(Owen, Christologia, Part 13)
Chapter XIII. The Nature, Operations, and Causes of Divine Love, as it
respects the Person of Christ
That we may the better understand that love unto the person of Christ
which we plead for, some things must be premised concerning the nature
of divine love in general; and thereon its application unto the
particular acting and exercise of it which we inquire into will be
plain and easy.
God has endowed our nature with a faculty and ability of fixing our
love upon himself. Many can understand nothing of love but the
adherence of their minds and souls unto things visible and sensible,
capable of a present natural enjoyment. For things unseen, especially
such as are eternal and infinite, they suppose they have a veneration,
a religious respect, a devout adoration; but how they should love
them, they cannot understand. And the apostle does grant that there is
a greater difficulty in loving things that cannot be seen, than in
loving those which are always visibly present unto us, 1 John 4: 20.
Howbeit, this divine love has a more fixed station and prevalence in
the minds of men than any other kind of love whatever. For--
1. The principal end why God endued our natures with that great and
ruling affection, that has the most eminent and peculiar power and
interest in our souls, was, in the first place, that it might be fixed
on himself--that it might be the instrument of our adherence unto him.
He did not create this affection in us, that we might be able by it to
cast ourselves into the embraces of things natural and sensual. No
affection has such power in the soul to cause it to cleave unto its
object, and to work it into a conformity unto it. Most other
affections are transient in their operations, and work by a transport
of nature--as anger, joy, fear, and the like; but love is capable of a
constant exercise, is a spring unto all other affections, and unites
the soul with an efficacy not easy to be expressed unto its object.
And shall we think that God, who made all things for himself, did
create this ruling affection in and with our natures, merely that we
might be able to turn from him, and cleave unto other things with a
power and faculty above any we have of adherence unto him? Wherefore,
at our first creation, and in our primitive condition, love was the
very soul and quickening principle of the life of God; and on our
adherence unto him thereby the continuance of our relation unto him
did depend. The law, rule, and measure of it was, "Thou shalt love the
Lord thy God with all thy heart, and all thy soul." For this end did
God create this affection in us. Not only our persons in their nature
and being, but in all their powers and faculties, were fitted and
prepared unto this end, of living unto God, and coming unto the
enjoyment of him. And all their exercise on created objects was to be
directed unto this end. Wherefore, the placing of our love on anything
before God, or above him is a formal expression of our apostasy from
him.
2. Divine excellencies are a proper, adequate object of our love. The
will, indeed, can adhere unto nothing in love, but what the
understanding apprehends as unto its truth and being; but it is not
necessary that the understanding do fully comprehend the whole nature
of that which the will does so adhere unto. Where a discovery is made
unto and by the mind of real goodness and amiableness, the will there
can close with its affections. And these are apprehended as absolutely
the most perfect in the divine nature and holy properties of it.
Whereas, therefore, not only that which is the proper object of love
is in the divine excellencies, but it is there only perfectly and
absolutely, without the mixture of anything that should give it an
alloy, as there is in all creatures, they are the most suitable and
adequate object of our love.
There is no greater discovery of the depravation of our natures by
sin and degeneracy of our wills from their original rectitude, than
that--whereas we are so prone to the love of other things, and therein
do seek for satisfaction unto our souls where it is not to be obtained-
-it is so hard and difficult to raise our hearts unto the love of God.
Were it not for that depravation, he would always appear as the only
suitable and
satisfactory object unto our affections.
3. The especial object of divine, gracious love, is the divine
goodness. "How great is his goodness, how great is his beauty!" Zech.
9: 17. Nothing is amiable or a proper object of love, but what is
good, and as it is so. Hence divine goodness, which is infinite, hath
an absolutely perfect amiableness accompanying it. Because his
goodness is inexpressible, his beauty is so. "How great is his
goodness, how great is his beauty?" Hence are we called to give thanks
unto the Lord, and to rejoice in him--which are the effects of love-
-because he is good, Ps. 106: l; 136: 1.
Neither is divine goodness the especial object of our love as
absolutely considered; but we have a respect unto it as comprehensive
of all that mercy, grace, and bounty, which are suited to give us the
best relief in our present condition and an eternal future reward.
Infinite goodness, exerting itself in all that mercy, grace,
faithfulness, and bounty, which are needful unto our relief and
blessedness in our present condition, is the proper object of our
love. Whereas, therefore, this is done only in Christ, there can be no
true love of the divine goodness, but in and through him alone.
