A piece of ground that is nigh unto cursing Heb. 6. 8. 6. He never came to God for entertainment not so much as like a stranger to ask his friendship and favour much less as a son who had absented himself to seek his fathers pardon but he lyeth out from him keeps at a distance will not come to Christ for life Joh. 5. 40. 7. Though he be a lost creature in himself yet he was never found but is lost still he is yet in the wilderness wandring upon the mountains and whiles it is thus what occasion can there be of special joy over him Use 1. Hence the joyes and boastings of unregenerate men are groundless Many talk of their hopes and comforts and soul satisfactions they tell how God refreshed them at this and that time with these and those promises nay they have had tastes of the powers of the world to come Alas enfatuated souls God doth not scatter his joyes promiscuously Though men may God will not make a needless feast USE 2. It may put men upon enquiry when they cannot find that comfort and joy in their service which they expect whither this may not be the reason of it I do not say it is alwayes so the best Saint may sit in the dark Isa 50. 10. And there are other reasons why the al-wise God will make his own Children to fast and to mourn too Many falls much heedlesness yea their weakness to bear much of this new wine God stints his own People and will not kill them with Cordials But I say it is a good enquiry hast thou not nor ever hadst any tast of these joyes ask then am I new born c If there be none of this wonder not there was no occasion most men act preposterously they try their grace by their joyes whereas they ought to try their joyes by their Grace DOCT. 2. Vnregenerate men have no cause to complain that God shews more special favour to repenting sinners that he doth to them What ever they think they have to say for themselves yet God wrongs them not The father could entertain the younger son without injuring his elder This will appear if we consider 1. That God in the dispensing of his grace acts as a free Agent This is insinuated in that Parable Mat. 20. 15. A Father is not bound to give an account to his Children how he improves his estate much less is God to sinful men how he distributes his grace The Creature cannot oblige the Creator much less a sinful creature who hath forfeited all It is the Apostles Challenge Rom. 11. 31. Who hath given to him at any time There cannot be respect of persons in gratuitis there is no binding rule of justice in the bestowing of kindness and where the benefit is a free favour the chusing one and passing by another is arbitrary and depends on the will of the Doner In Gods bestowing of Grace on the Children of men there can be none worthy and if he will pitch upon the most unworthy to make his favour the more notable who shall call him to an account 2. That the best works of the most refined hypocrites are no ways obliging or deserving An unregenerate man may do many things materially good he may pray confess his sins read the word attend upon ordinances carry fair among men abstain from many evils do many duties but still they deserve no favour nay they deserve the wrath of God Their prayer is abomination their plowing sin their oblations detestable Isa 66. begin If the Godly do confess their best to be rags their holy duties dung what then must we say of what the unregenerate do who have no saving principle of holiness no meadiatour through whom to obtain acceptance no good end in their performances 3. That the same grace is tendered to them and the same means of obtaining it are afforded them if therefore they go without it it is their own fault Men are indeed ready to say God's wayes are unequal when their own wayes are so The proffer of Grace in the Gospel is universal if men thirst God shews them the waters and bids them come freely if they thirst not and will not come who is to blame God stretcheth out his hand all the day long but they gain say God saith If they will repent and believe they shall be saved but they say These many years have I served thee neither at any time transgressed I thy commandment God saith if you be sick here is a Physitian they say we are well and need him not And what wrong then is it to them if when a company of sick souls who feel their malady and are ready to dy of it come to him for healing he shows his skill if when a company of hunger-starved beggars come to him for food he feeds them yea plentifully feasts them USE Learn we hence in stead of quarreling with to admire the free grace of God which opens a door of hope to the greatest and worst of sinners Do not discourage or dash the hopes of any be not afraid to invite the worst to come to Christ upon Gospel-terms nor let any poor soul that is stung with sin that sees it ly as mountains between him and God despair of Salvation Lo Christ came skipping over the mountains and leaping over the hills Say not can God save me and be just He hath satisfied his own Justice and will silence the cavils of Men and Devils Say not there is no hope for me think therefore of the Prodigal Are there such bowels in men and are not God's thoughts above ours This Parable was written for thy sake who hast been a chief sinner and now art humbled to encourage thee to go to God in the name of Christ and to hope for his mercy DOCT. 3. Then and not till then is there true cause of rejoycing over a sinner when he is converted and brought home to God This the father thinks enough to silence all the grumblings of