A53715:249
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.
(1) Charge thy Conscience with that Guilt which appears in it, from the Rectitude and Holiness of the Law. Bring the holy Law of ⟨p. 115⟩God into thy Conscience; lay thy corruption to it; pray that thou mayest be affected with it. Consider the holiness, spirituality, fiery severity, inwardness, absoluteness of the Law; And see how thou canst stand before it. Be much (I say) in affecting thy Conscience with the Terror of the Lord in the Law, and how righteous it is that every one of thy Transgressions should receive a recompense of Reward. Perhaps thy Conscience will invent shifts and Evasions to keep off the Power of this Consideration; as, that the condemning power of the Law doth not belong to thee, thou art set free from it, and the like; and so though thou be not conformable to it, yet thou needest not to be so much troubled at it. But,
(1) Charge thy Conscience with that Guilt which appears in it, from the Rectitude and Holiness of the Law. Bring the holy Law of ⟨p. 115⟩God into thy Conscience; lay thy corruption to it; pray that thou mayest be affected with it. Consider the holiness, spirituality, fiery severity, inwardness, absoluteness of the Law; And see how thou canst stand before it. Be much (I say) in affecting thy Conscience with the Terrour of the Lord in the Law, and how righteous it is that every one of thy Transgressions should receive a recompence of Reward. Perhaps thy Conscience will invent shifts and Evasions to keep off the Power of this Consideration; as, that the condemning power of the Law doth not belong to thee, thou art set free from it, and the like; and so though thou be not conformable to it, yet thou needest not to be so much troubled at it. But,
1. Tell thy Conscience, that it cannot manage any evidence to the purpose, that thou art free from the condemning Power of Sin, whilst thy unmortified Lust lies in thy Heart; so that perhaps the Law may make good its Plea against thee for a full Dominion, and then thou art a lost Creature. Wherefore it is best to ponder to the utmost, what it hath to say.