A SERMON Preached before the KING AT WHITE-HALL March 6. 1673 4 BY William Lloyd D. D. Dean of Bangor and one of his Majesties Chaplains in Ordinary Published by His Majesties Command LONDON Printed by Andrew Clark for Henry Brome at the Gun at the West-end of St. Paul's MDCLXXIV A Lent-Sermon ROM VIII Ver. 13. If you walk after the flesh ye shall die but if you through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body you shall live IT was the Apostles design in most part of this Epistle both for his Converts at Rome to whom it was immediately written and for all other Christians that should come to read it in after times to draw them off from a carnal and sensual course of life to that which is most agreeable to our Christian profession In order to this he lays the foundation of his Discourse in a discovery of a two-fold principle in man that strongly enclines him the one way or the other he shews the certain tendency of both these ways the one exposing us to the just wrath and indignation of God which must end first or last in our ruine and destruction the other pleasing to God and beneficial to our selves full of inward peace and comfort in this life sure of endless joy and happiness in the future These two opposite principles in my Text so much spoken of in the beginning of this Chapter are the same which our Saviour formerly mentioned in that discourse St. John â— 6. where he shews what they are and whence they proceed There is a principle of Flesh as he calls it in every man that is born into this world it descends to us from the parents of our flesh in that taint of our nature which we call Original Sin and this addicts us to all Carnal and Sensual things but more strongly to those which are evil and forbidden There is also another principle in every Christian the Grace which we receive at our New Birth in Holy Baptism This our Saviour calls Spirit for 't is infus'd into us by the operation of the Spirit of God This inclines and inables those that will be led by it to those things which are spiritual and eternal The opposition between these two principles in us and the consequence of each to them that are led by it is thus described by the Apostle in my Text If ye c. That is in other words If you lead your life according to the Carnal Principle and be not chang'd and renew'd by the Spirit i. e. until you repent and be converted you are spiritually dead in this life and are to look for nothing but eternal death in the future But if the Spiritual Principle have power in you so as to subdue the irregular inclinations of the flesh you shall live i. e. being quicken'd and renew'd by the Spirit you shall have that spiritual life here which shall be consummated hereafter in life everlasting In the last words which are my subject at this time I shall consider these four particulars 1. What are here call'd the deeds of the flesh 2. How these are to be mortifi'd 3. How we are to do it by the Spirit 4. How thus doing we shall live All these parts I shall consider with a twofold respect To them that have spiritual life and to them that are destitute of it for those of both sorts have an interest in my Text and a capacity to receive benefit by it You that have Spiritual Life in you if you mortifie the deeds of the flesh you shall continue the life of Grace here and shall attain to the life of Glory hereafter And even you that are spiritually dead you are not so dead but that you also may live if you by the spirit mortifie the deeds of the flesh you shall thereby come to the life of Grace here and so you also shall attain the life of Glory hereafter To proceed in the method which I have propounded I am first to consider what are the Deeds of the flesh And if the flesh be as is said our original Concupiscence then the deeds or actings of it must be actual sins So that look how many sorts of such sins are in the world so many sorts we may reckon of the Deeds of the flesh Our Apostle gives us a black Catalogue of them Gal. 5. 19. where he says The works of the flesh are manifest and they are these Adultery Fornication Uncleanness Lasciviousness Idolatry Witchcraft Hatred Variance Emulations Wraths Strifes Seditions Heresies Envying Murders Drunkenness Revellings and such like which whoso does shall not inherit the Kingdom of God And lest our Apostle's calling them Works in that Text and Deeds in this should make any one think he means only outward actions and no other I must desire you to remember that God sees not as man sees nor judges as man judges Man can see no more but the outward action God looks chiefly if not only at the heart man can judge of no sin till he sees it acted with God it is acted as soon as it is conceiv'd When lust hath conceiv'd it brings forth sin and sin when it is finish'd brings forth death James 1. 15. 'T is conceiv'd as soon as ever it is thought of with consent as we proceed to delight in the speculation it ripens when we resolve to commit it then 't is finish'd for then the heart has done as much as it can do Though we never proceed to action 't is perfect sin I cannot say it is more sin if we do bring it to action Only then 't is the more dangerous and approaches more to habit for the purpose continues all the while we commit it and is confirmed by the pleasure we have in committing it Therefore 't is the great mercy of God when he restrains us when he hinders us when he takes away the power and opportunity from us that we cannot put an ill purpose in execution though we are nevertheless guilty of the sin having gone as far as we can go in it when it is fully resolv'd and purpos'd in the heart Mat 15. 19. says our Saviour Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts Murders Adulteries Fornications Thefts false Witness Blasphemy They could not proceed out of the heart but that first they were in the heart And many sins may be in the heart that are never brought forth into action All the sins that I have mentioned may lie within in the heart and only those come abroad that see their occasion but whether outward or inward they are the works of the flesh they are the same sins whether purposed and committed or whether never committed but only purpos'd and determin'd in the heart These we are to mortifie says my Text To mortifie that is to kill them to put them to death or which is equivalent yea much better to keep them from ever coming to life This mortifying of sin is the proper work and business of Repentance now Repentance
