stoutness and stubbornness of heart against God; these are the sins, which this great and wretched spirit doth, with an implacable rage and spite, eternally commit: and, accordingly as wicked men are hellishly improved in these sins, so do they nearer resemble the Devil. And therefore a child of God is, of all others, especially watchful over and industrious against these spiritual sins.

Now try yourselves by this. You rush not, possibly, into the same excess of riot with other men: you resist temptations, and beat down motions and inclinations to outward, gross, selfcondemning sins. But did you ever see, did you ever strive against the pride, the hypocrisy, the unbelief and hardness of your hearts? do you know what it is to maintain a war against these spiritual sins? can you abhor and resist a temptation to slight Christ, or to grieve his Spirit, as well as to any outward scandalous sin? If so, this is a good sign, that you do indeed rightly exercise mortification. But, if you are only cleansed from the pollutions of the flesh, and not also from the pollutions of the spirit; if, while you war and strive against fleshly lusts, these spiritual and gospel sins are harboured and nestled in your hearts, know assuredly, that, whatsoever seeming victories and conquests you may obtain over them, yet they are not mortified.

v. Another mark for trial may be this: IF SIN BE MORTIFIED AND DEAD IN YOU, THEN YOU ALSO ARE MORTIFIED AND DEAD UNTO SIN.

"This," you will say, "is very certain but how shall we

know whether we be dead to sin ?"

In answer unto this, I shall give you these Two particulars to try it by.

1. When there is little or no suitableness betwixt sin and thy soul, then art thou dead unto it.

Thou seest no beauty, no desirableness; thou tastest no sweetness, findest no delight in it: this is to be dead to it; and, accordingly as the degrees of this are, so art thou dying unto sin. When the appetite fails, and the stomach nauseates that food which before pleased it; this is a sign that the man is sick, and, it may be, dying: so, when that appetite, which before was greedy of sin, and swallowed it down as a sweet morsel, comes not only to leave it, but to loath it; this is a good sign that the man is sin-sick: sin is, in him, decaying and dying. I

am crucified to the world, and the world to me, says the Apostle Gal. vi. 14: so is a mortified Christian crucified unto sin, and sin to him. What delight or pleasure can any object bring to a crucified man? Truly, when the soul is once crucified unto sin, every sinful object is like that draught of gall and vinegar offered to Christ upon the cross: it hath nothing in it but sharpness and bitterness. Now try thyself by this: Is there no more agreeableness between sin and thy soul, than there is between a sick and dying man and the things of this life? canst thou reject those temptations, with indignation; which before thou closedst with, with eagerness? doth thy appetite, thy will and affection, loath and nauseate those sins, which formerly thou swallowedst down with delight and greediness? This, indeed, is a sign that thou art mortified and dead to thy sins. But, if still thou findest as much sweetness and deliciousness in sin as ever, if thou hidest and rollest it under thy tongue as a sweet morsel, if still it be agreeable and most pleasing to thee, thou mayest indeed be dead; dead, not unto sin, but dead in sins and trespasses.

2. If thou art mortified and dead unto sin, thou art then enlivened and quickened unto holiness.

What saith the Apostle, Rom. vi. 11? Reckon yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin; but alive unto God, through Jesus Christ. To be alive unto holiness, what is that? it is to be lively in holiness; to have the heart and affections quickened to it, to be carried out strongly and vigorously in it: this is to be alive. Certainly, a lumpish, dull, heavy professor, who can hardly make a shift to jog on in a form of religion, who performs every thing that belongs to holiness without life, and spirit, and vivacity, must be very much unmortified: he is not yet dead to his sins, otherwise he would be more quick and lively in his graces. It is impossible, that any man can be thus twice dead: what! dead to sin, and yet dead to holiness too! no, the death of sin is the life of grace and, therefore, where you find the one strong and active, you may conclude the other is weak and languishing.

Now if the Old Man be indeed crucified within you, these particulars of examination do, as it were, shew you the print of the nails, and of the spear that wounded it; and they bid you thrust your hands into its side, that you may be more certain of its death, and in that certainty rejoice. It were happy for us, if, without self-flattery, we could from these things draw an

evidence of our mortification: but, it is to be feared, that they serve rather to shew us what a strange thing it is in the world; yea, how much a stranger even in Israel. How few do at all resist the swing and career of corruption! of those that do, how few do it from a right principle, and by right means! If, perhaps, some few such there be (as certainly some such there are, though but a few) yet even their strugglings and wrestlings against corruption are so impertinent and trifling, that, did they not presume them to flow from an inward principle of grace, they could not but be ashamed either to think or call them Mortification. The generality and common huddle of the world do so securely live after the flesh, as if they were always to live in the flesh; or, as if they were already resolved rather to be cast into hell with their Old Man whole and entice, than to enter into heaven halt and maimed. Yea, the very best Christians do so live in the flesh, as being too well content that the flesh should also live, move, and act in them: they will not be so unhospitable as to destroy that inmate of corruption, though that lurk in them only to destroy them.

