John Owen, A Vindication of some Passages in a
Discourse concerning Communion with God
A Vindication of some Passages in a Discourse concerning
Communion with God, from the Exceptions of William
Sherlock, rector of St. George, Botolph Lane
Prefatory Note.
William Sherlock, father of Dr Thomas Sherlock, an
eminent bishop of London, was himself distinguished as an
author, and mingled deeply in the controversies of his
day. His strictures on Owen's work on Communion with God
appeared in 1674, after that work had been seventeen
years before the public. It seems to have been Sherlock's
first appearance in authorship; and some of his
subsequent treatises such as those on Providence and on
Death afford a better specimen of his abilities. They are
destitute of evangelical principle and feeling, and
imbued throughout with a freezing rationalism of tone;
but, nevertheless, contain some views of the Divine
administration, acutely conceived and ably stated. He
became rector of St George, Botolph Lane, received a
prebend in St Paul's, and was appointed Master of the
Temple about 1684. His conduct at the Revolution was not
straightforward, and laid him open to the reproaches of
the Jacobites, who blamed him for deserting their party.
There was a controversy. of some importance between him
and Dr South. The latter, on the ground of some
expressions in the work by the former on the Trinity
(1690), accused him of Tritheism. Sherlock retorted by
accusing his critic of Sabellianism. He died in 1707, at
the acre of sixty-six.
Sherlock's work against Owen was entitled, "A
Discourse concerning the Knowledge of Jesus Christ, and
on Union and Communion with Him," etc. Owen confines
himself, in his reply, to an exposure of the
misrepresentations in which Sherlock had indulged. The
latter, for example, sought to fix on the Puritan divine
the doctrine, that the knowledge of divine things was to
be obtained from the person of Christ, apart from the
truth as revealed in the Scriptures. Our author
successfully vindicates himself from this charge, and
repudiates other sentiments equally mystical, and
ascribed to him with equal injustice. The views of
Sherlock, on the points at issue, have been termed, "a
confused mass of Socinianized Arminianism." Owen evinces
a strength of feeling, in some parts of his
"Vindication," which may be accounted for on the ground
that he resented the attack as part of a systematic
effort made at this time to destroy his standing and
reputation as an author. In the main, there is a dignity
in his statements which contrasts well with the wayward
petulance of his antagonist; and occasionally the reader
will find a vein of quiet and skilful irony, in the way
in which he disposes of the crude views of Sherlock.
Such was the beginning of the Communion Controversy,
which soon embraced a wider range of topics, and points
of more importance, than the merits of Owen's book.
Besides the original disputants, others entered the
field. Robert Ferguson in 1675, wrote against Sherlock a
volume entitled, "The Interest of Reason in Religion,"
etc. Edward Polhill followed, in "An Answer to the
Discourse of Mr William Sherlock," etc. Vincent Alsop
first displayed in this controversy his powers of wit and
acumen as an author, in his "Antisozzo, or Sherlocismus
Enervatus." Henry Hickman, a man of considerable gifts,
and pastor of an English congregation at Leaden, wrote
the "Speculum Sherlockianum," etc. Samuel Rolle, a
nonconformist, wrote the "Prodromus, or the Character of
Mr Sherlock's Books" and also, in the same controversy,
"Justification Justified." Thomas Danson, who had been
ejected from Sibton, and author of several works against
the Quakers, wrote "The Friendly Debate between Satan and
Sherlock" and afterwards he published again in defence of
it. Sherlock, in 1675, replied to Owen and Ferguson in
his "Defence and Continuation of the Discourse concerning
the Knowledge of Jesus Christ." He was supported by
Thomas Hotchkis, Rector of Staunton, in a "Discourse
concerning the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness,"
etc. The singular diligence of Mr Orme has compiled this
full list of the works published in this controversy; but
he is not quite correct in affirming that it was closed
by the replies of Sherlock and Hotchkis in 1675. A second
part of the work by Hotchkis appeared in 1678, and
Sherlock was the author of two other works, "An Answer to
Thomas Danson's scandalous pamphlet, entitled 'A Friendly
Conference,'" etc., which appeared in 1677, and was
followed by a "Vindication of Mr Sherlock against the
Cavils of Mr Danson." - ED. A Vindication of some
Passages in a Discourse concerning Communion with God.
