Owen on Mortification

dr_parsley · #1 (**permalink**) 09-01-2009, 06:14 AM

Just a summary and some quotable bits for your perusal. Refreshing ourselves in these things is always useful I think. Page numbers are taken from the Puritan Paperback edition. Quotes have been selected on no other basis than what stood out for me this time.

On page vii, one of the first statements of the book says that there is so much temptation to sin around because professing Christians are "both at peace in the world and divided among themselves." Why is one plagued with temptations? It's likely to be because he is at peace in the world and divided against his brethren.

page 3, "To mortify ... is to take away the principle of all its strength, vigour and power, so that it cannot act, or exert, or put forth any proper actings of its own."

page 5, "You must always be at it while you live; do not take a day off from this work; always be killing sin or it will be killing you."

page 23, "Sin untunes and unframes the heart itself, by entangling its affections"

page 46, about someone who thinks mortifying his sin is more important than getting his salvation right first, "He that shall call a man away from mending a hole in the wall of his house, to quench a fire that is consuming the whole building, is not his enemy. Poor soul! It is not your sore finger but your great fever you need to notice. You set yourself against a particular sin, and do not realise that you are nothing but sin."

page 74, "Among those who walk with God, there is no greater motive and incentive to universal holiness, and the preserving of our hearts and spirits in all purity and cleanness, than this, that we keep our hearts undefiled for the blessed Spirit Who dwells in us as the temple of God, and keeps us for the Lord."

page 79, "Have I defiled the heart that Christ died to wash? How can I keep myself out of the dust?"

page 83, "For the mortification of any sin so rooted in the nature of a man, there is one expedient particularly suited for him: 'I discipline my body and keep it under control'."

page 93, "As we seek to meditate in our minds and frame thoughts about God as we do about other objects of thinking, we fall so far short that we make an idol in our mind and worship a god of our own making, and not the true God who made us. We may as well hew him out of wood or stone as form him as a being in our minds, suited to our imaginations."

page 121, "Christ is the fountain from which the new man must draw the influences of life and strength, or he will decay every day"

page 121, "What shall I say to the Lord? His love, mercy, grace, goodness, peace, joy, consolation - I have despised all of them! I have considered them as nothing, that I might harbour lust in my heart. Have I seen God as my Father, that I might provoke Him to His face? Was my soul washed that there might be room for new defilements? Shall I seek to disappoint the purpose of the death of Christ? Shall I grieve the Holy Spirit, Who has sealed me unto the day of redemption?" Owen says to allow your conscience to consider these things every day.

From chapter 9 - six deadly and serious symptoms, which indicate that "if I am a believer, I am a most miserable one".

1. Long habit of a sin
2. Heart claims to be in a good condition despite the sin
3. Sin is frequently willed
4. Fighting against sin only because of its consequences
5. When it is a punishment from God - God has given me up to it at least for a time
6. The sin has already withstood discipline from God

If you are such an extraordinary case then you need the following extraordinary measures.

* Look to your salvation first
* You must fight all sin and sins, not just selected ones
* Meditate on how dangerous sin is for you, others around you, temporally and eternally
* Meditate on the horror of sin against gospel grace
* Pay particular attention to your natural weaknesses
* Observe and learn the ways of the enemy
* Rise mightily on the first sign of sin
* Fast to aid meditation particularly if it's a sin to which your body is naturally inclined

Summary of the directions of chapter 14:

1. Set your faith upon Christ for the killing of your sin.
1. ...considering how Christ is able to do it
2. wait in faith with an expectation of relief from Christ
3. considering his empathy and faithfulness
4. and making use of every means of communion
2. Consider that it is the Holy Spirit who does it all, who reminds you and establishes you in these truths which encourage and empower mortifcation.

Richard Tallach · #2 (**permalink**) 09-02-2009, 10:45 AM

I read Owen on "A Display of Arminianism" and "The Death of Death" a number of years ago. These are theological treatises against theological error.

I am now reading Owen on ''The Holy Spirit" in its unabridged form. It's been sitting unread on my bookshelves for years. I am finding great personal/devotional/spiritual and experimental benefit from it for my own sanctification. I've almost reached the section on mortification.

***Joshua*** · #3 (**permalink**) 09-02-2009, 11:29 AM

I like these as well:

Quote:

Let no man think to kill sin with few, easy, or gentle strokes. He who hath once smitten a serpent, if he follow not on his blow until he be slain, may repent that ever he began the quarrel. And so will he who undertakes to deal with sin, and pursues it not constantly to the death.

Quote:

Temptation is like a knife, that may either cut the meat or the throat of a man; it may be his food or his poison, his exercise or his destruction

Quote:

When sin lets us alone we may let sin alone; but as sin is never less quiet than when it seems to be most quiet, and its waters are for the most part deep when they are still, so ought our contrivances against it to be vigorous at all times and in all conditions, even where there is least suspicion.

charliejunfan · #4 (**permalink**) 09-02-2009, 11:47 AM

I am currently 3/4 done in both Death of Death and Mortification, he is my favorite theologian and author, he doesn't waste any time on flowery garbage.

I think it is amazing that he and his wife had 11 children 10 of whom died in infancy, his daughter who lived to be 21 died of the pox or something like that. He was truly a great testimony of the work of Christ in believers.