mysterious Truths in obscurity they are a kind of Riddles which require great Study to enode them Christ to this end spake them to the multitude of the Jews Mat. 13. 10 11. it was not given to them to understand the mysteries of the Kingdom they were to break their teeth upon the shell and not come at the kernel Hence they are called dark sayings Prov. 1. 6. and this is this their nature when there is only the proposition or parable it self proposed without its illustration 2. They are to explicate and clear up a Truth to the understanding by the help of the senses They speak of sensible things such as are obvious to our eyes ears c. and so lead us to a conception of spiritual things and this is done when the Reddition or Interpretation of them is given see Mat. 13 18. When a Parable is opened it bringeth more light to mens understandings then plain enunciations of Truth and adds to be very useful for the moving of the affections Now if we would make a genuine improvement of Parables we must carefully attend unto these two Rules 1. That Parables are not so much for Argumentation as for Illustration or the opening of our understandings to the conception of things we do not so much argue by a similitude though there be something of Argument in it too if it be pertinently framed as clear up the matter we are upon to the apprehension of those to whom we are speaking 2. That we must not strain the circumstances of Parables beyond the purpose or intent of the similitude but rest in the main scope of them for because they are Similitudes that which we have to mind is the thing which they are improved to shadow out unto us The neglect of this Rule runs men into many errors we must carry this as a certain truth That such things as are condemned by plain Scripture prohibitions are in vain sought to be justified by Parables But to come to the Parable it self Let it not be thought vain or needless that Christ useth so many Words and divers Parables to insinuate the truth of Gods free Grace but let it inform us of our stupidity Christs rich condescendency to us so as to take so great pains to instruct us in the matters of our Souls welfare The main scope of this Parable is to set forth the rich Grace of God to miserable self-undone sinners and the great pleasure which he takes in their Conversion it therefore presents us with the pattern of a grieyous sinner and discovers to us both what he is before Conversion and how he is converted and what welcom he finds with God upon his return unto him this is that which is principally intended unto which there is added a discovery of the malice of carnal Professors against sincere Converts all of which is shadowed out to us under the comparison of a Father and his two Sons and the carriage of each of them This Parable amongst Ecclesiastical Writers bears the title of the Prodigal because such an one is the primary and principally intended Subject of the Discourse The Parable may be divided into four principal parts besides the introduction to them in ver 11. viz. 1. The Prodigals goings away from his Father with the consequences of it ver 12 to 17. 2. His return to his Father with the motive and manner of it ver 17 to 20 3. The entertainment which he finds with his Father at his returning ver 20 to 25 4. The carriage and deportment of his Elder Brother with the circumstances depending ver 25 to the end I shall endeavour as God shall assist to speak to each of these severally and in order The Introduction you have in ver 11 in which we have the persons and relations used in the Parable intimated viz A Father and his two Sons Interpreters variously assign the intent or meaning of these persons That God himself is here represented under the title of a Father is without any just reason of being doubted for although spiritual Adoption is not here aimed at nor possibly is there any respect had to the visible and external relation of men to the visible Church which is a sort of outward Adoption Rom. 9. 4. yet herein our Saviour intends to express the carriage of God towards men by that of a Father to his Children and it is certain that God is in the Scripture with respect to his Creation and Providence called the Father of all Flesh Some by the two Sons understand the Jews the Elder and the Gentiles the Younger but I rather close with their judgment who refer the Parable to the present case and question Doubtless Christs design here is to lay matter of conviction before these Jews and to vindicate himself from their injurious aspersions of having undue commerce with Publicans and Sinners By the Elder Son then is intended these Scribes and Pharisees those strict Orders of the Jews that made a shew of zeal and rigid austerity in legal performances and so counted themselves the deserving Heirs and Inheritors of the promises and by the younger is intended Publicans and Sinners who seemed to be excluded from a right to this Inheritance men that were self-condemned and could pretend to no such hopes It is not my purpose or business to insist on these things only let us by the way observe That there is many a Man calls God Father who is yet either a prophane sinner or at least an hypocritical Professor The challenging of such a Relation so built will stand men in little stead If we will call God Father Profitably let us carry our selves as becomes his Children let not men boast of their Priviledges and for that count themselves Elder Brethren knowing that there may come