It is now near twenty years since I wrote and
published a Discourse concerning Communion with God. Of
what use and advantage it has been to any, as to their
furtherance in the design aimed at therein, is left unto
them to judge by whom it has been perused with any candid
diligence; and 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 have received
thereby; - as I can also at any time produce the
testimonies of [as] learned and holy persons, it may be,
as any I know living, both in England and out of it, who,
owning the truth contained in it, have highly avowed its
usefulness, and are ready yet so to do. With all other
persons, so far as ever I heard, it passed at the rate of
a tolerable acceptation with discourses of the same kind
and nature. And however any thing or passage in it might
not, possibly, suit the apprehensions of some, yet, being
wholly practical, designed for popular edification,
without any direct engagement into things controversial,
I looked for no opposition unto it or exception against
it; but that it would at least be suffered to pass at
that rate of allowance which is universally granted unto
that sort of writings, both of ancient and modern
authors. Accordingly it so fell out, and continued for
many years; until some persons began to judge it their
interest, and to make it their business, to cavil at my
writings, and to load my person with reproaches. With
what little success, as to their avowed designs, they
have laboured therein, - how openly their endeavours are
sunk into contempt with all sorts of persons pretending
unto the least sobriety or modesty, - I suppose they are
not themselves altogether insensible. Among the things
which this sort of men sought to make an advantage of
against me, I found that two or three of them began to
reflect on that discourse; though it appeared they had
not satisfied themselves what as yet to fix upon, their
nibbling cavils being exceedingly ridiculous.
But yet, from those intimations of some men's
good-will towards it, - sufficient to provoke the
industry of such as either needed their assistance or
valued their favour, - I was in expectation that one or
other would possess that province, and attempt the whole
discourse or some parts of it. Nor was I dissatisfied in
my apprehensions of that design; for, being earnestly
solicited to suffer it to be reprinted, I was very
willing to see what either could or would be objected
against it before it received another impression. For
whereas it was written now near twenty years ago, when
there was the deepest peace in the minds of all men about
the things treated of therein, and when I had no
apprehension of any dissent from the principal design,
scope, and parts of it by any called Christians in the
world, the Socinians only excepted (whom I had therein no
regard unto), I thought it highly probable that some
things might have been so expressed as to render a review
and amendment to them more than ordinarily necessary. And
I reckoned it not improbable, but that from one
malevolent adversary I might receive a more instructive
information of such escapes of diligence than I could do
in so long a time from all the more impartial readers of
it; for as unto the substance of the doctrine declared in
it, I was sufficiently secure, not only of its truth, but
that it would immovably endure the rudest assaults of
such oppositions as I did expect. I was therefore very
well satisfied when I heard of the publishing of this
treatise of Mr Sherlock's, - which, as I was informed,
and since have found true, was principally intended
against myself, and that discourse (that is, that book),
because I was the author of it, which will at last prove
it to be its only guilt and crime; - for I thought I
should be at once now satisfied, both what it was which
was so long contriving against it (whereof I could give
no conjecture), as also be directed unto any such
mistakes as might have befallen me in matter or manner of
expression, which I would or might rectify before the
book received another edition. But, upon a view and
perusal of this discourse, I found myself under a double
surprisal. For, first, in reference to my own, I could
not find any thing, any doctrine, any expressions, any
words reflected on, which the exceptions of this man do
give me the least occasion to alter, or to desire that
they had been otherwise either expressed or delivered; -
not any thing which now, after near twenty years, I do
