I shall discharge him from this duty who can bring sin to a com- position, to a cessation of arms in this warfare; if it will spare him any one day, in any one duty (provided he be a person that is ac- quainted with the spirituality of obedience and the subtlety of sm).
12 MORTIFICATION OF SIN IN BELIEVERS.
let him say to his soul, as to this duty, " Soul, take thy rest." Tlie saints, whose souls breathe after deliverance from its perplexing re- bellion, know there is no safety against it but in a constant warfare.
3. Sin will not only be striving, acting, rebelling, troubling, dis- quieting, but if let alone, if not continually mortified, it will hriuQ forth great, cursed, scandalous, soul-destroyinrj sins. The apostle tolls us what the works and fruits of it are. Gal. v. 19-21, "The works of the flesh are manifest, which are, adultery, fornication, un- cleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emu- lations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunken- ness, revellings, and such like." You know what it did in David and sundry others. Sin aims always at the utmost; every time it rises up to tempt or entice, might it have its own course, it would go out to the utmost sin in that kind, Eveiy unclean thought or glance would be adultery if it could; every covetous desire would be oppression, every thought of unbelief would be atheism, might it grow to its head. Men may come to that, that sin may not be heard speaking a scan- dalous word in their hearts, — that is, provoking to any great sin with scandal in its mouth; but yet every rise of lust, might it have its course, would come to the height of villany : it is like the gi-ave, that is never satisfied. And herein lies no small share of the deceitful- ness of sin, by which it prevails to the hardening of men, and so to their ruin, Heb. iii. 13, — it is modest, as it were, in its first motions and proposals, but having once got footing in the heart by them, it constantly makes good its ground, and presseth on to some farther degrees in the same kind. This new acting and pressing forward makes the soul take little notice of what an entrance to a falling off from God is already made; it thinks all is indifferent well if there be no farther progress; and so far as the soul is made insensible of any sin, — that is, as to such a sense as the gospel requireth, — so far it is hardened : but sin is still pressing forward, and that because it hath no bounds but utter relinquishment of God and opposition to him ; that it proceeds towards its height by degrees, making good the ground it hath got by hardness, is not from its nature, but its deceit- i'ulness. Now nothing can prevent this but mortification ; that withers the root and strikes at the head of sin every hoiir, so that whatever it aims at it is crossed in. There is not the best saint in the world but, if he should give over this duty, would fall into as many cursed sins as ever any did of his kind.
4. This is one main reason why the Spirit and the new nature is given unto us, — that we may have a principle within whereby to op- pose sin and lust. " The flesh lusteth against the Spirit." Well ! and what then? Why, " The Spirit also lusteth against the flesh," Gal. v. 1 7. There is a propensity in the Spirit, or spiritual new nature, to
EVIL OF NEGLECTING THE DUTY. 13
be acting against the flesh, as well as in the flesh to be acting against the Spirit: so 2 Pet. i. 4, 5. It is our participation of the divine nature that gives us an escape from the pollutions that are in the world through lust; and, E.om. vii. 23, there is a law of the mind, as well as a law of the riiembers. Now this is, first, the most unjust and unreasonable thing in the world, when two combatants are en- gaged, to bind one and keep him up from doing his utmost, and to leave the other at liberty to wound him at his pleasure; and, secondly, the foolishest thing in the world to bind him who fights for our eternal condition, [salvation?] and to let him alone who seeks and violently attempts our everlasting ruin. The contest is for our lives and souls. Not to be daily employing the Sj)irit and new nature for the mortify- ing of sin, is to neglect that excellent succour which God hath given us against our greatest enemy. If we neglect to make use of what we have received, God may justly hold his hand from giving us more. His graces, as well as his gifts, are bestowed on us to use, exercise, and trade with. Not to be daily mortifying sin, is to sin against the goodness, kindness, Avisdom, grace, and love of God, who hath fur- nished us with a principle of doing it.
5. Negligence in this duty casts the soul into a perfect contrary condition to that which the apostle affirms was his, 2 Cor. iv. 16, " Though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day." In these the inward man perisheth, and the outAvard man is renewed day by day. Sin is as the house of David, and grace as the house of Saul. Exercise and success are the two main cherishers of grace in the heart; when it is suffered to lie still, it withers and de- cays : the things of it are ready to die, Rev. iii. 2 ; and sin gets ground towards the hardening of the heart, Heb. iil 13. This is that which I intend : by the omission of this duty grace withers, lust flourisheth, and the frame of the heart grows worse and worse ; and the Lord knows what desperate and fearful issues it hath had with many. Where sin, through the neglect of mortification, gets a considerable victory, it breaks the bones of the soul, Ps. xxxi. 10, li. 8, and makes a man weak, sick, and ready to die, Ps. xxxviii. 3-5, so that he cannot look up, Ps. xl. 12, Isa. xxxiii. 24; and when poor creatures will take blow after blow, wound after wound, foil after foil, and never rouse up themselves to a vigorous opposition, can they expect any thing but to be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin, and that their souls should bleed to death ? 2 John 8. Indeed, it is a sad thing to consider the fearful issues of this neglect, which lie under our eyes every day. See we not those, whom we knew humble, melting, broken-hearted Christians, tender and fearful to offend, zealous for God and all his ways, his Sabbaths and ordinances, grown, through a neglect of watching unto this duty, earthly, carnal, cold, wrathful,