those from the East and West the North and South that shall sit down with Abraham with Isaac and with Jacob in the Kingdom of God when the Children of the Kingdom are shut out and on the other hand it may encourage convicted sensible sinners to come humbly to God and to wait upon him in hope for those that so do are in the most likely way to find him a Father to them But I proceed to the parts of the Parable Verse 12. And the younger of them said to his Father Father give me the portion of Goods that falleth to me and he divided unto them his Inheritance The first part describeth to us the Prodigal's going away from his Father with the circumstances and events We must not seek for mysteries in every word the general scope of it is to shew us how far sin leadeth us from God how many provocations it hath in it and to what miseries and straits it reduceth us and this is set forth by the pattern of a foolish ingrateful Son dealing most unworthily by a kind and indulgent Father meriting by his carriage to be rejected and bringing of himself to all miserable exigencies by his so doing
Of this part of the Parable we may briefly take this partition it consists of two parts or holds out to us 1. The folly of the younger Son 2. The misery which ensued upon it 1. His folly displayeth it self in two Particulars 1. His unreasonable demand of Ins portion to have it in his own hand and dispose ver 12. 2. His improvident and wastful misimprovement of it ver 13. 1. His unreasonable demand this is the first thing we have to take notice of in the twelfth verse in which description we may observe 1. The person making this demand the Younger Son 2. The person of whom he makes this demand his Father He said to his Father Father 3. The demand it self Give me the Portion of Goods that falleth to me 4. The Fathers conceding act And he divided unto them his Living 1. Touching the person that makes this demand he is called the younger Son whether the Opinion of some will hold that would have him called the younger to note his folly and childishness I cannot well see though it be a proverbial speech in some Nations to call a giddy shallow witted person a younger Brother yet that it was so used among the Jews I find not the scope of it may rather seem to be that our Saviour would here to make way for the illustration of Grace represent this Son at all disadvantages whereof this is one If a Father had no Son but one he might have greater seeming reason to bear more with him and pass by many and great offences as having no other to confer his love upon and if he have more than one the elder Son might promise himself most of his Fathers patience and connivance as looked upon under greater advantages and often carrying away the best portion not of Goods only but of Affections also but for a younger Son thus to abuse his Father this aggravates his fault and for him after this to find favour and obtain acceptance when there was an elder Brother this enhauncheth the kindness and may teach us thus much DOCT. That Gods Grace oftentimes chuseth the vilest and worst of men to make it self known upon Such as men would least regard God hath many times the largest favour for Hence that of our Saviour Mat. 21. 31. The Publicans and Harlots go into the Kingdom of God before you and here the Fathers special love is expressed to the younger Son all Jesse's elder Sons are refused by God and David the youngest is appointed and anointed King and many that are last are first Reas For the exaltation of free Grace and manifestation of the Soveraignty of Gods good pleasure Should God make application of his saving mercy only to men of a sober profession and civil conversation and such as are more outwardly advantaged men might begin to think that there was some worth in their persons some merit in their civil carriage some obligation on God by their visible relation to give them the Kingdom of Glory but how when he chuseth such an one here appears to be nothing of the creature to obscure his Grace this Peter acknowledged when he saw the Holy Ghost was given to the Gentile Believers Act. 10. 34 35. Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons c. and on this account is our Saviours doxology 〈◊〉 thankful celebration of Gods Grace Mat. 1â— 25 26. USE 1. To refute the Arminian Doctrine of something in us foreseen as that which â—â—rects the Counsels and purposes of God aboâ—â— our future good How contrary this is to the freeness of Gods Grace and the ordinary waâ— of his dealing with the Children of men very obvious let the pattern of this poor Prodigal stand for ever to confront that Opinion look upon him in all his disadvantages he haâ— no law to pretend to the righteous observation of and make a plea from thence he had 〈◊〉 good works to enumerate and challenge acceptance for he had no Covenant whenâ— to pretend an interest in and heirship to the Kingdom he was a younger Brother a Prodigal a riotous Liver and all that was evil USE 2. To encourage such poor Souls whâ—â— being under deep conviction do find nothing of advantage in themselves to rely upon anâ— are hereupon ready to say I have nothing 〈◊〉 do with the Covenant I am a poor abject Publican c. why be assured that you aâ—â— for this never the further off from savinâ— Grace nor ought you to be any thing tâ— more discouraged from going to God though you are a younger Son and a Prodigal too yâ—â— if you go to him in Faith and Repentance 〈◊〉 will own thee for a Son as the Father did