out but smothers or blows it out What disorders have mens lusts filled the World with see some hint of Nature Rom. 3.13 14 15 16. It 's not the outward man he intends only but especially the power of mens lusts and the inward readiness of the mind to all ill The thousand part of what is plotted there breaks not forth for one man can contrive more wickedness than all the World can Act. See some account of mans inward wickedness Gen. 6.5 Evil only evil continually evil Mens lusts are insatiable such as have the greatest opportunities and advantages for satisfying them do but encrease them and this is mens sin and plague both and issues into mens ruine and the less men know or feel this the greater their misery so that Sinners heaven is indeed a part of Hell in them for their lusts even now do torment them and all their relief is in their various sinful Objects which feed their lusts and encreases their misery Now Mortification only can cure this true some are naturally of a sedate temper and not subject to such perturbations and enormities as others But there may be more dirt and mud at the bottom says one where there be fewest Waves and a River may run with great strength when yet it runs smoothly and without noise Some are ingeniously educated which may a little polish the outward and inward man both but refining of lusts is not mortifying them there 's no recovery from our misery and servitude and disorders through our Corruptions but by the putting off the old man and mortification of the body and its deeds Let this then be a second Consideration which shews the necessity of it viz. That it 's the cure of our sin and misery which lies in the frame and actings of corrupt Nature If any say That those who set themselves to mortifie sin do but raise tumults and disorders in the Soul who has less inward quiet than Paul Rom. 7. Some that are well Educated and of good natural Tempers seem to have the better of many who pretend to Mortification I Answer 1. The peace of unmortified Souls is much like that in Hell among the Devils they are all combined against God and are not divided amongst themselves If this sort of peace please you you may have your fill of it in Hell 2. Other mens peace proceeds from their 〈◊〉 of servitude rather than to endure the trouble of a Conquest-World If the Believer give the Tyrant Sin it's will he should have peace with it but he chuses the trouble of a constant War with it rather than to War with God and his Conscience Sin Reigns over others and keeps all quiet but Grace Reigns in the Saint and Sin rebels and breeds some disturbance but never is able to ruine and dissolve the Government of Grace 3. It is indeed no trouble to the godly man to oppose sin for he does it with delight he has peace with God and joy in his heart when he is in the midst of his Conflict with sin and the more vigorously he opposes sin the greater is his peace he is heartned and animated when he remembers what he contends for and when he thinks on his Assistants And more when he feels strength renewed he is put on frequent acting of Faith and there is some inward pleasure in every act of Faith yea and when sin is too strong for him he is drawn forth in Acts of godly sorrow wherein the Believer has a real pleasure the trouble of others for sin is but the beginning of sorrow and of the same kind with that which is in Hell therefore they would fain flee from them but sorrow for sin is the bitterest fruit of these Conflicts yet it is mingled with Joy Outward Joys have a sting and a wound in them and the mortified man is uneasie under them But godly sorrow has a sweetness in it therefore the Believer by all means seeks to cherish it Finally Every advantage he gets against sin raises his heart and the hope yea the assurance he has of a final Conquest does so far animate him that he can antidate Praises and sing a Triumph in the sight of Victory Rom. 7.25 He finds may be some strong Lust so rooted in his natural Temper which one well resembles to the mire without which the Rush cannot grow which has often prevailed and to the acting of which his own heart prompts him and Satan also solicites him yet when he looks to Christ to his strength and grace and redemption from the guilt and power of sin Rom. 7.25 and to the sure word of Promise Rom. 6.14 he is heartned to oppose it May be some will further say that many who pretend to Interest in Christ and to have the Spirit are yet proud vain passionate envious unpeaceable revengeful How then does Mortification cure the distempers of our Nature Answer If any who pretend to have the Spirit be such the more shame to them these are unlike to the fruits of the Spirit Gal. 5.22 But many lay claim to that which they have no right to and by reason of such is the way of God evil spoken of What has given so much occasion to men to Preach and Print That Nonconformists are the worst Parents Masters Mistresses Wives Neighbours c. If there be such or if any pretend to the Spirit who do not thereby mortifie c. Let us rather question or deny their Religion than that Grace or the Spirit does not mortifie sin 2. Some need more Grace to mortifie sin than others Some have as much as others yet not enough if I may say so for themselves Some have a harder task than others in mortifying the deeds of the Body Sin has greater advantages in some than in others some are under worse circumstances than others such as raises and draws forth their corruptions 1 Sam. 1.6 Her Adversary provoked her sore for to make her fret Some have fewel daily laid in for their Corruptions and it may be want of this that makes others corruptions look as if dead as Fire wanting fewel and when under ashes looks as if it were gone out So it may be ordered for the tryal and humiliation of some What Saint almost seems more impatient than Job yet who more mortified than he Finally there is in every Believer a spiritual principle that is working towards the death of all sin But for the expediting the matter our utmost diligence is necessary 2 Pet. 1.5 Sin is at first really wounded but not at once killed and when we pursue not our advantage against it it recovers some strength and rages and is exasperated more than where it was never touched 3. Let us consider that it was our Lords Errand into the World to destroy sin which is the work of the Devil it was sin that crucified and killed him and it ought not to live in us but by his Death he slew and vanquished sin and by the vertue
they cry Crucifie him and spit in his face The mortified man is peremptorily about nothing here he trembles at such a word as give me children ere then I die nay Children or no Children Riches or no Riches that 's well or when one loves rejoyces weeps as if not c. 2. The heart goes slowly and faintly out after Creatures if any thing work upon the mortified man it affects him not much Acts 20.24 Peter will not have the Saints burning quick strange to them 1 Pet. 4.12 Psalm 131.2 as a weaned Child Grace makes the heart move leisurely to all things beneath God A mortified man is as a Sea that hath no winds that ebbs not and flows not Psalm 62.2 He only is my Rock I shall not be greatly moved The mortified man sings and is not light and weeps and is not sad is zealous in Gods cause and yet composed in spirit he is not so eager on any thing but he can quit it for God Ah! few can act but they over-act There 's often in young Converts too great and fervent out-goings of the Soul even after spiritual created Comsorts this is some way childish Mortification is a gracious well-composed grave temper of Soul as for God the man weeps as if he weeped c. the Soul goes forth in its full strength 3. The actings of the mortified man in reference to the Creatures are in some sense no actings rejoycing c. is as no rejoycing things here are but shadows and pictures of being God only is therefore our affections should be but affections Psalm 35.12 They speak mischievous things ver 13 But I as a deaf man heard not Psalm 39.9 I was dumb c. Eccl. 2.8 he cannot find in his heart to sing and dance at shadows Grace longs at nothing it shouts admires wonders at nothing it weeps also at nothing The mortified man he is dead he is crucified with Christ pleasant sights and sounds work not upon him Now for you in whom sin lives and reigns we have but heavy tidings to tell you The Text layes a heavy burthen upon you if it was the Gospel that Paul preached this Gospel condemns you you are dead while alive your right-eye that you will not pluck out and your right-hand that you will not cut off shall be the chief seat of your pain there shall the fire begin and never cease burning and these shall be as fewel to burn the whole body Out of these shall the worm that never dies grow And for you Christians that are slack and negligent and not strenuous and successful in this work of Mortification you mar your own mercies it 's this that renders you uncapable of Divine Comforts and it 's this that multiplies your sorrows you may be first in profession in knowledg and gifts in doing of works of holiness and righteousness and first and chief in sufferings for the Gospel and yet be last in Gods reckoning and least in the Kingdom of heaven above thou mayst with much difficulty get through the Needles-eye and through the strait-gate but thou losest thy hundredfold here and for any thing thou knowest puts everlasting life to a venture you mar and blur this great evidence for Heaven in the Text you cannot read your name in the Promise If sin be not your death yet it blackens lames cripples and wounds you and keeps you weak and your Soul always a bleeding any unmortified sin marrs your freedom with God it 's like a weight upon the Soul that thou cannot run thy Race Heb. 12.1 2. Or it 's like a thorn in the foot it 's like a Wound in the working-hand it leaves a print upon every Duty any unmortified lust brings on deadness and formality and Duties are rather Ornaments than meat and drink to the man Or upon the bearing shoulder It is hence that some real Christians bear afflictions with more trouble and impatience than some others afflictions wound our Idols and these are as pieces of our selves they are like Davids forked arrows stuck into our right-hand or right-eye we have a quick sense of these God would have us pluck out the eye and let all go or cut off the arm and we should not feel the arrow but we pluck at the arrow and tear our flesh What is it but our loathness to let our Idols go that makes affliction bitter It 's not poverty or want of Estates Trading Relations that in themselves afflict for we see many contentedly want these but it 's our unmortified corruptions our inordinate love and desire of these this in less or more is common to some godly with others 2. The holy Lord doth by afflictions often bring forth mens secret unmortified lusts and writes them on their foreheads Ezek. 16.36 37. Sometimes by the kind of their afflictions sometimes by their carriage under it But 3. There is besides this in the Believer a quicker sense and apprehension of Gods anger than in others and this makes afflictions sit the sorer to them Hence comes such Complaints as Lam. 3.1 This by-standers do not consider but observing their trouble think it comes from the same cause that the trouble of others proceeds from Ah! it s our short-comings in Mortification that makes men confound us with others that darkens our difference from the World in every state of life we are in If under wants we are perplexed and thoughtful as others if we abound we are vain and frothy and proud and supercilious as others This is the bane of many Professors for this the Name of God is spoke ill of for this the imputed Righteousness of Christ is reproached for this the Spirit in his in-dwelling and workings is reproached by the Rabsheka's of the time for this Free-grace and Gospel-faith are reviled did we not put this sword in our Enemies hand they should have no Weapon wherewith to fight against Truth or us this may indeed wound us though it wound not Truth Reproach hath broken my heart saith David it would not have done so had he not given occasion for it Our works does not justifie our Faith the fruits of the Spirit are not manifest as the fruits of the flesh are our deeds are not so different from others as our principles and profession are different from theirs Yet something I must say for the encouragement of such as are sensible of their defects and short-comings in Mortification 1. I must offer you Pauls Relief Rom. 7.25 for however successful he was yet the encouragement is such as may serve every Soul that does heartily fight the Battels of the Lord though not so successively the poor Believer is often crying out as Elisha's servant Master What shall we do But were our eyes open we should see more for us than against us the Father the Son and the Spirit are engaged too through this blessed Work ye have right to the same aid if ye will but use it that Christ had in his contest with and
ere they slay sin What severities have some used to themselves to save their sins What vast sums have some given to redeem the life of their sins This hath enriched the Popish and Prelatick Clergy more than ever their own or the Benefactors Piety or Zeal have done 2. There be some that seem to be grieved with the power of sin that are daily poring upon their sins but never are able to come out of them that are much in complaining of the power of sin but never able to mortifie sin Now here I shall shew 1. What it is that ordinarily hinders the mortification of sin 2. How it comes that convinced Souls that are often complaining of sin yet take up short of Mortification For the former let us consider 1. The frame and corrupt Habit of the mind of Man There 's in it Ignorance Atheism Inconsiderateness and Unbelief First There 's Ignorance the god of this world hath blinded men and then he makes them grind in his Mill. Sinners see no Enemy to fight with they see no harm in sin they feel no sting or poison in it and instead of crucifying it are apt to say Why what evil hath it done for sin is marvellously tame where it 's kindly used It 's Satans policy to teach men to call evil good and so to advance it and to call good evil and so to persecute it thus we see him carry on the mortification of Holiness 2. There 's Atheism whether there be any speculative Athesm I enter not upon I am apt to think that if there be a head-Atheism it proceeds from heart-Atheism But certain it is that when men have blotted out all sense of God upon their mind sense of sin must needs be gone too no doubt it 's from the prevalency of Atheism in these days that some have denied any real difference between good and evil did men live under the impressions of an infinitely holy just soveraign Majesty they durst not so affront his Law and Authority nor maintain his Enemies which he would have slain 3. There is Inconsiderateness Sinners do not count the cost and charges of sin they see not the hook the poison that is in it consider not what bitterness it will be in the latter end when they shall mourn at the last c. Prov. 5.12 Many suffer more for it even in this life than the godly does for holiness but the latter end of it is another thing Now what men have in Oblivion they consider not or look upon at a great distance To the godly man Judgment and Eternity are near therefore he deals with sin as he would do if he heard the last Trumpet or saw the great white Throne set and the Ancient of days sitting upon it c. 4. There 's Unbelief did men believe what evil were in sin what it is in its Nature and Effects and Consequents their hearts would rise with indignation against it they would seek to extinguish their lusts and passions as men do fire when it breaks out in their houses Now the remainders of these are in the Regenerate 2. There is the engagedness of the heart and affections to sin the heart is the chief seat and strength of sin There 's a heart-union between a Sinner and his Idols such as resembles that between a Man and his Wife hence mens Idols are called their Lovers and the back-sliding of Professors is called Adultery and Whoredom hence instead of killing their lusts they love them and cherish them as their own flesh To mortifie sin were to mortifie themselves Will a man slay the wife of his Bosom the desire of his Eyes or thrust through his intimate Friend Sin is as meat and drink to them they drink it as the Ox does water It 's as Air to breathe in it 's as spirits and blood to them Kill me says the Sinner and restrain me from this or that when we speak against sin men take it as if we spake against themselves when we cry out against sin it 's to them as if we were reproaching them where the eyes are full of sin a man cannot cease to sin much less when the heart is full of it love does strongly unite the heart to it there 's a League a Covenant of friendship between the heart and sin Now sin may in a sort keep true to the man for a time viz. while it is conceiving and growing but when it is perfected it brings forth death When one as Ephraim is joyned to Idols there is little hope of him 3. There is the strength of sin our Natures are leavened with sin not coloured with it But sin is like blood and spirits as is said and as we grow up sin encreases and grows up till at length we be wholly inslaved to it Sin is a great King Pride and Covetousness and Sensuality are its three great Princes each of them have millions of slaves How many Kings and Princes are but Lacqueys to the lust of the Eye or the Flesh or to the pride of Life The greatest Conquerors of the World have been in bondage to these such as affected the utmost soveraignty over men have been absolute slaves to their lusts O the violence of mens lusts and passions It 's a hard task to vanquish those usurping Tyrants especially where they have had long possession such are too hard for a man to mortifie the more strength and the longer possession any sin has had the more difficulty to overcome it 4. This proceeds from the deceitfulness of sin and Satan he often paints Sin in the colour of Virtue and it escapes free and he blackens Holiness and we strike at it and seek to mortifie it Or sometimes when we are angry at sin it sneaks away and couches in some corner and when our anger is over and the strength of the Conviction which bred it worn off sin comes forth again and its peace is made there 's no more of it yea such is the deceitfulness of sin that it can advance it self by the want of tempting-Objects as well as by the abounding of them Hence as the richer and higher some grow Pride and Avarice grows So the poorer and the more despised some grow the more Pride as appears in Achitophels case and Covetousness encrease So Lust oft-times grows most where there be fewest temptations to blow it up It takes life upon the withdrawing of the Object as the blasting or absence of mens Idols often encreases their Idolatry with the memory of them the want of the Object does feed Lust more than the having of it as appears in Ammons waxing lean day by day for love of his sister and aftewards how did he hate her O the depths of Satan and the cunning of Sin how many policies does it use to preserve it self it promises so fair and smiles so upon a man that he cannot find in his heart to slay it 5. That which also hinders the mortification of it is the
in approaching to God yet he has no pleasure in God he comes not to him as his exceeding Joy though may be he cannot pass evening and morning without saluting him in a formal complementing way in such a manner as men use to many they care not for and indeed many know no other use of their prayers than of their formal Salutes and Complements viz. to keep fair terms with such as they care little for yet are not willing to disoblige Is it any wonder that God regard not such prayers any unmortified sin shuts Heaven and lays an Arrest upon the profit of thy Duties there 's no profitable trading between the Soul and Heaven there 's no profiting by Means or Ordinances if thou would lose the Arrest mortifie thy sin give up thy Idol cast over board thy Jonah's If thou hast any suit depending before the Throne of Grace if in the mean while thou offend God or grieve his Spirit thou art like to lose thy cause who will provoke the Judg when his cause is before him Hence that word Deut. 23.9 When thou goest forth against thine Enemies then keep thee from every wicked thing When a man has some special dependance on God and has some special expectation from him it 's unseasonable then to provoke him to Jealousie 5. Think what thou wouldst do in a dying day how will you look upon your Idols What will you do in the day of Visitation where will you hide your glory How would you look upon a Temptation or upon the tempting Objects of your darling lusts all your sweet morsels and stollen waters will then be bitter but the more sweetly any sin went down the bitterer will it be when it comes up again may be your Idols and you were pleasant in your lives but they are sad Company in the valley of Death Can the Camel go through the Needles-eye nay if there were no more to hinder but the bunch upon his back he could not Can you go through the strait gate if there were no more but one unmortified lust you cannot Can you think to leap into Heaven warm and smoaking with sin as many times you come to speak with God when the last word you spoke was with your Idol Can you sing that sweet triumphant Song O Death where is thy sting O Grave where is thy victory 1 Cor. 15.55 For lo here sin that is the sting of death and the victory of the Grave sticks in thee when others shall be singing Hallelujah and harping with Harps Death is no dark shade to the Son of Righte ousness having lightned it by his passing through it thou shalt be little better than the Hypocrite whom fearfulness surprizeth c. If the Master knock when thou art either asleep or wasting his goods or eating and drinking with the drunken thou will be afraid to go down and open he must break open the gates if he get in O what sad work will any living lust make when thou comes to die Let us now mention a few advantages you shall have by the mortification of sin especially your most potent sin 1. The mortification of your most predominant lust will be a great evidence to you of your sincerity Psalm 18.23 I was also upright before him c. When any lust is strong or when any Idol has a great interest in the Soul the heart is as 't were divided and then cannot know whether Christs interest or its prevails and bears most sway in the Soul but where there is no competition the case is clear when one can say If any thing interfere with Christ it 's this If any thing render my case suspicious or intrench upon Sincerity it 's this Corruption this Idol But sure I am this is so far under that it cannot disprove my integrity when the Lord tryes his peoples sincerity he uses to hit their sore to prove them in their Idols indeed when he intends to discover their weakness he puts them to tryal in the grace they excel most in as Peter in his Courage Moses in his Meekness if thou can deny thy self in this if thou can offer up thy Isaac hereby thou mayst know thou fears God and that thou loves God Now the knowledg of this fills the Soul with exceeding Joy 2 Cor. 1.12 O the sweet Calm it brings in it 's better felt than can be told whereas the prevalency of any Corruption deprives you both of the Testimony of the Spirit of God and of your own spirit 2. If thou can mortifie thy predominant lust thou may with the more ease mortifie other Corruptions Commonly all a mans lusts are made subservient to some one though indeed sometimes they thwart as pride and covetousness pride and sensuality or covetousness and sensuality if you can kill that the greatest difficulty in Mortification is over if you can take the strong City all the Villages and Countrey about will be subject to you If Goliah be slain the Philistins will fly may be you complain of many things and innumerable evils compass you about but see if some one unmortified Corruption do not maintain them all and you cannot conquer these till you have subdued that which sets these on work and which feeds and recruits them this would ease you of many evils you complain of the cutting off one member of sin will weaken the Body of sin they are so united that it will make all the other members of sin to languish and does help on to a through Conquest 3. Consider that there is more real satisfaction in mortifying lusts than in making provision for them or in fulfilling them There 's more true pleasure in crossing and pinching our flesh than in gratifying it were there any true pleasure in sin Hell would not be Hell for the more sin the more Joy you cannot satisfie one lust if you would do your utmost and make your self never so absolute a slave to it you think if you had your hearts desire you would be at rest you much mistake they had it Psalm 78.29 but yet they were not estranged from their lusts ver 30. How many a man in the fulness of his sufficiency is yet in pain for more Job 20.22 O but the mortification of that sin makes a Jubiles in the Soul Who are they that sing Triumphs here and set up Trophies of Victory and divide the spoils when others are living under troubles without and within and have their Soul removed far from peace who shall wear Crowns on their heads in Heaven and Palms in their hands and have High-praises in their mouths but they who turn the Battel to the Gate who have overcome their Enemies Would you be able to sing a Triumph even when drawing your last breath See what 's the Tune what 's the matter and the ground of Pauls Song 2 Tim. 4.8 and with what a Transport of Spirit he sings it as on the other hand it tells us that it 's faint or
