Sixth,Sin and corruption may be more stirring and boisterous after a man is regenerate than they were before conversion.

This point is illustrated and put into its proper context by John Owen in The Mortification of Sin:

Some lusts are far more sensible and discernible in their violent actings than others. Paul puts a difference between uncleanness and all other sins: 1 Cor. 6:18. [&]  And on this account some men may go in their own thoughts and in the eyes of the world for mortified men, . . .only their lusts are in and about things which raise not such a tumult in the soul,

I say, then, that the first thing in mortification is the weakening of this habit,  This is called “crucifying the flesh with the lusts thereof,” Gal. 5:24; that is, taking away its blood and spirits that give it strength and power, ‑‑ the wasting of the body of death “day by day,” 2 Cor. 4:16.

As a man nailed to the cross; he first struggles, and strives, and cries out with great strength and might, but, as his blood and spirits waste, his strivings are faint and seldom, his cries low and hoarse, scarce to be heard; ‑‑ when a man first sets on a lust or distemper, to deal with it, it struggles with great violence to break loose; . . .  Rom. 6:6.

When the Spirit begins to work against a sin, the sin will raise every objection, will plead and beg and break out against all sense. Such a tantrum of sin is contrary to mortification. However, one cannot indulge the tantrum and satisfy the sin under the pretense that such is part of mortification always seeks the sin’s end and never indulges the sin for a moment. This observation must not become an excuse to sin.

Seventh, You may die by yielding to sin, but you shall never die by opposing and resisting sin….You can never die by grappling with sin, but you may die by yielding to sin. Those sins shall never damn you that you have labored and prayed against and encountered. But if you, like a faint-hearted solider run away and yield to sin’s temptations and assaults, then you are undone.

There are people who think that if they give up their beloved sin, they may die. This is especially the case with life dominating sins, such as sexual immorality. Such people will think that if they are “forced” to give up their immorality, that they will die — at the very least, they shall never be happy. In such cases, our desire for sympathy may encourage even the counselor to wink at the sin. To overlook sin is never of love — even if the sin pleads hardship and the fellow-believer looks sad over the prospect. Sin is a con man, and all good con men sound sincere and instill a desire to please them.

Giving up the sin will never kill you, although it may smart at the first.

Fifth, God helps.

The Pelagian controversy began when a British monk named Pelagius heard of a prayer of Augustine recorded in chapter 39 of the tenth book of the Confessions:

My whole hope is in thy exceeding great mercy and that alone. Give what thou commandest and command what thou wilt. [(Domine), da quod iubes et iube quod vis]. Thou commandest continence from us, and when I knew, as it is said, that no one could be continent unless God gave it to him, even this was a point of wisdom to know whose gift it was. For by continence we are bound up and brought back together in the One, whereas before we were scattered abroad among the many. For he loves thee too little who loves along with thee anything else that he does not love for thy sake, O Love, who dost burn forever and art never quenched. O Love, O my God, enkindle me! Thou commandest continence; give what thou commandest, and command what thou wilt.

Our Father knows that he has laid upon us burdens which we cannot bear. First, God commands us to believe, but we are by fallen nature rebellious and will not believe. Therefore, he must supply us with the faith to believe. Augustine notes the same in De Nono Perservantiae, XX:

Now what, indeed, does God command, first and foremost, except that we believe in him? This faith, therefore, he himself gives; so that it is well said to him, “Give what thou commandest.”

Here is a great comfort. A Christian who lacks a high view of God’s sovereignty in the work of the Gospel is left without a secure hope in the mortification of sin. A high view of God’s sovereignty is a grace and peace to the Christian suffering under sin.

If all the power resides solely in my will, unaided by grace, then I am alone to battle the sin.  I cannot turn to God for help: God commands, but God does not help.  God may command. God may promise reward or threaten punishment. But unless God can and does push from within, unless God can command my desire and will from the inside of my soul, I am doomed.

Yet, Augustine saw into the comfort of grace in the land of sin. God commands. God commands far above our ability. Yet, when God commands, God also wills. God does not leave us alone with sin and the command – that is the terror of the law without the great rain of Christ’s blood to drown the flames of sin and hell.  John Owen writes of such people in the third chapter of The Mortification of Sin:

This is the saddest warfare that any poor creature can be engaged in. A soul under the power of conviction from the law is pressed to fight against sin, but hath no strength for the combat. They cannot but fight, and they can never conquer; they are like men thrust on the sword of enemies on purpose to be slain. The law drives them on, and sin beats them back.

That is the believer who seeks to mortify sin and still has not read Romans 8:13, If by the Spirit you …. The Spirit is the great engine of mortification. When we seek to “have victory over sin” we forget that Christ has already won that victory! God has sent his Spirit to convey the Cross of Christ to our hearts that we might become crucified to the world (Gal. 6:14).

Our enemy will seek to delude us to think that we are to fight sin alone. That way only leads to despair. The church is littered with the wrecks of such believers.

Such believers do not know the great truth of mortification: God helps. Christopher Love puts it as follows:

You have God’s promise and Christ’s power to help you in managing this great work of mortification….As God commands His children to obey Him, so He convey power and ability to enable them to do so.

Consider carefully this joyful observation made by William Gurnall, in The Christian in Complete Armor:

Doctrine.  That the Christian’s strength lies in the Lord, not in himself.  The strength of the general in other hosts lies in his troops.  He flies, as a great commander once said to his soldiers, upon their wings; if their feathers be clipped, their power broken, he is lost; but in the army of saints, the strength of every saint, yea, of the whole host of saints, lies in the Lord of hosts.  God can overcome his enemies without their hands, but they cannot so much as defend themselves without his arm.  It is one of God’s names, ‘the Strength of Israel,’ I Sam. 15:29.  He was the strength of David’s heart; without him this valiant worthy (that could, when held up in his arms, defy him that defied a whole army) behaves himself strangely for fear, at a word or two that dropped from the Philistine’s mouth.  He was the strength of his hands, ‘He taught his fingers to fight,’ and so is the strength of all his saints in their war against sin and Satan.  Some propound a question, whether there be a sin committed in the world in which Satan hath not a part?  But if the question were, whether there be any holy action performed without the special assistance of God concurring, that is resolved,  ‘Without me ye can do nothing,’ John 15:5.  Thinking strength of God, ‘Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God,’ II Cor. 3:5.  We apostles, we saints that have habitual grace, yet this lies like water at the bottom of a well, which will not ascend with all our pumping till God pour in his exciting grace, and then it comes.  To will is more than to think, to exert our will into action more than both.  These are of God: ‘For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure,’ Php. 2:13.  He makes the heart new, and having made it fit for heavenly motion, setting every wheel, as it were, in its right place, then he winds it up by his actuating grace, and sets it on going, the thoughts to stir, the will to move and make towards the holy object presented; yet here the chariot is set, and cannot ascend the hill of action till God puts his shoulder to the wheel: ‘to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not,’ Rom. 7:18.  God is at the bottom of the ladder, and at the top also, the Author and Finisher, yea, helping and lifting the soul at every round, in his ascent to any holy action.  Well, now the Christian is set on work, how long will he keep close to it?  Alas, poor soul, no longer than he is held up by the same hand that empowered him at first.  He hath soon wrought out the strength received, and therefore to maintain the tenure of a holy course, there must be renewing strength from heaven every moment, which David knew, and therefore when his heart was in as holy a frame as ever he felt it, and his people by their free-will offering declared the same, yet even then he prays, that God would ‘keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of his people, and prepare their heart unto him,’ I Chron. 29:18. He adored the mercy that made them willing, and then he implores his further grace to strengthen them, and tie a knot, that these precious pearls newly strung on hearts might not slip off.  The Christian, when fullest of divine communications, is but a glass without a foot [a glass on a stem without a base], he cannot stand, or hold what he hath received, any longer than God holds him in his strong hand.  Therefore, Christ, when bound for heaven, and ready to take his leave of his children, bespeaks his Father’s care of them in his absence.  ‘Father, keep them,’ John 17:11; as if he had said, they must not be left alone, they are poor shiftless children, that can neither stand nor go without help; they will lose the grace I have given them, and fall into those temptations which I kept them from while I was with them, if they be out of thy eye or arms but one moment; and therefore, ‘Father, keep them.’ (Part First, Branch the Third).

—Christopher Love

Paranoia was the lethal, guiding principle of the seventeeth-century English government. Having beheaded King Charles for treason, Parliament was deeply embroiled in a tug-of-war struggle with Scotland and Ireland for British power. In the absence of a king’s authority, Parliament fingered anyone critical of its rule as traitorous. Suspicion of conspiracy effectively muzzled Puritan preachers (the “Non-Conformists”) from identifying the obvious and public sins of Parliament’s nervous rule. Still, there were courageous exceptions. Among this hallowed list is Christopher Love. This unfamiliar Puritan gave his life for the cause of Christ and gospel fidelity. The martyred blood of Love still calls preachers to sacrificial faithfulness.

Love’s Reputation

Ministerial preparation for Englishmen in the seventeenth century almost ensured matriculating at either Cambridge or Oxford. Love chose Oxford and entered New Inn Hall in 1635. Logic, rhetoric, philosophy, history, and theology comprised his curriculum as a preacher in training.

