times that for lesser sins there is a pardon in course and that there needs no repentance and if thou hast wilfully betrayed thy self into such occasions as drew forth these acts of sin these first stirrings of Corruption thy subsequent dissent and crushing them will not serve without more particular and solemn repentance I mean therefore such motions of sin as are excited by the suddenness and subtilty of temptations and such as are the natural and necessary effects of the body of sin and the hourly breathings of it If thou with tears protest against them God will not charge them on thee yet finally every dissent from or dislike of them will not discharge from the sin of them some may dislike them for their tendency and others as they are troublesome But I mean a dislike of them for themselves and protesting against them as provoking God and polluting the soul 4. Ejaculatory prayer as it s called is a notable expedient for crushing the first motions of sin we formerly commended secret prayer for the mortification of predominant lusts But its impossible one can have opportunity for solemn addresses to God every time they find Corruption stirring in them these sudden motions of sin must have some speedier cure they may be opposed and smuthered by sudden ejaculations and desires sent up to heaven which no straitnedness as to time place or business need to hinder They may be in a prisoner before his Judg in a Courtier when he is standing before his Prince Neh. 2.4 This way of praying is more especially necessary 1. When thou hast no opportunity of retiring in secret so that thou needs not say thou wants time or place though I fear some does without necessity restrain private prayer under the pretext of this 2. When there is a good motion started in thy heart that it may be cherished that a good purpose may be kept in the heart for ever 3. Upon every change of thy Company and upon lesser change of what business thou art about when thou goes out and comes in when thou comes from Company to Solitariness e contra when thou visits thy friend reproves or advises him yea when ever thou opens thy mouth in Company or ever thou resolve on or promise any thing though it seem small and nothing disputable many such occasions might be instanced But 4. That which is to our purpose is when any spark of a temptation comes in when Habitual Corruption begins to stir when any corrupt affection does in the least begin to take fire this is a good way to quench it This the godly man finds true in frequent experience but if this doth not then get into thy secret Chamber this is an honest errand to the throne of Grace cast thy self down at his feet and tell him That if he will trample upon thee let him do it thou will lay thy hand upon thy mouth but let not thine enemy and mine oppress me and tread me under Lord I would not sin against thee but thou seest how I am oppressed O undertake for me Lord I rather dye at thy foot than live as Satan and my corrupt heart would have me Worm Jacob that prevailed with him did not wrestle upon an honester account than this is If thus thou betake thy self to him thy bow shall abide in strength and thou shalt find him to be strong and mighty in Battel Psal 24.7 8. In the secret of his tabernacle in his Pavilion shall he hide thee and set thee as upon a rock Psal 27.5 O do not yield to Satan nor to indwelling-sin for it may be ere you rise off your knees you shall have help to allude to 1 Sam. 11.9 I am sure he is faithful who has promised c. and never any that took his appointed method that were overcome by a temptation 1 Pet. 5.7 5. Take the method prescribed in the Text You cannot rightly mortifie sin in its rise or after some progress you cannot mortifie Original sin nor your predominant lusts nay nor the first motions of sin but through the spirit If you walk in the Spirit you shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh Gal. 5.16 Sin shall never conceive nor bring forth Now in the beginning I told you that by the Spirit we may understand the graces of the Spirit by the acting of which mortificaon is carried on But 2. And more especially The Holy Spirit by whose immediate efficacy sin is mortified for the former I did commend the cherishing of grace in the heart in order to the mortification of Original sin and habitual lusts and did also mention it as necessary to the mortification of predominant lusts That one should indeavour to grow especially in and to cherish that grace which is most directly opposite to that sin If it be pride set thy self especially to study humility if worldliness heavenly mindedness if passion study meekness look what sin is most advantaged by your natural temper for ordinarily that is the predominant and set your self especially against that else it will marr the lustre of any grace or excellency that may be in thee and it will keep thee a dwarf in Religion all thy days and like Reuben thou shalt never excel indeed a little grace when any way advantaged by education or the natural disposition will go far and this makes it hard to judg of the comparative degree at least of other mens graces and oft-times makes men mis-judg themselves or think too highly of themselves But when grace is to roll against wind and tide both it had need to be strong when Original corruption is so and so advantaged in any of its particular members But as to our present purpose when any Corruption begins to stir in you if you would through the Spirit in this sense mortifie it put thy heart instantly upon the acting of that grace which is most opposite thereunto So the Psalmist At what time I 'm affraid I 'le trust in thee correct carnal fear by hope and holy confidence in God If inordinate worldly sorrow be stirring labour to beat out of thy heart some spark of spiritual joy If thy wants or losses begin to afflict thee indeavour to unlock the Cabinet where thy Jewels and treasure lies come study and behold an All-sufficient God and an All in all Christ See if thou misses House or Land Son or Daughter Brother or Sister here If thy heart be inclined to run out in carnal frolick mirth let deep and serious reflections on the sufferings of Christ without which a sinful thought could not have been pardoned on a dying hour and the last trumpet and followng judgment give check to it If pride begin to stir go and abase thy self thus sin shall be a loser by every attempt it makes 2. If thou cannot come this length if thy heart and affections will run out so and so then indeavour to alter the objects of them turn the stream a little aside into another
