Mortification of sin, the second part of sanctification — Frequently prescribed and enjoined as a duty — What the name signifies, with the reason thereof; as also that of crucifying sin — The nature of the mortification of sin explained — Indwelling sin, in its principle, operations, and effects, the object of mortification — Contrariety between sin and grace — Mortification a part-taking with the whole interest of grace against sin — How sin is mortified, and why the subduing of it is so called — Directions for the right discharge of this duty — Nature of it unknown to many — The Holy Spirit the author and cause of mortification in us — The manner of the operation of the Spirit in the mortification of sin — Particular means of the mortification of sin — Duties necessary unto the mortification of sin, directed unto by the Holy Ghost — Mistakes and errors of persons failing in this matter — How spiritual duties are to be managed, that sin may be mortified — Influence of the virtue of the death of Christ, as applied by the Holy Spirit, into the mortification of sin.
2. There is yet another part or effect of our sanctification by the Holy Ghost, which consisteth in and is called mortification of sin. As what we have already insisted on concerneth the improvement and practice of the principle of grace, wherewithal believers are endued; so what we now propose concerneth the weakening, impairing, and destroying of the contrary principle of sin, in its root and fruits, in its principle and actings. And whereas the Spirit of God is everywhere said to sanctify us, we ourselves are commanded and said constantly to mortify our sins: for sanctification expresseth grace communicated and received in general; mortification, grace as so received, improved, and acted unto a certain end. And I shall be brief in the handling of it, because I have formerly published a small discourse on the same subject.1 And there are two things that I shall speak unto:— First, The nature of the duty itself; Secondly, The manner how it is wrought in us by the Holy Ghost, which I principally intend.
It is known that this duty is frequently enjoined and prescribed unto us: Col. iii. 5, “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry.” Ἐν τῷ φεύγειν, may be supplied. “‘Mortify your members which are upon the earth,’ — that is, your carnal, earthly affections; avoiding (or ‘by avoiding’) ‘fornication,’” etc.: and so a distinction is made between carnal affections and their fruits. Or, the special sins mentioned are instances of these carnal affections: “Mortify your carnal affections,” — namely, fornication and the like; wherein there is a metonymy of the effect for the cause. And they are called “our members,” — (1.) Because, as the whole principle of sin, and course of sinning which proceedeth from it, is called the “body of sin,” Rom. vi. 6, or the “body of the sins of the flesh,” Col. ii. 11, with respect thereunto these particular lusts are here called the members of that body, “Mortify your members;” for that he intends not the parts or members of our natural bodies, as though they were to be destroyed, as they seem to imagine who place mortification in outward afflictions and macerations of the body, he adds, τὰ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, “that are on the earth,” — that is, earthly, carnal, and sensual. (2.) These affections and lusts, the old man, — that is, our depraved nature, — useth naturally and readily, as the body doth its members; and, which adds efficacy unto the allusion, by them it draws the very members of the body into a compliance with it and the service of it, against which we are cautioned by our apostle: Rom. vi. 12, “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies” (that is, our natural bodies), “that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof;” — which exhortation he pursues, verse 19, “As ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness;” which some neglecting, do take “the members of Christ,” — that is, of their own bodies, which are the members of Christ, — and make them the “members of an harlot,” 1 Cor. vi. 15. And many other commands there are to the same purpose, which will afterward occur.
And concerning this great duty we may consider three things:— (1.) The name of it, whereby it is expressed; (2.) The nature of it, wherein it consists; (3.) The means and way whereby it is effected and wrought.
(1.) For the name, it is two ways expressed, and both of them metaphorical:— [1.] By νεκροῦν and θανατοῦν, which we render “to mortify ourselves.” The first is used, Col. iii. 5, νεκρώσατε, which is “mortify,” — that is, extinguish and destroy all that force and vigour of corrupted nature which inclines to earthly, carnal things, opposite unto that spiritual, heavenly life and its actings which we have in and from Christ, as was before declared. Νεκρόω is eneco, morte macto, — “to kill,” “to affect with or destroy by death.” But yet this word is used by our apostle not absolutely to destroy and to kill, so as that that which is so mortified or killed should no more have any being, but that it should be rendered useless as unto what its strength and vigour would produce. So he expresseth the effects of it in the passive word, Οὐ κατενόησε τὸ ἑαυτοῦ σῶμα ἤδη νεκερωμένον, Rom. iv. 19; — “He considered not his own body now dead,” “now mortified.” The body of Abraham was not then absolutely dead, only the natural force and vigour of it was exceedingly abated. And so he seems to mollify this expression, Heb. xi. 12, Ἀφ’ ἑνὸς ἐγεννήθησαν, καὶ ταῦτα νενεκρωμένου, which we well render, “Of one, and him as good as dead,” ταῦτα intimating a respect unto the thing treated of. So that νεκροῦν, “to mortify,” signifies a continued act, in taking away the power and force of any thing until it come to be νενεκρωμένον, “dead,” unto some certain ends or purposes, as we shall see it is in the mortification of sin. Rom. viii. 13, “If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live,” — θανατοῦτε, another word to the same purpose. It signifies, as the other doth, “to put to death;” but it is used in the present tense, to denote that it is a work which must be always doing: “If ye do mortify,” — that is, “If ye are always and constantly employed in that work.” And what the apostle here calls τὰς πράξεις τοῦ σώματος, “the deeds of the body,” he therein expresseth the effect for the cause metonymically; for he intends τὴν σάρκα σὺν τοῖς παθήμασι καὶ ταῖς ἐπιθυμίαις, as he expresseth the same thing, Gal. v. 24, “The flesh with the affections and lusts,” whence all the corrupt deeds wherein the body is instrumental do arise.