You have tuned in to the Voice of the Narrated Puritan, a class on Christian experience and assurance, and I want to dig up my notes on the practical works of John Owen, especially on the mortification of sin, but I don't want to just resign myself to teaching just that, but I'm going to show how it relates to our assurance of salvation. I have before me a letter, one of many that I have read, maybe some of these that we'll go through, because this type of teaching, once called Christian casuistry, also cases of conscience, it isn't really popular in our day. In fact, I think the teachings started to wane about the year 1860, but this person wrote to me and they said, Hi Tom, thanks for reaching out to me. I just feel so convicted by everything that Jonathan Edwards wrote from the mortification of sin and believers, well that would be John Owen, to the religious affections, that would be Jonathan Edwards. I feel like I am guilty in so many areas of what he discerned throughout. I look at myself and I think, why am I not further along in my sanctification? Why do I feel incapable of loving God more? I pray constantly every day that God would give me strength and grace to repent in some areas of my life and I feel really discouraged by Jonathan Edwards because of the biblical truth of his assertions. I want to have real assurance that my faith is in fact saving and I understand the nature of faith and the nature of salvation. It is by God's grace according to His own will. It is by my faith and not by my works. Still, chapter 2 and chapter 3 of the Treatise on the Religious Affections leaves me feeling like I must not have that true affection for God. It'd change heartbrings, otherwise I would be disgusted by the sins that I keep going back to time and again. I'm ashamed of my sin, and I do have true guilt over it. I do not want to sin, I just feel like I should be further from where I am, and that makes me doubt my salvation and wonder how much of my security is self-delusion. not a delusion about God, but about my standing with him." Well, we learn from this letter that he's not talking about kind. He isn't saying that he doesn't have any love for God. And he says he is ashamed of his sin, and he believes he has true guilt over it, and he doesn't want to sin. So he's talking about kind, not degree. And we'll get into that. How is this connected to assurance of salvation? Well, to be able to understand that, I'll lay as a foundation what Jonathan Edwards says in the introduction of Part 3 of the Treatise on Religious Affections, and then we'll use John Owen in coming classes to be able to answer that more clearly. But again, one of the purposes of these classes is to lay down a bibliography so that people would take notes, they would find these works, and they would start to read them again. Another reason to do this study is that providentially, opportunities are opening up for me to be able to teach in other places, and that includes this Sunday at a church not distant from here. The pastor had resigned. I know very little else. But I learned that, one, the sermons are about 35 minutes long on a Sunday. Probably they don't have an evening service. This is so common across evangelicalism, even those who call themselves Reformed or Calvinistic Baptists and Reformed Presbyterians. But the second thing I learned is that they actually give an altar call after the service. And since we are so woefully instructed about the new birth, about the conviction of sin and awakening prior to the new birth, and then sanctification after when you begin the Christian life, that's why I think these studies may be useful if people will listen. But Jonathan Edwards is talking about signs or evidences of the fruit that you have, in fact, been born again. He has 12 negative signs in the work, and then he has 14 positive signs. But in the introduction of Part 3, this is what I want to get at. How does this, the mortification of sin and running the race and keeping your thoughts on spiritual mindedness, we want to talk about his work. the grace and duty of being spiritually minded, but how does that relate to assurance of salvation? And Jonathan Edwards explains, No such signs, signs, do we have been born again, as we examine our fruits. No such signs are to be expected that shall be sufficient to enable those saints, certainly, to discern their own good estate. who are very low in grace, or are such as have much departed from God and are fallen into a dead, carnal and unchristian frame. It is not agreeable to God's design, as has been already observed, that such should know their good estate, nor is it desirable that they should. but on the contrary, every way past that they should not, and we have reason to bless God that he has made no provision that such should certainly know the state that they are in, any other way than by first coming out of the ill frame in the way they are in. Indeed, it is not properly through the defect of the signs given in the Word of God that every saint living, whether strong or weak, or those that are in a spiritually bad frame, as