Let me now suppose one to ask, ' But how shall I go to the Saviour ? How shall I obtain an interest in him ? How shall I procure his favour? What would
he have me do, in order to recommend myself to him11?' In reply to all these anxious inquiries, our "schoolmaster "gives us this important information : — : You must not attempt to recommend yourselves to him by any works whatever : you must go ignorant, that you may be enlightened ; guilty, that you may be pardoned ; polluted, that you may be purified ; enslaved, that you may experience his complete re- demption. You must carry nothing to him but your wants and miseries ; and expect nothing at his hands but as the fruit of his mediation, and as the free gift of God for his sake. You must renounce every thing of your own ; and desire to " have him made all unto you, your wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctifica- tion, and redemption, that to all eternity you may glory in the Lord alone0." If you entertain the idea of meriting or earning any thing at his hands by your own good works, you will only come back to me, and be dealt with according to the terms proposed by me. You must disclaim all thought of this ; and be content to be saved by grace alone, and to receive every thing out of the fulness that is treasured up in Christ. For this end, you must trust in him, and live altogether by faith in him. You well know how a branch receives every thing from the stock into which it has been engrafted : precisely thus must you re- ceive from him all the blessings both of grace and glory. You must by faith abide in him : and, by virtue derived from him, bring forth fruit to the glory of his name. This is a way of salvation both suited to you, and honourable to God: it is suited to you, because it provides every thing for you as a free gift : and it is honourable to God, because, whilst it pre- serves my honour inviolate, it exalts and glorifies every perfection of the Deity. I charge you, then, embrace the covenant which Christ has ratified with his blood : exercise faith in him : look to him as the procuring cause of all your blessings. And be not discouraged by any sense of your own unworthiness ; but go to him as the very chief of sinners, that you
» John vi. 28. ° 1 Cor. i. 30, 31.