Category Archives: Christopher Love

The Saints’ Advantage by Christ’s Ascension.1

05 Thursday Jun 2014

Posted by in Ascension, Biblical Counseling, Christology, Christopher Love, John, Preaching, Puritan

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This book written by Christopher Love and published in 1652 will be presented here as I transcribe it (with minor editing to make it more readable in 2014):

The Saints’ Advantage by Christ’s Ascension.

John 14:3. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself, but where I am, there ye may be also.

This chapter out of which my text is taken, is counted famous by most interpreters, because in it begins the legacy that Christ gives, and the last will and testament that Christ made when he was to leave the world. This will and testament of Christ’s begins in the 14th chapter and continues to the 18th chapter of this book. The scope and drift of this chapter is to comfort his disciples both against their fears of persecution in the world and also against their sorrows, upon this consideration that Christ was shortly to leave this world.

Christ here mentions many comfortable considerations for them. That they were to be left without a guide and that Christ was shortly to leave the world and go to his Father; it much trouble them. It went ill with them when Christ was with them, and they thought it would be worse with them when he was gone. So he does encourage them by means of these arguments.

Four Encouragements of Christ

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Christopher Love, The Mortified Christian: Case Four: What Symptoms Mark a Sin as One’s “Bosom Sin”?

09 Wednesday Jan 2013

Posted by in Biblical Counseling, Christopher Love, Mortification, Puritan

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This is a category of sin which the Puritans referred to variously as one’s “bosom”[1] or “darling” sin.[2] Sometimes they used the line of Lot referring to Zoar, “Is it not a little one?” (Genesis 19:20).

Love gave two categories of symptoms to mark the “bosom” sin. First, a bosom sin is the sin of frequency and ease. It is the one which promises the greatest delights and which will command the most attention. It is the sin which draws other sins into its wake to support and protect its continuance.

Second, and perhaps surprisingly, Love notes that the bosom sin also draws the greatest pains of conscience:

That sin is most unmortified in you which of all other sins most vexes and galls your conscience; for the conscience is God’s messenger in you to check you when you are ill and speak of peace to you when you do well.

It is sin which perplexes you when you are in trouble or trial, on a sickbed or death bed; it is the sin which your enemies raise against you. It is the sin which, when reproved, strikes hardest at your conscience. Love draws out an implication: This is why a general complaint of sin may be tolerated by a congregation, while a specific rebuke will draw ire.

Thomas Brooks, in The Crown and Glory of Christianity gives an indication of how the holy heart responds to bosom sins. While the bosom sin seeks protection, the dearest friend of Christ seeks out the bosom sin with greatest force. Note: to get the correct feel of Thomas Brooks, you must read him aloud. Pay attention to the pacing and sounds and parallels and contrasts. Spurgeon’s favorite Puritan was Thomas Brooks – and that can be seen in Spurgeon’s sermons:

(3.) Thirdly, As a holy heart rises against the least sins; so a holy heart rises against bosom-sins, against constitution-sins, against those that either his calling, former custom, or his present inclination or condition, do most dispose him to. It is true, a prodigal person may abhor covetousness, and a covetous person may condemn prodigality: a furious person may hate fearfulness, and a fearful person may detest furiousness.

But now the hearts of those that are holy rise against complexion sins, against darling sins, against those that make for present pleasure and profit, against those that were once as right hands and right eyes; that were that to their souls, that Delilah was to Samson, Herodias to Herod, Isaac to Abraham, and Joseph to Jacob: Ps. 18:23, ‘I was also upright before him; and I kept myself from mine iniquity;’ that is, from my darling sin, whereunto I was most inclined and addicted. What this bosom-sin was that he kept himself from, is hard to say. Some suppose his darling sin was lying, dissembling; for it is certain, he often fell into this sin: others suppose it to be some secret iniquity, which was only known to God and his own conscience: others say it was uncleanness, and that therefore he prayed that ‘God would turn away his eyes from beholding vanity,’ Ps. 119:37: others judge it to be that sin of disloyalty, which Saul and his courtiers falsely charged upon him. It is enough for our purpose that his heart did rise against that very sin, that either by custom or some strong inclination he was most naturally apt, ready, and prone to fall into.