well as others, cannot certainly know their good state by them. The rules themselves, he says, are sufficient because a person is in a state of declension. in a bad state spiritually, he can't properly apply them to himself because the very fact that he's in a state of declension makes those signs. Like looking for something in the dark, he can't see clearly until he comes to the light. So, I don't know what to call this class, but a study of sin and temptation. But I won't just talk about sin and temptation. We need to talk about spiritual mindedness. So let's do an introduction to the works that are in Volume 6 of the Collected Works of John Owen. And for the most part, in this study, I'll confine myself to Works Volume 3. There is a section in there on the Holy Spirit. and sanctification. And because it was written 18 years later than the mortification of sin, and deals with the subject in some more length, I think it would be important for that to be part of this study as well. But let's do an introduction of the works first in Volume 6. Preface, John Owen says, I shall in a few words acquaint you with the reasons that obtained my consent to the publishing of the ensuing discourse, the consideration of the present state and condition of the generality of professors, the visible evidences of the frame of their hearts and spirits manifesting a great disability of dealing with the temptations from which, from the peace they have in the world and the divisions that they have among themselves. Dear Encompassed holds the chief place amongst them. Of temptation, he says, the nature and power of it, the danger of entering into it, and the means of preventing that danger. This is the fuller title. Collected Works, Volume 6. With the resolution of a number of cases, thereunto belonging. Let me read the preface to that work. If you are in any measure awakened these days in which we live and have taken notice of the manifold great and various temptations in which all sorts of persons that know the Lord and profess His name are beset, and whereinto they are continually exposed with what success those temptations have attained to the unspeakable scandal of the gospel with the wounding and ruin of innumerable souls, Well, I'll just pause with a footnote. How are we not feeling this? I'll just give you some examples of some shipwrecks of the ministry that we'd heard in recent years. There was Artaxerxia in Portland, Oregon. Great communicator, preacher, and so on. There was Rabi Zacharias, and now Stephen Lawson. Well, I don't dare point a finger at them. I ask myself, is it I as well? How do I keep myself from shipwrecking whatever ministry I have here? John Owen says, I suppose he will not inquire any further after other reasons of the publishing of the ensuing warnings and directions being suited to the times that pass over us and our own concern in them. In chapter three, probably my favorite chapter, in the treatise of temptation, he says, quote, and nothing does a folly of the hearts of men show itself more openly in the days in which we live. in an excursed boldness after so many warnings from God, and so many sad experiences every day under their eyes, of running into and putting themselves upon temptations. Any society, any company, any conditions of outward advantages without once weighing what their strength, or what the concern of their poor souls is, they are ready for. And then this paragraph is so powerful. Quote, let us consider ourselves what our weakness is and what our temptations are, their power and efficacy and what they lead to. For ourselves, we are weakness itself. We have no strength, no power to withstand. Confidence of any strength in us is one great part of our weakness. So it was in Peter. He that says he can do anything can do nothing as he should. And, which is worse, it is the worst kind of weakness that is in us, a weakness from treachery, a weakness arising from that party which every temptation has in us. if a castle or fort be never so strong and well fortified. Yet, if there be a treacherous party within us, that is ready to betray us on every opportunity, there is no preserving it from the enemy. There are traitors in our hearts, ready to take part, to close inside with every temptation. and to give up all to them, yea, to solicit and bribe temptations to do their work, as traitors would incite an enemy. Do not flatter yourselves that you should hold out your secret lusts alight lurking in your hearts, which perhaps do not stir right now. which, as soon as any temptation befalls you, will rise. It will make a tumult, cry, disquiet, seduce, and never give over until they are either killed or satisfied. He that promises himself that the frame of his heart will be the same under a temptation As it was before, the temptation will be woefully mistaken. Am I a dog? That I should do this thing, says Haziel. Yea, you will be such a dog if ever you were king of Syria. Temptation from your interest will unman you. He that now abhors the thoughts of such and such a thing, if he once enters into temptation, will find