That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
— Romans 8:4-6
What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.
— Romans 6:21
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
— Romans 8:2
And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
— Galatians 5:24
He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.
— Matthew 10:39
The Condition Performed and the Blessedness Promised on Mortifying Sin, by Thomas Manton. The following contains an excerpt from his sermon.
SERMON XVIII
If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
— ROM. 8:13
We come now to the second clause, wherein we have two things —
1. The condition to be performed.
2. The blessedness promised.
First, In the condition we have,—
The parties interested.
The duty required.
The parties interested are justified believers, who are not in the flesh, or after the flesh. Yet two persons are mentioned: the principal author, and the subordinate agent. We are the principal parties in the obligation; but in the operation, the Spirit is the principal. The particle through is usually the note of an instrument, yet the Spirit is not our instrument, but we are his; he first worketh on us as objects then by us as instruments; and therefore though the duty falleth upon us, and we are said to do it by the Spirit; yet it must be thus understood: we are the principal parties as to obligation of duty; but as to operation and influence of grace, the Spirit is the principal.
In the duty there is the act, ‘mortify;’ the object, ‘the deeds of the body.’
1. The act, ‘mortify.’ I shall open it more fully by and by; only note for the present,—
1. Sin is alive in some degree in the justified; otherwise what need it to be mortified? The exhortation were superfluous if sin were wholly dead.
2. It noteth a continued act. We must not rest in a mortification already wrought in us. He saith not, ‘If ye have mortified,’ but, ‘If ye do mortify;’ this must be our daily practice, not done now and then, or by fits; if we always sincerely labour to mortify the deeds of the body, we are in the way of life.
3. It showeth that this work must not be attended slightly, or by the by, but carried on to such a degree, that corruption may be weakened, or lie a-dying, or be upon the declining hand. The success and event is considerable, as well as the endeavour. Where the event, dependeth upon outward and foreign causes, a man hath comfort in doing his duty whatever the success be, but here where the event falleth within the compass of our duty itself, there it must be regarded. We must so oppose sin, that in some sort we may kill it or extinguish it, not only scratch the face of it, but seek to root it out; at least that must be our aim.
4. Mortifying noteth some pain or trouble. For nothing that hath life, will be put to death without some struggling; and the flesh cannot be subdued without some trouble to ourselves, or violence offered to our carnal affections. Only let me tell you, if it be painful to mortify sin, you make it more painful by dealing negligently in the business, and drawing out your vexation to a greater length; the longer you suffer this Canaanite to live with you, the more will it prove as a thorn or goad in your sides. Here, if ever, it is true our affection procureth our affliction; sin dieth when our love to it dieth; your trouble endeth, your delight in it ceaseth, as you can bring your souls to a resolution to quit these things. Quam suave mihi subito factum est, carere suavitatibus iniquorum. No delight so sincere as the contempt of vain delights.
1. The object, ‘the deeds of the body,’ that is, our sins. So called, 1. Because sin is compared to a body: Rom. 7:24, ‘Who shall deliver me from this body of death?’ and Col. 2:11, ‘In putting off the body of the sins of the flesh.’ There is besides the natural body, a body of corruption, which doth wholly compass about the soul; there is the head of wicked desires, the hands and feet of wicked executions, the eye of sinful lusts, the tongue of vain and evil words; therefore it is said, Col. 3:5, ‘Mortify your members which are upon earth;’ not of the natural body, but of the mass of corruption; particular sinful lusts are as members of this body. 2. Sins are called the deeds of the body, because they are executed by the body: Rom. 6:22, ‘Let not sin reign in your mortal bodies, that ye should fulfil the lusts thereof;’ and Rom. 6:19, ‘As ye have yielded up your members servants to uncleanness, and to iniquity unto iniquity.’ All the members of the body are employed as instruments to serve our sin; now affections are manifested in action; therefore by the deeds of the body, he meaneth not outward acts only, but lusts also. Well then, fight we must, but not with our own shadows; sin is gotten within us; by the soul it hath taken possession of the body; the gates of the senses are always open to let in such objects and temptations as take part with the flesh; and the flesh is ready to accomplish whatever the corrupt heart doth suggest and require.
Secondly, The life that is promised to them that mortify sin,—’Ye shall live,’—a spiritual life of grace here, and an eternal life of glory hereafter. Heaven is worth the having, and therefore the reward should sweeten the duty. From this clause the points are three:
That justified persons are bound to mortify sin.
