Re:존오웬의 죄죽이기 2개검색글 및 영문책자료

[하나로]

존 오웬의 <죄죽이기>에 대한 3개의 글을 올립니다.

http://blog.daum.net/kkho1105/13186

현대인을 위한 죄 죽이기  | 존 오웬

저자/역자 : 존 오웬/최예자  |  출판사 : 도서출판 프리셉트

"현대인이여, 죄를 죽여라!"
이 책은 청교도들 중에서도 손꼽히는 인물인 존 오웬의 작품이다. 이 책을 통해 저자는 죄를 다루는 방법이 얼마나 중요한가를 주장하고 있다. 죄악으로 기우는 본성을 붙잡고 씨름할 때 하나님의 방식대로 해야 열매를 거둘 수 있다는 말이다. 그는 하나님이 이미 말씀을 통하여 죄를 죽일 수 있는 길을 마련해 놓으셨다고 믿는다. 또한 죄를 극복하기 위해서는 성령의 능력을 동원해야 한다고 주장한다.

존 오웬은 이 책에서 자신의 내면을 살피지 않으려는 잡다한 변명에 대해 논리적으로 반박한다. 또한 인간의 열심으로 죄를 극복하려는 현대의 사조에도 동조하지 않는다. 반면, 그는 성도들의 거룩한 삶을 돕기 위한 일련의 원리들을 제공하고 있으며, 많은 작품들을 통해 많은 사람들에게 사랑을 받아왔다. 이 작품 또한 세대를 걸쳐 오늘날까지 널리 읽혀지고 있을 정도로 평판이 좋다.

서문

01장 몸의 행실을 죽이라 · 9
02장 죄를 죽이기 위한 일반 원리Ⅰ
       살기 위해서는 죄를 죽여야 한다 · 25

03장 죄를 죽이기 위한 일반 원리Ⅱ
       죄를 죽일 때에만 생명이 확실히 보장된다 · 51

04장 죄를 죽이기 위한 일반 원리Ⅲ
       영적 삶의 활기와 위안은 죄 죽이기에 달려있다 · 69

05장 죄 죽이기에 관한 개념 정립 · 83

06장 죄를 죽이기 위한 구체적인 방안 · 99

07장 죄 죽이기에 관한 일반적인 규칙들Ⅰ · 117
08장 죄 죽이기에 관한 일반적인 규칙들Ⅱ · 143

09장 죄를 죽이기 위한 특별 처방Ⅰ · 157
10장 죄를 죽이기 위한 특별 처방Ⅱ · 181
11장 죄를 죽이기 위한 특별 처방Ⅲ-Ⅶ · 205
12장 죄를 죽이기 위한 특별 처방Ⅷ · 229
13장 죄를 죽이기 위한 특별 처방Ⅸ · 257

14장 죄를 죽이기 위한 특별 처방들의 일반적인 예 · 287

존 오웬

 
John Owen(1616-1683)

1616년 영국 옥스퍼드 주 스타드햄에서 목사의 아들로 태어났다. 4남 1녀 중 둘째인 그는 아버지에 대해 이렇게 언급한 적이 있다. “나는 어릴 때부터 아버지의 보살핌 속에서 성장했다. 아버지는 주님의 포도원을 가꾸느라고 평생을 헌신한 사람이었다.” 존 오웬은 27살에 목회에 발을 디뎠고, 그 이듬해에 매리 룰과 결혼을 했다. 이후 31년 동안 결혼생활을 하면서 11자녀를 낳았다. 이 중 10명의 자녀들이 어릴 때 죽었고 딸 하나만 성장했는데, 그 자녀도 역시 존 오웬보다 먼저 죽었다. 그는 30년의 결혼생활 중 3년마다 가족을 하나씩 잃는 슬픔을 겪었고, 나중에는 아내마저 먼저 보내야 했다.

그는 많은 책을 저술했으며 신학적 논증에도 깊이 관여했다. 영국의 호국경이었던 올리버 크롬웰의 보좌관을 지냈을 정도로 정치에도 관심이 많았다. 청교도 시대의 신학과 신앙을 연구하는 많은 이들이 존 오웬을 가리켜 ‘최후의 청교도 신학자’라고 말한다. 그는 행정에도 탁월한 능력을 보여 옥스퍼드 그리스도 교회의 감독, 옥스퍼드대학교의 부총장을 지냈다.

가정적으로는 불우한 인생이었지만, 70여년의 전 생애를 학문연구와 목회로 일관했다. 그러다가 말년에는 담석증과 천식으로 고생하던 중, 1683년 8월 24일에 소천하였다.

http://blog.naver.com/dbstjs7787?Redirect=Log&logNo=179657606
죄죽이기(The mortification of sin) - 존 오웬

1. 근래에 읽었던 책중에 가장 어려운 책
 이 책은 영적인 거장 '존 오웬'이 1600년대에 남긴 고전입니다. 그래서 상당히 문법적으로 이해하기 힘들뿐더러, 깊은 묵상과 기도가 필요한 책으로 생각됩니다. 1독은 하였으나 완벽히 이해하지 못하여서 후에 다시 여러번 정독이 필요한것 같습니다.

2. 공감되었던 서문
 먼저 이 책의 서문을 작성한 제임스 패커의 고백이 제 마음을 두드렸습니다. 그는 영적 전쟁에서 '손을 놓으라, 그리고 하나님이 하시게 하라' 라는 교훈을 갖고, '시험이 온다' 싶으면 '손을 놓고 하나님이 하시게 하려고' 무진 애를 썼으나, 번번히 실패하고 거의 미칠 지경이 되었다고 합니다.
 저도 흡사한 경험을 자주 갖기 때문에 그 미칠듯한 고통을 공감하며, 기대하기 시작했습니다. 제임스 패커는 이 책에서 '죄 죽이기'의 답을 찾았다고 말하기 때문입니다.

3. 죄 죽이기의 기초 말씀
 너희가 육신대로 살면 반드시 죽을 것이로되 영으로써 몸의 행실을 죽이면 살리니 (롬8:13)
1) 이 의무는 이미 구원받은 성도들에게 부과되었습니다.(10,11절) 단발적인 한번의 회심으로 죄 죽이기가 끝나는것이 아닙니다.
2) 이 의무를 행하기 위한 동인(혹은 방식)은 하나님의 영, 곧 성령입니다. '영으로써' 몸의 행실을 죽이면 살리니. 죄를 죽이는 다른 모든 방식들은 허사입니다.
3) 이 의무에 대한 약속은 생명입니다. 영으로써 몸 행실을 죽이면 '살리니'.

4. 십자가로 핑계대기?
 그리스도와 함께 죽었고 그리스도와 함께 살았다는 사실로 죄 죽이기를 하지 않아도 된다고 핑계대지 말라고 저자는 말합니다. 사는 날 동안 늘 우리 속에 죄가 거하며 '완전'은 결코 없습니다.
 내가 이미 얻었다 함도 아니요 온전히 이루었다 함도 아니라 오직 내가 그리스도 예수께 잡힌 바 된 그것을 잡으려고 달려가노라 (빌3:12)
 예수님을 직접 만나 구원받은 체험을 했던 사도 바울도, 이처럼 고백하였습니다. 죄 죽이기는 날마다 해야 하며, 죄 죽이기 없는 성화는 불가능합니다.

5. 성령님의 도우심
 죄 죽이기를 위해서는 성령님의 도우심 밖에 답이 없습니다. 인간의 금욕과 절제를 통해서는 절대 죄 죽이기를 할 수 없습니다.
 그렇다면 전적으로 성령님이 그 일을 하시게 하고, 우리는 가만히 있으면 되는 것일까요? 성령님은 우리의 이해와 의지와 양심과 정서에 부합하게 일하십니다. '우리와 함께' 일하시는 분이시지 '우리에게 억지를 가하거나 혼자서' 일하시는 분이 아닙니다. 우리 안에서 함께 성화의 주도자와 완성자가 되십니다.

6. 고난에 의한 죄 멈춤
 저는 보통 고난 가운데 저의 죄를 회개합니다. 너무 괴로워서 이를 불식시키기 위해 다시는 죄를 짓지 않겠다고 결심합니다. 이럴 때 죄는 잠잠하고 소동을 부리지 않습니다. 죄를 죽인 것 같이 보입니다.
 그러나 이러한 경우 죄는 전혀 상처를 입지 않는다고 합니다. 잠시 죄를 멈춘 것 뿐입니다. 여기서 그치고 나아가 매일 죄 죽이기를 하지 않으면 죄는 다시 활동 할 것입니다.
 즉, 죄 자체를 멸하지 않고 (십자가의 공로로) 죄로 인한 양심의 가책만을 무마시키려 하지 말라는 이야기 입니다.

7. 죄 죽이기 구체적 방안
 습관적이고 지속적으로 죄를 약화시켜야 합니다. 정욕은 유혹을 통해 힘을 얻습니다. 따라서 정욕이 잠잠 할 때라도 그것이 죽었거니 생각하지 말고, 오히려 그 정욕에 새로운 상처를 주기 위해 매일 더 큰 압박을 가할 필요가 있습니다.

8. 말씀 설교자들이 유념해야 할 일
 설교자의 의무는 '사람들의 죄악들을 지적하며 호소하고 어떤 특별한 죄악들에 부담을 느끼게 하는 것' 이라고 존 오웬은 말합니다. 저는 듣기 좋은 말만 하고 복을 주시는 하나님만 전하는 설교자가 아니라, 진실된 복음과 죄 죽이기를 권면하는 설교자가 되기를, 신학도로서 소망합니다.

9. 죄 죽이기의 보편적 원리와 특별 방안
1) 인격적으로 '진지'하고, 행동으로 '근면'해야 합니다.
2) '의지'와 '양심'으로 죄의 책임과 위험을 생각해야 합니다.
3) 하나님의 거룩하심과 복음앞에 정욕을 대면시켜 양심의 부끄러움으로 돌아섭니다.
4) 죄의 생각이 드는 최초의 순간에 단호하게 대처합니다.
5) 하나님의 광대하심 앞에서 하나님을 안다는 교만을 없애고 겸손하게 묵상합니다.
6) 예수님 안에 있는 은혜의 생각을 떠올립니다.

10. 반론과 해답
 이 책의 특징은 중간중간 소제목에 대한 반론과 그 해답들을 삽입했다는 점입니다. 이러한 방식은 처음 봤는데 참으로 명쾌하고 시원하다고 생각합니다. 나중에 저도 글을 쓸때 이 방법을 사용해야 겠습니다.

11. 총평
 상당히 많이 배우고 느낀점이 많습니다. 죄 죽이기에 대한 갈망이 늘어나고, 경건의 습관화에 도움이 되는 책입니다. 그러나 저자가 좀더 쉬운 풀이로 설명했으면 좋았을거란 아쉬움이 남습니다.

이상 2개의 글을 올려드립니다.

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이하는 존 오웬의 죄죽이기 특별처방9가지, 제9장~13장까지 입니다. 나머지는 pdf화일을 참조하십시요.

owen_mortificationofsin.pdf

Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers

By John Owen (1616-1683)

Chapter IX.
Particular directions in relation to the foregoing case proposed --
First. Consider the dangerous symptoms of any lust -- 1. Inveterateness
-- 2. Peace obtained under it; the several ways whereby that is done --
3. Frequency of success in its seductions -- 4. The soul's fighting
against it with arguments only taken from the event -- 5. Its being
attended with judiciary hardness -- 6. Its withstanding particular
dealings from God -- The state of persons in whom these things are
found.