his heart inflamed towards it. and all contrary reasonings overborne and silenced." From the work The Nature, Power, Deceit, and Prevalence of the Remainders of Indwelling Sin in Believers, which I have narrated a couple of chapters from, there are 17 chapters in that work, and I just narrate a chapter here or there because I've already done the whole work, but for my own personal edification, and trying to put it in a more modern English as I narrate it. But in the preface he says, a treatise on indwelling sin, the effects and fruits of it, which we see in the apostasies and backslidings of many, the scandalous sins and miscarriages of some, and the cores and lives of the most seem to call for a due consideration of it, besides of how great concern a full and clear acquaintance with the power of this indwelling sin, the manner designed to be opened, is to believers, to stir them up to watchfulness, intelligence, to faith and prayer, to call them to repentance, humility and self-abasement, will appear in our progress." And at the end of the first couple of chapters in this book, the concluding paragraphs are warning applications that are so powerful and helpful. And this is what he says, quote, Awake, therefore, all of you, in whose hearts is anything of the ways of God, Your enemy is not only upon you, as it was of Samson of Bole, but is in you also. He is at work by all the ways of force and craft, as we shall see. Would you not dishonor God and his gospel? Would you not scandalize the saints and ways of God? Would you not wound your consciences and endanger your souls? Would you not grieve the good and Holy Spirit of God, the author of all of your comforts? Would you keep your garments undefiled and escape the woeful temptations and pollutions of the day in which we live? would you be preserved from the number of the apostates in these latter days, awake to the consideration of the cursed enemy, which is the spring of all these and innumerable other evils, is also of the ruin of all the souls that perish in this world. End quote. And indeed in the chapter two, quote, upon this one hinge, or finding out and experiencing the power and the effectiveness of this law of sin, turns the whole course of our spiritual lives. Ignorance of it breeds senselessness, carelessness, sloth, security, and pride. all of which a Lord's soul abhors. Eruptions into great, open conscience, wasting, scandalous sins are from lack of a due spiritual consideration of this law. What is this law that Owen is referring to? The law of indwelling sin. Inquire then, how is it with your souls? What do you find of this law? The law he's talking about. Romans 7 verse 21. I see a law then that when I would do good, evil is present with me. John Owen asks, What experience have you of its power? and efficacy, do you find it dwelling in you, always present with you, exciting itself, or putting forth its poison with easiness or facility in all of your duties? When you would do good, what humiliation, what self-abasement, what intenseness in prayer, what diligence, what watchfulness does this call for at your hands? What spiritual wisdom do you stand in need of? What supplies of grace, what assistance of the Holy Ghost will be hence also discovered? There's a warning, John Owen says. I fear we have few of us, a diligence proportional to our danger. End quote. Boy, is that true. And that's why I read and reread these treatises, because I know it is true of me. Let me read that again. I fear we have few of us, a diligence proportional to our danger. Sin's Importunity Its importunity and urgency seems to be noted in its expression of its warring. Enemies at war are restless, pressing, and importunate. So is the law of sin. Does it set upon the soul? Cast off its motions, it returns again. Rebuked and by the power of grace, they withdraw for a while and return again. Set before them the cross of Christ, they do as those that came to take Him. At the sight of Him, they went backwards and fell to the ground. But they arose again and laid hands on Him. Sin gives place for a season, but it returns and presses on the soul again. Reminded of the love of God in Christ, though it be stricken, yet it gives not over. Even if you present hell fire to it, it even rushes into the midst of those flames. Reproach it with folly and madness, it knows no shame, but presses on still. Let the thoughts of the mind strive to fly from it, it follows us on the wings of the wind, and by this importunity it wearies and wears out the soul, and if the great remedy in Romans 8.3 come not timely, it prevails to a conquest. There is nothing more marvelous nor dreadful in the working of sin than of its importunity." The fourth and last treatise in volume 6 of the Collected Works of John Owen is his masterful exposition of Psalm 130. which now in our day is usually titled the forgiveness of sin, wherein the nature of the forgiveness of sin is declared, the truth and reality of it asserted. In the case of a soul distressed with the guilt of sin and relieved by a discovery of forgiveness with God is at large discourse. So