The parable of the lost piece of mony. mured, saying, This others, who had lain under the most aggravated man receiveth sinners, guilt. But the proud Pharisees and scribes, who, and eateth with them. 3 And he spake this parable saying, having an 33 SECT. cxxii. Luke were present, murmured when they saw such a But [Jesus] for the encouragement of these 3 eth it on his shoulders, rejoicing: together his friends and my sheep which was lost. Mat. xviii. 12, 13, sect. xciv. Vol. VI. p. 494.) 6 And when he com- And when he cometh home, he calls together his 6 eth home, he calieth friends and neighbours, and says unto them with neighbours, saying unto the greatest pleasure, My friends, you may now them, Rejoice with rejoice with me; for my labour and search have me, for I have found not been in vain, but I have found my sheep which was lost. And as he thus is more delight7 I say unto you, ed with the recovery of the sheep which he had that likewise joy shall lost, than with the safety of the rest, which had 7 one sinner that repent- not wandered; so, I say unto you, that greater eth, more than over and more sensible joy will be in heaven, among the blessed and benevolent spirits that dwell there, over one penitent sinner, than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need such deep repentanced, or such an universal change of mind and character, be in beaven over ninety aad nine just persons which need no repentance. Or, b In the pastures of the desert.] Uncultivated ground, used merely as common of pasture, was called wilderness, or desert, by the Jews, in distinction from arable, or inciosed land. Compare Josh. xv. 61. 1 Kings ii. 34. 2 Kings ii. 8. Mat. iii. 1. and Mark vi. 31. (Compare also note c, on Mat. xviii. 12. sect. xciv.) Greater joy will be in heaven, &c.] Alluding, says Mons. L'Enfant (a little too coldly,) to the style of the Jews, with whom it was usual to represent the angel's warping, for the corruption of men, and Ticing at their conversion. But it seems very unwarrantable to suppose Christ thus asserting a thing merely because the Jews used thus to represent and conceive of it. We may rather conclude from ver. 10, that, at least in some extraordinary cases, the angels are, either by immediate revelation, or otherwise, informed of the conversion of sinners, which must to those benevolent spirits be an occasion of joy; nor could any thing have been suggested more proper, to encourage the humble penitent, to expose the repining Pharisce, or to animate all to zeal in so good a work, as endeavouring to promote the repentance of others. d Than over ninety-nine righteous per SONS, 34 SECT. cxxii, Luke Reflections on the joy in heaven over a penitent sinner. 8 Either what wo. man having ten pieces Or, to illustrate the matter by another obvious similitude, that it may yet more powerfully of silver, if she lose strike your minds, What poor woman having ten one piece, doth not XV. 8. pieces of silver money, though they were each light a candie, and of them but the value of a drachma, if she lost sweep the house, and seek diligently til she one of them out of her little stock, will not pre- find it? sently light a lamp, and take the pains to sweep out the house, and search carefully in all the cor9 ners till she find it? And when she has found it, she joyfully calls her female friends and neigh- calleth her friends, and bours together, to acquaint them with her good her neighbours togesuccess; and concluding it will be agreeable ther, saying, Rejoice news to them, she says, Rejoice with me, my friends for I have found the piece of money which 10 I had lost. And, so I say unto you, that there is IMPROVEMENT. 9 And when she hath found it, she 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, Ver.1. How graceful and lovely does our Lord appear, while thus opening his compassionate arms and heart, to these wretched out-casts, for whose souls no man cared! Who can choose but rejoice at this jubilee, which he proclaimed among them, and at the cheerful attention which they gave to these glad tidings of great joy? May we, who are his followers, never despise the meanest or the worst of men, when they seem disposed to receive religious instruction; The parable of the prodigal son. sons, &c.] It cannot be our Lord's meaning here, that God esteems one penitent sinner more than ninety-nine confirmed and established saints (who are, undoubtedly, the persons spoken of as needing no repentance, or no universal change of heart and life, in which sense the word μελανοια is commonly used;) for it would be inconsistent with the Divine wisdom, goodness, and holiness, to suppose this. But it is plainly as if he had said, "As a father peculiarly rejoices when an extravas gant child is reduced to a sense of his duty, and one whom he had considered as utterJy ruined by his follies, and perhaps as dead, returns with remorse and subinis sion; 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 t'e holy inhabitants of heaven rejoice in the con version of the most abandoned sinners, and the great Father of all so readily forgives and receives them, that he may be represented as having part in the joy."Thongh, by the way, when human passions are ascribed to God, it is certain they are to be taken in a figurative sense, entirely exclusive of those sensations which result from the commotions of animal nature in ourselves. e She calls her female friends [τας φίλας] and neighbours together.] It might seem hardly worth while to ask the congratulation of her friends on so small an occasion as finding a drachma, (for that is the piece of coin here mentioned, in value not above nine-pence;) but is represented as the tenth part of her little stock, and the impressible and social temper of the ser may be perhaps thought of as adding some propriety to the representation. CXXII. instruction; but rather exert ourselves with a distinguished zeal, SFCT. as knowing that the joy of the heavenly world in their recovery will be in some measure proportionable to the extremity of their Ver. former danger. 