The great concern of salvation

Front matter

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CHAPTER II. The subject discussed and applied 19

Sect. I. — The charge read and opened 19

Great evils implied in sin 25

Aggravations of sin 31

Sect. II. — Witnesses against the sinner 34

Sect. III. — Address to different classes of persons 39

Sect. IV. — Satisfaction required of the sinner. ... 55

Sect. V. — Reasonableness of this satisfaction 59

Sect. VI.— The misery of sinners 66

Part II

MAN'S RECOVERY BY FAITH IN CHRIST, OR THE CON- VICTED SINNER'S CASE AND CURE.

CHAPTER I.

The jailer's question considered 70

Conviction for sin characterized 71

1* 5 t) CONTENTS.

Page

The nature of salvation for which the sinner

is anxious 74

The nature of the sinner's concern 76

CHAPTER II.

Practical improvement of the subject 82

Sect. I. — The reader put upon trial . . 82

Sect. II. — Address to the unconvinced 87

Sect. III. — Address to those who are awakened.. . 99

CHAPTER III. The apostle's answer to the jailer considered 100

Sect. I. — The answer explained 100

Sect. II. — The convictions and feelings of the sinner immediately before believing .... 102

Sect. III. — Character and work of Christ 104

Sect. IV. & V.— Nature of faith 116-123

Sect. VI. — Import of salvation 128

Sect. VII. — Certainty of salvation to true believers 133

CHAPTER IV. Improvement of the subject 138

Sect. I. — Several sorts of unbelievers described. . 138

Sect. II.— What are no true marks of faith 144

Sect. III. — Some of the marks of saving faith. ... 154

Sect. IV. — Address to unbelievers 163

Sect. V. — Address to those who are in doubt 170

Sect. VI. — Address to those who have reason to

say they believe 1 74

PART I.

A DISCOVERY OF MAN'S NATURAL STATE; OR, THE GUILTY SINNER CONVICTED.

Rev. iii. 22.— All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.

Chapter I. Explication Of The Subject

Section I. Preliminary Remarks, — The great concern of man is suggested by three important inquiries ; What have I done ? What shall I do to be saved? What shall I render to the Lord ? To the question, What have we done ? the Bible answers, "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." If it be asked, What shall we do to be saved ? the answer is, " Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." And if it be asked, " What shall we render to the Lord for all his mercies ?" we may reply in the words of the Psalmist, "I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord ;" or in the language of the prophet, " He hath showed thee,

O rn/in, 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 ?"

Ministers of the Gospel are principally concerned with the second inquiry. They are to persuade men to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. But as they come not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance, the foundation must be laid in a correct view of man's natural state. Before we offer Christ, we must show your need of him; before we present the offers of mercy, we must describe your misery ; before we call you to repentance, we must show your guilt. On this account your attention is now invited to the words of the apostle, " all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." This passage contains a general assertion, in which all stand convicted of sin. All, rich and poor, high and low, Jew and Gentile, have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. It is not asserted, that they may sin ; and if tempted, may fall ; but that they are already involved in guilt. The original word rendered come short, is emphatical ; it properly signifies to fall short of the mark aimed at, or to fall behind in a race, so as to lose the prize. Man, in his first state, had a fair prospect for glory. He had power to run the race ; and the enemy had no ability to prevent his winning the prize. But though man had originally no encumbrances to retard his progress, yet he fell short of the glory of God. He lost the peculiar enjoyment of the Divine favour, of which he had so fair a prospect ; and the image of God, which was his glory, together with the advantages by which it was to be attended.

The text of Scripture, " All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God," expresses the sentiment, That all, tvho have descended from Adam in the ordinary way, have sinned, and thereby come short of the glory of God. A few propositions will prepare the way for a consideration of this momentous truth.

First. God is the absolute and independent sovereign of the world. " The Lord Most High is terrible ; he is a great king over all the earth," and he alone is able to manage the affairs of so great a province ; for there is none like him, neither are there any works like his works. The excellence of his nature gives him alone a claim to absolute sovereignty, " Forasmuch 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 appertain, forasmuch as there is none like unto thee." His right to rule is also founded upon his being the Creator of all things, " The Lord is a great King above all gods. The sea is his own, he made it." " O Jacob and Israel, thou art my servant ; I have formed thee, thou art my servant, O Israel." In short, his preserving all things, and his manifold mercies to his creatures, give him the best of all claims to absolute dominion. And his infinite wisdom, power, holiness, and justice, not only render him a perfect ruler, but make entire obedience to his authority desirable to all who know their best interests.

