own, that the punishment of it should not be thine own also? Is it reason, that the sin should be peculiarly thine, and yet the punishment of it Christ's? No; Christ never came into the world to take off the guilt of that sin by justification, from which he doth not in some measure take off the bent and propension of the heart by sanctification. And,

4thly. Consider: if you are saints, you yourselves are not your own and shall any sin then be your peculiar sin ?

1 Cor. vi. 19, 20. Ye are not your own: but ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your bodies, and in your spirits, which are God's. And shall we ourselves be God's, and yet any sin be ours? What is this less, than, by a kind of practical blasphemy, to make our sins God's also? Such-like considerations as these, should be continually present with us, when we go forth against our proper sins. It is not ordinary endeavours, that will suffice to mortify these: they are so rooted in and interwoven with the very principles of our nature, that they are the very last sins, which will quit their hold; and that, not without much difficulty and hardship.

Thus I have done with the First Branch of this Direction: To take notice of those sins, which have the greatest advantage and prevalency against us, which are customary and peculiar sins and I have given you some particulars, to help you in the mortifying of them.

2. The other branch of this direction is, to be continually pondering and weighing the Ground and Cause of the quarrel.

This will exceedingly animate your utmost endeavours unto mortification. It is the cause, which enspirits soldiers: tell them, that they are to fight for estates, liberties, and lives; that whatever is dear to them is laid at stake, and pawned upon their valour; this will sharpen their courage, yea and their swords too, and make every stroke laid on by such considerations fatal as death. What can be more effectually pressed upon the spiritual soldier, to heighten and inflame his courage? tell him but the cause he engageth for, and he must be either very much a coward, or else very treacherous against his own soul, that doth not resolve to stand it out to the utmost. It is for an everlasting kingdom, a crown of glory, a precious and immortal soul; for eternal life, for God himself, you are to fight: and will you sit still, and see all these lost and taken from you? There is not a corruption or temptation that assaults you, but seeks to deprive you of heaven and happiness, and would spill the dearest blood

of your souls. A Christian's all, his nearest soul, his dearest God, the rich and unconceivable glory promised him, the few precious graces bestowed on him to bear his charges till he hath attained it, are all here staked down: this is the prize you are to contend for: if you can suffer all these to be taken from you, and think them not worth the striving for, you are beyond the reach of a provocation. Let the Devil and your own lusts come armed against you, with all the strength and rage of hell; yet, if you can but then keep up lively and distinct considerations of the vast and important concernment which depends upon the issue of the conflict, it is impossible that they should ever prevail upon you to the commission of any deliberate sin. Whenever, therefore, you are tempted, and find unmortified corruption very violent, think seriously with yourselves, what it is that you are solicited to do: is it not to provoke your God, to betray yourselves? is it not, to defile, nay to destroy your souls?"Now, sin and Satan are very earnest to have me run myself into perdition: fain they would persuade me to forfeit heaven, and plunge myself deep into hell: they entice, they impel, they swell and tumultuate; but, if I yield, what becomes of all my hopes, of my crown of happiness, and of my own soul? It is happiness, which is the quarrel and shall that be less dear to me, than my destruction is to Satan? Hath he cause to be so active and violent for my ruin, and have I no cause to be industrious and vigilant for my salvation? Shall I sell away all the great and glorious things of eternity, at the cheap and low price of a momentary sin?" Do but actually ponder and weigh these considerations, when a corruption moves and acts in you; set them before you; say them to yourselves, and run them over in your thoughts; and let me be bold to say, Sin then, if you can.

(1) There are Two considerations especially, which will be of mighty influence to the suppressing of a corruption while it is tempting and stirring, and are the most available helps to mortification of all other.

[1] A serious consideration of the great Guilt, that sin will bring upon us.

It must be the very first work of that Christian, who will successfully attempt the work of mortification, to charge a prevailing lust home with the full guilt of it. I confess it is a ghastly sight, a spectacle full of dread and horror, to view sin in its proper colours: but it is far better for thee to look sin in the face,

when it tempts; than for sin to stare thy conscience in the face, when it terrifies.

Carry always about you those two glasses, both of the Law and Gospel, which may represent sin aright to you.

