John Owen - The Mortification of Sin

Chapter 2:
"Always be killing sin or it will be killing you."

"When sin lets us alone, we may let sin alone; but sin is always active when it seems to be the most quiet, and its waters are often deep when they are calm. We should therefore fight against it and be vigorous at all times and in all conditions, even when there is the least suspicion."

"Who can say that he has ever had anything to do with God or for God which indwelling sin has not tried to corrupt?"

"Sin is always acting, always conceiving, and always seducing and tempting."

"If sin is subtle, watchful, strong, and always at work in the business of killing our souls, and we are slothful, negligent, and foolish in this battle, can we expect a favorable outcome? There is not a day but sin foils or is foiled, prevails or is prevailed upon. It will always be so while we live in this world.  Sin will not spare for one day. There is no safety but in constant warfare for those who desire deliverance from sin's perplexing rebellion."

"Every time sin rises to tempt or entice, it always seeks to express itself in the extreme. Every unclean thought or glance would be adultery if it could; every covetous desire would be oppression; and every unbelieving thought would be atheism. It is like the grave that is never satisfied."

"Sin's expression is modest in the beginning but, once it has gained a foothold, it continues to take further ground and presses on to greater heights."

"Though there is in this generation a growing number of professors, a great noise of religion, religious duties in every corner, and preaching in abundance, there is little evidence of the fruit of true mortification. ...If vain spending of time, idleness, envy, strife, variance, emulations, wrath, pride, worldliness, selfishness, are the mark of Christians, we have them among us in abundance. May the good Lord send us a spirit of mortification to cure our distempers, or we will be in a sad condition!"

"Let a man pretend what he will, little concern over sin is a serious offence to the grace and mercy of God!"

Chapter 3:
The Holy Spirit is our only sufficiency for the work of mortification. All ways and means apart from Him have no true effect. He only is the great power behind it, and He works in us as He pleases.

When men are troubled with the guilt of a sin that has prevailed over them, they promise themselves and God that they will sin thus no more, but they seek to accomplish their own victory. ...Their ways are not sufficient. There is no self-endeavor that can accomplish mortification.  Almighty energy is necessary for its accomplishment.

The Holy Spirit so works in us and upon us, as we are able to be wrought in and upon, and yet He preserves our own liberty and free obedience. He works upon our understandings, wills, consciences, and affections, agreeably to their own natures. He works in us and with us, not against us or without us, so that His assistance is an encouragement as to the accomplishing of the work.

I might here bewail the endless, foolish labor of poor souls, who are convinced of sin, and yet not able to stand against its power. They try many perplexing ways and duties, to keep down sin, but, being strangers to the Spirit of God, they find it all in vain. They combat without victory, have war without peace, and are in slavery all of their days. They spend their strength for that which is not bread, and their labor for that which does not profit.

Chapter 4:
Sin untunes and unframes the heart itself, by entangling its affections. It lays hold on the affections, rendering its object beloved and desirable, so expelling the love of the Father.The unmortified soul cannot say uprightly and truly that God is its portion, having something else that it loves.

Sin fills the thoughts with its enticements. First it captures the thoughts and, if unmortified, it then seeks to make provision for and fulfill the lusts of the flesh.

Sin breaks out and actually hinders duty. The ambitious man must be studying, the worldling must be working or contriving, and the sensual, vain person providing vanity for himself, when they should be engaged in the worship of God.

Sin darkens the soul. It is a cloud, a thick cloud that spreads itself over the face of the soul, and intercepts all the beams of God's love and favor. It takes away all sense of the privilege of our adoption; and if the soul begins to gather up thoughts of consolation, sin quickly scatters them down.

Chapter 5:
Mortification of sin is not:

• Rooting out and destroying sin- There may doubtless be times of wonderful success by the Spirit, and such a great victory that a  man may have almost constant triumph over it; but the utter killing and destruction of it, we cannot expect in this life.
• The changing of some outward aspects of a sin-  Mortification is not just the substitution of one sin for another.
• The improvement of our natural constitution 
• The diverting of sins-  Like one who heals a sore in the body, only to have it break out in another location.
• Occasional victories over sin

These are some of the ways, and there are many others, whereby poor souls deceive themselves, and suppose they have mortified their lusts when they are still alive, mighty, and seeking at every opportunity to break forth to disrupt and disturb the soul's peace.                                                                                                                                                                                                                          
Chapter 6:

Mortification of sin is:

• A habitual weakening of the lust- Men are said to have their 'hearts set upon evil' and the inclination in their spirit is to make 'provision for the flesh' (Rom. 13:14).  We seek to take away that about it which give it is strength and power. We aim at the killing of the body of death 'day by day' (2 Cor. 4:16).
• A particular man may appear, in comparison with others, to be a mortified man. In reality however, his lust is just as strong, though not as apparent. His lust may not be as outwardly scandalous as others, but it is lust just the same. It may not disturb the soul as violently as other sins, but it nevertheless controls him as he secretly harbors it.
• With all troubling sin, no matter whether it encourages us to do evil or hinders us from doing good, the rule is the same: it must be mortified or it will arise again. A man may beat down the bitter fruit from an evil tree until he is weary but while the root of the tree continues to abide in strength and vigor, the beating down of the present fruit will not hinder it from bearing more evil fruit.
• A constant fight and contention against sin
• We need to recognize the enemy we are dealing with and resolve that it is to be destroyed by all means possible. The battle is a vigorous and hazardous one that deals with the issues of eternity. When a man is not very concerned, and sees his lust as a trivial thing, it is an indication that he is not mortified or even heading in that direction.
• We cannot go forward unless we recognize the plague of our own hearts (1 Kings 8:38).  It is to be feared that too many do not realize the enemy that they carry about with them in their hearts. This makes them ready to justify themselves, and to be impatient when they are reproved or admonished. They do not begin to realize the danger they are in. (2 Chron. 16:10).
• We need to be intimately acquainted with the ways, wiles, methods, advantages, and occasions which give lust its success. This is how men deal with their enemies. They search out their plans, ponder their goals, and consider how and by what means they have prevailed over them in the past. Then they can be defeated. Without this kind of strategic thinking, warfare is very primitive. Even when lust is not enticing and seducing, those who will mortify sin consider, 'This is still our enemy; this is his way and his methods, these are his advantages, this is the way he has prevailed, and he will do this, if he is not prevented'.
• We need to find out its pleas, pretences and reasonings, and see what its strategies, disguises and excuses are! We need to set the Spirit against the craft of the old man; to trace this serpent in all of its turning and windings, and to bring its most secret tricks out in the open.
• Even when we think that a lust is dead because it is quiet, we must labor to give it new wounds and new blows every day. (Col 3:5)
• A degree of success in the battle
• When man can quietly and in a calm frame of spirit search out and fight against sin and gain the victory against it, and continue in the peace of God; then sin is mortified in some considerable measure.
• We must implant, promote the continual residence of, and cherish those graces that stand in direct opposition to the lust. So, for example, by the implanting and growth of humility, pride is weakened.

