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they are not discouraged by being informed that repentance and change of life are of no avail towards obtaining the remission of this dreadful sentence. But when the sinner truly repents, the Divine Love, which is the same in reality as the Divine Justice, is satisfied at once; it obtains all that it desires, when it finds a heart disposed by sincere repentance to give it entrance.

Most clearly is this view of the manner in which the Lord regards even the offences of man, and in which He deals with the sinner and with the penitent, demonstrated, as remarked, in the form of the narrative before us respecting the Prodigal Son. It is universally admitted that by the man who had the two sons we are to understand the Lord Himself; and the narrator of the parable is the Lord Himself, who, in His mode of delivering it, doubtless expresses His own divine feelings with respect to the circumstances narrated. How tenderly, then, is the misconduct of the younger son delineated, and how forcibly is he exhibited as an object of pity and compassion! In the narrative itself, even his faults are so spoken of as shews a disposition to soften and conceal them; though afterwards, when adverted to by the elder brother, they are, very characteristically, more strongly stated. "A certain man had two sons: 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. 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. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat; and no man gave unto him." Thus far we have a description of the sin and folly of the prodigal, and their consequences; and, assuredly, the relation is so managed as to tend far more to exhibit him as an object of compassion than to excite against him emotions of anger. The reason is, because the case is narrated under the inspiration, and so as to express the sentiments, of Divine paternal love. Then how affectingly is related the return of the prodigal to a right state of mind, and what force is given to the expression of his penitent resolution:-" And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father have bread enough and to spare, while I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will 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." Thus the narrative still appears to aim at interesting

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the feelings in behalf of the subject of it, and to sink his fault in his repentance. Such is the feeling in regard to him ascribed to his father, the obvious type of the Divine Father of mankind. For, as the narrative proceeds to state-" 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. 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."

Here, how beautiful is the incident, that his father saw him when he was yet a great way off, and how much does it involve! It implies that, rebel though the son had been, the heart of parental tenderness still yearned towards him, and the eye of parental solicitude was still turned in quest of him, eagerly striving to discern his movements, and cherishing the expectation of his return. Thus, while he was still at a great distance, the father saw and knew him, and needed no more to induce him to run to meet him, and to anticipate the expression of his repentance by tokens of unabated love. If this be related,-as no one can dare to doubt, not even they whose whole system of doctrine is demolished by the admission,-if this be related as a representation of the manner in which the Divine Father regards the wanderings of His erring creatures, still directing towards them the eye of paternal love, and waiting to manifest His tender compassion as soon as ever they give Him the opportunity;-what becomes of the notion that anger against sinners is one of the most essential attributes of the Divine nature,— what becomes of the whole theory of religious doctrine founded upon this sentiment? It is true there can be no communion whatever between good and evil, between righteousness and wickedness, between purity and sin; so long, therefore, as man wilfully cherishes a spark of evil, wickedness, and sin in his bosom, he is unavoidably kept at a distance from the infinite goodness, righteousness, and purity of the Lord; and, as already remarked, from the contrariety between himself, as a lover and doer of evil, wickedness, and sin, and the good, righteous, and holy Lord, he cannot, also, but be equally a stranger to that happiness and peace of which the Lord alone is the Author,-cannot but partake, more or less fully, of that wretchedness and misery, interiorly if not yet exteriorly, which are the opposites of felicity and peace. It is most true, therefore, that the goodness of the Lord can give no encouragement to the sinner to continue in his wickedness; for while he does so, he can have no communion with either the Lord's goodness or its offspring, genuine happiness.

Still it is certain, from the example of the father, the representative of man's Heavenly Father, in this parable alone, that though the Lord

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can have no communion with the sin, He never regards the sinner-still His own offspring, though so foolish and self-willed as to prefer his own way and government to the way and government of his Father who is in heaven-with any sentiment of positive anger,-with any other eye than that of love and compassion. He longs and watches for his return; and, instead of remaining in sullen state, waiting to be moved to compassion by some equivalent sacrifice, and only when this is paid, unbending to reiterated supplications, He, as symbolized by the tender father in the parable, discerns the returning wanderer while yet a great way off, runs to meet him, and shews him the strongest tokens of unalterable compassion and love. That sincere repentance which consists in a real change of mind, and a sincere and entire turning away from folly and evil, and returning to the order and government of the Father of Mercies, is all that is required by Him as the condition of restoration to His favour, and to the privileges of sonship. Thus the penitent who, when at a distance, only contemplated being re-admitted into his father's family as a hired servant, and had prepared a petition to that effect, is not allowed to add that clause. He says, with the feelings of true self-abasement and heartfelt conviction of sin-"Father, I have sinned against Heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son;" but before he can add, "Make me as one of thy hired servants," the father interrupts him by declaring his determination to receive him with overflowing joy as his son; saying 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: and bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat and be merry. For this my son was dead, and is alive again he was lost, and is found."

