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this glorious witnefs would now fpeak, as fometimes he has done, we should then need no more witnesses. He would finish the evidence, and make it anfwer our defign. Thus we fee that there are three in heaven that bear record, and fet to their feal to this great truth, the Father, Son and Spirit. Now, fure we cannot refufe what they bear teftimony to. Any crime however great, is fufficiently proven by the concurring teftimonies of two men; and if we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater, 1 John v. 9. But moreover, in the

4th Place, God's deputy in your bofoms is a witnefs of this great but fad truth that ye have all finned. Ye are witneffes against yourselves, and have actually given teftimony against yourselves in this matter, and that, (1.) In your baptifm. When you were baptized you,did then own yourfelves guilty; for as the whole need not the phyfician but the fick, fo the clean need not washing, but the defiled; and he who washes owns himself defiled. (2.) Your attendance on gospel ordinances is a teftimony to this truth, That you have finned; for they all level at the falvation of finners. (3.) The very name whereby you are called, is a testimony given to this truth. Chriftians you are called, and if any body should deny you to be fo, you would take it very highly, and look upon it as a notable indignity done you. Well, if ye be christians, that is, the people of Chrift, then you are finners; for he came to fave his people from their fins. Matth. i. 21. (4.) Is there any among you that ever prayed for pardon of fin? Sure, thefe who have not done fo, deferve. not the name of chriftians; and thefe who have done fo, whether young or old, rich or poor,

have born witness against themselves in this matter. And there is one day, when your confciences that may now either be filent, or obliged to fpeak fo flow that it can scarce well be heard, shall not only speak to make you hear it, but force you to speak this fad truth, fo that others may hear it diftinctly. But further,

5. The fcriptures bear witness against you, that you have finned. 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 fhall fee a cloud of teftimonies to this purpose. As it is written, there is none righteous, no not one, there is none that underftandeth, there is none that feeketh after God. They all are gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable, there 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 fcripture cannot be broken, John x. 35.

6. The minifters of the gofpel bear witness a gainst you, that you have finned. This is our work, to be witneffes to the truths of God, of which this is one, That all have finned: and to this truth we give teftimony, (1.) In that the very defign of our office proclaims this truth, and afferts the undoubted certainty of it. What the defign of our office is, the apostle in that I Tim. iv. 16. shortly tells us, it is to fave ourselves and them who bear us. We, and ye who hear us, are finners, becaufe weneed to be faved. An of fice fet up for the faving of fouls, is a ftanding teftimony and witness to this truth, That all have finned and when a minifter 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 teftimony 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 finned, and thereby come fhort of the glory of God. (3.) We give a teftimony to this great truth, when we preach Christ to you; for the whole gospel revelation goes upon this fuppofition, That all have finned. When we offer you a Saviour we affert that you are loft; When we press you to employ a physician, we affert that you are fick; when, in Chrift's ftead, we intreat and beseech you to be reconciled to God, we declare you are enemies; in fine, when we proclaim to you remiffion of fins, we clearly give teftimony against you, that ye are finners, who ftand in need of pardon. (4.) The iffue of our work will prove you all finners. One of two will infallibly be the iffue of our work among you; either we will obtain your confent to the blessed gospel contrivance for the falvation of finners, or we shall have a refufal given us: and whatfoever way it go, we fhall in the iffue give in a teftimony to this truth: if we obtain a favourable anfwer, then we must bear teftimony that you did receive Christ our Lord upon his own terms, and therefore were fimmers; if you reject the counfel of God against yourselves, then we must bear witnefs that you are guilty of the greatest fin 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 v. 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 Morcover, in the

7th Place, The whole creation afferts this truth, That all have finned and come hort of the glory of God; and confequently that part of i which ye ufe, afferts no lefs of you in particular The apostle, Rom. viii. 22. tells us, That the whole creation groneth, and travaileth in pain together until now. Thefe creatures you daily ufe, they grone. If your ears were not deafened by fin, you might hear the grones of the ground you tread upon, of the food ye eat, and of the raiment ye put on. Well, what is the matter? what occafions these grones? The apoftle tells us in the 20 and 21 ver. of that chaper, it is made fubject to vanity, and to the bondage of corruption, for the creature was made fubject to vanity, not willingly, but by reafon of him who hath fubjected the fame in hope: because the creature itfelf alfo fhall be delivered from the bondage of corruption, into the glorious liberty of the children of God. Here the apostle afferts, (i.) That the creature is made fubject to vanity, that is, is liable to be abused by men to other ends than it was at first designed for: it is fubject to this vanity, of falling fhort of the defign of its creation, which was the glory of God, and of being abused to his dishonour through the corruption of man. (2.) He afferts that it was not willingly made fubject to it. O fhame, the brute creatures condemn man. Man was willingly fubject to vanity, did willingly defift from the profecution of that which was the defign of his creation. The reft of the creatures are paffive in it; it is a fort of a force put upon them. It is a violence done to the creatures, when they are abufed to the fervice of fin: it is contrary to their very natures; for they ftill continue according to the laws which God fet them in the beginning.

(3.) The only thing that makes them continue in being when they are fo abused by man, is the appointment of God. God continues them in being, not for this end, to be abused to a fubferviency to the lufts of men, though they make this ufe of the goodness of God; but that by the continued effects of it, and proofs of undeferved kindnefs, he may lead them to repentance. (4.) The apoftle afferts, That the creation fhall be a fharer with the fons of God in their glorious delivery from the bondage of corruption, that is, When the children of God, thefe who have received Christ, and by him power to become the fons of God, fhall be fully freed from the remainders of the guilt, power, and pollution of fin, then the creature fhall no more be used contrary to God's design in its creation, but fhall, in the hand of the rational creature, again become an inftrument for fhewing forth the glory of God, as it was at firft defigned to be. And to fhew that the condition of the creature requires this, He, (5.) in the 22 ver. afferts, That the whole creation groneth, that is, complains of its hard usage, of its being abused by mens fin: and he extends this to the whole creation, that there may be no accefs for any who ufe the creatures to free themselves of that which the complaint runs against, to wit, fin. How can any free himself of fin, while all his enjoyments witness against him that he has finned? O finners, the Sun that shines upon you grones that it must give light to a finner, one who ufes the light for an encouragement to fin against God. The ground ye tread upon grones with the weight of finners. The food that feeds you, complains that it must be fo horribly perverted, as to ferve the lufts of a

finner,

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