be the light of the world; but from the necessity of veiling that light before eyes that were not accustomed to it, and would turn away from its unusual brightness. Thus, in the discourse from which my text is taken, our Saviour's principal design was, as appears from the connexion of the several parts, to teach the doctrine of universal redemption : but the calling of the Gentiles to the knowlege of the true God, and their admission into the kingdom of the Messiah, were things so opposite to the prejudices, and so offensive to the pride of the Israelites, that they would never have listened to a person, who, assuming the character of a divine messenger, had represented these as the leading points in his commission. Their prejudices were first to be removed, before the doctrine could be proposed openly: it was therefore of necessity to be wrapped in some parable; and such a parable was chosen, as would answer both the purposes; would first furnish reflections the most proper to prepare the mind for receiving the mystery; and, to a mind rightly prepared, would infallibly unfold the mystery itself. The hearers of the parable, how ignorant soever, could not but observe its striking circumstances: the miseries which the vices of the younger son bring on him; the efficacy of his repentance; the willingness of his father to pardon him; the murmurs of his brother at the kind reception given and when, by their attention to these circumstances, they had learned to pity the wandering prodigal, and rejoice at his return; to love and admire the benevolence of his father, and to hear with indignation the unreasonable complaints of his brother; they would then be properly qualified to look into the true meaning of the well-feigned tale, and the progress of Christianity in every nation would help to open it. They would now consider the parable, as shadowing out God's conduct towards mankind the younger son, as the emblem of the heathens, who, having separated themselves from the great Father of the world, and having lost or corrupted that portion of religious knowlege which he had given to all his children, were become the servants of vice and error; but were now to be restored on their repentance, and received into the household of God: and the elder son as representing the Jews, who boasted that they had long served the true God, repined that others should par : take of their privileges, and refused to enter into their Father's house, the Christian church, when they saw that the Gentiles were admitted also. They, who acknowleged this application of the parable to be proper, could not but confess, that all the complaints of the Jews were selfish and malevolent; and that the divine economy was, in this instance, like that of the good father, who went out to a great distance to meet his returning son, and replaced him in his family with expressions of more than ordinary pleasure: and thus the parable before us, like many others in the gospel, did not only enable men to comprehend the important doctrines it was intended to convey, but afforded also considerable evidence of their truth : for such conduct as nature recommends to good and wise men, fathers or magistrates, may well be expected from the Author of nature: and that connexion between vice and misery, repentance and the alleviations of that misery, which individuals experience, might lead them to fear or hope, that there would be found somewhat corresponding to it in the more general plan of God's dealings with mankind. But the advantages of this method of teaching could not all be received by the same persons, or in the same age. To the first hearers, the letter of the parables was familiar, the spirit impenetrable: the primary sense would supply them with much useful knowlege; but the allusions to the kingdom of God, to the condition of mankind in this world under the Christian dispensation, or to the distribution of rewards and punishments in another, were then obscure. By us, on the contrary, these allusions are often better understood, or more carefully observed, than the circumstances of the parable itself, or the moral instructions or admonitions it suggests: and indeed the former we may pursue too far, when we fancy such an exact resemblance between the minute parts of the relation, and the doctrine which it covers, as was never designed either in our Saviour's, or in any other the most celebrated apologues: but, in our inquiries for the moral truths contained in them, there is no danger of being misled by too close an attention to every part. I shall therefore here drop the mysterious sense of the parable, and, considering it only as a plain domestic story, shall confine myself to such observations as may arise on three points; namely, the behavior of the prodigal, the wretched condition to which his vice reduced him, and the relief he obtained from his father's kindness. I. 1. On the first it may be observed, that the extravagance of the young man was not of the most criminal kind. Several circumstances mentioned in the parable extenuate, though they do not excuse, his offence. What he wasted was his own: there does not appear any degree of injustice mixed with his folly. His request to his father is, Give me the portion of goods that falleth to me, τὸ ἐπιβάλλον μέρος τῆς οὐσίας, the portion that belongeth to me by the laws. This is the import of the expression in other writers, and the most natural interpretation of it here. The reference may be to the laws either of the Jews or of the Romans: for in this they agreed; that they did not allow to the father of a family the voluntary distribution of his whole estate, but allotted a certain portion to every son. The young man therefore only desires the immediate possession of that fortune, which, according to the usual course of things, must after a few years devolve to him. He easily obtains his request from an indulgent father, and is in as much haste to dissipate his riches as he was to possess them: but though common reason justly censures his imprudence, the same reason distinguishes it from the aggravated fault of those, who run into riotous expenses, greater than they are able to pay; or even of those, who, having nothing that is properly their own, lavish more than is given them willingly by their friends. 