Idolatry was the darling sin of the people of Israel; they called their idols delectable, or desirable things, Isa. 44:9; they did dearly affect and delight in their idols; but when God should come to put a spirit of holiness upon them, then their hearts should rise in hatred and detestation of their idols, as you may see in Isa. 30:18, 25; mark ver. 22, ‘Ye shall defile also the covering of thy graven images of silver, and the ornament of thy molten images of gold: thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth; thou shalt say unto it, Get thee hence.’ They were so delighted and enamoured with their idols, that they would deck them up in the greatest glory and bravery; they would attire them with the most rich, costly, pompous, and glorious raiment. Oh, but when a spirit of holiness should rise upon them, then they should defile, deface, and disgrace their idols, then they should so hate and abhor them, they should so detest and loathe them, that in a holy indignation they should cast them away as a menstruous cloth, and say unto them, Get ye hence, pack, begone, I will never have any more to do with you. God hath now made an everlasting divorce between you and me.

And so in Isa. 2:20, ‘In that day’—that is, in the day of the Lord’s exaltation in the hearts, lives, and consciences of his people, ver. 17—‘a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats.’ In the day of God’s exaltation they shall express such disdain and indignation against their idols, that they shall take not only those made of trees and stones, but even their most precious and costly idols, those that were made of silver and gold, and cast them to the moles and to the bats; that is, they shall cast them into such blind holes, and into such dark, filthy, nasty, and dusty corners, as moles make underground, and as bats roost in: so when holiness comes to be exalted in the soul, then all a man’s darling and bosom sins, which are his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, these are with a holy indignation cast to the moles and to the bats; they are so loathed, abandoned, and cashiered, that he desires they may be for ever buried in oblivion, and never see the light more. Idols were Ephraim’s bosom-sin: Hosea 4:17, ‘Ephraim is joined,’ or glued, ‘to idols, let him alone;’ but when the dew of grace and holiness fell upon Ephraim, as it did in chap. 14:5–7, ‘Then saith Ephraim, What have I any more to do with idols?’ ver. 8.

Now Ephraim loathes his idols as much or more than before he loved them; he now abandons and abominates them, though before he was as closely glued to them, as the wanton is glued to his Delilah, or as the enchanter is glued to the devil, from whom by no means he is able to stir. Ephraim becoming holy, cries out, ‘What have I any more to do with idols?’ Oh, I have had to do with them too long and too much already! Oh, how doth my soul now rise against them! how do I detest and abhor them! surely I will never have more to do with them. But now unholy hearts are very favourable to bosom-sins; they say of them, as Lot of Zoar, ‘Is it not a little one? and my soul shall live!’ Gen. 19:20. And as David spake of Absalom, 2 Sam. 18:5, ‘Deal gently for my sake with the young man, even with Absalom.’ ‘Beware that none touch the young man Absalom,’ ver. 12. ‘And the king said, Is the young man Absalom safe?’ ver. 29.

An unholy heart is as fond of his bosom-sins as Herod was of his Herodias; or as Demetrius was of his Diana; or as Naaman was of the idol Rimmon, which was the idol of the Syrians; or as Judas was of bearing the bag; or as the Pharisees were of having the uppermost seats, and of being saluted in the market-place with those glorious titles, ‘Rabbi, rabbi.’ Bosom-sins have at least a seeming sweetness in them; and therefore an unholy heart will not easily let them go. Let God frown or smile, stroke or strike, lift up or cast down, promise or threaten, yet he will hide and hold fast his darling sins; let God wound his conscience, blow upon his estate, leave a blot upon his name, crack his credit, afflict his body, write death upon his relations, and be a terror to his soul, yet will he not let go his bosom-lusts. He will rather let God go, and Christ go, and grace go, and heaven go, all go, than he will let some pleasurable or profitable lusts go.

An unholy heart may sigh over those sins, and make war upon those sins, that war against his honours, profits, or pleasures, and yet at the same time make truce with those that are as right hands and right eyes; an unholy person may set his sword at the breasts of some sins, and yet at the same time his heart may be secretly courting of his bosom-sins.

But now a holy heart rises most against the Delilah in his bosom, against the Benjamin, the son, the sin, of his right hand. And thus you see how a holy heart hates and disdains all sins; he abhors small sins as well as great, secret sins as well as open, and bosom-sins as well as others that have not that acquaintance and acceptance with the soul.

Real holiness will never mix nor mingle itself with any sin, it will never incorporate with any corruption. Wine and water will easily mix, so the wine of gifts and the water of sin, the wine of civility and the water of vanity, the wine of morality and the water of impiety, will easily mix; but oil and water will not mix, they will not incorporate; so the oil of grace, the oil of holiness, will not mix; it will not incorporate with sin, the oil of holiness will be uppermost.

