In his work on the Holy Spirit (Works, Vol III) Owen spends a good deal
of time considering the fallenness of
human nature because in his view and that of the Reformed generally the key to the sanctifying work of the
Spirit is regeneration. Regeneration is new life from God, not the alteration
of our natural states, however noble and useful those states may be. However,
in the course of his discussion Owen interestingly while affirming total depravity – that fallenness
affects every faculty of the human mind - he does not commit himself to what
might be called uniform depravity. There is a different degree in respect of
different faculties. So we find him stating
That the will and affections being more corrupted
than the understanding, - as is evident from their opposition unto and
defeating of its manifold convictions – no man doth actually apply his mind for
the receiving of the things of the Spirit of God to the utmost of that ability
which he hath; for all unregenerate men are invincibly impeded therein by the
corrupt stubborness and perverseness of their will and affections. (268)
What Owen has to say is based on
1Corinthians 1 and 2. (257 onwards) So
in the case of 1.14, where Paul states that ‘the natural person does not accept
the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is
not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned’. The same
is true of every natural person notwithstanding their ‘parts’ [talents] and education.
Humanity is divided into the ‘spiritual’ and the ‘natural’. The natural man
cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God no matter what else is true of
him. He cannot understand them, nor receive them.
A person may understand the
meaning of the words in which the gospel is expressed, but that is not equivalent
to having a ‘spiritual discernment’ of them. What is such a discernment? Owen
says that it requires ‘their [that is, the words understood] conformity and
agreeableness to the wisdom, holiness, and righteousness of God’. (He cites 1
Cor. 1.23-4) This discernment is seen as
a personal judgment, a recognition of the mind as it benefits from the
regenerating work of the Spirit. But not otherwise. And consistently with this
Paul wrote ‘The spiritual person judges all thing, but is himself to be judged
by no one’. (1 Cor. 2.15) So that he or
she is not to take any lessons on such judging from a purely ‘natural’ person,
whoever he or she may be.
These ends [of setting forth the gospel in preaching
and so on] being the glory of God in Christ, with our deliverance from a state
of sin and misery, with a translation into a state of grace and glory, unless
we are acquainted with these things, and the aptness, and fitness, and power of
the things of the Spirit of God to effect them, we cannot receive them as we
ought; and this a natural man cannot do. (261)
This leads Owen to develop the
distinction between a two-fold ability a person may be said to receive or
understand spiritual things. There are natural powers. The exhortation,
promises and threatenings of the gospel shows those who are in their
conversion, are not treated like animals or stones, but as having ‘rational
minds’.
So “natural impotency” respects
the understanding, fallen in Adam. And “moral impotency” respects the will and
affections. Yet such impotence regarding the will and affections is “more
corrupted than the understanding.” Each of these are It is interesting that Owen judges that some
faculties are more disabled in the Fall, but though all were equal in being
disabled, less so in the case of those who were less depraved. As a result of
this corruption, there is “no man doth actually
apply his mind to receiving the things of the Spirit of God to the utmost of
that ability which he hath…. There is not in any of them a due improvement of
the capacity of their natural faculties, in the use of means, for the discharge
of their duty toward God herein.” (268) Owen says that there is natural
inability in the case of the reason, but a moral ability in the case with the will and the
affections.
Such impotency is “absolutely and
naturally insuperable.” “This impotency is natural
because it consists in the deprivation of the light and power that were
originally in the faculties of our minds and understandings.” (267) “Natural,” because human nature; “the natural
capacity of the human faculties of our minds” suffered loss, the loss of its
“accidental perfections,” as Owen states later, (285) in the Fall. It is broken
and needs repair. It cannot repair itself.
The Context
These comments occur at a place in
Owen’s work on regeneration where he has for several pages ruminated about what
Paul says about the ‘natural man’ in ICor.1 and to a lesser extent to Jesus’s
observations about unbelief in John 6? Owen says that many of these things are
‘the things of a man’. That is, they can be understood by the reason of the
unregenerate. ‘These things being in some sense the ‘things’ of a man [an
allusion to I Cor.2.11] may be known by the ‘spirit of a man that is in him’.
‘[H]owbeit they cannot be observed and practised according to the mind of God
without the aid and assistance of the Holy Ghost’. (259) To the natural man the
words of the gospel are not nothing, ‘they are foolishness to him’. ‘They are
represented unto him under such a notion as that he will have nothing to do
with them.’
(259)
So Owen says that the transmission
of the gospel involves it teaching, preaching and receiving from person to
person, and something is transmitted.