the Spirit be gone thou wilt be as other men any Cords will now bind thee Satan will put out thy eyes and make thee grind in his Mill. But more particularly I told you The Spirits first work in reference to the mortification of any Sin was a particular conviction of it therefore thy first care must be to welcom and entertain Convictions of Sin Take heed of holding out or smuthering divine Light none so hardned in sin as such who have opposed most the Spirit 's Light there is more hope of a man that hath only Natural light than of him that hath opposed much Divine light and in such oft-times God puts out Natural light when Men refuse the greater light the Lord blows out the lesser If they will not see with the Sun he often blows out their Candle the Gospel Maranatha extinguishes it Hence some that have been once enlightned turn prodigiously prophane and Sin is never so secure nor strong than where it has repelled and out-striven most Convictions And alas Is not the godly mans faint assent to and compliance with the Spirit 's light when convincing of sin in them the reason of many a disconsolate hour for when Satan comes to question our state and the truth of our Grace we run to a tryal with it and often can find nothing to repel Satans allegations with we can see nothing but sins set in order before us these stare us in the face especially our injurious dealing with the holy Spirit of God And is it any wonder that when we comply not with the Spirit 's light discovering sin in us that he deny light to let us see Grace in us and without his light we cannot make a clear and comfortable judgment of our state If we comply not with his Convincing and reproving Light we shall not have his comforting Light and it 's upon this account that many poor Souls under trouble and exercise are not able to discern any gracious fruits of the Spirit in themselves but their eyes are held poring upon the fruits of the flesh upon those sins especially whereby they have grieved the Spirit when the Spirit says to the Soul as Reuben did to his Brethren in their strait Spake I not unto you c You are now in trouble and under terrors But did not I tell you did not I admonish you the Spirit helps our spirits to repeat the good motions and the charming-Arguments that we repelled and be sure Satan will not fail to act his part at such a time Oh say not to the Clouds Drop not and to the Winds Blow not and to the Seers See not and to the Prophets Prophecy not and to the Spirit Convince not Reprove not For the Spirit not only admonishes men of sin but argues with them as the word imports John 16.8 But some other listen not or else endeavour to answer the Spirit 's arguments or to oppose carnal Reasons to them But if thou would through the Spirit mortifie any sin cast open thy doors and windows to the Spirit 's Light the Spirit often darts in Beams of Tormenting light whether men will or not but he does not mortifie sin whether men will or not Oh be thankful for heavenly Light put thy finger now upon thy sin and hold it there may be thou hast formerly known such a thing to be a sin but now thou hast an opportunity to know the exceeding sinfulness of it And truly the Spirit 's light does leave that impression of the sinfulness of sin as the first effect of it which if lost once is not easily recovered again And if this impression upon the Mind be lost or lessened it will be so with any effect left or impression the Spirit made upon the heart or affections or any further endeavours to mortifie sin 2. Comply with the Spirit of God when he begins to affect the heart with godly sorrow for sin Zach. 12.10 The first kindly effect of a thorow Conviction and of a right sight of the sinfulness of sin is sorrow the Conviction of the Righteousness of God and of the guilt of Sin breeds fear the Convictions of the holiness of God and of the ugliness of sin breeds a holy shame the Convictions of the graciousness of God in Christ and of the injuriousness of sin to the grace of God in Christ breeds godly sorrow according to that passage Zach. 12.10 11 where this sorrow is mentioned as the first eminent and sensible fruit of the pouring out of the Spirit Oh beware you lose not that first Impression that a thorough sight of sin makes all thy smiting and hammering upon thy heart will not recover it And according to your measure of this so may you judg what measure of the Spirit you have you who are whole and unbroken you have none of the Spirit and it 's a sign the body of death is whole and found I do not mean you who may be cannot mourn deep sorrow sometimes causes deep thoughts of heart when less sorrow will have more tears therefore look you miss not this proper and kindly effect of right Convictions let not the Spirit 's work stop here Some leap over this step they are moved by some Convincing work of the Spirit 's to forsake and relinquish sin but sin cannot be mortified till the heart be imbittered against it the Spirit affects the heart with a fense of sins accession to Christs death and puts the Soul to seek a Revenge and nothing but the death of sin will satisfie it Oh cherish godly sorrow if you would morifie sin think it not a legal frame when the Spirit moves thee to go alone and makes Company and business burthensom to thee and begins to melt thy heart take hold of the opportunity thou knows not the meaning of the Spirit when there is some sorrow seeking a vent fall thou to pump it out yet think not that tears will drown sin they sometimes feed it and make it more fruitful but where they flow from a broken heart they tend to the death of Sin 3. When the Spirit moves thy heart against Sin and excites hatred distaste and indignation against sin and stirs up thy anger against it blow upon the Coal Some let not the Sun go down upon their anger at it such are not true to the Spirit of God his Controversie with sin is like that with Amaleck for ever When the Spirit is lusting against the flesh and the flesh against the Spirit joyn thou with the Spirit Now thou hast an advantage against sin which if thou improve may tend more to the death of sin than many months or years of thy single endeavours or fruitless formal Complaints Pursue the advantage thou hast and press hard upon sin If the new Nature in thee cannot bear sin and when its weak and the Spirit comes into its assistance how glad should thou be and how welcom should this aid be when the Spirit discovers sin excites the
heart and affections too against it If you will now awake your self as the Psalmist when his heart is fixed and when he has awaked his tongue and his harp Psalm 57.7 8 I my self also will awake You may cut the sinews of your predominant sin but if you shrink back and comply no further with the Spirit than your carnal ease or interest will admit you cannot but look for the withdrawing of the Spirit and the prevalency of some evil Spirit And suppose you only resisted the Spirit in some things you cannot but think it righteous that he should not afford you his assistance in other things but leave you to your own lusts and to the swing of your own hearts When the Spirit then does animate thee against any sin hath bended thy heart and raised or corroborated holy resolutions against it maintain them for the heart is naturally like a miscarrying womb pray as 1 Chron. 29.18 and fall instantly on the mortifying of that sin Holy endeavours strengthen holy purposes and if these be vigorous and strong thou mayest now get over the difficulties that used to hinder the mortification of that sin and may do so hereafter that is may hinder hereafter if through delays or neglect of present endeavours you let not your purposes cool or slacken whereas probably if this difficulty be overcome thy Conquest of sin may ever after go better on But do not think that when you are aided by the Spirit you shall meet with no difficulties or that because of sins vigorous opposition you are not influenced or aided by the Spirit There is no War without trouble and difficulty and danger the Spirit does not altogether remove difficulties the lusting of the Spirit does not extinguish the lusting of the flesh yea the Spirit may be stirring the heart even when the flesh is prevailing the groans of a holy Soul even when overcome by sin are from the Spirit but it 's the Spirit 's work to help over these difficulties which were otherwise insuperable and this he will do if there be no failing on our part But ah the Spirit 's aid meets with such opposition and reluctancy from the Soul in so far as it is unrenewed that neither spiritual purposes nor endeavours can be mantain'd and kept up without striving and earnest contending on our part and this must be done maugre our ease humour and the mighty opposition of the body of death He that would not be worsted by sin must 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 13.24 Strive as in an Army there 's no striving with other things that will put the Soul in an Agony set aside Sin there 's no difficulty besides this in the way to Heaven see Heb. 12.4 The power of sin will put any sensible Soul in an agony as well as the guilt of it Paul seems acquainted with it Rom. 7.24 and no doubt he had much of the Spirit even when he thus cryed out Do not then expect such assistance from the Spirit as will kill thy Corruption at one stroke the truer thou art to thy help the more thou shall have and the more the Spirit does the more thou must do 4. When the Spirit who is a spirit of supplication does strongly influence thy heart in Prayer improve it unto the mortification of sin for the necessity and usefulness of Prayer in reference to Mortification I have spoke to already and now urge the improvement of the Spirit 's assistance in Prayer as one of those ways whereby through the Spirit we are to mortifie sin And in order to this whatsoever measure of the Spirit 's aid and assistance thou hast let thy Prayers be chiefly levelled against sin and that not only nor mostly against the guilt of sin but especially against the power of sin Nature may raise the desires of freedom from guilt high which may be mistaken for the influence of the Spirit It is true that Natural self-love may also draw out strong desires of freedom from the power of sin as their passions and corrupt contradictory lusts and affections do molest and trouble them but especially as they know them to be inconsistent with any well-grounded hope of Heaven as for unregenerate mens usual formal Petitions for deliverance from temptations and from the power of their sins there is ordinarily not so much as moral sincerity in them even when that may be in their Prayers for Pardon they really would not that God should hear them and are sometimes afraid he should so that what Augustine confesseth of himself before his Conversion is indeed a Common Case But to return When the Spirit makes intercession in thee helps thee to make intercession with groans which cannot be uttered Let these groans be against sin rather than for Divine Comforts Groan rather for Redemption from sin than from any other misery do you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the Spirit as the Apostle beseeches the Romans for the love of the Spirit to do with him Rom. 15.13 we render it Strive together the Spirit makes intercession with groans as if he were in an Agony O for the love of the Spirit strive together with him c. And when the Spirit gives greater enlargement and mightily draws out the heart in Prayer know that then the Lord is saying to the Soul as it were What is thy Request Thou hast now got the King's Ear then let thy Request be the death of thy sins and amongst all thy sins especially that he would give thee the head of thy greatest lust that has most dishonoured God and done the most mischief that has often left thee wounded and groaning Now thou hast an opportunity to be rid of it and avenged on it pursue thy advantage and return not from the pursuit till thou hast divided the spoil thou may now get more ground of sin than by many years praying against it in thine own spirit when your prayer is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the word is James 5.16 that is full of the holy Ghost or Prayer wherein the holy Spirit puts forth his Power and Energy and sets the whole Soul on work 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies one possessed with and acted by a spirit If it do not instantly kill sin and deliver thee from such a Corruption yet it avails much to the death of it and if continued in thy sin shall not so far prevail as to mar thy acceptance with God or Communion with him or darken thy evidence for Heaven 5. If you would by the Spirit mortifie sin comply with the Breathings and influences of the Spirit in Ordinances in the Word Sacraments This were the way says one to make Ordinances and the times also glorious the Apostle useth the dwelling of Christ and of the Word in us promiscuously men grieve the Spirit when they despise the Word or any helps that God hath given them Isa 7.13 they are the means whereby the Spirit discovers sin purges it away or kills it Psalm
BELIEVERS Mortification Of SIN by the SPIRIT OR GOSPEL-HOLINESS Advanced by the Power of the Holy Ghost on the hearts of the Faithful Whereunto is added the Authors Three last Sermons on Gen. 3.15 By the Learned and Pious Mr. Alexander Carmichael formerly of Scotland and late Preacher of the Gospel in London Published by his own Copy LONDON Printed for Dorman Newman at the Kings-Arms in the Poultrey 1677. To the Christian Reader especially the Godly and Reverend Allies and Acquaintance of Mr. C. deceased Dear Sirs T This little Posthume left very fairly Transcribed yet not intended for the Press humbly begs your Patronage shall I say or rather perusal When our Friends are gone down to the Chambers of Darkness we are then apt highly to value their Pictures when we cannot enjoy their Persons And why then may not these Papers find grace in your Eyes for in them you will find worthy Mr. C's very Picture drawn to the life Here Sirs you have the genuine off-spring of those two great burning shining Lights of yours Knox and Gillaspy exactly Lim'd out by his own Pencil Sic occulos sic ille manus sic ora ferebat Whoever intimately knew the Original will easily conclude these to be the Copy the real Transcript both of his Brain and Life the most Lovely pourtrait both of judicious Learning and mortified Conversation As to the Work it needs neither Bush nor Paint Let it be but seriously perus'd by a person really vers'd in that great and Heavenly though now horribly neglected Work of Mortification and it will certainly be priz'd at no little Rate As to the truly Worthy Author himself It had been impossible for me so far to have curb'd in my Zeal as not to have attempted at least a display of those many and great Excellencies which with so much modesty and humility he endeavour'd to conceal from the World but that his dying breath fixt a Lock upon my lips and utterly denied me the liberty of being but just in his Commendation Only this he left as his grand Depositum with me to be faithfully declared by me That he died with very great peace of Conscience with full satisfaction of Soul in those wayes of God wherein he had walked and wherein he died in particular That God as a gracious Father had abundantly made good to him that faithful Promise Matth. 19.29 Mark 10.30 Thus for him that 's gone before As for that flesh of his flesh and the fruit of his Loins as for that Ruth and Gershom that he hath left behind him I question not but so long as the Saints among you continue to bear your old Name Philadelphia so the old Puritans of England have us'd to stile you you will not you cannot forget to shew kindness to Mephibosheth for Jonathan's sake No more but the Psalmists prayer for every one of the faithful Brethren in the whole Church and Nation Psalm 122. 6 to the end with his Amen Amen Who is Your real Brother and Companion in the Kingdom and Patience of Jesus Christ Tho. Lye ROM VIII 13. If ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live HEre is Life and Death laid down before you If ye walk after the flesh ye shall die a dreadful word spoke even to those who are in Christ and to whom there is no Condemnation who yet need to be warned of their danger Conditional-threatnings may be mustered to them without bringing them back to a spirit of bondage and the Lord works on their fear as well as on their love and will have them keep one eye on Hell and another on Heaven or rather he 'l sometimes have them look behind them that at the sight of Hell and Wrath they may flye the faster to the Hope that 's set before them do not deceive your selves with an opinion of your Priviledges Well then What must we do that we may be saved the words of the Text tells you where mark that the Apostle is speaking to such as are in Christ If ye ask what an unrenewed man should do to be saved the Scripture Answers Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ Act. 16. 1 Joh. 3.23 Get into Christ But if ye ask What the man that is in Christ shall do the Text tells you which takes in or rather supposes holy walking or walking after the Spirit for as light comes in darkness goes out so that Mortification is one part of the Condition upon which we attain the possession of eternal Life though it be by faith by our first believing that we acquire a right to it Now in the words we have 1. The Act enjoyned Mortifie 2. The Object about which it is conversant 3. The way or the means by which this is to be effected through the Spirit 4. The Promise annexed Ye shall live 5. The Conditionality of the Promise If c. For the first What it is we shall after shew only now the Original word signifies to slay to pursue to Death Sin is not at once slain itgets a deaths-stroke by the first saving-work of grace it never recovers that but yet it dies but lingringly therefore called a Crucifixion and it s a great part of the Christians work to follow it to death to be driving nails into it and keep it bleeding till it expire For the second Let us observe the various Scripture-expressions as 1. Flesh so frequently in this Chapter this sometimes signifies the state of the natural man he that is in the flesh cannot please God so John 3.6 Sometimes the remainder of sin in the Regenerate Gal. 5.16 And so we read of the works of the flesh Gal. 5.19 these are the deeds of the flesh 2. Sin is spoke of as a body as in the Text sometimes called a body of sin Rom. 6.6 Sometimes the body of this death Rom. 7.24 It 's a Body not a Phantasm we are to conflict with it 's not to beat the air we are called to its weight is not found because it is in its place in its Element Now this Body hath various Members these we are to mortifie Col. 3.5 The stump of sin cannot be got out but we must be daily mutilating it and cutting off its members the stump we cannot pluck up the body and mass of in-dwelling sin we cannot discern nor reach but its deeds and workings we feel And albeit Gods faving-work upon the Soul wherein we are passive does wound and weaken the Body sin yet any work of grace wherein we are active does immediately only strike at the members of sin and at the deeds of it therefore says the Text If c. mortifie the deeds of the body 3. Sin is called a Man an old Man to hold forth the strength and cunning of it and its interest in the soul and body of a man It 's not a dead Carcass nor is it seated only in the outward members of a man Now we read of the deeds of this old man
are from the evil treasure of the heart Luke 6.45 so that they are plainly the deeds of the Body But hence we see what friends these people are to inward holiness and that the perfection they boast of is but a Cheat even suppose they were altogether free of outward acts of sin which yet they are too blind and credulous that believe it A 5th false way of Mortification is the laying sin asleep Now a sleeping man looks as if he were dead so does sin till upon some occasion it be awaken'd yea and it grows thus stronger than before Saul one would think had now overcome his wicked malice when he cryes out My son David thou art more righteous than I but it grew upon him and soon broke forth with more violence It may be that for want of opportunity of a temptation or provocation thou mayst think thy corruption mortify'd when its only like waters bound up or like fire under the ashes A 6th false way is the letting of sin die alone or of its self as youthful lusts vanity prodigality revenge c. Either sin kills thee or thou must kill it but when it dies alone it 's an evidence that it has undone thee and now like a victorious Champion it dies in peace on its bed and is not vanquished by thee O Sinner shall thine Enemy die in peace wilt thou not pursue it to death and be avenged on it for thy two eyes for thy two hands c. for all the miseries sorrows and woes that it has wrought thee This is a sort of natural and necessary mortification arising from impotency to sin and to fulfil the lusts of the flesh Children have no passions for Treasures Houses and Lands c. yet that is not mortification there is a living seed of sin there There is as much Fire virtually in every bit of flint as would burn a City and there 's as much sin in seed in every Infant as would set on fire the World So in the aged all the actings of the man are blunted that which Barzillai says of himself may be in the letter of it truly said of some that have not mortified the deeds of the body 2 Sam. 19.35 There may be some deadness of actual lusts yet Original sin lives as the root of the Tree is fresh when leaves and fruit fail in the Winter yea it may be when the stock above ground may be either cut or rotted for the Soul is the chief seat of sin and it never waxes old Hence Sins that are more special are often ripest in old age so that the conversion of an old person is harder and rarer and for bodily sins if the case be altered it 's from no change upon the soul yea nor is sin gone out of the body but as Flint or Steel have Fire virtually in them even when beaten into dust though you cannot now strike it out of them So there is sin in the very dust of Sinners for they go to their grave with their bones full of it and that not only in respect of the guilt thereof 7. There 's another sort of counterfeit Mortification which is more occasional and transient The sight of a dying dear Friend or an occasion of some great loss by Sea or Land the sudden fall of some great man the burning of a stately House or City the pain and sickness the miserable and ignominous end of some Sinner suppose some unclean wretch these often excite abhorrence of sin some contempt of the World how many unmortified souls can on such occasions talk of the vanity of the World and the mischief of sin And such may even die with these or the like words in their mouth O what is man he is like water spilt upon the ground O this vain vexatious World I would not live again for a Kings Crown Sore trials especially of long continuance breed a weariness of the World and a sort of carelesness of worldly concerns which is often mistaken for Mortification Sometimes this transient mortification comes from some common Convictions from some awaking work which is ordinarily accompanied with some restraining-grace Judas can now despise his thirty pieces of Silver when the smell of Hell comes up into a mans nostrils it will make him throw away his Idols When Achan is to be stoned he thinks not much of his wedg of Gold when under Convictions Sin often couches and contracts its self and when these are over it dilates its self None of these occasions are fit seasons for men to make a Judgment of their mortification So much for the counterfeits of Mortification Amongst which I might have reckoned that which naturally arises from mens Complexion by reason whereof some are more meek temperate chaste than others which when set off by Wit and Learning looks very like Mortification Come we now then to shew what it is having seen what it is not Mortification may be either actively or passively considered considered actively it is a work of the Spirit whereby the Soul strives not only to beat down the motions and stirrings of every sin but endeavours to destroy the body of it and to slay it in the root thereof which in some measure every Believer does effect Mortification passively considered lies in a deadness of the whole Man in order to things forbidden and in some sense also to things lawful the Soul is taken off from sinful Objects and from inordinate appetite of lawful Objects Now to speak to it in both these Considerations Mortification actively considered it lies not in unconstant uneven and flashy fits of indignation and opposition against some sin as some take vengeance upon some sins and spare their prime lust as Saul did the King of the Amalekites but it 's a constant and daily warring of the Soul against great and small especially against our Idol-lusts wherein the man not only endeavours to destroy the love of sin and delight in it but the very being of it And this leads us to the second thing proposed the consideration of the object of Mortification actively considered And this is first and chiefly the sin of our Nature Paul calls it a Body of Death Rom. 7.24 It was this that Paul had most in his Eye it was this that laid him low it was the sight of Original Sin especially that first slew him Ver. 9. And after all his Attainments it 's this that keeps him humble and O how blind are they that see not this Body and no man that sees it but will say of any sin Am I a Dog to commit this It will keep a man upon his Watch-Tower and help to maintain a holy fear and diffidence of self and dependance on Grace It it right convictions of this that advances the Souls esteem of Christ of his redemption and of free grace yea of the all-sufficiency of grace O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me as if he had said If ever grace or strength