That in the mortifying of sin, we and the Spirit concur. The Spirit will not without us, and we cannot without the Spirit.
That eternal life is promised to them who seriously improve the assistance of the Holy Ghost for the mortifying of sin.
1. Doct. That justified persons should mortify sin. It is their duty so to do.
First. What is the mortification that lieth upon us?
1. Negatively, What it is not; we must distinguish between the mock mortification,—the counterfeit resemblances of this duty, and the duty itself.
1. There is a pagan mortification. I call it so, because such a thing was among the heathens, which is nothing else but a suppressing such sins as nature discovereth, upon such reasons and arguments as nature suggesteth: Rom. 2:14, ‘The Gentiles do by nature the things contained in the law:’ namely, as they abstained from gross sins and performed outward acts of duty. This was a kind of resemblance of mortification, and but a resemblance. We read of this in history; the answer of Socrates to the physiognomist, οἶμαι παιδεραστήν, when his scholars enraged at his character Παιδεραστης, ἑταῖρόι, εἰμι φύσει, ἀλλʼ ἐπέχω. So of Palæmon, who coming in a drunken fit to scoff at the lecture of Xenocrates, with his head crowned with a garland of rosebuds, was by his grave and moral discourse, reduced from his riot and licentiousness, which was a kind of moral conversion; but this we fault, because it is but a half turn from sins of the second table, or lower hemisphere of duty; and because these sins were suppressed and hidden, rather than mortified and subdued; Sapientia eorum abscondit vitia, non abscindit. Lact. As Haman refrained himself, when his heart boiled with rancour and malice, Esther 5:10, their wisdom tended to hide sin, rather than to mortify it. And besides this kind of conversion was not a recovery of the soul from the flesh and the world to God; but only an acquiring a fitness to live more plausibly, and with less scandal among men.
2. There is a popish and superstitious mortification; which standeth in a mere neglect of the body, and in some outward abstinences and austerities, and such observances as are prescribed by men without any warrant from God; as in abstaining from marriage, and some sort of meats or apparel, as unlawful; yea, from the necessary functions of human life; the apostle telleth us that these things have τινα λόγον σοφιάς, Col. 2:23. ‘A show of wisdom,’ have a specious show, and are highly cried up by the carnal world; but have no real worth to commend us to God, as being not commanded by God, or warranted by the best example of the most holy and mortified men. Suppose abstinence from marriage: ‘Enoch Gen. 5:22. walked with God, and begat sons and daughters.’ And we have more instances of true piety in married folks, than in monkery and cloistral devotions. Jesus Christ sanctified a free life, using all sorts of diet and company, not abstaining from feasts themselves: Mat. 11:19, ‘The Son of man came eating and drinking.’ So when the vow of voluntary poverty is recommended by the papists as an estate of perfection. Certainly beggary, which is threatened as a punishment, is not to be wished or desired; much less to be chosen or wilfully incurred; least of all to be made the matter of a vow. Surely it is greater self-denial entirely to devote and faithfully to use our riches for God, than to cast them away and rid our hands of them; as he is a better steward that improveth his master’s stock, than he that casts off the employment, and lazily refuseth to meddle with it. So for penance and self-discipline; they look more like the rites of Baal’s priests, who gashed and lanced themselves to commend them, to their idol, than the practices of Christ’s votaries and believing penitents; who hath indeed commanded us to mortify our lusts, but not to mangle our bodies; to retrench the food and fuel of the flesh when need requireth; but not to bind ourselves to a course of rigorous observances, which gratify the flesh in one way, as much as it seems to contradict it in another; namely, as they breed in us pride and presumption of merit above other christians. In short, these external rigours, though they are greatly admired by the world, which is wholly governed by sensual desires, yet they are not acceptable to God, as having more in them of ridiculous pageantry and theatrical stage-holiness, rather than serious devotion.
3. There is the mortification of the hypocrite, which is an outward forbearing evil, though they do not inwardly hate it; which proceedeth from divers causes —
1. Because they have no inclination to some sins; or rather, a greater inclination to other sins, which intercept the nourishment by which these sins should be fed. Though we are all gone astray from God, yet every one hath his way: Isa. 53:6, ‘All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way.’ So Eccles. 7:29, ‘God made man upright, but he hath found out many inventions.’ As the channel is cut, corrupt nature in us findeth a vent and issue; some are sensual, but not greedy of worldly gain; shall we therefore call them mortified? Some that are greedy of gain, are not proud and aspiring, or given to carnal pleasures; do you think therefore sin is dead in them? No, their corruption breaketh out another way, more suitable to their temper and constitution, or custom and course of life; in some, nature is more sullen and rigid; in others, more facile, and obvious to the grosser temptations.
