Introduction

Chapter seven picks up right where chapters five and six left off. We gave an overview of the remainder of Owen’s book in our summary of chapter five. First, we said there that chapters five and six deal with showing what it means to mortify any one sin, both positively and negatively considered. It was Owen’s design to dispel common myths about mortification and to present a clear picture of exactly what is meant. Much of the same confusion over these issues exists today as it did almost four hundred years ago when Owen wrote. Second, chapters seven and eight are designed to give general directions as to the process of mortification. Third, chapters nine through fourteen draw out particulars whereby a person can mortify any sin which hinders their walk with Christ. So then, since we are dealing with chapter seven here in this lesson, we will consider general directions regarding “the ways and means whereby a soul may proceed to mortification of any particular lust or sin, which Satan takes advantage by to disquiet and weaken him.”⁶⁸

A Detailed Discussion of the Argument of Chapter Seven

The argument of chapter seven is really quite simple and straightforward. The basic foundation for mortification is that a man or woman be a believer. Otherwise one’s house is built on quick sand. In keeping with this foundation, which Owen has spoken about several times already, faith is the instrument whereby sin is mortified. With this twin foundation, Owen states his first general principle concerning the need to have a vital interest in Christ if mortification is ever to be a reality.

To Mortify Any Sin A Man Must Be A Believer

We have already seen in Romans 8:13 and Colossians 3:5 that mortification is the work of believers. Men may attempt it and even some philosophers such as Seneca, Tully, and Epictetus have written passionate discourses on renouncing the world and the passions thereof, but they are unable to mortify even one sin in the biblical sense. Stoicism can hardly be matched to the biblical doctrine of dealing with sin. The same is true of the papists who attempt mortification in ways not ordained by God, by their “vows, penances, and satisfactions.” As Paul has said, they ignore God’s method for righteousness, trying to establish their own by their works.(Rom 9:31-32).

It is the duty of all men who hear the gospel to mortify sin, but it is not their immediate duty. First, they must come to Christ in faith and receive the Spirit of God. Then, with the indwelling Spirit, without which no man is a Christian or knows anything real of Christ (Rom 8:9), they are no longer “in the flesh and dead in sin,” but are alive and “quickened unto righteousness.” To labor to mortify a sin as an unbeliever is to labor in the fire, as Owen says, with all one’s work being consumed as he builds. It is a futile process.

When Peter preached his Pentecost sermon in Acts 2, he did not call on the Israelites to mortify sin, per se, but rather he called them to repentance, conversion, and trust in Christ. Owen says:

I say, then, that mortification is not the present business of unregenerate men. God calls them not to it as yet; conversion is their work,—the conversion of the whole soul,—not the mortification of this or that particular lust. You would laugh at a man that you should see setting up a great fabric [building], and never take any care for a foundation; especially if you should see him so foolish as that, having a thousand experiences that what he built one day fell down another, he would yet continue in the same course.⁶⁹

A man who is not regenerate, that is, does not believe in Christ and therefore does not possess the Spirit, works in vain to mortify sins. Though he use a multitude of remedies, he will never be healed. He is responding incorrectly to the problem of sin in his life. When God causes his conscience to be wracked because of his sin and his heart discouraged, he should come to God through Christ, not set about the task of trying to assuage his conscience without God by his own effort. Religions that teach this send men to hell, not to God.

Owen laments the fact that many are led to believe that this is what God wants of them, when nothing could be farther from the truth. If a man should have what appears to him to be some measure of success in putting down the practice of some disquieting sin, he ends up deluding his own soul and further from God than he otherwise would have been, i.e., in his moment of need. He “mortifies” sin out of self-love, not for the love of God. In the end he comes to believe that his condition before God is really not that bad and so he becomes hardened in a kind of self-righteousness. And, in the end, it is very difficult to dislodge such a person from their self-righteousness.

But when a person, during the course of a long life, seems to never really put down sin, she, after much striving perhaps, decides to throw in the towel and give herself over to sin. After all, what’s the use of trying so hard? You might as well try and dislodge a nail from wood with your bare hands, as cast off some sins with your power. In the end, in many cases, the sin destroys them.

Mortification Is The Peculiar Work of Faith—A Living Faith in Christ

Men who live apart from Christ are spiritually dead according to the apostle Paul (Ephesians 2:1). They do not, as of yet, have the one faculty or instrument, as Owen refers to it, to affect the process of mortification; they do not have a genuine and living faith in Christ. It is madness to attempt to carry out a certain work without the necessary tools or instruments. So it is in the case of the person who attempts mortification without a Spirit-inspired love for Christ and a living faith in him. It is faith, according to Peter, that purifies the heart (Acts 15:9).

Owen’s First General Rule for Mortification

After making clear that mortification is the business of believers and not unbelievers; those who possess the Spirit, not those who are still dead in their sins, Owen states the first general rule for the believer who wants to mortify sin. It goes as follows: Be sure to get an interest in Christ; if you intend to mortify any sin without it, it will never be done. Now there may be some who object to the idea that unbelievers do not need to mortify sin.

An Objection to Owen’s Doctrine

Owen has claimed that mortification is not the work of unregenerate men. Those who think they are believers because they go to church need to realize that this does not make them a Christian. They may love Christian religion and yet be a stranger to Christ and therefore not possess the life of His Spirit (Rom 8:9). A person must trust Christ; they must have the Spirit; they must be regenerate.

Well then, what is the unbeliever to do? Since mortification is decidedly not his business, according to Owen, what should he do? Should he just sin to his heart’s content? Owen anticipates this objection:

You will say, “What, then, would you have unregenerate men that are convinced of the evil of sin do? Shall they cease striving against sin, live dissolutely, give their lusts their swing, and be as bad as the worst of men? This were a way to set the whole world into confusion, to bring all things into darkness, to set open the flood-gates of lust, and lay the reins upon the necks of men to rush into all sin with delight and greediness, like the horse into battle.⁷⁰

To this question Owen gives four responses. First, he says that it may be regarded as the good wisdom, mercy, and love of God that he should use whatever ends he chooses to restrain men from acting on every lust they experience. This includes their own delusion as to how to keep from sinning. Second, God is often times pleased to restrain men from sin through the preaching of his word, even though such men are often times not converted. While the word is preached so that they might come to Christ in faith, those that do not are nevertheless often held back from committing vile sins. The word has a powerful affect on people. Third, though men are restrained from sin through the work of the Spirit and the preaching of the word, this does not mean, in any way, that they are somehow saved or spiritual; they are still dead in their sins and under the power of darkness. Fourth, let people know that mortification is indeed their duty, but in its proper place. They must be converted first, and then rely on the indwelling Spirit (through genuine faith) to carry out the process of mortification.

