after the Apostle has armed the Christian for his Conflict Ephes 6. He adds ver 18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance Set-times for Prayer are as necessary as constant Set-meals of meat for the Body How often I determine not the fewest we find is twice a day Morning and Evening Daniel prayed thrice a day yet it is not right when we limit our selves to times were it seven times aday We find Daniel Chap. 9.1 2 setting himself to pray as if his three times a-day had been nothing There are special Occasions that call for more fervent praying as our Lord conflicting in the Garden and being in an Agony prayed thrice and prayed yet more fervently Now this is a special season when attached by any Corruption we should sound an Alarm to Prayer and let every Prayer be as an Arrow shot against Sin and never think thou prays to any purpose but when thou wounds some Corruption O but blunt Prayers will never draw blood of sin nor will sleepy prayers hurt sin therefore thou must watch unto Prayer and must awake thy gift and thy grace and thy tongue too as the Psalmist does in praising Psalm 51.8 for that may further the fervour of the Spirit and some have judged meer mental Prayer in some cases to be a quenching of the holy Spirit of God It 's true that sometimes a poor Believer when buffetted by Satan and in an Agony through the power and violence of some Corruption cannot put his troubled thoughts into words when yet his unexpressible sighs and groans may make the old man groan as a deadly wounded Man Look to this inveterated Diseases strong Corruptions will not go out without much praying 2. You can mortifie no Corruption without exercising Faith much less your strongest Corruptions for you must not think first to mortifie Sin and then believe you must be in Christ and be a Believer before you can mortifie one Sin Nature prompts men to pray in every exigence but praying without believing will not do but no Corruptions can stand before Faith it can remove Mountains it can bring down strong-holds it can put to flight Armies of Aliens of lusts it can quench the greatest Combustions in the Soul kindled by Satans fiery Darts hence says the Apostle Above all things take unto you the shield of faith Ephes 6.16 The Lord lends Faith his power so to speak This is our victory whereby we overcome the world even our faith 1 John 5.4 Now what this World is see 1 John 2.16 For all that is in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eye c. Now how does Faith assist against these Answ 1. Faith giveth a true judgment of them and values all things aright when others are cheated by their corrupted Senses 2. By Faith we see into Eternity and what will be the fruit of gratifying our lusts what will be the reward of Sin A carnal Heart that had seen Dives at his sumptuous Table and in his gorgeous Apparel and Lazarus at the Gate and the dogs licking his sores would have blessed the one and saved himself from the other But Faith at first sight can see the one in Heaven and the other in Hell Psal 73.17 18. 3. By Faith we see that the best things of this World cannot further our Happiness nor the worst things of the World hinder it that worldly Honours and Pleasures are not all a-kin to everlasting Honour and Joy 4. By Faith we see that the design of Temptations is to deprive us of our Happiness and that Satan and the World who work upon our corrupt passions and minister fewel to our lusts have no good will to us even when they are courting us 5. Faith does not only assent to what God and Christ and Heaven and Holiness are but it makes proof and gets experimental discoveries of these and this makes a man despise the painted Beauty and sweetness of the Creatures the sight of Christs matchless Beauty and Excellency all a mans Idols are divorced When we see the Sun with our own eyes we believe the Moon is not the most glorious light it looks but like a clod in the Firmament many can speak contemptibly of the honours and riches and pleasures of the World who are not mortified to them but with all their might pursue them nor indeed will you ever be able by all the rational discoveries of the vanity of these to mortifie inordinate love to and delight in them till you taste and see something that 's better and this taste and sight Evangelical Faith can only afford No experiences of the Worlds vanity no Contemplations of an Immortal state can do it for Sense will still object Where can you do better and meer Contemplations breed only Notions this brings in the substance of things into the Soul Heb. 11.1 6. Faith does more especially contribute to the mortification of our Corruptions by its ingaging the assistance of Divine Power It 's on this account that there is a sort of Omnipotency attributed to Faith You do not doubt but the Lord Jesus is able to help against your strongest Corruptions But how shall we have his help I Answer You need not say Who shall ascend to heaven and bring him down c Rom. 10.6 7. This thou mayst do by Faith But how does Faith do it Answ 1. Faith does it as it is an assent to the Promises The Promises hold forth the power of Christ for subduing of Sin 2 Pet. 1.3 compared with Rom. 6.14 Now we are interested in these Promises by believing Heb. 4.2 when we believe that it â—â—â—ll be as he has said this some count a Phanatical point But is it phantastick or phanatick to rest upon an honest Mans word much lesser sure this gives more glory to God than all our endeavours to mortifie Sin yet takes not men off other subordinate means but puts them upon the use of them especially upon Prayer That it may be as he has said Rom. 6.14 Man fell at first by taking Satans word before the Lords And it were our wisdom in all Insinuations of the like nature to suspect the hand of Satan Now Faith does not only assent to the truth of the Promises of strength to overcome Sin but it rests and relies upon them all Grace comes through the Promises And indeed the first recumbency of Faith is a great and proper act of it and as they are blessed who have no assurance of their interest in the Promises and yet can resolutely rely on it for as those that seek the Lord are bidden to rejoice Psal 105.3 though they have not yet found him because of the Promise Isa 45.19 So may those encourage themselves in the hope of success against Sin who rest upon Gods Word though they have not yet obtained the victory for the Lord taketh pleasure in them that hope in his mercy Psal 147.11 The recumbency
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
