The Mortification of Sin, Continued
“And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh, with the affections and lusts.” Gan. 0: 24.
Ty the previous discourse we have shown from this text that a saving interest in Christ may be inferred from the crucifying or mortifying of the flesh with its affections and lusts. Having considered the nature and necessity of mortification, and shown how a saving interest in Christ may be inferred from it, we now proceed to a PRACTICAL IMPROVEMENT Of the whole.
InrereNcE 1. If they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh, the life of the Christian is no idle life. The corruptions of his heart continually fill his hands with work of the most difficult nature — sin-crucifying work, which the Scripture calls cutting off the right hand and plucking out the right eye. Sin-crucifying work is hard work, and it is constant work throughout the life of a Christian; there is no time nor place freed from this conflict; every occasion stirs corruption, and every stirring of corruption calls for mortification: corruptions work in our very best duties, Rom. 7: 23, and call the Christian to mortifying labors. The world and the devil are great enemies and sources of many temptations to believers, but not like the corruptions of their own hearts; they only tempt externally, but these tempt internally, and are much more dangerous; they only tempt at times, these continually. Besides, whatever Satan or the world attempts upon us would be altogether ineffectual were it not for our own corruptions, John 14:30; so that the corruptions of our own hearts, as they create most danger, must give us more labor. Our life and this labor must end together; for sin is long dying in the best heart: those who have been many years exercised in the study of mortification, may feel the same corruption troubling them now which drew forth their tears and brought them to their knees twenty or forty years ago. It may be said of sin as of Hannibal, that active enemy, that it will never be quiet, whether conquering or conquered; and until sin cease working, the Christian must not cease mortifying.
2. If mortification be the great work of a Christian, those that give the corruptions of Christians an occasion to revive, do them a very il office. They are not our best friends who stir the pride of our hearts by the flattery of their lips. The grace of God in others is thankfully to be owned, and under discouragements to be wisely spoken of; but the strongest Christians scarcely show their own weakness in any one thing more than in hearing their own praises. Christian, thou carriest gunpowder about thee, desire those that carry fire to keep at a distance: it is a dangerous crisis when a proud heart meets with flattering lips: take away the fire, said a holy divine of Germany, when his friend commended him upon his death-bed, for I have yet combustible matter about me. Faithful, seasonable, discreet reproofs are much more safe to us, and advantageous to our mortifying work; but alas, how few have the wisdom duly to administer them? It is said of Alexander, that he told a philosopher who had been long with him to be gone; for, said he, so long thou hast been with me and never reproved me, which must be thy fault; for either thou sawest nothing in me worthy of reproof, which argues thy ignorance; or thou durst not reprove me, which argues thy unfaithfulness. A wise and faithful reprover is of singular use to him that is heartily engaged in the design of mortification; such a faithful friend, or some enemy, must be helpful to us in that work.
3. Hence it follows that manifold and successive afflictions are necessary for the best Christians. The mortification of our lusts requires them all, be they never so many. “If need be, ye are in heaviness.” 1 Pet. 1:6. It is no more than need that one loss should follow another, to mortify an earthly heart; for so intensely are our affections set on the’ - world, that it is not one, or two, or many checks of providence that will suffice to wean them. Alas, the earthliness of our hearts requires all this, it may be much more than this, to purge them. The wise God sees it but necessary to permit frequent discoveries of our own weakness, and to let loose the tongues of many enemies upon us, and all little enough to destroy the vanity in our hearts. Christian, how difficult soever it be for thee to bear it, yet the pride of thy heart requires all the scoffs and calumnies that the tongues or pens of thy enemies or mistaken friends have at any time thrown upon thee. Such weeds as grow in our hearts will require hard frosts to rot them; the straying bullock needs a heavy clog, and so does a Christian whom God will keep within the bounds of his commandments. Psalm 119: 67; Dan. 11:35.
4. If they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh, the number of real Christians is small. It is true, if all that seem to be meek and heavenly might pass for Christians, the number would be great; but if none must be accounted Christians but those who crucify the flesh with its affections and lusts, O how small is the number! For how. many are there under the Christian name that indulge their lusts, that secretly hate all who faithfully reprove them, and love none but such as feed their lusts, by praising and admiring them. How many that make provision for the flesh to fulfil its lusts, and cannot endure to have their corruptions crossed. How many that seem very meek and humble until an occasion be given to stir up their. passion, and then you shall see in what degree they are mortified: the flint is a cold stone till it be struck, and then it is all fiery. I know the best Christians are mortified but in part; and strong corruptions are often found in very eminent Christians; but they love them not so well as to purvey for them; to protect, defend, and countenance them; nor dare they hate such as faithfully reprove them. On account of mortification it is said, “Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” Matt.7: 14.
