Meditation 7. Consider with yourselves what hard things some Christians have chosen to endure and suffer rather than they would defile themselves with guilt ; and shall every small temptation en- snare and take your souls? Read over the xi. chapter to the Hebrews, and see what the saints have endured to escape sin ; no torments were so terrible to them as the displeasure of God, and woundings of conscience ; and did God oblige them more by his grace and favour than he hath obliged you ? O Christians, how can you that have found such mercies, mercies as free, and par- dons as full as ever any souls found, shew less care, less fear, less tenderness of grieving the Spirit of God than others have done ; certainly, if you did see sin with the same eyes 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.
Meditation 8. Consider with yourselves what sweet pleasure, ra- tional and solid comfort is to be found in the mortification of sin : It is not the fulfilling of your lusts can give you the thousandth part of that comfort and contentment that the resistance of them, and victory over them will give you. Who can express the comfort that is to be found in the cheering testimony of an acquitting and absolving conscience ? 2 Cor. i. 12. Remember what satisfaction and peace it was to Hezekiah upon his supposed death-bed, when he turned to the wall, and said, " Remember now, O Lord, I be- " seech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth, and with a " perfect heart ; and have done that which is good in thy sight,1* Isa. xxxviii. 3.
Fourth use, for examination.
In the next place, this point naturally puts us upon the examina- tion and trial of our own hearts, whether we, who so confidently claim a special interest in Christ, have crucified the flesh with its af- fections and lusts. And because two sorts of persons will be con- cerned in this trial, viz. the weaker and the stronger Christians ; I shall therefore lay down two sorts of evidences of mortification, one respecting the sincerity and truth, the other respecting the strength
* The very faults and sins of the faithful are the objects of God's hatred and dis- pleasure, but this is merely a hatred of their sin, not of their persons. Daven. on Col j, 10.
SEIIM. XXVIII. THE METHOD OF GRACE. 395
and progress of that work in confirmed and grown Christians, and botli excluding false pretenders.
First, There are some things that are evidential of the truth and sincerity of mortification, even in the weakest Christians : as,
First, True tenderness of conscience as to all known sins, one as well as another, is a good sign sin hath lost its dominion in the soul. O it is a special mercy to have a heart that shall smite and reprove us for those things that others make nothing of: To check and ad- monish 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. Rom. vii. 15. " What I hate, that I do."
Secondly, The sincere and earnest desires of our souls to God in prayer for heart-purging and sin-mortifying grace, is a good sign our souls have no love for sin. Canst thou say, poor believer, in the truth of 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 cast in : that thy heart is not so earnest with God for daily bread, as it is for heart-purging grace ? This is a comfortable evidence that sin is nailed to the cross of Christ.
Thirdly, Do you make conscience of guarding against the occa- sions of sin ? Do you keep a daily watch over your hearts and senses, according to 1 John v. 18. Job xxxi. 1. This speaks a true design and purpose of mortification also.
Fourthly, Do you rejoice and bless God from your hearts, when the Providence of God orders any means for the prevention of sin ? Thus did David, 1 Sam. xxv. 33. " 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 be thou which " hast kept me this day from coming to shed blood, and from " avenging myself with my own hand.11
Fifthly, In a word, though the thoughts of death may be terrible in themselves, yet if the expectation and hope of your deliverance from sin thereby, do sweeten the thoughts of it to your souls, it will turn unto you for a testimony, that you are not the servants and friends of sin. And so much briefly of the first sort of evi- dences.
Secondly, There are other signs of a more deep and thorough mortification of sin, in more grown and confirmed believers, and such are these.
First, The more submissive and quiet any man is under the will of God, in smart and afflicting providences, the more that man's heart is mortified unto sin, Psal. cxix. 67, 71. Col. i. 11.
Secondly, The more able any one is to bear reproaches and
396 THE METHOD OF GRACE.
rebukes for his sin, the more mortification there is in that man. Psal. cxli. 5.
Thirdly, The more easily any man can resign and give up his dearest earthly comforts at the call and command of God, the more progress that man hath made in the work of mortification, Heb. xi. 17. 2 Sam. xv. 25.
Fourthly, The more power any man hath to resist sin in the first motions of it, and stifle it in the birth ; the greater degree of mor- tification that man hath attained, Rom. vii. 23, 24.
Fifthly, If great changes, upon our outward condition, make no change for the worse upon our spirits, but we can bear prosperous and adverse providences with an equal mind ; then mortification is advanced far in our souls, Phil. iv. 1], 12.
Sixthly, The more fixed and steady our hearts are with God in duty, and the less they are infested with wandering thoughts, and earthly interpositions ; the more mortification there is in that soul. And so much briefly of the evidences of mortification.
Fifth use, for consolation.
It only remains, that I shut up all with a few words of consola- tion unto all that are under the mortifying influence of the Spirit. Much might be said for the comfort of such. In brief,
First, Mortified sin shall never be your ruin : It is only reigning sin that is ruining sin, Rom. viii. 13. Mortified sins and pardon- ed sins shall never lie down with us in the dust.
Secondly, If sin be dying, your souls are living; for dying unto sin, and living unto God, are inseparably connected, Rom. vi. 11.
Thirdly, If sin be dying in you, it is certain that Christ died for you, and you cannot desire a better evidence of it, Rom. vi. 5, 6.
Fourthly, If sin be dying under the mortifying influences of the Spirit, and it be your daily labour to resist and overcome it, you are then in the direct way to heaven, and eternal salvation ; which few, very few in the world shall find, Luke xiii. 24.