were posed it would be in delivering of me c. but I thank God through Jesus Christ ver 25. And indeed the sinfulness of Sin the exceeding sinfulness of Sin the mysterie of it is never understood till the Original pravity of our Nature be seen Rom. 7.13 Sound Convictions discover the evil of actual sins but they let us see more malignity in this than in all the sins of our life yea than in Murders Adulteries Lying Swearing it 's a fruitful womb that has millions of sin in it and would be eternally bringing forth though there were no Devil to tempt nor to Midwife it into the World And finally they let us see that its being transmitted to us and not contracted by us does not lessen the guilt nor danger of it Here then Mortification must begin it will be in vain to dam up the streams while the Fountain runs it will either carry down the dam and run the more impetuously as is evident in the case of many who have been a while under restraints or it will run out some other way and find out another Channel for it self And indeed mens devised false methods of Mortification serve only to dam up sin or to lop off its branches it 's the light of the Spirit accompanying the Word that only discovers this Rom. 7.7 I had not known c. and it 's by the Spirit only that this is mortified as the Text shews hence it is only the true Believer that does any thing to purpose in this and the more the Believer is exercised in the mortification of Original corruption the weaker and fainter are the acts of Sin and the stronger and the purer are the actings of his Grace for it 's the strength of this that does sensibly weaken the actings of Grace and does secretly and insensibly weaken the principle of Grace Now this corruption of our Nature is sometimes called 1. A body of sin to hold out the greatness of it and 2. A body of death because it works death and has Death and Hell in it and because of its being loathsom and burthensom to the Believer 3. It 's called Enmity against God Rom. 8.7 to shew its desperate and dangerous Nature 4. It 's called Sin that dwelleth in us Rom. 7.17 to shew its nearness to us and its access to hurt us 5. It 's called The law of sin in our members Rom. 7.23 to shew what usurped Authority it has over us 6. It 's called The old man Col. 3.9 to shew its Skill and Cunning and because it has the first possession of us and in the Regenerate is waxing feeble 7. It 's called The flesh Rom. 8.1 Gal. 5.24 to shew as some think how it is propagated and how it is cherished viz. by Flesh-pleasing Objects and how it inclines to Flesh-pleasing courses and puts the flesh in the room of the Soul And finally to shew how dear it is even as our flesh 8. It 's called Lust that intices to shew its restless Activity it will not let thee alone though thou wouldst forbear it James 1.4 9. It 's called A root of bitterness Heb. 12.15 to shew its hidden Nature and its fixedness in the Soul and that as in its Soil it is not ingraft or inoculated in us so does it influence our Actions there is no sap in the Branches but what comes from the Root but O the bitter fruits of it there 's no true sweetness in the Root nor in the Branches Lamentation sorrow and wo grow upon it Now how this should be mortified may come to be spoken to in the Application 2. The Effects or Actings of this Original Corruption are also the Objects of Mortification actively considered This bitter Root has many Branches this Body has many Members These Paul calls our Members which are upon earth Col. 3.5 that though differing among themselves yet make up one intire body of Sin and does execute what the law of sin commands They are formed in us as soon as hand or foot of our natural Body and grow up as the outward members do and by these members Sin fights and wars against the Soul and yet are they as dear to us as a right Eye or Hand or Foot Finally it holds out to us how sin is seated in every member and so powerful is the law of sin in our members that they may be called members of sin they are so animated as it were with sin Rom. 6.13 Sometimes these be called the lusts of the flesh Rom. 13.14 Gal. 5.16 1 Pet. 2.11 The Apostle speaks of the Kind and Species too Rom. 6.12 and Rom. 7.8 He insinuates great variety of Lusts 1 John 2.16 we find three especial Lusts mentioned sometimes these are spoke of as acts of the mind and heart hence it 's called the imaginations of the heart walking in the vanity of their mind And sometimes taking in mind and affections too hence called the desires of the flesh and of the mind Ephes 2.3 Now though these Original Corruptions have originally the fame interest in the man yet by reason of some accidental advantages as a mans natural Complexion Education Employment c. some get above the rest and prevail so as to make other lusts Lacquey them and upon every occasion to give place Sometimes the lust of the Eye that is Covetousness sometimes that of the Flesh or Voluptuousness sometimes Pride Sin is as a great King and these are its three chief Princes that command all men under it they are universal lusts some call them Sins or the Worlds Trinity and these admit many subdivisions some of these may more properly be called the lusts of the flesh that have the sensual and brutish part of men only or mostly for them at least engage only mens corrupted affections some of these are more subtil and refined and are called the lusts of the mind when they gain not only our affections but our Judgment to be for them Men by their prudence may disguise their Pride their Covetousness their Prodigality especially when it runs not on sensual Objects and hide it not only from others but from themselves Indeed ordinarily the Affections are first intangled and these bribe and byass and corrupt the mind and engage it first to contrive the fulfilling of their lusts and then to justifie them And one would wonder to see men rational in other things and so much blinded in the matter of their predominant lusts Now these must be mortified and this is held out to us by plucking out the right Eye c. they that are Christs must crucifie the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof 1. We must not fulfil the lusts of the flesh we must not let Sin bring forth Nay 2. We must not let it conceive much of this Duty of Mortification lies in beating down the first motions of Sin and the first risings of corruption in the heart be it of Pride Covetousness or Unbelief as soon as the evil tendency
of Christs Cross must we mortifie it Gal. 6.14 It 's a chief Blessing we have by Christ to be able to overcome sin What was Christs mind upon the Cross set upon it was the purging away of sin Ephes 5.25 27. See wherefore God sent him Acts 3.26 Now he turns not only from but against sin by Converting-grace he turns from sin by exciting and Assisting grace he promoves in us the death of sin They have most of Christ and are the best Christians who have their corruptions most mortified Value this more than talking more than a plausible way of praying c. yea more than Raptures It 's our sin and shame that we improve not our Christianity more to the destruction of sin and that we do not more promote the glory of Christ by his holy spotless life he bore witness against sin and condemned it and by our Imitation of him we ought to glorifie his holy life by our sins we bespatter it and others are apt to think such a one was Christ By his Doctrine he has also cryed down and condemned sin he preached and prayed against it John 17.17 He rejoyced at the sight of the ruine of it John 12.30 His Word is a Glass to see it in his Promises and Threatnings are so many Methods against it and by eschewing sin we adorn the Doctrine of God our Saviour Tit. 2.10 Moreover As a Priest by his death he condemned sin in the flesh and we ought to condemn it over again His blood purges from sin in Baptism we covenant against it in breaking of Bread c. Christs death is set forth to us not only as a Propitiatory but as a Pattern to us to die to sin we despise his bloud and render his Cross of none effect when we yield to sin Mortification would make us look like Christians Ah! we spare our selves and cry out of our Impotency and the strength of sin we spend our time more in fruitless complaints than in endeavours Though Christ as King Priest and Prophet takes away and destroys sin think not he will cure you as by a Charm Must he condemn it and you Absolve it Must he kill it when ye cherish it must his Spirit assist you against it when ye betray your selves into its hands when under a Temptation and his Spirit stirs in you he puts it to your choice If Christ or sin shall reign over you and indeed it is whether will you be Christians or not A 4th Consideration shewing the necessity of it may be taken from verse 12 We are not debtors to the flesh as for our bodies we are debtors to them by the necessity of Nature so far as not to famish them they may challenge a right to what God allows but for corrupt Nature which inclines to please the flesh more than God and to care for it above the Soul to this we are not debtors And the Context shews that we are debtors to the Spirit It 's the Spirits work too to convince of sin to witness against it to restrain from it and to mortifie it Our new Nature inclines to it our Priviledges obliges us to it We are debtors for and to the Spirit and this debt we own in Baptism wherein we renounce the false Trinity and dedicate our selves to the true Rom. 6.11 Reckon not your selves c. Baptism is a vowed Death to sin hence the Apostle argues against living to sin Rom. 6.3 4 and ver 2 He argues not ab impossibili but ab incongruo Compare that verse with Col. 3.3 Ye are dead yet ver 5. Mortifie c. Sin is dead in Vow at our entry to Christianity Now the Apostle Peter 1 Ep. ch 3.21 tells us That it 's not the external part of it viz. the putting away the filth of the flesh that effecteth this but the answer of a good Conscience towards God God puts this Question to the Conscience Do ye renounce sin and Satan the good Conscience says and does it Now every Oath of Dedication implies an execration or consent to a curse in case of failing c. Neh. 10.29 Now he is the only true Christian who makes conscience of paying this debt If sin get any power over him it 's not of right he owes nothing to it and this may be his Answer to the flesh when it tempts I owe thee nothing 5. Consider the necessity of this in order to the Souls communion with God who is a holy God yea glorious in holiness May be the reason ye are kept at the door for many days is your filthy garments ye must fight every step of nearness to God and must conquer 'em before the Triumph Rom. 7.24 25. and 8.1 As Life is ensured in the Text to Mortification so the more that one mortifie sin the more of the beginnings of this Life have they here he that overcomes eats of the hidden Manna Rev. 2.17 and he is admitted to read his Name in the book of Life he gets a white stone and in the stone a new Name Compare Rev. 2.17 with Rom. 8.8 14. A Christian intermitting the exercise of Mortification cannot keep up Communion with God nor the faith of his interest in God If we say we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness that is in ignorance and sin we lye 1 John 1.6 God is light and in him is no darkness he is not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness Unmortified souls must needs have base thoughts of God as the more profligate Heathens painted their gods in ugly and lascivious forms but generally Nature taught them something of the purity of God and such as have no mind to be like him will think or wish he were like them Now 1. This is necessary in order to our recovery of the Image of God it was sin obliterated this and by the death of sin we recover this and become capable of divine Delight and Complacency Col. 3.5 Compare with 9 and 10 ver 2. Without this we can have no intercourse with God nor acceptance with him your Duties affords no glory to God and convey nothing from him to you Of old there was no polluted thing to be brought before him Ye cannot serve the Lord says Joshua Josh 24.19 where he speaks on supposition of their abiding in their sins Preaching and Praying are great Duties but to the wicked he saith What hast thou to do c. And when ye stretch forth your hands I will not hear Isa 1. O what madness is it for the love of some lust to forfeit all the fruit of your Duties See that some unmortified sin be not a Moth in them look what it is that distracts you most in Duty and be jealous of that 3. Without this you shall not nor cannot live for ever with God ye are not meet to inherit Heaven Rev. 21.27 in no wise Your hopes and pretences to Heaven are but so many Reproaches cast on God and Heaven Heaven is not a place
for mortifying sin nor can you expect that your sins should be all killed at once nay indeed a man that desires not and seeks not the death of every sin cannot without a contradiction be said to desire or seek Heaven nay put an unmortified man in Heaven and it would be a Prison to him as a stately Palace would be to Swine Seneca brings in Nero knocking at Heavens-gate Answer is made That there was nothing there wherein he delighted whereupon Hercules is ordered to beat him away with his Club. It 's by our success in Mortification that we make our access to and acquire a fitness for Heaven Can ye love and cherish sin here and think to hate it in Heaven Ye mistake Heaven if ye think it stands so much in freedom from trouble as in freedom from sin and indeed the successful practice of Mortification will clear more what Heaven is to you than all your studies and speculative Contemplations of it If any Object that if sin hinder our Union Acceptance or Communion with God how can any on Earth enjoy these since every sin is not actually slain in any Soul Answer 1. The Soul wherein sin lives and reigns can have no fellowship with God that of 1 Joh. 1.6 does hold all you say of it and expect of it as a lye and will prove such 2. While sin the dreg of our Disease remains with us there 's no perfect Communion with God nor is the Soul so compleatly united and sodered to him but there 's some disjuncture as it were and what makes eclipses in the Soul but the interposition of some sin 3. Our Union and Communion with God in Christ is by the new Nature through the Spirit it 's only in so far as we are freed from sin Now whatever sin be in the person there 's none in this new Divine Nature the seed of God is pure and undefiled with sin 4. While we are pursuing sin to death there 's no remainders of it that debars us from Communion with God according to the Covenant of Grace None were cut off of old from the congregation for being defiled that did not neglect the appointed Purifications Hear the rule of our acceptance with God and of continued Communion with him If ye through the Spirit do mortifie c. Finally the Christian that makes conscience of Mortification is helped in his work by his Union and Communion with God in Christ there 's some Union necessary to the taking away of sin and there is some that is the reward of Mortification Our Lord took not his Church to be one with him to be his Spouse because she was pure but that he might make her so Ephes 5.25 26 27. In a word we cannot have full nor immediate Union and Communion with God till we be like the Angels in Heaven nay till we be like God which is the highest description of Heaven 6. Ponder the weight of the first word of the Verse If ye live c. Compare with Col. 3.6 which shews the necessity of it Finally Consider the necessity of it in order to Eternal life Ye shall live Compare the Text with Col. 3.4 5. Mortifie therefore c. In the fourth place we should consider what is the Spirits work in Mortification Of this a word only I Answer 1. The Spirit discovers sin sin is the fruit of Ignorance Acts 26.18 Satans Kingdom is a Kingdom of darkness Sin reigns by Deceit it entices James 1.14 There the Apostle speaks not of outward Objects allureing Now the Spirits Light makes sin manifest Gal. 5.18 19. It discovers that to be sin which the light of Nature never charged a man with John 16.8 1 John 2.20 Now discover sin once and you ruine it it cannot abide the light this sets a man a-work to War with it and destroy it 2. The Spirit affects with shame and sorrow for sin it lets the Soul see sin not only in the glass of the Law but of the Gospel as it is against Christ and the love of God and this imbitters it and raises the heart against it The Soul cannot endure that that which was the death of Christ should live in it Zech. 12.10 The Spirit also lets a man see sin practising and warring against his Soul plotting and acting against his life and so true self-love sets a man to seek its death 1 Pet. 2.11 yea and lets him taste so much bitterness in it and gives such experimental knowledg of the malignant nature of it that makes a man weary of it and seek to extirpate it 3. The New Nature which is born of the Spirit cannot bear it the Spirit hence is said to lust against the flesh there 's a contrariety between them that like Fire and Water in the Cloud make a thunder in the Soul the man that wants the Spirit has no principle in him that opposes sin as sin or that seeks the death of sin 4. By the Spirit we are united to Christ and by vertue of this Union with Christ we are enabled to overcome sin we thereby receive strength and supplies of Grace and are made conformable to him we are crucified with him and die with him and rise with him Gal. 6.14 The Soul sees not only a Pattern of Holiness and mortification to sin in Christ but is made partaker of the same holiness that is in Christ and so has the same abhorrence of sin and the nearer it be to the Soul the Lord Jesus had no sin in his person the more it loaths it That which put him on destroying the works of the Devil prompts them to seek the destruction of sin 5. The Spirit promotes Mortification by actuating assisting and strengthning Grace in us the Spirit excites the exercise of Grace Now says Paul If ye walk after the Spirit ye shall not c. Gal. 5.16 Compare it with John 7.38 The exercise of Grace engages the Spirit to assist his own work and this he will do if not grieved And thus the Spirit does not only hinder the fulfilling or bringing forth the lusts of the flesh but also marrs the conception of them the Spirit by filling with the fruits of holiness and righteousness leaves no room for the works of the flesh Gal. 5.19 21. Phil. 1.11 2 Pet. 1.9 Now these Acts of holiness c. the Apostle calls the fruits of the Spirit for these the Spirit excites and produces not by moral means only but by an internal immediate effectual work for which end especially he dwells in them viz. to cherish his own work and to excite the actings of Grace as in the old Creation the Spirit moved upon the waters c. and they brought forth living creatures so does he move upon the New Creature in the Soul and it brings forth fruits which for this reason I say are called the fruits of the Spirit Gal. 5.19 The Spirit draws forth godly sorrow and that is like poison to sin the Spirit draws forth Acts
of Love and this kills the love of sin which is the life of it But this the Spirit does more especially by exciting Acts of Faith which do in a peculiar way destroy sin Acts 15.9 We can never advance holiness nor ruine sin by meer multiplying of Duties Indeed we are said to be purified by obeying the truth through the Spirit 1 Pet. 18.2 But the Apostle means thereby believing as appears from ver 21 which is called the obedience of faith Rom. 1.2 Hence the unbelieving and the defiled are the same Tit. 1.15 But unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure but even their mind and conscience is defiled Now Faith does expel sin not only as it is a part of the Image of God renewed in us for such the habit of Faith is though indeed in its actings it answers not to any divine Perfection at least as it imports trust confidence and dependance on another and a part of our inherent holiness Nor only as it excites and brings into exercise other graces that tend to the mortification of sin in us But 1. And especially as it is the Mean whereby the Spirit unites us to Christ and which receives and applies the bloud of Christ whereby we are cleansed from sin it 's called a cleaving to the Lord Deut. 4.4 Acts 11.23 which infers a separation from sin and if the woman by a touch of Christ did fetch Vertue from him for drying up her issue of Bloud how much more shall the Soul derive Virtue from him to heal its plague by a constant cleaving and sticking to him by Faith it keeps the Soul near the Fountain that washes away sin it lays sin close under the stroke of him who came to destroy sin and to save from it 2. The Spirit does by drawing forth the exercise of Faith let into the Soul the efficacy of those means that are subordinated to the blood of Christ and have their efficacy from it for the taking away of sin As 1. There is the Word hereby we are made clean John 15.3 and sanctified John 17.17 and healed Psal 107.20 It is the sword of the Spirit Ephes 6.17 whereby the Spirit wounds and kills sin It 's quick and discerning in finding out of sin Heb. 4.12 and powerful for preventing sin and rescuing from it The Spirit brings the Word seasonably to our remembrance and also puts life in it The Spirit brings the Command with Authority upon the Soul when the Commands and Prohibitions of the Word come in the evidence and demonstration of the Spirit they come with power 1 Cor. 2.4 When the Commandment comes as to Paul Rom. 7. sense of sin may live but sin is really wounded he that is the father of sin could not withstand Christs Word for it was with power Luke 4.32 None despise the Word but such as never felt this Power 2. The Spirit puts an edg on the Threatnings they are Corrosives to sin when the Spirit fastens such a Word as this If ye live after the flesh ye shall die it 's as a Nail driven into the Temples of sin Better that sin die than I die says the Soul 3. The Spirit makes the promises of the Word effectual to work out sin 2 Cor. 7.1 Who would not zealously oppofe sin and throw it away that he may be interested in such precious promises or who that knows his interest in these promises would not study the greatest possible freedom from sin who that knows that God is his God and Father and will dwell and walk with him 2 Cor. 6.16 17. will beg or borrow from Satan or the World or think to better his Condition by the honours profits or pleasures of sin Who that knows that he is the temple of God will prophane himself with Idols and who that knows he is the member of Christ will make himself the member of a harlot and who that has the hope of eternal life would not purifie himself 1 John 3.3 Now it 's by exciting Faith that the Spirit makes either the Commands or Threatnings or Promises of the word available to the furtherance of Mortification 3. The Spirit renders these Ordinances we call Sacraments effectual for the mortification of sin 1. For Baptism It 's not only the sign of our dedication to Father Son and Spirit but it 's a sign of our fellowship with Christ in his death Rom. 6.3 Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death ver 4 therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death ver 6 Knowing that our old man is crucified with him c. ver 7 For he that is dead is freed from sin ver 11 Reckon c. Now it 's the baptism of the Spirit that effecteth this John 1.33 Acts 1.4 and this John calls Baptism with the Holy Ghost and with fire Matth. 3.11 probably alluding to the live coal which the Seraphim took from the Altar and wherewith he touched the Prophets lips saying Lo thine iniquity is taken away and thy sin is purged Isa 6.6 7. Now it 's by Faith that the efficacy of this Ordinance is taken in sometimes at the time of the Administration of it sometimes afterward what Faith Infants have I shall not debate I see not why some sort of actual Faith may not be admitted in them and why a supernatural instinct may not carry them forth to Christ as well as a natural instinct prompts them to seek the Mothers breast John Baptist leaping in his Mothers womb at the salutation of Mary c. does seem to confirm this Luke 1.41 which did not proceed meerly from the Mothers joy as appears from her words being filled with the holy Ghost in ver 44. For lo as soon the Babe leaped in my womb for joy and though there may be something extraordinary in it yet it plainly says that Infants are capable of some spiritual Acts as well as of natural so 2. For the Lords Supper The bread we break and the cup of blessing is it not the communion of the body and blood of Christ 1 Cor. 10.16 therein we have fellowship with him in his sufferings and all our Communion with Christ is through the Spirit 2 Cor. 13.14 Hence now there is required in such as partake of this a more especial separation from sin for we cannot drink of the cup of the Lord c. that may be said of other Sins as well as Idolatry 1 Cor. 10.21 And the abuse of this Ordinance we see in a special manner punished 1 Cor. 11.30 Sometimes Satan goes down with a Sop and it feeds sin but when Christ is indeed received by Faith the evil Spirit goes out and there comes in a new recruit of power to expel sin 4. The Spirit sanctifies Providences and renders them of use to the mortification of sin as for instance The observation of Gods severity upon others more especially our own afflictions they are Gods Furnace