I'll give you an example of one paragraph in this work, the example of David. John Owen says, David, under the Old Testament, none loved God more than he. None was loved of God more than he. The paths of faith and love wherein he walked are to the most of us like the way of an eagle in the air. Too high and hard for us, yet to this very day do the cries of this man after God's own heart sound in our ears. Sometimes he complains of broken bones, sometimes of drowning depths, sometimes of waves and waterspouts, sometimes of wounds and diseases, sometimes of wrath and the sorrows of hell, everywhere of his sins, the burden and the trouble of them. Some of the occasions of his depths, darkness, entanglements, and distresses we all know. As no man had more grace than he, so none is a greater instance of the power of sin and the effects of its guilt upon the conscience than he." Verse 4. The greatness and rareness of the discovery of forgiveness of God, the reasons of it, is one of the most interesting things I have read on why Christians, serious Christians, those who are given the self-examination, not superficial and not those who never engage in any kind of examination, but serious Christians, what are the reasons for the rareness of the discovery of forgiveness of God to them? And John Orr answers, the testimonies of the conscience and the moral law lie against it. This discovery of the forgiveness in God is great and holy, mysterious, in which very few on gospel grounds attain to. First, because the constant voice of your conscience lies against it. Your conscience, if it isn't seared, inexorably condemns and pronounces wrath and anger upon the soul that has the least guilt cleaving to it. Now it has this advantage. It lies very close to the soul, and by impertinence and loud speaking it will be heard in what it has to say. It will make the whole soul attend, or it will speak like thunder. And its constant voice is that where there is guilt, there must be judgment. Romans 2, verses 14 and 15. Conscience naturally knows nothing of forgiveness. Yea, it is against his very trust work and office to hear anything of it." Well, as I think about what I could teach about in coming weeks just on that volume alone, I'd compared the counsel of John Owen, and I have done this, in the past, was the counsel of Dane Ortland's work called Gentle and Lowly. I did that in the past, and to my surprise, it had a pretty good size audience. People were very curious what John Owen would say compared to this work. But anyway, in the mortification of sin, Among his arguments and motivations to holiness, the verses mentioned contrast what happens when we choose to sin. If you live after the flesh, you will die. First, it makes our duty the means to perform it and the resulting promise conditional, if you. Second, it identifies the persons to whom it is prescribed. if you mortify. And third, it identifies the spirit as the cause or means of performing this duty through the spirit. Fourth, there is a duty prescribed in this verse, mortify the deeds of the body. And fifth, there is a promise annexed to performing that duty, you will live. So in beginning to study the mortification of sin, we have to answer questions like, What does Paul mean by the body in Romans 7 14 to 25? The body represents the corruption, the depravity of our nature. In great part, the body is the container and the means of expressing our sinful nature. Our sinful nature makes the members of the body servants to unrighteousness. What is meant by the body is indwelling sin, the corrupted flesh or lust. What is meant by the deeds of the body, the outward deeds, are only expressions of our inner self. Primarily, the intent is to have us deal with the inward cause of those deeds. The axe is set to the root of the tree. We are to mortify the causes of the deeds of the flesh. The apostle calls them deeds because they are what every lust leaves behind as evidence. When lust conceives, it seems to have no effect, but its goal is to produce a perfect sin. So we'll start dealing with that in the next lesson. I want to give a couple of more quotes from the book, The Grace and Duty of Being Spiritually Minded. I may interweave quotes from it into the classes on Amortification of Sin and Temptation and a treatise on Indwelling Sin, but it certainly deserves a study by itself. I honestly believe that if most professing Christians would seriously study one sermon and one treatise, and if they could get through those two things and still really know as they look in themselves that the marks of compassion are here, between those two, I believe they would have the highest assurance of the reality of their faith. The sermon is called, Hypocris Deficient in the Duty of Prayer. And there are two sermons with that title, but the other would be The Grace and Duty of Being Spiritually Minded. The introduction to this work is a faithful, excellent exhortation and a wake-up call. John Owen says, The knowledge of the flock in which we are overseers In other words, the knowledge of the congregates in the church in