III. The foregoing general rules being supposed, particular directions
to the soul for its guidance under the sense of a disquieting lust or
distemper, being the main thing I aim at, come next to be proposed.
Now, of these some are previous and preparatory, and in some of them
the work itself is contained. Of the first sort are these ensuing:--
First. Consider what dangerous symptoms your lust has attending or
accompanying it, -- whether it has any deadly mark on it or no; if it
has, 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 attendancies of an indwelling lust, that you intend?" Some of
them I shall name:--
1. Inveterateness. -- If it has lain long corrupting in your heart, if
you hast suffered it to abide in power and preval‎ency, without
attempting vigorously the killing of it, and the healing of the wounds
you hast received by it, for some long season, your distemper is
dangerous. Hast you permitted worldliness, ambition, greediness of
study, to eat up other duties, the duties wherein you ought to hold
constant communion with God, for some long season? or uncleanness to
defile your heart with vain, and foolish, and wicked imaginations for
many days? Your lust has a dangerous symptom. So was the case with
David: Ps. xxxviii. 5, "My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my
foolishness." When a lust has lain long in the heart, corrupting,
festering, cankering, it brings the soul to a woeful condition. In such
a case an ordinary course of humiliation will not do the work: whatever
it be, it will by this means insinuate itself more or less into all the
faculties of the soul, and habituate the affections to its company and
society; it grows familiar to the mind and conscience, that they do not
startle at it as a strange thing, but are bold with it as that which
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they are wonted unto; yea, it will get such advantage by this means as
oftentimes to exert and put forth itself without having any notice
taken of it at all, as it seems to have been with Joseph in his
swearing by the life of Pharaoh. Unless some extraordinary course be
taken, such a person has no ground in the world to expect that his
latter end shall be peace.
For, first, How will he be able to distinguish between the long abode
of an unmortified lust and the dominion of sin, which cannot befall a
regenerate person? Secondly, How can he promise himself that it shall
ever be otherwise with him, or that his lust will cease tumultuating
and seducing, when he sees it fixed and abiding, and has done so for
many days, and has gone through a variety of conditions with him? It
may be it has tried mercies and afflictions, and those possibly so
remarkable that the soul could not avoid the taking special notice of
them; it may be it has weathered out many a storm, and passed under
much variety of gifts in the administration of the word; and will it
prove an easy thing to dislodge an inmate pleading a title by
prescription? Old neglected wounds are often mortal, always dangerous.
Indwelling distempers grow rusty and stubborn by continuance in 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.
2. Secret pleas of the heart for the countenancing of itself, and
keeping up its peace, notwithstanding the abiding of a lust, without a
vigorous gospel attempt for its mortification, is another dangerous
symptom of a deadly distemper in the heart. Now, there be several ways
whereby this may be done. I shall name some of them; as, --
(1.) When upon thoughts, perplexing thoughts about sin, instead of
applying himself to the destruction of it, a man searches his heart to
see what evidences he can find of a good condition, notwithstanding
that sin and lust, so that it may go well with him.
For a man to gather up his experiences of God, to call them to mind, to
collect them, consider, try, improve them, is an excellent thing, -- a
duty practised by all the saints, commended in the Old Testament and
the New. This was David's work when he "communed with his own heart,"
and called to remembrance the former loving-kindness of the Lord. [9]
This is the duty that Paul sets us to practise, 2 Cor. xiii. 5. And as
it is in itself excellent, so it has beauty added to it by a proper
season, a time of trial or temptation, or disquietness of the heart
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about sin, -- is a picture of silver to set off this golden apple, as
Solomon speaks. But now to do it for this end, 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 has, 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. Thus
the Jews, under the gallings of their own consciences and the
convincing preaching of our Saviour, supported themselves with this,
that they were "Abraham's children," and on that account accepted with
God; and so countenanced themselves in all abominable wickedness, to
their utter ruin.
This is, in some degree, a blessing of a man's self, and saying that
upon one account or other he shall have peace, "although he adds
drunkenness to thirst." Love of sin, undervaluation of peace and of all
tastes of love from God, are enwrapped in such a frame. Such a one
plainly shows, that if he can but keep up hope of escaping the "wrath
to come," he can be well content to be unfruitful in the world, at any
distance from God that is not final separation. What is to be expected
from such a heart?
(2.) By applying grace and mercy to an unmortified sin, or one not
sincerely endeavoured to be mortified, is this deceit carried on. This
is a sign of a heart greatly entangled with the love of sin. When a man
has secret thoughts in his heart, not unlike those of Naaman about his
worshipping in the house of Rimmon, [10] "In all other things I will
walk with God, but in this thing, God be merciful unto me," his
condition is sad. It is true, indeed, a resolution to this purpose, to
indulge a man's self in any sin on the account of mercy, seems to be,
and doubtless in any course is, altogether inconsistent with Christian
sincerity, and is a badge of a hypocrite, and is the "turning of the
grace of God into wantonness;" [11] yet I doubt not but, through the
craft of Satan and their own remaining unbelief, the children of God
may themselves sometimes be ensnared with this deceit of sin, or else
Paul would never have so cautioned them against it as he does, Rom. vi.
1, 2. Yea, indeed, there is nothing more natural than for fleshly
reasonings to grow high and strong upon this account. The flesh would
fain be indulged unto upon the account of grace, and every word that is
spoken of mercy, it stands ready to catch at and to pervert it, to its
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own corrupt aims and purposes. To apply mercy, then, to a sin not
vigorously mortified is to fulfill the end of the flesh upon the gospel.
These and many other ways and wiles a deceitful heart will sometimes
make use of, to countenance itself in its abominations. Now, when a man
with his sin is in this condition, that there is a secret liking of the
sin preval‎ent in his heart, and though his will be not wholly set upon
it, yet he has an imperfect wish towards it, he would practise it
were it not for such and such considerations, and hereupon relieves
himself other ways than by the mortification and pardon of it in the
blood of Christ; that man's "wounds stink and are corrupt," and he
will, without speedy deliverance, be at the door of death.
3. Frequency of success in sin's seduction, in obtaining the prevailing
consent of the will unto it, is another dangerous symptom. This is that
I mean: When the sin spoken of gets the consent of the will with some
delight, though it be not actually outwardly perpetrated, yet it has
success. A man may not be able, upon outward considerations, to go
along with sin to that which James calls the "finishing" of it, [12] as
to the outward acts of sin, when yet the will of sinning may be
actually obtained; then has it, I say, success. Now, if any lust be
able thus far to prevail in the soul of any man, as his condition may
possibly be very bad and himself be unregenerate, so it cannot possibly
be very good, but dangerous; and it is all one upon the matter whether
this be done by the choice of the will or by inadvertency, for that
inadvertency itself is in a manner chosen. When we are inadvertent and
negligent, where we are bound to watchfullness and carefullness, that
inadvertency does 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 a thing may be chosen in its cause.
And let not men think that the evil of their hearts is in any measure
extenuated because they seem, for the most part, to be surprised into
that consent which they seem to give unto it; for it is negligence of
their duty in watching over their hearts that betrays them into that
surprisal.
4. When a man fights against his sin only with arguments from the
issue or the punishment due unto it, this is a sign that sin has taken
great possession of the will, and that in the heart there is a
superfluity of naughtiness. Such a man as opposes nothing to the
seduction of sin and lust in his heart but fear of shame among men or
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hell from God, is sufficiently resolved to do the sin if there were no
punishment attending it; which, what it differs from living in the
practice of sin, I know not. Those who are Christ's, and are acted in
their obedience upon gospel principles, have the death of Christ, the
love of God, the detestable nature of sin, the preciousness of
communion with God, a deep-grounded abhorrency of sin as sin, to oppose
to any seduction of sin, to all the workings, strivings, fightings of
lust in their hearts. So did Joseph. "How shall I do this great evil,"
saith he, "and sin against the Lord?" my good and gracious God. [13]
And Paul, "The love of Christ constrains us;" [14] and, "Having
received these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from all pollution of
the flesh and spirit," 2 Cor. vii. 1. But now if a man be so under the
power of his lust that he has nothing but 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 has possessed itself of his will and
affections to a very great preval‎ency and conquest.
Such a person has cast off, as to the particular spoken of, the
conduct of renewing grace, and is kept from ruin only by restraining
grace; and so far is he fallen from grace, and returned under the power
of the law. And can it be thought that this is not a great provocation
to Christ, that men should cast off his easy, gentle yoke and rule, and
cast themselves under the iron yoke of the law, merely out of
indulgence unto their lusts?
Try yourself by this also: When you art by sin driven to make a stand,
so that you must either serve it and rush at the command of it into
folly, like the horse into the battle, or make head against it to
suppress it, what dost you say to your soul? what dost you expostulate
with yourself? Is this all, -- "Hell will be the end of this course;
vengeance will meet with me and find me out?" It is time for you to
look about you; evil lies at the door. Paul's main argument to evince
that sin shall not have dominion over believers is, that they "are not
under the law, but under grace," Rom. vi. 14. If your contendings
against sin be all on legal accounts, from legal principles and
motives, what assurance canst you attain unto that sin shall not have
dominion over you, which will be your ruin?
Yea, know that this reserve will not long holdout. If your lust has
driven you from stronger gospel forts, it will speedily prevail
against this also. Do not suppose that such considerations will deliver
you, when you hast voluntarily given up to your enemy those helps
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and means of preservation which have a thousand times their strength.
Rest assuredly in this, that unless you recover yourself with speed
from this condition, the thing that you fear will come upon you.
What gospel principles do not, legal motives cannot do.
5. When it is probable that there is, or may be, somewhat of judiciary
hardness, or at least of chastening punishment, in your lust as
disquieting. This is another dangerous symptom. That God does sometimes
leave even those of his own under the perplexing power at least of some
lust or sin, to correct them for former sins, negligence, and folly, I
no way doubt. Hence was that complaint of the church, "Why hast you
hardened us from the fear of your name?" Isa. lxiii. 17. That this is
his way of dealing with unregenerate men no man questions. But how
shall a man know whether there be any thing of God's chastening hand in
his being left to the disquietment of his distemper? Ans. Examine your
heart and ways. What was the state and condition of your soul before
you fell into the entanglements of that sin which now you so
complainest of? Had you been negligent in duties? Had you lived
inordinately to yourself? Is there the guilt of any great sin lying upon
you unrepented of? A new sin may be permitted, as well as a new
affliction sent, to bring an old sin to remembrance.
Hast you received any eminent mercy, protection, deliverance, which
you didst not improve in a due manner, nor were thankful for? or hast
you been exercised with any affliction without labouring for the
appointed end of it? or hast you been wanting to the opportunities of
glorifying God in your generation, which, in his good providence, he had
graciously afforded unto you? or hast you conformed yourself unto the
world and the men of it, through the abounding of temptations in the
days wherein you live? If you find this to have been your state,
awake, call upon God; you art fast asleep in a storm of anger round
about you.
6. When your lust has already withstood particular dealings from God
against it. This condition is described, Isa. lvii. 17, "For the
iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth, and smote him: I hid me, and
was angry, and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart." God had
dealt with them about their prevailing lust, and that several ways, --
by affliction and desertion; but they held out against all. This is a
sad condition, which nothing but mere sovereign grace (as God expresses
it in the next verse) can relieve a man in, and which no man ought to
promise himself or bear himself upon. God oftentimes, in his
providential dispensations, meets with a man, and speaks particularly
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to the evil of his heart, as he did to Joseph's brethren in their
selling of him into Egypt. This makes the man reflect on his sin, and
judge himself in particular for it. God makes it to be the voice of the
danger, affliction, trouble, sickness that he is in or under. Sometimes
in reading of the word God makes a man stay on something that cuts him
to the heart, and shakes him as to his present condition. More
frequently in the hearing of the word preached, his great ordinance for
conviction, conversion, and edification, does he meet with men. God
often hews men by the sword of his word in that ordinance, strikes
directly on their bosom-beloved lust, startles the sinner, makes him
engage unto the mortification and relinquishment of the evil of his
heart. Now, if his lust have taken such hold on him as to enforce him
to break these bands of the Lord, and to cast these cords from him, --
if it overcomes these convictions, and gets again into its old posture,
-- if it can cure the wounds it so receives, -- that soul is in a sad
condition.
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 does he despise God in them who holds out against them! And
what infinite patience is this in God, that he does not cast off such a
one, and swear in his wrath that he shall never enter into his rest!
These and many other evidences are there of a lust that is dangerous,
if not mortal. As our Saviour said of the evil spirit, "This kind goes
not out but by fasting and prayer," so say I of lusts of this kind. An
ordinary course of mortification will not do it; extraordinary ways
must be fixed on.
This is the first particular direction: Consider whether the lust or
sin you are contending with has any of these dangerous symptoms
attending of it.
Before I proceed I must give you one caution by the way, lest any be
deceived by what has been spoken. Whereas I say the things and evils
above-mentioned may befall true believers, let not any that finds the
same things in himself thence or from thence conclude that he is a true
believer. These are the evils that believers may fall into and be
ensnared withal, not the things that constitute a believer. A man may
as well conclude that he is a believer because he is an adulterer,
because David that was so fell into adultery, as conclude it from the
signs foregoing; which are the evils of sin and Satan in the hearts of
believers. The seventh chapter of the Romans contains the description
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of a regenerate man. He that shall consider what is spoken of his dark
side, of his unregenerate part, of the indwelling power and violence of
sin remaining in him, and, because he finds the like in himself,
conclude that he is a regenerate man, will be deceived in his
reckoning. It is all one as if you should argue: A wise man may be sick
and wounded, yea, do some things foolishly; therefore, everyone who is
sick and wounded and does things foolishly is a wise man. Or as if a
silly, deformed creature, hearing one speak of a beautiful person,
should say that he had a mark or a scar that much disfigured him,
should conclude that because he has himself scars, and moles, and
warts, he also is beautiful. If you will have evidences of your being
believers, it must be from those things that constitute men believers.
He that has these things in himself may safely conclude, "If I am a
believer, I am a most miserable one." But that any man is so, he must
look for other evidences if he will have peace.
__________________________________________________________________
[9] Ps. lxxvii. 6-9.
[10] 2 Kings v. 18.
[11] Jude 4.
[12] James i. 14, 15.
[13] Gen xxxix. 9
[14] 2 Cor. v. 14.

