disannul the covenant relation between God and our souls. Whilst we have supplies of it which are sufficient unto this end, although our conflict with sin doth continue, although we are perplexed by it, yet we are under grace, and sin shall have no more dominion over us. This is enough for us, that sin shall be gradually destroyed, and we shall have a sufficiency of grace on all occasions to prevent its ruling prevalency.

3. Live in the faith of this sacred truth, and ever keep alive in your souls expectation of supplies of grace suitable thereunto. It is of the nature of true and saving faith, inseparable from it, to believe that the gospel is the way of God's administration of grace for the ruin of sin. He that believes it not believes not the gospel itself, which is "the power of God unto salvation," Rom. i. 16. If we live, and walk, and act, as if we had nothing to trust unto but ourselves, our own endeavours, our own resolutions, and that in our perplexities and surprisals, it is no wonder if we are not sensible of supplies of divine grace;—most probably we are under the law, and not under grace. This is the fundamental principle of the gospel state, that we live in expectation of continual communications of life, grace, and strength, from Jesus Christ, who is "our life," and from whose "fulness we receive, and grace for grace." We may therefore, in this case, continually expostulate with our souls, as David doth: "Why go you mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? Why are you cast down? and why are you disquieted within us? Still hope in God; he is the health of my countenance." We may be sensible of great oppression from the power of this enemy; this may cause us to go mourning all the day long, and in some sense it ought so to do. Howbeit we ought not hence to despond, or to be cast down from our duty or our comfort. Still we may trust in God through Christ, and live in continual expectation of such spiritual reliefs as shall assuredly preserve us from the dominion of sin. This faith, hope, and expectation, we are called unto by the gospel; and when they are not cherished, when they are not kept up unto a due exercise, all things will go backward in our spiritual condition.

4. Make especial application unto the Lord Christ, unto whom the administration of all spiritual supplies is committed, for the communication of them unto you, according unto all especial occasions. Hath sin got the advantage of a powerful temptation, so as that it seems to put hard for dominion in the soul; as it was with Paul under the buffetings of Satan, when he had that answer from the Lord, upon his reiterated prayer, "My grace is sufficient for thee;"-"Sin shall not have dominion over thee"? Hath it, by its deceitfulness, brought the soul into a lifeless, senseless frame, made it forgetful of duties, negligent in them, or without spiritual delight in their performance?

Hath it almost habituated the soul unto careless and corrupt inclinations, unto the love of, or conformity to, the world? Doth it take advantage from our darkness and confusion, under troubles, distresses, or temptations? On these and the like occasions it is required that we make especial fervent application unto the Lord Christ for such supplies of grace as may be sufficient and efficacious to control the power of sin in them all. This, under the consideration of his office and authority unto this end, his grace and readiness from special inducements, we are directed unto, Heb. iv. 14-16.

5. Remember always the way and method of the operation of divine grace and spiritual aids. It is true, in our first conversion to God, we are as it were surprised by a mighty act of sovereign grace, changing our hearts, renewing our minds, and quickening us with a principle of spiritual life. Ordinarily, many things are required of us in a way of duty in order thereunto; and many previous operations of grace in our minds, in illumination and the sense of sin, do materially and passively dispose us thereunto, as wood when it is dried is disposed to firing: but the work itself is performed by an immediate act of divine power, without any active co-operation on our part. But this is not the law or rule of the communication or operation of actual grace for the subduing of sin. It is given in a way of concurrence with us in the discharge of our duties; and when we are sedulous in them, we may be sure we shall not fail of divine assistance, according to the established rule of the administration of gospel grace. If, therefore, we complain that we find not the aids mentioned, and if at the same time we are not diligent in attendance unto all the duties whereby sin may be mortified in us, we are exceedingly injurious to the grace of God.

Wherefore, notwithstanding this objection, the truth stands firm, that "sin shall not have dominion over us, for we are not under the law, but under grace;" because of the spiritual aids that are administered by grace for its mortification and destruction.

SECONDLY, The law gives no liberty of any kind; it gendereth unto bondage, and so cannot free us from any dominion,—not that of sin, for this must be by liberty. But this we have also by the gospel. There is a twofold liberty:-1. Of state and condition; 2. Of internal operation; and we have both by the gospel.

The first consists in our deliverance from the law and its curse, with all things which claim a right against us by virtue thereof; that is, Satan, death, and hell. Out of this state, from whence we can never be delivered by the law, we are translated by grace into a state of glorious liberty; for by it the Son makes us free. And we receive the Spirit of Christ; now, "where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty," 2 Cor. iii. 17. This liberty Christ proclaims in the gospel

unto all that do believe, Isa. lxi. 1. Hereon they who hear and receive the joyful sound are discharged from all debts, bonds, accounts, rights, and titles, and are brought into a state of perfect freedom. In this state sin can lay no claim to dominion over any one soul. They are gone over into the kingdom of Christ, and out from the power of sin, Satan, and darkness. Herein, indeed, lies the foundation of our assured freedom from the rule of sin. It cannot make an incursion on the kingdom of Christ, so as to carry away any of its subjects into a state of sin and darkness again. And an interest in this state ought to be pleaded against all the attempts of sin, Rom. vi. 1, 2. There is nothing more to be detested than that any one who is Christ's freeman, and dead to the power of sin, should give place again unto any of its pretences to or endeavours for rule.

Again, there is an internal liberty, which is the freedom of the mind from the powerful inward chains of sin, with an ability to act all the powers and faculties of the soul in a gracious manner. Hereby is the power of sin in the soul destroyed. And this also is given us in the gospel. There is power administered in it to live unto God, and to walk in all his commandments; and this also gives evidence unto the truth of the apostle's assertion.

