fhall not spend time in alledging other fcriptures 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 defign 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

For to thee doth it appertain, for as much 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. Jacob and Ifrael, thou art my fervant, I have formed thee, thou art my fervant, O Ifrael, Ifa. xliv. 21. In fine, his prefervation of all things, and the manifold benefits he loads his creatures with, do give him the nobleft title to abfolute dominion; and his glorious perfections of wisdom, power, holiness and juftice, do not only fit him for it, but make his fway defirable to all who underftand their own interest.

2. Take this propofition, God the absolute fovereign of the world has prefcribed laws to all his creatures, by which he governs them. Not to fpeak of thefe 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 indifpenfably obliged to live. There is one law-giver, who is able to fave and to deftroy, Jam. i. 12. The Lord is judge, king, and law-giver, Ifa. xxxiii. 22. We are not in any thing left altogether arbitrary. He who has faid to the fea, Hitherto fhalt thou come, and no further, has dealt fo likewife with man; he has li mited him on every hand by his holy laws, the inconteftable statutes 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 thefe things, 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 na

tures,

tures, till they abandon a due confideration of that wherein their greatest concern and chiefest intereft lies, as will appear plain enough from that which we offer in the

3d Place, for clearing the way, That the great law-giver of the world has annexed rewards and punishments to these laws he has made. The authority of God is a tender point indeed. He has. faid, he will not give his glory to another, and therefore, he has taken care to guard the laws he has made by fuitable rewards and punishments. God indeed is not obliged to give man any further reward for his obedience, than what flows from the obedience itself, which is fufficient to be a reward to itself, for in keeping God's commands there is great reward. Pfal. xix. 11. But fuch is his matchlefs and unbounded goodness that he propofed no less reward of obedience than eternal life, a reward fuitable, not to man's obedience, which deferves no fuch thing, but to the bounty of the giver. On the other hand, again, he has annexed -a dreadful penalty to his laws; break them we may if we will; for God has not made it impoffible we fhould; but if we do, then the heavy curfe of God, will follow us. Curfed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them. The fame mouth that pronounced the law, pronounces the curfe, Gal. iii. 10. And we know, whom he curfes they are curfed, and whom he blesseth they are blessed indeed.

4. Thefe laws, which God hath given us to walk by, have a fourfold property mentioned by the apoftle, Rom. vii. 12, 14. Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, just and good. And ver. 14. We know that the law is fpiritual, but I am carna!, and fold under fin.

(1.) We fay it is holy; the law of God is the exact tranfcript of the holy will of God. There is nothing in it difagreeable to, or unworthy of the holy God, who always acts like himself, and is of purer eyes than to behold, iniquity, or look upon fin.

(2.) It is juft. It is the very measure of all juftice amongst men, it is a law that gives God his due and man his: nay, man has no right or property in, or title to any thing but from this law. What this makes his, is fo, and no more can juftly be claimed.

(3.). It is good. It is not a law made to gratify the lufts of an earth-worm, it is not a law made without regard to the advantage of these who live under it but God in framing his law, has exactly confidered what might be for man's good, both in time and in eternity; and has in matchlefs goodnefs and infinite wifdom, ordered the matter fo, That duty and intereft go ever together, and a man can never act against his duty but he wrongs his real intereft, even abstracting from the confideration of future rewards or punishments in another life.

(4.) The law is fpiritual. It is not fuch a law as is prescribed by man, which only reaches the outward man; no, it is fpiritual, reaching to the foul and all its inward actings. It prescribes bounds to the spirits of men, obliging them to inward obedience and conformity to it in their motions, inclinations and affections; not a thought, nay, nor the circumstance of a thought, but falls under this fpiritual and extenfive law, which made the Pfalmift fay, I have feen an end of all perfection, but thy commandment is exceeding broad, Pfal. cxix.

96. The way being thus cleared, we shall now, in the

Second place, fhew you what fin is. Sin which is here charged upon all, properly and formally imports,

1. A want of conformity to the law, of which we have been difcourfing. The law requires and enjoins duty. It obliges us not only to actions fo and fo qualified, but to have a right principle of action; it not only enjoins holy thoughts, holy words, and holy actions, but moreover it requires that the very frame and temper of our hearts be holy; and when we fall short of this, then we fin. That the law obliges us as to the frame of our heart is plain, fince it requires that the tree be good as well as the fruit, that the worship and fervice we perform to God, be with the whole ftrength, foul and heart.

2. Sin imports a tranfgreffion of the law, for fin is a tranfgreffion of the law, 1 John iii. 4. Indeed when tranfgreffion is taken in a large fenfe, it comprehends all fin; but it may be, and is frequently reftricted to actual fins, and fins of commiffion, as the former branch of the defcription is to original fin, and fins of omiffion. Sin is an oppofition to the law of God. God bids do, arife, work: man tranfgreffes, breaks the command, and fits ftill idle. God forbids fuch and fuch finful ations, man does them in oppofition to the command of God, which flows from a contempt of God's authority; fo that we may fay,.

3. That every fin implies in its formal nature contempt of God, as that which is its fource. Sin flows from a fecret enmity of heart against the Almighty, and therefore carries in it a high contempt of him. It may be men are fo blind that

they