address of the Holy Spirit which we are considering of these are only the motions or visits which he vouchsafes to make pendente lite or whilst it is yet undetermined to whom men will ultimately belong That therefore which we are concerned about is the peculiar priviledge of very good men such as have cherished the motions entertained the visits and complied with the intimations of the Holy Spirit and when it is come to that from thenceforth he doth not visit them in transitu only or call upon them but resides and inhabits with them and becomes as it were a constant principle a Soul of their Souls in short they are the temples of the Holy Ghost THIS I take to be that which our Saviour means Jo. 14. 23. If any man love me he will keep my word and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him and that also of St. John in the name of our Saviour Rev. 3. 20. Behold I stand at the door and knock which phrase signifies the previous and more ordinary motions of his grace And if any man open to me i. e. if men attend to my admonitions and invitations and break off their custom of sin which barrs the door of their Souls against me then I will come in and sup with him c. i. e. then I will be a familiar guest or inhabitant with him and this is both interpreted and confirmed by St. Paul 1 Cor. 3. 16. Know ye not that ye are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you i. e. being sanctified and made fit for the residence of that heavenly Guest he hath taken possession of you as his house and temple and more expresly yet by St. John 1 Ep. 3 24. He that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him and he in him and hereby we know that he abideth with us by his Spirit which he hath given us § II. NOW this inhabitation or residence of the Holy Spirit is called a Seal and men are said to be sealed by the Holy Spirit because as seals use to denote propriety so God hereby marks out as it were such men for his own i. e. as those that he hath a peculiar concern about those that have an interest in him and he in them and this is of wonderfull comfort and advantage especially in these four respects 1. THE Spirit thus inhabiting men gives them a title not only to God's care and providence but to an inheritance of Sons to a participation of that unspeakable felicity wherewith himself is eternally happy and glorious So the Apostle concludes in the forementioned place Eph. 1. 13 14. After ye believed ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise which is the earnest of our inheritance untill the time of the purchased possession q. d. We are hereby assured of Heaven and glory hereafter though we are not yet in possession of it or this is the pledge of our adoption upon which the inheritance is intailed Hence it is that the same Apostle Rom. 8. 11. makes this an assured argument of our resurrection But if the Spirit of him that raised Jesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised Jesus from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you q. d. You cannot lie under the power of death and the bonds of the grave but God will assert you to life and immortality because you have a principle of life the Holy Spirit in you which will as surely revive you as it raised Jesus from the dead for by his residence in you you are marked out as belonging to God and thereby he hath taken possession of you for himself WHEN God owned the Tabernacle amongst the Jews built by Moses and after that the Temple built by Solomon and solemnly dedicated to him for his House or Palace wherein to dwell amongst that people it pleased him as it were to take livery and seisin by the cloud which on the behalf of the Divine Majesty hovered over them and was therefore not improperly called by the Jews the Shekinah or dwelling presence and God was said to dwell between the Cherubims because there this symbol of the divine presence subsisted And as in the Christian Church all those miracles which the primitive Christians were inabled to perform were principally to assure their minds that God owned them and although they were destitute of humane help and persecuted both by Jews and Gentiles yet God was with them in which respect the Holy Ghost is called the Comforter so often by our Saviour I say in those miraculous effusions of the Holy Spirit the cloud as it were sate over the mercy-seat in the Christian Church which was now departed from the Temple of the Jews and denoted the collection of believers both of Jews and Gentiles united under Christ Jesus to be now God's peculiar houshold and family So also to all holy men in all Ages God is present by his Spirit by which they become Temples of the Holy Ghost upon which the Apostle pronounces peremptorily Rom. 8. 9. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his Which I understand in this sense q. d. He is not arrived at the excellent state of Christianity that hath not experience of the residence of God's Holy Spirit in him ONLY this is to be remembred that this residence of the Holy Spirit in good men which we speak of is not to be judged of by miraculous effects nor are such to be expected now because those were proper only for the first Ages when whilst the Church was under persecuting Emperors and in its infancy God thought fit by such prodigious displays of his power and presence to make all the world see his concern for it and that as I said before he had taken possession of it but ordinarily and especially in the case of private Christians the presence of the Spirit with them discovers it self by such effects as these following For 2. THE Spirit of God though he doth not work miracles now yet doth he not meerly take up his residence in the hearts of holy men but actuates them prompts them forward in all good actions helps and strengthens them in their duty and inflames their resolution and zeal in all brave and generous enterprizes in respect of which we are said to be lead by the Spirit to live and walk in the Spirit Which is not so to be understood as if what good was done the Spirit did it for men nor much less as if he hurried men on whensoever they did well and so for defect of such motion were liable to bear the blame of their irregularities when they did evil for as on the one side he never moves but to that which is certainly good and agreeable to the standing rules of Scripture and natural reason so neither on the other hand when he incites to any such thing doth he overpower
