MORTIFICATION THE WORK OF BELIEVERS. 85
in liim. All attempts, then, for mortification of any lust, without an interest in Christ, are vain. Many men that are galled with and for sin, the arrows of Christ for conviction, by the preaching of the word, or some affliction having been made sharp in their hearts, do vigorously set themselves against this or that particular lust, where- with their consciences have been most disquieted or perplexed. But, poor creatures! they labour in the fire, and their work consumeth. When the Spirit of Christ comes to this work he will be " like a re- finer's fire and like fullers' soap," and he will purge men as gold and as silver, Mai. iii. 2, S, — take away their dross and tin, their filth and blood, as Isa. iv. 4; but men must be gold and silver in the bottom, or else refining will do them no good. The prophet gives us the sad issue of wicked men's utmost attempts for mortification, by what means soever that God affords them: Jei\ vi. 29, 30, "The bellows are burned, and the lead is consumed of the fire ; the founder melteth in vain. Keprobate silver shall men call them, because the Lord hath rejected them.'' And what is the reason hereof? Yerse 28, They were "brass and iron" when they were put into the furnace. Men may refine brass and iron long enough before they will be good silver. I say, then, mortification is not the present business of unregene- rate men. God calls them not to it as yet ; convej'sion is their work, — the conversion of the whole soul, — not the mortification of this or that pa7'ticular lust. You would laugh at a man that you should see setting up a great fabric, and never take any care for a founda- tion; especially if you should see him so foolish as that, having a thousand experiences that Avhat he built one day fell down another, he would yet continue in the same course. So it is with convinced persons; though they plainly see, that what ground they get against sin one day they lose another, yet they will go on in the same road still, without inquiring where the destructive flaw in their progress lies. When the Jews, upon the conviction of their sin, were cut to the heart, Acts ii. 37, and cried out, "What shall we do?" what doth Peter direct them to do? Does he bid them go and mortify their pride, wrath, malice, cruelty, and the like? No; he knew that was not their present work, but he calls them to conversion and faith in Christ in general, verse 88. Let the soul be first thoroughly con- verted, and then, " looking on Him whom they had pierced," humili- ation and mortification will ensue. Thus, when John came to preach repentance and conversion, he said, " The axe is now laid to the root of the tree," Matt. iii. 10 The Pharisees had been laying heavy burdens, imposing tedious duties, and rigid means of mortification, in fastings, washings, and the like, all in vain. Says John, " The doc- trine of conversion is for you ; the axe in my hand is laid to the root." And our Saviour tells us what is to be done in this case ;
S6 MORTIFICATION OF SIN IN BELIEVERS.
says he, " Do men gather grapes from thorns?" Matt. vii. 16. But suppose a thorn be well pruned and cut, and have pains taken with him? "Yea, but he will never bear figs," verses 17, 18; it cannot be but every tree will bring forth fruit according to its own kind. What is then to be done, he tells us. Matt. xii. 33, " Make the tree good, and his fruit will be good." The root must be dealt with, the nature of the tree chanii^ed, or no good fruit will be brought forth.
This is that I aim at: unless a man be regenerate, unless he be a believer, all attempts that he can make for mortification, be they never so specious and promising, — all means he can use, let him follow them with never so much diligence, earnestness, watchfulness, and intention of mind and spirit, — are to no purpose. In vain shall he use many remedies; he shall not be healed. Yea, there are sundry des- perate evils attending an endeavour in convinced persons, that are no more but so, to perform this duty: —
(1.) The mind and soul is taken up about that which is not the man's proper business, and so he is diverted from that which is so. God lays hold by his word and judgments on some sin in him, galls his conscience, disquiets his heart, deprives him of his rest; now other diversions will not serve his turn ; he must apply himself to the work before him. The business in hand being to awake the whole man unto a consideration of the state and condition wherein he is, that he might be brought home to God, instead hereof he sets him- self to mortify the sin that galls him, — which is a pure issue of self- love, to be freed from his trouble, and not at all to the work he is called unto, — and so is diverted from it. Thus God tells us of Ephraim, when he " spread his net upon them, and brought them down as the fowls of heaven, and chastised them," Hos. vii. 12, caught them, en- tangled them, convinced them that they could not escape; saith he of them, " They return, but not to the Most High;" — they set them- selves to a relinquishment of sin, but not in that manner, by universal conversion, as God called for it. Thus are men diverted from comins: unto God by the most glorious ways that they can fix upon to come to him by. And this is one of the most common deceits whereby men ruin their own souls. I wish that some whose trade it is to daub with untempered mortar in the things of God did not teach this deceit, and cause the people to err by their ignorance. What do men do, what ofttimes are tliey directed unto, when their consciences are galled by sin and dis(][uietment from the Lord, who hath laid hold upon them? Is not a relinquishment of the sin, as to practice, that they are, in some fruits of it, perplexed withal, and making head against it, the sum of what thoy apply themselves unto? and is not the gospel end of their convictions lost thereby? Here men abide and perish.