are as bad as the rest as these in the prison who are as very theeves in the dungeon as they that are robbing by the high-way But further there would be something of our sanctification which we might call righteousnesse and so in time be as confident as they that will not lose the merit of their own works I speak here you see to further and advance a Gospel-mortification or a dying to sin in the power and life of Christ as well as the spiritual nature or new man But I would not have the power of mortification and conversion from sin mistaken to be in the not acting such or such a particular sin which was acted before or meerly in the particoloured change or inchoative sanctification onely we know what an overvaluing of that hath brought because such a mortification is too low and legal for pure beleevers but in that implantation and mystical ingrasting the soul into the glorious fellowship of Christ his death c. As for instance We put not a mans living and excellency of reason in an outward motion of the body or some one or two reasonable words spoken but in the life and soul and glorious spirit within him We put not the glory of the light in the Windows or panes of Glasse where it shines and cleerly too but in the body of the Sun the Fountain of light below So pure and spiritual mortification is radically or principally in our fellowship and union with him who killed sin in our nature in the body and thus we are spiritually and mystically dead to sin and that corruption which is within us will not be able to live long under the power of such a spiritual death and nature as Christs is but will waste and die daily though still pure mortification consists not principally in the not indwelling of corruption but in our implantation into fellowship with Christ for if such dying of corruption were true mortification then they that are dead in the Grave and can sin no more actually or they that are on their sick bed and disabled to former sins were mortified persons No it is an higher mystery to be mortified to sin then to not sin or not act corruption or to be spiritually changed by the spirit or spiritual nature within nor can any interpret as if they that were thus spiritually mortified need not strive against sin or the strength or the growing of it in the flesh or nature No that were a contradiction and is an impossibility for the cherishing corruption and fomenting or nourishing sinful nature will no more stand with such â—spiritually mystically mortified beleever then liberty to sin will stand with assurance of pardon for sin in the fame Childe of God Shew me any taken into the fellowship of Christs death that can make such provision for sin I speak not of some particular acts and that is the reason we read in Scriptures of so little conversation in sin or continuing in sin in the Saints former beleevers nor do the Scriptures put the form of sin or wickednesse upon particular acts of sin calling David an evil man for his uncleannesse or Job for his passions or Moses for his unbeleef or Peter for his denial but upon sinful and unregenerate nature as in Cain Esau Jeroboam Ahab Judas such are wicked men in the Scriptures account who are wicked by nature not from any particular action A Tree is not evil because it bears evil fruit but because it is naturally an evil Tree The sum of the mystery of mortification of sin in a beleever In a word to gather up this mystery of mortification of sin into a few plain words that it may be more clear both to the comforting weak beleevers that are wounded for sin and to help all beleevers more powerfully against sin in the mortifying of it 1. First let this be considered That mortification of sin is not in the not committing a sin for then children and civilly-moral men were mortified persons 2. That the fountain of sin or sinful nature is not wholly taken away by the spiritual nature begun in regeneration or the new birth 3. That pure mortification of sin is not in the meer absence of the body of sin for then dead or sick men were mortified persons 4. That the pure spiritual and mystical fountain of the mortification of sin is the being planted together in the likenesse of Christs death our old man being crucified with him Rom. 6.6 Our union with Christ our head our righteousnesse our Vine Now from these things thus considered we may raise up this consideration concerning mortification of sin That they who are mystically and spiritually planted into Christ are partakers of the power of his death which that highest purest and most mystical mortification that any have and with this there goes a spiritual power transforming and changing the whole man from former lusts this latter is called a putting on of the new man and a being renewed in spirit and in minde and a putting off the old man which is corrupt Eph. 4.22 23. Coloss. 3.10 Now that power wherein we are perfectly mortified is our union with Christ our being planted in the fellowship of his death c. and that wherein we are imperfectly or in part mortified is in that transformed nature or spiritual nature the body of sin being in a beleever more or lesse till he lay down this body and take it up a more glorious one So as a beleever is to consider himself dead to sin onely in the fellowship of Christs death mystically and to consider himself onely dying to sin in his own nature spiritually so as in Christ he is onely compleat and in himself imperfect at the best We are compleat in him saith the Apostle Coloss. 2.10 Yet there is such â— power and efficacy and mighty working in this mystical union and fellowship with Christ that he shall finde sin dying in him from this the spirit working most in the vertue of this this being like the spice or the spirit it in the wine that makes it powerful and quick Therefore we are said to be risen with Christ and to die with Christ and our life to be hid in Christ Coloss. 3.1 2 3. Christ being the life power vertue and energy of the spirit and the more of Christ we take against sin the greater and surer will our Victory against corruption and sin be And this would be well observed by those that are a little legally biassed or carried to mortifie sin by vows promises shunning occasions removing temptations strictnesse and severity in duties fear of hell and judgements scarce rising so high for their mortification as Christ Now these in themselves are but empty weak means of prevailing against sin like the mighty sails of a ship without either winde or tyde many of those do well in their place and order like Oares in a Boat which though it be carried with the tyde if well managed