Alongside these subjects a more subtle course was taught outside the classroom. As penetrating as the summer humidity and winter chill, there was something else in the air at Oxford. Motivated by gospel-rich theology, groups of students were becoming discontent with the relationship between the government and the pulpit. Parliament was bullying English preachers into using their sermons as political commercials. But a new breed of preachers was climbing into English pulpits; the Puritans’ day was dawning.

At Oxford, Love learned to think clearly. He was a “Precisionist” and applied tedious and meticulous scrutiny to Scripture as it related to the issues of his day and to the issues of his day as they related to Scripture. Love was a stellar student. However, he was expelled from his masters program for non-conformity before graduating.

Love had a reputation at Oxford that demonstrated the authenticity of his faith. He was known as one who never missed a chapel service or opportunity to hear a visiting preacher. His later reputation as a great preacher in the pulpit is anchored to his love for hearing the Word of God in the pew.

After his expulsion from Oxford, he was invited to preach at Newcastle by the mayor and aldermen. During an afternoon sermon he identified some doctrinal errors in the Book of Common Prayer relating to the superstitious hangovers from Catholicism. He was immediately arrested and incarcerated with thieves and murderers. Instead of silencing Love this only provided him the opportunity to preach to the inmates and witness many conversions of those on death row. But there were greater persecutions ahead.

Love’s “Plot”

Love was a political activist in the pulpit. This is exactly what the government wanted preachers to be. However, his activism was not the brand Parliament had in mind.

Parliament had convicted King Charles of treason for good reason. He was plotting a peace with Scotland that included political and religious compromise. Parliament opposed him for political reasons; the Puritans opposed him for biblical reasons. Married to a Catholic, Charles tried to undo, or at least minimize, the English Reformation.

Charles was tried, convicted, and executed by Parliament for high treason against the nation. In an unprecedented act of independence, Parliament dissolved the right of kingly succession and established the Commonwealth of England. This gave authority over the nation to Parliament.

Tension climaxed in 1651 when Scotland crowned Charles’ son, Charles II, in an attempt to reestablish the monarchy by force. Charles II promised to establish the Presbyterian Church in England when he returned to London. Fearing their loss of power to Charles II and the Puritans, the members of Parliament threatened with death anyone supporting the Scots’ coronation of King Charles’s son.

Acting on the promise of Charles II, some of the Puritan-Presbyterians conspired with the Scots to take back the throne for the monarchy. (This promise would prove empty a few years later.) Christopher Love was accused of being involved in the conspiracy through correspondence with Scotland. Ironically, Love despised the papist theology of the beheaded King Charles, but held true to his conviction that God alone puts kings on the throne and God alone would bring them down. Love did have correspondence with leaders in Scotland, but denied any part in the conspiracy.

Love on Trial

Parliament was negotiating with Scotland for a peace saturated with political and theological compromise. During the negotiations, Love preached an impassioned sermon stating that he would rather have a just war than a wicked peace. In that sermon his convictions stepped on the toes of everyone possible in the debate. His driving point was that promotion and protection of the gospel truths of the Reformation should be the criteria for governmental rule.

Love was arrested and charged with high treason by the High Court of Justice on June 20, 1651. A five-day trial followed. Witnesses who were called to testify fabricated a complicated and contradictory tale of Love’s supposed conspiracy. Haunted by guilt, several of them confessed to lying after Love’s death. On the sixth day the court came back with the verdict of guilty and sentenced him “to suffer the pains of death by having his head severed from his body.” He was locked up in the London Tower until his scheduled execution.

Love Letters

While Christopher Love awaited execution, he exchanged letters with his Puritan friends and his wife. Many of these letters have been preserved in Don Kistler’s excellent biography of Love—A Spectacle unto God: The Life and Death of Christopher Love (Soli Deo Gloria, 1994). Impending death reveals the true nature of a man’s soul. And Love’s faith is something to behold through these letters.

The most moving of the letters was written by Christopher’s wife, Mary. On the eve of his scheduled execution, she wrote him a final letter of love and encouragement. She actually wrote two such letters because the execution was postponed six weeks due to a last-minute appeal. This first letter became one of the most inspiring anchors for faithfulness for the Puritans as it was circulated in later years. (The entirety of the letter is provided at the end of this article.)

In it Mary pours out her love for her husband mingled with mortality-proven theology. She comforts him with thoughts of the glories he was about to enjoy and begs him not to have any concerns for her or their children; she was eight months pregnant with their third child. She wrote, “I dare not speak to thee, nor have a thought within my own heart of my unspeakable loss, but wholly keep my eye fixed on thy inexpressible and inconceivable gain.”

One of the most remarkable parts of her letter is the almost incidental reference to the executioner’s unjust blow as “thy Father’s stroke.” The letter reads:

And when thou layest down thy precious head to receive thy Father’s stroke, remember what thou saidest to me: Though thy head was severed from thy body, yet in a moment thy soul should be united to thy Head, the Lord Jesus, in heaven. And though it may seem something bitter, that by the hands of men we are parted a little sooner than otherwise we might have been, yet let us consider that it is the decree and will of our Father, and it will not be long ere we shall enjoy one another in heaven again.

Christopher and Mary’s love was humanly tender and theologically sound. Every spiritual leader should read this letter with his wife.

Love on Display

A little before two o’clock in afternoon Love was escorted from his chamber to the scaffold on Tower Hill. Both supporters and jeerers showed up to witness his death. Before kneeling to put his head on the block, he asked if he could address the crowd. What followed was an epic sermon from a faithful man with his hand on Heaven’s doorknob.

With settled calmness, Love said, “This scaffold is the best pulpit that I ever preached in. In my church pulpit, God, through His grace, made me an instrument to bring others to heaven, but in this pulpit He will bring me to heaven.” He went on extolling the glories of Heaven while asserting again his innocence of the charges of treason.

Love announced, “I am accused of being an apostate, of being a turncoat, of being this, of being that, of being anything but what I am. In general, I will tell you, I bless my God, a high court, a long sword, a bloody scaffold have not made me in the least to alter my principles or to wrong my conscience.” He asserted, “It is true, my faithfulness has procured me ill will from men, but it has purchased me peace with God.”

And looking at the crowd he thundered, “I would rather be a preacher in a pulpit than a prince upon a throne. I would rather be an instrument to bring souls to heaven than have all the nations bring in tribute to me.”

When Love was walking up the scaffold steps, there were many noisy mockers. It was reported that upon hearing Love’s scaffold sermon and final prayer, one of the loudest mockers bewailed his sins and was converted on the spot.

Just before three o’clock, Christopher Love laid his head on the block and closed his eyes for the last time. With the flash of the axe his faith became sight.

Few of us will be called to exercise such martyred faithfulness. But all who preach can share the wondrous passion of this dying preacher in his last sermon.

“I would rather be a preacher in a pulpit than a prince upon a throne.”

*Here the complete copy of Mary Love’s letter to Christopher the night before his scheduled execution.

July 14, 1651

Before I write a word further, I beseech thee think not that it is thy wife but a friend now that writes to thee. I hope thou hast freely given up thy wife and children to God, who hath said in Jeremiah 49:11, “Leave thy fatherless children, I will preserve them alive, and let thy widow trust in me.” Thy Maker will be my husband, and a Father to thy children. O that the Lord would keep thee from having one troubled thought for thy relations. I desire to freely give thee up into thy Father’s hands, and not only look upon it as a crown of glory for thee to die for Christ, but as an honor to me that I should have a husband to leave for Christ.

I dare not speak to thee, nor have a thought within my own heart of my unspeakable loss, but wholly keep my eye fixed on thy inexpressible and inconceivable gain. Thou leavest but a sinful, mortal wife to be everlastingly married to the Lord of glory. Thou leavest but children, brothers, and sisters to go to the Lord Jesus, thy eldest Brother. Thou leavest friends on earth to go to the enjoyment of saints and angels, and the spirits of just men made perfect in glory. Thou dost but leave earth for heaven and changest a prison for a palace. And if natural affections should begin to arise, I hope that spirit of grace that is within thee will quell them, knowing that all things here below are but dung and dross in comparison of those things that are above. I know thou keepest thine eye fixed on the hope of glory which makes thy feet trample on the loss of earth.

My dear, I know God hath not only prepared glory for thee, and thee for it, but I am persuaded that he will sweeten the way for thee to come to the enjoyment of it. When thou art putting on thy clothes that morning, O think, “I am now putting on my wedding garments to go to be everlastingly married to my Redeemer.”

When the messenger of death comes to thee, let him not seem dreadful to thee, but look on him as a messenger that brings thee tidings of eternal life. When thou goest up the scaffold, think (as thou saidest to me) that it is but thy fiery chariot to take thee up to thy Father’s house.

And when thou layest down thy precious head to receive thy Father’s stroke, remember what thou saidest to me: Though thy head was severed from thy body, yet in a moment thy soul should be united to thy Head, the Lord Jesus, in heaven. And though it may seem something bitter, that by the hands of men we are parted a little sooner than otherwise we might have been, yet let us consider that it is the decree and will of our Father, and it will not be long ere we shall enjoy one another in heaven again.

