himself on this wise What-ever my case is now sure I was made in the image of God placed under the eye of his Providence as it were of his Family and Table Heaven and Earth ministred to me I was Lord of the lower and Favourite of the upper World as if the one was made on purpose to exercise and divert me and the other to receive and reward me I have a nature capable of immortality and had eternal life designed for me as the inheritance of a Son and my task of obedience was as easie and honourable as my hopes were glorious For I had no hard burthen laid upon me nothing required of me but what was proportionable to my powers and agreeable to the reason of my mind no restraint was laid upon my passions but such as was evidently both necessary for the World and good for my self that it could not be drawn into an argument of harshness and severity in God nor make apology for my transgression All my faculties were whole and intire I was neither tempted by necessity nor oppressed by any fate I was therefore happy enough and why am I not so still It is true that humane nature hath miscarried since it came out of the hands of God and I carry the Skar of that common Wound yet is the dammage of the first Adam so repaired by the second that mankind is left inexcusable in all its actual transgressions but especially in a dissolute and impenitent course of rebellion Besides I see others whose circumstances were in all points the same with mine and their difficulties and temptations no less to live holily and comfortably having either escaped the too common pollutions of the world by an early compliance with the grace of God or at least quickly recovered themselves by repentance I find therefore that I might have lived in the light of God's countenance in serenity of mind quiet of conscience sense of my own integrity and comfortable hopes of unspeakable glory in contemplation of which I might have defied death and lived in Heaven upon Earth but I have been meerly fooled by my own incogitancy and undone by my own choice For proceeds he 2. I have forfeited all this by sinning against God and been so sottish as to prefer the satisfaction of my own humour before all the aforesaid felicities I have been ingratefull towards my great benefactour broken the law of my Creation confronted the wisedom of the most High been insolent towards a mighty Majesty violated just and righteous commandments sinned against light knowledge and conscience added presumption to folly wilfullness to weakness despised counsels exhortations promises assistances my sins are many in number horrible in their aggravations deadly in their continuance and my perseverance in them By this means I have not onely wrought disorder in the world but disordered my own Soul spoiled my own powers suffered passion to get head of my reason clouded my understanding and so by former sins rendered it in a manner necessary that I sin still For when I would doe good evil is present with me I find a law in my members rebelling against the law of my mind and carrying me into captivity to the law of sin O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death I have driven away the good Spirit of God and put my self under the power of Satan become his slave and drudge I know nothing now of the comforts of innocence of the joy of a good Conscience mine is a continual torture to me I have lost the light of God's countenance and the very thoughts of him are dreadfull to me by all which together life is a burden and yet the thoughts of death are intolerable Such reflections and considerations as these break the very heart of a sinner and resolve him into sighs and tears 3. BUT this is not the worst of the case for in the third place he considers what is like to be the issue of this This miserable life saith the sinner cannot last always death will arrest me shortly and present me before a just Tribunal the grave will e're ong cover me but not be able to conceal me for I must come to Judgment Methinks I hear already the sound of the last Trump Let the dead arise let them come to judgment I see the Angels as Apparitors gathering all the world together and presenting them before that dreadfull Tribunal How shall I be able with my guilty Conscience to appear upon that huge Theatre before God Angels and Men Methinks I see the Devil standing at my right hand to aggravate those faults which he prompted me to the commission of I behold the Books opened and all the debaucheries extravagancies and follies of my whole life laid open Christ the Judge of all the World coming in flaming fire to take vengeance upon them that have not known him nor obeyed his Gospel How shall I endure his presence how shall I escape his eye I cannot elude his judgment nor evade his sentence come then ye Rocks and fall upon me and ye Mountains cover me from the face of the Lamb and from him that sitteth upon the Throne But the Rocks rend in sunder the Sea and the Earth disclose their dead the Earth dissolves the Heavens vanish as a Scroll and I hear the dreadfull Sentence Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels Methinks I hear Christ Jesus thus upbraiding me You have listened to the Devil and not to me I would have saved you but you would not be ruled by me you have chosen the way of death now therefore you shall be filled with your own ways I forewarned you what would be the issue of your courses but you would have your full swing of pleasure for the present whatever came of it hereafter you laughed at judgment and it is come in earnest you have had your time of jollity and sensual transports and now your portion is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth O therefore saith the sinner that I had never been born cursed be the day that brought me forth and the Sun that shone upon me would the womb had been my grave and I had never seen the light Thus my guilty Conscience anticipates its own punishment and I am tormented before my time 4. BUT is there no hope left must I lie down thus in sorrow and despair These things I may justly expect but they are not yet incumbent upon me I am yet alive and they say there is hopes in the land of the living the door is not yet shut against me Hell hath not yet closed her mouth upon me I have heard God is a mercifull God and thereupon I presumed hitherto and abused his goodness but sure his mercies are above the measure of a man if they be infinite like himself he hath more goodness then I have ingratitude Possibly there may be some hope left in the bottom of this