his discontented son vers 32. What cause there is of joy at such time hath been expressed under a former Doctrine that there is none before may in a word be cleared from the consideration of what every sinner is before conversion I confess men may differ in many things of an inferiour nature one may be better morally disposed than another one may have more restraining grace a more affable nature carry it more obediently to his Parents be more reformed c. than another But in this the state of all unregenerate men before conversion is alike viz. that they are 1. Dead creatures under the power of spiritual death rotting in the grave of sin we do not use to rejoyce over our dead Children and relations but to weep and mourn They can do nothing for God nor for their own souls Salvation they cannot glorifie him c. 2. They are Children of wrath Eph 2. 3. They are blasted by the curse held under condemnation
shrink up to nothing and his soul be filled with perplexing sorrows 5. Now the world in which he trusted will without doubt leave him at a loss The Magazene from whence he hoped to fetch his livelihood will be found empty the Cistern will appear to be broken and have no water in it he shal be far from finding it able to direct him to true solid comfort or so much as point him to that which can indeed give him life If a sinner be perishing he must needs perish for all that the world can do to save him here is not one moâ—sel of the Bread of Life to keep a soul from Perdition if he could gain it all that would not save his soul Mat. 16. 26. If he ask for bread it gives him a stone if a fish a scorpion he may wander from sea to sea seeking the bread of life and find none Hence the wiseman in answer to the great question where good is to be found or where a man may fill himself with substance and find content returns it in the Negative respecting the world and all that is in it and that because it is empty vain and vexatious in the proof whereof he spends a whole Book viz. that of Ecclesiastes If a man wants eternal life he may ask every creature for it but all answer no it is not in me he that doth for the present rely here and hopes it shal be well with him doth but feed upon ashes and cherish him self up with false expectations As man cannot find his life in himself so neither shal he mend himself in the world he goes but from one want to another from a famine within doors to a famine abroad if he goes to the world he dyes and if he rests in himself he dyes he doth but rise to fall he doth but go abroad to meet with that death which was coming home to him USE 1. To teach us the certain necessity of the perdition of all those souls that have nothing else to trust to in their need but this world and the vanities of it What fools are the sons and daughters of men that lay out their time and thoughts and care to get into the worlds favour and secure to themselves a refuge here What will you do when the day of distress comes upon you Men think they shal inherit substance but they purchase nothing but famine The world seems full to a carnal mind he thinks it affords all that heart can wish if he can have this to friend he fears no want but the soul shal to its cost find that it is empty void and wast The soul of man must have something to live upon or else it is undone this is the great want and for this want the creature hath no supply whiles it feeds the body the soul starves It is not it self soul-food it cannot be the happiness of any man neither can it be the price of the purchase of it earths Mony will not pass in heavens Exchange riches profit not in the day of wrath Prov. 11. 4. What is it then that the Children of Men are doing whiles they digg deep and labour hard to build up a fabrick for themselves with such materials with which they cannot ward themselves from wrath buy themselves out of the hands of death nor brible the flames of hell he that hath laid in nothing else to live upon to all eternity but this vanishing world must needs famish anâ— therefore USE 2. Let it be a loud and awakeninâ— Call to all unregenerate sinners if you woulâ— not suffer the utmost distress of the most pincâ—ing famine to get away from the world Make hast out of your natural state live nâ— longer in this far Country your distance froâ— God is your misery return to him and yoâ— shal be happy You that live jocund and plesant you that think all is well and shal be â—â— though you add iniquity to sin be perswadeâ— to take this warning As much pomp anâ— splendor as you now live in as satisfied as yoâ— are at present ere it be long a famine will comâ— a mighty famine and what will you do then Oh fly from it before you come to the utmoâ—â— distress Did Abraham go to Egypt the Shummite to the Philistins being warned of a temporal famine Do not you then despise thâ— warning to come out of Egypt and Philistiâ—â— to escape a spiritual famine Be assured it will be a sore and distressing thing to feel wrath and misery siezing upon you and have nothing but a vain world to go to miserable comforters shal you find all these things to be they will not afford you one dram of consolation nor give one morsel of quiet to your souls you may cry and roar in your distress but there will be none to help you God whom you have forsaken it may be will not and to be sure the world in which you have trusted cannot It will be a complicate misery to be a bankrupt and in a far Country and there to be siezed with a mighty famine now you are called to avoid this All you want