Owen’s Comments To Would-Be Preachers

At this point, Owen brings his discussion to bear on preachers or those who seek this “employment.” He says that they must be careful, in their duty of pleading with men about their sins, to do so with the goal of helping them see their real condition overall. Otherwise, to rail against sin without bringing men to Christ, may certainly sober them up, but it may simply lead to a formal or external change, with no genuine internal change; they may remain unconverted. In this case, you have not brought them to Christ for cleansing, but have left them to their own hypocritical devices and strength in the matter of dealing with their sin:

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 endeavors of mortifying their sins preached down, all that is done is like the beating of an enemy in an open field, and driving him into an impregnable castle, not to be prevailed against. Get you at any time a sinner at the advantage, on the account of any one sin whatever? Have you anything to take hold of him by?—bring it to his state and condition, drive it up to his head, and there deal with him. To break men of particular sins and not to break their hearts, is to deprive ourselves of advantages of dealing with them.⁷¹

A Summary of Chapter Seven

In summary, Owen has said that true mortification is only for those who are true believers in Christ. Such a believer possesses the Spirit and is regenerate; he has the life of God in him. He must then exercise genuine faith in the process of killing sin. Thus Owen’s first general rule for the mortification of sin is that the believer make sure he/she develops an interest in Christ, without which there will be no mortification of sin. [We may add here, and Owen will develop these ideas later, that such disciplines as Scripture reading and especially meditation, along with prayer and joyful fellowship with other saints, are key ways the Lord uses to kindle our understanding of him and our thirst to know and love him more. Of course, our response to trials is very important in our daily fellowship with the Lord as is the habit of gratefully doing good works and gently sharing the gospel with out friends.]

But the unregenerate person, no matter how serious or religious, cannot mortify sin and it is dangerous to teach them to do so for they will do it inevitably out of self love and not because they love God. Indeed, they are really not mortifying sin anyway and it is a delusion to make them think that they are. In the end their pride will be their downfall as they become entrenched in their own self-righteousness. This does not mean that the unbeliever is free before God to do whatever he pleases and sin to the extent of his lusts. God is pleased to use manifold ways in restraining such evil and the utter confusion that would result. Preachers nonetheless need to deal with men by bringing them to Christ in light of their sin, not to simply inveigh against sin in itself.

⁶⁸ VI:33.

⁶⁹ VI:35.

⁷⁰ VI: 38.

⁷¹ VI: 39. Owen’s advice to preachers here is strong medicine. But explaining to people the nature of sin and speaking to their particular sins was certainly the job of the prophets, Jesus, and the apostles. And it is our job as well. But, we must carry out this ministry with deep humility as Isaiah himself came to understand (Isa 6:1-8). Above all, it must be done in love and respect for where others are at (Col 4:5-6). Do not transgress the fruit of the Spirit to share his message!!! Rather, let your light shine before men by doing good deeds, and out of this context speak the truth into their lives. You are not the be-all to end-all; you’re a sinner like they are—a thirsty sinner who by the grace of God knows where the water is!

Introduction

Mortification means “to put sin to death.” As the apostle said: “If you by the Spirit put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live” (Rom 8:13). The never ending (i.e., in this life) process of killing sin is carried along by the gracious work of the Spirit who indwells us. We are his temple and he is about the business of cleansing it. The more we understand this, the better off we are in determining the focus and direction of our efforts in the Christian life. It is for this reason that Owen has taken such lengths to explain and open up for us this whole area of Christian experience.

The promise attached to mortification is “the promise of life,” that is, the enjoyment of the vigor, power, and comfort of our spiritual lives. But again, this promise is given only to those who are Christians, to those who possess the efficient cause of mortification, namely, the Spirit. All other so-called attempts at mortification by unbelievers are really in vain for no sin is put to death without the Spirit and all fall woefully short of God’s standard.

Thus it is only those with the Spirit who will mortify sin. But the Spirit does not do the work apart from our cooperation (Phil 2:12-13).¹⁰⁸ We must develop a sincerity in the universality of obedience or no sin will be truly mortified. Owen made these and other related ideas clear in chapters seven and eight. Then, in chapters nine through thirteen, he gave nine particular principles for the mortification of sin. They are: (1) consider the dangerous symptoms which attend your lust (ch 9); (2) get a clear sense of the guilt, danger, and evil of the sin (ch 10); (3) load your conscience with the guilt of the sin; (4) get a constant longing for deliverance from the sin in question; (5) consider whether the sin in question be rooted in your nature and heightened by your constitution; (6) consider the occasions in which this sin raises its ugly head most often; (7) rise up mightily at the first signs of the sin (ch 11), and (8) fill yourself with thoughts that lead to healthy self-abasement (ch 12). The ninth and final particular principle will be discussed here in our summary of chapter thirteen.

A Detailed Discussion of the Argument of Chapter Thirteen

The Ninth Particular Principle

General Statement

The ninth particular principle concerns our experience of peace. Owen says,

In case God disquiet the heart about the guilt of its distempers, either in respect of its root and indwelling, or in respect of any eruptions of it, take heed thou speakest not peace to thyself before God speaks it; but hearken what he says to thy soul. This is our next direction, without the observation whereof the heart will be exceedingly exposed to the deceitfulness of sin.¹⁰⁹

So, according to Owen, it is not that God does not want to speak peace to us, but that we have a tendency to speak it to ourselves before we have really dealt with known sin in our lives—the sin he is calling us to come forward with. This leaves us with a pseudo-peace which is not from God, will not last, and can actually harden us in our rebellion. Owen gives us two guiding principles “to manage this direction aright.”

