unsuccesful warring with sin that makes men unmeet to die He goes in at the Gates of Heaven with flying Colours and has an abundant Entrance ministred unto him how much more will it make a man joy in Tribulation It 's some unmortified Corruption that makes the Cross heavy that makes a man uneasie under affliction or suffering O what Dust will a lively lust raise what confusion and combustion in the Soul When the hand of God falls heavy upon a Man while he is dandling some Idol or pursuing some carnal Interest the man is out of measure amazed every unmortified Corruption makes even the thoughts and apprehensions of trouble full of horrour and no wonder for it 's fearful when God comes to take vengeance on mens inventions even when he forgives their iniquity It 's true in such cases when the Lords people are meeting with trouble from men for his sake he makes not his quarrel visible he often scourges their Conscience when he does not visibly contend with them and one lash from his hand is sorer than Pauls 39 from the Jews indeed he sometimes suspends his quarrel when he does not bury it And sometimes Adversaries wrath does as it were mitigate his Deut. 32.27 Now a mortified man cannot be moved by any thing If there be no lust alive no trouble or affliction can come wrong In the next place let me offer you some Directions how to carry on the mortification of prevailing Corruption And first in general Get a clear sight of your sin or else you cannot level your strokes at it aright be content that God should by his Word and Spirit light upon your Idol and wound it And if any man will tell you of sin your Enemy count him thy Friend say as Saul to the Ziphites when they told him where David was Blessed are you of the Lord for you have had compassion on me 1 Sam. 23.20 21 that which you can least endure a Reproof for is your Master-sin as likewise that which you are most partial in seek most to cover or excuse which you wish were no sin and are readiest to pardon your self for or else are most sorrowful when it cannot be dispensed with Matth. 19.21 22 that sin which rises and goes to bed with you which haunts you when alone or in Company when in your shops and in your Closets which you are at the greatest toil for which you do or suffer most for that is the sin that like the man of sin 2 Thess 2.8 exalts it self O look to Heaven and see what work it made there how sin cast so many Angels out of their first habitations and thrust them into chains those evil Spirits that now solicite thee to sin are dreadful Examples of the mischief of sin it 's a wonder they have a face to tempt to sin it 's as if Murtherers hung up in Chains should solicite Men to murther Look to Paradise and see what desolation it made there it had almost in a moment ruined the whole Creation Look to Golgotha or Mount Calvary or the Garden and see what sad work it made there Look into Hell and hear what a howling it has raised there Alas we paint it and then play with it as Children do with painted Lions And when thou has seen it then thou cryes out O the exceeding sinfulness of sin and of my sin And let one sin set thee in quest of more but never think thou sees all thy sins nor all the evil that is in any one sin O comply with the Spirit and do not defeat his firk Work which is Conviction and when thou has seen thy sore hold thy finger upon it and cry to him who is the soveraign Physician of Souls to make incision there cut off this hand or foot that gangrenes yet keep not both thy eyes upon it lest it should overwhelm thee with horrour 2. Get your hearts broken for Sin your hearts are as fallow-ground you cannot pluck up your thorns they must be plowed up you must rub and reinse your Souls seven times in the waters of Marah in tears of godly sorrow ere thy Leprosie die but see thy tears bathe not sin instead of drowning it and beware thy throws go not off when thou art even about to be delivered from it it 's a token of the strength of sin the Soul is at a low ebb when trouble for sin is gone when sin has made its peace again Some mens troubles do not kill sin but only break some bone of it which when healed again is stronger than before therefore when thou has got a Nail fastned into the Temples of the old man or into the heart of the body of death drive it to the head when the Spirit brings home any word and smites Sin follow home the blow and endeavour to maintain the warmness of that word and the power of it upon thy Spirit till thy Soul be drench'd with tears of Contrition till thy heart be melted and the dross go away 3. If thou would mortifie Sin thy heart must be filled with distaste of it thy sorrow must be attended with hatred and this seeks the life of Sin this will make a man defile the covering of his graven-Images of Silver and the Ornament of his molten-Images of Gold nothing less will serve thee than the death of thy Sin thou wilt pursue it in thy self and others as Haman's hatred sought Mordecai's life yea and the life of all the Jews for his sake Hide not thy Idols as Rachel sate upon hers search thy heart and thy way that thou may find all out and what thou canst not find pray the Lord may find for thee Psal 39.34 leave no Corruption which Satan may fit and brood upon These things must needs be previous to Mortification Now more particularly for the means of carrying on this great business of Mortification 1. Prayer especially private Prayer is of singular use I mention only this at present not being solicitous of Method I say private Prayer for your secret Sins and particular Corruptions may shelter and shroud and hide themselves from all your prayers in publick or in fellowship with others and alas many who are others mouths to God have enough to do to mortifie pride and vanity and selfishness in praying with others let it be by their prayers to get other Corruptions mortified or to get pride and selfishness in other things mortified Prayer and Lusts or Corruptions are like Moses and the Amalekites when Moses hands are up Israel prevails when they fall down the Amalekites prevail so is it in this case It was Pauls Relief 2 Cor. 12.7 8 when Satan was working on the remainder of some Coruption For this I besought the Lord thrice and he was helped It may be sense of some prevailing Corruption has sent you to your Closet and put you upon your knees and you have found Relief and then you have lest off praying and your Corruption has prevailed again Hence
119.9 and 107.20 John 15.3 and 17.17 Heb. 4.12 Render them not powerless to your Souls by letting the Impressions that the Spirit has made by them wear out Has the Lord by his Word and Spirit discovered sin to you fix your thoughts upon it and pry more and more into the sinfulness of it Muse upon it till your heart be hot within you and till your heart be fired with anger indignation and zeal against it and when the Word makes your heart burn within you blow upon the Coal that it die not out again you must 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Spirit sometimes wounds the Soul for sin and makes some word like an Arrow pierce the heart but Sinners pluck it out again and lick their wound whole again and thus sin is whole again sin puts the Soul between the stroke and it whereas when the Spirit by the Word smites we should expose sin to it and be content to have it not only discovered but beaten and left dead upon the place be content to find the Word as a two-edged sword and love those best in whose mouth is the sharpest sword and hold up thy sins to its strokes when they are found out Be content that the Word be as a Corrosive-plaister to thee and keep it close upon the sore place O how many have their judgments enlightned by the Spirit in Ordinances but they imprison Light imprison Truths and suffer not the power of them to reach their hearts and affections True some find also the heart shaken and troubled for sin and resolutions raised against it yet it is not mortified all miscarryes and why Truly because in some these have no root and for others that are truly godly they yet take not pains enough with their own heart to maintain what the Spirit by the Word has wrought in them they labour not to drive the Nail to the head and to keep the Bow in bent Slothfulness is a slighting of the Spirit and provokes him to withdraw and when the Sun is gone light and heat is quickly gone When the Spirit does by any Ordinance animate you against sin and fix it upon your heart to seek the death of any sin give it no reprieval for an hour give not Satan time to tempt thee nor sin time to prepare some charm to entice thee again let not these things that use to choak the Word deface and obliterate spiritual Impressions if when the Spirit by the Word has heated your affections you immerse your self in your business this like frosty Air will soon cool you if you do unwarily meddle with it it will quickly take off your edg and they are the most dangerous colds that come after great heats hence many not only abate their zeal against sin but sin is advantaged by this means the heart like the earth which in Winter is thawed by the Sun at Noon freezes the harder the next Night 6. Observe and comply with the Spirits motions and methods when under affliction which is a special season of the Spirits teaching and working afflictions use to be the Seal to Gods Instruction Job 33.16 Seals give weight and authority to Writings the Spirit now sets Instructions home Therefore consider what sin thou hast most need to mortifie and what the Lord does especially aim at in afflicting thee and in order to this observe what his Spirit did charge most upon thee before affliction came and mark how the Lord follows affliction the Spirit uses to bear in some sin more especially and to make a mans Conscience deal impartially with him hear what that says especially after Prayer and when the Spirit by afflictions does humble thee and cause heaviness in thee 1 Pet. 1.5 let not sin raise up it self for thou canst never rise again but upon its ruins and when the spirits work tends to the stirring up of Grace in all thy acting of Grace have an eye upon the sin that has most indangered thee and comply with the spirit especially when thou art moved to the acting of that Grace that is most contrary to thy strongest Corruption It 's a token of a sanctified affliction when thy sin is discovered in its sinfulness when there is fixed purposes of heart raised against it and when there is some notable acting of the Grace that is most opposite to it excited And now when the lot is fallen upon it do not spare it do not think to roll it to shore and save it alive do with it as the Jews did with Paul Act. 21.28 They laid hands on him crying out Men of Israel help This is the man that teacheth the people against the law and hath polluted this holy place Labour to fix your thoughts and purposes and affections you now have and afterwards be often asking thy soul what is become of them and deal with sin as then you wished you had never done I shall in the next place answer some Objections against what has been delivered And 1. May be some see nothing in themselves that need to be mortified they can say as the Pharisee Luk. 18.11 yea can bless God that they are free not only from such gross things as the Pharisee mentions but even from such abominable thoughts and motions of heart and from such horrid temptations and suggestions as some complain of Answ 1. Was it any better with the Pharisee for his foolish opinion of himself but would thou see thy self as in a glass See Rev. 3.17 Look thou be not like a standing Pool that has more mud and dirt at the bottom than the raging Sea and indeed sin is never more stirring than when it seems asleep or moves smoothly thou art not yet come the young mans length Mark 10. who may be has outdone thee in every thing yet saw there was something lacking and indeed besides faith in Christ there was mortification to the world wanting 2. How came thou by this freedom from sin and so much inward quiet thou must be in League with Hell sure I am the holiest Christians make sad complaints of sin within and temptations without and seldom want some excercise but it seems you let sin live and sin lets you live 3. It 's a token that sin has never been irritated much less slain we know thou art not pure by nature more than others nor can education purge out sin though it may qualifie it and we know that it cannot be mortified with much ado such an interest has it got in the soul But here it is the Commandment has never come in its spirituality and power to thee till then Paul troubled himself as little with sin as thou dost sin prevails in the heart yet is not grievous because there 's nothing in thee that is contrary to it to oppose it It 's but a short way that a natural Conscience goes it charges no man with Original corruption nor with the first motions of sin that the body of sin breaths out every moment