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
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
least think they can resist and overcome many sins and yet do not why do they put off Repentance and Mortification with express purposes some other time to repent and mortifie sin and why do they when under outward trouble or inward terrors cry out O that I had known this 2. They will not so much as try whether they can mortifie sin or not 3. The natural man does not only freely and willingly but chearfully fulfil the lusts of the flesh without regard to or sense of his Impotency to do otherwise or any necessity he is under saving what he lays upon himself they could not do it more freely supposing there were no power above them determining evenâ—◠〈…〉 could not do it more chearfully no◠〈…〉 supposing it were the true happiness 〈…〉 though deceitful will tell us so viz. 〈…〉 is not from any compulsion to sin nor 〈…〉 ability to do the contrary that we sin 〈…〉 a willingness and satisfaction in so doing and thus they do willingly consent to the want of the Spirits assistance that 's necessary to the mortification of sin And 4. They are even willing that there be insuperable difficulties in their way that they cannot mortifie sins they are so in love with their lusts that they are content to have their ear bored and to be servants to them for ever they love to have it so Jer. 5.31 and are grieved when their crazy bodies cannot serve their sinful Ambitious Covetous Vindictive souls yea it may be they are glad that they have this pretence of impotency to plead for themselves and it being so universal they think their plea will be the more relievant But 5. That which may stop every mouth is this You do not what you may do for the mortification of sin sure I am If you cannot get the better of a vain proud light heart you may yet restrain your tongue and rectifie your garbs But O when poor Ministers cannot prevail with you for Christs sake to cut off the superfluities of your own or others hair and to forsake sinful and foolish fashions which any may do with much ease how shall we prevail with you to cut off a right hand to abandon what is as dear to you as your life and what cleaves closer to you than a girdle does to the loyns of a man or the soul does to the body In a word how much might you have done to the mortification of such or such a lust that you have neglected so that this pretence of Impotency is but a froward Objection of the flesh for as an excellent man saith the Spirit is ever before-hand with us preventing us with some knowledg and some ability which if we joyn with the Spirit is ready to increase and carry us further If the Lord concur to those works to which he does not previously move the heart how much more to those works which he excites and is the first mover The holy Lord follows the worst of men a great way but they will have none of him so that the Question Whether God will condemn the man that did his utmost ought to be out of doors for no man out of Christ ever did all that he could by common assistance of the Spirit But is not the godly man heartily willing to be rid of sin when yet he cannot Answ As the unrenewed will is Christs greatest enemy and Satans greatest strength so indeed much of the strength of Grace lies in the renewed will and in the new man It 's Christs greatest friend and sins greatest enemy Rom. 7.17 23 The heart may be willing when the flesh is weak And when there is some defect and short-coming in the executive powers of the soul our diligence in duty and actual opposition to sin seldom or never answer the desires of a willing mind or of an inlarged heart Yet 1. Know that there is some willingness were the will perfectly set against sin a man should be perfectly holy Paul Rom. 7 speaks only of his renewed will or his will in so far as renewed for its certain his will was in part for evil else he could not have done it true there was force as it were on the renewed will therefore he pleads Not guilty in some fense but this was by the unrenewed will in part though more especially by the inferior soul 2. The believer if he quench not the Spirit yet is often grieving him and so provokes him to suspend his assistance And I judg we may say This the holy Spirit rarely or never does but after some unkind usage 3. None of them are destitute of all assistance against sin and they are culpable in so far as they improve not these and in as far as they do not conscientiously shun all provocations to sin and use all Gods appointed means and methods with which the spirit uses to concur and whereby he conveys supplies of grace and strength to the soul If any ask how this necessary assistance of the Spirit may be obtained I Answ 1. Negatively Do not resist the Spirit 2. Quench not the Spirit 3. Grieve not the Spirit 2. Positively 1. You must be convinced of your utter impotency to mortifie any sin 2. You must highly prize the Spirit 's assistance and thirst and hunger