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DISCOURSE

ON THE

GREAT DUTY OF MORTIFICATION.

ROMANS viii. 13.

IF YE LIVE AFTER THE FLESH, YE SHALL DIE: BUT IF YE, THROUGH THE SPIRIT, DÓ MORTIFY THE DEEDS OF THE BODY, YE SHALL LIVE.

INTRODUCTION.

In these words, without any preface or account of their cohe

rence, are,

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FIRST. A Promise: the greatest promise, that God can make, or the Scripture propound, or we embrace: Ye shall live: that is, first, ye shall live a life of grace and comfort here; and, secondly, ye shall live a life of immortality and eternal glory hereafter.

SECONDLY. We have the condition, upon which this life, both of grace and glory, is propounded: If ye mortify the deeds of the body: & SavaTSTE: the word signifies to kill or put to death: If ye KILL the deeds of the body, ye shall live. The life of sin and the life of grace and glory are utterly inconsistent and repugnant: you must live, upon the death of sin.

Now, here, we have

First. The object of this mortification: what it is, that they must put to death: and that is, the deeds of the body.

By the body we must here understand the same that the Apostle speaks of in the beginning of the verse: If ye live after the flesh. Flesh and body are but equivalent terms; both of them signifying one and the same corruption of nature. deed, the proper seat of sin is the soul; and they are the deeds

In

of the soul, that we must chiefly mortify: the deeds of the body are sinful but at the second hand, as they are swayed and exerted by a sinful soul; yet the Scripture doth frequently call this corruption flesh, the body, the members; opposing it to the spirit, to the mind: Rom. vii. 23. I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind.

sin.

And this it doth,

First. To denote the degrading malignity, that there is in

It doth unspirit and unsoul a man. A sinner is called a carnal man; a man, made up of nothing but a lump of dull flesh, kneaded together without spirit, without life. And therefore the Apostle doth not bid them mortify the deeds of their souls, because wicked men act as though they had no souls, or at least not so noble a soul.

Secondly. It calls sin the deeds of the body, to denote what it is that sin tends to.

It is only to please, to pamper the body; the sensual, sordid, and baser part of man. The soul of a wicked man acts for no higher an end, than the soul of a beast doth. The soul of a beast acts not for itself, but is made a drudge and underling to the body it serves only to carry the body to and fro to its pasture, and to make it relish its food and fodder. Thus, truly, it is with the souls of wicked men: they act not for themselves, but are only their bodies' caterers; that seek out and lay in provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof: Rom. xiii. 14.

Thirdly. Sins are called the deeds of the body, because, though the soul be the chief seat of their abode, yet the body is the great instrument of their acting.

Rom. vi. 19. As ye have yielded your members servants.....to iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness. Indeed, there are some refined sins, that hold little communion with the body, and partake but little of that gross carnality and corpulency, if I may so term it, that makes other sins swell to such a bulk; and yet these must be also mortified: and these are also the deeds of the body; because the soul, acting even these spiritual sins, acts as much below itself, as the body's actings are below the soul's.

As for the Deeds of the body, by deeds we must understand, not only the inward ebullitions and the outward eruptions of this body of sin, but also the spring and fountain itself whence these flow. The corruption of nature itself must be mortified:

the body of death must be put to death. All these are called the deeds of the flesh: not only those, that the Apostle reckons up and tells us are manifest, Gal. v. 19. but also the inward motions, yea the depraved root and habit itself; which are secret, because, though these be not outward acts, yet they would be so, and sin is not perfected nor finished till it be so.

Secondly. As the deeds of the flesh are the object of mortification; so, here, we have the Persons, on whom this duty of mortification is pressed: If ye, through the Spirit, do mortify: that is, ye, who have received the Spirit; ye, who are believ ers for such are those, whom he describes in the foregoing part of the chapter, vv. 1, 5, 10, 11.

Both these branches are comprehended in the condition re quired to life: If ye......mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.

THIRDLY. Here is, likewise, the Way and Means, whereby believers are enabled to mortify the deeds of the body: and that is, through the Spirit: If ye, through the Spirit, do mortify. Whatsoever other helps, either of outward or inward rigour and severity, men use against their lusts, they may indeed thereby for a time stifle and suppress them; but, if the Spirit of God do not set in with the work, it can never amount to a true mortification.

From the words thus opened many Propositions may be drawn out: as,

First. From the promise of life, if we take life for the Life of Comfort and the Life of Grace, made upon the condition of mortification, observe,

That IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR THAT SOUL TO HAVE LIVELY COMFORTS AND LIVELY GRACES, WHOSE LUSTS ARE LIVELY AND UNMORTIFIED.

There is a necessity for it, that the deeds of the body be put to death, if you intend that either your grace or your comfort should survive. I do not absolutely say that grace cannot live in the children of God, under every present neglect of mortification: but yet, certainly, this will destroy their comforts; yea, and eat out the vigour, activity, and liveliness of their graces, that, though they do live, yet they will live but a lingering and decaying life: they will but live such a life, as sin

doth in those, who exercise a constant mortification, that is, they will but live, as it were, a dying life.

Secondly. If we take the life promised for Eternal Life, then observe,

That THE FUTURE LIFE OF GLORY IS INFALLIBLY ASSURED TO THE PRESENT DEATH OF SIN.

If ye mortify, ye shall live. Not that life proceeds from mortification, as the effect from the cause; but only it follows upon it, as the end upon the use of the means.

Thirdly. From the Persons, on whom this duty of mortification is pressed, observe,

That BELIEVERS THEMSELVÉS, WHO ARE FREED FROM THE REIGNING POWER OF SIN, HAVE YET CONTINUAL NEED TO MORTIFY THE INHERENT REMAINDERS OF IT.

Fourthly. From the Aid and Assistance, that believers must call in to this work, observe,

That WHATEVER ADVANTAGES MEN HAVE GAINED AGAINST THEIR LUSTS, EITHER IN SUPPRESSING THEIR MOTIONS, OR IN RESTRAINING THEIR ERUPTIONS; YET, IF THIS BE NOT FROM THE WORKING OF THE SPIRIT OF GOD IN THEM, IT IS NOT TRUE NOR RIGHT MORTIFICATION: If ye, through the Spirit, do mortify.

I shall not handle all these Propositions, but only the Third, That the children of God have continual need to exercise mortification: and the other points will be subervient to the prosecution of this.

This the Apostle urgeth Col. iii. 5. where he speaks to those, that were risen with Christ; as you may see v. 1: to those, who were dead with Christ, and whose life was hid with Christ in God; v. 3: to those, who shall certainly appear with Christ in glory; v. 4: and, yet, such as these he commands to mortify their members which are upon the earth.

And it may appear strange, if you consider what members they are, which must be mortified. Not vain thoughts; deadness of heart; uneven walkings; and those inward sins, which if men did thoroughly mortify, they would be made perfect, and become even as the angels of God: but they are the great and the visible limbs of the Old Man: they are fornication, un

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