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
for mortifying sin nor can you expect that your sins should be all killed at once nay indeed a man that desires not and seeks not the death of every sin cannot without a contradiction be said to desire or seek Heaven nay put an unmortified man in Heaven and it would be a Prison to him as a stately Palace would be to Swine Seneca brings in Nero knocking at Heavens-gate Answer is made That there was nothing there wherein he delighted whereupon Hercules is ordered to beat him away with his Club. It 's by our success in Mortification that we make our access to and acquire a fitness for Heaven Can ye love and cherish sin here and think to hate it in Heaven Ye mistake Heaven if ye think it stands so much in freedom from trouble as in freedom from sin and indeed the successful practice of Mortification will clear more what Heaven is to you than all your studies and speculative Contemplations of it If any Object that if sin hinder our Union Acceptance or Communion with God how can any on Earth enjoy these since every sin is not actually slain in any Soul Answer 1. The Soul wherein sin lives and reigns can have no fellowship with God that of 1 Joh. 1.6 does hold all you say of it and expect of it as a lye and will prove such 2. While sin the dreg of our Disease remains with us there 's no perfect Communion with God nor is the Soul so compleatly united and sodered to him but there 's some disjuncture as it were and what makes eclipses in the Soul but the interposition of some sin 3. Our Union and Communion with God in Christ is by the new Nature through the Spirit it 's only in so far as we are freed from sin Now whatever sin be in the person there 's none in this new Divine Nature the seed of God is pure and undefiled with sin 4. While we are pursuing sin to death there 's no remainders of it that debars us from Communion with God according to the Covenant of Grace None were cut off of old from the congregation for being defiled that did not neglect the appointed Purifications Hear the rule of our acceptance with God and of continued Communion with him If ye through the Spirit do mortifie c. Finally the Christian that makes conscience of Mortification is helped in his work by his Union and Communion with God in Christ there 's some Union necessary to the taking away of sin and there is some that is the reward of Mortification Our Lord took not his Church to be one with him to be his Spouse because she was pure but that he might make her so Ephes 5.25 26 27. In a word we cannot have full nor immediate Union and Communion with God till we be like the Angels in Heaven nay till we be like God which is the highest description of Heaven 6. Ponder the weight of the first word of the Verse If ye live c. Compare with Col. 3.6 which shews the necessity of it Finally Consider the necessity of it in order to Eternal life Ye shall live Compare the Text with Col. 3.4 5. Mortifie therefore c. In the fourth place we should consider what is the Spirits work in Mortification Of this a word only I Answer 1. The Spirit discovers sin sin is the fruit of Ignorance Acts 26.18 Satans Kingdom is a Kingdom of darkness Sin reigns by Deceit it entices James 1.14 There the Apostle speaks not of outward Objects allureing Now the Spirits Light makes sin manifest Gal. 5.18 19. It discovers that to be sin which the light of Nature never charged a man with John 16.8 1 John 2.20 Now discover sin once and you ruine it it cannot abide the light this sets a man a-work to War with it and destroy it 2. The Spirit affects with shame and sorrow for sin it lets the Soul see sin not only in the glass of the Law but of the Gospel as it is against Christ and the love of God and this imbitters it and raises the heart against it The Soul cannot endure that that which was the death of Christ should live in it Zech. 12.10 The Spirit also lets a man see sin practising and warring against his Soul plotting and acting against his life and so true self-love sets a man to seek its death 1 Pet. 2.11 yea and lets him taste so much bitterness in it and gives such experimental knowledg of the malignant nature of it that makes a man weary of it and seek to extirpate it 3. The New Nature which is born of the Spirit cannot bear it the Spirit hence is said to lust against the flesh there 's a contrariety between them that like Fire and Water in the Cloud make a thunder in the Soul the man that wants the Spirit has no principle in him that opposes sin as sin or that seeks the death of sin 4. By the Spirit we are united to Christ and by vertue of this Union with Christ we are enabled to overcome sin we thereby receive strength and supplies of Grace and are made conformable to him we are crucified with him and die with him and rise with him Gal. 6.14 The Soul sees not only a Pattern of Holiness and mortification to sin in Christ but is made partaker of the same holiness that is in Christ and so has the same abhorrence of sin and the nearer it be to the Soul the Lord Jesus had no sin in his person the more it loaths it That which put him on destroying the works of the Devil prompts them to seek the destruction of sin 5. The Spirit promotes Mortification by actuating assisting and strengthning Grace in us the Spirit excites the exercise of Grace Now says Paul If ye walk after the Spirit ye shall not c. Gal. 5.16 Compare it with John 7.38 The exercise of Grace engages the Spirit to assist his own work and this he will do if not grieved And thus the Spirit does not only hinder the fulfilling or bringing forth the lusts of the flesh but also marrs the conception of them the Spirit by filling with the fruits of holiness and righteousness leaves no room for the works of the flesh Gal. 5.19 21. Phil. 1.11 2 Pet. 1.9 Now these Acts of holiness c. the Apostle calls the fruits of the Spirit for these the Spirit excites and produces not by moral means only but by an internal immediate effectual work for which end especially he dwells in them viz. to cherish his own work and to excite the actings of Grace as in the old Creation the Spirit moved upon the waters c. and they brought forth living creatures so does he move upon the New Creature in the Soul and it brings forth fruits which for this reason I say are called the fruits of the Spirit Gal. 5.19 The Spirit draws forth godly sorrow and that is like poison to sin the Spirit draws forth Acts
of Love and this kills the love of sin which is the life of it But this the Spirit does more especially by exciting Acts of Faith which do in a peculiar way destroy sin Acts 15.9 We can never advance holiness nor ruine sin by meer multiplying of Duties Indeed we are said to be purified by obeying the truth through the Spirit 1 Pet. 18.2 But the Apostle means thereby believing as appears from ver 21 which is called the obedience of faith Rom. 1.2 Hence the unbelieving and the defiled are the same Tit. 1.15 But unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure but even their mind and conscience is defiled Now Faith does expel sin not only as it is a part of the Image of God renewed in us for such the habit of Faith is though indeed in its actings it answers not to any divine Perfection at least as it imports trust confidence and dependance on another and a part of our inherent holiness Nor only as it excites and brings into exercise other graces that tend to the mortification of sin in us But 1. And especially as it is the Mean whereby the Spirit unites us to Christ and which receives and applies the bloud of Christ whereby we are cleansed from sin it 's called a cleaving to the Lord Deut. 4.4 Acts 11.23 which infers a separation from sin and if the woman by a touch of Christ did fetch Vertue from him for drying up her issue of Bloud how much more shall the Soul derive Virtue from him to heal its plague by a constant cleaving and sticking to him by Faith it keeps the Soul near the Fountain that washes away sin it lays sin close under the stroke of him who came to destroy sin and to save from it 2. The Spirit does by drawing forth the exercise of Faith let into the Soul the efficacy of those means that are subordinated to the blood of Christ and have their efficacy from it for the taking away of sin As 1. There is the Word hereby we are made clean John 15.3 and sanctified John 17.17 and healed Psal 107.20 It is the sword of the Spirit Ephes 6.17 whereby the Spirit wounds and kills sin It 's quick and discerning in finding out of sin Heb. 4.12 and powerful for preventing sin and rescuing from it The Spirit brings the Word seasonably to our remembrance and also puts life in it The Spirit brings the Command with Authority upon the Soul when the Commands and Prohibitions of the Word come in the evidence and demonstration of the Spirit they come with power 1 Cor. 2.4 When the Commandment comes as to Paul Rom. 7. sense of sin may live but sin is really wounded he that is the father of sin could not withstand Christs Word for it was with power Luke 4.32 None despise the Word but such as never felt this Power 2. The Spirit puts an edg on the Threatnings they are Corrosives to sin when the Spirit fastens such a Word as this If ye live after the flesh ye shall die it 's as a Nail driven into the Temples of sin Better that sin die than I die says the Soul 3. The Spirit makes the promises of the Word effectual to work out sin 2 Cor. 7.1 Who would not zealously oppofe sin and throw it away that he may be interested in such precious promises or who that knows his interest in these promises would not study the greatest possible freedom from sin who that knows that God is his God and Father and will dwell and walk with him 2 Cor. 6.16 17. will beg or borrow from Satan or the World or think to better his Condition by the honours profits or pleasures of sin Who that knows that he is the temple of God will prophane himself with Idols and who that knows he is the member of Christ will make himself the member of a harlot and who that has the hope of eternal life would not purifie himself 1 John 3.3 Now it 's by exciting Faith that the Spirit makes either the Commands or Threatnings or Promises of the word available to the furtherance of Mortification 3. The Spirit renders these Ordinances we call Sacraments effectual for the mortification of sin 1. For Baptism It 's not only the sign of our dedication to Father Son and Spirit but it 's a sign of our fellowship with Christ in his death Rom. 6.3 Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death ver 4 therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death ver 6 Knowing that our old man is crucified with him c. ver 7 For he that is dead is freed from sin ver 11 Reckon c. Now it 's the baptism of the Spirit that effecteth this John 1.33 Acts 1.4 and this John calls Baptism with the Holy Ghost and with fire Matth. 