they in him as they are his and he Gods In him we are compleat Col. 2.9 10. And 3. In and through Christ in our persons in title and interest by promise as Abraham Isaack and Jacob did the Land of Canaan while yet they had it not in possession for Israel did not take away wrongfully the Land of Canaan from the Inhabitants they claimed but their own by the gift of him who is the Lord of all the earth and had sworn to give it them and so the Fathers that are said to dye in faith not having received the promises Heb. 11.13 are yet said to have received them Heb. 6.14 that is as to promise or covenant and the title that gave them thereto Thence too the believers are said to be heirs according to promise Gal. 3.29 4. In hope and expectation that being justified by faith ye might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life which God that cannot lye hath promised before the world began Tit. 3.7 and 1.2 5. In usefulness and benefit all things working together for good to them that love him that are the called of God according to purpose Rom. 8.28 And so they that overcome and keep Christs words and keep with God are heirs of all things All that I have is thine Let us take a brief view or survey of their riches 1. God is theirs and all that he is not that he can be comprehended of and by them seeing he comprehends them and all things and is himself incomprehensible but by himself but he is their God their Father their Portion and Inheritance as to be worshipped and acknowledged by them so to inrich save and satisfie them The portion of Jacob is not like unto them he is the former of all things the Lord of Hosts is his name Jer. 10.16 and the Lord is my portion saith my soul therefore will I hope in him Lam. 3.24 I go to my God and your God my Father and your Father saith Christ John 20.17 an infinite portion for in having him we have infinite Wisdom to order and dispose of all things for us and our benefit and of us also for our own greatest happiness and to advise counsel and direct us in all our difficulties infinite power to effect and bring about what in the counsel of his will or wisdom he sees good to be effected and to prevent and hinder remove or destroy what he sees destructive to us infinite strength to bear up all things for us and us in all cases and to strengthen us in all services and sufferings infinite duration to continue and lengthen out our happiness for ever that we may never be deprived of it but enjoy it to eternity infinite goodness to lead him to exercise all his other attributes for our infinite and everlasting advantage infinite truth and holiness to perform all his words and promises to us c. and all this for us in and through Christ Jesus 2. Christ is Gods 1 Cor. 3.23 and he is theirs and all his infinite fulness I am my beloveds and my beloved is mine saith the Spouse Cant. 2.18 and 6.3 He that hath the Son hath life and he that abideth in the Doctrine of Christ that is that continueth in the belief and obedience of it He hath both the Father and the Son 1 John 5.11.2 2 John 9. and it s in having Christ that any man hath God his God and portion and hath all his fulness for him for he that transgresseth and abideth not in the Doctrine of Christ hath not God and it s in him he hath all things who hath and abideth in him even unsearchable riches in him infinite wisdom to order and manage all things with God for us and from God to over and about us and to direct and guide us in all conditions In him righteousness infinite and everlasting for presenting us just and acceptable in the sight of God and in him all the promises of God are yea and Amen affirmed and confirmed true and certain 2 Cor. 1.19 20. Isa 45.23 24. In him holiness infinitely for us and therein dedication to God and renewing into his image and likeness grace to make us holy and renew us and so to make us also Gods Inheritance his chosen generation Royal Priesthood Holy Nation peculiar people In him Redemption even forgiveness of sins through or in his blood Eph. 1.7 Col. 1.14 even infinite plenteousness of Redemption for redeeming us from all iniquities Psal 130.7 8. and so from all troubles miseries bondages death the fruits of sin lying upon us Psal 25.22 Yea even from bodily death and Grave yea from hell and destruction Rom. 8.23 Hosea 13.14 John 11.25 26. in him son-ship heir-ship title to the Inheritance John 1.12 Gal. 3.26 27. Yea in a word This is the record God hath given of his Son that God hath given us eternal life and this life is in his Son he that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Son hath not life 1 John 5.11 12. 3. God hath an infinitely Holy Spirit which he hath put upon Christ to bring forth Judgement to the Gentiles and this he also gives in and through Christ to them that obey him Acts 5.32 to help their infirmities teach and lead them into the knowledge of Christ glorifying him to them and so into all truth to bring his words to remembrance justifie them in their Consciences sanctifie and wash them in the Blood and Name of Jesus comfort them in their exercises tribulations and temptations be a Spirit of Holiness to and in them leading them in the way of and framing and quickning them to holiness teaching them to pray and groan after God and his Grace and Mercy in Christ for their helpfulness In a word to inhabit and dwell in them through the Word or Faith of Christ and be in them as a spring of living Waters springing up unto everlasting life and gifting them for usefulness to others and so to be as rivers of living waters flowing out of their bellies or inward man to seal them up also to the day of redemption and be to them the anointing and furnisher for Gods Service the earnest of conductor to and raiser up of their dead bodies to the enjoyment of the Inheritance Rom. 8.14.26 27. John 16.14 15. and 14.16 17 26. 1 Cor. 6.11 Isa 11.2 Gal. 5.16 Psal 143.10 and 119.37 and 51.10 11. Zech. 12.10 Eph. 2.22 and 5.18 19. with Col. 3.16 1 Cor. 12.7 John 4.14 and 7.37 38 39. 2 Cor. 1.21 22. Ephes 1 14. and 4.30 4. God hath an innumerable company of Angels to minister to him Dan. 7.10 11. and these are in and with Christ the Believers and Obeyers of him Pitching their tents about those that fear him to deliver and save them Psal 34.7 Bearing them up in their hands and keeping them in all their wayes Psal 91.11 12. Sent forth to minister to the heirs of salvation Heb. 1.14 Inâ—iâ—â—â—ing the