not still equally approve of, and which I am not yet
ready to justify. The other part of my surprisal was
somewhat particular, though, in truth, it ought to have
been none at all; and this was with respect unto those
doctrinal principles which he manageth his oppositions
upon. A surprisal they were unto me, because wild,
uncouth, extravagant, and contrary to the common faith of
Christians, - being all of them traduced, and some of
them transcribed, from the writings of the Socinians;
[while] yet [they] ought not to have been so, because I
was assured that an opposition unto that discourse could
be managed on no other [ground]. But, however, the
doctrine maintained by this man, and those opposed or
scorned by him, are not my special concernment; for what
is it to me what the Rector of etc., preacheth or
publisheth, beyond my common interest in the truths of
the gospel, with other men as great strangers unto him as
myself, who to my knowledge never saw him, nor heard of
his name till infamed by his book? Only, I shall take
leave to say, that the doctrine here published, and
licensed so to be, is either the doctrine of the present
church of England, or it is not. If it be so, I shall be
forced to declare that I neither have, nor will have, any
communion therein; and that, as for other reasons, so in
particular, because I will not renounce or depart from
that which I know to be the true, ancient, and catholic
doctrine of this church. If it be not so, - as I am
assured, with respect unto many bishops and other learned
men, that it is not, - it is certainly the concernment of
them who preside therein to take care that such kind of
discourses be not countenanced with the stamp of their
public authority, lest they and the church be represented
unto a great disadvantage with many.
It was some months after the publishing of this
discourse, before I entertained any thoughts of taking
the least notice of it, - yea, I was resolved to the
contrary, and declared those resolutions as I had
occasion; neither was it until very lately that my second
thoughts came to a compliance with the desires of some
others, to consider my own peculiar concernment therein.
And this is all which I now design; for the examination
of the opinions which this author has vented under the
countenance of public license, whatever they may think, I
know to be more the concernment of other men than mine.
Nor yet do I enter into the consideration of what is
written by this author with the least respect unto
myself, or my own reputation, which I have the
satisfaction to conceive not to be prejudiced by such
pitiful attempts; nor have I the least desire to preserve
it in the minds of such persons as wherein it can suffer
on this occasion. But the vindication of some sacred
truths, petulantly traduced by this author, seems to be
cast on me in an especial manner; because he has opposed
them, and endeavoured to expose them to scorn, as
declared in my book; whence others, more meet for this
work, might think themselves discharged from taking
notice of them. Setting aside this consideration, I can
freely give this sort of men leave to go on with their
revilings and scoffings until they are weary or ashamed;
which, as far as I can discern, upon consideration of
their ability for such a work, and their confidence
therein, is not like to be in haste; - at least, they can
change their course, and when they are out of breath in
pursuit of one sort of calumnies, retake themselves unto
another. Witness the late malicious, and yet withal
ridiculous, reports that they have divulged concerning
me, even with respect unto civil affairs, and their
industry therein; for although they were such as had not
any thing of the least probability or likelihood to give
them countenance, yet were they so impetuously divulged,
and so readily entertained by many, as made me think
there was more than the common artifices of calumny
employed in their raising and improvement, especially
considering what persons I can justly charge those
reports upon. But in this course they may proceed whilst
they please and think convenient: I find myself no more
concerned in what they write or say of this nature than
if it were no more but, -
epei ete kakoi out' afroni foti eoikas.
Oule te, kai mega chaire, Theoi de toi
oltia doien.
It is the doctrine traduced only that I am concerned
about, and that as it has been the doctrine of the church
of England.