The goodness of God, as a creator, preserver, and rewarder, was a
sufficient, yea, the adequate object of all love antecedently unto the
entrance of sin and misery. In them, in God under those
considerations, might the soul of man find full satisfaction as unto
its present and future blessedness. But since the passing of sin,
misery, and death upon us, our love can find no amiableness in any
goodness--no rest, complacency, and satisfaction in any--but what is
effectual in that grace and mercy by Christ, which we stand in need of
for our present recovery and future reward. Nor does God require of us
that we should love him otherwise but as he "is in Christ reconciling
the world unto himself." So the apostle fully declares it: "In this
was manifested the love of God towards us, because that God sent his
only-begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.
Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent
his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. And we have known and
believed the love that God has to us. God is love; and he that
dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him," 1 John 4: 9, 10,
16. God is love, of a nature infinitely good and gracious, so as to be
the only object of all divine love. But this love can no way be known,
or be so manifested unto us, as that we may and ought to love him, but
by his love in Christ, his sending of him and loving us in him. Before
this, without this, we do not, we cannot love God. For "herein is
love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to
be the propitiation for our sins." This is the cause, the spring and
fountain, of all our love to him. They are but empty notions and
imaginations, which some speculative persons please themselves withal,
about love unto the divine goodness absolutely considered. For however
infinitely amiable it may be in itself, it is not so really unto them,
it is not suited unto their state and condition, without the
consideration of the communications of it unto us in Christ.
4. These things being premised, we may consider the especial nature
of this divine love, although I acknowledge that the least part of
what believers have an experience of in their own souls can be
expressed at least by me. Some few things I shall mention, which may
give us a shadow of it, but not the express image of the thing itself.
(1.) Desire of union and enjoyment is the first vital act of this
love. The soul, upon the discovery of the excellencies of God,
earnestly desires to be united unto them--to be brought near unto that
enjoyment of them whereof it is capable, and wherein alone it can find
rest and satisfaction. This is essential unto all love; it unites the
mind unto its object, and rests not but in enjoyment. God's love unto
us ariseth out of the overflowing of his own immense goodness, whereof
he will communicate the fruits and effects unto us. God is love; and
herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent
his only-begotten Son. Yet also does this love of God tend to the
bringing of us unto him, not that he may enjoy us, but that he may be
enjoyed by us. This answers the desire of enjoyment in us, Job 14: 15:
"Thou shalt call me;" (that is, out of the dust at the last day;)
"thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands." God's love will
not rest, until it has brought us unto himself. But our love unto God
ariseth from a sense of our own wants--our insufficiency to come unto
rest in ourselves, or to attain unto blessedness by our own
endeavours. In this state, seeing all in God, and expecting all from
the suitableness of his excellencies unto our rest and satisfaction,
our souls cleave unto him, with a desire of the nearest union whereof
our natures are capable. We are made for him, and cannot rest until we
come unto him.
Our goodness extends not unto God; we cannot profit him by any thing
that we are, or can do. Wherefore, his love unto us has not respect
originally unto any good in ourselves, but is a gracious, free act of
his own. He does good for no other reason but because he is good. Nor
can his infinite perfections take any cause for their original actings
without himself. He wants nothing that he would supply by the
enjoyment of us. But we have indigence in ourselves to cause our love
to seek an object without ourselves. And so his goodness--with the
mercy, grace, and bounty included therein--is the cause, reason, and
object of our love. We love them for themselves; and because we are
wanting and indigent, we love them with a desire of union and
enjoyment--wherein we find that our satisfaction and blessedness does
consist. Love in general unites the mind unto the object--the person
loving unto the thing or person beloved. So is it expressed in an
instance of human, temporary, changeable love, namely, that of
Jonathan to David. His soul "was knit with the soul of David, and he
loved him as his own soul," 1 Sam.18: 1. Love had so effectually
united them, as that the soul of David was as his own. Hence are those
expressions of this divine love, by "cleaving unto God, following hard
after him, thirsting, panting after him," with the like intimations of
the most earnest endeavours of our nature after union and enjoyment.
When the soul has a view by faith (which nothing else can give it) of
the goodness of God as manifested in Christ--that is of the essential
excellencies of his nature as exerting themselves in him--it reacheth
after him with its most earnest embraces, and is restless until it
comes unto perfect fruition. It sees in God the fountain of life, and
would drink of the "river of his pleasures," Ps. 36: 8, 9--that in his
"presence is fulness of joy, and at his right hand are pleasures for
evermore," Ps. 16: 11. It longs and pants to drink of that fountain--
to bathe itself in that river of pleasures; and wherein it comes short
of present enjoyment, it lives in hopes that when we "awake, it shall
be satisfied with his likeness," Ps. 17: 15. There is nothing grievous
unto a soul filled with this love, but what keeps it from the full
enjoyment of these excellencies of God. What does so naturally and
necessarily, it groans under. Such is our present state in the body,
wherein, in some sense, we are "absent from the Lord," 2 Cor. 5: 4, 8,
9. And what does so morally, in the deviations of its will and
affections, as sin--it hates and abhors and loathes itself for. Under
the conduct of this love, the whole tendency of the soul is unto the
enjoyment of God;--it would be lost in itself, and found in him,--
nothing in itself, and all in him. Absolute complacency herein--that
God is what he is, that he should be what he is, and nothing else, and
that as such we may be united unto him, and enjoy Him according to the
capacity of our natures is the life of divine love.
(2.) It is a love of assimilation. It contains in it a desire and
intense endeavour to be like unto God, according unto our capacity and
measure. The soul sees all goodness, and consequently all that is
amiable and lovely, in God--the want of all which it finds in itself.
The fruition of his goodness is that which it longs for as its utmost
end, and conformity unto it as the means thereof. There is no man who
loves not God sincerely, but indeed he would have him to be somewhat
that he is not, that he might be the more like unto him. This such
persons are pleased withal whilst they can fancy it in any thing, Ps.
50: 21. They that love him, would have him be all that he is--as he
is, and nothing else; and would be themselves like unto him. And as
love has this tendency, and is that which gives disquietment unto the
soul when and wherein we are unlike unto God, so it stirs up constant
endeavours after assimilation unto him, and has a principal efficacy
unto that end. Love is the principle that actually assimilates and
conforms us unto God, as faith is the principle which originally
disposeth thereunto. In our renovation into the image of God, the
transforming power is radically seated in faith, but acts itself by
love. Love proceeding from faith gradually changeth the soul into the
likeness of God; and the more it is in exercise, the more is that
change effected.
To labour after conformity unto God by outward actions only, is to
make an image of the living God, hewed out of the stock of a dead
tree. It is from this vital principle of love that we are not forced
into it as by engines, but naturally grow up into the likeness and
image of God. For when it is duly affected with the excellencies of
God in Christ, it fills the mind with thoughts and contemplations on
them, and excites all the affections unto a delight in them. And where
the soul acts itself constantly in the mind's contemplation, and the
delight of the affections, it will produce assimilation unto the
object of them. To love God is the only way and means to be like unto
him.
(3.) It is a love of complacency, and therein of benevolence. Upon
that view which we have by spiritual light and faith of the divine
goodness, exerting itself in the way before described, our souls do
approve of all that is in God, applaud it, adore it, and acquiesce in
it. Hence two great duties do arise, and hereon do they depend. First,
Joyful ascriptions of glory and honour unto God. All praise and
thanksgiving, all blessing, all assignation of glory unto him, because
of his excellencies and perfections, do arise from our satisfactory
complacence in them. The righteous "rejoice in the Lord, and give
thanks at the remembrance of his holiness," Ps. 97: 12. They are so
pleased and satisfied at the remembrance of God's holiness, that it
fills their hearts with joy and causeth them to break forth in
praises. Praise is nothing but an outward expression of the inward
complacency of our hearts in the divine perfections and their
operations. And, secondly, Love herein acts itself by benevolence, as
the constant inclination of the mind unto all things wherein the glory
of God is concerned. It wills all the things wherein the name of God
may be sanctified, his praises made glorious, and his will done on
earth as it is in heaven. As God says of his own love unto us, that
"he will rest in his love, he will joy over us [thee] with singing,"
Zeph. 3: 17--as having the greatest complacency in it, rejoicing over
us with his "whole heart and his whole soul," Jer. 32: 41;--so,
according unto our measure, do we by love rest in the glorious
excellencies of God, rejoicing in them with our whole hearts and our
whole souls.
(4.) This divine love is a love of friendship. The communion which we
have with God therein is so intimate, and accompanied with such
spiritual boldness, as gives it that denomination. So Abraham was
called "The friend of God," Isa. 41: 8; James 2: 23. And because of
that mutual trust which is between friends, "the secret of the Lord is
with them that fear him, and he will show them his covenant," Ps. 25:
14. For, as our Saviour teacheth us, "servants" that is, those who are
so, and no more--"know not what their lord does;" he rules them,
commands them, or requires obedience from them; but as unto his secret-
-his design and purpose, his counsel and love--they know nothing of
it. But saith he unto his disciples, "I have called you friends, for
all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you,"
John 15: 15. He proves them to be rightly called his friends, because
of the communication of the secret of his mind unto them.
This is the great difference between them who are only servants in
the house of God, and those who are so servants as to be friends also.
The same commands are given unto all equally, and the same duties are
required of all equally, inasmuch as they are equally servants; but
those who are no more but so, know nothing of the secret counsel,
love, and grace of God, in a due manner. For the natural man receiveth
not the things that are of God. Hence all their obedience is servile.
They know neither the principal motives unto it nor the ends of it.
But they who are so servants as to be friends also, they know what
their Lord does; the secret of the Lord is with them, and he shows
them his covenant. They are admitted into an intimate acquaintance
with the mind of Christ, ("we have the mind of Christ," 1 Cor. 2: 16,)
and are thereon encouraged to perform the obedience of servants, with
the love and delight of friends.
The same love of friendship is expressed by that intimate converse
with, and especial residence that is between God and believers. God
dwelleth in them, and they dwell in God; for God is love, 1 John 4:
16. "If a man," saith the Lord Christ, "love me, he will keep my
words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and
make our abode with him," John 14: 23; and, "If any man hear my voice,
and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and
he with me," Rev. 3: 20. These are not empty sound of words;--there is
substance under them, there is truth in them. Those whose hearts are
duly exercised in and unto the love of God have experience of the
refreshing approaches both of the Father and of the Son unto their
souls, in the communications of a sense of their love, and pledges of
their abode with them.
These things have I briefly premised, concerning the nature of divine
love, that we may the better apprehend what we understand by it, in
the application of it unto the person of Christ. For--
1. The formal object of this love is the essential properties of the
divine nature--its infinite goodness in particular. Wherever these
are, there is the object and reason of this love. But they are all of
them in the person of the Son, no less than in the person of the
Father. As, therefore, we love the Father on this account, so are we
to love the Son also. But--
2. The Person of Christ is to be considered as he was incarnate, or
clothed with our nature. And this takes nothing off from the formal
reason of this love, but only makes an addition unto the motives of
it. This, indeed, for a season veiled the loveliness of his divine
excellencies, and so turned aside the eyes of many from him. For when
he took on him "the form of a servant, and made himself of no
reputation," he had, unto them who looked on him with carnal eyes,
"neither form nor comeliness," that he should be desired or be loved.
Howbeit, the entire person of Christ, God and man, is the object of
this divine love, in all the acts of the whole exercise of it. That
single effect of infinite wisdom and grace, in the union of the divine
and human natures in the one person of the Son of God, renders him the
object of this love in a peculiar manner. The way whereby we may
attain this peculiar love, and the motives unto it, shall close these
considerations.
A due consideration of, and meditation on, the proposal of the person
of Christ unto us in the Scripture, are the proper foundation of this
love. This is the formal reason of our faith in him, and love unto
him. He is so proposed unto us in the Scripture, that we may believe
in him and love him, and for that very end. And in particular with
respect unto our love, to in generate it in us, and to excite it unto
its due exercise, are those excellencies of his person--as the
principal effect of divine wisdom and goodness, which we have before
insisted on--frequently proposed unto us. To this end is he
represented as "altogether lovely," and the especial glories of his
person are delineated, yea, drawn to the life, in the holy records of
the Old and New Testaments. It is no work of fancy or imagination--it
is not the feigning images in our minds of such things as are meet to
satisfy our carnal affections, to excite and act them; but it is a due
adherence unto that object which is represented unto faith in the
proposal of the gospel. Therein, as in a glass, do we behold the glory
of Christ, who is the image of the invisible God, and have our souls
filled with transforming affections unto him.
The whole Book of Canticles is nothing but a mystical declaration of
the mutual love between Christ and the church. And it is expressed by
all such ways and means as may represent it intense, fervent, and
exceeding all other love whatever; which none, I suppose, will deny,
at least on the part of Christ. And a great part of it consists in
such descriptions of the person of Christ and his love as may render
him amiable and desirable unto our souls, even "altogether lovely." To
what end does the Holy Spirit so graphically describe and represent
unto us the beauty and desirableness of his person, if it be not to
ingenerate love in us unto him? All want of love unto him on this
proposal is the effect of prevalent unbelief. It is pretended that the
descriptions given of Christ in this book are allegorical, from whence
nothing can be gathered or concluded. But God forbid we should so
reflect on the wisdom and love of the Holy Spirit unto the church--
that he has proposed unto the faith of the church an empty sound and
noise of words, without mind or sense. The expressions he uses are
figurative, and the whole nature of the discourse, as unto its outward
structure, is allegorical. But the things intended are real and
substantial; and the metaphors used in the expression of them are
suited, in a due attendance unto the analogy of faith, to convey a
spiritual understanding and sense of the things themselves proposed in
them. The church of God will not part with the unspeakable advantage
and consolation--those supports of faith and incentives of love--which
it receives by that divine proposal of the person of Christ and his
love which is made therein, because some men have no experience of
them nor understanding in them. The faith and love of believers is not
to be regulated by the ignorance and boldness of them who have neither
the one nor the other. The title of the 45th Psalm is, "shir jedidot",
"A song of loves;"--that is, of the mutual love of Christ and the
church. And unto this end--that our souls may be stirred up unto the
most ardent affection towards him--is a description given us of his
person, as "altogether lovely." To what other end is he so evidently
delineated in the whole harmony of his divine beauties by the pencil
of the Holy Spirit?
Not to insist on particular testimonies, it is evident unto all whose
eyes are opened to discern these things, that there is no property of
the divine nature which is peculiarly amiable--such as are goodness
grace, love, and bounty, with infinite power and holiness--but it is
represented and proposed unto us in the person of the Son of God, to
this end, that we should love him above all, and cleave unto him.
There is nothing in the human nature, in that fulness of grace and
truth which dwelt therein, in that inhabitation of the Spirit which
was in him without measure, in any thing of those "all things" wherein
he has the pre-eminence--nothing in his love, condescension, grace,
and mercy--nothing in the work that he fulfilled, what he did and
suffered therein--nothing in the benefits we receive thereby--nothing
in the power and glory that he is exalted unto at the right hand of
God--but it is set forth in the Scripture and proposed unto us, that,
believing in him, we may love him with all our hearts and souls. And,
besides all this, that singular, that infinite effect of divine
wisdom, whereunto there is nothing like in all the works of God, and
wherewith none of them may be compared--namely, the constitution of
his person by the union of his natures therein, whereby he becomes
unto us the image of the invisible God, and wherein all the blessed
excellencies of his distinct natures are made most illustriously
conspicuous in becoming one entire principle of all his mediatory
operations on our behalf--is proposed unto us as the complete object
of our faith and love. This is that person whose loveliness and beauty
all the angels of God, all the holy ones above, do eternally admire
and adore. In him are the infinite treasures of divine wisdom and
goodness continually represented unto them. This is he who is the joy,
the delight, the love, the glory of the church below. "Thou whom our
souls do love," is the title whereby they know him and convene with
him, Cant. 1: 7; 3: 1, 4. This is he who is the Desire of all nations-
-the Beloved of God and men.
The mutual intercourse on this ground of love between Christ and the
church, is the life and soul of the whole creation; for on the account
hereof all things consist in him.
There is more glory under the eye of God, in the sighs, groans, and
mournings of poor souls filled with the love of Christ, after the
enjoyment of him according to his promises--in their fervent prayers
for his manifestation of himself unto them--in the refreshments and
unspeakable joys which they have in his gracious visits and embraces
of his love--than in the thrones and diadems of all the monarchs on
the earth. Nor will they themselves part with the ineffable
satisfactions which they have in these things, for all that this world
can do for them or unto them. "Mallem ruere cum Christo, quam regnare
cum Caesare." These things have not only rendered prisons and dungeons
more desirable unto them than the most goodly palaces, on future
accounts, but have made them really places of such refreshment and
joys as men shall seek in vain to extract out of all the comforts that
this world can afford.
O curvae in terras animae et coelestium inanes!
Many there are who, not comprehending, not being affected with, that
divine, spiritual description of the person of Christ which is given
us by the Holy Ghost in the Scripture, do feign unto themselves false
representations of him by images and pictures, so as to excite carnal
and corrupt affections in their minds. By the help of their outward
senses, they reflect on their imaginations the shape of a human body,
cast into postures and circumstances dolorous or triumphant; and so,
by the working of their fancy, raise a commotion of mind in
themselves, which they suppose to be love unto Christ. But all these
idols are teaches of lies. The true beauty and amiableness of the
person of Christ, which is the formal object and cause of divine love,
is so far from being represented herein, as that the mind is thereby
wholly diverted from the contemplation of it. For no more can be so
pictured unto us but what may belong unto a mere man, and what is
arbitrarily referred unto Christ, not by faith, but by corrupt
imagination.
The beauty of the person of Christ, as represented in the Scripture,
consists in things invisible unto the eyes of flesh. They are such as
no hand of man can represent or shadow. It is the eye of faith alone
that can see this King in his beauty. What else can contemplate on the
untreated glories of his divine nature? Can the hand of man represent
the union of his natures in the same person, wherein he is peculiarly
amiable? What eye can discern the mutual communications of the
properties of his different natures in the same person, which depends
thereon, whence it is that God laid down his life for us, and
purchased his church with his own blood? In these things, O vain man!
does the loveliness of the person of Christ unto the souls of
believers consist, and not in those strokes of art which fancy has
guided a skilful hand and pencil unto. And what eye of flesh can
discern the inhabitation of the Spirit in all fulness in the human
nature? Can his condescension, his love, his grace, his power, his
compassion, his offices, his fitness and ability to save sinners, be
deciphered on a tablet, or engraven on wood or stone? However such
pictures may be adorned, however beautified and enriched, they are not
that Christ which the soul of the spouse does love;--they are not any
means of representing his love unto us, or of conveying our love unto
him;--they only divert the minds of superstitious persons from the Son
of God, unto the embraces of a cloud, composed of fancy and
imagination.
Others there are who abhor these idols, and when they have so done,
commit sacrilege. As they reject images, so they seem to do all love
unto the person of Christ, distinct from other acts of obedience, as a
fond imagination. But the most superstitious love unto Christ--that
is, love acted in ways tainted with superstition--is better than none
at all. But with what eyes do such persons read the Scriptures? With
what hearts do they consider them? What do they conceive is the
intention of the Holy Ghost in all those descriptions which he gives
us of the person of Christ as amiable and desirable above all things,
making wherewithal a proposal of him unto our affections--inciting us
to receive him by faith, and to cleave unto him in love? yea, to what
end is our nature endued with this affection--unto what end is the
power of it renewed in us by the sanctification of the Holy Spirit--if
it may not be fixed on this most proper and excellent object of it?
This is the foundation of our love unto Christ namely, the revelation
and proposal of him unto us in the Scripture as altogether lovely. The
discovery that is made therein of the glorious excellencies and
endowments of his person--of his love, his goodness, and grace--of his
worth and work--is that which engageth the affections of believers
unto him. It may be said, that if there be such a proposal of him made
unto all promiscuously, then all would equally discern his amiableness
and be affected with it, who assent equally unto the truth of that
revelation. But it has always fallen out otherwise. In the days of his
flesh, some that looked on him could see neither "form nor comeliness"
in him wherefore he should be desired; others saw his glory--"glory as
of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth". To some
he is precious; unto others he is disallowed and rejected--a stone
which the builders refused, when others brought it forth, crying,
"Grace, grace unto it" as the head of the corner. Some can see nothing
but weakness in him; unto others the wisdom and power of God do
evidently shine forth in him. Wherefore it must be said, that
notwithstanding that open, plain representation that is made of him in
the Scripture, unless the holy Spirit gives us eyes to discern it, and
circumcise our hearts by the cutting off corrupt prejudices and all
effects of unbelief, implanting in them, by the efficacy of his grace,
this blessed affection of love unto him, all these things will make no
impression on our minds.
As it was with the people on the giving of the law, notwithstanding
all the great and mighty works which God had wrought among them, yet
having not given them "a heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears
to hear"--which he affirms that he had not done, Deut. 29: 4,--they
were not moved unto faith or obedience by them; so is it in the
preaching of the gospel. Notwithstanding all the blessed revelation
that is made of the excellencies of the person of Christ therein, yet
those into whose hearts God does not shine to give the knowledge of
his glory in his face, can discern nothing of it, nor are their hearts
affected with it.
We do not, therefore, in these things, follow "cunningly-devised
fables." We do not indulge unto our own fancies and imaginations;--
they are not unaccountable raptures or ecstasies which are pretended
unto, nor such an artificial concatenation of thoughts as some
ignorant of these things do boast that they can give an account of.
Our love to Christ ariseth alone from the revelation that is made of
him in the Scripture is ingenerated, regulated, measured, and is to be
judged thereby.
John Owen, Christologia
(continued in Part 14...)
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