into that separation and with-drawing from his Father which brought upon him all this misery that befel him which now after so large a view taken of the elder Brothers state comes in the next place as the second Branch of this Text to be considered by us viz. CHAP. VIII The second state of wanderers from God in two Branches opened and applyed THE misery of departing and wandring from God implyed in these words This thy Brother was dead was lost a two-fold metaphorical expression to represent it by Let us briefly and but briefly consider them Branch 1. Was dead A sinner by leaving God and running after sin and Satan brings death upon himself becomes as a dead man So Solomon tells us too Prov. 21.16 He that wandereth out of the way of understanding shall abide in the congregation of the dead For as the Apostle saith also to the Believers Rom. 8.13 If ye walk after the flesh ye shall dye and it must needs be so for 1. With God is the fountain of life Psal 36.9 In his favour is liâ—e Psalm 30.5 and his eternal Word or Son is that eternal life that was with the Father in the beginning in whom was life and that was manifested in these last dayes more fully to us 1 John 1.2 with John 1 4. The Spirit of God is life and the spirit of life Rom 8.2.10 by whom God through Christ breaths in life and so this God this one Father Son and Spirit having life in himself gives life also to others as he pleases and hath given to all life and breath and all things and so in the beginning when he made man made him of the dust of the earth and breathed in him the breath of life and man became a living soul Gen. 2.7 both as his body and person was made alive in the world indued with breath sense motion and understanding and also as his soul or inward man being upright and having its dependance on God being in subjection to his Word and Spirit in his image and likeness and so in his favour while upright he was owned of him and in union with him and had peace and joy and spiritual life in himself as so deriving it from him but in departing from him his word and command which is life and tends to life also is death and man so doing he dyed Spiritually First as to the loss of the favour of God in which was his life and of his subjection to God and fellowship with his Word and Spirit the fountain and conveyor of life and he fell under his displeasure in and from which is death even the death of the spirit of man inasmuch as the favour and fellowship of God his Word and Spirit being withdrawn his life was withdrawn with them and inasmuch as it lay open to his anger to inflict misery upon it and so the inward state of the soul and spirit became unquiet dead without sense of the life of God the favour spirit and operations of his grace in it and was filled with fear shame guilt as the effects of the life withdrawn and misery deserved and exposed to and then bodily death as to its principles entred and so the sentence for dying at Gods pleasure bodily and for ever had not mercy looked upon man and prevented followed also Gen. 2.17 and 3.18 19 Rom. 5.12.18 2. But God rich in mercy looking back upon his prodigal Son man here devised his recovery and to that end sent his Son or Word that eternal life that was with him and made him flesh and in that flesh mortal and under the sentence of death that was upon man and accordingly delivered him up to death for our Sins who by his death destroyed him that had the power of death that is the Devil and swallowed up death from off the nature of man as it is in him and filled it with immortallity and eternal life so as he having dyed dyeth no more death hath no more dominion over him but the fulness of the God-head dwells in him bodily and all the fulness of his favour grace and blessing in which is life yea and the Spirit of Life is in and upon him so as he also in dying and by his death inasmuch as it was sustained by him for us even for all men hath obtained a release of all men from under that first Death and Judgement in which all universally and alike were condemned to dye as it did and must have stood upon us without his interposing and hath the ordering of Death and Grave and Hell in his hand and dispose with power and authority to bring us thereout and enliven and quicken soul and body yea and invest them with immortality and eternal life as pleases him he being in himself and for mankinde the resurrection and the life the deliverer and the raiser and the only ground or foundation cause and effector of the Resurrection in others either as to soul or body and the life quickning them and in which they being quickned live John 11.25 Yea in him is and God hath given to us even to the same us whom he commands to believe which is all men or men indefinitely eternal life so as that in partaking of him we partake of the Resurrection and are raised up in and by him in our spirits and partake of life spiritual life and so whosoever believeth in him though dead in himself is enlivened by him and shall live and being made alive in believing and going on yet to believe shall not dye shall not lose this life that he hath in and by him for ever but is alwayes in the raised state as to his state spiritually and shall be so at the last day bodily too and so alwayes in the favour of God in which is life in a justified state from sin and wrath curse and death and in a state of acceptation with God and heir-ship to the life promised further of God in and by him and hath his interest in and fellowship with God the fountain of life and the Spirit of God and its influences who is the Spirit of life and gives and upholds life as it is said He that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Son hath not life and so as all mankinde are in a released state from the destructiveness of the first death as in and of it self and in a possibility of life because in the hand of Christ where is life even spiritual and eternal life yea both for soul and body as in a root and fountain for them and communicable to them so all such of men as in hearing and receiving the Word and Doctrine of Christ which is called the word of life and life Acts 5.20 John 6.63 Prov. 4.13 because Christ objectively is in it as the matter of it set forth in and by it and his Spirit which is life and the Spirit of Life accompanies it and breaths in it are therein by the
A Gracious Reproof TO PHARASAICAL SAINTS Causlesly murmuring at GODS MERCIES TOWARD PENITENT SINNERS In Explication of Luc. 15.30 31. Written by JOHN HORNE sometimes Minister of Lin Allhallows Psal 119.1 2 3. Blessed are the undefil'd in the way who walk in the Law of the Lord. Blessed are they that keep his Testimonies and seek him with the whole heart They also do no iniquity they walk in his ways Bat As for transgressors wo to them for destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity Psal 37.38 Prov. 20.29 Is thine eye evil because mine is good Matth 20.15 London Printed for Tho. Passenger at the three Bibles on London bridge 1668. TO THE READER Reader WHither thou beest Saint or Sinner and one of them assuredly thou art thou maist through Gods blessing find something useful for thee I hope worthy thy perusall and serious consideration in this insuing Treatise If thou beest one that knowlest the grace of God in truth and thereby art sanctifyed to God and followest after holiness here is that that may perswade thee and shew thee causâ— to be holy still and to go on in denying all ungodliness and worldly lusts to live soberly righteously and godlily in this present world abiding in Christ and walking with God Both as it sets before thee the good and blessed state of those that so do and as it shews the miserable and sad state of those that do otherwise and especially of such as having tasted the graciousness of the Lord withdraw from him again and after they have begun to be good turn to do badly forsaking the way of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness Prov. 2.13 of which therefore also it doth admonish thee However strongly thou think thou standest that thou take heed of falling of