Chapter 7:
Unless a man is a true believer, and grafted into Christ, he can never mortify a single sin.

There is no death of sin without the death of Christ.

Our union with Christ and the power of the Spirit enable us to mortify sin. All attempts at mortification without a true interest in Christ are vain!

Mortification is not the present duty of unregenerate men. God calls them to conversion first.  He calls them to the conversion of their whole soul, not just the mortification of this or that particular lust.

This is one of the most common deceptions in which men ruin their souls. They seek to apply themselves to victory over the troubling sin but do not allow their conviction to lead them to the gospel. They perish in their 'reformation'.

When a man's conscience is made sick with sin, and can find no rest, he needs to go to the great Physician of souls and get healing in His blood. But if that man is able to quiet his conscience through "victory" over a sin, he sits down without going to Christ at all. How many souls are thus deceived, right on into eternity!  How many religions are designed to pacify the conscience without Christ! By this means men satisfy themselves that their state and condition is good. They are hardened in a kind of self-righteousness.

He that shall call a man 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 realize that you are nothing but sin.

It is the duty of preachers to plead with men about their sins, but we must always remember to speak in such a way as to lead them to the discovery of their state and condition. Otherwise we may lead men to formality and hypocrisy and not accomplish the true end of preaching the gospel.

Chapter 8:
You cannot mortify a specific lust that is troubling you, unless you are seeking to obey the Lord from the heart in all areas!

We must hate all sin, as sin, and not just that which troubles us. Love for Christ, because he went to the cross, and hate for sin that sent him there, is the solid foundation for true spiritual mortification. To seek mortification only because a sin troubles us proceeds from self-love.

If you hate sin as sin, you would be watchful against everything that grieves and disquiets the Spirit of God. You would not be concerned only about the sin that upsets your own soul! ...If it did not bother you, you would not bother it. Do you think God will help you in such a hypocritical effort? ...Do you think he will free you from this so you are free to go and commit another sin which grieves Him?  'No,' says God, 'If I free him from this lust, I will not hear from him any more, and he will be content in his failure'. We must not be concerned only with that which troubles us, but with all that troubles God.

Lust lies in the heart of every one, even the best, while he lives.  Scripture also teaches that lust is cunning, crafty, that is seduces, entices, fights, and rebels. While a man keeps a diligent watch over his heart, lust withers and dies in it. But through negligence, lust erupts in some particular way.  Lust takes opportunity through the thoughts or desires and breaks out into open sin. When lust finds its expression in a particular avenue it keeps pushing, vexing, and disquieting the soul. In such a case it is not so easily restrained. A man may find himself wrestling with it in sorrow all his days. By a diligent spiritual watch, this might have been easily prevented.

If we do not seek to obey in every area of our lives, our soul becomes weak. If we seek only to have victory over the sin that troubles us, and do not consider the filth and guilt of it, we are selfish and offer a constant provocation to God.

Chapter 9:
Symptoms that accompany a lust.  If they are deadly and serious, then extraordinary remedies must be used.  The ordinary course of mortification will not work.  Let us consider six deadly and serious symptoms:

1. Firm establishment over a long period of time and settlement as a habitual practice
• Such a lust will make a deep imprint on the soul.  It will make its company a habit in your affections.  It will grow so familiar to your mind and conscience that they are not disturbed at its presence as some strange thing. 
• Do you think it will prove an easy thing to dislodge such a roommate, pleading to stay?
• Such a sin will not be easily ejected.  It will never die by itself, and if it is not daily killed it will only gather added strength.
2. When the heart pleads to be thought in a good state, yet all the while allows the continuance of a lust without any attempt at its mortification
• When a perplexing thought of sin comes, a man, instead of applying himself to the destruction of it, searches his heart to find some good thing so that it may go well with him, even though the sin or lust continues to abide in his heart.
• A person who seeks peace on any account and is content to live away from the love of God in this life, so long as it does not mean a final separation, shows that his love for sin exceeds his love for God.  What is to be expected from such a heart?
• It is natural for the flesh to reason for itself in the light of grace and mercy.  It stands ready to pervert grace for its own corrupt aims and purposes.  To apply mercy to a sin not vigorously mortified is to fulfill the end of the flesh against the gospel of grace.
3. When sin frequently succeeds in obtaining the consent of the will
• When the will finds delight in a sin, even though it is not outwardly performed, the temptation is successful.  A man may not go along with the sin as to the outward act, yet if he embraces the desire of it in his heart, the temptation has prevailed.  If a lust frequently succeeds in this way, it is a very bad sign.  
4. When a man fights against a sin only because of the consequences or penalty of that sin
• This is an evidence that sin has a great grip on his will, and his heart is full of wickedness.  A man who only opposes the sin in his heart for fear of shame among men or eternal punishment from God would practice the sin if there were no punishment attending it. How does this differ from living in the practice of the sin?
• Such a person has cast off, in this respect, renewing grace, and is kept from ruin only because of restraining grace.  
• Must this not be a great provocation to Christ, that men should cast off His gentle yoke and rule, to cast themselves back under the iron yoke of the law, merely because of their lusts?
• Examine yourself by this: When you are tempted, ...what do you say to your soul?  Is it only, 'Hell will be the end of this course.'?  ...This will not restrain you when you have voluntarily given up to your enemy a means of preservation a thousand times stronger.  Be sure of this, that unless you recover yourself rapidly from this condition, the thing you fear will come upon you.
5. When it is probable that trouble over a sin or lust is a punishment from God
• A new sin may be permitted, as well as a new affliction sent, to bring an old sin to remembrance.  Have you received any eminent mercy, protection, or deliverance for which you were not thankful? Have you failed to glorify God when He graciously afforded you the opportunity to do so in your generation?  etc.
6. When your lust has already withstood particular dealings from God against it
• This is a sad condition, from which nothing but mere sovereign grace may set a man free, and no one in such a state should presume upon such deliverance.
• This frame of heart is surrounded by countless evils.  The fact that God does not cast off such a one, and swear in His wrath that he shall never enter into His rest, can only be ascribed to His infinite patience. 

