Luke 15 commentary

The parable of the lost sheep is very applicable to the great work of man's redemption. The lost sheep represents the sinner as departed from God, and exposed to certain ruin if not brought back to him, yet not desirous to return. Christ is earnest in bringing sinners home. In the parable of the lost piece of silver, that which is lost, is one piece, of small value compared with the rest. Yet the woman seeks diligently till she finds it. This represents the various means and methods God makes use of to bring lost souls home to himself, and the Saviour's joy on their return to him. How careful then should we be that our repentance is unto salvation!

The parable of the prodigal son shows the nature of repentance, and the Lord's readiness to welcome and bless all who return to him. It fully sets forth the riches of gospel grace; and it has been, and will be, while the world stands, of unspeakable use to poor sinners, to direct and to encourage them in repenting and returning to God. It is bad, and the beginning of worse, when men look upon God's gifts as debts due to them. The great folly of sinners, and that which ruins them, is, being content in their life-time to receive their good things. Our first parents ruined themselves and all their race, by a foolish ambition to be independent, and this is at the bottom of sinners' persisting in their sin. We may all discern some features of our own characters in that of the prodigal son. A sinful state is of departure and distance from God. A sinful state is a spending state: wilful sinners misemploy their thoughts and the powers of their souls, mispend their time and all their opportunities. A sinful state is a wanting state. Sinners want necessaries for their souls; they have neither food nor raiment for them, nor any provision for hereafter. A sinful state is a vile, slavish state. The business of the devil's servants is to make provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof, and that is no better than feeding swine. A sinful state is a state constant discontent. The wealth of the world and the pleasures of the senses will not even satisfy our bodies; but what are they to precious souls! A sinful state is a state which cannot look for relief from any creature. In vain do we cry to the world and to the flesh; they have that which will poison a soul, but have nothing to give which will feed and nourish it. A sinful state is a state of death. A sinner is dead in trespasses and sins, destitute of spiritual life. A sinful state is a lost state. Souls that are separated from God, if his mercy prevent not, will soon be lost for ever. The prodigal's wretched state, only faintly shadows forth the awful ruin of man by sin. Yet how few are sensible of their own state and character!

Having viewed the prodigal in his abject state of misery, we are next to consider his recovery from it. This begins by his coming to himself. That is a turning point in the sinner's conversion. The Lord opens his eyes, and convinces him of sin; then he views himself and every object, in a different light from what he did before. Thus the convinced sinner perceives that the meanest servant of God is happier than he is. To look unto God as a Father, and our Father, will be of great use in our repentance and return to him. The prodigal arose, nor stopped till he reached his home. Thus the repenting sinner resolutely quits the bondage of Satan and his lusts, and returns to God by prayer, notwithstanding fears and discouragements. The Lord meets him with unexpected tokens of his forgiving love. Again; the reception of the humbled sinner is like that of the prodigal. He is clothed in the robe of the Redeemer's righteousness, made partaker of the Spirit of adoption, prepared by peace of conscience and gospel grace to walk in the ways of holiness, and feasted with Divine consolations. Principles of grace and holiness are wrought in him, to do, as well as to will.

In the latter part of this parable we have the character of the Pharisees, though not of them alone. It sets forth the kindness of the Lord, and the proud manner in which his gracious kindness is often received. The Jews, in general, showed the same spirit towards the converted Gentiles; and numbers in every age object to the gospel and its preachers, on the same ground. What must that temper be, which stirs up a man to despise and abhor those for whom the Saviour shed his precious blood, who are objects of the Father's choice, and temples of the Holy Ghost! This springs from pride, self-preference, and ignorance of a man's own heart. The mercy and grace of our God in Christ, shine almost as bright in his tender and gentle bearing with peevish saints, as his receiving prodigal sinners upon their repentance. It is the unspeakable happiness of all the children of God, who keep close to their Father's house, that they are, and shall be ever with him. Happy will it be for those who thankfully accept Christ's invitation.

Luke 15:10. There will be joy in the presence of the angels. If angels mutually rejoice with each other in heaven, when they see that what had wandered is restored to the fold, we too, who have the same cause in common with them, ought to be partakers of the same joy But. how does he say that the repentance of one ungodly man yields greater joy than the perseverance of many righteous men to angels, whose highest delight is in a continued and uninterrupted course of righteousness? I reply, though it would be more agreeable to the wishes of angels (as it is also more desirable) that men should always remain in perfect integrity, yet as in the deliverance of a sinner, who had been already devoted to destruction, and had been cut off as a rotten member from the body, the mercy of God shines more brightly, he attributes to angels, after the manner of men, a greater joy arising out of an unexpected good.

Over one repenting sinner. The word repentance is specially limited to the conversion of those who, having altogether turned aside from God, rise as it were from death to life; for otherwise the exercise of repentance ought to be uninterrupted throughout our whole life, “Tant que nous sommes en ce monde;” — “as long as we are in this world.” and no man is exempted from this necessity, since every one is reminded by his imperfections that he ought to aim at daily progress. But it is one thing, when a man, who has already entered upon the right course, though he stumble, or fall, or even go astray, endeavors to reach the goal; and another thing, when a man leaves a road which was entirely wrong, or only starts in the right course. “Quand celuy qui estoit du tout esgare tourne bride pour commencer a bien faire;” — “when he who had altogether gone astray turns round to begin to do well.” Those who have already begun to regulate their life by the standard of the divine law, do not need that kind of repentance which consists in beginning to lead a holy and pious life, though they must groan “Combien qu’il soit tousiours necessaire de gemir;” — “though it be necessary for them always to groan.” under the infirmities of the flesh, and labor to correct them.

Luke 15:11-24

Luke 15:11-24

11. And he said, “Il dit aussi;” — “he said also.” A certain man had two sons: 12. And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of property which falls to me. And he divided between them the property. 13. And not many days afterwards, “Et peu de iours apres;” — “and a few days after.” the younger son, having gathered all together, set out on a journey to a distant country, and there wasted his property by living extravagantly. 14. But when he had spent all, a sore famine arose in that country; and he began to be in want. 15. And he went and entered into the service of one of the inhabitants of that country; and he sent him into his field to feed swine. 16. And he was desirous to fill his belly with the husks on which the swine were feeding: and no man gave to him. “Et (ou, mais) personne ne luy donnoit;” — “and (or, but) nobody gave to him.” 17. And when he came to himself, he said, How many hirelings of my father have abundance of bread, “Combien y-a-il de mercenaires en la maison de mon pere, qui ont force pain;” — “how may hirelings are there in my father’s house, who have plenty of bread.” while I perish with hunger! 18. I will arise, and go to my father, “Ie partiray d’icy, et m’en iray a mon pere;” — “I will depart hence, and will go away to my father.” and will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, 19. And am no longer worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hirelings. 20. And he arose, and came to his father. And while he was yet afar off, his father saw him, and was moved with compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. 21. And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, and am no longer worthy to be called thy son. 22. And the father said to his servants, Bring out the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: 23. And bring the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us feast, and be merry: 24. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. “Car mon fils que voyci estoit mort, et il est retourne a vie: il estoit perdu, mais il est retrouve;” — “for this is my son who was dead, and he is returned to life; he was lost, but he is found again.” And they began to be merry.

This parable is nothing else than a confirmation of the preceding doctrine. “De la doctrine que nous venons de voir;” — “of the doctrine which we have just now seen.” In the first part is shown how readily God is disposed to pardon our sins, and in the second part (which we shall afterwards treat in the proper place) is shown the great malignity and obstinacy of those who murmur at his compassion. In the person of a young prodigal who, after having been reduced to the deepest poverty by luxury and extravagance, returns as a suppliant to his father, “Retourne pour demander pardon a son pere;” — “returns to ask pardon from his father.” to whom he had been disobedient and rebellious, Christ describes all sinners who, wearied of their folly, apply to the grace of God. To the kind father, “Aussi en la personne de ce bon pere il nous propose l’affection de Dieu;” — “also in the person of this good father he holds out to us the affection of God.” on the other hand, who not only pardons the crimes of his son, but of his own accord meets him when returning, he compares God, who is not satisfied with pardoning those who pray to him, but even advances to meet them with the compassion of a father. “Mais les previent par sa bonte et misericorde paternelle;” — “but anticipates them by his fatherly goodness and compassion.” Let us now examine the parable in detail.

Luke 15:12. And the younger of them said to his father. The parable opens by describing a mark of wicked arrogance in the youth, which appears in his being desirous to leave his father, and in thinking that he cannot be right without being permitted to indulge in debauchery, free from his father’s control. There is also ingratitude in leaving the old man, “Delaissant le bon vieil hemme de pere;” — “leaving the good old man his father.” and not only withholding the performance of the duties which be owed to him, but crippling and diminishing the wealth of his house. “Mais aussi diminue le bien de la maison, et en emporte une bonne partie;” — “but also diminishes the wealth of the house, and carries off a good part of it.” This is at length followed by wasteful luxury and wicked extravagance, by which he squanders all that he had. “Tout ce qu’il avoit eu du pere;” — “all that he had got from his father.” After so many offenses he deserved to find his father implacable. “Il avoit bien merite de trouver puis apres un pere rigoreux, et qui teint son coeur contre luy iusqu’au bout;” — “he had well deserved to find afterwards a father who was severe, and who kept his heart shut against him to the end.”

Under this image our Lord unquestionably depicts to us the boundless goodness and inestimable forbearance of God, that no crimes, however aggravated, may deter us from the hope of obtaining pardon, There would be some foundation for the analogy, if we were to say that this foolish and insolent youth resembles those persons who, enjoying at the hand of God a great abundance of good things, are moved by a blind and mad ambition to be separated from Him, that they may enjoy perfect freedom; as if it were not more desirable than all the kingdoms of the world to live under the fatherly care and government of God. But as I am afraid that this allusion may be thought overstrained, I shall satisfy myself with the literal meaning; not that I disapprove of the opinion, that under this figure is reproved the madness of those who imagine that it will be advantageous for them to have something of their own, and to be rich apart from the heavenly Father; but that I now confine myself within the limits of a Commentator. “Pource que ie me tien maintenant dans mes limites, et ne veux point passer l’office d’expositeur;” — “because I now keep myself within my limits, and do not wish to go beyond the duty of an expositor.”

Christ here describes what usually happens with young men, when they are carried away by their natural disposition. Destitute of sound judgment, and maddened by passion, they are ill fitted for governing themselves, and are not restrained by fear or shame. It is therefore impossible but that they shall abandon themselves to every thing to which their sinful inclination prompts them, and rush on in a disgraceful course, till they are involved in shameful poverty. He afterwards describes the punishment which, in the righteous judgment of God, generally overtakes spendthrifts and prodigals. After having wickedly squandered their means, they are left to pine in hunger, and not having known how to use in moderation an abundant supply of the best bread, they are reduced to eat acorns and husks. In short, they become the companions of swine, and are made to feel that they are unworthy to partake of human food; for it is swinish gluttony “C’est une gourmandise plustost convenable a des porceaux qu’a des hommes;” — “it is a gluttony more suitable to swine than to men.” to squander wickedly what was given for the support of life. “Pour subvenir aux necessitez de ceste vie;” — “to supply the necessities of this life.” As to the ingenious exposition which some have brought forward, that it is the just punishment of wicked scorn, when those who have rejected delicious bread in the house of our heavenly Father are driven by hunger to eat husks, it is a true and useful doctrine; but in the meantime, we must bear in mind the difference that exists between allegories and the natural meaning. “Mais cependant il faut tousiours aviser quelle difference il y a entre les allegories et le vray sens naturel d’un passage;” — “but yet we must always consider what difference there is between allegories and the true natural meaning of a passage.”

And was desirous to fill his belly. This means that, in consequence of hunger, he no longer thought of his former luxuries, but greedily devoured husks; for of that kind of food he could not be in want, when he was giving it to the swine There is a well-known saying of Cyrus who, having for a long time suffered hunger during a flight, and having been slightly refreshed by eating coarse black bread, declared that he had never tasted savory bread till now; so the young man who is here mentioned was compelled by necessity to betake himself with appetite to husks The reason is added, because no man gave to him; for the copulative conjunction and (καὶ) must, in my opinion, signify because, “Car selon mon avis ce mot et se doit resoudre en Car, ou Pource que;” — “for in my opinion this word and must mean For, or Because.” and what is here said does not refer to husks, which he had at hand, but I understand the meaning to be, that no man pitied his poverty; for prodigals who throw away the whole of their property are persons whom no man thinks himself bound to relieve, — nay more, as they have been accustomed to squander every thing, men think that nothing ought to be given to them. “Il semble que ce qu’on leur donne soit autant de perdu;” — “what is given to them appears to be as good as thrown away.”

17. And when he came to himself. Here is described to us the way in which God invites men to repentance. If of their own accord they were wise, and became submissive, he would draw them more gently; but as they never stoop to obedience, till they have been subdued by the rod, he chastises them severely. Accordingly, to this young man, whom abundance “L’aise et la trop grande abondance;” — “ease and too great abundance.” rendered fierce and rebellious, hunger proved to be the best teacher. Instructed by this example, let us not imagine that God deals cruelly with us, if at any time he visits us with heavy afflictions; for in this manner those who were obstinate and intoxicated with mirth are taught by him to be obedient. In short, all the miseries which we endure are a profitable invitation to repentance. “Ce sont autant d’avertissemens proufitables, par lequel Dieu nous convie a repentance;” — “they are so many profitable warnings, by which God invites us to repentance.” But as we are slow, we scarcely ever regain a sound mind, unless when we are forced by extreme distress; for until we are pressed by difficulties on every hand, and shut up to despair, the flesh always indulges in gaiety, or at least recoils. Hence we infer, that there is no reason to wonder, if the Lord often uses violent and even repeated strokes, in order to subdue our obstinacy, and, as the proverb runs, applies hard wedges to hard knots. It must also be observed, that the hope of bettering his condition, if he returned to his father, gave this young man courage to repent; for no severity of punishment will soften our depravity, or make us displeased with our sins, till we perceive some advantage. As this young man, therefore, is induced by confidence in his father’s kindness to seek reconciliation, so the beginning of our repentance must be an acknowledgment of the mercy of God to excite in us favorable hopes.

20. And while he was still afar off. This is the main point of the parable. If men, who are by nature prone to revenge, and too tenacious of their own rights, are moved by fatherly love kindly to forgive their children, and freely to bring them back, when they are sunk in wretchedness, God, whose boundless goodness exceeds all the affection of parents, “L’amour de tous les peres de ce monde;” — “the love of all the fathers in the world.” will not treat us more harshly. “Sera bien pour le moins aussi debonnaire envers nous;” — “will be at least as gentle towards us.” And certainly nothing is here attributed to an earthly father which God does not promise with respect to himself. Before they call, says he, I will answer, (Isaiah 65:24.) That passage too of David is well known,

I said, I will acknowledge against me my unrighteousness to the Lord and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin, (Psalm 32:5.)

As this father, therefore, is not merely pacified by the entreaties of his son, but meets him when he is coming, and before he has heard a word, embraces him, filthy and ugly as he is, so God does not wait for a long prayer, but of his own free will meets the sinner as soon as he proposes to confess his fault.

It is wretched sophistry to infer from this, that the grace of God is not exhibited to sinners until they anticipate it by their repentance. “Here,” say they, “is held out to us a father ready to pardon, but it is after that his son has begun to return to him; and therefore God does not look, and does not bestow his grace, on any but those who begin to seek him.” It is, no doubt, true that, in order to his obtaining pardon, the sinner is required to have grief of conscience, and to be dissatisfied with himself; but it is wrong to infer from this, that repentance, which is the gift of God, is yielded by men from their own movement of their heart. And in this respect it would be improper to compare a mortal man to God; for it is not in the power of an earthly father to renew the stubborn heart of his son, as God changes hearts of stone into hearts of flesh. In short, the question here is not whether a man is converted by himself, and returns to him; but only under the figure of a man is commended the fatherly gentleness of God, and his readiness to grant forgiveness.

21. Father, I have sinned against heaven. Here is pointed out another branch of repentance, namely, such a conviction of sin as is accompanied by grief and shame. For he who is not grieved for having sinned, and whose offense is not placed before his eyes, will sooner attempt any thing than think of returning to the path of duty. Displeasure with sin must therefore go before repentance. And there is great emphasis in this expression, that the young man is said to have come to himself, as one whom the wanderings of wild desires had hurried away into forgetfulness of himself. And certainly so far astray are the impulses of the flesh, that any one who gives himself up to them may be said to have gone out of himself, and to have lost his senses. For this reason transgressors are commanded to return to the heart, “A ceste cause en l’Escriture Dieu commande aux transgresseurs de retourner a leur coeur;” — “For this reason, in Scripture God commands transgressors to return to their heart.” In the authorized version the passage runs thus: Bring it again to mind, O ye transgressors. — Ed. (Isaiah 46:8.) Next follows a confession, “Apres la cognoissance du peche s’ensuit aussi la confession;” — “after the knowledge of sin there follows also confession.” not such a one as the Pope has contrived, but one by which the son appeases his offended father; for this humility is absolutely necessary in order to obtain forgiveness of sins. This mode of expression, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, is of the same import as if he had said, that God was offended in the person of an earthly father. And certainly this is the dictate of nature, that every one who rebels against a father rises wickedly also against God, who has placed children in subjection to parents.

22. Bring out the best robe. Although in parables (as we have frequently observed) it would be idle to follow out every minute circumstance, yet it will be no violence to the literal meaning, if we say, that our heavenly Father not only pardons our sins in such a manner as to bury the remembrance of them, but even restores those gifts of which we had been deprived; as, on the other hand, by taking them from us, he chastises our ingratitude in order to make us feel ashamed at the reproach and disgrace of our nakedness.

Luke 15:25-32

Luke 15:25-32

25. Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. 26. And he called one of his servants, and asked what those things were. “Et l’interroga que c’estoit;” — “and asked him what it was.” 27. And he said to him, Thy brother is come; and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound. The two adjectives, safe and sound, which occur in the authorized version, are here retained as the translation of “incolumem,” which conveys both ideas; and this is fully justified by our author’s vernacular,” pourtant qu’il l’a recouvre sain et sauf;” — because he hath received him back sound and safe.” — Ed. 28. And he was angry, and would not go in: therefore his father went out, and entreated him. 29. But he answering said to his father, Behold, during so many years I serve thee, and never have I transgressed thy commandment; and thou never gavest me a kid, that I might be merry with my friends: 30. But after that this thy son, who hath devoured thy property with harlots, is come, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf. 31. But he said to him, Son, “Mon enfant;” — “my child.” thou art always with me, and all my property is thine. 32. But it was proper that we should be merry and rejoice; because this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.

This latter portion of the parable charges those persons with cruelty, who would wickedly choose to set limits to the grace of God, as if they envied the salvation of wretched sinners. For we know that this is pointed at the haughtiness of the scribes, “L’orgueil et la presomption des Scribes;” — “the pride and presumption of the Scribes.” who did not think that they received the reward due to their merits, if Christ admitted publicans and the common people to the hope of the eternal inheritance. The substance of it therefore is, that, if we are desirous to be reckoned the children of God, we must forgive in a brotherly manner the faults of brethren, which He forgives with fatherly kindness.

25. And his elder son was in the field. Those who think that, under the figure of the first-born son, the Jewish nation is described, have indeed some argument on their side; but I do not think that they attend sufficiently to the whole of the passage. For the discourse was occasioned by the murmuring of the scribes, who took offense at the kindness of Christ towards wretched persons who had led a wicked life. He therefore compares the scribes, who were swelled with presumption, to good and modest men, who had always lived with decency and sobriety, and had honorably supported their family; nay, even to obedient children, who throughout their whole life had patiently submitted to their father’s control. And though they were utterly unworthy of this commendation, yet Christ, speaking according to their belief, attributes to them, by way of concession, their pretended holiness, as if it had been virtue; as if he had said, Though I were to grant to you what you falsely boast of, that you have always been obedient children to God, still you ought not so haughtily and cruelly to reject your brethren, when they repent of their wicked life.

28. Therefore his father went out. By these words he reproaches hypocrites with intolerable pride, which makes it necessary that the Father should entreat them not to envy the compassion manifested to their brethren. Now though God does not entreat, yet by his example he exhorts us to bear with the faults of our brethren. And in order to take away every excuse from wicked severity, he not only introduces hypocrites as speaking, whose false boasting might be confuted, but even affirms that, though any man had discharged, in the most perfect manner, all the duties of piety towards the Father, yet he has no just reason to complain because his brother obtains pardon. It is certain, indeed, that the sincere worshippers of God are always pure and free from this malignant disposition; but the design of Christ is, to show that it would be unjust in any man to murmur on account of his brother having been received into favor, even though he were not inferior in holiness to the angels.

31. Son, “Mon enfant;” — “my child.” thou art always with me. This answer consists of two parts. The first is, that the first-born son has no reason to be angry, when he sees his brother kindly received without any loss to himself; “Veu qu’il n’y perd rien;” — “since he loses nothing by it.” and the second is, that, without paying any regard to his brother’s safety, he is grieved on account of the rejoicing occasioned by his return. All my property, says he, is thine: that is, “Though thou hast hitherto carried nothing away out of my house, it has been no loss to the for all is reserved for thee undiminished.” “Ta condition n’en est pas pire; car ie te garde tousiours ton droict entier;” — “thy condition is not the worse for it; for I always preserve thy rights entire.” Besides, why art thou offended at our joy, in which thou oughtest to have shared? for it was proper that thy brother, who we thought had been lost, should now be congratulated on his safety and return. Those two reasons deserve our attention; for, on the one hand, it is no loss to us, “Nous n’y perdons rien;” — “we lose nothing by it.” if God graciously receives into favor those who had been at variance with him on account of their sins; and, on the other hand, it is wicked hardness of heart not to rejoice, when we see our brethren returned from death to life. “Voyans nos freres estre tirez de la mort, et ramenez au chemin de vie;” — “perceiving our brethren to be drawn from death, and led into the way of life.”