which there is need enough to be admonished in this back sliding and truly and too shamefully adulterous and sinful generation Wherein they that depart from iniquity make themselves a prey and wherein men being frighted from or scoffed and derided at for nothing so much as truth and plety there is too general a temptation upon men be afraid or ashamed to be or however to confess and shew themselves to be seriously holy and religious Atheisme Prophanesâ— Popery and all manner of debauchery growing into fashion and nothing scarce looked upon as more obsolete and antick than soundness and sincerity with true zeal and fervency in the exercise and practise of the truth of Religion And yet it also admonisheth thee to beware of the leaven Pharasees which is hypocrisie of being too rash and censorious in judging those that having been prophane and evil livers or abusers of God's grace and truth return therefrom to a better mind or of judging God's and Christ's or his Servants dealings with such when by the profession of such persons he or evidently and apparently they are more gracious and ready to receive sinners than thou wouldst have them There is nothing more eminently discovered in God than love and charity to the souls of men whereof the whole Gospel and all the holy men in the Scriptures bear their testimony especially in his receiving repentant sinners And therefore nothing should be more desired by us and rejoyced in on their behalf than their conversion to him and finding his gracious acceptance God's children should be and are in some measure like to God himself who is their Father and therefore as his elect holy and beloved put on bowels of mercy kindness lowliness of mind long-suffering and above all charity which is the bond of all perfection as the Apostle exhorteth Col. 3.12.14 Nor doth any thing scarce make men liker the Devil than to endeavour to hinder or to repine at the conversion of sinners or God's mercy to them as that was one concomitant or product rather of the Pharasees zeal and religion their opposing Christ and grudging at him for his charity to sinners so I suppose it was none of the least of the ingredients of that evil frame which occasioned his stiling them the children of the Devil Joh. 8.44 Well may we be glad indeed when we find any such thing as a sincere convert in these evil days and God gracious to sinners therein When there are so many Apostates from God so few Converts to him Converts there may be some to this or that opinion or practise from some open prophanness sometimes to thriftiness and worldliness and yet even such conversions are not so frequent in these days as from thriftiness to prodagality and rudeness sometimes possibly to some opinionative profession or zealous endeavour after righteousness that is not Gods but mens own but few that when they return return to the Lord Jer. 4.1 to mind and receive and walk in the knowledg and faith of him and his great goodness to mankind in Jesus Christ our Lord and so to behold his glory as thereby to be changed into his image by the operation of his power and spirit and so to worship God in the spirit as testifying of his grace in his Son Phil. 3.3 Rejoyce in Jesus Christ have no confidence in the flesh When we see any turning to this we have cause to be glad and rejoyce for them for they turn from death to life from misery to salvation and unspeakable felicity But alas more play the Prodigals in going from Christ and God and the living in the faith and knowledge of him as the fountain of life and righteousness to live upon either their outward or inward receits from him their riches friends wit parts or their righteous frames and endeavours receits and attainments which lived upon will soon with the Prodigals patrimony be spent and leave them to losse and beggary or â— servile drudgery and desire of husks then do imitate him in returning to God and Christ to live in his house and upon him and his provision therein the grace not in us but in Christ Jesus 2 Tim. 2.1 which is and may be matter of great lamentation Yet if thou beest a sinner walking in thy self thine own will wisdom righteousness lusts affections or appetites and so not in Christ Jesus not in the way of understanding not in the spirit but in the flesh and so in a state of sin as such there be great store both of persons in a sort zealous and of prophane here is that that may move thee to repent and to turn to God therefrom Both the evil and dangerousness of the state of sin and sinners and the acceptableness to God of true and unfeined repentance in returning to Christ and so to God in and by him is here toucht upon and it s largely evidenced that God is ready to embrace such as so do return and to give them the most sure signs and pledges of his mercy toward them as having joy in their salvation And indeed this is the main scope of the Parable herein paraphrastically explicated and of the Text opened and applyed and by
also greedily with Harlots consumed his living and yet see how unequal the Father between them he in all those years never gave him a Kid which was far less then the fatted Calf though to eat in an honest way and to make merry not with Whores and Drabs but with his friends who he being so dutiful a Son could be no such lewd Varlots but persons of good fashion and honest reputation whereas on the other side his love was such to his other Son that notwithstanding all his badness disobediences and mis-spendings of his substance he could no sooner see him coming towards him but he runs to meet him and quicken him in his pace and instead of chiding him pitties and kisses him and kills the fatted Calf too so soon as he gets him home to feast him And had not this elder Son great reason 〈…〉 his Father and refuse to joyn 〈…〉 with him and his other Son and Servants in such a merry frollick so inconsiderately made as he hath represented it to him have we not many that are ready to be of his minde what when they have said their Prayers a thousand times over been good Church-men honest livers sober persons no Thieves Drunkards Whoremongers Harlots or wicked livers but have as they think served God justly accordingly to the laudible customs of the Church and perhaps also in private Prayers and Devotions hearing Sermons praying in their Families fasting as often and making as many and as long Prayers as the Pharisees strict and zealous in their conversations abstaining from all gross and known sins yet they could never be assured of Gods owning them nor meet with such ravishments of heart as to cause them to rejoyce much in God and to be willing to dye and depart this life and lo here or there a grat Sinner a Whore a Thief a Murtherer a wanton Person being convicted of their Sins and confessing their faults and crying to God for his Mercy listning to and imbracing his Gospel so inwardly filled with and outwardly testifying their sense of Gods love and exceeding comfort and consolation therein that they can glory in God as forgiving them their Sins have hope in their Death and talk of their assurance of Gods favour as if they had been all their lives Saints must not these either be deluded persons or what what shall we say or think of God but as those in Ezek. 18.25 That his wayes