Chapter 3. The Spirit the Only Author of Mortification

The second general principle of the means of mortification proposed to confirmation. The Spirit the only author of this work. Vanity of Popish mortification discovered. Many means of it used by them not appointed of God. Those appointed by him abused. The mistakes of others in this business. The Spirit is promised believers for this work (Ezekiel 11:19; chapter 36:26). All that we receive from Christ is by the Spirit. How the Spirit mortifies sin (Galatians 5:19-23). The several ways of his operations to this end proposed. How his work, and our duty.

The next principle relates to the great sovereign cause of the mortification treated of, which, in the words laid for the foundation of this discourse, is said to be the Spirit, that is, the Holy Ghost, as was evidenced.

He only is sufficient for this work. All ways and means without him are as a thing of nothing; 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. What several ways have been prescribed for this, to have sin mortified, is known. The greatest part of Popish religion, of that which looks most like religion in their profession, consists in mistaken ways and means of mortification. This is the pretense of their rough garments, whereby they deceive. Their vows, orders, fastings, penances, are all built on this ground, they are all for the mortifying of sin. Their preachings, sermons, and books of devotion, they look all this way. Hence those who interpret the locusts that came out of the bottomless pit (Revelation 9:2) to be the friars of the Romish Church, who are said to torment men, so that they should seek death and not find it (verse 6), think, that they did it by their stinging sermons, whereby they convinced them of sin, but being not able to discover the remedy for the healing and mortifying of it, they kept them in perpetual anguish and terror, and such trouble in their consciences, that they desired to die. This I say is the substance and glory of their religion: but what with their laboring to mortify dead creatures, ignorant of the nature and end of the work, what with the poison they mixed with it, in their persuasion of its merit, their glory is their shame; but of them and their mortification, more afterwards.

That the ways and means to be used for the mortification of sin, invented by them, are still insisted on and prescribed for the same end by some, who should have more light and knowledge of the Gospel, is known. Such directions to this purpose have of late been given by some, and are greedily caught at by others professing themselves Protestants, as might have become Popish devotionists three or four hundred years ago. Such outside endeavors, such bodily exercises, such self-performances, such merely legal duties, without the least mention of Christ, or his Spirit, are varnished over with swelling words of vanity, for the only means and expedients for the mortification of sin, as discover a deep-rooted unacquaintedness with the power of God, and mystery of the Gospel. The consideration hereof, was one motive to the publishing of this plain discourse.

Now the reasons why the Papists can never with all their endeavors truly mortify any one sin, among others, are:

1. Because many of the ways and means they use and insist upon for this end, were never appointed of God for that purpose. Now there is nothing in religion that has any efficacy for accomplishing an end, but it has it from God's appointment of it to that purpose. Such as these are, their rough garments, their vows, penances, disciplines, their course of monastic life, and the like, concerning all which God will say, Who has required these things at your hands? and In vain do you worship me, teaching for doctrines the traditions of men. Of the same nature are sundry self-vexations, insisted on by others.

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; these have their use in the business in hand. But whereas they are all to be looked on as streams, they look on them as the fountain. Whereas they effect and accomplish the end as means only subordinate to the Spirit and faith, they look on them to do it by virtue of the work wrought. If they fast so much, and pray so much, and keep their hours and times, the work is done: as the Apostle says of some in another case, they are always learning, never coming to the knowledge of the truth; so they are always mortifying, but never come to any sound mortification. In a word, they have sundry means to mortify the natural man, as to the natural life here we lead, none to mortify lust or corruption.

This is the general mistake of men ignorant of the Gospel, about this thing; and it lies at the bottom of very much of that superstition and will-worship that has been brought into the world; what horrible self-macerations were practiced by some of the ancient authors of monastic devotion? What violence did they offer to nature? What extremity of sufferings did they put themselves upon? Search their ways and principles to the bottom, and you will find, that it had no other root but this mistake, namely, that attempting rigid mortification, they fell upon the natural man, instead of the corrupt old man; upon the body wherein we live, instead of the body of death.

