A53715:174
Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers
Of the mortification of sin in believers: the 1. Necessity, 2. Nature, and 3. Means of it. With a resolution of sundry cases of conscience thereunto belonging. By John Owen, D.D. a servant of Jesus Christ in the work of the Gospel.
London: printed for Nathanael Ponder, 1668
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.
What hath been spoken, I suppose is sufficient to make good my first general Rule: Be sure to get an Interest in Christ, if you intend to mortify any sin, without it it will never be done.
What hath been spoken, I suppose is sufficient to make good my first general Rule: Be sure to get an Interest in Christ, if you intend to mortifie any sin, without it it will never be done.
Ob. You will say, What then would you have unregenerate men, that are convinced of the Evil of sin do? Shall they cease striving against sin, live dissolutely, give their Lusts their swing, and be as bad as the worst of men? This were a way to set the whole world into Confusion, to bring all things into darkness, to set open the flood-gates of lust, and lay the Reins upon the Necks of men to rush into all sin with delight and greediness, like the horse into the battle.
Ob. You will say, What then would you have unregenerate men, that are convinced of the Evil of sin do? Shall they cease striving against sin, live dissolutely, give their Lusts their swinge, and be as bad as the worst of men? This were a way to set the whole world into Confusion, to bring all things into darkness, to set open the flood-gates of lust, and lay the Reins upon the Necks of men to rush into all sin with delight and greediness, like the horse into the battle.
Ans. 1. God forbid! It is to be looked on as a great issue of the Wisdom, Goodness, and Love of God, that by manifold ways and means he is pleased to restrain the Sons of men from running forth into that ⟨p. 74⟩compass of excess and riot, which the depravedness of their Nature would carry them out unto with violence. By what way soever this is done, it is an issue of the care, kindness, and Goodness of God, without which the whole Earth would be an Hell of Sin and Confusion.