CHAPTER IV: The trial of mortification by Positive signs
godly sorrow and hatred of it, and so boiled it in sour herbs; yet still to find sweetness in the remembrance of such an act, this argues much corruption. As the Apostle argues the sinfulness and strength of corrupt nature in him, that the law, which was holy and good, should stir up his lust whilst unregenerate; so may we, when the thought of a sin, which should stir up godly sorrow, should provoke and tickle corrupt nature again. Indeed, that the new scent of meat should have moved the Israelites would not have been so much, but that the remembrance of their flesh-pots should do it! That speech,
Rom. 8, where we are commanded to 'mortify the deeds of the flesh,' may admit, among other, this interpretation also, that not only the lusts, but even former deeds and acts committed, which may prove an occasion of sin to us, and have a fresh verdure in our eye, are to be mortified.
CHAPTER IV
Positive signs of growth in mortification, and God's purging of us.
2. AND so now I come to the second sort of signs—namely, positive signs of growth in mortification, and of God's purging of us.
(1.) First, the more insight a man hath into spiritual corruptions, together with a conflict against them, the more growth he hath attained unto in purging out corruptions; so as that now the chiefest of his conflict is come to be with spiritual lusts, not worldly lusts and
gross evils; it is an evidence of his progress in this work. These ordinarily are sure rules, that whilst a man's conflict is with more outward gross evils, as uncleanness, worldly-mindedness, &c., so long and so much he is kept from the sight of those inward, hidden, close corruptions, which sit nighest to the heart. As also, on the contrary, the more a man is freed from, and hath got victory over such more outward evils, the more his thoughts and intentions are bent inward to the discovery of the other more spiritual wickednesses. And the reason is, for these spiritual lusts, as pride, carnal confidence in a man's own graces, self-flattery, presumption, and the like, these corruptions lie, as I may so express it, more up in the heart of the country; but those other, of worldly lusts, he, as it were, in the frontiers and skirts of it: and therefore, until such time as a man hath in some good measure overcome those that encounter him at the borders, he comes not to have so through a discovery and constant conflict with those that lie higher up in the heart: 'Let us cleanse ourselves from all pollution, both of flesh and spirit,' says the Apostle, 2 Cor. 7:1, which implies that there are two sorts of corruptions, one of the flesh or body, the other of the spirit or soul: for so the opposition there is to be taken, for else all lusts are lusts of the flesh; that is, of corrupt nature. Again, such corruptions cause 'a blindness, that a man cannot see afar off,' as 2 Pet. 1:9. Whilst a scholar that learns a tongue hath not learned to escape all grosser faults in grammatical construction, he cannot be supposed to have come to know the elegancies of the tongue, nor see his errors therein; so nor do men come to be critics indeed, and cunningly skilful in the more curious errata of their hearts and spirits, till they have attained to such a degree of mortification as to be free from grosser evils. And indeed, those who are grown in grace have attained ordinarily some freedom from such sins; therefore, says John, 1 Epist. 2:14, 'You young men are strong, and have overcome that evil one:' they have attained so much strength as to overcome the grosser evils. So as, to allude to what the Apostle says in another case, they then come to conflict not so much with 'flesh and blood' and outward evils, as with 'spiritual wickednesses' within,—that is, with affections and dispositions contrary to the work of grace; and therein lies their
chiefest exercise, which is not till they have some freedom and victory over the other, and so are at leisure to view these.