Mark, natural and acquired habits and excellencies, as a pregnant wit, an eloquent tongue, a strong brain, an iron memory, a learned head, all these, with some high speculations of holiness, and some profession of holiness, and some commendations of holiness, and some visible actings of holiness, are consistent with the love of lusts, with the dominion of sin: witness the Scribes and Pharisees, Judas, Demas, and Simon Magus; but the real infused habits of true grace and holiness, will never admit of the dominion of any sin, whether great or little, whether secret or open.

 

Thomas Brooks, The Complete Works of Thomas Brooks, Volume 4, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; G. Herbert, 1867), 116-18.

[1]

God often hews men by the sword of his word in that ordinance, strikes directly in 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 it old posture,—if it can cure the wounds it so receives,—that soul is in a sad condition.

John Owen, vol. 6, The Works of John Owen., ed. William H. Goold (Edinburg: T&T Clark), 49. Or:

It is possible there may be a falling out with a bosom sin, and that which has been much loved may be no less hated

David Clarkson, The Works of David Clarkson, Volume II (Edinburgh: James Nichol, 1864), 256.

[2]

Because the gospel puts persons upon very hard service, upon very difficult work, pulling out a right eye, cutting off a right hand, offering up an Isaac, throwing overboard a Jonas, parting with bosom lusts and darling sins. Herod heard John Baptist gladly, till he came to touch his Herodias, and then off goes his head. As they say, John 6, ‘This is a hard saying, and who can abide it?’ and from that time they walked no more with him. This is a hard gospel indeed, and at this their blood riseth.

Thomas Brooks, The Complete Works of Thomas Brooks, Volume 1, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; G. Herbert, 1866), lx. Or:

A darling sin.—Any bosom-sin, as it fills and employs every faculty, so it debauches, monopolizes, and disorders them all. Grace, though it rule every faculty, yet ruffles none; it composes the mind, and employs the memory in a rational manner; it rules, like a just king, orderly: but the serving of any lust breeds a civil war between one faculty and another; and that distracts the whole soul, whereby every power thereof is weakened; and, particularly, the memory, being pressed to serve the stronger side, is so stuffed with the concerns of that tyrant-lust, that it cannot intend any spiritual matter. And therefore, whatever “right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee,” (Matt. 5:29,) or else thy memory will never be cured. A table-book that is written and blotted all over, must be wiped before you can write any new matter upon it; and so must the lines of thy darling sin be effaced by real mortification, before any good things will abide legible in thy memory.

James Nichols, Puritan Sermons, Volume 3 (Wheaton, IL: Richard Owen Roberts, Publishers, 1981), 354.

Christopher Love, The Mortified Christian: Case Three: Will We Sin Again?

09 Wednesday Jan 2013

Posted by in Biblical Counseling, Christopher Love, Genesis, Mortification, Puritan

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Love sets out a third “case of conscience”: “May a man whose lusts and corruptions are truly mortified by the Spirit of God commit and fall often into those sins that have been mortified?”

Love answers this in two parts: (1) Scripture does not record instances of one who has fallen into an obvious and gross sin, who then falls into that sin again. On this point, I must beg to disagree with Love.  Abraham bizarrely falls into cowardice concerning his wife, first with Pharaoh and later with Abimelech (Genesis 12 & 20).

Love does provide a good model for understanding the proper use of descriptive texts:  A descriptive text does not tell us everything about a topic – the specific cannot always be raised to a general.  For example, a miraculous work of through an Apostle (Acts 3), does not mean that all Christians will perform miraculous works of God.

Thus, Love quotes William Perkins, to the effect, “There is nothing in reason and experience that assure you that a corruption mortified, especially if it is an inward and secret sin, may not break forth again after you have repented of it” (101).  However, Love does not merely rest upon reason and experience (which are themselves no more than specific instances or conclusions drawn from specific instances): “There is nothing in the whole Bible against it that says expressly or by consequence [a logical deduction] that you cannot fall into the same sins after they are mortified.”  Then, as a pastor he wisely adds, “Therefore, this is something for your comfort.”

