Owen on the Mortification of Sin
For the mortification of any distemper so rooted in the nature of a man unto all other ways and means already named or further to be insisted on, there is one expedient peculiarly suited. This is that of the apostle: “I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection” (1 Cor. 9:27).
The bringing of the very body into subjection is an ordinance of God, tending unto the mortification of sin. This gives check unto the natural root of the distemper and withers it by taking away its fatness of soil.
Perhaps because the Papists (men ignorant of the righteousness of Christ, the work of His Spirit, and the whole business in hand) have laid the whole weight and stress of mortification in voluntary services and penances, leading to the subjection of the body, not knowing indeed the true nature of sin nor mortification, it may on the other side be a temptation to some to neglect some means of humiliation which by God Himself are owned and appointed.
The bringing of the body into subjection in the case insisted on by cutting short the natural appetite, by fasting, watching, and the like, is doubtless acceptable to God.
— John Owen
On Mortification of Sin, in Oweniana, 233
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