according to mens several circumstances Of them that have much time much will be requir'd and less will be sufficient for them that have less But I beseech you let the thing be effectually done Call your self into your Chamber or Closet and there as the Psalmist says Commune with your own heart and be still Examine your self wherein you have transgress'd and wherein you have been most apt to transgress especially in those things which are your foulest transgressions Search as far as you are able into the very particulars of them where you have forgot the particulars yet at least to remember the kinds of them The kinds of every ones sins are known to himself The kinds wherein men may sin are infinite and yet these may be reduc'd under certain Heads and are so in some Books to which you may have recourse in this duty of Self-examination If you have not such a Catalogue of Heads which were well worth the having and considering at such a time you may do well to think deliberately with your selves what you know that God has commanded in Scripture and what you know that God has forbidden in Scripture and examine your self how you have done those things which God has commanded and avoided what God has forbidden Especially If you know any Catalogue in Scripture either of Commands and Duties or of Prohibitions and Sins you may do well to examine your self by that Catalogue and to consider what the state of your soul is as to every Particular For example you know the Ten Commandments of the Moral Law you may take a particular account of your obedience to those Commands You know the three Theological Virtues Faith Hope and Charity examine the state of your soul as to these three Graces and Virtues You may possibly have observ'd sundry Catalogues of sins I quoted you one in Gal. 5. 19. you find there how God threatens all them that are guilty of such sins you may do well to ask your selves with the Apostles Is it I and see what answer you can make upon each of those Particulars To do just as I advise in this matter I know is not so absolutely necessary for the same thing may be effected sundry ways but this way is the best that I am able to advise and I am sure the thing might be profitably done I question how faithful they are to themselves that leave it undone The use of this advice is as far as 't is possible to find out the particulars at least to find out the kinds of your sins That having found you may mortifie them bring them forth one by one in Confession and recount them to God in the bitterness of your soul and take up strong resolutions against them beseeching God by his Grace to enable you to fulfil those resolutions Yet when all this is done I cannot say you have mortified your sin till you have truly forsaken it and at least broke the Habit of it This is true Mortification when the sin is cast off and forsaken when the lust the parent of it is so conquer'd and subdued that though still it dwell in us we cannot help that yet it hath no more dominion over us But what shall we say when the sin is not forsaken when lust is in full dominion when Religion and the fear of God is so abandon'd and lost that one does not stick at those Sins which the Gentiles that have onely the Light of Nature would have detested and abhorr'd Or when one allows himself in the Habitual Practise of that which he knows to be Sin or might know if he would but consider it In this Case the Person being spiritually dead which is the fourth and last State I am to show how such an one may yet mortifie the Deeds of the Flesh that is may recover from this Death and so scape Eternal Death which is the next thing that falls under consideration And surely this Estate being extraordinary bad is not to be remedied without extraordinary Care Lust where it has got an Head where it has the Dominion is like that Unclean Spirit Mat. xvii 21. that was not to be cast out without Prayer and Fasting Without Prayer there is nothing to be done in any spiritual Business especially in this there is need of most intent and most vehement Prayer And there is need of Fasting too that is of much Severity to be exercised upon our selves and that not onely in Abstinence from Meats which of it self St. Paul says profits little 1 Tim. iv 8. but we are chiefly to abstain from the satisfying of our Lusts in those things which are more to us than Meat and Drink This being as much the hardest as most needful Severity our Saviour calls it The plucking out of the Right Eye the cutting off a Limb Mat. v. 30. St. Paul calls it The Circumcision of the Heart Rom. ii 19. and Gal. v. 24. The crueifying of the Flesh with its Affections and Lusts. I know 't is in vain to proceed upon this Subject to show how a Man spiritually dead should mortifie fin how one dead in any kind should do any act of life in that kind much more to excite you with great Cost and Pains to endeavour it unless first I show that you are capable to do it for no Man that thinks what he does will set about much less be at great cost to do that which he thinks impossible to be done Therefore ere I go any farther I shall endeavour to show how he that is spiritually dead may mortifie Sin and what is to be done on his part towards the mortifying of it I trust you understand what is most certainly true that as there is no Man wholly free from Lust so there is no Man entirely under the Dominion of it That Devil is not so great in any Man living that he can quite put out the Eyes or stop the Mouth of his Conscience Nay he cannot hinder it from observing and speaking out and interrupting him between whiles No Habit is so deeply radicated in us so entirely possest of us but that it may be broken off it may be alter'd by degrees and turn'd quite into the contrary as we may order the matter That ill Habits may be alter'd we know and by what Causes as by Diet and Physick by Education and Converse by diligent Exercise whether for ones Moral Improvement or whether out of any other Design We know Men may be extremely changed for we see by experience they are so It were no hard thing to shew by Examples some that have been in their time Lavish Riotous Spend-thrifts and come after to be Greedy Sordid Penurious Wretches Some that were Dissolute and Loose without appearance of any Sense of Religion have in time come to be Superstitious Schismatical and Factious Such as have been factious in their Sect of Religion having afterward found that to be a Cheat and judging all Religion to be so have turn'd Ranters and
