discharge of an animal function, you would feel it as in some degree a humiliating circumstance; but what would be any defect of this kind, however serious, in comparison with that great want under which you labour-the want of piety, the calamity of a soul estranged from the love of God! What are all other subjects of humiliation, compared with this-a moral fall, a spiritual death in sin: and this, unless it be removed, the sure precursor of the second death-eternal ruin! "This is a lamentation indeed, and it shall be for a lamentation."

Suppose the children of a family, reared and provided for by the most affectionate of parents, to rise up in rebellion against their father, and cast off all the feelings of filial tenderness and respect; would any qualities those children might possess, any appearances of virtue they might exhibit in other respects, compensate for such an unnatural, such an awful deformity of character? Transfer this representation to your conduct in relation to God: "If I," says he, "am a father, where is my fear? if I am a master, where is my honour?" "Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth! I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me: the ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider."

2. And let your humiliation be accompanied with concern and alarm. To be alienated from the Great Origin of being,-to be severed, or to sever yourself, from the essential Author and element of all felicity, must be a calamity which none can understand, and infinite wo which none can measure or conceive! If the stream is cut off from the fountain, it soon ceases to flow, and its waters are dissipated in the air and if the soul is cut off from God, it dies! Its vital contact with God, its spiritual union with the Father of spirits through the blessed Mediator, is the only life and beauty of the immortal soul. All, without this, are dead-" dead in trespasses and sins." A living death a state of restless wanderings and unsatisfied desires! What a condition theirs! And, oh! what a prospect for such, when they look beyond this world! Who will give them a welcome when they enter an eternal state? What reception will they meet with, and where? What consolation amid their loss and their sufferings, but that of the fellow-sufferers plunged in the same abyss of ruin? Impenitent sinners are allied to evil spirits; they have an affinity with the kingdom of darkness; and, when they die, they are emphatically said to "go to THEIR OWN place!"

3. This is an awful state for any to be in at present; but, blessed be God, it is not yet a hopeless situation. Let no person say, "I find by what I have heard that I do not love God, and therefore I can entertain no hope." There is a way of return and recovery open to all. Jesus Christ, my dear brethren, proclaims to you all, "I am the way. No man can come to the Father but by me:" but every one that will may come by this new and living way: and, if you lose life eternal, you lose it because, according to his words just before the text, because “ you will not come to Christ that you may have life." If you feel the misery, deformity, and danger of your state, then listen VOL. III.-G g

to his invitation, and embrace his promise. See the whole weight of your guilt transferred to his cross! See how God can be at once the just and the justifier! Take of the blood of sprinkling, and be at peace! His blood cleanseth from all sin: He will send that Spirit into your heart which will manifest him to you; and where that Spirit is, there is liberty and holy love. He is the mystical ladder, let down from heaven to earth, on which angels are continually ascending and descending, in token of an alliance established between God and man. United by faith to Jesus Christ, you shall become a habitation of God through the Spirit: the Father will make you a partaker of his love, the Son of his grace, angels of their friendship; and you shall be preserved, and progressively sanctified; until, by the last change, all remains of the grand epidemic source of evils shall be for ever removed from your soul; and the love of God shall constitute your eternal felicity.

XVII.

THE JOY OF ANGELS OVER A REPENTING SINNER.•

LUKE XV. 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.

[PREACHED AT BROADMEAD, BRISTOL, SUNDAY EVENING, AUGUST 22, 1824.]

THE ministry of our Lord was exercised, and his success obtained, principally among the lower classes of mankind. We read that, in opposition to the supercilious contempt of the Pharisees and rulers, "the common people heard him gladly:" the ancient prediction being thus verified, that" to the poor the gospel should be preached." Accordingly, Jesus Christ, adapting the style of his preaching to the state of his hearers, borrowed many familiar illustrations of the truths he taught from the scenes of nature and from the occupations of ordinary life, and generally used the parabolic mode of instruction: yet his illustrations were always delivered in a manner consistent with the dignity of his doctrine and character, and they tended to show that his religion is perfectly adapted to make all mankind wise unto salvation.