which we pastor, with a due consideration of their wants, their graces, their temptations, their gospelite, their strength and weakness, are required in this. And when, in pursuance of that design, the preparation of the Word to be dispensed proceeds from zeal for the glory of God and compassion to the souls of men, when it is delivered with the demonstration of a due reverence to God whose Word it is, and of authority towards Him to whom it is dispensed, With the deep sense of that great account which both they that preach and they that hear the word preach must shortly give before the judgment seat of Christ, there may be a comfortable expectation of a blessed issue of the whole work. But my present design is only to declare in particular the reasons why I judge the preaching and publishing of this small and plain discourse concerning the grace and duty of being spiritually minded. not to be altogether unseasonable at this time in the present circumstances of most Christians. And this is so powerful. He says, the first thing which I would observe to this end is the present importunity of the world to impose itself on the minds of men in the various ways of insinuation in which it possesses and feels them. If it can attain this end, If it can fill the minds of thoughts and affections of men with itself, it will in some fortify the soul against faith and obedience, and in others it will weaken all grace and endanger eternal ruin. For if we love the world, the love of the Father is not in us. And when the world fills our thoughts, it will entangle our affections. Present state of all public affairs in it, with an apprehended concern of private persons in it, continually exercises the thoughts of many, and is almost the only subject of their mutual converse. Well, let me give you a footnote. I've complained for years that In our circles, there is a length of time between the Sunday school and the morning service. Now I know other Reformed churches have the morning service first and then the Sunday school afterward. But anyway, there is a maybe a coffee time or we go out to fellowship with one another. But how many of the people that you really talk to? Are you having a heart-to-heart, iron-sharpens-iron conversation with to the good of each other? It's very rare. Anyway, John Owen goes on to say, for the world is at present in a mighty hurry. And being in many places cast off from all foundations of steadfastness, it makes the minds of men giddy with its revolutions, or disorderly in the expectations of them. Such about these things are both allowable and unavoidable if they don't take the mind out of its own power by their multiplicity, vehemency, and urgency. Until the mind is completely unframed as to spiritual things, it retains neither room nor time for their entertainment. Hence, men walk and talk as if the world were all, when comparatively it is nothing. And when men come with their warmed affections, reeking with thoughts of thee things to the performance of, or attendance to any spiritual duty, it is very difficult for them, if not impossible, to stir up any grace to a due and vigorous exercise, unless this plausible advantage which the world has obtained. of insinuating itself and its occasions into the minds of men so as to feel them and possess them, be watched against and obviated, so far at least, is that it may not transform the mind into its own image and likeness. Disgrace of being spiritually minded, which is life and peace, cannot be attained nor kept to its due exercise, nor can we be, any of us, delivered from this snare. It is seasoned. Without a watchful endeavor to keep and preserve our minds in the constant contemplation of things spiritual and heavenly, proceeding from the prevalent adherence of our affections to them as will appear in the ensuing discourse. And John Owen says again, There are so great and pregnant evidences of the prevalency of an earthly, worldly frame of spirit in many who make a profession of religion, that it is high time they were called to a due consideration how unanswerable they are, therein, to the power and spirituality of that religion which they profess. There is no way in which such a frame may be evidenced to prevail in many, yea, in the generality of such professors it is not manifest to all, in their habits, what they wear, investments, in their usual converse and mincements of time. and their over-liberal entertainment of themselves and others to the borders of excess and a number of other things of a like nature. There is in many such a conformity to the world, a thing severely forbidden, that it is hard to make a distinction between them. And these things manifest such a predominacy of carnal affections in the minds of men as whatever may be pretended to the contrary, it is inconsistent with spiritual peace. In other words, whatever you pretend to the contrary, to liveness, worldly-mindedness, is inconsistent with a full assurance of salvation. You may, in fact, be a Christian. You will not enjoy a full assurance. You will not have exceeding joy." End quote. In the year 1984, I