are unequal or as in Mal. 2.17 That every one that is evil is good in the sight of the Lord or else where is the God of judgement or judgement of God where the equity of his doings and proceedings with men But thou art holy O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel and wilt be justified in thy sayings and overcome when thou art judged Psal 22.3 and 51.4 stay then and let us see what the Father hath to say to his offended and discontented Son before we justifie his plea and pronounce on his side and that is held forth in the words that I have chosen herein to treat on as followeth CHAP. III. The Text Pharaphrased Verse 31.32 And he said unto him Son thou art ever with me and all that I have is thine It was meet that we should make merry and be glad for this thy Brother was dead and is alive again was lost and is found IT is a true saying of Solomon He that is first in his own cause seemeth just but his neighbour comes and searches him out Prov. 18.17 For here we have an answer confutes all the Son hath said in his passion and clearly evinces the equity of the Fathers carriage between them and of his thus entertaining his Son in his return And first here we may admire the Fathers meekness and gentleness towards a froward passionate Son in that he gives him no bad nor angry language He sayes not thou proud and insolent fellow that offerest to make thy self wiser then thy Father and liftest up thy self above him to call him him to an account and draw a charge against him for his actings as if thou wert wiser and of more authority then he whereas it s thy part and place to submit thy self to him and give him honour in judging him wise and righteous in his doings No such angry speech proceeds from him but only he gently calls him Son and gives him a fair answer to his charge and an account of his doings shewing the great condescension and goodness of God to his pettish people in their spiritual Distempers He sees his Son was in a passion and he would not take the course further to heat and inflame him but seeks to calm him like a loving Father who seeing his Childes Body over-heated and in danger to fall into a Feavour endeavours some wayes its prevention being wiser then his Son he sets not himself to answer him according to his childish folly but exercises love with judgement and discretion towards him and though his Son in his anger would neither vouchsafe to call him Father nor his Brother Brother yet he in whom fury is not but Love Meekness and Charity will not therefore disown or provoke him but pacifie and rectifie him and therefore calls him Son Oh the graciousness of God as a loving Father to froward and male contented Children especially while he sees their frowardness proceeds from ignorance weakness or the strength of temptation a pattern worthy imitation Be we followers of of God as dear children and walk we in love as Christ hath loved us c. Shall we weak purblinde and sinful men be froward with and harsh to our froward brethren when through temptation and weakness envyings swellings and discontents befal them when as our great God and Father is so graciously tender milde and gentle to such yea to our selves when so distempered and discomposed towards him But see again how blinde passion is though it seems to see very much yea and to see more then others that have not their hearts thereby heated and quickned to make diligent observation of things before them It is indeed quick-sighted of what makes for its nourishment and strengthning in its cause but while it looks upon all such things as it were through Multiplying and Magnifying Glasses and sees them more and greater then they be and so represents them it is so filled with the sight of them that it over-looks and sees not other things before it that judgement charity and right reason takes notice of and the sight whereof reduces the other things seen to their due scantling and proportion For the calm judgment and charity of the wise and patient Father the representative of the most wise and merciful God sees and observes here what the Son over-lookt and what might stop the mouth of his most clamorous passion He was Eagle-eyed to see yea more than was to be seen of his own service and obedience which yet in this his passion he shewed but little of but see not
not of his spirit that they may adde sin to sin Isa 30.1 2 15. When God calls to return to him they have no breath desire sense of motion after the things in him But we will ride upon horses say they and flee upon the swift and as in Hos 5.13 When Ephraim saw his sickness and Judah his wound then went Ephraim down to Assyria and sends to King Jareb c. No motion towards God but from him and therein 6. As from a dead body there issues forth filth and stinch blood and matter sometimes that is loathsome and abominable and makes it unfit to be amongst the living so is it with dead souls devoid of the life of God as Psal 14.1 2 3. The fool or fallen man fallen from God and Christ saith in his heart there is no God there 's his voidness of spiritual life sense or motion or faith towards him as also in that Rom. 3. â—2 There is none that understandeth none that seeketh after God but then beside it follows Corrupt are they and have done abominable works there is none that doth good no not one they are all become filthy or as in the Margin stinking loathsome And as in Rom. 3.13 Their threat is an open Sepulchre nothing breaths out thence but putrifaction and filth and stench things abomâ—nable to God and unacceptable to God and good men When the Doctrine of God and the Spirit of God and Christ are gone once and the savour of his Grace lost though there may be yet too a form of Prayers Fasting and outward formalities and observances yet then they are all dead works Heb. 9.14 as a menstruous cloth a filthy thing The sacrifices of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord Prov. 15.8 and 21.27 Isa 1.11 13 14. and unpleasing to men unsavory to those that are spiritually men indued with sense reason and understanding nay often gross prophaneness and debauchery issues from them 7. And then as dead bodies they are separated from the living from the living God and his living Houshold and Family God cannot endure to look towards them with any delight or likement of them or have them in his sight or presence they are condemned of him loathed and detested as to their dead estate by him cut off from him and and his justifying and approving Grace and then objects of his anger or displeasure as any evil or vain Spirit may bring them before him or make them come as dead carkasses possessed with evil spirits into his sight 2. And so if they be not through some miraculous mercy revived they be dead as to body not only in that they must as all others come to a natural death in the appointed time but often are also exposed to in danger of and sometimes taken away by judicial deaths as either in some judgement or testimony of wrath from God as Pharaoh when drowned in the Red Sea Saul conquered by the Philistines and slaying himself and many of the Rebellious Israelites destroyed in the Wilderness or else as sometimes by some judicial deaths from men as Zedekiah and Ahab whom the King of Babylon rosted in the fire