2. His work, 'He is come to seek and to save.' The first word, 'to seek,' showeth his diligence ; he leaveth no place unsought where his hidden ones are. The second word, ' to save,' showeth his suflSciency of merit and power ; both show his kindness and good-will to mankind, to recover us out of our lapsed estate.
3. The object of this grace and favour, ' That which was lost.' The object of Christ's salvation is man lost and undone.
Doct. That the great end and business of Christ's coming is to seek and save that which is lost.
Here I shall inquire two things by way of explication. —
1. In what sense we are said to be lost.
2. How Christ cometh to seek and save such.
I. In what sense we are said to be lost ; two ways, really and indeed, or in our own sense and apprehension.
1. Really and indeed ; so we are lost to God and lost to ourselves. As to God, he hath no glory, love, and service from us, and so is de- prived and robbed of the honour of his creation. The father in tho parable, by whom God is resembled, saith, Luke xv. 24, ' This my son was lost and is found.' Lost as to themselves, so they are said to be lost, as they are out of the way to true happiness, and as they are in the
156 SERMONS UPON LUKE XIX. 10.
way to everlasting destruction. In the former respect we are compared to lost sheep, who when they are once out of the way, know not how to find it again : Ps. xiv. 3, ' They are all gone aside ; ' and Isa. liii. 6, 'All we like sheep have gone astray.' Swine and other creatures, if they wander all day, will easily find the way home again ; but we are gone astray like sheep. Domine, errare 'per me fotui, vedire non potui — Lord, I have wandered of myself, but I cannot return of myself. In the second respect, as they are in the way to destruction ; so we are compared to the lost son, who undid himself, and wasted his substance with riotous living, Luke xv. 13. So we are lost by reason of original sin, or the corruption introduced by Adam's first sin, hereditarily derived to us from our first parents : Ps. li. 5, ' Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.' And also by reason of actual sins, whereby we involve ourselves more and more in the wrath and curse of God : Eph. ii. 1, 2, ' And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins ; wherein in times past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of dis- obedience ; and ver. 3, ' We were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.' Take one distinction more ; some are lost totally, and others totally and finally too. All men in their natural estate, whether they be sensible or insensible of it, are lost totally : Isa. liii. 6, ' All we like sheep have gone astray,' not one excepted : the elect, though for the present they are totally lost, yet they are not finally lost. But those that still continue in their impenitency and unbelief are both totally and finally lost, justly given over and designed to everlasting perdition and destruction. In which sense Judas is called the son of perdition : John xvii. 12, ' Those which thou hast given me, I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition.' Unbelief per- sisted in is a sign of perdition. Therefore the apostle saith, 2 Cor. iv. 3, ' If our gospel be hid, it is hid to those that are lost,' Well, then, such as refuse the gospel are in an actual state of perdition, and while they continue to repel and refuse the benefit of the gospel, there is no hope of them. Thus we are really and indeed lost.
2. Some are lost and undone in their own sense and feeling. All by reason of sin are in a lost state,, but some are apprehensive of it ; when the soul is made sensible of its utter perishing condition, and fear of its aggravated punishment by reason of actual sin ; as the lost son appre- hended his perishing for want of bread : Luke xv. 17, 'And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough, and to spare, and I perish with hunger ! ' Thus would Christ represent the sensible sinner,- that is apprehensive of his con- dition. Now such a sense is necessary to prepare us for a more broken- hearted and thankful acceptance of the grace of the gospel.
[L] Because the scripture speaketh of an awakening before conversion: Eph. V. 14, ' Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.' While we are asleep, we are neither sen- sible of our misery, nor care for our remedy, but please ourselves with dreams and fancies ; but when a man's conscience doth rouse him up out of the sleep of sin, and awaken him to some sight and sense of his miserable condition, he is in a good measure prepared to hearken to the