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Perhaps we are also to consider his want of shoes as connected with his late servitude; for this is represented, in Scripture, as an accompaniment of slavery, and captivity; whereas shoes were put on men's feet when they were restored to liberty. The Lord said to Isaiah, Go, and put off thy shoe from off thy foot," for, "so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians prisoners, and the Ethiopians captives, naked and barefoot." On the other hand, we read that certain men, expressed by name, rose up, and took the" Jewish "captives, and, with the spoil, clothed all that were naked among them, and arrayed them, and shod them, and gave them to eat and to drink, and brought them to their brethren." *. "And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it," for a joyful feast," and let us eat and be merry," or glad. Thus, when Abraham entertained the three angels, besides directing other preparations to be made, "he ran into the herd, and fetched a calf tender and good,† and gave it unto a young man, and he hasted to dress it." The prodigal's father esteemed the day of his son's return one of the happiest of his life, and one on which the call for rejoicing was great; "for," said he, "this my son was dead, and is alive again." Indeed, the natural death of a son, however afflicting, is less grievous to pious parents, than his abandoning himself to wickedness: and his reformation is a cause of greater joy to them, than would be his recovery from sickness, or even his miraculous restoration from death to life. This father rejoiced also, and would have his whole household to rejoice, because his son who, was "lost"-lost to him, lost to himself, lost to all that was good-was "found," and restored to duty, to his friends, and to his God. This call was cheerfully complied with by the household, “ and they began to be merry," or joyful.

Such was the reception which this returning prodigal met with from his earthly father: and it is an apt representation of the still more gracious reception which the returning sinner meets with from God. Awakened to a sense of his depraved, destitute, and perishing condition, and of his base and guilty conduct, he has wisely resolved to betake himself to the Lord, his Creator and Father: and, in doing so, his mind often alternates between hope and fear, so that he says within himself, "Will he pity me and take me back? * Isa. xx. 2, 4; 2 Chron. xxviii. 15.

"Si effexis hoc, soleas tibi dabo, et annulum in digito aureum, et bona plurima."-Plaut. Casin. iii. 5.

Odyss. xiv. 414, and xxiv. 214.

or will he be favourable no more, and cast me off for ever? I trust he will have mercy on me; and yet, how can such a wretch as I be forgiven?" But his merciful Father does not leave him in such suspense. To speak after the manner of men, he does not wait till he come quite up to him, for he hastens to meet him. Nay, this way of stating the point does not merely come up to the truth, and, if not explained, might lead to error; for, the Lord altogether anticipates the sinner with his goodness; he deals with him, and draws him in love from the very first, and before he is aware of it, or has a particle of true penitence, or faith, though now, he begins to take complacency in him, and to make him sensible of his love-now when the sinner is drawing nigh to him, he draws nigh to the sinner with gracious tokens of his reconciliation. His readiness to receive and pardon returning sinners, is dwelt on, in Scripture, in the most positive terms, and in a way calculated, as it is intended, to remove all their suspicions, and to give them confidence in his mercy. "Thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee."-"Thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious; long-suffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth." "As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him."

"Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy. He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.' "I will be merciful to their unrighteousness; and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." These, and such as these, are most blessed and needful declarations, in which his heavenly Father, as it were, meets the returning sinner, assures him of forgiveness, dissipates his fears, fills him with joy and peace in believing-in short, imparts to him feelings similar to those which this prodigal must have experienced, when his father ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. In this way his heavenly Father says effectually from his Word, and by his grace, to the penitent sinner returning to him through the Redeemer, "Son, be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee."

But, as the prodigal went on to make his intended

penitential and sorrowful confession, after his father had received him with such tenderness; so, the sinner, after he is forgiven, and even knows that he is forgiven, instead of therefore ceasing to abhor his sins, abhors them the more, and is melted into genuine, filial contrition. The goodness of God leads him to repentance. He "remembers and is confounded, and never opens his mouth any more," in any unbecoming way, but is for ever humble and submissive, "because of the shame" of his sins, "when God is pacified towards him for all that he has done." The three important and intimately connected truths, of the sinner being brought to consideration by affliction, of his still deeper contrition after his conversion, and of the great compassion which his reconciled heavenly Father then shows towards him, are distinctly and beautifully expressed in the following passage: "I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus, Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke: turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art the Lord my God, Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh: I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth. Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleasant child? for since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still; therefore, my bowels are troubled for him: I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord."

