Mortification of Sin in Believers - Chapter 3 Summary

Chapter 3

II. He only is sufficient for this work; all ways and means without him are as a thing of nought; and he is the great efficient of it, -- he works in us as he pleases.

1.In vain do men seek other remedies; they shall not be healed by them.

Now, the reasons why Papists can never, with all their endeavours, truly mortify any one sin, amongst others, are, --

1. 1.Because many of the ways and means they use and insist upon for this end were never appointed of God for that purpose.
2. 2.Because those things that are appointed of God as means are not used by them in their due place and order, -- such as are praying, fasting, watching, meditation, and the like.

2.It is, then, the work of the Spirit. For, --

1. 1.He is promised of God to be given unto us to do this work.
2. 2.We have all our mortification from the gift of Christ, and all the gifts of Christ are communicated to us and given us by the Spirit of Christ: "Without Christ we can do nothing," John 15:5.

The resolution of one or two questions will now lead me nearer to what I principally intend.

The first is, How doth the Spirit mortify sin? I answer, in general, three ways:--

1. By causing our hearts to abound in grace and the fruits that are contrary to the flesh, and the fruits thereof and principles of them. For, saith the apostle, "These are contrary one to another," verse 17; so that they cannot both be in the same subject, in any intense of high degree. This "renewing of us by the Holy Ghost," as it is called, Tit. 3:5, is one great way of mortification; he causes us to grow, thrive, flourish, and abound in those graces which are contrary, opposite, and destructive to all the fruits of the flesh, and to the quiet or thriving of indwelling sin itself.
2. By a real physical efficiency on the root and habit of sin, for the weakening, destroying, and taking it away. Hence he is called a "Spirit of judgement and burning," Isa. 4:4, really consuming and destroying our lusts. He takes away the stony heart by an almighty efficiency; for as he begins the work as to its kind, so he carries it on as to its degrees. He is the fire which burns up the very root of lust.
3. He brings the cross of Christ into the heart of a sinner by faith, and gives us communion with Christ in his death, and fellowship in his sufferings: of the manner whereof more afterward.

Secondly. If this be the work of the Spirit alone, how is it that we are exhorted to it? -- seeing the Spirit of God only can do it, let the work be left wholly to him.

1. [1.] It is no otherwise the work of the Spirit but as all graces and good works which are in us are his. He "works in us to will and to do of his own good pleasure," Phil. 2:13; he works "all our works in us," Isa. 26:12, -- "the work of faith with power," 2 Thess. 1:11, Col. 2:12; he causes us to pray, and is a "Spirit of supplication," Rom. 8:26, Zech. 12:10; and yet we are exhorted, and are to be exhorted, to all these.
2. [2.] He doth not so work our mortification in us as not to keep it still an act of our obedience.
   

The Holy Ghost works in us and upon us, as we are fit to be wrought in and upon; that is, so as to preserve our own liberty and free obedience. He works upon our understandings, wills, consciences, and affections, agreeably to their own natures; he works in us and with us, not against us or without us; so that his assistance is an encouragement as to the facilitating of the work, and no occasion of neglect as to the work itself.

This is the saddest warfare that any poor creature can be engaged in. A soul under the power of conviction from the law is pressed to fight against sin, but hath no strength for the combat.