When a glossing, flattering temptation shews it fair and beautiful, look upon your sin see whether it can hold up its face against the Law, when the sovereignty, holiness, severity, and piercing power and energy of it come all in against it. By the Law, says the Apostle, is the knowledge of sin: Rom. iii. 20. Awe thy conscience with the authority of God, stamped and imprinted upon his Law. "Hath God, the Great Sovereign, forbidden this by a Law, and shall not I strive against it? Not to fight against this sin, were to be found a fighter against God." Provoke thyself against it, from the holiness of God, revealed in his Law? "Shall I commit that, which, for its deformity and ugliness, a Holy God hath forbidden in a Holy Law?" The Law hath in it, First: Such a bright and clear light, that sin cannot escape the discovery of it: it will make every spot in the soul visible; and those sins, which, through those false lights that Satan sets up, appear comely and well featured, when the light of the Law shines into the conscience will then appear but one great misshapen blot. And, Secondly: It hath in it such an absolute command and authority, that sin cannot resist nor escape the power of it. It comes into the conscience in the name of God: and makes as great a trembling in the heart, when set home in the condemning power of it; as it did in the Israelites, when delivered in that dreadful pomp from Mount Sinai. Is this holy, close, searching, authoritative Law to be broken, think you, at the will and pleasure of every temptation? Must we in every passion, with Moses, at every corrupt motion and sinful inclination, break these two tables in pieces? Nay, indeed, is it possible, that, while in a temptation you are applying the Law, you should then break it? No, certainly that man is near to a most desperate hardness, who, while he is looking upon the holiness, authority, and divinity of the Law, while he is letting in the convincing light of it to discover the guilt of sin unto him, while he is discharging the dreadful threatenings of it against his sin, yet can then commit it; I say, he is near unto a final, judicial hardness.

When you have now awhile contemplated the face of sin in the Law, remove it to the Gospel. If the Law break the heart with terror, the Gospel will melt it with love. "What! to sin

not only against the authority of a God, but also against the love of a father; that parent love, from which proceeds all the good I enjoy or expect; that pardoning love, justifying, adopting, and saving love! Can I spurn against those bowels, that yearn and roll towards me? Can I sin against that grace and mercy, which, should I sin against them, would yet still tender me a pardon? Can I be prodigal and lavishing of that blood, of which Christ was so free himself? Shall I despise it or trample it under foot, because it flows in so full a stream? Shall I quench and sadden the Holy Comforter; and return him grief, for all the ravishing consolations I have been filled with from him? Is this the filial disposition, the child-like ingenuity of a son, of a saint?" These, O Christian, are considerations, which must needs silence the most importunate corruptions and temptations, that they shall have nothing more to mutter. It is the Gospel, by which alone the guilt of sin is taken away, that doth thus aggravate that guilt to such an excess, as proves a security from the committing of it. Tell me: did you ever know a temptation prevail over you, did you ever commit a sin in your whole lives, while such considerations as these were fresh and vigorous upon your hearts? Nay, I know it is impossible; the grace of God teacheth us otherwise; yea, it not only teacheth us, but enforceth and constraineth us otherwise. A temptation must first thrust these considerations out of the heart, ere it can prevail.

This, therefore, is the first means of beating down a corrup, tion, by the consideration of its Guilt, comparing it both with the Law and the Gospel. What better weapon can we have to fight with against corruption, than the sword of the Spirit; which, Eph. vi. 17. the Apostle tells us, is the word of God? and, Heb. iv. 12. he tells us, this word is a two-edged sword: the Law is one edge, and the Gospel another; and both these are powerful, sharp, and piercing, to the suppressing and mortifying of corruption, going to the very inwards and heart thereof.

[2] Another thing, that hath great influence to the mortifying of sin, is, a serious consideration of the great danger, which it will bring us into.

1st. It were sad and dreadful, and enough to cause a trembling in us, if I should only mention unto you the danger of an Enraged and Distracted Conscience, which God may let loose

upon you in all its horrors and affrights, when you let loose yourselves unto the commission of any known sin.

2dly. The danger, if not of an enraged conscience, yet of a Seared Conscience, which is worse: the danger of a judiciary curse and tradition, to be delivered up unto and sealed unto sin; that neither reproofs, nor convictions, nor judgments, nor mercies should ever more take hold, or make any impression upon you.

If I should name no more, were not here enough to stop the course of a prevailing lust? If yet you have any tenderness left in your hearts; any sense remaining in your consciences, together with their peace; would you rather hazard the loss of these, than not gratify a corruption? Say to it, "What sin is there, which can bring me in so much delight in the commission of it, as God may pour in terrors afterwards? May not God make my conscience a hell incarnate; and empty the vials of his wrath into this vessel, whilst it is yet an earthly vessel ? And shall I ever let a hell break into my soul, by letting a lust break forth?" Urge against a temptation that irrefragable argument, which all the methods and sophisms of the Old Serpent shall never be able to dissolve to all eternity: "If I yield, either my conscience will be sensible of the sin, or not: if it be sensible, what is there in the sin, that can recompense this trouble of conscience? if it be not sensible, what is there in this sin, that can recompense the stupidity and deadness of conscience?" Still, either way, the danger is so great, that the Devil hath scarce impudence enough importunately to urge a temptation upon that soul, which shall urge this consideration upon itself.

3dly. But, besides these, there is another danger; and that, indeed, which swallows up all the rest: and that is the danger of Eternal Damnation. I have before shewed you how such a legal consideration as this is, may be, and is a fit means for mortification. Now bring and marshal even this against your lusts. Think you, that a temptation can outface hell itself, and dare everlasting burnings? can it stand before a torrent of fire and brimstone? No, certainly this is the hardness and obdurateness of those only, who feel hell's torments, not to be deterred from sin for fear of them. Now rise up mightily against thy lusts, even from this consideration: shew them what they deserve, no less than damnation; from which, if any, who