Let us comfort one another with these sayings. Be comforted my dear heart.  It is but a little stroke and thou shalt be there where the weary shall be at rest and where the wicked shall cease from troubling. Remember that thou mayest eat thy dinner with bitter herbs, yet thou shalt have a sweet supper with Christ that night. My dear, by what I write unto thee, I do not hereby undertake to teach thee; for these comforts I have received from the Lord by thee. I will write no more, nor trouble thee any further, but commit thee into the arms of God with whom ere long thee and I shall be.

Farewell, my dear. I shall never see thy face more till we both behold the face of the Lord Jesus at that great day.

Mary Love

Cited in Don Kistler, A Spectacle unto God: The Life and Death of Christopher Love (Morgan, PA: Soli Deo Gloria, 1994), 1-3. Because of several appeals to spare his life, four of which were Mary’s, Love was not actually executed until August 22, 1651. Mary wrote a similar letter on the eve of his actual execution.

For further study of Christopher Love:

Brooks, Benjamin. Lives of the Puritans, Vol. III. Morgan, Penn.: Soli Deo Gloria, 1996.

Kisler, Don. A Spectacle unto God: The Life and Death of Christopher Love. Morgan, Penn.: Soli Deo Gloria, 1994.

Imagine a young man who has come to know Christ. He reads through Romans. Coming upon Romans 6:7 he learns, “For one who has died has been set free from sin.” This sounds good; yet, he is not certain that he is actually all that free. While he thinks Romans 7 has something to do with, he stumbles badly at Romans 8:13:

For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

That begins to worry him. Even the promises at the end of the chapter seem beyond him, because he still finds sin dwelling with him. The promises, he reasons, are for those who have put to death the deeds of the body.

He then reads Colossians. In Colossians 3:5 he finds a command to “put to death …what is earthly in you.”  As reads through the list of sins to be done away, he realizes that not only has not put these to death, he actually engages in these sins.

Peter first epistle does not help either. In fact, 1 Peter 1:15-17 positively terrify him:

¹⁵ but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, ¹⁶ since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” ¹⁷ And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile ….

I am not speaking of the one who cares little for sin or holiness. There are too many who think the word “Grace” means “get out of jail free.” This sort thinks that Jesus died to free them to sin with a clear conscience. Rather than freeing them from the power of sin, they think themselves free to plunge into a torrent of sin. Sure, perhaps some-one act or another troubles their conscience – but that is the same for any unbeliever. Only the most debased have no remnant of conscience. 

I am speaking to the tender hearted Christian who sincerely desires holiness, but cannot seem to find it. He is troubled by a pained conscience and verges on despair over the continued presence of sin. 

There are two things needed for such a one: First, he must be taught the correct means of sanctification. Such a one has read Romans 8:13 and has missed the key provision If by the Spirit  ….It is as if he read, If by your own willpower you put to death …. God never laid such a burden on his children. No, the Spirit doe the work of killing sin – but more on that elsewhere.

The second thing needed by this young man is encouragement. For this point, Christopher Love supplies four comforts:

First,

The stirring and rising of corruptions in the heart may yet be consistent with true mortification. The very lust that is mortified may make a great deal of stir and rising in the soul….It is the same with many birds: after their heads are pulled off they flutter more strongly than ever before [ever hear about a “Chicken with its head cut off.”].

The hypocrite, the rebellious, the sinful could all point to this and say, Yes – that is me! Therefore, Love offers two tests.

Is it true that

When corruptions stir in you, so [also] your resolutions and strivings against these sins and humiliations for them stir in you too?

Is it true that

After such turbulent stirrings and struggling of sin in your heart, these corruptions grow weaker and weaker?

This indeed is a good means to encourage the one lacks assurance: When you look back over the course of your entire Christian life, do you see a progress in sanctification?  Do not consider a moment by moment course, rather look at the overarching movement.

An illustration by Jack Hughes may help here: Imagine someone walking a small, poorly trained dog on a long lease. At any given moment, the dog may be running forward, backwards or sideways. It would not be surprising to find the dog wrapped about a lamp post  and unable to move. Yet, when you look at the dog at 10:00 a.m. and then again at 10:30, the owner and dog have traversed an entire block. In the same way, the believer may be moving backwards and forwards at any moment. So rather than consider sanctification over the past half-hour, consider sanctification over the past year or ten years. If there is no movement over the course of a year, then there is reason to question.

Second,

Consider that mortification of sin does not reach so far in any regenerate man as to the utter abolition and extirpation of sin out of the soul….Do what you can, sin will vex you and disturb you as long as you live in this world.

There are no promises that in the NT that we will never sin – only promises that we no longer are bound to sin, under the dominion of sin, slaves to sin.

Third,

Though God never intended that mortification should reach so far as to the utter extirpation of sin, God does intend that it should reach so far as to the taking away of the dominion of sin.

Fourth,

An explusive faculty or a sincere endeavor by the soul to expel sin and mortify sin is accepted by God as real mortification….God looks upon the principle of resistance as if it were a perfect resistance.

God is a father to his children. When a father looks upon the work of the child, he cares more for the effort than the result – he cares more for the fact that it is his child, than he cares for the work. Imagine a man who watches his daughter take her first steps and then watches a sporting event on television. The televised athlete moves with more grace than the awkward toddler. Yet, we would think him a poor father if he preferred the athlete to the daughter.

In the same way, the elect angels are free from sin in a way we are not. And yet, our Father looks with more favor on our limping efforts than upon their perfection.  We have been adopted. We are promised a kingdom.  We will judge angels. We are joint heirs with Christ.

Nine Notes on Mortification of Sin.

1. Mortification of sin is not mere abstention from sin: “A lion confined within the gates is a lion still”. If the passionate desire to commit the sin remains, the sin remains even if circumstances forbid the action.

2. Mortification of sin is not the lack of desire to commit some particular sin.  There may be all sorts of reasons why you desire to commit one sin and not another. That personal, inherent bent in one direction or another has nothing to do with mortification.

– Why might there be a bent in one direction or another?

            A. Sometimes a present sickness may take a man off from one sin. Perhaps a medication depresses a desire for one thing which was previously a temptation. In such a case, the sin is not mortified; the temptation is merely absent.

            B.  Old age may cause one to leave from a particular sin.

            C.  Education or company or circumstances may limit one’s desire for particular sins.

            D.  Conscience as a mere fear of punishment – rather than love for God – may cause a man to leave off from sin. There is no holiness in merely avoiding punishment. This is not to say that fear of punishment may not be used as an argument to awaken a man to the consequences of sin. But mere fear of punishment is never enough to protect one from sin. When punishment is the only concern, the sinner seeks a-way to keep the sin and avoid the stroke.

            E.  Just one’s “natural temper” may keep one from sin – just like you can’t sheep to eat meat, nor will a dog live upon grass.

3.  Mortification must extend not to just the grossest and most obvious sins – it must extend to sins of the heart and head; dispositions and desires which are contrary to God.  We must “subdue our sinful affections and vicious inclinations to those sins.”

4.  It is not mortification to merely give up what one does not want. I had a friend who gave up tomatoes for Lent – he had given up only what he did not want. Mortification must strike deeper: “Fight not so much against any sin as against your beloved, darling, constitutional sins that most easily best you and prevail over you.”

5. When mortifying sin, do not fail to take on particular sins: without some direction, you strike at nothing and hit only air.

6.  However, you must always have an eye upon the entire mass of sin and never leave any sin alone. “So you may cut off one sin after another and make those branches wither, but if you do not pull up sin by the root, the other sins will  but make your corruptions rage all the more.”

7.  Mortification can only proceed if it come from the power of the Spirit (Rom. 8:13).  You cannot kill sin from your own strength. “Do not encounter sin with confidence in your own strength, for you are but a feather before a whirlwind.”

8.  Set to mortify sin in its very first motions – it is easier to deal with a temptation when it is but a fledgling. As it grows, it becomes more powerful. “Sin is like a serpent, which, if he can but get his head into any place, he will soon wind in his whole body.”

9.  Mortification will be continuous. You will never prevail utterly over sin, but sin will always return.  God uses our continual warfare with sin to humble us and to cause us to fly to him for help and strength.

Doctrine: Living according to the world after the sinful motions and corrupt dictates of nature, without laboring to mortify and subdue them, is what will bring men to death and damnation.

It is not the presence of sin which damns one. It is not the fact of sin which marks one as an unbeliever.  This is abundantly clear in the NT, “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect …” (Phil. 3:12).  “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1).

John Owen makes this point in chapter 5 of the Mortification of Sin (in which he discusses what mortification is not):

To mortify a sin is not utterly to kill, root it out, and 25destroy it, that it should have no more hold at all nor residence in our hearts. It is true this is that which is aimed at; but this is not in this life to be accomplished. There is no man that truly sets himself to mortify any sin, but he aims at, intends, desires its utter destruction, that it should leave neither root nor fruit in the heart or life. He would so kill it that it should never move nor stir any more, cry or call, seduce or tempt, to eternity. Its not-being is the thing aimed at. Now, though doubtless there may, by the Spirit and grace of Christ, a wonderful success and eminency of victory against any sin be attained, so that a man may have almost constant triumph over it, yet an utter killing and destruction of it, that it should not be, is not in this life to be expected. This Paul assures us of, Phil. 3:12, “Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect.” He was a choice saint, a pattern for believers, who, in faith and love, and all the fruits of the Spirit, had not his fellow in the world, and on that account ascribes perfection to himself in comparison of others, verse 15; yet he had not “attained,” he was not “perfect,” but was “following after:” still a vile body he had, and we have, that must be changed by the great power of Christ at last, verse 21. This we would have; but God sees it best for us that we should be complete in nothing in ourselves, that in all things we must be “complete in Christ;” which is best for us, Col. 2:10.