This does not mean that we should just shrug off a second or third (or nth fall) into sin.  To continue to fall into a sin threatens our heart – it makes it hard. It sets our conscience against, and like a determined detective, the conscience will hound us.  And finally, “I do not say that it is damnable, but it is a dangerous and deadly symptom, a sign of death upon you.

Mortification is a Work of the Spirit (Christopher Love, The Mortified Christian)

17 Monday Dec 2012

Posted by in Biblical Counseling, Christopher Love, Discipleship, John, Mortification, Puritan

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Love first proves the point by arguing from the whole to the part:  The Holy Spirit makes a believer holy; that is, the Holy Spirit sanctifies a believer.  Sanctification entails two movements: first a movement from sin, called “mortification”; and a second movement toward God, living unto God, called “vivification”. Seeing that the Holy Spirit superintends the whole, the Spirit must work in the parts.

Second, Love proves that mortification flows from the Spirit, for it is the Spirit who causes us to hate sin:

So you will never go about the extirpation of sin until you are sensible of the danger and guilt of yours sins. You will never be convinced of the danger and evil of sin unless the Spirit God enlightens you. The work of mortification is wholly ascribed to the Spirit of God because only He can convince us of the evil of sin so as to make us hate and abhor it and strive against it.

Which is as Jesus said:

7 Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. 8 And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; 10 concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; 11 concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. John 16:7–11 (ESV)

This raises the question, Can’t an unbeliever be “good”? Well, certainly one may be well behaved irrespective of whether one believes in God or not. In fact, those who claim some sort of divine sanction are often the most unpleasant, because they couple their sinfulness to a certainty of belief and thus become dogmatic in their destruction.

While I very much believe that God restrains sin (and that the world would be unspeakably worse were it not for the restraining work of God), I do not believe that a bare belief in God makes one well behaved.  That is a very different issue.

Well then, how does one distinguish between “good” behavior based upon the some moral or social concern and sin truly mortified? Love sets out eight answers. Each of these answers pivot upon the central concern of one’s life toward God: does one care primarily for God’s valuation or the valuation of other human beings. In John 5:44, Jesus says:

44 How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? John 5:44 (ESV)

Either one lives by the valuation of God – or not (that is living by faith and not by sight).  Love works that doctrine out in a practical manner.

First, the Spirit would cause one to hate the sin for itself, irrespective of restraint. “It is the same as with a thief in prison: he may be restrained form sin because he cannot act it out, but yet he loves the sin (it may be) as well as he ever did.”  God hates the sin, so the subject believer must hate the sin.  “You not only leave sin, but abhor it. …Therefore, judge yourselves by this difference.”

Second, his hatred  stands against not merely great and obvious sins, but also small, personal, unknown sins. Any man may put off stealing and yet continue to covet; he may put off adultery and yet lust in his heart. The Spirit causes one to hate sin as – irrespective of whether it can be hidden or worn comfortably in the culture. “But a wicked man is never troubled for small sins. Those sins that almost break a godly man’s heart never break a wicked man’s sleep.”

Third, the Spirit causes one to willingly leave a sin. “Though a natural heart does not commit a sin, yet it is kept from it unwillingly….A wicked man may leave sin, but it is as a friend leaves his friend.”

Fourth, who does one respond when there is no restraint – or when the restraint has been removed? “When a man has mortifying grace wrought in him by the Spirit of God, his sins are continually dying and decaying, though they are not quite dead.”

Fifth, a carnal man is merely restrained by carnal considerations: It will look bad; I could be arrested, et cetera. The man being transformed concerns himself with the honor of God, “If I commit this sin, I shall thereby dishonor Go and scandalize the gospel and my profession and encourage other sins to break out afresh in me.”

Sixth, restraint only based upon fear of hell is not true saving change.  The hatred of sin should cause on to consider it better to be in hell, than to be in a “heaven” with sin.  Love alludes to a quotation of Anselm, set forth by Thomas Brooks:

Anselm used to say, ‘That if he should see the shame of sin on the one hand, and the pains of hell on the other, and must of necessity choose one, he would rather be thrust into hell without sin, than to go into heaven with sin,’ so great was his hatred and detestation of sin.

Thomas Brooks, The Complete Works of Thomas Brooks, Volume 1, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; G. Herbert, 1866), 13.

Seventh, if one will sin on the basis of any occasion or allurement, then the Spirit’s work is not evident.  Love contrasts this with the mortified Christian, “But now a man who has mortified his corruptions by the power of the God’s Spirit is still opposing sin and never commits it but against his will. Sin may sometimes overtake him, but he runs from it as fast as he can.”