we are but dying to sin in that spiritual mortification of our sinful nature in this life And therefore let not any particular acts of sin discourage any considering they are more excellently dead or mortified in Christ nor let such an excellent and glorious way of mortification tempt any to a neglect of mortification of sin in the body no more then the free-grace of God in forgivenesse of sins ought to tempt any to take liberty to sin Some Scriptures concerning falling away interpreted BUt for all this there are certain Scriptures which have a sound of much terrour in them against back-sliders as in Heb. 6.4 5. For it is impossible for those that were once enlightned c. And in 2 Pet. 2.20 21. For it had been better for them not to have known the way and some others of this sort Now these places are much misinterpreted for these concern not true beleevers but such as fall from the common enlightning as in Heb. 6.8 2 Pet. 2.22 and form of Profession which never had the power of God and the spirit in it but so far as to bring them into the number of beleevers or Church of visible Saints of which sort John speaks on They went out from us because they were not of us yet the Apostles write this to the Churches because they should know that a form of Profession meerly cannot secure any unlesse there be the power and these Cautions which do more immediately and directly belong to Apostates and false Professors yet have their use upon true beleevers and Saints too as of quickning and watchfulnesse and close walking with God and of praise that they whom the Lord preserves from such Apostacy may be more awakened to glorifie his free-grace upon themselves that stand as appears in Heb. 6.9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18. In which places the Apostle raises up their thoughts into the immutability of the Covenant in which they now stand and that they cannot fall away now God having assured it by an Oath Yet if any shall object further But these places shew how fair a Profession one may make and how far one may go in the way of Christ and then fall off And here the soul may doubt and say But O am not I one of this kinde because I am faln back But I answer No soul can make any such application in true a Gospel-sense unlesse it fall or apostate from the Faith of Christ which is here spoken on and meant and not of particular sins or failings committed But against the power of these and all other places which Satan would interpret to the wounding of a spirit we must know the onely remedy is beleeving as Abraham did in hope against hope and that can never fall away that can beleeve and no sin can damn it if it will but beleeve the pardon of that sin which every beleever ought to do This is the Commandment that ye beleeve 1 Joh. 5. Not considering sins singly and by parts but considering himself a righteous person in Christ and justified when Christ rose for our justification For the consideration of the pardon of sin in this sense that our Divines have commonly taught and preached it not minding the spiritual Analogy of the Word concerning the righteousnesse of a beleever breeds all this distraction for some delt out Christs blood as the Pope his pardons for one sin after another never stating a beleever in the righteousnesse of Christ and so in a fully pardoned condition Ephes. 5.27 Revel. 1.5 CHAP. IV. The Party after such openings of the frame of their spirit is now discoursed with upon certain particular Questions Quest LEt me know now in order what your doubts are which you think if you were satisfied in your soul could be at peace Answ I question whether I am in Christ Quest What grounds have you to question your being in Christ Answ 1. My falling back into sin 2. I do not finde that change in the whole man 3. I cannot beleeve Quest Doubt 1. This is then your first Doubt That you are not therefore beloved of God or in Christ because you fell back again into your sin so as you did Suppose I prove to you that no sin can make one lesse beloved of God or lesse in Christ Answ Then I shall conclude that sin cannot hinder the love of God to my soul Quest I shall prove that no sin can make one lesse beloved of God or lesse in Christ 1. The mercies of God are called sure mercies his love an everlasting love his Covenant an everlasting Covenant I am perswaded saith Paul that neither death nor life nor principalities nor powers c. shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord So then to whom he is once merciful he is ever merciful whom he once loves he ever loves whom he once takes into Covenant he is ever theirs I am the Lord I change not 2. Whom the Father loves he loves in the Son in whom he is well pleased and his Son is alwayes alike beloved of him the same yesterday and to day and for ever and whom he loves in his Son he accounts as his son he is made unto us righteousnesse sanctification and redemption So as we being not beloved for our own sakes but for the Sons nothing in us can make God love us lesse because he loves us not for our selves nor any thing in our selves but in and through his Son in whom he is well pleased 3. If God should love us lesse or more as we are lesse or more sinful then he should be as man and as the Son of man and if beleevers stood upon these terms with God then how are these Scriptures true He rose again for our justification who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect Who shall condemn There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus The Foundation of God standeth sure He ever liveth to make intercession for them So as God is ever the same that loves and his love is as himself ever the same and Christ in whom we are beloved ever the same Doubt 2. Your other doubt is this You finde not a change in the whole man What mean you by this change in your own sense Answ I mean not a perfect change but a newnesse in all the powers and parts of soul and body which I suppose to be sanctification Quest Is the end which you propound to your self in finding out this change of the whole man for grounding any assurance on of Gods love and your being in Christ Answ Yea because they that are in Christ are so changed and there is such a work wrought all things are become new and old things are passed away Now I finde not this Quest The scope of your doubt then is that because you feel not your self sanctified you think you are not justified I shall allow you your