For instance, ‘That Jesus Christ was crucified’ mentioned by the apostle, 1Cor. 2.2 ) is a proposition whose sense and importance a natural man may understand. And in the due investigation of this sense, and judging thereon concerning truth and falsehood, lies that use of reason in religious things which some would ignorantly confound with an ability of discerning spiritual things in themselves and their own proper nature. This, therefore is granted… None pretend that men are, in their conversion to God, like stocks and stones, or brute beasts, that have no understanding’.(261) But ‘between the natural capacity of the mind and the act of spiritual discerning there must be an interposition of an effectual work of the Holy Ghost enabling it thereunto’. (262)
Owen mentions this view
incidentally, but the distinction is of some importance and interest. ‘Total
depravity is a part of the famous ‘TULIP’. `the ‘total’ refers to the totality
of the parts or powers of the human soul. People are depraved in all their
parts, the totality of them, including especially the will and the affections.
Hence the need for regeneration, But it does not follow from depravity in all
the parts that each part is depraved to the same intensity. And Owen is
expressing the view that the intellect, or reason, is not depraved as
intensively as the will and the affections.
The natural man is here allowed to be the rational man, the learned philosopher, one walking by the light of human reason; which complies not with their exception to this testimony who would only such a one as is sensual and given up to brutish affections to be intended…..The apostle in the whole discourse gives an account why so few received the gospel, especially of those who seemed more likely so to do, being wise and learned men, and the gospel no less than the wisdom of God; and the reason hereof he gives from their disability to receive the things of God, and their hatred of them, neither of which can be cured but by the Spirit of Christ.[268]
Can he have meant it?
54 –5 - 2 scientia of god, one of which is superior
to the other
The
Fallen Reason
In his work on the Holy Spirit (Works, Vol III) Owen spends a good deal
of time considering the fallenness of
human nature because in his view and that of the Reformed generally the key to sanctifying work of the
Spirit is regeneration. Regeneration is new life from God, not the alteration
of our natural states, however noble and useful those states may be. However,
in the course of his discussion Owen interestingly while affirming total depravity – that fallenness
affects every faculty of the human mind, he does not commit himself to what
might be called uniform depravity. There is a different degree in respect of
different faculties. So we find him stating
INSETThat the will and affections being more corrupted
than the understanding, - as is evident from their opposition unto and
defeating of its manifold convictions – no man doth actually apply his mind for
the receiving of the things of the Spirit of God to the utmost of that ability
which he hath; for all unregenerate men are invincibly impeded therein by the
corrupt stubborness and perverseness of their will and affections. (268)
What Owen has to say is based on
1Corinthians 1 and 2. (257 onwards) So
in the case of 1.14, where Paul states that ‘the natural person does not accept
the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is
not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned’. The same
is true of every natural person notwithstanding their ‘parts’ (talents) and education.
Humanity is divided into the ‘spiritual’ and the ‘natural’. The natural man
cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God no matter what else is true of
him. He cannot understand them, nor receive them.
A person may understand the
meaning of the words in which the gospel is expressed, but that is not equivalent
to having a ‘spiritual discernment’ of them. What is such a discernment? Owen
says that it requires ‘their [that is, the words understood] conformity and
agreeableness to the wisdom, holiness, and righteousness of God’. (He cites 1
Cor. 1.23-4) This discernment is seen as
a personal judgment, a recognition of the mind as it benefits from the
regenerating work of the Spirit. But not otherwise. And consistently with this
Paul wrote ‘The spiritual person judges all thing, but is himself to be judged
by no one’. (1 Cor. 2.15) So that he or
she is not to take any lessons on such judging from a purely ‘natural’ person,
whoever he or she may be.
INSETThese ends [of setting forth the gospel in preaching
and so on] being the glory of God in Christ, with our deliverance from a state
of sin and misery, with a translation into a state of grace and glory, unless
we are acquainted with these things, and the aptness, and fitness, and power of
the things of the Spirit of God to effect them, we cannot receive them as we
ought; and this a natural man cannot do. (261)
This leads Owen to develop the
distinction between a two-fold ability a person may be said to receive or
understand spiritual things. There are natural powers. The exhortation,
promises and threatenings of the gospel shows those who are in their
conversion, are not treated like animals or stones, but as having ‘rational
minds’.
So “natural impotency” respects
the understanding, fallen in Adam. And “moral impotency” respects the will and
affections. Yet such impotence regarding the will and affections is “more
corrupted than the understanding.” Each of these are It is interesting that Owen judges that some
faculties are more disabled in the Fall, but though all were equal in being
disabled, less so in the case of those who were less depraved. As a result of
this corruption, there is “no man doth actually
apply his mind to receiving the things of the Spirit of God to the utmost of
that ability which he hath…. There is not in any of them a due improvement of
the capacity of their natural faculties, in the use of means, for the discharge
of their duty toward God herein.” (268) Owen says that there is natural
inability in the case of the reason, but a moral ability in the case with the will and the
affections.