Chapter 10:
Get a clear and abiding sense of the guilt, danger, and evil of the sin with which you are troubled.

1. Consider the guilt of it.
• One of the deceptions of a prevailing lust is to play down its guilt, saying, in effect:  'Is it not a little one?' ... There are many ways in which sin diverts the mind from an appropriate sense of guilt.  Sin's loud voice darkens the mind so that it cannot make a right judgement of things.
• Our perplexing reasonings, our promises calculated to lessen our guilt, turbulent desires, false intentions of reform, and hopes of mercy, all have their part in confusing the mind as it considers the guilt of a prevailing lust.
• This is the outcome of lust in the heart; it darkens the mind so that it does not rightly judge the guilt of sin.
• Consider in your mind that the guilt of sinning against grace is more serious than if you did not have any grace at all. 
• God delights in the abundance of beauty and excellencies in the hearts of his children more than in the most glorious works of other men.  
• The outward sins into which the believer may fall are more serious than those of the unsaved, because of the grace opposing them.
2. Consider the danger of it.
• Danger 1:  Being hardened
• Use all means, consider your temptations, watch diligently; there is a treachery, a deceit in sin that tends to the hardening of your hearts from the fear of God.  This hardening is so serious that your heart becomes insensitive to moral influence.
• You who at one time were very tender and would melt under the influence of the Word and under trials will grow 'sermon-proof' and 'trial-proof.'  You will be able to pass over spiritual duties like prayer, hearing, and reading, with your heart not in the least affected by them.
• Can a sadder thing happen to you?  Is this not enough to make any heart tremble, to think of being in such a state?
• Take heed!  This is the outcome of harboring your lust - the hardening of your heart, the searing of your conscience, the blinding of your mind, the dulling of your affections, and the deceiving of your whole soul.
• Danger 2:  Coming under a great chastisement
•  
• Danger 3:  The loss of peace and strength
• To have peace with God and strength to walk before Him is the goal of the great promises of the covenant of grace.  In these things is the life of our souls. Going on without these, in reasonable abundance, is to die while we live!  What good will our lives do us if we do not see the face of God sometimes in peace or do not have a measure of strength to walk with Him?   Unmortified lust will deprive us of these blessings. 
• Though God should not destroy you, yet He might cast you into this condition to give you a sharp and living apprehension of your destruction. Consider in your heart the terrible outcome of such a state.  Do not stop thinking about it till your soul trembles within you.
• Danger 4:   Eternal destruction
• There is... no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:1).  True, but who shall have the comfort of this promise? ... Those who 'walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit' (Rom. 8:4). 
• Whatever evidence we may have of our own salvation, we must acknowledge that an evil path leads to destruction.  To believe otherwise is atheism.
3. Consider the present evils of it.
• It grieves the holy and blessed Spirit.  
• The Holy Spirit is grieved by our sin as a tender and loving friend is grieved by wounds from a close friend.  ... If there is any gracious character in our soul, if it is not entirely hardened by the deceitfulness of sin, then not grieving the Spirit is surely a great motive for purity. 
• The Lord Jesus Christ is wounded afresh by it.
• It will take away a man's usefulness in his generation.
• The world is full of poor professors without reality.  How few are there that walk in beauty and glory!
• Sin lies as a worm at the root of obedience and corrodes and weakens it day by day.  

Chapter 11:

Charge your conscience with the guilt of indwelling sin. Not only should you acknowledge that it brings guilt upon you, but you should charge your conscience with the guilt of its actual risings and out-breakings. Consider how righteous it is that every one of your transgressions should receive a just reward of judgment.

Sin in relation to the Law

• Lay your particular corruption next to the law and let its pressure weigh heavily on your conscience.
• You might say that you are not under the condemning power of the law and that you have been freed from it.  There is therefore no need to be troubled by it.  But:
1. Tell your conscience that it cannot be assured that you are free from the condemning power of sin while your unmortified lust dwells in your heart.  Assuredly, he that pleads in the deepest part of his heart that he is truly freed from the condemning power of the law, and yet purposely allows the least sin or lust to be entertained there, cannot upon gospel authority have any proof of spiritual security.  How can he consider himself truly delivered from the very sin that he is entertaining?
2. The purpose of the law is to discover sin and the guilt of it. It should awaken and humble the soul and reveal sin in all of its horrible colors.  
• If you are unwilling to deal with it on this account, this is an indication of a hard heart under the deceitfulness of sin.  
• This is a door which many professing believers have entered, which has led them into open apostasy.  They have claimed deliverance from the law so that they might ignore its guidance and direction. 
• If your ears are open, the law will speak with a voice that will make you tremble.  The law will cast you to the ground and fill you with astonishment.
• If you intend ever to gain the victory in mortification, you must tie your conscience to the law.  Do not allow it to dodge the law's arrows.  Allow the law to give you a clear view of your guilt.  As King David says, 'My sin is ever before me' (Ps. 51:3).