for deliberation there could be no perfect judgment and consequently but an imperfect consent AGAIN whilest a man is bending himself with all his might against some one extreme which he knows to be evil and therefore carefully declines he may perhaps in detestation of that incline too much to the other or whilest a man endeavours diligently to carry on both the affairs of this life and the concerns of Religion too it may happen that the solicitude and cares of the former may sometimes unseasonably crowd in and disturb him in the latter Nay once more through the infirmity of memory compared with the multiplicity of affairs which a wise and good man's care extends to it may not infrequently fall out that such a person for the present forgets or omits some duty of Religion Now it cannot be said that any of these cases are perfectly involuntary because it was not impossible but that extraordinary diligence and watchfullness might have provided against them nevertheless they are not deliberate sins nor was there any full consent of the will to them as is evident both by what we have said already and also by this that such persons we speak of very quickly feel remorse for them their hearts smite them upon the first reflexion upon what hath past and they presently recover themselves and double their watch and guard where they have thus found themselves overtaken These therefore and all other of the nature of these are properly called sins of infirmity BUT now on the other side when the matter of fact is notorious and palpable that it can admit of no dispute whether it be evil or no when a man is not surprized but makes his election doth not insensibly slip awry whilest he was in his right way but takes a wrong course is not overborn by an huge fear but is allured by the pleasures of sense when he hath time to consider and yet resolves upon that which is forbidden him here is little or nothing to extenuate the fact or mitigate his guilt it is a voluntary and therefore a presumptuous sin Such a distinction as this David seems to make Psal 19. 12 13. when he prays that he may understand his errours to the intent that with holy Joh where he had done iniquity he might doe so no more but earnestly begs that he may be kept from presumptuous sins i. e. from such voluntary and wilfull miscarriages as we have but now spoken of so saith he shall I be innocent and free from the great transgression For though sins of infirmity in the most proper sense are not without guilt at least if God should proceed in rigour with men yet in consideration of the goodness of God together with the evident pitiableness of their own circumstances they leave no horrour upon the mind no stain or ill mark upon the person much less a scar or a maim but the other besides their great guilt either terribly afflict or lay waste and stupify the Conscience they harden the heart break the powers of the soul and quench the Spirit of God as we shall have occasion to speak more at large hereafter AT present I think it may be very pertinent to observe that whereas S. John Ep. 1. Chap. 3. vers 4. seems to give a brief and compendious description of sin in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render Sin is a transgression of the Law it is not altogether improbable but that the Apostle intended to express something more then is commonly understood by those words in English for besides that it seems a flat saying he that sinneth transgresseth the Law for sin is a transgression of the Law it is noted moreover by Learned men that the Apostle calls not sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which had been the most proper word to denote a meer breach or transgression of the Law but uses the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies a great deal more namely lawlesness and dissoluteness the living without or casting off the yoke of the Law for so we find it elsewhere used in Scripture particularly 1 Tim. 1. 9. where we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lawless and disobedient or ungovernable joyned together And thus the phrase of the Apostle before us will import not so much the meer matter of sin viz. the violation of a Law but the aggravation of it as a presumptuous sin namely the wilfullness and stubbornness of the sinner And if this gloss may be allowed we shall with much ease be able to understand a following passage in this Apostle which hath not a little exercised the heads of Divines nor less perplexed the Consciences of many serious persons Viz. vers 9. of this Chapter he writes thus he that is born of God doth not commit sin for his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God Now if we take sin strictly and rigorously here for every thing that is contrary to the perfection of the Divine Law then it will be absolutely necessary that by the phrase he that is born of God we can understand none but our Saviour himself which is altogether besides the business forasmuch as he only was without sin in that sense but if we take the phrase in the latitude before intimated that is for voluntary wilfull and deliberate sins then the sense is both easie and comfortable namely that the man who is truely a Christian having not only the profession but the new nature temper and spirit of the Gospel though being a man and so incompassed with temptations and difficulties as every one is in this world he cannot avoid all surreptions yet the powerfull principles of Christianity setled in his heart will not fail to preserve him at least ordinarily from rebellion and wilfull disobedience AND this way of interpreting these and the like passages of the New Testament is strongly countenanced by what we find Luk. 1. 6. where it is said of Zachary and Elizabeth that they were both of them righteous before God walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless That is they were sincerely good and vertuous persons their hearts were principled with the fear and love of God and though they were not without the errours and failings incident to humanity yet they strictly made Conscience of their duty and did not deliberately depart from the way of God's commandments And that passage concerning David 1 King 15. 5. seems sufficient to put the matter out of doubt where it is said David did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord and turned not aside from any thing he commanded him all the days of his life save only in the matter of Vriah the Hittite Notwithstanding the Scripture reckons up several failings of David his passion for Absalom his numbring the People his approaching too near the Lord 's Annointed when he cut off the skirt of Saul's Garment for which his heart smote him his despondency
of mind and mistrusts that he should one day fall by the hand of Saul his rage against Nabal c. But in regard these were but imperfectly voluntary therefore they make no blot in his Character But in the matter of Vriah the fact was horrible there was time for deliberation the use of cunning and contrivance and therefore full consent Wherefore this was quite of another consideration from all the rest and left such a stain upon him as required many tears and prayers and a very serious and signal repentance to cleanse him from § VI. THUS much I had thought sufficient for the clearing the distinction between sins of infirmity and presumption but I cannot but take notice of a mistake equally common and dangerous which where-ever it takes place doth not only render all we have hitherto said useless but is of fatal consequence to the souls of men It is to this effect When men are about the commission of some great and enormous sin it is not unusual for them to find some reluctancy and abhorrence within themselves Now for the sake of this they think that although they yield to the temptation and commit the sin yet it will not be esteemed altogether a voluntary transgression but will admit of great abatements by reason of such combate and conflict which they found in themselves And to this purpose they apply that passage of the Apostle Rom. 7. 