A53731:117
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.
4. WHEN men have had a Conviction of these Duties, and have attended unto them according unto that Conviction; if Sin prevail in them to a neglect or relinquishment of those Duties, as unto their performance, or as unto their application unto the Mortification of Sin, it is a dangerous sign that Sin hath Dominion in them. And I distinguish between these things, namely, a neglect of such Duties, as unto their performance and a neglect of the Application of them unto the Mortification of Sin. For men may, on other Accounts, continue the observance of them, or some of them, and yet not apply them unto this especial End. And so all external Duties may be observed, when Sin reigneth in Triumph, 2 Tim. iij. 5.
THE meaning of the Assertion being stated, I shall now name some of those Graces and Duties, unto whose Omission and Neglect Sin may prevail, as unto an Application of them unto the Mortification of any Sin.
THE First is, The daily exercise of Faith on Christ as Crucified. This is the great Fundamental Means of the mortification of Sin in general, and which we ought to apply unto every particular Instance of it. This the Apostle Discourseth at large, Rom. vi. 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13. Our Old Man, saith he, is crucified with Christ, that the Body of Sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve Sin. Our Old Man, or the Body of Sin, is the Power and Reign of Sin in us. These are to be destroyed; that is, so mortified, that henceforth we should not serve Sin; that we should be delivered from the Power and Rule of it. This, saith the Apostle, is done in Christ: Crucified with him. It is so meritoriously in his actual dying or being Crucified for us; it is so virtually, because of the certain Provision that is made therein, for the Mortification of all Sin. But it is so actually by the Exercise of Faith on him as crucified, dead and buried, which is the means of the actual Communication of the virtue of his Death unto us for that End. Herein are we said to be dead and buried with him, whereof Baptism is the Pledge. So by the Cross of Christ, the World is crucified unto us, and