Eighth, the natural man finds any constraint on his sin irksome.  However, “a godly man rejoices and blesses God that he is restrained from committing a sin…So those sins that matters of joy and light to the wicked are a burden, sorrow, and trouble of the godly.

This then raises a further question for the one of a troubled conscience: We can look to the perfection of this work and think I have no true saving change!  Love, as an excellent and tender pastor, turns to this one and asks, Do you any change in your heart? Do you find yourself fleeing sin when you have opportunity?

Let us look to your conscience: do you see trouble in your conscience for those inward sins – sins which no one could ever see or find? “When those sins that are no bigger than molehills lie as heavy upon your heart as if they were mountains; and when your conscience can bear you witness that there is no secret lust that makes an incursion upon your soul but that you strive against it and labor to oppose it – this is an undoubted evidence that God has wrought a work of mortification in you by His Spirit.”

Christopher Love: Mortification is a Work of the Spirit.1

14 Friday Sep 2012

Posted by in 1 Corinthians, 1 Peter, Biblical Counseling, Christopher Love, Mortification, Puritan, Romans

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Christopher Love unpacks the clause of Romans 8:13, “But if ye by the Spirit do mortify …” and demonstrates the manner in which the Spirit is the agent of sanctification. First, the Spirit is called the Holy Spirit, for his “proper office is to make a man holy” (89). 

Second, sanctification is attributed to the Spirit:

1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you. 1 Peter 1:1–2 (ESV)

And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. 1 Corinthians 6:11 (ESV)

Sanctification consists of both vivification, being alive toward God; and mortification, being dead toward sin. Therefore, the Spirit must be the agent of mortification.

Third, the Lord states that the Spirit is sent to bring conviction of sin:

And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: John 16:8 (ESV)

Conviction of sin brings turning from sin:

A man will never seek after a cure until he is sensible of his disease. So you will never go about the extirpation of sin until you are sensible of the danger and guilt of your sins. You will never be convinced of the danger and evil of sin unless the Spirit of God enlightens you. The work of mortification is wholly ascribed to the Spirit of God because only He can convince us of the Evil of Sin so as to make us hate and abhor it and strive against it.

Christopher Love: Fifth Consolation of the Mortified Christian

10 Monday Sep 2012

Posted by in Biblical Counseling, Christopher Love, Edward Polhill, Mortification, Puritan

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Take this for your comfort: the disturbing and troubling of your heart by a sin argues that sin to be mortified more than unmortified, provided that as your sin stirs in your heart, so your resolutions and supplications against those sins stir in your heart, too. If sin fights against you, you must strive against it in resolutions and protestations against it.

Indeed, the heavenly country can only be obtained by striving. Bunyan provides such a picture at the Interpreter’s House:

Then the Interpreter took him, and led him up towards the door of the palace; and behold, at the door stood a great company of men, as desirous to go in, but durst not. There also sat a man at a little distance from the door, at a table-side, with a book and his inkhorn before him, to take the names of them that should enter therein; he saw also that in the doorway stood many men in armor to keep it, being resolved to do to the men that would enter, what hurt and mischief they could. Now was Christian somewhat in amaze. At last, when every man started back for fear of the armed men, Christian saw a man of a very stout countenance come up to the man that sat there to write, saying, “Set down my name, sir;” the which when he had done, he saw the man draw his sword, and put a helmet on his head, and rush towards the door upon the armed men, who laid upon him with deadly force; but the man, not at all discouraged, fell to cutting and hacking most fiercely. So after he had received and given many wounds to those that attempted to keep him out,  Matt. 11:12; Acts 14:22; he cut his way through them all, and pressed forward into the palace; at which there was a pleasant voice heard from those that were within, even of those that walked upon the top of the palace, saying,

“Come in, come in,

Eternal glory thou shalt win.”

So he went in, and was clothed with such garments as they. Then Christian smiled, and said, I think verily I know the meaning of this.

Edward Polhill in A View of Some Divine Truths writes:

This plainly appears by comparing the heavenly rewards and the earthly man together. The rewards are at a great distance from sense. They lie in another world. The treasure is in heaven. The recompense is above. A red sea of death is to be passed through before we can come at it. The man, to whom the tender is made, is earthly, carnal, living by sense, wrapt in the veil of time; one like the infirm woman in the gospel, who is bowed together, and can in no wise lift up himself, no, not to a heaven of glory and blessedness freely offered unto him. He hangs in the clay of one earthly thing or other, and by bonds of strong concupiscence is fastened to this lower world; and, which is a prodigy in an immortal soul, he loves to be so, and thinks that it is good being here. A little earth with him, is better than heaven. Sensual pleasures out-relish the pure rivers above. O how unfit is such a man to close in with such a reward! How much work must be done to make him capable of it! The man must be unearthed and unbound from this lower world.

The concupiscential strings, which tie him thereunto, must be cut, that his soul may have a free ascent towards heaven. A precious faith must be raised up, that this world may appear, such as it is, a shadow, a figure, a nothing to make man happy; that heaven with its beatitudes may be realised and presented to the mind. A divine temper must be wrought, that he may be able to rend off the veil of time, and take a prospect of eternity; to put by all the world, and look into heaven. He must be a pilgrim on earth, living by faith, walking in holiness, every step preparing for, and breathing after the heavenly country. He must pray, work, strive, wrestle, watch, wait, serve God instantly, and all this to be rewarded in another world; without such a temper heaven will signify nothing, and without a Divine power such a temper cannot be had.

Hence St. Peter tells us, “That God hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible.” (1 Pet. 1:3, 4.) The lively hope, which takes hold upon the great reward, is not from the power of nature; no, it is from a divine generation, it is a heavenly touch from Christ risen and sitting at the right hand of majesty, from thence to do spiritual miracles, as upon earth he did corporeal. Hence St. Paul argues, “If you be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above.” (Col. 3:1.) The natural man, dead in sin, cannot seek them; only those who are spiritual and risen with Christ can do it. It is therefore from the Divine power and spirit, that men, naturally carnal and earthly, are made capable of closing with the heavenly and supernal rewards which are tendered in the gospel.

Edward Polhill, The Works of Edward Polhill (London: Thomas Ward and Co., 1844), 33.

Christopher Love: Fourth Consolation of the Mortified Christian

09 Sunday Sep 2012

Posted by in Biblical Counseling, Christopher Love, Mortification, Puritan

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Take this for your comfort: God will never damn you for that sin which in the whole course of your life you used all possible means to subdue and destroy….Though the devil forces sin upon you, if you use all possible means to resist it the Lord will hold you guiltless.

It is not sinless which marks a Christian, but rather that one does not make a constant practice of sin. Thomas Brooks develops this point by using the imagery of “making a trade” – that is, turning something into a primary occupation, the principle means of life. This is an important point: I once heard a man claim that he must be a Christian, because he was so imperfect.  While all Christians are imperfect, imperfection is not the principle mark of the Christian. Sinless perfection will not be had, but the true Christian must wallow in sin without struggle:

That these saints did not make a trade of sin. They fell once or twice, and rose by repentance, that they might keep the closer to Christ for ever. They fell accidentally, occasionally, and with much reluctancy;2 and thou sinnest presumptuously, obstinately, readily, delightfully, and customarily. Thou hast, by thy making a trade of sin, contracted upon thy soul a kind of cursed necessity of sinning, that thou canst as well cease to be, or cease to live, as thou canst cease to sin. Sin is, by custom, become as another nature to thee, which thou canst not, which thou wilt not lay aside, though thou knowest that if thou dost not lay sin aside, God will lay thy soul aside for ever; though thou knowest that if sin and thy soul do not part, Christ and thy soul can never meet. If thou wilt make a trade of sin, and cry out, Did not David sin thus, and Noah sin thus, and Peter sin thus? &c. No; their hearts turned aside to folly one day, but thy heart turns aside to folly every day, 2 Peter 2:14, Prov. 4:16; and when they were fallen, they rise by repentance, and by the actings of faith upon a crucified Christ;3 but thou fallest, and hast no strength nor will to rise, but wallowest in sin, and wilt eternally die in thy sins, unless the Lord be the more merciful to thy soul. Dost thou think, O soul! this is good reasoning? Such a one tasted poison but once, and yet narrowly escaped; but I do daily drink poison, yet I shall escape. Yet such is the mad reasoning of vain souls. David and Peter, &c., sinned once foully and fearfully; they tasted poison but once, and were sick to death; but I taste it daily, and yet shall not taste of eternal death. Remember, O souls! that the day is at hand when self-flatterers will be found self-deceivers, yea, self-murderers. That these saints did not make a trade of sin. They fell once or twice, and rose by repentance, that they might keep the closer to Christ for ever. They fell accidentally, occasionally, and with much reluctancy;2 and thou sinnest presumptuously, obstinately, readily, delightfully, and customarily. Thou hast, by thy making a trade of sin, contracted upon thy soul a kind of cursed necessity of sinning, that thou canst as well cease to be, or cease to live, as thou canst cease to sin. Sin is, by custom, become as another nature to thee, which thou canst not, which thou wilt not lay aside, though thou knowest that if thou dost not lay sin aside, God will lay thy soul aside for ever; though thou knowest that if sin and thy soul do not part, Christ and thy soul can never meet. If thou wilt make a trade of sin, and cry out, Did not David sin thus, and Noah sin thus, and Peter sin thus? &c. No; their hearts turned aside to folly one day, but thy heart turns aside to folly every day, 2 Peter 2:14, Prov. 4:16; and when they were fallen, they rise by repentance, and by the actings of faith upon a crucified Christ;3 but thou fallest, and hast no strength nor will to rise, but wallowest in sin, and wilt eternally die in thy sins, unless the Lord be the more merciful to thy soul. Dost thou think, O soul! this is good reasoning? Such a one tasted poison but once, and yet narrowly escaped; but I do daily drink poison, yet I shall escape. Yet such is the mad reasoning of vain souls. David and Peter, &c., sinned once foully and fearfully; they tasted poison but once, and were sick to death; but I taste it daily, and yet shall not taste of eternal death. Remember, O souls! that the day is at hand when self-flatterers will be found self-deceivers, yea, self-murderers.

Thomas Brooks, The Complete Works of Thomas Brooks, Volume 1, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; G. Herbert, 1866), 25.

2 The saints cannot sin (voluntate plena sed semi-plena) with a whole will, but, as it were, with a half will, an unwilling willingness; not with a full consent, but with a dissenting consent.

3 Though sin do (habitare) dwell in the regenerate, as Austin notes, yet it doth not (regnare) reign over the regenerate; they rise by repentance.

Christopher Love: Third Consolation of the Mortified Christian

08 Saturday Sep 2012

Posted by in Biblical Counseling, Christopher Love, Deuteronomy, Puritan

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Take this for your comfort: if you conscientiously make use of those means the Lord has sanctified for the mortifying of your sins, then, even if, notwithstanding all, your sins prevail and overcome you, the Lord will hold you guiltless.

Love takes the image given in the law:

25 But if in the open country a man meets a young woman who is betrothed, and the man seizes her and lies with her, then only the man who lay with her shall die. 26 But you shall do nothing to the young woman; she has committed no offense punishable by death. For this case is like that of a man attacking and murdering his neighbor, 27 because he met her in the open country, and though the betrothed young woman cried for help there was no one to rescue her. Deuteronomy 22:25–27 (ESV)

The woman was ravished and hated the sin, but she was not rescued. The man who found her will die, but she will not be guilty. In the same manner, should the devil rape your soul (so to speak), “your soul can bear you witness that you cried out to God for help, and struggled and strove against the corruption”.  But what if you think, yes but I fell?

for the righteous falls seven times and rises again, but the wicked stumble in times of calamity. Proverbs 24:16 (ESV)

The mark of the wise man is not that he never falls. The mark of the wise man is that he rises seven times.

Christopher Love: Second Consolation of the Mortified Christian

07 Friday Sep 2012

Posted by in Biblical Counseling, Christopher Love, Matthew, Puritan, Richard Sibbes

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Take this for your comfort: if you use all conscionable means to bridge your lusts, you may be confident that sooner or later grace will get the victory over sin. Sin may be a combatant, but it shall never be a conqueror.

Does this not contradict the first consolation? No. Our is set firmly upon the knowledge that grace will gain the victory:

15 Jesus, aware of this, withdrew from there. And many followed him, and he healed them all 16 and ordered them not to make him known. 17 This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: 18 “Behold, my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my Spirit upon him, and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles. 19 He will not quarrel or cry aloud, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets; 20 a bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not quench, until he brings justice to victory; 21 and in his name the Gentiles will hope.” Matthew 12:15–21 (ESV)

The work of Christ will not end “until he brings justice to victory.”   This presumes conflict, which Christ will win – thus, we must not become discouraged:

Discouragement rising from unbelief and the ill report brought upon the good land by the spies moved God to swear in his wrath that they should not enter into his rest. Let us take heed that a spirit of faint heartedness, rising from the seeming difficulty and disgrace involved in God’s good ways, does not provoke God to keep us out of heaven. We see here what we may look for from heaven. O beloved, it is a comfortable thing to conceive of Christ aright, to know what love, mercy and strength we have laid up for us in the breast of Christ. A good opinion of the physician, we say, is half the cure. Let us make use of this mercy and power of his every day in our daily combats: `Lord Jesus, thou hast promised not to quench the smoking flax, nor to break the bruised reed. Cherish thy grace in me; leave me not to myself; the glory shall be thine.’ Let us not allow Satan to transform Christ to us, to make him other than he is to those that are his. Christ will not leave us till he has made us like himself, all glorious within and without, and presented us blameless before his Father (Jude 24).

What a comfort this is in our conflicts with our unruly hearts, that it shall not always be thus! Let us strive a little while, and we shall be happy for ever. Let us think when we are troubled with our sins that Christ has this in charge from his Father, that he shall not `quench the smoking flax’ until he has subdued all. This puts a shield into our hands to beat back `all the fiery darts of the wicked’ (Eph. 6:16). Satan will object, `You are a great sinner.’ We may answer, `Christ is a strong Saviour.’ But he will object, `You have no faith, no love.’ `Yes, a spark of faith and love.’ `But Christ will not regard that.’ `Yes, he will not quench the smoking flax: `But this is so little and weak that it will vanish and come to naught.”  Nay, but Christ will cherish it, until he has brought judgment to victory.’ And this much we have already for our comfort, that, even when we first believed, we overcame God himself, as it were, by believing the pardon of all our sins, notwithstanding the guilt of our own consciences and his absolute justice. Now, having been prevailers with God, what shall stand against us if we can learn to make use of our faith?

Oh, what a confusion is this to Satan, that he should labour to blow out a poor spark and yet should not be able to quench it; that a grain of mustard seed should be stronger than the gates of hell; that it should be able to remove mountains of oppositions and temptations cast up by Satan and our rebellious hearts between God and us. Abimelech could not endure that it should be said, `A woman slew him’ (Judg. 9:54); and it must needs be a torment to Satan that a weak child, a woman, a decrepit old man should, by a spirit of faith, put him to flight (The Bruised Reed).

Christopher Love: First Consolation of the Mortified Christian

06 Thursday Sep 2012

Posted by in Biblical Counseling, Christopher Love, Mortification, Puritan, Romans

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Though we have instruction in the means of mortification, though we have desire to follow after our Lord in a life of practical holiness, we often find our practice lies below our desire. Knowing this weakness, Christopher Love provides three consolations to the Christian:

Take this for your comfort: though use the utmost endeavors to mortify sin, yet you cannot withstand the existence of sin in you, but only hinder its reigning in your heart.

In Romans 6, Paul does state

Do not let sin reign in your mortal body to obey its lusts (Rom. 6:12, NASB).

In verse 22, he continues, “But now having been freed from sin”. However, Paul nowhere states that we will be free from sin’s presence. Indeed, entire structure of the argument presumes the continued presence of sin, “do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness”.  We could not present our body to sin, if sin were not present.  Do not despair over the present conflict:

It is therefore no sign of a good condition to find all quiet, with no opposition; for can we think that corruption, which is the older element in us, and Satan, the strong man who has many holds over us, will yield possession quietly? No, there is not so much as a thought of goodness discovered by him, but he joins with corruption to kill it in the birth. And as Pharaoh’s cruelty was especially against the male children, so Satan’s malice is especially against the most religious and manly resolutions.

This, then, we are always to expect, that wherever Christ comes there will be opposition. When Christ was born, all Jerusalem was troubled; so when Christ is born in any man, the soul is in an uproar, and all because the heart is unwilling to yield up itself to Christ to rule it.

Richard Sibbes, The Bruised Reed.

If we wrongly believe that we will become utterly freed from sin, we will fall into discouragement and hopelessness.  Such discouragement can only breed more sin. Hope of our glory with Christ is a great means of holiness now:

1 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. 1 John 3:1–3 (ESV)

Do not despair over the return of rather. But rather use the means given by God, seek to walk in the Spirit, and sleep and wake before the throne of grace (Heb. 4:14-16; Psalm 3).