15. That which I doe I allow not for what I would that doe I not but what I would not that I doe And that which follows also vers 17. So then it is no more I that doe it but sin that dwelleth in me But to remove so dangerous a mistake it would be well considered in the first place that however some have learned to call such a reluctancy as aforesaid by the specious name of the combat between the flesh and spirit or the regenerate and unregenerate part as the same men love to speak it is certainly nothing else but meerly some remains of natural Conscience in men and is to be found in some measure in the very worst of men that is in all but those whose Consciences are seared and utterly insensible It is the very nature of Conscience it self which is nothing else but a kind of internal sense of good and evil implanted by God in the nature of man and a man may more easily destroy any of his outward senses then quite extinguish this The Apostle takes notice of it in the Romans Chap. 2. vers 15. whose vices were yet so notorious as that they were utterly out of capacity of being accounted regenerate men Indeed if a man found in himself so quick a sense of his duty and were so tender of all degrees of evil that his Conscience not only checkt but called him off and restrained him upon the first appearance or approaches of sin this as I have intimated before would be a good sign of regeneration and such beginnings of evil so resisted will not be imputed as wilfull transgressions BUT when a man's Conscience only checks him but he goes on and commits the sin the best that can be made of it is only that it is not a seared Conscience and yet such a man is in a fair way to that also for as a part of the body by being often rubbed and hurt grows at last callous and insensible so the Conscience being often resisted in its intimations and stifled and over-born by the fury of lust and passion grows at last stupid and dead So the Apostle tells us Rom. 1. 28. because they liked not to retain God in their minds he gave them up to vain imaginations and because they gave themselves to sensuality he gave them up to unnatural lusts and so by degrees 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to a reprobate mind to a state of stupidity a spirit of injudiciousness to lose the feeling of good and evil And in the mean time it is so far from extenuating the guilt of a man's sin that his heart smote him for it that on the contrary it is a great aggravation of his presumption that he went on to the commission of it notwithstanding If a man could say he did not so well know his duty as he should and therefore his Conscience not being rightly informed did not give him warning of it or that he was in a hurry and could not consider or confesses his rashness and precipitancy these are some mitigations for as S. Clemens well pronounces That which is involuntary is sudden and where a man cannot deliberate he scarcely consents But when the case is such that a man must acknowledge he knew what he did he thought of it and condemned it and yet did it this surely is an aggravation if any thing in the world be so It is saith a generous Heathen Plutarch by name a most unmanly and brutish thing for a man that knows what he should doe softly and effeminately to give himself up to the swing of intemperate passions In short if when a man confessing the truth must say he had reason against what he did but confronted it his conscience shamed him but he resolved to be shameless he had weapons in his hand to resist temptation but he cast them down and yielded all which is implied when a man saith his Conscience smote him when he went about a sin but nevertheless he persisted and committed it I say if this be not a voluntary sin there is no such thing incident to mankind § VII THUS much concerning the guilt or malignity of sin in the general Now briefly for the various states and mansions of sinners Which we shall the more easily understand if we first consider the several degrees of vertue or so many higher and lower capacities as there are of being good and holy And I know not where to find these more exactly reckoned up and described then by S. Clement of Alexandria who makes four stations of perfection 1. Not to sin at all Which saith he is the felicity of the divine nature and to be sure not the condition of any meer man in this world 2. Not to commit any wilfull or voluntary sin which is the attainment of the perfect man or true Gnostick as he uses to speak 3. Rarely to be guilty of inadvertency or involuntary Lapses which is the condition of a good proficient in religion 4. and Lastly When a man hath sinned to recover himself early by repentance and not lie under the guilt nor much less grow into a habit of sin Which lowest degree though it be vastly different from every of the former yet it is tolerable and acceptable through the mercy of God as we shall see anon NOW in some proportion to this discourse we will suppose 4 stations or degrees of wickedness 1. Such as do nothing but sin which we only mention for method-sake for as we are certain non datur summum
malum or that there is no being absolutely evil as the Manichees imagined so it is very questionable whether the very Devil himself do nothing but what is evil but it is out of all question with me that the worst and most viciously inclined men do some good And for those that can assert the most vertuous actions of unregenerate men to be express sins they may pretend what Patrons they will of their opinion but I am sure neither Scripture nor reason will countenance it for though it be true that the best actions of such men are not acceptable as the conditions of eternal life because they are disjoined from habitual sanctification and true holiness yet that they are not therefore sins will sufficiently appear by what we have said not long since in the description of the nature of sin Neither because they are defective in some circumstances do they cease to be good or become sins for then the best performances of the best men in this world would be sins too because they are also defective in circumstances 2. THE second or rather first rank of sinners consists of such as live in the habitual practice of great and enormous sins whether of one kind or of many I confess at the first sight one would think these should be divided into two classes whereof the first should be those profligate wretches and sons of Belial who perfectly abandon themselves to the temptation of the Devil and the fury of their own lusts and adde drunkenness to thirst as the Scripture expresseth it or run from one kind of sin to another with a kind of greediness as if were it possible they loved evil for its own sake or had a spite both at God and their own souls And the second should be those more reserved and cautious sinners who perhaps may carry it very demurely in many respects but maintain some bosome sin which is as dear to them as their right eye and as necessary as their right hand and this they hope God will indulge them Oh it is a little one and their souls shall live I say I should in civility have provided these a form by themselves and not set them with the open and scandalous sinners but that I observe God makes no difference between them His servants ye are saith the Apostle to whom ye obey and it is no matter whether a man have many Masters or one he is equally a slave that is led captive either way And so 8. James in that most remarkable passage Chap. 2. vers 10. Whosoever shall keep the whole Law and yet offend in one point is guilty of all Of which seeming Paradox he gives account in the next Verse For he that said Do not commit adultery said also Do not kill c. i. e. The reverence of every branch of God's Law is built upon the consideration of his sovereignty and right to prescribe