is with God for though the world be empty he is full that can supply no spiritual necessity he can satisfie all there you must needs perish here you may be saved and satisfied There is bread in Egypt when all other countries have none but look one upon another and pine and dy There is no want with God there is nothing else but want every where else Do but open your eyes the Lord open them for you the famine is upon you now though you discern it not see and be affected with and fly from it and let this be your encouragement that though you have provoked God by going from him and abused his goodness yet as there is with him enough and to spare so upon your penitent return you need not doubt or fear but to find relief and welcome with him as will also appear in the sequel of the Parable Only do you know your misery and fly to God in time to get a redress of it so shal you find in him all that which is in vain and to no purpose you have been seeking in an howling wilderness in a famishing world SERMON VII 2 THus of the causes of or leading occasions to this young Man's misery iâ— follows to take notice of one great effect arising from it according as it is expressed in this vers He began to be in want The word that is used in our Text signifies to be or to fall behind and is wont to be used of such as come too late to a Feast as the five foolish Virgins Mat. 25. 11. or of men that are left behind in a Race as Heb. 4. 1. The meaning of it in our Text is that he now began to be pinched with indigence now the sense of the misery of his condition came upon him Such is our English phrase to fall behind and
easily have seen plainly have discovered and so prevented that which now thou feelest they were words of weight which were spoken to thee but thou wouldest not hear nor consider and art therefore justly fallen into that pit from whence there is no recovery and drowned in that destruction from which thou mightest have been delivered And is it not better to consider now than to deferr it till then If now thou wilt consider it may tend to life and the saving of thy soul and so prove thy happiness but assure thy self hells considerations will be torments and fiery reflections yea that eating worm that dies not but shall pray upon the soul for ever Be wise then in time The matter of this consideration is the next thing to be taken notice of in the following words of our Text. SERMON XII HAving thus considered of the Prodigals deliberation in general we now come to look upon the motives themselves by which he argued himself into a resolution to return to his father and these are two which do comprize under them in general the two main heads of consideration the one respects his father the other himself The order of them is Rhetorically propounded where the first argument is last placed in the deliberation for doubtless mans necessity first drives him or else God's goodness would never draw him Proud man will live at home as long as he can The motives are joyned together because neither alone will do but both together are needful to make a full perswasive to a Sinner to return to God Man's misery throughly apprehended without the discovery of Gods mercy would drive to despair and Gods mercy propounded to a man that is insensible of his need of it would be slighted and refused But where these two meet in one the former drives a man out of himself and the latter draws him to God I shall endeavour to speak of them severally 1. The first motive is taken from the consideration of his own condition in these words I perish with hunger As the word bread is Synechdochically used to express all manner of necessary supplyes so is hunger for every want of what is needful for the comfort of man's life and here in a spiritual sense it intends the absence of all that might save the soul from destruction Hunger also is by a Metonymy of the effect put for famine which produceth hunger by taking away that which should prevent it The words express the deep distress which the young man was reduced unto sensibly apprehended by him and is Emphatically set forth 1. By the cause of it hunger or famine he hath nothing whereon to live 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 deficere there was a failing or want of provision 2. By the effect of it sensibly felt and personally applyed I perish The word in our text is of an harsh signification the best sense of it is to die but it signifies not death barely but Destruction it is q. d. this hunger will certainly destroy me I have no hopes to live in this famine I might here observe DOCT. I. The Soul of Man without sutable spiritual supplies must needs perish There is a natural consequence of dying upon a famine if no relief come and if the soul have nothing to live upon it must needs die for ever which might learn us USE 1. Their folly who take care only for their bodies and neglect their souls and truly every unregenerate man is such an one he takes heed to provide for the feeding and clothing of his body but layes in no provision for his better part and so much the greater is this folly in as much as ten thousand bodily deaths are not comparable to the death or loss of a soul Mat. 16. 26. USE 2. To teach us to prize the means and supplies which God affords for the relief of our souls That is a terrible famine mentioned Amos 8. 