5. If they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh, if mortification is their daily work, how falsely are Christians charged as troublers of the world and disturbers of the civil peace and tranquility. Justly may they retort the charge, as Elijah did to Ahab, “It is not I that trouble Israel, but thou and thy father’s house.” It is not meek and humble Christians that put the world into confusion, but the profane and atheistical, or the designing and hypocritical, who lay it at the door of innocent Christians: as all the public calamities, which, from the hand of God or by foreign or domestic enemies befell Rome, were constantly charged upon Christians, who were condemned and punished for what the righteous hand of God inflicted on the heads of the enemies of that state. The apostle James propounds and answers a question very pertinent to this discourse: “From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?” James 4:1. O, if men did but study self-denial, and live as much at home in the constant discipline of their own hearts as some do, what tranquillity and peace, what blessed haleyon days should we quickly see! It is true, Christians are always contending, but it is with themselves and their own corrupt hearts and affections: they hate no enemy but sin; they thirst for the blood and ruin of no other enemy; they are ambitious of no victory but over the corruptions of their own hearts; they carry no grudge except it be against sin; and yet these are the men who are charged with disturbing the times they live in, just as the wolf accused the lamb below him for defiling the stream.
But there will be a day when God will clear up the innocence and integrity of his abused servants; and the world shall see it was not preaching and praying, but drinking, swearing, and enmity to true godliness, which disturbed the quietness of the times. In the mean time let innocence commit itself unto God, who will protect and in due time vindicate it.
6. If they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh, whatever religion or doctrine cowntenances sen ts not of Christ. The doctrine of Christ everywhere teaches mortification: the whole stream of the gospel runs against sin; it is holy and heavenly; it has no tendency to extol corrupt nature and feed its pride by magnifying its freedom and power, or stamping the merit of the blood of Christ upon its works: it never makes the death of Christ a cloak to cover sin, but an instrument to destroy it.
7. If mortification is the great business of a Christian, that condition 1s most desirable which is least exposed to temptation. ‘‘ Give me neither poverty nor riches, but feed me with food convenient.” Prov. 30:8. The holy Agur was well aware of the danger lurking in both extremes; and how near they border upon deadly temptations and approach the very precipice of ruin, that stand upon either ground. Few Christians have a head strong enough to stand upon the pinnacle of wealth and honor, nor is it every one that can grapple with poverty and contempt. A mediocrity is the Christian’s best security, and is therefore most desirable; and yet how do the corruption, the pride and ignorance of our hearts covet the condition which only serves to nourish our lusts and make the work of mortification more difficult. It is well for us that our wise Father leaves not to our own choice, that he frequently dashes our earthly projects and disappoints our fond expectations. If children were left to carve for themselves, how often would they cut their own fingers.
8. If mortification is the great business of a Christian,
Christian fellowship duly improved must be of special advantage to the people of God. Vor thereby we have the friendly help of others to carry on our great design and help us in our most difficult business; if corruption be too hard for us, others come in to our assistance. ‘Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness.” Gal. 6:1. If temptations prevail, that we fall under sin, it is a special mercy to have the reproofs and counsels of our brethren, who will not suffer sin to rest upon us. Lev. 19:17. While we are sluggish, others are vigilant for our safety. The humility of another reproves and mortifies my pride. The activity of another quickens my deadness. The gravity of another detects and cures my levity. The spirituality of another may be exceedingly useful to reprove and heal the earthliness and sensuality of my heart. Two are better than one, but woe unto him that is alone. The devil is well aware of this great advantage, and therefore strikes with special malice against associated Christians, who are as a well-disciplined army, whom he therefore more especially endeavors to rout and scatter by persecutions, that thereby Christians may be deprived of the sweet advantages of mutual society.