Neither will the natural popery that is in others do it. Men are galled with the guilt of a sin, that has prevailed over them: they instantly promise to themselves and God, that they will do so no more; they watch over themselves, and pray, for a season, until this heat waxes cold, and the sense of sin is worn off, and so mortification goes also, and sin returns to its former dominion. Duties are excellent food for a healthy soul; they are no physic for a sick soul. He that turns his meat into his medicine, must expect no great operation. Spiritually sick men cannot sweat out their distemper with working. But this is the way of men that deceive their own souls; as we shall see afterwards.

That none of these ways are sufficient, is evident from the nature of the work itself that is to be done; it is a work that requires so many concurrent actings in it, as no self-endeavor can reach unto; and is of that kind, that an almighty energy is necessary for its accomplishment, as shall be afterwards manifested.

It is then the work of the Spirit.

1. He is promised of God to be given unto us, to do this work; the taking away of the stony heart, that is, the stubborn, proud, rebellious, unbelieving heart, is in general the work of mortification that we treat of. Now this is still promised to be done by the Spirit: Ezekiel 11:19; chapter 36:26. I will give my Spirit, and take away the stony heart: and by the Spirit of God is this work wrought, when all means fail (Isaiah 57:17, 18).

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). All communications of supplies and relief in the beginnings, increasings, actings of any grace whatever from him, are by the Spirit, by whom he alone works in and upon believers. From him we have our mortification: he is exalted and made a Prince and a Savior, to give repentance unto us (Acts 5:31); and of our repentance our mortification is no small portion. How does he do it? having received the promise of the Holy Spirit, he sends him abroad for that end (Acts 2:33).

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

The first is:

Question: How does 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 principles of them. So the Apostle opposes the fruits of the flesh, and of the Spirit: The fruits of the flesh (says he) are so and so (Galatians 5:19, 20), but the fruits of the Spirit are quite contrary, quite of another sort (verses 22, 23). Those that are Christ's have crucified the flesh, with the affections and lusts — but how? By living in the Spirit, and walking after the Spirit (verse 25): that is, by the abounding of these graces of the Spirit in us, and walking according to them. For these are contrary one to another (verse 17), so that they cannot both be in the same subject, in any intense or high degree. This renewing of us by the Holy Spirit (Titus 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 judgment and burning (Isaiah 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 afterwards.

Question: 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.

Answer: 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 (Philippians 2:13). He works all our works in us (Isaiah 26:12); the work of faith with power (2 Thessalonians 1:11; Colossians 2:12). He causes us to pray, and is a Spirit of supplication (Romans 8:26; Zechariah 12:10); and yet we are exhorted, and are to be exhorted to all these.

2. He does not so work our mortification in us, as not to keep it still an act of our obedience. The Holy Spirit 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. And indeed I might here lament the endless foolish labor of poor souls, who being convinced of sin, and not able to stand against the power of their convictions, do set themselves by innumerable perplexing ways and duties to keep down sin, but being strangers to the Spirit of God, all in vain. They combat without victory, have war without peace, and are in slavery all their days. They spend their strength for that which is not bread, and their labor for that which profits not.

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 has no strength for the combat. They cannot but fight, and they can never conquer, they are like men thrust on the sword of enemies, on purpose to be slain. The law drives them on, and sin beats them back. Sometimes they think indeed that they have foiled sin; when they have only raised a dust, that they see it not; that is, they distemper their natural affections of fear, sorrow, and anguish, which makes them believe that sin is conquered, when it is not touched. By that time they are cold, they must to the battle again; and the lust which they thought to be slain, appears to have had no wound.

And if the case be so sad with them who do labor and strive, and yet enter not into the kingdom; what is their condition who despise all this? Who are perpetually under the power and dominion of sin, and love to have it so: and are troubled at nothing but that they cannot make sufficient provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof.

