Pagina-afbeeldingen
PDF
ePub

SERM. are not therefore to conclude that they x. put a greater value upon one Sinner that repenteth than on ninety and nine just persons who comparatively need no repentance.

Such is the common way of understanding that declaration of our Lord, that there is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons that need no repentance. I would not unnecessarily deviate from received expositions of the holy scriptures. Yet I cannot forbear to advance a very different acceptation of these words, which has this in its favour, that it comes more directly to the purpose of the present argument, and that it bears a closer reference to the characters of those with whom he was now conversing. The aim of his present conversation was not only to encourage the Publicans and Sinners to repentance, but also to reprove the Pharisees and Scribes for their presumptuous opinion of themselves and their want of charity to others. Thus as by the Sinner that repenteth he evidently alludes to that description of men, who then drew near for to hear him; so by the just persons

X.

which need no repentance he may also SERM. be understood to allude to that other description of men, who murmured at his conduct in receiving sinners and eating with them. Now the passage thus understood conveys in the gentlest language the severest reproof: for it implies that the blessed Angels entertain a greater satisfaction at the conversion of one sinner like the Publicans, who is conscious of his unworthiness and anxious to correct himself, than in the self-imputed righteousness of a multitude of men like the Pharisees and Scribes, who presume themselves to be so perfect as literally to need no repentance. And this acceptation is agreeable to our Saviour's frequent mode of speech; such as that which he used on a similar occasion, when the Pharisees. murmured at his sitting down with Publicans and Sinners; They that are whole need not a Physician, but they that are sick: I am not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance *.

The same sentiment he repeats under another similitude from domestic life: Either what Woman having ten pieces of

* Matt. ix. 12, 13.

silver,

X.

SERM. silver, if she lose one piece doth not light a candle and sweep the house and seek diligently till she find it? And when she hath found it she calleth her Friends and her Neighbours together, saying, Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I had lost. Likewise I say unto you, There is joy in the presence of the Angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.

By these two easy and familiar parables our Lord, in answer to the cavils of the Pharisees and Scribes, fully justifies his conduct in receiving sinners and eating with them, since it gave him opportunities to promote and encourage their repentance; a change of that high account in heaven, as even to enhance the joy that subsists in that seat of happiness.

Yet willing to place this doctrine in a still more engaging and impressive point of view, he proceeds to represent it in a third Parable deduced from the common relations of human life.

A certain Man had two Sons. The character of the younger Son is very soon disclosed in what he says to his Father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to my share. Indulgent to his wish he divided unto them his living,

or

or he allotted them portions for their SERM. respective maintenance.

If the motive of the younger Son for making this request had been to put himself in some honest and ingenuous employment, his enterprize or industry might deserve some applause. But his object in seeking an early independence was, that he might indulge the devices of his own heart without correction or control. The same impatience which he had shewn to take his fortune into his own hands he continues to manifest in assuming the direction of his own conduct. Anxious to see the world, and entertaining a secret thought, that he could more freely indulge his pleasures at a distance from his Father's observation, he did not suffer many days to pass, before he gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country.

While the parable only touches on the outlines of his character and fortune, we may supply to our imagination many probable circumstances as full of instruction as they are full of interest. He would not be dismissed from the embrace of an affectionate Parent without many good admonitions

for

X.1

X.

SERM. for the guidance of his life on his entrance into the world. But in the variety of seducing objects, that now rose before him, the voice of wisdom lost its influence, and his good resolutions gradually gave way. Without a present monitor to direct him in the choice of his company, he fell among the Sons and Daughters of dissipation, who looked on pleasure as the sovereign good, who invited one another to enjoy the good things that are present, and speedily to use the creatures in their youth. In such alluring company the voice of his parental Monitor was forgotten, his moral sense of right and wrong was perverted, his good resolu tions were overthrown, and the seductions of vice being supported by the ridicule of what was good and laudable, he surrendered himself to dissolute excesses, and wasted his substance in riotous living.

Brought up as he had been in a sense of what was right and fit, he could not easily discard those honest principles, which he had imbibed in his early years. Accustomed in his Father's house to consider sin as the basest disease of the soul, he could not soon be reconciled

to

« VorigeDoorgaan »