â—â—ch an one be not then daunted or beat off with frights and fears but venture into his preâ—â—nce he knows how Where sin hath abounded make Grace more than abound But I pass SERMON II. TOuching the Party of whom he makes the demand and title which he puts upon him Father whiles he studies ingratitude and proud self-dependence he puts on a cloak of submission he acknowledgeth his Father â—y his title although he is not willing to be at â—is dispose Hence we may observe Doct. 1. That the most wicked intentions are sometimes cloathed with the fairest pretences Men are not content to dissemble one with another but with God too The name Father â—s a name of honour and when the Son calls him Father he makes a shew of acknowledging him in all that dignity power priviledg which a Father hath of his Children he comes mannerly as if he would not grieve him while yet he is plotting his greatest disgrace and how to carry himself most unworthily Reas From the naturally remaining activity of Conscience which is in men and hath in all some power excepting such consciences as are cauterized men have something in them accusing or excusing Rom. 2. 15. Whence it comes to pass that though the hearts and wills of fallen meâ— readily close with and approve of Wickedness yet their natural shame fear self-condemnation makes them to palliate and shadow it under self-cheating and deceiving pretences thus they hide their sin from themselves and think they do so from God too USE To Admonish us to look to our own hearts and in special to beware to our selves in our Prayers we often seem to go fairly to God and call him Father to ask things of him which to us may seem rational thus the younger Son thought it but fair that being as he supposed at age and discretion to dispose oâ— his own he might without fault demand his Portion we many times ask these and those things in prayer mannerly in expression but let us beware lest for all that the wickedness oâ— our hearts be in it we ask gifts but possible to be proud of and get applause by and not tâ— serve God with them we ask comforts oâ— this life but not to encourage our chearful serving of God with them but
this resolution is ascribed to the Prodigal as his act therefore our Repentance prevents the Grace of God Our Saviours design being not to describe conversion by its Author but by its subject and by the effects on the subject If it be enquired whence Repentance comes there are other Scriptures which point us to the Author but if we ask how Repentance works here we have it But I come to look more particularly into the words and here if we consider when and how the Prodigal came to draw up this conclusion by referring it to the vers foregoing we shall find that it ariseth from the discoveries made of his fathers fulness of benignity whence we might observe this DOCT. I. The goodness of God is the great motive to true Repentance Rom. 2. 4. God wins the soul to himself nextly not by terrours but his benignity It is true God prepares them to entertain his kindness by terrible discoveries that so he may make it the more welcome but still these do but terrifie amaze make afraid but this is that which wins the soul breaks the heart encourageth hope and by this way the spirit worketh the soul to Repentance Hence that Job 13. 20 21. USE Thus may teach us that for Ministers to preach nothing but terrours or for poor awakened souls to look upon nothing but terrours is not the way to promote the work of the Gospel or conversion of Souls This drives only to despair All our Doctrines and all our hopes must center in the free Grace of God But I come to the words themselves 1. The first part of his resolution is general viz. that he will return to his father I will arise and go to my father In this the work of Repentance is generally and comprehensively intimated in which there is 1. The terminus â quo the place from whence he came viz. his farr Country where he was though not locally yet spiritually distant from God far from him in heart and life this is it he will leave 2. The terminus ad quem or whether he will go to his father How God may be said to be his father who is an unregenerate profligate sinner I here intend not to make particular enquiry though it may possibly be intimated to us by this words being so often used in the parable that by vertue of the Everlasting Covenant of Redemption every Elect Person in his greatest degeneracy and Prodigality is looked upon as a Child chosen in Christ to the Adoption of Children But it here mainly intends his going to God as a Father of Mercies 3. The form of Repentance it self I will arise and go Where is the beginning of that motion I will arise and the progress and go or the respect that it bears to both the termes to the far country I will arise i. e. I will sit or tarry no longer here I will leave it to his father I will go to him In the Greek it is rising I will go And the word rise properly signifies rising again q. d. after some fall and hence the nown is used for a resurrection either from sin or from the grave and because this Anastasie presumes a former Apostasie hence DOCT. I. If ever the perishing sinner hopes to be saved he must rise again and go to God As he formerly went away from him so now he must return to him Hence God in the proclamation of his Grace thus invites Jer. 3. 12 13. 4. 1. Hos 14. 