3.11 probably alluding to the live coal which the Seraphim took from the Altar and wherewith he touched the Prophets lips saying Lo thine iniquity is taken away and thy sin is purged Isa 6.6 7. Now it 's by Faith that the efficacy of this Ordinance is taken in sometimes at the time of the Administration of it sometimes afterward what Faith Infants have I shall not debate I see not why some sort of actual Faith may not be admitted in them and why a supernatural instinct may not carry them forth to Christ as well as a natural instinct prompts them to seek the Mothers breast John Baptist leaping in his Mothers womb at the salutation of Mary c. does seem to confirm this Luke 1.41 which did not proceed meerly from the Mothers joy as appears from her words being filled with the holy Ghost in ver 44. For lo as soon the Babe leaped in my womb for joy and though there may be something extraordinary in it yet it plainly says that Infants are capable of some spiritual Acts as well as of natural so 2. For the Lords Supper The bread we break and the cup of blessing is it not the communion of the body and blood of Christ 1 Cor. 10.16 therein we have fellowship with him in his sufferings and all our Communion with Christ is through the Spirit 2 Cor. 13.14 Hence now there is required in such as partake of this a more especial separation from sin for we cannot drink of the cup of the Lord c. that may be said of other Sins as well as Idolatry 1 Cor. 10.21 And the abuse of this Ordinance we see in a special manner punished 1 Cor. 11.30 Sometimes Satan goes down with a Sop and it feeds sin but when Christ is indeed received by Faith the evil Spirit goes out and there comes in a new recruit of power to expel sin 4. The Spirit sanctifies Providences and renders them of use to the mortification of sin as for instance The observation of Gods severity upon others more especially our own afflictions they are Gods Furnace
2.1 compare with ver 3.4 4. When a man makes provision for his lusts when he plows wickedness and sows iniquity and is at a great deal of pains to satisfie and gratifie his lusts The Christian is not at half the toil in mortifying lusts that others are in satisfying them if the one be hard work the other is impossible so that the poor Creature is tormented between the restless and impatient cravings of his lusts and the weakness and scantness of the means he has to satisfie them 5. When a man sins under a small temptation or none at all some are like Powder and Flax set on fire by a spark yea some draw on temptations and then out-go them Isa 5.18 they are not drag'd by a temptation but draw and pull and pain themselves to sin they meet the temptation mid-way and are glad of it as the Jews were when Judas offered to betray his Master unto them Mark 4.10 11.6 When one is got above Convictions of sin and above shame Prov. 30.20 the adulterous Woman saith she hath done no wickedness Jer. 8.6 and 6.15 Were they ashamed c Jer. 3.3 Thou hadst a whores forehead or 2. When one sins after frequent convictions of the folly and hazard of sin Isa 57.10 Thou wast wearied in the greatness of thy way yet saidest thou not there is no hope when a man will adventure to wade through wrath to satisfie lusts and overtake his Idols when Divine Commands and threatnings which to the godly man are more than Angels with drawn-Swords are no lets nor banks to sin when the Omnisciency and Holiness and Justice and Power of God even when actually represented to the man yet does not restrain him from sin It 's said of some that they did evil in the sight of the Lord 1 Kings 21.20 3. When one hates Convictions and endeavours to hold them out or to kill them 4. When one is under Rebukes for sin yea may be under terrors for sin yet goes on as Isa 57.17 Isa 22.13 14. Jer. 2.25 Thou saidst there is no hope c. Ezek. 33.10 These things shew forth the absolute power of sin in the Soul But now in the second place there are some things that are evidences of great short-coming in Mortification yea even in the Regenerate 1. When a man is under continual indisposition to Duties and wants a readiness of Soul to them and is much distracted or diverted in them When sin is mortified and Idols thrust to the door a man will be at more leisure to pray and meditate without disturbance and the spirit will be more composed a mortified man has more power over his spirit he is not like a City without walls but for the unmortified he has many to please this Idol must have a look and this must have a word and he cannot serve God without distraction nor with all his Soul nor with delight nor does he thrive by his Duties for his Idols consume and eat up the profit of them think on this you who complain of distractons in Duties Indeed sometimes the heart is carried away by more trivial Impertinencies but ordinarily it 's our Idols that come in so freely and unseasonably and may be these more trivial diversions have some respect to them at least they proceed from want of a deep sense of the Majesty of God upon the heart which also evidences some notable defect in Mortification for as much as we die to sin we are alive to God Finally When a man wants freedom and confidence in his Approaches to God a Child that 's often faulting cares not for the Fathers presence sin makes a shyness to God less or more it does secretly estrange the heart from him When the North-wind of the Spirit has killed sin then the Spouse is inviting Christ Song 4.16 then the Soul is saying O when shall I appear before thee But when a temptation to gratifie carnal ease prevails then the Soul cares not for his Company it has no eyes nor hands nor legs Song 5.2 3 4. 2. An habitual unwillingness to die shews the power of some sin there may be some unwillingness at certain seasons proceeding from some other cause but ordinarily this is it a mortified man is like a ripe Apple that comes away with the touch of a hand or as a loose tooth that comes out with a gentle pluck Moreover the more a man exercises himself in Mortification he is the more afflicted with the remainders of sin and the more successful he is in mortifying sin the more feeling he is of every motion of sin hence he is often crying out I am oppressed underdertake for me or with Paul Rom. 7.24 This Captive-exile doth lawfully hasten to be delivered this Prisoner is looking out at his Windows till Christ come and knock off his Irons and this makes him groan earnestly for his full freedom from sin and he cares not how fast the outward man decay if the inner-man be renewed and if sin decay as fast it 's easie to die when sin is first dead but if there be any lust lively the guilt of it makes a man dread Eternity and the Judgment to come and the strength and liveliness of it makes him dread death when the Soul is strongly united to any Idol Death is like the rending of one member from another But a mortified Soul does leave the body as chearfully as a man throws off an old torn ragged suit of Apparel 2 Cor. 5.1 He is much in longing for and in rejoycing in the hopes of Heaven and Heaven is Heaven to him rather for it's freedom from sin than for it's freedom from troubles that now annoy whereas an unmortified man has cold thoughts and faint desires of Heaven why do ye not lift up your heads it's either from unbelief or some prevailing lust were you fighting for your life the news and assurance of Victory would anticipate the Triumph for the man is no further carried out after the true happiness than he is taken off the false Hence one that is wholly under the power of sin cares no more for the true perfection of the Soul than a beast cares to be a man yea and the regenerate man that 's under any prevailing-lust can hardly keep up his assurance at least he has no actual aptitude and meetness for Heaven and no wonder he long not much for it but see what a Song that is in 2 Tim. 4.7 8 I have fought the good fight of Faith c. 3. When the Soul is in a continual restlesness and vexatious anxiety when there are many inward perturbations and disorders in the Soul may be sin has not the throne yet is it breeding great tumults and making many and great insurrections against grace in the Soul the guilt of them fills the Soul with fear their opposition and contrariety to grace makes them painful to the Soul in so far as it is sanctified and then there is that Torment which is
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