Matthew 18:15-20; Luke 17:3

Matthew 18:15-20

Luke 17:3

15. But if thy brother hath sinned against thee, go and reprove him between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. 16. But if he shall not hear thee, take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be confirmed: and if he shall not hear them, tell the church. 17. And if he shall not hear the church, let him be to thee as a heathen and a publican. 18. Verily, I say to thee, What things soever you shall bind on earth “Toutes choses que vous lierez sur la terre;” — “all things which you shall bind on earth.” shall be bound also in heaven; and what things soever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed also in heaven. 19. Again, I say to you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as to every thing which they shall ask, “De toutes choses qu’ils demanderont;” — “of all things which they shall ask.” it will be done to them by any Father who is in heaven. 20. For where two or three are assembled “Ou il y en a deux ou trois assemblez;” — “where there are two or three of them assembled.” in my name, there am I in the midst of them.

3. Be on your guard. If thy brother shall sin against thee, reprove him; and if he shall repent, forgive him.

CHAPTER 15

Lu 15:1-32. Publicans and Sinners Welcomed by Christ--Three Parables to Explain This.

1. drew near ... all the publicans and sinners, &c.--drawn around Him by the extraordinary adaptation of His teaching to their case, who, till He appeared--at least His forerunner--might well say, "No man careth for my soul."

2. murmured, saying, &c.--took it ill, were scandalized at Him, and insinuated (on the principle that a man is known by the company he keeps) that He must have some secret sympathy with their character. But oh, what a truth of unspeakable preciousness do their lips, as on other occasions, unconsciously utter., Now follow three parables representing the sinner: (1) in his stupidity; (2) as all-unconscious of his lost condition; (3) knowingly and willingly estranged from God [Bengel]. The first two set forth the seeking love of God; the last, His receiving love [Trench].

Lu 15:3-7. I. The Lost Sheep.

3-7. Occurring again (Mt 18:12-14); but there to show how precious one of His sheep is to the Good Shepherd; here, to show that the shepherd, though the sheep stray never so widely, will seek it out, and when he hath found, will rejoice over it.

Lu 15:8-10. II. The Lost Coin.

8. sweep the house--"not done without dust on man's part" [Bengel].

10. Likewise--on the same principle.

joy, &c.--Note carefully the language here--not "joy on the part," but "joy in the presence of the angels of God." True to the idea of the parables. The Great Shepherd. The Great Owner Himself, is He whose the joy properly is over His own recovered property; but so vast and exuberant is it (Zec 8:17), that as if He could not keep it to Himself, He "calleth His friends and neighbors together"--His whole celestial family--saying, "Rejoice WITH Me, for I have found My sheep-My-piece," &c. In this sublime sense it is "joy," before "or in the presence of the angels"; they only "catch the flying joy," sharing it with Him! The application of this to the reception of those publicans and sinners that stood around our Lord is grand in the extreme: "Ye turn from these lost ones with disdain, and because I do not the same, ye murmur at it: but a very different feeling is cherished in heaven. There, the recovery of even one such outcast is watched with interest and hailed with joy; nor are they left to come home of themselves or perish; for lo! even now the great Shepherd is going after His lost sheep, and the Owner is making diligent search for the lost property; and He is finding it, too, and bringing it back with joy, and all heaven is full of it." (Let the reader mark what sublime claims Himself our Lord covertly puts in here--as if in Him they beheld, all unknown to themselves, nothing less than heaven in the habiliments of earth, the Great Shepherd above, clothed in a garment of flesh, come "to seek and to save that which was lost")!

Lu 15:11-32. III. The Prodigal Son.

12. the younger--as the more thoughtless.

said, &c.--weary of restraint, panting for independence, unable longer to abide the check of a father's eye. This is man impatient of divine control, desiring to be independent of God, seeking to be his own master; that "sin of sins, in which all subsequent sins are included as in their germ, for they are but the unfolding of this one" [Trench].

he divided, &c.--Thus "God, when His service no longer appears a perfect freedom, and man promises himself something far better elsewhere, allows him to make the trial; and he shall discover, if need be by saddest proof, that to depart from Him is not to throw off the yoke, but to exchange a light yoke for a heavy one, and one gracious Master for a thousand imperious tyrants and lords" [Trench].

13. not many days--intoxicated with his new--found resources, and eager for the luxury of using them at Will.

a far country--beyond all danger of interference from home.

wasted, &c.--So long as it lasted, the inward monitor (Is 55:2) would be silenced (Is 9:10; 57:10; Am 4:6-10).

riotous living--(Lu 15:30), "with harlots." Ah! but this reaches farther than the sensualist; for "in the deep symbolical language of Scripture fornication is the standing image of idolatry; they are in fact ever spoken of as one and the same sin, considered now in its fleshly, now in its spiritual aspect" (Jr 3:1-15; Eze 16:1-17:24) [Trench].

14. when he had spent all ... a mighty famine--a mysterious providence holding back the famine till he was in circumstances to feel it in all its rigor. Thus, like Jonah, whom the storm did not overtake till on the mighty deep at the mercy of the waves, does the sinner feel as if "the stars in their courses were fighting against" him (Jud 5:20).

in want--the first stage of his bitter experience, and preparation for a change.

15. joined himself, &c.--his pride not yet humbled, unable to brook the shame of a return.

to feed swine--glad to keep life anyhow, behold the son sank into a swineherd--among the Jews, on account of the prohibition of swine's flesh, emphatically vile! "He who begins by using the world as a servant, to minister to his pleasure, ends by reversing the relationship" [Trench].

16. would fain have filled--rather, "was fain to fill," ate greedily of the only food he could get.

the husks--"the hulls of a leguminous plant which in the East is the food of cattle and swine, and often the nourishment of the poorest in times of distress" [Stier].

no man gave ... him--not this food, for that he had, but anything better (Jr 30:14). This was his lowest depth--perishing unpitied, alone in the world, and ready to disappear from it unmissed! But this is just the blessed turning-point; midnight before dawn of day (2Ch 12:8; 33:11-13; Jr 2:19).

17. came to himself--Before, he had been "beside himself" (Ec 9:3), in what sense will presently appear.

How many hired, &c.--What a testimony to the nature of the home he had left! But did he not know all this ere he departed and every day of his voluntary exile? He did, and he did not. His heart being wholly estranged from home and steeped in selfish gratification, his father's house never came within the range of his vision, or but as another name for bondage and gloom. Now empty, desolate, withered, perishing, home, with all its peace, plenty, freedom, dignity, starts into view, fills all his visions as a warm and living reality, and breaks his heart.

18. I will arise and go to my FATHER--The change has come at last, and what a change!--couched in terms of such exquisite simplicity and power as if expressly framed for all heart-broken penitents.

Father, &c.--Mark the term. Though "no more worthy to be called his son," the prodigal sinner is taught to claim the defiled, but still existing relationship, asking not to be made a servant, but remaining a son to be made "as a servant," willing to take the lowest place and do the meanest work. Ah! and is it come to this? Once it was, "Any place rather than home." Now, "Oh, that home! Could I but dare to hope that the door of it would not be closed against me, how gladly would I take any place and do any worK, happy only to be there at all." Well, that is conversion--nothing absolutely new, yet all new; old familiar things seen in a new light and for the first time as realities of overwhelming magnitude and power. How this is brought about the parable says not. (We have that abundantly elsewhere, Php 2:13, &c.). Its one object is to paint the welcome home of the greatest sinners, when (no matter for the present how) they "arise and go to their Father."

20. a great way off--Oh yes, when but the face is turned homeward, though as yet far, far away, our Father recognizes His own child in us, and bounds to meet us--not saying, Let him come to Me and sue for pardon first, but Himself taking the first step.

fell on his neck and kissed him--What! In all his filth? Yes. In all his rags? Yes. In all his haggard, shattered wretchedness? Yes. "Our Father who art in heaven," is this Thy portraiture? It is even so (Jr 31:20). And because it is so, I wonder not that such incomparable teaching hath made the world new.

21. Father, I have sinned, &c.--"This confession is uttered after the kiss of reconciliation" (Eze 16:63) [Trench].

22. But the Father said, &c.--The son has not said all he purposed, not so much, because the father's demonstrations had rekindled the filial, and swallowed up all servile feeling [Trench] (on the word "Father," see on Lu 15:18), but because the father's heart is made to appear too full to listen, at that moment, to more in this strain.

the best robe--Compare Zec 3:4, 5, "Take away the filthy garments from him; behold I have clothed thee with change of raiment; and they clothed him with garments" (Is 61:10; Re 3:18).

a ring--(Compare Ge 41:42; Jas 2:2).

shoes--Slaves went barefoot. Thus, we have here a threefold symbol of freedom and honor, restored, as the fruit of perfect reconciliation.

23. the fatted calf--kept for festive occasions.

24. my son--now twice his son.

dead ... lost--to me; to himself--to my service, my satisfaction; to his own dignity, peace, profit.

alive again ... found--to all these.

merry--(See on Lu 15:10).

25. in the field--engaged in his father's business: compare Lu 15:29, "These many years do I serve thee."

28. came his father out, and entreated him--"Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him" (Psa 103:13). As it is the elder brother who now errs, so it is the same paternal compassion which had fallen on the neck of the younger that comes forth and pleads with the elder.

29. these many years ... neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment--The words are not to be pressed too far. He is merely contrasting his constancy of love and service with the conduct of his brother; just as Job, resenting the charge of hypocrisy by his friends, speaks as if nothing could be laid to his charge (Job 23:10-12), and David too (Psa 18:20-24). The father attests the truth of all he says.

never ... a kid--I say not a calf, but not even a kid.

that I might make merry with my friends--Here lay his misapprehension. It was no entertainment for the gratification of the prodigal: it was a father's expression of the joy he felt at his recovery.

thy son ... thy living--How unworthy a reflection on the common father of both, for the one not only to disown the other, but fling him over upon his father, as if he should say, Take him, and have joy of him!

31. Son, &c.--The father resents not the insult--how could he, after the largeness of heart which had kissed the returning prodigal? He calmly expostulates with him, "Son, listen to reason. What need for special, exuberant joy over thee? Didst thou say, 'Lo, these many years do I serve thee?' In that saidst thou truly; but just for that reason do I not set the whole household a-rejoicing over thee. For thee is reserved what is higher still--a tranquil lifelong satisfaction in thee, as a true-hearted faithful son in thy father's house, nor of the inheritance reserved for thee is aught alienated by this festive and fitting joy over the once foolish but now wise and newly recovered one."

32. It was meet--Was it possible he should simply take his long vacant place in the family without one special sign of wonder and delight at the change? Would that have been nature? But this being the meaning of the festivity, it would for that very reason be temporary. In time, the dutifulness of even the younger son would become the law and not the exception; he too at length might venture to say, "Lo, these many years do I serve thee"; and of him the father would say, "Son, thou art ever with me." In that case, therefore, it would not be "meet that they should make merry and be glad." The lessons are obvious, but how beautiful! (1) The deeper sunk and the longer estranged any sinner is, the more exuberant is the joy which his recovery occasions. (2) Such joy is not the portion of those whose whole lives have been spent in the service of their Father in heaven. (3) Instead of grudging the want of this, they should deem it the highest testimony to their lifelong fidelity, that something better is reserved for them--the deep, abiding complacency of their Father in heaven.

Publicans and sinners - Τελωναι και ἁμαρτωλοι, tax-gatherers and heathens; persons who neither believed in Christ nor in Moses. See the note on Luk 7:36. Concerning the tax-gatherers, see the note on Mat 5:46.

Receiveth sinners - Προσδεχεται. He receives them cordially, affectionately - takes them to his bosom; for so the word implies. What mercy! Jesus receives sinners in the most loving, affectionate manner, and saves them unto eternal life! Reader, give glory to God for ever!

What man of you - Our Lord spoke this and the following parable to justify his conduct in receiving and conversing with sinners or heathens.

A hundred sheep - Parables similar to this are frequent among the Jewish writers. The whole flock of mankind, both Jews and Gentiles, belongs unto this Divine Shepherd; and it is but reasonable to expect, that the gracious proprietor will look after those who have gone astray, and bring them back to the flock. The lost sheep is an emblem of a heedless, thoughtless sinner: one who follows the corrupt dictates of his own heart, without ever reflecting upon his conduct, or considering what will be the issue of his unholy course of life. No creature strays more easily than a sheep; none is more heedless; and none so incapable of finding its way back to the flock, when once gone astray: it will bleat for the flock, and still run on in an opposite direction to the place where the flock is: this I have often noticed. No creature is more defenceless than a sheep, and more exposed to be devoured by dogs and wild beasts. Even the fowls of the air seek their destruction. I have known ravens often attempt to destroy lambs by picking out their eyes, in which, when they have succeeded, as the creature does not see whither it is going, it soon falls an easy prey to its destroyer. Satan is ever going about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour; in order to succeed, he blinds the understanding of sinners, and then finds it an easy matter to tumble them into the pit of perdition. Who but a Pharisee or a devil would find fault with the shepherd who endeavors to rescue his sheep from so much danger and ruin!

Just persons, which need no repentance - Who do not require such a change of mind and purpose as these do - who are not so profligate, and cannot repent of sins they have never committed. Distinctions of this kind frequently occur in the Jewish writings. There are many persons who have been brought up in a sober and regular course of life, attending the ordinances of God, and being true and just in all their dealings; these most materially differ from the heathens mentioned, Luk 15:1, because they believe in God, and attend the means of grace: they differ also essentially from the tax-gatherers mentioned in the same place, because they wrong no man, and are upright in their dealings. Therefore they cannot repent of the sins of a heathen, which they have not practised; nor of the rapine of a tax-gatherer, of which they have never been guilty. As, therefore, these just persons are put in opposition to the tax-gatherers and heathens, we may at once see the scope and design of our Lord's words: these needed no repentance in comparison of the others, as not being guilty of their crimes. And as these belonged, by outward profession at least, to the flock of God, and were sincere and upright according to their light, they are considered as being in no danger of being lost; and at they fear God, and work righteousness according to their light, he will take care to make those farther discoveries to them, of the purity of his nature, the holiness of his law, and the necessity of the atonement, which he sees to be necessary. See the case of Cornelius, Act 10:1, etc. On this ground, the owner is represented as feeling more joy in consequence of finding one sheep that was lost, there having been almost no hope of its recovery, than he feels at seeing ninety and nine still safe under his care. "Men generally rejoice more over a small unexpected advantage, than over a much greater good to which they have been accustomed." There are some, and their opinion need not be hastily rejected, who imagine that by the ninety and nine just persons, our Lord means the angels - that they are in proportion to men, as ninety-nine are to one, and that the Lord takes more pleasure in the return and salvation of one sinner, than in the uninterrupted obedience of ninety-nine holy angels; and that it was through his superior love to fallen man that he took upon him his nature, and not the nature of angels. I have met with the following weak objection to this: viz. "The text says just persons; now, angels are not persons, therefore angels cannot be meant." This is extremely foolish; there may be the person of an angel, as well as of a man; we allow persons even in the Godhead; besides, the original word, δικαιοις, means simply just ones, and may be, with as much propriety, applied to angels as to men. After all, our Lord may refer to the Essenes, a sect among the Jews, in the time of our Lord, who were strictly and conscientiously moral; living at the utmost distance from both the hypocrisy and pollutions of their countrymen. These, when compared with the great mass of the Jews, needed no repentance. The reader may take his choice of these interpretations, or make a better for himself. I have seen other methods of explaining these words; but they have appeared to me either too absurd or too improbable to merit particular notice.

Ten pieces of silver - Δραχμας δεκα, ten drachmas. I think it always best to retain the names of these ancient coins, and to state their value in English money. Every reader will naturally wish to know by what names such and such coins were called in the countries in which they were current. The Grecian drachma was worth about sevenpence three farthings of our money; being about the same value as the Roman denarius.

The drachma that was lost is also a very expressive emblem of a sinner who is estranged from God, and enslaved to habits of iniquity. The longer a piece of money is lost, the less probability is there of its being again found; as it may not only lose its color, and not be easily observed, but will continue to be more and more covered with dust and dirt: or its value may be vastly lessened by being so trampled on that a part of the substance, together with the image and superscription, may be worn off. So the sinner sinks deeper and deeper into the impurities of sin, loses even his character among men, and gets the image and superscription of his Maker defaced from his heart. He who wishes to find the image of God, which he has lost by sin, must attend to that word which will be a lantern to his steps, and receive that Spirit which is a light to the soul, to convince of sin, righteousness, and judgment. He must sweep the house - put away the evil of his doings; and seek diligently - use every means of grace, and cry incessantly to God, till he restore to him the light of his countenance. Though parables of this kind must not be obliged to go on all fours, as it is termed; yet they afford many useful hints to preachers of the Gospel, by which they may edify their hearers. Only let all such take care not to force meanings on the words of Christ which are contrary to their gravity and majesty.

Give me the portion of goods - It may seem strange that such a demand should be made, and that the parent should have acceded to it, when he knew that it was to minister to his debauches that his profligate son made the demand here specified. But the matter will appear plain, when it is considered, that it has been an immemorial custom in the east for sons to demand and receive their portion of the inheritance during their father's lifetime; and the parent, however aware of the dissipated inclinations of the child, could not legally refuse to comply with the application. It appears indeed that the spirit of this law was to provide for the child in case of ill treatment by the father: yet the demand must first be acceded to, before the matter could be legally inquired into; and then, "if it was found that the father was irreproachable in his character, and had given no just cause for the son to separate from him, in that case, the civil magistrate fined the son in two hundred puns of cowries." See Code of Gentoo laws, pr. disc. p. 56; see also do. chap. 2: sec. 9, p. 81, 82; xxi. sec. 10, p. 301.

Not many days after - He probably hastened his departure for fear of the fine which he must have paid, and the reproach to which he must have been subjected, had the matter come before the civil magistrate. See above.

Riotous living - Ζων ασωτως, in a course of life that led him to spend all: from α not, and σωω I save. And this we are informed, Luk 15:30, was among harlots; the readiest way in the world to exhaust the body, debase the mind, ruin the soul, and destroy the substance.

A mighty famine in that land - As he was of a profligate turn of mind himself, it is likely he sought out a place where riot and excess were the ruling characteristics of the inhabitants; and, as poverty is the sure consequence of prodigality, it is no wonder that famine preyed on the whole country.

To feed swine - The basest and vilest of all employments; and, to a Jew, peculiarly degrading. Shame, contempt, and distress are wedded to sin, and can never be divorced. No character could be meaner in the sight of a Jew than that of a swineherd: and Herodotus informs us, that in Egypt they were not permitted to mingle with civil society, nor to appear in the worship of the gods, nor would the very dregs of the people have any matrimonial connections with them. Herod. lib. ii. cap. 47.

With the husks - Κερατιων. Bochart, I think, has proved that κερατια does not mean husks: to signify which the Greek botanical writers use the word λοβοι; several examples of which he gives from Theophrastus. He shows, also, that the original word means the fruit of the ceratonia or charub tree, which grows plentifully in Syria. This kind of pulse, Columella observes, was made use of to feed swine. See Bochart, Hieroz. lib. ii. cap. lvi. col. 707-10.

When he came to himself - A state of sin is represented in the sacred writings as a course of folly and madness; and repentance is represented as a restoration to sound sense. See this fully explained on Mat 3:2 (note).

I perish with hunger! - Or, I perish Here. Ὡδε, here, is added by BDL, Syriac, all the Arabic and Persic, Coptic, Ethiopic, Gothic, Saxon, Vulgate, all the Itala, and several of the fathers.

Against heaven - Εις τον ουρανον; that is, against God. The Jews often make use of this periphrasis in order to avoid mentioning the name of God, which they have ever treated with the utmost reverence. But some contend that it should be translated, even unto heaven; a Hebraism for, I have sinned exceedingly - beyond all description.

And kissed him - Or, kissed him again and again; the proper import of καταεφιλησεν αυτον. The father thus showed his great tenderness towards him, and his great affection for him.

Make me as one of thy hired servants, is added here by several MSS. and versions; but it is evident this has been added, merely to make his conduct agree with his resolution, Luk 15:19. But by this a very great beauty is lost: for the design of the inspired penman is to show, not merely the depth of the profligate son's repentance, and the sincerity of his conversion, but to show the great affection of the father, and his readiness to forgive his disobedient son. His tenderness of heart cannot wait till the son has made his confession; his bowels yearn over him, and he cuts short his tale of contrition and self-reproach, by giving him the most plenary assurances of his pardoning love.

Bring forth the best robe - Bring out that chief garment, την στολην την πρωτην, the garment which was laid by, to be used only on birth-days or festival times. Such as that which Rebecca had laid by for Esau, and which she put on Jacob when she made him personate his brother. See the notes on Gen 27:15.

Put a ring on his hand - Giving a ring was in ancient times a mark of honor and dignity. See Gen 41:42; 1Kgs 21:8; Est 8:2; Dan 6:17; Jam 2:2.

Shoes on his feet - Formerly those who were captivated had their shoes taken off, Isa 20:1; and when they were restored to liberty their shoes were restored. See 2Chr 28:15. In Bengal, shoes of a superior quality make one of the distinguishing parts of a person's dress. Some of them cost as much as a hundred rupees a pair; 10 or 12. Reference is perhaps made here to some such costly shoes. It is the same among the Chinese: some very costly shoes and boots of that people are now before me.