THIRDLY, The law doth not supply us with effectual motives and encouragements to endeavour the ruin of the dominion of sin in a way of duty; which must be done, or in the end it will prevail. It works only by fear and dread, with threatenings and terrors of destruction; for although it says also, “Do this, and live," yet withal it discovers such an impossibility in our nature to comply with its commands, in the way and manner wherein it enjoins them, that the very promise of it becomes a matter of terror, as including the contrary sentence of death upon our failure in its commands. Now, these things enervate, weaken, and discourage, the soul in its conflict against sin; they give it no life, activity, cheerfulness, or courage, in what it undertakes. Hence those who engage themselves into an opposition unto sin, or a relinquishment of its service, merely on the motives of the law, do quickly faint and give over. We see it so with many every day. One day they will forsake all sin, their beloved sin, with the company and occasions inducing them thereunto. The law hath frightened them with divine vengeance. And sometimes they proceed so far in this resolution that they seem escaped from the pollutions of the world; yet soon again they return to their former ways and follies, 2 Pet. ii. 20-22. Their " Their "goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away." Or if they do not return to wallow in the same mire of their former pollutions, they betake themselves to the shades of some superstitious observances, as it is in the Papacy: for they openly succeed into the room

of the Jews, who, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and not submitting thereunto, went about variously to establish their own righteousness, as the apostle speaks, Rom. x. 3, 4; for in that apostate church, where men are wrought on by the terrors of the law to relinquish sin and set themselves in opposition unto its power, finding themselves altogether unable to do it by the works of the law itself, which must be perfectly holy, they betake themselves to a number of superstitious observances, which they trust unto in the room of the law, with its commands and duties. But the law makes nothing perfect, nor are the motives it gives for the ruin of the interest of sin in us able to bear us out and carry us through that undertaking.

But the motives and encouragements given by grace to endeavour the utter ruin of sin in a way of duty are such as give life, cheerfulness, courage, and perseverance; they continually animate, relieve, and revive the soul, in all its work and duty, keeping it from fainting and despondency: for they are all taken from the love of God and of Christ, from the whole work and end of his mediation, from the ready assistances of the Holy Ghost, from all the promises of the gospel, from their own with other believers' experiences; all giving them the highest assurance of final success and victory. When the soul is under the influence of these motives, whatever difficulty and opposition it meets withal from soliciting temptations or surprisals, "it will renew its strength, it will run and not be weary, it will walk and not faint," according to the promise, Isa. xl. 31.

FOURTHLY, Christ is not in the law; he is not proposed in it, not communicated by it,—we are not made partakers of him thereby. This is the work of grace, of the gospel. In it is Christ, revealed; by it he is proposed and exhibited unto us; thereby are we made partakers of him and all the benefits of his mediation. And he it is alone who came to, and can, destroy this work of the devil. The dominion of sin is the complement of the works of the devil, where all his designs centre. This "the Son of God was manifested to destroy." He alone ruins the kingdom of Satan, whose power is acted in the rule of sin. Wherefore, hereunto our assurance of this comfortable truth is principally resolved. And what Christ hath done, and doth, for this end, is a great part of the subject of gospel revelation.

The like may be spoken of the communication of the Holy Spirit, which is the only principal efficient cause of the ruin of the dominion of sin; for "where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty," and nowhere else. But we receive this Spirit not "by the works of the law," but "by the hearing of faith," Gal. iii. 2.

CHAPTER VI.

The practical observations drawn from, and application made of, the whole text.

HAVING opened the words, and made some improvement of them, I shall now take one or two observations from the design of them, and issue the whole in a word of application.

Obs. 1. It is an unspeakable mercy and privilege to be delivered from the dominion of sin. As such it is here proposed by the apostle; as such it is esteemed by them that believe. Nothing is more sweet, precious, and valuable, unto a soul conflicting with sin and temptation, than to hear that sin shall not have the dominion over it. Ah! what would some give that it might be spoken unto them with power, so as that they might steadfastly believe it and have the comfort of it? "Fools make a mock of sin," and some glory in the service of it, which is their shame; but those who understand any thing aright, either of what is present or what is to come, do know that this freedom from its dominion is an invaluable mercy; and we may consider the grounds which evidence it so to be.

First, It appears so to be from the causes of it. It is that which no man can by his own power and the utmost of his endeavours attain unto. Men by them may grow rich, or wise, or learned; but no man by them can shake off the yoke of sin. If a man had all the wealth of the world, he could not by it purchase this liberty; it would be despised. And when sinners go hence to the place where the rich man was tormented, and have nothing more to do with this world, they would give it all, if they had it, for an interest in this liberty.

It is that which the law and all the duties of it cannot procure. The law and its duties, as we have declared, can never destroy the dominion of sin. All men will find the truth hereof that ever come to fall under the power of real conviction. When sin presseth on them, and they are afraid of its consequents, they will find that the law is weak, and the flesh is weak, and their duties are weak, and their resolutions and vows are weak;-all insufficient to relieve them. And if they think themselves freed one day, they shall find the next that they are under bondage. Sin, for all this, will rule over them with force and rigour. And in this condition do some spend all their days in this world. They kindle sparks of their own, and walk in the light of them, until they lie down in darkness and sorrow. They sin and promise amendment, and endeavour recompenses by some duties, yet can never extricate themselves from the yoke of sin. We may therefore learn the excellency of this privilege, first, from its causes, whereof I shall mention some only: