Now these arguments belong but to two heads. Either they are legal, and such as are drawn only from a sad reflexion on the end and issue of sin; which is shame, death, hell and destruction: or, else, they are evangelical; taken from the nature of sin, as being a transgression and offence against a gracious Father, against a crucified and bleeding Saviour, against a patient and long-suffering Spirit, and many other like aggravations which work kindly and ingenuously upon the heart of a child of God.

Put it now to the question: when a temptation assaults thee, with what weapons dost thou resist it? what considerations dost thou over-awe thy heart with?

Dost thou only run down to hell, to fetch arguments against sin from thence? Canst thou no where else quench these fiery darts, but in the lake of fire and brimstone? Can nothing keep thee from sinning, but only the whip and the rack; wrath, vengeance, horrors, and such dreadful things, which while thy conscience thunders in thine ears, it makes thy soul a hell, and itself becomes thy tormentor? If this be all, know that thy affections are woefully entangled in the sin; and thou art fully resolved upon the commission of it, if there were no punishment to follow. Thou mayst, indeed, by this means be frighted and scared from sin, but never mortified to it.

But the evangelical considerations, which a child of God makes use of to mortify sin by, though they work not with that dread and terror, yet are they far more effectual. He sees sin, in its ugly nature; in that spot, stain, and defilement, that it would bring upon his soul; and this causeth in him a true hatred of it. He saith under a temptation, "What! shall I subject a noble and spiritual soul, made capable of enjoying the God of Heaven? shall I prostitute it to the filthy allurements of a base lust? shall I blot out and deface the image of God enstamped upon me; and degrade myself from the glory of his resemblance, to be conformable to the Devil? Can I commit this sin, which heretofore hath drawn blood from my Saviour, and now seeks to draw blood from my conscience? Was not this the very sin, that squeezed clotted blood from him, and was a full load for God himself to bear? did he die to free me from its condemnation; and shall I, upon every slight temptation, rush into the commission of it? Is there any thing so attractive in it, as to counterpoise the infinite and unsearchable love of Christ? No, O Lord! thy love constraineth me: I cannot do this thing, and

sin against so free, so rich, so infinite mercy and goodness." Thus a gracious heart argues against a temptation, and prevails unto a true mortification.

"But," may some say, may we not make use of legal arguments, of considerations drawn from the wrath of God, the wages of sin, the everlasting damnation to which sinners are appointed, to oppose against a temptation to sin? Are these of no efficacy unto mortification?"

To this I answer:

First. You may and ought, in dealing against your lusts, to use such arguments as these. Why else doth our Saviour inculcate the fear of God upon his disciples, from the consideration of his wrath and power? Fear him, which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell: yea, I say unto you Fear him and why doth the Apostle, here in the text, threaten the believing Romans with death if they live after the flesh, unless these considerations may be made use of even by gracious souls against their sins? It is no other than a loose notion, to think that the only incentive to obedience, and the only check and restraint of sin, is the consideration of the love of God. It is true, these gospel arguments are most prevailing and constraining: yet let not him, with whom the fear of God's wrath hath no sway to keep him from sinning, think himself a high attainer: it is rather a stupidity, till we are got past all desert of hell to be fearless of it.

Secondly. Though these arguments and legal considerations may, of themselves, prevail to keep us from the commission of sin; yet they cannot prevail to the mortification of it. Where there are not other considerations besides these working, these never bring off the heart, but only hold the hands from sin. Nay, if, when a temptation is stirring in the children of God themselves, they only answer it by these legal considerations, that they dare not commit it for fear of hell and wrath hereafter or of shame here; and there be no arguments drawn from the love of God and the relation which they stand in to him, from the death of Christ and the obligation which that lays upon them to obedience, from the deformity of the sin to which they are tempted, from the repugnancy and antipathy that is in their regenerate part against it; the abstaining from the commission of that sin is not mortification, but only restraint, even, in the children of God themselves.

Thirdly. These legal arguments and considerations, may be of great use and moment in a subserviency unto the mortifica

tion of sin.

First. They may hold a temptation or a corruption at bay, till gospel considerations come in to beat it down. Usually, the very first rising of our hearts against a corruption is, from the dangerous consequences of it; from that wrath and vengeance, that are due to it, and will follow upon it: this stops the sin, and puts the soul to a demur; and, though this cannot destroy the corruption, yet it holds it so long, till the New Man calls in aid from gospel arguments to mortify it.

Secondly. These legal considerations, when mixed with gospel motives, make them work more strongly and more effectually unto mortification. The consideration of the infinite wrath of God heightens and aggrandises the infinite love of God in redeeming us from it, and so makes it far more enforcing unto mortification.