Thus, it one’s relationship to sin which is the telling point. Sin cannot be utterly done away while we see the Lord (1 John 3:2). Many times Christians naively think that godliness means that we will not be subject to temptation. This is not true. Jesus himself was tempted by Satan (Mark 1:12) and yet in his temptation was “without sin” (Heb. 4:15).  While we never have an excuse for sin, we must simultaneously recognize that God knows our weakness and our Savior is sympathetic to our “weakness” (Heb. 4:15).

Therefore, we must labor to mortify our sin (what that means not being the issue here).

From the text Romans 8:13, Love draws some implications for preaching:

When preaching to believers, it is appropriate to preach passages which contain threats and warnings as well as passages of comfort and consolation, “A variety of doctrine sets off a man’s ministry with a great luster, beauty, and efficacy upon the hearts of the hearers.”  Moreover, these passages should be matched to the condition of the auditors. As Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 5:14, “admonish the idle [or undisciplined], encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.”

All men who are alive live in the flesh, but no man should live after the flesh.

Before looking at his doctrine, it would be good to look at his preaching.  A marked characteristic of Love’s preaching is the ability to write a good sentence. All writing and all preaching must be begin with the sentence (Stanley Fish has written a delightful book about reading and writing called, Who to Write a Sentence).  Here Love manages to make his thought memorable and clear by developing a parallel construction:

            All men                                               but                   no man

            Who are alive                                                              should live

            In the flesh                                                                  After the flesh

The halves of the sentence are neatly balance in idea and length. Yet, the halves also contain a contrast between what we are by nature and what should be by regeneration.   The contrast works by means of equivocation on the words “live” and “flesh”.  The difference is between two aspects of living: as a natural life and as a regenerated life (born again).  The second equivocation is on the word “flesh”: Flesh refers to the natural life by means of creation: the creature qua creature.  Thus, in the first instance it refers to natural life given at conception. The second use of the word “flesh” refers to the persistence of sin – even after regeneration.

            Thus, Love’s sentence is not merely witty: it encapsulates a problem in understanding sin which lies at the heart of Paul’s argument in Romans.  The sentence is the result of natural ability – but also of sustained work. I don’t mean merely that Love may have labored over the  creation of this sentence ( I have no idea how hard it was for him to write this particular sentence).  However, great labor preceded the creation of this sentence.

            First, there was the labor necessary to write well: This entails study, reading, and much practice. Even world-class writers show development over the course of their career. 

            Second, there was the study which went into the theology set forth in the sentence. Love could not have encapsulated such theology into a single sentence if he had not worked at learning what Paul had to say.

            After this sentence, Love works to develop the meaning of the phrase “live after the flesh”: “To live after the flesh denotes constancy, complacency, and industry in the ways of sin.”  As he writes before this conclusion, “It is one thing for sin to follow after you, and another thing for you to follow after sin.”

            Love’s analysis is an important thing for any minister or counselor to consider.  When confronted by another professing believer, we cannot merely look to the presence of sin to determine regeneration. As Love also writes, “Sin was in as soon as we put on flesh, and will be in us as long as we live in the flesh.” 

            Thus, the distinguishing mark of a believer does not lie in the presence of sin. Rather, the distinguishing mark is the relationship to sin. Does the person love and seek the sin? Do they hate only the consequences of the sin – or the fact of the sin?  When they are caught in a trespass, are they angry they have been thwarted from further sin or are repentant and relieved to be rid of it?

            Finally, Love examines why Paul uses the word “flesh” to describe the seat of sin.  It is not because sin exists only in the physical body, “sin is in the flesh as well as the spirit.” But, “sin is naturally as dear to a man as his own flesh.”  Finally, sin is acted out in the flesh.

CHICAGO (CBS) – A Lincoln Park neighborhood man is charged with stabbing a prostitute to death this week at a boutique hotel in River North.

Christopher Love, 23, of the 2400 block of North Lincoln Avenue, is charged with one count of first-degree murder. He is also charged with soliciting a prostitute, police said Thursday night.

Love is scheduled to appear for a bond hearing later Friday.

Sarai Michaels, 31, was found shortly after midnight Tuesday with multiple stab wounds at the Hotel Felix at 111 W. Huron St. She was found in a room on the 12th and highest floor of the hotel, with a 7-inch knife lying near her body, police said.

An autopsy Tuesday found that she suffered multiple stab and incise wounds and her death was ruled a homicide, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office.

Michaels was a former model and mother of five whose life had unraveled in recent years, her estranged husband Stephen Michaels told the Chicago Sun-Times via phone from his Minneapolis home.

She had traveled to Chicago with two Minnesota women, likely to work as prostitutes, he said as he fought back tears.

Originally from Minneapolis, Sarai Michaels had modeled for catalogues and in a 7-Up advertisement before she gave birth to her oldest daughter 10 years ago, he added.

She bore him a son two years later, but when their marriage collapsed, she fell in with a bad man who beat her and “led her down the wrong path,” he said.

Court records show she was arrested for prostitution in St. Louis in 2004.

She had three more children, moved to La Crosse, Wis., and worked as a waitress, but had all five children taken away by the state earlier this year, her husband said. Court records show she was the victim of a domestic assault at the hands of the father of her younger three children. She was also charged with neglecting a child after a DUI stop in September last year.

Hotel Felix general manager George Jordan said the hotel staff called 911 after Michaels was stabbed, but police were already on their way.

“This does not appear to be a random event, and I want to stress that. Apparently, these people knew each other,” Jordan said, “and we are of course very saddened by this. Our heart goes out to the victim’s family.”

Hotel guests and neighbors were shocked by the gruesome act Tuesday morning.

“I’m surprised – that’s about it,” said guest John Wong, who said he had heard about the incident on the news.

“It’s pretty upscale; a nice neighborhood too, so I can’t believe that would happen,” said River North resident Bennett Dilly.

“It’s kind of shocking, like, it’s a little nervous knowing that something happened at the hotel you’re staying at,” said hotel guest Sam Swartz.

The Sun-Times Media Wire contributed to this report.

1 Thess 5:9 For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,

This text contains in it the immutable decree and unchangeable counsel of God touching mankind. Though all men are made by the same hand, yet they are not appointed to attain the same end by that God who made them. Some are made to be vessels of honor and others are to be vessels of wrath. Some are appointed to be vessels of honor, meant for the Lord Jesus Christ’s use, and others to be “vessels of wrath, fitted for destruction” (Romans 9:22-23). Some, as in my text, are appointed unto wrath, and others to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ; so that all mankind are comprehended under these two ranks. There are but sheep and goats, right-handed men and men of the left hand; there are but some men elected and others reprobated; some appointed unto wrath and others to obtain salvation.

And if there are but these two ways for all flesh, then it behooves us to consider what the counsels of God concerning us may be, whether we are appointed unto wrath or to obtain salvation.

I shall keep you no longer in the preamble of the text. Some are appointed unto wrath. Wrath here is an emphatic word, and comprehends in it all the torments of the damned. And if you ask me why the torments of the damned are here called wrath, the reason is because it is the wrath of God that makes hell to be hell. Hell, if the favor of God could be there, would not be hell, and heaven, could God’s wrath be there, would not be heaven. The loss of God’s favor is the greatest punishment that a man can undergo. The torments of hell are called wrath to intimate to us that the greatest torture the creature can undergo is lying under the wrath of God. The want of the favor of God shall be the complete torture of the damned, and all the torments of the wicked are called by this general expression, “the wrath to come.”

Beloved, the words are not difficult. I shall discourse and handle them under a double consideration: first under a relative consideration, and, second, under an absolute consideration.

First, under a relative consideration, for “God has not appointed us unto wrath.” This word “for” carries a reference to something that goes before in the preceding verse. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation, “for God hath not appointed us unto wrath, but to obtain salvation.” It is as if the apostle should say, “You are not to argue on this manner, that if God has decreed me to be saved I may live as I please. I shall be saved for all that.” Or “If God has decreed me to be damned, I shall be damned, do what I can to the contrary, because I cannot alter God’s decree.” You must not argue thus, says he, “but let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, for we are not appointed unto wrath.” God’s decrees should not be an encouragement to you to live as you wish, but a spur to provoke you to live in the daily exercise of grace, from whence I note this doctrine.

DOCTRINE: The doctrine of God’s election and reprobation, or appointing some men to glory in heaven and others to be vessels of wrath in hell, is, or ought to be, a special inducement and spur to provoke men to live in the exercise of grace.