was stationed in Mobile, Alabama for the United States Coast Guard. And I lived in a large ship. I remember it was about 270 feet long. That's big for a Coast Guard ship. And I had a paperback copy of the book, The Grace and Duty of Being Spiritually Minded. If you look at the back of those books in those days, they were published by Baker Publishing, but it was called Summit Christian Books. And I was going through a time of awakening. So this was the spring of 1984. It'd be another two and a half years before I got a full assurance of salvation. And I read this paragraph here, and believe me, it did not help. Now when I read this, I'm in full agreement with it, and then actually, Undergirds my assurance it doesn't undermine it, but John Owen says, in chapter 9, we are liable to death every moment. It is never the further from any of us because we do not think of it as we ought. This will lay our bodies in the dust from whence they will have no more disposition or power in themselves to rise again. than any other part of the mold of the earth. A recovery must be an act of external almighty power, when God shall have a desire to the work of his hands, when he shall call, and we shall answer him out of the dust, and it will transmit the soul into an invisible world. put in a final end to all of our relations, enjoyments, and circumstances here below. I don't speak of them who are stout-hearted and far from righteousness, and who live and die like the beasts, or under the power of horrible presumption without any due thoughts of their future and eternal state. But as to others, what comfort or satisfaction can any man have in his life in which his all depends, in which is passing from him every moment, unless he has continual thoughts of the mighty power of God in which he is able to receive his departing soul and to raise his body out of the dust. not to insist on more particulars. So it is with them who are spiritually minded, so it must be with us, all, if we pretend a title to that privilege. They are filled with thoughts of God, in opposition to that character of wicked men, that God is not in all their thoughts. And it is greatly to be fair to many of us. When we come to be weighed in this balance, we'll be found too light. That was a sentence that really scared me in 1984 as I was reading this inside of a ship. Quote, men may be in the performance of our duties. They may hear the word with delight and do many things gladly. They may escape the pollutions that are in the world through lust. and not run out into the same compass of excess and riot with other men. Yet, they may be strangers to inward thoughts of God with delight and complacency. I cannot understand how it can be otherwise with them whose minds are over and overfilled with earthly things. However they may satisfy themselves with pretenses of their callings and lawful enjoyments, or that they are not in any way inordinately set on the pleasures or profits of the world. To walk with God, to live to Him, is not merely to be found in an abstinence from outward sins, and in the performance of outward duties, so as diligence in the multiplication of them. All this may be done upon such principles. For such ends, with such a frame of heart as to find no acceptance with God, It is our heart that He requires, and we can no way give them to Him but by our affections and holy thoughts of Him, with delight. This it is to be spiritually minded. This it is to walk with God. And no man deceive himself unless he is thus abounding in holy thoughts of God. Unless our meditation of Him be sweet to us, all that we else pretend to will fell us. in a day of trial." Now, as I said in the introduction, the other area where John Owen deals with the Holy Spirit and purification and in sanctification is his work on pneumatology, the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, which comprises Volume 3 and Volume 4 of his collected works. But in Volume 3 especially, In chapter 8, he deals with the mortification of sin and the nature and causes of it once again, but now 18 years later after he wrote his original treatise on the mortification of sin in 1656, which was actually lessons for teenagers. Let me just read a couple of paragraphs from that. The mortification of sin, John Owen says, is a duty that is always incumbent on us in the whole course of our spiritual obedience. This command testifies, which represents it as, I always say, present duty. When it is no longer a duty to grow in grace, it is no longer a duty to mortify sin. No man under heaven can at any time say that he is exempted from this command. nor on any pretense. And he who ceases from this duty lets go all endeavors after holiness. And as for those who pretend to an absolute perfection, they are all of persons living the most impudent. Nor do they ever in this manner open their mouths, but they give themselves a lie. For number two, this duty. being always incumbent on us, argues undeniably the abiding in us of a principle of sin while we are in the flesh, which with its fruits is that which is to be mortified. This, the