can never be otherwise without daily and earnest Prayer unto God But then Praying is not all ye must also do what ye can Ye can choose whether you will go to the House of Prayer at Prayer-time or whether you will sit at home or visit or walk the Fields at home you can choose whether you will pray or read a Book that may profit you or whether you will do that which may hurt or which cannot profit you You can choose whether you will give your mind to what you read or hear or whether you will divide it between Sleep and Talk and other matters You can if you please lay up what you learn you can think of it again in due time and so apply it that it may make some impression I do not say you can have Faith when you please but St. Paul says Faith comes by hearing the Word of God and you may hear it when you please and Gods Blessing is ready to go along with his Word it is your own fault if you do not partake of that Blessing If you are sick and a Physician comes to you and offers you that which he says and you believe will certainly cure you if you take his Physick and observe his Rules and so doing recover your Health it is he that has cur'd you you have not cur'd your self And yet thus much you have done towards it you have done all as he directed you you have been willingly passive which was more than he could compel you to be Now this is all that God requires in the Work of our Conversion He could compel us but he will not for he expects we should be willingly passive he would have us take his Physick and observe his Rules God expects we should apply our Hearts to Spiritual Knowledge with a full resolution to live accordingly God expects we should abstain from ill Diet that is from the satisfying of our Lusts which I have shown you upon a Moral Account we are able to abstain from if we please God expects we should be conversant in his Word and that we should observe him in his Works For his Word he expects you should read or hear it often and diligently that what you read or hear you should lay to heart so as to make some impression that you should heed it with the same concernment and with at least as much effect as you would do if your Lawyer should tell you of something which endanger'd your whole Estate or if your Physician should warn you of some Disease that if not prevented would shorten your Life Of his Works chiefly of his Judgments God expects you should be a diligent Observer First when you see others suffer for their sins which perhaps are also yours You cannot but know that God has made them Examples to you and therefore whatsoever his end may be towards them you have much cause to fear that unless you repent God will also make you perhaps you next an Example to others When any Judgment of God is fallen upon your self God expects you should consider whence it comes and wherefore 't is to take away your sin that you should mind this especially in Sickness which is the greatest Temporal Mercy in order to a Spiritual good the greatest God can show to any hardened and yet not incorrigible Sinner If ye neglect all these Methods and Means of Conversion what remains but a sad and fearful Account An Account that comes Slow but will be most Sure First for your Sin and then for your Impenitence and then for your neglect of the means of Repentance This last will make you quite inexcusable When you are in Hell whither you are going and must come without Repentance it will be another Hell to you to consider how possible it was for you by repenting in this Life to have prevented that misery which now you are for ever to endure and to have obtain'd that Bliss from which you are now separated for ever Whereas contrary wise if you lay hold on this Opportunity if you make use of these Means that use for which they were intended of God you will soon find a sensible Benefit in certain Effects which deserve more time then I have now to consider them First You will find the Means of Grace more effectual by degrees You will find a Lesson from hence make more impression upon your thoughts You will find both a softning and a strengthning of your Heart I dare promise you from God an encrease of the Means of Grace and perhaps a longer Life to profit by them Why not For God willeth not the Death of a Sinner but rather that he should be converted and live If longer Life therefore be needful to compleat your Conversion God will give it if not he will the sooner perfect your Conversion for he has declared in favour of such as you are that He will not quench the smoaking Flax nor break the bruised Reed until he has brought forth Iudgment to Victory till he has given you a full Conquest of your Sins But how Through his Spirit That is the inward Work of it which comes next to be considered God works outwardly as you have heard by giving us the Means of our Conversion God works inwardly by his Grace which gives efficacy to the Means or more properly he gives it to Us to a Sinner so humbled and so contrite as ye have heard for his own Promise for his own Mercy 's sake God gives that Grace which is the Life and Soul of Conversion And this being infus'd into our Spirits by the Spirit of God may cause that Doubt among Interpreters as ye have heard though it comes all to one whether our mortifying of Sin be by the Spirit of God or by our Spirit enlightened and enabled by his Spirit Sure enough the Agent or Efficient in our Conversion is the Spirit of God Our Spirit which is willingly Passive before and in our Conversion after this becomes Active it cooperates with the Spirit of God First in our Conversion 't is the work of Gods Spirit to mortifie our Lusts to break the power of them in our Hearts to set our captive and enthralled Affections at liberty 'T is the Work of God to change our Spirit or Rational Soul having thus broken the Bonds of Death wherein it was held to quicken it to give it Spiritual Life so to create in us as it were a New Heart and a New Spirit whence the Soul that repents is said to be a New Creature made as Adam was at first after the Image of God Both these Works of Gods Spirit St. Paul requires of us though our part in them be onely such as you have heard Ephes. iv 22 c. That we put off concerning the former Conversation the Old Man which is corrupt according to the deceitful Lusts and be renewed in the Spirit of our Minds and that we put on the New Man which after God is created in