A53715:373
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. He alone clearly and fully convinces the Heart of the evil and guilt and danger of the Corruption, Lust, or Sin to be Mortified. Without this Conviction (or whilst it is faint, that the Heart can wrestle with it, or digest it, there will be no through-work made. An unbelieving Heart (as in part we have all such) will shift with any Consideration, until it be over-poured by clear and evident ⟨p. 178⟩Convictions: Now this is the proper work of the Spirit: He convinces of Sin, Joh. 16.8. He alone can do it; If mens rational Considerations, with the preaching of the letter, were able to convince them of Sin, we should (it may be) see more Convictions than we do. There comes by the preaching of the Word an Apprehension upon the understandings of men, that they are Sinners, that such and such things are Sins; that themselves are guilty of them; But this light is not powerful, nor doth it lay hold on the practical Principles of the Soul, so as to conform the Mind and Will unto them, to produce Effects suitable to such an Apprehension. And therefore it is, that wise and knowing men, destitute of the Spirit, do not think those things to be Sins at all wherein the chief Movings and Actings of Lust do consist. It is the Spirit alone that can do, that doth this work to the purpose. And this is the first thing that the Spirit doth in order to the Mortification of any Lust whatever; It convinces the Soul of all the evil of it, cuts off all its pleas, discovers all its deceits, stops all its Evasions, answers its Pretences, makes the Soul own its Abomination, and lye down under the sense of it. Unless this be done, all that follows is in vain.
1. He alone clearly and fully convinces the Heart of the evil and guilt and danger of the Corruption, Lust, or Sin to be Mortified. Without this Conviction (or whilest it is faint, that the Heart can wrestle with it, or digest it, there will be no through-work made. An unbelieving Heart (as in part we have all such) will shift with any Consideration, untill it be over-powred by clear and evident ⟨p. 178⟩Convictions: Now this is the proper work of the Spirit: He convinces of Sin, Joh. 16.8