scripture calls, the sin that dwells in us, the evil that is present with us, the law in our members. evil concupiscence, lust, deflesh, and the like, and thereunto are the properties and actings of folly, deceit, tempting us, seducing us, rebelling, warring, captivating, ascribed. This is not a place to dispute the truth of this assertion, which cannot, with any reputation of modesty, be denied by any who own the scripture, or pretend to an acquaintance with themselves, but yet, who decraft as Satan, with the pride and darkness of the minds of men, It has so fallen out that the lack of a true understanding of it is the occasion of most of those pernicious errors in which the Church of God is at present pestered, in which practically keep men off from being seriously troubled for their sins or seeking out relief by Jesus Christ. Thus one is not feared of laid openly to profess that he knows of no deceit or evil in his own heart. Though a wiser than he has informed us that he that trusts in his own heart is a fool. Proverbs 28 verse 26. Indwelling sin, which is the object of this duty of mortification, falls under a threefold consideration first. of its root and principle. Secondly, of its disposition and operations. Thirdly, of its effects. These in the scripture are frequently distinguished, though mostly under metaphorical expressions. So that's just the introduction to the mortification of sin treated of. in Volume 3, John Owen on the Holy Spirit and our Sanctification. So, I will end this first introduction on these subjects by a quote from Archibald Alexander, and if you have listened to any of the other classes, you know how indebted I am to this work for this type of study. And Archibald Alexander wrote, It may be difficult to account for the fact that when the power of God was as sufficient to make the sinner perfect in a new creation as to implant the principle of spiritual life, he should have left the work imperfect, and that this imperfection, according to our views of Scripture and of the effect, is made known by personal experience. should continue through the whole period of a human life, to whatever extent it may be protracted. Some indeed seem to suppose that the remainders of sin and believers are seated in the body, and therefore as long as the sinful body continues, this inbred corruption will manifest itself more or less. The body, however, though infected with the pollution of sin, through its connection with the soul, is not and cannot be the source of iniquity. Mere mantra, however curiously organized and animated, is apart from the soul no moral agent, and therefore not susceptible of moral qualities. Sin must have its origin and seed in the free rational soul, and the appetites and passions which have their seed in the body partake of the nature of sin by their excess and irregularity, and by their cravings often influence the will to choose that which is not good or is not the best. Still, however, the body is a great clog to the soul, and the appetites and passions which are seated in the body, being very urgent in their cravings for gratification, greatly disturb the exercise of piety and sometimes prevail against the higher principles which by grace have been implanted. As the body is also subject to various diseases. These, on the account of the close connection between the soul and body, mightily affect the mind and often create a great hindrance to devotion and the exercises of piety. Where two opposite principles exist in the same soul, there must be a perpetual conflict between them. until the weaker one dies. But as the old man, though crucified, never becomes extinct in this life, this warfare between the flesh and the spirit never ceases until death. And these opposite moral principles operate through the same natural faculties and affections. It is a manner, of course, That as the one gains strength, the other must proportionably be weakened. And experience teaches that the most effectual way to subdue the power of sin is to cherish and exercise the principle of holiness. But if the love of God grows cold or declines in vigor, then emotions of sin become more lively, and the stirring of inbred corruption is sensibly experienced. Just sin in the same proportion will the principle of evil be diminished. as a principle of grace, is strengthened. Every victory over any particular lust weakens its power, and by a steady growth in grace such advantage is obtained over inbred sin that the advanced Christian maintains a mastery over it, and is not subject to those violent struggles which were undergone when this warfare commenced. Young Christians are often greatly deceived by the appearance of the death of sin. When it only sleeps, or deceitfully hides itself, waiting for a more favorable opportunity to exert itself anew. When such a one experiences, in some favored moment, the love of God shed abroad in his heart, sin appears to be dead. and those lusts which warred against the soul to be extinguished. But when these lively feelings have passed away and carnal objects begin again to entice, the latent