Second. God has given laws to all his creatures, by which he governs them. Not to mention those for the control of the inanimate creation ; he has prescribed to men their work. " There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy." " For the Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our Lawgiver, the Lord is our King." We are not in any thing left to our own arbitrary choice. He who has said to the sea, " Hitherto shalt thou come, and no farther," has likewise so dealt with man. But the holy laws by which on every hand he has limited man, are not like those set to the waves of the sea ; for God deals with us in a manner suited to our nature. Reason is given to man; and his limits he cannot pass, without abandoning his highest interest.

Third. The great Lawgiver has annexed rewards and punishments to his laws. The authority of God cannot be disregarded with impunity. His glory he will not give to another ; and therefore his laws are guarded with suitable rewards and punishments. He was under no obligation to give any reward for obedience, beyond that which flows from obedience. And this is sufficient ; for in keeping his commandments " there is great reward." But such was his goodness, that he promised to reward obedience with eternal life. Now this reward is greater than obedience deserved, and suited only to the bounty of the giver. On the other hand, a dreadful penalty is annexed to disobedience. God has not made it impossible for us to break his laws, if we choose to do it ;■ but if we do, the curse is inevitable, " Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them."

Fourth. These laws have a fourfold property. " Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, just, and good." "We know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin." The law is holy. It is an exact transcript of the holy will of God. There is nothing in it unworthy of Him, who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. The law is just. It is given as the rule of justice among men. It renders to God his due, as well as to man. Man has no title to any thing, but from this law. Beyond what this grants, nothing can be justly claimed. The law is good. It was made with regard to the welfare of those who live under it ; and not to gratify the lusts of the wicked. And with this regard to our good in time and eternity, our duty and interest are made inseparable ; and disobedience and punishment are alike inseparable. The law is spiritual. It is not like human laws, which extend only to outward actions ; but it is spiritual, reaching to all the thoughts and intents of the heart. This made the Psalmist exclaim, "I have seen an end of all perfection, but thy commandment is exceeding broad."

Section II. Nature, Extent, fyc, of Sin.^— First. Sin is a want of conformity to the law, of which we have already spoken. This law regards not only actions, but the principle from which they proceed. It not only enjoins holy thoughts, words, and actions ; but it moreover requires that the habitual temper of our hearts be holy. If we come short of this, we sin. The tree must be good, or the fruit cannot be good. And our services must be performed with all the strength and heart and mind.

Second. Sin imports also a transgression of the law. " For sin is the transgression of the law." Indeed, transgression, in its widest sense, comprehends all sin ; but it is frequentlyrestricted to actual sins, as the former branch of this description is restricted to sins of omission. Sin is opposition to the law of God. God commands us to arise and work, but man refuses and sits still : God forbids specified sinful actions ; but man disregards the prohibition and performs them.

Third. Hence, sin in its nature implies contempt of God ; for it flows from a secret enmity against him. Men may be so blinded as not to view it in this light ; but God makes breaking and contemning the law to be the same thing. " Thus saith the Lord, for three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof, because they have despised the law of the Lord, and have not kept his commandments, and their lies caused them to err, 2 after the which their fathers have walked." In the view of most men, sin is a harmless thing ; but when seen in its true nature, it is far otherwise ; since it is nothing less than trampling on the authority and goodness of God, and endeavouring, as it were, to dethrone him.

Fourth. But for the further elucidation of this subject, notice a twofold inseparable property or adjunct of sin. First, sin is the defilement of the soul. The beauty and glory of man consists in his conformity to the holy law of God ; and so far as he deviates from this standard, he is polluted and denied. God has said of sin, " Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate." Secondly, sin is also attended with a liability to punishment. " The wages of sin is death." " Cursed is every one tha<. continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them."

II. But the word all, in the phrase " all have sinned," has a very extensive import.

First. It implies that persons of all ages are involved in the same common misery; the child, as well as the old man who is stooping into the grave. If children have not sinned " after the similitude of Adam's transgression," they have derived sin enough from Adam to defile them. The aged need not envy even the infant of days ; for the youngest has sin enough to render it depraved, vicious, and guilty.