demonstrations of my reconciliation which the former guilt and extravagancies of your now penitent Brother renders necessary in his case so also was I never overwhelmed with grief for you who were never lost But forasmuch as we have beyond all expectation received your Brother again whom we long since despaired of and had given up for lost you cannot wonder and you must allow me this unusual transport for I say again this your Brother was lost and is found was dead and is alive again Thus far the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or letter of the Parable wherein all things are so lively and natural and the divine wisedom of our Saviour hath so accurately described the workings of humane minds the natural motions of all the passions as that if the Parable became matter of history it could not be otherwise acted But now for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or application of the Parable to the matter in hand §IV In the first place it is certain that by the Father of the two Sons in the mystical sense is meant God Almighty of whom the whole family of heaven and earth is called But who should be the two Sons is not so universally agreed Some of the Ancients have been of opinion that by the Elder Son was meant that higher order of intellectual Beings which never forfeited their Station nor revolted from their Allegeance and by the Younger Son the whole race of mankind under Adam their head on whom being fallen God had such compassion as he did not shew to the Rebel Angels for which cause amongst other they are supposed to conceive hatred against God and envy against men But this interpretation is rejected by others and not without great cause for in this same Chapter vers 10. our Saviour tells us the holy Angels rejoyce at the conversion of a sinner and therefore they cannot be represented as expostulating and murmuring at the favour extended towards such which is said here of the Elder Brother Again others have imagined that by the two Brethren were meant the Jews and Gentiles the Jews representing the Elder Brother as having been God's ancient people and the Gentiles the Younger as who ran on in a long course of Idolatry and estrangedness from God till they were by the grace of God in the Gospel admitted into the birthright and priviledges of the Jews to their great regret and indignation And indeed besides the opinion of the Ancients it is not improbale in it self but that our Saviour foreseeing the emulation which would afterwards happen between those two ranks of mankind might have respect to it and deliver himself suitably thereto in this Parable notwithstanding that cannot be supposed to be the primary meaning which is utterly besides the occasion of the discourse for as St. Jerome well observes the controversy was not yet risen between Jew and Gentile about priviledges the latter being not yet called nor admitted to the grace of the Gospel but the question was only whether great and notorious sinners though Jews should be admitted to hopes of pardon upon repentance and the Publicans in the Text though they were Ministers of the Roman Power and reputed Instruments of the Jewish servitude and therefore hated by them yet were not Gentiles but a looser sort of Jews as the same St. Jerome fully makes appear Therefore by the two sons here must be understood any two men or any two sorts of men whether Jews or Pagans it matters not who as to piety and vertue have for a great while run a quite contrary course but at last happen to meet at the same point of sincere goodness Namely by the Elder Son are described those who from their younger years and minority have been by the preventing grace of God preserved from the common extravagancies and corruptions of the world and by the blessing of God upon pious education or otherwise have been by degrees trained up and insensibly led on in the ways of Religion As our Saviour elsewhere saith of the Corn that it grows whilest men sleep and wake that is we can see it doth grow but cannot discern the gradual progress it maketh so such persons become sincerely good and run a race of vertue though we cannot see where and when they set out nor assign any date of their conversion by reason the change was not so palpably great nor so sudden as in the conversion of notorious sinners Such a person as we are now speaking of seems to have been Obadiah 1 Kings 18. 12. who sticks not to say of himself I thy servant fear the Lord from my youth And such another was Timothy concerning whom we have the testimony of the Apostle 2 Tim. 1. 5. that by the carefull instructions of his Grandmother Lois and his Mother Eunice he had been from his youth principled with a sense of piety and religion To these instances I will adde for the nearness of matter what Pontius Diaconus saith of St. Cyprian He so early and presently conceived a sense of piety that his proficiency almost prevented all instruction Nor can I forget what St. Greg. Nazianzen hath left upon record touching his own Father He was saith he a Sheep of Christ's flock before he came into his fold and a Christian before he came within the Church the probity of his temper and singular vertues of his life made him a Christian as it were by anticipation But perhaps these last expressions are somewhat too florid and rhetorical that which I am saying is plain and easy that there are some persons of whom the Grace of God takes early hold and the good Spirit of God inhabiting them not onely prevents the enterprizes of the Devil but carries them on in an even and constant course of holiness their Christianity bearing equal date with their manhood and reason and religion like warp and woof running together make up one web of a wife and vertuous life This is a most happy case wherever it happens for besides that there is no more sweet nor beautifull thing in the whole world then the early buds of piety upon which account it is probably supposed that our Saviour who was far from a soft fondness of youth or admiration of external beauty gave such signal tokens of affection to St. John that he was called the beloved Disciple Besides this I say it is so much a more comfortable thing to escape the pollutions that are in the world through lust by an early ingagement in a holy course as it is more desirable to escape shipwreck then to be saved by a plank or to have no wound then to experiment the most sovereign balsom which if it work a cure yet usually leaves a sear behind Moreover he that begins his race betimes hath all along the comfort of his progress and proficiency and feels himself daily approaching towards his desired end whereas he that sets out wrong hath the hard and uncomfortable part of
