster Confession, Owen regarded assurance as normative though not necessarily common. That was consistent with the Confession's teaching that there are degrees and various kinds of assurance. All true believers possess some assurance, but few can claim the blessing of "full assurance." Owen wrote, "This discovery of forgiveness in God is great, holy, and mysterious, and which very few on gospel grounds do attain unto. . . . Even one experimental embracement of it [i.e., the full assurance of personal interest in divine forgiveness], even at the hour of death, doth well deserve the waiting and obedience of the whole course of a man's life. . . . It is a great and rare thing to have forgiveness in God discovered unto a sinful soul. . . ."125
Believers who gain full assurance of forgiveness by God don't find it quickly or easily.
Those who don't understand that can substitute a notion of forgiveness in God for personal forgiveness from God. Owen wrote of such people:
To convince such poor creatures of the folly of their presumption, I would but desire them to go to some real believers that are or may be known unto them. Let them be asked whether they came so easily by their faith and apprehensions of forgiveness or no. "Alas!" saith one, "these twenty years have I been following after God, and yet I have not arrived unto an abiding cheering persuasion of it." "I know what it cost me, what trials, difficulties, temptations I wrestled with, and went through withal, before I obtained it," saith another.126
Owen also believed that believers with full assurance were never safe from attacks on their faith.
Still, even when a believer is spiritually "cast down," assurance is not altogether lost (Psalm 42); rather, assurance may continue even under a deep sense of indwelling sin and infirmity. Owen wrote:
This life is not a season to be always taking wages in; our work is not yet done; we are not always to abide in this mount; we must down again into the battle,— fight again, cry again, complain again. Shall the soul be thought now to have lost its assurance? Not at all. It had before assurance with joy, triumph, and exaltation; it hath it now, or may have, with wrestling, cries, tears, and supplications. And a
124 6:563.
125 6:386, 431, 598. (Cf. 6:414, 423, 425, 505-511.)
126 6:508-509.
man's assurance may be as good, as true, when he lies on the earth with a sense of sin, as when he is carried up to the third heaven with a sense of love and foretaste of glory.127
Here Owen not only confirmed but went beyond section 18.4 of the Westminster Confession. For Owen, conviction of sin and assurance of salvation were not antagonistic.
Rather, both should be sought, and both are given and retained by God's grace. Though full assurance is difficult to obtain, true believers must strive for it. As Owen wrote: "It is the duty of every believer to labour after an assurance of a personal interest in forgiveness, and to be diligent in the cherishing and preservation of it when it is attained. . . . It is no small evil in believers not to be pressing after perfection in believing and obedience."128
The Christian need not despair if he comes short of reaching such assurance, for God may have wise reasons for withholding it from him. Owen wrote: "Some servants that are ill husbands must have their wages kept for them to the year's end, or it will do them no good. It may be, some would be such spendthrifts of satisfying peace and joy, and be so diverted by them from attending unto some necessary duties,—as of humiliation, mortification, and self-abasement, without which their souls cannot live,—that it would not be much to their advantage to be intrusted with assurance. It is from the same care and love that peace and joy are detained from some believers, and granted unto others."129
Despite God's wisdom and sovereignty, however, lack of assurance is ordinarily due to the believer's shortcomings. As Owen wrote: "In ordinary dispensations of God towards us, and dealings with us, it is mostly our own negligence and sloth that we come short of this assurance. .
. . Considering what promises are made unto us, what encouragments are given us, what love and tenderness there is in God to receive us, I cannot but conclude that ordinarily the cause of our coming short of this assurance is where I have fixed it."130
Owen went on to show how lack of assurance is primarily the believer's fault by citing saints of Scripture, who possessed full assurance. He wrote: "Generally, all the saints mentioned in Scripture had this [full] assurance, unless it were in the case of depths, distresses, and desertions, such as that in this psalm [i.e., Psalm 130]. David expresseth his confidence of the love and favour of God unto his own soul hundreds of times; Paul doth the same for himself:
Gal. ii., 20, 'Christ loved me, and gave himself for me.'"131
Although Owen did not specifically say so, those examples helped him keep a balance between the supposed normality of full assurance and the lack of assurance he saw in most of the believers of his day. Hence, Owen believed that many believers were living below their privileges, not sufficiently relishing the comfort of full assurance, either out of ignorance or because of sin. In either case, the contemporary church was backsliding compared to scriptural saints.
127 6:551; cf. 6:548-51.
128 6:413; cf. 6:414 where Owen implied that the Christian's striving after full assurance is a mark of grace.
129 6:563; cf. 6:554. The notion that God "gives us such assurance as is appropriate for us" is common to later writers as well (cf. John Colquhoun, A Treatise on Spiritual Comfort [London: for J. Ogle, 1814], p. 20).
130 6:413-15.
131 6:413.