Jer. 29.22 The two Malefactors that were put to death with Christ God sometimes permitting and in anger against his people for their voluntary goings from him giving them up so far to their own hearts lusts as Psal 81.11 12. as to suffer them to fall into notorious sins such as bring not only shame but exemplary punishments by death also or however persisting they dye in their sins as to their bodies also yea and if by these things mercy be not extended so as to turn them to God and pull them out of spiritual death there follows at length 3. Eternal death of body and soul wholly cast out and separated from God and from his presence into everlasting misery and torments both in souls and bodies for ever in which is both a perfect loss and deprival of all good things both bodily and spiritual and also a perfect and eternal subjection to all misery and mischief pain sorrow and unspeakable torment upon soul and body for ever a sad and doleful portion of the workers of iniquity and of those that having been quickned up to a spiritual life let it slip again and depart from it by going away from the Doctrine of Christ and so from Christ and the Holy Spirit and so finally persist but this last was through mercy here prevented This is one expression of the sad estate of the sad estate of such persons The wages of sin is death Rom. 6.23 The other is Branch 2. He was lost The word say some Criticks here translated Lost is at the best of a harsh signification 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the best to dye yea to dye by some miserable way to perish as in this parable I perish with hunger ver 17. and so the expression of coming to himself implyes that he was extinct for a time fainted and dyed away through hunger but that the mercy of God revived him he had quite perished which is worse then simply dead perisht as we properly say of those that dye of hunger and cold and are lost for want of help or looking to he being gone away from them that used to look to him or with reference to the other Parables where whatever the Criticks say the same word is used of the sheep and groat lost â—o as not forthcomâ—ng or found and so being a loose Son he was not only a loser but quite lost himself too Such the fruit of mens sinning and wandring from God Let us view it in some particulars 1. He was a loser though that 's not all he lost his Father and his Fathers house his portion and patrimony his enjoyments he was wont to have and his brother yet had all that entertainment food rayment harbour shelter lodging attendance respect and honour which he had in his Fathers house formerly these and all things of that nature were wholly lost and gone from him and from his enjoyment and interest and is this nothing for sinners to lose both livelihood and life yea such a livelihood and such a life as God in Christ is and gives such safety satisfaction content rest and refreshing hope and rejoycing as his Word and Spirit and Christ in and by both and God in and by all give to the abiding soul to lose a most sweet secure satisfying and abiding livelihood and life it cannot be expressed to lose a Kingdom with all its contents But 2. He was lost himself he was gone quite out of all these things and out of the way to them again as a sheep lost out of its pastures He was not to be found either in his Fathers house or Fields under none of his promises under no engagement of his shelter or protection in no way of his or of his servants and peoples walkings He was gone and so are sinners out of all Gods paths and so
from all Gods promises of protection mercy or blessing and so lay open to any danger that might befal him only meer undeserved yea uningaged mercy in God and Christ prevented his being actually torn in pieces and devoured for ever but as he was sound in none of Gods paths so he had no engagement from God that he could challenge to keep him from destruction even from dropping into Hell and everlasting damnation The servants of God might seek for him in the house of God amongst his Saints and Holy Ones but not finde him they might seek him in any of the wayes of the righteous and not finde him nay nor God nor his abiding Brethren could finde him there though they never so diligently seek for him 3. He was lost no endeavour or dispensation of God met with him for a time to work upon his heart and conscience and so in that sense to finde him out He was dead and deaf to all means used for a great while these many years saith the elder Son toward him neither those gifts and enjoyments which he had received from his Father and which were riotously mis-spent by him found him so as to work upon his heart and make him remember his Father from whom he had them Jesurun waxed fat and kicked thou art waxed fat thou art grown thick then he forsook God c. Of the Rock that begot thee thou art unmindeful and hast forgotten God that formed thee Deut. 32.15 18. And she remembred not that I gave her her Corn and Wine and Oyl and multiplyed her Silver and Gold which she prepared for Baal saith God to back-slidden Israel Hos 2.8 Nor did the Famine brought upon the Land and the emptiness proved in all enjoyments and the defect of them the want he was reduced to the pains and afflictions he met with work upon him to remember his Father but he thinks of other wayes to get a livelihood rather then of returning to him again This people returns not to him him that smites them neither do they seek the Lord of Hosts Isa 9.13 And God did this and that evil to Israel yet they returned not to him saith Amos 4.6 7 8. they have stricken me but I was not sick they have beaten me but I felt it not sayes the besotted Sinner Prov. 23. â—5 4. He was lost so as he knew not which way to get back again nay he had not a thought to return he wandered after satisfaction indeed but knew not the way to it nor could attain it but was like those in Psal 107.4 5. That wandered in the Wilderness and found no way hungry and thirsty their souls fainted in them they had not a City of habitation Such his estate till mercy saved him 5. He was lost he was miserably perisht through many foul sins and filthy transgressions and lewd courses and by many sad convincements convictions checks and bangs of conscience and as it were Devils and evil Spirits renting and tearing out his bowels wringing him with inward pains and sense of hellish miseries perplexities fears horrors despairs quite brought down as it were into the pit of destruction Manifold sorrows or great plagues as the vulgar reads it shall be to the wicked Psal 32.11 Yea they shall multiply sorrows to themselves that hasten from God after another their drink offerings of blood will not Christ offer nor take up their names into his lips Will not mediate nor intercede for any acceptance of any of their services in which thus bent they seek deliverance from their horrors and terrible perplexities no not any of the works of righteousness of their own with which perhaps they would establish their hearts before God they being but as things thrown to Dogs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Swine as these husks in the spirits account Phil. 3.8 9. Oh the misery of departing from God All they that forsake thee shall perish Psal 73.27 and thou destroyest all them that go a whoring from thee 7. He was lost perisht without God without hope in God and Christ had no hope to uphold him nothing of his former gifts part portion would now relieve him it was all spent and gone he had consumed that with riotous living and nothing this Citizen to whom he had bound or joyned himself affords him could give him any comfort but despair and destruction seize upon him and swallowed him up as it were so that he might say as in Ezek. 37.11 As for us our hope is lost we are cut off for our parts Or as those Lam. 4.17 As for us our eyes as yet failed for our vain help c or as David The sorrows of death compassed me about the pangs of hell caught hold upon me I found woe and sorrow Psal 116.3 4. 