The Great Duty abate your Endeavours, but to quicken you, to look after the Truth and Since~ rity of Grace; which when you have alfured to your fc:lves, you may be li kcwife certain, that though in all your ConftiCl:s you may QOt find a vifible decay of the Strength of Sin, yet it is in the Root and Principle of it infenfibly weakened. 2. Secondly, See alfo what the fad and deplorable Condition of wicked Men is who are Strangers to the Life of Grace. Without Mortification no Life is to b~ expected, without Grace no Mortification can be exercifed; and what doth this when it is caft up amount to lefs than the eternal Damnation of fuch Men. The War which we are to wage ar,ainft our Lufts, admits of no other tcrms.but kill or be kill'd ; either the Blood of your deareft Sins· muft be fpilt, or the Blood of your precious Souls. Is it not now a fad thing for Men in fuch a mercilcfs War to be thruft naked upon the fuarp Swords of their Enemies? So it is with Sinners, who are many times by Confcience or ConviCtions thruft on to fio-ht with armed and cruel Lufts, and yet have neither Weapons to wound them n~r to defend themfelvcs. ·What can be imagined more fad, than is the cafe of thefe Men;> On the one Hand Confcicnce fcourgeth them, on the other Sin wounds: Confci~ ence drives them on, Corruption beats them back; and yet in all thefe ConfliCts never can they obtain fo much Succefs as to fubdue the leaft and weakeft Lufr. N~w what !hould thefe Me•. do? Should they give over this Oppofition fuch as It ts, and fit fttll under defpatr of Moruficauon? No, let them frill ftrive :llld ftruggle and make what ftrength they can, and aa as fJr againfr Sin as natural Confcience will carry them out unto . Let not the Dotl:rinc you have heard to day of a carnal Man's impotency to mortifie any one Sin, flackcn your Endeavours; ftill prefs upon it : For, Firft, Though all that you dfn do without Grace will not amount to a true Mortification, yet it may Clufc much 011tward Reformation.; though .hereby you can~ot klll C?rruption, yet you may mightily curb it. 'Tts true tins when done w1ll not avatl to fave you, but ye_t fuppofe the leaft it will avail to mitigate your Punifhment, and abate the degrees of Torment~ And certainly that Man never had a right apprehenfion of Hell, who doth not account the ftriking off the leaft degree of Wrath infinitely more worth than all the pains and trouble of an endeavoured Mortification. And., . 2. Secondly, Though you cannot mortifie Corruption without Grace, yet when you oppofe it with the Power you have, God may give you in the ,qrace that y~m want. While Carnal you cannot pray, nor perform any other fp1ntual Duty Jn Grace, yet you may and ought to do it for Grace. So here tho11gh your ftrugling againft Sin be not Mortification without Grace, yet ought you to perfift in it that it may be Mortification through Grace. How know you but that Conftid which was begun between the Flelh and the Flefh, may end in a Vitl:ory of the Spirit over the Flelh? Certainly it is far more probable that that Man lhould obtain true Mortification who earM.eftly !hives agaioft his Lufts, than he who willingly yields himfelf up as a nave unto them. That's the firft thing. Without Grace no one Luft can be mortified, and yet wicked Men are not hereby to be difcourag,ed in their Endeavours. Il. Secondly, Another requiGte unto Mortification, is the influence of the S,J?irit of 7'belnftu· God, drawing forth. this inward Grace, and atl:ing it to the fuppreffing of finfnl ~;;~~:~:~ M~t~ons and ?nful Eruptions. And therefore ~he Text tells us, !f !e rhr01f$b the 1 ejforjunro Sptttt do mortifie. Though Grace be wrought m the Heart, yet 1~ ts not m our Mortijica- Power to aCt it; but the fame Spirit that implanted it, he alone muft excite it, he ~irm. muft marfual it and fet it in aray ; he muft l1ead it and lead it on, and under his How the Conduct it will certainly prove Vi8:orious. I might here at large fhew you what .rpirif ena~ Aid, Force, and Recruit, the Spirit brings us in for our Afliftancc in the V'.'ork of bleJus !ft 0 Mortification, that the Apoftle fhould here attribute it unto him. But I fhall onb; mort' ~ ly b~iefty touch at this point and fo proceed. e ' 1 Ftrft, The Spirit difcovcrs the Sin that is to be mortified, drags it out of its BJdijc(Jt1e. lurking. Holes, !trips it naked to t.he view of t~e Soul, unc:afeth its D.eceits, difriHK rhe clofeth tts Methods, lbews the Uglmefs, Deformtty and Helltfhnefs of It, tells the · S in rh~r is Soul what a defperate and fworn Enemy it is againft its eternal Happinefs, what '~/e mor- an end lefs train of Wocs,and Plagues, and Torments it draws after it : And hereby ''J'etl. he hig h~y exafperates the Heart to a Refolution, that fince it is fo opportunely delivered into its Hands, it fhall no more efcape alive. Now this Alfiftance unto Mortification
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=