are from the evil treasure of the heart Luke 6.45 so that they are plainly the deeds of the Body But hence we see what friends these people are to inward holiness and that the perfection they boast of is but a Cheat even suppose they were altogether free of outward acts of sin which yet they are too blind and credulous that believe it A 5th false way of Mortification is the laying sin asleep Now a sleeping man looks as if he were dead so does sin till upon some occasion it be awaken'd yea and it grows thus stronger than before Saul one would think had now overcome his wicked malice when he cryes out My son David thou art more righteous than I but it grew upon him and soon broke forth with more violence It may be that for want of opportunity of a temptation or provocation thou mayst think thy corruption mortify'd when its only like waters bound up or like fire under the ashes A 6th false way is the letting of sin die alone or of its self as youthful lusts vanity prodigality revenge c. Either sin kills thee or thou must kill it but when it dies alone it 's an evidence that it has undone thee and now like a victorious Champion it dies in peace on its bed and is not vanquished by thee O Sinner shall thine Enemy die in peace wilt thou not pursue it to death and be avenged on it for thy two eyes for thy two hands c. for all the miseries sorrows and woes that it has wrought thee This is a sort of natural and necessary mortification arising from impotency to sin and to fulfil the lusts of the flesh Children have no passions for Treasures Houses and Lands c. yet that is not mortification there is a living seed of sin there There is as much Fire virtually in every bit of flint as would burn a City and there 's as much sin in seed in every Infant as would set on fire the World So in the aged all the actings of the man are blunted that which Barzillai says of himself may be in the letter of it truly said of some that have not mortified the deeds of the body 2 Sam. 19.35 There may be some deadness of actual lusts yet Original sin lives as the root of the Tree is fresh when leaves and fruit fail in the Winter yea it may be when the stock above ground may be either cut or rotted for the Soul is the chief seat of sin and it never waxes old Hence Sins that are more special are often ripest in old age so that the conversion of an old person is harder and rarer and for bodily sins if the case be altered it 's from no change upon the soul yea nor is sin gone out of the body but as Flint or Steel have Fire virtually in them even when beaten into dust though you cannot now strike it out of them So there is sin in the very dust of Sinners for they go to their grave with their bones full of it and that not only in respect of the guilt thereof 7. There 's another sort of counterfeit Mortification which is more occasional and transient The sight of a dying dear Friend or an occasion of some great loss by Sea or Land the sudden fall of some great man the burning of a stately House or City the pain and sickness the miserable and ignominous end of some Sinner suppose some unclean wretch these often excite abhorrence of sin some contempt of the World how many unmortified souls can on such occasions talk of the vanity of the World and the mischief of sin And such may even die with these or the like words in their mouth O what is man he is like water spilt upon the ground O this vain vexatious World I would not live again for a Kings Crown Sore trials especially of long continuance breed a weariness of the World and a sort of carelesness of worldly concerns which is often mistaken for Mortification Sometimes this transient mortification comes from some common Convictions from some awaking work which is ordinarily accompanied with some restraining-grace Judas can now despise his thirty pieces of Silver when the smell of Hell comes up into a mans nostrils it will make him throw away his Idols When Achan is to be stoned he thinks not much of his wedg of Gold when under Convictions Sin often couches and contracts its self and when these are over it dilates its self None of these occasions are fit seasons for men to make a Judgment of their mortification So much for the counterfeits of Mortification Amongst which I might have reckoned that which naturally arises from mens Complexion by reason whereof some are more meek temperate chaste than others which when set off by Wit and Learning looks very like Mortification Come we now then to shew what it is having seen what it is not Mortification may be either actively or passively considered considered actively it is a work of the Spirit whereby the Soul strives not only to beat down the motions and stirrings of every sin but endeavours to destroy the body of it and to slay it in the root thereof which in some measure every Believer does effect Mortification passively considered lies in a deadness of the whole Man in order to things forbidden and in some sense also to things lawful the Soul is taken off from sinful Objects and from inordinate appetite of lawful Objects Now to speak to it in both these Considerations Mortification actively considered it lies not in unconstant uneven and flashy fits of indignation and opposition against some sin as some take vengeance upon some sins and spare their prime lust as Saul did the King of the Amalekites but it 's a constant and daily warring of the Soul against great and small especially against our Idol-lusts wherein the man not only endeavours to destroy the love of sin and delight in it but the very being of it And this leads us to the second thing proposed the consideration of the object of Mortification actively considered And this is first and chiefly the sin of our Nature Paul calls it a Body of Death Rom. 7.24 It was this that Paul had most in his Eye it was this that laid him low it was the sight of Original Sin especially that first slew him Ver. 9. And after all his Attainments it 's this that keeps him humble and O how blind are they that see not this Body and no man that sees it but will say of any sin Am I a Dog to commit this It will keep a man upon his Watch-Tower and help to maintain a holy fear and diffidence of self and dependance on Grace It it right convictions of this that advances the Souls esteem of Christ of his redemption and of free grace yea of the all-sufficiency of grace O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me as if he had said If ever grace or strength
he threshes us that our husk may go off Zech. 13.9 Isa 31.15 48.15 1 Cor. 3.13 Materially all afflictions belong to the Covenant of Works but by the Cross of Christ they are transferred to the New Covenant they are thereby made healthful as the Tree that Moses cast into the waters took away their bitterness which some think was a type of this Afflictions are bitter and men murmure at them as the Israelites at the bitter waters but the Cross of Christ makes them wholsom waters they are like Salt to the Sacrifices Levit. 2.13 They consume mens excrementitious and corrupting humours we are apt to taint and corrupt to settle on our Lees therefore we are emptied from vessel to vessel Roots of bitterness spring up that defile Heb. 12.15 so Afflictions like Salt pierce and macerate a Man and we must be macerated ere we come to Heaven and what is Mortification but the quashing and macerating of the Irascible and concupiscible faculties of the Soul More particularly 1. Afflictions are witnesses of Gods displeasure against sin yea they are sensible demonstrations of the bitterness of sin for God would have us lay all at sins door Jer. 2.19 Thine own wickedness shall correct thee know therefore and see c. how Gods anger at sin and the felt evil of it sets the Soul against it 2. They dissolve that wretched union between our corruptions within and tempting Objects without us such an Union is this that they never present themselves to our corrupted faculties but they excite and draw out some sinful Act we never let out our hearts upon the Creatures but we are corrupted by them we cannot think of filthy Lucre or sensual Pleasures but they defile us Now the Cross crucifies us to the World and it to us Gal. 6.14 Many take the Cross there metanymically for what we bear the heart now is not so inclin'd to commit Lewdness with them as Rebukes from the Lord makes a mans beauty to consume away like a Moth Psalm 39.11 so it takes off in the mans eyes that beauty and desirableness in the Creature that drew forth inordinate desires and it does enervate the strength and vigour of the affections that used to stir at the first seeing or hearing of any thing that was desirable 3. Afflictions open a door to the Word and lays the Soul open to its smitings and woundings for when God speaks in mens prosperity they hear not Now he does not spurn at reproofs of sin but is content to have it exposed 4. Afflictions quicken the actings of Grace of Faith of love submission hope c. and these do secretly wound and work out sin It is an ill sign when there is no notable acting of some Grace at least or when Affliction is gone off and no sin wounded or slain when we are consumed with Affliction and no sin consumed Jer. 6.10 when the work is over and done and we purged from no sin and made partaker of none of the holiness of God Heb. 12.10 Tremble at the thoughts of this O dreadful to be burned up with the fire of affliction and sin not touched to be wounded and sin whole to be broken with affliction and not a bone of the body of death broken it 's sin it 's your corruptions that the holy Lord aims and levels his strokes at But foolish we interpose and venture our Souls to rescue and save sin for which of it's evil Offices is it that you will make war with God and die for sin It 's for some Sheba that God besiegeth thee and batters thy wall as Joab did the City Abel 2 Sam. 20.15 deliver him up cut off his head and he will retire ver 21.22 Now all this is the Spirits work hence called a spirit of judgment and of burning Isa 4.4 By Afflictions the Spirit judges condemns and executes sin and helps us to judg and condemn and destroy it When God has taken his Spirit from Saul he runs to Endor in his straits Some are consumed some pine away some are hardned when the Spirit is not at work And finally it 's by Faith that the efficacy of afflictions is let into the Soul for it sees them coming from God and that according to his Word and it sees what they aim at and sometimes can look upon Gods chastning as his proper dealing with sons Heb. 12.7 We come now to the Application Vse 1. For Tryal the Scripture tells us there are but two sorts of Men two Principles two Ends two Ways and two eternal states of Men And it does also plainly tell us to which of these we belong we need go no further than the Text to the same purpose is that Gal. 6.8 He that soweth to the flesh c. If you think Marks be tedious and that some have too much multiplyed them here 's a short Tryal And were men but serious in applying this they might easily divine what shall be their eternal state But here lies the difficulties There are so many Counterfeits of Mortification and by the power of Self-love some are so passionately carried forth against some Sins as contrary to and inconsistent with their happiness And on the other hand where sin is routed yet it keeps some broken feattered Forces on foot and where it 's mortified it 's not nullified That it 's not easie to satifie the sincere Soul nor to undeceive the pretender only Sin sometimes goes out when it is not cast out it 's often asleep when it 's not dead it often retires when it 's not defeated Or if in some particular it be resisted it is either gratified some other way or it reinforces its self and then prevails Yea how many Professors keep up a green and flourishing profession that know not what Mortification means and it may be are clean in their own eyes yet are not purged from their sins And I doubt not also but that for some time there may be some encrease of true fruits where there is no growth downward no advance in Mortification Indeed it will be hard for any long time to keep up a green Profession when the root is withering or when a man is going back in the secret part of Religion If the roots of sin be lively and strong it will be hard to keep it under-ground Now in short There be these things which speak out the strength and liveliness of sin in a Man 1. When a man makes a mock of sin and thus bids a defiance to the Almighty and says Aha to his Trumpets 2. When a man has much pleasure in sin and sins with greediness Ephes 4.19 and does evil with both hands earnestly Mica 7.3 when a man seeks to extract all the pleasure that is in sin and would suck out the heart of it 3. When a man solicites his own heart to sin Prov. 1.12 13 and 7.18 and complains as it were of his slackness in it he is not surprized nor overtaken but devises iniquity Mic.