9. How deeply has sin fixed tts roots in our nature, that rt should be the constant work of a Christian’s life to mortify and destroy it! God has given us many excellent helps: his Spirit within us, and.a variety of ordinances and duties appointed as instruments of mortification. From the very day of regeneration to the last moment of dissolution the Christian is at work in the use of all sanctified means, external and internal, yet can never destroy corruption at the root all his life long. The most eminent Christians of long standing in religion, who have shed floods of tears for sin, and poured out many thousand prayers for the mortification of it, after all, find the remains of their old disease, and that there is still life in the corruptions to which they have given so many wounds. O the depth and strength of sin, which nothing can separate from us but that which separates our souls and bodies. And upon that account the day of a believer’s death is better than the day of his birth. Never till then do we put off our armor, sheath our sword, and cry, Victory, victory.
10. If they who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh, as we hope to make good our claim to Christ, let us Give ALL DILIGENCE TO MORTIFY SIN; in vain else are all our pretences to union with him. This is the great work of a believer. And seeing it is the main business of life and the great evidence for heaven, I shall therefore press you to it by the following motives:
Morive 1. Methinks the comfort resulting from mortification should persuade every believer to diligence in this duty. There is a double sweetness in mortification; one as it is a sweet Christian duty. Dost thou not feel a blessed calm in thy conscience when thou hast repelled. temptation, resisted and overcome thy corruptions? Does not God smile upon thee, and conscience encourage thee? Hast thou not a heaven within thee, while others feel a kind of hell in the bitter accusations of their own conscience? But consider it also as an evidence of the soul’s interest in Christ, as my text considers it; and what a heaven upon earth must then be found in mortification, These endeavors to subdue and mortify my corruptions speak the Spirit of God in me, and my being in Christ. What heart has largeness and strength enough to contain the joy which flows from a clear interest in Jesus Christ. Certainly, Christian, the comfort of your life depends upon it. “If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the bedy, ye shall live,” Rom. 8:13; you shall live a placid, comfortable life; for it is corruption unmortified which clouds the face of God and-breaks the peace of his people, and consequently imbitters the life of a Christian.
Motive 2. As the comfort of your life, which is much,
80 your fitness for the service of God, which is much more, depends upon the mortification of your sins. “If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified and meet for the Master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.” 2 Tim. 2:21. Where is the enjoyment of life, but in its usefulness in the service of God? It is not worth while to live sixty or seventy years in the world to eat and drink, to buy and sell, and then go down to the grave. ‘So far as any man lives to God a useful life to his honor, so far only does he answer the end of his being. But it is the mortified soul which is the vessel of honor prepared and meet for the Master’s use. Let a proud earthly heart be employed in any service for God, and you will find it will spoil the work by managing it for self, as Jehu did; and then claim the praise of it by a proud boast, ‘‘Come see my zeal.” When the Lord would employ the prophet Isaiah in his work, his iniquity was first purged, and after that he was employed. Isa. 6: 6-8. Sin is the soul’s sickness, a consumption of the inner man; and we know that languishing consumptive persons are unfit to be employed in strenuous labors. Mortification cures the disease, restores our strength,-and enables us to serve God in our generation.
Mortve 8. Your safety un the hour of temptation depends upon the success of your mortifying endeavors. Is it a mercy to be kept upright and steadfast in the critical season of temptation, when Satan shall be wrestling with you for the crown and the prize of eternal life? Then give diligence to mortify your corruptions. Temptation is a siege: Satan is the enemy without the walls, laboring to force an entrance; natural corruptions are the traitors within, that hold correspondence with the enemy without, and open the gate of the soul to receive him, It was the covetousness of Judas’ heart which overthrew him in the hour of temptation. They are our fleshly lusts which go over unto Satan in the day of battle, and fight against our
Method. 20 souls. 1 Pet.2:11. The corruptions or infectious atoms which fly up and down the world in times of temptation, as the word translated ‘‘pollutions” in 2 Pet. 2:20 imports, are through lusts. 2Pet.1:4. It is the lust within which gives a lustre to the vanities of the world without, and thereby makes them strong temptations tous. 1 John 2:16. Mortify therefore your corruptions, as ever you expect to maintain your station in the day of trial: cut off the advantages of your enemy, lest by them he cut off your souls and all your hopes from God.
