Chapter 6 of John Owen’s Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers [Kapic and Taylor edition]
Mortification Consists in a Habitual Weakening of Sin:
Every lust is a depraved habit or disposition, continually inclining the heart to evil. . . . He is always under the power of a strong bent and inclination to sin. And the reason why a natural man is not always perpetually in the pursuit of some one lust, night and day, is because he has many to serve, every one crying t be satisfied; thence he is carried on with great variety, but still in general he lies toward the satisfaction of self (73).
. . . when a man first sets on a lust or distemper to deal with it, it struggles with great violence to break loose; it cries with earnestness and impatience to be satisfied and relieved; but when by mortification the blood and spirits of it are let out, it moves seldom and faintly, cries sparingly, and is scarce heard in the heart (75).
Mortification Consists in Constant Fighting and Contending Against Sin:
To know that a an has such an enemy to deal with it, to take notice of it, to consider it as an enemy indeed, and one that is to be destroyed by all means possible . . . (76)
To labor to be acquainted with the ways, wiles, methods, advantages, and occasions of its success is the beginning of this warfare (76).
To load it daily with all the things which shall after be mentioned, that are grievous, killing, and destructive to it is the height of this contest. Such a one never thinks his lust dead because it is quiet, but labors still to give it new wounds, new blows every day (77).
Mortification Consists in Frequent Success
. . . when the heart finds sin at any time at work, seducing, forming imaginations to make provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof, it instantly apprehends sin and brings it to the law of God and love of Christ, condemns it, follows it with execution to the uttermost.
