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A66819 The doctrine and practice of mortification wherein is discovered the matter, manner, and means thereof, together with the blessed event that comes by it : necesary for every Christian to know and practice, that will live comfortably, and die peaceably / by Thomas Wolfall ... Wolfall, Thomas. 1641 (1641) Wing W3249; ESTC R39135 86,981 287

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workes of mortification then I say are we furnished with this spirit of a sound mind Eccles 7.12 wisedome is a distention and money is a defension but the excellencie of knowledge is that wisedome giveth life to him that hath it much may be done with money but more with wisedome because money can neither slay sinne nor assure us of life but wisedome can doe both wisedome will teach us to make provision for our latter end 2 It is a spirit of holinesse and sanctitie and that is the reason of an opposition that there is unto sin in the soule the spirit lusteth against the flesh Gal. 5.19 and the flesh against the spirit and they are contrary one to another as it is with a fountaine of living water that if any filth be cast into it it will worke it out by the constant running of it so it is with the spirit that when any corrupt motion is cast into the heart it will not leave untill it have purged it out and the reason is because there can be no agreement betwixt these the one doth alwaies seeke to dispossesse and destroy the other and therefore as it is when a woman that hath decked her selfe with beautifull garments she will not come into uncleane places and naftie company so in this case the holy spirit will not indure the heart where he lodgeth should be defiled or that it should be a receptacle for uncleane lusts For if Christ could not indure that his carthly Temple should be a den of theeves much lesse wil he endure that his spirituall Temple should be a cage of every uncleane and noysome lust 3 It is a craving spirit it goeth out day by day and doth crave assistance at Gods hands to helpe us against our corruption Rom. 8.26 it is the spirit that helpeth our infirmities and maketh intercession for us that as Hezekiah said 2 Cor. 20. Lord we know not what to doe our eyes are towards thee what was that made him waite on God but this spirit of grace and supplication so say I what maketh a Christian to lift up strong cryes and prayers unto God when hee is assaulted by the flesh and to waite for strength from heaven is it not the spirit that putteth us upon it and maketh us never to give over till wee find successe from God it is not the making of a prayer that will serve your turnes but the having of the spirit of prayer that is it that will helpe you Hos 12.4 to wrastle with God with your prayers and teares as Iacob did and not to give over like the importunate widdow Luk. 18.34.5 untill you have your requests granted unto you 4 It is a cheerfull spirit that thought the worke be hard and sharpe yet it maketh us passe through it with much alacrity and cheerfulnesse it maketh us while wee are breaking up the fallow grounds of our hearts and while wee are about to crucifie the flesh 1 Cor. 9.10 circumcise the foreskinne of our hearts to be cheerfull and rejoyce because the end of that is joy and consolation for they that plow in hope thresh in hope shall be partakers of their hopes What maketh the marriner to passe through so many hard adventures by sea and land but hope of some great advantage that may be for his advancement or what maketh the Souldier adventure himself into the heat of the battel but hope of a joyfull victory and what maketh a Christian to take such paines with his heart and to make such hot skirmishes against his lusts but in hope of good successe a glorious victory On the other side there is no greater signe of an unmortified heart then when hee is forced unto the worke and drawne unto duty as a Beare to a stake out of slavish feare and apprehensions of wrath as Sathan than saith in Iob that skinne for skinne Iob. 2.4 and all that a man hath will he give for his life a man will doe much in extremity which is not a free but a forced service but now if so he that there be a cheerfull spirit we are carried by it to this duty as freely as Abraham was to the sacrificing of his sonne not reasoning with flesh and blood but out of the feare of God 2 Cor. 7.1.2 the love of holineffe and the hatred of sinne wee are as cheerefull at the death of it as wee delighted sometime at the commission of it CAP. XXIII An exhortation unto the duty of mortification FOr as much as wee are naturally slow unto this worke of mortification both in respect of that love we have unto our lusts and also in respect that Sathan and our deceitfull hearts doe labour by all faire and possible arguments to beate us off from this worke saying as sometimes Peter did unto our Saviour Master spare thy flesh Mat. 16.22 this shall not be to thee such suggestions men have when they are pressed unto duty that they should spare that labour there i● no necessity of Therefore it will not be amisse to quicken you up unto this duty by such considerations as these 1 In regard of sinne that if it be not mortified wee doe highly displease Almighty God therefore the Lord is said to ha●e iniquity as that which is contrary to his Law as that which is cursed of him now that sinne is thu● displeasing to him will appeare 1 In regard of those sad Complaints and those patheticall expressions that are used in Scripture against sin and sinners when the sinnes of the old world grew to that height that the whole earth was corrupt before God and that the wickednesse of man was great in the earth Gen. 6.6 it repented the Lord that hee had made man and it grieved him at the heart a deepe expression how much God is displeased with it now when God is said to be grieved it is not in that he is subject to passion but after the manner of men not secundum affectum but effectum as they speake in the Schooles that as men are grieved when they are offended so is God sore displeased with sinne Psal 95.10 11. Forty yeares long was I grieved with this generation then it was that hee sware in his wrath that they should not enter into his rest that after they had grieved him so long time together his sore displeasure did arise and so they perished in the wildernesse Luk. 19.41 how was our blessed Saviour grieved when hee beheld the City and wept over it saying O Ierusalem Ierusalem how often would I have gathered thee as a hen gathereth her chickins c. What can be a greater griefe to a loving father or a tender mother than to see their Children not to harken unto good admonitions and exhortations so is it unto Christ when as wee turne aside to the by-paths of sinne it grieves him much how doth God complaine of his people O my people what have