7. He might be and sinners oft are lost and perisht as to this life by falling into some notorious evils fall under the law or into some loathsome and foul disease bringing him into death here in a perishing way for this world and all the mercy he might have had and enjoyed therein had he kept Gods wayes and not departed from them for so sometimes the word perishing or lost is meant of perishing or being lost men here cast and condemned at law sentenced to dye or utterly cut off from the land of the living and this is the way sometimes between the Bridge and the Water to finde mercy So the Disciples cried out to Christ Matth. 8.25 Master save us we perish that is we are lost as to our lives here 8. And unless he had perished thus perhaps he had perished worse even eternally from the presence of God and from the glory of his power so as to be lost and perisht for ever with the Devil and damned spirits in unutterable unbearable endless remediless miseries and destruction for sinners turned aside from God are in the way to this and this unless mercy prevent will be their issue Such is the portion of all that forget God and the Hypocrites hope shall perish See Heb. 2.3 and 10.29 30 c. Use And is not this a sad portion and who would turn from such a portion as the former to such a portion as this latter who but mad men would run from God to the Devil from all to nothing or from all that 's good to nothing but what is unspeakably bad and sad from Heaven and Happiness to Hell and Destruction what is there in the pleasure of sin or in the profit of it that can countervail either the pleasure or Profit of the former portion lost or the pain and misery of this portion incurred Oh what 's an inch of pleasure to an immeasurable pain a minute of sweetness to an endless bitterness yea if it were but a months or years but how much more to many years gall and wormwood a superficial appearance of delight to a real deep heart-sinking torment and distress how vain is the pretence of sin that we shall step but a
Praises of God Yea this is a thing meet to be joyed in and for 1. By God his Father himself for so he puts in himself here not only its meet that thou shouldst make merry but we I and thou too A wise Son makes a glad Father Prov. 10.1 My son be wise and make my heart glad that I may answer him that reproacheth me Prov. 27.11 Though this Son had done foolishly in departing and running away from his Father and when he began to be an hungry in joyning himself to a Citizen of that Countrey yet he did wisely when coming to himself he repented and returned and the Father here rejoyces and hath wherewith to answer his other Son reproaching him So also in Prov. 23.15 16. My Son if thy heart be wise my heart shall rejoyce even mine yea my reins shall rejoyce when thy lips speak right things It s meet a Father be glad of his Sons welfare 2. By his Brother or Brethren it is meet we should make merry and be glad not only I but thou also with me for should not brethren love one another and be glad they may enjoy one anothers company in health and safety and therefore be glad when any of them escapes any danger and the more the greater the danger was that is escaped and then 3. By the Servants also that attend on them There is joy in the presence of the Angels of God over one sinner that repenteth ver 10. and I have no greater joy saith one of Gods Servants in the Gospel then to hear or see that my Children walk in the truth yea and to repent and turn from swervings too so the Apostle Paul the Servant of Christ Now I rejoyce saith he not that ye were made sorry but that ye were made sorry to repentance 2 Cor. 7.9 4. But most of all by the sinner himself made alive again and found of his Father and in his Fathers house amongst his Brethren whether in the lower rooms while here or in the upper chambers as the Thief or Malefactor that day he dyed was in Paradise O give thanks to the Lord for he is good for his mercy endureth for ever Let the redeemed of the Lord say so whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy c. Psal 107.1 2. Quest But why is it meet to make merry and be glad for such a one upon such an occasion surely there is great and good reason for it Answ 1. Because of the goodness of the condition it self in which a repentant sinner is found or brought into Good things are matters of joy when had and enjoyed here 's nothing but good in this state good it is in it self and good to all others therefore worthy joy and mirth and gladness 1. Good in it self for 1. It is a state of life and life is good in it self and therefore matter of promise which it would not be if not good for we do not use to promise what we judge bad and if God judged life bad or it were so in it self God would not promise it He is just he shall surely live Ezek. 18.9 It s matter of prayer Oh that Ishmael might live before thee Gen. 17.18 Let Reuben live and not dye Deut. 33.6 And its matter of praises Psal 1â—9 175 Let my soul live and it shall praise thee and let thy judgements help me Yea it s a matter of Christs purchase that he came into the world to procure and give yea the principal matter I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly John 10 10. and therefore surely life is good a great good Yea skin for skin said the adversary and all that a man hath will he give for his life 'T is usually so but especially spiritual life the life of the soul in Christ and so in the favour of God is good The life which is in the path of righteousness wherein is no death Prov. 12.28 And this is the state the sinner is taken into upon repentance and coming back to God in Christ as in Ezek. 18.17 If the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed and keep all my statutes and do that that is lawful and right he shall surely live he shall not dye and ver 22. He shall live So in Chap. 33.11 Turn and live Being brought back to God in and by Christ the only way by which any can come or be brought to God John 14.6.7 he lives in and by Christ who is the Resurrection and the life so as that whoever believes in him whatever he be or hath been though never so dead yet he shall live and living and believing in him he shall live for ever John 11.25 26. And so it s said here He is alive again Object Oh! but the repenting Malefactor upon the Cross dyed for all his repentance Answ As to his body he did and all must and that as so inflicted on him was the fruit of his sin not of his return yea as to its sentence a means of his return