The Christian Life Part 3 Volume 4, Part 3 · Chapter 1
CHAP. I. Of the Nature of Mortification.
GOD having made us free Agents, and planted in our Natures an uncontroulable Liberty of Choice; in Wisdom he hath so ordered and disposed things, that as we cannot be Miserable unless we will, so neither shall we be happy whether we will, or no. For as his Goodness would not suffer him to make us necessarily miserable, so neither would his Wisdom permit him to entail our Happiness on our Natures, and make it inseparable to our Beings; for should he have done so, he must have altered the Laws of his own wise Creation, and made those Beings to act necessarily, which he made to act freely. For Happiness is the End of all our Actions; and therefore should God have made that necessary to us, he must have made us to act towards it with the same Necessity as inanimate Bodies do towards their proper Center; and consequently there would have been no such thing, as a free Agent in the lower World. That we may always act therefore according to the Condition, and Frame of a free Nature, the Foundations of all our Happiness and Misery are laid in the right Use, or Abuse of our Liberty; and do immediately spring out of the Wisdom, or Folly of our own Choices: so that if we chuse wisely according to the Laws of Virtue and right Reason, we do thereby advance towards that happy and heavenly State we were created for: as on the contrary, if we chuse foolishly according to the rash Counsels of our own vicious Appetites and sensual Inclinations, we thereby sink our selves deeper and deeper towards the Abyss of endless and inconceivable Misery. For such is the Frame and Constitution of our Natures, that we cannot be good and miserable, nor vicious and happy: and accordingly the Apostle sets before us the inevitable Fate of our own Actions, Rom. viii. 13. If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die; but if ye through the spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
What these Deeds of the Flesh, or Body are, the Apostle telleth us, Gal. v. 19, 20, 21. The works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like; and they which do such things, shall not inherit the kingdom of God. This is the Muster-roll of that formidable Army of Wickednesses, with which we are to engage, and which we must vanquish, or perish for ever. If ye mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live; i. e. if ye kill and destroy them, if ye wholly cease from them, both as to the outward Act of them, and the inward Appetite and Inclination towards them: For Mortification doth not only consist in a formal Abstinence from the outward Acts of Sin, or a superficial Skinning over the Orifice of its Wounds; but searches to the very bottom of that putrid Core within, and eats out the inward Corruption, from whence those outward Blisters arise: It purges the Heart as well as the Hands, and drains those impure Inclinations, which are the Springs of all Impiety and Wickedness.
BUT to handle this Subject more particularly, I shall do these three things;
First, SHEW wherein Mortification consists.
Secondly, WHAT are the Proper Instruments of it.
Thirdly, WHAT are the most prevailing Motives to it.
I. WHEREIN doth Mortification consist? I answer in these three Things. 1. In Abstinence from the outward Acts of Sin. 2. In not consenting unto any Sin. 3. In a constant Endeavour to extinguish our involuntary Sins.
I. MORTIFICATION requires Abstinence from the outward Acts of Sin: For it is impossible that any Man should mortify his Lusts, while he indulges himself in the free Practice of them; because Practice is the Fuel that foments and feeds the inward vicious Inclinations, and both pampers and enrages the lustful Appetites of the Soul. For that Delight which we reap from acting our own Concupiscences, doth but increase and provoke them; it being natural to Men, when they have been pleased with any Action, to be more vehemently inclined to repeat it; the Delight which they found in the former Enjoyment provoking their Desires to enjoy it again. So that we may as well hope to put out a Fire by a continual feeding it with Fuel, and blowing it into Flame; as to mortify a Lust, whilst by our continued practising it we nurse and cherish it, and do at once both feed and irritate its Flames. If therefore we would ever mortify the Lusts of the Flesh, we must strictly restrain our selves from all outward Acts of them: For whilst we indulge our selves in these, we feed our Disease, and pamper our bad Inclinations into vicious Habits, and our vicious Habits into sinful Necessities.
II. MORTIFICATION consists in the Dissent of our Wills from all sinful Proposals. 'Tis no piece of Mortification for a Man to abstain only from the outward Acts of Sin, if in the mean time his Will is so far consenting to it, as that he would practise it, were it not for some intervening hindrances, or for want of a fair Opportunity. For in the Eye of God, to which our inmost Thoughts and Purposes are all open and unmasked, the Will to Sin is the Sin that is willed, though it should never proceed into Action: With Him it is acted as soon as it is conceived, and it is conceived as soon as ever it is thought of with Consent: It grows in the Delight we take in the Speculation of it, but is ripened in the Resolution of committing it. For when once we are resolved upon it, our Heart hath done its utmost towards it; and so our consenting to it makes it perfect Sin, though it should never break out into Action. So that 'tis Nonsense to talk of mortifying our Sin, while it hath the Consent of our Wills; for though it is more dangerous in the Action, and approaches nearer to a Habit, because the Consent continues all the while we commit it, and is confirmed by the Pleasure we reap in the Commission; yet still it is Sin, though it is only consented to; and it lives in the Purpose, though it breaths not out into the Practice. Our Enemy is not conquered, when it is only shut up within its Holds; and it doth but fortify it self within, while it wants Opportunities to sally out into Action. If we do not sin, only because we cannot, or because we want Opportunity, we are but Devils in Chains; and are never the less guilty, because we cannot do as much Mischief as we would: For he that would sin if he could, hath sinned already as far as he is able; and so is every whit as criminal in the Account of God, as he that doth sin when he can. The Mortification of our Lusts therefore doth necessarily imply the withdrawing the Consent of our Wills from them, and the final divorcing them from the Embraces of our Choice; for while they enjoy our Consent, they live in us, and rule us, though they should never have the Opportunity to come abroad into our Practice.
III. MORTIFICATION consists in a constant Endeavour to subdue our involuntary Appetites and Inclinations to sin. It is not sufficient that we do not practise sin, nor consent to the Practice of it; but we must make it our constant Endeavour to wean, and abstract ourselves from those evil Tendencies and Inclinations, which we have contracted by our former Sins: For though these Inclinations remaining in us are no farther our Sin, than we do yield and consent to them; yet while we patiently harbour them within our Bosoms, and do not honestly endeavour to smother and extinguish them, they are chosen and voluntary; and have the very Bane and Formality of Sin in them. Though we should be disabled from Acts of Adultery, yet while we retain with Delight our Inclinations towards it, and quietly please our selves in the fantastick Joys of it; whilst we freely entertain its lewd and filthy Ideas, and suffer them to walk to and fro upon the Stage of our Fancies without Check or Controul; we are still adulterous in the sight of God, to whom our Lust is as obvious within the Closet of our Minds, as upon the Theatre of our Practice. We must not think therefore that our Sin is mortified, because we neither practise nor consent to the Practice of it; for while we have any Inclinations to sin remaining in us, we must endeavour to subdue and conquer them. If we do not, we have only forced our Enemy into his last Retreat, where by our own Neglect we give him Opportunity to rally and reinforce himself against us: For our Sin still lives in our Inclination to sin, and will soon, if it be not beaten thence, recover its broken Forces, and grow as formidable as ever. 'Tis true, he that doth not consent to his own evil Appetites, but constantly denies them those vicious Gratifications which they crave, taketh an infallible Course to starve and destroy them: For as these were first raised in us, and afterwards nourished into Nature by our vicious Practices; so by refusing to practise those Sins which they incline us to, and by practising the contrary Virtues, we shall by degrees abate the Strength and Vigour of them: And as they decay, so holy Inclinations will spring up in their room; which being heightened and made intense by a constant Practice of Holiness, will by degrees expel these our vicious Inclinations, and grow into Nature and Habit. But meerly to abstain from the outward Acts of Sin, is a tedious way of mortifying our inward Inclinations towards it; for vicious Appetites will live a great while, even upon innocent Gratifications. Though we should be drunk no more, yet if we indulge our selves the utmost Liberties of Sobriety, that will continue our Appetite to Intemperance: Though we should abstain from all outward Acts of Lasciviousness, yet unless we deny our selves some of the lawful Pleasures of the Body, these will foment our wanton Inclinations: Though we should not suffer our Rage and Spight and Malice to express themselves in any prohibited Actions; yet if we allow our selves even in lawful Anger, and just Resentments of Injuries, this will for a great while preserve and keep alive our most black and devilish Propensions. And besides that, this way of abstaining meerly from Sin will make the business of Mortification tedious, it is also full of Hazard and Difficulty: For he that only abstains from Sin, and gratifies his Inclinations as far as lawfully he may, is every moment in danger of exceeding the Line that parts the utmost of what is lawful from the nearmost of what is sinful. For Inclination, like all other Motions, is always swiftest when it is nearest its Center; and when once it is within the Reach and Attraction of its beloved Vice, then it hurries towards it with Fury and Impatience; insomuch that many times our Conscience proves too weak to stop the course of its impetuous Motions: And then when once it hath tasted the forbidden Pleasure of its Sin, it immediately recovers all its impaired Strength, and many times grows more fell and outragious than ever; and so the Ground we got in a Month's Abstinence from our Sin, we lose again in a Moment's Enjoying it; by which means the Work of Mortification becometh extreamly difficult and hazardous. Wherefore if ever we mean to conquer our bad Inclinations, we must not only abstain from the Sins we are inclined to, but also from the Occasions of them. If it be Sensuality, we must starve it out by prudent Fasting and Abstinence; if Devilishness, we must force it out by thwarting and contradicting it in the course of our Practice, and keep it at the greatest distance from it: For evil Inclinations are not to be mortifyed without Force and Violence, and like crooked Staves, the speediest way to make them strait, is to keep them bent for a while the contrary way. This therefore is implied in our honest Endeavour to mortify our involuntary Inclinations to sin, that we do not only forbear the sin it self, but avoid the Occasions that lead to it; and deny our selves those lawful Liberties, which do nearly approach it, and set us upon the brink of it. And thus you see wherein Mortification consists, namely in abstaining from the outward Act, and inward Consent to sin, and in a constant Endeavour to mortify those involuntary Inclinations to sin, which we have contracted in any former Course of wilful sinning.