Sin in relation to the Gospel

• Bring your lust to the gospel.  Not for relief, but for further conviction of your guilt.
• Say to your soul, 'What have I done?  What love, what mercy, what blood, what grace have I despised and trampled on!'  ... 
• 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 harbor 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?
• Consider the infinite patience and forbearance of God towards us.  Have you not often felt that it seemed impossible that He could bear much longer with you?  That He might cast you off, and be gracious no more?  That all His forbearance was exhausted, and that hell and wrath were now prepared for you?  Yet, despite this expectation, He has returned with visitations of love.  Will you yet abide in that which provokes the eyes of His glory?
• Consider all God's gracious dealings with you.  Consider His providential blessings, deliverances, mercies, and enjoyments that He has given you.  Fill your conscience with such memories.  Do not leave these meditations until your heart is strongly influenced with the guilt of indwelling corruption.  As long as your conscience is able to justify your failure, your soul will never vigorously attempt the mortification of sin.

Seek a constant longing and thirsting to be delivered from the power of sin.

• The desire, longing and panting after  deliverance is in itself a grace which begins to conform the soul to the likeness of that which is longed for.
• Your longing heart will now watch for all opportunities to gain an advantage over its enemy.  It will readily fall in with all the help it can find to accomplish sin's destruction. 
• A strong desire is the life-blood of praying without ceasing.  A strong desire sets faith and hope to work, and drives the soul in following hard after the Lord. 

Consider whether the trouble that you are perplexed with is related to your particular make-up and nature.

• A proneness to some sins may doubtless lie in the natural temper and disposition of individuals. In such a case let us consider three things:
1. This is not in the least a just excuse for the guilt of your sin.  David considered his being formed in sin as a further aggravation of his transgression, and not a lessening of it. 
2. If your constitution is particularly prone to give way to a particular lust, then Satan and sin have a special advantage, and you must, with extraordinary watchfulness, care, and diligence, fight to overcome these attacks against your soul.
3. Bringing the body into subjection can indeed assist in mortification.  Cutting short the natural appetite by fasting, watching and the like, are doubtless acceptable to God and may be done, subject to the following guidelines:
• Fasting and watching and the like should not be looked upon as things which in themselves have the ability to produce true mortification.  
• These disciplines are to be looked upon only as means by which the Spirit may, and sometimes does, put forth strength for the accomplishing of His own work.

Consider what occasions your sin has taken advantage of to exert itself in the past, and watch carefully at such times.

• Consider what ways, what kinds of company, what opportunities, what studies, what occupations, what conditions have at any time given , or do usually give, advantages to your sins, and set yourself against them all.  
• Men will do this with their bodily infirmities.  The season, the diet and the air that have proved offensive are avoided.  Are the things of the soul of less importance?  If we dare to dally with the occasions for sin, we will dare to sin.

Rise mightily against the first sign of sin.  Do not allow it to gain the smallest ground.

• Do not say, 'Thus far I shall go and no farther.'  If you allow it one step, it will take another.  It is impossible to fix boundaries for sin!  It is like water in a channel.  If it ever breaks out, it will flow on through the breach.
• Consider what an unclean thought desires.  It desires to have you immerse yourself in folly and filth.
• Ask envy what it aims at.  Murder and destruction are its natural conclusion.  Set yourself against it as if it had already surrounded you in wickedness.
• If sin gains ground in your affections so that you delight in it, your understanding will also come to think little of it.

Chapter 12:
We need to be exercised with such meditations as it will fill us at all times with self-abasement and thoughts of our own vileness.

1. Meditate upon the excellence and the majesty of God and our infinite, inconceivable distance from Him.  These meditations will fill us with our own vileness and strike deep at the root of our indwelling sin.
2. Consider often how unacquainted you really are with God.  Certainly you know enough to keep you low and humble, but how little we really know of Him!  
• Seek to keep your heart in a continual awe of the majesty of God. 
• All that Moses saw and learned was but little compared with the perfections of God's glory.
• We may speak much of God; talk of Him, His way, His works, His counsels, all day long; but the truth is, we know very little of Him.  Our thoughts, our meditations, our expressions of Him are low, many of them unworthy of His glory, and none of them reaching His perfections.
• How short do we come of the truth of things.  We are looking in a looking glass where we see only obscure images of things, and not the things themselves!
• It is right for a child to love, honor, believe, and obey his father; and yet his father is aware of his childhood weaknesses.  We are like children.  Notwithstanding all our confidence of high attainments, all our notions of God are but childish with regard to His infinite perfections.
• The queen of Sheba had heard much of Solomon, and formed great thoughts of his magnificence in her mind.  But when she came and saw his glory, she was forced to confess that not half the truth had been told her.  When He shall bring us into His presence we shall cry out, 'We never knew Him as He is; only a thousandth of His glory, and perfection, and blessedness, has ever entered our hearts!'
• The light of God, in Whom is no darkness, forbids all access to Him by any creature.  We who cannot behold the sun in its glory are too weak to bear the beams of infinite brightness.
• When we consider the very being of God, we find ourselves so far from the true knowledge of it that we cannot come up with the right words and expressions.  As we seek to meditate in our minds and frame thoughts about God, 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 that has made us.
• The best thoughts about the being of God are ones in which we realize that we cannot truly comprehend Him as He is.  We realize that we know so little when our best thoughts of God are, 'We cannot know.'
• We are more perfect in our understanding when we realize that we cannot understand, and rest there.  It is just the back parts of eternity and infinity that we see.  What shall we say of the Trinity, or the existence of three Persons in the same individual essence?  This is such a mystery that it is denied by many, because they cannot understand it.  Is it not indeed a mystery whose every letter is mysterious?
• We know Him rather by what He does than by what He is.  We understand His doing us good, but not truly His essential goodness.  How little a portion of Him, as Job says, is discovered in this way!
• All men have impressions in their hearts that there is a God.  Their reason so teaches them, through the works of His creation and providence. Their understanding, however, is weak, low, dark, and confused.  
• The chief and almost only acquaintance we have with God is by faith.  
• The object of our faith is beyond our ability to grasp fully.
• The truth is that we all know enough of Him to love Him more than we do, to delight in Him and serve Him, to believe Him and obey Him, and to put our trust in Him much beyond our current attainments.  Our darkness and weakness is no excuse for our negligence and disobedience.
• God's purpose in giving us any knowledge of Himself is that we may glorify Him as God.  
• The difference between believers and unbelievers as to knowledge is not so much in the matter of their knowledge, as in the manner of their knowing.  Unbelievers, some of them, may know more and be able to say more of God, His perfections, and His will, than many believers; but they do not know God as they should.  They do not know in the right manner; their knowledge is not spiritual and saving, and it does not have a heavenly light.  The excellence of a believer is not that he has a large apprehension of things, but that what he does understand, which may be very little, he sees in the light of the Spirit of God.  He has a saving, soul-transforming light.  This is what gives us communion with God.
• We should continually be accustomed to reverential thoughts of God's greatness and omnipresence.  Then we will always be watchful against any behavior not suited to His presence.