to us which he impeaches whosoever dispenses with himself in the habitual breach of any one of his commands For whatever particular he chooses to transgress in he derogates from the authority of the whole Besides it is to be considered that all sins cannot stand together some sins are as repugnant and contradictory to each other as all are to vertue and moreover non omnis fert omnia tellus it may be not the humour or interest or not sutable to the constitution of some man to act some sin when yet it is neither love of vertue nor the fear of God which makes him abstain from it These therefore are justly joyned together namely all such as live in the habitual practice of one or more notorious sins 3. A THIRD rank are such as though they live not in the habit yet are guilty of the act of some very great and flagitious crime for there are some sins very deadly even in single acts as either containing a complication of many wickednesses together as sacriledge adultery sedition or such as can never be revoked nor amends be made for them as taking away a man's life or never repeated nor repented of as to murther a man's self and several others Now these being of so deadly a nature every man that hath any sense of vertue or care of his own soul ought ever to be sufficiently guarded against them and at utter defiance of them and he that can be so careless as to be found guilty of any such betrays the great Atheism and security of his heart And for this reason the miscarriage of David in the business of Bathshebah and Vriah lays such an horrible blot upon him and needed all that repentance whereof we have the footsteps in the 51. Psalm 4. THE fourth and last rank are they that avoid both the habit and the act of greater sins yet allow themselves in the frequent commission of lesser and persevere in them without repentance By lesser sins I mean both such as I reckoned up before under the name of infirmities and more particularly such as these following When a man dares not give himself up to beastly sensuality yet will too much humour and caress his body in meats and drinks and pleasures or will not steal and couzen but will be covetous and have his heart too much upon the world that dares not cast off the duties of Religion but will indulge himself to be remiss and flat in them and several of this nature too easie to be observed Now these kinds of sins are the more dangerous in that partly our Consciences not being presently startled at them as at greater crimes we more easily admit them or they insensibly steal upon us from whence it comes to pass that they become frequent and so arise to a great number and seem to equal that way what they have not in weight These therefore if they be suffered to pass unregarded grow to a great danger since no danger is little when once it is esteemed so and besides though these may pass for inadvertencies when they are once or rarely committed yet it must be a vicious neglect of our selves when they are frequent and ordinary forasmuch as all sincere vertue is awakened to greater diligence by every sensible declension to which adde especially that whatsoever sin and how little soever it be is not repented of when it is come to our knowledge is by that means become a voluntary transgression increasing its guilt ex post pacto These are the principal stations of sin or the several ways upon which a man is denominated a sinner in the language of Scripture and of wise men BUT to the end we may render this important point as clear as we can and now also come more directly to the Parable before us we will take notice of the Psalmist David's distribution of sinners into a three-fold Classis Psal 1. vers 1. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly nor standeth in the way of sinners nor sitteth in the seat of the
presence of a grave and vertuous man carries that awe as that the sinner is rendered impotent to his purposes as if he were under a charm the truth of which we see confirmed by frequent experience how much more must needs the thoughts of an omni-present Majesty an all-seeing eye a holy and righteous Judge cool the heats abate the courage and stop the carreer of a sinner To which purpose it is the observation of several Learned men upon that passage of the Psalmist Psal 14. 1. The fool hath said in his heart there is no God They conceive That it might as well and as consistently with the Original be rendered The fool hath said to his heart c. i. e. Wicked men to the intent that they might go on the more comfortably and uncontrolledly in their sins would fain persuade themselves there is no God BUT to speak a little more closely and particularly to this matter forasmuch as I noted even now from S. Jerome that God being an Infinite Majesty we can neither approach him nor depart from him strictly and locally there are therefore these three ways by which according to the language of the Holy Scripture we can come near to God viz. either 1. by acts of immediate worship as prayer and praises and the like or 2. by living under a quick sense of his providence or 3. by yielding obedience to his commands which three things in conjunction make up the whole nature of true Piety and Religion And in respect to these the Holy men of old such as Enoch Noah Abraham c. are said to have walked with God That is they framed themselves to obedience to all his commands they composed themselves to a submission unto and compliance with his providential dispensations and to the intent that they might be assisted and animated in both those they constantly addressed themselves to him by acts of worship for his influence and blessing And again on the other side those evil men who are said to depart from God were such as either cast off the yoke of his obedience or lived without a sense of his superintendence or laid aside the care of his worship And which is further observable these three are hardly to be found separate from one another because of the reciprocal influence they have upon each other FOR as in the former Triad or instances of piety whosoever lives under a sense of a providence will endeavour to propitiate the Divine Majesty to himself by all worshipfull dutifull observance and he that makes Conscience of that cannot ordinarily be so absurd as to hope for the favour of a Wise and Holy Majesty by the meer importunity of his devotions without Conscience of obeying his commands with respect to which it was well said by a pious man in way of advice Leave not off praying to God for either praying will make thee leave sinning or continuing to sin will make thee desist praying Again he that worships and obeys a God most certainly lives under a sense of him for otherwise he could give no account to himself why he should put himself to the trouble of worship and the care of obedience AND then for the other Triad or the three instances of impiety he that lives wickedly will in time lose all sense of a providence and consequently all Conscience of the duties of worship and on the other side he that extinguishes either the belief of a providence or in a fair way to it casts off all care of religious worship will not fail to run riot in his life when he hath rid himself of those awfull principles that did curb and restrain him of the truth of all which we have a memorable example Gen. 4. Cain had betrayed a great remisseness in Religion by the carelesness of his Sacrifice whereas Abel who believed firmly in God