1. In the Explication we may consider 1. The import of this rising and going to his father 2. Thereasons of the Doctrine 1. The import of this rising and going we heard in general that it denotes the act of Repentance not as separated from but as the first fruit of saving Faith and therefore both implying and including of it Faith and Repentance are propounded in the Gospel as conjunct Mark 1. 15. Repent and believe the Gospel Because they are practically inseparable Now this Repentance of Faith is sutably expressed by these two phrases and if they be well pondered they will give light to the nature of it Repentance is of two sorts Legal and Evangelical it is the latter of these we are now speaking of which is a saving turning from sin to God Of the motives and means of it I shall not here speak only of the act resembled by these allusions of rising an going 1. Rising implyes these things 1. Rising being an Anastasie implyes the sinner before conversion to be in a state of Apostasie or a fallen state it speakes that man was once in a good state but now hath Iost it God therefore useth this as an argument to quicken them to Repentance Hos 14. 1. Thou hast fallen by thine iniquity A man that never was up may rise but he was once standing that riseth again God made man upright in our first Parents we once had a standing in God's favour but have lost it by Sin and now the whole race of mankind till Grace raiseth them ly groveling in iniquity nay they are dead in Sin for this rising is a resurrection Eph. 2. 1. And this shews that it is not a man 's own strength but the Almighty power of God that giveth Repentance 2. It implyes that in order to true Repentance the soul must be furnished with a new principle of spiritual life Self-motion such as rising is is a life act and supposeth a life habit It is the property of dead things to ly still and move no further then they are forcibly moved they are only living things that move by a power implanted in them It therefore presumes that the Spirit of God hath been at work moving upon the dead soul and breathing into it the breath of life our Saviour saith it is the spirit that quickeneth He gives life to dry bones and then they rise and walk else they had never forgone their Graves A dead carcass cannot so much as will to arise 3. It implyes that in true Repentance there must be a forsaking of all Sin we must not ly in Sin if we will return to God those are directly opposite terms Sin and God are contraties the farr Country in which the Prodigal was is the Kingdom of Sin which he must leave else he can never come to his father nor can a sinner ever come to God till he hath rejected and abandoned his sinful life and way Hence that counsel Isa 55. 7. Let the wicked forsake his way There is no salvation to be had by sitting still 2. Going to his father implyes these things 1. That every natural man in his unconverted state is at a great distance from God Sin is therefore said to make a separation Isa 59. 2. This means not a local distance for Gods Omnipresence fills all places and is with the sinner to eye and observe diligently all his wayes but it intends a distance in heart and affection an alienation that God and the sinner are enemies he
should have been as holy as the Angels but if he purposed me to be such a sinner how could I help it Such the Apostle confronts Rom. 9. 19. Thus Hypocrites like Spiders suck poyson out of the precious Doctrine of predestination 2. He will charge God himself for the Author of his Temptations will say Divine allefficiency is the first mover and if he had not assisted I had not committed the sin He presented the obiect or I had not followed such the Apostle James sets himself against Jam. 1. 13 c. 3. Nay he will blame the very goodness and kindness of God to him and a curse or at least a reason of his sin and so God in stead of being acknowledged for his favour shall be upbraided So Adam Gen. 3. 12. The woman mhom thou gavest to be with me c. God had given her for a meet help to him he could not have done well without her and yet if he abuse this favour God is charged for it and why then did he bestow her upon me 4. He will turn it off upon those that were his Tempters they sollicited me perswaded me drew me in Thus Adam layes the fault upon the Woman and she upon the Serpent and thus men are oft ready to say I may thank such an one who drew me in who would not let me alone but followed me and prevailed upon me with importunity if it had not been for him I had not drawn away 5. He will excuse and mince it with all deminutive circumstances to make it look like a very little fault as 1. He did it ignorantly he knew no sin there was in it but thought that he had done well enough Thus Saul excuseth himself for sacrificing 1 Sam. 13. 11 12. 2. He did but follow his natural inclination it was at worst but a trick of youth c. 3. It was no great matter a thing of no great consequence and others frequently do the like 4. He was provoked to it yea had many great provocations which bare him down These and many the like excuses the corrupt heart of man is ready to frame But when God sets sin home upon the soul with the right conception of it he then layes the blame upon himself and that with greatest aggravation in which 1. He acquits God layes it not in the least to his charge but declares him to be altogether blameless David takes his sin to himself that God may be righteous and justified Psal 51. 