Chapter II.
The inquiries for understanding the text proposed — The first spoken to, namely, What is the dominion of sin, which we are freed from and discharged of by grace.
We shall inquire into three things from the words of this text:— I. What is that dominion of sin which we are freed from and discharged of by grace. II. How we may know whether sin hath the dominion in us or not. III. What is the reason and evidence of the assurance here given us that sin shall not have dominion over us, — namely, because we are “not under the law, but under grace.”
I. As unto the first of these, I shall only recount some such properties of it as will discover its nature in general; the particulars wherein it doth consist will be considered afterward.
First, The dominion of sin is perverse and evil, and that on both the accounts which render any rule or dominion so to be; for, —
1. It is usurped. Sin hath no right to rule in the souls of men. Men have no power to give sin a right to rule over them. They may voluntarily enslave themselves unto it; but this gives sin no right or title. All men have originally another lord, unto whom they owe all obedience, nor can any thing discharge them from their allegiance thereunto; and this is the law of God. The apostle saith, indeed, that “to whom men yield themselves servants to obey, his servants they are to whom they obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness,” Rom. vi. 16. And so it is. Men are thereby the proper servants of sin; they become so by their own voluntary subjection unto it. But this gives sin no title against the law of God, whose right alone it is to bear sway in the souls of men; for all that give up themselves to the service of sin do live in actual rebellion against their natural liege Lord: Hence sundry things do follow:—
(1.) The great aggravation of the evil of a state of sin. Men who live therein do voluntarily wrest themselves, what lieth in them, from under the rule of the law of God, and give up themselves to be slaves unto this tyrant. Could it lay any claim to this dominion, had it any title to plead, it were some alleviation of guilt in them that give up themselves unto it. But men “yield themselves” to the slavery of sin, as the apostle speaks; they reject the rule of God’s law, and choose this foreign yoke; which cannot but be an aggravation of their sin and misery. Yet so it is, that the greatest part of men do visibly and openly profess themselves the servants and slaves of sin. They wear its livery and do all its drudgery; yea, they boast themselves in their bondage, and never think themselves so brave and gallant as when, by profane swearing, drunkenness, uncleanness, covetousness, and scoffing at religion, they openly avow the lord whom they serve, the master to whom they do belong. But their “damnation slumbereth not,” whatever they may dream in the meantime.
(2.) Hence it follows that ordinarily all men have a right in themselves to cast off the rule of sin, and to vindicate themselves into liberty. They may, when they will, plead the right and title of the law of God unto the rule of their souls, to the utter exclusion of all pleas and pretences of sin for its power. They have right to say unto it, “Get thee hence; what have I to do any more with idols?”
All men, I say, have this right in themselves, because of the natural allegiance they owe to the law of God; but they have not power of themselves to execute this right, and actually to cast off the yoke of sin: but this is the work of grace. Sin’s dominion is broken only by grace.
But you will say then, “Unto what end serves this right, if they have not power in themselves to put it in execution? and how can it be charged as an aggravation of their sin that they do not use the right which they have, seeing they have no power so to do? Will you blame a man that hath a right to an estate if he do not recover it, when he hath no means so to do?”
I answer briefly three things:—
[1.] No man living neglects the use of this right to cast off the yoke and dominion of sin because he cannot of himself make use of it, but merely because he will not. He doth voluntarily choose to continue under the power of sin, and looks on every thing as his enemy that would deliver him: “The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject unto the law of God, neither indeed can be,” Rom. viii. 7. When the law comes at any time to claim its right and rule over the soul, a man under the power of sin looks on it as his enemy, that comes to disturb his peace, and fortifies his mind against it; and when the gospel comes and tenders the way and means for the soul’s delivery, offering its aid and assistance unto that end, this also is looked on as an enemy, and is rejected, and all its offers unto that end. See Prov. i. 24–31; John iii. 19. This, then, is the condition of every one that abides under the dominion of sin: he chooses so to do; he continues in that state by an act of his own will; he avows an enmity unto every thing which would give him deliverance; — which will be a sore aggravation of his condemnation at the last day.