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Chapter X.
The second particular direction: Get a clear sense of, -- 1. The guilt
of the sin perplexing -- Considerations for help therein proposed -- 2.
The danger manifold -- (1.) Hardening -- (2.) Temporal correction --
(3.) Loss of peace and strength -- (4.) Eternal destruction -- Rules
for the management of this consideration -- 3. The evil of it -- (1.)
In grieving the Spirit -- (2.) Wounding the new creature -- [(3.)
Taking away a man's usefullness.]
The second direction is this: Get a clear and abiding sense upon your
mind and conscience of the guilt, danger, and evil of that sin
wherewith you art perplexed:--
1. Of the guilt of it. It is one of the deceits of a prevailing lust to
extenuate its own guilt. "Is it not a little one?" "When I go and bow
myself in the house of Rimmon, God be merciful to me in this thing."
"Though this be bad, yet it is not so bad as such and such an evil;
others of the people of God have had such a frame; yea, what dreadful
actual sins have some of them fallen into!" Innumerable ways there are
whereby sin diverts the mind from a right and due apprehension of its
guilt. Its noisome exhalations darken the mind, that it cannot make a
right judgment of things. Perplexing reasonings, extenuating promises,
tumultuating desires, treacherous purposes of relinquishment, hopes of
mercy, all have their share in disturbing the mind in its consideration
of the guilt of a prevailing lust. The prophet tells us that lust will
do thus wholly when it comes to the height: Hos. iv. 11, "Whoredom and
wine and new wine take away the heart," -- the heart, that is the
understanding, as it is often used in the Scripture. And as they
accomplish this work to the height in unregenerate persons, so in part
in regenerate also. Solomon tells you of him who was enticed by the
lewd woman, that he was "among the simple ones;" he was "a young man
void of understanding," Prov. vii. 7. And wherein did his folly appear?
Why, says he, in the 23d verse, "He knew not that it was for his life;"
he considered not the guilt of the evil that he was involved in. And
the Lord, rendering a reason why his dealings with Ephraim took no
better effect, gives this account: "Ephraim is like a silly dove
without heart," Hos. vii. 11; -- had no understanding of his own
miserable condition. Had it been possible that David should have lain
so long in the guilt of that abominable sin, but that he had
innumerable corrupt reasonings, hindering him from taking a clear view
of its ugliness and guilt in the glass of the law? This made the
prophet that was sent for his awaking, in his dealings with him, to
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shut up all subterfuges and pretences by his parable, that so he might
fall fully under a sense of the guilt of it. This is the proper issue
of lust in the heart, -- it darkens the mind that it shall not judge
aright of its guilt; and many other ways it has for its own
extenuation that I shall not now insist on.
Let this, then, be the first care of him that would mortify sin, -- to
fix a right judgment of its guilt in his mind. To which end take these
considerations to your assistance:--
(1.) Though the power of sin be weakened by inherent grace in them that
have it, that sin shall not have dominion over them as it has over
others, yet the guilt of sin that does yet abide and remain is
aggravated and heightened by it: Rom. vi. 1, 2, "What shall we say
then? shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How
shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?" -- "How shall
we, that are dead?" The emphasis is on the word "we." How shall we do
it, who, as he afterward describes it, have received grace from Christ
to the contrary? We, doubtless, are more evil than any, if we do it. I
shall not insist on the special aggravations of the sins of such
persons, -- how they sin against more love, mercy, grace, assistance,
relief, means, and deliverances than others. But let this consideration
abide in your mind, -- there is inconceivably more evil and guilt in the
evil of your heart that does remain, than there would be in so much sin
if you hadst no grace at all. Observe, --
(2.) That as God sees abundance of beauty and excellency in the desires
of the heart of his servants, more than in any the most glorious works
of other men, yea, more than in most of their own outward performances,
which have a greater mixture of sin than the desires and pantings of
grace in the heart have; so God sees a great deal of evil in the
working of lust in their hearts, yea, and more than in the open,
notorious acts of wicked men, or in many outward sins whereinto the
saints may fall, seeing against them there is more opposition made, and
more humiliation generally follows them. Thus Christ, dealing with his
decaying children, goes to the root with them, lays aside their
profession: Rev. iii. 15, "I know you;" -- "You art quite another
thing than you profess; and this makes you abominable."
So, then, let these things, and the like considerations, lead you to a
clear sense of the guilt of your indwelling lust, that there may be no
room in your heart for extenuating or excusing thoughts, whereby sin
insensibly will get strength and prevail.
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2. Consider the danger of it, which is manifold:--
(1.) Of being hardened by the deceitfullness. This the apostle sorely
charges on the Hebrews, chap. iii. 12, 13, "Take heed, brethren, lest
there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the
living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called To-day;
lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfullness of sin." "Take
heed," saith he, "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." The hardening here
mentioned is to the utmost, -- utter obduration; sin tends to it, and
every distemper and lust will make at least some progress towards it.
You that were tender, and didst use to melt under the word, under
afflictions, wilt grow as some have profanely spoken, "sermon-proof and
sickness-proof." You that didst tremble at the presence of God,
thoughts of death, and appearance before him, when you hadst more
assurance of his love than now you hast, shalt have a stoutness upon
your spirit not to be moved by these things. Your soul and your sin shall
be spoken of and spoken to, and you shalt not be at all concerned, but
shalt be able to pass over duties, praying, hearing, reading, and your
heart not in the least affected. Sin will grow a light thing to you;
you wilt pass it by as a thing of nought; this it will grow to. And
what will be the end of such a condition? Can a sadder thing befall
you? Is it not enough to make any heart to tremble, to think of being
brought into that estate wherein he should have slight thoughts of sin?
Slight thoughts of grace, of mercy, of the blood of Christ, of the law,
heaven, and hell, come all in at the same season. Take heed, this is
that your lust is working towards, -- the hardening of the heart,
searing of the conscience, blinding of the mind, stupifying of the
affections, and deceiving of the whole soul.
(2.) The danger of some great temporal correction, which the Scripture
calls "vengeance," "judgment," and "punishment." Ps. lxxxix. 30-33,
Though God should not utterly cast you off for this abomination that
lies in your heart, yet he will visit you with the rod; though he
pardon and forgive, he will take vengeance of your inventions. O
remember David and all his troubles! look on him flying into the
wilderness, and consider the hand of God upon him. Is it nothing to
you that God should kill your child in anger, ruin your estate in anger,
break your bones in anger, suffer you to be a scandal and reproach in
anger, kill you, destroy you, make you lie down in darkness, in
anger? Is it nothing that he should punish, ruin, and undo others for
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your sake? Let me not be mistaken. I do not mean that God does send all
these things always on his in anger; God forbid! but this I say, that
when he does so deal with you, and your conscience bears witness with
him what your provocations have been, you will find his dealings full
of bitterness to your soul. If you fear not these things, I fear
you art under hardness.
(3.) Loss of peace and strength all a man's days. To have peace with
God, to have strength to walk before God, is the sum of the great
promises of the covenant of grace. In these things is the life of our
souls. Without them in some comfortable measure, to live is to die.
What good will our lives do us if we see not the face of God sometimes
in peace? if we have not some strength to walk with him? Now, both
these will an unmortified lust certainly deprive the souls of men of.
This case is so evident in David, as that nothing can be more clear.
How often does he complain that his bones were broken, his soul
disquieted, his wounds grievous, on this account! Take other instances:
Isa. lvii. 17, "For the iniquity of his covetousness I was angry, and
hid myself." What peace, I pray, is there to a soul while God hides
himself, or strength whilst he smites? Hos. v. 15, "I will go and
return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my
face;" -- "I will leave them, hide my face, and what will become of
their peace and strength?" If ever, then, you hast enjoyed peace with
God, if ever his terrors have made you afraid, if ever you hast had
strength to walk with him, or ever hast mourned in your prayer, and been
troubled because of your weakness, think of this danger that hangs over
your head. It is perhaps but a little while and you shalt see the face
of God in peace no more. Perhaps by to-morrow you shalt not be able to
pray, read, hear, or perform any duties with the least cheerfullness,
life, or vigour; and possibly you may never see a quiet hour whilst
you live, -- that you may carry about you broken bones, full of
pain and terror, all the days of your life. Yea, perhaps God will shoot
his arrows at you, and fill you with anguish and disquietness, with
fears and perplexities; make you a terror and an astonishment to
yourself and others; show you hell and wrath every moment; frighten and
scare you with sad apprehensions of his hatred; so that your sore shall
run in the night season, and your soul shall refuse comfort; so that
you shalt wish death rather than life, yea, your soul may choose
strangling. Consider this a little, -- though God should not utterly
destroy you, yet he might cast you into this condition, wherein you
shalt have quick and living apprehensions of your destruction. Wont your
heart to thoughts hereof; let it know what is like to be the issue of
its state. Leave not this consideration until you hast made your soul
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to tremble within you.
(4.) There is the danger of eternal destruction.
For the due management of this consideration, observe, --
[1.] That there is such a connection between a continuance in sin and
eternal destruction, that though God does resolve to deliver some from
a continuance in sin that they may not be destroyed, yet he will
deliver none from destruction that continue in sin; so that whilst any
one lies under an abiding power of sin, the threats of destruction and
everlasting separation from God are to be held out to him. So Heb. iii.
12; to which add chap. x. 38. This is the rule of God's proceeding: If
any man "depart" from him, "draw back" through unbelief, "God's soul
has no pleasure in him;" -- "that is, his indignation shall pursue him
to destruction:" so evidently, Gal. vi. 8.
[2.] That he who is so entangled, as above described, under the power
of any corruption, can have at that present no clear prevailing
evidence of his interest in the covenant, by the efficacy whereof he
may be delivered from fear of destruction; so that destruction from the
Lord may justly be a terror to him; and he may, he ought to look upon
it, as that which will be the end of his course and ways. "There is no
condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus," Rom. viii. 1. True; but
who shall have the comfort of this assertion? who may assume it to
himself? "They that walk after the Spirit, and not after the flesh."
But you will say, "Is not this to persuade men to unbelief?" I answer,
No. There is a twofold judgement that a man may make of himself, --
first, of his person; and, secondly, of his ways. It is the judgement
of his ways, not his person, that I speak of. Let a man get the best
evidence for his person that he can, yet to judge that an evil way will
end in destruction is his duty; not to do it is atheism. I do not say,
that in such a condition a man ought to throw away the evidence of his
personal interest in Christ; but I say, he cannot keep them. There is a
twofold condemnation of a man's self:-- First, In respect of desert,
when the soul concludes that it deserves to be cast out of the presence
of God; and this is so far from a business of unbelief that it is an
effect of faith. Secondly, With respect to the issue and event, when
the soul concludes it shall be damned. I do not say this is the duty of
any one, nor do I call them to it; but this I say, that the end of the
way may be provoked to fly from it. And this is another consideration
that ought to dwell upon such a soul, if it desire to be freed from the
entanglement of its lusts.
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3. Consider the evils of it; I mean its present evils. Danger respects
what is to come; evil, what is present. Some of the many evils that
attend an unmortified lust may be mentioned:--
(1.) It grieves the holy and blessed Spirit, which is given to
believers to dwell in them and abide with them. So the apostle, Eph.
iv. 25-29, dehorting them from many lusts and sins, gives this as the
great motive of it, verse 30, "Grieve not the Holy Spirit, whereby you
are sealed unto the day of redemption." "Grieve not that Spirit of
God," saith he, "whereby you receive so many and so great benefits;" of
which he instances in one signal and comprehensive one,-- "sealing to
the day of redemption." He is grieved by it. As a tender and loving
friend is grieved at the unkindness of his friend, of whom he has well
deserved, so is it with this tender and loving Spirit, who has chosen
our hearts for a habitation to dwell in, and there to do for us all
that our souls desire. He is grieved by our harbouring his enemies, and
those whom he is to destroy, in our hearts with him. "He does not
afflict willingly, nor grieve us," Lam. iii. 33; and shall we daily
grieve him? Thus is he said sometimes to be "vexed," sometimes "grieved
at his heart," to express the greatest sense of our provocation. Now,
if there be any thing of gracious ingenuity left in the soul, if it be
not utterly hardened by the deceitfullness of sin, this consideration
will certainly affect it. Consider who and what you art; who the
Spirit is that is grieved, what he has done for you, what he comes to
your soul about, what he has already done in you; and be ashamed.
Among those who walk with God, there is no greater motive and incentive
unto universal holiness, and the preserving of their hearts and spirits
in all purity and cleanness, than this, that the blessed Spirit, who
has undertaken to dwell in them, is continually considering what they
give entertainment in their hearts unto, and rejoices when his temple
is kept undefiled. That was a high aggravation of the sin of Zimri,
that he brought his adulteress into the congregation in the sight of
Moses and the rest, who were weeping for the sins of the people, Numb.
xxv. 6. And is it not a high aggravation of the countenancing of a
lust, or suffering it to abide in the heart, when it is (as it must be,
if we are believers) entertained under the peculiar eyou and view of the
Holy Ghost, taking care to preserve his tabernacle pure and holy?
(2.) The Lord Jesus Christ is wounded afresh by it; his new creature in
the heart is wounded; his love is foiled; his adversary gratified. As a
total relinquishment of him, by the deceitfullness of sin, is the
"crucifying him afresh, and the putting of him to open shame;" so every
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harbouring of sin that he came to destroy wounds and grieves him.
(3.) It will take away a man's usefullness in his generation. His works,
his endeavours, his labours, seldom receive blessing from God. If he be
a preacher, God commonly blows upon his ministry, that he shall labour
in the fire, and not be honoured with any success or doing any work for
God; and the like may be spoken of other conditions. The world is at
this day full of poor withering professors. How few are there that walk
in any beauty or glory! how barren, how useless are they, for the most
part! Amongst the many reasons that may be assigned of this sad estate,
it may justly be feared that this is none of the least effectual, --
many men harbour spirit-devouring lusts in their bosoms, that lie as
worms at the root of their obedience, and corrode and weaken it day by
day. All graces, all the ways and means whereby any graces may be
exercised and improved, are prejudiced by this means; and as to any
success, God blasts such men's undertakings.
This, then, is my second direction, and it regards the opposition that
is to be made to lust in respect of its habitual residence in the
soul:-- Keep alive upon your heart these or the like considerations of
its guilt, danger, and evil; be much in the meditation of these things;
cause your heart to dwell and abide upon them; engage your thoughts into
these considerations; let them not go off nor wander from them until
they begin to have a powerful influence upon your soul, -- until they
make it to tremble.