for it as a child for bread to nourish him 3. You must pray for the Spirit Luk. 1.13 Your heavenly Father will give the Spirit c. See how the Disciples were busied Act. 1.14 Prayer brings down the Spirit and the more of this Spirit the more prayer Or the Lord will have such as have none of the Spirit yet to seek him by prayer Ezek. 36.27 compared with v. 37. Indeed there is no promise that God will give his sanctifying Spirit to every unrenewed man that asks him that of Luk. 11.13 concerns only children and a further measure of the Spirit But if thou hast any thing of the Spirit the way to get more is by believing-prayer I say by believing-prayer compare Act. 1.4 with 8.14 See also Isa 40.30 31. though thou find not much of this yet believe the promise and wait O it 's not known what advantage there is in believing promises Joh. 11.20 There is some present strength that accompanies this and more that certainly follows it 4. Improve what measure of the Spirit you have were it but on the account of that general promise Matt. 25.21 and Prov. 1.23 Turn ye at my reproof and behold I 'le pour out my spirit upon you be content that the Spirit should not only dwell in you but influence and act you Walk after the spirit that what Paul says of Christ you may say of the Spirit Gal. 2.20 and of Grace 1 Cor. 15.10 Think it no bondage but true liberty to be led by the Spirit happy they who are ever in such a frame as are fit for the Spirit to operate upon Indeed it requires careful attention to observe and much humility and self-denyal to
Col. 3.9 Lye not one to another seeing you have put off the old man with his deeds these are the same with the deeds of the Body 3. By the Spirit is here understood first and mainly the Holy Ghost by whose immediate Efficiency this work is effected yet 2. May be taken in also the graces of the Spirit by the acting of which this work is carried on Now from the words I shall take occasion to speak to these particulars in short 1. What Mortification is 2. What 's the Object and extent of it 3. The necessity of it 4. What is the work of the Spirit in it 5. I shall apply the whole For the first It 's necessary in the first place to shew you some bastard-kinds of Mortification whereby ye may know what it is not The first is A Philosophick mortification to such things as are seen by the light of Nature to be empty and unsatisfactory for Reason may go far here hence some of the old Philosophers seemed to contemn Riches and to be above trouble for outward changes as Diogenes c. Yet they were either but Dissemblers as Seneca who writes against Avarice and tells us That Nature was satisfied with water for Drink and with a house of Turf yet he was a Covetous man So was Cicero an aspiring man for as much as he writes against Pride not by the Spirit and the Cross of Christ but from meer moral Considerations as that of the old Pagans revived again by some who call themselves Christians who taught men to moderate their inordinate desires and passions by the precepts and habits of moral Virtue This especially flourished among the old Family of Philosophers called Stoicks who pretended to be without all passions which said they were not incident to wise men If they met with any extraordinary mischance they thought a wise man might step out at any door he would into their imaginary heaven and happiness Hence Cato who was the Worlds-Wonder for his Wisdom stabbed himself and his Servants finding him bound up his wound which when they were gone he teared open again yet not expiring soon enough he was forced to use some other violence to himself So Seneca and others Now this way of Mortification all who deny the necessity of special Grace as Pelagians Arminians Quakers must needs fall into for whatever different names they give to any word principle or power yet if common to every man it 's still but Nature which is capable of improvement and indeed how far common Reason may be improved to the regulating of a mans passions is plain from the manifold instances of old and late Moralists to the shame of many called Christians Yet plain it is that they did but keep under their lusts and not mortifie them and that by their depressing one lust they did but exalt another as those who died for their Countrey and forfook all for meer love of Learning But what avails it says one to be dead to a bit of Clay and alive to Vain-glory which is indeed the life of Sin and of the Old-Man Pride especially did grow upon the ruines of other lusts so that their seeming Self-denial and Motification was really but Self-magnifying Yea to that height of Pride did some of them grow up that Lucretius and Seneca endeavoured by Argument to exalt their virtuous men above their gods in as much as these were necessarily good But men were such voluntarily and by choice and whoever now they be who would lessen â—â—â—â—tural pravity and misery and who oppose the imputed Righteousness of Christ and Justification by Faith whatever their seeming mortification and moral endowments be they must needs fall into the same Condemnation for ignorance of these grand Truths was the root that the Pagan Arrogance grew upon as for that inward Tranquility that followed the moderation of their passions it was but a Lye 2. A second Bastard-way of Mortification is that of the Papists it stands in some outward severities as lying on the Earth whipping themselves going bare-footed with Ropes about their waists begging living in Cells Hermitages Vows of Poverty and single life They suppose says Luther That when they enter their Cells that they are crucified to the World when indeed they are crucified to Christ and Christ to them Pride and Self-righteousness being thereby quickned We may as well sacrifice our lives as shed a drop of