2. Another alleviation of the prodigal's fault is the situation in which he commits it. Having gathered all together, he removes, with his father's consent, it seems, (for what purpose is not mentioned; perhaps to improve his fortune by trade) into a distant country. In that distant country, far from all the friends whose advice or admonitions might have checked his extravagant folly, he consumes his substance. His own conscience indeed ought to have checked it: but yet he is entitled to more lenity in our censure, than if he had continued in a course of vain and luxurious expense, unmoved by any of those exhortations and remonstrances, to which nature and religion most obliged him to attend. 3. And, if the young man's behavior thus far admits of some POW. G apology, all that follows deserves praise. When he has spent all,' still steady to the principles of justice, he is willing to earn bread by any honest employment. He becomes a servant to a foreigner, and submits to the meanest, and then the most detested of all offices, that of feeding swine; animals by the Jewish law unclean, and not less so in the opinions of several neighboring nations. Whoever touched them was looked on as polluted; and with the keepers of them, none, even among the dregs of the people, would intermarry or associate themselves. Yet so justly sensible is the prodigal of his former wickedness; so strongly does he feel the shame of appearing in his father's presence; that he rather undertakes this hateful employment, than he will venture to approach him: but, being wholly unable to preserve his life by any labor, he resolves at last, with the fullest and most humble confession of his crimes, to implore such a degree of forgiveness, that he may be received in the lowest station in his father's family; consenting to be placed, even below his slaves, in the rank of a hired servant. It may perhaps not be easily reconciled to our ideas, but it seems highly probable, that the condition of such a servant, when not hired to exercise any art or skill, but merely to labor, was, in many respects, inferior to that of a household slave. The master's interest in the preservation of the life and health of his slave; humanity towards persons, to whom nature had allotted (that was the doctrine of philosophers and lawyers in those times) a station below the rest of mankind; and the affection, which usually grows up in a man's mind towards those with whom he has a permanent connexion and frequent intercourse,—would all contribute to mitigate the rigors of domestic slavery but with the hired servant the master had no farther concern than to pay him for his stated labor; and any tenderness to him would be, in a great degree, prevented by the contempt attending this condition, when it was not the most common, and rarely befel men, but through their own misconduct. II. While we behold a young man, born to better hopes, now looking up with eager desire to such a situation as this, we are led to reflect on the wretched state to which his vices have reduced him; a state of extreme want, the more severely felt from a habit of expense, and aggravated by an uncommon and unforeseen calamity; without any ability to supply that want by his own industry, or any expectation of relief from the compassion of others. Each of these circumstances is touched in the parable. 1. When, from a life of luxury and riot, he had been forced to descend to the meanest servitude, there arises an extraordinary famine in the country. Nor ought this to be considered as an unnatural aggravation of the misery which follows extravagance; for, though many prodigals may escape this particular calamity, and not fall into times of famine; there are few among them, who suffer those evils only, which they had reason to expect; few, who do not find, together with the load of afflictions they have brought on themselves, some foreign and accidental weight to oppress them. 2. But the obvious consequences of an expensive course are sufficiently grievous. The same vice, be it intemperance, vanity, or indolence, which ruins a man's fortunes, makes him unable to repair them all, or any of these bad habits, gradually destroy the best faculties of his mind, the health and activity of his body. Had not the prodigal rendered himself unfit for any liberal or reputable employment, he would not have undertaken the meanest and most disgraceful: nor would a master have chosen any, but the weakest and worst of his servants, for an office which required neither strength nor understanding. 3. If, in this wretched condition, he meets with no pity; if, when he is compelled, by the sharpness of his hunger, to partake with the swine in such food, as can neither satisfy his appetite nor preserve his life, yet no man relieves him; this neglect has in it nothing to surprise us. The representation is fully justified by the common behavior of mankind. Their compassion does not rise in proportion to the sufferings which a man brings on himself; or, if they feel the sentiments of pity, they are restrained from the exercise of it, by despair of success : for how can they hope to support him, who has voluntarily cast himself to the ground; or how make him happy with a little, who has been accustomed to lavish much? III. But there remains still one gleam of comfort for the prodigal: his father is tender and benevolent; and might perhaps assuage his sorrows, if he durst discover them unto him. Necessity gives him confidence: he makes the trial, and suc |