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are manifeft, and the children of the devil: Whosoever doth not righteousness, is not of God.

Let us then deal impartially with ourselves, and bring our lives and actions to this trial, and never be at rest till the matter be brought to fome iffue, and we have made a deliberate judgement of our condition, whether we be the children of God or not; and if, upon a full and fair examination, our confciences give us this testimony, that by the grace of God we have denied ungod linefs and worldly lufts, and have lived foberly, and righ teoufy, and godly, in this prefent world, we may take joy and comfort in it; for if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence towards God. But if, upon the fearch and trial of our ways, our cafe appear clearly to be otherwise, or if we have just cause to doubt of it, let us. not venture to continue one moment longer in fo uncer tain and dangerous a condition. And if we defire to know the way of peace, the fcripture hath fet it plainly before us: Wash ye, make you clean, put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes, ceafe to do evil, learn to do well. Come now and let us reafon together, faith the Lord: though your fins be as fcarlet, they fhall be white as fnow. Let the wicked forfake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. Though our cafe be very bad, yet it is not defperate: This is a faithful faying, and worthy of all men to be embraced, that Jefus Chrift came into the world to fave finners. And he is ftill willing to fave us, if we be but willing to leave our fins, and to ferve him in holiness and righteoufnefs the remaining part of our lives. We e may yet be turned from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God. We who have ventured fo long upon the brink of ruin, may yet, by the infinite mercies of God, and by the power of his grace, be refcued from the bafe and miferable flavery of the devil and our lufts, into the glorious liberty of the fons of God.

And thus I have endeavoured, with all the plainness I could, to reprefent every man to himself, and to let him clearly fee what his condition is towards God, and how the cafe of his foul, and of his eternal happiness, ftands. And I do verily believe, that what I have faid

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in this matter is the truth of God, to which we ought all gladly to yield and render up ourfelves: for great is truth, and mighty above all things. She is faithful and impartial in her counfels; and though the be not always welcome, yet it is always wife to hearken to her; for in great kindness and charity fhe lets men know their condition, and the danger of it, that they may take care to prevent it: With her is no accepting of perfons, and in her judgement there is no unrighteousness. I will conclude all with that excellent advice of a Heathen philofopher : "Make it no longer a matter of difpute what are the "marks and figns of a good man, but immediately fet "about it, and endeavour to become fuch an one." Antonin. lib. 10.

SERMON

XVI.

Of the joy which is in heaven at the repentance of a finner.

LUKE XV. 7.

I fay unto you, that likewife joy shall be in heaven over one finner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just perfons, which need no repentance.

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Fter many attempts made in vain to reclaim finners from their evil ways, and to bring them to the wifdom of the juft, it is hard for us, who are the mesfengers of God to men, not to fit down in defpondence, and at laft quite to defpair of doing good upon them. But when I confider the infinite patience of God with finners, and how long his Spirit ftrives with them, why fhould we, we who are finners ourselves, think much to bear with finners, and patiently to contend with their obftinacy and perverfenefs? When I confider, that our bleffed Saviour, the great preacher and pattern of righteousness, did not give over the worft of men, nor despair

of

of their recovery; this methinks fhould make us, who are ambasadors for Chrift, unwearied in befeeching men in his ftead to be reconciled to God.

And of this we have a famous inftance in this chapter. The publicans and finners, as they had done feveral times before, came to hear our Saviour: he treated them very kindly, and converfed familiarly with them; at this the Pharifees were difpleafed, and murmured; and this unreasonable murmuring of theirs gave occafion to the three parables in this chapter.

In which our Saviour does at once anfwer the objection of the Pharifees, and give all poffible encouragement to the repentance of thefe great finners. He answers the Pharifees, by letting them plainly fee, that he was about the best work in the world, the most acceptable to God, and matter of greatest joy to all the heavenly inhabitants. Instead of a fevere reproof of their uncharitableness, he offers that calmly to their confideration, which ought in all reafon to convince them, that he was nowife to blame for this familiar converfation of his with finners, having no other defign upon them, but to reclaim them from their vices, and to make them fit company for the best of men; that he was a spiritual phyfician, and therefore his proper work and employment lay among his patients. And then, instead of terrifying thefe finners, who feemed to come with a good mind to be inftructed by him, he gently infinuates the moft winning arguments, and the greatest encouragement to repentance; by fhewing how ready God was, after all their fins and provocations, to receive them to his grace and favour, provided they did fincerely repent, and betake themselves to a better courfe; and not only fo, but that the repentance of a finner is a great joy to the great King of the world, and to all that holy and heavenly hoft that attend upon him.

