CHAPTER I.
What sin is consistent with the state of grace, and what not—Sin’s great design in all to obtain dominion: it hath it in unbelievers, and contends for it in believers—The ways by which it acts.
THE psalmist, treating with God in prayer about sin, acknowledgeth that there are in all men unsearchable errors of life, beyond all human understanding or comprehension, with such daily sins of infirmity as stand in need of continual cleansing and pardon: Ps. xix. 12, “Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults.” But yet he supposeth that these things are consis- tent with a state of grace and acceptation with God. He had no thought of any absolute perfection in this life, of any such condi- tion as should not stand in need of continual cleansing and pardon. Wherefore, there are or may be such sins in believers, yea, many of them, which yet, under a due application unto God for purifying and pardoning grace, shall neither deprive us of peace here nor endan- ger our salvation hereafter.
But he speaks immediately of another sort of sins, which, partly from their nature, or what they are in themselves, and partly from their operation and power, will certainly prove destructive unto the souls of men wherever they are: Verse 13, “Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression.”
This is the hinge whereon the whole cause and state of my soul doth turn: Although I am subject to many sins of various sorts, yet under them all I can and do maintain my integrity, and cove- nant uprightness in walking with God; and where I fail, am kept
506 OF THE DOMINION OF SIN AND GRACE.
within the reach of cleansing and pardoning mercy, continually ad- ministered unto my soul by Jesus Christ: but there is a state of life in this world wherein sin hath dominion over the soul acting itself presumptuously, wherewith integrity and freedom from con- demning guilt are inconsistent.
This state, therefore, which alone is eternally ruinous unto the souls of men, he deprecates with all earnestness, praying to be kept and preserved from it.
What he there so earnestly prays for, the apostle in the words of the text promiseth unto all believers, by virtue of the grace of Christ Jesus administered in the gospel. Both the prayer of the prophet for himself, and the promise of the apostle in the name of God unto us, do manifest of how great importance this matter is, as we shall declare it to be immediately.
There are some things supposed or included in these words of the apostle. These we must first a little inquire into, without which we cannot well understand the truth itself proposed in them; as,—
1. It is supposed that sin doth still abide in and dwell with be- lievers; for so is the meaning of the words: “That sin which is in you shall not have dominion over you;” that is, none of them who are not sensible of it, who groan not to be delivered from it, as the apostle doth, Rom. vii. 24. Those who are otherwise minded know neither themselves, nor what sin is, nor wherein the grace of the gos- pel doth consist. There is the “flesh” remaining in every one, which “lusteth against the Spirit,” Gal. v. 17; and it adheres unto all the faculties of our souls, whence it is called the “old man,” Rom. vi. 6, in opposition unto the renovation of our minds and all the faculties of them, called the “new man,’ Eph. iv. 24, or “new creature” in us; and there is swpévorm ris oupuds ei¢ erduuias, Rom. xiii. 14,— a continual working and provision to fulfil its own lusts: so that it abides in us in the way of a dying, decaying habit, weakened and impaired; but acting itself in inclinations, motions, and desires, suit- able unto its nature.
As Scripture and experience concur herein, so a supposition of it is the only ground of the whole doctrine of evangelical mortification. That this is a duty, a duty incumbent on believers all the days of their lives, such a duty as without which they can never perform any other in a due manner, will not be denied by any, but either such as are wholly under the power of atheistical blindness, or such as by the fever of spiritual pride have lost the understanding of their own miserable condition, and so lie dreaming about absolute perfection. With neither sort are we at present concerned. Now, the first proper object of this mortification is this sin that dwells in us. It is the “ flesh” which is to be “ mortified,’ the “old man” which is to be
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“crucified,” the “lusts of the flesh,” with all their corrupt inclinations, actings, and motions, that are to be destroyed, Col. i. 5; Rom. vi. 6; Gal. v. 24. Unless this be well fixed in the mind, we cannot under- stand the greatness of the grace and privilege here expressed,
2. It is supposed that this sin, which, in the remainders of it, so abides in believers in various degrees, may put forth its power in them to obtain victory and dominion over them. It is first supposed that it hath this dominion in some, that it doth bear rule over all unbelievers, all that are under the law; and then that it will strive to do the same in them that believe and are under grace: for, affirm- ing that it shall not have dominion over us, he grants that it may or doth contend for it, only it shall not have success, it shall not pre- vail. Hence it is said to fight and war in us, Rom. vii. 23, and to war against our souls, 1 Pet. i.11. Now, it thus fights, and wars, and contends in us for dominion, for that is the end of all war; what- . ever fights, it doth it for power and rule.