Further, as the prodigal's father proceeded to show him other acts of kindness, so the Lord, in addition to mere pardon, multiplies positive blessings on the penitent, and gives him various tokens of that pardon and of these blessings, and uses the finest comparisons to show that he treats him, not as a servant, but as a son. He puts on him, for example, the best robe, in a spiritual sense, even the wedding-garment of a Saviour's righteousness, which is his only justifying righteousness. And he, at the same time, clothes his soul with the various graces of the divine life, which are also compared to garments. He enables him to "put on the Lord Jesus Christ," and to “ put on the new He clothes him with "the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all, and upon all them that believe:" and he clothes him with humility, and every spiritual excellence. We may consider this passage, in Zechariah, as, in part, an emblematical representation of

man."

* Ezek. xvi. 63.

this change in the sinner's spiritual dress, that is, state and character: "Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire? Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the angel. And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment. And I said, Let them set a fair mitre upon his head. So they set a fair mitre upon his head, and clothed him with garments." By a similar figure, it is said that the clothing of the Church "is of wrought gold," and that "she shall be brought unto the King in raiment of needle-work."* Clothed in this best robe, the believer is represented as even now rejoicing in his redeeming God: "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God: for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels." It is in the same best robe, too, that the saints shall be clothed, and shine, in the blessedness of heaven for ever. "They have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, therefore are they before the throne of God.""They have not defiled their garments, and they shall walk with him in white, for they are worthy."

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But, the other emblems are also beautiful and expressive, when spiritually interpreted. The ring here, as in other cases, according to their nature, may be considered as a pledge and a memorial of the regard and affection which the Lord bears towards every convert: and we know that he puts every one of his accepted family "as a seal upon his heart, and as a seal upon his arm." The ring, too,being an ornamental part of dress, may point to the peculiarly adorning nature of the Christian graces. Whatever "adorns the doctrine of God our Saviour is very becoming in Christians: we read, particularly, of their adorning not being outward, but “the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price." The emblem of the shoes is used by Solomon, when he thus describes the graces of the Church: "How beautiful are thy feet with shoes, O prince's daughter!"and by Paul, when he speaks of believers "having their feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace."+ Cant. vii. 1; Eph. vi. 15.

* P8. xlv. 13.

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This emblem may signify that God sets the feet of the convert on a rock, and establishes his goings-that he delivers his soul from death, his eyes from tears, and his feet from falling, and enables him to walk before him in the land of the living. Several figures similar to these in this verse of the parable, are brought together, in the following passage of Ezekiel,* to shadow forth the various honours, and substantial privileges, which the Lord conferred on his people, when, in the time of love, he entered into covenant with them, and said unto them, Live. "I clothed thee also with broidered work, and shod thee with badgers' skin, and I girded thee about with fine linen, and I covered thee with silk. I decked thee also with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon thine hands, and a chain on thy neck. And I put a jewel on thy forehead, and ear-rings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thine head. Thus wast thou decked with gold and silver; and thy raiment was of fine linen, and silk, and broidered work;"-" and thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty: for, it was perfect, through my comeliness, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord God." Such passages are highly figurative, indeed, but very intelligible and beautiful representations of the kindness of God to reconciled sinners. To specify only one of their many privileges-that of adoption (for, having departed from his family and acted as prodigals, they need to be received back): "To as many as received Christ, to them he power," or privilege, "to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name." What a privilege is this! A greater earthly exaltation can hardly be imagined than that a powerful monarch should adopt a poor, ignoble outcast, for his son and heir; but that would be a small matter, in comparison of a sinner being received as the child and heir of the living God. The full value and dignity of this privilege cannot be conceived by us. The most suitable way of speaking of it by those on whom it has been conferred, is, in grateful admiration, to exclaim, "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed on us, that we should be called the sons of God!" To this desirable relation every penitent is here declared to be restored, and these beautiful emblems are employed to give some idea of its honours and advantages.

gave

But his heavenly Father also orders refreshment, nay, provides a plenteous feast, for the famished soul of the re

* Ezek. xvi. 10,