Motive 4. As temptations will be irresistible, so afflctions will be inswpportable to you without mortification. My friends, you live in a mutable world. You that have husbands or wives to-day may be left desolate to-morrow. You that have estates and children now may be bereaved of both before you are aware. Sickness will tread upon the heel of health, and death will assuredly follow life as night does the day. Consider, are you able to bear the loss of your enjoyments with patience? Can you think upon the parting hour without trembling? O get a heart mortified to all these things, and you will bless a taking as well as a giving God. It is the living world, not the crucified world, that raises tumults in our souls in the day of affliction. How cheerful was Paul under all his sufferings! and what, think you, gave him that peace but his mortification to the world? “I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.” Phil. 4 12. Job was the mirror of patience in the greatest shock of calamity, and what made him so but the mortified state of his heart amidst the full enjoyment of all earthly things? Job 31: 25.
Motive 5. The honor of religion is concerned in the mortification of the professors of it; for unmortified professors will be the scandal and reproach of it. The profession of religion may give credit to you, but you will never bring credit to it. All the scandals and reproaches that fall on the name of Christ in this world, flow from the fountain of unmortified corruption. Judas and Demas, Hymeneus and Philetus, Ananias and Sapphira ruined themselves and became rocks of offence to others by this means.
Mortve 6. What hard work will you have in your dying hour, except you get a heart mortified to the world and all that is in it! Your parting hour will be a dreadful hour without the help of mortification. Your corruptions, like glue, fasten your affections to the world, and how hard will it be for such a man to be separated by death! O what a bitter parting have carnal hearts from carnal things; whereas the mortified soul can receive the messenger death without alarm, and as cheerfully put off the body as a man does his clothes at night. Death need not compel: such a man goes half way to meet it. I desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ, which is far better. Phil. 1:23. Christian, wouldst thou have thy death-bed soft and easy; wouldst thou have an easy death? then get a mortified heart: the surgeon’s knife is scarcely felt when it cuts off a mortified member
11. Are you fully satisfied of the excellence and necessity of mortification, and inquisitive after the means in the use of which it may be attained? then, for your help and encouragement, I will offer my best assistance in some nutes for this work.
Rete 1. If you would succeed in the work of mortification, get and daily exercise more faith. Faith is the great instrument of mortification. This is the victory, or sword by which the victory is won, the instrument by which you overcome the world, even your faith. 1 John 5:4. By faith alone eternal things are discovered to your souls in their reality and excelling glory, and these are the great things for the sake of which self-denial and mortification become easy to believers. By opposing things eternal to things temporal, we resist Satan. 1 Pet. 5:8. This is the shield by which we quench the fiery darts of the wicked one. Eph. 6: 16.
Rute 2. Walk im daily communion with God, if you would mortify the corruptions of nature. That is the apostle’s prescription: “This I say then, walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh.” Gal. 5:16. Spiritual and frequent communion with God gives manifold advantages for the mortification of sin, as it is a bright glass wherein the holiness of God, and the sinfulness of sin as opposite thereto, are most clearly discovered, than which scarcely any thing can set a keener edge of indignation upon the spirit of a man against sin. Besides, all communion with God assimilates and transforms the soul into his image; it leaves a heavenly savor upon the soul; it darkens the glory of all earthly things by presenting to the soul a glory which excelleth; it improves and deepens sanctification in the sou’: by all which means it becomes singularly useful in the work of mortification.
Rute 3. Keep your conscience in the fear of God continually, as you hope to be successful in the mortification of sin. The fear of God is the great preservative from sin, without which all rules and helps signify nothing. “By the fear of the Lord men depart from evil,” Prov. 16: 6: not only from external evils, which the fear of men as well as the fear of God may prevent; but from the most secret and inward evils, which is a special part of mortification. Lev.19:14. It keeps men from the evils which no eye nor ear of man can possibly discover. The fear of the Lord breaks temptations baited with pleasure, with profit, and with secresy. If ever you are cleansed from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, it must be by the fear of God. 2 Cor. 7:1.