4. q. d. I have nothing to accuse God of he is holy and righteous 2. He looks not too much upon instruments and occasions he layes not his own blame to another doth not charge it as Satans fault that he yielded to the Temptation but counts it his own Peter blames Ananias that Satan had tempted him Deut. 5. 3. It was Satan's fault to tempt but his to be tempted 3. Chargeth it upon his own vile heart and nature that fountain and original of all actual Transgression he is therefore led up to it and made to bewail that before God as the root of all Psal 51. 5. I was shapen in iniquity q. d. Hence comes all this here it is fountained thus the Prodigal Father I have sinned I askt my Portion and was not content till I had it in mine own hands I took it and went away into a far Country and wasted all there in riot I dishonoured my original by becoming a slave to a stranger keeping swine and feeding with them upon husks I did all thus voluntarily without any compulsion I did it against the law of nature and bond of filial obedience he doth not say it was a trick of youth and these good follows pot companions gamesters and harlots drew me in and so I did it The truly penitent so sees his own guilt and wilful obstinacy that he can look no where else what ever his occasions or temptations were yet still he sees that the Law of God was against it which he ought to have hearkened to notwithstanding all Temptation and his heart was in it else they could never have prevailed he gave his consent or else it had never been 2. He aggravates it in that it was against God q. d. Had I only wronged a creature it had not been so much but this is it that renders it hainous it was against Heaven All sin is against God Wrongs are valued according to the person wronged A thing is counted Treason when done against a Prince which would be a little fault if only done to a subject It is remarkable that in the Parable it self the younger Son is brought in acknowledging his sin to be against Heaven rather than against the Father Nothing that the wrongs we do to others are therein mostly to be bewailed in that they are against God Hence David confesseth it with an emphasis Psal 51. 4. Against thee thee only It was against Uriah against Bathsheba c. but that was little compared to and therefore swallowed up in this True Repentance runs sin up to the last object against whom it is now all sin is against God in that it is 1. Against the Law of God for that is it which makes it to be sin 1 Joh. 3. 4. It is not the hurt which another receives nor what we our selves suffer but what we do that firstly demonstrates it sin but it is the contrariety it bears to the precept and holy revealed will of God He that breaks thy King's Laws wrongs the King himself 2. Against the love of God his good will his bounty and beneficence to his creatures by which he doth invite and engageth all men to serve and honour him it is therefore called a despising of his goodness Rom. 2. 4. The Fathers bounty made the Sons sins the worse he had readily given him a plentiful Portion and yet he spends it in riot 3. Against the promises and threatnings of God they slight the one and contemn the other are not in love with the promises nor afraid of his wrath There are great promises made to obedience but they forsake these mercies count them as worthless things See Psal 81. 9 to 13. God hath fearfully menaced and denounced heavy judgments against sin and sinners and bids them beware of sin because of them Jer. 6. 8. Be instructed lest my soul depart from thee And because these are from God who is able to honour his servants and to make inexpressibly miserable his enemies this is a sore aggravation 4. Against God's earnest and heart breaking calls and counsels yea strongest Motives and perswasions What stronger plea can God use against sin than to declare that it is abominable to him his soul hates it yet it is a grief to his spirit and will oppress him and yet thus God pleads with sinners Jer. 44. 4. 5. Against his Honour and Glory There is nothing so much against the declarative glory of God as sin is yea nothing at all is against it
Reason of the sudden and strange alteration which we may sometimes see wrought in a sinner one whom the other day we saw bleeding to death in his sins rotting in his grave spending all in riot slighting all counsels and perswasions going in the ways of destruction now changed and become another man all new in him yea one that was wounded under amazement and terrours of conscience despairing and dying under convictions now rejoycing and ravished with the experience of the love of God These are strange alterations but not to be misbelieved if we consider the hast that God makes to find out and take into his arms dying sinners and the ravishing embraces he affords them When God comes he runs he may delay a while and let the sinner run himself out and not come presently to convert him but when he doth come he comes without delay nothing stops him Hab. 2. 2. Cant. 2. 