(2.) Secondly, we may discern our victory over our lusts by our ability more or less to deny ourselves. The more we grow up to a readiness, willingness, and freeness, and cheerfulness of heart to deny ourselves when we are called and put upon doing of it, the more are lusts purged out; for the reason that our hearts consult so much with carnal ends in business, that we have so much ado with them ere we can bring them off to part with such and such things, as God and our own consciences do call us unto, is through want of purging. For all want of self-denial is from an adhesion to outward things. Were we free and unmarried men to the world, wore our hearts loosened from all, and were all the secret fibræ, those stings of lusts that shoot into things, cut, it would lie nothing to us to part with them: this was in that great Apostle, bow ready was he to lay down his life! 'My life is not dear to me, so I may fulfil my ministration with joy;' and so when the time of his departure was at hand, says he, 'I am ready to be offered,' 2 Tim. 4:6. He speaks it in the present tense, σπένδομαι, 'I am offered;' it was done in his heart already. As in like phrase of speech it is said, Heb. 11:17, that 'Abraham offered up his son,' because in his heart he fully purposed it. When men must be forced by terrors of conscience, as Pharaoh with plagues, to let their credits or estates go by restitution, or for God and good uses, &c., it is a sign of want of purging. The more loosened a man is from the world and the things of it, the more prepared that man is for all works of selfdenial, and the more purged. So when a man parts with all without sticking or higgling, as Abraham is said to 'believe without staggering,' it is a sign he hath attained to a good degree, even as that argued a strong faith, Rom. 4:20. When a man hath an open and a large heart to God, as a liberal man hath an open hand to men, as Abraham had when he was willing to let God have his only son, it was a sign he was much weaned; when God can command anything thou hast at an hour's warning, as we say. Abraham stood not long deliberating, Shall I, shall I? but went 'early in the morning,' even the next morning, God having called for his son that very night, as it is
likely by that in the 22d of Genesis, ver. 3; for the night was the time when God used to reveal himself by visions; and the next morning he went forth early.
(3.) Thirdly, the more constancy there is in our hearts and ways, the more even, stable in well-doing, and the more lasting, durable frame and temper for holiness we find our hearts to abide in, the more we are purged; for in that we find such sudden flowings and re-flowings in our hearts, that when a corruption seems to be at a low ebb, and our hearts in a good frame, within an hour or so a mighty tide comes in, and we find our hearts over-flown with a sea of filth, such sudden alterations from the better to the worse do come from those vast seas of corruptions that are still within us, that tumble and float up and down in our hearts. So the Apostle intimates, 'Purge your hearts, ye double-minded.' That their hearts are of so unequal a temper, sometimes in hot fits, sometimes in cold, and so suddenly altered, this cannot be but from much corruption. This double-mindedness comes from want of purging. The Galatians were surely very weak and foolish, as he tells them, when they were so soon transported. He marvels not so much that they were removed, as that so soon, οὕτω ταχέως, so suddenly, Gal. 1:6, and brings it in as an evidence of their weakness, that they who would have 'given him their eyes' should now so much be altered and carried away; so much mortifiedness, so much constancy. Therefore, in the 5th of Galatians, ver. 24, 25, when in the 24th verse he had said, 'Those that are Christ's have crucified the affections with the lusts,' he adds in the 25th verse, 'If we live in the spirit, let us walk in the spirit:' the word imports a being constant in the spirit. Then when lusts are crucified, then the Holy Spirit will rule us in our ways, and a holy frame of heart will be discovered, in a constant tract of holiness; we shall walk in the spirit, keep ourselves long in a spiritual frame and course, and not be biased aside; that we step out so much, is from strong lusts unmortified.
(4.) Fourthly, the more a man comes to a spiritual taste of the spiritual word, and that which is most spiritual therein, the more it is a sign that corruption is purged out. When a man comes to his
stomach, it is a sign he is growing out of a sickness, and that the humours are much purged out. So, 1 Pet. 2:1, 'Laying aside all malice,' &c., 'as babes desire the word, that ye may grow thereby: if so be ye have tasted.' Therefore the more corruption is laid aside, the more we taste the word, and God in it; the more we taste, the more we desire it; the more we desire it, the more we grow.
(5.) Fifthly, when we are ashamed of former carriages and ways, as seeing and discerning those weaknesses we saw not before, as scholars use to be of their exercises a year or two after; so if we be ashamed of former prayers, hearings, &c., as that great proficient discerned in himself, who, looking back upon his first days of conversion, says, 'When I was a child, I speaks as a child:' he speaks it, applying it to his growth of grace.