Chapter 13:

When God stirs your heart about the guilt of your sin, concerning either its root and indwelling, or its breaking out, be careful you do not speak peace to yourself before God speaks it.  Listen closely to what He says to your soul.

• This is a business of great importance.  It is a sad thing for a man to deceive his own soul in this way.
• We may be mistaken and trouble ourselves in vain, or flatter ourselves upon false grounds, but He is the 'Amen, the faithful and true witness', and what He speaks of our state and condition, that it is indeed!

When a man truly looks upon Christ whom he has pierced, without whom there is no healing or peace, and mourns, his mourning will be because it was his sin that pierced Him!

When God comes to us and speaks peace to us, He fills our soul with shame for all the ways in which we have been alienated from Him.

When peace is spoken, if it is not attended with hatred and abhorrence of the sin which caused the wound and was the reason for all the trouble, then this is not God's peace, but a peace of our own making.

Let not the poor souls that walk in this path ever think that they will have true and solid peace.  They call to the Lord Jesus Christ for mercy, but they still keep the sweet morsel of sin under their tongue!

...This man considers the great promises, and on this basis he grants peace to himself, whether the Spirit of God makes the application or not, or whether his application of the text is consistent with the intent of the author.  He does not consider whether it is indeed God who is speaking peace.  He does not wait upon God, who yet may be hiding His face.

God will have his children lie a while at His door, when they have run from His house, and not instantly rush in upon Him; ...Now, self-healers, or men that speak peace to themselves, are commonly hasty.  They will not wait a while.  They do not wait for God to speak, but rush on seeking immediate healing.

When God speaks peace, He guides and keeps the soul so that it does not turn again to folly.  When we speak peace to ourselves, the heart is not taken away from the evil; no it is the quickest way to lead a soul into the habit of backsliding.

When God speaks peace, there comes along with it so much sweetness, and such a discovery of His love, that there is a strong inclination and desire to deal perversely no more!

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 see evil and cannot look at wrong' (Hab 1:13).

There is, if I may put it in this way, a secret instinct in faith, whereby it knows the voice of Christ when He truly speaks.  As the babe leaped in the womb when the blessed Virgin came to Elisabeth, faith leaps in the heart when Christ indeed draws near.

When he speaks, he speaks as no man has ever spoken.  He speaks with power.  He will in one way or another make your heart burn within you.  When He puts His hand to the latch (Song of Sol 5:4), His Spirit will seize your heart!

If the Word of the Lord does good to your soul, He is the one who speaks it.  If it humbles you and cleanses you, it is fulfilling the purpose for which it was given to you, namely to endear, to cleanse, to melt and bind to obedience, and to self-emptiness, and so on.

Chapter 14:

The things we have considered so far have been preparation for the work of mortification.  They are necessary to prepare the heart, and without them this work cannot be accomplished.  The directions for the work itself are only two. 

Direction 1:  Set your faith upon Christ for the killing of your sin.  His blood is the great sovereign remedy for sin-sick souls.

• Live in the light of Christ's great work, and you will die a conqueror.  You will, through the good providence of God, live to see your lust dead at your feet.
• By faith ponder this, that though you are in no way able to conquer your own disordered state, and though you are weary of fighting it, and though you are ready to faint, there is enough in Jesus Christ to give you relief!
• In your greatest distress and anguish, consider the fullness of grace, all the riches and treasures of strength, might and help that are laid up in Christ for our support. 
• Therefore, let your soul, by faith, dwell on such thoughts as these:
• I am a poor, weak creature; unstable as water, and I cannot excel.  This corruption is too hard for me, and is the doorway to the ruin of my soul.  I do not know what to do.
• My soul has become parched ground, and a habitation of dragons.  
• I have made promises and broken them.  I have made vows, but I did not keep them.
• Many times I have been persuaded that I have gained the victory, and that I should be delivered, but I was deceived.  Now I plainly see that without some great help and assistance, I will perish and be forced to abandon God.
• But yet, though this is my state and condition, I will lift up my hands that hang down, and strengthen my feeble knees, for behold, the Lord Jesus Christ has all the fullness of grace in His heart, and all the fullness of power in His hand.  He is able to slay all of these enemies.
• He can make the dry, parched ground of my soul to become a pool, and my thirsty, barren heart as springs of water. Yes, he can make this habitation of dragons, this heart, which is so full of abominable lusts and fiery temptations, to be a place of bounty and fruitfulness unto Himself. (Isaiah 35:7)

Direction 2: Raise up your heart in faith with an expectation of relief from Christ.

