A53715:177
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.
2. There is a peculiar convincing Power in the Word, which God is often-times pleased to put forth to the wounding, amazing, and in some sort humbling of Sinners, though they are never converted. And the Word is to be preached, though it hath this End, yet not with this End. Let then the Word be preached, and the sins of men rebuked, Lust will be restrained, and some Oppositions will be made against Sin, though that be not the Effect aimed at.
2. There is a peculiar convincing Power in the Word, which God is often-times pleased to put forth to the wounding, amazing, and in some sort humbling of Sinners, though they are never converted. And the Word is to be preached, though it hath this End, yet not with this End. Let then the Word be preached, and the sins of men rebuked, Lust will be restrained, and some Oppositions will be made against Sin, though that be not the Effect aymed at.
3. Though this be the work of the Word and Spirit, and it be good in it self, yet it is not profitable nor available as to the main End in them in whom it is wrought; they are still in the gall of Bitterness, and under the power of darkness.
4. Let men know it is their Duty, but in its proper place; I take not men from Mortification, but put them upon Conversion. He that shall call a man from mending a Hole in the Wall of his House, to quench a Fire that is consuming the whole Building, is not his ⟨p. 75⟩Enemy. Poor Soul! it is not thy Sore-finger but thy Hectic-Fever that thou art to apply thy self to the Consideration of. Thou settest thy self against a particular Sin, and doest not consider that thou art nothing but Sin.