11 12. Not of bread nor of waters but of hearing the word of God Deprecate it as the sorest evil And having such provision made for your souls as God is pleased to give you in a place of such plenty of the means of grace labour to love to prize to feed and live upon it starve not in the midst of plentty lest you be found wilful self-murderers But I shall not insist on this the main thing follows therefore DOCT. II. In order to the conversion of a sinner God makes him deeply apprehensive that he is perishing with hunger We must carefully distinguish between the reality of a mans state and the sense that he bears of that state The famine was all over that land but none feels the distructiveness of it but this poor Prodigal All mankind whiles in a state of nature are famishing creatures but it is but some few among them that feel it the rest perish insensibly The work we are here speaking of is that which Divines call a lost state and it comprehends in it the first part of preparatory humiliation which is properly the beating of a sinner wholly off from himself and all that is in himself in point of sufficiency In the Explication of the Doctrine we may consider 1. Some thing of the nature of this work 2. The necessity of it in order to Conversion 1. Concerning the nature of this work of what it is for a Soul to be sensibly perishing with hunger and how he is brought unto this sense observe The Spirit of God raiseth in him a manifest and irresistable conviction of three things which laid together do reduce him to this exigency or distress and all this is the work of the Spirit in the means for all mens conditions being really one and the same by nature why else should not all that enjoy the same means of Conviction be alike apprehensive of it but the spirit imprints it upon some and not others Now the things are these 1 He kindles in him an eager and pinching hunger note that besides that spiritual and gracious hunger of the Soul after righteousness mentioned Mat. 5. 6. there is also a preparatory hunger which is oppressive to and grievously distresseth the soul see Isai 65. 13. My Servants shall eat but ye shall be hungry Now this hunger is made up of these two things Viz. 1. A deep apprehension of distressing misery lying upon him and making his spirits to fail and heart to faint God opens the Sinners eyes to see and find that which before he neither knew nor believed that the wrath of God is upon him that he is a cursed creature that he hath lost all grace and is in danger of the miseries of Hell he finds his Soul to be in a condition extreamly dangerous exposed to the executions of divine Vengeance he now believes because he feels that wrath is upon him sees a Sword of vengeance drawn against him 2. An earnest longing to be rid of and free from this distress as the hungry man longs that he may have some food
but saith to the Almighty depart men that have supplies within doors will not go abroad and knock at other doors for relief Hence to a proud and carnally confident sinner it is no encouragement that God hath bread enough and is ready to distribute it to such as come and ask it for what is that to him who needs it not who is full and wants for nothing He feels himself well and lusty the Physitian may go about his business he hath no need of him 2. Hence also these encouragments are not nextly and immediately exhibited to sinners till they come to this state and sense The Gospel is not properly preached to men till they are prepared for it by the Law Christ therefore saith that he did not come to call the righteous i. e. men rich with the opinion of their own sanctity but sinners i. e. such as were sensible of sin It is the hunger-bitten soul that longs for bread the faint and thirsty that hearkens after springs of water Christ propound his Grace to souls when it is like to be welcome these therefore are wont to go together sense of utmost distress and a discovery of the riches and readiness of Christ for succour the first of these without the second breeds dispair the second without the first meets with scorn and contempt USE 1. For Information 1. That he that would have any encouragement to wait on God for grace must seek it in God alone and not in himself The throughly awakened sinner must indeed look both on God and himself too but he must see in himself nothing but ground of dispair and all his hope in God Hos 13. 9. This therefore dasheth their hopes who would fain find in themselves that which may encourage them and are therefore made to despond by their unworthiness the greatness of their sin c. this also may encourage those that see the worst in themselves none like them for sin and misery why God is the same 2. That they lay blocks in the way of their own conversion that only sit poring upon their own misery and look no further What good would it have done the poor Prodigal to have only sat and wrung his hands and cryed I perish I perish If he had looked no farther he had perished indeed Though we must begin here yet we must not end here but look further for encouragement The distressed man's enquiry is where shal I have help and so must yours and now the spirit of grace is ready to direct you to one that is both able and full therefore USE 2. Let it be for a word of encouragement to those that are at the point of death who feel themselves miserable but neither in themselves nor elsewhere can find deliverance and are possibly ready to pass a sad sentence upon themselves that there is no hope for their souls Thou hast seen an end of all created perfection thou hast come to the bottom of thine own confidence thou hast found an empty world felt an empty soul but didst thou never hear of God or hast thou never tryed him If not do not yet despair first see what he can and will do for thee you will say I have tryed many courses and they fail and I am dis-heartened well but this is a way never yet frustrated thee and let these Attributes put a little comforting hope into thy soul consider then and believe 1. That God is able to help thee He hath all that and more than all that which thou needest He hath eternal life with him to give to all those that ask it of him thou art starving but he can feed thee thou art perishing but he can save thee God loves to commend his power to us that we may take hold of it Isa 27. 