A53708:404
Meditations and Discourses on the Glory of Christ
Meditations and discourses on the glory of Christ, in his person, office, and grace with the differences between faith and sight applied unto the use of them that believe / by the late Reverend John Owen, D.D.
London: printed by B.A., 1691
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Chapter 10: The Glory of Christ in the Communication of himself unto Believers.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
2. HE thus communicates himself unto us, by the Formation of a new Nature, his own Nature in us; so as that the very same spiritual Nature is in him, and in the Church. Only it is so with this difference, that in him it is in the absolute perfection of all those glorious Graces wherein it doth consist; in the Church it is in various Measures and Degrees, according as he is pleased to communicate it. But the same Divine Nature it is, that is in him and us; for through the precious Promises of the Gospel, we are made Partakers of his Divine Nature. It is not enough for us, that he hath taken our Nature to be his, unless he gives us also his Nature to be ours; that is implants in our Souls all those gracious Qualifications, as unto the Essence and Substance of them, wherewith he himself in his human Nature is endued. This is that new Man, that new Creature, that Divine Nature, that Spirit which is born of the Spirit, that Transformation into the Image of Christ, that putting of him on, that Workmanship of God, whereunto in him we are created, that the Scripture so fully testifieth unto, Joh. 3. 6. Rom. 6. 3, 4, ⟨p. 126⟩5, 6, 7, 8. 2 Cor. 3. 18. Chap. 5. 17. Ephes. 4. 20. 24. 2 Pet. 1. 4.
AND that new Heavenly Nature which is thus formed in Believers, as the first vital Act of that Union which is between Christ and them by the Inhabitation of the same Spirit, is peculiarly his Nature. For both is it so as it is in him the Idea and the Exemplar of it in us, inasmuch as we are predestinated to be conformed unto his Image; and as it is wrought or produced in our Souls by an Emanation of Power, Virtue, and Efficiency from him.