2. The explicit declaration which he makes of the intent of his coming —
[We should never have sought him : we are like a lost sheep, that never traces back its steps to the fold it has de- serted. He therefore came to "seek" us. However solicitous we had been to avert the wrath of God, we never could have done it by any means within our own power. He therefore came to " save" us; to save us by his blood from the guilt of our sins ; to save us by his Spirit from the power and pollution of them.
To form a just idea of our state by means of his advent, let us once more consider the state of those in hell. Let us suppose that he went down to hell itself, and there proclaimed liberty and salvation to those who would believe in him : the state of his auditors there would exactly represent our state : and if we do not take the same interest in the glad tidings that they would, it is because we do not feel ourselves so utterly lost as we really are.
But whether we will believe it or not, this is our state, and to deliver us from it was the great end of his advent. It was for this, that the Son of God humbled himself to become a son of man ; and, if we will believe in him, he will exalt us children of men, that we may be " sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty*."]
Application11 —
1. To those who deny that they are utterly lost and
undone —
[Produce one person that is not wholly lost, and we will shew you one that has nothing to do with Christ, any more than Satan himself has. It was only them that are lost that Christ came to seek and save. Let proud self-justifying sin- ners consider this.]
2. To those who desire to obtain salvation —
[The person that came to seek and save you was fully equal to the task. He was God as well as man ; and there- fore there can be no want of efficacy in his blood to pardon, or in his grace to sanctify, you. Trust in him, and he will prove himself able to save you to the very uttermost.]
4 John i. 12.
u The latter part of the subject is so plain and easy, that the youngest minister can be at no loss to illustrate it.
i:
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