Secondly, But there are many in whom the case is dubious and not easily to be determined; for, on the one hand, they may have sundry things in them which may seem repugnant unto the reign of sin, but indeed are not inconsistent with it. All arguments and pleas from them in their vindication may fail them on a trial. And, on the other hand, there may be some in whom the effectual work- ing of sin may be so great and perplexing as to argue that it hath the dominion, when indeed it hath not, but is only a stubborn rebel.
The things of the first sort, which seem destructive of and incon- sistent with the dominion of sin, but indeed are not, may be referred to five heads:—
1. Lllwmination in knowledge and spiritual gifts, with convictions of good and evil, of all known duties and sins. This is that which some men live in a perpetual rebellion against, in one instance or another.
2. A change in the affections, giving a temporary delight in re- ligious duties, with some constancy in their observation. This also
_ EVIDENCE OF THE DOMINION OF SIN. 519
is found in many who are yet evidently under the power of sin and spiritual darkness,
3. A performance of many duties, both moral and evangelical, for the substance of them, and an abstinence, out of conscience, from many sins. So was it with the young man in the Gospel, who yet wanted what was necessary to free him from the dominion of sin, Matt. xix. 20-23.
4, Repentance for sin committed. This is that which most se- cure themselves by; and a blessed security it is when it is gracious, evangelical, a fruit of faith, comprising the return of the whole soul to God. But there is that which is legal, partial, respecting parti- cular sins only, which is not pleadable in this case. Ahab was no less under the dominion of sin when he had repented him than he was before; and Judas repented him before he hanged himself.
5. Promises and resolutions against sin for the future. But the goodness of many in these things is “as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away,” as it is in the prophet, Hosea vi. 4.
Where there is a concurrence of these things in any, they have good hopes, at least, that they are not under the dominion of sin, nor is it easy to convince them that they are; and they may so be- have themselves herein as that it is not consistent with Christian charity to pronounce them to be so. Howbeit, the fallacy that is in these things hath been detected by many; and much more is by all required to evidence the sincerity of faith and holiness. No man, therefore, can be acquitted by pleas taken from them, as unto his subjection to the reign of sin,
The things of the second sort, whence arguments may be taken to prove the dominion of sin in any person, which yet will not cer- tainly do it, are those which we shall now examine. And we must observe,—
1. That where sin hath the dominion, it doth indeed rule in the whole soul and all the faculties of it, It is a vicious habit in all of them, corrupting them, in their several natures and powers, with that corruption whereof they are capable:—So in the mind, of darkness and vanity; the will, of spiritual deceit and perverseness; the heart, of stubbornness and sensuality. Sin in its power reaches unto and affects them all. But,—
2. It doth evidence its dominion and is to be tried by its acting in the distinct faculties of the mind, in the frame of the heart, and in the course of the life.
These are those which we shall examine :—first, those which ren- der the case dubious; and then those that clearly determine it on the part of sin. I shall not, therefore, at present, give positive evi- dences of men’s freedom from the dominion of sin, but only consi-
520 OF THE DOMINION OF SIN AND GRACE.
der the arguments that lie against them, and examine how far they are conclusive, or how they may be defeated. And,—
1. When sin hath in any instance possessed the imagination, and thereby engaged the cogitative faculty im its service, tt 1s a dangerous symptom of its rule or dominion. Sin may exercise its rule in the mind, fancy, and imagination, where bodily strength or opportunity gives no advantage for its outward perpetration. In them the desires of sin may be enlarged as hell, and the satisfaction of lust taken in with greediness. Pride, and covetousness, and sen- suality, may reign and rage in the mind by corrupt imaginations, © when their outward exercise is shut up by circumstances of life.
The first way whereby sin acts itself, or coins its motions and in- clinations into acts, is by the imagination, Gen. vi. 5. The conti- nual evil figments of the heart are as the bubbling of corrupt waters from a corrupted fountain.
The imaginations intended are the fixing of the mind on the ob- jects of sin or sinful objects, by continual thoughts, with delight and complacency. They are the mind’s purveying for the satisfaction of the flesh in the lusts thereof, Rom. xiii. 14, whereby evil thoughts come to lodge, to abide, to dwell in the heart, Jer. iv. 14.