Two Guiding Principles

The first principle is that God reserves the right to speak peace, even to those who are saved, when and where he wants, and not before. In common vernacular, he is not a slot-machine, that once having paid your quarter’s worth of confession, you may now instantly receive the peace you want; confession does not work ex opere operato. That this is true, is evident from the words of the prophet Isaiah:

Isaiah 57:16 For I will not be hostile forever or perpetually angry, for then man’s spirit would grow faint before me, the life-giving breath I created. 57:17 I was angry because of their sinful greed; I attacked them and angrily rejected them, yet they remained disobedient and stubborn. 57:18 I have seen their behavior, but I will heal them and give them rest, and I will once again console those who mourn.

Therefore, God creates peace for his own children and according to his sovereignty he metes it out as he pleases.

The second related principle is that, as God creates peace, it is Christ alone who reserves the right to speak it home to the conscience. One need only think of the church at Laodicea in Revelation 3. This church spoke peace to itself, but it was a false peace and not given by God. Jesus, referring to himself as the Faithful and True Witness, exposed the church’s pseudo-peace and called it on its relaxed view of sin. They thought they were in a state of peace with God, but the Lord described them as wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked and counseled them to buy from him so that their nakedness might be covered (3:17-18).

These two principles, namely that God is the author of peace and it is the prerogative of Christ alone to speak it to our souls, should help guide us in an increasing experience of his peace. But Owen does not leave off here. He gives us five more rules to help us discern whether we speak peace to ourselves or whether it is truly God who speaks peace to us.

Five Principles for Discerning God’s Peace

1. Peace Must Be Accompanied by A Hatred for Sin

People constantly speak peace to themselves when their “speaking” is not also attended by deep hatred for the sin in reference to which they seek peace. They realize that there is peace only in Christ, on the basis of God’s mercy. So they claim peace under the covenant of his love, but they do not recoil from and hate the sin itself. Therefore, they speak peace to themselves; God is not the one speaking the peace. God’s peace always comes with a consciousness of the cross and the awful penalty Christ paid to secure peace. It always come with a hatred for sin. As Owen says,

When we look for healing, his stripes are to be eyed,—not in the outward story of them, which is the course of popish devotionists, but in the love, kindness, mystery, and design of the cross; and when we look for peace his chastisements must be in our eye. Now this, I say, if it be done according to the mind of God, and in the strength of that Spirit which is poured out on believers, it will beget a detestation of that sin or sins for which healing and peace are sought…When God comes home to speak peace in a sure covenant of it, it fills the soul with shame for all the ways whereby it hath been alienated from him.¹¹⁰

For example, a person may find her heart longing for and chasing after the things of the world, and this makes communion with God a difficult thing. Any sensitive conscience cannot bear it. But then the Spirit speaks explicitly to such a person about this sin: “Do not love the world…” (1 John 2:15-16). Let not that person speak peace to their soul until they have a thorough detestation for such sin. Let them ask God for this first, and then see if His peace does not follow sometime later.

2. Peace Is Not the Result of A Mere Application of Bible Promises

When Christian people go about the process of dealing with sin according to what they know to be rationally true, but without the aid of the Spirit, the resulting peace is not from the Lord; it is of their own making. For example, suppose a person has sinned in some way, knows it, and feels guilty for it. The fact that he knows it and experiences real guilt is a good thing, to be sure. But as a Christians he wants relief from his guilt so he goes, as he has been taught, to the word of God for soothing. He knows that there are promises that speak to his situation. So after searching, he finally finds one, say, in Isaiah, where God promises forgiveness and spiritual healing. He then says to himself, “God promises me forgiveness in this text so I will apply it to myself.” He then goes away feeling like he has some peace. But does he have God’s peace if his application has been done merely according to human reason and ability? Owen says, “No!” It has the appearance of peace, but the Lord is not in it. Why, you ask? Because it was not the Spirit who spoke the peace to him. He simply did it on his own, as a kind of Christian knee-jerk reaction. So then, just because the Bible promises peace from God, this does not mean that we instantly have it, even if we find a verse to that end; for it is God’s prerogative to give peace or take it away as he sees fit, for our instruction, good, and transformation.

Further, Owen suggests that there is another reason our friend does not necessarily have the peace he thought he had: while we know as Christians that God’s speaks peace to us through his word, and therefore, we rightly consult it, we do not always come to it operating in the power of the Spirit. We are often times just using our Christian, enlightened reason without a consciousness of God’s presence and will at the time. Certainly he wants to give us peace, but perhaps through the delay of that peace he wants to speak even more clearly to us about our sin and his concern. Regarding the problem of peace and recurring sin, Owen says,

Suppose the wound and disquiet of the soul to be upon the account of relapses…[so] in the perturbation of his mind, he finds out that promise, Isa. lv. 7, “The Lord will have mercy, and our God will abundantly pardon….” This the man considers, and thereupon concludes peace to himself; whether the Spirit of God make the application or no, whether that gives life and power to the letter or no, that he regards not. He doth not hearken whether God the Lord speak peace. He doth not wait upon God, who perhaps yet hides his face, and sees the poor creature stealing peace and running away with it (italics mine).¹¹¹

But the question arises from this, and the astute reader will have already asked himself, “How do I know, then, whether the Spirit goes with me in my quest for peace or whether I go alone? After all, I am coming to the Word of God for forgiveness and healing. Surely the Spirit is with me. To this question Owen gives three related answers.

First, be confident that if you err in this regard, and come to the Scripture solely relying on yourself, God is committed to let you know. In humility ask for his guiding hand, for he leads the humble in his ways. He will probably show you by alerting you to the transitory nature of the peace you thought you had; it came and it went. It was not from him; he is calling you to something else—something that lasts.

Second, relationships take time. Wait for God when you go to his Word. Wait for him to speak the peace to your heart. The fact that you rush in and out may betray a heart that it not at rest in his presence and therefore lacking in his peace. Sit at the feet of the Master and wait for him to speak. Do not try to force his hand. As Owen says, those who speak peace too quickly to themselves are “self-healers” and strangers to the peace of God—a peace which “transcends all understanding” (Phil 4:6-7).