he threshes us that our husk may go off Zech. 13.9 Isa 31.15 48.15 1 Cor. 3.13 Materially all afflictions belong to the Covenant of Works but by the Cross of Christ they are transferred to the New Covenant they are thereby made healthful as the Tree that Moses cast into the waters took away their bitterness which some think was a type of this Afflictions are bitter and men murmure at them as the Israelites at the bitter waters but the Cross of Christ makes them wholsom waters they are like Salt to the Sacrifices Levit. 2.13 They consume mens excrementitious and corrupting humours we are apt to taint and corrupt to settle on our Lees therefore we are emptied from vessel to vessel Roots of bitterness spring up that defile Heb. 12.15 so Afflictions like Salt pierce and macerate a Man and we must be macerated ere we come to Heaven and what is Mortification but the quashing and macerating of the Irascible and concupiscible faculties of the Soul More particularly 1. Afflictions are witnesses of Gods displeasure against sin yea they are sensible demonstrations of the bitterness of sin for God would have us lay all at sins door Jer. 2.19 Thine own wickedness shall correct thee know therefore and see c. how Gods anger at sin and the felt evil of it sets the Soul against it 2. They dissolve that wretched union between our corruptions within and tempting Objects without us such an Union is this that they never present themselves to our corrupted faculties but they excite and draw out some sinful Act we never let out our hearts upon the Creatures but we are corrupted by them we cannot think of filthy Lucre or sensual Pleasures but they defile us Now the Cross crucifies us to the World and it to us Gal. 6.14 Many take the Cross there metanymically for what we bear the heart now is not so inclin'd to commit Lewdness with them as Rebukes from the Lord makes a mans beauty to consume away like a Moth Psalm 39.11 so it takes off in the mans eyes that beauty and desirableness in the Creature that drew forth inordinate desires and it does enervate the strength and vigour of the affections that used to stir at the first seeing or hearing of any thing that was desirable 3. Afflictions open a door to the Word and lays the Soul open to its smitings and woundings for when God speaks in mens prosperity they hear not Now he does not spurn at reproofs of sin but is content to have it exposed 4. Afflictions quicken the actings of Grace of Faith of love submission hope c. and these do secretly wound and work out sin It is an ill sign when there is no notable acting of some Grace at least or when Affliction is gone off and no sin wounded or slain when we are consumed with Affliction and no sin consumed Jer. 6.10 when the work is over and done and we purged from no sin and made partaker of none of the holiness of God Heb. 12.10 Tremble at the thoughts of this O dreadful to be burned up with the fire of affliction and sin not touched to be wounded and sin whole to be broken with affliction and not a bone of the body of death broken it 's sin it 's your corruptions that the holy Lord aims and levels his strokes at But foolish we interpose and venture our Souls to rescue and save sin for which of it's evil Offices is it that you will make war with God and die for sin It 's for some Sheba that God besiegeth thee and batters thy wall as Joab did the City Abel 2 Sam. 20.15 deliver him up cut off his head and he will retire ver 21.22 Now all this is the Spirits work hence called a spirit of judgment and of burning Isa 4.4 By Afflictions the Spirit judges condemns and executes sin and helps us to judg and condemn and destroy it When God has taken his Spirit from Saul he runs to Endor in his straits Some are consumed some pine away some are hardned when the Spirit is not at work And finally it 's by Faith that the efficacy of afflictions is let into the Soul for it sees them coming from God and that according to his Word and it sees what they aim at and sometimes can look upon Gods chastning as his proper dealing with sons Heb. 12.7 We come now to the Application Vse 1. For Tryal the Scripture tells us there are but two sorts of Men two Principles two Ends two Ways and two eternal states of Men And it does also plainly tell us to which of these we belong we need go no further than the Text to the same purpose is that Gal. 6.8 He that soweth to the flesh c. If you think Marks be tedious and that some have too much multiplyed them here 's a short Tryal And were men but serious in applying this they might easily divine what shall be their eternal state But here lies the difficulties There are so many Counterfeits of Mortification and by the power of Self-love some are so passionately carried forth against some Sins as contrary to and inconsistent with their happiness And on the other hand where sin is routed yet it keeps some broken feattered Forces on foot and where it 's mortified it 's not nullified That it 's not easie to satifie the sincere Soul nor to undeceive the pretender only Sin sometimes goes out when it is not cast out it 's often asleep when it 's not dead it often retires when it 's not defeated Or if in some particular it be resisted it is either gratified some other way or it reinforces its self and then prevails Yea how many Professors keep up a green and flourishing profession that know not what Mortification means and it may be are clean in their own eyes yet are not purged from their sins And I doubt not also but that for some time there may be some encrease of true fruits where there is no growth downward no advance in Mortification Indeed it will be hard for any long time to keep up a green Profession when the root is withering or when a man is going back in the secret part of Religion If the roots of sin be lively and strong it will be hard to keep it under-ground Now in short There be these things which speak out the strength and liveliness of sin in a Man 1. When a man makes a mock of sin and thus bids a defiance to the Almighty and says Aha to his Trumpets 2. When a man has much pleasure in sin and sins with greediness Ephes 4.19 and does evil with both hands earnestly Mica 7.3 when a man seeks to extract all the pleasure that is in sin and would suck out the heart of it 3. When a man solicites his own heart to sin Prov. 1.12 13 and 7.18 and complains as it were of his slackness in it he is not surprized nor overtaken but devises iniquity Mic.
conquest over principalities powers Ephes 1.19 20 so that our impotency can be no excuse to us Faith gives the Soul the greatest resemblance of Divine Omnipotency 2. Take that word Rom. 8.1 You feel and know that there are many things condemnable in you yea enough to condemn millions of Men or Angels But O the mysterious depths of Free-grace that should divide and separate between Condemnable Condemnation Indeed the more Conscience one makes of mortifying sin the more sense and assurance of their Absolution and Indempnity If sin be prevailing it 's hard to maintain the sense of this yet in some cases one may as when the Soul is under a deep afflicting sense of prevailing-sin and solicitously striving against it Psal 65.3 Iniquities prevail against me c. You may yield to the Antecedent and deny the Consequence yea you make the prevailing of sin an Argument in prayer for Pardon Psalm 25.11 Those same Iniquities that set Justice a-work Gen. 6.5 He can make an Argument for mercy Gen. 8.21 Indeed if one keep up any perswasion of their freedom from Condemnation it 's a great doubt if they can keep up the comfort of this perswasion too for these are often separated David has his Absolution 2 Sam. 12.13 yet does he afterward beg the comfort and joy of it or at least a closer Application of it 3. Know that oft-times Satan and Corruptions stir most where they have least possession and real power and also that they make most ado when they are nearest to be cast out But if you enquire why the holy Lord does suffer sin to prevail so much over some of his own I answer The Captain of our salvation knows how to bring his followers to Glory and he knows that it 's better for some to be kept sighting even though often foiled than to be Triumphing The rising of some is their falling and the falling of others is their rising Success is sometimes worse to carry under than a Defeat Pride and Self-righteousness often get up upon our Trophies over sin and for this end sometimes the Lord suffers some sin to prevail If he see a Soul enclining to establish its own righteousness Ezek. 33.13 If he trust to his own righteousness and commit iniquity Pride often rises upon the ruins of other lusts but thus the Lord suffers not the foot of Pride to get up he keeps the Soul under a deep impression of its exceeding sinfulness and vileness indeed it is a trial to Faith when the Soul sees nothing in it self and yet can believe and then is Faith purest when others reckon upon themselves as the worst of Sinners David reckons himself as a beast Psal 73 And he not only mourns for sin as a man but he roars as it were like a pained beast Psal 32.3 He seems fitter for a Wilderness to cry out than for a secret Chamber to weep in at other times he can water his couch in the night now he roars all the day-long at other times his moisbure is dried now his bones the pillars of his house shake and wax old 2. Thus the Lord lets the Soul see its need of constant supplies of Grace and so keeps it in a closer dependence on himself were we always victorious we should not know so well our own insufficiency nor the sufficiency of Grace Some are kept Cripples because they would either run away from him or neglect him It 's evident that we are oftnest with God when we have most need of him how often does necessity prompt us to Duty more than love or conscience of Duty hence we pray seven times when we praise once 3. The Lord often punishes his people by this letting them know the difference between Christs yoke and sins 4. He manifests his power in their final Conquest after so many foils On this account Paul glories in his infirmities 2 Cor. 12.9 10 thus also he manifests the riches of his Grace The Conversion of the Soul from sin to God is a wonder of Free-grace but the Conversion of some is a greater wonder Mortification of sin in any Soul is a marvellous work of the Spirit but more marvellous in some where sin was deeper rooted and more fortified and where the name of lusts was begun even so the salvation of the most mortified Soul is a new wonder of Free-grace but the salvation of some Souls is a supereminent act of superabounding-grace the High-praises of God shall be in all their mouths but the songs of some shall rise higher than others were not the holiest so much in admiring how themselves were saved it might be an astonishment to them to see may be some in Heaven whom in their thoughts they have sometimes reprobated how much sin do some bring to Heavens-door with them At Heavens-gate is the grave and burying-place of many strong Corruptions Death which is the wages of sin is made the grave of sin And what the Red-sea was to the Egyptians these Corruptions that keep poor Souls in bondage and that still pursue them they shall see no more the certainty of your final Conquest Is it not good news from a far Countrey that the Captain of your salvation stands ingaged for you and it is more his concern than yours that you be victorious And O what Hosanna's shall be sung to him when he shall ride in Triumph through the streets of the new Jerusalem that is above with his triumphing followers each having a Crown on their head and Harp in their hand his Conquest is a pledg of yours John 16. You are often thinking that some day you will fall by the hand c. You have had as good aid engaged to save you as Christ had Ephes 1.19 20 and you being so nearly united to him he reckons not his Conquest compleat as long as you are in a Militant state If you be fighting the good fight Christ is upon his way to relieve and fetch you off victorious Know you not that he has said I will that they be where I am he knew his Trust and that it was the Fathers will and well it is for us it depends not on ours Vse 2. What we have said does speak sadly to such as either neglect this great Duty on which the Text lays so much stress or who think to mortifie sin by meer moral means or considerations For the first sort 1. There be some that instead of mortifying sin cherish and feed it and make provision for it that are in league with it that have common Friends and common Foes with it yea to some it 's as themselves It 's as a right-hand c. yea it 's their life wound their lusts and their heart dies speak to such of Mortification and you may as easily and more perswade them to stab or at least to lance themselves Hence men have found out so many counterfeits of Mortification they will rather kill thousands of Rams and Bullocks yea their sons and daughters
suitabless of it to our corrupted Natures there is something in Applause that gratifies that Self-exalting principle in man Men find pleasures sweet and they cannot but believe their senses before any testimony from without they see and feel and taste some sensible good in sinful Objects and it 's hard to dispute a man out of his Senses Nature craves something and the things of this World have some subserviency and suitableness to Nature in its pure primitive Consideration And Sinners cannot now distinguish between purely Natural and inordinate desires and indeed the pleasures of sin are now as suitable to our corrupted Nature as poor natural delights were suitable to Adam in Innocency Now look what pain it is to have Nature starved or oppressed such pain it is to have sin mortified 6. The splendid Condition of some and the merry life that Sinners lead makes men in love with their way they who deal most kindly with their sin and indulge and satisfie a proud and sensual disposition they live the gayest lives and with their blustring Jollity they carry the voice in the opinion of most men who have no Sanctuary-light As for Mortification they think it dispirits one or makes a man a Mope and that to mortifie sin is to mortifie all Pleasure and Mirth 7. Libertinism or perverting of the grace of the Gospel some have doctrinally and others practically made that a Sanctuary for sin which God has made a City of Refuge for penitent Sinners Some think it improper to speak to Believers of sin or mortification at least that we should not to them preach against any sins but such as argue them to be in a good state as there are some diseases that argue a good constitution of Body and that we should urge love and gratitude only and not Hell nor Wrath but whose doctrine is the Text and to whom is it directed This pretended heat of Spirituality has often issued into loosness and prophanity This practical Abuse of Grace is that wherein all unsound hearts do really conspire Antinomian Libertine and Ranting principles are the most immediate inferences and conclusions that natural hearts draw from the doctrine of Free-grace which were not men strangely byassed and prejudiced by their lusts may easily appear to be horrid perversions of the Gospel Thus he that came to destroy sin is made the Saviour of sin For the second Question Whence it is that some complain of the power of sin yet rest in something short of the mortification of it 〈◊〉 1. Some are convinced of the power of sin in them and are troubled at it but hope that Duties will weaken it and wear it off when alas they never hurt it Or 2. That time will do it that when temptations are over and fewel withdrawn lusts will die of themselves and that when they are got out from under such and such circumstances Corruptions will not have such advantage against them when alas sin can live without temptations and has fewel enough within and can create temptations to it self Or 3. Upon every inconsiderable resistance to or advantage against their sin they begin to hope well of themselves as Micah foolishly concludes that God will bless him seeing he had a Levite to be his Priest so do some dream of Heaven upon every little success against a temptation to sin or upon every passionate wish to be freed from sin as inconsistent with the hope of Heaven though such wishes do often grow out of Nature and self love Or 4. Such satisfie themselves with meer complaints of sin trouble for sin does sometimes secretly harden in sin and issues in secure despair as burning though it be painful yet it stops bleeding or else such satisfie themselves with some common Comfort and are all on a sudden as Jovial as ever There 's a great deceit in folks coming out from under Soul-trouble or if they can get some tears to bewail their sins these are to them as good a Plaister as Christs blood O the deceitfulness of tears when they are not the juyce of a broken heart they do but water sin and make it more fruitful Or finally By their passionâ—â—â— Complaints they get the pity and prayers of others and are well lik'd of and look'd upon as the Mourners and broken-hearted whom our Lord has blessed and the prayers and good-likeing of others does insensibly work them into a good opinion of themselves In the second place They deserve Reproof who think to mortifie Sin by their own endeavours or by meer moral means No endeavours no Duties no consideration of Sins opposition to and inconsistency with our happiness without the influence of the Spirit can mortifie any one Sin The Apostles manner of urging this great Duty deserves a Remark on the one hand he will not have people think that the Spirit was to do all and they to do nothing or that they are to be meerly passive in the business of Mortification If ye mortifie and on the other hand he will not have them think that there is any power in them to mortifie Sin but that it is through the Spirit It is the Spirits special work and hence we may be instructed how to press all Gospel-duties so as to avoid Enthusiasm and Antinomianism on the one hand and Arminianism on the other For there 's nothing more common than for people to apprehend some sufficiency of power in themselves to obey when they hear Gospel-obedience pressed and on the other hand to grow sloathful and secure and to expect such a power as will kill Sin and carry them through Duties without their concurrence or may be knowledg when they are told of their Impotency and of the necessity of the Spirits special assistance whereas in respect of dependance humility and self-denial we should carry as if the Spirit acted all but in respect of diligent endeavours we should act as if we acted all and not the Spirit Vse 3. Of Exhortation If you would escape the second Death if you desire or hope to live with God and to be eternally happy in the enjoyment of him set about the mortification of sin 1. Original corruption must be mortified the root of Sin must be killed lay the ax to the root of the tree one stroke at the Root will do more harm to the Tree than many strokes at the Boughs In the Doctrinal part I hinted at the necessity and usefulness of this I shall only now point a little at the way of mortifying the Body of Sin 1. A through sight and discovery of it is necessary I do not mean that any man can fathom or comprehend the heghth and depth of it Jer. 17.9 Who can know it Now the deceitfulness of the heart is but a branch of the corruption of it It 's a Mysterie that we cannot now unfold yea and without the Spirits teaching we cannot have such a discovery of it Rom. 7.7 Some Heathens have seen and bewailed it as their disease
which yet they thought curable by moral Habits but they never saw it as sin nor in its deadly damning Nature Nay nor did ever any common work of the Spirit give such a discovery of it as is necessary to the mortification of it the Hypocrite sees no more of it than what he thinks some common work sufficient to cure Hence it is that all such as advance Nature are depressers of Grace and that such as extenuate original Corruption make no great business of Conversion And e contra hence it is also that we find not a Hypocrite in all the Scripture complaining of this original Corruption as we find Paul and David doing Rom. 7 and Psalm 51. Now in order to this sight of Sin 1. Thou must be much in the study and observation of thine own heart and of the secret motions of sin there they are strangers to their own hearts who may not find every sin there even such as they never heard named or as the gracious heart complies with such Duties as may be it never heard to be such so does the corrupt heart encline to such sins as are not to be named or upon the mention of every sin there 's some inward stirring to it especially if it be plausibly spoke of 2. Study the spirituality of the Law there thou mayst see the holiness of God which will not admit of the Ieast motion to Sin and there also thou mayst read thine own Impurity and sinful Impotency 3. Seek the Spirits light it 's the Spirits work to discover Sin let it be thy Souls desire that he would open some door or window and let thee see more inward greater and greater Abominations and what is doing in the secret Chambers of the Imagery of thy heart and when thou hast discovered the depths of Sin and the exceeding sinfulness of in-dwelling sin sit down and bewail thy felf and mourn over it And alas two months will not sufficiently bewail it Judg. 11.37 Thy seventy or fourscore years are too few for thee to go up and down the Mountains with thy Companions Now godly sorrows break the heart of Sin tears that are squeezed and wrung from a man and that come only from some inward Compunction and pricking of the heart may fortifie and feed Sin but when they are the juice of a broken heart or flow from a contrite heart that is melted down by the heavenly warmth of Divine love they stifle and extinguish Sin Sin can dwell with fear and horror for these are the native fruits and products of it and when Sin shall be perfected in Hell so shall these but it cannot bear with godly sorrow nor can this sorrow tolerate it or it strikes at the root and fundamental evil of Sin 2. Cherish Grace in the heart the two inward principles of Grace and Sin work upon one another as Fire and Water Sin is like a strong malignant humour in the Body Now the way to expel it is to corroborate and help Nature in its operations as the New man grows up he wears off the Old out of doors Put on the Lord Jesus Christ and be cloathed with humility love long-suffering mercy and brotherly-kindness and pride anger wrath malice will vanish away See Col. 3.5 6 7 8 10 12 13 as Light comes in Darkness goes out Bend a crooked stick streight and its crookedness is gone Grace and Sin are alway acting against other and no Conflict can be long in equal terms either Grace or indwelling Sin is upon the growing hand Vivification and Mortification the two parts of Sanctification do advance equally 3. Observe and trace every Sin and run it up to the heart from whence it had its rise then drag your heart before the Lord and cry Lord here 's the Atheist the Unbeliever the Murmurer the injurious person here 's the Rebel and the disobedient person The poor Believer even many times would tear his heart in pieces and is ready to say Except I had a better heart I would I had none had I only drunk Poison I might be pitied but when the poison of Asps is in my Nature I deserve to be abhorred did I hide the Lords Enemy in my house only I were a Traytor to him much more when I hide and nourish Sin in my heart Bring the body of death before Gods Tribunal and cry for Judgment against it and say Lord here 's thine and mine Enemy life for life and blood for blood 4. If thou wouldst mortifie Original Sin thou must be sure to mortifie Self for selfishness is the soul of Sin This is the great Idol that all others truckle under Mans first sin was self-exaltation and self-satisfaction and that depravation of our Nature which is the punishment of this first Sin does mostly appear in our self-willing self-loving self-seeking self-pleasing The Natural man beholds himself apprehends some excellency in himself believes himself loves himself pleases himself designs himself and that as his last end wherein he rests Hence the first step of our recovery to God is self denying self-abasing self-loathing self-annihilating and the lower self be the weaker is the body of Sin the more a man is emptied of self and dead to self the more he is filled with the fulness of God and alive to God When Christ is all and Grace is all the Old-man and indwelling Sin are at the lower ebb when self is nothing and Christ is all the mans light and life All to the Judgment heart and affections all the mans wisdom all his righteousness all his sanctification all his redemption and all his strength this stabs Sin at the heart Arminians and Jesuits no wonder they oppose the doctrine of Original Sin for their principles as they are the very issue of the body of Sin so they feed and cherish it Self-exaltation has begot their Tenets and they honour and advance Self as their Father 5. As Self is the soul of this body of Sin so Pride Worldliness and Voluptuousness are the chief members of it the lust of the eye and of the flesh and the pride of life are as it were the head and heart of the body of Sin a wound in these is deadly mortifie these radical lusts and you mortifie the body of Sin knock down pride and you dash out the brains of Sin Bring the flesh under a due subjection unto the Spirit so that it bear no sway nor act any thing against the Government and interest of Christ in the Soul and you wound the heart and stop the breath of this Body of Sin This leads us to a second Branch of the Text viz. To mortifie your most prevailing lusts your Idol-sins which your Condition Calling or circumstances do often expose you to And O what a hard task is this considering what the power of Sin is in some as I have formerly shewn what interest it has got in them in their judgment their heart and affections that it often engages them in
