The Mortified Christian, Sermon 3
SERMON, III.
Rom. 8. vers. 13.
—But if ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
I Shall now fall upon the discussing of severall Queries about this Doctrine. As,
1. I shall shew you the nature of Mortification. And,
2. The necessity of it in reference to salvation.
3. The discoveries whereby you may know whether God hath brought you into a state of mortification or no. And,
4. I shall shew the great mistakes, that many men fall into about this doctrine of mortification: as some to think they are mortified when they are not; others to think they are not mortified, when indeed they are. And,
5. I shall shew you the great difficulty of this duty, and divers other necessary things touching this doctrine. I shall dispatch three of these queries at present, but do intend to insist more largely upon the latter.
I shall begin with the first, viz.
Qu. What is the nature of mortification? Quest. 1
Ans. I shall give you this plain description of it, Answ. It is a holy disposition in a regenerate man derived from the efficacy and virtue of Christs death, whereby the strength of sin is weakned, and the dominion of it destroyed, being utterly disabled from having a commanding power or rule over the man any more.
I say it is a disposition in a regenerate man, because that an unregenerate man is an unmortified man; and that it is derived from the virtue and efficacy of Christs death, because the death of Christ does not only take away the guilt of sin in reference to its damning power, but it likewise takes away the dominion and power of sin, that sin shall not reign in us. And I expresse it further, whereby the strength of sin is weakned, and the dominion and power of it destroyed; not that I do extend mortification to an utter abolition and extirpation of sin, but only to the subduing and weakning of our corruptions; though the being of sin remains, yet the commanding power of sin is taken away.
2. Que. 2 The next thing I am to shew you, is the necessity of this great work of mortification, which lies in these 3. things.
1. Answ. It is very necessary in point of evidence, to know whether you do belong to Christ or no, there is nothing in the world will more truly evidence your having an interest in God, then this, That the Lord hath brought you into a state of mortification: you can have no interest in a living God, if there be still living lusts and corruptions remaining in you. I might here make use of a story I have sometimes told you, of an Island that lies between Scotland and Ireland, and there being a controversie between the two nations, to which of them the Island did belong, the matter was decided thus, that they shall take a great many Toads, and Serpents, and unclean creatures, and put them into the Island, and if these unclean and venomous beasts did live, then the Island belonged to Scotland: but if they did die, then it must belong to Ireland; because no unclean beasts do live there. I may make this application of it, there is a great controversie between God and the Devill, to whom thy soul belongs, now therefore if venomous lusts, and unclean corruptions do live in thy heart, and rule and reign there, this is an argument that you belong to Satan; but if sin does not live nor reign in thee, this is an undeniable argument that you do belong to God.
2. The necessity of mortification consists in this, Because grace cannot live in thy soul, unlesse sin and corruption be dead there; before there can be the life of grace, there must be the death of sin: in Rom. 6.11. Rom. 6.11.Reckon ye your selves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God, (sayes the Apostle) if corruptions live, grace cannot live in thy heart: as it is reported of Doves, they cannot live in smoky and nasty places; so the Spirit of God wil not live in that soul that is full of nasty corners of sin and corruption.
3. The necessity of mortification, appears in this, because the soul cannot live in glory, till sin die in the heart: as grace cannot live in the heart, here, till sin be subdued; so neither can the soul live in glory hereafter, till sin is dead and mortified: as one saies well, if sin does not die, the sinner must die; if God does not kill thy sins, sin will kill thy soul: in 1 Cor. 15.36. 1 Cor. 15.36.saies the Apostle, Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickned, except it die: as the grain does die and rot in the ground before it is quickned and springs up again, so thy soul cannot be quickned and made capable of living with God in glory, till thy corruptions be rotten, and dead, and destroyed in thy soul. And thus much shall suffice touching the necessity of mortification.
I shall be somewhat longer in the next Query, Quere 3 which is to lay down to you, in the third place, some discoveries whereby you may know, Six discovering Characters of mortification.whether the Lord hath brought you into a state of mortification yea or no; which it may be some of you are very desirous to be satisfied in: I shall give you 6. discovering Characters of it, and go over them very briefly.
1. Discov. 1 Would you know whether God hath brought you into a state of mortification, or no? you may know it by this Character, If thou art now more fearfull of running into occasions and opportunities of sin, then you have been in times past, this is an argument that thou art a mortified man: an unmortified heart is bold, and venturous, and will rush upon occasions of sin; whereas a mortified heart is very carefull to avoid all occasions of evill. One compares a mortified man to a Dove or Partridge; now such as use that game of hawking, report, that there is such an innate fear and dread implanted in a Dove or Partridge, of the Hawk, that they do not only fear the Hawk, but the very feathers of him: and so a mortified man does not only fear a downright sin, but also any thing that may be a provocation or inlet to a sin; now if this holy fear of displeasing and offending God be found in thee, I may safely passe this sure judgement upon thee, that thou art a mortified man. When thou art in such a gracious frame and temper of spirit, as that in the Epistle of Jude ver. 23. that thou hatest the garment spotted with the flesh; it is a metaphoricall expression in allusion to those that had the plague of Leprosie under the Law, in Lev. 13.45. Levit. 13.45.The children of Israel did not only fear touching such a man, but they would not touch his garment, or come near his house or any thing he had: so we should hate the garment spotted with the flesh, that is, avoid every thing that may endanger infection, or occasion a sin.
2. Another discovery is this, Discov. 2 That when an occasion of committing a sin is fairly offered to a man, and all circumstances concurring, that might provoke him to that sin, yet he will restrain and bridle his appetite, and will not commit that sin, this is a sign of a truly mortified heart; and if God hath brought thee into such a frame, he hath throughly mortified thy corruptions. (Beloved) an unmortified man may abstain from a sin, when there is no opportunity or occasion offered to commit that sin: but this is an argument of a mortified heart, that though all occasion for the acting a sin do concur, yet he will abstain from it: you have instances in two men that did discover their mortification in this regard, Gen. 39.9.one of them was in Joseph, in Gen. 39.9. he had a fair occasion offered him to commit the sin of adultery, he had opportunity, for he and his Mistresse were alone; and he had importunity, she did urge and solicite him from day to day to do it; and 3. he had secresie too, the text saith, the doors were shut, there was none but they two in the house. 4. He might have gotten a great deal of preferment and advantage by it, she would have made him Lord over her house: you see here was opportunity, importunity, secresie, and advantage; all these occasions were fairly offered, and did concurre to invite Joseph to the sin of uncleannesse; and yet for all this Joseph replies, How shall I do this great wickednesse, and so sin against God? here you see the power of sin was mortified in Josephs heart; now do you try your own hearts by this pattern, that when there are all occasions offered to the committing of a sin, you can then say nay to your lusts.
Another instance is in David, 1 Sam. 24.4.in 1 Sam. 24.4. Saul came into the same cave where David and his men lay, and the text saith, That while Saul was in the cave, David came and cut off the lap of his robe privily: now David might with as much ease have cut off his head, if he would; and though Saul pursued David to take way his life, yet when David had an opportunity to have cut off Sauls head, he would not do it; and this did evidence the sin of revenge to be mortified in Davids heart. Now I beseech you, examine your hearts in these 2 particulars, and see how the case stands between God and your own souls.
3. Another discovery is this, Discov. 3 If there be in thy heart a lesse tendency to, and a greater reluctancy against the Devils temptations to sin, then formerly; this is a good argument that the Lord hath brought thee into a state of mortification. It may be, heretofore thy nature was Gun-powder, apt to be in a flame upon any temptation; but now it is like unto green wood, that will lie a great while upon the fire before it burns; so a temptation can very hardly perswade you to yeeld to it; if it be thus with you, you have made a great progresse in this work of mortification.
4. Discov. 4 If there be a fair proportion between the death of sin, and the life of grace in thy soul, then thou art a mortified man. (Beloved) the Lords work is not a half work, to kill corruptions in thy heart and no more; but if the Lord hath savingly subdued sin in thy soul, he will work a contrary work of grace in thee, that that shall live and act in thy soul; mortification & the death of sin, must hold equipage with vivification, and the life of grace; so that if sin be dead, grace shall live in thy soul: and therefore the Apostle joynes them both together, Rom. 6.11. 1 Pet. 4.12.in Rom. 6.11. Count your selves dead unto sin, but alive unto God: and so in 1 Pet. 4.12. For he that hath suffered in the flesh, hath ceased from sin, that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh, to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. Here the Apostle does not only injoyn us not to spend our time in fulfilling the lusts of the flesh, but to live unto God likewise: and therefore, (beloved) that is only a cessation, not a mortification of corruption, where there is a forcible restraint laid upon thy lusts, they only seem to be dead, but are not so really.
5. Discov. 5 Mortification is discovered by this Character, where the keeping under of any corruption is the result of a deep humiliation: that mortification that never had true humiliation preceding it, is but a meer cessation from sin. Thy sins have never yet been truly mortified, if thy heart hath not been truly humbled: many men do with their sins, as fencers do upon a stage, sometimes they give one another a slight blow or scarre, but they never strike a deadly stroke; so some men will play with sin, but never give it a mortall wound: but now a truly mortified man, is like a warriour, he will either kill or be killed; he will kill his sins, or else his sin will kill him. Now examine your selves in this partiticular, are you only fencers to sport and play with your lusts, or are you warriours that fight with an implacable opposition against sin? do you only give a slight scarre to sin, or have you given it a deadly wound?
6. Discov. 6 Mortification may be discovered by the generality of it, for it doth not consist in the killing of any one particular sin, but in the striking at the root and whole body of sin: and therefore the Apostle exhorteth us to mortifie our members which are on the earth, fornication, uncleannesse, &c. and to crucifie the flesh, with the affections and lusts, and to keep under the whole body of sin. It is with the mortification of sin, as it is with the dying of the body: you know death is not a seisure upon the arm, or leg, or any one or two members, but upon all the members of the body, all must die: so mortification is not the killing of any one member of sin, but a seisure upon all the whole body of sin; the keeping under of some particular sins, doth not argue mortification, unlesse you have given a mortall wound to the very body and bulk of corruption.
And thus I have done with the doctrinall part of these 3. Queries already resolved. I shall now speak something by way of application, before I come to handle the other Queries, which I shall spend a great deal more time about, but for the present, the Use that I shall make of what I have already delivered shall be this.
It may be this Doctrine may gravell many a conscientious heart, 7 Uses of comfort to those that think they are not mortified when they are.and many a godly man may passe a very hard censure upon his own heart, and think that sin is yet alive in his soul, and grace dead; and therefore I have 7 comfortable words to lay down to such as you are, and then if the time will permit, I shall proceed to the handing of the other Queries that are yet behinde. The first comfortable word I have to say to those that complain that their corruptions are unmortified, is this,
1. Ʋse 1 That there may be a mortification of corruption in that heart where there is a strong irritation of corruption: the Devil may irritate, that is, he may strongly stir up corruptions in thy heart, and yet thou mayest be in a mortified estate; But I shall have occasion hereafter to speak more fully to this head, and therefore I shall only now adde that place before quoted in Rom. 7.9. where S. Paul saith, Rom. 7.9.when the Commandement came, sin revived, and he died: before, Paul thought himself alive and sin dead: he was in his own apprehensions, according to the Law blamelesse; but when the Lord gave Paul a spirituall insight into his own heart, then he perceived himself to die and sin to revive: so that there may be a stirring up of sin in the heart, and yet those very sins have their deaths wound.
2. Take this for your comfort, Ʋse 2 that the reiteration and after committing of the same sin, doth not argue thy heart to be void of mortification. I do but only name this to you, because I intend to make a distinct question of this, whether a man that hath a corruption truly mortified, may fall often into the same sinne.
3. Take this for your comfort, Ʋse 3 that the mortification of corruption was never intended by God, to extend so farre as to the totall abolition and utter extirpation of sin; but if the domination of sin be destroyed, the Lord looks upon it as mortification; if sin be (as I told you before) like that tree spoken of in Daniel, whose branches were cut off, but the stump remained: so if the dominion and ruling power of sin be taken away, you are in a condition good enough.
Reverend Mr. Perkins useth a very clear similitude to explain this great work of mortification by, sayes he, as it is with the husbandman, let him wash his corn never so clean before he sowes it, yet notwithstanding when it springs and growes up again, it will not come up clean, but there will be chaffe amongst it, and there will be a stalk, and a blade, and other things that appertain to the corn, though they were never sowen with the corn; so though you wash your heart never so clean from sin, yet there will some corruption or other still spring in thy heart; God reserves the utter abolition of sin for the state of glorification, not of mortification.
4. Ʋse 4 You that complain your corruptions are unmortified, take this for your comfort, that God will never expose you to more violent temptations to sin, then what you shall be able to vanquish and overcome in the end, you may be sure to have no more laid upon you then you have strength to grapple with: what though temptations to sin be strong, if God give a sufficiency of grace and strength to withstand and encounter with them? It is a very good observation which some make from Gen. 26.2. compared with Gen. 46.3. Gen. 26.2.where we read that there were two great famines in the Land wherein Isaac and Jacob lived: now when there was a famine in the land in Isaac's daies, then he enquired of the Lord whether he should go down into Egypt to buy corn, and the Lord told he should not; here God denyed Isaac to go down: but afterwards when there was a famine in Jacob's dayes, Gen. 46.3.he likewise asked of the Lord whether he should go down, and God bid him goe, Gen. 46.3. Now why did the Lord forbid Isaac, and yet suffer Jacob to go down into Egypt? They give a very good reason of it, which is this, God would not let Isaac go down, because he was but a weak beleever, (sayes God) thou art but a weak Christian, & art not able to grapple with a temptation, and to withstand all the occasions and opportunities of sin, thou mayest probably meet with in Egypt; and therefore thou shalt not go: But now Jacob he was a strong Beleever, and able to encounter with any temptation, and therefore God bid him go. Here you see the Lord will not lay upon his children more then they are able to bear: and oh what a great comfort may this be unto us, that we have so good a God to serve, that carries such tender bowels towards all his children! You have a passage to this purpose in Esay, Esai. 28.26, 27.When you are weak and young converts, the Lord will stay his rough windes, he will proportion the temptations according to your strength. So in Esay 28.26, 27. The fetches are not threshed with a threshing instrument, neither is a cart wheel turned about upon the cummin; but the fetehes are beaten out with a staffe, and the cummin with a rod: as the smaller seeds, fetches and cummin, must not be beaten out with great weights, but with a rod and a staffe; so weak Christians shall not be exposed to great afflictions and temptations, but proportionable to their strength; and strong Beleevers shall have temptations answerable to their strength, God will lay upon his children no more then they are able to bear.
5. Ʋse 5 Know this for thy comfort, that in some cases strong temptations to sin is not a sin in the person tempted, but in the person tempting: it may be a beleever thinks that if the Devill does dog him from day to day, and from place to place, and from time to time, continually urging and soliciting him to wickednesse; he thinks that the Lord will charge all this upon him as his guilt; whereas temptations to sin do not alwaies argue sin to be in the person tempted, but in the person tempting, for if a temptation to sin were alwaies a sin in the person tempted, then Christ himself should have had sin in his nature (which were blasphemy to say) for he was tempted by the Devill to two great sins of murther and covetousnesse, but these were not sins in the person tempted, but in the person tempting: so now, when you do not close with a temptation, but do what you can to resist and repell it, when sin doth not arise from thy own nature and inward corruptions, but are meerly of the Devils suggestion and instigation, these sins are none of thine, but shall be charged upon the Devill.
6. Take this for thy comfort, Ʋse 6 that a principle of opposition, a principle of undanted and irreconcilable opposition against every corruption, is accounted by God as mortification; for mortification on our parts is but a standing out against, and encountring with sin; and here I cannot but make use of that place before quoted, in Lev. 11.33, 36. Lev. 11.33, 36.where the Lord made a Law, that if any unclean thing fell into a vessell of water, that water should be unclean: but if it fell into a river of water, it should not be unclean; and the reason is, because a vessell of water hath no purgative faculty whereby to cleanse it self from any filthinesse that fals into it; but now a fountain or river of water, by its continuall running, doth purge and cleanse it self from any unclean thing cast into it; so here though corruptions be in thy heart, yet if thou art like a running river, that thou doest cleanse thy self from these sins, the Lord looks upon thee as a mortified man.
7. Ʋse 7 Take this for your comfort, that in the mortification of every sin, you have Christs strength to help you as well as your own, and therefore as in some places he commands us to mortifie sin, so in other places, he promiseth to do it for us. Oh what a good master do we serve, that does our work for us, and yet payes us our wages; that commands us a duty, and though he himself does all for us, and we do nothing, yet he rewards us, as if we had done it our selves!