The proud Pharisees took offence at this attention of our Saviour to the common people, and urged it as an objection against him that he received sinners and ate with them. Our Saviour replied to their objection by supposing the case of a shepherd who, if he had lost a single sheep of his flock, would immediately leave all the rest, that he might recover that one; and, having recovered it, would feel a greater degree of satisfaction than the possession of all the rest could bestow.

* Printed from the notes of the Rev. Thomas Grinfield.

After this comparison, our Lord descended to another yet more humble, which could have occurred to no person that was not more conversant with cottages than courts; the comparison of the poor woman that, on the recovery of one lost piece of silver, would be filled with a joy which she could not forbear inviting her neighbours to participate. From these familiar images Jesus Christ lifts our imagination at once to heaven itself; assuring us that, in a similar manner, "Joy shall be in heaven, joy among the angels of God, over one sinner that repenteth," and this a "greater joy than over ninety-and-nine just persons who need no repentance."

In endeavouring to unfold this passage for our mutual advantage, I propose to consider, briefly, the four following subjects of inquiry: first, where we are to look for these ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance; secondly, why the event of one sinner's repentance should fill the angels with joy; thirdly, why this joy should be greater than that with which they contemplate so large a number of righteous persons; and, fourthly, why the seat of this should be placed in heaven; after which, in the last place, I shall conclude with a brief improvement.

1. The first point of inquiry is, Where are we to find these ninetynine just persons who need no repentance? The forerunner of Jesus Christ came preaching the doctrine of repentance; and Jesus Christ himself repeated that doctrine, saying to all, "Except ye repent, ye shall perish." When he sent forth his apostles, he taught them to circulate, wherever they went, the solemn admonition, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is come unto you." They constantly inculcated repentance as universally necessary: "Now," said they, "God commandeth all men everywhere to repent." Yet the text makes mention of ninety-nine persons who need no repentance. Where then

are we to find these? Two solutions have been proposed; each in itself appears satisfactory, but each must be taken separately; proceeding on different grounds, they are not capable of being combined.

First, the persons concerned have been supposed to be persons who have already repented. Divines are accustomed to divide all persons into three states of character,-as careless sinners, awakened penitents, or confirmed believers. The persons in question, who need no repentance, are supposed to have passed through the two former of these states of character, and to be now in the third: they are neither careless sinners nor penitents newly awakened to a sense of guiltthey are confirmed believers; and they need no repentance, no entire change of their hearts, simply because they have already experienced it as the apostle exhorts the Hebrews, they go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance. It is not intended to convey an idea that they have not daily sins to call for daily penitence, but merely that, having once been effectually convinced of sin, and converted to God by a true repentance, they may justly be said not to need that change any more. There is nothing unnatural or improper in this interpretation: there are many such persons, it is to be hoped,

in every Christian society; many who, having passed through that mysterious and vital process of Divine influence on the soul which we call repentance, cannot, strictly speaking, experience or require it a second time.

The other solution is, that Jesus Christ is here speaking hypothetically; that he makes a supposition which has no existence in reality, merely for the sake of argument. No doubt many instances of such suppositions occur in the discourses of our Saviour. It is a mode of statement which exactly concurs with another part of the parables contained in the same chapter: I refer to the character of the elder son. Is there any individual to be found, either in the Christian profession or in civil life, who exhibits the archetype of that elder son?any one to whom the Father could with propriety say, “Son, thou hast been always with me, and all that I have is thine?" I am aware that the conduct of the Pharisees has been generally considered to be represented by that of the elder son: this is true; yet it is evident the Pharisees are here represented not such as they really were, but such as they vainly imagined themselves to be. In strict reality nothing could be more unlike than the original and the picture; our Saviour gave them credit for their pretensions to righteousness; but nothing could be more remote from the real character of those before whom even the publicans and harlots would enter into the kingdom of heaven. After the same manner of speaking, it has been supposed, Jesus Christ here introduces the idea of ninety-nine righteous persons: no real persons were designed by the expression; he used it merely for the purpose of assailing the arrogant conclusions of the Pharisees respecting themselves: supposing them to be of such a faultless character, still, argues our Lord, the spectacle of one penitent sinner would inspire greater joy in the hearts of heavenly beings than the spectacle of ninety-nine such persons.