principle of iniquity shows itself, and often that Christian who had fondly hoped that the enemy was slain in a victory won. and in consequence cease to watch and pray is suddenly assailed and overcome by the deceitfulness of sin. Christians are more injured in this warfare by the insidious and secret influence of their enemies lulling them into the sleep of carnal security than by all their open and violent assaults. No duty is more necessary in maintaining this conflict than watchfulness. Unceasing vigilance is indispensable. Watch and pray, ditch yin and yang into temptation. And what I say unto you I say unto all, watch. Lawful pursuits are more frequently a snare than those which are manifestly sinful. It is the duty to provide things honest in the sight of all men. But while this object is industriously pursued, the love of the world gradually gains ground. The possession of wealth is viewed as important. Eternal things are out of view or viewed as at a great distance. and the impression from them is faint. Worldly entanglements and embarrassments are experienced. The spiritual life is weakened. A sickly state commences and a sad spiritual declension ensues. Alas for the Christian now! Where is the burning zeal with which he commenced his Christian course? Where now are the comforts of religion with which he was so entirely satisfied that the world was viewed? It's an empty bauble. Where now is his spirit of prayer which made this duty his delight? Where is his love of the Bible which drew him aside often from worldly business to peruse its sacred instructions? Oh, what a change! My listener, it is perhaps your own case. You are the man who has thus fallen and left your first love. Repent, therefore, and do the first works, lest some heavy judgment fall upon you. God holds a rod for his own children. and on the warnings and exhortations of the Word, and the secret whispers of the Spirit are neglected, some painful providence is sent, some calamity, which has so much natural connection with the sin as to indicate that it is intended as a chastisement for it. These strokes are often very cutting and severe, but they must be, so to render them effectual. No chastening for the present seems to be joyous but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them which are exercised thereby. Our Heavenly Father afflicts, not willingly, but for our profit. that we might be partakers of His holiness." Archibald Alexander Thoughts on Religious Experience, Chapter 10. By the way, you can get a copy of that book at gracegyms.org, under Books, and under Books, Archibald Alexander, and under the name Archibald Alexander. Each of these chapters is on that site individually, and I really recommend it to you. Well, I would make a plea before I leave For those who are going to tune in to other classes that are taught on the subject, if you have questions, if you have comments, you can write to me. But I've done so in the past, and I almost seldom ever hear from anybody out there. But I'll press on. I don't know how much longer I may have, and I feel it is at least my duty to leave some kind of a footprint of a bibliography of books that are helpful on Christian experience and assurance of salvation, on the mortification of sin, of temptation of sin, and the forgiveness of sin. And that's why I want to do this, number one, because I need a profit from it. I mean, I look at the fall of Stephen Lawson, and as I narrated yesterday, chapter 14 of a treatise on indwelling sin, the power of sin and the lives of professors, in it so many people fell, not at the beginning of their journey, but after they had continued in it for some time. I don't want to point my fingers at anybody. The reason I do these things is because I know that I am very much capable of falling if God doesn't keep me. And it must be our prayer. And we need to be very diligent about this, which I fear that very few, in fact, are. I know this because the fellowship I have with the people at churches during this time between the morning service and the Sunday school is very, very seldom of a spiritual mindset. And it isn't because I'm more spiritually minded. The fact of the matter is I'm very introspective and I'm a very fearful creature. And I say, I don't know how it is with other people, but I don't trust myself, and I only give an account for myself. And therefore, without examining the people around me, I just say, Lord, if I'm deceived, undeceive me and bring me more fully into these paths. I need light. I need encouragement. I need iron sharpening iron. But I need the light of a bygone day. And that's why I think it is worth our while to get into the depth of what John Owen is saying in Volume 6 and 7 of his collected works. and one I haven't mentioned that we will get into, is The Nature and Causes of Apostasy from the Gospel, and also his work, which very few people even talk about, called Of the Dominion of Sin and Grace, which I believe is the last treatise in its collected works, Volume 7. This is the Narrated Puritan Podcast, a class on Christian experience and assurance.