It may be it will be said (for there is no security
against confidence and immodesty, backed with secular
advantages), that the doctrinal principles asserted in
this book are agreeable with the doctrine of the church
in former times; and therefore those opposed in it, such
as are condemned thereby. Hereabout I shall make no long
contest with them who once discover that their minds are
by any means emboldened to undertake the defence of such
shameless untruths; nor shall I multiply testimonies to
prove the contrary, which others are more concerned to
do, if they intend not to betray the religion of that
church with whose preservation and defence they are
intrusted. Only, because there are ancient divines of
this church, who, I am persuaded, will be allowed with
the most to have known as well the doctrine of it, and as
firmly to have adhered thereunto, as this author, who
have particularly spoken unto most of the things which he
has opposed, or rather reproached, I shall transcribe the
words of one of them, whereby he, and those who employ
him, may be minded with whom they have to do in those
things. For, as to the writers of the ancient church,
there is herein no regard had unto them. He whom I shall
name is Mr. Hooker, and that in his famous book of
"Ecclesiastical Polity;" who, in the fifth book thereof,
and 56th paragraph, thus discourseth: -
"We have hitherto spoken of the person and of the
presence of Christ. Participation is that mutual inward
hold which Christ has of us, and we of him, in such sort
that each possesses other by way of special interest,
property, and inherent copulation." And after the
interposition of some things conceding the mutual
in-being and love of the Father and the Son, he thus
proceedeth: - "We are by nature the sons of Adam. When
God created Adam, he created us; and as many as are
descended from Adam have in themselves the root out of
which they spring. The sons of God we neither are all nor
any one of us, otherwise than only by grace and favour.
The sons of God have God's own natural Son as a second
Adam from heaven; whose race and progeny they are by
spiritual and heavenly birth. God therefore loving
eternally his Son, he must needs eternally in him have
loved, and preferred before all others, them which are
spiritually since descended and sprung out of him. These
were in God as in their Saviour, and not as in their
Creator only. It was the purpose of his saving goodness,
his saving wisdom, and his saving power, which inclined
itself towards them. They which thus were in God
eternally by their intended admission to life, have, by
vocation or adoption, God actually now in them, as the
artifices is in the work which his hand does presently
frame. Life, as all other gifts and benefits, grows
originally from the Father, and comes not to us but by
the Son, nor by the Son to any of us in particular, but
through the Spirit. For this cause the apostle wisheth to
the church of Corinth, 'the grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the
holy Ghost;' which three St Peter comprehendeth in one, -
the participation of the divine nature. We are,
therefore, in God through Christ eternally, according to
that intent and purpose whereby we are chosen to be made
his in this present world before the world itself was
made. We are in God through the knowledge which is had of
us, and the love which is borne towards us from
everlasting; but in God we actually are no longer than
only from the time of our actual adoption into the body
of his true church, into the fellowship of his children.
For his church he knoweth and loveth; so that they which
are in the church are thereby known to be in him. Our
being in Christ by eternal foreknowledge saveth us not,
without our actual and real adoption into the fellowship
of his saints in this present world. For in him we
actually are by our actual incorporation into that
society which has him for their head, and does make
together with him one body (he and they in that respect
having one name); for which cause, by virtue of this
mystical conjunction, we are of him, and in him, even as
though our very flesh and bones should be made continuate
with his. We are in Christ, because he knoweth and loveth
us, even as parts of himself. No man is actually in him
but they in whom he actually is; for he which has not the
Son of God has not life. 'I am the vine, ye are the
branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same
bringeth forth much fruit;' but the branch severed from
the vine withereth. We are, therefore, adopted sons of
God to eternal life by participation of the only begotten
Son of God, whose life is the well-spring and cause of
ours. It is too cold an interpretation, whereby some men
expound our being in Christ to import nothing else but
only that the self-same nature which maketh us to be men
is in him, and maketh him man as we are. For what man in
the world is there which has not so far forth communion
with Jesus Christ? It is not this that can sustain the
weight of such sentences as speak of the mystery of our
coherence with Jesus Christ. The church is in Christ, as
Eve was in Adam. Yea, by grace we are every [one] of us
in Christ and in his church, as by nature we were in
those, our first parents. God made Eve of the rib of
Adam; and his church he frameth out of the very flesh,
the very wounded and bleeding side, of the Son of man.