2. Sometimes it is because we make one lust give way to another. For certain weeds destroy one another, as wild beasts also prey upon one another. So when men abstain from pomp and pleasure, because of the cost, their covetousness starveth their riot; so on the contrary, when men check their sensual inclination by their sparing humour. But mostly it is seen in those that run into extremes, and bend the crooked stick too far the other way, as the lunatic in the Gospel fell sometimes into the water, and sometimes into the fire, Mat. 17:15. Or as our ancestors to drive out the Picts or wild Britons, called in the Saxons, a worse enemy; or as if there were no better physic for a dead palsy, than a burning fever. Sins take the throne by turns; as the voluptuous in youth prove the most worldly and covetous in age; but this is not to quit sin, but to exchange it.
3. Sometimes because men have not strength and opportunity to act sin. They may seem weaned and mortified, when they are but spent and tired out with executing their lusts; and it is not hatred of sin, but indisposition of nature to fulfil it: Job 33:20, ‘His soul abhorreth dainty food.’ No thanks to the glutton, but to his disease. Old age is described as ‘days that have no pleasure in them,’ Eccles. 12:1. It is not the weakness of sin, but nature in them; their lusts leave them, rather than they leave their lusts; sin goeth out rather than is put out, rather dieth to us than we to it.
4. It may come to pass through outward respects, of carnal fear and shame. A debauched creature, that walloweth in all filthy lusts, is an abhorring to all that wear the heart of a man; therefore credit may keep some from running into excess of riot, for lewdness is odious and disgraceful; their iniquities are found hateful, as the Psalmist saith. Mere shame and men-pleasing may restrain many within the compass of their duty. Joash was good all the days of Jehoiada, but afterwards hearkened to the lewd princes, 2 Chron. 24:17. In such cases there is no true hatred of sin, no true gracious principle set up against it; this abstinence is but for a while; take away the restraint, and they soon return to their own bent and bias; and besides, this keepeth them but from a few sins.
5. Restraining grace. God may restrain and bridle men by the power of his word on their consciences, when yet their hearts are not renewed; or by common instincts of natural modesty and ingenuousness; or by the power of his providence, as God withheld Abimelech, Gen. 20:6. Though the sin be not subdued, yet the act and exercise may be suspended. Balaam had a mind to curse Israel, but God suffered him not, though he strove by all means to please Balak.
6. Terrors of conscience. A man that is under them, non proponit peccare; a renewed man, proponit non peccare; the one hath for the time no actual will or purpose to sin; the other a purpose not to sin; no will to sin, yet have a great deal of sin in the will. Thus negatively I have showed you what is not mortification.
2. Positively, What it is. Here again we must distinguish. Mortification is twofold, passive and active; passive, whereby we are mortified; and active, whereby we mortify ourselves; the one is God’s work, the other our own.
1. Mortification passive, whereby God mortifieth sin in us; which he doth either,—1. At conversion, when a principle of grace, contrary to sin and destructive of it, is planted in our hearts: Ezek. 11:19, ‘I will put a new spirit into them, and I will take away the heart of stone, and I will give them an heart of flesh; that they may walk in my statutes.’ So Ezek. 36:26, ‘I will put a new spirit into them.’ In the work of regeneration God doth give a deadly wound to sin; the reign of it is broken, that it cannot with such strength bring forth the deeds of the body. 2. By the continual and renewed influence of his grace. He doth more and more weaken the power of sin: Mic. 7:19, ‘He will have compassion on us, and subdue our iniquities.’ It is God’s work; alas! without this, if we be left to ourselves, the more we resist sin, the more it is irritated and increased in us. 3. God doth it by his word, which is the great instrument which he useth to convey the power of his grace, John 17:17. There we see the evil of sin, and the danger of it; are stirred up to resolve, cry, and pray against it, and are told of the great remedy, which is Christ’s death. 4. He mortifieth us by his providence, as he taketh away the fuel and provision of our lusts, and awakeneth us to a more earnest conflict with sin. Out of love to our souls he crosseth our humours: John 15:2, ‘Every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.’ The vine-dresser cutteth and pareth off the luxuriant and superfluous branches: Isa. 27:9, ‘By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit, to take away his sin.’ Now all this is passive mortification, necessary to be observed by us, that we may submit to God’s work, and improve the impressions of his word, Spirit, and providence.