From which method of our Saviour in treating fo great finners fo gently, I cannot but make this obfervation, for my own use, as well as for others, That it is good to give, even the greatest of finners, all the encouragement we can to repentance: and though men have been never fo bad, yet if they have but this one good quality left in them, that they are patient to be inftructed, and content to hear good counfel, we should use them kind

ly,

ly, and endeavour to recover them by the faireft means; not fo much upbraiding them for their having been bad, as encouraging them to become better.

To this purpose our Saviour uttered three parables; of the recovery of a loft sheep; of finding a loft piece of money; of the return of a prodigal fon to his father: and though they all aim at the fame fcope and design, yet our Saviour useth this variety, not only to convey the fame thing to feveral capacities in a more acceptable manner, one fimilitude happening to hit one perfon, and another another, but likewife to inculcate fo weighty a matter the more upon his hearers, and to fix it more deeply in their minds.

The words which I have read are the moral or application of the first parable, concerning a man who had an hundred fheep, and, having loft one, leaves the ninety and nine to go to feek that which was loft; and having found it, with great joy brings it home. By which our Saviour gives us to understand, what joy God and the bleffed fpirits above take in the converfion of a finner : I fay unto you, that likewife joy shall be in heaven over one finner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine juft perfons, which need no repentance. Than which nothing could have been more proper, both to filence the uncharitable murmuring of the Pharifees against our Saviour for converfing with publicans and finners, to fo good an end, and likewife to encourage finners to repent for why fhould the Pharifees be difpleafed at that which was fo great a pleasure to God and the holy angels? and what greater encouragement to repentance than this, that God is not only willing to receive the returning finner, but that the news of his repentance is entertained in heaven with fo much joy, that if it be poffible for the bleffed inhabitants of that place to have any thing added to their happinefs, this will be a new acceffion to it?

There are three things in the words which require a very careful explication.

1. How we are to understand the joy that is in heaven at the converfion of a finner?

Who are here meant by the just perfons, that need no repentance?

3. With

3. With

joy in Wean what reafon it is here faid, that there is more over one finner that repenteth, than over ninety and nine juft perfons, who need no repentance? There is fomething of difficulty in each of thefe, which deferves our heedful and attentive confideration.

I. How we are to understand the joy that is in heaven at the repentance of a finner? And this, as indeed this whole paffage of our Saviour's, we are not to understand too ftrictly and rigorously, but as fpoken in a great meafure after the manner of men, and by way of accommodation to our capacity, fo far as the perfons here spoken of are capable of any addition to their joy and happinefs.

As it refers to God, it feems very inconfistent with the happiness and perfection of the divine nature, to fuppofe him really capable of joy, any more than of grief, or any other paffion; becaufe this would be to imagine fome new acceffion to his pleafure and happinefs, which, being always infinite, can never have any thing added to it. And therefore we are to understand this as it relates to God, in the fame manner as we do infinite other paffages of fcripture, where human paffions are afcribed to him, to be spoken by way of condefcenfion, and after the language and manner of the fons of men; and to fignify only thus much to us, that the converfion of a finner is a thing highly pleafing and acceptable to God.

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As it refers to angels, and other bleffed fpirits, I fee no inconvenience why it may not be understood more ftrictly and literally; that they conceive a new joy at the news of a finner's repentance, and find a fresh pleasure and delight fpringing up in their minds, whenever they hear the joyful tidings of a finner refcued from the flavery of the devil, and the danger of eternal damnation; of a new member added to the kingdom of God, that fhall be a companion and fharer with them in that bleffednefs which they enjoy. There feems to me to be nothing in this repugnant to the nature and happiness of bleffed fpirits in another world. For it is certain, that there are degrees of happinefs among the bleffed: from whence it neceffarily follows, that fome of them may be happier than they are. And it is very probable, fince the happiness of angels and good men is but finite, that VOL. I.

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