passage from the brink of Hell to the gates of Heaven More particularly he will observe the unhappy onset and beginnings the crooked and anfractuous proceedings the dangerous precipices and the horrid and fatall mischiefs of a sinfull course graphically described He will also descry the direct but laborious the sorrowfull but certain way of recovery And lastly the glorious triumph the comfortable condition and the sure station of him that hath happily conquered the aforesaid difficulties and is arrived at the serene top of Vertue together with the general applause and universal Jubilee of Heaven and Earth upon such an atchievement And in confidence that all these things are pointed at and intended in the scene before us as I do not doubt but will be evident by and by I do design to take occasion from hence to discourse somewhat fully and practically of these three very important particulars viz. 1. Of the nature of Sin and the mischiefs of a wicked course 2. Of the nature and admirable efficacy of Repentance Lastly Of the exorableness of the Divine Majesty and the unexpressible benignity and graciousness with which he entertains returning sinners And provided the management prove answerable to the design I cannot in the least mistrust the acceptableness of a work of this nature to any sort of men who have so much seriousness and manly sense in them as to value things in proportion to their real usefulness forasmuch as there is not that subject to be treated of which comes more close and home to the greatest concerns of all mankind For In the first place There are scarcely any so prodigiously vain as not to acknowledge themselves to be sinners and what can be of more use to him that makes that acknowledgement then to understand what it is which makes Sin to be sinfull what gives it its malignity and makes guilt inseparably to adhere to it what are the several states of sin and sinners and especially what is the natural course and tendency the sudden growth and unhappy progress of sin since hereby his conscience being inlightned will be both better able to make just reflexions upon what is past and also be made more cautious and diligent for the time to come And although it be true that every man hath not run the same mad risk of sin which is here decyphered in the Prodigal Son yet as that is owing to the especial providence and preventing grace of God where-ever the case is such so that happy person will by observing the wild extravagancies the extreme follies and horrid mischiefs which others incurr before conversion be the more provoked to adore the Divine Goodness in his own preservation Again What can be of more moment to those that are apprehensive of the Majesty and Purity of God of the holiness of his Laws of the certainty of a Judgement to come and withall are sensible of the frailty of humane nature and conscious of their own many and great miscarriages then to behold the nature of Repentance plainly described and to be instructed in the methods of making good their retreat of redintegrating themselves and successfully recommending their deplorable estate and condition to the Divine Philanthropy and mercy Lastly What can be more ravishingly comfortable to a contrite sinner then to understand the efficacy of true Repentance to see a door of hope open to the worst of sinners upon their coming to themselves and returning to their duty to be assured of the hearty compassions of the Divine Majesty to see the arms of the Almighty open to receive and embrace returning Children and all this as it were in perspective lively represented § II. But in regard it is a Parable which we have in hand I think my self obliged in order to the laying a good foundation of what we shall afterwards build upon it here in our entrance to premise something briefly first touching the ancient use of this Schematical and Figurative way of expression and the Reason of such usage secondly touching the Explication and Application of such kind of discourses And for the first of these I cannot reasonably imagine that any man who shall peruse these papers should be so great a stranger to all that hath past in former times as not to be aware that it was the general custome of Wise men of old to deliver their Sentiments after this manner and in such a style and this not onely in meer humane and common Writings but even in Sacred Writ it self To say nothing of the famous Oracles of the Gentiles which in other circumstances as well as in this of Mysteriousness have been observed to Ape and imitate those of the true God And to pass by the ancient Poets who were reputed as both the Divines and the Philosophers of the Ages in which they lived and who were well known to have affected an Oracular obscurity as much as the Oracles affected their way of versifying If we take notice of the ancient Proverbs of Nations which are supposed to carry the marks of the wisedom of their respective times and people these we find for the most part obscure and Aenigmatical And for the ancient Philosophers and men of renown such as the Wise men of Greece distinctively so called or such as Pythagoras Socrates c. who were no whit inferiour to the former he knows nothing of them that is not sensible not onely of accidental but also of designed obscurity in their writings and sayings As for the Sacred Writings of the Old Testament though with all good men I worthily adore that Divine Spirit which made choice of and directed the Pen-men of Holy Scripture and readily acknowledge both the plainness and perspicuity thereof in the necessary rules of life without which it could not have answered the ends of the Divine Wisedom in the enditing of it and also that wheresoever it is abstruse it is as far from phantastry and affected obscurity as the Pagan Oracles were notoriously guilty thereof notwithstanding it cannot be denied but that as well the Prophets as other holy Pen-men do frequently make use of Metaphors Allegories and other Schematical forms which must needs be attended with competent obscurity these being as it were a veil drawn over the face of Divine Truth Hence it is that Solomon makes the words of the wise and their dark sayings to be two expressions denoting the same thing for as he in another place speaks their discourses are like Apples of Gold in Pictures of Silver that is besides a truth and beauty in the outside or case of the letter they had a more rich and precious meaning within And accordingly we may observe the Apostles of our Lord in the New Testament frequently to fix upon and pursue a mystical sense of some of those passages in the Old Testament which would to an ordinary Reader have seemed most strictly and literally to be understood Yet I do not think this will prove a sufficient warrant for Philo
called thy Son I deserve to be utterly abandoned excluded your care and cast out of your thoughts as I cast my self out of your family And so the Penitent I am so far Lord from deserving thy favour or eternal life that I deserve not the least Crum from thy Table less then the least of all thy mercies Nay I acknowledge I have deserved to goe with sorrow to my grave and to undergo the dreadfullest viols of thy wrath IT is very remarkable that the Prodigal doth not only thus condemn himself whilest he anxiously stands expecting his doom from his Father but even then when his Father had expressed compassion to him had ran to meet him and kissed him for so vers 21. we find him repeating his own condemnation in the same words as before And in like manner we observe the Apostle St. Paul after he had obtained pardon and the great favour of Apostleship to be continually ripping up his former sins and condemning himself for them as if the wound bled afresh as often as it was touched THUS the Penitent always judges and condemns himself that he may not be judged of the Lord. By severity towards himself he recommends himself to the Divine Mercy for as Tertullian expresses it In quantum non peperceris tibi in tantum Deus tibi parcet If we like Phineas stand up and execute judgement the Plague will be stayed He that anticipates the day of Judgment by erecting a private but impartial Tribunal prevents the dreadfullness of that day In short if we be just God will be mercifull and therefore when the Penitent hath been accuser witness and judge against himself he may then with hopes of success become 4. IN the fourth place Intercessour for himself also and deprecate the divine displeasure and implore his favour So the Son doth here make me as one of thy hired servants q. d. Let me not be utterly cast out of thy Family but have at least this instance of thy favour that I may still retain some relation to thee And so the Penitent now that he hath received his sentence of condemnation within himself sues out his pardon O take not my confession meerly as an argument of my guilt but as an evidence of my contrition Break not the bruised reed nor quench the smoaking flax 'T is thy prerogative O Lord to pardon and what pleasure is there in my blood Will the Lord be angry for ever will his jealousy burn like fire O consider my frame remember I am but dust and ashes call to mind thy mercies of old thou art God and not man and as much as the Heavens are higher then the Earth so are thy mercies above the mercies of a man Turn thy face away from my sins and blot out all my transgressions Make me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit in me Cast me not away from thy presence and take not thy Holy Spirit from me Give me the comfort of thy help again and stablish me with thy free Spirit c. Psal 51. 9 10 11 12. SAINT Cyprian reports it to have been the Custome of the Primitive Penitents out of their quick and pricking sense of sin and the more effectually to recommend themselves to the mercies of God and the favour of his Church earnestly to implore the Martyrs that in the midst of their sufferings and sharpest agonies they would remember them in their prayers thinking such affectionate intercession of those that poured out their blood and requests together must needs be available both with God and man But the Penitent addresses himself also to a higher and more prevalent Advocate who adds the incense of his own sacrifice to the prayers of men and makes them come up as sweet odours before the Almighty and who is exalted at God's right hand to this end that he may give success to the prayers of such contrite persons To which adde that not only the deep apprehensions of guilt and of danger which such a person we now speak of is under must needs mkee him ardent and importunate and to cry mightily to God but also the Scripture assures us that the Holy Ghost is wont to assist such with sighs and groans which are unutterable § II. NOW for the acceptableness of this penitent confession of which we are speaking Although it be certain that our heavenly Father takes no delight in the pityfull moans in the tears and lamentations of his Creatures and most true that he is not to be wrought upon by addresses and complemental forms by the accent of men's voice by the rhetorick of tears nor any thing of that nature because he is not subject to passions as men are yet having demonstrated already in the former Chapter that the Divine Majesty hath no restraint upon him but what himself pleases and that all his actions towards his Creatures are so subject to his wisedom that when-ever there is just cause for mercy he can shew it notwithstanding the unchangeableness of his Nature the rigour of his Laws or the demand of his Justice If now we also make it appear from his own mouth and from those discoveries which he hath been pleased to make of himself that the aforesaid humble and contrite addresses are agreeable to the designs of his wisedom and therefore required by him as the conditions of pardon then there can be no doubt but that they will in their kind be as acceptable to his Divine Majesty and as successfull on the part of the sinner as the penitent Son's submission was with his earthly Parent AND this will be easily evident if we consider that whereas the evil of sin lies principally in the dishonour it reflects upon the divine perfections such penitential acknowledgments as we have described do in great measure repair that injury and do right to all the Divine Attributes as we will instance in particular 1. SIN is an invasion of God's Authority and Sovereignty over us inasmuch as he that willfully breaks any Law of God proclaims himself sui Juris or Lawless and saith with those in the Gospel we will not have this Lord to rule over us Now penitent acknowledgment though it cannot recall the act which is past yet it revokes and retracts the affront and settles God's authority again 2. SIN is an impeachment of God's wisedom justice and goodness at once for he that allows himself in the commission of a sin lays an imputation upon God as if he had either not foreseen what liberty was fit to be allowed to his Creatures or had not ordered the frame and constitution of things with that decency and benignity that mankind could comfortably acquiesce in without temptation to intrench upon that for his own necessary accommodation Now on the contrary confession takes shame and folly and unreasonableness to our selves and justifies the wisedom and equity of all God's constitutions In this sense we may take that expression Luk. 7. 29. The Publicans justified God