blood in such a way as Baals Priests did which had the same ground and bottom that Popish-whippings and Penances have But what Pride Epicurism and monstrous lusts have been and are cherished under these pretences I need not tell you We grant That to keep the body in subjection is a part and a means of further mortification But this is not to be done by rigour and cruelty But by the sparing-use of outward Comforts and refusing to gratifie the inordinate desires of the flesh Some such severities as going naked c. some Quakers have also espoused but this is not through the Spirit to mortifie c. These means of mens devising do but cherish Self-righteousness and Pride Satan is not so easie as to be beaten or buffeted out were he to preach he would preach such Doctrine as this and prescribe such Methods witness some Pagans who in these have out-gone Papists A 3d false way of Mortification is that of the Antinomians who place it in the want or suppressing of all challenges of inward sense and trouble for sin these they cry down as Legal and the ground of this is another no less Error viz. That what is sin in others is none in them suppose even gross outward wickedness But our Lord came to redeem Sinners not sin He justifies our persons not our sins this were the way to vivifie sin and to mortify holiness Sure David knew not then what mortification meant Psal 51.3 But I will not rake into the ashes of this I hope buried Error The 4th false way of Mortification is that which lies in refraining from ourward impieties whereas the first motions of sin if not consented to are pleaded not to be sin Thus Papists and Quakers for these last have espoused this among other Popish Errours and if they fall not into gross impieties they blasphemously father them upon the holy Spirit But are not the first motions the deeds of the body do they not flow from some evil principle or habit in the Soul if they do they are to be mortified if you say we mortifie them when we consent not to them I answer Mortification imports more even the extirpation and as much as may be the supression of them for their very being in the Soul is irksome to the godly man the new creature cannot bear them Rom. 7.24 25 and were it not for Christ we should be condemned for them Chap. 8.1 They foolishly tell us that these motions are from Satan James tells us they are from a mans own lust Chap. 1.14 Our Lord says They
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
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
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
of Bashan howl Zoch 11.1 2. He makes these smart that others may fear But Oh shall such things as happen for Examples and are worthy to be recorded for Admonition to the end of the World have no effect upon thâ—se to whom they happen Shall the same generation repeat yea out-do their former sins Can you with grief remember your Losses and with no regret remember your Pride and Covetousness Will you frustrate Reproach and defame Gods Methods of Judgment and proclaim to the World that his design has miscarried upon you and that you will not be healed Shall the Rod in Moses's hand cleave the Rock and shall it in Gods hand cleave no hearts Must the Lords Ministers with grief of heart go and complain against you to him and say Lord Thou hast stricken them but they have not grieved thou hast consumed them but they have refused to receive Correction they have made their faces harder than a Rock This is a Nation and this is a City that obeyeth not the voice of the Lord nor receiveth Correction And O that we could sigh for this even to the breaking of our Loins Now how can you weep with them that weep that have forgotten your own afflictions or rather never could weep aright for your selves Or if there be any Mourners among you yet sure I am you are far from Sackcloth and Ashes But do you think that God has done with you there 's a dreadful word Ezek. 15.6 7 I will set my face against them and they shall go out from one fire and another shall devour them Hath he not strange punishments for the Workers of Iniquity If London's sins be greater now than before the Pestilence or before the Fire what Wonder if greater Judgments from God come If God shall give you up into the hands of bloody Papists it will be worse than Fire or Pestilence in Davids reckoning as we see by his choice and yet better have fallen into the hands of the Philistins or Ammonites or any Enemies David had than into the hands of Antichristian Butchers And for any thing we know we are not half a hand-breadth from it I pretend not to any extraordinary Discovery of Gods Counsels but as we may Prophecy from sin to punishment so from greater and stranger sins to greater and stranger punishments I might mention other Directions as the ingaging all thy might against that sin that prevails most over thee 2 Chron. 8.30 and the endeavouring to grow particularly in the opposite grace Finally the Consideration of Christs second Coming Col. 3.4 with ver 5. 