This is that which is here laid down by the apostle. And the use that I shall make of it shall be to condemn those indirect inferences that carnal hearts draw from this doctrine of predestination. Thus the Pelagians argue from the decrees of God: “If God has decreed some to be saved and others to be damned, we may then live as we wish, for, let us do what we can, we cannot possibly alter God’s decrees.” And others reason thus: “If God has decreed some to heaven and others to hell, and the decrees of God are unalterable, then let no man fast or pray or perform any holy duties, for if he shall be saved he shall be saved, or if he shall be damned he shall be damned.” Thus they suck poison out of this sweet doctrine of God’s decrees, whereas these should be a motive and incentive to duty. For in the same decree wherein God intends the final estate of any man, He as well intends the means towards that end as the end itself. If God intends to save such a man, in the same decree He likewise intends that that man shall have grace, and use those means and perform those duties that are required in a person who shall be saved. The elect of God are “predestined by God to be conformed to the image of His Son” (Romans 8:29). “God hath before ordained that we should walk in good works” (Ephesians 2:10).

And as God has decreed such a number of men shall be damned, so He has likewise decreed to suffer those men to walk on after the vain imaginations of their own hearts, and to do that which is right in their own eyes that their deserved end may be destruction.

It is a piece of folly from the appointment of the end to infer the refusal or neglect of the means.

I know there are not any of you but would count this a very absurd and irrational consequence should a man argue thus: “God has in His decree unalterably set down how long I shall live, my days are numbered, so long I shall live and no longer, and therefore I will use no means to prolong my life, or recover my health. I will neither eat nor drink, nor use medicine.” This would be a confessed absurdity and madness, for as God has decreed how long you shall live, so He has likewise decreed that you shall use the means that He has appointed to prolong your life.

As it was in the greatest tempestuous storm that Paul and the rest of the men in the ship were in sailing to Rome. “The angel of God told Paul that there should be no loss of any man’s life, but of the ship only” (Acts 27:23-24). Yet in verse 31 Paul tells them that “unless they did all abide in the ship, they could not be saved.” God decreed the means to be used as well as the end. So Hezekiah, in 2 Kings 20:6, when upon his prayer the Lord added fifteen years unto his days, now mark, had it been reasonable in him to conclude thus? “The Lord has promised that I shall live so many years longer, and therefore I will neither eat nor drink, nor sleep, and the like, to prolong my life.” No, certainly, for as God decreed he should live fifteen years longer, so He decreed he should use the means to recover his health and prolong his life (verse 7).

But I shall stand no longer upon this particular, but come now to handle the words in an absolute consideration. “We are not appointed unto wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.” In these words there is something implied. We are not appointed unto wrath ‘ which implies that there are a certain number of people appointed by God unto wrath. And here is something expressed, namely, that there are a certain number of people who are not appointed to wrath, but to obtain salvation. And here is expressed that Jesus Christ is the means appointed by God the Father in and through which men should obtain salvation.

These are the three particular heads I shall insist upon. I shall begin this morning with what is implied and come in the afternoon to that which is expressed. First, from what is here implied, observe this doctrine:

DOCTRINE: There are a certain number of men appointed by God to be objects of His eternal wrath.

Beloved, this is dreadful point that I am now to handle, and therefore I shall spend but one hour upon it. I know there are a generation of men who utterly deny any such purpose in God, that any of His creatures should be cast away. Say they, “It would be cruelty in God to decree any of His people to be objects of His wrath.” But I shall clearly evince it.

I will first prove that this doctrine is so, which appears by those many expressions to this purpose. The apostle says, “Hath not the potter power over the clay of the same lump, to make one vessel to honor, and another to dishonor: therefore what if God willing to show His wrath, and make His power known, endured with much longsuffering, the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction?” (Romans 9:21-22). That is, who can say anything to God, or dare charge Him with cruelty or injustice if He does do so? And so in Jude, there is made mention of some “ungodly men, that were before of old ordained to this condemnation” Jude 4). So, the apostle says, “there is a remnant according to the election of grace, and the rest are blinded” (Romans 11:5, 7). There are but some who are to obtain salvation, and others to be objects of God’s eternal wrath.

But the better to clear this truth to you, I shall spend some time in handling two questions. But before I can proceed in handling these questions, I must premise these three or four conclusions:

1. God’s decrees, or appointing some men to be objects of His wrath, do not infuse any sin or evil into such persons, but only withhold His grace from them. Deuteronomy says, “The Lord hath not given thee eyes to see, and ears to hear” (Deuteronomy 29:4). God does not put out their eyes or take away their ears. “So I gave them up unto their own hearts’ lust” (Psalm 81:12). God did not put lust into them, but He withheld His grace from them which would have subdued their lust.

2. The decree of non-election is to be distinguished from the decree of destination to punishment. This latter is usually called by divines “pre-damnation.” The first is an act of God’s sovereignty, the latter an act of His justice. The one considers man as a reasonable creature and mutable, the other as fallen into sin. -t 3. That most of mankind are appointed by God to be objects of His wrath is a very sad truth. “Many are called, but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:14). “There is a remnant according to the election of grace” (Romans 11:5).

It is the observation of one that if the world were divided into 31 parts, of those there are but five parts that ever heard of Christ, and of those how few are there that in their lives do declare any benefit by Christ. Most men lie under this fatal misery, appointed by God to everlasting damnation. The church is but a little flock, a garden, which is but a little spot of ground in comparison of the fields of the earth.

4. Another conclusion is that ordaining most men unto wrath in no way impeaches the mercy of God, because God would show more mercy should He save but one man in the world than He would show severity of justice should He condemn all the rest. And this brings me to the first question I promised to handle.

QUESTION 1. How can it stand with God’s mercy that He should, in His eternal counsels, appoint any of His creatures to be objects of His wrath, when it is said, that He beheld all the works of His hands, and behold they were all very good”? Now how can it consist with the mercy of God to damn those creatures that He has made, nay, to appoint them to be objects of His wrath before He made them?

ANSWER. It may very well stand with God’s mercy to appoint His creatures to wrath.

1. God has an absolute sovereignty over all His creatures to do with them as He pleases. “May not I do with mine own what I will? And who can say unto Me, ‘What do you do?’ ” And, “Such a power as the potter hath of the same lump of clay, to make one vessel to honor, and another to dishonor” (Romans 9:21). Such a power has God over all the sons and daughters of men. He has an absolute sovereignty over all His creatures to do with them what seems good in His own eyes. And who are you O man, to reply against God?

2. There is a great deal of reason why God should destroy and damn all the creatures that He has made. First, because when God made man, He made him holy and upright, perfect and able to do His will in all things. He was able both to do the will of God and also to continue in that estate wherein God made him, and so to be everlastingly happy. It is true, had God infused any vicious qualities into man, it would be something. But God’s hand was free from any such thing. God at first made man upright, but he has since sought out many inventions (Ecclesiastes 7:29). Adam was in a state of perfection, but only under a possibility of falling if he would. And since God foresaw that man would fall, there was great reason why every man should be damned because every man did fall. So the angels were at first made perfect, yet mutable, and because they fell the Lord condemned every one of them and saved none. But He does not deal so with us. He spared none of the fallen angels, but yet He does save some of us. And therefore He has shown greater mercy to you, the sinful sons and daughters of Adam, than He did to the fallen angels because all angels that fell were damned; but man fell too, and yet the Lord rescues a remnant who are not appointed to wrath, but to obtain salvation through Jesus Christ.

3. The Lord shows more mercy in the saving and appointing of one man to life and salvation than He would have done rigor of justice if He had condemned all the men in the world. I shall make it appear to you because God was not bound to save any, and therefore, if He does, it is an act of grace and mercy. Give me leave to illustrate it to you by this comparison. Suppose a company of malefactors were all condemned to die. Now if a prince should come in among them and choose out one of them, he would show more mercy in saving that one than he would have shown rigor if he had hanged them all, because every one of them deserved it.

Thus it is with us: we have all transgressed and violated God’s law, and thereby lay under the guilt of condemnation, and, being all condemned persons, it is more mercy in God to save but one of us than it would be rigor if He should have saved none.

QUESTION 2. What black brands or characters does the Scripture lay down of such persons who are objects of God’s wrath to all eternity?

Beloved, we can judge no man for the present; we may say that a man who goes on in such a sinful practice is not called, but we cannot say he is not elect. But if he continues living and dying in such a course of sin, this plainly shows such a man to be an object of wrath.

1. That man who has committed the sin against the Holy Ghost is unquestionably appointed by God to damnation. This is unquestionable because he shall neither be forgiven in this life nor in the life to come. In Matthew 12:32 there are a great many ingredients that go into making up this against the Holy Ghost: A man must be a professor of religion. He must have knowledge to his profession. He must have some seeming holiness. He must fall away from all this sin and persecute it. And he must do all this with malice, and against his conscience. All these are ingredients to the sin against the Holy Ghost, and a man who has gone thus far, the Lord has no intentions to save him.

Now the other characteristics I shall give you are not so peremptory and undeniable as this. But yet they are probable symptoms or guesses the Word of God lays down, of such men as are appointed to wrath.