Third, false peace secured too quickly may perhaps quiet the mind, but it does nothing to sweeten the soul, and reorient the heart toward rest and a gracious disposition. As in the case of Elisha speaking to Naaman: “Go in peace!” His mind was probably set at ease for awhile, but his heart was not joyful except at the thought of his healing. But God’s word is “good” and does good things, for it proceeds directly from him.

When God speaks, there is not only truth in his words, that may answer the conviction of our understandings, but also they do good; they bring that which is sweet, and good, and desirable to the will and affections; by them the “soul returns unto its rest,” Ps. cxvi. 7.¹¹²

Fourth, and worst of all, according to Owen, pseudo-peace gained apart from God does not amend the soul. As Owen says, “it heals not the evil, it cures not the distemper.”¹¹³ The peace that God gives on the other hand, keeps a soul so that it will not turn again into the way of sin. The peace that we create for ourselves, once dissipated in a day or two, has no alluring power to deter us from the sin we originally engaged in and thus we return to our foolishness. With God’s peace there is a discovery of his love—a discovery which places a strong, inner obligation on the soul to maintain its freedom from sin.

3. Do Not Speak “Peace” Slightly

One of the complaints of Jeremiah against the leaders of his people was that they spoke peace slightly:

Jeremiah 6:14 They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. “Peace, peace,” they say, when there is no peace.

And so it is with some people. They fall under Jeremiah’s rebuke since they make the healing of their wound a slight thing. They think all you have to do is speak peace to it and it is done. They take a brief glance at the promises, throw in a sprinkle of faith, and presto, there you have it. But in reality, they have little or no faith. But true faith does not make just a passing glance at the Mercy-Giver, but instead fixes its gaze long and hard upon Christ. Again, Owen’s point is that haste in these matters is dangerous and probably causing one to fall short of realizing God’s peace.

4. There Is No Peace When We Live in Known Sin

This point should be so clear that little needs to be said about it. But as hypocrisy has always accompanied us, and is therefore a great danger, it must be mentioned. In short, then, there is no peace for the man who wants it, but at the same time flirts in his heart and life with other sin(s). It matters very little whether he cries “Peace” or not; he does not have it from God. He is only fooling himself and perhaps other unsuspecting people. As Owen says, “God will justify us from our sins, but he will not justify the least sin in us: ‘He is a God of purer eyes than to behold iniquity.’”

5. God’s Peace Is Humbling Peace

The peace which comes from God, as opposed to the peace we manufacture on our own, brings with it the distinctively Christian grace of humility. It is a “melting” peace, as it was in the case of David when Nathan told him of God’s pardon for his sin. He was thoroughly humbled.

A Summary of Chapter Thirteen

We have been looking at God’s peace in this chapter and have made the following observations. The first thing we said was that God reserves the right to speak peace when and where he wants. In keeping with this we said that (1) peace must be accompanied by a hatred for sin and if it is not, it is not from God; we have manufactured it ourselves and it will not last; (2) peace does not come just because we claim a Bible verse to that end. Again, God must speak the peace to us; (3) true peace from God does not come lightly, but recognizes the healing work that needs to be done. A simple glance of faith is not what true repentance leading to peace involves; (4) there is no genuine peace from God when we live in other known sin(s), and (5) God’s peace is a humbling peace and brings with it life and power.

So how do we know, then, when God speaks peace to us? First, remember that God can speak at any time he wishes, whether you’re in the process of repenting or sinning. And when he speaks, he must be received. Second, and in keeping with this, the secret to hearing his voice—and his sheep do hear it (John 10:4)—is to have frequent and protracted times of communion with him so that you come to recognize it. This secret eye of faith, trained by the Master, cannot be taught by one person to another. Others can point to it, as John the apostle does in John 10:14, but a person himself must develop it with the Master. Third, remember that Christ, through his indwelling Spirit, speaks with power, not like any other man speaks, and he causes our hearts to burn within us (Luke 24:32). Thus his voice is recognizable. Fourth, and final, his word of peace does good to us, cleansing our heart, purifying it from stain and securing it for obedience to Him alone. Who is the person who can therefore discern the voice of God’s peace? According to Owen it is…

He that hath his senses exercised to discern good or evil, being increased in judgment and experience by a constant observation of the ways of Christ’s intercourse, the manner of the operations of the Spirit, and the effects it usually produceth, is the best judge for himself in this case.¹¹⁴

¹⁰⁸ By “cooperation” we do not mean that we do half and He does half. Rather, we mean that we respond in faith to the Spirit’s call, when he calls us through his word, people, circumstances, etc. to particular attitudes, acts, etc. He leads us; we learn to follow with his help.

¹⁰⁹ VI:70.

¹¹⁰ VI:72.

¹¹¹ VI:74-75.

¹¹² VI:76.

¹¹³ VI:76.

¹¹⁴ VI:78.

Introduction

In chapter eight Owen gives us a general principle for the mortification of sin, namely, the need for a universality of obedience if one is to truly put to death any lust. In chapters nine through thirteen Owen discusses nine particular principles for the mortification of sin. First, in chapter nine, he tells us to consider the dangerous symptoms which attend any lust we’re struggling with. When we follow Owen’s advice we come to realize the breadth and strength of sin in the heart, whereas before we may have walked almost totally unaware of it. The second particular principle, outlined in chapter ten, involves the idea of getting a clear sense upon the mind and conscience of the guilt, danger, and evil of the sin we’re dealing with. This is important lest we simply pass over it lightly or fail to even recognize it as sin.

Now we come to chapter eleven. In this chapter Owen will give us five particular principles, namely, three through seven. All these are brought together in order that we might find release from the power of indwelling sin. Owen’s advice flows from a command of the text, a sound theological synthesis, and warm pastoral insight and concern, and we would do exceedingly well to follow it. How much more in an age in which people are so thoroughly unable and unwilling to countenance the weight of their depravity? Christians have a Savior who makes it both possible and necessary that they examine themselves under His watchful eye. The goal is to turn from sin and to grow in Christlikeness.

A Detailed Discussion of the Argument of Chapter Eleven

As already mentioned, Owen gives us particular principles three through seven in this chapter. They are (3) load your conscience with the guilt of sin; (4) long for deliverance from the power of it; (5) consider whether a certain sin is rooted in your natural temperament and constitution; (6) consider what occasions give rise to your sin, and (7) rise mightily against the first actings of your sin. Let’s take a closer look at these five principles.