Such impotency is “absolutely and
naturally insuperable.” “This impotency is natural
because it consists in the deprivation of the light and power that were
originally in the faculties of our minds and understandings.” (267) “Natural,” because human nature; “the natural
capacity of the human faculties of our minds” suffered loss, the loss of its
“accidental perfections,” as Owen states later, (285) in the Fall. It is broken
and needs repair. It cannot repair itself.
The Context
These comments occur at a place in
Owen’s work on regeneration where he has for several pages ruminated about what
Paul says about the ‘natural man’ in I Cor.1 and to a lesser extent to Jesus’s
observations about unbelief in John 6? Owen says that many of these things are
‘the things of a man’. That is, they can be understood by the reason of the
unregenerate. ‘These things being in some sense the ‘things’ of a man [an
allusion to I Cor.2.11] may be known by the ‘spirit of a man that is in him’.
‘[H]owbeit they cannot be observed and practised according to the mind of God
without the aid and assistance of the Holy Ghost’. (259) To the natural man the
words of the gospel are not nothing, ‘they are foolishness to him’. ‘They are
represented unto him under such a notion as that he will have nothing to do
with them.’
(259)
So Owen says that the transmission
of the gospel involves it teaching, preaching and receiving from person to
person, and something is transmitted.
INSET For instance, ‘That Jesus Christ
was crucified’ mentioned by the apostle, 1Cor. 2.2 ) is a proposition whose
sense and importance a natural man may understand. And in the due investigation
of this sense, and judging thereon concerning truth and falsehood, lies that
use of reason in religious things which some would ignorantly confound with an
ability of discerning spiritual things in themselves and their own proper
nature. This, therefore is granted… None pretend that men are, in their conversion to God,
like stocks and stones, or brute beasts, that have no understanding’.(261) But
‘between the natural capacity of the mind and the act of spiritual discerning
there must be an interposition of an effectual work of the Holy Ghost enabling
it thereunto’. (262)
Owen mentions this view
incidentally, but the distinction is of some importance and interest. ‘Total
depravity is a part of the famous ‘TULIP’. `the ‘total’ refers to the totality
of the parts or powers of the human soul. People are depraved in all their
parts, the totality of them, including especially the will and the affections.
Hence the need for regeneration, But it does not follow from depravity in all
the parts that each part is depraved to the same intensity. And Owen is
expressing the view that the intellect, or reason, is not depraved as
intensively as the will and the affections.
INSET The natural man is here allowed to be the rational man, the learned philosopher, one walking by the light of
human reason; which complies not with their exception to this testimony who
would only such a one as is sensual and given up to brutish affections to be
intended…..The apostle in the whole discourse gives an account why so few
received the gospel, especially of those who seemed more likely so to do, being
wise and learned men, and the gospel no less than the wisdom of God; and the
reason hereof he gives from their disability to receive the things of God, and
their hatred of them, neither of which can be cured by the Spirit of Christ.
Can he have meant it?
54 –5 - 2 scientia of god, one of which is superior
to the other
The
Fallen Reason
In his work on the Holy Spirit (Works, Vol III) Owen spends a good deal
of time considering the fallenness of
human nature because in his view and that of the Reformed generally the key to sanctifying work of the
Spirit is regeneration. Regeneration is new life from God, not the alteration
of our natural states, however noble and useful those states may be. However,
in the course of his discussion Owen interestingly while affirming total depravity – that fallenness
affects every faculty of the human mind, he does not commit himself to what
might be called uniform depravity. There is a different degree in respect of
different faculties. So we find him stating
INSETThat the will and affections being more corrupted
than the understanding, - as is evident from their opposition unto and
defeating of its manifold convictions – no man doth actually apply his mind for
the receiving of the things of the Spirit of God to the utmost of that ability
which he hath; for all unregenerate men are invincibly impeded therein by the
corrupt stubborness and perverseness of their will and affections. (268)
What Owen has to say is based on
1Corinthians 1 and 2. (257 onwards) So
in the case of 1.14, where Paul states that ‘the natural person does not accept
the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is
not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned’. The same
is true of every natural person notwithstanding their ‘parts’ (talents) and education.
Humanity is divided into the ‘spiritual’ and the ‘natural’. The natural man
cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God no matter what else is true of
him. He cannot understand them, nor receive them.