Second. Persons of all professions and all ranks are sinners. The apostle speaks of all mankind in two classes, Jew and Gentile, and proves them all to be sinners. Even those very men who have so far forgot themselves as to fancy that they are above all law, are, like others, liable to punishment, for violating the law of God.

Section III. Import of the phrase, " Come short of the glory of God" — First. Man has fallen short of the glory he had by the conformity of his nature to God. In his first estate he was indeed " the image and glory of God." How wonderfully did the mind of innocent Adam, full of light, represent that God is light, and that in him is no darkness at all ! Other creatures had some fainter representations of the divine glory, wisdom, and power, but man alone, in this lower world, was capable of representing the holiness, righteousness, purity, and other moral perfections of his Maker ; and on this account man was "the glory of God." God, as it were, gloried in him as the masterpiece of this visible creation, in whom more of himself was to be seen than in all the rest besides. But this peculiar excellence man has now lost ; he has fallen short of that which made him the glory of God.

Second. Man has lost the glory he had as God's deputy in the world. He was made lord of God's works on earth. Animals came to him to pay homage, and receive names from him in paradise. But now the " crown is fallen from his head ;" he has come short of this glory : the creatures refuse subjection to him.

Third. Man has come short of the glory he had in the enjoyment of God in paradise. He had the honour and happiness of conversing freely in Eden with his Maker. And what more could he want, while this blessed intimacy was kept up with the all-sufficient God? But of this he has now come short.

Fourth. Man has come short of the glory he had in prospect. He was originally well furnished for a journey to glory. But the expression, "falling short," contains more than this. Though at first we may suppose it to point only at the negative, yet it certainly includes the positive ; and therefore it implies, not only that man has lost his original beauty and conformity to the image of God, but that he is fallen and denied by sin.

Fifth. Not only has man lost the dominion he had, but he is become a slave to sin. He who once was so exalted, is now debased to the image of Satan. He is now exposed to insult, and his life is in jeopardy, even from the meanest of the creatures that once yielded to him as their sovereign. He is now, as it were, scarcely capable of looking towards God, with whom he once enjoyed delightful and soul-refreshing communion. The sight of God, which once was his life, is now to him as death.

Sixth. Not only has man forfeited his title to future happiness, but by sin he has merited endless and inconceivable wo. From how high a hope, into what an abyss of misery, has man fallen by sin ! Where now is the glory ?

But this subject directs us to the source of all this misery. It flows from the guilt of Adam's first sin. By the wise, just, and holy appointment of God, Adam represented all his posterity. Had he stood, in him we all had stood; we should then have retained our innocence, and with it the love and the smiles of heaven. But by the disobedience of this one man we were all made sinners. " Therefore, as by one 2* man sin entered into the world, and death by sin ; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned."

It flows also from the natural depravity of man transmitted to us. We are shapen in iniquity. We cannot bring a clean thing out of an unclean. Our natures have an inclination to evil, "only evil continually." And it flows from abounding temptations. As our hearts are prone to evil, so every thing in this present disorder on account of sin, is suited to carry on the infection. The creatures, by reason of sin, are made subject to vanity. They are made subservient to the lust of men ; and the devil and our corrupt hearts daily abuse them to this end. Thus all men have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

OF SALVATION. If

Chapter II. The Subject Discussed And Applied

Section I. Tlie charge read and opened. — The charge brought against you, reader, is not a slight misdemeanor, that may be atoned for by a bare acknowledgment, or a heartless cry for mercy. It is one of awful magnitude, for it is that of sin against the great Sovereign of the world. Sin is an ordinary word, and most men conclude that but little is comprehended in it. But in reality there is more in it than men or angels can ever fully unfold. Do not consider this a groundless allegation ; but consider well the reasons upon which it is founded.

I. Your serious attention is first invited to some views of sin.

First. View it in the glass of God's law. The Most High and Holy God has exhibited his will in two tables, containing rules that are holy, just, and every way advantageous for the government of man. Here, you may see sin dashing in pieces these two tables, in a much worse sense than Moses did. Every sin throws them to the ground; for, "Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of

2C THE GREAT CONCERN

all." Is it a small thing to trample under foot the holy and righteous law of God, that law which is the image of perfect holiness and spotless purity?