2. Active mortification is the constant endeavour of a renewed soul to subdue sin dwelling in us, that we may be more at liberty to serve, please, and glorify God. It is a constant endeavour; for in a leaking ship there is a continual use of the pump. Sin is a continual burden and clog to the new nature, and it is every day’s business to get rid of it; we groan under it, Rom. 7:24; and we must strive as well as groan. The spirit or new nature lusteth against the flesh, Gal. 5:17, not only by a disliking thought which may check actual motions of the flesh, but also by a constant use of all holy means, that we may get the mastery of it. They are bound to die unto sin, therefore will not let it reign, Rom. 6:11, 12; and the end of mortification is vivification, or liberty towards God, which the soul aspireth after, more and more; for we grow dead to sin, that we may be alive to righteousness. In short, this work must be continued till we have gotten some power against our corruption, and it be weakened, though not subdued totally.
There is a general and particular mortification. The general mortification is, ‘The putting off the whole body of the sins of the flesh,’ Col. 2:11. The particular mortification is, when we subdue or weaken this or that particular lust: Ps. 18:23, ‘I was also upright before him, and kept myself from mine iniquity.’ Now the rule is, that the general mortification must go before the particular; otherwise all that we do, is but stopping a hole in a ruinous fabric that is ready to drop down upon our heads; or to make much ado about a cut finger, when we have a mortal disease upon us. Besides, particular mortification dependeth on the general; for till we be renewed by God, how can we mortify sin? Col. 3:8, ‘Put off all these, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouths, seeing ye have put off the old man with his deeds.’ Seeing you have put off all corruption, allow yourselves to live in no one sin. Alas, to set against a particular sin, before we set upon the whole body of sin, it is but to put a new patch upon a torn garment, and so make the rent the worse; or to cut off a branch or two, while the root or trunk remaineth in full life and vigour, and so sprouteth the more for cutting. First look after the general work, that sin be stabbed at the heart, and then the particular branches and limbs of it die by degrees.
3. There is a double way of mortification, privative and positive. The one standeth in the cutting off the fuel and provisions of the flesh, or those things by which sinful and corrupt nature is kept alive; the other lieth in resistance and active endeavours against it; as fire is put out, either by withdrawing wood or combustible matter, or pouring on water; or an enemy is destroyed by starving or battle, as Antigonus answered to a captain, that kept a garrison in a city subject to rebellions and mutinyings, that ‘he should not only fasten the clog, but starve the dog; meaning thereby, that he should strengthen the garrison, and weaken the city. Both these ways must christians go to work in the business of mortification.
The one by shunning the occasions of sin, and cutting off the provisions which feed the distemper in our souls: Rom. 13:14, ‘Make no provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.’ When men entertain themselves with all sensual delights, as if their business were to hearten the enemy, to keep the flesh alive, after they have undertaken its death in baptism. The other is using the means which tend to the subduing of it; such as prayer: 2 Cor. 12:8, ‘For this thing I sought the Lord thrice.’ Hearing the word: John 15:3, ‘Now are ye clean, through the word which I have spoken to you;’—and such like. As on the one side we must not provide oil to feed the flame; so on the other, there must be striving, praying, exercising ourselves unto godliness, that grace may be strengthened in war against sin.
4. There is a daily and ordinary course of mortification; and a solemn extraordinary setting about this work in special seasons. The daily course is needful, because sin is at continual work in our hearts; and as soon as a christian neglects his soul, the effects do soon appear. In this sense, a christian must die daily, that is, to his sins and corruptions; he must still watch, and strive, and get some advantage against them, by every prayer he maketh to God, every act of receiving the Lord’s Supper, or hearing the word; it is his constant task; but there are certain seasons when he must solemnly set about this work; as,—
1. When God maketh sin bitter by afflictions, and we are threshed, that our husk may fly off. Affliction is a special time of dealing against sin, Jer. 2:19. We must not hinder the working of God’s physic, but further it rather, exercise ourselves under the rod: Heb. 12:11, ‘It yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness, to them that arc exercised thereby.’ Use it to God’s ends and purposes; the smartness of the rod should make sin more hateful to us.