(6.) Sixthly, when in ordinary times of temptation a man finds a lust not so violent and raging as it was wont, but more impotent and weak. Look to your fits of sinning whether they become greater or less, for then a man's strength or weakness is discerned most; as the bodily strength is, when a man either goes about to put himself forth, or is assaulted and set upon. Many that are sick, whilst they he still in their beds think they have a great deal of strength, but when they attempt to rise and walk they sink down again. As a man's weakness to good is discerned when he comes to do and to act it,—Rom. 7, 'to do I am not able,'—so a man's weakness to sin, or strength against it, is then also best discerned. The weakness or strength of a kingdom is best seen and discerned in time of war, when all forces are mustered up. Now, God sometimes appoints some more frequent assaults, and on purpose suffers 'the law in the members to war,' and to muster up all their force, that, as it is said of Hezekiah, a man 'might know what is in his heart.' Now, if then a man finds that the motions of sin in his heart do every temptation after other meet a hotter encounter than they had wont; that the resistance against sin grows quicker and stronger; that sin cannot advance and carry on his army so far as formerly, but is still encountered and met withal at the frontiers, and there overthrown even at the first Betting out, so as it cannot carry it
through the camp, (as Zimri did his mistress Cozbi,) as sometimes it had wont, whenas grace stood at the tent door, as Moses, weeping, yet unable to resist it; and although assaults and temptations do continue, that yet there is ground kept and won upon the encroachments of a lust, insomuch that at least the outward forts are kept by grace,—that is, outward acts are abstained from: now so far as the lust is not fulfilled as it had wont to be, and not only so, but the inroads of it are confined and contracted also to a narrower compass, and to have a lesser ground and space in regard of inward acts; also so far it is purged more forth. As, for instance, be it a lust of fancy, when it cannot boil up to such gross fancies as it had wont; be it a lust of pride, or uncleanness, or grosser acts, when it falls from bringing forth fruit, to bring forth but blossoms, but inward burnings, and from blossoms only to bring forth leaves, it is a sign then it is withering more and more. When the intention of mind in the temptation, which is as the fire that makes it to boil, grows less and less; when the inordinate thirst is not so great in the time of the fit; when the inward acts are grown in their requests more modest, the lustings themselves pitch upon lower and inferior acts than they had wont; when their armies depart with lesser spoil, are content with than, whenas before they flew at the first onset to the highest kinds of villanies and outrages; when thus the overflowings of a man's lusts do abate and fall short, the tides lessen, overflow less ground, overspread less every day than another, this is another probable sign of a growth herein.
(7.) Seventhly, the more ability to abstain from occasions and opportunities of satisfying a man's lusts; as Job, a man much mortified, 'made a covenant with his eyes not to behold a maid,' and kept to it, chap. 31:1. When a man hates the 'very garment spotted with the flesh;' it is a sign of a strong hatred, when a man cannot endure to come where one he loves not is, cannot endure the sight of him, anything that may put him in mind of him, not so much as to parley or to speak with him.
(8.) Eighthly, when our hearts do not linger after such objects as may satisfy our lusts when absent, but when out of sight they are out of mind; this is a good degree of mortification. We may find it in ourselves, that when objects are not presented, that yet there id in our hearts oftentimes a lingering after them, and this from themselves, without any outward provocation; that is far worse.
Many a man, when he sees meat, finds he hath a stomach to it, which he thought not till it was set before him; but when a man longs after meat he sees not, it is a sign he is very hungry. As we see against rainy weather, before the rain begins to fall, the stones will give, as we use to say, and grow dank; so a man that observes his heart may find, before objects are presented, or actual thoughts arise, a giving of his heart to such and such a lust, an inclination, a darkness, a moistness, a sympathising with such an object,—that is a sign of unmortifiedness. David was 'as a weaned child,' he had no thoughts of the dug, no longings after it; I have 'no high thoughts' after the kingdom, says he, Ps. 131. A child that begins to be weaned, it may be, at first cries after the dug, though he sees it not; but afterwards, though it may be when he sees it he cried after it, yet not when absent. Objects present have a far greater force to draw, when absent less; therefore this is a further degree of mortification attainable. It was in Joseph, when his mistress tempted him from day to day; opportunity was ready, the object present, but he denied her. So in Boaz, a woman lay at his feet all night. So in David, when he had Saul in his lurch, might as easily have cut off his head as the lap of his garment; and was egged on to do it, but he was then weaned indeed, and did it not. When a man can look upon beauty and preferment, and truly say, They are no temptations to me. It is a sign of an unsound temper, when upon eating such or such meats, a man is presently put into the fit of an ague; a healthful man is not so. The prophet calls them 'the stumblingblock of then iniquity.' When a man is going on his way, and though he did not seek occasions of falling, yet meeting with them, he cannot step over them, but is caught, and stumbleth, and falls, it is a sign of unmortifiedness.