I got a friend of mine interested in the Puritans and we have been discussing Jeremiah Burroughs’ book Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment. One thing we are constantly saying is this, “Who writes like this???!!!”

The title of this post is from Owen and again I find myself saying, “Who writes like this??!!”

This is why I love reading the Puritans. They had their faults and shortcomings but their strengths seem to shine a spotlight on our 21st century faults and shortcomings. In my humble estimation I believe a huge shortcoming of 21st century American Christianity is our neglect of holiness. 

Have we been teaching a cheap kind of grace?

Have we forgotten the depths of sin’s treason and evil?

In this post I just want to let Owen speak on the danger of not daily mortifying our own sin. Consider his words and your reaction to them. Indeed, no one writes like this anymore.

“Not to be daily employing the Spirit and new nature for the mortifying of sin is to neglect that excellent succor which God has given us against our greatest enemy.”

“Let not that man think he makes any progress in holiness who walks not over the bellies of his lusts.”

“The root of an unmortified course is the digestion of sin without bitterness in the heart.”

This post is dedicated to Jerry Bridges whose book, The Pursuit of Holiness, has challenged and encouraged me on this path.