I shall not now lay Motives and Arguments before you, to press upon you this great duty: the text hath given us the most effectual and brief' compendium: If ye mortify, ye shall live; if not, ye shall die. Life and death are this day set before you : and what could be spoken so much, in so little? Certainly, that man may conclude himself to be already dead, whom the consideration of life and death doth not move nor persuade. "The fleshly liver, he shall die." Is that all? do we not see the most mortified Christians die too? doth not the original curse take hold of them both, and tumble them alike into the dust? would not wicked men be content, would they not wish, after they have been sated and glutted with sinning, to die away, and to lie for ever in a forgotten darkness? what then is there in this dying, that should be of such force unto mortification? “The mortified Christian, he shall live." Is that all? what! to live still mortifying, still contending and fighting against his corruptions, still sighing and groaning under them in the anguish and bitterness of his soul! is there any such encouraging promise in this, that he shall still live struggling and combating against that, which makes him weary of his life, and even to long and pant after death? are these such prevailing motives to mortification? "No: the sensualist shall die; but he shall die a never-dying

life of death. The mortified person shall live; but he shall live a life, wherein there shall be no more need of mortification, because no more remainders of corruption." Then all tears shall be wiped out of our eyes, and all sins wiped out of our hearts. Now is the time of our warfare, and every battle that we fight is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood: then shall we for ever triumph, and sing an eternal song of victory, clothed in garments made white with the blood of the Lamb. Now we are at a perpetual discord with ourselves; thoughts bandying against thoughts; affections against affections; will against will; and all within us in an uproar and tumult: but then an eternal peace and calm shall fill our souls: not a thought shall whisper a rebellion : the whole tide and current of our wills and affections, with a full and undisturbed stream, shall run into that boundless ocean of all felicity, even God himself. But I must, though loth, leave the prosecution of this argument.

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VII. And, now, let me suppose that the great question you would all ask is, What you should do to mortify corruption, and how you should strive against it so as to obtain conquest and victory over it. For DIRECTION, therefore, in this great work, let me propound unto you these following RULES, each of which if rightly wielded, is enough to pierce into the very bowels of corruption.

i. Labour to get A FULL AND CLEAR SIGHT AND DISCOVERY OF THAT SIN ESPECIALLY, WHICH IS MOST PERPLEXING AND MOST UNMORTIFIED.

He, that would subdue his enemy, must first find him out, and consider where his strength lies, what advantages he hath got against him, the manner of his warring, &c. and accordingly prepare for resistance. This must be the policy of every Christian: he must keep spies and good intelligence in his enemy's camp.

Two things he must especially know, if he would subdue his lusts.

Wherein their great Strength lies, and what Advantages

they have against him.

He must always consider the Ground and Cause of the

Quarrel as, the Guilt, which it would bring upon him; and, the Danger, which it would bring him into, if committed.

This will serve to kindle a holy anger and indignation against sin, without which this great work of mortification can never go on prosperously.

1. I say, seriously consider wherein the Strength and Prevalency of thy Corruption lies, from whence it hath its greatest Advantage against thee.

This will shew thee how, thou shouldst particularly apply thyself to the mortification of it. If it hath more than ordinary strength and power in thee, thy endeavours to mortify it must also be more than ordinary. If you ask, "What are those Advantages, that do give so great a prevalency unto a corruption?" I answer,

(1) Customariness and frequent relapses into the same sins; especially if they have been against strong convictions, against binding vows and promises, and manifold dealings of God both in judgment and in mercy.

Though I am far from that desperate, rabbinical conceit of the Jews, who hold the fourth relapse into the same sin unpardonable; grounding themselves upon Amos i. where God threatens Damascus, Edom, and Ammon, that for three transgressions, and for four, he would not turn away their punishment; yet, certainly, if a particular lust, be it what it will, pride, malice, uncleanness, or covetousness, breaks forth frequently into act, forces all thy guards, bears down all considerations that stand in the way to oppose it; I will not say thy case is desperate, but yet it is very dangerous, and a sad symptom of a stubborn unruly lust that will not be mortified without extraordinary pains and care. Dost thou find any such old, cankering distemper within thee, ripened by long continuance and habituated by custom, that hath often choked conscience, stifled convictions, out-stood many dispensations of God? know that the very age and grey hairs of such a lust claim a command and authority over the soul, and that it is a task next to an impossibility to subdue it. Jer. xiii. 23. Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spo's? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil. It is very hard to dislodge a lust, that pleads prescription for itself: it hath had possession of the heart, time out of mind: can you ever remember when it had not? and therefore struggles as for its lawful right, and will not be ejected. And this is by so much the more dangerous, if it breaks out to the defiling and wounding of conscience, after deep humiliation, bitter repentance, serious resolutions, tempo