Particular Principle #3: Load Your Conscience with the Guilt of the Sin

Owen says that we should not only consider that sin has guilt, but we should load our conscience with the guilt of its actual eruptions and disturbances; we should feel the guilt deeply when we commit sin. He gives several clarifications for this direction and they are as follows.

First, we should take God’s method in loading our consciences with sin; we should begin with general considerations and then descend to particular ones. The first general consideration involves charging our conscience with the guilt of our sin in light of the rectitude and holiness of the Law.

Bring the holy law of 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.⁹⁵

Do not allow your conscience to find ways of escape, including the idea that you are not under law, but under grace. The law still speaks to the sinfulness of all men and its holy standard is eternal. To plead that you are free from the power of sin and the law, all the while allowing some unmortified lust to reign in your soul, is a dangerous thing. Let the Law pronounce its condemning verdict on such a thought! Let the Law drive you to God for forgiveness; let it reveal the guilt of your sin to you and bring you to the place of humility before the Lord. Owen complains that many in his day—as also in ours—champion freedom from the Law and do not allow it to speak to their sin, uncovering and condemning it. Thus they have “turned the will and affections loose to all manner of abominations.”

The second general principle is to “bring thy lust to the gospel,—not for relief, but for farther conviction of its guilt; look on him whom thou hast pierced and be in bitterness.”⁹⁶ We must consider what love, grace, and mercy we have trampled on and despised when we sin. Have I defiled the heart that the Son died to wash and the Spirit came to live in? Am I grieving the Spirit daily and disappointing the purpose for which Christ died? Have I taken all the benefits of God’s salvation, including his presence, peace, goodness, and forgiveness, and esteemed them a thing of nought? We should prayerfully meditate on these things. Once again I say, we have virtually eclipsed God’s holiness (‘otherness’ and purity) in the name of his love (erroneously thought of, however; see 1 Peter 1:17-19).

Having surveyed two general ideas, namely, looking at our sin in terms of the holiness of the law and then examining it in light of the benefits of the gospel, we turn now to discuss three particular directions. First, we should consider the infinite patience and forbearance of God. Consider what he could have done to make you a reproach among men and expose the shame of our sin. But he has not; he has given you time to repent and return to his love. Do not provoke him to anger! Consider also how many times you have been at the brink of becoming hardened in your heart through the deceitfulness of sin and God has rescued you. If you see that “delight in duties” and love to God are decaying in your soul and your walk becoming loose and careless, then return to him in humility. Finally, consider all God’s providential dealings with you, including your conversion, when, by his grace, you first came to know him personally. Then let this load your conscience with the guilt of the sin you now relish in. Do not use such grace as a reason to sin, but rather reflect on it so that your conscience might learn the enormous evil of its sin and the guilt which, in a healthy Christian’s conscience, attends evil.

In summary, the third particular principle is to load your conscience with the guilt of the particular sin in question. Owen gives two general principles for this and three particulars. Start by measuring the evil of your sin against the holy demand of the Law and the mercy of God as seen in the benefits of the gospel. Then move to consider three particulars related to these general statements: (1) consider God’s infinite patience; (2) how he has rescued you in the past from hardness of heart, and (3) recall all God’s gracious dealings with you and let them move your conscience to an apprehension of the guilt of your sin. We move now to talk about the fourth particular principle.

Particular Principle #4: Long for Deliverance from the Sin

Once we have been exercised about the guilt of our sin, we are to get a constant longing, breathing after deliverance from the power of it. The longing to be free is a grace itself and it has great power to conform us to the thing longed after. Owen says,

Hence the apostle, describing the repentance and godly sorrow of the Corinthians, reckons this as one eminent grace that was then set on work, “Vehement desires,” 2 Cor vii. 11. And in this case of indwelling sin and the power of it, what frame doth he express himself? Rom vii. 24. His heart breaks out with longings into a most passionate expression of desire for deliverance…Assure thyself, unless thou longest for deliverance thou shalt not have it.⁹⁷

Strong desires for the release and deliverance from some erupting lust will motivate us to take any and every opportunity to pray, read scripture, talk with our brothers and sisters, etc. that we might find freedom. Indeed, strong passions and longings in this regard give rise to great faith and certain hope and are in reality the soul’s moving after the Lord.

Particular Principle #5: Consider Whether the Sin Is Rooted in Natural Temperament

We come now to Owen’s fifth particular principle. It is this: consider whether the lust or sin with which you are most perplexed is not rooted in your very nature, that is, in your natural disposition. If you think this is the situation, then consider the following three points.

First, this in no way exonerates us of our sin; it is not a “ready-made” excuse. This is true because ultimately our sin is from the fall and not from our natural temperaments, whether or not our natural temperaments more easily give way to one particular sin over another. As Owen acutely observes,

David reckons his being shapen in iniquity and conception in sin⁹⁸ as an aggravation [i.e., ultimate cause] of his following sin, not a lessening or extenuation of it. That thou art peculiarly inclined unto any sinful distemper is but a peculiar breaking out of original lust in thy nature, which should peculiarly abase and humble thee.⁹⁹

Second, we must fix our thoughts on this situation since a sin that “comes so naturally” will take great advantage over us otherwise, not to mention the advantage Satan will take over us if we don’t pay careful attention to our souls in this regard.

Third, for sins that are specifically related to one’s natural temperament, there is one particular means of mortification well suited to the problem and it is that mentioned by the apostle Paul in 1 Cor ix. 27:

Instead I subdue my body and make it my slave, so that after preaching to others I myself will not be disqualified.