Rute 4. Study the vanity of earth, and labor to get true notions of its emptiness, if ever you would attain to the mortification of your affections towards it. It is the false image of the world in our fancy that crucifies us with so many cares and solicitudes about it; and it is the true image of the world, represented to us in the glass of the word, which greatly helps to crucify our affections to the world. 0, if we did but believe three things about the world we should never be so fond of it as we are, the fading, defiling, and destroying nature of it. The best and sweetest enjoyments in the world are but fading flowers and withering grass, Isa. 40:6; Jas. 1:10, 11; yea, it is of a defiling as well as a fading nature, 1 John 5:19; it “lies in wickedness,” it spreads universal infection among all mankind, 2 Pet. 1:4; yea, it destroys as well as defiles multitudes of souls, drowning men in perdition. 1 Tim. 6:9. Millions of souls will wish to eternity they had never known its riches, pleasures, or honors. Were this believed, how would men slacken their pace in the eager pursuit of the world.
Rutz 5. Be careful to cut off all occasions of sim, and keep at the greatest distance from temptation, if you would mortify the deeds of the body. The success of sin mainly depends upon the stratagems it uses to ensnare the soul; therefore the apostle bids us keep at the greatest distance. ‘Abstain from all appearance of evil.” 1 Thess. 5:22. ‘Come not nigh the door of her house.” Prov.5:8. He that dares venture to the brink of sin, has but little light in his understanding and less tenderness in his conscience; he neither knows sin, nor fears it as he ought. It is usual with God to chastise self-confidence by allowing men to fall into sin.
Rute 6. If you would successfully mortify the corruptions of your nature, never engage against them am your own strength. When the apostle draws forth Christians into the field against sin, he bids them “‘be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.” Eph.6:10. OQ remember what a feather thou art in the gusts of temptation; call to mind the height of Peter’s confidence: “Though all men forsake thee, yet will not 1;” and the depth of his fall, shame, and sorrow. A weak Christian, trembling in himself, depending by faith upon God and graciously assisted by him, shall be able to stand against the shock of temptation, when the bold and confident resolutions of others shall melt away as wax before the flames.
RuLE 7. Concur with the chastening design of God in the day of thine affliction. Sanctified afflictions are prescribed in heaven for purifying our corruptions: ‘By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit to take away his sin.” Isa. 27:9. Itisa glass to represent the evil of sin and the vanity of the creature, to imbitter the world and draw thy affections from it. Fall in, therefore, with the gracious design of God; connect every affliction with prayer that God would follow it with his blessing. God kills thy comforts from no other design but to kill thy corruptions; wants are ordained to kill wantonness, poverty is appointed to kill pride, reproaches are permitted to destroy ambition. Happy is the man who understands, approves, and heartily concurs with the design of God in afflicting providences.
Rutz 8. Bend the strength of your endeavors against your easily besetting sm. It is in vain to lop off branches while this root of bitterness remains untouched. This was David’s practice: ‘I was also upright before him, and I kept myself from mine iniquity.” Psalm 18:23. We observe in men that one faculty is more vigorous than another; we find in nature that one soil suits some sorts of seeds rather than others; and every believer may find his constitution inclining him to one sin rather than another. As graces, so corruptions exceed one another, even in the regenerate. The power of special corruption arises from our constitution, education, company, custom, calling, and such like occasions; but from wherever it comes, this is the sin that most endangers us; and according to the progress of mortification in this sin, we may safely estimate the degrees of mortification in other sins. Strike, therefore, at the root-of your own iniquity.
Roe 9. Study the nature and importance of the things to be won or lost, according to the issue of this conflict. Your life is a race, eternal glory is the prize, grace and corruption are the antagonists, and as either finally prevails, eternal life is won or lost. ‘‘ Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.” 1 Cor. 9:24. This will make mortification appear the most necessary thing to you. Shall I lose heaven for indulging a wanton appetite? God forbid. “I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection; lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.” 1 Cor. 9: 27.
12. Accustom your thoughts to meprrations proper to mortify sin in your affections, else all endeavors will be but faint and languid. To this purpose I recommend the following meditations as proper means to mortify sin.
Meprration 1. Consider the evil of sin, and how terrible the revelations of God will one day be against those that obey it in the lusts thereof. “The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.” Rom. 1:18. ‘The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power.” 2 Thess. 1: 7-9. Dwell much on the consideration of the consequences of sin. It shows its fairest side in the hour of temptation; but consider how it will look to you in the day of affliction; in that day your sin will find you out. Think what its aspect will be in a dying hour: “The sting of death is sin.” 1 Cor. 15:56. Think what the remembrance of it will be at the bar of judgment, when Satan shall accuse, conscience upbraid, God condemn, and everlasting burnings avenge the evil of it. Such thoughts as these are mortifying thoughts.
