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| Examples from Scripture to Prove the Lord's Willingness to Pardon. PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP
Chapter VIII.—Examples
from Scripture to Prove the Lord’s Willingness to
Pardon.
This if you doubt, unravel8489
8489 Evolve: perhaps simply
="read.” |
the meaning of “what the Spirit saith to the
churches.”8490
8490 Bible:Rev.3.6 Bible:Rev.3.13 Bible:Rev.3.21">Rev. ii. 7, 11, 17, 29; iii. 6, 13,
21. | He imputes to the
Ephesians “forsaken love;”8491
reproaches the Thyatirenes with “fornication,” and
“eating of things sacrificed to idols;”8492 accuses the Sardians of “works not
full;”8493 censures the
Pergamenes for teaching perverse things;8494
upbraids the Laodiceans for trusting to their riches;8495 and yet gives them all general monitions to
repentance—under comminations, it is true; but He would not utter
comminations to one unrepentant if He did not forgive the
repentant. The matter were doubtful if He had not withal elsewhere
demonstrated this profusion of His clemency. Saith He not,8496
8496 Jer. viii. 4 (in LXX.) appears to be the passage
meant. The Eng. Ver. is very different. | “He who hath fallen shall rise again,
and he who hath been averted shall be converted?”
He it is, indeed, who “would have mercy rather than
sacrifices.”8497
8497 Hos. vi. 6; Matt. ix. 13. The words in Hosea in the LXX. are,
διότι
ἕλεος θέλω ἤ
θυσίαν (al. καὶ οὐ
θυσίαν). | The heavens, and
the angels who are there, are glad at a man’s
repentance.8498 Ho! you sinner, be
of good cheer! you see where it is that there is joy at your
return. What meaning for us have those themes of the Lord’s
parables? Is not the fact that a woman has lost a drachma, and seeks it
and finds it, and invites her female friends to share her joy, an
example of a restored sinner?8499 There strays,
withal, one little ewe of the shepherd’s; but the flock was not
more dear than the one: that one is earnestly sought; the one is longed
for instead of all; and at length she is found, and is borne back on
the shoulders of the shepherd himself; for much had she toiled8500 in straying.8501
That most gentle father, likewise, I will not pass over in silence, who
calls his prodigal son home, and willingly receives him repentant after
his indigence, slays his best fatted calf, and graces his joy with a
banquet.8502 Why not? He
had found the son whom he had lost; he had felt him to be all
the dearer of whom he had made a gain. Who is that father to be
understood by us to be? God, surely: no one is so truly a
Father;8503 no one so rich in
paternal love. He, then, will receive you, His own son,8504
8504 Publicly enrolled as
such in baptism; for Tertullian here is speaking solely of the
“second repentance.” | back, even if you have squandered what you
had received from Him, even if you return naked—just because you
have returned; and will joy more over your return than over the
sobriety of the other;8505 but only if
you heartily repent—if you compare your own hunger with the
plenty of your Father’s “hired servants”—if you
leave behind you the swine, that unclean herd—if you again seek
your Father, offended though He be, saying, “I have sinned, nor
am worthy any longer to be called Thine.” Confession of
sins lightens, as much as dissimulation aggravates them; for confession
is counselled by (a desire
to make) satisfaction, dissimulation by contumacy.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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