His body crucified, and his blood shed for the life of
the world, are the true elements of that heavenly being
which maketh us such as himself is of whom we come. For
which cause the words of Adam may be fitly the words of
Christ concerning his church, 'Flesh of my flesh, and
bone of my bones;' - 'A true nature, extract out of mine
own body.' So that in him, even according to his manhood,
we, according to our heavenly being, are as branches in
that root out of which they grow. To all things he is
life, and to men light, as the Son of God; to the church,
both life and light eternal, by being made the Son of man
for us, and by being in us a Saviour, whether we respect
him as God or as man. Adam is in us as an original cause
of our nature, and of that corruption of nature which
causeth death; Christ as the cause original of
restoration to life. The person of Adam is not in us, but
his nature, and the corruption of his nature, derived
into all men by propagation. Christ having Adam's nature,
as we have, but incorrupt, deriveth not nature but
incorruption, and that immediately from his own person,
into all that belong unto him. As, therefore, we are
really partakers of the body of sin and death received
from Adam; so, except we be truly partakers of Christ,
and as really possessed of his Spirit, all we speak of
eternal life is but a dream. That which quickeneth us is
the Spirit of the second Adam, and his flesh that
wherewith he quickeneth. That which in him made our
nature incorrupt was the union of his Deity with our
nature. And in that respect the sentence of death and
condemnation, which only taketh hold upon sinful flesh,
could no way possibly extend unto him. This caused his
voluntary death for others to prevail with God, and to
have the force of an expiatory sacrifice. The blood of
Christ, as the apostle witnesseth, does, therefore, take
away sin; because, 'Through the eternal Spirit he offered
himself unto God without spot.' That which sanctified our
nature in Christ, - that which made it a sacrifice
available to take away sin, is the same which quickened
it, raised it out of the grave after death, and exalted
it unto glory. Seeing, therefore, that Christ is in us a
quickening Spirit, the first degree of communion with
Christ must needs consist in the participation of his
Spirit, which Cyprian in that respect terms
'germanissimam societatem,' - the highest and truest
society that can be between man and him, which is both
God and man in one. These things St Cyril duly
considering, reproveth their speeches which taught that
only the Deity of Christ is the vine whereupon we by
faith do depend as branches, and that neither his flesh
nor our bodies are comprised in this resemblance. For
does any man doubt but that even from the flesh of Christ
our very bodies do receive that life which shall make
them glorious at the latter day; and for which they are
already accounted parts of his blessed body? Our
corruptible bodies could never live the life they shall
live, were it not that here they are joined with his
body, which is incorruptible; and that his is in ours as
a cause of immortality, - a cause, by removing, through
the death and merit of his own flesh, that which hindered
the life of ours. Christ is, therefore, both as God and
as man, that true vine whereof we both spiritually and
corporally are branches. The mixture of his bodily
substance with ours is a thing which the ancient fathers
disclaim. Yet the mixture of his flesh with ours they
speak of, to signify what our very bodies, through
mystical conjunction, receive from that vital efficacy
which we know to be in his; and from bodily mixtures they
borrow divers similitudes, rather to declare the truth
than the manner of coherence between his sacred [body]
and the sanctified bodies of saints. Thus much no
Christian man will deny, that when Christ sanctified his
own flesh, giving as God, and taking as man, the Holy
Ghost, he did not this for himself only, but for our
sakes, that the grace of sanctification and life, which
was first received in him, might pass from him to his
whole race, as malediction came from Adam into all
mankind. Howbeit, because the work of his Spirit to those
effects is in us prevented by sin and death possessing us
before, it is of necessity that as well our present
sanctification into newness of life, as the future
restoration of our bodies, should presuppose a
participation of the grace, efficacy, merit, or virtue of
his body and blood; - without which foundation first
laid, there is no place for those other operations of the
Spirit of Christ to ensue. So that Christ imparteth
plainly himself by degrees. It pleaseth him, in mercy, to
account himself incomplete and maimed without us. But
most assured we are, that we all receive of his fulness,
because he is in us as a moving and working cause; from
which many blessed effects are really found to ensue, and
that in sundry both kinds and degrees, all tending to
eternal happiness. It must be confessed, that of Christ
working as a creator and a governor of the world, by
providence all are partakers; - not all partakers of that
grace whereby he inhabiteth whom he saveth. Again: as he
dwelleth not by grace in all, so neither does he equally
work in all them in whom he dwelleth. 'Whence is it,'
saith St Augustine, 'that some be holier than others are,
but because God does dwell in some more plentifully than
in others?' And because the divine substance of Christ is
equally in all, his human substance equally distant from
all, it appeareth that the participation of Christ,
wherein there are many degrees and differences, must
needs consist in such effects as, being derived from both
natures of Christ really into us, are made our own: and
we, by having them in us, are truly said to have him from
whom they come; Christ also, more or less, to inhabit and
impart himself, as the graces are fewer or more, greater
or smaller, which really flow into us from Christ. Christ
is whole with the whole church, and whole with every part
of the church, as touching his person, which can no way
divide itself, or be possessed by degrees and portions.