unseparable from all corrupt inclinations and lusts which proceeds from the impossibility to satisfie them It 's upon the account of this lust especially that the man that is defective in Mortification is troubled partly also in respect of the guilt of sin For the second The more success in Mortification and the livelier Grace be the more feeling has the Soul of every stirring of sin and the more pain it is to the new Creature and indeed the more that sin be struck at the more it struggles the Old man has a strong heart and is loath to die and our lusts being as a right-hand cannot be cut off without pain but that which is painful to the Old man is a pleasure to the New It 's the strength of remaining sin that afflicts the New man The more the Soul be delivered from sin the more it thinks it thinks it self a captive and the fuller freedom it breathes after Rom. 7.24 the remainder of sin in the midst of his highest comforts are worse than Water amongst Wine so that the poor Believer needs a Banner even when he is taken into the Banquetting-house Song 2.4 How pitifully does the poor Spouse speak Song 6.13 in the beginning of the ver Return return O Shulamite return return that we may look upon thee see her Answer What will you see in the Shulamite as it were the company of two Armies Alas What will you see in me but War and Bloud and Rebellion when the poor Christian thinks he has cut off one head of sin there starts up another or more the more you make it your work to mortifie sin the more discoveries you shall have of sin and the more ye will lie in wait to discover it the more of the Spirits light shall you have to see sin That which is but a shadow to others is a Body to Paul it was once otherwise with Paul Rom. 7.9 He was as whole and sound as any man he was as little troubled with sin as the Pharisees of our time who with disdainful pride scoff at the humble bemoanings and self-abasing confessions of serious Christians and will not admit that Paul Rom. 7 speaks of himself as Regenerated I wonder what such think of their own Liturgie which frequently teaches them to call themselves miserable sinners at which the Quakers were wont as foolishly to Triumph as now they do at us for the like humble acknowledgments of sin 4. When the reflecting upon and remembring of former lusts and Idols do excite our affections or is accompanied with delight or does provoke new desires Ezek 23.19 she multiplyed her whoredomes in calling to Remembrance the days of her youth or as it is ver 21 The lewdness of her youth this is an acting over of sin It 's sad when we cannot look upon the Picture nay nor read or hear the name of our Idol-lusts but we bow down our head and our affection is kindled or some corrupt passion stirs where sin is mortified every remembrance of it revives our sorrow for it it 's like a new stroke upon an old wound especially after the Soul has been held over Hell for it and may be under much outward trouble also for it s indeed some unmortified sin that ordinarily brings on desertion and trouble Isa 57.17 when the Moon an Emblem of this World is under our feet Rev. 12.1 there can be no eclipse of the Sun and no storms The Lord may for his own holy ends exercise the most mortified Christian but it s ordinarily some root of bitterness springing up that he strikes at And O what a Sea of temporary wrath does our indulgence to some sin expose us too yet how hard is it to bring us to lay all at the door of a beloved lust it were easie to cure most mens inward troubles were they but faithful to themselves 5. When one is not constantly underfelt-need of Christ not only to save from the guilt but the power of sin The man that labours in Mortification he is hourly calling on his Aid he cannot live without Christ sin is sin indeed to him and Christ is Christ indeed to him he cannot exalt Christ enough nor magnifie the grace of God enough he sees it 's no little help he needs and that no common aid will serve his turn I do much question if such as oppose the doctrine of special Grace ever knew what Mortification was he speaks with another spirit than the Pharisee when he thanks God that he is not like other men Luk. 18.9 10. You see the Free-willers as you vulgarly call them for such were the Pharisees in Christs time owned the necessity of some Divine Assistance how warmly doth Paul speak Rom. 7.25 as he had with much feeling bemoaned himself Ver. 24. He seems to want words to exalt God and stops as it were in the middle his thoughts are over-matched thus praise waits or is silent for God it is silent to other things and it waits to be employed about him Psal 65.1 The Believer is often put to a Non-plus in crying up the grace of God and wants words to express its greatness yea to answer the elevation of the thoughts the heart indites a song of praise but he cannot tune it The Apostle is stopt as it were through admiration which is Silentium intellectus for when the mind can rise no higher it falls admiring hence some say God is most exalted with fewest words The experience of the supplies of Grace for overcoming sin is one of those mercies that uses to provoke the Soul to cry out Exalt thy self O Lord worthy art thou to receive Blessing and Honour c. But thou art above all Blessing Praise Others make no great matter of this 6. When a mans heart is pierced through with sorrows when his Idols are blasted and smitten when in the time of trouble fear and sorrow sill the heart when our Idols are fallen or when our lusts out-live their Objects As suppose a mans Estate be decayed or his dear Friends be dead before inordinate love to them be decayed or dead we are apt to sit down upon the graves as it were of our buried Idols and cry out Ah my Lord Ah my Comfort Ah my Hope But how does a mortified man carry in reference to the lawful things of this World Answer 1. With a great indifferency If he live if he be rich if full if he abound it 's well and if he die if he be poor or empty it 's also well If David be on the Throne it 's well he can then also pen Songs of praise If he be at home in his house in the Sanctuary it 's well if banished and chased from the house of God it 's well Hezekiah is Victorious the Assyrians are slain it 's well Isaiah prophecieth that his Treasures shall be spoiled and his Children carried captive this is good too Our blessed Lord is the same when the people sing Hosanna and when
conquest over principalities powers Ephes 1.19 20 so that our impotency can be no excuse to us Faith gives the Soul the greatest resemblance of Divine Omnipotency 2. Take that word Rom. 8.1 You feel and know that there are many things condemnable in you yea enough to condemn millions of Men or Angels But O the mysterious depths of Free-grace that should divide and separate between Condemnable Condemnation Indeed the more Conscience one makes of mortifying sin the more sense and assurance of their Absolution and Indempnity If sin be prevailing it 's hard to maintain the sense of this yet in some cases one may as when the Soul is under a deep afflicting sense of prevailing-sin and solicitously striving against it Psal 65.3 Iniquities prevail against me c. You may yield to the Antecedent and deny the Consequence yea you make the prevailing of sin an Argument in prayer for Pardon Psalm 25.11 Those same Iniquities that set Justice a-work Gen. 6.5 He can make an Argument for mercy Gen. 8.21 Indeed if one keep up any perswasion of their freedom from Condemnation it 's a great doubt if they can keep up the comfort of this perswasion too for these are often separated David has his Absolution 2 Sam. 12.13 yet does he afterward beg the comfort and joy of it or at least a closer Application of it 3. Know that oft-times Satan and Corruptions stir most where they have least possession and real power and also that they make most ado when they are nearest to be cast out But if you enquire why the holy Lord does suffer sin to prevail so much over some of his own I answer The Captain of our salvation knows how to bring his followers to Glory and he knows that it 's better for some to be kept sighting even though often foiled than to be Triumphing The rising of some is their falling and the falling of others is their rising Success is sometimes worse to carry under than a Defeat Pride and Self-righteousness often get up upon our Trophies over sin and for this end sometimes the Lord suffers some sin to prevail If he see a Soul enclining to establish its own righteousness Ezek. 33.13 If he trust to his own righteousness and commit iniquity Pride often rises upon the ruins of other lusts but thus the Lord suffers not the foot of Pride to get up he keeps the Soul under a deep impression of its exceeding sinfulness and vileness indeed it is a trial to Faith when the Soul sees nothing in it self and yet can believe and then is Faith purest when others reckon upon themselves as the worst of Sinners David reckons himself as a beast Psal 73 And he not only mourns for sin as a man but he roars as it were like a pained beast Psal 32.3 He seems fitter for a Wilderness to cry out than for a secret Chamber to weep in at other times he can water his couch in the night now he roars all the day-long at other times his moisbure is dried now his bones the pillars of his house shake and wax old 2. Thus the Lord lets the Soul see its need of constant supplies of Grace and so keeps it in a closer dependence on himself were we always victorious we should not know so well our own insufficiency nor the sufficiency of Grace Some are kept Cripples because they would either run away from him or neglect him It 's evident that we are oftnest with God when we have most need of him how often does necessity prompt us to Duty more than love or conscience of Duty hence we pray seven times when we praise once 3. The Lord often punishes his people by this letting them know the difference between Christs yoke and sins 4. He manifests his power in their final Conquest after so many foils On this account Paul glories in his infirmities 2 Cor. 12.9 10 thus also he manifests the riches of his Grace The Conversion of the Soul from sin to God is a wonder of Free-grace but the Conversion of some is a greater wonder Mortification of sin in any Soul is a marvellous work of the Spirit but more marvellous in some where sin was deeper rooted and more fortified and where the name of lusts was begun even so the salvation of the most mortified Soul is a new wonder of Free-grace but the salvation of some Souls is a supereminent act of superabounding-grace the High-praises of God shall be in all their mouths but the songs of some shall rise higher than others were not the holiest so much in admiring how themselves were saved it might be an astonishment to them to see may be some in Heaven whom in their thoughts they have sometimes reprobated how much sin do some bring to Heavens-door with them At Heavens-gate is the grave and burying-place of many strong Corruptions Death which is the wages of sin is made the grave of sin And what the Red-sea was to the Egyptians these Corruptions that keep poor Souls in bondage and that still pursue them they shall see no more the certainty of your final Conquest Is it not good news from a far Countrey that the Captain of your salvation stands ingaged for you and it is more his concern than yours that you be victorious And O what Hosanna's shall be sung to him when he shall ride in Triumph through the streets of the new Jerusalem that is above with his triumphing followers each having a Crown on their head and Harp in their hand his Conquest is a pledg of yours John 16. You are often thinking that some day you will fall by the hand c. You have had as good aid engaged to save you as Christ had Ephes 1.19 20 and you being so nearly united to him he reckons not his Conquest compleat as long as you are in a Militant state If you be fighting the good fight Christ is upon his way to relieve and fetch you off victorious Know you not that he has said I will that they be where I am he knew his Trust and that it was the Fathers will and well it is for us it depends not on ours Vse 2. What we have said does speak sadly to such as either neglect this great Duty on which the Text lays so much stress or who think to mortifie sin by meer moral means or considerations For the first sort 1. There be some that instead of mortifying sin cherish and feed it and make provision for it that are in league with it that have common Friends and common Foes with it yea to some it 's as themselves It 's as a right-hand c. yea it 's their life wound their lusts and their heart dies speak to such of Mortification and you may as easily and more perswade them to stab or at least to lance themselves Hence men have found out so many counterfeits of Mortification they will rather kill thousands of Rams and Bullocks yea their sons and daughters