Owen comments:

The bringing of the very body into subjection is an ordinance of God tending to the mortification of sin. This gives check unto the natural root of the distemper, and withers it by taking away its fatness of soil…. [I]t may be a temptation to some [since the Papists do it improperly] to neglect [this] means of humiliation which by God himself are owned and appointed. [But] [t]he bringing of the body into subjection in the case insisted on, by cutting short the natural appetite, by fasting, watching, and the like, is doubtless acceptable to God….¹⁰⁰

But regarding the subjection of the body, Owen gives two limitations. First, the outward weakening of the body, say through fasting, is not good in itself, but only as it leads to the weakening of the natural root of any lust. Second, fasting, watching, and the like have no power in themselves to produce mortification of sin. If they did then, the Spirit would not be needed and any unbelieving person in the world could mortify sin. Rather, they are ways and means that the Spirit sometimes uses in the process of delivering us from certain perplexing lusts which have gained inordinate ground in our souls in keeping with our natural inclinations.

Particular Principle #6: Consider What Occasions Give Rise to the Sin

The sixth particular principle involves careful consideration of the occasions and advantages our distempers (Owen’s word for lust or indwelling sin) have taken to exert themselves; and watch against them all. This is the spiritual discipline that Jesus enjoined his disciples to perform. In Mark 13:37 the Master says,

13:35 “So then stay alert, because you do not know when the owner of the house will come—whether during evening, at midnight, when the rooster crows, or at dawn—13:36 and when he comes suddenly he will not find you sleeping. 13:37 What I say to you, I say to all: Stay alert!”

We are to watch against all the “eruptions of [our] corruptions,” as Owen nicely says. This is what David meant when he said that he had kept himself from his iniquity. He had watched himself carefully so that he didn’t fall into his habitual ways of sinning and we are, by the force of his example, to do the same thing (Psalm 119:9, 11). A person should learn what circumstances, what environments, what seasons cause them to sin and studiously avoid them, for the one who does not avoid temptation will be ultimately unable to avoid sin. That person is only giving occasion to be overwhelmed by sin’s deceitfulness. Because Owen considered the problem of entering into temptation so serious, he wrote another whole book on the subject. We will summarize that material at a later time. Suffice it to say here, however, that the one who knowingly enters into temptation through carelessness or arrogance, will not stand against sin in the long run.

Particular Principle #7: Rise Mightily against the First Actings of the Sin

In the seventh and final particular principle in this chapter, Owen urges us to rise mightily against the first actings of our distempers, in their first conceptions in the heart. He advises us not to let them have even the least ground within us. We are not to say to sin: “You can go this far, but no further.” This is based on a serious misunderstanding of the insidious nature of sin; sin will not stop until it has plied its trade to the uttermost. It will never be content with “this far, and no further.” It wants to go the whole way in rebellion against God and, if it could, usher in the complete death of the soul. Recall the words of James:

1:14 But each one is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desires. 1:15 Then when desire conceives, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is full grown, it brings forth death.

Owen says,

Doth thou find thy corruption to begin to entangle thy thoughts? rise up with all thy strength against it, with no less indignation than if it had fully accomplished what it aims at. Consider what an unclean thought would have; it would have thee roll thyself in folly and filth. Ask envy what it would have;—murder and destruction is at the end of it. Set thyself against it with no less vigour than if it had utterly debased thee to wickedness. Without this course thou wilt not prevail. As sin gets ground in the affections to delight in, it gets also upon the understanding to slight it.¹⁰¹

A Summary of Chapter Eleven

In this chapter Owen has given us more advice on how to mortify those indwelling lusts which seem to have gained so much strength in our souls. He gave us five principles (3-7) which are as follows. First (#3), we must load our conscience with the guilt of our sin. We can do this by looking at our sin through the holy lens of the Law of God and further by meditating on the gracious benefits he has given us through the gospel. We can also do this by reviewing his particular patience and mercy to me as a sinner, his work to keep me from growing completely hardened to him, and his providential dealings with me which have stemmed from his infinite mercy, grace, and love. This alone should weight our consciences with the guilt of sin. Second (#4), we must acquire a longing from God to be delivered from the power of sin. Third (#5), we must pay careful attention to sin that seems to be rooted in our natural disposition. We are not exempt from this sin but must watch it carefully so that we are not held a slave to it and that Satan might not gain the upper hand. Fourth (#6), we are to consider on what occasions and seasons certain sins seem to take most advantage of us. We are to avoid these situations, nourish our souls, and stay clear of known temptations. Fifth (#7), we are to rise mightily against the first actings of sin in our souls. When you see yourself beginning to think sinfully or start to “go down the wrong road” (as they say nowadays), consider what evil that particular sin is and that it won’t stop until it has run its full course.

In chapter twelve we will look at principle number eight. It has to do with biblical thinking that leads to humility, i.e., the right judgment of who I am in light of the majesty and greatness of God. In chapter thirteen we will wrap up our discussion of Owen’s particular principles with a summary of his ninth principle. There we will talk about the danger of failing to listen to what God is saying to us about our sin by rushing to speak peace to our souls. Instead, we should listen and let God speak peace in his own time.

⁹⁵ VI:57.

⁹⁶ VI:58.

⁹⁷ VI:60.

⁹⁸ Psalm 51:5.

⁹⁹ VI:60.

¹⁰⁰ VI:61.

¹⁰¹ VI:62.

Introduction

In chapter seven and eight Owen set forth two general rules for the proper understanding and practice of mortification. First, a person must develop a love for and interest in Christ. In saying this, Owen is trying to cut off those papists who reduce mortification to the practice of certain religious rites, etc., but who advance no real knowledge of or love for Christ. Thus they have religion, but no power and the whole system, Owen would say, is to no avail. They are working for grace and not from grace. But Owen has shown us through Romans 8:13 and many other texts that God has already accepted us by faith and given us his Spirit as the true efficient cause of mortification.

The second general principle that Owen outlined was in chapter eight and had to do with what he calls a universality of obedience. Actually, what he was saying is that true mortification springs from the proper foundation of a sincere and diligent frame of heart toward a universality of obedience to God. The person who simply tries to overcome a perplexing lust, as Owen refers to them, without desiring obedience in all areas of life, is building his house on quicksand and in the end will mortify no sin.

Having outlined these two general principles, Owen proceeds now in chapters nine through fourteen to give “particular directions” for the practice of mortification. These particular directions can be divided into two categories: (1) those which are preparatory to mortification, and (2) those which describe the actual work of mortification. The first particular direction is preparatory to the work of mortification and concerns dangerous symptoms attending any lust and the characteristics of these symptoms.

