if any foul die in its fin by our filence, then we bring the blood of fouls upon our own heads, and hazard our own fouls. We are obliged, by the manifeftation of the truth, to commend our felves to confciences; and if the more we love, the less we are loved, then God will require it at your hands. But whether you will hear, or whether you forbear, we muft, as we fhall give anfwer to the great Shepherd of the fheep, deal plainly with you. Confider but that one fcripture, Lev. xix. 17. and ye will fee reproof to be an act of great love, and that the neglect of it in God's account is hatred: "Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart. Thou fhalt in any ways rebuke thy neighbour, and not fuffer fin upon him;" or, as the laft clause may be rendered, That thou bear not fin for him. Now, if you follow these advices, and if there be a single eye to God, and clofe dependence upon him, both in minifter and people, mutual love and helpfulness, and a joint endeavour to promote the great defign of the ministry, the glory of God in our own falvation, then our labour fhall not be in vain, but fhall be bleffed with increafe, and God, even our God, fhall blefs us.

A DISCOVERY OF MAN'S NATURAL STATE; OR, THE

GUILTY SINNER CONVICTED.

Rom. iii. 23. For all have finned, and come fhort of the glory of God.

HOEVER confiders his prefent condition, will foon

WHO

in three important inquiries: "What have I done?" Jer. viii. 6. What fhall I do to be faved?" A& xvi. 30. "What fhall 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 themfelves with wearifome inquiries after happiness; yet none of them could ever give men a 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 unparalleled goodnefs has done, to the fatisfaction of all rational inquirers, in the fcriptures of truth.

If it be inquired, What have we done? our text anfwers, All men have finned, and come fhort of the glory of God. If the question be put, What hall we do to be fa

ved? look Acts xvi. 31. and there we are bid "believe on the Lord Jefus Chrift, and we fhall be faved." In fine, if we afk, What we fhall render to the Lord for his matchlefs and unparalleled favour to us, we may turn to Pfal. cxvi 13. and there we are told what to do," I will take the cup of falvation, and call upon the name of the Lord." And much to the fame purpofe 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?”

The great concernment of gofpel-minifters lies in the fecond inquiry. It is our principal bufinefs to perfunde nien and women to believe on the name of the Lord Jefus Chrift, to commend our bleffed. 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 difcovery of man's natural ftate. Before we offer Chrift, we fhall fhow you need him: before we tender mercy, we fhall endeavour to reprefent your mifery before you be called to repentance, we fhall fhew you are finners, who fland in need of repentance. And upon this account we have made choice of the words now read, which do offer a fair occafion for a difcovery of your fin, and of your mifery on that account.

We shall not spend time in confidering the connection of the words, which may perhaps afterwards fall more conveniently in our way.

The text is a general affertion, in which all stand convicted of; and concluded under fin: for,

The perfons to whom fin is attributed, are not some 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 coine fhort 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 involv ed in the guilt of fin, and have thereby come fort of the glory of God. The original word, which is here rendered come short, is emphatical; it properly fignifies to fall

fhort

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 stop him in it; he had not fuch weights as we now are clogged with, and yet he fell short of the glory of Gods i. e. he loft that glory in the enjoyment of God, which he had fo good a prospect 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 docrine from the words; they themselves do exprefs that which we defign to infift upon.

DOCT. "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, fupercedes any further proof; and therefore we fhall not spend time in producing other fcriptures afferting the fame thing. Before we apply this truth, we fhall,

I. Premife a few propofitions for clearing the way to the further explication of this great and momentous truth. II. We fball inquire what fin formerly implies.

III. Mention a property or two of it.

IV. Inquire into the import of this all in the text. V. Shew what is implied in this expreffion, Come Short of the glory of God.

VI. Whence it is that all have finned, and thereby come Short of the glory of God.

Now each of thefe in order. And,

I. We shall premise a few propofitions for clearing the way to what we further defign in the explication of this truth. The

1st Propofition we offer to you is, That God is the abfolute and independent Sovereign of the world. Men do often ufurp an abfolute power over their fubjects, and claim a blind and unlimited obedience; but they had need take heed they do not invade God's right, and that which is his fovereign prerogative. He, and he only, is abfolute Lord and King of the earth, as the Pfalmift fings in Pfal.

แ

Pfal. xlvii. 2. "The Lord most high is terrible; 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. "For afmuch as there is none like unto thee, O Lord, thou art great, and thy name is great in might, who would not fear thee, O King of nations? For to thee doth it apper. tain, forafmuch as there is none like unto thee:" And upon his creation of all things, "The Lord is a great King above all gods. The fea is his, and he made it,"

Pfal. xcv. 3. 5. "O Jacob and Ifrael, thou art my fervant, I have formed thee, thou art my fervant, O Ifrael," lfa. xliv. 21. In fine, his prefervation of all things, and the manifold mercies he loads his creatures with, do give him the noblest title to abfolute dominion; and his glorious perfections of wisdom, power, holiness, and justice, do not only fit him for it, but make his fway defirable to all who understand their own interest.

"The

2d, Take this propofition, God the abfolute Sovereign of the world has prescribed laws to all his creatures, by which he governs them. Not to speak of these laws which he has given to the inanimate part of the creation, he has prescribed men their work, he has given them his laws, whereby they are indifpenfibly obliged to live. "There is one Lawgiver, who is able to fave and destroy," James i. 12. Lord is Judge, King, and Lawgiver," Ifa. xxxiii. 22. We are not in any thing left altogether arbitrary. He who has faid to the fea, "Hitherto halt thou come, and no farther," has dealt fo likewife with man; he has limited him on every hand by his holy laws, the inconteftible ftatutes of heaven. We are obliged to eat, drink, fleep, converfe, and do every thing by rule: God has fet us our bounds as to all these thing, and thither fhould we come, and no further. Indeed, thefe limits God has fet us are not fuch as he fets to the waves of the tumultuous fea: no, he deals with us in a way fuited to our nature; he has fet fuch limits as none can pafs, till they act in direct contradiction to their very natures, till they abandon a due confideration of that wherein their greatest and chiefeft intereft lies; as will appear plain enough from that which we offer, in the

3d