Fourthly. It is an ill sign, that that heart is very much unmortified, where a temptation or corruption can break through all gospel considerations used against it; and is stopped from breaking into act, only by legal arguments. When a temptation to sin assaults thee, thou runnest, it may be, to the love of God, to the death of Christ, to the ugly nature of sin, to the beautiful nature of holiness, to beat it down by these (the best and most effectual) considerations: if these do not prevail, but the lust and temptation still tumultuates, and is ready just to break forth into act, thy heart is all on a flame with it; and then, possibly, a thought of hell, of vengeance, of everlasting wrath, starts up suddenly and quashes and quenches this temptation, as water cast on a fire. If this be usual with you, your hearts are much unmortified, and your affections strongly engaged unto sin.

That is the Third trial.

iv. A TRULY MORTIFIED MAN SEES THE GREAT EVIL OF, AND CHIEFLY LABOURS AGAINST THOSE LUSTS, WHICH OTHERS, WHO ACT FROM ANY OTHER PRINCIPLE LOWER THAN TRUE GRACE, EITHER TAKE NO NOTICE OF, OR ELSE DO NOT OPPOSE. And these are,

Inward Heart Sins, and

Spiritual Wickednesses.

This is a most sure and infallible character.

1. A mortified man sets himself, especially against inward Heart Sins.

Against the bubblings of sinful thoughts, and the uproars of sinful affections, and the bent of sinful desires; those lurking and invisible lusts, which though a hypocrite suffer, yea though he foster, yet may he have a very large testimonial to his saintship, to which almost all the world will be ready to set their hands. These, doth a truly mortified Christian principally complain of, and strive against; and in this, indeed, consists the very truth and sincerity of mortification. As the Apostle saith, Rom. ii. 28, 29. That is not circumcision, which is outward in the flesh.....but that, which is of the heart, in the spirit: so I may say, That is not mortification, which is outward in the flesh; but that, which is of the heart, in the spirit. A kind of dead palsy and numbness may seize upon the outward members of the body; when yet the heart heats strong and quick, and the brain works with sprightful and vigorous motions and conceptions: so, truly, is it in this case: the Old Man may sometimes be benumbed in his outward limbs, and deadened as to the executive part of sinning; when yet the head the head may work busily in moulding and shaping sinful objects, and the heart may eagerly beat and pant after them, It is usually the highest result and upshot of a wicked man's care and endeavour, to keep lust from boiling over, from raising smoke and ashes about him: and, if he can attain unto this, let the heart be brimful of sin, let the thoughts steep, soak, and stew in malicious, unclean, worldly contrivances and designs; yet these inward motions and ebullitions, he lamenteth not, he suppresseth not. Now, though possibly it might seem an easy task to mortify such little, naked, infant things as thoughts are, that flutter up and down in the soul; and that a slight stroke will serve to lay them dead yet, certainly, that Christian, who, by experience, knows what it is to deal with his own heart, finds it infinitely more difficult to beat down one sinful thought from rising and tumultuating within, than it is to keep in many a sinful thought from breaking forth into act: so that here lies the very stress and hardship of mortification, in fighting against such shadows, such apparitions, such little entities as thoughts

are.

Now there are these Three things, that make this so very difficult.

(1) Because the first bubblings of these sinful emanations from the fountain and spring-head of corruption, it is not in our power to hinder.

External actions fall under deliberation, and they usually are sifted by censure, and guided by advice and counsel; and this gives us advantage, either to let them loose or to restrain them, at our pleasure: but who deliberates of thoughts, or consults of first motions? These first-born actings of the soul fall not under any previous considerations, to examine or forbid them; and, therefore, it is not in our power to make them good or evil, holy or sinful, but, according as the habit and principle within is, so they spontaneously start up; holy thoughts from a gracious principle, and sinful thoughts from a corrupt one. Nay, those things that are the best and most effectual means for mortification, yet cannot keep down sinful thoughts: they will swarm and buzz about the soul, in praying, in hearing, in the most holy and spiritual duties that we can perform; and, when we should be wholly taken up in communion with God, the whole duty, it may be, is necessarily spent in fraying these away; and, when we should be intensely and exaltedly spiritual, all, that we can do, is but to keep our hearts from being long together sinful. It fares with us, as it fared with Abraham when sacrificing: Gen. xv. 11. the text tells us, when the fowls came down upon the carcases of the sacrifices, that Abram drove them away. These fowls are our sinful thoughts: they fly in the air, at random: we cannot hinder them from lighting; and, it may be, on our sacrifices too: all, that we can do, is to drive them away, that they may not devour, though they do and will pollute. The first rise of sinful thoughts, we cannot oppose; their continuance and abiding, we may: yea, we ought always to compose ourselves in such a frame, as that corruption may not occasionally be stirred in us; yet it is impossible, altogether to keep ourselves from the inward motions and estuations of it. (2) Sinful thoughts lie unespied and undiscerned by ourselves. How often do they steal away the heart insensibly, and carry very far unto sinful objects unawares! so that, when we reflect back to see the workings of our thoughts, we wonder many times how and where they crept in: we find them very busy, but when they got in, we know not; no, nor how long they have continued: unless we keep a strict guard and a narrow watch upon our hearts, these subtle and deceitful lusts will undermine us, and get within and possess us, ere we can take

it