spoil and triumph of the Prince of darkness now by the wonderfull power of the Almighty this is raised up again out of its own ashes or out of whatever more desperate estate it might seem to be in and united to the Soul its old inmate again that so the whole man may be happy This is a point of felicity which as it is not naturally due to men but depends upon a voluntary act of the divine goodness so also it can no otherwise be proved but by divine revelation And those that were destitute of that light whatever raised apprehensions they might have of future rewards and the happiness of the other life could never with all their Philosophy make any discovery of this nay it was so far out of the rode of their thoughts that it is a well known story of Synesius who for his learning and piety was made of a Philosopher a Christian Bishop that he confessed his Philosophy represented this point as utterly incredible to him upon which account he desired to be excused that dignity in the Church and for the generality of the greatest Pagan wits they laughed at and derided this doctrine when it was preached by the Apostles And indeed the thing it self is so very wonderfull that had we not the plain and infallible promise of him to whom nothing is impossible and therewithall a satisfaction to our reason that he that could bring all things out of nothing at first may well be supposed able to effect other things also above our apprehension it would stagger Christian Faith it self to assent to it therefore for the manner of doing it we must leave that to him but for the matter it is as I said as certain as divine testimony can make it and being believed is of unspeakable consolation FOR what can be more comfortable then to be asserted from the power of the grave and rescued from death and mortality to have our Soul refitted with Organs and all the bodily powers awakened again so as to lose nothing by our fall when death shall like a faithfull depositary restore us our whole selves perfect and intire Is not the Spring very pleasant after a sharp and severe Winter wherein though the seeds of all things have been preserved yet they have been benummed and rendred inactive wherein the Heavens frowned the Sea wrinkled her face and the Earth grew effete and barren as if her youth was over to see now God renewing the face of all things rendring them their wonted vigour and cloathing them with their former verdure to observe the Sea smoothing her brow the Fields smile every thing gay and glorious and Heaven and Earth singing by way of Antiphone's to each other in praise of their great Creatour and in a word whole Nature triumphing as in a resurrection from the dead But now to see man after diseases had acted all their spite upon him and death had defloured his beauty and bound up all his powers and the grave had held him long in possession wherein his body had undergone a thousand changes from flesh to earth from earth to grass from grass to the substance of this or that beast c. and after all this to see him restored again fresh and glorious sprightly and vigorous like a Giant refreshed with wine and this same body to be united to its proper Spirit by more firm and indissoluble ligaments and be again usefull for all its offices and purposes how happy must this meeting how great must this joy be and not much unlike that we had lately before us in the Parable when the long sorrowfull and indulgent Father recovers his lost and deplored Son I do not doubt but that the Souls of men when they are separated from their Bodies are able to understand and perform some of their most proper and spiritual functions for I see no reason why the Soul should so much depend upon matter as to be utterly inactive without it especially when I consider that whilst we are in the Body we govern it prescribe to it deny it expose it to hardship and sometimes act directly cross to the interest of it and besides this we find that there are some things which our mind takes notice of which the Bodily faculties could give no intelligence of and other things which our mind apprehends at first before the exercise of any faculty at all as in first principles c. All which were it necessary to insist upon that point now would afford sufficient arguments to convince the mistake of those that assert the sleep of the Soul during its state of separation Nay I make no question but that the Souls of good men are in the actual perception and enjoyment of some measures of happiness before the resurrection for besides that if it were not so it would very much abate their joys here and so be apt to take off the edge of their endeavours but most certainly it would marvellously glue men to this life and make them extreamly unwilling to die besides this I say and all other arguments of that nature the holy Scripture is so clear and express in several places touching this point that a man may almost with as good confidence deny the world to come as disbelieve this AMONGST the rest I will only offer these two passages to the Reader 's consideration viz. Phil. 1. 21 22. 2. Cor. 5. 1 4. In the first the Apostle speaks on this wise I am in a strait betwixt two having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needfull for you q. d. I cannot tell whether to desire to live longer or to die sooner being prest with arguments on both sides for if I consult my self and my own good it is doubtless better for me to die and to enter presently into happiness but then if I consult your convenience it were better I should live longer in the world to be serviceable to your edification Now I think it is evident that if the Apostle could have supposed that he should have entered into a state of silence after death and not presently been in the fruition of bliss there could have been no strait in the case nor any dispute but that it was better to live still in the world and continue in the comforts of a good Conscience and of doing good to others rather then to fall into a state of insensibility and inactivity IN the other place the same Apostle expresses himself thus For we know that if this earthly house of our tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands but eternall in the Heavens For we that are in this tabernacle do groan being burdened not that we would be uncloathed but cloathed upon that mortality may be swallowed up of life q. d. We are well assured that from such time as these Bodies of ours are dissolved by death which were