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
I do not say that the Lord would have the Believer content to lie under the impressions of wrath much less content to be damned but he would have the man lie at his feet under chese and bear witness to his holy Justice when under outward or inward troubles Now the more spiritual mens sins be and the more refined these lusts are they are the more provoking 2. As the sins of Believers are in some respect more exceeding sinful than the sins of others so the more grace one have his sin is proportionably aggravated Moses suffers more for a word than many others for deeds 3. As afflictions are Covenant-mercies and fruits of fatherly affections to all the children of God so the more dutiful any child of God be the greater may his Corrections be when he does fault and so God is most gracious to him yet the more a man tolerate any sin if he be not more afflicted than others there 's at least more anger in his afflictions which is the soul and spirit of afflictions or the more spiritual are his punishments Finally The reason why some eminently godly are under many outward afflictions may be because they have some time or other may be dishonoured God by some publick sin whether before or after conversion and as they are provoking to God and scandalous to others so he manifests greater severity on such this is plain in Davids case so that it 's still some unmortified sin that brings on trouble A second prejudice that comes by the prevalency of any Corruption it keeps the Soul lean and low and makes it a Cripple in Duties it not only mar◠Confidence and Chearfulness in Duties but diligence and activity also for these may be separated yea it insensibly hardens the heart What a fearful security and stupidity brought on sin upon David Where was Davids tenderness now when he can plot Vriahs death it's as sickness to the Soul for sin is the Souls disease that does enervate its strength and make it languish What is said of whoredom and wine is true of every sin they take away the heart yea and the hand too the man as he is like a silly Dove without heart he cannot behave himself a right in Gods presence so he cannot speed at Gods work for he works cum laesis facultalibus his foul hands blackens holy Duties his fingers drop much sin upon them the old man leaves the print of his heels upon them O what is it that keeps you out of Heaven at least from seeing it afar off it's some sin that besets you and hinders your motion Heaven-ward how few paces have you advanced for these many days Heb. 12.1 2 Whence is it that you see not so much as the top of the Towers of the new Jerusalem How come many that did begin after you yet to get before you some weight presses you down some corrupt affection like a long-garment entangles you or you stumble and fall often in the way It is not so much external Duties as the secret exercise of Mortification that keeps grace lively and when this is neglected and any sin prevails Grace withers and often the Lord blasts a mans gifts also or if gifts be intire they are left for a share as Eccles 2.9 It was Solomons snare that when he was pursuing vanity My wisdom remained with me says he It is the Curse of many this day and that which hardens them in their ill way that their Gifts and Learning rémain with them 3. Think what loss of Communion with God you sustain by your Idol or your unmortified corruption Sampsons Delilah cost him his two Eyes his Liberty and at length his Life But the departing of the Spirit of the Lord was the saddest of all by letting the king of your lusts live as Saul did Agag you hazard your Crown of Glory at least you have little of Heaven upon Earth Tell me Christian when was you last in Heaven it may be not for many days and know you not what keeps you out It 's a sad word Ezek. 14.5 They are all estranged from me through their idols Isa 59.2 Your iniquities have separated betwixt you and God and your sins have hid his face from you yea and often-times prevailing-sin does blot out the impression and sometimes the remembrance of that solacing sweetness that the Soul had in his Company begets some satisfaction in this dreadful state of distance from God thy Idols of Jealousie separate thee from thy chief Friend by this means thou wears out thy intimacy if not thy Acquaintance may be thou makest not a visit to Heaven in many days and if the Lord at any time come to thee thou art not at leisure but busied entertaining thy Idols Ah! have you no sense of these things I need not tell you what 's the mournful moan and ruful complaint of many Souls Ah! it was well with me till such a time O how many good days had I what a Heaven upon Earth had I what Communion with God in Prayer in the Lords Supper and other Ordinances till I did begin to dally with such an Idol till such a Corruption began to get power of me but since thou intermitted the vigorous exercise of Mortification where are thy Trophies and Triumphs where are thy Bethels thy Penuels thy Eben-ezers And it 's well for thee if ever thou recover this Distance from God and indisposition to Duty grows more in one day than thou canst make up or wear out in many I doubt if ever Davids bones were as sound as before if ever he had such Joy and gladness in Gods Company in the Sanctuary or elsewhere as before or that ever God appeared to Solomon as he had done twice before his fall I doubt the holy Lord deals with many of his people in this life as he did with the Levites Ezek 14.44 who had gone astray from him after their Idols they were to be keepers of the charge of the House for the service thereof as keeping the Gates and slaying the Sacrifices but they shall bear their iniquity and they shall not come near unto me to do the office of a Priest unto me nor come near to any of my holy things in the most holy place c. See ver 11.12 13 14 He will not put thee out of doors yet may never let thee come where thou hast been and never set thee so high on this side of Eternity 4. Any Idol or unmortified lust will clip the wings of Prayer and intercept the return of it Isa 59.1 2 The Lords hand is not shortned nor his ear heavy c. But c. Ezek. 14.3 4 and 20 31 As I live saith the Lord I will not be enquired c. Psalm 66.18 If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me the man that has his Idols set up in his heart he grieves the Spirit who helps our infirmities in Prayer c. if he has any pleasure
in approaching to God yet he has no pleasure in God he comes not to him as his exceeding Joy though may be he cannot pass evening and morning without saluting him in a formal complementing way in such a manner as men use to many they care not for and indeed many know no other use of their prayers than of their formal Salutes and Complements viz. to keep fair terms with such as they care little for yet are not willing to disoblige Is it any wonder that God regard not such prayers any unmortified sin shuts Heaven and lays an Arrest upon the profit of thy Duties there 's no profitable trading between the Soul and Heaven there 's no profiting by Means or Ordinances if thou would lose the Arrest mortifie thy sin give up thy Idol cast over board thy Jonah's If thou hast any suit depending before the Throne of Grace if in the mean while thou offend God or grieve his Spirit thou art like to lose thy cause who will provoke the Judg when his cause is before him Hence that word Deut. 23.9 When thou goest forth against thine Enemies then keep thee from every wicked thing When a man has some special dependance on God and has some special expectation from him it 's unseasonable then to provoke him to Jealousie 5. Think what thou wouldst do in a dying day how will you look upon your Idols What will you do in the day of Visitation where will you hide your glory How would you look upon a Temptation or upon the tempting Objects of your darling lusts all your sweet morsels and stollen waters will then be bitter but the more sweetly any sin went down the bitterer will it be when it comes up again may be your Idols and you were pleasant in your lives but they are sad Company in the valley of Death Can the Camel go through the Needles-eye nay if there were no more to hinder but the bunch upon his back he could not Can you go through the strait gate if there were no more but one unmortified lust you cannot Can you think to leap into Heaven warm and smoaking with sin as many times you come to speak with God when the last word you spoke was with your Idol Can you sing that sweet triumphant Song O Death where is thy sting O Grave where is thy victory 1 Cor. 15.55 For lo here sin that is the sting of death and the victory of the Grave sticks in thee when others shall be singing Hallelujah and harping with Harps Death is no dark shade to the Son of Righte ousness having lightned it by his passing through it thou shalt be little better than the Hypocrite whom fearfulness surprizeth c. If the Master knock when thou art either asleep or wasting his goods or eating and drinking with the drunken thou will be afraid to go down and open he must break open the gates if he get in O what sad work will any living lust make when thou comes to die Let us now mention a few advantages you shall have by the mortification of sin especially your most potent sin 1. The mortification of your most predominant lust will be a great evidence to you of your sincerity Psalm 18.23 I was also upright before him c. When any lust is strong or when any Idol has a great interest in the Soul the heart is as 't were divided and then cannot know whether Christs interest or its prevails and bears most sway in the Soul but where there is no competition the case is clear when one can say If any thing interfere with