2. A person you may shrewdly guess to be appointed unto wrath is such a one as continues all his life to spurn and condemn the ministry of God’s Word. “As many as were ordained unto eternal life believed” (Acts 13:48). But others who were not rejected it, and put far from them the Word of God. Thus Amaziah did in 2 Chronicles 25:16 when the prophet reproved him for seeking after the gods of the heathens for help who could not even deliver themselves. The king answered him and said, ” ‘Art thou made of the king’s counsel? Forbear, why shouldest thou be smitten?’; then the prophet forbear and said, ‘I know that God hath determined to destroy thee, because thou hast done this, and not harkened unto my counsel.’ ” We may conjecture that God has determined to destroy such a man who lies under the ministry of the Word, opposing and condemning it all his life.

3. We may suspect that man who is given over by God to a judicial hardness of heart and to final impenitence. You may fear such a man to be appointed unto wrath. But after your hardness and impenitent heart, 64 treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God” (Romans 2:5). So in Romans the apostle speaks of a remnant according to the election of grace…but the rest were blinded” (Romans 11:5, 7). When God shall give a man over to judicial hardness of heart, when He shall in just judgment harden his heart and give him over to final impenitence, it is a sign such a man is appointed unto wrath.

If God has, all your life, withdrawn the efficacy of His Spirit from His ordinances which you have enjoyed, when you shall perceive the same man that sits in the pew with you in God’s house to grow better and better by every ordinance, and you grow worse and worse; he is made more holy and you more profane; his heart more humble and yours more proud; his heart more soft and tender, and sensible of the least sin, and yours more hard and inflexible; his conscience more awakened and apprehensive of the danger of sin and yours more stupefied and benumbed; he finds the Word of God as marrow and fatness to him, the joy and rejoicing of his heart, but you find no sweetness or relish in it at all this is a sign of reprobation for you.

You who have these sad symptoms upon you are in a very sad condition, and therefore consider seriously what will become of you another day. If you go on in this condition of barrenness and unfruitfulness under the means of grace, and God withdraws the efficacy of His Spirit from His ordinances you live under, this is a shrewd sign that you are a man appointed unto wrath. When God shall, as in Isaiah, “bid you hear indeed but understand not, and see indeed but perceive not, and make your heart fat, and your ears heavy, and shut your eyes, lest you see with your eyes, and hear with your ears, and understand with your hearts, and convert and be healed” (Isaiah 6:9-10), this is a sad symptom of your reprobation.

5. When a man makes the grace and mercy of God to be a means to embolden him in ways of sin and rebellion against God, when a man makes mercy a spur to impiety, and, because God is so good, therefore he will be the more venturous to run on in sin, this is a sad sign of reprobation. “Shall we sin because grace doth abound? God forbid.” He speaks of it with detestation and abhorrence, when men shall presume on the mercy of God, and, because He is so good and gracious, therefore they will be the more wicked and sinful-this is a sad thing. In the epistle of Jude, the apostle there speaks of some ungodly men “that turn the grace of God into lasciviousness” Jude 4). Why, who are they? Says he, “they are such as were of old ordained unto condemnation.” The Apostle lays it down as a sign of men appointed unto wrath, who turn the grace of God to wantonness, and sin because grace abounds.

6. Such as fall away finally from the profession of Christianity are the persons who are appointed by God to destruction, such as fall finally from the profession of the gospel. “If any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him, but we are not of them that draw back unto perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of the soul” (Hebrews 10:38-39) It is as if He had said, “If any man draw back unto perdition, my soul shall have no pleasure in him, but he shall be an object of My eternal wrath.” Final apostasy is a brand that characterizes a man to be one appointed by God to be an object of His wrath.

Now therefore examine yourselves. If any of you are written in this black bill, and live and die under any of these sad symptoms, you have cause to fear that you are men appointed unto wrath, and cannot possibly obtain salvation through Jesus Christ.

“I am this day sailing towards the ocean of eternity, through a rough passage to my haven of rest, through a Red Sea to the promised land. I think hear God say to me as He did to Moses, “God up to Mount Nebo, and die there.”

Beloved I am this day making a double exchange. I am changing a pulpit for a scaffold and a scaffold for a throne; and I might adda third; I am changing this numerous multitude on Tower Hill, for the innumerable company of saints and angels in Heaven, the holy hill for Zion; I am changing a guard of soldiers for a guard of angels which will receive and carry me into Abraham’s bosom. This scaffold is the best pulpit that ever I preached in. In my church pulpit, God through His grace, made me an instrument to bring others to heaven, but in this pulpit He will bring me to Heaven.”

Excerpts from the speech of Christopher Love upon the scaffold immediately before martyrdom–As told in A Spectacle Unto God by Don Kistler.

(HT: Puritan at Heart)

Read more: http://www.apuritanatheart.com/voice-of-the-martyrs/#ixzz1RKNXWH4D
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution

1) Mortification is for this life, glorification is for the life to come.  This is God’s way for the Christian.  “You must not expect the whole work of sanctification to be wrought in  a moment.”

2) God will never show you more of your sin than you can bear.  “You may be sure to have no more laid upon you than you have strength to grapple with.”

3) God will repay the devil for tormenting you.  Struggling against the devil’s temptations is not a sin charged to your account, but the devil will pay eternally in hell for trying to make you sin.  “These are the devil’s sins, and not yours.”

4) By Christ’s strength and grace we mortify sin. “Though he himself does all for us and we do nothing, yet he rewards us as if we had done it ourselves. … Oh what a comfort this is, that we have such a good God to fight for us and subdue our iniquities for us!”

5) Fighting sin helps us pray more frequently and fervently.  “When the suggestions of Satan and solicitations to sin increase, your hearty prayers to God and resolutions against these sins increase too.”

This is a summary of Christopher Love’s pastoral comfort to Christians struggling against sin.  These are awesome things to think about as we put on God’s armor to fight temptation and sin.  I encourage you to add more biblical comforts to that list as you battle the sins in your heart and life.  Love also said this, which I’ll end with: “Sin may be a combatant, but it shall never be a conqueror” of the Christian.

shane lems

“Today…much ‘church work’ makes congregants so busy that they have scant time and little capacity for listening.  …Loving God and other people depends on getting to know them intimately by listening to them ‘with the ear of the heart.’” (Schultz, 78-9).

An old monastery had these words carved into the stone wall: “Do not speak unless you can improve upon the silence.” (Schultz, 78)

“The Word comes not to the chatterer but to him who holds his tongue. … Silence is the simple stillness of the individual under the Word of God.  We are silent before hearing the Word because our thoughts are already directed to the Word, as a child is quiet when he enters his father’s room.” (Bonhoeffer, 79).

“The listener is not permitted to suppose that the preached words are for anyone other than himself or herself.” (Peterson, 11).

“Doubtless, no one can be a true disciple of God, except he hears him in silence…. He (James) would…have us to correct and restrain our forwardness, that we may not, as it commonly happens, unseasonably interrupt God, and that as long as he opens his sacred mouth, we may open to him our hearts and our ears, and not prevent him to speak.” (Calvin on James 1.19).

“When we have heard a sermon, we should look up to Christ and beg his blessing upon it that it may not return void, but accomplish the work for which it was sent and be powerful and efficacious for the good of our souls.” (Love, 147).

“When we come to the Word preached, we come to a matter of the highest importance; therefore we should stir up ourselves and hear with the greatest devotion. … The devil is not one who refuses to come to church; he attends, but not with any good intent; he takes away the Word from men,” so “regard” and “remember” the Word. (Watson, 16-17).

“Why are we such poor listeners?  Today one of the major reasons is that we are so busy.  Our busyness substitutes frenzy for conversation and wrecks our relationships.  It fills our calendars and empties our lives of the ability to listen to anything that turns us away from our little gods.” (Hughes, 64).

“As real hearers we are indeed taken prisoner by this Word.  We surrender to it.  Inevitably, therefore, the totality of our existence is evidence of what we have heard.” (Barth, CD II.2, p. 365).

“It is required of those that hear the word preached that they attend upon it with diligence, preparation, and prayer; examine what they hear by the scriptures, receive the truth with faith, love, meekness, and readiness of mind, as the word of God; meditate, and confer of it; hide it in their hearts, and bring forth the fruit of it in their lives.” (WLC 160).

Solae aures sunt organa Chistiani – “The ears alone are the organs of a Christian man, for he is justified and declared to be a Christian, not because of the works of any member but because of faith. (Luther, quoted in Webb, p. 144)

shane lems

sunnyside, wa

“Because in him there is found some good thing toward the Lord God of Israel, in the house of Jeroboam.” 1 Kings 14:13

Having dispatched the observations which may be gathered from the circumstances of the text, I come to the main doctrine I intend to handle: God not only exactly takes notice of, but also tenderly cherishes and graciously rewards, the smallest beginnings and weakest measures of grace which He works in the hearts of His own people.

I might produce a cloud of testimonies to confirm this point. Our Savior Christ said that He will not “break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax” (Matthew 12:20). Observe, the bruised reed shall not be broken; not the light and flaming torch, but the smoking flax shall not be quenched. Smoking flax, where there is but little fire, and much smoke of infirmity, yet Christ will not quench it. He will cherish it. Here less is spoken than is intended. He will be so far from quenching that He will cherish the smoking flax, as in another place God says that He “will not despise a broken heart” (Psalm 51:17). Rather, He will highly esteem it.

