THE

GREAT CONCERN

O F

SALVATION.

PART I.

A discovery of man's natural state, or the guilty finner convicted.

ROMANS iii. 23.

For all have finned, and come short of the Glory of God.

HOEVER confiders his present condition, will foon fee, that his great bufi nefs, and chief concern lies in three important enquiries: What have I done? Jer. viii. 6. What shall I do to be faved? Acts xvi. 30. What Shall I render to the Lord? Pfal, cxvi. 12. The anfwer of the first will make way for the fecond, and that will give occafion for the third.

Though wife men have bufied their heads, and toiled theinfelves with wearifom enquiries after happiness; yet none of them could ever give mena fatisfying anfwer to any one of these three queries. But what they by their wisdom could not do, that God, in his infinite wifdom and unparallelled good

Part I. goodness has done, to the fatisfaction of all rational enquirers, in the fcriptures of truth.

If it be enquired, What we have done? Our text anfwers, All men have finned and come fhort of the glory of God. If the queftion be put, What fhall we do to be faved? Look Acts xvi. 31. and there we are bid believe on the Lord Je fus Chrift and we shall be faved. In fine, if we afk, What we fhall render to the Lord for his matchlefs and unparallelled favour to us, we may turn to that cxvi Pfal. and 13 ver. and there we are told what to do, I will take the cup of falvation, and call upon the name of the Lord. much to the fame purpose is that of the prophet, Micah vi. 8. He hath fhewed thee, O man, what is good, and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

And

The great concernment of gospel ministers lies in the fecond enquiry. It is our principal business to perfuade men and women to believe on the name of the Lord Jefus Christ, to commend our blessed Maker to poor finners. But fince we come not to call the righteous but finners to repentance, it is neceffary we lay the foundation in a discovery of man's natural ftate. Before we offer Chrift, we fhall fhew you need him: before we tender mercy, we fhall endeavour to represent your mifery: before you be called to repentance, we fhall fhew you are finners, who stand in need of repentance. And upon this account, we have made choice of the words nów read, which do offer a a fair occasion for a discovery of your fin, and of your mifery, on that account.

We shall not spend time in confidering the

con

connection of the words, which may perhaps afterwards fall more conveniently in our way.

The text is a general affertion, in which all ftand convicted of, and concluded under fin: For, The perfons to whom fin is attributed, are not fome fingle perfons, to a feclufion of others, but all mankind. It is not fome degenerate wretches in the heathen world; but all, Jew and Gentile, rich and poor, high and low, who have finned, and come short of the glory of God.

It is not afferted of them, that they may fin, that they are fallible, and if artfully plied by a temptation, may be taken off their feet; but that they all are already involved in the guilt of fin, and have hereby come short of the glory of God. The original word, which is here rendered come Short, is emphatical; it properly fignifies to fall fhort of the mark one aims at, or to fall behind in a race, whereby the prize is loft. Man in his firft eftate was in a fair way for glory; power he had to run the race, and the devil had no power to ftop him in it: he had not fuch weights as we now are clogged with, yet he fell fhort of the glory of God, i. e. he loft that glory in the enjoyment of God which he had fo good a profpect of; he loft the image of God, which was his glory, given him of God, with all the confequential advantages of it. We need not draw any doctrine from the words; they themselves do exprefs that which we defign to infift upon,

That all men and women, defcending from Adam in an ordinary way, have finned, and thereby come fhort of the glory of God.

This doctrine ftanding fo clear in the words, fuperfedes any further proof; and therefore, we

fhall

shall not spend time in alledging other scriptures afferting the fame thing.

Before we apply this truth, we fhall,

1. Premife a few propofitions for clearing the way to the further explication of this great and momentous truth.

2. We fhall enquire what fin formally implies. 3. Mention a property or two of it.

4. Enquire into the import of this All in the

text.

5. Shew what is implied in this expreffion, Come fhort of the glory of God.

6. Whence it is that all have finned, and thereby come fhort of the glory of God. Now of each of thefe in order, And,

Firft. We fhall premise a few propofitions for clearing the way to what we further design in the explication of this truth. The

1. Propofition we offer to you is, That God is the abfolute and independent fovereign of the world. Men do often ufurp an abfolute power over their fubjects, and claim a blind and illimited obedience; but they had need take heed they do not invade God's right, and that which is his fovereign prerogative. He is, and he only is abfolute Lord and king of the earth, as the Pfalmift fings in Pfal. xlvii. 2. The Lord most high is ter rible; he is a great king over all the earth. And indeed he alone is fit to manage fo great a province, forafmuch as there is none among the gods like unto him; neither are there any works like unto his, Pfal. lxxxvi. 8. His claim is founded upon the excellency of his nature, Jer. x. 6, 7. Forafmuch as there is none like unto thee, O Lord, thou art great, and thy name is great in might; who would not fear thee, King of nations?

For