A person may understand the
meaning of the words in which the gospel is expressed, but that is not equivalent
to having a ‘spiritual discernment’ of them. What is such a discernment? Owen
says that it requires ‘their [that is, the words understood] conformity and
agreeableness to the wisdom, holiness, and righteousness of God’. (He cites 1
Cor. 1.23-4) This discernment is seen as
a personal judgment, a recognition of the mind as it benefits from the
regenerating work of the Spirit. But not otherwise. And consistently with this
Paul wrote ‘The spiritual person judges all thing, but is himself to be judged
by no one’. (1 Cor. 2.15) So that he or
she is not to take any lessons on such judging from a purely ‘natural’ person,
whoever he or she may be.
INSETThese ends [of setting forth the gospel in preaching
and so on] being the glory of God in Christ, with our deliverance from a state
of sin and misery, with a translation into a state of grace and glory, unless
we are acquainted with these things, and the aptness, and fitness, and power of
the things of the Spirit of God to effect them, we cannot receive them as we
ought; and this a natural man cannot do. (261)
This leads Owen to develop the
distinction between a two-fold ability a person may be said to receive or
understand spiritual things. There are natural powers. The exhortation,
promises and threatenings of the gospel shows those who are in their
conversion, are not treated like animals or stones, but as having ‘rational
minds’.
So “natural impotency” respects
the understanding, fallen in Adam. And “moral impotency” respects the will and
affections. Yet such impotence regarding the will and affections is “more
corrupted than the understanding.” Each of these are It is interesting that Owen judges that some
faculties are more disabled in the Fall, but though all were equal in being
disabled, less so in the case of those who were less depraved. As a result of
this corruption, there is “no man doth actually
apply his mind to receiving the things of the Spirit of God to the utmost of
that ability which he hath…. There is not in any of them a due improvement of
the capacity of their natural faculties, in the use of means, for the discharge
of their duty toward God herein.” (268) Owen says that there is natural
inability in the case of the reason, but a moral ability in the case with the will and the
affections.
Such impotency is “absolutely and
naturally insuperable.” “This impotency is natural
because it consists in the deprivation of the light and power that were
originally in the faculties of our minds and understandings.” (267) “Natural,” because human nature; “the natural
capacity of the human faculties of our minds” suffered loss, the loss of its
“accidental perfections,” as Owen states later, (285) in the Fall. It is broken
and needs repair. It cannot repair itself.
The Context
These comments occur at a place in
Owen’s work on regeneration where he has for several pages ruminated about what
Paul says about the ‘natural man’ in I Cor.1 and to a lesser extent to Jesus’s
observations about unbelief in John 6? Owen says that many of these things are
‘the things of a man’. That is, they can be understood by the reason of the
unregenerate. ‘These things being in some sense the ‘things’ of a man [an
allusion to I Cor.2.11] may be known by the ‘spirit of a man that is in him’.
‘[H]owbeit they cannot be observed and practised according to the mind of God
without the aid and assistance of the Holy Ghost’. (259) To the natural man the
words of the gospel are not nothing, ‘they are foolishness to him’. ‘They are
represented unto him under such a notion as that he will have nothing to do
with them.’
(259)
So Owen says that the transmission
of the gospel involves it teaching, preaching and receiving from person to
person, and something is transmitted.
INSET For instance, ‘That Jesus Christ
was crucified’ mentioned by the apostle, 1Cor. 2.2 ) is a proposition whose
sense and importance a natural man may understand. And in the due investigation
of this sense, and judging thereon concerning truth and falsehood, lies that
use of reason in religious things which some would ignorantly confound with an
ability of discerning spiritual things in themselves and their own proper
nature. This, therefore is granted… None pretend that men are, in their conversion to God,
like stocks and stones, or brute beasts, that have no understanding’.(261) But
‘between the natural capacity of the mind and the act of spiritual discerning
there must be an interposition of an effectual work of the Holy Ghost enabling
it thereunto’. (262)
Owen mentions this view
incidentally, but the distinction is of some importance and interest. ‘Total
depravity is a part of the famous ‘TULIP’. `the ‘total’ refers to the totality
of the parts or powers of the human soul. People are depraved in all their
parts, the totality of them, including especially the will and the affections.
Hence the need for regeneration, But it does not follow from depravity in all
the parts that each part is depraved to the same intensity. And Owen is
expressing the view that the intellect, or reason, is not depraved as
intensively as the will and the affections.
INSET The natural man is here allowed to be the rational man, the learned philosopher, one walking by the light of
human reason; which complies not with their exception to this testimony who
would only such a one as is sensual and given up to brutish affections to be
intended…..The apostle in the whole discourse gives an account why so few
received the gospel, especially of those who seemed more likely so to do, being
wise and learned men, and the gospel no less than the wisdom of God; and the
reason hereof he gives from their disability to receive the things of God, and
their hatred of them, neither of which can be cured by the Spirit of Christ.
Can he have meant it?
