A53715:252
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. Whatever be the issue, yet the Law hath Commission from God to seize upon Transgressors wherever it find them, and so bring them before his Throne, where they are to plead for themselves; This is thy present case: The Law hath found thee out, and before God it will bring thee: If thou canst plead a Pardon, well and good; If not, the Law will do its work.
3. However, this is the proper Work of the Law, to discover Sin in the Guilt of it, to awake and humble the Soul for it, to be a Glass to represent Sin in its colours; and if thou denyest to deal with it on this Account, it is not through Faith, but through the hardness of thy Heart and the Deceitfulness of Sin.
This is a Door that too many Professors have gone out at, unto open Apostasy; such a Deliverance from the Law they have pretended, as that they would consult its Guidance and Direction no more; they would measure their Sin by it no more; by little and little this Principle hath insensibly from the Notion of it proceeded to influence their practical Understandings; ⟨p. 117⟩and having taken possession there, hath turned the Will and Affections loose to all manner of Abominations.
This is a Door that too many Professors have gone out at, unto open Apostasie; such a Deliverance from the Law they have pretended, as that they would consult its Guidance and Direction no more; they would measure their Sin by it no more; by little and little this Principle hath insensibly from the Notion of it proceeded to influence their practical Understandings; ⟨p. 117⟩