5. Let him lay hold of my strength that he may make peace with him Look upon him 1. As he is God That word is enough to tell thee he is able God thinks it a word big enough to encourage his desponding and almost despairing people Isa 45. 22. Look unto me for I am God The reason why thou canst find no help among the creatures is because they are not God Isa 31. 3. The Egyptians are men and not God And that you may know what he can do as God look upon the work of Creation when God would hearten his people to rely upon him he calls up their consideration hither Isa 44. 24 25. 12. 15. What cannot he who made a world out of nothing do Could God call for a world and it answered his call and can not he save a poor sinner from perishing doubtless he can what serve all the Divine Attributes for but to display the greatness and immensity of the power of God 2. As he is God in Christ And there you shall see how he is not only absolutely able but also sutably laid in with sufficient supply to save the perishing souls of prodigal sinners from perdition Christ is a great Store-house in whom is laid up all provision needful for the famishing posterity of fallen Adam the great discouragement of a convinced sinner is how can God do it and be just Though there be a fountain of goodness in God able to satisfie the soul that enjoyes it yet sin hath stopt up the channel and Divine Justice interposeth condemning the sinner to dy But now in Christ all these Channels are opened again he hath satisfied Justice and so broken open a new and and living way to God and presented him sitting on a Throne of Grace and thus God is able notwithstanding his Justice to open treasures of many to sinners and fill every hungry soul with good things Divine sufficiency is by this means rendred communicable to the Children of men And it is in this sense the Apostle speaks Eph. 3. 20. He is able to do more than we can ask or think Otherwise it had been a mockery put upon dying sinners to have told them of abundant store of Grace and good which it was no wayes possible for them to come at Now it is your work and business to apply this to your condition and say though I am perishing yet there is a possibility that I may be supplyed though the world cannot relieve me yet God can and that not only by absolute power but in a feizable way of his own finding out I may then live and not dy And the very belief of this probability hath driven many a soul to him and thou maist as well as the poor leper frame a petition and argument out of it If thou wilt thou canst Out of doubt it opens a door of hope for a soul to know and believe that if God will he can both save him and be just 2. That God is bountiful and ready to relieve such as are in want This may add to thy encouragement and hope though thou art not certain that he will help thee The Prodigal did not know that his father would
also was another ground of and defect in the doings of these Pharisees Mat. 6. 7. Rom. 9. 31 32. USE 1. Here see the Reason why some that have in their time been great Professors and careful do afterwards degenerate and grow licentious for if all that so profess are not sincere do not act from a sound principle no wonder if they decline If the seed that hath no rooting though it grow a while and out-grow many do at last dy wither decay we are not to wonder nor ought this any way to discourage those that are sinners USE 2. Let it counsel us to have a care that we do not ground our confidence in this that we do more than others think not our selves better or surer meerly for this Though God will not reprove you for your sacrifices yet he may for your hypocrisie and so you may weary him with your vain oblations Isa 1. 13. Remember there is no Justification legal by the work we do DOCT. 2. The Hypocrite is not acquainted with nor invited to the solemnization of the great joy which is at the conversion of a sinner Whiles this joyful entertainments is provided for and afforded to this younger son his elder brother is in the field the father doth not send and call him in unto it This is not without its spiritual meaning hypocrites may seemingly do a great deal but still they are strangers to and have no share in the joy of true Believers Prov. 14. 10. Reas Because he is a meer stranger to that which is the cause of his joy viz. converting grace he doth not know what it is what is the worth and excellency of it nor what are those grounds of spiritual joy which proceed from it these are spiritual things and therefore a natural man cannot receive them 1 Cor. 2. 