2. When yon have some serious stirrings upon hearing the word, or some new powerful consideration is given you to quicken your hatred against sin; when a truth is borne in with great light, power, and evidence upon the heart. There is a providence that goeth with sermons; many gracious opportunities are lost by our negligence; certainly when the waters are stirred, it is good getting into the pool: see Jam. 1:23, ‘If a man be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass.’ If so, there is a season lost; there is some duty pressed, some sin discovered, some want laid open; mortification is much promoted by observing and improving these seasons: 1 Pet 1:22, ‘Seeing ye have purified your souls, in obeying the truth through the Spirit;’ and Ps. 119:104, ‘Through thy precepts I get understanding, therefore I hate every false way.’ By attending on the word, we get new degrees of light, and hatred against sin; sometimes God weakeneth this lust, sometimes that, according as he is pleased to direct it to your consciences.
3. After some notable fall, or sin against God. See the core of the distemper pulled out. To get a pardon is not enough, but mortification must be looked after; the longer sin defileth the heart, the deeper it is rooted; therefore speedily recover yourselves at such a time; a green wound is more easily cured, than an old rankled sore; and David complaineth his wounds did stink through his foolishness, Ps. 38:5. The longer these wounds be neglected, the worse. If a member is sprained, or out of joint, if you delay to set it, it never groweth strong or straight. Peter did not lie in the sin, but went out immediately and wept bitterly, Mat 26:75. The longer corruption is spared, it acquireth the more strength, secureth its interest more firmly, and is more deeply rooted in the soul, and bringeth a custom on the body also.
Secondly. Why justified persons must mortify the deeds of the body.
1. With respect to Christ.
With respect to sin.
With respect to grace received.
1. With respect to Christ; and there,—1. What he did, and is to us. 2. Our relation to him.
1. What he did, and is to us; for what end he suffered for us, and for what end be is offered to us. 1. He suffered for us, to take away sin, or to purchase grace whereby sin may be mortified; he paid the price to provoked justice: 1 Pet 2:24, ‘He bore our sins in his body upon the tree, that we being dead unto sin, should live to righteousness.’
Naturally we are dead to righteousness, and alive to sin; but Christ’s intention in dying for sinner’s, was to remedy this, that sin might die and grace live; and therefore our old man is said to be crucified with Christ, Rom. 6:6. Then the price was paid, and grace purchased. He came not only to free us from punishment, but cut also the power of sin. The guilt of sin is contrary to our happiness; the power of sin, to God’s glory. 2. The end for which he is offered to us. God propoundeth Christ, not only as a foundation of comfort, but as a fountain of grace and holiness: 1 Cor. 1:30, ‘Who of God is made to us, wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption;’ to be our sanctification, as well as our righteousness; where he is the one, he is the other; one principal blessing is to turn us from our sins. Acts 3:36; and that is mortification, or weakening the power and love of sin in our hearts. Now that we may receive him as God offereth him, and not rend and divide him by a broken and imperfect faith; as we look for comfort in Christ in the sense of our justification and pardon; so an experience of his power in mortifying sin, otherwise we have but half of Christ.
2. Our relation to him, both by external profession, and real implantation, both bind us to mortify sin.
1. External profession obligeth us to die unto sin; it was a part of our baptismal vow, and we quite nullify and frustrate the intent of that ordinance, unless we mortify the deeds of the body. The flesh was renounced in our answer to God’s covenant-questions: 1 Pet. 3:21, Baptism is called ‘the answer of a good conscience towards God.’ It is an answer to the Lord’s offers propounded in the gospel when we were first consecrated to this warfare; and that dedication must never be forgotten: 2 Pet. 1:19, ‘And hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.’ To neglect, is to forget; as ‘to distribute and communicate, forget not;’ that is, neglect not. So here, ‘hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.’ While they please the flesh, they neglect their baptismal vow, and so make that ordinance of none effect to them. We are said Col. 2:13, to ‘put off the body of the sins of the flesh.’ That is, in vow and obligation, being buried with him in baptism. Now if we do not stand to our vow, our solemn admission into Christ’s family was in vain.
2. By real implantation. Surely they that are united to Christ cannot live in the servitude and slavery of sin; for by this union with him they are assimilated and conformed to him: Gal. 2:20, ‘I am crucified with Christ;’ and it was not his privilege alone, but all the justified: Gal. 5:24, ‘And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh, with the affections and lusts thereof.’ This conformity is called by the apostle, a being ‘planted into the likeness of his death,’ Rom. 6:5. Christ was crucified in his human nature, and we in our corrupt nature; we crucified him by our sins, and we are crucified with him by the Spirit; Christ died for sin, and a christian dies unto sin.