open rebellion against God to maintain it yea some to wish that there were no God and no Law to oppose it What vigorous resistance do some make to all those means that God uses to discover and destroy Sin Sin has strong Holds in the mans heart every mans Idols are fortified with Walls and Bulwarks in his bosom and O what ado is there to storm them for the Old man is watchful and cannot be surprized hardness of heart is the Armour of Hell wherewith sinners beat back the strokes of word and Providences they will give up any thing ere they will give up their Idol-sin they 'l cry out of any thing ere they ever name Sin they will be beaten to powder ere they be beat from Sin Hence that 's the doom of many they are joyned to Idols let them alone be it unto you even as you will you will not forsake Sin let it bear you company for ever Are there not some here who never gave a harsh word nor an angry look to their Idols who never spent half an hour in this warfare with Sin the strong-man reigns in them and he keeps watch and ward and guards every pass and none go out or come in without his leave every Moral or Religious action every thought and word pays Custom Toll and Tribute to him Now 1. I shall shew you what are the prejudices the Soul sustains by every predominant lust 2. What are the advantages that come by mortifying these Sins 3. I shall shew by what means such Sins may be mortified For the first If you be under the prevalency of any Sin you will never be free of fear and doubts you make the issue of your war with Sin doubtful It 's but rare that one under the prevalency of any Corruption can take any comfort in that word or the like Rom. 16.20 And the God of peace c. you fight but dubio morte What the Apostle saith of not advancing in godliness 2 Pet. 1.9 We may say of such as do not vigorously carry on the mortification of every Sin He that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see afar off and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins It 's sad when any Sin is so far re-inforced that a man forgets how bitter once it was to him and how he was graciously delivered from it and can see little difference between his unregenerate and regenerate state Sin puts out a mans eyes and stops a mans ears that he cannot see the Land that is afar off nor can he hear the voyce of joy and gladness Psalm 51.8 Such a man can see no more through the Promises than if they were stone-walls any prevailing Sin clips the wings of Faith that when it 's sent out it returns not with one Olive-leaf in its mouth Scarch and see if it be not some prevailing Sin some carnal interest incroaching upon Christs interest in your Soul that sills you with fears It 's the nature of Sin to breed fear and trouble and the Lords Evangelick Justice requires that ye should taste of the bitterness of sin and of the fruit of your doings Should he speak comfortably to you when not only your warfare is not accomplished but you are in league with some Enemy of his Nay he will write bitter things against you if you will not do justice upon your Idols they shall cost you dear if when the lot is fallen upon them you refuse to cast them over-board you may row hard but you shall never come to shore the wind shall encrease and the sea shall work and be tempestuous Where is the man or woman amongst you that is not under some rebuke from the Lord let them stand forth Is there no gall nor wormwood in your Cup are there no broken bones amongst you nor teeth with Gravel-stones Are none of the arrows of his Quiver entred into your Reins Are there none whose Soul is filled with trouble and removed far from peace and are feeding upon affliction and misery Do you not know how to father your Afflictions how long shall it be ere you will avenge your selves upon your Idols ere you will pluck out the Dart that wounds you and that keeps you bleeding Will you not do justice upon the Achan that troubles Israel Come to God and bring with you words and say I have sinned what shall I do unto thee c I can make no amends but I 'le be avenged on my Idols for my two Eyes and two hands and for all the trouble they have caused to me You will say 1. Are not some under the prevalenty of some sin and yet have more freedom from fears and doubts than some that are more mortified than they I Answer Some mens peace is their plague at least their punishment and the solicitous fears of some are their mercy and help to keep them awake it 's better to be in a Fever than in a Lethargy 2. There is some peace and comfort that flows from the death of sin and the encrease of holiness by way of natural reluctancy and emergency and there 's some trouble that flows from sin by the same natural necessity sure the more of the former the more peace and the more of the latter the more trouble and if the wicked be as the troubled Sea sure the more that sin work the more trouble there will be 2. There is some inward peace that follows Mortification by way of Reward over and above what naturally follows from it as that which comes by the Testimony of the Spirit c. and the more that sin be mortified ordinarily the more of this the more you walk according to the law of the New Creature the more peace shall be upon you so that there is some trouble that is the punishment of unmortified sin over and above what it naturally breeds and ordinarily the more lively that any sin be the more trouble and sorrow in the Soul and the more of Hell here except the Conscience be seared or the Soul be smitten with stupidity as a greater plague Indeed as sometimes Gods comforts do not keep peace with our measure of Mortification but sometimes exceeds it so sometimes one that is not habitually so much under sin as another may yet have more inward trouble 2. Is the greatness of outward trouble an argument of the strength of sin or the liveliness of any lust Do not we see that the most mortified are often most afflicted I answer It 's hard taking the measure of ones Mortification and to judg how anothers heart stands affected to this or that One may be in great measure dead to pleasures or worldliness in the gross sense and yet alive to some near Relations and one may be dead to the dearest Friend and yet alive to some spiritual lust may be spiritual pride in gifts or graces c. Or if the man be dead to these yet may he be too much alive to spiritual comforts
I do not say that the Lord would have the Believer content to lie under the impressions of wrath much less content to be damned but he would have the man lie at his feet under chese and bear witness to his holy Justice when under outward or inward troubles Now the more spiritual mens sins be and the more refined these lusts are they are the more provoking 2. As the sins of Believers are in some respect more exceeding sinful than the sins of others so the more grace one have his sin is proportionably aggravated Moses suffers more for a word than many others for deeds 3. As afflictions are Covenant-mercies and fruits of fatherly affections to all the children of God so the more dutiful any child of God be the greater may his Corrections be when he does fault and so God is most gracious to him yet the more a man tolerate any sin if he be not more afflicted than others there 's at least more anger in his afflictions which is the soul and spirit of afflictions or the more spiritual are his punishments Finally The reason why some eminently godly are under many outward afflictions may be because they have some time or other may be dishonoured God by some publick sin whether before or after conversion and as they are provoking to God and scandalous to others so he manifests greater severity on such this is plain in Davids case so that it 's still some unmortified sin that brings on trouble A second prejudice that comes by the prevalency of any Corruption it keeps the Soul lean and low and makes it a Cripple in Duties it not only mar◠Confidence and Chearfulness in Duties but diligence and activity also for these may be separated yea it insensibly hardens the heart What a fearful security and stupidity brought on sin upon David Where was Davids tenderness now when he can plot Vriahs death it's as sickness to the Soul for sin is the Souls disease that does enervate its strength and make it languish What is said of whoredom and wine is true of every sin they take away the heart yea and the hand too the man as he is like a silly Dove without heart he cannot behave himself a right in Gods presence so he cannot speed at Gods work for he works cum laesis facultalibus his foul hands blackens holy Duties his fingers drop much sin upon them the old man leaves the print of his heels upon them O what is it that keeps you out of Heaven at least from seeing it afar off it's some sin that besets you and hinders your motion Heaven-ward how few paces have you advanced for these many days Heb. 12.1 2 Whence is it that you see not so much as the top of the Towers of the new Jerusalem How come many that did begin after you yet to get before you some weight presses you down some corrupt affection like a long-garment entangles you or you stumble and fall often in the way It is not so much external Duties as the secret exercise of Mortification that keeps grace lively and when this is neglected and any sin prevails Grace withers and often the Lord blasts a mans gifts also or if gifts be intire they are left for a share as Eccles 2.9 It was Solomons snare that when he was pursuing vanity My wisdom remained with me says he It is the Curse of many this day and that which hardens them in their ill way that their Gifts and Learning rémain with them 3. Think what loss of Communion with God you sustain by your Idol or your unmortified corruption Sampsons Delilah cost him his two Eyes his Liberty and at length his Life But the departing of the Spirit of the Lord was the saddest of all by letting the king of your lusts live as Saul did Agag you hazard your Crown of Glory at least you have little of Heaven upon Earth Tell me Christian when was you last in Heaven it may be not for many days and know you not what keeps you out It 's a sad word Ezek. 14.5 They are all estranged from me through their idols Isa 59.2 Your iniquities have separated betwixt you and God and your sins have hid his face from you yea and often-times prevailing-sin does blot out the impression and sometimes the remembrance of that solacing sweetness that the Soul had in his Company begets some satisfaction in this dreadful state of distance from God thy Idols of Jealousie separate thee from thy chief Friend by this means thou wears out thy intimacy if not thy Acquaintance may be thou makest not a visit to Heaven in many days and if the Lord at any time come to thee thou art not at leisure but busied entertaining thy Idols Ah! have you no sense of these things I need not tell you what 's the mournful moan and ruful complaint of many Souls Ah! it was well with me till such a time O how many good days had I what a Heaven upon Earth had I what Communion with God in Prayer in the Lords Supper and other Ordinances till I did begin to dally with such an Idol till such a Corruption began to get power of me but since thou intermitted the vigorous exercise of Mortification where are thy Trophies and Triumphs where are thy Bethels thy Penuels thy Eben-ezers And it 's well for thee if ever thou recover this Distance from God and indisposition to Duty grows more in one day than thou canst make up or wear out in many I doubt if ever Davids bones were as sound as before if ever he had such Joy and gladness in Gods Company in the Sanctuary or elsewhere as before or that ever God appeared to Solomon as he had done twice before his fall I doubt the holy Lord deals with many of his people in this life as he did with the Levites Ezek 14.44 who had gone astray from him after their Idols they were to be keepers of the charge of the House for the service thereof as keeping the Gates and slaying the Sacrifices but they shall bear their iniquity and they shall not come near unto me to do the office of a Priest unto me nor come near to any of my holy things in the most holy place c. See ver 11.12 13 14 He will not put thee out of doors yet may never let thee come where thou hast been and never set thee so high on this side of Eternity 4. Any Idol or unmortified lust will clip the wings of Prayer and intercept the return of it Isa 59.1 2 The Lords hand is not shortned nor his ear heavy c. But c. Ezek. 14.3 4 and 20 31 As I live saith the Lord I will not be enquired c. Psalm 66.18 If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me the man that has his Idols set up in his heart he grieves the Spirit who helps our infirmities in Prayer c. if he has any pleasure
unsuccesful warring with sin that makes men unmeet to die He goes in at the Gates of Heaven with flying Colours and has an abundant Entrance ministred unto him how much more will it make a man joy in Tribulation It 's some unmortified Corruption that makes the Cross heavy that makes a man uneasie under affliction or suffering O what Dust will a lively lust raise what confusion and combustion in the Soul When the hand of God falls heavy upon a Man while he is dandling some Idol or pursuing some carnal Interest the man is out of measure amazed every unmortified Corruption makes even the thoughts and apprehensions of trouble full of horrour and no wonder for it 's fearful when God comes to take vengeance on mens inventions even when he forgives their iniquity It 's true in such cases when the Lords people are meeting with trouble from men for his sake he makes not his quarrel visible he often scourges their Conscience when he does not visibly contend with them and one lash from his hand is sorer than Pauls 39 from the Jews indeed he sometimes suspends his quarrel when he does not bury it And sometimes Adversaries wrath does as it were mitigate his Deut. 32.27 Now a mortified man cannot be moved by any thing If there be no lust alive no trouble or affliction can come wrong In the next place let me offer you some Directions how to carry on the mortification of prevailing Corruption And first in general Get a clear sight of your sin or else you cannot level your strokes at it aright be content that God should by his Word and Spirit light upon your Idol and wound it And if any man will tell you of sin your Enemy count him thy Friend say as Saul to the Ziphites when they told him where David was Blessed are you of the Lord for you have had compassion on me 1 Sam. 23.20 21 that which you can least endure a Reproof for is your Master-sin as likewise that which you are most partial in seek most to cover or excuse which you wish were no sin and are readiest to pardon your self for or else are most sorrowful when it cannot be dispensed with Matth. 19.21 22 that sin which rises and goes to bed with you which haunts you when alone or in Company when in your shops and in your Closets which you are at the greatest toil for which you do or suffer most for that is the sin that like the man of sin 2 Thess 2.8 exalts it self O look to Heaven and see what work it made there how sin cast so many Angels out of their first habitations and thrust them into chains those evil Spirits that now solicite thee to sin are dreadful Examples of the mischief of sin it 's a wonder they have a face to tempt to sin it 's as if Murtherers hung up in Chains should solicite Men to murther Look to Paradise and see what desolation it made there it had almost in a moment ruined the whole Creation Look to Golgotha or Mount Calvary or the Garden and see what sad work it made there Look into Hell and hear what a howling it has raised there Alas we paint it and then play with it as Children do with painted Lions And when thou has seen it then thou cryes out O the exceeding sinfulness of sin and of my sin And let one sin set thee in quest of more but never think thou sees all thy sins nor all the evil that is in any one sin O comply with the Spirit and do not defeat his firk Work which is Conviction and when thou has seen thy sore hold thy finger upon it and cry to him who is the soveraign Physician of Souls to make incision there cut off this hand or foot that gangrenes yet keep not both thy eyes upon it lest it should overwhelm thee with horrour 2. Get your hearts broken for Sin your hearts are as fallow-ground you cannot pluck up your thorns they must be plowed up you must rub and reinse your Souls seven times in the waters of Marah in tears of godly sorrow ere thy Leprosie die but see thy tears bathe not sin instead of drowning it and beware thy throws go not off when thou art even about to be delivered from it it 's a token of the strength of sin the Soul is at a low ebb when trouble for sin is gone when sin has made its peace again Some mens troubles do not kill sin but only break some bone of it which when healed again is stronger than before therefore when thou has got a Nail fastned into the Temples of the old man or into the heart of the body of death drive it to the head when the Spirit brings home any word and smites Sin follow home the blow and endeavour to maintain the warmness of that word and the power of it upon thy Spirit till thy Soul be drench'd with tears of Contrition till thy heart be melted and the dross go away 3. If thou would mortifie Sin thy heart must be filled with distaste of it thy sorrow must be attended with hatred and this seeks the life of Sin this will make a man defile the covering of his graven-Images of Silver and the Ornament of his molten-Images of Gold nothing less will serve thee than the death of thy Sin thou wilt pursue it in thy self and others as Haman's hatred sought Mordecai's life yea and the life of all the Jews for his sake Hide not thy Idols as Rachel sate upon hers search thy heart and thy way that thou may find all out and what thou canst not find pray the Lord may find for thee Psal 39.34 leave no Corruption which Satan may fit and brood upon These things must needs be previous to Mortification Now more particularly for the means of carrying on this great business of Mortification 1. Prayer especially private Prayer is of singular use I mention only this at present not being solicitous of Method I say private Prayer for your secret Sins and particular Corruptions may shelter and shroud and hide themselves from all your prayers in publick or in fellowship with others and alas many who are others mouths to God have enough to do to mortifie pride and vanity and selfishness in praying with others let it be by their prayers to get other Corruptions mortified or to get pride and selfishness in other things mortified Prayer and Lusts or Corruptions are like Moses and the Amalekites when Moses hands are up Israel prevails when they fall down the Amalekites prevail so is it in this case It was Pauls Relief 2 Cor. 12.7 8 when Satan was working on the remainder of some Coruption For this I besought the Lord thrice and he was helped It may be sense of some prevailing Corruption has sent you to your Closet and put you upon your knees and you have found Relief and then you have lest off praying and your Corruption has prevailed again Hence
