A53712:44
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.
There are in general two things attending every Law, as such.
First, Dominion. Rom. 7. 1. The Law hath dominion over a man whilst he liveth; [Greek or Hebrew], it Lordeth it over a man. Where any Law takes place, [Greek or Hebrew], it hath dominion. It is properly the act of a Superior, and it belongs to its nature to exact obedience by way of dominion. Now there is a two-fold dominion, as there is a two-fold Law. ⟨p. 13⟩There is a moral authoritative dominion over a man, and there is a real effective dominion in a man. The first is an affection of the Law of God, the latter of the Law of sin. The Law of sin hath not in it self a moral dominion, it hath not a rightful dominion or authority over any man, but it hath that which is equivalent unto it; whence it is said [Greek or Hebrew], to reign as a King, Rom. 6. 12. and [Greek or Hebrew], to Lord it, or have dominion, ver. 14. as a Law in general is said to have, chap. 7. 1. But because it hath lost its complete dominion, in reference unto Believers, of whom alone we speak, I shall not insist upon it in this utmost extent of its power. But even in them it is a Law still, though not a Law unto them; yet, as was said, it is a Law in them. And though it have not a complete, and as it were a rightful dominion over them, yet it will have a domination as to some things in them. It is still a Law, and that in them, so that all its actings are the actings of a Law; that is, it acts with power, though it have lost its complete power of ruling in them. Though it be weakened, yet its nature is not changed. It is a Law still, and therefore powerful. And as its particular workings (which we shall afterwards consider) are the ground of this Appellation, so the term it self teacheth us in general, what we are to expect from it, and what endeavours it will use for dominion, to which it hath been accustomed.