The fatted calf, and kill it - Θυσατε, Sacrifice it. In ancient times the animals provided for public feasts were first sacrificed to God. The blood of the beast being poured out before God, by way of atonement for sin, the flesh was considered as consecrated, and the guests were considered as feeding on Divine food. This custom is observed among the Asiatics to this day.

Was dead - Lost to all good - given up to all evil. In this figurative sense the word is used by the best Greek writers. See many examples in Kypke.

His elder son - Meaning probably persons of a regular moral life, who needed no repentance in comparison of the prodigal already described.

In the field - Attending the concerns of the farm.

He heard music - Συμφωνιας, a number of sounds mingled together, as in a concert.

Dancing - Χορων. But Le Clerc denies that the word means dancing at all, as it properly means a choir of singers. The symphony mentioned before may mean the musical instruments which accompanied the choirs of singers.

He was angry - This refers to the indignation of the scribes and Pharisees, mentioned Luk 15:1, Luk 15:2. In every point of view, the anger of the older son was improper and unreasonable. He had already received his part of the inheritance, see Luk 15:12, and his profligate brother had received no more than what was his just dividend. Besides, what the father had acquired since that division he had a right to dispose of as he pleased, even to give it all to one son; nor did the ancient customs of the Asiatic countries permit the other children to claim any share in such property thus disposed of. The following is an institute of the Gentoo law on this subject: (Code, chap. ii. sect. 9, p. 79:) "If a father gives, by his own choice, land, houses, orchards, and the earning of his own industry, to one of his sons, the other sons shall not receive any share of it." Besides, whatever property the father had acquired after the above division, the son or sons, as the prodigal in the text, could have no claim at all on, according to another institute in the above Asiatic laws, see chap. ii. sect. ii. p. 85, but the father might divide it among those who remained with him: therefore is it said in the text, "Son, thou art Always with me, and All that I have is Thine," Luk 15:31.

Never - a kid - It is evident from Luk 15:12, that the father gave him his portion when his profligate brother claimed his; for he divided his whole substance between them. And though he had not claimed it, so as to separate from, and live independently of, his father, yet he might have done so whenever he chose; and therefore his complaining was both undutiful and unjust.

This thy son - This son of Thine - words expressive of supreme contempt: This son - he would not condescend to call him by his name, or to acknowledge him for his brother; and at the same time, bitterly reproaches his amiable father for his affectionate tenderness, and readiness to receive his once undutiful, but now penitent, child!

For Him - I have marked those words in small capitals which should be strongly accented in the pronunciation: this last word shows how supremely he despised his poor unfortunate brother.

All that I have is thine - See on Luk 15:28 (note).

This thy brother - Or, This brother of Thine. To awaken this ill-natured, angry, inhumane man to a proper sense of his duty, both to his parent and brother, this amiable father returns him his own unkind words, but in a widely different spirit. This son of mine to whom I show mercy is Thy brother, to whom thou shouldst show bowels of tenderness and affection; especially as he is no longer the person he was: he was dead in sin - he is quickened by the power of God: he was lost to thee, to me, to himself, and to our God; but now he is found: and he will be a comfort to me, a help to thee, and a standing proof, to the honor of the Most High, that God receiveth sinners. This, as well as the two preceding parables, was designed to vindicate the conduct of our blessed Lord in receiving tax-gatherers and heathens; and as the Jews, to whom it was addressed, could not but approve of the conduct of this benevolent father, and reprobate that of his elder son, so they could not but justify the conduct of Christ towards those outcasts of men, and, at least in the silence of their hearts, pass sentence of condemnation upon themselves. For the sublime, the beautiful, the pathetic, and the instructive, the history of Joseph in the Old Testament, and the parable of the prodigal son in the New, have no parallels either in sacred or profane history.

The following reflections, taken chiefly from pious Quesnel, cannot fail making this incomparable parable still more instructive.

Three points may be considered here: I. The degrees of his fall. II. The degrees of his restoration; and, III. The consequences of his conversion.

I. The prodigal son is the emblem of a sinner who refuses to depend on and be governed by the Lord. How dangerous is it for us to desire to be at our own disposal, to live in a state of independency, and to be our own governors! God cannot give to wretched man a greater proof of his wrath than to abandon him to the corruption of his own heart.

Not many days, etc., Luk 15:13. The misery of a sinner has its degrees; and he soon arrives, step by step, at the highest pitch of his wretchedness.

The first degree of his misery is, that he loses sight of God, and removes at a distance from him. There is a boundless distance between the love of God, and impure self-love; and yet, strange to tell, we pass in a moment from the one to the other!

The second degree of a sinner's misery is, that the love of God being no longer retained in the heart, carnal love and impure desires necessarily enter in, reign there, and corrupt all his actions.

The third degree is, that he squanders away all spiritual riches, and wastes the substance of his gracious Father in riot and debauch.

When he had spent all, etc., Luk 15:14. The fourth degree of an apostate sinner's misery is, that having forsaken God, and lost his grace and love, he can now find nothing but poverty, misery, and want. How empty is that soul which God does not fill! What a famine is there in that heart which is no longer nourished by the bread of life!

In this state, he joined himself - εκολληθη, he cemented, closely united himself, and fervently cleaved to a citizen of that country, Luk 15:15.

The fifth degree of a sinner's misery is, that he renders himself a slave to the devil, is made partaker of his nature, and incorporated into the infernal family. The farther a sinner goes from God, the nearer he comes to eternal ruin.

The sixth degree of his misery is, that he soon finds by experience the hardship and rigour of his slavery. There is no master so cruel as the devil; no yoke so heavy as that of sin; and no slavery so mean and vile as for a man to be the drudge of his own carnal, shameful, and brutish passions.

The seventh degree of a sinner's misery is, that he has an insatiable hunger and thirst after happiness; and as this can be had only in God, and he seeks it in the creature, his misery must be extreme. He desired to fill his belly with the husks, Luk 15:16. The pleasures of sense and appetite are the pleasures of swine, and to such creatures is he resembled who has frequent recourse to them, 2Pet 2:22.

II. Let us observe, in the next place, the several degrees of a sinner's conversion and salvation.

The first is, he begins to know and feel his misery, the guilt of his conscience, and the corruption of his heart. He comes to himself, because the Spirit of God first comes to him, Luk 15:17.

The second is, that he resolves to forsake sin and all the occasions of it; and firmly purposes in his soul to return immediately to his God. I will arise, etc., Luk 15:18.

The third is, when, under the influence of the spirit of faith, he is enabled to look towards God as a compassionate and tender-hearted father. I will arise and go to my father.

The fourth is, when he makes confession of his sin, and feels himself utterly unworthy of all God's favors, Luk 15:19.

The fifth is, when he comes in the spirit of obedience, determined through grace to submit to the authority of God; and to take his word for the rule of all his actions, and his Spirit for the guide of all his affections and desires.

The sixth is, his putting his holy resolutions into practice without delay; using the light and power already mercifully restored to him, and seeking God in his appointed ways. And he arose and came, etc., Luk 15:20.

The seventh is, God tenderly receives him with the kiss of peace and love, blots out all his sins, and restores him to, and reinstates him in, the heavenly family. His father - fell on his neck, and kissed him, Luk 15:20.

The eighth is, his being clothed with holiness, united to God, married as it were to Christ Jesus, 2Cor 11:2, and having his feet shod with the shoes of the preparation of the Gospel of peace, Eph 6:15, so that he may run the ways of God's commandments with alacrity and joy. Bring the best robe - put a ring - and shoes, etc., Luk 15:22.

III. The consequences of the sinner's restoration to the favor and image of God are,

First, the sacrifice of thanksgiving is offered to God in his behalf; he enters into a covenant with his Maker, and feasts on the fatness of the house of the Most High.

Secondly, The whole heavenly family are called upon to share in the general joy; the Church above and the Church below both triumph; for there is joy (peculiar joy) in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth. See Luk 15:10.

Thirdly, God publicly acknowledges him for his son, not only by enabling him to abstain from every appearance of evil, but to walk before him in newness of life, Luk 15:24. The tender-hearted father repeats these words at Luk 15:32, to show more particularly that the soul is dead when separated from God; and that it can only be said to be alive when united to him through the Son of his love. A Christian's sin is a brother's death; and in proportion to our concern for this will our joy be at his restoration to spiritual life. Let us have a brotherly heart towards our brethren, as God has that of a father towards his children, and seems to be afflicted at their loss, and to rejoice at their being found again, as if they were necessary to his happiness.

In this parable, the younger profligate son may represent the Gentile world; and the elder son, who so long served his father, Luk 15:20, the Jewish people. The anger of the elder son explains itself at once - it means the indignation evidenced by the Jews at the Gentiles being received into the favor of God, and made, with them, fellow heirs of the kingdom of heaven.

It may also be remarked, that those who were since called Jews and Gentiles, were at first one family, and children of the same father: that the descendants of Ham and Japhet, from whom the principal part of the Gentile world was formed, were, in their progenitors, of the primitive great family, but had afterwards fallen off from the true religion: and that the parable of the prodigal son may well represent the conversion of the Gentile world, in order that, in the fullness of time, both Jews and Gentiles may become one fold, under one Shepherd and Bishop of all souls.

All the publicans - That is, all who were in that place. It seems our Lord was in some town of Galilee of the Gentiles, from whence he afterward went to Jerusalem, Lu 17:11.

He spake - Three parables of the same import: for the sheep, the piece of silver, and the lost son, all declare (in direct contrariety to the Pharisees and scribes) in what manner God receiveth sinners.

Leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness - Where they used to feed: all uncultivated ground, like our commons, was by the Jews termed wilderness or desert. And go after - In recovering a lost soul, God as it were labours. May we not learn hence, that to let them alone who are in sin, is both unchristian and inhuman! Mt 18:12.

Joy shall be - Solemn and festal joy, in heaven - First, in our blessed Lord himself, and then among the angels and spirits of just men, perhaps informed thereof by God himself, or by the angels who ministered to them. Over one sinner - One gross, open, notorious sinner, that repenteth - That is, thoroughly changed in heart and life; more than over ninety and nine just persons - Comparatively just, outwardly blameless: that need not such a repentance - For they need not, cannot repent of the sins which they never committed. The sum is, as a father peculiarly rejoices when an extravagant child, supposed to be utterly lost, comes to a thorough sense of his duty; or as any other person who has recovered what he had given up for gone, has a more sensible satisfaction in it, than in several other things equally valuable, but not in such danger: so do the angels in heaven peculiarly rejoice in the conversion of the most abandoned sinners. Yea, and God himself so readily forgives and receives them, that he may be represented as having part in the joy.

Give me the part of goods that falleth to me - See the root of all sin! A desire of disposing of ourselves; of independency on God!

He took a journey into a far country - Far from God: God was not in all his thoughts: And squandered away his substance - All the grace he had received.

He began to be in want - All his worldly pleasures failing, he grew conscious of his want of real good.

And he joined himself to a citizen of that country - Either the devil or one of his children, the genuine citizens of that country which is far from God. He sent him to feed swine - He employed him in the base drudgery of sin.

He would fain have filled his belly with the husks - He would fain have satisfied himself with worldly comforts. Vain, fruitless endeavour!

And coming to himself - For till then he was beside himself, as all men are, so long as they are without God in the world.

I will arise and go to my father - How accurately are the first steps of true repentance here pointed out! Against Heaven - Against God.

And he arose and came to his father - The moment he had resolved, he began to execute his resolution. While he was yet a great way off, his father saw him - Returning, starved, naked.

But the father said - Interrupting him before he had finished what he intended to say. So does God frequently cut an earnest confession short by a display of his pardoning love.

Let us be merry - Both here, and wherever else this word occurs, whether in the Old or New Testament, it implies nothing of levity, but a solid, serious, religious, heartfelt joy: indeed this was the ordinary meaning of the word two hundred years ago, when our translation was made.

The elder son seems to represent the Pharisees and scribes, mentioned Lu 15:2.

Thy father hath killed the fatted calf - Perhaps he mentions this rather than the robe or ring, as having a nearer connection with the music and dancing.

He was angry, and would not go in - How natural to us is this kind of resentment!

Lo, so many years do I serve thee - So he was one of the instances mentioned Lu 15:7. How admirably therefore does this parable confirm that assertion! Yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends - Perhaps God does not usually give much joy to those who never felt the sorrows of repentance.

Thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine - This suggests a strong reason against murmuring at the indulgence shown to the greatest of sinners. As the father's receiving the younger son did not cause him to disinherit the elder; so God's receiving notorious sinners will be no loss to those who have always served him; neither will he raise these to a state of glory equal to that of those who have always served him, if they have, upon the whole, made a greater progress in inward as well as outward holiness.

This thy brother was dead, and is alive - A thousand of these delicate touches in the inspired writings escape an inattentive reader. In Lu 15:30, the elder son had unkindly and indecently said, This thy son. The father in his reply mildly reproves him, and tenderly says, This thy brother - Amazing intimation, that the best of men ought to account the worst sinners their brethren still; and should especially remember this relation, when they show any inclination to return. Our Lord in this whole parable shows, not only that the Jews had no cause to murmur at the reception of the Gentiles, (a point which did not at that time so directly fall under consideration,) but that if the Pharisees were indeed as good as they fancied themselves to be, still they had no reason to murmur at the kind treatment of any sincere penitent. Thus does he condemn them, even on their own principles, and so leaves them without excuse. We have in this parable a lively emblem of the condition and behaviour of sinners in their natural state. Thus, when enriched by the bounty of the great common Father, do they ungratefully run from him, Lu 15:12. Sensual pleasures are eagerly pursued, till they have squandered away all the grace of God, Lu 15:13. And while these continue, not a serious thought of God can find a place in their minds. And even when afflictions come upon them, Lu 15:14, still they will make hard shifts before they will let the grace of God, concurring with his providence, persuade them to think of a return, Lu 15:15,16. When they see themselves naked, indigent, and undone, then they recover the exercise of their reason, Lu 15:17. Then they remember the blessings they have thrown away, and attend to the misery they have incurred. And hereupon they resolve to return to their father, and put the resolution immediately in practice, Lu 15:18,19. Behold with wonder and pleasure the gracious reception they find from Divine, injured goodness! When such a prodigal comes to his father, he sees him afar off, Lu 15:20. He pities, meets, embraces him, and interrupts his acknowledgments with the tokens of his returning favour, Lu 15:21. He arrays him with the robe of a Redeemer's righteousness, with inward and outward holiness; adorns him with all his sanctifying graces, and honours him with the tokens of adopting love, Lu 15:22. And all this he does with unutterable delight, in that he who was lost is now found, Lu 15:23,24. Let no elder brother murmur at this indulgence, but rather welcome the prodigal back into the family. And let those who have been thus received, wander no more, but emulate the strictest piety of those who for many years have served their heavenly Father, and not transgressed his commandments.

2 And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them.

I have so often taken notice, that the Term All in the New Testaments is very often used to signify, not all the Individuals of that Species, or order of Men to which it is applyed, but only a great and considerable number of them, that it is needless again to repeat it. None can imagine, that every Individual Publican and Sinner in those parts, where Christ now was, came to hear Christ, bu[illegible: 1 letter] only Many of them, or some of every sort. Thus Publicans and Harlots entred into the Kingdom of God, while[illegible: 1 letter] the Children of the Kingdom, and such as appeared to lye fairer for it, were cast out. The Scribes who were the Interpreters of the Law, and the Pharisees, who were the rigid observe[illegible: 1 letter]s of their decrees, and interpretations, murmured, they were disturbed, and troubled at it. Thinking that because the Law appointed no Sacrifice for bold, and presumptuous Sinners, therefore there was no Mercy in God for them, or those of whom they had such a Notion, and that they were ipso jure Excommunicated, and therefore Christ Sinned in Eating, or Drinking with them, or in any degree receiving of them. And from hence concluding he was no Prophet. As if because ordinarily, Persons are known by their Companions with whom they Converse, therefore it had been a general rule, as if one might have concluded, that their Doctorships were ignorant, because they conversed with them that were so, for their Instruction; or could conclude, that the Physician is Sick, because his Converse is with the Sick, for their Cure and Healing. A man is not to be judged to be such as he Converseth with necessarily, or in order to their good, which was the end of all our Saviours Converse with these Sinners. Besides were they themselves without Sin? The Root of their uncharitableness was their opinion of their own Righteousness, from the Works of the Law, according to their own jejune Interpretation of it. But let us hear our Saviour's reply.

7 I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more then over ninety and nine just persons which need no repentance.

See the Note[illegible: 1 letter] on Matth. [illegible: 1 letter]8.12, 1[illegible: 1 letter]. where we met with the same Parable, [illegible: 1 letter]ho not related with so many Circumstances. The Seventh Verse which is the Epiparabole, sheweth us the Principal thing, which our Saviour by this Parable designeth to teach his Hearers, and us also, viz. That Christ is so far from rejecting the greatest Sinners, that Repent, and Fly unto his Mercy, that if it were possible, he should take a greater Satisfaction, in such an issue of Divine Providence, than in all the glofyed Saints. No Repenting Sinner, let his Sins be as many, and as great as they can be, shall be unwelcome unto Christ, [illegible: 1 letter]lying to him with a broken Heart (resolved against his former Courses) for Pardon and Mercy. But as it happeneth to them, who by Study and Practice make great Experiments, they can hardly find out what they mostly seek for, but in the way to it, they will find out several other Notions, which are of great use to them: So it will fall out to them, who diligently Study the Parables of the Gospel. Tho some one Truth be that, the Explication of which our Saviour doth chiefly intend; yet the Parable will also afford some other profitable instructions, not unworthy of our notice and regard. The Man here intended▪ is Christ, who was the Son of Man, as well as the Eternal Son of God. The Hundred Sheep signifies the whole number of his Elect, whether in Heaven or on Earth, whether yet called, or hereafter to be called. The Sheep, going astray signifyeth all the Elect, who are by Nature Children of Wrath as well as others, Dead, in Trespasses and Sins, Eph. 2.1.3. Here is mention but of one Sheep so gone astray, tho there be many to let us know the Love of Christ to every individual Soul, that if but one of them had been to have been Redeemed, he would have come down from Heaven to have Redeemed it. The Ninety Nine left in the Wilderness, seem to me to be the Glorifyed Saints, they are the only just Persons who need no Repentance. The Country Mans going after the lost Sheep till he finds it, then bringing it home upon his Shoulders rejoycing, signifies the infinite Love of Chri[illegible: 2 letters], both in leaving his Fathers Throne, and the Society of the Glorifyed Saints, and Angels to come and to seek, and to save that which was lost, to pay a Redemption price for them, then sending his Holy Spirit, and the Ministers of his Gospel to invite, and effectually [illegible: 1 letter]o persuade them to accept of his Salvation, truly Repenting of their Sins, and also p[illegible: 3 letters]erving them through his Power by Faith, unto Salvation (for it is upon his Shoulders, that any Elect Soul is brought home) it is his Eye must find them, and his Power that must bring them Home) The Country-mans Rejoycing, and calling his Neighbours to Rejoyce, &c. signifyeth the satisfaction and well pleasedness of Christ, in the Conversion of Sinners, which is more plainly expressed, v. 7. I say unto you, that likewise there shall be Ioy in Heaven over one Sinner that Repenteth, more than over Ninety and Nine just Persons, which need no Repentance. We have much the same again, v. 10. leaving out the Comparative part. There also it is: There is Ioy in the presence of the Angels of God. We will consider the Expressions in both the Verses together. As to which there may arise these Questions. 1. Qu. What is here meant by Ioy in Heaven? The Inhabitants of Heaven are God, the blessed Angels, and the Glorifyed Saints, how can they be said to Rejoyce, whereas Rejoycing is in us the product of a Passion, by which we Triumph in our Union to some good, which we before wanted. 1. An. When Terms Expressive of our Passions, are applyed to perfect Beings, we must understand them so, as they alone can agree to such Beings, separated from those Excesses, which they have in beings more imperfect. Ioy signifyeth nothing but the full satisfaction of the Will, in a good obtained. Thus God is said to Rejoyce in his People, Isa. 62.5. 2. Qu. Who are these Ninety Nine just Persons that need no Repentance? (For the number, it is but an incertain number put for one certain) 2. An. Some by such as need no Repentance understand, such as think so of themselves, tho indeed they do need it. Others understand it Comparatively, such as if compared with others need no Repentance. 3. Others by Repentance understand Penance. Such Sober Persons as stand in no need of a being called to a Publick Conf[illegible: 1 letter]ssion, for the satisfaction of the Church offended. I had rather understand it of the Glorifyed Saints, whose Society Christ left, when he came to Work out our Redemption. 2. For the others it had been no great matter for Christ to have told them, that God, and the Holy Saints, and Angels, Rejoyce more over one Repenting Sinner, than over Ninety Nine Impenitent Sinners, and self-righteous Persons, who continually grieve him, and whom he abhoreth. But then, 3. Qu. How can it be said, that God, and the Angels, and Saints, more Rejoyce over one Repenting Sinner, than over Ninety Nine Glorifyed Saints? An. It is universally agreed, that Christ speaks here of God, and of the Angels, after the manner of Men, Of whose Nature it is to express more Passion, upon a new Object that pleaseth them, than upon others, that they have been long pleased with. As a Parent Rejoyceth more over one Child recovered from the Jaws of Death, than over all the rest of his Children. Tho nothing can be new to God, that is, which he did not see, and [illegible: 1 letter]ore-know, yet somethings may be new to him in facto esse, as done and fulfilled, and tho we must not imagine any Mutation, or Alteration of the Divine Being upon any Emergency amongst Men. Yet to express how infinitely pleased God is, in the Repentance and Conversion of great Sinners, he is set out, as receiving an Augmentation of satisfaction in the effecting of it; such Expressions as these condescended to by God for our Consolation, must not be so strained by us, as to occasion any unbecoming thought[illegible: 1 letter] of God. Qu. Some query how the Angels know of the Conversion of a Sinner, and from hence the Papists would some of them infer, that they know our Hearts, because that is the Seat of Conversion. An. both the Angels, and the Glorifyed Saints also may know it by Gods revealing it to them.