Second. Take a view of sin in the nature of God, the fountain of all glory, excellency, and majesty, and how hateful will it appear ! Nothing in all the world, but sin, is opposed to God. The meanest creature, the crawling insect, has nothing in its nature really opposed to the nature of God. Sin, and sin alone, is opposed. With this he cannot dwell. " Evil shall not dwell with him, nor sinners stand in his sight." "O, do not this abominable thing that I hate."

Third. View sin in the threatening of God's law, and see how it is there estimated. All the power of heaven, and the wrath of God, are arrayed against sin. Take one instance in the seventh chapter of the book of Joshua. There, a people accustomed to victory retreat before the enemy, and fall a prey to a people devoted to destruction ; and, more than this, God calls all the people accursed, and says, " Neither will I be w T ith you any more, except ye destroy the accursed from among you." But why ? what means this vengeance ? There was a sin committed ; Achan had taken some of the spoil, contrary to the Divine permission. Here a single sin brought down the threatening^ of God against a whole nation. In short, look through the Bible, and you will see one threatening full of temporal, and another full of eternal plagues ; one full of external, and another of internal and spiritual woes ; and all directed against sin.

Fourth. View sin in the judgments of God. In one nation, thousands are falling before the avenging enemy ; the sword is glutted with blood. In another, as many are swept off by pestilence ; and all are wearing out by time. Go to the churchyards, and see the rubbish of many generations. Find you nothing of sin in all this ? As Jehu exclaimed, when he saw the dead sons of Ahab, " Who slew all these ?" Who brought down these sons of pride, that had just been exulting in warlike glory ? Who filled your churchyards with fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, high and low, rich and poor? Surely sin has done it ; for " as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin ; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned."

Fifth. Listen to one under conviction of sin ; read the eighty-eighth Psalm ; andthere'witness the trouble of a soul filled with the terrors of the wrath of God. Now, when you see one thus crying out in anguish of spirit, and tossed by the billows of divine wrath, were you to ask the occasion of all his distress, he would tell you, sin has caused it all.

Sixth. View sin in the hateful and enormous crimes that are committed. They bring infamy and disgrace even in the eyes of men. Human nature, corrupt as it is, shrinks at their enormity. There are sins which " are not so much as named among the Gentiles." Now, if a man be guilty of these, he becomes odious, even in the eyes of the world. But why 1 what is there so odious in these crimes, that men flee from the persons guilty of them ? There is sin in them ; and hence they are so hateful ; and the only thing that distinguishes these from others, is their circumstantial aggravations ; for in their nature all sins agree. The least of them, as well as the greatest, is a violation of the holy law of God, and a contempt of the great Lawgiver. And if sin appears so odious in these crying enormities, in reality it is as much so when less perceptible in sins more familiar to our corrupt natures.

Seventh. View sin in the case of the finally lost. O ! could you look into the pit of wo, and see the damned in chains of darkness, you might then have some sense of the evil of sin. It is sin which has kindled the flames of everlasting- fire. It is sin which thrusts the damned down to hell ; it is sin which holds them there, and will hold them there forever. Could you have a just impression of these things, how hateful would sin appear !

Eighth. View sin in the sufferings of Christ. Here, sinner, as in a glass, behold your own heart. You think it a little matter that you have sinned ; you "roll sin as a sweet morsel under your tongue." But come, now, and see it holding the sword ; or rather thrusting it into the Saviour's side ! Here is a sight which made the earth tremble, and the sun hide his f ice. Here you see how God looks upon sin. All the affection he bore to the Son of his eternal love, could not stay the hand of justice from inflicting death upon him, for the sin of the world. Here you may see more of the evil of sin than anywhere else. Deep indeed must the pollution be, if nothing but the blood of the Son of God could wash it away. Never did we have more dreadful evidence of the power of sin than when it blinded the eyes of men, so that they could not discern " the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth ;" though his Divine nature daily beamed through his human, in words which none but God could speak, and works which none but God could do. Yet such was the power of sin, that it hurried men to the awful crime of imbruing their hands in the blood of the Son of God.