The principal assertion about the necessity of mortification is proposed for confirmation. Mortification is the duty of the best believers (Colossians 3:5; 1 Corinthians 9:27). Indwelling sin always remains; there is no perfection in this life (Philippians 3:12; 1 Corinthians 13:12; 2 Peter 3:18; Galatians 5:17; etc.). The activity of indwelling sin in believers (Romans 7:23; James 4:5; Hebrews 12:1) is examined. Its fruitfulness and tendency are considered. Every lust aims at the fullest expression of its kind. The Spirit and the new nature are given to contend against indwelling sin (Galatians 5:17; 2 Peter 1:4-5; Romans 7:23). The fearful outcome of neglecting mortification (Revelation 3:2; Hebrews 3:13) is considered. The first general principle of this entire discourse is confirmed from these truths. Grief over the lack of this duty is expressed.

Having laid this foundation, a brief confirmation of the principal conclusions stated above will lead me into what I chiefly intend. The first is:

The choicest believers — those who are certainly freed from the condemning power of sin — ought still to make the mortification of sin's indwelling power the work of all their days.

So the apostle writes (Colossians 3:5): 'Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth.' Who is he speaking to? Those who were risen with Christ (verse 1), those who were dead with Him (verse 3), those whose life Christ was, and who would appear with Him in glory (verse 4). Keep mortifying; make it your daily work; be always at it while you live; do not cease from this work for a single day. Be killing sin, or it will be killing you. Being virtually dead with Christ, being quickened with Him, does not excuse you from this work. Our Savior also tells us how His Father deals with every branch in Him that bears fruit — every true and living branch: He prunes it, so that it may bear more fruit (John 15:2). He prunes it not for a day or two, but throughout its entire life in this world. The apostle also tells us what his own practice was (1 Corinthians 9:27): 'I discipline my body and make it my slave.' He did it daily; it was the work of his life; he never omitted it; it was his business. If this was the work and business of Paul — who was so incomparably advanced in grace, light, revelations, spiritual experiences, privileges, and consolations beyond the ordinary measure of believers — where in this world can any of us possibly find an exemption from this work and duty? A brief account of the reasons for this may be given.

1. Indwelling sin always remains while we are in this world; therefore it must always be mortified. The foolish and ignorant disputes of people about perfectly keeping God's commands, about achieving perfection in this life, about being entirely and completely dead to sin — I will not address them here. It is more than likely that those who hold such views have never understood what it means to keep even one of God's commands. They fall so far short of a perfection of degrees that they have never even attained a perfection of parts — that is, universal obedience in sincerity. Hence, many in our day who have spoken of perfection have been 'wiser' in their own way, claiming it consists in knowing no difference between good and evil. Not that they are perfect in what we call good, but that everything is the same to them — and the height of wickedness is their perfection. Others have found a new path to it by denying original indwelling sin and softening the spirituality of God's law to suit carnal hearts. In doing so, they have shown themselves to be ignorant of the life of Christ and of His power in believers, and they have invented a new kind of righteousness the Gospel does not know — inflated by their fleshly minds. As for us, who dare not be wiser than what is written or boast through others' experiences of what God has not done for us, we say that indwelling sin lives in us to some measure and degree while we are in this world. We dare not speak as though we had already attained or were already perfect (Philippians 3:12). Our inner person is being renewed day by day as long as we live here (2 Corinthians 4:16), and the renewal of the new corresponds to the decay of the old. While we are here, we know only in part (1 Corinthians 13:12), with a remaining darkness that is to be gradually removed by our growth in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:18). The flesh desires against the Spirit so that we cannot do the things we want to (Galatians 5:17), and we are therefore defective in obedience as well as in understanding (1 John 1:8). We carry a body of death (Romans 7:24) from which we are not delivered until the death of these bodies (Philippians 3:21). Since our duty is to mortify — to be killing sin — while sin remains in us, we must be at work. The man assigned to kill an enemy who stops fighting before the enemy stops living has only done half his work (Galatians 6:9; Hebrews 12:1; 2 Corinthians 7:1).