Solomon speaks of the fig tree putting forth her green figs, and the vine with her tender grapes giving a good smell. That is, the little measure and weak beginnings of grace in young converts please the Lord Jesus Christ, and are as a sweet smell in His nostrils. Again, Christ said, “Let us see if the vine flourish, whether the tender grapes appear, and the pomegranate bud forth” (Song of Solomon 7:12). The green buds are regarded by Christ as well as the ripe and grown fruit.

In opening the doctrine, I shall endeavor to show these two things: Some of God people have but weak measures and small beginnings of grace. But second, though there is but a little grace, yet God will regard and reward it.

First, some of God’s people have but a little grace~ they have but the beginnings of grace wrought in their souls. In the handling of this there are three things: The truth of the proposition may be made good from the Scriptures. I will lay down notes of discovery to such as have but small measures of grace wrought in them.

And then I will show why God in His wisdom will not suffer His people to be all of an equal strength and stature in grace.

QUESTION. How does it appear that some of God’s people are but weak in grace?

ANSWER 1. By the different names and titles that are given unto Christians in the Holy Scriptures, arguing they are of different measure and growth in grace. Some are called strong men and others weak. Some are called babes in Christ and others grown men. Some are called trees of righteousness, plants of renown, that grow like cedars in Lebanon, and others are but a bruised reed. Some are kids in Christ’s flock and lambs. Others are as the he-goats, that go stately before the flock. Some have grace flaming forth in much zeal and vivacity; they have the spirit of burning; and others are but “smoking flax,” Christians who have much of the smoke of infirmity and but little of the flame of grace.

ANSWER 2. By the analogy that is between spiritual and natural differences of age, strength, and stature in man. The holy Scripture exactly sets down all the different degrees of grace under the similitude of the different ages of men. There is a forming of Christ in the heart, and so a spiritual conception. There are some who are but newborn babes in Christ.

There are some who are advanced from infancy to be young men. There are some who are grown men in Christ, old men. And all this but sets forth the different degrees of grace that are in Christians, some having less and some more.

In the church of Christ, which is His orchard, there are trees of all sorts, spikenard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense, myrrh and aloes (see Song of Solomon 4:14). [Daniel] Brightman, commenting on this Scripture, notes that hereby is meant the several sorts of Christians. Spikenard and saffron are young, weak professors; these are tender plants that scarcely lift up the head above the ground. Calamus and cinnamon, which are shrubs of two cubits high, denote Christians of a middle size; and the other trees denote Christians of a more eminent measure, and growth in grace.

QUESTION. How may a man know himself that he is but of a little measure, and small beginning in grace?

ANSWER 1. To be much in dependence on duties argues you are but weak in grace. A young Christian is like a young carpenter: he makes many chips, and has many blows, but does not make such smooth work as an experienced carpenter, who will make fewer chips, and at fewer blows better work. So young children are much in the use of duty, but they are apt to rely upon duty. They think duties make them saints, and they are apt to make saviors of their duties and be frequent in their duties. They see not their failings in their duties, and so are apt to rest on their duties. As it is a sign of an apostate professor to call off duty, so it is also a note of a young and weak professor to rest too much upon his duties.

ANSWER 2. A weak Christian does not have clear insight into the close and spiritual failings which cleave to his performances. He sees his gifts, and takes notice of his affections, but he does not see the vanity of his mind, the unsoundness of his ends, his carnal dependence upon his duty, self-love, and vainglory, but in the course of time, a grown Christian takes notice of these things in himself. An experienced Christian will take as much notice of his failing in duty as of his ability in it; and though he discerns an enlargement of gifts and graces in himself at times, yet he still discerns much spiritual pride, popular applause, ostentation of gifts, and too much forwardness in setting out his parts, which a weak Christian seldom perceives.

ANSWER 3. To have a scrupulous conscience about matters of indifference argues a weak Christian; for so the Apostle calls them “weak in the faith,” such as bound conscience when the Scripture left it free. One believer thought he might eat anything, and another doubted the lawfulness of eating sundry things. Now those who doubted, the Apostle called weak; and the weak conscience is apt to be defiled. Not to know our liberty, and to abuse our liberty, is an argument we have but little grace. Young converts call more things sins than ever God did; they perplex and entangle themselves merely in indifferent things. It is true, there ought to be a conscientious tenderness in all Christians; tenderness of conscience is our duty, but a tormenting, entangling scrupulosity is our infirmity. And yet, as a weak Christian is better than no Christian, a weak faith is better than a seared conscience.

ANSWER 4. To be so intently set on the exercises of religion, as to neglect our particular callings is a sign we are but weak in grace. It was a good saying of that famous man of God, Dr. [Richard] Sibbes: “I like that Christian well that will hear much and live much, that will pray much and work much.” In young converts the affections are strong and stirring, and they think they can never hear enough. Many times they neglect the duties of their callings, which argues their weakness and infirmity. An experienced, grown Christian is regular in his general and particular callings, so that the one shall not jostle and hinder the others.

ANSWER 5. To have men’s persons in admiration argues weakness in grace. Such were the Corinthians. The Apostle called them children, babes; though they had the life of Christians, yet they had but little of the strength of Christians. They were carnal; they favored the flesh more than the Spirit. Ignorance is often a cause of admiration. Weak Christians who have but little knowledge are apt to be so taken with men’s persons that one cries, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” and so they fall into sin, condemned of combining the faith of Christ with respect of persons, so as to cry up one minister and cry down others. To idolize some, and to despise others, argues that you are in weak faith. A solid Christian loves all good ministers and can condemn none.

ANSWER 6. To be easily seduced and led away into error argues weakness in grace. The Apostle Paul calls those children who are “tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine” (Ephesians 4:14). Weakness of head argues that grace is not very strong in your heart. The way not to fall from our steadfastness is to grow in grace, for the Apostle Peter joins these two duties together. Having given caution in 2 Peter 3:17 “not to fall from steadfastness,” in verse 18 he gives counsel “to grow in grace.” Strong Christians are steadfast, whereas weak ones are inconstant; and therefore, as for those professors who have been whirled about with divers opinions, it is an evidence they have but weak grace, if any.

ANSWER 7. Such as are only acquainted with the common principles of religion, without further search into the depths and mysteries of religion, are weak in grace. There are some professors who may be fitly called babes in Christ because they need milk, being unskillful in the word of righteousness, that is, in the more solid doctrines of the gospel concerning Christ who is our righteousness. Thus the disciples and apostles of Christ knew but little of our redemption at first, and were ignorant concerning the passion of Christ of the resurrection, as also of the affection of Christ till the Holy Ghost came and taught them these things, and brought those things to remembrance that Christ had taught them.

ANSWER 8. Weak Christians are strong in affections and not in judgment; they have usually more heat than light. Young Christians are like young horses: they have much mettle, but are not so fit for a journey because they are not so thoroughly trained. There are many Christians who have much zeal and affection, but are not solid in their judgment. This argues much weakness in grace.

ANSWER 9. A weak Christian is one who cannot bear reproof. Sharp weather discovers whether you are of a weak or sound body. So a sharp reproof will discover whether you are of a weak spiritual temper and constitution. When Nathan came to David, he could bear the reproof though the prophet told him to his face that he was the man who had sinned. Asa, though a good man, could not endure the faithful reproof of a prophet, but was wroth with the seer and put him in the prison house.

ANSWER 10. A weak believer is one who can trust God for his soul, but not for his body. So Jesus Christ argued of those who had little faith, who expected heaven and happiness from God their Father, and trusted Him with their souls and eternal concerns, and yet dared not trust Him for food and raiment. There are those who dare trust God for heaven, and yet do not trust Him for earth, but these are of little faith. When the disciples wanted bread, they began to reason among themselves how they should be supplied. “O ye of little faith,” said Christ, “why do you thus reason? Can you trust Me for the bread of eternal life, and dare you not trust Me for the bread of this life?”

Be not then discouraged, you who discern in yourselves but small measures of grace; look on your wants and imperfections so as to grow in grace, and not to be content with any measure, but look not on the small beginnings in grace as discouragement to you. When you see a great oak in a field, you may say this great tree was once but a small acorn. Those Christians who now are but small sprigs may hereafter be tall cedars. Say to your soul, “Though I am but weak, yet I shall be strong.” Grace, where it is true, will be growing; the smoking flax may be a burning and shining lamp in God s candlestick. And therefore, as you may not be content with the greatest measure of grace, so neither be discouraged with the least measure of grace. A grain of mustard seed may grow a great tree. Content not yourselves with small measures of grace. A little of the world will not content you. In the womb a foot contents us, three feet in the cradle, and seven feet in the grave. But between the cradle and the grave, a whole world will not content us; and shall a little grace content us? For wealth and desire of it, you are as the horse leech that cries, “Give, give,” and as the grave that never says, “It is enough,” and for grace, will you be content with a little?

Source

Some Bible verses first:
Romans 6:6
Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

Eph. 4:22
That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;

Colossians 3:9
Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;

Romans 7:5-6
For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.
But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.

Now, the syllogism with 17 points

1. What is the old man? 
It’s not the sinful nature. The old man is the man, or state of being  in the unregenerate state. The state of the stony heart, the state of being under the dominion of sin.
There’s remnants of the sinful nature, but the old man is gone, he’s dead.