was so wasted that shee had no more but a handfull of Meale in a Barrell and a little Oyle in a Cruse which shee was about to dresse for her selfe and her sonne and then to eate it and after dye Now it is a great comfort unto a man when a man can attaine to this 1. That he can keepe his heart that sinne doe not at any time break out into any grosse act Luke 1.6 Gen. 5.24 It is said of Zacharias and Eliz. that they walked in all the Commandements of God without rebuke that is though they were not without their infirmities yet were they without rebuke in respect of any crime or grosse sinne yet here is a large difference betweene such as doe onely restraine and keepe in sinne for some by end and such as these to whom sin is in some measure mortified even as much as there is betweene the beating out of the teeth of a Lion and the changing of his nature thence it is that this worke makes us of Lions to become as meeke as Lambs Is 11.6 so as the Lamb and the Leopard shall lie downe with the Kid and the Calse and the young Lion and the fatling together a little child shall lead them againe though a wicked man may curb and keep in sin yet can he not kill and destroy sinne and the reason is this because he wants speciall and spirituall meanes sinne will not be driven out with great words Is 58 6. nor by spreading sackcloth and ashes under you nor hanging downe your heads like a bull-rush for a day but there must be in us the love of God which will make us to depart from iniquity 2. It is a great comfort when sinne is so over-powerd as it doth not divert us from duty I doe not say distract us in the performance of them for there is no man without them for when wee are the best imployed about our devotions as reading hearing praying or mediration then is the adversary most busie to disquiet our peace and to hinder us in our work Zach. 3.1 when J●hoshuah the high Priest was standing before the Angel of the Lord Neh. 4.18 there Sathan stood at his right hand yet you may have good comfort in this when you goe on in your worke as they that builded up the wall of Ierusalem though they were much distracted and disquieted by their enemies yet did they hold on their worke though it was with their swords by their sides so a good Christian albeit hee hath many distractions yet hee goes on in duty and will not be diverted from it as it was with David when Michal his wife spake against him for his dancing before the Arke of God 2 Sam. 6.20 21 22 23. hee made his reply that if that were vile he would yet be more vile so it is with a mortified man that though there were never so many impediments and stumbling blocks laid in his way of the losse and discredit he shall sustaine yet hee lookes more at the praise of God then of men and knoweth that what is highly pleasing in the sight of men is displeasing in the sight of God Luk 16.15 and therefore takes up Saint Pauls resolution when they besought him that hee would not goe up to Ierusalem Acts 21.12 13. in regard of the present danger that they did foresee howbeit Saint Paul being bound in the Spirit for the worke of the Lord asketh them what they meane to breake his heart seeing hee was ready not onely to bee bound at Ierusalem but to dye there for the name of the Lord Jesus so is it with him that is truely humbled that nothing diverteth him from the duty 3. It is a great comfort unto a Christian Acts 8.39 when hee hath so conquered and over-powered his corruptions and that they take not away his joy and consolation that he hath in Christ neither can Sathan take such advantage by them to dispoyle us of our crowne 2 Cor. 〈…〉 5. thence it is that Saint Paul saith he will glory in his infirmities that though hee might glory in those heavenly visions that he had yet hee would rather glory in them for though in a large sense every sinne is called an infirmity because it disableth a man from the performance of duty but in a strict sence no man can be said to have infirmities unlesse that sinne in some measure be mortified for in an unmortified man sinne is alive and in his full strength and his soule is void of grace but now in a man that is truely mortified there grace receives strength and sinne is wounded and so such a man is the proper subject of infirmities now when the Apostle saith that he doth rejoyce in his infirmities he doth not rejoyce in his infirmities as they are sinnes Matth. 10. but as they are infirmities that is as sinne was deforced and diminished in him and therein he had cause of joy and we also when we finde it so in us if the Disciples rejoyced that the Devils were subdued by them much more may we that the body of sinne is destroyed and that which is worse then the Devill is subdued by us count it all joy when yee fall into divers temptations Jam. 1 2.3 knowing that the tryall of our saith worketh patience and patience makes perfect and intire we are but in this case as gold that is put into the Furnace that comes out more pure and are made by that meanes vessels of honour fit for the use of our great Master our Lord and Saviour Christ CAP. XVII Certaine signes of a dying man 2 I Come now to shew unto you certaine signes of a dying man whereby you may see whether that you be in such a case yea or no it would be in vaine to shew you signes of a dead man for as much as there is no perfection of death of sinne in our soules as there is no perfection of grace so neither is there as we have formerly shewed perfection of mortification 1 Cor. 13. onely as hath beene shewed we are daily a dying but not fully dead 1. A man is said to be a dying man when his stomacke failes when he hath no appetite to his foode when wee have no stomacke to sinne no apetite after it when wee feele no such sweetnesse in it as we have done when we esteeme the profits and pleasures of finne as an empty vessell in one word when all of them are bitter unto us and tastlesse in respect of what they have beene to us before time 2 Sam. 19.35 as old Barzillai said to David can thy servant taste what Teate or what I drinke can I heare any more the voyce of singing men or singing women vers 37. c. Let mee turne backe that I may dye c. Just thus it is when a man feele● his affection off from his sinne that he can neither relish their sweernes nor