thinking nothing too good for his service brought of the fattest and best of his flock to God Cain thought any thing would serve turn and accordingly carried away the tokens of God's displeasure and disdain but vers 8. he invites his Brother Abel into the field where as the Samaritan version intimates some discourse passed between them and the Jerusalem Targum tells us particularly that Cain stiffly denied a providence which Abel as strenuously asserted and this doctrine of Cain was very agreeable to his negligent worship before and his exsecrable practice after for from this denial of a providence he presently proceeds to the murder of his Brother and not long after that vers 16. we read Cain went out from the presence of the Lord he now agreeably to those principles and consequently of such villanous practices cast off renounced and defied Religion And the text further adds he went and sojourned in the Land of Nod which who so listed to interpret allegorically would very agreeably to the series of my present discourse say meant that he vagrant-like wandered on in a course of dissoluteness having now lost all card and compass to direct him BUT what need we farther evidence in so plain a case to which our own experience and the observation of all the world gives testimony for what is it that encourages any man in a generous undertaking where the exercise of vertue is attended with hazzard and difficulty with labour and trouble with patience and self-denyal but the belief of a providence what bears him up that the privacy of the fact abates not his edge nor the tediousness of accomplishment wearies out his endeavours nor the opposition quails his spirit but only this that he sees him that is invisible and having God before him thinks himself upon the most ample Theatre and is sure of success and reward And what is there that keeps alive this sense of God and Providence that neither Atheistical suggestions debauch his Principles nor multitude of ill examples cool his heat and corrupt his resolution but his approaches to God by exercises of devotion whereby he refreshes the worthy notions of his mind and hath them as it were new engraven and made more legible upon the tables of his heart He goes by the duties of Religion like Moses into the Mount of God and returns with the Tables of God's Law written a fresh by the finger of God Such a man is ashamed of sin and disdains every ungenerous action coming newly from the presence of God the approaches of such a glory diffuse some rays upon him and his face shines as the same Moses's did upon the like occasion In short he cannot without great violence to himself condescend to entertain the Devil into his bosome which is yet warm with that divine Guest the Holy Ghost Contrariwise take a man that lives without a sense of God and he hath no care of nor value for himself he hath not a mind large enough for any generous design he is poor spirited hurried by every fear baffled by every danger surprized and carried away by every temptation The vigorous
that the saying of the Apostle is especially and most remarkably verified in the charity of Parents that it beareth all things hopeth all things believeth all things for they readily believe well of their Children because they so passionately desire it should be so notwithstanding the Son could not think his Father so soft and easy as to be imposed upon with words and ceremonies and himself was not now so ill natured as to go about to abuse so much goodness if it it had been in his power Wherefore the Text saith vers 20. So he arose and came to his Father i. e. he did not only change his note his address his countenance but he changed his course he returned to his Father and to the duty of a Son AND we have under this type in the former part of it seen described the preface and introduction to repentance towards God namely the sinner bewailing his sin taking shame to himself under agonies of mind pricked to the heart humbly imploring the divine favour and crying earnestly for mercy But this is not all that repentance means the principal part of it is yet behind viz. Actual Reformation This is that which every awakened Conscience in its agonies promises and resolves upon this God expects and every sincere Convert really performs For without this all the rest is but empty pomp and pageantry and meer hypocrisy as we shall shew anon But when this is added to the former such a person from thenceforth is a new man and in a new estate he hath compleatly made his return to God as the Son in the Text is said to have actually returned to his Father I have noted heretofore that all irreligion and profaneness is wont in the language of the Scripture to be expressed by the phrase of departing from God or going out from him or forsaking him and so the whole practice of Religion is contrariwise set forth by drawing nigh to or coming to God particularly Hebr. 11. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he that cometh to God q. d. he that becomes a Proselyte to Religion for from thence doth that word Proselyte take its original Wherefore now we will first observe what is implyed by this phrase of the Son 's returning or coming to his Father and in proportion thereto describe this most important business of the Penitent's returning to God which is his Actual Conversion or Reformation and in the former these three things seem plainly to be comprehended 1. That the Son now returns home to his Father's family and presence 2. That he returns to the duty of a Son by obedience and compliance with his Father's commands 3. That he submits to his Father's government and provision Therefore in the latter namely conversion to God these three things must semblably be implied 1. That the Penitent puts himself under the eye of God and lives in a constant practice of piety and devotion 2. That he frames himself to universal obedience to all God's commands 3. That he gives himself up to the divine disposal and intirely submits to his providence and government 1. CONCERNING the first of these there is nothing more evident or remarkable to all experience and observation then the great fervor of devotion in all true Converts from an evil life insomuch that there is not that man to be found under such a character but presently with great solemnity and seriousness he sets up the worship of God to which purpose we find in the history of the Acts of the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Worshippers or Devout persons to be the common name by which Converts to Religion are expressed and these Acts 13. 48. are said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Candidates of eternal life or put into order and disposed for salvation Compare vers 43. with 48. More particularly it is observable of St. Paul that when from a superstitious Pharisee and bitter enemy of Christianity he was reclaimed and made a Christian the assurance that God gives to Ananias of the truth of his conversion is Acts 9. 11. Behold he prays And so of Manasses 2 Chron. 33. 