2. The second inquiry is, Why this spectacle should have such an effect on heavenly beings, and particularly on angels? One might have thought it more probable that no event on earth, at least none in which one individual alone was concerned, would have any effect on beings of so elevated an order; that such an occurrence would not even be known in the celestial court; still less that it would occasion an increase of joy in those abodes of eternal blessedness. But revelation has withdrawn the vail from the invisible world, and opened a communication between earth and heaven. It exhibits to us a race of holy and glorious beings denominated angels; and these are represented as instruments employed in executing the Divine purposes respecting man; they are Christ's angels; they take a deep concern in the success of his church, and the gathering in of his redeemed: Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister to them that are heirs of salvation? In one passage, indeed, though somewhat obscure, the apostle Paul seems to insinuate that angels are invisibly present in the solemn assemblies of the faithful. Though their interference in the affairs of the church is now silent and unperceived, there is no reason to sup

* 1 Cor xi. 10.

pose it to be withdrawn, or less real than when it used to be accompanied with the splendour of miraculous circumstances; any more than there is reason to believe those infernal spirits, against whose temptations we are so often warned, to be now no longer awake and active against us. Heavenly beings are witnesses of these assemblies; they listen to the ministry of sacred truth; they anxiously trace its effects on the consciences and hearts of men; and whenever a salutary impression is produced, whenever the conscience is convinced, and the heart opened to repentance, they bear the glad tidings to their companions in felicity, and then is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth. Do you ask, why they are thus rejoiced by such an event? For the same reasons, I reply, that the most pious among men are accustomed to rejoice when they hear of the conversion of a sinner to God. Such a change brings, they are sensible, a new servant to their Lord; it is the accession of a new member to that great society of which God and his Christ are the head and none can be a real, loyal subject of the King of kings without wishing his laws to be obeyed, his kingdom to be extended; because the glory of the Redeemer is realized in the multitude of the redeemed. Besides which, the benevolence of angels is proportioned to their elevation in wisdom and holiness: they approximate, far nearer than the most exalted of the saints, to the unlimited benevolence of the Divine character. God is love, and angels are emanations of that Divine Spirit: no taint of selfishness mingles with their feelings and their views: they see distinctly the connexion that subsists between repentance and happiness: they see that when the sinner repents he first comes to himself-he takes the first step in that progress which tends towards their own ineffable felicity-he enters on that way in which God is to be found: while impenitence endangers the eternal welfare of the soul, threatens its forfeiture of immortal happiness, its subjection to irreparable misery. It cannot be but that the repentance of a sinner, regarded as it is by angels as the birthday of a new existence, the precursor of immortality, the embryo of endless bliss, the introduction to the element of perfect peace and rest, the vestibule of heaven,-it cannot but be that this should communicate delight to those holy and benevolent spirits.

The Scriptures clearly reveal to us, whether or not you believe the doctrine, that there exist in this world two great kingdoms; at the head of one of which kingdoms is Jesus Christ, at the head of the other Satan; and that all mankind, without exception, are the subjects either of the one or the other of these mighty opposite empires. Now, repentance is the line of demarkation between the two; it is that which marks the confines of light and darkness,—of the heavenly and the infernal state. From the moment a sinner repents he makes a transition from death to life, spiritual and eternal: from that moment Satan loses a vassal, and Jesus Christ gains a servant. It is impossible for beings such as angels to remain indifferent spectators of such an event; impossible for them not to feel joy when they see the balance changed in favour of their own cause. Victory and gain in every instance are attended with feelings of joy; but no spoil can be deemed precious, no