of the Soul upon his Word ingageth both the honour of his Mercy and his Fidelity 2. And so does also effectually engage his Power it 's by this power through Faith that we are kept from what would hinder our Salvation 1 Pet. 1.5 Divine Power strengthens Faith and by Faith we derive Divine Power by faith Christ dwells in the heart Ephes 3.17 And now we have one in us stronger than he that is in the world who takes his Armour from him c. that is taketh those things from him wherewith he fortified himself and secured Sin Satan sometimes serves himself of mens Wisdom Reason Thoughts Affections these Christ brings into captivity to his own obedience our members which were the weapons of sin are made instruments of righteousness unto holiness Riches and Gifts which were fewel and provision for lusts are consecrated to Christ Would you then have greater advantage against the old man of sin sit not down complaining of your impotency and the strength of Sin and your hard circumstances but by Faith strengthen your Union with Christ and make his strength yours Finally It is by Faith that you must make use of all your other spiritual Armour that word Eph. 6.16 Above all taking the shield of Faith c. seems not only to give Faith the preheminence but to point out the universal usefulness of it for securing and right using all the other parts of our Armour 1. As for Truth if you take it as relating to the Mind for soundness of Doctrine this is a fruit of faith Acts 24.14 If you take it for Sincerity it 's believing which makes God near and sets him before us that advances this Gen. 17.1 So 2. For Righteousness if you take it for the righteousness of Christ which as a breast-plate secures the Heart and Conscience Rom. 8.33 If the heart be found a wound elsewhere may be healed if the Conscience be whole we may bear other infirmities Now it's Faiths work to improve this or if we take it for Inherent-righteousness that is a fruit of Faith 3. Whatever Furniture the Gospel prepares for us it is of no use without Faith Nor 4. Can the sword of the Spirit be weilded without it 5. The Helmet of salvation which is Hope as is plain 1 Thess 5.8 the Grace that secures our head from Errour or which keeps our head above water that we faint not that supports Faith its work is to look for the fulfilling of the Promise which Faith believes 6. Prayer must needs take it in hence we see why our Conflict with Sin and the World is called the fight of faith 1 Tim. 6.12 3. Be much in the meditation of the sufferings and Death of Christ and of your own approaching dissolution and of what follows on the back of that For the first of these Peter presses Holiness from thence 1 Pet. 1.18 20. But let us consider Christ first as a Pattern he made it his work to destroy Sin though he had none in himself all his Offices struck at Sin and you are none of Christs if you study not conformity to him in this It 's true the Prince of this world had no part in him yet was he molested with his Temptations and when it s so with thee think with thy self What would the Lord Jesus Christ have said in this case 2. Look on suffering Christ as meriting and procuring his peoples final Conquest over all their Enemies We may in this case apply that Rev. 12.11 They overcame by the blood of the Lamb his blood by Faith applyed to the Soul is like a Refiners fire and Fullers Sope. It 's the only Purgatory for taking away Sin Satan has carryed most of the World from the law of Nature into Paganism and others from the Law of Christ into Antichristianism and in both these Apostate states Satan has endeavoured to substitute something in the room of what God had appointed for purging away Sin and under both he seems more zealous against Sin than God and would seem to out-do Gods way if God appoint Beasts to be slain and offered up he will have their Children to pass through the fire and now once offering up of Christ must not serve it must be done every day So for purging out of Sin Satan had among the Heathen his Lotions and Lustrations and has now his Sprinklings and Whippings and to compleat all has made men hope that what these do not Purgatory-fire will do And truly Sin may say Aha to these as Satan does to these Exorcisms But indeed Satans diligence and industry in taking men off the true way of purging away Sin viz. by the blood of Christ and substituting Mockmeans in its room may tell us what weight the Lord lays upon this way Now how by Faith we come to find the efficacy of this blood I have already shewn 3. The sufferings of Christ may further Mortification by way of Argument and here we must take in the greatness of his sufferings the hand our sins had in them and the love that moved him to engage and go through with all Oh would not you burn the Spear that pierced him how would you look upon the Sword that slew your dearest Friend See how Paul argues 2 Cor. 5.14 15 The love of Christ constrains us for we thus judg That if one died for all then were all dead that we should henceforth no more live to our selves And Peter on the same ground presseth Mortification 1 Pet. 4.1 2 For as much then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh c. Had you been witness to his wrestlings in the Garden Had you heard these words out of his own mouth If it be possible let this Cup pass c. Had you seen his drops of blood Had you known the trouble of his Soul when upon the sight of his sufferings he knew not well what to say to speak with Reverence John 12.27 Had you seen him Nailed and heard him crying out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Would you not have vowed a Revenge on Sin Could you have loved and hugged the Soldier and been sond on the Spear that pierced him Thou art the Man and thy beloved Lust is the Spear And will you act this Soldiers part over again Your other sins are as the Nails but this is as the Spear that made a great wound in his Side and went nearer his Heart and who shall save thee if thou crucifie him afresh Who shall comfort thee if thou grieve his Spirit by thy indulgence to sin 2. I mentioned the serious Meditation of your own death as a Mean to help on Mortification It were good for us we were oftner among the Tombs and laying our selves in our graves the Rich mans skul is not gilded there nor has the delicate persons any better colour or smell nor has the proud man any precedency there their dust and skuls and dead bones are not distinguishable yet what 's the
out then call them in and examine them as Elisha did to Gehazi be sure your hearts will be such as your thoughts you cannot have a serious heart if vain thoughts lodg within you Jer. 4.14 3. Fly the society of such as are sick of that disease thou dreads most and which thou art aptest to be infected with It is not good fighting against the Devil says one in the midst of his own Camp Mens bold venturing on this has often brought them off wounded It 's hard to keep up a due abhorrence of sin that we daily see and hear some ill savour at least will stick to us if it bring you not to a compliance yet it abates your zeal against it therefore shun such Employments Occasions and Company as may draw forth thy Corruption It was Peters snare to be in the High-priests Hall and Judas's that he carried the Bug. It 's hard for Powder and Flax to be near Fire and not kindle The 5th Direction Improve Afflictions for the mortification of thy sin by these the Lord takes away sin and makes us partakers of his holiness the finer any Vessel be and the more used the oftner it's scoured and the more it be rubbed the cleaner it is Lev. 6.28 and 11.33 The earthen pots when they were fouled by boiling of the Sacrifices they were to be broken in pieces but the brazen pots were to be reinsed with Water and scoured and cleaned the oftner you are on the fire the cleaner should you be Now when God is wounding your Pride your Covetousness your Sensuality take the advantage of slaying these lusts when he makes thy right-hand or Eye to ake then pluck it out c. Canst thou love the World when it pinches and straitens and desames and reproaches thee Canst thou love thy flesh when pain and grief have taken up their dwelling in it and when it 's such a trouble to thee Will you not now cry out upon all as vanity and vexation when your sense and your Experience tells you so when you feel the bitter fruits of sin you have now great advantage against your sin and to help on the mortification of it when sense and Experience disparage and decry it and your very flesh is convinced of the folly of flesh-pleasing O that you would take this advantage and use this World as it does or will use you and use your sins as they do or will use you There be indeed some unmortified men who when they suffer by sin and by the World will speak hardly enough of them but their friendship which is rooted in their Nature is soon made up again But should it not heighten your Enmity with them the Lord makes your sin buffet and abuse and rend and wound you that by the pain and smart and sorrow it breeds he may maintain and encrease your enmity and excite diligent endeavours to destroy it he had rather that sin should pain you here than torment you in Hell and he would have sins stroke to fall upon it self as sin killed it self in killing Christ so he would have it in his people Let your afflictions let the death of your Creature-comforts be the death of sin If it turn your very breath into groans let these groans be against sin if it turn your Joy into mourning your Songs into sighs and cries and tears let all these be against sin and so your Life and your Light and your Comfort shall rise out of the ruins of your sin O let sin gain nothing by the hurt it does you If it has brought a cross upon thy Person or Family take it and crucifie it upon this Cross else thou losest the benefit of it if thus thou dealest with it it 's a happy Cross and thou hast fellowship with Christ in his Cross on which sin suffered Many have been convinced of the ill of Sin that have fought but faintly with it till it has wounded them And now let me a little enquire if this has been the fruit of your personal or Family-afflictions or of the sore astonishing Judgments of God upon this place You have seen many Houses and Streets burnt down in fewer days than they were hundreds of yeares in building You have seen Riches that were many years in gathering scattered or may be in a few hours consumed and the Lord knows how many have lost their Souls and forfeited eternal happiness to build and furnish and gather that which a few moments pulled down scattered and consumed and yet when you have but a little intermission and breathing-time are you not as eagerly at it again You have seen or heard of what desolations God did make and what a Cry was almost in every House not the cry of Egypt not the first-born only but as a man emptieth a Dish and turneth it upside down so did God with many Families and many Houses Have the dismal Looks and Out-cries of these days mortified you to carnal Mirth Have you learned Righteousness Have you made your dwellings Bethels You have seen or heard of but a few years ago many as delicate Persons as your selves whose Carcasses were carried out in Dung-carts and thrown into pits heaps upon heaps and will you yet please and pamper such Carcasses Will you gather and patch up as it were their rags to adorn your Bodies with Ah! the ashes of London and the dust of those dead Bodies shall be witnesses against the present Inhabitants Does your Houses your Tables your Apparel speak any growth of Mortification the highest Turret or Pyramid is but a poor childish Memorial Is there a Memento written upon each of these But alas what then means your ceiled and well-furnished Houses while the House of God lies waste What means your strange Apparel and sumptuous Tables while may be there be few Backs or Bellies of Christs Disciples that are blessing you Have you not fallen into Old London's sins sooner than men took up the Old Worlds sins Noah did indeed for once border upon the sin that God had buried in the Waters And are not many Professors more guilty in reviving sins that God has burnt up to speak so Ah! Will you break through not only Armies of Ordinances but Armies of Judgments Will you in your pride of heart and in your practice also say the Bricks are fallen and we will build with hewen stone the Sycamores are cut down but we will exchange them into Cedars Will you say we will have better Houses and finer Cloaths If you have forgotten what your Eyes have seen and your Ears have heard come and behold yet the works of the Lord and see what desolation he is now making amongst others Not only London but other places that were like the Vinetrees amongst the Trees of the Forest God has given them to the fire for fewel Ezek. 12.20 He hath made Lebanon to open its doors to the fire to devour the Cedars that are fallen and the Fir-tree howls also yea the Oaks
that these motions are conformable to the Law of God or subservient to any spiritual good What Armies of vain Imaginations that are unaccountable you know not how they come in nor how they go out infinite are the occasions that excite these You can see nor hear of nothing but habitual Corruption may some way stir yea you think of nothing whether existent or not but it excites some inordinate Motions hence they are called the Imaginations of the heart Gen. 6.8 The wandring of the desire Eccles 6.9 It 's true this is a further degree of sinful stirrings in the heart when it entertains wild Imaginations and pleaseth it self with idle Fancies that give rise to many sinful projects Indeed Nature it self teacheth this to be a sin and it 's an evidence of a discontented frame of spirit for ordinarily these phantastick rovings of heart respects some other persons Condition or something at least that we want the delight that accompanies these is enough to prove them sinful but it 's plainly something less than these that Paul speaks of Rom. 7 for it 's something he had not known to be sin but by the Law Now men by Natures light know that inordinate motions consented to though not acted yea or but delighted in are sinful But it 's the Scriptures-light only that convinces of the sin of these first stirrings in general and it 's the Spirit 's Saving-light that affects the heart with godly sorrow for them in particular For the second thing proposed viz. Why they abound so much with some more especially that they are exceeding frequent with all I think none that know themselves will deny and what swarms of them do mens busie-Minds and Imaginations bring forth How hard is it to bring every thought inconsistent with that Duty and love we owe to God and that we owe to Men into subiection It 's hard to expel them when they come in and much harder not to suffer them to come in such is the cunning and activity of sin such access has Satan to work upon us and so Leavened are our Imaginations and Minds with sin Yet in some they are more frequent than others the best groan under them but some are almost smothered with them to speak so and their grace almost suffocated with them Habitual Corruption is a fruitful Womb and this is livelier in some than in others and the same person is nearer God and in a livelier frame and has more inward serenity and composure of spirit at one time than another and so is like a City with Gates and Bars At other times a man is at greater distance from God and out of frame and then he is like a City broken down and without Walls and the heart is haunted with Satyrs and Owls When the heart is in an ill frame it is like damp Tinder to divine Motions but it 's like dry Tinder to every spark of a temptation that comes in by the senses or by roving Imagination yea it takes fire of its self and if it be not well watched would quickly come to a flame Indeed it 's no easie task to keep out these there is so many several passages they come in at and they can creep in at a small rent or hole therefore there 's need of the utmost watchfulness and diligence to keep them out and to knock them down when they come in For the third thing proposed viz. Some Considerations for pressing the mortification of these first stirrings of our Corruptions 1. I shall mention some Aggravations of the sin and sad consequences of these 2. I shall mention some advantages the Believer has by mortifying these For the first of these Consider 1. How frequently by these you incur the guilt of sin O the numberless multitude of these inordinate motions When are you free of them When is the body of death asleep not when you are asleep for waking and sleeping these inordinate motions are some way stirring and it were easie to prove every inordinate extravagant lustful covetous ambitious motion even when asleep and dreaming to be sinful and defiling and indeed what proves the first motions of sin when awake to be sinful does also prove them such when asleep and the more power a Christian when awake has over them the more holy he be the less is he troubled with these and it is manifest that they are the flowings out the bublings and springings up or emanations of our Original Corruption or the imperfect motions of vitious principles or habits for as Innocent dreams follow the sinless constitution of the body so sinful dreams follow the vitious constitution of the Soul which possibly a mans natural temper of body hath advantaged and so are gross outward acts of sin also which yet does not prove them to be no sins We cannot think that our Nature in the state of Innocency would have brought forth any such inordinate motions sleeping or waking so that the Apology some make for them as being Natural is naught they are in no other sense Natural nay nor necessary than the same motions when one is awake If any shall say they are from Satans injections which render us not culpable I Answer 1. This is the same with what the Quakers say of the first risings of Corruption when one is awake the contrary of which our Lord tells us Luke 6.45 And James tells us they are from a mans lust James 1.14 And truly I think we do often sinfully transfer our guilt over to Satan when there 's not sufficient ground for it no not so much as Eve had though her plea was not relievant Ordinarily we attribute horrid blasphemous or other abominable thoughts or Imaginations to him when we cannot apprehend how such or such a thought should arise in us so whatever we think unaccountable we lay at his door when indeed the height and depth of our Corruption is unmeasurable and its subtilty and activity and way of operating is unaccountable 2. It is not Satan that thinketh or willeth in us he may represent Objects but the acts are ours he can dart in a Temptation but it 's through our sin and Corruption that it takes fire in the least indeed such is now our Constitution that a temptation cannot enter but there is something within that complies with it and is excited by it and this is one great reason why we ought to pray not to be led into temptation were there no Corruption in us Satans temptations would be like little sparks of fire thrown into a Sea of water and indeed Satan would not be so busie with his Injections into our Minds when sleeping or waking did he not intend thereby to defile us with them and involve us into sin his design cannot be meerly to afflict men with them for they are no grief nor affliction to many that are yet filled with them It 's true the Saints grieve more and are more affected with them and humbled for them
the Lord less jealous now than he was Does his clearer coming under the most kindly and condescending Relations any way abate it Nay they rather heighten it though they may occasion some change in his way of resenting injuries and expressing his displeasure Jer. 2.14 The Lord deals with his people now in a more Son-like way he chastizes them as much or of tner than formerly but not in that manner he will keep up his Soveraignty even when he is owning thy Soul hee 'l have thee know that he must be thy Lord and thou must worship him Psalm 45.11 so shall the King greatly desire thy Beauty for he is thy Lord c. He will not have his kindliest Relations diminish his Honour nor wear out our inward awe and fear lest an unsuitable frame or any unholy motion of heart should provoke his jealous Eye It 's a remarkable word Deut. 28.58 He will have his people fear this glorious and fearful Name The Lord thy God may be you think Thy God a sweet name and a kindly ay but he glories in it and so mayest thou and yet ought to be also a fearful Name And truly a Conscientious care to prevent the very first stirrings of sin in the heart is the most genuine fruit and the most satisfying evidence of this fear and of our Covenant-state Other things may influence and incline us to oppose sin in its further proceedings as on the other hand an awful Impression upon the heart of God as God and as our God is of great efficacy to keep out sinful Imaginations It will make the soul not only tremble at yielding to such a sin as Joseph was solicited to but even shrink at the first touch of the smallest temptation and this leads to another direction 3. Indeavour to keep thy heart in a holy tender heavenly and lively frame What 's the reason that temptations and suggestions from Satan do at the first excite some sinful motions in the heart the fundamental reason is our remaining Corruption that they work upon But the nearest reason is an ill frame when Satan finds us as dry tinder he strikes fire and every part catches and kindles 1. Then maintain a tender frame and this will make thee feeling and sensible of every inordinate motion of the heart It will grate upon the Conscience and thou wilt be loath by these to grieve the spirit as well as by consenting to or acting of them to quench or resist the Spirit for as the eye is hurt by the smallest dust or smoaks and if it were aware would shut it self against them so is it with a tender Conscience and if any dust has got into the eye it is not at ease till it has wept it out or till it be wipt out so is it also with the man who has true tenderness of heart 2. Maintain a lively Spiritual frame let thy heart be always bending and working towards God stir up holy thoughts and affections and let thy soul be filled with these and there will be no room for sin to get in do you not find that sometimes when the heart is strongly caâ—â—ed out to God that sinful Imaginations dare scarce present themselves for as we use to say that liveliness in duties is the way to prevent wandring thoughts in them and that Birds will not light upon burning Sacrifices so it 's in this case But when the heart is dead and cold and empty and idle then Satan and indwelling sin take their opportunity and fill it and busie it he comes and warms it and kindles fire in it when therefore any thing is offered to thy eye or thy ear or thy taste or thy thought that may excite any inordinacy in thy heart or in the least measure raise thy Corruption to stir antidote thy heart and prepossess it with some gracious Acts. Let the understanding the heart the affections the memory yea thy senses and outward man be filled with the fulness of God then shall sin be some way out of doors you shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh yea there shall be no room to the lustings of the flesh If thy soul be exercised in holy meditations and affections and thy hand be much in heavenly work if thou converse in heaven and live near God and dwell on High were the soul always upon the wing and flying heaven-ward and were God every way thy all Satan durst not offer to force thee in the presence of thy Lord and Husband Satan shall not have such access to thee and this poor world and its gilded nothings should not work upon thee and if the body of death should stir you might with the more ease at least beat it down When the Soul is as it were in Gods presence alway Satan will not venture so to force it as it were Esth 7.8 Yea the body of sin it self would shrink into a corner when the virtue received from the Loadstone is worn off the needle wavers hither and thither but when new touched it bends steadily Northward So it 's with the soul that 's under fresh influences and that is near God But 2. How shall we do with these first motions of sin how shall we deal with them in their first attempts upon us Ans 1. If any sin begin to stir in thy imagination or mind look well it get not into thy heart or affections for that will instantly weaken thy Judgment 2. If thou would keep thine own Vineyard well pluck up every weed as soon as it appears else it will quickly be overgrown as soon as thou feels sin stir let thy heart recoil and start back with abhorrence indeed sin is so often stirring that thou may possibly weary to be always watching and warring with it and the heart does so easily and naturally move that way that it may possibly be a pain to thee to oppose it Therefore thou must be armed with a great deal of resolution not to hear the pleadings of the flesh nor to parley with a temptation and know that when ever sin stirs in thee thou art under an actual temptation to more sin 3. Protest and bear witness against every motion of sin in thee enter thy dissent from it And though this cannot absolve thee in the Court of strict-Justice yet the Court of Grace shall acquit thee This was Paul's Gospel-plea Rom. 7.15 19. and from this he infers ver 17 and also ver 20 Now then it is no more I that do it but sin that dwelleth in me What thou dost not own and dost not consent unto God will not charge upon thee so as to condemn thee even as what thou hast consented to if thou hast retracted it by repentance he will not bring it in in judgment against thee I do not mean as if there were no need of repentance for these for thou cannot sincerely protest against them if thy heart be not penitent for them It 's one of the loose Doctrines of the