14. The hypocrite is truely unregenerate and hence he moves in an inferiour orb and can no more know what the joyes of a Believer are than a beast can understand the nature and advantages of a life of reason he is in the flesh but these are not fleshly joyes USE 1. This may shew us the true reason why hypocritical men are so little affected with the conversion of a sinner to God when the report of it comes to them it may be they are angry and envious however they are not stirred up by it to praise God for them to congratulate with them their happiness and partake in their joyes Alas they were not invited they do not see nor know what it is to have been dead and be alive to be restored from spiritual death to be brought home to God of a Prodigal to be made a son USE 2. Here we also see a reason why unconverted men wonder when they hear the People of God speak of their joyes and comforts whereas they look upon them as sorrowful and miserable men and think them mad to please themselves with phantasms and dreams whereas their own blindness and ignorance is the cause of their admiration Foelix thinks Paul is distracted whereas he himself is distempered Hence let not the People of God judge themselves by or think worse of themselves for worldly mens opinion concerning them USE 3. If Hypocrites may not feast it with the People of God here much less shal they do it in the Kingdom of Glory If they may not partake with them in the feast of Tabernacles much less in their consummation How miserable a thing then is it to be a professor and no more to hew wood and draw water with the Gibeonites to do the drudgery of the Law but not to partake of the joyes of the Gospel a legal life is a life of much business but of no comfort there are many terrours which may oppress the conscience for defaults and much labour in striving to attain an unattainable legal perfection but no true joyes which can only flow from the sense of God's love and pardon in Jesus Christ beware than of Hypocrisie 2. We may observe the ground of the offense viz. The information he had of his brothers kind entertainment this he guesseth at by the noise he heard of joy but waits for further information which he receives by one of the servants who readily informs him of it and fully acquaints him with the occasion The action of this servant is exemplary it tells us thus much Observ That in our relation of matters of fact we should do it with all fidelity and candor to make the best of things and not the worst The servant both tells what his master had done and gives a good reason for it that one would think might have been convincing however it is otherwise taken It is very certain that a story may be true and yet so told as may be advantageous or prejudicial to him whom it concerns Doeg for all that we read spake true of Ahimelech but in such manner as was pernicious and carried a ly in it and is therefore called a lying tongue Psal 52. begin Which may give us warning to beware how we represent matters in our relation of them have a care therefore of a spirit of detraction else its certain the most spotless actions of the most innocent persons may be laid open to the malice and spite of men and the rather avoid it because it is a disease the times labour of There is something also commendable and imitable in the action of the eldest son he enquires before he determines he doth not presently conclude from what he hears but seeks to be certified in the truth which if it were more practised amongst Christians would prevent many unjust censures which are by over credulity past upon the innocent But I especially intend to take notice of the ground it self of his offense whence observe this DOCT. 3. It is the guise and Character of an hypocrite that he is offended and angry at the grace of God manifested to those whom he converts and takes into favour They cannot bear that God should shew any love to repenting Prodigals The elder brother is angry that his father should make a feast for his returning son The comforts and consolations of a Penitent are his great eye-sores The Scribs and Pharisees could not bear that Christ should converse with Publicans and sinners Hence the more they observe of God's love to any the more they hate and abhorr them This was Cain's sin and for this very cause he murdered his innocent brother because God had more respect to his sacrifice than to Cain's this is the ground of persecution and their prosecuting them with all malice and studying by all means to do them injury they are the joyes of the People of God that these men cannot bear I shall give the evidence of the Doctrine in two things 1. The natural enmity of the wicked against the Godly makes them to grieve at all their prosperity which they partake in Wicked men are of the evil one who next to God himself
own all that I have is thine 3. That there was sufficient cause for the joyful reception of his Prodigal son It was meet c. and he gives the reason of it vers 32. Before I come to particular observations it is needful to clear these words from an objection I have in this discourse interpreted the elder son to aim firstly at the Scribes and Pharisees and so under them at hypocritical Professors legal men and vain boasters but here seems to be a scruple viz. How comes it then that his father saith All that I have is thine Have unregenerate men a title to Gods spiritual grace and favour This objection seems at first blush to carry some force with it and hath so far prevailed with some as to make them interpret this eldest son to signifie the Godly who by a religious education have not fallen into but been kept from such foul enormities and through infirmitiy are sometimes stumbled at such providences of God But then as great a scruple may arise on the other hand viz. Shall the penitent Prodigal have no portion again Is not all repaired in Christ which we lost in Adam Was not Paul though he had been a persecuter c. upon his conversion made a just heir But to come to some resolution It is certain Christ must aim at the Pharisees in this eldest son else the scope and purport of the Parable had been Alien from his present designe and so to no purpose for his business is to silence their murmurings You have the occasion of the Parable verse 1. 