Malic:

"cu. dit this glorious witness would now speak, as someof Jare times he has done, we should then need no more of you, we witnesses. He would finish the evidence, and zuen I had make it answer our design. · Thus we see that

there are three in heaven that bear record, and set

to their feal to this great truth, the Father, Son and him an Spirit. Now, fure we cannot refuse what they bear 5. Here testimony to. Any crime however great, is suf -ofe changeficiently proven by the concurring testimonies of

two men; and if we 'receive the witness of men, As I the witness of God is greater, i John v. 9. But Se deato moreover, in the m his ep . 4th Place, God's 'deputy in your bofoms is a im to witness of this great but sad truth that ye have all

finned. Ye are witnesses against yourselves, and i od, they have actually given testimony against yourselves nce again in this matter, and that, (1.) In your baptisin. h, and When you were baptized you did then own youre bare

m selves guilty; for as the whole need not the physi-
ce are decian but the sick, so the clean need not washing,
can now but the defiled; and he who washes owns himself
the na d efiled. (2.) Your attendance on gospel ordinan.
nii.
A ces is a teftimony to this truth, That you have

finned; for they all level at the salvation of sin-
ners. (3.) The very name whereby you are call-

ed, is a testimony given to this truth. Christians itnels are you are called, and if any body should deny you the li to be so, you would take it very highly, and look

· upon it as a notable indignity done you. Well, ad they if ye be christians, that is, the people of Christ,

" then you are sinners; for he came to save his

people from their fins. Matth. i. 21. (4.) Is fices of

there any among you that ever prayed for pardon
of sin? Sure, these who have not done so, deserve
not the name of christians; and these who have
done so, whether young or old, rich or poor,'

nity, 10

have born witness against themfelves in this matter. And there is one day, when your consciences that may now either be silent, or obliged to fpeak so now that it can scarce well be heard, shall not only speak to make you hear it, but force you to Tpeak this sad truth, fo that others may hear it distinctly. : But further, , :

5. The scriptures bear witness against you, that you have sinned. This is every where their voice. The book of God is full of this certain and fad. truth. Look but forward to the 10 verfe of this chapter, and there you shall see a clouds of tefti.' monies to this purpose. As it is written there is.... none righteous, no not one, there is none that uns: derstandeth, there is none that feeketh after: Godo They all are gone out of the way, they are together :: become unprofitable, tbere is none that doth good, no not one. Among all the race of Adam, the fcriptures of truth make not one exception, and therefore, ye are all guilty ; for the scripture can. not be broken, John X. 35.

6. The ministers of the gospel bear witness a, . gainst you, that you have sinned. This is our : work, to be witnesses to the truths of God, of which this is one, That all have finned : and to this truth we give testimony, (1.) In that the very design of our office proclaims this truth, and asserts the undoubted certainty' of it. What the design of our office is, the apostle in that I Tim. iv. 16. shortly tells us, it is to save ourselves and them who bear us. We, and ye who hear us, are finners, because we need to be saved. An of fice set up for the saving of souls, is a standing testimony and witness to this truth, That all have finned: and when a minister comes to any con. gregation, then it is one part of his business to

bear

bear witness for God, that all of them have finned. (2.) We give a testimony to this truth, That ye, have finned, in as far as we do proclaim to you in God's name, and by the warrant of his word, That ye have sinned, and thereby come short of the glory of God. (3.) We give a testimony to this great truth, when we preach Christ to you; for the whole gospel revelation goes upon this supposition, That all have inned. When we offer you a Saviour we assert that you are lost; When we press you to employ a physician, we assert that you are fick; when, in Christ's stead, we intreat and beseech you to be reconciled to God, we declare you are enemies; in fine, when we proclain to you remission of sins, we clearly give testimony against you, that ye are sinners, who stand in need of pardon. (4.) The issue of our work will prove you all finners. One of two will infallibly be the issue of our work among you; either we will obtain your consent to the blessed gospel contrivance for the salvation of finners, or <ve shall have a refusal giyen us: and whatsoever way it go, we shall in the issue give in a testimony to this truth: if we obtain a favourable answer, then we must bear testimony that you did receive Christ our Lord upon his own terms, and therefore were sinners; if you reject the counsel of God against yourselves, then we must bear witness that you are guilty of the greatest sin which any of the fons of Adam can be guilty of, unbelief, which makes God a liar, as the apostle John has it, i John y. 10. He that believeth not God hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son; and this is the record that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son Moreover, in the

gether crone. Hear theoodye is the male tells de fubjecom

.. 7th Place, The whole creation afferts this truth, That all have sinned and come short of the glory of God; and consequently that part of it which ye use, asserts no less of you in particular. The apostle, Rom. viii. 22. tells us, That the whole creation groneth, and travaileth in pain together until now. These creatures you daily use,

they grone. If your ears were not deafened by sin, ' you might hear the grones of the ground you

tread upon, of the food yc eat, and of the raiment ye put on. Well, what is the matter? what oc- 1 casions these grones? The apostle tells us in the 20 and 21 ver. of that chaper, it is made subject to vanity, and to the bondage of corruption, for the creature was made subject to vanity, not wil.. lingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the fame in hope : because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bordage of corruption, into the glorious liberty of the children of God, Here the apostle asserts, (1.) That the creature is made subject to vanity, that is, is liable to be abused by men to other ends than it was at first designed for: it is subject to this vanity, of falling short of the design of its creation, which was the glory of God, and of being abused to his dishonour through the corruption of man. (2.) He asserts that it was not willingly made subject to it. O shame, the brute creatures condemn man. Man was willing, ly subject to vanity, did willingly desist from the prosecution of that which 'was the delign of his creation. The rest of the creatures are passive in it; it is a sort of a force put upon them. It is a violence done to the creatures, when they are a. buled to the service of sin: it is contrary to their very natures; for they still continue according to the laws which Cod let them in the beginning.

then the bond of God in creation Chaco (4.) hindi

(3.) The only thing that makes them continue in
being when they are so abused by man, is the ap-
pointment of God. God continues them in be-
ing, not for this end, to be abused to a subfervi-
ency to the lusts of men, though they make this
use of the goodness of God; but that by the con-
tinued effects of it, and proofs of undeserved kind-
ness, he may lead them to repentance. (4.) The
apostle asserts, That the creation shall be a sharer
with the fons of God in their glorious delivery
from the bondage of corruption, that is,. When
the children of God, these who have received
Christ, and by him power to become the sons of
God; shall be fully freed from the remainders of
the guilt, power, and pollution of sin, then the
creature shall no' more be used contrary to God's.
design in its creation, but shall, in the hand of the
rational creature, again become an instrument for
shewing forth the glory of God, as it was at first
designed to be. And to shew that the condition
of the creature requires this, He, (5.) in the 22
ver. asserts, That the whole creation groneth, that
is, complains of its hard usage, of its being abused ,
by mens sin: and he extends this to the whole
creation, that there may be no access for any who
use the creatures to free themselves of that which
the complaint runs against, to wit, sin. , How can
any free himself of sin, while all his enjoyments
witness against him that he has sinned? O sinners,
the Sun that shines upon you grones that it must
give light to a sinner, one who uses the light for
an encouragement to sin against God. The ground
ye tread upon grones with the weight of finners.
The food that feeds you, complains that it must
be so borribly perverted, as to serve the lufts of a

· finner,