2. What nature is the old man (with the stony heart) dominated by?
It was dominated by the sin nature, or the flesh

3. What does God fully remove from us when we are saved? (what does He take out)
The old stony heart has been removed.

4. What does God replace the stony heart with?
He replaces it with a new heart:
Ezekiel 36:26
A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
Heart = will, emotion, inner man, affections toward God

5. Regeneration or receiving a new heart, instills in us what?
According to what Jesus says to Nicodemus and to the disciples in many of His discourses:
New principles of life have been instilled in us, that is the new man, the regenerate man, we have a new man now that’s living.

6. Do we have our old heart, or has God given us a new heart?
We have a new heart, and the old heart is taken away, it no longer exists

7. Can the old man live without his heart?
(the old man whose heartbeat was of the stony heart and that heart is ripped out and a new heart is put in, that is not akin to the old man, can the old man live without his heart?)
No, he cannot live without his stony heart

8. Is the old man dead?
Yes. He is dead. Dead as a doornail. Very important.

9. Though God instilled in us a new principle of life, killing the old man who is now dead, did He also remove the sinful nature from us? (the flesh)
No

10. Why?
To be discussed in a next lesson by Matthew McMahon

11. What is the flesh?
The corruption nature of man by original sin (corruption understood by habit or as an act)

12. Are Christians dominated by sin?
The old man was dominated by sin.
No, the Christians are dominated by the Holy Spirit

13. Also the answer to the “why” not dominated by sin.

14. What is the old man?
We were a certain kind of man, but now this man is crucified, he’s dead.

15. Distinction between the old crucified man and the flesh.
(basic distinction that Paul, the reformers, and the puritans make)
The flesh is the sinful nature, the remnants of it is still left in us.

16. Do Christians do currently war against the flesh?
Yes, by all means.

Romans 13:14
But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.
2. Corinthians 12:7
And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.
Whether physical or spiritual, it doesn’t matter. “Lest I be exalted”.
Gal 5:24
And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
In that context, does “crucified” mean “dead”?
In Paul’s context dealing with Jesus dying on the cross, we know He’s talking about deadness, but is it the same here? Is the sinful nature dead? 
The old man is dead. Is the sinful nature dead? 
No, it’s not dead, it’s not completely crucified.
“Crucified” doesn’t always mean “dead”. It always means that it will ultimately die, (when the Christians get to heaven), but not necessarily right here on the spot.
Crucifixion is a long, arduous death.
When you’re the roman soldier constantly watching the flesh as it dies on the cross, but desires to have its resurrection, you must not allow it.
Ephesians 2:3
Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

The flesh still wants to revive those former lusts and you want to kill it. That’s the idea of mortification.
17. The flesh is looking to the old man to revive.
The old man is dead, but the flesh is still around and it’s looking for the old man.
The flesh doesn’t know that the old man is dead and it’s looking to resurrect, to revive the old man.
It is looking to conquer the old man, as it has done before, but guess what it runs into.
It runs into the Spirit.  The Father, the Son and the Spirit who dwell in the Christian.

Think of yourself like of those lion hunters on a safari trip, and of the flesh like  of a big lion. You’ve wounded the lion severely, you’ve shot it, it’s bleeding, in a manner  in which it is going to die, but you’re still on your guard, because the lion doesn’t know it’s gonna die so even in the end of its life, even as you’re mortifying it is trying to sink its teeth into you, it is still trying to destroy you.
A beast who has been severely wounded by a hunter tries in every possible way to stay alive.
It is still dangerous, maybe more dangerous in the last hours than any time in its life.

So this is the sinful nature, the dangerous lion that desires to devour us.
And it is bleeding.
And it will be bleeding for the rest of our life, until either we die, or Christ returns.
The old man is dead, and sometimes we act stupidly, trying to revive the old man, to put him back on, and we’re not supposed to be doing that. We’re supposed to live for Christ. 

Romans 8:13
For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.

In a highly pastoral tone, Love warns against false assurance that one has been called by God.  However, he also tenderly gives comfort to those who are effectually called and fighting for that comfort and assurance.  He lists these:

1) Jesus Christ effectually calls a poor sinner before that sinner looks after [to] Jesus Christ.  Here is mercy and here is a ground of comfort, that though we are first in…transgression, Christ is the first in suing out reconciliation. 

2) Jesus Christ has effectually called you when he has left many thousands in the world of better parts, better dispositions, more natural good and less evil in them than you have in yourself. 

3) God, in calling your soul and bringing you into a state of grace, does it freely for his own name’s sake, not for something in you. 

4) Those who are the most sensible of their own vileness, and see the most want and necessity of Jesus Christ, they of all people are most likely to have been called by him.  This is most comfortable to you who are drooping Christians, who hang down your heads under the sense of sin…this is the end for which Christ came into the world, to call you to glory.

5) A man may be elected by God from all eternity, and yet may live a long time in a course of sin before he calls him.  Yet before he dies, he shall be called.

6) A man may be effectually called when, in his own estimation, he cannot find any real and sound evidence of his vocation.  2 Peter 1.9 speaks of this, a Christian who is “blind” to his name written in the book of life.

7) A man may have a firm assurance that he has been effectually called, and yet neither know the time when, nor the manner how, nor the instrument by whom he was called.  This is a very comforting conclusion.  There are some who press conversion so high that if a man cannot tell the time when or the manner how, or the sermon by which he was called, they say he is not yet converted; they are in error.

8 ) Those who are effectually called by Christ shall be kept by Christ so that they do not fall from their call, but will be brought to the state of glory.

9) When Christ has an intent to call a poor sinner, neither their poverty nor their impiety shall hinder the call of Jesus. 

10) Though no one can pry into the decrees of God about election and reprobation, yet if you can make good your effectual call, you may be sure of your election and salvation.  You don’t pry into the bosom of God, but the bosom of his word, such as Romans 8.29.

The book points the reader to Jesus, his word, and the preaching of the word to explain what effectual calling is all about, and how the Christian can be certain he has been called by God to salvation.

shane lems

sunnyside wa

1) Take heed that you hear the Word of God preparedly. As the preacher must take care to find acceptable words, so the people should labor to bring acceptable affections to the work – when we come to the service of God we should hear with all attention and pray with affection.

2) Hear the Word attentively, as those did in Acts 8.6. Those who hear the Word with gazing eyes, wandering thoughts, and sleepy bodies cannot hear it attentively, but are to be reproved.

3) Hear the Word of God retentively. Labor to keep in your memory what you hear, that you may put it into practice for your life. Hearing is for practice’s sake. This also has to do with treasuring the Word, so it will have a continual impression upon your hearts.

4) Hear the Word understandingly. Christ called the multitude and bade them hear and understand. This is what the Bereans did.

5) Hear the Word applicatively. If a patient has never such excellent counsel given him, never so powerful a medicine prescribed, if he does not apply it, it will do him no more good than if he had never known it.

6) Hear the Word of God reverentially. Many people represent God to themselves in such familiar notions that they ultimately breed a contempt of God which we ought not to have. We must demean ourselves with a humble reverence in His presence.

7) Hear the Word of God obediently. Come…ready, prepared, and disposed to stoop and submit to all the instructions, corrections, and reproofs of the Word of God, like those spoken of in Acts 10.33.

What a contrast from how preaching/hearing “works” today! All of the advice Love gave assumed that we sit “under” the preaching of the Word, not over it. Raised pulpits, standing preachers, and sitting congregations reflect this biblical concept of being “under” the preached Word.

Preaching and hearing a sermon is not a democratic endeavor. If you’re into homiletics, this means that the thesis of Fred Craddock’s book from quite a few years back, As One Without Authority is wrong: the audience of a sermon does not determine the sermon’s theme, structure, or content. The congregation does not rule the preached word; the preached word “rules” them: they have a duty as they take their seats each Sunday: humble yourself, pay attention, and give heed!

Side note: Willimon gave a helpful critique of Craddock’s above mentioned book in Peculiar Speech, pages 47-52.

shane lems

sunnyside, wa

"I am made this day a spectacle unto God, angels and men; and among men I am
made a grief to the godly, a laughing stock to the wicked, and a gazing stock to
all, yet, blessed be my God, not a terror to myself. Although there is but
little between me and death, yet this bears up my heart; there is but little
between me and Heaven. There is a lesser way between me and my Father’s house,
but two steps between me and glory. It is but lying down upon the block, and I
shall ascend upon the throne.

I am this day sailing towards the ocean of
eternity, through a rough passage to my haven of rest, through a Red Sea to the
promised land. I think hear God say to me as He did to Moses, "God up to Mount
Nebo, and die there."

Beloved I am this day making a double exchange. I
am changing a pulpit for a scaffold and a scaffold for a throne; and I might add
a third; I am changing this numerous multitude on Tower Hill, for the
innumerable company of saints and angels in Heaven, the holy hill for Zion; I am
changing a guard of soldiers for a guard of angels which will receive and carry
me into Abraham’s bosom. This scaffold is the best pulpit that ever I preached
in. In my church pulpit, God through His grace, made me an instrument to bring
others to heaven, but in this pulpit He will bring me to Heaven."

Excerpts from the speech of Christopher Love upon the scaffold
immediately before martyrdom