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Chapter XI.
The third direction proposed: Load your conscience with the guilt of the
perplexing distemper -- The ways and means whereby that may be done --
The fourth direction: Vehement desire for deliverance -- The fifth:
Some distempers rooted deeply in men's natural tempers --
Considerations of such distempers; ways of dealing with them -- The
sixth direction: Occasions and advantages of sin to be prevented -- The
seventh direction: The first actings of sin vigorously to be opposed.
This is my third direction, --
Load your conscience with the guilt of it. Not only consider that it
has a guilt, but load your conscience with the guilt of its actual
eruptions and disturbances.
For the right improvement of this rule I shall give some particular
directions:--
1. Take God's method in it, and begin with generals, and so descend to
particulars:--
(1.) Charge your conscience with that guilt which appears in it from the
rectitude and holiness of the law. Bring the holy law of God into your
conscience, lay your corruption to it, pray that you may be affected
with it. Consider the holiness, spirituality, fiery severity,
inwardness, absoluteness of the law, and see how you canst stand
before it. Be much, I say, in affecting your conscience with the terror
of the Lord in the law, and how righteous it is that every one of your
transgressions should receive a recompense of reward. Perhaps your
conscience will invent shifts and evasions to keep off the power of
this consideration; -- as, that the condemning power of the law does
not belong to you, you art set free from it, and the like; and so,
though you be not conformable to it, yet you need not to be so
much troubled at it. But, --
[1.] Tell your conscience that it cannot manage any evidence to the
purpose that you art free from the condemning power of sin, whilst your
unmortified lust lies in your heart; so that, perhaps, the law may make
good its plea against you for a full dominion, and then you art a
lost creature. Wherefore it is best to ponder to the utmost what it
has to say.
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Assuredly, he that pleads in the most secret reserve of his heart that
he is freed from the condemning power of the law, thereby secretly to
countenance himself in giving the least allowance unto any sin or lust,
is not able, on gospel grounds, to manage any evidence, unto any
tolerable spiritual security, that indeed he is in a due manner freed
from what he so pretends himself to be delivered.
[2.] Whatever be the issue, yet the law has commission from God to
seize upon transgressors wherever it find them, and so bring them
before his throne, where they are to plead for themselves. This is your
present case; the law has found you out, and before God it will bring
you. If you canst plead a pardon, well and good; if not, the law will
do its work.
[3.] However, this is the proper work of the law, to discover sin in
the guilt of it, to awake and humble the soul for it, to be a glass to
represent sin in its colours; and if you deny to deal with it on
this account, it is not through faith, but through the hardness of your
heart and the deceitfullness of sin.
This is a door that too many professors have gone out at unto open
apostasy. Such a deliverance from the law they have pretended, as that
they would consult its guidance and direction no more; they would
measure their sin by it no more. By little and little this principle
has insensibly, from the notion of it, proceeded to influence their
practical understandings, and, having taken possession there, has
turned the will and affections loose to all manner of abominations.
By such ways, I say, then, as these, persuade your conscience to hearken
diligently to what the law speaks, in the name of the Lord, unto you
about your lust and corruption. Oh! if your ears be open, it will speak
with a voice that shall make you tremble, that shall cast you to the
ground, and fill you with astonishment. If ever you wilt mortify your
corruptions, you must tie up your conscience to the law, shut it from
all shifts and exceptions, until it owns its guilt with a clear and
thorough apprehension; so that thence, as David speaks, your "iniquity
may ever be before you."
(2.) Bring your lust to the gospel, -- not for relief, but for farther
conviction of its guilt; look on Him whom you hast pierced, and be in
bitterness. Say to your soul, "What have I done? What love, what mercy,
what blood, what grace have I despised and trampled on! Is this the
return I make to the Father for his love, to the Son for his blood, to
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the Holy Ghost for his grace? Do I thus requite the Lord? Have I
defiled the heart that Christ died to wash, that the blessed Spirit
has chosen to dwell in? And can I keep myself out of the dust? What
can I say to the dear Lord Jesus? How shall I hold up my head with any
boldness before him? Do I account communion with him of so little
value, that for this vile lust's sake I have scarce left him any room
in my heart? How shall I escape if I neglect so great salvation? In the
meantime, what shall I say to the Lord? Love, mercy, grace, goodness,
peace, joy, consolation, -- I have despised them all, and esteemed them
as a thing of nought, that I might harbour a lust in my heart. Have I
obtained a view of God's fatherly countenance, that I might behold his
face and provoke him to his face? Was my soul washed, that room might
be made for new defilements? Shall I endeavour to disappoint the end of
the death of Christ? Shall I daily grieve that Spirit whereby I am
sealed to the day of redemption?" Entertain your conscience daily with
this treaty. See if it can stand before this aggravation of its guilt.
If this make it not sink in some measure and melt, I fear your case is
dangerous.
2. Descend to particulars. As under the general head of the gospel all
the benefits of it are to be considered, as redemption, justification,
and the like; so, in particular, consider the management of the love of
them towards your own soul, for the aggravation of the guilt of your
corruption. As, --
(1.) Consider the infinite patience and forbearance of God towards you
in particular. Consider what advantages he might have taken against
you, to have made you a shame and a reproach in this world, and an
object of wrath forever; how you hast dealt treacherously and falsely
with him from time to time, flattered him with your lips, but broken all
promises and engagements, and that by the means of that sin you art
now in pursuit of; and yet he has spared you from time to time,
although you seem boldly to have put it to the trial how long he
could hold out. And wilt you yet sin against him? wilt you yet weary
him, and make him to serve with your corruptions?
Hast you not often been ready to conclude yourself, that it was utterly
impossible that he should bear any longer with you; that he would cast
you off, and be gracious no more; that all his forbearance was
exhausted, and hell and wrath was even ready prepared for you? and
yet, above all your expectation, he has returned with visitations of
love. And wilt you yet abide in the provocation of the eyes of his
glory?
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(2.) How often hast you been at the door of being hardened by the
deceitfullness of sin, and by the infinite rich grace of God hast been
recovered to communion with him again?
Hast you not found grace decaying; delight in duties, ordinances,
prayer and meditation, vanishing; inclinations to loose careless
walking, thriving; and they who before were entangled, almost beyond
recovery? Hast you not found yourself engaged in such ways, societies,
companies, and that with delight, as God abhors? And wilt you venture
any more to the brink of hardness?
(3.) All God's gracious dealings with you, in providential
dispensations, deliverances, afflictions, mercies, enjoyments, all
ought here to take place. By these, I say, and the like means, load your
conscience; and leave it not until it be thoroughly affected with the
guilt of your indwelling corruption, until it is sensible of its wound,
and lie in the dust before the Lord. Unless this be done to the
purpose, all other endeavours are to no purpose. Whilst the conscience
has any means to alleviate the guilt of sin, the soul will never
vigorously attempt its mortification.
Fourthly. Being thus affected with your sin, in the next place get a
constant longing, breathing after deliverance from the power of it.
Suffer not your heart one moment to be contented with your present frame
and condition. Longing desires after anything, in things natural and
civil, are of no value or consideration, any farther but as they incite
and stir up the person in whom they are to a diligent use of means for
the bringing about the thing aimed at. In spiritual things it is
otherwise. Longing, breathing, and panting after deliverance is a grace
in itself, that has a mighty power to conform the soul into the
likeness of the thing longed after. 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 desire," 2 Cor. vii.
11. And in this case of indwelling sin and the power of it, what frame
does he express himself to be in? Rom. vii. 24. His heart breaks out
with longings into a most passionate expression‎ of desire of
deliverance. Now, if this be the frame of saints upon the general
consideration of indwelling sin, how is it to be heightened and
increased when thereunto is added the perplexing rage and power of any
particular lust and corruption! Assure yourself, unless you longest for
deliverance you shalt not have it.
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This will make the heart watchful for all opportunities of advantage
against its enemy, and ready to close with any assistances that are
afforded for its destruction. Strong desires are the very life of that
"praying always" which is enjoined us in all conditions, and in none is
more necessary than in this; they set faith and hope on work, and are
the soul's moving after the Lord.
Get your heart, then, into a panting and breathing frame; long, sigh,
cry out. You know the example of David; I shall not need to insist on
it.
The fifth direction is, --
Consider whether the distemper with which you art perplexed be not
rooted in your nature, and cherished, fomented, and heightened from your
constitution. A proneness to some sins may doubtless lie in the natural
temper and disposition of men. In this case consider, --
1. This is not in the least an extenuation of the guilt of your sin.
Some, with an open profaneness, will ascribe gross enormities to their
temper and disposition; and whether others may not relieve themselves
from the pressing guilt of their distempers by the same consideration,
I know not. It is from the fall, from the original depravation of our
natures, that the kindles and nourishment of any sin abides in our
natural temper. David reckons his being shapen in iniquity and
conception in sin [15] as an aggravation of his following sin, not a
lessening or extenuation of it. That you art peculiarly inclined unto
any sinful distemper is but a peculiar breaking out of original lust in
your nature, which should peculiarly abase and humble you.
2. That you hast to fix upon on this account, in reference to your
walking with God, is, that so great an advantage is given to sin, as
also to Satan, by this your temper and disposition, that without
extraordinary watchfullness, care, and diligence, they will assuredly
prevail against your soul. Thousands have been on this account hurried
headlong to hell, who otherwise, at least, might have gone at a more
gentle, less provoking, less mischievous rate.
3. For the mortification of any distemper so rooted in the nature of a
man, unto all other ways and means already named or farther to be
insisted on, there is one expedient peculiarly suited; this is that of
the apostle, 1 Cor. ix. 27, "I keep under my body, and bring it into
subjection." The bringing of the very body into subjection is an
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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. Perhaps, because the Papists, men ignorant of the
righteousness of Christ, the work of his Spirit, and whole business in
hand, have laid the whole weight and stress of mortification in
voluntary services and penances, leading to the subjection of the body,
knowing indeed the true nature neither of sin nor mortification, it
may, on the other side, be a temptation to some to neglect some means
of humiliation which by God himself are owned and appointed. The
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, so it be done with the ensuing
limitations:--
(1.) That the outward weakening and impairing of the body be not looked
upon as a thing good in itself, or that any mortification does consist
therein, -- which were again to bring us under carnal ordinances; but
only as a means for the end proposed, -- the weakening of any distemper
in its natural root and seat. A man may have leanness of body and soul
together.
(2.) That the means whereby this is done, -- namely, by fasting and
watching, and the like, -- be not looked on as things that in
themselves, and by virtue of their own power, can produce true
mortification of any sin; for if they would, sin might be mortified
without any help of the Spirit in any unregenerate person in the world.
They are to be looked on only as ways whereby the Spirit may, and
sometimes does, put forth strength for the accomplishing of his own
work, especially in the case mentioned. Want of a right understanding
and due improvement of these and the like considerations, has raised a
mortification among the Papists that may be better applied to horses
and other beasts of the field than to believers.
This is the sum of what has been spoken: When the distemper complained
of seems to be rooted in the natural temper and constitution, in
applying our souls to a participation of the blood and Spirit of
Christ, an endeavour is to be used to give check in the way of God to
the natural root of that distemper.
The sixth direction is, --
Consider what occasions, what advantages your distemper has taken to
exert and put forth itself, and watch against them all.
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This is one part of that duty which our blessed Saviour recommends to
his disciples under the name of watching: Mark xiii. 37, "I say unto
you all, Watch;" which, in Luke xxi. 34, is, "Take heed lest your
hearts be overcharged." Watch against all eruptions of your corruptions.
I mean that duty which David professed himself to be exercised unto. "I
have," saith he, "kept myself from mine iniquity." He watched all the
ways and workings of his iniquity, to prevent them, to rise up against
them. This is that which we are called unto under the name of
"considering our ways." Consider what ways, what companies, what
opportunities, what studies, what businesses, what conditions, have at
any time given, or do usually give, advantages to your distempers, and
set yourself heedfully against them all. Men will do this with respect
unto their bodily infirmities and distempers. The seasons, the diet,
the air that have proved offensive shall be avoided. Are the things of
the soul of less importance? Know that he that dares to dally with
occasions of sin will dare to sin. He that will venture upon
temptations unto wickedness will venture upon wickedness. Hazael
thought he should not be so wicked as the prophet told him he would be.
To convince him, the prophet tells him no more but, "You shalt be king
of Syria." If he will venture on temptations unto cruelty, he will be
cruel. Tell a man he shall commit such and such sins, he will startle
at it. If you can convince him that he will venture on such occasions
and temptations of them, he will have little ground left for his
confidence. Particular directions belonging to this head are many, not
now to be insisted on. But because this head is of no less importance
than the whole doctrine here handled, I have at large in another
treatise, about entering into temptations, treated of it.
The seventh direction is, --
Rise mightily against the first actings of your distemper, its first
conceptions; suffer it not to get the least ground. Do not say, "Thus
far it shall go, and no farther." If it have allowance for one step, it
will take another. It is impossible to fix bounds to sin. It is like
water in a channel, -- if it once break out, it will have its course.
Its not acting is easier to be compassed than its bounding. Therefore
does James give that gradation and process of lust, chap. i. 14, 15,
that we may stop at the entrance. Dost you find your corruption to
begin to entangle your thoughts? rise up with all your 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
you roll yourself in folly and filth. Ask envy what it would have; --
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murder and destruction is at the end of it. Set yourself against it with
no less vigour than if it had utterly debased you to wickedness.
Without this course you wilt not prevail. As sin gets ground in the
affections to delight in, it gets also upon the understanding to slight
it.
__________________________________________________________________
[15] Ps. li. 5.