2. With respect to sin, which remaineth in us after we are justified. Here are three considerations demonstrating why we should mortify sin.
1. That sin still abideth in us after we are taken into the justified estate. While we dwell in flesh, this woful and sad companion dwelleth with us; we cannot get rid of this cursed inmate, till the house itself be pulled down; we die struggling with it; and when one of our feet is within the borders of eternity, yet it departeth not. As hair groweth after shaving, as long as the roots remain; so is corruption sprouting; therefore must be always mortifying; always cleansing: 2 Cor. 7:1, ‘Having these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit;’ always purifying, 1 John 3:3, ‘He that hath this hope in him, purifieth himself as Christ is pure;’ always ‘laying aside the weight, and the sin that doth so easily beset us,’ Heb. 12:1. Since sin is not nullified, it therefore must be mortified; the war must last as long as the enemy liveth, and hath any strength and force.
2. It still worketh in us, is very active and restless, not as other things, which as they grow in age, grow more quiet and tame: James 4:5, ‘The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy.’ The flesh is not a sleepy habit, but a working stirring principle: Rom. 7:8, ‘Sin wrought in me all manner of concupiscence;’ that is, sinning nature; it is always inclining us to evil, or hindering that which is good. 1. Inclining us to that which is evil. It doth not only make us flexible and yielding to temptations; but doth urge us, and impel us thereunto: Rom. 7:23, ‘But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind.’ We think and speak too gently of sin, when we think it a tame thing, that worketh not till it be irritated by the suggestions of Satan. No, it is like a living fountain that poureth out its waters, though nobody come to drink of them; it is irritated by the law of God many times, and the motions of the Spirit; these corrupt humours within us, are in a continual fermentation: Gen. 6:5, ‘And God saw that the wickedness of man was great upon earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.’ Temptations only make them more violent. 2. Hindering us from that which is good. Either it draweth away the heart from duty, or distracteth the heart in duty. It draweth away the heart from duty: Rom. 7:21, ‘I find then a law, that when I would do good, evil is present with me.’ It abateth the edge of our affections, discourageth us by many unbelieving carnal thoughts, and so the heart is drawn away from God, that sin may the more domineer; or distracting our minds in duty: Ezek. 33:31, ‘Their hearts go after their covetousness;’ filling our minds with thoughts of the world, vain pleasures; revenge turneth our duties into sins.
3. The sad consequence of letting sin alone. When sin is not mortified, it groweth outrageous, and never ceaseth acting till it hath exposed us to shame before God, men, and angels; or hardeneth us in a carnal, careless course. Lusts let alone end in gross sins, and gross sins in a casting off all religion. Love of pleasures let alone, will end in drunkenness and uncleanness; envy, in murder and violence. Judas allowed his covetousness, and that brought him to betray his master; Gehazi was first blasted with covetousness, then with asking a bribe to God’s dishonour, then with leprosy, and so became a shame and burden to himself; Ananias and Sapphira were taken off by a sudden judgment. The devil loveth by lust to draw us into sin; and by sin to shame; and by shame to horror and despair. Sin is no tame thing. But do the people of God run into such notable excesses and disorders? Yes, when they let sin alone, and discontinue the exercise of mortification; witness David, that run into lust and blood; and Peter into curses and execrations; Solomon into sensuality and idolatry. Old sins long laid asleep may awaken again, and hurry us strangely into mischief and inconvenience.
3. In regard of grace received.
1. The grace of justification. Reliance upon the righteousness of Christ for justification doth not shut out the work of mortification, but conduceth much towards it; it doth not exclude it, for the justified must be mortified; it pleadeth for it, ‘Grace teacheth us to deny ungodliness,’ Tit. 2:11. That sin may be mortified and put to death for Christ’s sake, Christ was crucified and put to death for our sakes. God doth not require it in point of sovereignty, but pleadeth with us upon terms of grace. Grace hath denied us nothing, it hath given us Christ and all things with him, and shall we stick at our lusts? Grace thought nothing too good for us, not the blood of Christ, nor the favour of God, nor the joys of heaven; and shall we count anything too dear to part with, for grace’s sake? Mortification is an unpleasing task; but grace commands and calls for it, and that with such powerful oratory as cannot be withstood.