1 John 3.2 with ver 3. Will you wallow in sin when Christ is so near Must thou be made like to him and wilt now let thy Soul swarm with noisom lusts Can thou look for him and not mortifie what crucified him But I proceed to speak in the third place to the mortification of the first motions of Sin Now here I shall 1. shew the sinfulness of these 2. I shall shew whence it is that they abound so much with some 3. I shall press the mortification of them from several Considerations 4. I shall mention some helps to this For the first That every motion arising from the Corruption of the Heart or from habitual Lust whether it has a particular Object or be but a vagrant Imagination though not delighted in nor consented to is sin before God will easily appear if we consider 1. That they arise from a sinful Principle they are born of the flesh and are of the nature of Original sin and if the Tree be corrupt so must every bit of the fruit 2. They are disconform to the Law of God and so must be sinful in their Nature as well as in their Rise they lust against and oppose the Spirit Gal. 5.17 and so must oppose the Law of God If they be against the Law in the heart they are also against the written Law Though you should crush them yet once they were if they had no inordinacy in them why were they crushed If there be any disorder or inordinacy in them it is from us they have these and so they must leave a guilt upon us 3. Their sinful tendency and effects prove this To instance but a few 1. They are incitements to sin and promote obedience to the law of sin and the fulfilling of its commands 2. They make way for other sins beside what they do immediately and directly tend to they open the door and keep it open for temptations to gross sins and gives Satan access to blow up the Cole 3. They keep out good Motions and so must obstruct Duties and unfit a man for them 4. As they are contrary to right Reason and not answerable to that Angelical Holiness and Purity that should be in us so they cannot but leave some blot and defilement behind them let these Motions be never so passing and transient and run never so swiftly through us they must needs taint us by reason of our corruption that in less or more still sideth with them they have alway the virtual consent of the will in as far as not regenerated and so cannot simply be said to be involuntary which is the great Objection made against this Truth though they be against the renewed Will which Paul speaks of Rom. 7. O how many vile sins are stirring in the heart that are not deliberate nor explicitely consented to yet are voluntary because they have their seat and rise in the Will as well as other faculties 5. They hinder our Communion with God do you think that if he had his due there would be any room left for these Have they any place in Heaven where the Saints enjoy full Communion with God and if they be inconsistent with that they must be a hinderance to this Now it is upon these accounts that the faintest Motions and stirrings of sin are grievous to the godly especially when it is best with them The tender lively Christian as he groans under a body of sin so it never stirs but he feels it and is pained with it the most sudden vagrant motions of the Mind Heart and Affections are burthensom to him and that not only as they bewray a living principle of sin in his Soul but as they are sinful gaddings and in some measure whorish departings of the heart from God and inconsistent with that intire and uninterrupted delight the Soul should have in him and that continual affectionate working and out-going that should be in the Soul toward him It may be indeed he delights in the Law of God after the inward-man yet he cannot reach full conformity to it within more than in his practice outwardly when he resolveth on some good ere he be aware his heart is wandring a hundred ways and so ill is present with him O be convinced of the sinfulness of this how often is your Mind stirring and roving for it 's a restless thing and how rarely can you say
more especially sometimes Temptations seize upon our Judgments and sometimes upon our Affections unawares and when they have tainted the Affections they have easie access to the Mind and need to be carefully watched Look to the first springs of Sin when we are asleep the Enemy is sowing tares and they quickly grow up Temptations do often suddenly assault and the thoughts and motions of the Heart are nimble they are swift and instantaneous a spark of fire does no sooner kindle Powder than a Temptation does excite some inordinate motion of the Heart If all the doors and windows of the Soul be not kept close there will be fiery dants flung in and some sparks of temptations will take fire and thou can never shut doors and windows so close but when thou hast done all thou hast need to watch Satan can espy a passage into thy heart that thou didst not think of he has a party and thou hast an Enemy within thee that will let him in If thou be asleep it may be indeed thy severity to indwelling sin will irritate it and provoke it to mutiny and so occasion greater confusion in thy Soul but dread not this nor ever look for good from thy indulgence and tenderness to thy corrupt lusts or affections their war is better than their peace suspect that inward quiet that comes from any favour to sin or connivance at it The Apostle tells us Rom. 7.8 That sin took occasion by the Commandment c. One great hinderance of Mortification is that sin is thought not so noisom as it is but when the Commandment comes when the Word beats down that conceit by exacting thorough Obedience upon the highest peril and laying bonds on the very thoughts this inrages Corruption and it grows more unruly It is not the proper effect of the Law to stir up sin more than the impetuous ' running of water is the proper effect of a Bank of Earth which was made to dam it up nor is it the proper effect of diligent endeavours for mortifying all inward motions to excite them and make them more tumultuous Sometimes strict watching of sin makes it more cunning sometimes it provokes an eruption of it and then the poor Believer is apt to think his case worse than before But was it worse with Paul Rom. 7 than formerly Indeed it 's hard to keep Corruption in close Prison and to marr all communication between Satan and it to suffer none to go out or come in But Watchfuln ss will do much thoughts will be stirring and affections will be stirring therefore it were our wisdom to ask them whence they come and whither they go if from Satan or