18. amongst the instances of his real reformation the Scripture takes especial notice of the prayer that he prayed AND this is so universal a truth that I think from hence it cometh to pass that those who have a mind hypocritically to put on the guise and appearance of Religion are wont to be notably carefull in this point for so the Pharisees cloaked all their villanies with this garb of piety Now hypocrisy would miss altogether of its design if it did not resemble the truth of things and usually their over solicitude and overdoing herein betrays them to act a part only in Religion BUT it is not only the duty of prayer which the true Penitent expresses his conversion by though this be by some too phantastically called Duty as if all piety consisted in that only for as the literal Prodigal returns to his Father's house and family so the mystical returns to God's house which is his Church and associates himself with God's servants in all the offices of Religion viz. in hearing the word reading meditation Sacraments c. Now he thinks a day spent in God's Courts better then a thousand and had rather be a door-keeper in the house of the Lord then to dwell in the tents of the wicked This one thing he desires of the Lord and is most passionate in that he may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of his life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his Temple And he so highly values the priviledge of God's Church that no private opinion no trifling scrupulosity nor petty disgust shall ever alienate him from it Here he finds himself fortified and incouraged by the great examples of holy men his prayers strengthened by the concurrence of all good people here he is under the publick dispensations of the means of grace and knowledge the very plainness and simplicity of which he now with the great Convert St. Austin values and admires more then all the Greek or Roman eloquence of Speech or subtilty of Philosophy to which every thing else seemed flat and insipid before Above all the holy Sacrament puts him into an ecstasy in this he thinks himself in God's presence in an extraordinary manner and admitted a guest at his Table the Crums of which he thinks himself unworthy of here he refreshes his hungry Soul with the Bread of Life and his wounded Conscience by the Bloud of his crucified Saviour and in both he thinks he sees his provoked but compassionate Father stand with open arms to receive him This he approaches with great reverence with shame and sorrow for his sins past together with faith and hope in God's mercy and will therefore never be negligent of it IN these and all other duties of Religion both publick and private the Convert expresses such an excellent spirit and extraordinary
be true the apprehension of his Son's death had seized him so long that he could not believe any thing to the contrary now and by the report of his life his wounds bleed afresh and the grief for the loss of him was so renewed that the good man sinks into a Deliquium BUT when they had opportunity to report the whole business to relate the message was brought from Joseph and especially came to real proof shewing him the Wagons which his Son had sent to bring him down into Aegypt Then saith the Text the Spirit of their Father revived and he is as ready to be transported with an ecstasy of joy now as to be overwhelmed with sadness before but he recovers himself And Israel said It is enough Joseph my Son is yet alive I will goe down and see him before I die THE story besides the unquestionable authority of sacred record carries the natural marks of truth upon it all things being represented so done as they must needs be done upon supposition of the fact And for the lively strokes of passion in it I know not whether any thing in all history be able to match it grief and joy great as their several causes taking place successively vying with and setting off each other NOW although the business which we have at present before us be only a Parable yet it is not much unlike that history for here we find a beloved Son at different times under the extremities of good and evil one while as miserable as folly and misfortune can make him another while recovering himself and his station again and in all this diversity of fortune a good Father passionately concerned with him grieving and rejoycing respectively as the condition of his Son gave him occasion and all exprest with equal life as in the former history as if it were not a representation of what might be done but what was really matter of fact WE have hitherto seen the tragical part only the Son's folly and misery and the Father's grief the Son running on from one intemperance to another till his Father despaired of him and he found himself ruined but then by a great providence he comes to himself and returns but as we say by weeping cross BUT now the scene is changed the Son is recovered and the Father revived and all is joy and gladness Here the good Shepheard bringeth his lost Sheep home on his shoulders rejoycing here we see the good Samaritan pouring in wine and oyl and binding up the wounds of him that was miserably wounded and in a deplorable condition In short here we have a kind Father owning receiving and indowing his returning Son and here we have God Almighty the Father of Spirits pardoning and blessing penitent sinners § II. But to come to particulars whether we attend to the literal or the mystical sense of the Parable in this last part of it we shall easily observe these four remarkable passages 1. The passionate interview the benign aspect and kind greeting the Father affords his Son upon his first appearance in his way homewards 2. The kind and present supply of the Sons wants or he ornaments which the Father bestows upon him being t now returned 3. The splendid reception and entertainment he makes for him 4. And fourthly and lastly his apology for so doing I begin with the first viz. the passionate greeting at the first interview expressed thus vers 20 21 22. But when he was yet a great way off his Father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him And the Son said to his Father Father I have sinned c. THE Son relents and the Father melts into compassion the Son is ashamed and the Father's bowels yern towards him the affections of a Father prevent the Son's humiliation and acknowledgments and yet the Father's kindness will not discharge or supersede the Son's duty there is a noble contention between them the one would demonstrate more love and the other strives to equal that with ingenuity It is hard to observe order in passion however in the Father's carriage we take notice of these four steps FIRST he takes knowledge of his Son at a distance whilest he was yet a great way off though probably his former vices had disfigured him and his poverty disguised him long absence might have estranged him and age had somewhat altered him yet paternal affection is quick and sagacious he discovered and distinguished him notwithstanding SECONDLY his sight affects his heart when he saw him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he had compassion his bowels yerned towards him far sooner is the heart of a Father dissolved into kindness then that of a Son into obedience a great deal of consideration and resolution at last brings the Son to recover his sense of duty but the Father takes fire presently and the flame is not to be concealed For THIRDLY the greatness of his passion prompts him beyond the gravity of his years the dignity of his relation and above the remembrance of his just offence for he ran to meet his Son And then lastly he indulges his affections or cannot command them he falls on his neck and kisses him he forgets all former undutifullness and provocation he stands not rigidly expostulating the matter nor scrupulously weighing formalities but makes the