of sorrow, which may fall into your cup, shall be blest, and end in thanksgiving. Whatever repentance may cost you, whatever grief of mind, whatever sacrifice, you shall be proportionably comforted and requited: you shall feel and enjoy the blessedness of your altered condition so much the more; in the peace of pardon; in the fellowship of your Saviour; in the love of your merciful and reconciled God; in the joy of the Holy Ghost; in that hope and that inheritance of salvation, of which you will never repent; in that treasure of which you can never be robbed.

The merciful Jesus has promised a blessing to the mourner; and if there be any one instance, in which this promise shall be especially fulfilled, it is in him who mourns for transgression against a good and gracious God; if there be a tear, which shall be wiped away by the hand of mercy, it is the tear of contrition and penitence; if there be a cloud, that shall be enlightened and dispersed by the

beams of heavenly love, it is the cloud of sorrow for sin. Go then, and deal faithfully with your soul: so weep, that you may rejoice; and so mourn, that you may be comforted.

Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself; and they enter in and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first.

MY first object shall be to explain the immediate intent and bearing of the parable, of which the text is the conclusion; and then we may apply the consideration of it to our own case and circumstances.

Our Lord (as it especially appears from the parallel passage in Matt. xii.) is describing the dangerous condition of the unbelieving Jews; and He illus

trates and explains it by the supposed case of an unclean or evil spirit, which he represents as going out of the per son, whom it had possessed, and walking through dry or desert places, seeking rest. This may serve to describe the evil spirits, or powers of darkness, as disturbed in their possession of the Jewish mind and heart, through the preaching of the kingdom of God, by John the Baptist, and Jesus, and His apostles; and then going "to seek rest among the Gentiles, in those dry lands, where no waters of life had hitherto been found." But when this unclean spirit found no rest here; when driven out by the faithful and accepted preaching of the gospel among the Gentiles, he is described as returning to the place whence he came out; as returning not alone, but with seven other (i. e. many other) spirits more wicked than himself; and thus, as entering into his former abode, and dwelling there, for his fixed and settled possesison, from which he had no intention of depart

ing again. This may represent the Jews, after having been for a time instructed in the truths of the gospel, and somewhat impressed, returning to their state of blindness, which was far greater than before, and became in fact incurable.

And a remarkable reason is assigned in the parable, why the powers of evil again visited and took a more terrible possession of this deluded nation. When the unclean spirit returned to his house, (to the person whom he had formerly possessed,) he found it empty, that is no better spirit had entered and taken up its dwelling there. Not only so, but the house was in a perfectly ready, and even in an invit ing state, for the reception of its old inhabitant; it was "swept and garnished.” The mind and heart of the Jewish people had not received the holy Spirit of God in the gospel; they were ready for the return of the spirit of evil, who was admitted as a welcome proprietor. They were prejudiced against the pure, heartsearching, self-denying gospel, and de