2. In regard of the grace of sanctification —To exercise it, preserve it, and increase it.
1. That we may exercise it to that end for which it was given to us. It was given to us to avoid sin: 1 John 3:9, ‘Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God;’ and 1 John 5:18, ‘We know that whosoever is born of God, sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God, keepeth himself, and the wicked one toucheth him not.’ There is a seed and principle within us, to curb and restrain sin too, and keep us from falling into the power of the devil, or being brought back into our old bondage. This other principle was set up in us, on purpose to excite us unto what is good, so also to abate the power of sin; as the way to destroy weeds is to plant the ground with good seed; and it is given us as a bridle actually to restrain the exorbitances, and hold it in, when it flieth out. Now this grace of God will be in vain, unless it be used to such purpose; and one of God’s most precious gifts would lie idle; therefore we should act it, or walk in the spirit, that we may not fulfil the lusts of the flesh.
2. Preserve it in power and vigour. For the life of grace dependeth very much upon the dying of sin; as health and strength in the body cometh on as the disease abateth: 1 Pet. 2:24, ‘That we being dead unto sin, might be alive unto righteousness.’ But as the life of sin increaseth, grace languisheth and withereth, and is ready to die, Rev. 3:2. The flesh and the spirit are contrary, and always are encroaching upon one another; and there is this advantage on the flesh’s side, that it is a native, not a foreigner. Home-bred plants, which the soil yieldeth naturally without any tillage, as nettles, will sooner preserve themselves, and get ground upon better plants, because the earth bringeth them forth of its own accord; or as water heated, the cold is natural to it, and will prevail against the heat, unless it be driven out by a constant fire. Whether the prevalency of sin doth weaken grace effective or meritorie, by its malignant influence, or as deserving such a punishment from God, I will not now dispute; but weaken it, it doth; that is clear by experience; for though grace be planted in us by God, it is not settled in such an indivisible point, as that it cannot be more or less; there is a remission of degrees: Mat. 24:12, ‘The love of many shall wax cold.’ Faith may grow sick and weak; there are soul-distempers as well as bodily; and then a man is altogether unfit for action, and performeth duties in a very heartless and uncomfortable fashion; therefore still we must be mortifying sin.
3. That we may increase it. Grace is not only donum, a gift to be preserved; but talentum, a talent to be improved and increased upon our hands, that we may be the more fit to glorify God. This appeareth by the many excitations in scripture to growth: 2 Pet. 3:18, ‘But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ’ It is not enough to maintain that measure of grace which we have already received, but we must get more; always look after the growth of it in ourselves; and indeed the one cannot be done without the other; there is no possibility to keep what we have, unless it be improved; he that roweth against the stream, had need ply the oar; and he that goeth up a sandy hill, must never stand still. And it is our own fault, if it doth not grow; God loveth to multiply and increase his gifts; ‘Grace be multiplied,’ 2 Pet. 2:2. There is more to be had, and more will be given, unless our sins obstruct the effusion of it; if we get it not, we may blame ourselves, for God doth nothing to hinder the increase; and indeed when grace is in any life and vigor, it will be growing: Prov. 4:18, ‘The way of justice is as a shining light, which shineth more and more unto the perfect day.’ The morning light increaseth; a wicked man groweth worse and worse; he sinneth away the light of his conscience, rejecteth the light of the word, till he stumbleth into utter darkness. It is like the coming on of the night; the other like the coming on of the day. Now mortification of sin is the great means of growing in grace, removet quod prohibet; it maketh room for grace in the soul, as it taketh away that which letteth, that it may diffuse its influence more plentifully. In heaven we are perfect, because there is no sin; opposite principles are wholly gone; so here, the more you weaken sin, the more is grace introduced with power and success: 1 Pet. 2:1, 2, ‘Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisy, and envy, and evil-speaking, as new-born babes, desire the sincere milk of the world, that ye may grow thereby.’ There is no way of growth, till evil frames of spirit be laid aside.
The First use, is to enforce this duty upon all those that are called unto, or look for any hopes by Jesus Christ, to mortify the deeds of the body: O! do not think you are past mortification, because you are in a state of grace; there is need of it still; yea, it concerneth you more than others.
1. There is still need of it, if you consider the abundance of sin of all kinds that yet remaineth with us, and the marvellous activity of it in our souls, and the cursed influences of it; or the mischief that will accrue to us, if it be let alone.
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