fullest expressions of joy and indearment NOW in a due proportion to all these particulars making only a just allowance for the Majesty of God is the condescension of our heavenly Father towards returning sinners as I will shew by drawing the parallel in all the aforesaid particulars something more at large FIRST as an earthly Parent that has lost a Son carries the image of him in his thoughts and never so loses the remembrance of him but that upon every the least occasion he occurrs to his mind and therefore he will be quick in apprehending the first approaches of him if he happen to return so God our heavenly Father hath so tender a love to men and such a concern for their good and happiness that he takes notice of their first motions towards himself he discerns the first reasonings the reletings the agonies of mind the first dawnings towards a resolution of returning WE see not the Corn grow only we discover when it is grown nor do we discern how our own members are fashioned in the womb but the curious eye of God observes the first lines and traces of nature the first essays and palpitations of life upon which account the Psalmist admires the divine providence Psal 139. 14 15 16. I will praise thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully made My substance was not hid from thee when I was made in secret and curiously wrought in the lower parts of the earth Thine eyes did see my substance being yet imperfect and in thy book all my member were written which in process of time were fashioned when as yet there was none of them And much more doth
the wiles of the Devil but he may be imposed upon he is not so flesht with victory but his heart may fail him in short grace is rather a disposition then an habit in him and vertue more an inclination then a nature and therefore he may fall away But there is a virile state of vertue attainable when duty is turned into nature and that which is best in it self is also most pleasant and delectable When a man is so long exercised in the ways of holiness that it is as much a road to him as the course of sin was either heretofore to him or is now to others and neither the length of the race is tedious to him nor the dispatch difficult when a man shall neither stagger in his choice nor be flat and formal in his prosecution he hath tasted the Grapes of Canaan and never more longs to return to Aegypt but disdains the Flesh-pots the Onion and the Garlick thereof as much as he formerly groaned under the servitude Such a man having put on the whole armour of God is strong in the Lord and in the power of his might and defies all the powers of darkness the Devil himself is ashamed to tempt him having been so often baffled by him and he stands immovable as a Rock stable as an Angel and all the Gates of Hell cannot prevail against him Now because this admirable condition is both desirable and possible and that which God designs to bring men to therefore he proceeds to super-adde to the Convert further measures of sanctification NOW for the way of effecting this besides those secret ways of working which we cannot penetrate into by which it pleases God to bring about this glorious design there are these three ways following which fall within our understanding § IV. FIRST there is nothing more plainly discernible in a Convert then that the first workings of the grace of God in his heart revive a true ingenuity of spirit in him which is the very ground-work and foundation of all improvements and then God being pleased graciously and freely to give him the pardon of all his sins lays so mighty an obligation upon that ingenuity as is of force to put all the powers of the Soul upon their utmost activity and thereby the temper of such a person is marvellously raised and improved For there is a vast difference betwixt the efficacy of a spirit of bondage and the spirit of adoption if the former may be able to restrain sin yet it can never inflame men to generous goodness or if that impresses a caution of offending out of apprehension of the wrath of God the latter rises higher and stirs up indeavour of returning love for love the one is apt to inquire after the minimum quod sic as they call it the lowest measure of grace that will but serve the turn to avoid Hell the other seeks aliquid eximium and thinks nothing enough by way of gratefull return and therefore courts occasions and rejoyces in difficulties as happy opportunities of demonstrating his ingenuous sense of his obligations WHEN Cyrus had vanquished Croesus and having it in his power to destroy him not only preserved him but imployed him and made him privy to his Counsels meer generosity provoked him to become not a true Prisoner but a faithfull Friend and usefull Counsellor But our Saviour gives us the most illustrious example of that I am saying Luk. 7. 37. in the instance of a certain Woman that had been a great sinner who finding out our Saviour where he was at Dinner in a Pharisee's House brings a box of very costly ointment and having washed his feet with penitent tears wiped them with her hair and kissed them she anoints them also with the precious balm she had brought for that purpose The Pharisees murmured at the familiar approach and access of such an ignominious person Judas grudged the cost and all the Disciples wondred at the novelty of the business but our Saviour applies himself to Simon and expounds the business to him by a Parable vers 41 c. There was a certain creditour had two debtors c. whereby he silences the murmurs of the one and removes the wonder of the other shewing the power of gratitude and the admirable efficacy of great obligation upon ingenuous minds SECONDLY when God receives the Penitent into his favour he gives him by faith a full persuasion of the great things in another world the real and serious apprehensions of which are able not only to place him above all the charms below and to make him disdain all the baits of the Devil but also to transport him with love and desire and to carry him with full fail in the prosecution of those incomparable glories thus discovered to him and thereby marvellously heightens and improves him in holiness So the Apostle Hebr. 11. 1. pronounces of faith that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen that is it maks those things that seemed meer fables and Romances to other men to be the greatest realities in the world and those things that being looked upon at a distance seemed small and inconsiderable and had little effect upon men's minds now being made near and present are of mighty influence as he shews at large historically throughout that long and excellent Chapter FOR this reason it is that all the accomplishments of a Christian are ascribed to his faith Acts 15. 9. Having purified their hearts by faith as if that sublimed a man and drew him off from his Lees 2 Pet. 1. 4. There are given to us exceeding great and precious promises whereby you might be partakers of the divine nature as if the objects of faith duely operating upon us were able not only to raise us above the world but above our selves and to transfuse a divine temper into us For so he goes on vers 5 6 7. Adde to your faith vertue and to vertue knowledge and to knowledge temperance c. the word he uses is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 q. d. faith will lead the dance to all other vertues or do but set that on work and it will draw on the whole Encyclopaedy and circle of graces IT is matter of daily observation that not only men's industry is increased which is a great matter but their parts also are raised and inlarged proportionably to the incouragements set before them great hopes make great men and fit them for great undertakings insomuch that Quintilian inquiring the reason why the former Ages bred greater wits and more exquisite Orators then latter days resolves it into this that those times afforded the greatest honour and incouragement to them And it is an ordinary remark in Historians that those Princes and States have always the ablest Ministers whose fortunes have presented to them the most honourable employments and greatest rewards But it is more to our business to observe that