channel if it will not run in a contrary way and by this means thou shalt also mortifie them If thou find thy heart inclining to passion at others turn it to an holy indignation against sin If inclined to sorrow upon any worldly account endeavour to turn it into sorrow for sin or for the afflictions and sufferings of the people of God let these have their due and thou wilt not have many tears to spare for other things If thy heart be inclining to exceed in frolick mirth indeavour to get thy mirth and joy to run into another channel to turn it into holy joy in God in Christ in his goodness to thee and to his people Indeed there may be much deceit in this that thou had need to guard against for as a good disposition sometimes passes for a sanctified nature so does these for sanctified acts and affections and as the former when advantaged with grace goes far so these high affections when tinctured with grace pass for high spiritual motions of the soul many under affliction mistake their carnal sorrow for Spiritual sorrow and others mistake their natural and occasional cheerfulness for Spiritual joy and the reason is because they judg of these acts only by the objects which they thought last upon as for instance May be one under great sorrow intermingles with other things some thoughts of sin and then he thinks his sorrow to be godly sorrow or when in a cheerful frame or in some good mood as you call it he intermingles some thoughts of God of Christ of Heaven and then it passes for heavenly joy Nothing is more ordinary than this A pregnant instance we may have of it in the publick prayers of our formalists who having by Organs and Musical Instruments excited in themselves some natural affections put to may be some thoughts of God and of the joys of Heaven and thus these motions of their hearts that are excited by meer natural causes and their own endeavours pass current for high sublime raised affections and this is all the holiness and heaven too of some But here lies the deceit men look only to the Immediate casual object of their acts and not at all to the principle of them nay nor to the object that did at first excite these acts viz some outward loss or some outward good I mean ordinarily When therefore you would turn natural or worldly sorrow into Spiritual and so with joy you must look well that there be a change not of the object only but in the very nature of the acts or affections for the object alone is not enough to specifie an action a meer change of the object will not render a natural affection or passion Spiritual There may be much natural Carnal joy in a spiritual and supernatural object as Heb. 6.4 even as there may be a spiritual joy when the immediate object is natural and so of other affections If you Object the difficulty of this and ask What advantage one has by following this direction I Answ 1. You have the advantage of being diverted from sinful objects and from inordinate motions towards lawful outward objects 2. You have this advantage that when the affections are lively they move with a greater facility towards spiritual objects though indeed this contributes nothing to their spirituality sin and grace they are seated in the same powers and faculties of the soul and when sin commands the more lively these powers and faculties be the more are the actings of sin advantaged and so it is also when grace is uppermost whether in the understanding or the will or the affections As on the other hand when the natural vigour of the soul especially of the affections is gone or any way obstructed the actings of grace in them are not so sensible and seem low and faint hence many aged persons and others are apt to conclude hardly against themselves at least to apprehend a decay of grace when there is none Therefore when you find any of these vigorous and fresh let grace set them on work and if there be any particular affection more lively and stirring than another heavenly wisdom directs us to see that that be well employed and if it be in the hand or possession of sin to redeem and rescue it unto its proper use whatever principle or object did first move excite or draw it forth the powers of the soul and all their operations are capable of good or evil as they are used as a strong Castle or sharp sword may be well or ill used yea suppose an usurping enemy helped to fortifie the Castle or sharpen the sword if they can be taken from him they may be used to the more advantage against him Now 2dly I told you that by the Spirit in the Text was especially to be understood the holy Spirit by whose special assistance Sin is mortified in the Believer If ye through the Spirit c. set about this with the Spirits aid and in a compliance with the methods of the Spirit which imports 1. Our own impotency Never think to mortifie any sin in thy own strength how small a temptation will overturn us when we stand upon our own legs and how strong temptations and inward lustings are we helped to withstand and mortifie when we engage the Spirits assistance 2. It imports the ineffectualness of meer rational or moral Considerations Motives and Means to mortifie sin the Consideration of the turpitude and infamy of sin of its debasing our Nature of that distraction and disorder that inordinate passions and affections breed in the Soul the weakness and transitoriness of the Creature comforts the impossibility to recover our loss by inordinate grief c. These may restrain or refine sin or change the Channel it runs in but can never mortifie it Nay nor 3. Will any means of Gods appointment do it without the Spirit neither meditation of Death nor Judgment nor of the death and sufferings of Christ Nor will Prayer or Word Promises or Threatnings or Sacraments or Afflictions if separated from the Spirits influences and assistances This is so sadly verified every day that I need not prove it They that want the Spirit cannot mortifie one sin and they that improve not an indwelling Spirit cannot by other means mortifie sin If any object That sin doth grieve and vex and quench the Spirit and provoke him to withdraw how then doth the Spirit mortifie sin in us I answer It 's true that even the sins of the godly do grieve and some way quench the Spirit But what sins are these or how do men quench the Spirit It 's by their opposing the Spirits sanctifying and mortifying operations I grant this may be done by opposing his witnessing and comforting Work but mostly the former which is the chief work of the Spirit 2. The godly do never so grieve the Spirit as to provoke him altogether to leave them Psalm 51.11 There remain some motions and assistances of
119.9 and 107.20 John 15.3 and 17.17 Heb. 4.12 Render them not powerless to your Souls by letting the Impressions that the Spirit has made by them wear out Has the Lord by his Word and Spirit discovered sin to you fix your thoughts upon it and pry more and more into the sinfulness of it Muse upon it till your heart be hot within you and till your heart be fired with anger indignation and zeal against it and when the Word makes your heart burn within you blow upon the Coal that it die not out again you must 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Spirit sometimes wounds the Soul for sin and makes some word like an Arrow pierce the heart but Sinners pluck it out again and lick their wound whole again and thus sin is whole again sin puts the Soul between the stroke and it whereas when the Spirit by the Word smites we should expose sin to it and be content to have it not only discovered but beaten and left dead upon the place be content to find the Word as a two-edged sword and love those best in whose mouth is the sharpest sword and hold up thy sins to its strokes when they are found out Be content that the Word be as a Corrosive-plaister to thee and keep it close upon the sore place O how many have their judgments enlightned by the Spirit in Ordinances but they imprison Light imprison Truths and suffer not the power of them to reach their hearts and affections True some find also the heart shaken and troubled for sin and resolutions raised against it yet it is not mortified all miscarryes and why Truly because in some these have no root and for others that are truly godly they yet take not pains enough with their own heart to maintain what the Spirit by the Word has wrought in them they labour not to drive the Nail to the head and to keep the Bow in bent Slothfulness is a slighting of the Spirit and provokes him to withdraw and when the Sun is gone light and heat is quickly gone When the Spirit does by any Ordinance animate you against sin and fix it upon your heart to seek the death of any sin give it no reprieval for an hour give not Satan time to tempt thee nor sin time to prepare some charm to entice thee again let not these things that use to choak the Word deface and obliterate spiritual Impressions if when the Spirit by the Word has heated your affections you immerse your self in your business this like frosty Air will soon cool you if you do unwarily meddle with it it will quickly take off your edg and they are the most dangerous colds that come after great heats hence many not only abate their zeal against sin but sin is advantaged by this means the heart like the earth which in Winter is thawed by the Sun at Noon freezes the harder the next Night 6. Observe and comply with the Spirits motions and methods when under affliction which is a special season of the Spirits teaching and working afflictions use to be the Seal to Gods Instruction Job 33.16 Seals give weight and authority to Writings the Spirit now sets Instructions home Therefore consider what sin thou hast most need to mortifie and what the Lord does especially aim at in afflicting thee and in order to this observe what his Spirit did charge most upon thee before affliction came and mark how the Lord follows affliction the Spirit uses to bear in some sin more especially and to make a mans Conscience deal impartially with him hear what that says especially after Prayer and when the Spirit by afflictions does humble thee and cause heaviness in thee 1 Pet. 1.5 let not sin raise up it self for thou canst never rise again but upon its ruins and when the spirits work tends to the stirring up of Grace in all thy acting of Grace have an eye upon the sin that has most indangered thee and comply with the spirit especially when thou art moved to the acting of that Grace that is most contrary to thy strongest Corruption It 's a token of a sanctified affliction when thy sin is discovered in its sinfulness when there is fixed purposes of heart raised against it and when there is some notable acting of the Grace that is most opposite to it excited And now when the lot is fallen upon it do not spare it do not think to roll it to shore and save it alive do with it as the Jews did with Paul Act. 21.28 They laid hands on him crying out Men of Israel help This is the man that teacheth the people against the law and hath polluted this holy place Labour to fix your thoughts and purposes and affections you now have and afterwards be often asking thy soul what is become of them and deal with sin as then you wished you had never done I shall in the next place answer some Objections against what has been delivered And 1. May be some see nothing in themselves that need to be mortified they can say as the Pharisee Luk. 18.11 yea can bless God that they are free not only from such gross things as the Pharisee mentions but even from such abominable thoughts and motions of heart and from such horrid temptations and suggestions as some complain of Answ 1. Was it any better with the Pharisee for his foolish opinion of himself but would thou see thy self as in a glass See Rev. 3.17 Look thou be not like a standing Pool that has more mud and dirt at the bottom than the raging Sea and indeed sin is never more stirring than when it seems asleep or moves smoothly thou art not yet come the young mans length Mark 10. who may be has outdone thee in every thing yet saw there was something lacking and indeed besides faith in Christ there was mortification to the world wanting 2. How came thou by this freedom from sin and so much inward quiet thou must be in League with Hell sure I am the holiest Christians make sad complaints of sin within and temptations without and seldom want some excercise but it seems you let sin live and sin lets you live 3. It 's a token that sin has never been irritated much less slain we know thou art not pure by nature more than others nor can education purge out sin though it may qualifie it and we know that it cannot be mortified with much ado such an interest has it got in the soul But here it is the Commandment has never come in its spirituality and power to thee till then Paul troubled himself as little with sin as thou dost sin prevails in the heart yet is not grievous because there 's nothing in thee that is contrary to it to oppose it It 's but a short way that a natural Conscience goes it charges no man with Original corruption nor with the first motions of sin that the body of sin breaths out every moment
and which the smallest temptation will excite And in many reason and conscience and affection and all is in bondage to sin and there is nothing to present its proceedings but there 's a thorough satisfaction with its servitude Sin is in thee as in its proper place and therefore feels not heavy 4. Thou mayest easily mistake when thou compares thy self with others whose Corruptions some sharp tryals or strong temptations has brought forth there may be much more sin at bottom in thee 5. Know that such as Satan has possession of he does not so much trouble them he cares not how peaceably they come to hell he lashes few till they begin to turn out of his road he cares not how neat a way they come to hell nor how swept and clean the house be and how well garnished There may be access and room for the more evil spirits And truly I think that Satan may be as careful to keep temptations from some lest they should be discovered to themselves and to others as he is to multiply temptations to others here 's the misery of many God bindeth them and Satan bindeth them and they cry not God blinds men and Satan blinds men and they feel not discern it not and will not believe it Joh. 9.39 40. He hardens them and they know not how the stone in the heart grows as insensibly as the stone in the bladder 2. Some Carnal hearts may object the pain that is in mortifying a sin that 's dear and useful and that to mortifie sin is to mortifie mirth This has been formerly obviated In short you must know 1. That this is not the proper time nor place for mirth Joh. 16.20 Ye shall weep and lament but the world shall rejoyce and when we rejoyce our mirth must not be a-kin to theirs We read but once that Jesus rejoyced in spirit and that was not with the joy of this world Luk. 10.21 He was a man of sorrows and it becomes not his Disciples to be men of mirth I speak this the rather because that under pretence of removing an occasion of offence and stumbling of some at the way of God many drown themselves in Carnal mirth No man comes leaping and laughing to heaven then and not till then shall all tears be wip't away were there none there needed no wiping as long as sin is not throughly purged away sorrow must not fly away 2. There is indeed pain and trouble in mortifying sin as there is in cutting off a living member of the body and as there is in the rending of the soul from the body for sin cleaves as close to the soul and to the body as the soul and body doth to one another Yet 3. This pain is only or at least more especially at some times as when a man first sets about the mortification of sin But when sin has once begun to fall before him he is heartned and his work goes more easily on and difficulties fly away 4. It is the being of sin and the strength of sin that breeds trouble and grief and pain to the godly man not so much the mortifying of sin for that relieves him 5. As we formerly told you there 's a great deal of more pain in serving and satisfying any lust than in mortifying it Job 20.22 Psal 78.29 30. Would you set about the mortification of sin and make tryal you should find it so The reason why men think not their lusts burdensome is their love to them and their being habituated to them disingages the affections to them and they torment a man that which makes them sweet is the vicious constitution of their souls and bodies when a man is recovered of his disease they are like gall and wormwood to him that which lessens their trouble and pain in serving of them is their imputing it to the scantness of provision for them whereas when they have multiplied and diversified the objects of them they are ne're the nearer satisfaction in them 6. Man is born to affliction as the sparks flie upward and if the godly man find pain and trouble in mortifying sin he has rest in the evil day to compensate that If sin be mortified it 's easie to bear a cross if sin be dead it 's easie for a man to die Whereas others are uneasie under afflictions and on a death bed unmortified sin makes a man feeling of affliction the trouble and pain of it is more than the pleasure of sin and more than the pain of mortification and how much more does the pain and sorrow of hell exceed these Will you chuse to pine away in pain rather than let a gangrene Limb be cut off or a broken Limb be set again Will you lye a million of years in torment ere you indure a moments pain the odds is not so great as between time and Eternity 7. Where there is a principle of true Grace it 's greater pain to the new man to sin then to mortifie sin 8. It is no pain or trouble to a man in so far as he is renewed to oppose and mortifie sin he does it with delight and the more effectually he do it the more is his peace and joy 9. If at any time sin prevails the heart is drawn forth into acts of godly sorrow and indeed the godly man chuses that before the worlds mirth and therefore cherishes it whereas the trouble and anguish others have is a kin to that of hell which makes them shun it and fly from it Yea 10. The very trouble which the mortification of sin breeds to the old man is a pleasure to the new then one rises upon the ruins of the other and when he considers what assurance of a final conquest he has he is heartned he knows that the death of sin is his life that if he through the spirit mortifie sin he shall live he can bear to have a right hand cut off when his life is at the stake and if he feel pain and trouble and complain of it as Rom. 7.24 he checks himself next word and turns his moan into a Song Act. 25. 8.1 3. Some object the impossibility of mortifying such and such Corruptions some will acknowledg a self-denyed and mortified life to be the best life but say you No body knows my temptations and circumstances there 's such a woful proneness in my nature to such and such things that I know not how to withstand it though I have prayed and resolved and hoped against it Answ It 's true thou art utterly impotent and by thy own endeavours thou cannot mortifie any sin but art thou a Christian and hast no faith or in Christ and hast thou not the spirit of Christ Hast thou Christ in thee and the Spirit of the living God in thee and yet no strength or cannot mortifie a beloved lust by it But does not this excuse them that want the Spirit and his special assistance Answ No 1. Because some such at
walk by the Spirit O let not convictions cool nor holy motions die turn every motion against sin into a purpose and every purpose into endeavours against sin Attend diligently on Ordinances Act. 10.44 While Peter yet spake these words the Holy-Ghost fell on all them that heard the word But mark what 's said ver 33 Now therefore we are all here present before God to hear all things that are commanded thee of God Thou must see thy self as in the presence of God and get a heart ready to receive his Instructions or Commands Finally If thou hast lost that aid of the spirit that thou wast wont to have search how thou came to lose it If there be not some secret lust that thou wast willing to spare this may not only undo thy comforts but universally marr the Spirits operations May be there is some old reckonings which were never distinctly counted for nor scored off which the Spirit has brought to your remembrance and yet you will needs bury them But ordinarily its something in thy present frame or way and may be it 's something that you think but little of often the cause of Gods Controversie with a land or with a particular person is that which we would little suspect may be a fretful unbelieving or injurious thought take heed to the first motion of sin for sin has no bound says one but what the Spirit puts to it whom therefore we should not oppose but kindly intreat therefore look to thy thoughts and to thy words see the Gonnexion Eph. 4.29 50. especially in carnal company whose converse mightily cherishes these sins in us which we should mortifie and by complying with or gratifying their spirits we often wound our own and grieve Gods Spirit and thus give sin some reprieval We cannot converse with such but they will either afflict us or defile us look diligently then into thy carriage and remember when and where the Spirit began to withdraw his usual aids and when you have found out the cause 1. You must by renewed acts of re-repentance and faith be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ for the bestowing of the Spirit is an eminent fruit of the satisfaction of Christ and of the favour of God and is not given to dwell in the soul and habitually to assist till one be first reconciled to God and expect no new gift of the Spirit till thou hast made up thy peace again with God through Christ 2. Beware of that way in the beginning of which thou found the Spirit begin to leave thee if thou think that this requires great circumspection and heedfulness it being a matter of such infinite advantage to thy soul thou needs not think strange that it should especially considering how careful thou art to keep some friend here and what diligent endeavours thou uses to provide or secure a little of this worlds goods that will not go far with thee and wherein thou hast not such assurance of success for thou mayest rise early c. and eat the bread of sorrow all the day In the last place Let us speak a little to some few cases And I begin with that touched upon in the third Objection viz. the case of such as complain of the strength of their corruptions If their mortification of sin be so necessary to salvation alas what shall I think of my self who am so much under the power of this or that corruption Answ There are several degrees of the power and prevalency of sin 1. The highest degree of it is when men voluntarily yield themselves as servants to it Rom. 6.16 Know ye not that to whom ye yield your selves servants to obey his servants ye are to whom ye obey whether of sin unto death c. when men are agents in resigning themselves up to sin as servants tender their service to their master they do not explicitely intend to be captives but it necessarily follows and they are willing sufferers or patients under it the word used for Christs giving himself for us Eph. 5.25 and committing himself to God as judg 1 Pet. 2.23 is used of some mens giving themselves over to Lasciviousness to work uncleanness with greediness or in abundance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. 4.19 this is the case of unrewed man whose heart and will is for sin and who do manifest an utter want of mortification from this degree of sin the Apostle acquits the Romans ver 17.18 2. There is a lower degree of it 2 Pet. 2.19 Of whom a man is overcome of the same is he brought into bondage This being overcome imports some opposition yet not what is sufficient 3. Another degree of the power of sin we find Rom. 7.23 I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members Where we see the law of sin is not in the mind or will but in the members that is the carnal affections Grace has beat sin out of the higher powers of the soul and it has fortified it self as it were in the affections and in the nether part of the soul And observe that here the Captivity is not a leading to outward acts of sin but a bowing down the power of the mind and a weakning of the actings of Grace in the mind and will and impeding the lively effects of Grace in the heart Now judg which of these is your case the first cannot be the case of any godly man such as are under it mortifie not sin but the Convictions of Conscience and the common motions of the Spirit and herein they are often successful whereas a Believer accuses himself and joyns actively with the Spirit to convince of sin and to mortifie it Psalm 51.1 21. Dan. 9.5 6. Convictions come on them and they tremble and seek to be rid of them For the third case it 's common to the holiest among Believers to such as are most exercised and most successful in Mortification It is the second case then that is doubtful there is some opposition made to sin so that this case differs from the first but without success yet are they servants to sin and so this case differs from the third the Mind is not only bowed down oppressed and captivated but a man is carried to the outward actings of sin and the fulfilling the lusts of the flesh or the desires of the body of sin Now this is the case that many poor souls complain of And 1. What ought we to judg of it How may a poor Soul be helped out of it will appear in what we shall speak to this Case For the first of these I Answer That in some cases a poor Creature may make use of Pauls encouragements even when the body of death prevails much more than it did with Paul Rom. 7 and does not only inwardly lust against the Spirit but the power of it breaketh forth in words or deeds as when thou
