which, opening the graves and making the sea give up its dead, shall open again the eye and the ear and the tongue of the long slumbering flesh, that they may see, and hear, and learn, and repeat, things which it now cannot enter into the heart of man to conceive. For then, assuredly, the work of the New Creation being ended, shall Angel and Archangel and all the company of Heaven exult and say, "He hath done all things well;" He hath made the deaf to hear, the blind to see, the dumb to speak, yea, the dead to be alive again for ever! SERMON XI. TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. MATT. Xviii. 32, 33. O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me: shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow servant, even as I had pity upon thee? IN the parable of the merciful king and his unmerciful servant, given for our special instruction in the Gospel for today, our Lord sets forth, first, our condition by nature; secondly, our condition in the state of grace; thirdly, our duty towards each other in that state. The King in the parable is the Lord God Almighty. "The Lord is King." "The Lord God omnipotent reigneth" by • Ps. x. 16. b Rev. xix. 6. a right as indisputable as His power is irresistible. And He is the Judge of the earth." 66 We shall all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ." The Lord our King shall judge whether we have obeyed Him as such. Yea, His throne is set for judgment already. By the voice of conscience, where His Gospel is not known ; and by the requirements of the Gospel, where it is known, He even now "takes account of His servants." And when He does even now "begin to reckon" with them, all are found His debtors; and none have wherewith to pay; and so all are liable to be "sold under sin," to be given over to reprobation and damnation without hope. "The kingdom of Heaven is likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his servants. And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him which owed him ten thousand talents. But, forasmuch as he had not to pay, his Lord commanded him to be sold, and his c Ps. xciv. 2. d Rom. xiv. 10. wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made." Such is the condition in which every soul of man finds itself by nature, when God begins to reckon with it. What can man do then? What, but that which the wretched servant in the parable did? The servant therefore fell down and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all !" This is the plea of the natural man, only just awakened to a sense and dread of the consequences of his state of debt, but not yet aware of the nature of that debt: not yet so sensible of his relation to his offended Maker, as to know that, wish and strive as much as he may, he never can pay his debt himself. Therefore it is that our Lord proceeds to say in the parable: "Then the Lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt." Which words, moreover, shew us, that God is infinite in mercy, as well as in power. So great is His mercy, that, when the voice of conscience and the demands of the law declare to the natural man that he is ruined past help, God comes in with the free gift of pardon and peace. Free, that is, inasmuch as there is nothing in us to bind Him to bestow it. It is not deserved by any thing that we can do. It might never be bestowed at all, and all mankind might be left to all the consequences of Adam's fall, without any impeachment of God's mercy, truth, or holiness. But, though thus free and gratuitous as regards us, a full and sufficient price has been paid for it. It has been merited by the Cross and Passion of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, so that the freest exercise of God's mercy trenches not on the exactest demands of His justice. "Mercy and truth are met together, righteousness and peace have kissed each other." This entire freeness of God's mercy is remarkably enforced by a very minute particular in the parable. One which is One which is perhaps • Ps. lxxxv. 10. |