vants of Chrift, and the ftewards of the mysteries of the gofpel; and when ye get any good by it, put it all to God's account, blefs him for it; and let the inftrument have an interest in your affections and prayers, that he may be further useful to you and others. 4. Once more and we have done. Do not account us your enemies, if we tell you the truth; we must by any means be free, in laying open your fins, and in carrying home the conviction of them to your confciences; nor dare we gratify any, by holding our peace in this matter; for if we please men, then are we not the fervants of Chrift; and 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 ourselves to confciences; and if the more we love the lefs 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 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 shalt in any ways rebuke thy neighbour, and not fuffer fin upon him; or as the laft claufe may be rendered, That thou bear not fin for him. Now, if you follow thefe advices, and if there be a fingle eye to God, and clofe dependa ence upon him both in minifter and people, mutual love and helpfulnefs, and a joint endeavour to promote the great defign of the miniftry, the glory of God in our own falvation, then our labour fhall not be in vain, but shall be blessed with increafe, and God even our God fhall blefs us. THE THE GREAT CONCERN O F SALVATION. PART I. A discovery of man's natural state, or the guilty finner convicted. ROMAN s iii. 23. For all have finned, and come short of the Glory of God. W HOEVER confiders his prefent condition, will foon fee, that his great bufinefs, 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 firft 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 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 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 question be put, What fhall we do to be faved? 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 shall 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 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? And The great concernment of gospel minifters lies in the fecond enquiry. It is our principal business to perfuade men 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 discovery of 'man's natural fate. 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 shall fhew you are finners, who stand in need of repentance. And upon this account, we have made choice of the words now read, which do offer a a fair occafion for a discovery of your fin, and of your mifery on that account. We shall not spend time in confidering the COL connection of the words, which may perhaps af terwards 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 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 lost 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 express that which we defign to infift upon, That all men and women, defcending from Adam in an ordinary way, have finned, and thereby come short of the glory of God. This doctrine ftanding fo clear in the words, fuperfedes any further proof; and therefore, we fhall |