I 20 S E R M 0 N S upon Serm.VIII. naanite to live with you, the more will it prove as a Thorn orGoad in your fides here, if ever it is true, our affeftion procureth our affliction ; fin dyeth when our love to it dyeth ; your trouble endeth, your delight in it ceafeth, as you can bring your fouls to a relolution to quit thefe things, &amsfaave mihi fubito fatlutuefi,carere fuavitatibusini- quorum, No delight fofincere as the contempt of vain delight,.' 3. The Objeaï, the deeds of the body ; that is, our fins, fo called, I. Becaufe fin is com- pared to a body, Rom. 7. 24. Who (ball deliver me from this body of death? and Col. 2. I I. In putting off the body of the fins of the flefji., T'kere is.befides the natural body, a body of corruption, which doth wholly compafs lit?li4 the >foul ; there is the head of wicked delires, the hands and feet of wicked executions, the eye of finful lulls, the tongue of vain and evil words; therefore 'tis faid, Col. 3. g. Mortifie your members which are upon earth. Not of the natural body,- but of the mats of - corruption. ;.:particular finful lugs are as members of this body. 2. Sins are called the deeds of the body, be. caufe they are executed by the body. Rom. 6. 2 2. Let not fin reign in your mortal bodies, that ye fbould fulfil the lofts thereof g and. Rom. 6. 19. Asye have yielded up your members fervants to uncleannefs, and to iniquity, unto iniquity. All the members of the body are employed as inftruments to ferve our fin; now affetions aremanifelled in actions ; there- fore by the deeds of the body, he meaneth not outward acts only, but lulls alit) : Well then, fight we mull, but not with our own fhadows, fin is gotten within us, by the foul it path taken poflefilon of the body : The gates of the fenfesare always open to let in fuck Obiets and Temptations, as take part with the flefh; and the flefh is ready to ac- complilh whatever the corrupt heart doth fuggelt and require. 4. The life that is promifed to them that mortifie fin, ye fhall live, a fpiritual life of Grace here, and an eternal life of Glory hereafter s Heaven is worth the having, and therefore the reward fhould fweeten the duty. From this' Claufe the Points are Three. r. That juft fed Perfons are bound to mortifie fin. 2. That in the mortifying of fin, we and the fpirit concur. The Spirit will not without us, and we cannot without the fpirit. 3. That eternal life is promifedto them, who ferioufly improve the aFfiance of the Holy Ghaftfur the mortifying of fn' a. Dot. That juftified Perfons fhould mortifie fin. 'Tis their Duty fo to do. I. What is mortification that lieth upon us ? a. Negatively, What it is not; we mutt diflinguith between the mock mortification, and the counterfeit tefemblances of this du. ty, and the duty its felt. r. There is a Pagan Mortification. I callit fo, becaufe fuch a thing was among the Heathens, which is nothing elfe but a fuppreffang fuch fins as nature difcovereth, upon fuch reafons, and arguments as naturefuggefleth, Rom. 2. a4. The Gentiles do by nature the things contained in the law: Namely, as they abftained from gro(s fins, and performed outward ads of duty; this was a kind of refemblance of mortification, and but a refemblance ; we read of this in (tory ; Socrates his Anfwer to the Phyfognomif6 , Shama aas8étsrñr,when his Scholars enraged at his Charaâer na,Pcperñs, ivii,u, ttu ¡io«,d».' ìuix^'.So of P'alsmon coming in a drunken fit to fcoff at Xenocr ates his Lecture, with his head crowned with a Garland of Rofebtids, was by his grave and moral difcourfe reduced from his riot and licentioufnefs, which was a kind of moral converfion ; but this we fault, becaufe 'tis but an half turn from fins of the Second Table, or lower Hemifphere of Duty, and becaufe thefe fins were rather fuppreffed and hinen, rather than morti- fied and fubdued ; Sapientia carom abfcandit vitia, non abfcindit. Labf. As Haman refrain, ed himflf, when his heart boiled with rankor and malice, Efiher q. to. Their Wifdom tended to hide fin, rather than to mortifie it ; and befides, this kind of converfion was not a recovery of the foul from the flefh, and the world, to God ; but only an acqui- ring a fimefs to live more plaufibly, and with lefs fcandal among men. 2. There is a popifh and fuperflitious mortification ; which ftandeth in a meer neglect of the body, and fome outward abflinences and auttetities,and fuch obfervances as are pre - fcribed by men without anÿ'warrant from God, as in abltaining from marriage, and foam fort of meats or apparel, as unlawful, yea from the neceffary funtions of humane life; the Apòltle telleth us that thefe.things have Tiro' Abor.00tfos 2 Col. 23. A/hew of my-- dom.
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