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
he be displeased with the acts and stirrings of sin yet not with the root of them If he can restrain the acts he could let the body of sin dwell contentedly in him But it 's far otherwise with the godly for as sin opposes every gracious act so Grace opposes every known sin yea and does secretly though not so sensibly resist every sin whether known to us to be such or not Grace in the heart feels that to be sin and contrary to its nature which knowledg in the head does not discern to be sin the Law written in the Heart goes farther than what 's in the Head as eating of what one has antipathy against will cause trouble though the man knows not of it but more if he does 4. As the Natural man is not uniform in opposing all sins so he is not even as to all times he seldom or never pursues sin but when God or his Conscience are pursuing him and he is never so eager in his opposition to sin but he will admit of a treaty with it and is easily induced to grant a cessation of Arms he is content to hear what can be offered to reconcile such a thing to the Law of God and for shewing the consistency of it with peace of Conscience here and with the hope of glory at least with his interest and honour in this World the new man is deaf to any motion of a parley and stands out to the last and fights upon his knees and is sometimes overcome but never treats nor yields the Natural man opposes sin as a flowing Tide does a Vessel going down a River but straightway the Tide turns and helps the Vessel But the Conflict in the renewed man is like that between fire and water there 's no yielding nor cessation of Arms till the one be overcome nay not then True the Believer often intermits vigorous opposition to sin and may lose more ground in an hour than he can regain in many days yet Grace never gives over entring its dissent and protestations nor intermits all opposition to sin even when its worsted 5. The unrenewed man never strives lawfully against sin he goes forth against it in his own strength not in the name and strength of the Lord 1 Sam. 17.45 46 He seeks not to engage the Spirits assistance he considers or knows little the strength of spiritual Adversaries and hence is easily overcome 6. In Natural men the conflict is between the Conscience and the depraved Will or corrupt Passions which is like a foreign War but in the renewed it 's like an Intestine War as one calls it the renewed Conscience against the unrenewed the renewed Will and Affections against the unrenewed There 's a Will and a Will-not in a Believer hence the Notion of a double person Rom. 7.15 19 20 there 's no such division in others they may do what Conscience approves not but cannot say that they would not the godly hate the evil they do and love the good they do not whereas the Natural man does hate the good the spirituality of it he does and loves the evil which he does not and may be dare not do In Natural men there 's some sparks of light in the Conscience but there 's no sanctified light in it the Will and Affections are totally corrupted so that there 's nothing in them as a principle to set them against themselves but in the renewed man there 's flesh and spirit in every faculty so that the fight is more close and in every gracious and in every sinful work they both put forth themselves and as the flesh weakens the acts of the Spirit so the opposition the Spirit makes weakens the acts of sin in the Believer for division weakens and so a Believer never sins with all his heart as other men do the renewed part never gives over all resistance And it 's upon this account 1. That the sins of Believers are not so great as the sins of others It 's true Gods electing Love Redemption and Regeneration lay special Bonds upon the Believer which highly heightens sin and adds many degrees of guiltiness to it But if we look to the principle of sin and whence it immediately proceeds the unregenerate mans sin is greatest for it is with all his heart there 's not a bit of the man that be-friends Christ there 's nothing in such of you that holds with him As for what opposition the Conscience makes it is not with your will if there be any made at all it 's grievous but no pleasure to you so that you seek out shifts and means either to stifle it or bribe it or bring it over to be for that which the will and affections are for Some think the Believers sins are more heinous because against more Light indeed this were a good Argument if the Mind were the only principle of our actions and not the will or elective faculty But let none abuse this for truly sin is so dreadful in both that it 's not easie to tell in whom its worse Hence 2. We see the reason why the Believer hath not so much pleasure in Sin as others have having two parties in him whatever pleases the one displeases the other the natural man having but one is more pleas'd at heart with sinful objects the opposition the Conscience makes hinders not but that he deliberately chuse and delightfully act it and obstinately persist in it The Believer is sometimes tasting of the forbidden fruit but Grace marreth the result of it and the more he finds he is pleased with it the worse he is pleased with himself 7. The Natural mans opposition does not any way break the power of Sin nor does continue till the man get up again if he fall he lies still whereas the Spirit in the Believer ceases not to strive till he be got to his feet again Sin was painful to him in the going down but it s more bitter in his belly and he resteth not till he hath vomited it up again the Conscience will cease to strive but grace never yea the godly man often rises by his falling he grows more humble and watchful and dependent the grief which sin breeds consumes the Sin that bred it Whereas the natural man when he overcomes he is overcome he grows proud and conceited the seeming mortification of one Sin does vivifie or give life and strength to another 8. The Natural mans opposition tends only to restrain or keep in Sin not to mortifie it if Sin will be quiet and peaceable he can let it live the Believer seeks the death of it the extirpation and abolition of it If you ask how we shall know when a Sin is mortified and when restrained only or what 's the difference between restraining and mortifying a Corruption Answer 1. When any Corruption is mortified one is thereby advantaged against all other Corruptions for the killing of one member or any branch of Original Sin does weaken