Grandchildren descending from himself and trained up under his eye In all his life there was no other news in his Family but of weddings births successes jollities and triumphs no such thing as a funeral mourning or any disaster all his days and all this crowned with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a gentle and easy death at last in the presence and imbraces of all his dearest Friends Children and Family BUT this as I said was a rare and extraordinary case not to be matched again in all History the common method of providence in this world is to mingle sweet with bitter grief with joy and so light and darkness day and night prosperity and adversity intercept and succeed each other he that is now miserable may expect to be one day happy and he that is happy now must expect his turn of misery It was therefore worthily esteemed a brave and noble carriage of Paulus Aemilius when he had conquered and taken captive the potent Prince Perseus after he had gently treated and comforted the unfortunate Prince he turns himself to admonish the unexperienced young Men of his Train and Family Exemplum insigne cernitis saith he mutationis rerum humanarum vobis haec praecipue dico Juvenes ideo in secundis rebus nihil in quenquam superbe ac violenter consulere nec praesenti credere fortunae cum quid vesper ferat incertum sit c. You see here before you saith he a remarkable example of the mutability of humane affairs a Prince that was lately a terrour to the Roman name now in chains and at our mercy learn hereby you young men that you neither suffer your selves to be transported with pride nor trust too much to fortune since you see by this spectacle what changes a little time may produce But most memorable of all and most accommodate to my purpose is that carriage of the same Paulus when in the midst of all his glories and successes the news was brought him that his two Sons were dead he recollecteth himself and addresses himself to the people of Rome in this sort Mihi quoque ipsi nimia jam fortuna mea edque suspecta esse coepit postquam omnia secundo cursu fluxissent neque erat quod ultra precarer illud optavi ut cùm ex summo retrò volvi fortuna consuescit mutationem ejus domus mea potiùs quam respublica sentiret c. I was aware saith he that my fortune was too great to hold on at that rate and since I could not but expect an ebbe to succeed such tide I am glad it hath pleased God that the change hath happened in my private family rather then in the publick affairs THIS great man well understood the course of this world in which nothing is so certain as uncertainty it self nothing so sad but hath some qualifications or abatements nothing so perfectly happy but it hath some grievous consequents or appendages But in those happy regions we speak of a constant gale breaths always from the same point a man is evenly carried along his course without interruptions and turnings I say in the world to come only there is pure and unmixed joy and there it is in the truest and fullest measures NOW the result of all these things together must make it a most glorious and comfortable estate when a man shall arrive at the summ of all his wishes when he shall not be put to contentment but receive satisfaction not shrink himself and contract his mind to his condition but his condition be fitted to his mind when there shall not be that thing which is possible and can minister any delight but shall be poured out upon him and that in such full measure as to replenish and overflow all his powers and capacities and where his powers shall be all inlarged and refined to that very end that he may receive in more of happiness and that of the noblest purest kind without mixture or allay O happy and glorious state of things O happy day when these things shall come to pass and most happy they that shall be thought worthy of it Stay my Soul and wonder at thy Father's bounty and goodness ravish thy self with admiration of these glorious preparations for thy entertainment Look up hither and comfort thy self under all the uncertainties disappointments adversities conflicts of this life turn thy eyes this way and loath the husks of sinfull pleasure despise the unsincere the guilded hypocritical treatments of the lower world trample upon all the glories of it and reach after this and hasten hither 3. BUT this is not all yet the joys of Heaven are as lasting as they are great and full When God hath recovered his lost Son as aforesaid he shall never be lost again he shall never be miserable more he now gives him an inheritance by an indefecible title A Crown immortal that fadeth not away a Kingdom that cannot be shaken A house not made with hands but eternal in the Heavens Stronger then the foundations of the Earth or the poles of Heaven for those shall be dissolved and these shall melt away with fervent heat But thy throne O God indureth for ever and ever LET there be never so many and great ingredients of felicity otherwise if this be wanting of the duration of it it answers not the desires of a man and is very short and defective For whenever it shall expire it will be as if it never had been nay if any sense of things remain afterwards it is a great aggravation of unhappiness fuisse foelicem that a man hath out-lived his own comforts and the comparing his present destitution with his former injoyments is really a torment to him Therefore it is observed to be the humour of some of the wisest Nations to bestow as little cost as they possibly can upon feasting and the bodily entertainments of eating and drinking who yet are very sumptuous and magnificent in buildings and such other things as are durable because they consider those former perish in the using And this is the very argument upon which the Holy Scripture slurs all the glories of this world that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Scene changes all is but acting a part for a while and shortly the lights are put out the curtain drawn and sic transit gloria mundi in whatever gallantry a man appeared upon the Stage he must retire and be undrest and be what he was before upon which account he must be a very vain and silly man who so little forethinks what will shortly befall him as to bear himself high upon his present ornaments BUT it was without doubt a cutting saying to the Glutton in the Gospel Son remember thou hast had thy good things and Lazarus evil things now therefore he is comforted and thou art tormented For although as we noted before it be the common fate of this world that good and evil take their turns yet most certainly the