2. Sin does not only remain in us — it is always active, always laboring to bring forth the deeds of the flesh. When sin leaves us alone, we may leave sin alone. But sin is never less active than when it appears most quiet. Its waters run deepest when they are still. Our efforts against it must match that — vigorous at all times and in all conditions, especially where there is least suspicion. Sin does not only remain in us; the law of the members is always rebelling against the law of the mind (Romans 7:23), and the spirit that dwells in us desires intensely (James 4:5). It is always at work: the flesh desires against the Spirit (Galatians 5:17). Lust is always tempting and conceiving sin (James 1:14). In every moral action, it is always either inclining toward evil, hindering from good, or unsettling the spirit from communion with God. It inclines toward evil: 'The evil that I would not, that I do,' says the apostle (Romans 7:19) — because in him, that is, in his flesh, nothing good dwells. It also hinders from good: 'The good that I would do, that I do not' (verse 19) — on the same account, either I do not do it at all, or not as I should; all my holy deeds being defiled by this sin. The flesh desires against the Spirit so that we cannot do what we would (Galatians 5:17), and it unsettles our spirit. This is why it is called 'the sin which so easily entangles us' (Hebrews 12:1), and this is the source of the apostle's bitter complaints about it (Romans 7). So sin is always acting, always conceiving, always seducing and tempting. Who can say that he ever had any dealings with God or did anything for God, in which indwelling sin did not have a hand in corrupting what he did? Sin will carry on this work more or less all our days. If sin is always acting, and we are not always mortifying it, we are lost. A man who stands still and lets his enemy rain down blows on him without resistance will certainly be defeated in the end. If sin is subtle, watchful, strong, and always at work trying to kill our souls, and we are lazy, negligent, and careless in pursuing its ruin — what outcome can we expect? Not a day passes but sin either soils us or is overcome; either it prevails or is prevailed against. And so it will be as long as we live in this world. I would release a man from this duty only if he could bring sin to a truce — a complete ceasefire. If sin will spare him for a single day, in a single duty (provided he is someone who understands the spirituality of obedience and the subtlety of sin), let him say to his soul: 'Rest now.' The saints, whose souls long for deliverance from sin's troubling rebellion, know there is no safety from it except in constant warfare.

3. Sin will not only strive, act, rebel, trouble, and disturb — if left alone and not continually mortified, it will produce great, wicked, scandalous, soul-destroying sins. The apostle tells us what its works and fruits are (Galatians 5:19-21): 'The works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these.' You know what it did in David and many others. Sin always aims at the utmost. Every time it rises to tempt or entice, if it could have its own way, it would go out to the most extreme expression of that sin. Every impure thought or glance would become adultery if it could. Every covetous desire would become oppression. Every thought of unbelief would become atheism, if it were allowed to run its course. A man may reach a point where sin seems to speak no obviously scandalous word in his heart — that is, it may not openly urge him toward great and flagrant sin. But every rising of lust, if given free course, would arrive at the deepest villainy. It is like the grave, which is never satisfied. This is no small part of the deceitfulness of sin, by which it prevails to harden people and bring them to ruin (Hebrews 3:13). Sin is modest, so to speak, in its first motions and proposals. But once it has gained a foothold in the heart through them, it consistently holds and presses forward to some further degree of the same kind. This fresh advance keeps the soul from noticing how far it has already drifted from God. The soul thinks all is reasonably well as long as there is no further progress. And to whatever degree the soul becomes insensitive to any sin — that is, without the sense the Gospel requires — to that degree it is hardened. Yet sin always presses forward, because it has no limit except the complete rejection of God and opposition to Him. The fact that it advances toward its full height by degrees, consolidating ground gained through hardness, is not the nature of sin but its deceitfulness. Nothing can prevent this but mortification. Mortification withers the root and strikes at the head of sin every hour, so that whatever sin aims at, it is blocked. There is not the best saint in the world who, if he were to abandon this duty, would not fall into sins as terrible as any of his kind ever committed.

