A53712:349
The Nature, Power, Deceit, and Prevalency of Indwelling Sin
The nature, power, deceit, and prevalency of the remainders of indwelling-sin in believers together with the ways of its working and means of prevention opened, evinced, and applied with a resolution of sundry cases of conscience thereunto appertaining.The nature, power, deceit, and prevalency of the remainders of indwelling-sin in believers together with the wayes of its working and means of prevention opened, evinced, and applyed with a resolution of sundry cases of conscience thereunto appertaining.
London: printed for Thomas Cockerill, 1675
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Unto what hath been spoken concerning the deceitfulness of indwelling-sin in general, which greatly evidenceth its power and efficacy, I shall add as a close of this discourse, one or two particular ways of its deceitful actings, consisting in advantages that it maketh use of, and means of relieving it self against that disquisition which is made after it by the Word and Spirit for its ruin. One head only of each sort we shall here name.
Unto what hath been spoken concerning the deceitfulness of indwelling-sin in general, which greatly evidenceth its power and efficacy, I shall adde as a close of this discourse, one or two particular ways of its deceitful actings, consisting in advantages that it maketh use of, and means of relieving it self against that disquisition which is made after it by the Word and Spirit for its ruine. One head only of each sort we shall here name.
First, It makes great advantage of the darkness of the mind, to work out its design and intendments. ⟨p. 183⟩The shades of a mind totally dark, that is, devoid utterly of saving grace, are the proper working place of sin. Hence the effects of it are called, the works of darkness, Ephes. 5. 11. Rom. 13. 12. as springing from thence. Sin works and brings forth by the help of it. The working of lust under the covert of a dark mind, is as it were the upper Region of hell; for it lies at the next door to it for filth, horror, and confusion. Now there is a partial darkness abiding still in Believers; they know but in part, 1 Cor. 13. 12. Though there be in them all a principle of saving light, the day-star is risen in their hearts, yet all the shades of darkness are not utterly expelled out of them in this life. And there are two parts, as it were, or principal effects of the remaining darkness that is in Believers. First, Ignorance, or a nescience of the will of God, either Juris or Facti, of the Rule and Law in general, or of the reference of the particular fact that lies before the mind unto the Law. Secondly, Error and mistakes, positively taking that for truth which is falsehood, and that for light which is darkness. Now of both these doth the Law of sin make great advantage for the exerting of its power in the soul.