There cannot be a more striking representation than is given in these few and simple words of the joy of a tender parent on recovering a lost child; and there cannot be a more expressive delineation than is thus exhibited of the readiness and overflowing love with which the Divine Parent receives His repentant children; nor a more decisive proof that nothing but sincere vital repentance, on their part, is necessary to their re-establishment in His manifest grace and favour. I know, indeed, how, to avoid, in some degree, this obvious conclusion, it is urged by those who hold the notion of there being wrath in God against all who have ever been sinners, not to be averted by any repentance on their parts, that by the robe with which the father orders the returning prodigal to be clothed, is meant the robe of Christ's righteousness, or the imputation of that righteousness, as a cover for his own inherent and unchangeable sinfulness. But this explanation is clearly quite arbitrary and

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groundless. If the robe signifies the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, what is signified by the ring? what by the shoes? what by the calf, and the killing of it?—all divinely significant emblems, but which cannot receive any plausible interpretation in harmony with the supposition that the robe is the imputation of the Lord's righteousness. Besides, the clothing him with the robe is the consequence of his being already accepted by his father, already, as theologians speak, in a state of justification,-not the cause of it, as the common doctrine would suppose. Let the robe and the other emblems denote what they may, it is plain that the repentance of the prodigal, and his return to his father's house, is alone the ground of his acceptance by his father;that the father receives him with love and tenderness solely in consequence of seeing him on his return; and that all that is done to him afterwards is the effect of the father's love, already in active operation on his return alone.

The remaining part of the parable, about the envy of the elder brother, need not be considered at present, when the object is only to shew what is the general doctrine which the parable involves, because it introduces a different subject. Yet the same doctrine of the pure love of our Heavenly Father, and His readiness to receive all His wandering children on their sincere return to Him-is still obvious to the end; for the father of the parable silences the murmurings of the ungracious brother at his tenderness for the stray sheep, by saying "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;" with which words the whole divine narrative concludes, and which declare it to be an eternal law of Divine Order, by which the God of Order determines His own conduct, that the sinner is to be received on turning from his evil ways, and that this is an occasion of divine and heavenly joy.

Surely, my brethren, if there is any spark of good feeling-of a capacity of being affected by the displays towards erring men of Divine tenderness and love—remaining in the heart of any who hears or reads this parable, he cannot but be excited to become the subject of such boundless goodness and mercy! We have already seen that, infinite as the love of our Heavenly Father is thus represented as being, this affords no encouragement to any to continue in ways of impenitence; since, though love towards even the worst of His apostate creatures never ceases to be the governing principle in the breast of the Divine Parent of all, yet this never can become manifest to them, till they turn into the way that leads to their heavenly home; and the effects to them of their own sinfulness, so long as they cherish it, will be equally wretched as if

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they were the objects, not of Divine love, but of Divine vengeance. But when we know that we have a loving Parent to deal with, and that He is ready to receive all that truly repent, we surely ought to be more ready to exercise that repentance, than we can be while discouraged by the apprehension that it can be of no avail.

Let us, then, at all times, be turning more and more from our evil ways, and seeking more and more an entire conformity to the will and laws of our Heavenly Father, who is no other than God in Christ—the Lord in His Humanity; and then our experience will assuredly be that of the returning prodigal, whose tender Father exclaims-"This my son was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found!"

FREE WILL: ITS ORIGIN.
PART II.

In the previous part of this essay we endeavoured to show, first, that the will is a substantial subject, that its form is human, and that its substantiality is essential to its possessing and exercising powers. Secondly, that before the power of the will can become operative, there must be objects distinct and separate from itself on which it can operate, and in relation to which it can exist. Thirdly, that these objects are of two kinds, internal and external, the chief of which are the former. Fourthly, that man's choice is not whether he will choose or not choose, or whether he will stand neutral or not, but it is, of necessity, the taking of one thing in preference to another. And fifthly, that the choice of affections is a choice of a quality, which is to characterize man, and fix his eternal destiny. Some of which points we shall have to advert to again in the subsequent parts.

We will now make a remark or two inquiring into the origin of the power to choose, and the ground of its existence.

Man is constituted so as to be conscious of life in himself, and also to have the consciousness of its being his own, and thereby to appear to be self-existent. That man does appear to himself to be self-existent, is an important fact which must not be lost sight of, it being at the very root of free will, and without a knowledge of it we cannot understand how the will can have in itself the power of choice. We, therefore, take as a fundamental truth the fact that every man possesses apparent self-existence.

Every human being having apparent self-existence in himself, were it not that he was enlightened by Revelation as to the truth of the matter, he neither would nor could know that he was only a recipient

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