gratefull to all the society upon which account they were wont to bath anoint exercise and perfume themselves before-hand and amongst other curiosities to put on a habit which was both sumptuous and significant of respect Agreeable whereunto is that passage in the Gospel Matt. 22. 11. where the Master of the Feast takes it extream ill of one of his guests that he appeared there not having on a wedding garment And with this accords the contrivance of this Parable for the Father having as we have seen put his Son into a befitting garb now proceeds to his entertainment which is the third and last expression of his reconciliation Bring hither saith he the fatted Calf c. THAT he intends a Feast for joy of the recovery of his lost Son is very plain wherein he designs that all his family shall bear a part with him the fatted Calf being the ancient most sumptuous treatment as appears Gen. 18. 7. for therewith Abraham solemnly entertained the three Angels that came to visit him in the habit of way-faring men and as the afore-named Stuckius and the learned Bochart observe there was not a Feast of old times especially amongst those mentioned by Homer where this was not the principal Dish and the Text lays the Emphasis of a double article upon it here in the Parable But what is mystically meant by this passage or what peculiar favour of God to penitent sinners our Saviour intends hereby to express is not very easy to determine IN the foregoing particulars we have had the concurrent opinion of the Fathers for the countenance of our applications but here I doubt we shall be deserted by them and therefore if we walk alone must proceed the more warily THE Ancients agree in the general that hereby is to be understood the great and inestimable gift of our Lord Jesus Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith St. Chrysostom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. What fatted Calf doth the Father call for what but his only Son born of the Virgin Mary c. And in like manner the rest only with this difference that St. Chrysostom especially applies it to the sacrifice of Christ represented in the Sacrament and St. Austin to the same Christ Jesus preached in the Gospel but with the leave of such great men it may perhaps seem reasonable to pitch upon another interpretation namely that hereby is meant the joys and glories of the Kingdom of Heaven for the confirmation of which I offer these following considerations FIRST it is well enough known that the Jews had commonly such a crass notion of the happiness of the world to come as to think it to consist in the pleasures of the Body and particularly of eating and drinking agreeable to which is the fable amongst them of Behemoth and Leviathan the one a prodigious Beast and the other a Fish which together with great quantities of delicious wine they report to be laid in store by God for the entertainments of the life to come which ridiculous conceit of theirs seems to have given countenance if not rise to the sensual Paradise of the Mahumetans and some of the Eastern Nations And though Menasse-Ben-Israel a late learned Jew indeavours to mince the matter and to turn the story into an Allegory yet he confesses and strongly contends that a great part of the Paradisiacal felicity must consist in the pleasures of eating and drinking Now it is no strange thing to imagin that our Saviour speaking to the Jews should make use of their own language and allude to their customs and conceits how gross soever they were AND that he did so will be the more probable if in the second place we consider that he compares the Kingdom of Heaven to a Feast Matt. 2. 22. that he tells his Disciples he will drink no more of the fruit of the vine till he drink it new with them in his Father's Kingdom Matt. 26. 29. and allowed the expression of him that esteemed it to be the greatest blessedness to eat bread in the Kingdom of Heaven Luk. 14. 15. THIRDLY even in this very Chapter our Saviour telling us there is joy in Heaven at the conversion of a sinner vers 7. and amongst the holy Angels vers 10. he by those expressions invites and leads our thoughts to this sense and in this very Parable vers 25. the entertainment of the penitent is expressed as accompanied with dancing and mirth by all which he seems to give us sufficient ground to think the entertainment we are now speaking of is no other then that of the joys of Heaven BUT especially if we observe in the last place that the order of the Parable requires such a sense of these words as this we have suggested For according to the scheme of the Parable God having been hitherto represented as bestowing all those favours and blessings upon the penitent which render him fit for and capable of Heaven as we have seen already what can now follow more properly or what would one expect to be intimated in the next place but that he should thenceforward be described conferring that happiness and actually placing him in that state he had by all his former unspeakable favours made way for Besides God's giving his Son is the foundation of all his other favours and our Saviour's giving himself for us is the meritorious and procuring cause of justification adoption sanctification the giving of the Holy Ghost and all the great things forementioned and therefore it would not be agreeable to the wisedom of our Saviour in the contrivance of this scene to represent this in the last place when all those benefits which flow from it had before been supposed to be conferred This therefore upon the whole matter seems to be the intent of our Saviour in the words we are upon to personate our Heavenly Father crowning all those former gifts he had bestowed upon sincere converts in this life with glory and blessedness and the joys of Heaven in the conclusion As if in the literal sense the Father of the Prodigal Son had said I remember the misery the hunger and hardship my Son hath indured and I pitied him even then when he well deserved all he suffered but since the time that I have seen him returning not only the pale looks sharp countenance dejected eyes and all other arguments of his former calamities which I have observed in him run in my mind but I think also of the conflicts he hath had with himself upon the point of returning fear turning him back and hope incouraging him to goe on and the latter with great difficulty vanquishing the former methinks I see the anguish of his mind his indignation against himself his shame for his own folly and the awefull reverence he had of my presence between all which I know how his heart panted and laboured till at last the reviving sense of his duty and the confidence in the benignity of a Father carried him through And