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Chapter XII.
The eighth direction: Thoughtfullness of the excellency of the majesty
of God -- Our unacquaintedness with him proposed and considered.
Eighthly, Use and exercise yourself to such meditations as may serve to
fill you at all times with self-abasement and thoughts of your own
vileness; as, --
1. Be much in thoughtfullness of the excellency of the majesty of God
and your infinite, inconceivable distance from him. Many thoughts of
it cannot but fill you with a sense of your own vileness, which
strikes deep at the root of any indwelling sin. When Job comes to a
clear discovery of the greatness and the excellency of God, he is
filled with self-abhorrence and is pressed to humiliation, Job xlii. 5,
6. And in what state does the prophet Habakkuk affirm himself to be
cast, upon the apprehension of the majesty of God? chap. iii. 16. "With
God," says Job, "is terrible majesty." [16] Hence were the thoughts of
them of old, that when they had seen God they should die. The Scripture
abounds in this self-abasing consideration, comparing the men of the
earth to "grasshoppers," to "vanity," the "dust of the balance," in
respect of God. [17] Be much in thoughts of this nature, to abase the
pride of your heart, and to keep your soul humble within you. There is
nothing will render you a greater indisposition to be imposed on by
the deceits of sin than such a frame of heart. Think greatly of the
greatness of God.
2. Think much of your unacquaintedness with him. Though you know
enough to keep you low and humble, yet how little a portion is it that
you know of him! The contemplation hereof cast that wise man into
that apprehension of himself which he expresses, Prov. xxx. 2-4,
"Surely I am more brutish than any man, and have not the understanding
of a man. I neither learned wisdom, nor have the knowledge of the holy.
Who has ascended up into heaven, or descended? who has gathered the
wind in his fists? who has bound the waters in a garment? who has
established the ends of the earth? what is his name, and what is his
Son's name, if you canst tell?" Labour with this also to take down the
pride of your heart. What dost you know of God? How little a portion is
it! How immense is he in his nature! Canst you look without terror
into the abyss of eternity? You canst not bear the rays of his
glorious being.
Because I look on this consideration of great use in our walking with
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God, so far as it may have a consistency with that filial boldness
which is given us in Jesus Christ to draw nigh to the throne of grace,
I shall farther insist upon it, to give an abiding impression of it to
the souls of them who desire to walk humbly with God.
Consider, then, I say, to keep your heart in continual awe of the
majesty of God, that persons of the most high and eminent attainment,
of the nearest and most familiar communion with God, do yet in this
life know but a very little of him and his glory. God reveals his name
to Moses, -- the most glorious attributes that he has manifested in
the covenant of grace, Exod. xxxiv. 5, 6; yet all are but the "back
parts" of God. All that he knows by it is but little, low, compared to
the perfections of his glory. Hence it is with peculiar reference to
Moses that it is said, "No man has seen God at any time," John i. 18;
of him in comparison with Christ does he speak, verse 17; and of him it
is here said, "No man," no, not Moses, the most eminent among them,
"has seen God at any time." We speak much of God, can talk of him, his
ways, his works, his counsels, all the day long; 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, none of them reaching
his perfections.
You will say that Moses was under the law when God wrapped up himself
in darkness, and his mind in types and clouds and dark institutions; --
under the glorious shining of the gospel, which has brought life and
immortality to light, God being revealed from his own bosom, we now
know him much more clearly, and as he is; we see his face now, and not
his back parts only, as Moses did.
Ans. 1. I acknowledge a vast and almost inconceivable difference
between the acquaintance we now have with God, after his speaking to us
by his own Son, [18] and that which the generality of the saints had
under the law; for although their eyes were as good, sharp, and clear
as ours, their faith and spiritual understanding not behind ours, the
object as glorious unto them as unto us, yet our day is more clear than
theirs was, the clouds are blown away and scattered, [19] the shadows
of the night are gone and fled away, the sun is risen, and the means of
sight is made more eminent and clear than formerly. Yet, --
2. That peculiar sight which Moses had of God, Exod. xxxiv., was a
gospel-sight, a sight of God as "gracious," etc., and yet it is called
but his "back parts;" that is, but low and mean, in comparison of his
excellencies and perfections.
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3. The apostle, exalting to the utmost this glory of light above that
of the law, manifesting that now the "veil" causing darkness is taken
away, so that with "open" or uncovered "face [20] we behold the glory
of the Lord," tells us how: "As in a glass," 2 Cor. iii. 18. "In a
glass," how is that? Clearly, perfectly? Alas, no! He tells you how
that is, 1 Cor. xiii. 12, "We see through a glass, darkly," saith he.
It is not a telescope that helps us to see things afar off, concerning
which the apostle speaks; and yet what poor helps are they! how short
do we come of the truth of things notwithstanding their assistance! It
is a looking-glass whereunto he alludes (where are only obscure species
and images of things, and not the things themselves), and a sight
therein that he compares our knowledge to. He tells you also that all
that we do see, di' esuptrou , "by" or "through this glass," is in
ainigmati -- in "a riddle," in darkness and obscurity. And speaking of
himself, who surely was much more clear-sighted than any now living, he
tells us that he saw but ek merous, -- "in part." He saw but the back
parts of heavenly things, verse 12, and compares all the knowledge he
had attained of God to that he had of things when he was a child, verse
11. It is a meros, short of the to teleion; yea, such as
katargethesetai , -- "it shall be destroyed," or done away. We know
what weak, feeble, uncertain notions and apprehensions children have of
things of any abstruse consideration; how when they grow up with any
improvements of parts and abilities, those conceptions vanish, and they
are ashamed of them. It is the commendation of a child to love, honour,
believe, and obey his father; but for his science and notions, his
father knows his childishness and folly. Notwithstanding all our
confidence of high attainments, all our notions of God are but childish
in respect of his infinite perfections. We lisp and babble, and say we
know not what, for the most part, in our most accurate, as we think,
conceptions and notions of God. We may love, honour, believe, and obey
our Father; and therewith he accepts our childish thoughts, for they
are but childish. We see but his back parts; we know but little of him.
Hence is that promise wherewith we are so often supported and comforted
in our distress, "We shall see him as he is;" we shall see him "face to
face;" "know as we are known; comprehend that for which we are
comprehended," 1 Cor. xiii. 12, 1 John iii. 2; and positively, "Now we
see him not;" -- all concluding that here we see but his back parts;
not as he is, but in a dark, obscure representation; not in the
perfection of his glory.
The queen of Sheba had heard much of Solomon, and framed many great
thoughts of his magnificence in her mind thereupon; but when she came
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and saw his glory, she was forced to confess that the one half of the
truth had not been told her. We may suppose that we have here attained
great knowledge, clear and high thoughts of God; but, alas! when he
shall bring us into his presence we shall cry out, "We never knew him
as he is; the thousandth part of his glory, and perfection, and
blessedness, never entered into our hearts."
The apostle tells us, 1 John iii. 2, that we know not what we ourselves
shall be, -- what we shall find ourselves in the issue; much less will
it enter into our hearts to conceive what God is, and what we shall
find him to be. Consider either him who is to be known, or the way
whereby we know him, and this will farther appear:--
(1.) We know so little of God, because it is God who is thus to be
known, -- that is, he who has described himself to us very much by
this, that we cannot know him. What else does he intend where he calls
himself invisible, incomprehensible, and the like? -- that is, he whom
we do not, cannot, know as he is. And our farther progress consists
more in knowing what he is not, than what he is. Thus is he described
to be immortal, infinite, -- that is, he is not, as we are, mortal,
finite, and limited. Hence is that glorious description of him, 1 Tim.
vi. 16, "Who only has immortality, dwelling in the light which no man
can approach unto; whom no man has seen, nor can see." His light is
such as no creature can approach unto. He is not seen, not because he
cannot be seen, but because we cannot bear the sight of him. The light
of God, in whom is no darkness, forbids all access to him by any
creature whatever. We who cannot behold the sun in its glory are too
weak to bear the beams of infinite brightness. On this consideration,
as was said, the wise man professes himself "a very beast, and not to
have the understanding of a man," Prov. xxx. 2; -- that is, he knew
nothing in comparison of God; so that he seemed to have lost all his
understanding when once he came to the consideration of him, his work,
and his ways.
In this consideration let our souls descend to some particulars:--
[1.] For the being of God; we are so far from a knowledge of it, so as
to be able to instruct one another therein by words and expressions of
it, as that to frame any conceptions in our mind, with such species and
impressions of things as we receive the knowledge of all other things
by, is to make an idol to ourselves, and so to worship a god of our own
making, and not the God that made us. We may as well and as lawfully
hew him out of wood or stone as form him a being in our minds, suited
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to our apprehensions. The utmost of the best of our thoughts of the
being of God is, that we can have no thoughts of it. Our knowledge of a
being is but low when it mounts no higher but only to know that we know
it not.
[2.] There be some things of God which he himself has taught us to
speak of, and to regulate our expressions of them; but when we have so
done, we see not the things themselves; we know them not. To believe
and admire is all that we attain to. We profess, as we are taught, that
God is infinite, omnipotent, eternal; and we know what disputes and
notions there are about omnipresence, immensity, infiniteness, and
eternity. We have, I say, words and notions about these things; but as
to the things themselves what do we know? what do we comprehend of
them? Can the mind of man do any more but swallow itself up in an
infinite abyss, which is as nothing; give itself up to what it cannot
conceive, much less express? Is not our understanding "brutish" in the
contemplation of such things, and is as if it were not? Yea, the
perfection of our understanding is, not to understand, and to rest
there. They are but the back parts of eternity and infiniteness that we
have a glimpse of. What shall I say of the Trinity, or the subsistence
of distinct persons in the same individual essence, -- a mystery by
many denied, because by none understood, -- a mystery, whose every
letter is mysterious? Who can declare the generation of the Son, the
procession of the Spirit, or the difference of the one from the other?
But I shall not farther instance in particulars. That infinite and
inconceivable distance that is between him and us keeps us in the dark
as to any sight of his face or clear apprehension of his perfections.
We know him rather by what he does than by what he is, -- by his doing
us good than by his essential goodness; and how little a portion of
him, as Job speaks, is hereby discovered!
(2.) We know little of God, because it is faith alone whereby here we
know him. I shall not now discourse about the remaining impressions on
the hearts of all men by nature that there is a God, nor what they may
rationally be taught concerning that God from the works of his creation
and providence, which they see and behold. It is confessedly, and that
upon the woeful experience of all ages, so weak, low, dark, confused,
that none ever on that account glorified God as they ought, but,
notwithstanding all their knowledge of God, were indeed "without God in
the world."
The chief, and, upon the matter, almost only acquaintance we have with
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God, and his dispensations of himself, is by faith. "He that cometh to
God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that
diligently seek him," Heb. xi. 6. Our knowledge of him and his
rewarding (the bottom of our obedience or coming to him), is believing.
"We walk by faith, and not by sight," 2 Cor. v. 7; -- Dia pisteos ou
dia eidous; by faith, and so by faith as not to have any express idea,
image, or species of that which we believe. Faith is all the argument
we have of "things not seen," Heb. xi. 1. I might here insist upon the
nature of it; and from all its concomitants and concernments manifest
that we know but the back parts of what we know by faith only. As to
its rise, it is built purely upon the testimony of Him whom we have not
seen: as the apostle speaks, "How can you love him whom you have not
seen?" -- that is, whom you know not but by faith that he is. Faith
receives all upon his testimony, whom it receives to be only on his own
testimony. As to its nature, it is an assent upon testimony, not an
evidence upon demonstration; and the object of it is, as was said
before, above us. Hence our faith, as was formerly observed, is called
a "seeing darkly, as in a glass." All that we know this way (and all
that we know of God we know this way) is but low, and dark, and
obscure.
But you will say, "All this is true, but yet it is only so to them that
know not God, perhaps, as he is revealed in Jesus Christ; with them who
do so it is otherwise. It is true, No man has seen God at any time,'
but the only-begotten Son, he has revealed him,' John i. 18; and the
Son of God is come, and has given us an understanding, that we may
know him that is true,' 1 John v. 20. The illumination of the glorious
gospel of Christ, who is the image of God,' shines upon believers, 2
Cor. iv. 4; yea, and God, who commanded the light to shine out of
darkness, shines into their hearts, to give them the knowledge of his
glory in the face of his Son,' verse 6. So that though we were
darkness,' yet we are now light in the Lord,' Eph. v. 8. And the
apostle says, We all with open face behold the glory of the Lord,' 2
Cor. iii. 18; and we are now so far from being in such darkness, or at
such a distance from God, that our communion and fellowship is with the
Father and with his Son,' 1 John i. 3. The light of the gospel whereby
now God is revealed is glorious; not a star, but the sun in his beauty
is risen upon us, and the veil is taken from our faces. So that though
unbelievers, yea, and perhaps some weak believers, may be in some
darkness, yet those of any growth or considerable attainments have a
clear sight and view of the face of God in Jesus Christ."
To which I answer, --
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[1.] The truth is, we all of us know enough of him to love him more
than we do, to delight in him and serve him, believe him, obey him, put
our trust in him, above all that we have hitherto attained. Our
darkness and weakness is no plea for our negligence and disobedience.
Who is it that has walked up to the knowledge that he has had of the
perfections, excellencies, and will of God? God's end in giving us any
knowledge of himself here is that we may "glorify him as God;" that is,
love him, serve him, believe and obey him, -- give him all the honour
and glory that is due from poor sinful creatures to a sin-pardoning God
and Creator. We must all acknowledge that we were never thoroughly
transformed into the image of that knowledge which we have had. And had
we used our talents well, we might have been trusted with more.
[2.] Comparatively, that knowledge which we have of God by the
revelation of Jesus Christ in the gospel is exceeding eminent and
glorious. It is so in comparison of any knowledge of God that might
otherwise be attained, or was delivered in the law under the Old
Testament, which had but the shadow of good things, not the express
image of them; this the apostle pursues at large, 2 Cor. iii. Christ
has now in these last days revealed the Father from his own bosom,
declared his name, made known his mind, will, and counsel in a far more
clear, eminent, distinct manner than he did formerly, whilst he kept
his people under the pedagogy of the law; and this is that which, for
the most part, is intended in the places before mentioned. The clear,
perspicuous delivery and declaration of God and his will in the gospel
is expressly exalted in comparison of any other way of revelation of
himself.
[3.] The difference between believers and unbelievers as to knowledge
is not so much in the matter of their knowledge as in the manner of
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 know nothing as they ought, nothing in a right manner, nothing
spiritually and savingly, nothing with a holy, heavenly light. The
excellency of a believer is, not that he has a large apprehension of
things, but that what he does apprehend, which perhaps may be very
little, he sees it in the light of the Spirit of God, in a saving,
soul-transforming light; and this is that which gives us communion with
God, and not prying thoughts or curious-raised notions.
[4.] Jesus Christ by his word and Spirit reveals to the hearts of all
his, God as a Father, as a God in covenant, as a rewarder, every way
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sufficiently to teach us to obey him here, and to lead us to his bosom,
to lie down there in the fruition of him to eternity. But yet now,
[5.] Notwithstanding all this, it is but a little portion we know of
him; we see but his back parts. For, --
1st. The intendment of all gospel revelation is, not to unvail God's
essential glory, that we should see him as he is, but merely to declare
so much of him as he knows sufficient to be a bottom of our faith,
love, obedience, and coming to him, -- that is, of the faith which here
he expects from us; such services as beseem poor creatures in the midst
of temptations. But when he calls us to eternal admiration and
contemplation, without interruption, he will make a new manner of
discovery of himself, and the whole shape of things, as it now lies
before us, will depart as a shadow.
2dly. We are dull and slow of heart to receive the things that are in
the word revealed; God, by our infirmity and weakness, keeping us in
continual dependence on him for teachings and revelations of himself
out of his word, never in this world bringing any soul to the utmost of
what is from the word to be made out and discovered: so that although
the way of revelation in the gospel be clear and evident, yet we know
little of the things themselves that are revealed.
Let us, then, revive the use and intendment of this consideration: Will
not a due apprehension of this inconceivable greatness of God, and that
infinite distance wherein we stand from him, fill the soul with a holy
and awful fear of him, so as to keep it in a frame unsuited to the
thriving or flourishing of any lust whatever? Let the soul be
continually wonted to reverential thoughts of God's greatness and
omnipresence, and it will be much upon its watch as to any undue
deportments. Consider him with whom you have to do, -- even "our God is
a consuming fire;" and in your greatest abashments at his presence and
eyou, know that your very nature is too narrow to bear apprehensions
suitable to his essential glory.
__________________________________________________________________
[16] Job xxxvii. 22.
[17] Isa. xl. 12-25.
[18] Heb. i. 2.
[19] Cant. iv. 6.
[20] Anakekalummeno prosopo.

