Precious faith considered in its nature, working, and growth

Fourthly, Faith mortifies Sin by those actings of Grace which it puts forth in the Believer. As Sin the more it is acted makes the fuller blot on the Soul; so Grace, the more it is acted leaves the purer tincture there: You have purified your Souls in obeying the truth, saith St. Peter, 1 Epist. 1.22. Every act of Grace or Obedience doth in its measure purify from Sin. The righteous holds on his way, and so grows stronger and stronger, Job 17.9. The exercise of Grace renders the inner man more strong and able to drive out Corruption; especially when that Grace is acted, which besides its purifying, strengthening nature in common with other Graces, is contrary to the Sin which is to be mortified; and so proper and apt to expel it, as one contrary doth another. Hence Daniel counsels Nebuchadnezzar to break off his sins by righteousness and mercy, Dan. 4.27: his Sins being Oppression and Cruelty, nothing was apter than Righteousness & Mercy to break them off. And our Saviour when his Disciples were fainting in the storm, calls for their Faith: And when aspiring after the Primacy, sets a little child before them, as an ⟨p. 278⟩emblem of Humility. Dying-Sardis he puts upon strengthening the things which remain; and Neutral Laodicea upon Zeal, to give her a fresh warmth in Religion. Still the advice runs upon the contrary Grace; the more that is actuated, the more it roots and spreads in the Soul, and the less room and place is left there for the contrary Sin: Which I suppose was the reason why the Presbyter Sulpitius Severus, being guilty of too much Loquacity, ever after kept silence;¹ Ut peccatum, quod loquendo contraxerat, tacendo emendaret, as the Historian expresses it. 'Tis a Precept of the Philosophers,² To observe what Vice we are most propense to, and then to bend our selves to the contrary extreme, that we might come to the Virtue in the middle. Faith, though it dares not touch upon one contrary Sin to cure another, would cast them both out by acting the contrary Grace.

Fourthly, Faith mortifies Sin by those actings of Grace which it puts forth in the Believer. As Sin the more it is acted makes the fuller blot on the Soul; so Grace, the more it is acted leaves the purer tincture there: You have purified your Souls in obeying the truth, saith St. Peter, 1 Epist. 1.22. Every act of Grace or Obedience doth in its measure purifie from Sin. The righteous holds on his way, and so grows stronger and stronger,