4. One main reason the Spirit and the new nature are given to us is so that we may have an inward principle to oppose sin and lust. The flesh desires against the Spirit — but what then? The Spirit also desires against the flesh (Galatians 5:17). The Spirit, or spiritual new nature, has a propensity to act against the flesh, just as the flesh has a propensity to act against the Spirit. Similarly, our participation in the divine nature enables us to escape the corruption that is in the world through lust (2 Peter 1:4-5), and there is a law of the mind as well as a law of the members (Romans 7:23). Now two things are clear: (1) It is the most unjust and unreasonable thing in the world to bind one combatant and prevent him from doing his best, while leaving the other free to wound him at will. (2) It is the most foolish thing in the world to restrain the one who fights for our eternal welfare, while setting free the one who seeks and violently pursues our everlasting ruin. The contest is for our lives and souls. Failing to daily employ the Spirit and the new nature in mortifying sin is to neglect the excellent help God has given us against our greatest enemy. If we neglect to use what we have received, God may justly withhold His hand from giving us more. His graces, like His gifts, are given to us to be used, exercised, and put to work. Failing daily to mortify sin is to sin against the goodness, kindness, wisdom, grace, and love of God, who has equipped us with the very principle for doing it.

5. Neglecting this duty puts the soul in a condition exactly opposite to what the apostle describes in himself (2 Corinthians 4:16): 'Though our outward man is decaying, our inner man is being renewed day by day.' In the negligent person, the inner man decays while the outward man is renewed day by day. Sin is like the house of David, and grace like the house of Saul. Exercise and success are the two main nourishers of grace in the heart. When grace is left to sit idle, it withers and decays. The things of it become ready to die (Revelation 3:2), and sin gains ground toward hardening the heart (Hebrews 3:13). This is what I mean: when this duty is omitted, grace withers, lust flourishes, and the condition of the heart grows worse and worse — and the Lord knows what desperate and fearful outcomes this has had for many. Where sin, through neglect of mortification, gains a significant victory, it breaks the bones of the soul (Psalm 31:10; Psalm 51:8) and makes a person weak, sick, and near death (Psalm 38:3-5), so that he cannot look up (Psalm 40:12; Isaiah 33:24). When people take blow after blow, wound after wound, defeat after defeat, and never rouse themselves to vigorous resistance — can they expect anything but to be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin, their souls bleeding toward death (2 John 8)? It is a sad thing to consider the fearful outcomes of this neglect, which we see before our eyes every day. Do we not see those we once knew as humble, tender-hearted, broken Christians — careful not to offend, zealous for God and all His ways, His Sabbaths and ordinances — now grown, through neglect of watchfulness in this duty, earthly, cold, worldly, wrathful, conforming to the world, to the scandal of religion and the fearful discouragement of all who know them? The truth is, between placing mortification in a rigid, hardened spirit — which is for the most part earthly, legalistic, harsh, partial, and consistent with wrath, envy, malice, and pride on the one hand — and pretenses of liberty, grace, and the like on the other, true evangelical mortification is almost lost among us. More on this later.

6. It is our duty to be perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord (2 Corinthians 7:1), to be growing in grace every day (1 Peter 2:2; 2 Peter 3:18), and to be renewing our inner person day by day (2 Corinthians 4:16). None of this can be done without the daily mortification of sin. Sin sets its strength against every act of holiness and against every degree of growth. Let no one think he makes any progress in holiness who does not walk over the back of his lusts. He who does not kill sin in his way takes no steps toward his journey's end. He who finds no opposition from sin and does not specifically set himself to mortify it is at peace with it, not dying to it.