from his sin but that which was the fruit of his repentance was that he lived to God Being judged according to 〈◊〉 in the flesh but living according to God in the Spirit 1 Pet. 4.6 and so his soul lived and went that day to Paradise and lived for ever His death as it was the fruit of his sinning was matter of sadness but as it was a means to his repentance so it was to be joyed in but much more the life of his soul and eternal life promised to and to be enjoyed by both soul and body in the Resurrection the fruits or consequents of repentance are matters of unspeakable joy and gladness if a Childe fall into the fire will not the mother rejoyce to see him snatched out of it and live safely and in health again though with causing the scorched skin to peel off surely yes 2. It is a state of being found a found state a state wherein a sinner is not lost from God and his goodness to his Brethren and fellow Servants but is found in and with them known owned and approved with God and with men Angels of one minde â— God and so is with them under the gracious approving knowledge of God and under his gracious care counsel defence c. and in unity with all that are well and happy found in a large and spacious house in and under the enjoyment of or title to large Provisions richest Furniture sweetest Relations and Friends abiding and eternal safety and satisfactions Come to Mount Sion the City of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem to be of them as Ephes 2.19 20. and to an innumerable company of Angels to have fellowship with them and protection by them to the General Assembly and Church of the first-born whose names are written in heaven as owned of God and inrolled as heirs of heaven and its infinite glory and happiness to be with
whom they injoy their happiness and livelihood and about whom and whose good the Master appoints them their choise imployment It was meet we should make merry and be glad for it is my Son and thy Brother what though he hath been a bad husband he is not so now What though a spend thrift an evil liver then indeed we had cause of sadness but now he that was so is reclaimed and he is still my Son thy Brother That a Second 3. It is meet c. Because of the sad estate he hath been in and from which he is raised again and brought to this condition He was a Son a Brother of whom there was great fears and for whom we had great grief and exercise he hath been long away and far from us there was little hope that we should ever see him again he hath been in great poverty necessity and straits he hath been pinched with hunger dryed up with thirst naked and destitute of clothing and harbour ready to famish and perish with want and this in a strange Country where all were set to ruin him none to help him It s a thousand to one but he had perisht and been lost for ever and yet from this strange and sad case he is at length returned safe again and should we not make merry for the good of such a relation that hath been in such perils of death and drowning or of perishing by the most cruel and lingring death that of Famine It 's true he is not come into a better condition in it self than those that abide and walk with God but he is come to it out of a worse than ever they were in and therefore hath reason hereafter to be more wary to keep home and may walk more thankfully and dutifully because under the sense and mindfulness of the greater mercy to him And as we had more abundant cause of grief and fear for him so we have now answerably more abundant cause to make merry and be glad for him as we are most glad of the safety of ours after the greatest danger of utter loosing them That 's a Third 4. It was meet that we should make merry c. If we consider whence this hath happened to him that he is come safe home again It 's the Lords own work and a work of more abundant grace marvellous and miraculous power and mercy to convert a sinner after he hath been with God and departs from him again And as God rejoyces in his works generally Psal 104.31 so especially in those that are works of his mercy because mercy pleaseth and delights him Mich. 7.18 and yet more in those in which his mercy is most glorified by him And surely as all the works of God are wonderful and glorious and its meet we should have pleasure in them so especially those in which he is most brightly discovered and his glory that is all matter of gladness is most of all displayed And such is his mercy in converting and calling back from death and giving pardon and life to a rebellious offender and therefore it 's meet that all flesh should bless his holy name in this and such works as these especially and that all his people who have thereby more abundant occasion of beholding and cause of admiring his goodness and whose hearts may thence receive most incouragement to obey and serve him have cause to rejoyce in him and in his doings herein It was meet that we should make merry and be glad 5. It was meet in respect of its tendency and fruit which is the glorifying of God and drawing in other sinners to repentance that they also may be saved the most acceptable thing to God 1 Tim. 2.3 David being pardoned for and healed of his great sins of Adultery and Murther delivered from blood-guiltiness Would teach trangressors the way so as sinners should be converted to him his tongue should sing aloud of and greatly commend Gods righteousness though he could thenceforth less speak of his own His lips being again opened should shew forth Gods praises Psal 51.13 14 15. As the turning away of good men from God by sin doth mightily dishonour God and stumble and hurt others so the returning of backsliders to God tends much to the glorifying him and doing good to others by their examples before them and confessions and praises of God to them strengthening those that are in God's way and recalling others that stray from it yea and incouraging them to Repentance That 's a fifth Reason Use And this consideration also in its several Branches may be of divers usefulness to us as 1. It magnifies and tends to provoke us to magnifie the greatness of the grace and mercy of God to Mankind that hath prepared and made a way in and by his Son Jesus Christ that rebellious sinners and back-sliders from him might be brought back again to him and be received of him There is with the Lord plenteousness of redemption so as he can and will redeem Israel from all his iniquities He can forgive and revive such as none else can or will Such as being put away for Whoredome have joyned themselves to others that might not be received again by the Law yet he can receive and forgive such and declares himself ready to it also through Jesus Christ Jer. 3.1 2.8.12 13. All things that could not be atoned or from which men might not be justified by the Law of Moses all that believe in Jesus Christ are justified from by him Act. 13.38 39. And he can call and revive and quicken the most dead souls through the seven Spirits of God that are in him Revel 3.1 And so it leads us 2. To magnifie and commend the exceeding preciousness of the blood of Christ and the fountain opened therein For the house of David and inhabitants of Jerusalem to wash in for sin and for uncleanness Zech. 13.1 The house of David we know was guilty of blood and the City Jerusalem a bloody idolatrous City compared to a woman to be judged for breaking Wedlock and for shedding Innocent Blood Adultery and Murther Ezek. 16.38 and yet this fountain in Christ's most pretious blood will extend to and is vertuous for the washing them God hates the bloody and deceitful man David was guilty of both and yet in the multitude of God's mercies he durst go into God's house and appear before him Psal 5.6 7. And praying to God to wash him from those sins saith That if he would purge him with Isop and wash him he should be whiter than the snow Psal 51.7 8. And the like is promised upon their repentance to the Princes and People of Jerusalem and Judah though compared to the Princes of Sodome and people of Gomorrah for badness Isa 1.10 16 17. Such is the vertue of the blood of Christ that in coming to it and bathing in it in turning to God and believing in his Son it can make a City that is an harlot and full