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Chapter XIII.
The ninth direction: When the heart is disquieted by sin, speak no
peace to it until God speak it -- Peace, without detestation of sin,
unsound; so is peace measured out unto ourselves -- How we may know
when we measure our peace unto ourselves -- Directions as to that
inquiry -- The vanity of speaking peace slightly; also of doing it on
one singular account, not universally.
Ninethly, 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 you speak not peace to yourself
before God speaks it; but hearken what he says to your soul. This is our
next direction, without the observation whereof the heart will be
exceedingly exposed to the deceitfullness of sin.
This is a business of great importance. It is a sad thing for a man to
deceive his own soul herein. All the warnings God gives us, in
tenderness to our souls, to try and examine ourselves, do tend to the
preventing of this great evil of speaking peace groundlessly to
ourselves; which is upon the issue to bless ourselves, in an opposition
to God. It is not my business to insist upon the danger of it, but to
help believers to prevent it, and to let them know when they do so.
To manage this direction aright observe, --
1. That as it is the great prerogative and sovereignty of God to give
grace to whom he pleases ("He has mercy on whom he will," Rom. ix. 18;
and among all the sons of men, he calls whom he will, and sanctifies
whom he will), so among those so called and justified, and whom he will
save, he yet reserves this privilege to himself, to speak peace to whom
he pleases, and in what degree he pleases, even amongst them on whom
he has bestowed grace. He is the "God of all consolation," in an
especial manner in his dealing with believers; that is, of the good
things that he keeps locked up in his family, and gives out of it to
all his children at his pleasure. This the Lord insists on, Isa. lvii.
16-18. It is the case under consideration that is there insisted on.
When God says he will heal their breaches and disconsolations, he
assumes this privilege to himself in an especial manner: "I create it,"
verse 19; -- "Even in respect of these poor wounded creatures I create
it, and according to my sovereignty make it out as I please."
Hence, as it is with the collation of grace in reference to them that
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are in the state of nature, -- God does it in great curiosity, and his
proceedings therein in taking and leaving, as to outward appearances,
quite besides and contrary oft-times to all probable expectations; so is
it in his communications of peace and joy in reference unto them that
are in the state of grace, -- he gives them out oft-times quite besides
our expectation, as to any appearing grounds of his dispensations.
2. As God creates it for whom he pleases, so it is the prerogative of
Christ to speak it home to the conscience. Speaking to the church of
Laodicea, who had healed her wounds falsely, and spoke peace to herself
when she ought not, he takes to himself that title, "I am the Amen, the
faithful Witness," Rev. iii. 14. He bears testimony concerning our
condition as it is indeed. We may possibly mistake, and trouble
ourselves in vain, or flatter ourselves upon false grounds, but he is
the "Amen, the faithful Witness;" and what he speaks of our state and
condition, that it is indeed. Isa. xi. 3, He is said not to "judge
after the sight of his eyes," -- not according to any outward
appearance, or anything that may be subject to a mistake, as we are
apt to do; but he shall judge and determine every cause as it is
indeed.
Take these two previous observations, and I shall give some rules
whereby men may know whether God speaks peace to them, or whether they
speak peace to themselves only:--
1. Men certainly speak peace to themselves when their so doing is not
attended with the greatest detestation imaginable of that sin in
reference whereunto they do speak peace to themselves, and abhorrency
of themselves for it. When men are wounded by sin, disquieted and
perplexed, and knowing that there is no remedy for them but only in the
mercies of God, through the blood of Christ, do therefore look to him,
and to the promises of the covenant in him, and thereupon quiet their
hearts that it shall be well with them, and that God will be exalted,
that he may be gracious to them, and yet their souls are not wrought to
the greatest detestation of the sin or sins upon the account whereof
they are disquieted, -- this is to heal themselves, and not to be
healed of God. This is but a great and strong wind, that the Lord is
nigh unto, but the Lord is not in the wind. When men do truly "look
upon Christ whom they have pierced," without which there is no healing
or peace, they will "mourn," Zech. xii. 10; they will mourn for him,
even upon this account, and detest the sin that pierced him. When we go
to Christ for healing, faith eyes him peculiarly as one pierced. Faith
takes several views of Christ, according to the occasions of address to
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him and communion with him that it has. Sometimes it views his
holiness, sometimes his power, sometimes his love, [sometimes] his
favour with his Father. And when it goes for healing and peace, it
looks especially on the blood of the covenant, on his sufferings; for
"with his stripes we are healed, and the chastisement of our peace was
upon him," Isa. liii. 5. 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 is sought. So Ezek. xvi. 60, 61, "Nevertheless I will remember my
covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish unto
you an everlasting covenant." And what then? "Then you shalt remember
your ways, and be ashamed." 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 has been alienated from him. And one of the things that the apostle
mentions as attending that godly sorrow which is accompanied with
repentance unto salvation, never to be repented of, is revenge: "Yea,
what revenge!" 2 Cor. vii. 11. They reflected on their miscarriages
with indignation and revenge, for their folly in them. When Job comes
up to a thorough healing, he cries, "Now I abhor myself," Job xlii. 6;
and until he did so, he had no abiding peace. He might perhaps have
made up himself with that doctrine of free grace which was so
excellently preached by Elihu, chap. xxxiii. from verse 14 unto 30; but
he had then but skinned his wounds: he must come to self-abhorrency if
he come to healing. So was it with those in Ps. lxxviii. 33-35, in
their great trouble and perplexity, for and upon the account of sin. I
doubt not but upon the address they made to God in Christ (for that so
they did is evident from the titles they gave him; they call him their
Rock and their Redeemer, two words everywhere pointing out the Lord
Christ), they spake peace to themselves; but was it sound and abiding?
No; it passed away as the early dew. God speaks not one word of peace
to their souls. But why had they not peace? Why, because in their
address to God, they flattered him. But how does that appear? Verse 37:
"Their heart was not right with him, neither were they steadfast;" they
had not a detestation nor relinquishment of that sin in reference
whereunto they spake peace to themselves. Let a man make what
application he will for healing and peace, let him do it to the true
Physician, let him do it the right way, let him quiet his heart in the
promises of the covenant; yet, when peace is spoken, if it be not
attended with the detestation and abhorrency of that sin which was the
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wound and caused the disquietment, this is no peace of God's creating,
but of our own purchasing. It is but a skinning over the wound, whilst
the core lies at the bottom, which will putrefy, and corrupt, and
corrode, until it break out again with noisomeness, vexation, and
danger. Let not poor souls that walk in such a path as this, who are
more sensible of the trouble of sin than of the pollution of
uncleanness that attends it; who address themselves for mercy, yea, to
the Lord in Christ they address themselves for mercy, but yet will keep
the sweet morsel of their sin under their tongue; -- let them, I say,
never think to have true and solid peace. For instance, you find
your heart running out after the world, and it disturbs you in your
communion with God; the Spirit speaks expressly to you, -- "He that
loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him." [21] This puts
you on dealing with God in Christ for the healing of your soul, the
quieting of your conscience; but yet, withal, a thorough detestation of
the evil itself abides not upon you; yea, perhaps that is liked well
enough, but only in respect of the consequences of it. Perhaps you
mayst be saved, yet as through fire, and God will have some work with
you before he has done; but you will have little peace in this life,
-- you will be sick and fainting all your days, Isa. lvii. 17. This is
a deceit that lies at the root of the peace of many professors and
wastes it. They deal with all their strength about mercy and pardon,
and seem to have great communion with God in their so doing; they lie
before him, bewail their sins and follies, that any one would think,
yea, they think themselves, that surely they and their sins are now
parted; and so receive in mercy that satisfies their hearts for a
little season. But when a thorough search comes to be made, there has
been some secret reserve for the folly or follies treated about, -- at
least, there has not been that thorough abhorrency of it which is
necessary; and their whole peace is quickly discovered to be weak and
rotten, scarce abiding any longer than the words of begging it are in
their mouths.
2. When men measure out peace to themselves upon the conclusions that
their convictions and rational principles will carry them out unto,
this is a false peace, and will not abide. I shall a little explain
what I mean hereby. A man has got a wound by sin; he has a conviction
of some sin upon his conscience; he has not walked uprightly as
becomes the gospel; all is not well and right between God and his
soul. He considers now what is to be done. Light he has, and knows
what path he must take, and how his soul has been formerly healed.
Considering that the promises of God are the outward means of
application for the healing of his sores and quieting of his heart, he
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goes to them, searches them out, finds out some one or more of them
whose literal expressions are directly suited to his condition. Says he
to himself, "God speaks in this promise; here I will take myself a
plaster as long and broad as my wound;" and so brings the word of the
promise to his condition, and sets him down in peace. This is another
appearance upon the mount; the Lord is near, but the Lord is not in it.
It has not been the work of the Spirit, who alone can "convince us of
sin, and righteousness, and judgment," [22] but the mere actings of the
intelligent, rational soul. As there are three sorts of lives, we say,
-- the vegetative, the sensitive, and the rational or intelligent, --
some things have only the vegetative; some the sensitive also, and that