Meprration 2. Think what zt cost the er Jesus to expirate the guilt of sin by suffering the wrath of God for it in our room. Meditations on a crucified Christ are very crucifying meditations unto sin, Gal. 6:14; he suffered unspeakable things for sin; divine wrath lay upon his soul for it, that wrath of which the prophet saith, ‘‘The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt. Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? his fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him.” Nahum 1: 5, 6. It was unmixed wrath, poured out in the fulness of it; and shall we be so easily drawn to the commission of sins which put Christ under such sufferings? Read such scriptures as Luke 22:44; Matt. 26:36, 37; Mark 14:33; and see what sorrow sin brought upon the Lord of glory; how the wrath of God brought him into a sore amazement, a bloody sweat, and made his soul heavy unto death.
Meprration 8. Consider what a grief the sins of believers are to the Spirit of God. Eph. 4:30; Ezek. 16:43; Isa. 63:10. O how it grieves the Holy Spirit of God. Nothing is more contrary to his nature. ‘ O do not. this abominable thing that I hate,” saith the Lord. Jeremiah 44: 4. Nothing obstructs the sanctifying design of the Spirit as sin does — defacing the most admirable workmanship that God ever wrought in the world; violating all the engagements laid upon us by the love of the Father, by the death of his Son, and the operations of his Spirit. Lay this meditation upon thy heart, believer, and say, Dost thou thus requite the Lord, O my ungrateful heart, for all his goodness? Is this the fruit of his temporal and spiritual mercies, which are without number?
Meprration 4. Consider that no real good can result from sim. You can have no pleasure in it, whatever others may have, it being against your new nature; and as for the pleasure which others have in sin, it can be but for a moment; for either they must repent or not repent: if they then repent, the pleasure of sin will be turned into the gall of asps here; if they do not repent, it will terminate in everlasting wailings hereafter. That is a solemn question, ‘‘ What fruit had ye in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.” Rom. 6:21. You who are believers must never expect pleasure in sin; for you can neither commit it without. regret, nor reflect upon it without shame. Expect no better consequences of sin than wounds of conscience and dismal cloudings of the face of God.
Mepiration 5. Consider what the damned suffer for the sins the devil now tempts you to commt. It has deprived them of all outward good, Luke 16: 25; all spiritual good, Matt. 25:41; and of all hope of enjoying good for ever: and as it has deprived them of all good, so it has plunged them into all misery — misery from without, the wrath of God being come upon them to the uttermost; and misery from within, for their worm dieth not. Mark 9:44. The memory of things past, the sense of things present, and the fearful expectation of things to come, are the gnawings of the worm of conscience, under which damned souls cry out, O the worm! the worm! Would any man who is not forsaken by reason, run the hazard of those eternal miseries for the pleasures of a moment?
Menrration 6. Bethink yourselves what inexcusable hypocrisy it will be in you to indulge your lusts, under a contrary profession of religion. You that profess holiness, and to be under the government of Christ, must the worthy name of Christ be only used to cloak and cover your lusts, which are so hateful to him? God forbid. You profess daily to
pray against sin, and to confess and bewail it; you pour out supplications for pardoning grace; are you in jest or earnest, in these solemn duties of religion? If all these duties produce no mortification, you do but flatter God with your lips, and put a dreadful cheat upon your own souls. Nay, do you not frequently censure these things in others, and dare you allow them in yourselves? What horrid hypocrisy is this! Christians are dead to sin, Rom. 6; 2 — dead to it by profession, by obligation, by relation to Christ, who died for them; and how shall they that are in so many ways dead to sin, live any longer therein? O think not that God hates sin the less in you because you are his people; nay, that very consideration aggravates it the more. Amos 8: 2.
Meprration 7. Consider what hard things some Christians have chosen to endure rather than defile themselves with guilt; and shall every small temptation ensnare and take your souls? Read over the eleventh chapter to the Hebrews, and see what the saints endured to escape sin: no torments were so terrible to them as the displeasure of God and the wounding of conscience; and did God favor them more than he has you? O Christians, how can you, that have found mercies as free and pardons as full as ever any souls found, show less care, less tenderness of grieving the Spirit of God than others have done? Certainly, if you saw sin as they saw it, you would hate it as deeply, watch against it as carefully, and resist it as vigorously as any of the saints have done before you.