Christ it 's this If any thing render my case suspicious or intrench upon Sincerity it 's this Corruption this Idol But sure I am this is so far under that it cannot disprove my integrity when the Lord tryes his peoples sincerity he uses to hit their sore to prove them in their Idols indeed when he intends to discover their weakness he puts them to tryal in the grace they excel most in as Peter in his Courage Moses in his Meekness if thou can deny thy self in this if thou can offer up thy Isaac hereby thou mayst know thou fears God and that thou loves God Now the knowledg of this fills the Soul with exceeding Joy 2 Cor. 1.12 O the sweet Calm it brings in it 's better felt than can be told whereas the prevalency of any Corruption deprives you both of the Testimony of the Spirit of God and of your own spirit 2. If thou can mortifie thy predominant lust thou may with the more ease mortifie other Corruptions Commonly all a mans lusts are made subservient to some one though indeed sometimes they thwart as pride and covetousness pride and sensuality or covetousness and sensuality if you can kill that the greatest difficulty in Mortification is over if you can take the strong City all the Villages and Countrey about will be subject to you If Goliah be slain the Philistins will fly may be you complain of many things and innumerable evils compass you about but see if some one unmortified Corruption do not maintain them all and you cannot conquer these till you have subdued that which sets these on work and which feeds and recruits them this would ease you of many evils you complain of the cutting off one member of sin will weaken the Body of sin they are so united that it will make all the other members of sin to languish and does help on to a through Conquest 3. Consider that there is more real satisfaction in mortifying lusts than in making provision for them or in fulfilling them There 's more true pleasure in crossing and pinching our flesh than in gratifying it were there any true pleasure in sin Hell would not be Hell for the more sin the more Joy you cannot satisfie one lust if you would do your utmost and make your self never so absolute a slave to it you think if you had your hearts desire you would be at rest you much mistake they had it Psalm 78.29 but yet they were not estranged from their lusts ver 30. How many a man in the fulness of his sufficiency is yet in pain for more Job 20.22 O but the mortification of that sin makes a Jubiles in the Soul Who are they that sing Triumphs here and set up Trophies of Victory and divide the spoils when others are living under troubles without and within and have their Soul removed far from peace who shall wear Crowns on their heads in Heaven and Palms in their hands and have High-praises in their mouths but they who turn the Battel to the Gate who have overcome their Enemies Would you be able to sing a Triumph even when drawing your last breath See what 's the Tune what 's the matter and the ground of Pauls Song 2 Tim. 4.8 and with what a Transport of Spirit he sings it as on the other hand it tells us that it 's faint or
of the Soul upon his Word ingageth both the honour of his Mercy and his Fidelity 2. And so does also effectually engage his Power it 's by this power through Faith that we are kept from what would hinder our Salvation 1 Pet. 1.5 Divine Power strengthens Faith and by Faith we derive Divine Power by faith Christ dwells in the heart Ephes 3.17 And now we have one in us stronger than he that is in the world who takes his Armour from him c. that is taketh those things from him wherewith he fortified himself and secured Sin Satan sometimes serves himself of mens Wisdom Reason Thoughts Affections these Christ brings into captivity to his own obedience our members which were the weapons of sin are made instruments of righteousness unto holiness Riches and Gifts which were fewel and provision for lusts are consecrated to Christ Would you then have greater advantage against the old man of sin sit not down complaining of your impotency and the strength of Sin and your hard circumstances but by Faith strengthen your Union with Christ and make his strength yours Finally It is by Faith that you must make use of all your other spiritual Armour that word Eph. 6.16 Above all taking the shield of Faith c. seems not only to give Faith the preheminence but to point out the universal usefulness of it for securing and right using all the other parts of our Armour 1. As for Truth if you take it as relating to the Mind for soundness of Doctrine this is a fruit of faith Acts 24.14 If you take it for Sincerity it 's believing which makes God near and sets him before us that advances this Gen. 17.1 So 2. For Righteousness if you take it for the righteousness of Christ which as a breast-plate secures the Heart and Conscience Rom. 8.33 If the heart be found a wound elsewhere may be healed if the Conscience be whole we may bear other infirmities Now it's Faiths work to improve this or if we take it for Inherent-righteousness that is a fruit of Faith 3. Whatever Furniture the Gospel prepares for us it is of no use without Faith Nor 4. Can the sword of the Spirit be weilded without it 5. The Helmet of salvation which is Hope as is plain 1 Thess 5.8 the Grace that secures our head from Errour or which keeps our head above water that we faint not that supports Faith its work is to look for the fulfilling of the Promise which Faith believes 6. Prayer must needs take it in hence we see why our Conflict with Sin and the World is called the fight of faith 1 Tim. 6.12 3. Be much in the meditation of the sufferings and Death of Christ and of your own approaching dissolution and of what follows on the back of that For the first of these Peter presses Holiness from thence 1 Pet. 1.18 20. But let us consider Christ first as a Pattern he made it his work to destroy Sin though he had none in himself all his Offices struck at Sin and you are none of Christs if you study not conformity to him in this It 's true the Prince of this world had no part in him yet was he molested with his Temptations and when it s so with thee think with thy self What would the Lord Jesus Christ have said in this case 2. Look on suffering Christ as meriting and procuring his peoples final Conquest over all their Enemies We may in this case apply that Rev. 12.11 They overcame by the blood of the Lamb his blood by Faith applyed to the Soul is like a Refiners fire and Fullers Sope. It 's the only Purgatory for taking away Sin Satan has carryed most of the World from the law of Nature into Paganism and others from the Law of Christ into Antichristianism and in both these Apostate states Satan has endeavoured to substitute something in the room of what God had appointed for purging away Sin and under both he seems more zealous against Sin than God and would seem to out-do Gods way if God appoint Beasts to be slain and offered up he will have their Children to pass through the fire and now once offering up of Christ must not serve it must be done every day So for purging out of Sin Satan had among the Heathen his Lotions and Lustrations and has now his Sprinklings and Whippings and to compleat all has made men hope that what these do not Purgatory-fire will do And truly Sin may say Aha to these as Satan does to these Exorcisms But indeed Satans diligence and industry in taking men off the true way of purging away Sin viz. by the blood of Christ and substituting Mockmeans in its room may tell us what weight the Lord lays upon this way Now how by Faith we come to find the efficacy of this blood I have already shewn 3. The sufferings of Christ may further Mortification by way of Argument and here we must take in the greatness of his sufferings the hand our sins had in them and the love that moved him to engage and go through with all Oh would not you burn the Spear that pierced him how would you look upon the Sword that slew your dearest Friend See how Paul argues 2 Cor. 5.14 15 The love of Christ constrains us for we thus judg That if one died for all then were all dead that we should henceforth no more live to our selves And Peter on the same ground presseth Mortification 1 Pet. 4.1 2 For as much then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh c. Had you been witness to his wrestlings in the Garden Had you heard these words out of his own mouth If it be possible let this Cup pass c. Had you seen his drops of blood Had you known the trouble of his Soul when upon the sight of his sufferings he knew not well what to say to speak with Reverence John 12.27 Had you seen him Nailed and heard him crying out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Would you not have vowed a Revenge on Sin Could you have loved and hugged the Soldier and been sond on the Spear that pierced him Thou art the Man and thy beloved Lust is the Spear And will you act this Soldiers part over again Your other sins are as the Nails but this is as the Spear that made a great wound in his Side and went nearer his Heart and who shall save thee if thou crucifie him afresh Who shall comfort thee if thou grieve his Spirit by thy indulgence to sin 2. I mentioned the serious Meditation of your own death as a Mean to help on Mortification It were good for us we were oftner among the Tombs and laying our selves in our graves the Rich mans skul is not gilded there nor has the delicate persons any better colour or smell nor has the proud man any precedency there their dust and skuls and dead bones are not distinguishable yet what 's the
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
than for many afflictions that in themselves are more troublesome but this inward trouble of Conscience for them in the godly does rather prove them sins than meer afflictions If any say That these Motions when asleep are not acts of our Reason but of meer phancy and Imagination and so not sinful I answer 1. The holy Law of God reaches to the whole man even the Imagination and we cannot suppose but that imperfect holiness and persect holiness in Heaven extends to every faculty of the Soul 2. They are not meer acts of the phancy for the Mind has some use of Reason though more imperfect even when asleep Hence there is some correspondence ordinarily between mens thoughts waking and sleeping and sometimes one asleep will reject a temptation upon rational and solid grounds I do not indeed think there 's so much guilt in these Motions asleep as when awake because of a more perfect use of Reason in a waking man 2. Consider the innumerable Objects of these sinful Motions and so into how many several species or forts of sin these Motions engage and involve you in You cannot see nor hear of any thing you cannot think of any thing whether it have a being or not but it may minister occasion to some inordinate motion Innumerable are the occasions of these what stirrings of desires and wishes and sometimes how pleased with idle Imaginations 3. Consider what pretences men have to evade Convictions of the sinfulness of these Motions when not consented to nor may be delighted in especially when the object of these is some lawful thing much more when it s some spiritual good the Spirit that is in us doth often lust secretly to envy others when may be discontented or envious thoughts are not