includes the former; some have the rational, which takes in and
supposes both the other. Now, he that has the rational does not only
act suitably to that principle, but also to both the others, -- he
grows and is sensible. It is so with men in the things of God. Some are
mere natural and rational men; some have a superadded conviction with
illumination; and some are truly regenerate. Now, he that has the
latter has also both the former; and therefore he acts sometimes upon
the principles of the rational, sometimes upon the principles of the
enlightened man. His true spiritual life is not the principle of all
his motions; he acts not always in the strength thereof, neither are
all his fruits from that root. In this case that I speak of, he acts
merely upon the principle of conviction and illumination, whereby his
first naturals are heightened; but the Spirit breathes not at all upon
all these waters. Take an instance: Suppose the wound and disquiet of
the soul to be upon the account of relapses, -- which, whatever the
evil or folly be, though for the matter of it never so small, yet there
are no wounds deeper than those that are given the soul on that
account, nor disquietments greater; -- 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," -- he will multiply or add to pardon,
he will do it again and again; or that in Hos. xiv. 4, "I will heal
their backsliding, I will love them freely." 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 does not hearken whether God the
Lord speak peace. He does not wait upon God, who perhaps yet hides his
face, and sees the poor creature stealing peace and running away with
it, knowing that the time will come when he will deal with him again,
and call him to a new reckoning; [23] when he shall see that it is in
vain to go one step where God does not take him by the hand.
I see here, indeed, sundry other questions upon this arising and
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interposing themselves. I cannot apply myself to them all: one I shall
a little speak to.
It may be said, then, "Seeing that this seems to be the path that the
Holy Spirit leads us in for the healing of our wounds and quieting of
our hearts, how shall we know when we go alone ourselves, and when the
Spirit also does accompany us?"
Ans. (1.) If any of you are out of the way upon this account, God will
speedily let you know it; for besides that you have his promise, that
the "meek he will guide in judgment and teach them his way," Ps. xxv.
9, he will not let you always err. He will, I say, not suffer your
nakedness to be covered with fig-leaves, but take them away and all the
peace you have in them, and will not suffer you to settle on such lees.
You shall quickly know your wound is not healed; that is, you shall
speedily know whether or no it be thus with you by the event. The peace
you thus get and obtain will not abide. Whilst the mind is overpowered
by its own convictions, there is no hold for disquietments to fix upon.
Stay a little, and all these reasonings will grow cold and vanish
before the face of the first temptation that arises. But, --
(2.) This course is commonly taken without waiting; which is the grace,
and that peculiar acting of faith which God calls for, to be exercised
in such a condition. I know God does sometimes come in upon the soul
instantly, in a moment, as it were, wounding and healing it, -- as I am
persuaded it was in the case of David, when he cut off the lap of
Saul's garment; but ordinarily, in such a case, God calls for [24]
waiting and labouring, attending as the eye of a servant upon his
master. Says the prophet Isaiah, chap. viii. 17, "I will wait upon the
Lord, who hides his face from the house of Jacob." 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; unless he take them by the hand and
pluck them in, when they are so ashamed that they dare not come to him.
Now, self-healers, or men that speak peace to themselves, do commonly
make haste; they will not tarry; they do not hearken what God speaks,
but on they will go to be healed. [25]
(3.) Such a course, though it may quiet the conscience and the mind,
the rational concluding part of the soul, yet it does not sweeten the
heart with rest and gracious contentation. The answer it receives is
much like that Elisha gave Naaman, "Go in peace;" [26] it quieted his
mind, but I much question whether it sweetened his heart, or gave him
any joy in believing, other than the natural joy that was then stirred
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in him upon his healing. "Do not my words do good?" saith the Lord,
Micah ii. 7. 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.
(4.) Which is worst of all, it amends not the life, it heals not the
evil, it cures not the distemper. When God speaks peace, it guides and
keeps the soul that it "turn not again to folly." [27] When we speak it
ourselves, the heart is not taken off the evil; nay, it is the readiest
course in the world to bring a soul into a trade of backsliding. If,
upon your plastering yourself, you find yourself rather animated to
the battle again than utterly weaned from it, it is too palpable that
you hast been at work with your own soul, but Jesus Christ and his
Spirit were not there. Yea, and oftentimes nature having done its work,
will, ere a few days are over, come for its reward; and, having been
active in the work of healing, will be ready to reason for a new
wounding. In God's speaking peace there comes along so much sweetness,
and such a discovery of his love, as is a strong obligation on the soul
no more to deal perversely. [28]
3. We speak peace to ourselves when we do it slightly. This the prophet
complains of in some teachers: Jer. vi. 14, "They have healed the wound
of the daughter of my people slightly." And it is so with some persons:
they make the healing of their wounds a slight work; a look, a glance
of faith to the promises does it, and so the matter is ended. The
apostle tells us that "the word did not profit" some, because "it was
not mixed with faith," Heb. iv. 2, -- me sunkekramenos; "it was not
well tempered" and mingled with faith. It is not a mere look to the
word of mercy in the promise, but it must be mingled with faith until
it is incorporated into the very nature of it; and then, indeed, it
does good unto the soul. If you hast had a wound upon your conscience,
which was attended with weakness and disquietness, which now you art
freed of, how came you so? "I looked to the promises of pardon and
healing, and so found peace." Yea, but perhaps you hast made too much
haste, you hast done it overtly, you hast not fed upon the promise so
as to mix it with faith, to have got all the virtue of it diffused into
your soul; only you hast done it slightly. You will find your wound,
ere it be long, breaking out again; and you shalt know that you art
not cured.
4. Whoever speaks peace to himself upon any one account, and at the
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same time has another evil of no less importance lying upon his
spirit, about which he has had no dealing with God, that man cries
"Peace" when there is none. A little to explain my meaning: A man has
neglected a duty again and again, perhaps, when in all righteousness it
was due from him; his conscience is perplexed, his soul wounded, he
has no quiet in his bones by reason of his sin; he applies himself for
healing, and finds peace. Yet, in the meantime, perhaps, worldliness,
or pride, or some other folly, wherewith the Spirit of God is
exceedingly grieved, may lie in the bosom of that man, and they neither
disturb him nor he them. Let not that man think that any of his peace
is from God. Then shall it be well with men, when they have an equal
respect to all God's commandments. 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. When men of themselves speak peace to their consciences, it is
seldom that God speaks humiliation to their souls. God's peace is
humbling peace, melting peace, as it was in the case of David; [29]
never such deep humiliation as when Nathan brought him the tidings of
his pardon.
But you will say, "When may we take the comfort of a promise as our
own, in relation to some peculiar wound, for the quieting the heart?"
First, In general, when God speaks it, be it when it will, sooner or
later. I told you before, he may do it in the very instant of the sin
itself, and that with such irresistible power that the soul must needs
receive his mind in it; sometimes he will make us wait longer: but when
he speaks, be it sooner or later, be it when we are sinning or
repenting, be the condition of our souls what they please, if God
speak, he must be received. There is not anything that, in our
communion with him, the Lord is more troubled with us for, if I may so
say, than our unbelieving fears, that keep us off from receiving that
strong consolation which he is so willing to give to us.
But you will say, "We are where we were. When God speaks it, we must
receive it, that is true; but how shall we know when he speaks?"
(1.) I would we could all practically come up to this, to receive peace
when we are convinced that God speaks it, and that it is our duty to
receive it. But, --
(2.) There is, if I may so say, a secret instinct in faith, whereby it
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knows the voice of Christ when he speaks indeed; as the babe leaped in
the womb when the blessed Virgin came to Elisabeth, faith leaps in the
heart when Christ indeed draws nigh to it. "My sheep," says Christ,
"know my voice," John x. 4; -- "They know my voice; they are used to
the sound of it;" and they know when his lips are opened to them and
are full of grace. The spouse was in a sad condition, Cant. v. 2, --
asleep in security; but yet as soon as Christ speaks, she cries, "It is
the voice of my beloved that speaks!" She knew his voice, and was so
acquainted with communion with him, that instantly she discovers him;
and so will you also. If you exercise yourselves to acquaintance and
communion with him, you will easily discern between his voice and the
voice of a stranger. And take this criterion with you: When he does
speak, he speaks as never man spake; he speaks with power, and one way
or other will make your "hearts burn within you," as he did to the
disciples, Luke xxiv. He does it by "putting in his hand at the hole of
the door," Cant. v. 4, -- his Spirit into your hearts to seize on you.
He that has 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 produces, is the best judge for
himself in this case.
Secondly, If the word of the Lord does good to your souls, he speaks
it; if it humble, if it cleanse, and be useful to those ends for which
promises are given, -- namely, to endear, to cleanse, to melt and bind
to obedience, to self-emptiness, etc. But this is not my business; nor
shall I farther divert in the pursuit of this direction. Without the
observation of it, sin will have great advantages towards the hardening
of the heart.
__________________________________________________________________
[21] 1 John ii. 15.
[22] John xvi. 8.
[23] Hos. ix. 9.
[24] Ps. cxxx. 6, cxxiii. 2.
[25] Isa. xxviii. 16.
[26] 2 Kings v. 19.
[27] Ps. lxxxv. 8.
[28] Luke xxii. 32.
[29] Ps. li. 1.