from the flesh if from Heaven or from the Spirit and arrest what have an evil aspect or tendency or favour and do Justice upon them what are dubious keep them Prisoners till thou has further examined them for Satans messengers oft-times come disguised and with Christs Word in their mouths and the motions of sin are often mistaken for spiritual motions as the Porters stood continually at the door of the Temple to keep out the unclean of all sorts so must you do with all that defile or is like to defile if you be holy Temples to God to dwell in Yet for all that I have said of them a Believer must not be too much in examining of them so as to be taken off more profitable work nor indeed can we ever keep account of them they are so innumerable should we ever be pursuing and tracing them there should be room for no Duty else And finally because as they come suddenly so often they fly as swiftly away Now under this Head I would commend unto you a careful search into and intimate acquaintance with thy own heart that thou may know where thou art weakest and what advantages Satan has against thee What sin does most intirely beset thee which is the soft place of thy Soul which Satans darts do with most ease enter into What corrupt passions and affections are most easily kindled in thee And where thou sees the greatest danger keep the strongest watch and do not only keep at distance from such occasions and temptations as may most likely draw out thy Corruptions but keep thy very thoughts at the greatest distance from these suffer not thy self to think of them except it be to reproach them or to provoke greater abhorrence of them and this also must be prudentially managed 2. Endeavour to keep your hearts under a deep sense of the sinfulness of Sin even of these first motions a Natural man is not troubled for the sin of these or for the disconformity of them to any Law though he may for outward actings of sin because Natures light does not discover the sinfulness of them though it may be he may be angry at them as they molest him or tend to something that he abhors and here lies one difference between the truly godly and others yet we must grant that oft-times the godly think but too meanly of these and do not apprehend so much ill in them as there is and hence guard not sufficiently against them nor yet do sufficiently bewail them may be you are easily satisfied with your Repentance for these and think general confessions and complaints sufficient Do you use to make an Errand to God to confess these and to beg a particular pardon for them Peter makes a Peradventure of the forgiveness of Simon Magus's thought Acts 8.22 True that â—â—s a more deliberate approved thought but an exercised Soul will many times make a peradventure to it self of the forgiveness of a more imperfect and rejected Thought I would not grieve such but for others let me ask you Do you not know that God is a Jealous God Jealousie amongst men importeth an aptness to suspect an Jnjury a Husband viz. is jealous when he is apt to suspect his Wifes want of love or loyalty to him upon small circumstances without evident ground so to do and withall it imports indignation against the smallest ground of suspition this it cannot endure viz. Any thing that looks like the inclination of the heart to another says Joshua You cannot serve the Lord for he is a holy God Chap. 24. ver 19. It 's true He hath manifested this especially in the matters of his Worship and Institutions according to his threatning annexed to the second Commandment as in the instance of Aaron's two Sons and Vzza and the Bethshemites c. But may we not think that God is as jealous of the heart as of any thing and that he will take notice of every motion of it and will resent every disloyal glance of the thoughts though it come not the length of a purpose nay nor any deliberation in order to a purpose or resolution Is there not more sin in many sudden-passing thoughts though rejected than in Vzza's hasty catching hold of the Ark or in the Bethshemites looking into it or is
the Spirit which if hearkned to and improved may recover the Soul again and bring back more plentiful and greater assistances of the Spirit First then beware of marring the Spirits work 2. Learn to comply and actively to co-operate with the Spirit in all the methods and ways whereby he destroys sin 3. When sin is not allowed the Spirit is not grieved so as to withdraw or suspend his operations For the first Resist not the Spirit else the bonds of your sins shall be made strong Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is Liberty 2 Cor. 3.16 This is not a Liberty of speech only or mainly he works out our freedom and Adoption but when he is resisted or opposed he brings under bondage to fear for both these Rom. 8.15 16 are the effects of the same holy Spirit and brings Adoption under debate again Jer. 3.19 1. O do not counter-act nor counter-work the Spirit when he discovers sin do not you shut your eyes or wink hard to hold out his light some will not know Sin because they have no mind to leave it much less to mortifie it they put out the Candle that they may sin the more freely such Ignorance does highly aggravate guilt how many defend their ignorance of Truths and Duties Errours and Sins against the Spirit of God and thus for some base lust sell Truth and Holiness which are glorious Beams of God and at the highest rate and peril make a Conquest of Errour or Sin which are the excrements of the Devil and of Hell Oh to what a height of sin in this particular have many arrived at who instead of complying with what Light and Convictions the Spirit does minister to them will have the Spirit comply with their darkness their Sins and their Errours when men study the Scripture to seek a cover