they may help it to go the faster as that of shunning occasions strictnesse severity in duties and watchfulnesse But it is Christ crucified which is the power of all and in all it is Christ lifted up as Moses lifted up the Serpent which strikes in more soundnesse into the wounded beholder then any other meerly legal way or experiment wherein many beleevers have toyled and carnally fished all their time for power over some corruptions and like Peter and the rest have caught little or nothing because Jesus Christ was not in the company There is danger in putting too much upon the sin of relapsing or back-sliding in beleevers To conclude I would have men tender now they make conversion such a mortification to that particular sin or act which was the sin of the unregenerate condition lest while they lay down a law to prevent a sinning again or a second wounding by the same sin they make that sin if committed again as it may be wound the beleever more even to the danger of unbeleef then which there cannot be a greater to hinder true mortification because that any unbeleef keeps the soul and Christ as it were asunder and from closing in the souls own apprehension and all that time there can be little power brought home from Christ by Faith against that sin My reasons are these 1. Because that sinful nature is not wholly healed in this life so there remains a natural inclination to that particular sin as well as another nay rather because nature is more byassed towards it then any other 2. The wound pricking or sorrow that any soul enlightned by Jesus Christ feels for that sin is not of such an exceeding or rather infinite vertue as to abolish it or to lay in such a perpetual impression upon the soul that the soul should live under the image of that remorse and wound and so never dare or adventure to commit it again I finde no such lasting and continuing and firm or thorow work in the spiritual motions operations and impressions but by degrees Christ upbraided his Disciples how soon their hearts were hardned and we finde the spiritual affection and resolution of Peter wherein his soul was raised up on high wasting and flatting in his denial The gales and breathings of the spirit are like the winde Joh. 3. which makes a thing move or tremble while the power of the Air is upon it but as that slakens or breaths so doth it 3. There is no promise that I can finde for the present against the never committing again such a particular act or sin which he lived in in his unregenerate state I know there are differences made and certain works set down to know a sin by that is committed in a regenerate state before as the weaknesse and contrary dispositions or reluctancy in which it is committed 〈◊〉 Paul implies in Rom. 7. c. Though here some of these Divines may be puzzled in this way of their differences too for take a man in the strength of natural or common light living under a powerful word or Preacher by which his Candle as Solomon saith is better lighted then it was such a man shall sin against as seeming strong convictions as the other if not more But by the way I humbly conceive there are certain dampings of Satan and flesh and blood together with the withdrawings of the Spirit on Gods part that will puzzle the best that goes so exactly by marks and sense more then by Faith for the way of the spirit is not so grosse carnal discernible as the Divinity of former times and of some of this present age would make it It is as hard to trace and finde the impressions of the Spirit as the way of a bird as Solomon sayes in the Air The Spirit that is of God knows only the way of the Spirit And the Apostle speaks many things too as he says because of the infirmity of our flesh We must not therefore form up the things of the spirit too much for the feelings of flesh and blood And they that write so of a regenerate mans estate and set us down such infallible signes as we meet with commonly do take their experiences too low and carnally and mistaking the Allegory and way of the Word or Scriptures which speaks of things because of the infirmity of our flesh write upon spiritual workings as Philosophers upon Moral vertues and do bring down the spirit into the very Allegory and so allegorize and incarnate or make fleshly the things of the spirit And so do many both preach and write of regeneration as a work of nature though not a natural work 4. The restraints of the spirit or that Law of Jesus Christ in the soul is not made sure to the soul as concerning particular acts or sins but onely concerning the power of sinful nature in general and the weakning and destroying of that Neither are the particular Laws or Commandments in the Gospel always in their power upon the soul but when the Spirit of Christ doth take them and apply them and quicken them unto the soul and put a spiritual Majesty upon them The Conclusion concerning the mystical and spiritual mortification To conclude The experiences of the spirit in those that are spiritual are not all in one degree some more some lesse and the Law of the spirit in those that are spiritual will carry them against the law of sin and flesh because it is both contrary to the flesh and likewise of a spiritual and transforming nature and so gathers strength in us against the body of sin and is still working it self a greater part and dominion in us and fashioning us like unto Jesus Christ both in righteousnesse and true holinesse and the people of the Lord are very rarely found in the great sins of their unregenerate estate especially if they were grosse ones such as the light of their natural conscience abhors as well as the purer light of the spirit as adultery murder c. then they are doubly armed against them and so may more rarely commit them but if they be such particular acts or sins as are not so clearly condemned by nature as some kinde of lustings with hypocrisie passion lying c. they may the more easily be committed again because the light in nature is but faint or little thâ—â— opposes them or which takes part with the light of the spirit against them These things may be sufficient to let us see into the nature of back-sliding in the regenerate ones and to binde up the broken hearted that are faln as well as to shew a more excellent way to keep from falling in the strength of Jesus Christ And therefore let this be written upon the heart and on the palms of the hands of all both wounded and whole beleevers That we are compleatly or perfectly mortified or dead to sin by our being planted into Christ and the fellowship of his death And