Marginal references: Chap. 5.32

10 Likewise I say unto you, There is joy in the presence▪ of the angels of God, over one sinner that repenteth.

This Parable (as appeareth by the conclusion of it) is of the same import with the other, and needs no further Explication. By both these Parables, our Blessed Lord lets the Pharisees know the end he aimed at in Conversing with Publicanes and Sinners, viz. In order to their Repentance and Conversion, than which nothing could be more grateful, and well pleasing to that God who desireth not the Death of a Sinner, but rather that they should turn from their Wickedness, and live. Of the same import is also the following Parable, which taketh up all the remaining part of this Chapter.

16 And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him.

The Scope of this excellent Parable, is apparently to Magnify the Grace of God, who is willing to receive and to Treat kindly the greatest Transgressors, seriously Repenting, and turning unto God; but in it we are also, 1. instructed in the Original State of Man, like that of a Child in his Fathers House, Happy and wanting nothing. 2. The most Miserable Estate of fallen Men, such especially as run to great excess of Riot. 3. The true way of a Sinners returning to God. 4. The readiness of our Gracious Father to receive, and his wonderful kindness in the receiving and imbracing repenting, and returning Sinners. 5. The Envy that is sometimes found in good Souls to others receiving (as they think) more favour from God than they do. 6. The Gentleness and Meekness of God in dealing with us, notwithstanding our infirmities and mis-becoming passions. God is again here represented under the notion of a Man, who had two Sons. Some that are his Children by Regeneration as well as Creation: he having given them that believe, a Right to be called the Sons of God, Iohn 1.12. Others, that are his Sons by Creation only. The latter are here represented under the notion of a Younger Son. This younger Son is represented, as dissatisfyed with living in his Fathers House, desiring his Portion, &c. All Men and Women by Nature were equally the Sons of God, being all in Adam who was so. All Men Swerved form him, in Adam all Sinned, all dyed. But some again by Grace are returned to their Fathers House. Others challenge a Relation to God, as his Creatures, but are not of their Fathers House, but desire only a Portion of the good things of this Life. Some desire Honours, some Riches, all of them Life and Health, &c. God like a liberal Father, gives some of these good things to one, others to another; to some more than one kind of them, whatever they have of this Nature is from him who maketh his Sun to Shine, and his Rain to fall upon the Just and Unjust. Wicked Men when they are thus furnished by God, quickly take their Iourney into a far Country, are more Alienated and Estranged from God by Lewd, and wicked Practices, than they were by Nature. Wast their Substance, the Health of their Bodies, their time of Life, their Estates, their great and Honourable Capacities, by giving up themselves to Lewd and Riotous kinds of Life, to the high dishonour of Almighty God. It pleaseth God by his Providence, sometimes to bring these Men into Straights; when they are so brought, they will take any base Sordid Course to relieve themselves, rather than they will think of returning to their Heavenly Father, of themselves they will rather chuse to serve Swine. But if they be such as belong to God's Election of Grace, the Providence of God will no[illegible: 1 letter] leave them: tho there be little Food for a Soul in the Husks of sensible Satisfactions; yet they shall not have a Belly full of them. God will bring them off from Satisfaction in any thing, and make every Condition uneasy to them.

19 And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.

Every Sinner is besides himself. His reason Lacqueys to his Lust and Passion, he is Governed by Appetite, and that rageth in him, while his understanding is Blind, and cannot discern betwixt Good and Evil, and when he hath in any Measure discerned any thing, his Will is Stubborn and chuseth the Evil. Conversion is but the return of a Soul to it self. The first thoughts of which Conversion arise from a Souls Consideration, what a poor Miserable Creature it is, ready to Perish for ever, whiles never a poor Soul belonging to God, no not the meanest Servant in his Family, wanteth any good thing that is necessary for him. These things increase in a Soul thoughts of returning to his Heavenly Father, through the Operation of the Holy Spirit of God. (For of our selves we are not sufficient so much as to think one good thought.)

20 And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.

The way of a Sinners returning to God must be by arising▪ going to the Father, Confessing his Sins with the Aggravations of them, disclaiming any goodness, any Righteousness in himself, Humbling himself to God's Footstool, I will arise, (saith the Prodigal) and go to my Father, and say unto him, Father I have Sinned against Heaven, and before thee, And am no more worthy to be called thy▪ Son, make me as one of thy hired Servants. And he arose and came to his Father. He arose from the Sleep, and Bed of Sin, and came into his Father. We are not here told by whose Strength, or in whose Assistance he arose, and came. We must remember that our Saviour is here representing a Spiritual Notion, by an ordinary humane Action; now Men have an innate Power to Natural Motions, tho not to Spiritual Actions. We are elsewhere told. That no Man cometh to the Father, but by Christ, nor doth any Man come unto the Son, but he whom the Father draweth. Every one as he is taught of the Father, cometh unto the Son; and again, that tho we be saved by Faith, yet it is not of our selves, it is the Gift of God, and Phil. 1.29, It is given to us on the behaf of Christ to believe ▪ These are but several Expressions signifying by the tender affections, and Gracious reception of Earthly Parents of a returning Prodigal Son, the exceeding readiness of our Heavenly Father to receive Penitent Sinners; he is so far from discouraging great Sinners from taking up thoughts of returning unto him, that he cherisheth the Embryoes of such Resolutions, I said (saith the Psalmist) I will confess my Transgressions unto the Lord, and thou forg avest the Iniquity of my Sin, Psal. 32.5. God seeth the first good Motions, and stirrings of our Hearts, towards him, and he needs must do so▪ for he stirreth them up in us; there is no sacred Fire upon our Altar, but first cometh down from Heaven, whiles yet the Soul is far off from believing, and closing with Christ actually, and hath but some thoughts of that tendency, God looks upon it, incourageth it, meeteth it as it were half-way; and indeed if he did not, our Goodness would be but like a Morning Dew, which would quickly pass away, our first Inclinations would perish like an untimely Birth, before it hath seen the Light.

Marginal references: Acts 2.39. Eph. 2.13.17.

21 And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.

Now the good thoughts, and Resolutions of the Sinner ripen into Action, and the first of it is an Expression of his Convictions, and Humiliation by an humble Confession of his Sins, with their Aggravations, as committed against God, and that in the sight of God, and this God, his Father, his unworthiness so much as of the Name of a Son to such a Father. The Petitionary part of what he resolved upon, v. 19. is not here again repeated, but to be understood. Men may by the common Grace of God denyed to no Man, have some good thoughts, but they dye away, [illegible: 2 letters]d [illegible: 1 word] to no Maturity, unless the Holy Spirit of God breath[illegible: 1 letter] upon them, and [illegible: 1 word], and upholdeth them in the Soul, but where the Lord designeth a thorough Change in a Soul, the Spirit of the Lord comes, and convinceth the Soul of Sin, and of Righteousness, and where he doth so▪ the Resolution ripeneth into Action, and produceth in the Soul a true and hearty Contrition, and confession of its sin, with humble Petitions and a Resignation of its self to the Lords Will, and a casting of its self upon God's free Grace and Mercy.

24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.

We must remember that we are in a Parable where a Sinner is represented to us, under the notion of a Prodigal Son, God under the notion of an Indulgent Father. A Repenting Sinner, under the notion of a Prodigal returning to his Father, Confessing his Error, Petitioning his Father for Mercy, acknowledging he deserveth none, but casting himself upon his Fathers Goodness and Mercy. It is observed by an Eminent Author, That amongst all the Parables, this is one of the most famous, and wherein is the most full and perfect Representation of the thing intended to be represented, and an Applicableness of every part of the Similitude to that which it is brought to represent. This part of it representeth the Grace of God to truly repenting Sinners. We before heard, his readiness, and willingness to receive them, this part lets us see the manner how he will treat them. As in case of Apostacy; the seeming Righteousness, and Profession of Men shall not be remembred, Ezech. 3.20. and 33.13. so in case of a true and hearty Repentance, the Sins of a Soul shall not be remembred, Isaiah 43.25. The Father taketh no notice of the Prodigal's leaving his Father's House, or wasting his Estate Riotously, but saith, Bring forth the best Robe [non-Latin text not transcribed], and put a Ring upon his Hand, and Shoes upon his Feet, and bring hither the Fatted Calf [non-Latin text not transcribed]. I find some Interpreters, who by the Fatted Calf are willing enough to understand Christ; yet Interpreting the best Robe, Innocency, or Inherent Righteousness. Nor is it an ill Interpretation, if we consider, That God at the same time, when he imputeth the Merits of Christ to the Soul for Iustification, doth also put his Spirit of Holiness into the Soul, by which being renewed in the inward Man, this Man brings forth the Fruits of Holiness unto Righteousness, Ezech. 36.26, 27. But why we should not understand both the Phrases of the Application of Christ's Merits, and the Imputation of his Righteousness to the Soul, I cannot tell, considering, that the Church of Laodicea is Counselled to buy of him White Rayment, that she might be Cloathed Rev. 3.18. and that those Cloathed with White Robes, Rev. 7.14. are said to have Washed their Robes, and made them White in the Blood of the Lamb, and that tho the Habits of Grace are sometimes in Holy Writ, compared to Cloathing. Be ye Cloathed with Humility (saith the Apostle) yet these are not [non-Latin text not transcribed], I should therefore rather chuse, to Interpret the killing of the Fatted Calf for the Prodigal Son, as representing, that Application of the Blood of Christ, which is made to every Sinner, that truly repenteth, and maketh its application to God for Mercy; and the best Robe, and the Righteousness of Christ, in that moment reckoned unto the Soul (thus believing) for Righteousness; further yet (to consider it only in the Parable) the Word [non-Latin text not transcribed] Sacrifice the Fatted Calf, seems to signify what a great cause of thanksgiving to God, as well as joy amongst Men, the Conversion of a Sinner is. We that are earthly Parents, or Ministers of the Gospel, should not receive the news, or set the visible probability of a Souls being converted, and returning unto God, without offering a Sacrifice of thanksgiving unto God, for doing such things for Men, and without a true, and hearty rejoycing in our selves. But to return again to the meaning of the Parable, let us eat and be Merry, consider these Words, as the Words of an Heavenly Father, they signifie unto us, that the eternal God, from the Day that a repenting Soul, hath the Blood of Christ applyed to it, and is cloathed with his righteousness, is at Peace with the Soul, hath a Communion with it, and that it from that time, hath a true right to spiritual Mirth, and rejoycing, for Light is sown for the Righteous, and joy for the upright in heart; tho possibly the Soul at present through temptations, cannot apprehend it, and be not actually possessed of that joy, and Peace which followeth believing, yet it hath a right to it, and indeed none but that Soul hath any thing to do with Peace. It followeth, For this my Son was dead, and is alive again, he was lost and is found. A Sinful Soul is a dead Soul, as the Woman that liveth in Pleasure, is said to be Dead while she lives, by the Apostle. The Conversion of a Sinner, is as a Resurrection from the Dead. Nor is any Soul capable of any true Mirth, till it be Reconciled to God through the Blood of Christ.

32 It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.

This last part of the Parable, is not so exactly applicable to that which it is brought to represent, as the former parts are. But it serveth excellently to shew us that Envy, which is found in our Hearts by Nature, to the Spiritual Good, and advantage of others. Two things are observable in it. 1. Mans Peevishness and Envy. 2. Gods Meekness towards us under our Frowardness By the eldest Son some think, the Iews are represented, whose Peevishness to the Gentiles, and the offer of the Grace of the Gospel to them, is made appear to us from many places of Holy Writ. Others think that by the Eldest Son are represented Hypocrites, who swelling in an opinion of themselves, and their own Righteousness have no Patience to hear, that any others should be preferred in the favour of God before them. Why may not we say that All are understood by it, even the best of Gods People, who (if they narrowly search their own Hearts) will find something of Pride and Envy remaining in the best of them, and as the former prompts them to judge themselves as much deserving the Favour of God, even in special particular Dispensations as any others: So the latter inclineth them to repine at such Dispensations of Divine Grace, as others receive, and they want. Two Corruptions which we are as much concerned to keep a Watch upon, or against, as any other, speaking both a Peevishness to the Honour and Glory of God, a Dissatisfaction in his Dispensations, and an Offer at the Controulment of his Wisdom and Justice, and also a great Degree of uncharitableness; our Eye being Evil because the Lord is Good, besides, that it seemeth to put in a claim of Merit; and the Soul that Indulgeth it self in such thoughts, seems to say that he hath deserved more, than it doth receive; for without such a supposition, it is the most unreasonable thing imaginable, that any Person should be displeased, that another should have a greater share in the Favour of God than he, whiles himself receives more than he can lay a claim unto, and God may do with his own what he pleaseth. The Meekness of God in dealing with us under our Frowardness, is as much remarkable. Son (saith this Father in the Parable) thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. It was Meet that we should make Merry, and be glad, for this thy Brother was Dead, and is alive again, was lost, and is found. This must be understood of God [non-Latin text not transcribed] as spoken after the manner of Men, who shew greater passions upon the receiving of a Good that is new to them, and possibly surprizing, than they ordinarily shew upon the view of a good of which they have had longer Fruition, so it confirms what was before said in v. 7.10. we must take heed of thinking that anything can make a change or alteration in God, but must look upon it only as an expression of Gods high satisfaction, and well pleasedness in a Sinne[illegible: 1 letter] Conversion, and turning unto him, so as if it were possible any good should more than other affect the Divine Being, it would be this, so as this whole Parable is of excellent use, not only to instruct Sinners in their miserable State, till they be reconciled to God, but to deliver them from all Temptations to Fear, that heartily returning they shall not be accepted.

The Lost Sheep and Piece of Silver.

1 Then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him. 2 And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them. 3 And he spake this parable unto them, saying, 4 What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it? 5 And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 6 And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost. 7 I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance. 8 Either what woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it? 9 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. 10 Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.

Here is, I. The diligent attendance of the publicans and sinners upon Christ's ministry. Great multitudes of Jews went with him (ch. xiv. 25), with such an assurance of admission into the kingdom of God that he found it requisite to say that to them which would shake their vain hopes. Here multitudes of publicans and sinners drew near to him, with a humble modest fear of being rejected by him, and to them he found it requisite to give encouragement, especially because there were some haughty supercilious people that frowned upon them. The publicans, who collected the tribute paid to the Romans, were perhaps some of them bad men, but they were all industriously put into an ill name, because of the prejudices of the Jewish nation against their office. They are sometimes ranked with harlots (Matt. xxi. 32); here and elsewhere with sinners, such as were openly vicious, that traded with harlots, known rakes. Some think that the sinners here meant were heathen, and that Christ was now on the other side Jordan, or in Galilee of the Gentiles. These drew near, when perhaps the multitude of the Jews that had followed him had (upon his discourse in the close of the foregoing chapter) dropped off; thus afterwards the Gentiles took their turn in hearing the apostles, when the Jews had rejected them. They drew near to him, being afraid of drawing nearer than just to come within hearing. They drew near to him, not, as some did, to solicit for cures, but to hear his excellent doctrine. Note, in all our approaches to Christ we must have this in our eye, to hear him; to hear the instructions he gives us, and his answers to our prayers.

II. The offence which the scribes and Pharisees took at this. They murmured, and turned it to the reproach of our Lord Jesus: This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them, v. 2. 1. They were angry that publicans and heathens had the means of grace allowed them, were called to repent, and encouraged to hope for pardon upon repentance; for they looked upon their case as desperate, and thought that none but Jews had the privilege of repenting and being pardoned, though the prophets preached repentance to the nations, and Daniel particularly to Nebuchadnezzar. 2. They thought it a disparagement to Christ, and inconsistent with the dignity of his character, to make himself familiar with such sort of people, to admit them into his company and to eat with them. They could not, for shame, condemn him for preaching to them, though that was the thing they were most enraged at; and therefore they reproached him for eating with them, which was more expressly contrary to the tradition of the elders. Censure will fall, not only upon the most innocent and the most excellent persons, but upon the most innocent and most excellent actions, and we must not think it strange.

III. Christ's justifying himself in it, by showing that the worse these people were, to whom he preached, the more glory would redound to God, and the more joy there would be in heaven, if by his preaching they were brought to repentance. It would be a more pleasing sight in heaven to see Gentiles brought to the worship of the true God than to see Jews go on in it, and to see publicans and sinners live an orderly sort of life than to see scribes and Pharisees go on in living such a life. This he here illustrates by two parables, the explication of both of which is the same.

1. The parable of the lost sheep. Something like it we had in Matt. xviii. 12. There it was designed to show the care God takes for the preservation of saints, as a reason why we should not offend them; here it is designed to show the pleasure God takes in the conversion of sinners, as a reason why we should rejoice in it. We have here,

(1.) The case of a sinner that goes on in sinful ways. He is like a lost sheep, a sheep gone astray; he is lost to God, who has not the honour and service he should have from him; lost to the flock, which has not communion with him; lost to himself: he knows not where he is, wanders endlessly, is continually exposed to the beasts of prey, subject to frights and terrors, from under the shepherd's care, and wanting the green pastures; and he cannot of himself find the way back to the fold.

(2.) The care the God of heaven takes of poor wandering sinners. He continues his care of the sheep that did not go astray; they are safe in the wilderness. But there is a particular care to be taken of this lost sheep; and though he has a hundred sheep, a considerable flock, yet he will not lose that one, but he goes after it, and shows abundance of care, [1.] In finding it out. He follows it, enquiring after it, and looking about for it, until he finds it. God follows backsliding sinners with the calls of his word and the strivings of his Spirit, until at length they are wrought upon to think of returning. [2.] In bringing it home. Though he finds it weary, and perhaps worried and worn away with its wanderings, and not able to bear being driven home, yet he does not leave it to perish, and say, It is not wroth carrying home; but lays it on his shoulders, and, with a great deal of tenderness and labour, brings it to the fold. This is very applicable to the great work of our redemption. Mankind were gone astray, Isa. liii. 6. The value of the whole race to God was not so much as that of one sheep to him that had a hundred; what loss would it have been to God if they had all been left to perish? There is a world of holy angels that are as the ninety-nine sheep, a noble flock; yet God sends his Son to seek and save that which was lost, ch. xix. 10. Christ is said to gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom, denoting his pity and tenderness towards poor sinners; here he is said to bear them upon his shoulders, denoting the power wherewith he supports and bears them up; those can never perish whom he carries upon his shoulders.

(3.) The pleasure that God takes in repenting returning sinners. He lays it on his shoulders rejoicing that he has not lost his labour in seeking; and the joy is the greater because he began to be out of hope of finding it; and he calls his friends and neighbours, the shepherds that keep their flocks about him, saying, Rejoice with me. Perhaps among the pastoral songs which the shepherds used to sing there was one for such an occasion as this, of which these words might be the burden, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost; whereas they never sung, Rejoice with me, for I have lost none. Observe, he calls it his sheep, though a stray, a wandering sheep. He has a right to it (all souls are mine), and he will claim his own, and recover his right; therefore he looks after it himself: I have found it; he did not send a servant, but his own Son, the great and good Shepherd, who will find what he seeks, and will be found of those that seek him not.

2. The parable of the lost piece of silver. (1.) The loser is here supposed to be a woman, who will more passionately grieve for her loss, and rejoice in finding what she had lost, than perhaps a man would do, and therefore it the better serves the purpose of the parable. She has ten pieces of silver, and out of them loses only one. Let this keep up in us high thoughts of the divine goodness, notwithstanding the sinfulness and misery of the world of mankind, that there are nine to one, nay, in the foregoing parable there are ninety-nine to one, of God's creation, that retain their integrity, in whom God is praised, and never was dishonoured. O the numberless beings, for aught we know numberless worlds of beings, that never were lost, nor stepped aside from the laws and ends of their creation! (2.) That which is lost is a piece of silver, drachmen—the fourth part of a shekel. The soul is silver, of intrinsic worth and value; not base metal, as iron or lead, but silver, the mines of which are royal mines. The Hebrew word for silver is taken from the desirableness of it. It is silver coin, for so the drachma was; it is stamped with God's image and superscription, and therefore must be rendered to him. Yet it is comparatively but of small value; it was but seven pence half-penny; intimating that if sinful men be left to perish God would be no loser. This silver was lost in the dirt; a soul plunged in the world, and overwhelmed with the love of it and care about it, is like a piece of money in the dirt; any one would say, It is a thousand pities that it should lie there. (3.) Here is a great deal of care and pains taken in quest of it. The woman lights a candle, to look behind the door, under the table, and in every corner of the house, sweeps the house, and seeks diligently till she finds it. This represents the various means and methods God makes use of to bring lost souls home to himself: he has lighted the candle of the gospel, not to show himself the way to us, but to show us the way to him, to discover us to ourselves; he has swept the house by the convictions of the word; he seeks diligently, his heart is upon it, to bring lost souls to himself. (4.) Here is a great deal of joy for the finding of it: Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I had lost, v. 9. Those that rejoice desire that others should rejoice with them; those that are merry would have others merry with them. She was glad that she had found the piece of money, though she should spend it in entertaining those whom she called to make merry with her. The pleasing surprise of finding it put her, for the present, into a kind of transport, heureka, heureka—I have found, I have found, is the language of joy.