But perhaps some may ask, what have we to do with this ? We have never put to death the Son of God, and hence we cannot here see any crime of our own. But suppose we grant what you say as to your innocence in this matter, yet here we see much of the nature of sin ; since all sin partakes of the same common nature, and is every way equal to, if not the very same, against which God in so awful a manner manifested his displeasure, when he " spared not his own Son," but "laid on him the iniquity of us all." But does not that very sin lie at your door? Dare you raise your eyes to Heaven, and say, that you received Christ the first time an offer of him was made to you ? If not, then you do as much as to say that putting him to death was no crime. By your conduct you justify the Jews, and thus in their crimes you may see your own. There can be no neutral ground here. All to whom the Gospel comes, must be either for or against the Jews in their rejecting and crucifying Christ ; and in no other way can we give testimony against them, than by believing the Gospel report, that he was the Son of God, the Saviour of the world. So far as we lack this belief, we are guilty of the death of Christ ; for unbelief subscribes to the charge of the Jews against him, and declares him an impostor. You are either a believer or an unbeliever. If a believer, then it was for your very sins that Christ was crucified. For " he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. All we, like sheep, have gone astray ; we have turned every one to his own way ; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." If you are an unbeliever, then you reject the witness Christ gave of himself; and therefore you practically declare him an impo-stor, and worthy of death ; and you virtually give your consent to the cruelty of the Jews in the sentence of his condemnation.

II. Notice also some of the great evils implied in sin.

First. The least sin has atheism in it. An Atheist, or one who denies the existence of a God, is a creature so degenerate, that some have doubted whether there ever was a human being who disbelieved the existence of God. But there are many practical Atheists, who "profess that they know God, but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto 3 every good work reprobate." The Psalmist thus describes the natural man : " The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God." From this state of the heart flows a train of practical impieties ; " Corrupt are they, and have done abominable iniquity ; there is none that doeth good." Now the Psalmist here speaks of the whole race of Adam ; and the Apostle to the Romans employs the passage above quoted to prove that " all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." And, indeed, do we not all deny his sovereignty when we violate his laws ? When we commit sin, do we not deny and dishonour his holiness ? Do we not disparage his wisdom, when we set up our own will as the guide of our actions ? And do we not deny his all-sufficiency when we find more in sin or in the creature than in him ? In short, sin, one way or another, is a denial of all God's attributes, and therefore every sin has Atheism in it ; and they who are most ready to question this truth are probably the most guilty.

Second. Every sin has idolatry in it. But you say you have never bowed down to an idol ; you were better taught. But do you think that Pagan rites alone have idolatry in them ? The pr©phet Ezekiel speaks of those who were as punctual as you are in attending upon the ex-

OF SALVATIOX. 27

ternal duties of religion ; they were externally in covenant with God as well as you. Nor is it at all improbable that they abjured external idolatry ; for the Jews after the Babylonish captivity, when Ezekiel lived, never followed idols as before. Yet hear the message of the Prophet to them : " Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and have put the stumbling-block of their iniquity before their face." Every one is an idolater who gives to any thing but God that place in his heart which belongs to God alone. Who is not guilty of this when he serves sin ? For by serving sin, he substitutes either himself or Satan in God's room.

Third. Sin has blasphemy in it. It reproaches God. They who " set their mouth against the heavens" are not the only blasphemers, but those also who reproach God in their actions. " But the soul that doeth ought presumptuously, whether he be born in the land or a stranger, the same reproacheth the Lord ; and that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Because he hath despised the word of the Lord and hath broken his commandment, that soul shall be utterly cut off; his iniquity shall be upon him." God in his laws designed to manifest his wisdom as the Supreme Governor of the world. But the sinner's conduct charges God with folly, inasmuch as he prefers his own will to the divine commands. Sin also reproaches God's goodness ; for in refusing subjection to his laws, the sinner practically declares that these laws have not sufficient goodness in them to claim his obedience ; that God by them has deprived him of that good which ought to have been conceded. And sin likewise reproaches the righteousness and holiness of God ; for these attributes are stamped upon that law, w T hich sinners reject and trample on. " He that believeth not God hath made him a liar," and to disbelieve God is to accuse him either of unrighteousness or folly. Now this part of the charge goes even beyond Atheism ; for the Atheist entirely disowns God, and so entertains no such unsuitable thoughts of him as he who owns him, and yet by his practice accuses him of ignorance, unrighteousness or folly.