• Though it seems like a long time to you while you are in your trouble and perplexity, yet the victory shall surely come in the appointed time from the Lord Jesus Christ.  When it comes, that will be the best season for its accomplishment.  
• He will slay your lusts and your latter end will be peace.  Look for it from His hand with an expectation of when and how He might do it.
• Christ is the fountain from which the new man must draw the influences of life and strength, or he will decay every day.
• Consider His mercy, tenderness, and kindness as He represents us as our great High Priest at the right hand of  God.  Certainly He pities you in your distress.  He says, 'As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you.' (Isa 66) 
• The apostle tells us to expect this help and grace from Christ.  Yes, but on what account?  Because He is a faithful and merciful high priest! I shall be bold to say that this one thing of expecting relief from Christ, on the basis of His mercy as our high priest, will be a better and speedier means of destroying your lust and the disorder of your soul than all the most rigid efforts at self-mortification that the sons of men engage in.
• No soul has ever perished by the power of any lust, sin, or corruption who could raise his soul by faith to expect such relief from Jesus Christ.
• Nothing motivates the heart of a man to be useful and helpful to another more than when the other looks to him for help.  The kindness, care, and promises of Christ encourage us to expect His help.  Our rising to seek it in our time of need must greatly engage his heart to assist us.
• He died that we might be freed from the power of our sins, and be purified from all of our defiling lusts.  This purpose of His cannot fail.
• In death, Christ destroyed the works of the devil, and secured the Holy Spirit for us, ensuring the destruction of sin, as to its reign in believers, that it should not obtain its end or its dominion.
• The Holy Spirit alone can bring conviction. If the preaching of the Word joined with the reasonings of man were capable of bringing the conviction of sin, we would see much more conviction than we do. ...It is the Spirit alone that can do, and does do, this work.
• This is the first work of the Spirit to bring about mortification.  He convinces the soul of all its evil.  He cuts off all of lust's pleadings, uncovers all of its deceits, stops all of its evasions, and answers its self-justifications.  He makes the soul to confess the abomination of its sin, and to be cast down under the guilt of it. 
• The Spirit is the Author and Finisher of our sanctification.  He gives new supplies and influences of grace for holiness and sanctification when our resolve to resist is weakened.
• He enables us to pray with sighs and 'groanings too deep for words'.  This is surely the great way to prevail with God.

Heaven on Earth - Thomas Brooks

"The joy that attends the subduing of sin is a noble joy, a pure joy, a peculiar joy, an increasing joy, and a lasting joy; but that joy that attends the committing of sin is an ignoble joy, a corrupt joy, a decreasing joy, a dying joy."

I am sure that I am his, as I am sure that I live. I am his by purchase, and I am his by conquest; I am his by donation, and I am his by election; I am his by covenant, and I am his by marriage. I am wholly his; I am peculiarly his; I am universally his; I am eternally his. This I well know, and the knowledge thereof is my joy in life, and my strength and crown in death. p. 19

What I have found and felt, and what I do find and feel, is wonderfully beyond what I am able to express. I am as well able to tell the stars of heaven, and to number the sand of the sea, as I am able to declare to you the joy, the joy, the inconceivable joy, the assurance, the glorious assurance, that God hath given me. p. 52

Such souls as have once been in the arms of God, in the midst of all oppositions, they are as men made all of fire walking in stubble; they consume and overcome all oppositions; all difficulties are but as whetstones to their fortitude. The moon will run her course, though the dogs bark at it, so will all those choice souls that have found warmth under Christ's wings run their Christian race in spite of all difficulties and dangers. p.62

God loves to smile most upon his people when the world frowns most. When the world puts its iron chains upon their legs, then God puts his golden chains about their necks; when the world puts a bitter cup into their hands, then God drops some of his honey, some of his goodness and sweetness into it. p. 65

Ah, Christian, you wrong two at once, Christ and your own souls, whilst you thus reason: Lord, give me first assurance, and then I will believe in thee and rest upon thee; whereas your great work is to believe, and to hold on believing and acting of faith on the Lord Jesus, till you come to be assured and sealed up to the day of redemption. This is the surest and shortest way to assurance. p. 71

Ah, Christians! believing, believing is the ready way, the safest way, the sweetest way, the shortest way, the only way to a well-grounded assurance, and to that unspeakable joy and peace that flows from it, as the effect from the cause, the fruit from the root, the stream from the fountain. There is such assurance, and such joy that springs from the fresh and frequent actings of faith, that cannot be expressed, that cannot be painted. No man can paint the sweetness of the honeycomb, the sweetness of paradise, the fragrancy of the rose of Sharon. As the being of things cannot be painted, and as the sweetness of things cannot be painted, no more can that assurance and joy that flows from believing be painted or expressed; it is too great and too glorious for weak man to paint or set forth. p. 72

"O God, thou art my God, early I will seek thee! my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is: to see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary." In these words you have David's strong, earnest, and vehement desires; here you have desire upon desire; here you have the very flower and vigor of his spirit, the strength and sinews of his soul, the prime and top of his inflamed affections, all strongly working after a fuller enjoyment of God. Look, as the espoused maid longs for the marriage day, the apprentice for his freedom, the captive for his ransom, the condemned man for his pardon, the traveler for his inn, and the mariner for his haven; so doth a soul, that hath met with God in his ordinances, long to meet with God in heaven. It is not a drop, it is not a lap and away, a sip and away, that will suffice such a soul. No. This soul will never be quiet till it sees God face to face, till it be quiet in the bosom of God. The more a saint tastes of God in an ordinance, the more are his desires raised and whetted, and the more are his teeth set on edge for more and more of God. p. 70

"Thous hast loved my sol from the grave, for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back." Ah, says Hezekiah, I have now found that in my afflictions thy affections have been most strongly carried towards me, as towards one whom thou art exceedingly taken with. p. 84

The surest and the shortest way to assurance is to wrestle and contend with God for holiness, as the angel contended with the devil about the body of Moses, Jude 9. When the stream and cream of a man's spirit runs after holiness, it will not be night with that man; the Sun of righteousness will shine forth upon that man, and turn his winter into summer, and crown him with the diadem of assurance. p. 87

Well! remember this, it is mercy to lack mercy till we are fit for mercy, till we are able to bear the weight of mercy, and make a divine improvement of mercy. p. 88

Praying souls, remember this. It is but weakness to think that men shall reap as soon as they sow, that they shall reap in the evening when they have but sowed in the morning. p. 90

The soul of Mary Magdalene was full of devils; and yet Christ cast them out, and made her heart his house, his presence chamber. Why dos thou then say there is no hope for thee, O despairing soul? Paul was full of rage against Christ and his people, and full of blasphemy and impiety, and yet behold, Paul becomes a chosen vessel, Paul is caught up into the heaven, and he is filled with the gifts and graces of the Holy Ghost. Though the prodigal had run from his father, and spent and wasted all his estate in ways of wickedness, yet upon his resolution to return, his father meets him, and instead of killing him, he kisses; instead of kicking him, he embraces him; instead of shutting the door upon him, he makes sumptuous provision for him. And how then dost thou dare to say, O despairing soul, that God will never cast an eye of love upon thee, nor bestow a crumb of mercy on thee! p. 94

"God so loved the world;" so freely, so vehemently, so fully, so admirably, so inconceivably, "that he gave his only Son."

From first to last all is from free grace. God loves freely. The only ground of God's love is his love.  p. 96

Verily, seeing all happiness and blessedness comes in a way of free grace, and not in a way of doing, not in a way of works, you should arise, O despairing souls! and cast off all despairing thoughts, and drink of the waters of life freely.

God's mercies are above all his works, and above all ours too. His mercy is without measures and rules. All the acts and attributes of God sit at the feet of mercy.  p. 97

Who is he that condemns? It is Christ that died." Romans 8:33-38 The apostle, upon the account of Christ's death, of Christ's blood cries out Victory, victory! He looks upon all his enemies and sings it sweetly out, "Over all these we are more than conquerors" or "above conquerors." We do over-overcome. p. 100

Do not deceive yourselves; it is not a careless, slight, slender searching into your own hearts that will enable you to see the deep, the secret, the curious, the mysterious work of God upon you. If you do not "seek as for silver," and search for Christ and grace "as for hid treasures," you will not find them.  Your richest metals lie lowest, your choicest gems are in the bowels of the earth, and they that will have them must search diligently, and dig deep, or else they must go without them.  p. 106

It is not a superficial, but a thorough, serious, substantial examination that must enable a man to know whether he hath precious faith or no; whether he be Christ's spouse or the devil's prostitute. All is not gold that glitters; all is not faith that men call faith. p. 106

God hath his doing hand, his working hand in every man's heart; either he is a-working there in ways of mercy or of wrath; either he is building up or a-plucking down; either he is a-making all glorious within, or else he is a-turning all into a hell. Well! doubting souls, remember this, that the soundest joy, the strongest consolation, flow from a thorough examination of things within.

Many trembling souls are apt to call their faith unbelief, and their confidence presumption, and their zeal passion, and by this means many are kept off from assurance. Now, the way to remove this impediment is wisely and seriously to distinguish between renewing grace and restraining grace, betwixt common grace and special grace, betwixt temporary grace and sanctifying grace. Now, the difference between the one and the other I have shewed in ten particulars in my treatise called "Precious Remedies against Satan's Devices," and to that I refer thee for full satisfaction. p. 107

A lazy Christian will always lack four things, viz., comfort, content, confidence, and assurance. ...The lazy Christian hath his mouth full of complaints, when the active Christian hath his heart full of comforts. God would have the hearts of his children to be hot in religious services. "Be fervent" (or seething hot, as it is in the original) "in spirit, serving the Lord," Rom. 12:11. p. 111

Therefore, if ever you would have assurance, seek the Lord, not only while he may be found, but also in every gracious dispensation where he may be found.

Sicily, saith one, is so full of sweet flowers, that dogs cannot hunt there, the scent of the sweet flowers divereth their smell. And ah! what doth all the sweet delights and contents of this world, but make men lose the sense of heaven, but divert men from hunting after assurance, and from running after Christ. p. 115

St. Francis of Assisi

“And St. Francis said: 'My dear son, be patient, because the weaknesses of the body are given to us in this world by God for the salvation of the soul. So they are of great merit when they are borne patiently.”

The Character of Brother Lawrence

"Everything came alike to him, every station, every duty.  The good Brother found God everywhere, as near when he was at the humblest task as when praying with the Community.  He found no urgency for retreats, inasmuch as in the common task he met the same God to love and worship, as in the stillness of the desert."

"His one method of going to God and abiding in His Presence was to do all for the love of Him.  It was a matter of no consequence to him, whether he was employed on one thing or the other, provided that therein he sought God's glory.  It was to Him he looked, and not to the work in hand.  He knew that the more opposed the task was to his inclination, the greater and more blessed was the love which made him sacrifice his will to God; that the littleness of the work lessened not one whit the value of the offering, for God regards not the greatness of the work, but the love which prompts it."

"He marveled at nothing, nothing astonished him or gave him cause for fear.  This stability of soul sprung from the same source as did all his other virtues. The high notion which he had of God revealed in his heart a perfect picture of his Creator in all His Sovereign Justice and Infinite Mercy.  Resting on this he was assured that God would never deceive him, and would send such things only as were good for him."

Brother Lawrence - Spiritual Maxims

"We must go about our labors quietly, calmly, and lovingly, entreating Him to prosper the works of our hands; by thus keeping heart and mind fixed on God, we shall bruise the head of the evil one, and beat down his weapons to the ground."

"In very truth we can render to God no greater or more signal proofs of our trust and faithfulness, than by thus turning from things created to find our joy, though for a single moment, in the creator."

"To worship God in truth is to acknowledge Him to be what He is, and ourselves as what in very fact we are.  To worship Him in truth is to acknowledge with heart-felt sincerity what God in truth is,  -that is to say, infinitely perfect, worthy of infinite adoration, infinitely removed from sin, and so of all the Divine attributes.  That man is little guided by reason, who does not employ all his powers to render to this great God the worship that is His due."

"The union of the soul with God (paraphrased) is intensely active; quicker than fire are its operations, more luminous than the sun, unobscured by any passing cloud.  Yet we can be deceived as to this union by our feelings; it is not a mere fleeting emotion, such as would prompt a passing cry "My God, I love Thee with my heart's full strength"; it is rather a state of soul - if I can but find words- which is deeply spiritual, and yet very simple, which fills us with a joy that is calm indeed, and with a love that is very humble and very reverent, which lifts the soul aloft to heights, where the sense of the love of God constrains it to adore Him, and to embrace Him with a tenderness that cannot be expressed, and which experience alone can teach us to understand.

"God's love is in very truth a consuming fire, burning to ashes all that is contrary to His will:  the soul thus kindled cannot live save in the Presence of God, and this Presence works within the heart a consecrated zeal, a holy ardor, a violent passion to see this God known and loved, and served and worshiped by all His creatures."

"For me the time of action does not differ from the time of prayer, and in the noise and clatter of my kitchen, while several persons are together calling for as many different things, I possess God in as great tranquility as when upon my knees as the Blessed Sacrament."

'"We can do little things for God; I turn the cake that is frying on the pan for the love of Him, and that done, if there is nothing else to call me, I prostrate myself in worship before Him, Who has given me the grace to work; afterwards I rise happier than a king.  It is enough for me to pick up but a straw from the ground for the love of God."

"O Loving-Kindness so old and still so new, I have been too late of loving Thee.  You are young, my brethren; profit therefore I beseech you from my confession, that I cared too little to employ my early years for God.  Consecrate all yours to His Love.  If I had only know Him sooner, if I had only had some one to tell me then what I am telling you, I should not have so long delayed in loving Him.  Believe me, count as lost each day you have not used in loving God."

"Ah, did I know that my heart loved not God, this very instant I would pluck it out."

"If you would go forward in the spiritual life, you must avoid relying on the subtle conclusions and fine reasonings of the unaided intellect.  Unhappy they who seek to satisfy their desire therein!  The Creator is the great teacher of Truth.  We can reason laboriously for many years, but fuller far and deeper is the knowledege of the hidden things of faith and of Himself, which He flashes as light into the heart of the humble."

Brother Lawrence - The Practice of the Presence of God

"Give Him thanks, if you please, with me, for His great goodness toward me, which I can never sufficiently admire, for the many favors He has done to so miserable a sinner as I am.  may all things praise Him. Amen."

"I have no pain or difficulty about my state, because I have no will but that of God, which I endeavor to accomplish in all things, and to which I am so resigned that I would not take up a straw from the ground against His order, or from any other motive than purely that of love to Him."

"We have a God who is infinitely gracious and knows all about our wants.  I always thought that He would reduce you to extremity.  He will come in His own time, and when you least expect it.  Hope in Him more than ever; thank Him with me for the favors He does you, particularly for the fortitude and patience which He gives you in your afflictions.  It is a plain mark of the care He takes of you.  Comfort yourself, then, with Him, and give thanks for all."

"Yes, we often stop this torrent (of God's love) by the little value we set upon it.  But let us stop it no more; let us enter into ourselves and break down the bank which hinders it.  Let us make way for grace; let us redeem the lost time, for perhaps we have but little left.  Death follows us close; let us be well prepared for it; for we die but once, and a miscarriage there is irretrievable."

"We must, nevertheless, always work at it, because not to advance in the spiritual life is to go back.  But those who have the gale of the Holy Spirit go forward even in sleep."

"There is not in the world a kind of life more sweet and delightful than that of a continual conversation with God.  Those only can comprehend it who practice and experience it; yet I do not advise you to do it from that motive.  It is not pleasure which we ought to seek in this exercise; but let us do it form a principle of love, and because God would have us."

"Were I a preacher, I should, above all other things, preach the practice of the presence of God; and were I a director, I should advise all the world to do it, so necessary do I think it, and so easy, too."

It is, however, proper to deprive it (the body) sometimes, nay, often, of many little pleasures which are innocent and lawful, for God will not permit that a soul which desires to be devoted entirely to Him should take other pleasures than with Him; that is more than reasonable."

"Sufferings will be sweet and pleasant to us while we are with Him; and the greatest pleasures will be, without Him, a cruel punishment to us.  May He be blessed for all. Amen."

"Since by His mercy He gives us still a little time, let us begin in earnest; let us repair the lost time; let us return with a full assurance to that Father of mercies, who is always ready to receive us affectionately.  Let us renounce, let us generously renounce, for the love of Him, all that is not Himself;  He deserves infinitely more.  Let us think of Him perpetually.  Let us put all our trust in Him.  I doubt not but we shall soon find the effects of it in receiving the abundance of His grace, with which we can do all things, and without which we can do nothing but sin."

"In order to know God, we must often think of him; and when we come to love Him, we shall also think of Him often, for our heart will be with our treasure.  This is an argument which well deserves your consideration."

"I do not pray that you may be delivered from your pains, but I pray God earnestly that He would give you strength and patience to bear them as long as He pleases.  Comfort yourself with Him who holds you fastened to the cross.  He will loose you when He thinks fit.  Happy those who suffer with Him.. Accustom yourself to suffer in that manner, and seek from Him the strength to endure as much, and as long, as He shall judge to be necessary for you."

"Those who consider sickness as coming form the hand of God, as the effect of His mercy, and the means which He employs for their salvation - such commonly find in it great sweetness and sensible consolation."

"I wish you could convince yourself that God is often (in some sense) nearer to us, and more effectually present with us, in sickness than in health.  Rely upon no other physician; for, according to my apprehension, He reserves your cure to Himself.  Put, then, all your trust in Him, and you will soon find the effects of it in your recovery, which we often retard by putting greater confidence in physic than in God."

"When pains come from God, He only can cure them.  He often sends diseases of the body to cure those of the soul.  Comfort yourself with the sovereign Physician both of the soul and body."

"Take courage; offer Him your pains incessantly; pray to Him for strength to endure them. ...Adore Him in your infirmities, offer yourself to Him from time to time, and in the height of your sufferings beseech Him humbly and affectionately (as a child his father) to make you conformable to His holy will."

"Ask of God, not deliverance from you pains, but strength to bear resolutely, for the love of Him, all that He should please, and as long as He shall please."

"Knock, persevere in knocking, and I answer for it that He will open to you in His due time, and grant you all at once what He has deferred during many years."

"God knoweth best what is needful for us, and all that He does is for our good.  If we knew how much He loves us, we should always be ready to receive equally and with indifference from His hand the sweet and the bitter."

"Let all our employment be to know God; the more one knows Him, the more one desires to know Him.  And as knowledge is commonly the measure of love, the deeper and more extensive our knowledge shall be, the greater will be our love; and  if our love of God were great, we should love Him equally in pains and pleasures."