3. The explication of these two parables is to the same purport (v. 7, 10): There is joy in heaven, joy in the presence of the angels of God, over one sinner that repenteth, as those publicans and sinners did, some of them at least (and, if but one of them did repent, Christ would reckon it worth his while), more than over a great number of just persons, who need no repentance. Observe,

(1.) The repentance and conversion of sinners on earth are matter of joy and rejoicing in heaven. It is possible that the greatest sinners may be brought to repentance. While there is life there is hope, and the worst are not to be despaired of; and the worst of sinners, if they repent and turn, shall find mercy. Yet this is not all, [1.] God will delight to show them mercy, will reckon their conversion a return for all the expense he has been at upon them. There is always joy in heaven. God rejoiceth in all his works, but particularly in the works of his grace. He rejoiceth to do good to penitent sinners, with his whole heart and his whole soul. He rejoiceth not only in the conversion of churches and nations, but even over one sinner that repenteth, though but one. [2.] The good angels will be glad that mercy is shown them, so far are they from repining at it, though those of their nature that sinned be left to perish, and no mercy shown to them; though those sinners that repent, that are so mean, and have been so vile, are, upon their repentance, to be taken into communion with them, and shortly to be made like them, and equal to them. The conversion of sinners is the joy of angels, and they gladly become ministering spirits to them for their good, upon their conversion. The redemption of mankind was matter of joy in the presence of the angels; for they sung, Glory to God in the highest, ch. ii. 14.

(2.) There is more joy over one sinner that repenteth, and turneth to be religious from a course of life that had been notoriously vile and vicious, than there is over ninety-nine just persons, who need no repentance. [1.] More joy for the redemption and salvation of fallen man than for the preservation and confirmation of the angels that stand, and did indeed need no repentance. [2.] More joy for the conversion of the sinners of the Gentiles, and of those publicans that now heard Christ preach, than for all the praises and devotions, and all the God I thank thee, of the Pharisees, and the other self-justifying Jews, who though that they needed no repentance, and that therefore God should abundantly rejoice in them, and make his boast of them, as those that were most his honour; but Christ tells them that it was quite otherwise, that God was more praised in, and pleased with, the penitent broken heart of one of those despised, envied sinners, than all the long prayers which the scribes and Pharisees made, who could not see any thing amiss in themselves. Nay, [3.] More joy for the conversion of one such great sinner, such a Pharisee as Paul had been in his time, than for the regular conversion of one that had always conducted himself decently and well, and comparatively needs no repentance, needs not such a universal change of the life as those great sinners need. Not but that it is best not to go astray; but the grace of God, both in the power and the pity of that grace, is more manifested in the reducing of great sinners than in the conducting of those that never went astray. And many times those that have been great sinners before their conversion prove more eminently and zealously good after, of which Paul is an instance, and therefore in him God was greatly glorified, Gal. i. 24. They to whom much is forgiven will love much. It is spoken after the manner of men. We are moved with a more sensible joy for the recovery of what we had lost than for the continuance of what we had always enjoyed, for health out of sickness than for health without sickness. It is as life from the dead. A constant course of religion may in itself be more valuable, and yet a sudden return from an evil course and way of sin may yield a more surprising pleasure. Now if there is such joy in heaven, for the conversion of sinners, then the Pharisees were very much strangers to a heavenly spirit, who did all they could to hinder it and were grieved at it, and who were exasperated at Christ when he was doing a piece of work that was of all others most grateful to Heaven.

The Prodigal Son.

11 And he said, A certain man had two sons: 12 And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. 13 And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. 14 And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want. 15 And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. 16 And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him. 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! 18 I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, 19 And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. 20 And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. 21 And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. 22 But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: 23 And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry: 24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry. 25 Now his elder son was in the field: and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 And he called one of the servants, and asked what these things meant. 27 And he said unto him, Thy brother is come; and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound. 28 And he was angry, and would not go in: therefore came his father out, and intreated him. 29 And he answering said to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment: and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends: 30 But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf. 31 And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. 32 It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.

We have here the parable of the prodigal son, the scope of which is the same with those before, to show how pleasing to God the conversion of sinners is, of great sinners, and how ready he is to receive and entertain such, upon their repentance; but the circumstances of the parable do much more largely and fully set forth the riches of gospel grace than those did, and it has been, and will be while the world stands, of unspeakable use to poor sinners, both to direct and to encourage them in repenting and returning to God. Now,

I. The parable represents God as a common Father to all mankind, to the whole family of Adam. We are all his offspring, have all one Father, and one God created us, Mal. ii. 10. From him we had our being, in him we still have it, and from him we receive our maintenance. He is our Father, for he has the educating and portioning of us, and will put us in his testament, or leave us out, according as we are, or are not, dutiful children to him. Our Saviour hereby intimates to those proud Pharisees that these publicans and sinners, whom they thus despised, were their brethren, partakers of the same nature, and therefore they ought to be glad of any kindness shown them. God is the God, not of the Jews only, but of the Gentiles, (Rom. iii. 29): the same Lord over all, that is rich in mercy to all that call upon him.

II. It represents the children of men as of different characters, though all related to God as their common Father. He had two sons, one of them a solid grave youth, reserved and austere, sober himself, but not at all good-humoured to those about him; such a one would adhere to his education, and not be easily drawn from it; but the other volatile and mercurial, and impatient of restraint, roving, and willing to try his fortune, and, if he fall into ill hands, likely to be a rake, notwithstanding his virtuous education. Now this latter represents the publicans and sinners, whom Christ is endeavouring to bring to repentance, and the Gentiles, to whom the apostles were to be sent forth to preach repentance. The former represents the Jews in general, and particularly the Pharisees, whom he was endeavouring to reconcile to that grace of God which was offered to, and bestowed upon, sinners.

The younger son is the prodigal, whose character and case are here designed to represent that of a sinner, that of every one of us in our natural state, but especially of some. Now we are to observe concerning him,

1. His riot and ramble when he was a prodigal, and the extravagances and miseries he fell into. We are told,

(1.) What his request to his father was (v. 12): He said to his father, proudly and pertly enough, "Father, give me"—he might have put a little more in his mouth, and have said, Pray give me, or, Sir, if you please, give me, but he makes an imperious demand—"give me the portion of goods that falleth to me; not so much as you think fit to allot to me, but that which falls to me as my due." Note, It is bad, and the beginning of worse, when men look upon God's gifts as debts. "Give me the portion, all my child's part, that falls to me;" not, "Try me with a little, and see how I can manage that, and accordingly trust me with more;" but, "Give it me all at present in possession, and I will never expect any thing in reversion, any thing hereafter." Note, The great folly of sinners, and that which ruins them, is being content to have their portion in hand, now in this lifetime to receive their good things. They look only at the things that are seen, that are temporal, and covet only a present gratification, but have no care for a future felicity, when that is spent and gone. And why did he desire to have his portion in his own hands? Was it that he might apply himself to business, and trade with it, and so make it more? No, he had no thought of that. But, [1.] He was weary of his father's government, of the good order and discipline of his father's family, and was fond of liberty falsely so called, but indeed the greatest slavery, for such a liberty to sin is. See the folly of many young men, who are religiously educated, but are impatient of the confinement of their education, and never think themselves their own masters, their own men, till they have broken all God's bands in sunder, and cast away his cords from them, and, instead of them, bound themselves with the cords of their own lust. Here is the original of the apostasy of sinners from God; they will not be tied up to the rules of God's government; they will themselves be as gods, knowing no other good and evil than what themselves please. [2.] He was willing to get from under his father's eye, for that was always a check upon him, and often gave a check to him. A shyness of God, and a willingness to disbelieve his omniscience, are at the bottom of the wickedness of the wicked. [3.] He was distrustful of his father's management. He would have his portion of goods himself, for he thought that his father would be laying up for hereafter for him, and, in order to that, would limit him in his present expenses, and that he did not like. [4.] He was proud of himself, and had a great conceit of his own sufficiency. He thought that if he had but his portion in his own hands he could manage it better than his father did, and make a better figure with it. There are more young people ruined by pride than by any one lust whatsoever. Our first parents ruined themselves and all theirs by a foolish ambition to be independent, and not to be beholden even to God himself; and this is at the bottom of sinners' persisting in their sin—they will be for themselves.

(2.) How kind his father was to him: He divided unto them his living. He computed what he had to dispose of between his sons, and gave the younger son his share, and offered the elder his, which ought to be a double portion; but, it should seem, he desired his father to keep it in his own hands still, and we may see what he got by it (v. 31): All that I have is thine. He got all by staying for something in reserve. He gave the younger son what he asked, and the son had no reason to complain that he did him any wrong in the dividend; he had as much as he expected, and perhaps more. [1.] Thus he might now see his father's kindness, how willing he was to please him and make him easy, and that he was not such an unkind father as he was willing to represent him when he wanted an excuse to be gone. [2.] Thus he would in a little time be made to see his own folly, and that he was not such a wise manager for himself as he would be thought to be. Note, God is a kind Father to all his children, and gives to them all life, and breath, and all things, even to the evil and unthankful, dieilen autois ton bion—He divided to them life. God's giving us life is putting us in a capacity to serve and glorify him.

(3.) How he managed himself when he had got his portion in his own hands. He set himself to spend it as fast as he could, and, as prodigals generally do, in a little time he made himself a beggar: not many days after, v. 13. Note, if God leave us ever so little to ourselves, it will not be long ere we depart from him. When the bridle of restraining grace is taken off we are soon gone. That which the younger son determined was to be gone presently, and, in order to that, he gathered all together. Sinners, that go astray from God, venture their all.

Now the condition of the prodigal in this ramble of his represents to us a sinful state, that miserable state into which man is fallen.

[1.] A sinful state is a state of departure and distance from God. First, It is the sinfulness of sin that it is an apostasy from God. He took his journey from his father's house. Sinners are fled from God; they go a whoring from him; they revolt from their allegiance to him, as a servant that runs from his service, or a wife that treacherously departs from her husband, and they say unto God, Depart. They get as far off him as they can. The world is the far country in which they take up their residence, and are as at home; and in the service and enjoyment of it they spend their all. Secondly. It is the misery of sinners that they are afar off from God, from him who is the Fountain of all good, and are going further and further from him. What is hell itself, but being afar off from God?

[2.] A sinful state is a spending state: There he wasted his substance with riotous living (v. 13), devoured it with harlots (v. 30), and in a little time he had spent all, v. 14. He bought fine clothes, spent a great deal in meat and drink, treated high, associated with those that helped him to make an end of what he had in a little time. As to this world, they that live riotously waste what they have, and will have a great deal to answer for, that they spend that upon their lusts which should be for the necessary substance of themselves and their families. But this is to be applied spiritually. Wilful sinners waste their patrimony; for they misemploy their thoughts and all the powers of their souls, misspend their time and all their opportunities, do not only bury, but embezzle, the talents they are entrusted to trade with for their Master's honour; and the gifts of Providence, which were intended to enable them to serve God and to do good with, are made the food and fuel of their lusts. The soul that is made a drudge, either to the world or to the flesh, wastes its substance, and lives riotously. One sinner destroys much good, Eccl. ix. 18. The good he destroys is valuable, and it is none of his own; they are his Lord's goods that he wastes, which must be accounted for.

[3.] A sinful state is a wanting state: When he had spent all upon his harlots, they left him, to seek such another prey; and there arose a mighty famine in that land, every thing was scarce and dear, and he began to be in want, v. 14. Note, Wilful waste brings woeful want. Riotous living in time, perhaps in a little time, brings men to a morsel of bread, especially when bad times hasten on the consequences of bad husbandry, which good husbandry would have provided for. This represents the misery of sinners, who have thrown away their own mercies, the favour of God, their interest in Christ, the strivings of the Spirit, and admonitions of conscience; these they gave away for the pleasure of sense, and the wealth of the world, and then are ready to perish for want of them. Sinners want necessaries for their souls; they have neither food nor raiment for them, nor any provision for hereafter. A sinful state is like a land where famine reigns, a mighty famine; for the heaven is as brass (the dews of God's favour and blessing are withheld, and we must needs want good things if God deny them to us), and the earth is as iron (the sinner's heart, that should bring forth good things, is dry and barren, and has no good in it). Sinners are wretchedly and miserably poor, and, what aggravates it, they brought themselves into that condition, and keep themselves in it by refusing the supplies offered.

[4.] A sinful state is a vile servile state. When this young man's riot had brought him to want his want brought him to servitude. He went, and joined himself to a citizen of that country, v. 15. The same wicked life that before was represented by riotous living is here represented by servile living; for sinners are perfect slaves. The devil is the citizen of that country; for he is both in city and country. Sinners join themselves to him, hire themselves into his service, to do his work, to be at his beck, and to depend upon him for maintenance and a portion. They that commit sin are the servants of sin, John viii. 34. How did this young gentleman debase and disparage himself, when he hired himself into such a service and under such a master as this! He sent him into the fields, not to feed sheep (there had been some credit in that employment; Jacob, and Moses, and David, kept sheep), but to feed swine. The business of the devil's servants is to make provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof, and that is no better than feeding greedy, dirty, noisy swine; and how can rational immortal souls more disgrace themselves?

[5.] A sinful state is a state of perpetual dissatisfaction. When the prodigal began to be in want, he thought to help himself by going to service; and he must be content with the provision which not the house, but the field, afforded; but it is poor provision: He would fain have filled his belly, satisfied his hunger, and nourished his body, with the husks which the swine did eat, v. 16. A fine pass my young master had brought himself to, to be fellow-commoner with the swine! Note, That which sinners, when they depart from God, promise themselves satisfaction in, will certainly disappoint them; they are labouring for that which satisfieth not, Isa. lv. 2. That which is the stumbling-block of their iniquity will never satisfy their souls, nor fill their bowels, Ezek. vii. 19. Husks are food for swine, but not for men. The wealth of the world and the entertainments of sense will serve for bodies; but what are these to precious souls? They neither suit their nature, nor satisfy their desires, nor supply their needs. He that takes up with them feeds on wind (Hos. xii. 1), feeds on ashes, Isa. xliv. 20.

[6.] A sinful state is a state which cannot expect relief from any creature. This prodigal, when he could not earn his bread by working, took to begging; but no man gave unto him, because they knew he had brought all this misery upon himself, and because he was rakish, and provoking to every body; such poor are least pitied. This, in the application of the parable, intimates that those who depart from God cannot be helped by any creature. In vain do we cry to the world and the flesh (those gods which we have served); they have that which will poison a soul, but have nothing to give it which will feed and nourish it. If thou refuse God's help, whence shall any creature help thee?

[7.] A sinful state is a state of death: This my son was dead, v. 24, 32. A sinner is not only dead in law, as he is under a sentence of death, but dead in state too, dead in trespasses and sins, destitute of spiritual life; no union with Christ, no spiritual senses exercised, no living to God, and therefore dead. The prodigal in the far country was dead to his father and his family, cut off from them, as a member from the body or a branch from the tree, and therefore dead, and it is his own doing.

[8.] A sinful state is a lost state: This my son was lost—lost to every thing that was good—lost to all virtue and honour—lost to his father's house; they had no joy of him. Souls that are separated from God are lost souls; lost as a traveller that is out of his way, and, if infinite mercy prevent not, will soon be lost as a ship that is sunk at sea, lost irrecoverably.

[9.] A sinful state is a state of madness and frenzy. This is intimated in that expression (v. 17), when he came to himself, which intimates that he had been beside himself. Surely he was so when he left his father's house, and much more so when he joined himself to the citizen of that country. Madness is said to be in the heart of sinners, Eccl. ix. 3. Satan has got possession of the soul; and how raging mad was he that was possessed by Legion! Sinners, like those that are mad, destroy themselves with foolish lusts, and yet at the same time deceive themselves with foolish hopes; and they are, of all diseased persons, most enemies to their own cure.

2. We have here his return from this ramble, his penitent return to his father again. When he was brought to the last extremity, then he bethought himself how much it was his interest to go home. Note, We must not despair of the worst; for while there is life there is hope. The grace of God can soften the hardest heart, and give a happy turn to the strongest stream of corruption. Now observe here,

(1.) What was the occasion of his return and repentance. It was his affliction; when he was in want, then he came to himself. Note, Afflictions, when they are sanctified by divine grace, prove happy means of turning sinners from the error of their ways. By them the ear is opened to discipline and the heart disposed to receive instructions; and they are sensible proofs both of the vanity of the world and of the mischievousness of sin. Apply it spiritually. When we find the insufficiency of creatures to make us happy, and have tried all other ways of relief for our poor souls in vain, then it is time to think of returning to God. When we see what miserable comforters, what physicians of no value, all but Christ are, for a soul that groans under the guilt and power of sin, and no man gives unto us what we need, then surely we shall apply ourselves to Jesus Christ.

(2.) What was the preparative for it; it was consideration. He said within himself, he reasoned with himself, when he recovered his right mind, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough! Note, Consideration is the first step towards conversion, Ezek. xviii. 28. He considers, and turns. To consider is to retire into ourselves, to reflect upon ourselves, to compare one thing with another, and determine accordingly. Now observe what it was that he considered.

[1.] He considered how bad his condition was: I perish with hunger. Not only, "I am hungry," but, "I perish with hunger, for I see not what way to expect relief." Note, Sinners will not come to the service of Christ till they are brought to see themselves just ready to perish in the service of sin; and the consideration of that should drive us to Christ. Master, save us, we perish. And though we be thus driven to Christ he will not therefore reject us, nor think himself dishonoured by our being forced to him, but rather honoured by his being applied to in a desperate case.

[2.] He considered how much better it might be made if he would but return: How many hired servants of my father's, the meanest in his family, the very day-labourers, have bread enough, and to spare, such a good house does he keep! Note, First, In our Father's house there is bread for all his family. This was taught by the twelve loaves of showbread, that were constantly upon the holy table in the sanctuary, a loaf for every tribe. Secondly, There is enough and to spare, enough for all, enough for each, enough to spare for such as will join themselves to his domestics, enough and to spare for charity. Yet there is room; there are crumbs that fall from his table, which many would be glad of, and thankful for. Thirdly, Even the hired servants in God's family are well provided for; the meanest that will but hire themselves into his family, to do his work, and depend upon his rewards, shall be well provided for. Fourthly, The consideration of this should encourage sinners, that have gone astray from God, to think of returning to him. Thus the adulteress reasons with herself, when she is disappointed in her new lovers: I will go and return to my first husband, for then was it better with me than now, Hos. ii. 7.

(3.) What was the purpose of it. Since it is so, that his condition is so bad, and may be bettered by returning to his father, his consideration issues, at length, in this conclusion: I will arise, and go to my father. Note, Good purposes are good things, but still good performances are all in all.

[1.] He determined what to do: I will arise and go to my father. He will not take any longer time to consider of it, but will forthwith arise and go. Though he be in a far country, a great way off from his father's house, yet, far as it is, he will return; every step of backsliding from God must be a step back again in return to him. Though he be joined to a citizen of this country, he makes no difficulty of breaking his bargain with him. We are not debtors to the flesh; we are under no obligation at all to our Egyptian task-masters to give them warning, but are at liberty to quit the service when we will. Observe with what resolution he speaks: "I will arise, and go to my father: I am resolved I will, whatever the issue be, rather than stay here and starve."

[2.] He determined what to say. True repentance is a rising, and coming to God: Behold, we come unto thee. But what words shall we take with us? He here considers what to say. Note, In all our addresses to God, it is good to deliberate with ourselves beforehand what we shall say, that we may order our cause before him, and fill our mouth with arguments. We have liberty of speech, and we ought to consider seriously with ourselves, how we may use that liberty to the utmost, and yet not abuse it. Let us observe what he purposed to say.

First, He would confess his fault and folly: I have sinned. Note, Forasmuch as we have all sinned, it behoves us, and well becomes us, to own that we have sinned. The confession of sin is required and insisted upon, as a necessary condition of peace and pardon. If we plead not guilty, we put ourselves upon a trial by the covenant of innocency, which will certainly condemn us. If guilty, with a contrite, penitent, and obedient heart, we refer ourselves to the covenant of grace, which offers forgiveness to those that confess their sins.

Secondly, He would aggravate it, and would be so far from extenuating the matter that he would lay a load upon himself for it: I have sinned against Heaven, and before thee. Let those that are undutiful to their earthly parents think of this; they sin against heaven, and before God. Offences against them are offences against God. Let us all think of this, as that which renders our sin exceedingly sinful, and should render us exceedingly sorrowful for it. 1. Sin is committed in contempt of God's authority over us: We have sinned against Heaven. God is here called Heaven, to signify how highly he is exalted above us, and the dominion he has over us, for the Heavens do rule. The malignity of sin aims high; it is against Heaven. The daring sinner is said to have set his mouth against the heavens, Ps. lxiii. 9. Yet it is impotent malice, for we cannot hurt the heavens. Nay, it is foolish malice; what is shot against the heavens will return upon the head of him that shoots it, Ps. vii. 16. Sin is an affront to the God of heaven, it is a forfeiture of the glories and joys of heaven, and a contradiction to the designs of the kingdom of heaven. 2. It is committed in contempt of God's eye upon us: "I have sinned against Heaven and yet before thee, and under thine eye," than which there could not be a greater affront put upon him.

Thirdly, He would judge and condemn himself for it, and acknowledge himself to have forfeited all the privileges of the family: I am no more worthy to be called thy son, v. 19. He does not deny the relation (for that was all he had to trust to), but he owns that his father might justly deny the relation, and shut his doors against him. He had, at his own demand, the portion of goods that belonged to him, and had reason to expect no more. Note, It becomes sinners to acknowledge themselves unworthy to receive any favour from God, and to humble and abase themselves before him.

