Men may see their sickness and wounds, but yet, if they make not due applications, their cure will not be effected. Mortification prunes all the graces of God, and makes room for them in our hearts to grow. The life and vigour of our spiritual lives consists in the vigour and flourishing of the plants of grace in our hearts. Now, as you may see in a garden, let there be a precious herb planted, and let the ground be untilled, and weeds grow about it, perhaps it will live still, but be a poor, withering, unuseful thing. So it is with the graces of the Spirit that are planted in our hearts.
Mortification is the soul's vigorous opposition to self, wherein sincerity is most evident.
This document is from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library at Calvin College. Last updated on May 27, 1999.