he be displeased with the acts and stirrings of sin yet not with the root of them If he can restrain the acts he could let the body of sin dwell contentedly in him But it 's far otherwise with the godly for as sin opposes every gracious act so Grace opposes every known sin yea and does secretly though not so sensibly resist every sin whether known to us to be such or not Grace in the heart feels that to be sin and contrary to its nature which knowledg in the head does not discern to be sin the Law written in the Heart goes farther than what 's in the Head as eating of what one has antipathy against will cause trouble though the man knows not of it but more if he does 4. As the Natural man is not uniform in opposing all sins so he is not even as to all times he seldom or never pursues sin but when God or his Conscience are pursuing him and he is never so eager in his opposition to sin but he will admit of a treaty with it and is easily induced to grant a cessation of Arms he is content to hear what can be offered to reconcile such a thing to the Law of God and for shewing the consistency of it with peace of Conscience here and with the hope of glory at least with his interest and honour in this World the new man is deaf to any motion of a parley and stands out to the last and fights upon his knees and is sometimes overcome but never treats nor yields the Natural man opposes sin as a flowing Tide does a Vessel going down a River but straightway the Tide turns and helps the Vessel But the Conflict in the renewed man is like that between fire and water there 's no yielding nor cessation of Arms till the one be overcome nay not then True the Believer often intermits vigorous opposition to sin and may lose more ground in an hour than he can regain in many days yet Grace never gives over entring its dissent and protestations nor intermits all opposition to sin even when its worsted 5. The unrenewed man never strives lawfully against sin he goes forth against it in his own strength not in the name and strength of the Lord 1 Sam. 17.45 46 He seeks not to engage the Spirits assistance he considers or knows little the strength of spiritual Adversaries and hence is easily overcome 6. In Natural men the conflict is between the Conscience and the depraved Will or corrupt Passions which is like a foreign War but in the renewed it 's like an Intestine War as one calls it the renewed Conscience against the unrenewed the renewed Will and Affections against the unrenewed There 's a Will and a Will-not in a Believer hence the Notion of a double person Rom. 7.15 19 20 there 's no such division in others they may do what Conscience approves not but cannot say that they would not the godly hate the evil they do and love the good they do not whereas the Natural man does hate the good the spirituality of it he does and loves the evil which he does not and may be dare not do In Natural men there 's some sparks of light in the Conscience but there 's no sanctified light in it the Will and Affections are totally corrupted so that there 's nothing in them as a principle to set them against themselves but in the renewed man there 's flesh and spirit in every faculty so that the fight is more close and in every gracious and in every sinful work they both put forth themselves and as the flesh weakens the acts of the Spirit so the opposition the Spirit makes weakens the acts of sin in the Believer for division weakens and so a Believer never sins with all his heart as other men do the renewed part never gives over all resistance And it 's upon this account 1. That the sins of Believers are not so great as the sins of others It 's true Gods electing Love Redemption and Regeneration lay special Bonds upon the Believer which highly heightens sin and adds many degrees of guiltiness to it But if we look to the principle of sin and whence it immediately proceeds the unregenerate mans sin is greatest for it is with all his heart there 's not a bit of the man that be-friends Christ there 's nothing in such of you that holds with him As for what opposition the Conscience makes it is not with your will if there be any made at all it 's grievous but no pleasure to you so that you seek out shifts and means either to stifle it or bribe it or bring it over to be for that which the will and affections are for Some think the Believers sins are more heinous because against more Light indeed this were a good Argument if the Mind were the only principle of our actions and not the will or elective faculty But let none abuse this for truly sin is so dreadful in both that it 's not easie to tell in whom its worse Hence 2. We see the reason why the Believer hath not so much pleasure in Sin as others have having two parties in him whatever pleases the one displeases the other the natural man having but one is more pleas'd at heart with sinful objects the opposition the Conscience makes hinders not but that he deliberately chuse and delightfully act it and obstinately persist in it The Believer is sometimes tasting of the forbidden fruit but Grace marreth the result of it and the more he finds he is pleased with it the worse he is pleased with himself 7. The Natural mans opposition does not any way break the power of Sin nor does continue till the man get up again if he fall he lies still whereas the Spirit in the Believer ceases not to strive till he be got to his feet again Sin was painful to him in the going down but it s more bitter in his belly and he resteth not till he hath vomited it up again the Conscience will cease to strive but grace never yea the godly man often rises by his falling he grows more humble and watchful and dependent the grief which sin breeds consumes the Sin that bred it Whereas the natural man when he overcomes he is overcome he grows proud and conceited the seeming mortification of one Sin does vivifie or give life and strength to another 8. The Natural mans opposition tends only to restrain or keep in Sin not to mortifie it if Sin will be quiet and peaceable he can let it live the Believer seeks the death of it the extirpation and abolition of it If you ask how we shall know when a Sin is mortified and when restrained only or what 's the difference between restraining and mortifying a Corruption Answer 1. When any Corruption is mortified one is thereby advantaged against all other Corruptions for the killing of one member or any branch of Original Sin does weaken
the whole whereas the restraining of any Sin does not weaken the body of sin for when it 's only restrained what the body of sin loses one way it gains another way Try then Art thou universally advantaged against every Sin 2. Is thy mind will and affections dead to that Sin mortifying sin is a metaphorical expression and this death that it implies is not only nor principally the ceasing of the acts of Sin but especially a deadness in the Soul as to Sin 1. In the Mind and Judgment Sin has lost the mans good opinion of it 2. In the will and affections he cannot think nor hear of it without abhorrency where Sin is only restrained a man can yet with pleasure roll it in his Mind the inclination to it is not broken many a man likes and loves the Sin which he does not the mortified man hates the evil which he does 3. Thou mayst know by what went before and by what follows 1. Did thou come easily by this power over Sin It 's true there is often difficulty in restraining Sin but what means did thou use to compass this and overcome the difficulty Was it by Prayer and Fasting and after much wrestling with God and by the blood of the Lamb that thou overcame Or was it by other means or by the meer force of an obstinate resolution thou took up 2. After the mortification of any Sin there 's a new Song ordinarily put in the mans mouth and the Soul is not only some way eased but is filled with Joy There is some Joy that flows natively from the mortification of Sin and there 's more that follows by way of reward as for a Natural man if he have any Joy upon restraining the acts of Sin it is but a spark of his own kindling or it results meerly from the nature of the thing the travel and labour the man is at in suppressing Sin does more than counter-balance that and is but the scant fruit of the testimony of his natural Conscience it will not bear him out to challenge Death and the Grave it heartens not a man against them some such may die securely but never one I think died triumphantly Mens delusions may suspend the horror of Hell from them for a while when a-dying but it 's some true Faith true Holiness true Mortification that fills the Soul with joy unspeakable 5. Sins that are only restrained do ordinarily break forth again and that with more force than before as waters bound up that do fortifie themselves and then carry all down before them but a Sin that is mortified as it rarely recovers so if it do yet it is so broke that it is but half an act But here may come in two other Cases 1. What is to be thought of the case of such as relapse into Sin 2. What 's to be thought of the case of such as after some serious Essays to mortifie feel their Corruptions more lively than before For the first That a godly man may commit an act of that Sin which is in some measure mortified is past all doubt else it were impossible he could sin at all for the first sanctifying saving work of the Spirit does strike at the root of every Sin and so begins the mortification of every Sin but this doth not nullifie or wholly extinguish Sin No Believer is absolutely secured from any particular act of Sin pro hic nunc except from the great Transgression 2. When one is in the state of Grace as after their particular Repentance for some particular Sin he is fallen into so after special endeavour yea and success too in mortifying that Sin he is not absolutely secured from every act of it for the future for though a mans Pardon as it imports a freedom from eternal Condemnation be perfect yet neither is Repentance nor Mortification perfect Now to clear this Let us consider 1. The gracious encouragements God hath given to such Jer. 3.1 Isa 55.7 compare with ver 3. His Covenant does not secure against every Relapse but it secures the multiplication of pardon Jer. 3.14 19 23. Hos 14.4 Back-sliding supposes some former recovery Mark there the ground of what 's promised I 'le love them freely the falling into such Relapses is the highest provocation to God and a Sin against most love and Recovery from such is the notable effect and Signal discovery of the greatness and freeness of Gods Love Consisider 2. That the mortification of such a particular Sin gives a man a greater advantage against that Sin and puts at some greater distance than from other Sins yet this advantage against this and distance from it is only gradually more than against or from other Sins and so makes the return of it not so probable or easie and if it return do aggravate it but not impossible more than the return of any other Sin especially when we consider that that Sin which by the first sanctifying work of the Spirit was in a special manner opposed and mortified may yet recover And 3. The advantage that the most holy man has over the most mortified Corruption is of the same kind but for degrees much below the advantage that Adam in Innocency had over every Sin and so is not able to secure it self the strongest Grace cannot preserve it self from the most mortified Corruption Hence the Believer must watch and pray and depend for asstance against it else he should more easily fall into it than Adam did into sin It 's true there are Promises ascertaining the Believers preservation from the dominion of Sin and his final Conquest over Sin whereas Adam in Innocency had no promise of the like nature but there is no word I know of in the Bible that ascertains the Believers preservation from every act of that Corruption which through the Spirit he has particularly mortified 4. There wants not Examples of the Saints relapsing into Sins as Sampson Judg. 16.1 4 Abrahams twice denying his Wife the Disciples twice contending for Supremacy Jehoshaphats instance is remarkable 2 Chron. 18.1 2 31 32 19.2 yet ch 20. v. 35 he Relapses Not to instance several things related of Peter These Examples though they do not answer in every circumstance to the case proposed yet by plain consequence they confirm our Position For if a Believer may act contrarily to that grace which is strongest in him and may be overtaken with that Sin or an act of that Corruption which is weakest and that over and over again as was Abraham and Peter then there is no degree of Mortification that secures him from repeating an act of that lust that is mortified If any say that though Mortification do it not yet true Repentance does it I answer If true Repentance does it it 's either from the nature of Repentance or some special promise of Grace made to the Penitent Not the former For 1. The nature of Mortification should rather secure from it 2. If true Repentance
us to an Answer to that great Question How it comes that the godly are so strangely intangled in sin after so many Promises to God and purposes against Sin They decree the death of Sin but it is not established Here the matter lies they take not in the Spirit 's assistance in their promises and purposes nor in their endeavours to answer their promises there 's some tang of self-sufficiency that marrs all such vain brags as Peters are Cords that are easily broken and his opinion of self-ability discovered it self by his supposition Though all men should deny thee He might well have said Lord I would deny thee though all men should But he speaks as if there were some peculiar Ability in him to resist Temptations and his purpose was like Sampson's green wit hs such suppositions are hazardous and suspicious though useful if managed with humility It 's a great mysterie says one to purpose so as yet to believe we can do nothing and also to believe that Christs strength is as effectual for mortifying such a lust as if it were our own And I add 3. To endeavour as industriously as if we could do all alone and indeed it 's through ignorance or neglect in all these that our purposes miscarry Pride hinders the first Unbelief the second and Sloth the third There are other reasons also therefore let me ask you 2dly Do you think that Purposes or Promises yea or Vows can break the inclination to sin of themselves or break the cursed union that 's between the heart and Sin They are ordinarily the effects of strong Convictions which do alway disingage the heart and affections to sin and when these are not loosed from Sin no bonds will be strong enough I have formerly shewn you that Convictions may make a man purpose yea and pray also against Sin when the heart and affections may secretly dissent and desire that God should not hear and if the affections seem at any time to conspire with an enlightned Judgment against Sin yet they are exceeding mutable and unfixed and when they are low or rather byassed the other way no wonder our purposes be ineffectual 3. They sometimes miscarry by reason of some sinistrous ends may be you are ashamed of your passions or you are affraid your corruptions should make some eruption to your disgrace and infamy or you intend to bottom your hopes upon the grave of such a lust or you design freedom from such an impetuous lust rather for your own ease and quiet than out of love to holiness or hatred to sin And some resolve and engage against sin only to shift and for the time put by a present challenge for what is done without any more of it or to be an excuse for letting a good frame of spirit go or at least to ease the mind as if ingaging were performing But it may be some have such experience of the treachery of their hearts that having purposed so often and yet failed they think it in vain for them to take up new resolutions yea having broken their promises that they made to abstain from such a sin they think it better to promise no more and come under no more engagements against sin Answ 1. It is not Arbitrary to us to bind our selves against sin we are obliged to fortifie our selves against it as strongly as we can and to fortifie our resolutions by promises to and Covenants with God against sin And sure such as do not so are more easily prevailed against and are sooner intangled If many Cords bind you not the one of a simple resolution will not but may be two or three will when one will not If you purpose to mortifie sin be sincere why will you not corroborate it but here appears the treachery of our hearts we will certainly sin think we And since it must be we indeavour that it be as little trouble to us as may be that our sin may want those aggravations which make it biting and stinging to our Consciences Finally I doubt the Lord letteth the man fall that will not engage because his refusal saith as much as he trusted not God for his assistance to perform or keep his engagements But is not sin after special engagements against it more heinous than if there had been none Answ 1. He is more accessary to his own sin in not using all Gods ways for preventing it and he sins more unexcusably in omitting that which was in his power to do as on the other hand the man that performs his engagements to God is more acceptable to him than he that simply forbears sin inasmuch as it manifests a greater abhorrence of sin and manifests a regard to a double Command viz. of abstinence from such a sin and of keeping our promise or vow to God the simple forbearance of sin is a compliance with a single Command and doth not manifest so much of the mans aversion to sin If any ask then how shall we purpose and ingage against sin so as we may be disintangled of it and effectually get it mortified Answ 1. Be sure you be sincere in them 2. Be sure your affections concur with your judgment else they will intangle you yet 3. See that you be also deliberate and that your resolutions and engagements against such a lust be not only from the present heat of affections 4. Strive to keep such a frame as you had when you engaged that awe of God and that hatred of sin you then had and be often thinking on your engagements humbling your selves for the least breaches of them 5. Take in the Spirit 's assistance in your purposes and endeavours 6. If one engagement bind not strongly enough we must renew and multiply them If one knot hold not says one we must cast more that we may never want some bond over our head And whereas our breaches aggravate our sin we must bring the aggravations together with the rest of our sins to Jesus Christ for pardon and maintain our peace says he rather by repeated acts of Faith and Repentance and by often washing our selves from the filth of these sins than by pleading no breach at all and see that you suffer not the guilt of the smallest breach to lye for any while unrepented of lest it make way for more and greater breaches Thus you see how a poor creature may keep up his hope of eternal life and assurance of interest in God when he is under convictions of many breaches with God and great short-coming in mortification I add another Consideration to this know that our engagements against sin do not tye us to be altogether without sin though the holy law of God doth such purposes and engagements were foolish and impossible but they oblige us honestly and sincerely to wrestle with and oppose sin we cannot oblige our selves to overcome it but to use the means which are in our power against it and to leave nothing unessayed that we think
our own much less to overcome without him Now concerning this Victory 1. See that it 's no fancy to think that the weakest follower of Christ that 's often foiled yet shall conquer Satan through Christ you shall not die of your wounds you may trust to this first Gospel-promise that to this day has never failed 2. That when Satan is doing you most harm and getting most advantage against you he is nearest his overthrow when he is bruising your heel he hazards the crushing of his head this is Christs fittest way to destroy him thus he makes Temptations work for good yea and defeats Satan he makes them strong by their falls this is a part of the Mysterie of Christ yet is an established and experienced Truth he would never let Satan touch your heel but that thereby he might to the greater glory of his Wisdom and Grace bruise his head 3. Though this be a certain Truth that he will bruise Satan yet has he not told us when nor what way he will do it may be not now nor a month nor a year hence may be neither this way nor any you can think of It 's enough for us to know that it is decreed and that Gods faithfulness is in pledg for it The day is coming that you shall be Victors and the Apostle tells us It shall shortly be Rom. 16.20 Vse 1. You that are out of Christ see your misery you are on Satans side are slaves to him under chains curse servant of servants he has a Throne in you he fills your heart as Ananias he entices to your ruin as Achab his will you do you eat and drink and sleep and work for him who shuts your eyes against Gospel-light But he 2 Cor. 4.4 Who opposes and repels our pleading for Christ who furnishes you with cavils against Christ but he they are certainly brutish that engage in the service of Tyrants and that kill others and daily oppose their own lives to promote the ambition of others or may be for their bread or a name among such fools as themselves how much more those who to gratifie Satan war against their own souls Oh is it nothing to you to be under the malignant influence of Satan he has some brutish pleasures to entice you but they are only pleasant poisons Vse 2. Hereby prove your selves you are either fighting on Christs side or against him you cannot be at peace with Satan and Christ also What know you of the Conflict between the flesh and the Spirit Are you chearful actors in sin or are you sufferers by it Rom. 7 beyond what you ever found in any other thing Or is there any protestation entred in Christs behalf or in behalf of the spiritual Law of God Is the heel or your head bruised by Satan No doubt you find something within you ready to join with what comes from Satan but do you also find any thing within that 's ready to comply with what comes from Christ that falls in with Truth and Duties with the motions and assistances of his Spirit Finally his seed and servants you are whose work you do Rom. 6.16 17. Rom. 8.13 Vse 3. You that are in Christ think not to be free of Satans enmity I speak not now of Enemies without but look that he fire not the house within expect an intestine War you have bosom restless Enemies Satan can muster many corruptions within Atheism Pride Worldliness Sensuality Unbelief these all stand for Satan and you are in more hazard of them than all Enemies you have without you 1 Pet. 4.14 Then be not secure this had almost undone Peter keep watch and ward especially when you know that the Enemy is within you and examine all that come and go to and from thy heart for it's time of War There be some who at their Conversion are zealous and vigorous in their conflicts with indwelling sin who are much in Prayers and strong cryes c. but soon abate and why not because Satan and sin are quite defeated and expelled but because they are weary to keep up a continual conflict with themselves and therefore at least make a cessation of Arms Satan lets them alone and they let him alone they go on smoothly in Duties they find no comfort in them yet find no trouble sin in the heart prevails yet is not grievous because not opposed so that there needs a new Conversion and a new Conquest such as we have spoke of Matth. 12.29 4. Hence we see how poor weak Creatures come to be victorious Rom. 8.36 through him c. Were it not for Christ he that overcame Adam in innocency would easily defeat us It 's not for want of Adversaries that some get to Heaven and not others it 's not for want of Temptations the Angels had not these yet fell and some now have them and yet perish not by them It 's not for want of sin within Satan had no part in Adam yet overcame him he has a part in the Believer yet cannot overcome him It 's not from our willing or working or vigorous warring with sin that we overcome but it 's through him who is the seed of the woman yet not as such or considered meerly as a man strength of inherent Grace secured not Paul the aged and experienced Soldier of Christ Rom. 7.24.25 2 Cor. 12. Christ is Captain of the Lords Host Angels could not keep themselves were it not for Christ we should soon be as fishes in an ill net We see what a small matter made Asa rage Jonas fret to death almost Peter deny Christ and curse 5. You that are on Christs side be encouraged he has already condemned sin and undone the condemning-power of it and if you be his it is dying in you indeed he inflicts a lingring death on it Gal. 5.24 Where it reigns it kills therefore he breaks his power at first stroke which makes young Converts so tender and so severe to it in themselves and others if at any time it make head he knocks it down again yet not wholly for he manifests the sufficiency of his Grace now more in keeping up the conflict than in conquering And you have more cause to fear the sins you are at league with than those you war with It 's true the best side is sometimes worsted but it 's so ordered that the success Satan gets tends to his overthrow and the Believers Conquest Rom. 8.36 for Christ will not lose his own in the Believer he never loses possession Rom. 7.18 19. He sins yet consents not and in time Christ turns the Battel and by little and little carries on a compleat Victory Is not this good news to you that are in Christ Sin may vex you like the Midianites but it shall not be your ruin he has not exempted you from trouble for sin nor from war with it and may be when one head is cut off as with Hydra another starts up yet it shall not outlaw you