Fourthly, He would nevertheless sue for admission into the family, though it were into the meanest post there: "Make me as one of thy hired servants: that is good enough, and too good for me." Note, True penitents have a high value for God's house, and the privileges of it, and will be glad of any place, so they may but be in it, though it be but as door-keepers, Ps. lxxxiv. 10. If it be imposed on him as a mortification to sit with the servants, he will not only submit to it, but count it a preferment, in comparison with his present state. Those that return to God, from whom they have revolted, cannot but be desirous some way or other to be employed for him, and put into a capacity of serving and honouring him: "Make me as a hired servant, that I may show I love my father's house as much as ever I slighted it."

Fifthly, In all this he would have an eye to his father as a father: "I will arise, and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father." Note, Eyeing God as a Father, and our Father, will be of great use in our repentance and return to him. It will make our sorrow for sin genuine, our resolutions against it strong, and encourage us to hope for pardon. God delights to be called Father both by penitents and petitioners. Is not Ephraim a dear son?

(4.) What was the performance of this purpose: He arose, and came to his father. His good resolve he put in execution without delay; he struck while the iron was hot, and did not adjourn the thought to some more convenient season. Note, It is our interest speedily to close with our convictions. Have we said that we will arise and go? Let us immediately arise and come. He did not come halfway, and then pretend that he was tired and could get no further, but, weak and weary as he was, he made a thorough business of it. If thou wilt return, O Israel, return unto me, and do thy first works.

3. We have here his reception and entertainment with his father: He came to his father; but was he welcome? Yes, heartily welcome. And, by the way, it is an example to parents whose children have been foolish and disobedient, if they repent, and submit themselves, not to be harsh and severe with them, but to be governed in such a case by the wisdom that is from above, which is gentle and easy to be entreated; herein let them be followers of God, and merciful, as he is. But it is chiefly designed to set forth the grace and mercy of God to poor sinners that repent and return to him, and his readiness to forgive them. Now here observe,

(1.) The great love and affection wherewith the father received the son: When he was yet a great way off his father saw him, v. 20. He expressed his kindness before the son expressed his repentance; for God prevents us with the blessings of his goodness. Even before we call he answers; for he knows what is in our hearts. I said, I will confess, and thou forgavest. How lively are the images presented here! [1.] Here were eyes of mercy, and those eyes quick-sighted: When he was yet a great way off his father saw him, before any other of the family were aware of him, as if from the top of some high tower he had been looking that way which his son was gone, with such a thought as this, "O that I could see yonder wretched son of mine coming home!" This intimates God's desire of the conversion of sinners, and his readiness to meet them that are coming towards him. He looketh on men, when they are gone astray from him, to see whether they will return to him, and he is aware of the first inclination towards him. [2.] Here were bowels of mercy, and those bowels turning within him, and yearning at the sight of his son: He had compassion. Misery is the object of pity, even the misery of a sinner; though he has brought it upon himself, yet God compassionates. His soul was grieved for the misery of Israel, Hos. xi. 8; Judg. x. 16. [3.] Here were feet of mercy, and those feet quick-paced: He ran. This denotes how swift God is to show mercy. The prodigal son came slowly, under a burden of shame and fear; but the tender father ran to meet him with his encouragements. [4.] Here were arms of mercy, and those arms stretched out to embrace him: He fell on his neck. Though guilty and deserving to be beaten, though dirty and newly come from feeding swine, so that any one who had not the strongest and tenderest compassions of a father would have loathed to touch him, yet he thus takes him in his arms, and lays him in his bosom. Thus dear are true penitents to God, thus welcome to the Lord Jesus. [5.] Here were lips of mercy, and those lips dropping as a honey-comb: He kissed him. This kiss not only assured him of his welcome, but sealed his pardon; his former follies shall be all forgiven, and not mentioned against him, nor is one word said by way of upbraiding. This was like David's kissing Absalom, 2 Sam. xiv. 33. And this intimates how ready, and free, and forward the Lord Jesus is to receive and entertain poor returning repenting sinners, according to his Father's will.

(2.) The penitent submission which the poor prodigal made to his father (v. 21): He said unto him, Father, I have sinned. As it commends the good father's kindness that he showed it before the prodigal expressed his repentance, so it commends the prodigal's repentance that he expressed it after his father had shown him so much kindness. When he had received the kiss which sealed his pardon, yet he said, Father, I have sinned. Note, Even those that have received the pardon of their sins, and the comfortable sense of their pardon, must have in their hearts a sincere contrition for it, and with their mouths must make a penitent confession of it, even of those sins which they have reason to hope are pardoned. David penned the fifty-first psalm after Nathan had said, The Lord has taken away thy sin, thou shall not die. Nay, the comfortable sense of the pardon of sin should increase our sorrow for it; and that is ingenuous evangelical sorrow which is increased by such a consideration. See Ezek. xvi. 63, Thou shalt be ashamed and confounded, when I am pacified towards thee. The more we see of God's readiness to forgive us, the more difficult it should be to us to forgive ourselves.

(3.) The splendid provision which this kind father made for the returning prodigal. He was going on in his submission, but one word we find in his purpose to say (v. 19) which we do not find that he did say (v. 21), and that was, Make me as one of thy hired servants. We cannot think that he forgot it, much less that he changed his mind, and was now either less desirous to be in the family or less willing to be a hired servant there than when he made that purpose; but his father interrupted him, prevented his saying it: "Hold, son, talk no more of thy unworthiness, thou art heartily welcome, and, though not worthy to be called a son, shalt be treated as a dear son, as a pleasant child." He who is thus entertained at first needs not ask to be made as a hired servant. Thus when Ephraim bemoaned himself God comforted him, Jer. xxxi. 18-20. It is strange that here is not one word of rebuke: "Why did you not stay with your harlots and your swine? You could never find the way home till beaten hither with your own rod." No, here is nothing like this; which intimates that, when God forgives the sins of true penitents, he forgets them, he remembers them no more, they shall not be mentioned against them, Ezek. xviii. 22. But this is not all; here is rich and royal provision made for him, according to his birth and quality, far beyond what he did or could expect. He would have thought it sufficient, and been very thankful, if his father had but taken notice of him, and bid him go to the kitchen, and get his dinner with his servants; but God does for those who return to their duty, and cast themselves upon his mercy, abundantly above what they are able to ask or think. The prodigal came home between hope and fear, fear of being rejected and hope of being received; but his father was not only better to him than his fears, but better to him than his hopes—not only received him, but received him with respect.

[1.] He came home in rags, and his father not only clothed him, but adorned him. He said to the servants, who all attended their master, upon notice that his son was come, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him. The worst old clothes in the house might have served, and these had been good enough for him; but the father calls not for a coat, but for a robe, the garment of princes and great men, the best robe—ten stolen ten proten. There is a double emphasis: "that robe, that principal robe, you know which I mean;" the first robe (so it may be read); the robe he wore before he ran his ramble. When backsliders repent and do their first works, they shall be received and dressed in their first robes. "Bring hither that robe, and put it on him; he will be ashamed to wear it, and think that it ill becomes him who comes home in such a dirty pickle, but put it on him, and do not merely offer it to him: and put a ring on his hand, a signet-ring, with the arms of the family, in token of his being owned as a branch of the family." Rich people wore rings, and his father hereby signified that though he had spent one portion, yet, upon his repentance, he intended him another. He came home barefoot, his feet perhaps sore with travel, and therefore, "Put shoes on his feet, to make him easy." Thus does the grace of God provide for true penitents. First, The righteousness of Christ is the robe, that principal robe, with which they are clothed; they put on the Lord Jesus Christ, are clothed with that Sun. The robe of righteousness is the garment of salvation, Isa. lxi. 10. A new nature is this best robe; true penitents are clothed with this, being sanctified throughout. Secondly, The earnest of the Spirit, by whom we are sealed to the day of redemption, is the ring on the hand. After you believed you were sealed. They that are sanctified are adorned and dignified, are put in power, as Joseph was by Pharaoh's giving him a ring: "Put a ring on his hand, to be before him a constant memorial of his father's kindness, that he may never forget it." Thirdly, The preparation of the gospel of peace is as shoes for our feet (Eph. vi. 15), so that, compared with this here, signifies (saith Grotius) that God, when he receives true penitents into his favour, makes use of them for the convincing and converting of others by their instructions, at least by their examples. David, when pardoned, will teach transgressors God's ways, and Peter, when converted, will strengthen his brethren. Or it intimates that they shall go on cheerfully, and with resolution, in the way of religion, as a man does when he has shoes on his feet, above what he does when he is barefoot.

[2.] He came home hungry, and his father not only fed him, but feasted him (v. 23): "Bring hither the fatted calf, that has been stall-fed, and long reserved for some special occasion, and kill it, that my son may be satisfied with the best we have." Cold meat might have served, or the leavings of the last meal; but he shall have fresh meat and hot meat, and the fatted calf can never be better bestowed. Note, There is excellent food provided by our heavenly Father for all those that arise and come to him. Christ himself is the Bread of Life; his flesh is meat indeed, and his blood drink indeed; in him there is a feast for souls, a feast for fat things. It was a great change with the prodigal, who just before would fain have filled his belly with husks. How sweet will the supplies of the new covenant be, and the relishes of its comforts, to those who have been labouring in vain for satisfaction in the creature! Now he found his own words made good, In my father's house there is bread enough and to spare.

(4.) The great joy and rejoicing occasioned by his return. The bringing of the fatted calf was designed to be not only a feast for him, but a festival for the family: "Let us all eat, and be merry, for it is a good day; for this my son was dead, when he was in his ramble, but his return is as life from the dead, he is alive again; we thought that he was dead, having heard nothing from him of a long time, but behold he lives; he was lost, we gave him up for lost, we despaired of hearing of him, but he is found." Note, [1.] The conversion of a soul from sin to God is the raising of that soul from death to life, and the finding of that which seemed to be lost: it is a great, and wonderful, and happy change. What was in itself dead is made alive, what was lost to God and his church is found, and what was unprofitable becomes profitable, Philem. 11. It is such a change as that upon the face of the earth when the spring returns. [2.] The conversion of sinners is greatly pleasing to the God of heaven, and all that belong to his family ought to rejoice in it; those in heaven do, and those on earth should. Observe, It was the father that began the joy, and set all the rest on rejoicing. Therefore we should be glad of the repentance of sinners, because it accomplishes God's design; it is the bringing of those to Christ whom the Father had given him, and in whom he will be for ever glorified. We joy for your sakes before our God, with an eye to him (1 Thess. iii. 9), and ye are our rejoicing in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Master of the family, 1 Thess. ii. 19. The family complied with the master: They began to be merry. Note, God's children and servants ought to be affected with things as he is.

4. We have here the repining and envying of the elder brother, which is described by way of reproof to the scribes and Pharisees, to show them the folly and wickedness of their discontent at the repentance and conversion of the publicans and sinners, and the favour Christ showed them; and he represents it so as not to aggravate the matter, but as allowing them still the privileges of elder brethren: the Jews had those privileges (though the Gentiles were favoured), for the preaching of the gospel must begin at Jerusalem. Christ, when he reproved them for their faults, yet accosted them mildly, to smooth them into a good temper towards the poor publicans. But by the elder brother here we may understand those who are really good, and have been so from their youth up, and never went astray into any vicious course of living, who comparatively need no repentance; and to such these words in the close, Son, thou art ever with me, are applicable without any difficulty, but not to the scribes and Pharisees. Now concerning the elder brother, observe,

(1.) How foolish and fretful he was upon occasion of his brother's reception, and how he was disgusted at it. It seems he was abroad in the field, in the country, when his brother came, and by the time he had returned home the mirth was begun; When he drew nigh to the house he heard music and dancing, either while the dinner was getting ready, or rather after they had eaten and were full, v. 25. He enquired what these things meant (v. 26), and was informed that his brother was come, and his father had made him a feast for his welcome home, and great joy there was because he had received him safe and sound, v. 27. It is but one word in the original, he had received him hygiainonta—in health, well both in body and mind. He received him not only well in body, but a penitent, returned to his right mind, and well reconciled to his father's house, cured of his vices and his rakish disposition, else he had not been received safe and sound. Now this offended him to the highest degree: He was angry, and would not go in (v. 28), not only because he was resolved he would not himself join in the mirth, but because he would show his displeasure at it, and would intimate to his father that he should have kept out his younger brother. This shows what is a common fault,

[1.] In men's families. Those who have always been a comfort to their parents think they should have the monopoly of their parents' favours, and are apt to be too sharp upon those who have transgressed, and to grudge their parents' kindness to them.

[2.] In God's family. Those who are comparatively innocents seldom know how to be compassionate towards those who are manifestly penitents. The language of such we have here, in what the elder brother said (v. 29, 30), and it is written for warning to those who by the grace of God are kept from scandalous sin, and kept in the way of virtue and sobriety, that they sin not after the similitude of this transgression. Let us observe the particulars of it. First, He boasted of himself and his own virtue and obedience. He had not only not run from his father's house, as his brother did, but had made himself as a servant in it, and had long done so: Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment. Note, It is too common for those that are better than their neighbours to boast of it, yea, and to make their boast of it before God himself, as if he were indebted to them for it. I am apt to think that this elder brother said more than was true, when he gloried that he had never transgressed his father's commands, for them I believe he would not have been so obstinate as now he was to his father's entreaties. However, we will admit it comparatively; he had not been so disobedient as his brother had been. O what need have good men to take heed of pride, a corruption that arises out of the ashes of other corruptions! Those that have long served God, and been kept from gross sins, have a great deal to be humbly thankful for, but nothing proudly to boast of. Secondly, He complained of his father, as if he had not been so kind as he ought to have been to him, who had been so dutiful: Thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends. He was out of humour now, else he would not have made this complaint; for, no questions, if he had asked such a thing at any time, he might have had it at the first word; and we have reason to think that he did not desire it, but the killing of the fatted calf put him upon making this peevish reflection. When men are in a passion they are apt to reflect in a way they would not if they were in their right mind. He had been fed at his father's table, and had many a time been merry with him and the family; but his father had never given him so much as a kid, which was but a small token of love compared with the fatted calf. Note, Those that think highly of themselves and their services are apt to think hardly of their master and meanly of his favours. We ought to own ourselves utterly unworthy of those mercies which God has thought fit to give us, much more of those that he has not thought fit to give us, and therefore we must not complain. He would have had a kid, to make merry with his friends abroad, whereas the fatted calf he grudged so much was given to his brother, not to make merry with his friends abroad, but with the family at home: the mirth of God's children should be with their father and his family, in communion with God and his saints, and not with any other friends. Thirdly, He was very ill-humoured towards his younger brother, and harsh in what he thought and said concerning him. Some good people are apt to be overtaken in this fault, nay, and to indulge themselves too much in it, to look with disdain upon those who have not preserved their reputation so clean as they have done, and to be sour and morose towards them, yea, though they have given very good evidence of their repentance and reformation. This is not the Spirit of Christ, but of the Pharisees. Let us observe the instances of it. 1. He would not go in, except his brother were turned out; one house shall not hold him and his own brother, no, not his father's house. The language of this was that of the Pharisee (Isa. lxv. 5): Stand by thyself, come not near to me, for I am holier than thou; and (ch. xviii. 11) I am not as other men are, nor even as this publican. Note, Though we are to shun the society of those sinners by whom we are in danger of being infected, yet we must not be shy of the company of penitent sinners, by whom we may get good. He saw that his father had taken him in, and yet he would not go in to him. Note, We think too well of ourselves, if we cannot find in our hearts to receive those whom God hath received, and to admit those into favour, and friendship, and fellowship with us, whom we have reason to think God has a favour for, and who are taken into friendship and fellowship with him. 2. He would not call him brother; but this thy son, which sounds arrogantly, and not without reflection upon his father, as if his indulgence had made him a prodigal: "He is thy son, thy darling." Note, Forgetting the relation we stand in to our brethren, as brethren, and disowning that, are at the bottom of all our neglects of our duty to them and our contradictions to that duty. Let us give our relations, both in the flesh and in the Lord, the titles that belong to them. Let the rich call the poor brethren, and let the innocents call the penitents so. 3. He aggravated his brother's faults, and made the worst of them, endeavouring to incense his father against him: He is thy son, who hath devoured thy living with harlots. It is true, he had spent his own portion foolishly enough (whether upon harlots or no we are not told before, perhaps that was only the language of the elder brother's jealousy and ill will), but that he had devoured all his father's living was false; the father had still a good estate. Now this shows how apt we are, in censuring our brethren, to make the worst of every thing, and to set it out in the blackest colours, which is not doing as we would be done by, nor as our heavenly Father does by us, who is not extreme to mark iniquities. 4. He grudged him the kindness that his father showed him: Thou hast killed for him the fatted calf, as if he were such a son as he should be. Note, It is a wrong thing to envy penitents the grace of God, and to have our eye evil because he is good. As we must not envy those that are the worst of sinners the gifts of common providence (Let not thine heart envy sinners), so we must not envy those that have been the worst of sinners the gifts of covenant love upon their repentance; we must not envy them their pardon, and peace, and comfort, no, nor any extraordinary gift which God bestows upon them, which makes them eminently acceptable or useful. Paul, before his conversion, had been a prodigal, had devoured his heavenly Father's living by the havoc he made of the church; yet when after his conversion he had greater measures of grace given him, and more honour put upon him, than the other apostles, they who were the elder brethren, who had been serving Christ when he was persecuting him, and had not transgressed at any time his commandment, did not envy him his visions and revelations, nor his more extensive usefulness, but glorified God in him, which ought to be an example to us, as the reverse of this elder brother.

(2.) Let us now see how favourable and friendly his father was in his carriage towards him when he was thus sour and ill-humoured. This is as surprising as the former. Methinks the mercy and grace of our God in Christ shine almost as brightly in his tender and gentle bearing with peevish saints, represented by the elder brother here, as before in his reception of prodigal sinners upon their repentance, represented by the younger brother. The disciples of Christ themselves had many infirmities, and were men subject to like passions as others, yet Christ bore with them, as a nurse with her children. See 1 Thess. ii. 7.

[1.] When he would not come in, his father came out, and entreated him, accosted him mildly, gave him good words, and desired him to come in. He might justly have said, "If he will not come in, let him stay out, shut the doors against him, and send him to seek a lodging where he can find it. Is not the house my own? and may I not do what I please in it? Is not the fatted calf my own? and may I not do what I please with it?" No, as he to meet the younger son, so now he goes to court the elder, did not send a servant out with a kind message to him, but went himself. Now, First, This is designed to represent to us the goodness of God; how strangely gentle and winning he has been towards those that were strangely froward and provoking. He reasoned with Cain: Why art thou wroth? He bore Israel's manners in the wilderness, Acts xiii. 18. How mildly did God reason with Elijah, when he was upon the fret (1 Kings xix. 46), and especially with Jonah, whose case was very parallel with this here, for he was there disquieted at the repentance of Nineveh, and the mercy shown to it, as the elder brother here; and those questions, Dost thou well to be angry? and, Should not I spare Nineveh? are not unlike these expostulations of the father with the elder brother here. Secondly, It is to teach all superiors to be mild and gentle with their inferiors, even when they are in a fault and passionately justify themselves in it, than which nothing can be more provoking; and yet even in that case let fathers not provoke their children to more wrath, and let masters forbear threatening, and both show all meekness.

[2.] His father assured him that the kind entertainment he gave his younger brother was neither any reflection upon him nor should be any prejudice to him (v. 31): "Thou shalt fare never the worse for it, nor have ever the less for it. Son, thou art ever with me; the reception of him is no rejection of thee, nor what is laid out on him any sensible diminution of what I design for thee; thou shalt still remain entitled to the pars enitia (so our law calls it), the double portion (so the Jewish law called it); thou shalt be hæres ex asse (so the Roman law called it): all that I have is thine, by an indefeasible title." If he had not given him a kid to make merry with his friends, he had allowed him to eat bread at his table continually; and it is better to be happy with our Father in heaven than merry with any friend we have in this world. Note, First, It is the unspeakable happiness of all the children of God, who keep close to their Father's house, that they are, and shall be, ever with him. They are so in this world by faith; they shall be so in the other world by fruition; and all that he has is theirs; for, if children, then heirs, Rom. viii. 17. Secondly, Therefore we ought not to envy others God's grace to them because we shall have never the less for their sharing in it. If we be true believers, all that God is, all that he has, is ours; and, if others come to be true believers, all that he is, and all that he has, is theirs too, and yet we have not the less, as they that walk in the light and warmth of the sun have all the benefit they can have by it, and yet not the less for others having as much; for Christ in his church is like what is said of the soul in the body: it is tota in toto—the whole in the whole, and yet tota in qualibet parte—the whole in each part.

CHAP. XV.

Verse 1. All the Publicans and sinners] CHrist familiarized himself with these despised persons, and thereby much wonne upon them. [illegible: 1 word] easily allureth, austerity discourageth; as it did that honest citizen, which having in himself a certain conflict of conscience, came to Master Hooper the Martyrs door for counsell. But being abashed at his austereAct. & Mon. fol. 1366. behaviour, durst not come in, but departed, seeking remedy of his troubled mind at other mens hands, &c.

Verse 2. But the Scribes and Pharisees] Being sick of the devils disease, and doing his lusts, Joh. 8. 44

Verse 7. Joy shall be in Heaven] Would we then put harps into the Angels hands, ditties into their mouths? Repent.

Verse 8. If she lose one peice] One Testor. Drachma enim valebat septem denarios cum dimidio. Breerwood de numb. Jud. c. 1. See the margent of our new Translation. And sweep the house] Everrit, not Evertit, as the vulgar [non-Latin text not transcribed] hath it corruptly: and Gregory with others were deceived by it in their discants and glosses, nothing to the purpose.

