2. It doth so by keeping up @ constant exercise of grace in all religious duties, or at least a sincere endeavour that so it may be. Where sin hath the dominion, it can allow the soul to perform reli- _ gious duties, yea, in some cases to abound in them; but it will take care that divine grace be not exercised in them. Whatever there may be of delight in duties, or other motions of affection, which light, and gifts, and afflictions, and superstition, will occasion, there is no exercise of faith and love in them; this belongs essentially and inseparably unto the rule of grace. Wherever that bears sway, the soul will endeavour the constant exercise of grace in all its duties, and never be satisfied in the work done without some sense of it. Where it fails therein, it will judge itself, and watch against the like surprisals; yea, unless it be in case of some great temptation, the present sense of the guilt of sin, which is the highest obstruction against that spiritwal boldness which is required unto the due exer-
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cise of grace,—that is, of faith and love in holy duties,—shall not hinder the soul from endeavouring after it or the use of it.
If by these means, and the like inseparable operations of grace, we can have an assuring experience that we are under the rule and conduct of it, we may be free in our minds from disturbing appre- hensions of the dominion of sin; for both cannot bear sway in the same soul.
Fourthly, It is required hereunto that sin make the soul sensible of its power and rule, at least do that which may do so, unless con- science be utterly seared and hardened, and so “ past feeling.” There is no rule or dominion but they are or may be sensible of it who are subject thereunto. And there are two ways whereby sin in its dominion will make them sensible of it in whom it rules:—
1. In repressing and overcoming the efficacy of the convictions of the mind. Those who are under the dominion of sin (as we shall see more immediately) may have light into and conviction of their duty in many things, and this light and conviction they may follow ordinarily, notwithstanding the dominion of sin. As a tyrant will permit his slaves and subjects ordinarsly to follow their own occa- sions, but if what they would do come, either in matter or manner, to interfere with or oppose his interest, he will make them sensible of his power: so sin, where it hath the dominion, if men have light and conviction, will allow them ordinarily and in many things to comply therewithal; it will allow them to pray, to hear the word, to abstain from sundry sins, to perform many duties, as is expressly affirmed in the Scripture of many that were under the power of sin, and we see it in experience. How much work do we see about re- ligion and religious duties, what constant observation of the times and seasons of them, how many duties performed morally good in themselves and useful, by them who on many other accounts do proclaim themselves to be under the dominion of sm! But if the light and conviction of this sort of persons do rise up in opposition unto the principal interest of sin in those lusts and ways wherein it exerciseth its rule, it will make them in whom they are sensible of its power. They that stifle, or shut their eyes against, or cast out of mind, or go directly contrary unto, their convictions, ight im such cases will first repine, and then relieve itself with resolutions for other times and seasons; but sin will carry the cause by virtue of its dominion.
Hence two things do follow:—
(1.) A constant repugnancy against sin, from light in the mind and conviction in the conscience, doth not prove that those in whom it is are not under the dominion of sin; for until blindness and hardness do come on men to the uttermost, there will be in them a.
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judging of what is good and evil, with a self-judging with respect thereunto, as the apostle declares, Rom. ii.15. And herein many do satisfy themselves. When their light condemns sin, they suppose they hate it; but they do not: when convictions call for duties, they sup- pose they love them; but they do not. That which they look on as the rule of light in them, in opposition unto sin, is but the rebellion of a natural enlightened conscience against the dominion of it in the heart. In brief, light may condemn every known sin, keep from many, press for every known duty, lead to the performance of many, yet sin have a full dominion in the soul; and this it will evidence when it comes to the trial in those instances where it exercises its ruling power.
(2.) That miserable is their condition whose minds are ground continually between the conduct of their light with the urgency of conviction on the one hand, and the rule or dominion of sin on the other. Wherever light is, it is its due to have the rule and conduct. It is that art whereby the mind leads itself. For men to be forced, by the power of their lusts, to act for the most part against their light, as they do where sin hath the dominion, it is a sad and de- plorable condition. Such persons are said to “rebel against the light,” Job xxiv. 13, because of its right to rule in them, where it is deposed by sin. This makes most men but a “ troubled sea, that cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.”