Either what woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it? And when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbours together, saying, Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I had lost. Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.
Here, if I do not err, is represented, under the similitude of a lost piece of money, our lost estate by nature. And, without torturing the figure, may be not unaptly supposed; by the lighting of a candle, and sweeping the house until it be found, is represented the blessed office of God the Holy Ghost, in enlightening, regenerating, and renewing grace. Our whole nature, when first formed in the image of God, had the pure impression. But in the Adam-apostacy, like a lost piece of money, the image was marred. It is the work of God the Spirit to restore: and this is effectually done, when, by illuminating grace, he commandeth the light to shine in the heart to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 4:6. And the same blessed effects are said to follow upon this occasion of recovery, as in the former. Holy joy breaks forth afresh in the streets of the new Jerusalem, with more rapture, on every instance of a sinner raised from the Adam-fall to the image of God in Christ, than over the unchanging state of the elect angels, who never fell, and therefore needed no repentance.