Verse 12. He divided unto them his living] Gr. His life. Our [non-Latin text not transcribed]. [illegible: 1 word] fe is called the life of our hands, Isaiah 57. 10. because it is upheld by the labour of our hands.

Verse 13. Gathered all together] Convasatis veluti omnibus. With riotous living] [non-Latin text not transcribed], Not caring to save any part, [illegible: 1 word] [non-Latin text not transcribed], unsaveable. nihil reservans, imò seipsum non servans, being such as safety it self could not save: whence the Latines call such a man Perditum, an undone person. Such were those of whom Seneca saith, that singulis auribus bina aut terna dependent patrimonia, hanged two or three good Lordships at their eares. And such are those amongst us that turn lands into laces, greatH. S. millies in [illegible: 1 word] congessit. [illegible: 1 word]. rents into great ruffes, &c. The expences of Apicius his kitchin amounted to more then two millions of gold. He having eaten up his estate, and finding by his account that he had no more then 200000. crowns remaining, thought himself poor, and that this sufficed not to maintain his luxury: whereupon he drank down a glasse of poyson.

Verse 16. [illegible: 1 word] he would faine have filled his belly] The stomack of man is a monster (saith one) which, being contained in so little a bulk as his body, is able to consume and devoure all things.

Verse 17. And when he came to himself] For till then he had been besides himself, and not his own worthy. Nebulo (saith one) cometh of Nabal; foole of [non-Latin text not transcribed]: [non-Latin text not transcribed] & [non-Latin text not transcribed] are of neer affinity. Evill is Hebrew for a foole, &c. Wickednesse is called the foolishnesse of madnesse, Eccles. 7. 25.

Verse 18. Against heaven and before thee] That is, I have not only thee, but the whole heaven for a swift witnesse against me of mine offences and out-bursts. The heaven doth declare mine iniquity, and the earth riseth up against me; Job 20. 27.

Verse 20. When he was yet a great way off] Tantum velis & [illegible: 1 word] tihi praeoccurret, saith a Father. The Prodigall was but conceiving a purpose to return, and God met him, Isaiah 65. 24. And kissed him] One would have thought he should have kicked him, or have killed him rather: but God is Pater miserationum, he is all bowels. The prodigall came, the father ran: God is slow to anger, swift to shew mercy.

Verse 21. Father, I have sinned] Confesse, and the mends is made. Homo agnoscit, Deus ignoscit. Acknowledge but the debt, and he will crosse the book. And am no more worthy, &c.] Infernus sum domine, said that [illegible: 1 word], Hooper at his death, Act. & Mon. 1374. holy Martyr; Lord, I am hell, but thou art heaven: I am soile, and a sink of sin, but thou a g acious God, &c.

Verse 23. And bring hither the fatted calfe] Christ is thatAct. and Mon. fol. [illegible: 1 word]. fatted calfe, saith Mr. Tindall Martyr, slain to make penitent sinners good chear withall: and his right eousnesse is the goodly [illegible: 1 word] to cover the naked deformities of their sinnes.

Verse 24. For this my sonne was dead, &c.] So fareth it with every faithfull Christian. He was dead, but now lives, and cannot be insensible or ignorant of such a change.

Verse 29. And yet thou never gavest me a kid] Much lesse a [illegible: 1 word]. Hypocrites hold God to be in their debt, and through discontent weigh not his favours, as being never without some aylement.

Verse 30. But assoone as this thy sonne] He sayth not, This my brother; he would not once owne him, because in poverty. Which hath devoured thy living] q d. which you were so hasty to give unto him before your death (which you need not have done) and now he hath made a faire hand of it.

Verse 32. Was lost, and is found] Of himself he left his [illegible: 1 word] yet is he called the lost son.

Publicans and sinners. Mt 9:10.

(a) "drew near unto him" Mt 9:10

Murmured. They affected to suppose that if Jesus treated sinners kindly he must be fond of their society, and be a man of similar character. They considered it disgraceful to be with them or to eat with them, and they therefore brought a charge against him for it. They would not suppose that he admitted them to his society for the purpose of doing them good; nor did they remember that the very object of his coming was to call the wicked from their ways and to save them from death.

Receiveth sinners. Receives them in a tender manner; treats them with kindness; does not drive them from his presence.

And eateth with them. Contrary to the received maxims of the scribes. By eating with them he showed that he did not despise or overlook them.

(b) "murmured" Acts 11:3

This parable. Mt 17:12,13.

Mt 18:12,13.

(c) "man" Mt 18:12

Likewise joy, &c. It is a principle of human nature that the recovery of an object in danger of being lost, affords much more intense joy than the quiet possession of many that are safe. This our Saviour illustrated by the case of the lost sheep and of the piece of silver. It might also be illustrated by many other things. Thus we rejoice most in our health when we recover from a dangerous disease; we rejoice over a child rescued from danger or disease more than over those who are in health or safety. We rejoice that property is saved from conflagration or the tempest more than over much more that has not been in danger. This feeling our Lord represents as existing in heaven. Likewise, in like manner, or on the same principle, there is joy.

In heaven. Among the angels of God. Comp. Lk 15:10. Heavenly beings are thus represented as rejoicing over those who repent on earth. They see the guilt and danger of men; they know what God has done for the race, and they rejoice at the recovery of any from the guilt and ruins of sin.

One sinner. One rebel against God, however great may be his sins or however small. If a sinner, he must perish unless he repents; and they rejoice at his repentance because it recovers him back to the love of God, and because it will save him from eternal death.

That repenteth. Mt 9:13.

Just persons. The word persons is not in the original. It means simply just ones, or those who have not sinned. The word may refer to angels as well as to men. There are no just men on earth who need no repentance, Eccl 7:20; Ps 14:2,3; Rom 3:10-18. Our Saviour did not mean to imply that there were any such. He was speaking of what took place in heaven, or among angels, and of their emotions when they contemplate the creatures of God; and he says that they rejoiced in the repentance of one sinner more than in the holiness of many who had not fallen. We are not to suppose that he meant to teach that there were just ninety-nine holy angels to one sinner. He means merely that they rejoice more over the repentance of one sinner than they do over many who have not fallen. By this he vindicated his own conduct. The Jews did not deny the existence of angels. They would not deny that their feelings were proper. If they rejoiced in this manner, it was not improper for him to show similar joy, and especially to seek their conversion and salvation. If they rejoice also, it shows how desirable is the repentance of a sinner. They know of how much value is an immortal soul. They see what is meant by eternal death; and they do not feel too much, or have too much anxiety about the soul that can never die. Oh that men saw it as they see it! and oh that they would make an effort, such as angels see to be proper, to save their own souls, and the souls of others from eternal death!

(c) "need no repentance" Lk 5:32

Ten pieces of silver. In the original, ten drachmas. The drachma was about the value of fifteen cents, and consequently the whole sum was about a dollar and a half, or six shillings. The sum was small, but it was all she had. The loss of one piece, therefore, was severely felt.

There is joy in the presence, &c. Jesus in this parable expresses the same sentiment which he did in the preceding. A woman would have more immediate, present joy at finding a lost piece, than she would in the possession of those which had not been lost. So, says Christ, there is joy among the angels at the recovery of a single sinner.

(1) "pieces of silver" Drachma here translated a piece of silver is the eighth part of an ounce, which cometh to sevenpence halfpenny. Mt 18:28.

And he said. Jesus, to illustrate still farther the sentiment which he had uttered, and to show that it was proper to rejoice over repenting sinners, proceeds to show it by a most beautiful and instructive parable. We shall see its beauty and propriety by remembering that the design of it was simply to justify his conduct in receiving sinners, and to show that to rejoice over their return was proper. This he shows by the feelings of a father rejoicing over the return of an ungrateful and dissipated son.

And the younger of them said. By this younger son we are to understand the publicans and sinners to be represented. By the elder, the Pharisees and scribes.

Give me the portion. The part.

Of goods. Of property.

That falleth to me. That is properly my share. There is no impropriety in supposing that he was of age; and, as he chose to leave his father's house, it was proper that his father should, if he chose, give him the part of the estate which would be his.

He divided unto them his living. His property, or means of living. The division of property among the Jews gave the elder son twice as much as the younger. In this case it seems the younger son received only money or movable property, and the elder chose to remain with his father and dwell on the paternal estate. The lands and fixed property remained in their possession. Among the ancient Romans and Syrophoenicians, it was customary, when a son came to the years of maturity, if he demanded his part of the inheritance, for the father to give it to him. This the son might claim by law. It is possible that such a custom may have prevailed among the Jews, and that our Saviour refers to some such demand made by the young man.

(g) "And he divided unto them" Mk 12:44

Gathered all together. Collected his property. If he had received flocks or grain, he sold them and converted them into money. As soon as this arrangement had been made he left his father's house.

Took his journey. Went, or travelled.

Into a far country. A country far off from his father's house. He went probably to trade or to seek his fortune, and in his wanderings came at last to this dissipated place, where his property was soon expended.

Wasted his substance. Spent his property.

In riotous living. Literally,

"Living without saving anything."

He lived extravagantly, and in the most dissolute company. Lk 15:30. By his wandering away we may understand that sinners wander far away from God; that they fall into dissolute and wicked company; and that their wandering so far off is the reason why they fall into such company, and are so soon and so easily destroyed.

(h) "famine" Amos 8:11,12

A mighty famine. Famines were common in Eastern nations. They were caused by the failure of the crops--by a want of timely rains, a genial sun, or sometimes by the prevalence of the plague or of the pestilence, which swept off numbers of the inhabitants. In this case it is very naturally connected with the luxury, the indolence, and the dissipation of the people in that land.

(h) "mighty famine" Amos 8:11,12

Joined himself. Entered the service of that citizen. Hired himself out to him. It would seem that he engaged to do any kind of work, even of the lowest kind.

A citizen. One of the inhabitants of one of the cities or towns of that region, probably a man of property.

Into the fields. Out of the city where the owner lived.

To feed swine. This was a very low employment, and particularly so to a Jew. It was forbidden to the Jews to eat swine, and of course it was unlawful to keep them. To be compelled, therefore, to engage in such an employment was the deepest conceivable degradation. The object of this image, as used by the Saviour in the parable, is to show the loathsome employments and the deep degradation to which sin leads men, and no circumstance could possibly illustrate it in a more striking manner than he has done here. Sin and its results everywhere have the same relation to that which is noble and great, which the feeding of swine had, in the estimation of a Jew, to an honourable and dignified employment.

He would fain. He would gladly. He desired to do it.

The husks. The word husks with us denotes the outward covering of corn. In this there is little nourishment, and it is evident that this is not intended here; but the word used here denotes not only husks, but also leguminous plants, as beans, &c. It is also used to denote the fruit of a tree called the carob or kharub-tree, which is common in Ionia, Syria, and Rhodes. The tree is more bushy and thick-set than the apple-tree, and the leaves are larger and of a much darker green. The following is Dr. Thomson's description of the fruit of this tree (The Land and the Book, vol. i.p. 22):

"The husks-- a mistranslation--are fleshy pods, somewhat like those of the locust-tree, from six to ten inches long and one broad, laid inside with a gelatinous substance, not wholly unpleasant to the taste when thoroughly ripe. I have seen large orchards of this kharub in Cyprus, where it is still the food which the swine do eat. The kharub is often called St. John's Bread, and also Locust-tree, from a mistaken idea about the food of the Baptist in the wilderness." The cut will give an idea of these pods, or husks as they are called in our translation.

No man gave unto him. Some have understood this as meaning "no one gave him anything -- any bread or provisions;" but the connection requires us to understand it of the "husks." He did not go a begging --his master was bound to provide for his wants; but the provision which he made for him was so poor that he would have preferred the food of the swine. He desired a portion of their food, but that was not given him. A certain quantity was measured out for them, and he was not at liberty to eat it himself. Nothing could more strikingly show the evil of his condition, or the deep degradation, and pollution, and wretchedness of sin.

(i) "filled" Is 44:20, Hos 12:1 (k) "the swine did eat" Ps 73:22

He came to himself. This is a very expressive phrase. It is commonly applied to one who has been deranged, and when he recovers we say he has come to himself. In this place it denotes that the folly of the young man was a kind of derangement--that he was insane. So it is of every sinner. Madness is in their hearts (Eccl 9:3); they are estranged from God, and led, by the influence of evil passions, contrary to their better judgment and the decisions of a sound mind.

Hired servants. Those in a low condition of life--those who were not born to wealth, and who had no friends to provide for them.

I perish. I, who had property and a kind father, and who might have been provided for and happy.

I will arise. This is a common expression among the Hebrews to denote entering on a piece of business. It does not imply that he was sitting, but that he meant immediately to return. This should be the feeling of every sinner who is conscious of his guilt and danger.

To my father. To his father, although he had offended him, and treated him unkindly, and had provoked him, and dishonoured him by his course of conduct. So the sinner. He has nowhere else to go but to God. He has offended him, but he may trust in his kindness. If God does not save him he cannot be saved. There is no other being that has an arm strong enough to deliver from sin; and though it is painful for a man to go to one whom he has offended--though he cannot go but with shame and confusion of face--yet, unless the sinner is willing to go to God and confess his faults, he can never be saved.

I have sinned. I have been wicked, dissipated, ungrateful, and rebellious.

Against heaven. The word heaven here, as it is often elsewhere, is put for God. I have sinned against God. See Mt 21:25. It is also to be observed that one evidence of the genuineness of repentance is the feeling that our sins have been committed chiefly against God. Commonly we think most of our offences as committed against man; but when the sinner sees the true character of his sins, he sees that they have been aimed chiefly against God, and that the sins against man are of little consequence compared with those against God. So David, even after committing the crimes of adultery and murder--after having inflicted the deepest injury on man--yet felt that the sin as committed against God shut every other consideration out of view: Against thee, thee ONLY, have I sinned, &c., Ps 51:4.

Before thee. This means the same as against thee. The offences had been committed mainly against God, but they were to be regarded, also, as sins against his father, in wasting property which he had given him, in neglecting his counsels, and in plunging himself into ruin. He felt that he had disgraced such a father. A sinner will be sensible of his sins against his relatives and friends as well as against God. A true penitent will be as ready to acknowledge his offences against his fellow-men as those against his Maker.

(l) "I will arise" Ps 39:5

No more worthy, &c. "Such has been my conduct that I have been a disgrace to my father. I am not fit to be honoured by being called the son of a man so kind and virtuous."

Make me as one, &c. "Treat me as a servant. Let me come again into your family, but I do not ask to be treated as a son. I am willing to come in if you will give me only the support that you give to a servant."

This evinced,

1st. Deep humility-such as a sinner should have.

2nd. Love for his father's house--such as all penitents should have toward God's dwelling-place in heaven.

3rd. Confidence in his father that he would treat him kindly, even if he treated him as a servant. Such confidence all returning penitents feel in God. They are assured that God will treat them kindly--that whatever he gives them will be more than they deserve, and they are therefore willing to be in his hands. Yet,

4th. He had no adequate sense of his father's kindness. He did not fully appreciate his character. He was far more kind than he had dared to hope he would be; just as all sinners undervalue the character of God, and find him always more kind than they had supposed. No sinner comes to God with a just and adequate view of his character, but always finds him more merciful than he had dared to hope.

He arose, and came. Was coming. But here is no indication of haste. He did not run, but came driven by his wants, and, as we may suppose, filled with shame, and even with some doubts whether his father would receive him.

A great way off. This is a beautiful description--the image of his father's happening to see him clad in rags, poor, and emaciated, and yet he recognized his son, and all the feelings of a father prompted him to go and embrace him.

Had compassion. Pitied him. Saw his condition--his poverty and his wretched appearance--and was moved with compassion and love.

And ran. This is opposed to the manner in which the son came. The beauty of the picture is greatly heightened by these circumstances. The son came slowly-- the father ran. The love and joy of the old man were so great that he hastened to meet him and welcome him to his home.

Fell on his neck. Threw his arms around his neck and embraced him.

And kissed him. This was a sign at once of affection and reconciliation. This must at once have dissipated every doubt of the son about the willingness of his father to forgive and receive him. A kiss is a sign of affection, 1Sam 10:1, Gen 29:13. This is evidently designed to denote the readiness of God to pity and pardon returning sinners. In this verse of inimitable beauty is contained the point of the parable, which was uttered by the Saviour to vindicate his own conduct in receiving sinners kindly. Who could blame this father for thus receiving his repenting son? Not even a Pharisee could blame him; and our Saviour thus showed them, so that they could not resist it, that God received returning sinners, and that it was right for him also to receive them and treat them with attention.

The best robe. The son was probably in rags. The joy of the father is expressed by clothing him in the best raiment, that he might appear well. The robe here mentioned is probably the outer garment; and the father told them to put on him the best one that was in the house--one reserved for festival occasions. See Gen 27:15.

A ring on his hand. To wear a ring on the hand was one mark of wealth and dignity. The rich and those in office commonly wore them. Comp. Jas 2:2. To give a ring was a mark of favour, or of affection, or of conferring office. Comp. Gen 41:42, Est 8:2. Here it was expressive of the favour and affection of the father.

Shoes on his feet. Servants, probably, did not usually wear shoes. The son returned, doubtless, without shoes--a condition very unlike that in which he was when he left home. When, therefore, the father commanded them to put shoes on him, it expressed his wish that he should not be treated as a servant, but as a son. The word shoes here, however, means no more than sandals, such as were commonly worn. And the meaning of all these images is the same-- that God will treat those who return to him with kindness and affection. These images should not be attempted to be spiritualized. They are beautifully thrown in to fill up the narrative, and to express with more force the general truth that God will treat returning penitents with mercy and with love. To dress up the son in this manner was a proof of the father's affection. So God will bestow on sinners the marks of his confidence and regard.

(o) "Bring forth the best robe" Zech 3:3,5

Be merry. Literally, "eating, let us rejoice." The word merry does not quite express the meaning of the Greek. Merriment denotes a light, playful, jovial mirth. The Greek denotes simply joy--let us be happy, or joyful.

Was dead. This is capable of two significations:

1st. I supposed that he was dead, but I know now that he is alive.

2nd. He was dead to virtue--he was sunk in pleasure and vice. The word is not unfrequently thus used. See 1Timm 5:6, Mt 8:22, Rom 6:13. Hence to be restored to virtue is said to be restored to life, Rom 6:13, Rev 3:1, Eph 2:1. It is probable that this latter is the meaning here. See Lk 15:31.

Was lost. Had wandered away from home, and we knew not where he was.

(p) "For" Lk 15:32 (q) "was dead" Eph 2:1, 5:14, Rev 3:1 (r) "is alive again" Rom 6:11,13 (s) "was lost" Eze 34:4,16, Lk 19:10

In the field. At work. This eldest son is designed to represent the Pharisees who had found fault with the Saviour. Their conduct is likened to that of this envious and unnatural brother.

Music and dancing. Dancing was not uncommon among the Hebrews, and was used on various occasions. Thus Miriam celebrated the deliverance of the children of Israel from Egypt in dances as well as songs, Ex 15:20. David danced before the ark, 2Sam 6:14. It was common at Jewish feasts (Jud 21:19-21) and in public triumphs (Jud 11:34), and at all seasons of mirth and rejoicings, Ps 30:11, Jer 31:4,13. It was also used in religious services by the idolaters (Ex 32:19), and also by the Jews, at times, in their religious services, Ps 149:3, 150:4. In this case it was an expression of rejoicing. Our Lord expresses no opinion about its propriety. He simply states the fact, nor was there occasion for comment on it. His mentioning it cannot be pleaded for its lawfulness or propriety, any more than his mentioning the vice of the younger son, or the wickedness of the Pharisees, can be pleaded to justify their conduct. It is an expressive image, used in accordance with the known customs of the country, to express joy. It is farther to be remarked, that if the example of persons in Scripture be pleaded for dancing, it can be only for just such dances as they practised --for sacred or triumphal occasions.

(t) "music and dancing" Ps 30:11, 126:1,2

Safe and sound. In health.

A kid. A young goat. This was of less value than the calf; and he complains that while his father had never given him a thing of so little value as a kid, he had now given his other son the fatted calf.

Make merry with. Entertain them--give them a feast. This complaint was unreasonable, for his father had divided his property, and he might have had his portion, and his father had uniformly treated him with kindness. But it serves to illustrate the conduct of the scribes and Pharisees, and the folly of their complaint.

(v) "do I serve thee" Is 65:5, Lk 18:11 (w) "neither transgressed I" Phi 3:6

This thy son. This son of thine. This is an expression of great contempt. He did not call him his brother, but his father's son, to show at once his contempt for his younger brother, and for his father for having received him as he did. Never was there a more striking instance of petty malice, or more unjustifiable disregard of a father's conduct and will.

Thy living. Thy property. This is still designed to irritate the father, and set him against his younger son. It was true that the younger son had been guilty, and foolish, and ungrateful; but he was penitent, and that was of more consequence to the father than all his property; and in the joy that he was penitent and was safe, he forgot his ingratitude and folly. So should the elder son have done.

All I have is thine. The property was divided. What remained was in reality the elder son's. He was heir to it all, and had a right, if he chose, to use it. He had therefore no right to complain.

This instructive and beautiful parable was designed to vindicate the conduct of Jesus--to show that it was right to receive sinners, and that the conduct of the Pharisees was unreasonable. The elder son represents the Pharisees; the younger, the returning sinner, whether Jew or Gentile; and the father, God, who is willing to receive them. The parable had the designed effect. It silenced the adversaries of Jesus and vindicated his own conduct. There is not, perhaps, anywhere to be found a more beautiful and touching narrative than this. Every circumstance is tender and happily chosen; every word has a meaning; every image is beautiful; and the narrative closes just where it is fitted to make the deepest impression. In addition to what has been suggested, we may learn from this parable the following lessons :-

1st. That the disposition of a sinner is selfish. He desires to get all that he can, and is impatient of delay, Lk 15:12.