for them or get to themselves Teachers after their own lusts after the manner of Achab as ordinarily great men especially do their Ministers and Chaplains Thus men would make the Spirit of God of their own mind and to approve Sin some are angry at the Light as it mars their carnal Mirth and as it opens the eyes of others to think of them what they would not be thought How many also do with the Spirit within as they do with the Spirit in his Ministers and as the Jews did with Jeremy Ch. 44 They seek Light but are determined in their mind only they would have the Spirit to serve their turn 2. Do not not oppose the Spirit when drawing the heart off Sin when engaging and raising purposes in the heart against Sin or when arming the passions against it as many do who thereby render outward helps for Mortification and also the inward workings of the Spirit powerless and ineffectual and thus when God would heal them they discover their iniquity as Ephraim and as those do who not only call evil good c. but draw iniquity like Cart-ropes who the more they are striven with the more they stretch themselves forth to sin this is ordinary with the unregenerate But 2dly Do not grieve the Spirit this is more common to the godly Now you grieve the Spirit 1. When you covet his Comforts more than his sanctifying Operations and his killing of sin in you It 's worse to be under the power of Sin than to be under terrours for sin 2. We grieve the Spirit by every act of sin by the least indulgence to sin the very first motions of sin they are lustings against the Spirit and the further they proceed the more they grieve the Spirit If they be delighted in or consented to which is the conception of sin much more if they be brought forth and amongst sins the more spiritual any sins be the more it grieves the holy Spirit as leaving upon the Soul the character and resemblance of the contrary evil Spirit As for instance Pride and the more spiritual Pride be and the more excellent the object of it be the more provoking it is though indeed in some respect sensual pleasures and bodily sins may be said to grieve the Spirit more in as much as they not only defile his Temple but also polute the Soul which should be the inner Temple and therefore kept more holy with sensual affections which alienates the Soul from the Lord and which also weaken the Soul Hos 4.11 Hence see the opposition Ephes 5.18 Jude 19 and which are a real service and proper tribute to the flesh whereas we are debtors only to the Spirit Rom. 8.12 and it cannot but exceedingly grieve the Spirit when we pay our liveliest affections as tribute to his great Enemy in us For the 2d Direction mentioned viz. Compliance and Co-operation with the Spirit You must not think that the Spirit will mortifie sin when you are asleep or without your own endeavours much less when you are actually indulging and giving scope to it If ye through the Spirit do mortifie c. But ere I press this more particularly let me exhort you to endeavour as much as in you lies to keep your Souls in such a frame as is fit for the holy Spirit to work upon an humble meek and ductile frame of spirit the best frame will not enable to mortifie any sin but when the Lord finds the Soul in a good frame he works suitably upon it Psalm 27.14 but when there 's nothing to work upon or when the heart is like clamp Tinder either heavenly sparks are withheld or they die out And when the Spirit does his part then be true to yours when thou art conflicting with sin and the Spirit comes in and takes thy part against it happy thou if thou can improve it But Oh sin not away such blessed assistance may be thou sinds not much of it at first for he uses to try us with a little ere he trust us with much and as we refuse or close in with his first offers so does he deny or afford us further assistance he gives a little to make way for more Now the prejudiced Soul discerning that such a motion is levelled at its beloved lust which is its life and foreseeing the difficulty and pain of Mortification does reject the motion and refuse this assistance Even as some wretches says one mar their conceptions to prevent the pain and inconveniencies of Child-bearing But O do not hold out these Messengers nor murther these Births of the Spirit that would assist thee in the killing and mortifying of thy sin Oh hide not and plead not for thine Enemy when the Spirit comes to avenge thee on it for all the injuries it has done thee go not forth against it in thy own strength nor yet refuse to follow him when he gives the Alarm or the Signal for Battel hastily buckle on thy Armour and thou shalt prevail but if any Temptation meet thee all alone thou art weak as water or hadst thou been as strong as Sampson if thy locks be shaven and
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
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
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