A Detailed Discussion of the Argument of Chapter Nine

Particular Principle #1: Consider What Dangerous Symptoms Attend Your Sin

The first particular principle Owen suggests is as follows:

Consider what dangerous symptoms thy lust hath attending or accompanying it,—whether it hath any deadly mark on it or no; if it hath, extraordinary remedies are to be used; an ordinary course of mortification will not do it.

You will say, “What are these dangerous marks and symptoms, the desperate attendencies of an indwelling lust, that you intend?”⁷⁷

The rest of the chapter is taken up with demonstrating some of the “dangerous symptoms,” that is, “desperate attendencies” of indwelling lusts.

1. Inveterateness

Owen argues that if we have allowed some sin to lay long in the heart, “to abide in power and prevalency,” and we have received many blows from it without attempting to kill it or nourish the wounds which it has inflicted, then that lust is dangerous:

Hast thou permitted worldliness, ambition, greediness of study, to eat up other duties, the duties wherein thou oughtest to hold constant communion with God, for some long season? Or uncleanness to defile thy heart with vain, and foolish, and wicked imaginations for many days? Thy lust has a dangerous symptom….When a lust hath lain long in the heart, corrupting, festering, cankering, it brings the soul to a woful [sic] condition. In such a case, an ordinary course of humiliation will not do the work.⁷⁸

These are the kinds of lusts and sins, says Owen, that make their way into all the faculties of the soul, including the emotions where they often take up residence, as it were. As a result they become familiar to the mind and cause no great alarm when they appear; they can ply their trade without the slightest bit of resistance. Owen says they are dangerous for two reasons: (1) The person who lives in such a condition becomes increasingly unable to distinguish between the long abode of an unmortified sin and the dominion of sin, the latter of which can only properly be said of a non-Christian, and (2) the person who sees his lust so fixed in his soul lacks hope, struggling to believe that things will change and his peace restored? Comparing sin to an inmate Owen says:

Old neglected wounds are often mortal, always dangerous. Indwelling distempers grow rusty and stubborn by continuing ease and quiet. Lust is such an inmate as, if it can plead time and some prescription, will not easily be ejected. As it never dies of itself, so if it be not daily killed it will always gather strength.⁷⁹

2. The Heart’s Countenancing of Itself

Our hearts have a tendency to speak peace to us, all the while knowing that we possess some lust which we are not even attempting to mortify. This is another “dangerous symptom of a deadly distemper in the heart.” Owen says we do this in several ways, two of which are as follows.

First, when we recognize some sin in our heart, and neglect to apply diligence in the mortification of it, but instead turn to look for the good in our heart so that it might go well with us—that our consciences might be assuaged—sin has taken a dangerous root. Now Owen is not saying that we should never think about our experiences of God and call them to mind frequently so that we might be comforted and encouraged, but when we do this in order to escape a guilty conscience, we are in a dangerous posture. Listen to Owen:

For a man to gather up his experiences of God, to call them to mind, to collect them, consider, try, and improve them, is an excellent thing,—a duty practiced by all the saints, commended in the Old Testament and the New….And as it is in itself excellent, so it hath beauty added to it by a proper season, a time of trial or temptation, or disquietness of the heart about sin….But now to do it for this end, [that is,] to satisfy conscience, which cries and calls for another purpose, is a desperate device of a heart in love with sin. When a man’s conscience shall deal with him, when God shall rebuke him for the sinful distemper of his heart, if he, instead of applying himself to get that sin pardoned in the blood of Christ and mortified by his Spirit, shall relieve himself by any such other evidences as he hath, or thinks himself to have, and so disentangle himself from under the yoke that God was putting on his neck, his condition is very dangerous, his wound hardly curable.⁸⁰

A second way in which the heart of a man or woman countenances itself (i.e., speaks peace to itself) is by turning the grace of God into license. People who apply grace and mercy to unmortified sin, or sin not sincerely endeavored to be mortified, are deceitful and entangled in the love of sin. To indulge in sin because you know that God will forgive you is the height of hypocrisy and turns the grace of God into an occasion for license, the very thing Paul warned against in Romans 6:1-2:

6:1 What shall we say then? Are we to remain in sin so that grace may increase? 6:2 Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it? (NET Bible)

Thus both by the craft of Satan himself and our own remaining unbelief we twist that which is meant to set us free from sin and turn it into an opportunity for the flesh. Though Owen does not mention it here, we would do well to read Titus 2:10-11 to see what the true effect of grace is:

2:10 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people. 2:11 It trains us to reject godless ways and worldly desires and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age (See also 1 Cor 15:10).

Such a person who has a secret liking for sin, but will not practice it at any given moment simply because people are present or some circumstance prevents them, and who relieves his conscience by ways other than mortification and the blood of Christ, that person is corrupt, and will, “without speedy deliverance, be at the door of death.”

3. The Frequency of Sin’s Success

Another dangerous symptom, according to Owen, is the frequency of sin’s success in obtaining the prevailing consent of the will toward that sin. What Owen means by this is that sin has success when it obtains the delight of the will, even if the act cannot be committed or sin cannot be “finished” (as James says) at that particular time. This too, is a bad state for a person to be in—“dangerous” in Owen’s words. And, according to Owen, it does not matter whether this state arises as a result of a choice of the will or inadvertently. He says,

When we are inadvertent and negligent, where we are bound to watchfulness and carefulness, that inadvertency doth not take off from the voluntariness of what we do thereupon; for although men do not choose and resolve to be negligent and inadvertent, yet if they choose the things that will make them so, they choose inadvertency itself as (i.e., since) a thing may be chosen in its cause.⁸¹

According to Owen, men should not think that the evil in their hearts is somehow overlooked just because their consent surprises even them. But why is it not overlooked? Because it is often times a state of affairs brought about by their own previous negligence.