Papists and Fanaticks in large Fol. The Third Edition The Rules and Exercises of Holy Living and Holy Dying The Eleventh Edition newly Printed in Octav. Books written by the Reverend Dr. Patrick The Christian Sacrifice A Treatise shewing the Necessity End and Manner of receiving the Holy Communion together with suitable Prayers and Meditations for every Month in the Year and the principal Festivals in memory of our Blessed Saviour in Four Parts The Third Edition corrected The Devout Christian instructed how to pray and give thanks to God or a Book of Devotions for Families and particular persons in most of the concerns of Humane life The Second Edition in Twelves An Advice to a Friend The 3. 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New Go in Peace Containing some brief directions for Young Ministers in their Visitation of the Sick Vsefull for the people in their state both of Health and Sickness In Twelves New The Practical Christian in Four Parts or a Book of Devotions and Meditations Also with Meditations and Psalms upon the four last things 1. Death 2. Judgment 3. Hell 4. Heaven By R. Sherlock D. D. Rector of Winwick In Twelves The Life and Death of K. Charles the First By R. Perenchief D. D. Octavo Bishop Cozen 's Devotions In Twelves The true Intellectual Systeme of the Vniverse the First Part wherein all the Reason and Philosophy of Atheism is confuted and its Impossibility demonstrated By R. Cudworth D. D. Fol. New The End of the Catalogue Inter omnes Christi Parabolas haec sanè est eximia plena affectuum pulcherrimis picta coloribus H. Grot. in v. 20. Prov. 1. 6. Prov. 25. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Alex Strom. lib. 1. Justin in dial cum Tryphone Judaeo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Sam 14. L. Bacon Advanc Videtur autem praeter similitudinem totius etiam partibus inesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sicut non anxiè conquirendae sunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in partibus comparationum ita hic non negligendae cùm cas aliorum locorum comparatio suggerat Arias Montanus in dilucid Vid. Quistorp in loc Vid. Grot. in ver 2. Jon. 4. 10 11. Theophylact in loc St. Austin Q. Evang. l. 2. Praeproperâ pieratis velocitate paenè antè coepit perfectus esse quà m disceret * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pont. Diac. in vit S. Cyprian Greg. Naz. Orat. 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Touching this matter let the Learned Reader consult Mr. Cumberland de Leg. Nat. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Porphyr de abst lib. 1. Magnum humanae imbecillitatis patrocinium necessitas quae quicquid cogit excusat Sen. Mentem peccare non corpus unde consilium abfuerit peccatum abesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Alex paedag l. 1. c. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Alex. paedag lib. 1. Sciendum est non locorum distantiâ sed affectu nos esse cum Deo vel ab eo recedere S. Hierom. ep 146. * Dedit eis liberum arbitrium dedit mentis propriae libertatem ut viveret unusquisque non ex imperio Dei sed ex obsequio suo i. e. non ex necessitate sed ex voluntate ut virtus haberet locum ut à caeteris animantibus distaremus dum ad exemplum Dei permissum est robis facere quod velimus Chap. 3. Sect. 3. Just Mart. Apol. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Quod comprehensionem dedisset quasi nor mam scientiae principium sui * Sine quibus nec intelligi quicquam nec quaeri nec disputari possit Tully Acad lib. 1. 4. See Euseb praepar Evang l. 6. c. 6. Tully de Divinat Tanta autem est corruptela malae consuetudinis ut ab eatanquam igniculi à natura dati extinguuntur Cic. de leg l. 1. Tit. Liv. lib. 40. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Chrysost in locum Salvus esse non potuit si sanus esse coepisset Tuse Q. 5. 2 Tim. 2. 26. 1 Jo. 3. 8. Ecce quid faciat praeceps cupidit as civem in peregrinum locupletem in egenum filiumin mercenarium convertit junxit porcis quem à patre piissimo sejunxit ut serviret coenoso pecori qui pietati sanctae parere contemserit Plin. Nat. hist l. 15. c. 24. Cum ipse omnium notarum sim peccator nulli rei natus nisi poenitentiae non facile possum super illâ â—acere quum ipse quoque stirpis humanae offensae in dominum princeps Adam exomologesi restitutus in Paradisum suum non tacet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Chrys loc priks citat Infigi debet persuasio ad totam vitam pertinens hoc est quod decretum voco Sen. Ep. 95. Jos 24. 15. Luk 14. 28 c. Matt. 4. 8. Matt. 13. The Reader is desired to peruse three short but sad stories to this purpose in Dr. J. Taylor 's Great Exemplar Part 3. Disc 19. Sect. 5. Matt. 22. 35. Mark 12. 28. Luk. 18. 18. Soli vos Tusâ—ulani veras vires vera arma quibus abira Romanorum vos â—uâ—aremini invenistis * Crimina nostra vel fateri tu tum censemus cùm tam serio poenituit Livy Hist lib. 6. 2 Sam. 24. St. James 2. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Apud Regem esse gratiae locum esse beneficio irasci ignâ—scere posse Leges verè rem surdam inexorabilem esse nihil laxamenti neceveniae habere periculosum esse in tot humanis erroribus solâ innocentiâ vivere Liv. Hist lib. 2. Judg. 13. 23. Judg 7. Lact lib 6. de vero Cultu cites such a passage out of Tullie's Third Book of Academies which is lost 2 King 21. 3 Joh. 3. S. Joh 3. 8. S. Luke 11. 13. 1 Joh. 4. 4. Phil. 2. 13. Pythag. Aurea Carmina Hierocl in Aurea Carmina 2 Kings 7. 3. Tert. de Poenit. V. Mede disc 3. in Act. 17. 4. Psal 27. 4. Livy lib. 5. Rom. 12. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Non abscendit vitia sed abscindit Lact. li 3. cap. 26. Gen. 32. 10. Kimch in Isa 59. C. Trent Sess 4. cap. 4. Maim in Teshubha apud Lightf Hor. Hebr. Plutarch Reip. ger praecept Gen Chap. 37 continued to Chap. 45. Mark 10. 21. Senec. Ep. 73. Euseb Eccles Hist li. 3. cap. 17. Rev. 2. 4. Philo lib. de Abrahamo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luk. 17. 4. Joseph Antiqu. li. 15. c. 10. Daniel 5. Chrysost homilia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Nihil invenies rectius recto non magìs quà m vero verius omnis in modo virtus est modus est certa mensura Senec. Ep. 65. Plutarch de virt moral Plutarch de prof in virt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Just Mart. Ep. ad Diognet By what means the further sanctification of the penitent is carried on Eph. 4. 30. 2 Kings 3. 15. Vide Gal. 5. 22. Phil. II. of Sp. D. of Alva 1 Sam. 2. 30. Prov. 6. 13. Simpl. in Epict. Simpl. in Praef. ad Epict. Vell. Paterc hist lib. 2. A brief description of a perfect Christian Vide Struckium de Conviv lib. 2. cap. 24. Menasse Ben Isr de Resurrect lib. 3. cap. 9. Luk. 23. 43. 2 Cor. 12. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Phil. Jud. de Alleg. Acts 17. 18. 32. Valerius Maxim lib. 7. cap. 1. Livy Hist lib. 45. cap. 7. Ibid. cap. 41. 1 Cor. 7. 31. S. Chrys ubi priús Matth. 22. 2. Luk. 14. 16. 1. Sam. 17. 26 c. Greg. Naz. orat 18.