10 Let us often recollect the charity and goodness of those per-7 fected spirits, who look down from their own glory with compassion on mortals wandering in the paths of the destroyer, and who sing anthems of thankfulness and joy, when by Divine grace they are reclaimed from them. Let every sinner be touched with a generous desire, that he who has been in so many instances the offence and burden of the earth, may become the joy of heaven by his sincere conversion. And let the solicitude with which the little pos- 4, 6 sessions of this world are sought, when they are lost by any acci-8, 9 dent, engage us more earnestly to seek what is infinitely more valuable, our own salvation, and that of the immortal souls of others. May we in our different stations labour successfully for their recovery; that we may another day share in that higher joy, which angels and glorified saints shall express, when they see them not only reduced to the paths of virtue and happiness, but fixed in abodes of eternal glory! SECT. CXXIII. Our Lord farther pursues the design of the preceding parables, by delivering that of the prodigal son. Luke XV. 11, to the end, of them said to his fa WITH the LUKE XV.11. 35 same design of vindicating him- SECT self in conversing with publicans and sin- exxiii. Luke ners, of reproving the envy of the Pharisees, and very condescending temper, who had two sons 12 And the younger that were now grown up to manhood. And 12 ther, Father, give me the younger of them, fondly conceited of his own the portion of goods capacity to manage his affairs, and weary of the that falleth to me. And restraints of his father's house, said one day to his living. Father, as I am now come he divided unto them VOL. VII. his indulgent paren to years of discretion, I desire thou wouldst give E 36 exxiii. Having spent all his substance, he is reduced to want SECT. divided his living between them botha, and gave them his chief stock of money, reserving the house and estate in his own hands. Luke XV. 13. 13 And not many days after, the younger son gathered all toge and there wasted his And not many days after this division was made, the younger son gathering all his treasure together, and pretending a design of trafficing ther, and took his jourwith it, took a journey into a very distant country; ney into a far country, and there forgetting his relations at home, and substance with riotous living with a knot of companions like himself, living. in a very riotous, debauched, and extravagant manner, he quickly squandered away the whole of his substance. 14 And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want. 14 And when he had consumed all in this wretched 15 And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him a Divided his living between them both.) It is plain, no significant sense can be put on this circumstance of the parable, as referring to the dispensations of God to his creatures. It is one of those many ornamental circumstances, which it would be weakness over-rigorously to accommodate to the general design. b Who-sent him into his grounds.] That και, in such a construction, should be rendered in this manner, the accurate Elsner has shewn by a variety of convincing instances. (Obsera. Vol. I. p. 248.) c However mean and disagreeable the employment was.) It is true, that among the ancient Greeks, the chief swineherd was looked upon as an officer of no inconsiderable rank; as evidently appears from eat: 16 And he would the figure which Eumeus makes in the Odyssey: but this was an age of greater refinement; the unhappy youth was obliged to tend the swine himself; and if he be considered as a Jew, the aversion of that nation for this unclean animal must render the employment peculiarly odious to bim; and probably this circumstance was chosen by our Lord to represent him as reduced to the most vile and servile state that could be imagined. d. With the sorriest husks.] A late translation (after Brown, Saubert, Grotius, and many others) renders κεραλίων carraways, or the fruit of the carub-tree, which bore a mean, though sweetish kind of fruit, in long crooked pods; which by some is called St. John's bread; but if the account which Saubert 20 And he arosc, Awakened at last to a sense of his folly, he returns home. 17 And when he came to himself, he servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish said, How many hired with hunger! 37 cxxiii. eat: and vet there was no man that would take SECT. Luke And now the infamy and distress of his present 17 18 I will arise, and to whom I have hired myself! Whatever be 18 before thee, 19 And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. e all my little remaining strength can carry ine And accordingly he arose at that very instant, 20 and came to his fa- and set forward on his long journey, passing through all the stages of it with a firm resolution, Providence ther. Saubert himself gives of it be true, swine would hardly have been fed with any thing but the husky part of this, in a time of extreme famine. I therefore choose to retain our version; but take it, on the whole, to have been the fruit of a tree something of a wild chesnut kind. See Drusius in loc. e Sinned against the great God of heaven] This was, as Dr. Goodman observes (Parable of the Prodigal, p. 207), an acknowledgment that his father's yoke had been so easy, that his throwing it off had been an act of rebellion against God: and it shewed also that his heart was touched with a sense, not only of the folly but the guilt of his conduct, and that the fear of God began to take hold of him. f Make me as one of thine hired servants.] He mentions this, not because such servants fared worse than slaves; but because he was himself an hired servant, and therefore naturally compared his own condition with those of that rank in his father's family. & The |