This then is the first general principle of our discussion: despite the meritorious mortification (if I may use that term) of all sin accomplished in the cross of Christ, and despite the real foundation of total mortification laid in our first conversion through conviction of sin, humiliation for sin, and the planting of a new principle that opposes and destroys sin — still, sin so remains, so acts, and so works in the best of believers while they live in this world, that constant daily mortification is their duty every day of their lives. Before I move to the next principle, I must pause to lament the condition of many professing Christians today, who — instead of bearing such great and evident fruits of mortification as we might expect — barely show so much as a leaf. A broad light has fallen on the people of this generation, and many spiritual gifts have been given alongside it. Together with other factors, these have wonderfully expanded the boundaries of who professes faith — both the people and the profession have multiplied greatly. Hence there is a noise of religion and religious duties in every corner. Preaching abounds, and that not in the empty, trivial, and vain manner of former times, but with considerable spiritual gift — so that if you measured the number of believers by light, gifts, and profession, the church might well say, 'Who has borne me all these?' But if you take the measure of that number by this great distinguishing grace of Christians — mortification — you will perhaps find the number not so large. Where is the professing Christian today, who owes his conversion to this era of light, and who speaks and professes at such a level of spirituality as few in former times knew anything of — yet does not give evidence of a miserably unmortified heart? (I will not judge them, but perhaps they boast of what the Lord has done in them.) If vanity in spending time, idleness, unproductiveness in one's calling, envy, strife, quarreling, jealousy, wrath, pride, worldliness, and selfishness (1 Corinthians 1) are the marks of Christians, we have them in abundance on us and among us. And if this is the condition of those who have much light — which we hope is saving — what shall we say of some who wish to be considered religious, yet despise the light of the Gospel? As for the duty at hand, they know no more of it than what consists in occasionally denying themselves some outward comfort — which is one of the outermost branches of mortification, and even that they will seldom practice. May the good Lord send out a spirit of mortification to cure our spiritual sickness, or we are in a desperate condition.

Two evils certainly attend every unmortified professing Christian — one in himself, and the other in relation to others.

1. In himself, whatever he may claim, he has a low view of sin — at least of the sins of daily life. The root of an unmortified life is the digesting of sin without any bitterness in the heart. When a man has shaped his thinking about grace and mercy in such a way that he can swallow and absorb daily sins without sorrow, that man stands at the very edge of turning the grace of God into license and being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. There is no greater evidence of a false and rotten heart in the world than to live this way. To use the blood of Christ — which is given to cleanse us (1 John 1:7; Titus 2:14), the exaltation of Christ — which is to give us repentance (Acts 5:31), and the doctrine of grace — which teaches us to deny all ungodliness (Titus 2:11-12) — to justify sin is a rebellion that will, in the end, break the bones. Most of the professing Christians who have apostatized in our time went out through this door. For a while, most of them were under conviction, and those convictions kept them to duties and brought them to profession. In this way, they escaped the corruptions of the world through the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Peter 2:20). But having become familiar with the doctrine of the Gospel, and growing weary of duties for which they had no inner principle, they began to excuse their many negligences on the grounds of grace. Once this evil took hold of them, they quickly tumbled into ruin.

2. It has an evil influence on others in two ways.

1. It hardens them by producing in them the persuasion that they are in as good a condition as the best professing Christians. Whatever others see in these unmortified professors is so tainted by the lack of mortification that it carries no weight. They show zeal for religion, but paired with a lack of patience and universal righteousness. They refuse extravagance, but are worldly. They separate from the world, but live entirely for themselves, showing no care for loving-kindness in the world. Or they talk spiritually and live carelessly. They speak of communion with God while being completely conformed to the world. They boast of forgiveness of sins while never forgiving others. With such examples, poor souls harden their hearts in their unregenerate state.

2. They deceive others by making them believe that if they can reach the same condition, all will be well with them. This makes the great temptation of religious reputation easy to fall into. A person may go far beyond them in outward appearance and yet come short of eternal life. But these things, along with all the evils of unmortified living, will be addressed later.