2nd. Sinners waste their blessings, and reduce themselves to a state of want and wretchedness, Lk 15:13. A life of sin brings on spiritual want and misery. It destroys the faculties, benumbs the mind, hardens the heart, abuses the beneficence of God, and makes us careless of him who gave us all that we have, and indifferent to the consequences of our own conduct.

3rd. Sinners disregard the future woes that will come upon them. The young man cared not for any calamities that might be the result of his conduct. He went on heedlessly--like every sinner-to enjoy himself, and to squander what the toils of his father had procured for him.

4th. Afflictions are often the means of bringing sinners to reflection, Lk 15:14. While his property lasted the prodigal cared little about his father. When that was gone, and he was in the midst of a famine, he thought of his ways. When sinners are in prosperity they think little about God. When he takes away their mercies, and they are called to pass through afflictions, then they think of their ways, and remember that God can give them comfort.

5th. We have here an impressive exhibition of the wants and woes of a sinner. 1st. He had spent all. He had nothing. So the sinner. He has no righteousness, no comfort.

2nd. He was far from God, away from his father, and in a land of strangers. The sinner has wandered, and has no friend. His miseries came upon him because he was so far away from God.

3rd. His condition was wretched. He was needy, in famine, and without a friend. So the sinner. His condition is aptly denoted by that of the prodigal, who would gladly have partaken of the food of the swine. The sinner has taken the world for his portion, and it neither supplies the wants of his soul, nor gives him comfort when he is far away from his Father's home and from God.

6th. The sinner in this situation often applies to the wrong source for comfort, Lk 15:15. The prodigal should at once have returned to his father, but he rather chose to become a servant of a citizen of that region. The sinner, when sensible of his sins, should return at once to God; but he often continues still to wander. He tries new objects. He seeks new pleasures and new friends, and finds them equally unsatisfactory. He engages in new pursuits, but all in vain. He is still comfortless, and in a strange, a famished land.

7th. The repentance required in the gospel is a return to a right mind, Lk 15:17. Before his conversion the sinner was alienated from God. He was spiritually deranged. He saw not things as they are. Now he looks on the world as vain and unsatisfactory, and comes to himself. He thinks aright of God, of heaven, of eternity, and resolves to seek his happiness there. No man regards things as they are but he who sees the world to be vain, and eternity to be near and awful; and none acts with a sane mind but he who acts on the belief that he must soon die; that there is a God and a Saviour--a heaven and a hell.

8th. When the sinner returns he becomes sensible of the following things: 1st. That he is in danger of perishing, and must soon die but for relief--" I perish with hunger."

2nd. That God is willing and able to save him--"How many hired servants have bread enough and to spare." There is abundance of mercy for all, and all may come.

3rd. He begins to cherish a hope that this may be his. God is willing, and he feels that all that is needful is for him to go to him.

4th. He resolves to go to God--"I will arise and go."

5th. He comes to him willing to confess all his sins, and desirous of concealing none-- "I will say, Father, I have sinned." 9th. True repentance is a voluntary act. It is not forced. It is the resolution of the sinner to go, and he cheerfully and cordially arises and goes, Lk 15:18.

10th. A real penitent feels that his sins have been committed against GOD, Lk 15:18.

11th. A true penitent also is willing to acknowledge his offences against his parents, brothers, friends, and all men, Lk 15:18.

12th. A real penitent is humble, Lk 15:18. He has no wish to conceal anything, or to be thought more highly of than he ought to be.

13th. God is willing to receive the true penitent, and has made the richest provision for his return and for his comfort. None need to hesitate to go. All who go, feeling that they are poor, and miserable, and blind, and naked, will find God willing to receive them, and none will be sent empty away.

14th. The joy at the return of sinners is great. Angels rejoice over it, and all holy beings are glad.

15th. We should not be envious at any favours that God may be pleased to bestow on others, Lk 15:32. He has given us more than we deserve; and if, by the sovereignty of his grace, he is pleased to endow others with more grace, or to give them greater talents, or to make them more useful, we have no cause to complain. We should rather rejoice that he is pleased to give such mercies to any of our race, and should praise him for the manifestation of his goodness, whether made to us or to other men.

16th. The sensible joy when the sinner returns to God is often greater than that which may be felt after the return, and yet the real cause of rejoicing be no greater. In times of revival, the sensible joy of Christians may be greater than in ordinary seasons. Their graces are quickened, their zeal kindled, and their hopes strengthened.

17th. If God is willing to receive sinners, if all holy beings rejoice, then how should Christians strive for their conversion, and seek for their return!

18th. If God is willing to receive sinners now, then all should at once return. There will be a time when he will not be willing to receive them. The day of mercy will be ended; and from the misery and want of this wretched world, they will go down to the deeper miseries and wants of a world of despair--where hope never comes; from whence the sinner can never return; and where the cheering thought can never enter the mind that in his Father's house there is bread enough and to spare, or where he must feel that if there is, it will be for ever untasted by the wretched prodigal in the land of eternal famine and death.

(x) "Son" Rom 9:4, 11:1

[Ninety-and-nine.] This was a very familiar way of numbering and dividing amongst the Jews, viz. betwixt one and ninety. I have given instances elsewhere, let me in this place add one more: "Of those hundred cries that a woman in travail uttereth, ninety-and-nine of them are to death, and only one of them to life."

[Which need no repentance.] Here we are to consider the distinction commonly used in the Jewish schools:--

I. All the good, and those that were to be saved at last, they called just persons. [It is opposed to the word wicked persons, as we may observe more than once in the first Psalm.] Hence this and the like passage very frequently, Paradise is for the just: good things laid up for the just.

Let us by the way play a little with the Gemarists, as they themselves also play with the letters of the alphabet, and amongst the rest especially the letter Tsadi, there is Tsadi that begins a word [or the crooked Tsadi] and Tsadi that ends a word [or the straight Tsadi]. What follows from hence? There is the just person that is crooked [or bowed down], and there is the just person that is erect or straight. Where the Gloss hath it, "It is necessary that the man that is right and straight should be bowed or humble, and he shall be erect in the world to come." Aruch acknowledgeth the same Gloss; but he also brings another which seems of his own making; That "there is a just person who is mild or humble; but there is also a just person who is not so." Let him tell, if he can, what kind of just person that should be that is not mild or humble. But to return to our business.

II. They divide the just into those that are just and no more: and those that are perfectly just. Under the first rank they place those that were not always upright; but having lived a wicked and irreligious life, have at length betaken themselves to repentance and reformation. These they call penitents. Under the latter rank are they placed who have been always upright and never declined from the right way: these they call perfectly just, and just from their first original: as also, holy or good men, and men of good works. Such a one did he account himself, and probably was so esteemed by others, that saith, "All these have I kept from my youth." And such a one might that holy man be thought, who never committed one trespass all the days of his life: excepting this one misfortune that befel him, that once he put on the phylacteries for his forehead before the phylacteries for his arms. A wondrous fault indeed! And what pity is it that for this one trespass of his life he should lose the title of one perfectly holy. Yet for this dreadful crime is the poor wretch deprived of a solemn interment, and by this was his atonement made.

We meet with this distinction of just persons in Beracoth: "R. Abhu saith, In the place where stand the penitents, there do not stand the perfectly just." This distinction also appeared both in the tongues and persons of those that were dancing in the Temple at the feast of Tabernacles. "Some of them said, 'Blessed be our youth that have not made our old men ashamed.' These were the holy and men of good works. Others said, 'Blessed be our old men who have expiated for our youth.' These were they who became penitents."

This phrase of perfectly just persons, puts me in mind of that of the apostle, the spirits of just men made perfect. Where (if I understand aright the scope of the apostle in the argument he is upon) he speaks of just men who are still in this life, and shews that the souls and spirits of believers are made perfectly righteous by faith, contrary to what the Jews held, that men were complete in their righteousness by works, even bodily works.

Seeing those whom they accounted perfectly just are termed men of works; so that perfectly just and men of works were convertible terms, it may not be improbable that the Essenes or Essaei may have their name from of works; so that they might be called workers, and by that be distinguished from the penitents. But of that matter I will raise no dispute.

III. Now which of these had the preference, whether perfect righteousness to repentance, or repentance to perfect righteousness, it is not easy to discern at first view, because even amongst themselves there are different opinions about it. We have a disputation in Beracoth, in the place newly cited, in these words: "R. Chaiah Bar Abba saith, R. Jochanan saith, All the prophets did not prophesy, unless for those that repent. As for those that are perfectly just, eye hath not seen besides thee, O God. But R. Abhu contradicts this: for R. Abhu saith, The penitent do not stand in the place where the perfectly just stand; as it is said, Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near. He names him that is far off first, and then him that is nigh. But R. Jochanan, Who is he that is far off? He that was far off from transgressing from his first original. And who is he that is nigh? He that was next to transgression, but now is afar off from it."

These passages of the Talmud are quoted by Kimchi upon Isaiah 57:19; and, out of him, by Drusius upon this place; but as far as I can perceive, very far wide from the mind of Kimchi. For thus Drusius hath it; R. David Isaiah 57:19, Hoc in loco, &c. In this place the penitent is said to be far off, and the just to be nigh, according to the ancients: but he that is far off is preferred; whence they say, The penitents are better than the perfectly just. As if this obtained amongst them all as a rule or maxim; when indeed the words of Kimchi are these: "He that is far off, that is, he that is far off from Jerusalem, and he that is near, that is, he that is near to Jerusalem. But there is a dispute in the words of our Rabbins about this matter. And some of them interpret it otherwise; for they expound him that is afar off, as to be understood of the penitent, and him that is near, as meaning the just: from whence they teach and say, That the penitent are better than those that are perfectly just."

Some, indeed, that do so expound it, say, that those that are penitent are to be preferred before those that are the perfectly just, but this was not the common and received opinion of all. Nay, the more general opinion gave so great a preference to perfect righteousness, that repentance was not to be compared with it. Hence that of R. Jochanan, approved of by R. Chaijah the great Rabbin, that those good and comfortable things concerning which the prophets do mention in their prophecies, belong only to those who were sometimes wicked men but afterward came unto repentance; but they were far greater things that were laid up for perfectly just persons,--things which had never been revealed to the prophets, nor no prophetic eye ever saw, but God only; things which were indeed of a higher nature than that they could be made known to men; for so the Gloss explaineth those words of theirs.

In this, indeed, they attribute some peculiar excellency to the penitent; in that, although they had tasted the sweets of sin, yet they had abandoned it, and got out of the snare: which it might have been a question whether those that are perfectly just would have done if they had tasted and experienced the same. But still they esteemed it much nobler never to have been stained with the pollutions of sin, always to have been just, and never otherwise than good. Nor is it seldom that we meet with some in the Talmudists making their own perfection the subject of their boast, glorying that they have never done any enormous thing throughout their whole life; placing those whom they called holy or good men, who were also the same with perfectly just, placing them (I say) in the highest form of just persons.

IV. After all this, therefore, judge whether Christ spoke simply or directly of any such persons (as if there were really any such) that could need no repentance; or rather, whether he did not at that time utter himself according to the common conceptions that nation had about some perfectly just persons, which he himself opposed. And this seems so much the more likely by how much he saith, "I say unto you," as if he set himself against that common conceit of theirs: and that example he brings of a certain person that needed no repentance, viz., the prodigal's brother, savours rather of the Jewish doctrine than that he supposed any one in this world perfectly just.

[A woman lighteth a candle.] There is a parable not much unlike this in Midras Schir, "R. Phineas Ben Jair expoundeth. If thou seek wisdom as silver, that is, if thou seek the things of the law as hidden treasures--A parable. It is like a man who if he lose a shekel or ornament in his house, he lighteth some candles, some torches, till he find it. If it be thus for the things of this world, how much more may it be for the things of the world to come!"

[A certain man had two sons.] It is no new thing so to apply this parable, as if the elder son denoted the Jew, and the younger the Gentile. And, indeed, the elder son doth suit well enough with the Jew in this, that he boasts so much of his obedience, "I have not transgressed at any time thy commandment": as also, that he is so much against the entertainment of his brother, now a penitent. Nothing can be more grievous to the Jews than the reception of the Gentiles.

[He wasted his substance with riotous living.] Ought not this prodigal to be looked upon as that stubborn and rebellious son mentioned Deuteronomy 21:18? By no means, if we take the judgment of the Sanhedrim itself. For, according to the character that is given of a stubborn and rebellious son in Sanhedrim, cap. 8, where there is a set discourse upon that subject, there can hardly be such a one found in nature as he is there described. Unless he steal from his father and his mother, he is not such a son; unless he eat half a pound of flesh, and drink half a log of wine, he is not such a son. If his father or mother be lame or blind, he is not such a son, &c. Half a pound of flesh! It is told of Maximin, that "he drank frequently in one day a Capitoline bottle of wine, and ate forty pounds of flesh; or, as Cordus saith, threescore."

The publicans and sinners, as they had done several times before, came to hear our Saviour's instructions; he treated them very kindly, and conversed familiarly with them; at this the Pharisees were displeased and murmured, censured our Saviour for too much familiarity with those men, whom they looked upon as scandalous to converse with; not considering that he conversed with them as their physician, not as their companion; and therefore his proper work and employment lay among his patients: and that he might give all possible encouragement to the repentance of the greatest sinners, he sets forth at once the tender care of God in recovering such lost sinners, and the inexpressible joy that is found in heaven at the welcome news of their recovery; for thus it follows in the parables.

In this parable Christ compares sinners to sheep going astray, and God the Father to a tender and careful shepherd seeking his stray sheep; wherein he secretly taxes the Pharisees for their uncharitableness in censuring him for conversing with publicans and sinners, and for their envy at the recovery of such sinners by repentance; assuring them, that they are far from the temper of the holy angels, who rejoice more at the news of one notorious sinner's conversion, than for many righteous persons who went not astray; like as a father is touched with a more sensible joy for the recovery of one son who was dangerously sick, than for the health of all the rest who were in no such danger.

From the whole note,

1. That the creature's aberration may serve for our instruction; the sheep's straying away from us, should put us in mind of our wandering away from God.

2. That Christ the Great Sheperd of his church, with vigilance and care, seeks up and finds out his lost sheep, and will never give over his search until he has found them.

3. That the recovery of one lost sinner by repentance, is matter of exceeding joy and rejoicing to Christ the Great Shepherd, and to all the blessed company of heaven: There is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, or changes the whole course of his life, more than over ninety and nine just persons that need no such repentance. The opening of a sinner's heart to Christ, makes joy in heaven, and occasions triumph in the city of our God above; as when a young prince is born, all the kingdom rejoices, and the conduits run wine; so when a soul is born to Christ under the gospel, oh what mighty satisfaction is it to the heart of Christ, and to all the angels and saints, that another soul is espoused to him. "Oh sinner, Christ never rejoiced over thee before; thou has grieved him, and wounded him a thousand times, but he never rejoiced in thee until now." And if there be such joy in heaven at the conversion of a sinner, Lord, what rejoicing must there be at the glorification of saints.

The scope of this parable is the same with the former.

1. To express the joy that is found with God and his holy angels, at the recovery and conversion of a notorious sinner.

2. To justify Christ in conversing with such sinners in order to their repentance and conversion, from the malicious reflections of the Pharisees made upon our Saviour for so doing: the sense of the words seems to be this, "If you do all justify the diligence and care of a woman, using all possible means to recover the loss of a piece of silver that has Caesar's image upon it, why (might our Saviour say) will you Pharisees censure and condemn me for seeking to recover and save lost sinners, that have the image of an holy God instamped upon them?"

Learn hence,

1. That the conversion of a sinner from a course and state of sin and wickedness, is highly acceptable and pleasing unto God.

2. That it is reasonable to suppose, that the holy angels in heaven do conceive a new joy at the notice and news of a sinner's repentance and conversion unto God: how the angels come by this knowledge, whether by virtue of their ministry here below, or whether God is pleased to reveal it to them above, as a thing extremely welcome and delightful to good spirits, it is neither material to enquire, nor possible to determine. But their happiness not being intensively infinite, it is certain that they may be happier than they are.

Note 3. That God is not only willing to receive and embrace returning and repenting sinners, but the news of their repentance is entertained with so much joy in heaven, that if it be possible for the blessed inhabitants of that place to have any thing added to their happiness, this will be a new accession to it: for though the happiness of God himself be intensively infinite, and can have nothing added to it; yet the happiness of angels and glorified spirits being but finite, is capable of addition: and as their knowledge and love do increase, so their felicity may be growing and improving to all eternity; so that it is reasonable enough to suppose that there is really joy among the angels and spirits of just men made perfect, over every sinner that repenteth.

In the two former parables of the lost sheep and lost goat, was represented to us the great pains and care which Christ takes for the recovery of lost sinners. In this third parable of this prodigal son, is shadowed forth unto us, with what great readiness, joy, and gladness, our heavenly Father receives repenting and returning sinners.

In the face of the prodigal, as in a glass, we may behold, first, a riotous sinner's aversion from God.

Secondly, a penitent sinner's conversion to God.

Thirdly, a pardoned sinner's acceptance and entertainment with God.

From the whole learn, 1. What is the nature of sin, and the practice of sinners. Sin is a departing from God, and every sinner does voluntarily and of his own accord depart from him: He took his journey into a far country.

Learn, 2. The great extravagancy which sinners run into when they forsake God, and give up themselves to the conduct of their lusts and vile affections; he wasted all his substance with riotous living; that is, spent his time, and consumed his treasure, in riot and excess.

Observe, 3. That sin will certainly bring men into streights, but streights do not always bring men off from sin: he began to be in want, yet thinks not of returning to his father's house.

Observe, 4. That sinners will try all ways, and go through the greatest hardships and difficulties, before they will leave their sins, and return home to their heavenly Father: He joined himself to a citizen of that country; and went into the fields to feed swine. He chooses rather to feed at the hog's trough, than to feast in his father's house.

Observe, 5. At last the happy fruits of a sanctified affliction: they put the prodigal upon serious consideration: He came to himself; upon wise consultation; I perish with hunger: and upon a fixed resolution; I will arise and go to my father. Serious consideration, and solid resolutions, are great steps to a sound conversion, and thorough reformation.

Observe, 6. The affectionate tenderness and compassion of the father towards the returning prodigal: though he had deserved to be sharply reproved, severely corrected, and finally rejected and shut out of doors; yet the father's compassion is above his anger: not a word of his miscarriages drops from his father's mouth, but as soon as ever the son looks back, mercy looks out and the father expresses,

1. His speedy readiness to receive his son, He ran unto him: the son did only arise and go, but the father made haste and ran; mercy has not only a quick eye to spy out a penitent, but a swift foot; it turns to embrace a penitent.

2. Wonderful tenderness, He fell upon his neck: it had been much to have looked upon him with the eye, more to have taken him by the hand, but most of all to fall upon his neck. Divine mercy will not only meet a penitent, but embrace him also.

3. Strong affectionateness: He kissed him; giving him thereby a pledge and assurance of perfect friendship and reconciliation with him.

Learn hence, that God is not only ready to give demonstrations of his mercy to penitent sinners, but also to give the seals and tokens of his special reconciled favor to them; they shall now have the kisses of his lips, who formerly deserved the blows of his hand: The father ran unto him, fell on his neck, and kissed him.

Observe, lastly, the great joy that appeared in the whole house, as well as in the father's heart, upon this great occasion, the prodigal son's returning: They all began to be merry, there was music and dancing.

Learn hence, that sincere conversion brings the soul into a joyful, into a very joyful state and condition. The joy that conversion brings is an holy and spiritual joy, a solid and substantial joy, a wonderful and transcendent joy, an increasing and never-fading joy. Our joy on earth is an earnest of the joys of heaven, where there will be rejoicing in the presence of our heavenly Father and his holy angels to all eternity: because we were dead, but are now alive again; we were lost, but are found.

By the murmuring of the elder son at the prodigal's returning to, and reception with, his father, some think the Jews in general are to be understood, whose peevishness to the Gentiles, and the repining at the offer of salvation made unto them by the gospel, is very evident from many places of scripture: others understand it of the scribes and Pharisees in particular, who presuming on their own righteousness, as if they had never transgressed God's commandments at any time, murmured at our Saviour for conversing with sinners, though it were in order to the bringing of them to repentance; which instead of being frowardly discontented at, they ought to have rejoiced at.

Learn hence, there is such an envious spirit in men, yea, even in the best of men, as inclined them to repine at such dispensations of divine grace and favor, as others receive, and they want.

Learn, 2. That to indulge such a spirit and temper in ourselves, argues great sin, and great folly: great sin in being dissatisfied with God's dispensations, and affronting his wisdom and justice; and great folly, in making another's good our grief; as if we had less, because another has more: The eldest son was angry, and would not go in: it follows, therefore came his father out and intreated him. This shows the meekness of God in dealing with us under, our frowardness; and the high satisfaction he takes in a sinner's conversion and returning to his duty.

Lastly, this points out unto us our duty to imitate God, and be followers of him as dear children. Does he rejoice at a sinner's return to this duty? So should we. It is the devil's temper to regret and envy the good and happiness of others: he gnashes his teeth, when the prey he thought himself sure of, is snatched out of his jaws. But to God, and all his holy angels, nothing is so agreeable as their repentance and conversion of a sinner from the error of his ways, and the saving of a soul from death; this is looked upon as a resurrection from the dead, and a ground of the greatest joy and rejoicing: It was meet that we should make merry and be glad, for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.

Whence note, that regeneration is the term from which all true pleasure commences. We never live a merry day until we begin to live unto God; when the prodigal son returned to his father, then, and not until then, they began to be merry.