Rom. vi. 1 4. Sin shall not have dominion over you : for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
IT is often made a ground of objection against the Gospel, that it is unfavourable to morality. But the very reverse of this is true ; for the Gospel not only inculcates moral duties as strictly as the law itself, but suggests far stronger motives for the performance of them, and even provides strength whereby we shall be enabled to perform them. A great part of this epistle was written on purpose to establish the doc- trine of justification by faith : and yet here is one whole chapter devoted entirely to the enforcing of universal holiness, and to the removing of all ground for the objection before referred to : and in the text an express declaration is given, as from God himself, that sin shall never regain its ascendency over the hearts of his people. We shall consider, I. The promise here given us —
The promise is express, and relates to our deliver- ance from sin, of whatever kind it be —
[Sin of almost every kind has dominion over the unre- generate man. All persons indeed are not addicted to the same lusts ; nor do they gratify any one lust in the same degree : but the seeds of all evil are in the hearts of men ; and if any person abstain from any particular act of sin, it is rather because he is not strongly tempted to commit it, than because he has not a propensity to commit it ; and it is universally found, that the sins, which are peculiar to our age, our constitution, our situation and circumstances in life, do habitually get the domi- nion over us. But God promises, that it shall not be so with his people ; that they shall be delivered from this ignominious bondage ; and be enabled to resist the solicitations of appetite and passion.
We must not however imagine that this promise extends to absolute perfection : for, however desirable the attainment of perfection might be in some points of view, it is not the lot of any in this world. Even the most eminent of God's saints have failed, and that too, in those very points wherein their peculiar eminence consisted : Abraham, Moses, Job, and all others, have