their thinking it had taken effect Then they unworthily contrive to abuse the affections of their good old Father with feigned probabilities that his beloved Son was devoured by wild Beasts And now they thought all was well they had reaked their malice and concealed their guilt they kept their countenances fed upon the sweets of revenge and all this while their Conscience felt no regret Till at last as God would have it they themselves fall into the hands of him they thought they had made away their necessities compell them to goe down to Aegypt and there the man the Governour of the Land lookt sternly upon them pretends to take them for Spies and threatens to deal severely with them Then courage fails them and Conscience recovers We are verily guilty say they of the bloud of our Brother when we saw the anguish of his Soul c. What is the matter now what alters the case how comes Joseph to their minds now who had been so long forgotten Now they find they stand in need of mercy and therefore sadly remember how merciless they had been before now they pity poor Joseph for whom before they had no compassion now they have bowels when their own case was sad and their punishment leads them to a remembrance of their guilt THUS we see affliction if it doth not make men good yet at least it will not suffer them to be at ease in their sin and so disposes them towards repentance But contrariwise prosperity raises the passions and depresses Conscience it hath made many from hopefull and tolerable become bad and intolerable but scarcely ever improved any from bad to good It is a well known story of Zeno who was as intent as any other man upon the amassing of wealth and as much taken with the gaiety of the world so long as his Merchandize succeeded but when he shipwrackt his Fortunes he recovered his reason and applied himself to the study of Philosophy and the inriching of his mind Naufragio tutus foelix infortunio his undoeing was his making and his misfortune proved his recovery And this the Holy Psalmist observes to be a common case for Psal 55. 19. he gives this account of mens obstinate impiety because saith he they have no changes therefore they fear not God And Saint Peter also 2 Pet. 3. 4. represents it as the common argument upon which such men incourage themselves in the contempt of all Religion where say they is the promise of his coming for since the Fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were c. as if he had said whilest there were visible interpositions of the Divine Providence in the world and that God was wont presently by some remarkable judgment or other to revenge himself upon those that violated his Laws and affronted his Majesty so long the world was kept in some awe and Religion reverenced but from such time as there hath been a constant calme and no interruption of the course of common causes men have called in question whether there be any Providence at all in this World and if once they can perswade themselves God hath left off to mind the affairs of the present world they will confidently and with some colour of reason infer that then he will not call things to account hereafter Wherefore it is the usuall method of the Divine Wisdome to make way for the reasons and motives of Religion by affliction first softning the obdurate heart by some sharp cross taking down the pride confuting the Atheism curing the wantonness and delicacy of men's tempers and so bringing them to a cool and thoughtfull condition and to reason with themselves as the Prodigal in the Text. FROM all which we learn both the hardness of a vicious heart in that nothing can pierce it but affliction and also the blindness and folly of men who so passionately desire prosperity together with the great usefullness of affliction and from all these that it proceeds not from harshness and severity in God that he sends calamities upon the sons of men but there is an illustrious instance of his wisedom and of his goodness in those providential dispensations since this is the only way of recovering and making men good and happy § IV. LET us now see in the last place somewhat particularly what are the considerations the Prodigal entertains his thoughts upon in this his afflicted condition And consulting the Text and carrying along with us a just notion of the nature of the case we shall find those reducible to these four points I. HE considers what the condition was he is faln from and how happy he might have been had it not been for his own folly How many hired Servants c. q. d. I that am pinched with want now felt none in my Father's house I was liberally maintained honourably treated wanted nothing but the wisedom to understand my own felicity and in this condition I might have continued for neither did my Father's estate complain of the burden of my accommodations nor was he strait handed or abated any thing of his Fatherly affections towards me it was nothing but my own folly ruined me And then 2. HE proceeds to deplore the sad estate he is fallen into When I set out from my Father's house in quest of liberty did I ever dream of becoming a Slave when I despised the liberal provisions of his Family did I or cou'd I have thought I should come to want bread to feed upon husks How sad is the change how severe is my fate which I know no more how to bear then how to avoid But that 's not the worst yet For 3. HE forethinks what is like to be the issue of this It is not only feeding upon husks but I perish for hunger I have a prospect of nothing but death before me in the case I am in I am lost undone undone in the most dreadfull circumstances for I perish and it is with hunger death makes its sure approaches and that in the most ghastly shape vivens vidénsque pereo I see and feel my self dying 4. But yet in the last place he looks about him to see if there be not some escape I am dying saith he but not quite dead Whilest there is life there is hope Who will not catch hold of any thing rather then perish And it agrees not with my condition to stick at any thing that can minister the least probability of safety Am not I a Son though I am here a Slave have I not a Father and hath not he pity why then do I stand still and die and not rather make the utmost experiment AFTER this manner we may feel the pulse of the Prodigal Son to beat and the thoughts of a sinner whom God hath awakened by affliction move much after the same rate For first as soon as his eyes are opened he cannot choose but call to mind the blessedness of a state of innocency and reason with