But the participation of Christ importeth, besides the
presence of Christ's person, and besides the mystical
copulation thereof with the parts and members of his
whole church, a true actual influence of grace, whereby
the life which we live according to godliness is his; and
from him we receive those perfections wherein our eternal
happiness consisteth. Thus we participate Christ: -
partly by imputation; as when those things which he did
and suffered for us are imputed unto us for
righteousness; partly by habitual and real infusion; as
when grace is inwardly bestowed while we are on earth; -
and afterward more fully, both our souls and bodies made
like unto his in glory. The first thing of his so infused
into our hearts in this life is the Spirit of Christ;
whereupon, because the rest, of what kind soever, do all
both necessarily depend and infallibly also ensue,
therefore the apostles term it sometimes the seed of God,
sometimes the pledge of our heavenly inheritance,
sometimes the hansel or earnest of that which is to come.
From whence it is that they which belong to the mystical
body of our Saviour Christ, and be in number as the stars
of heaven, - divided successively, by reason of their
mortal condition, into many generations, - are,
notwithstanding, coupled every one to Christ their head,
and all unto every particular person amongst themselves;
inasmuch as the same Spirit which anointed the blessed
soul of our Saviour Christ does so formalise, unite, and
actuate his whole race, as if both he and they were so
many limbs compacted into one body, by being quickened
all with one and the same soul. That wherein we are
partakers of Jesus Christ by imputation, agreeth aqua]ly
unto all what have it; for it consisteth in such acts and
deeds of his as could not have longer continuance than
while they were in doings nor at that very time belong
unto any other but to him from whom they come: and
therefore, how men, either then, or before, or since,
should be made partakers of them, there can be no way
imagined but only by imputation. Again: a deed must
either not be imputed to any, but rest altogether in him
whose it is; or, if at all it be imputed, they which have
it by imputation must have it such as it is, - whole. So
that degrees being neither in the personal presence of
Christ, nor in the participation of those effects which
are ours by imputation only, it resteth that we wholly
apply them to the participation of Christ's infused
grace; although, even in this kind also, the first
beginning of life, the seed of God, the first-fruits of
Christ's Spirit, be without latitude. For we have hereby
only the being of the sons of God: in which number, how
far soever one may seem to excel another, yet touching
this, that all are sons, they are all equals; some,
happily, better sons than the rest are, but none any more
a son than another. Thus, therefore, we see how the
Father is in the Son, and the Son in the Father; how they
both are in all things, and all things in them: what
communion Christ has with his church; how his church, and
every member thereof, is in him by original derivation,
and he personal]y in them, by way of mystical
association, wrought through the gift of the holy Ghost;
which they that are his receive from him, and, together
with the same, what benefit soever the vital force of his
body and blood may yield; - yea, by steps and degrees
they receive the complete measure of all such divine
grace as does sanctify and save throughout, till the day
of their final exaltation to a state of fellowship in
glory with him, whose partakers they are now in those
things that tend to glory."
Owen, A Vindication...
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