A53715:179
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.
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.
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 Hectick-Feaver 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.
Let me add this to them who are Preachers of the Word, or intend through the good hand of God that Employment. It is their Duty to plead with men about their Sins, to lay load on particular sins, but always remember, that it be done with that which is the proper End of Law and Gospel. That is, that they make use of the Sin they speak against, to the discovery of the State and Condition wherein the Sinner is. Otherwise, happily they may work men to Formality and Hypocrisy, but little of the true End of Preaching the Gospel will be brought about. It will not avail, to beat a man off from his Drunkenness, into a sober Formality; A skilful Master of the Assemblies lays his Axe at the Root, drives still at the heart. To inveigh against particular sins of ignorant unregenerate persons, (such as the Land is full of,) is a good Work: But yet though it may be done with great efficacy, vigour and success, if this be all the effect of it, that they are set upon the most sedulous Endeavours of mortifying their sins preached down, all that is done, is but