sues it not constantly to death. Sin will after a while revive, and the man must die. It is a great and fatal mistake if we suppose this work will admit of any remissness or intermission. Again, the prin- ciple to be slain is in ourselves, and so possessed of our faculties as that it is called ourselves. It cannot be killed without a sense of pain and trouble. Hence it is compared to the cutting off of right hands, and the pluckiug out of right eyes. Lust.- that pretend to be useful to the state and condition of men, that are pleasant and satis- factory to the flesh, will not be mortified without such a violence as the whole soul shall be deeply sensible of. And sundry other things might be insisted on to manifest how men deceive themselves, if they suppose this duty of mortification is that which they may carry on in a negligent, careless course and manner. Is there no danger in this warfare? no watchfulness, no diligence required of us? Is it so easy a thing to kill an enemy who hath so many advantages of force and fraud? Wherefore, if we take care of our souls, we are to attend unto this duty with that care, diligence, watchfulness, and earnest contention of spirit, which the nature of it doth require.
And, moreover, there is no less fatal mistake where we make the object of this duty to be only some jjarticiilar lusts, or the fruits of them in actual sins, as was before observed. This is the way Avith many. They will make head against some sins, which on one account or other they find themselves most concerned in; but if they will observe their course, they shall find with how little success they do it. For the most part, sin gets ground upon them, and they continu- ally groan under the power of its victories; and the reason is, be- cause they mistake their business. Contests against particular sins are only to comply with light and convictions. Mortification, with a design for holiness, respects the body of sin, the root and all its branches. The first will miscarry, and the latter will be successful. And herein consists the difference between that mortification which men are put upon by convictions from the law, which always proves fruitless, and that wherein we are acted by the spirit of the gospel. The first respects only particular sins, as the guilt of them reflects upon conscience; the latter, the whole interest of sin, as opposed to the renovation of the image of God in us.
(3.) That which remains farther to be demonstrated is, that the \ Holy Spirit is the author of this work in us, so that although it is o«?' didy, it is his grace and strength whereby it is performed ; as also the manner how it is wrought by him, which is principally in- tended: —
[1.] For the first, we have the truth of it asserted, Rom. viii. 13, "If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the flesh." It is we that are to mortify the deeds of the flesh. It is our duty, but of ourselves
548 MORTIFICATION OF SIN, [BOOK IV.
we cannot do it; it must be done in or by the Spirit. Whetber we take "the Spirit" here for the person of the Holy Ghost, as the context seems to require, or take it for the gracious principle of spiritual life in the renovation of our nature,— not the Spirit himself, but that which is " born of the Sj^irit," — it is all one as to our purpose ; the work is taken from our own natural power or ability, and resolved into the grace of the Spirit.
And, that we go no farther for the proof of our assertion, it may suffice to observe, that the confirmation of it is the principal design of the apostle, from the second verse of that chapter unto the end of the thirteenth. That the power and reign of sin, its interest and prevalency in the minds of believers, are weakened, impaired, and finally destroyed (so as that all the pernicious consequences of it shall be avoided) by the Holy Ghost, and that these things could no other- wise be effected, he both affirms and proves at large. In the fore- going chapter, from the seventh verse unto the end, he declares the nature, projyerties, and efficacy of indwelling sin, as the remainders of it do still abide in believers. And whereas a twofold conclusion might be made from the description he gives of the power and act- ings of this sin, or a double question arise, unto the great disconsola- tion of believers, he doth in this chapter remove them both, mani- festing that there was no cause for such conclusions or exceptions from any thing by him delivered. The first of these is, " That if such, if this be the power and prevalency of indwelling sin, if it so obstruct us in our doing that which is good, and impetuously incline us unto evil, what will become of us in the end, how shall we answer for all the sin and guilt which we have contracted thereby? We must, we shall, therefore, perish under the guilt of it." And the second con- clusion which is apt to arise from the same consideration is, " That seeing the power and prevalency of sin is so great, and that we in ourselves are no way able to make resistance unto it, much less to overcome it, it cannot be but that at length it will absolutely prevail against us, and bring us under its dominion, unto our everlasting ruin." Both these conclusions the apostle obviates in this chapter, or removes them if laid as objections against what he had delivered. And this he doth, — •