[하나로]

제목이 <죄죽이기>여서, "kill"인줄 알았더니, "Mortification(고행,금욕)"이네요. ^^
sin(죄) , sins(죄들)도 구분하는 것으로 배워와서 , 제목은 "sin"으로 되었네요. 책을 빨리 구입해야 겠습니다. ^^

[holyjoy]

바로 그 점입니다! '죄죽이기'라는 것 자체가 불가능한대로 불구하고, 이상하게도 한글 번역본 모두가 다 '죄죽이기'라는 식으로 되어 있습니다. 책을 읽는 이들이 혼동할 수 밖에 없습니다. 이런 번역의 혼동은, 한국교회의 성화론이 성숙하지 못한 것을 보여주는 단적인 증거들 중의 하나입니다. 죄는 죽일 수 없고 단지, mortify할 수 있을 뿐이라고 하는 것이 존오웬의 책의 핵심이고, 그 mortification의 구체적인 방안들을 제시합니다. 죽일 수 없는 것을 죽이려고 힘쓰다가 좌절하고 또 낙망하였다는 제이 아이 패커박사의 서문도 이런 관점에서 보아야 제대로 이해될 수 있습니다. 오히려 저는 '죄억제하기'라고 번역해야 한다고 생각합

[holyjoy]

오늘도 죄죽이기 위해서 힘쓰지 말고, 죄억제하기 위해서 힘쓰는 우리들이 되기를 바랍니다. 승리하면서도 겸손할 수 밖에 없는 이유가 바로 여기에 있습니다~

[holyjoy]

올려두신 자료, 넘 감사합니다^^

[하나로]

승리한 겸손을 보니, 평화를 분별하는 몇가지 규칙이 있더군요

규칙1) 자신의 죄를 증오하지 않는다면 결코 참된 평화는 오지 않는다.
규칙2) 자신의 신념과 원리에 근거해서 스스로에게 평화를 선언한다면 그것은 거짓평화이다.
규칙3) 자신에게 평안을 말하는 것은 경박한 행동이다.
규칙4) 죄를 해결하기 위해 하나님을 의지하지 않는 사람의 평화는 거짓평화이다.
규칙5) 교만한 양심에 찾아오는 평화는 거짓평화이다.

어찌하던지, 나의 어떠함으로 죄를 억제하고 승리하기 보다는 주님의 은혜와 긍휼하심으로, 주님께 의지함으로 죄를 이기기 원합니다.
주님만이 참 만족이요, 안식이심을 고백합니다. 아멘.

[holyjoy]

참으로 감사합니다. 특별히 영문자료는 너무 필요한 것이었습니다. 한글번역은 참으로 혼동되는 부분이 많습니다. 저 유명한 서문강목사가 번역하였는데도 불구하고 그렇습니다. 영문자료는 원래의 존오웬의 글에서 현대화시킨 것이어서 아주 읽기가 좋습니다^^

[순두게]

아.. 영어를 읽을 수 있다면....