A53731:104
A treatise of the dominion of sin and grace wherein sin's reign is discovered,…
A treatise of the dominion of sin and grace wherein sin's reign is discovered, in whom it is, and in whom it is not : how the law supports it, how grace delivers from it, by setting up its dominion the heart / by John Owen ...
London: printed by J. L. for William Marshall, 1688
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.
2. SUCH Imaginations are no Evidence of the Dominion of Sin, in what degree soever they are, where they are afflictive; where they are a burden unto the Soul, which it groans under and would be delivered from. There is a full account given by the Apostle, of the conflict between indwelling Sin and Grace, Rom. vij. And the things which he ascribes unto Sin, are not the first rising or involuntary Motions of it, nor merely its Inclinations and Disposition: For the things ascribed unto it, as that it Fights, Rebels, Wars, leads Captive, acts as a Law, cannot belong unto them; nor doth he intend the outward acting or perpetration of Sin, the doing, or accomplishing, or finishing of it: For that cannot befall Believers, as the Apostle declares, 1 Joh. iij. 9. But it is the working of Sin by these Imaginations in the Mind, and the Engagement of the Affections thereon, that he doth intend. Now this he declares to be the great burden of the Souls of Believers, that which makes them think their Condition wretched and miserable in some sort, and which they earnestly cry out for deliverance from, v. 24. This is the present Case. These Figments of the Heart, these Imaginations will arise in the Minds ⟨p. 47⟩of Men. They will do so sometimes to an high degree. They will impose them on us with Deceit and Violence, leading Captive unto the Law of them; where they are rejected, condemned, defied; they will return again while there is any Vanity remaining in the Mind, or Corruption in the Affections. But if the Soul be sensible of them, if it labour under them, if it look on them as those that fight against its Purity, Holiness and Peace, if it pray for deliverance from them, they are no Argument of the Dominion of Sin. Yea, a great Evidence unto the contrary may be taken from that firm Opposition unto them, which the Mind is constantly engaged in.
2. SUCH Imaginations are no Evidence of the Dominion of Sin, in what degree soever they are, where they are afflictive; where they are a burthen unto the Soul, which it groans under and would be delivered from. There is a full account given by the Apostle, of the conflict between indwelling Sin and Grace, Rom. vij. And the things which he ascribes unto Sin, are not the first rising or involuntary Motions of it, nor merely its Inclinati•ns and Disposition: For the things ascribed unto it, as that it Fights, Rebels, Wars, leads Captive, acts as a Law, cannot belong unto them; nor doth he intend the outward acting or perpetration of Sin, the doing, or accomplishing, or finishing of it: For that cannot befal Believers, as the Apostle declares, 1 Joh. iij. 9. But it is the working of Sin by these Imaginations in the Mind, and the Engagement of the Affections thereon, that he doth intend. Now this he declares to be the great burden of the Souls of Believers, that which makes them think their Condition wretched and miserable in some sort, and which they earnestly cry out for deliverance from, v. 24. This is the present Case. These Figments of the Heart, these Imaginations will arise in the Minds