perfectly formed these are but little observed in us 4. Consider that not mortifying of these is the way not only to further sin but it does insensibly bring on hardness of heart when the heart is habitually haunted with these it 's hard to expel these swarms that have had quiet possession they do exceedingly wear out tenderness and the sense of the sinfulness of Sin in every degree of it 5. They do unframe the Soul and unfit it for spiritual Duties Thus when we would do good evil is present with us they justle out holy Meditations at least they weaken and divert the Soul in it and cause many interruptions in it they mar fixedness of heart in Duties and they not only polute them but eat out the life of them they are like ravenous Birds upon our Sacrifices that are not to be suffered to light upon them Finally What a woful tendency have they and what an inlet to temptations and to further degrees of Sin they even invite Satan to tempt Satan and Sin never say they have enough every conception of Sin is in order to a Birth and every stirring of Sin is for the carrying on its war against God and thy Soul 1 Pet. 2.11 But of this already Now 2dly A little of the advantages of mortifying the first motions of Sin 1. This is the way to prevent much Sin and were we making conscience of this we should find Mortification a much more easie work An Oak when a plant is easily pulled up a little spark is soon quenched you complain of the strength of your Corruptions but you are first to blame that you have suffered the habits of Sin to grow so strong and then that you crush not the first actual Inclinations of these corrupt habits If you suffer them to proceed but a little they may be indeed too hard for you O foolish Souls who put off this Is it hard to mortifie the first motions of thy heart to Sin and does thou think it will be easie to mortifie Sin at once when it 's increased into thousands and fortified with strong holds If thou cannot tell the first thoughts of it how wilt thou do when it has got thy hearty consent thy love and delight and long possession 2. This is the way to keep the Conscience pure and clear a renewed Conscience will charge guilt upon thee upon the account of these and no reasoning or extenuations will satisfie it till thou be truly humbled before the Lord for these and vigorously also setting thy self to suppress them A tender Conscience has a deep Impression of the sinfulness of these as Paul had Rom. 7.24 and thou cannot maintain thy peace nor assurance of thy freedom from Condemnation nor keep up thy glorying in God but by dealing with them as he did Oh how small a matter if I may so speak will break a tender Christians peace less than a wrong look or word will do it he cannot let half a thought away without a challenge he has but one eye upon his priviledges and comforts and a little Cloud will darken that What makes a man go without much light or comfort in whom yet you can see no spot nor flaw and who also are not under the power of any particular inward or heart-sin the Spirits Comforting-work and Witnessing-work is easily marred Oh but the man that is daily keeping or beating down the first risings of Sin may glory as Paul Rom. 7.25 8.1 He thus preserves a sweet serenity and calm within he suffers no Clouds to gather he dissipates the malignant Vapours that arise from within and suffers them not to unite He crushes Satans design against him in the very Egg. 3. This will keep the Soul in case for conversing and walking with God in case for speaking to him and for every spiritual Duty every inordinate Thought or Imagination is a looking away from God and imports a heedlesness and a listlesness to him Walking with God requires an holy even uniform frame of Spirit And O how much would this raise and spiritualize Prayer Meditation and other Duties then are our Sacrifices holy and untainted when neither Birds nor Flies are suffered to light at least not to sit upon them 4. This were the way to weaken and destroy the very body of sin When a Tree is cut down the living Root sends up a great many sprouts and small twigs But if you will pave the place where the Tree stood or make a High-way over it the very Root will die which otherwise would have preserved it self So after Sin is sore smitten yet the Root abiding through the seat of waters that is Satans Influences it may spring But when these first shootings up are nipt when the Root of Sin cannot put forth it self it dies this does as it were stop the breath of Sin this makes the old man pant and die even as Grace languishes when the actings of it are obstructed Now in the fourth place take a few Directions 1. For preventing these stirrings of sin within and 2. For compressing and laying them when they are up For the first of these take these Directions 1. In general what is formerly said of Watchfulness is of use here
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 Lord less jealous now than he was Does his clearer coming under the most kindly and condescending Relations any way abate it Nay they rather heighten it though they may occasion some change in his way of resenting injuries and expressing his displeasure Jer. 2.14 The Lord deals with his people now in a more Son-like way he chastizes them as much or of tner than formerly but not in that manner he will keep up his Soveraignty even when he is owning thy Soul hee 'l have thee know that he must be thy Lord and thou must worship him Psalm 45.11 so shall the King greatly desire thy Beauty for he is thy Lord c. He will not have his kindliest Relations diminish his Honour nor wear out our inward awe and fear lest an unsuitable frame or any unholy motion of heart should provoke his jealous Eye It 's a remarkable word Deut. 28.58 He will have his people fear this glorious and fearful Name The Lord thy God may be you think Thy God a sweet name and a kindly ay but he glories in it and so mayest thou and yet ought to be also a fearful Name And truly a Conscientious care to prevent the very first stirrings of sin in the heart is the most genuine fruit and the most satisfying evidence of this fear and of our Covenant-state Other things may influence and incline us to oppose sin in its further proceedings as on the other hand an awful Impression upon the heart of God as God and as our God is of great efficacy to keep out sinful Imaginations It will make the soul not only tremble at yielding to such a sin as Joseph was solicited to but even shrink at the first touch of the smallest temptation and this leads to another direction 3. Indeavour to keep thy heart in a holy tender heavenly and lively frame What 's the reason that temptations and suggestions from Satan do at the first excite some sinful motions in the heart the fundamental reason is our remaining Corruption that they work upon But the nearest reason is an ill frame when Satan finds us as dry tinder he strikes fire and every part catches and kindles 1. Then maintain a tender frame and this will make thee feeling and sensible of every inordinate motion of the heart It will grate upon the Conscience and thou wilt be loath by these to grieve the spirit as well as by consenting to or acting of them to quench or resist the Spirit for as the eye is hurt by the smallest dust or smoaks and if it were aware would shut it self against them so is it with a tender Conscience and if any dust has got into the eye it is not at ease till it has wept it out or till it be wipt out so is it also with the man who has true tenderness of heart 2. Maintain a lively Spiritual frame let thy heart be always bending and working towards God stir up holy thoughts and affections and let thy soul be filled with these and there will be no room for sin to get in do you not find that sometimes when the heart is strongly caâ—â—ed out to God that sinful Imaginations dare scarce present themselves for as we use to say that liveliness in duties is the way to prevent wandring thoughts in them and that Birds will not light upon burning Sacrifices so it 's in this case But when the heart is dead and cold and empty and idle then Satan and indwelling sin take their opportunity and fill it and busie it he comes and warms it and kindles fire in it when therefore any thing is offered to thy eye or thy ear or thy taste or thy thought that may excite any inordinacy in thy heart or in the least measure raise thy Corruption to stir antidote thy heart and prepossess it with some gracious Acts. Let the understanding the heart the affections the memory yea thy senses and outward man be filled with the fulness of God then shall sin be some way out of doors you shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh yea there shall be no room to the lustings of the flesh If thy soul be exercised in holy meditations and affections and thy hand be much in heavenly work if thou converse in heaven and live near God and dwell on High were the soul always upon the wing and flying heaven-ward and were God every way thy all Satan durst not offer to force thee in the presence of thy Lord and Husband Satan shall not have such access to thee and this poor world and its gilded nothings should not work upon thee and if the body of death should stir you might with the more ease at least beat it down When the Soul is as it were in Gods presence alway Satan will not venture so to force it as it were Esth 7.8 Yea the body of sin it self would shrink into a corner when the virtue received from the Loadstone is worn off the needle wavers hither and thither but when new touched it bends steadily Northward So it 's with the soul that 's under fresh influences and that is near God But 2. How shall we do with these first motions of sin how shall we deal with them in their first attempts upon us Ans 1. If any sin begin to stir in thy imagination or mind look well it get not into thy heart or affections for that will instantly weaken thy Judgment 2. If thou would keep thine own Vineyard well pluck up every weed as soon as it appears else it will quickly be overgrown as soon as thou feels sin stir let thy heart recoil and start back with abhorrence indeed sin is so often stirring that thou may possibly weary to be always watching and warring with it and the heart does so easily and naturally move that way that it may possibly be a pain to thee to oppose it Therefore thou must be armed with a great deal of resolution not to hear the pleadings of the flesh nor to parley with a temptation and know that when ever sin stirs in thee thou art under an actual temptation to more sin 3. Protest and bear witness against every motion of sin in thee enter thy dissent from it And though this cannot absolve thee in the Court of strict-Justice yet the Court of Grace shall acquit thee This was Paul's Gospel-plea Rom. 7.15 19. and from this he infers ver 17 and also ver 20 Now then it is no more I that do it but sin that dwelleth in me What thou dost not own and dost not consent unto God will not charge upon thee so as to condemn thee even as what thou hast consented to if thou hast retracted it by repentance he will not bring it in in judgment against thee I do not mean as if there were no need of repentance for these for thou cannot sincerely protest against them if thy heart be not penitent for them It 's one of the loose Doctrines of the