our meat and drink our drink that our heavenly Father hath provided for us we shall never be merry Fasting and mirth are not meet concomitants but feasting and mirth Our Father hath killed for us the fatted calf indeed he bid his Servants do it and so they do in a sort in their ministerial holding forth Christ crucified for us Yea all are his servants they that crucified Christ did but therein what his hand and counsel had determined to be done Act. 4.28 But the Son puts it upon the Father Thou hast killed for him the fatted calf God hath prepared him for us delivered him up for our sins and raised him again for our justification Sets him forth in the Gospel as a sacrifice offered up for our sins and gives him to us as the bread of life to eye and believe in exercise faith in and so feed upon him We are not put upon it or called upon in this feast to bring any dish with us but only to eat what he hath prepared and made ready for us It will make our Father's heart glad to see us accept his love and eat heartily of his meat and eat together like brethren lovingly He will not think his fatted calf ill bestowed on us if we will but eat heartily on it Yea therein he hath delighted its meat and drink to him his Sons obedience and righteousnesse and in and through him its as meat and drink to him to see us eat heartily on him too Do not look upon our meat only though its good to look on it too for it s so lovely and altogether pleasing to an enlightned eye that it will allure us to eat but also eat of it feed on it put it in our mouths let it go down into our bellies or hearts Cause our bellies to eat and fill our bowels with it Ezek. 3.3 If thou confesse with thy mouth Jesus the Lord and in thine heart believe that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved Rom. 10.10 But what have we no drink to our meat yes yes I warrant you our Father keeps a good bountiful house he hath a cup of good wine for us spiced wine the most choise wine the blood of the grape and yet it s but the fatted calf still For his flesh is meat indeed his being incarnate and made flesh for us his being delivered up to death for our ransome and redemption He as therein the way for us to God the mediator of God and us the receptacle for us and convayer of the grace and blessing of God to us This is our meat and its meat indeed And his blood is drink indeed his abasement and sufferings as obtaining for us and confirming to us the New Testament and its precious promises which are all in him by vertue of this his most pretious blood obtaining for us the continual pardon of our sins yea and Amen Affirmed and confirmed or ratified for and to us This this and the love herein testified is drink indeed Joh. 6.55 His love is better than wine will cause the lips of those that are asleep to speak Cant. 2.2 and 7.9 come then let us eat together of this meat this is better than to feed on the flesh of our own arms Isa 9.20 That 's pittiful stuff that is what we can do and gather up to and for our selves by our own strength our fastings prayers whinings pinings works of righteousnesse of our own doings our humblings and self abasements as reflected on by us The flesh and blood of this fatted calf is ten thousand times better it will make us strong to labour and work what is good and make us thankful to him that gives it to us and to acknowledge our selves infinitely unworthy such a dish to have been prepared for us but these things are the fruits and effects of it fed on not the meat we are to eat much lesse what is but the issue of our own power and strength Come then Brethren let us sit at it here and eat and drink heartily if we will be merry and glad and make our Father merry and glad and our Brethren merry and glad Let 's eat and drink and be merry here This will never make us Epicures nor drunkards nor riotous eaters of flesh Here is no excesse in this feast eat and drink of it what we can Eat we that that is good and let our souls delight themselves in fatnesse Hereto we are invited and called upon Isa 55.2 3. And here call we upon one another too as our Lord doth upon us all Eat oh friends yea drink yea drink abundantly of my love as some translate that Cant. 5.1 Our Father will never chide us or tax us for it as gluttonous eaters of flesh or drunkards I say for eating our fills here nor shall we need to spare this fatted calf is a living dish that will grow upon us in the eating it the more we eat the more we may eat and the more we eat of it the more welcome And the wine here will do like the oil in the miracle increase as we empty it or drink of it Here 's a Princely feast no law to limit us how much to eat or drink Oh! that all the Epicures drunkards and gluttons in the world would lay aside their epicurism in which they spend and wast God's creatures and break his laws and bring upon themselves misery and destruction and turn gluttons and drunkards here if they can Yea here its lawful and a priviledge to be drunken for so some read that in Cant. 5.1 Drink and be ye drunken oh my beloved or with my love And to be sure if Christ make men drunk he will never fault them for it if men drink here till they loose their own understanding reason senses it will never harm them for they loose them not for the worse as in bodily and sinful drunkennesse to be made like beasts but for the better to be made like Angels or conformable to Christ To be drunk into his Spirit his will mind judgment and to be carried above not beneath our selves Here we may call for cups and flagons too Stay me with flagons Cant. 2.5 be not drunk with wine then wherein is excesse but be filled with the spirit of love and of Christ there 's no excesse in that Eph. 5.18 19. This wine will exhilarate or chear us while it assures us of God's love in Christ and ascertains us of the injoyment of his promises yea and convays them to us This wine will indeed make glad our hearts Let 's eat drink and be merry then here not for tomorrow we shall dye but and we shall never dye We shall never drink our selves dead here as the drunkards of this world do but we shall drink our selves alive we shall drink death away and drink our selves into eternal life For whoso eateth my flesh saith our Lord and drinketh my blood hath eternal life Joh 6.56 And this will