2. Hence the interpretation of every particular must be such as may be reduced to the general and may bear suit with it according to the Analogy of faith It is a good rule in Divinity That all expressions in Parables must be so interpreted as to agree with other plain Scriptures referring to the same thing Parables are similitudes in which spiritual things are familiarized to us by earthly things by way of allusion Now though there be a vast disproportion between God and the Creature between heavenly and earthly things yet there is some shadow of those in these and that is all that we seek in a Parable Our Saviours design is to convince the Pharisees of the unreasonableness of their murmurings and he doth it by an argument â majori ad minus q. d. The Son might seem to have some plea against his Father but indeed had none much less have you against me Though his son had been faithful and careful and was heir yet his father could make a feast and receive his younger son without detriment to the other much more may I entertain Publicans and Sinners without injuring you who deserve nothing who are holy only in pretence Or the argument may be by way of Concession We know the Pharisees thought well of themselves but saith our Saviour put case you are the men you pretend yet what wrong is this Is there not room left for free grace to a Prodigal So Tertullian glosseth it Posuit illos in parabold non quales erant sed quales esse debuerant Except we take this rule we shall scarce find any Parable but will involve us in difficulty We must not think because every labourer had his penny therefore the degrees of glory are all equal because the Master bid the servants let the tares grow till harvest therefore Churches are to suffer manifest hypocrites without censuring of them but this may suffice I now proceed to make some observations DOCT. 1. There is never any occasion of special joy over an Hypocrite Son thou art ever with me The father insinuates that he was not wont to do things superfluously or without occasion And we may see the evidence of the Doctrine if we consider what is the ground of extraordinary expressions of joy among men Now though men that are given to excess will make occasions of feasting and great shews of jocundity where there is no reason yet as joy is an affection moved by the apprehension of some present good so the extraordinary signifying of it by feasts mirth great entertainments is when the reason of it is more than usual Hence the most of those occasions recorded in Scripture are either 1. The revolution of birth dayes so Herod kept his birth day Mat. 14. 6. and Pharach Gen. 40. 20. 2. The time of weaning Children so Abraham for Isaak Gen. 21. 8. 3. Marriages Christ honoured with his presence a wedding feast and with his first miracle Joh. 2. begin 4. Great victorys and deliverances hence dayes of thanksgiving appointed and hence the passeover 5. Gods signal blessing upon their labours in giving them the fruit of the earth Hence the feast of ingathering 6. The entertainment of strangers or occasional visitation of friends thus Lot made a feast for the Angels Gen. 19. 3. and David for Abner 2 Sam. 3. 20. 7. The finding of that which was lost Luk. 15. 6-9 But there is no such respect in one or another kind on a spiritual account with an hypocrite whereupon God should make him a joyful entertainment For 1. He hath no birth day was never born again but lives and lies in sin All his legal and moral duties are but splendida peccata He is the same he was there is no gracious change wrought in him There is more reason to mourn over him as a dead man than to rejoyce over him as a living man to celebrate his funeral than his birth The state of nature is a state of death Eph. 2. 1. 2. He was never weaned from the world and vanities of it but still hangs upon its breasts seeking his contentment among creatures and to satisfie his appetite upon these things His name is written in the earth he lives upon lying vanities cannot say as David Psal 131. 2. I am like a weaned Child 3. He is not married to Christ his league with sin and satan was never broken he was never dead to the law that he might be united to a Saviour How should there be a marriage feast without a marriage Christ indeed hath woed him but he never gave his consent nor will leave playing the harlot with other lovers never embraced that call Jer. 3. 2. 4. He never was a conquerour over his lusts nor got victory upon his corruptions but remains a slave of sin and satan led about at his pleasure and serving divers lusts Sin rules him his Chains were never knockt off nor his prison doors broken open but he lives under the power and condemnation of sin 5. He hath brought forth no fruit to God or to his own souls comfort is a dry heath and barren ground a fig tree which if it have the leaves of a profession yet hath no fruit of sanctification a vine which if it bear any grapes they are sower wildgrapes a fig-tree long waited on for fruit and ready for that sentence Cut it down why cumbers it the ground Luk. 13. 7.