he personates a servant to them and ordinarily employs them in such work as is suitable to their corrupted nature and takes such ways with them as are pleasing to the flesh so that there needeth no force to keep them in servitude they are so well-pleased with their Lord that his fetters are as Gold-chains to them yea some of them are so far transformed into the spirit and image of the Devil as to commit such prodigious acts of wickedness that one would think humane Nature corrupted as it is should tremble at it and in nothing has this appeared more than in the prosecution of this Enmity in those horrid and diabolical methods and arts of violence and cruelty that have almost in all Ages been invented and used against the godly and as for that Dread men commonly have at his appearance it is known how easily they are familiarized yea he has taught men to call evil Spirits Familiars good Neighbours c. And how many are in express Covenant with him There 's no man can deny this but with the same breath he denies Christ the Scriptures and experience it is credibly reported of 17 Popes one after another And in most if not all places of the World he has been and in many yet is visibly worshipped and hath a Neighbourhood or rather a visible Kingdom among them 2. Against whom and what is this enmity of Satan and his seed levelled I Answer Primarily against God he is an Adversary to God and holiness and so to Jesus Christ as God and also as man because he had so much of God in him more than any man and to the Saints because of their relation to God and Christ his enmity to God appears in his whole design and business more particularly in his blasphemous injections into the minds of poor Creatures and in his using the tongues of some that he possesses to blaspheme God and indeed his enticing of men to war against Heaven with their tongues in cursing and blasphemous Oaths where there is neither profit nor pleasure to allure them is a sufficient evidence both of the Devils and of mans enmity to God 2. This is levelled against Jesus Christ how early stirred he up persecution against him as soon as he was born and did all he could against him and such enmity has he to his Name and to the very shadow of Christianity that he will admit none unto a strict consederacy with him till they have renounced Christ and the sign of their dedication to him And Oh what an astonishing meditation is it to think that Spirits once so holy and wise should have fallen into such deeps of sin or risen into such a height of indignation against infinite holiness and goodness that now their only scope and delight should be to dishonour God and to mar his work in the World and his Image in man And what an astonishing witness is this of the patience of God! we wonder he bears so long with men that are Vessels of wrath who are but like grass on the house-tops whereas he has suffered Satan for several thousand years to range and tyrannize up and down the World and yet this mars not the lustre and beauty of Gods wise Government of the World 3. This Enmity is also levelled against the followers of Christ all the actings of evil spirits in the World have a tendency to mens hurt whatever friendship they may pretend and it is not any outward concern of mens that they especially intend to ruin and are at pain and labour to undo It is the great and eternal Concern of their immortal Souls that they level at they envy them that happiness which they are out of hope of or their hatred to God and Christ is heightned from their passing by them when they chose and redeemed some of lost men Now as the Lord designs his peoples good by all the seeming contrary dealings with them so does the Devil by his contrary methods intend to hurt them whether he tempt or forbear to tempt whether he solicite Peter to hinder Christs sufferings or prompts Judas to further them when he seems asleep and when he rages there 's as much enmity in his peace as in his war If he keep truce with such as are explicitely or implicitely in Covenant with him it 's but for a while Now this Enmity is chiefly against the Church or Churches where he can get a true visible Church Rev. 12.13 It 's with the Woman where we see also that Gods special preservation of his Church and disappointing or frustrating hellish designs against a Church does greatly gall Satan and exasperate him against them when the Dragon saw that he was cast down to the earth he persecuted the woman c. And ver 17 The Dragon was wrath with the woman the earth having helped her sometimes God makes carnal men helpful to his Church and restrains their Enmity Why the Woman had done him no wrong was only escaped and this diabolick disposition we may clearly see in his seed there 's nothing pains some so much as that they cannot do mischief to the people of God Do we not see some acted with fury and unsatiable cruelty against the people of God without the least provocation beyond what men express in other cases and beyond what mens natural enmity to Truth and Holiness does ordinarily carry them even such fury as discovers some violent excitement from Hell and carries a lively resemblance of the Devil Now ver 17. We see also that when Satan cannot find a visible pure constituted Church then he bends his malice against single Professors that keep themselves pure from the corruption of the place they live in they are there called the womans seed he went to make war with the remnant of her seed The description of these are worth our observing ver 17 they are such as keep the Commandments of God that is meant in opposition to those whose Religion lies most in obedience to Customs Traditions and Commandments of men whereby they make void the Institutions and Commands of God 2. They are such as have the Testimony of Jesus that is that bear Testimony to him in all his Offices in opposition to those who by their Ceremonies Humane satisfactions and self-righteousness deny Christ to be come in the flesh and also to those who deny or incroach upon any of his Offices These two contain much of the distinguishing Characters of the true Church and true members of Jesus Christ from the false 3. As for the Nature and properties of this Enmity between the two seeds 1. It 's for no private particular quarrels Oh what a bitter Antipathy do men manifest even to those from whom they never received any personal injury their own hearts must tell them that it can be from nothing but the appearance of the Image of God in them their pretending to hate their Hypocrisie is vain For 1. Under this pretence Christ and the godly
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