4. When Judgment Only Motivation for Mortification

Some of us only talk about not sinning in the context of judgment for sin. “I better not do that because God will punish me for it.” While this statement is prima fascia true, such truth itself becomes corrupt in the hands of sinners. We are trying, in effect, to overcome sin by bringing in the law and its punishments; we have exchanged the gentle yoke of Christ, for the iron yoke of the law. Punishment for sin is not the primary or central reason for mortifying the deeds of the flesh. Such a perspective reveals, according to Owen, that sin has taken great possession of our will. Instead we ought to bring in “gospel weapons” to deal with sin—weapons such as (1) the death of Christ; (2) the love of God; (3) the detestable nature of sin; (4) the preciousness of communion with God, and (5) a deeply grounded abhorrency of sin as sin. Owen says this was the attitude of Joseph in the Old Testament (Gen 39:9) and Paul in the New Testament. Read 2 Corinthians 7:1 for example and note the movement from the grace of God (through promises) to the command to grow in holiness:

7:1 Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that could defile the body and the spirit, and thus accomplish holiness out of reverence for God.

Summarizing, Owen says,

But now if a man be so under the power of his lust that he hath nothing but the power of law to oppose it withal, if he cannot fight against it with gospel weapons, but deals with it altogether with hell and judgment, which are the proper arms of the law, it is most evident that sin hath possessed itself of his will and affections to a very great prevalency and conquest.

Such a person hath cast off, as to the particular spoken of, the conduct of renewing grace, and is kept from ruin only by restraining grace.⁸²

Owen tells us that when we are driven to take a stand against sin we should ask ourselves whether this is because we are afraid of “getting caught” (i.e., God punishing us), or whether we truly hate sin and love Christ. The overriding orientation of the believer should be the latter posture because he is “no longer under the law, but under grace.”

5. Judiciary Hardness

There are times, says Owen, when God leaves us under the perplexing power of some lust or sin as chastening punishment for previous sin, negligence, and folly. This may be the very thing for which Israel is making her complaint before God in Isaiah 63:17:

63:17 Why, Lord, do you make us stray from your ways, and make our minds stubborn so that we do not obey you? Return for the sake of your servants, the tribes of your inheritance! (NET Bible)

Thus the question arises as to how we can know whether this “dangerous symptom” attends our lusts.

But how shall a man know whether there be any thing of God’s chastening hand in his being left to the disquieting of his distemper? Ans. Examine thy heart and ways. What was the state and condition of thy soul before thou fellest into the entanglements of that sin which now thou so complainest of? Hadst thou been negligent in duties? Hadst thou lived inordinately to thyself? Is there the guilt of any great sin lying upon thee unrepented of? A new sin may be permitted, as well as a new affliction sent, to bring an old sin to remembrance.⁸³

Owen concludes by saying that if we have received any mercy, protection or deliverance from God and have not been thankful, if we have not labored to mortify sin, if we have given way to temptations in the world, and this is now our state, we are to “awake [and] call upon God” because we are “fast asleep in a storm of anger” all around us.⁸⁴

6. Resisting God’s Chastening

At times we would rather stay in our sin than repent when God chastens us. We refuse to let go of that attitude or thing even after God has graciously disciplined us for it. Isaiah 57:17 talks about this issue and how God disciplines by affliction and desertion:

57:17 I was angry because of their sinful greed; I attacked them and angrily rejected them, yet they remained disobedient and stubborn. (NET Bible)

Owen says that if a man continues in such sin after the prolonged discipline of God there is nothing that can bring him back except the sovereign grace of God. But no person should presume upon God to do this or promise himself such deliverance from the Lord. God may not deliver, but instead allow you to continue in your folly.

There are times when God will visit men for their evil and he did just that in the case of Joseph’s brothers. This made them reflect on their sin and judge themselves for it. He might also speak loud and clear through the danger, sickness, and trouble that a man finds himself in. He also speaks clearly through the preaching of his word—that great ordinance for the conviction, conversion, and edification of his people—startling sinners, calling them to relinquish the lust in their hearts and so return to him. But the soul that does not repent when God has done all this is truly in a very sad condition. Owen says:

Unspeakable are the evils which attend such a frame of heart. Every particular warning to a man in such an estate is an inestimable mercy; how then doth he despise God in them who holds out against them! And what infinite patience is this in God, that he doth not cast off such a one, and swear in his wrath that he shall never enter into his rest!

This is the first particular direction: Consider whether the lust or sin you are contending with hath any of these dangerous symptoms attending of it.⁸⁵

A Caution

Owen warns his readers that just because they struggle with lusts that are common to all believers does not mean that they are in fact believers. These are the kinds of sins a believer may fall into, but they do not constitute what a believer is. You might as well call yourself a believer, Owen says, because you commit adultery; after all king David, a believer after God’s own heart, committed adultery! No, these struggles with sin belong to the Christian due to the reality of indwelling sin and will someday be dealt with at glorification. The unbeliever has no such hope. Therefore, a person must realize that one becomes a believer through faith in Christ, not by possessing sinful struggles common to all men, believer and unbeliever alike. A person must look for other evidences indicative of belief if he is to rightly determine his state. Owen says that to argue the opposite is to suggest that since wise men sometimes do foolish things, to do foolish things is to be a wise man.

A Summary of Chapter Nine

In this chapter Owen laid out for us a particular principle and six ways of determining its relevance to our lives. The principle is: Determine what dangerous symptoms attend your lust because if there are any, a normal course of mortification will not do. Now, to determine whether any dangerous symptoms exist, a person should look for six things. They are: (1) the inveterateness of sin, that is, the length of time the sin(s) has been allowed to abide in the heart and therefore its strength; (2) the ways in which the heart denies the presence of sin and seeks to find comfort even when it knows there is unmortified sin; (3) the frequency of sin’s success in securing the delight of the will, even if such a lust cannot—for whatever reason—be immediately acted on; (4) the desire to mortify sin only in light of possible punishments; (5) a judiciary hardness whereby God allows a certain lust to perplex you because of unconfessed sin in other areas, and (6) continuous resisting of God’s chastening hand—chastening which comes through confrontation, preaching, and difficult circumstances. In the next chapter Owen will build upon this foundation by bringing in another particular principle: dealing with sin by seeking a clear and abiding sense of its guilt, danger, and evil.

⁷⁷ VI:43.

⁷⁸ VI:44.

⁷⁹ VI:44.

⁸⁰ VI:45.

⁸¹ VI:46.

⁸² VI:47.

⁸³ VI:48.

⁸⁴ VI:48.

⁸⁵ VI:49.