Meprration 8. Consider what pleasure is to be fownd in the mortification of sin. The fulfilling of your lusts cannot give you the thousandth part of the comfort and contentment that the resistance of them and victory over them will give you. Who can express the comfort to be found in the testimony of an absolving conscience? 2Cor.1:12. Remember what satisfaction it was to Hezekiah upon his supposed death-bed, when he turned to the wall and said, ‘‘ Remember now, O Lord, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth, and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight.” Isa. 38: 3.
13. This naturally puts us upon the EXAMINATION OF OUR HEARTS, Whether we who so confidently claim a special interest in Christ have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts. And because two sorts of persons will be converned in this trial, namely, the weaker and the stronger Uhristians, I shall lay down two classes of evidences of mortification — one respecting the sincerity and truth of that work in all who are savingly converted, the other respecting its strength and progress in confirmed and grown Christians.
(1.) There are some things that are evidences of the sincerity of mortification, even in the weakest Christians: as,
True tenderness of conscience as to all known sins, is a good sign sin has lost its dominion in the soul. O it is a special mercy to have a heart that shall smite and reprove us for the things that others make nothing of — that shall check and admonish us for our secret sins, which can never turn to our reproach among men: this is a good sign that we hate sin, however through the weakness of the flesh we may be ensnared by it. ‘What I hate, that do I.” Rom. 7: 15.
The earnest desires of our souls to God in prayer for sin mortifying grace, is a good sign our souls have no love for sin. Canst thou say, poor believer, in thy heart, that if God would give thee thy choice, it would please thee better to have sin cast out than to have the world brought in — that thy heart is not so earnest with God for daily bread as it is for heart-purifying grace? This is a comfortable evidence that sin is nailed to the cross of Christ.
Do you make conscience of guarding against the occasions of sin? keeping a daily watch over your hearts and senses, according to 1 John 5:18; Job 31:1. This speaks a true purpose of mortification.
Do you rejoice and bless God from your hearts when his providence orders any means for the prevention of sin? Thus did David: “And David said to Abigail, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, which sent thee this day to meet me; and blessed be thy advice, and blessed he thou, which hast kept me this day from coming to shed blood, and from avenging myself with mine own hand.” 1 Sam. 25:33.
In a word, though the thoughts of death may be terrible, yet if the hope of your deliverance from sin thereby sweeten the thoughts of it to your souls, it will turn unto you for a testimony that you are not the servants of sin.
(2.) There are other signs of a more deep and thorowgh mortification of sin in confirmed believers. The more submissive any man is under the will of God in afflicting providences, the more his heart is mortified to sin. Psa. 119:67, Tl; Col. 1:11. The more able any one is to bear reproaches and rebukes for his sin, the more mortification there is in him. Psa. 141:5, The more easily any man can give up his dearest earthly comforts at the call of God, the more progress he has made in the work of mortification. Heb. 11:17; 2 Sam.15:25. The more power a man. has to resist sin in the first motions of it and stifle it in the birth, the greater degree of mortification he has attained. Rom. 7:23, 24. If great changes in our outward condition make no change for the worse in our spirits, but we can bear prosperous and adverse providences with an equal mind, then mortification is advanced far in our souls. Phil. 4:11, 12. And the more steady our hearts are with God in duty, and the less they are infested with wandering thoughts, the more mortification there is in the soul.
14. It only remains that I add a few words of consolaton to all that are under the mortifying influence of the Spirit. In brief, mortified sin shall never be your ruin: it is only reigning sin that is ruining sin. Rom. 8:13. Mortified and pardoned sin shall never lie down with us in the dust. If sin be dying, your souls are living; for dying unto sin and living unto God are inseparably connected. Rom. 6:11. If sin be dying in you, it is certain that Christ died for you, and you cannot desire a better evidence of it. Rom. 6:5, 6. If sin be dying under the mortifying influences of the Spirit, and it be your daily labor to overcome it, you are in the direct way to heaven and eternal salvation, which few in the world shall find. Luke 13:24. Finally, if you, through the Spirit, are daily mortifying the deeds of the body, the death of Christ is effectually applied by the Spirit to your souls, and your interest in him is unquestionable. For ‘they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts;” and they that have so crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts are Christ’s. Blessed be God for a crucified Christ.