8. USE 2. For Exhortation to the regenerate or such as have been converted unto God meditate much upon and labour to be deeply affected with the discoveries of God's wonderful love to you Think often 1. What hast he made I was dying despairing hopeless but he speedily came and put under an everlasting arm or ever I was aware c. 2. With what ardour of affection he fell upon thy neck Oh remember those embraces how he took thee up in his arms an unworthy filthy polluted armful how kind were those claspings which encircled thee those embraces which took thee out of thy pit 3. How he kissed thee breathing his soul into thee and filling thee with his love pardoning all thy sins taking thee to be his son again influencing thee with his grace in thy far Country speaking comfortably to thee Oh! love the Lord all ye his Saints and let your hearts boil over in ardent affections to him SERMON XXIII Vers 21. And the Son said unto him Father I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight and am no more worthy to be called thy Son VVE now come to observe the Son's deportment to his Father or how he carried it under these large and liberal expressions of his love to him and that is with all humble and penitent carriage The blotting out and pardoning of his sins doth not blot them out of his remembrance or make him ever the less apprehensive of his unworthiness no but it draws out his humble and penitent confession This acknowledgment is the same for substance which he had resolved upon vers 18 19. He purposed if ever he could meet his father thus he would say he now not only sees him but finds himself in his embraces and here he poures out his soul to him There is only the last clause omitted and why omitted is not essential to enquire divers reasons are given and that which seems most probable is that his father's kind carriage and abundant expression of his love had left him no room for it because he now found himself accepted in quality of a son The particular meaning of these words as they express the nature of true repentance hath been spoken to from vers 18 19. That which we have now to consider is only his expressing of them at this time viz. after his father had shewn himself fully reconciled and so signally testified it in his carriage to him Hence DOCT. When God manifests his special love to the soul of a sinner in Conversion it will draw forth the most kindly acts of true Repentance God's pardoning and accepting Grace sensibly apprehended will make a soul more to loth his sins accuse himself of them and be ashamed at them Though whiles God is kindling these resolves he comes in with them and â—rings his Salvation yet this shall not extinguish those resolutions but help them This is the season to express and act Godly sorrow humiliation and â—epentance We have David in this for an exe … nt example whom when the Prophet had convinced for his great sin he confesseth it but when he had witnessed from God that his sin was pardoned then he breaks forth in a penitential Psalm viz. Psal 51. wherein he humbleth himself into the very dust Reas 1. From the nature of true Repentance sound Humiliation and Godly sorrow which is such as before grace received from God cannot act kindly no not at all All that the man hath before he is converted is legal Take the force of the reason in these particulars 1. All acts presume their habits It is a principle in Logick that no effect exceeds the vertue of the cause The tree must first be made good before it can bring forth good fruit the thorn turned into a fig-tree if it bear figs. There must be an habit before there can be acts correspondent there must be an eye before there can be any sight So there must be habitual Repentance or a principle of it in the soul before there can be exertion of it Now this principle or habit is not in the soul before conversion Conversion is the turning of a Sinner from Sin to God this is done by changing his heart and all his faculties it is by making him a new creature and he is thus made by the infusion of the body of spiritual graces into him or laying the foundation of Sanctification in his soul Repentance is a grace a special gift of God and we in the former Doctrine observed that all graces come at once and then when God taketh a Sinner into favour then he furnisheth him with his grace hence being in Christ and being a new creature are convertible 2 Cor. 5. 17. 2. The act of Repentance is an actual turning from Sin and unto God and it hath both these parts in it as was before hinted at verse 18 19. If it wants one it wants all for man being a dependent creature must have will have some object Now here the soul utterly and everlastingly relinquisheth all its Sinful objects Hos 14. 8. It freely and willingly parts with them and it turns to God closeth with him as the only object on whom it can rest for Salvation this is the ultimate scope of Repentance Jer. 4. 1. Now such an act of chusing and closing with God which must needs accompany Repentance necessarily supposeth faith for a Sinner cannot close with God but by an act of faith and if there be an act of faith in Repentance then there was an habit whence that act flowed 3. Inasmuch as Repentance is a change of the affections which are the feet of the soul carrying it from and to its object and hence is a fixing them upon some other object than they formerly dwelt upon where also the prime affections mainly discover themselves viz. Love and hatred It necessarily prerequires to this act a gracious disposition infused into these affections In Repentance the soul is made to hate Sin which before it loved as its life and it loves God whom before it hated and the one of these
lust and filthy pleasures his patience hath been slighted and grace refused you have turned a deaf ear to his counsel the back and not the face to his proffers of Salvation thus hath he been of no worth in your eyes And now say What are you worthy of Ask your own Consciences and they will tell you that you do such things as are worthy of death An heathen's Conscience will say so much Rom. 1. ult You are worthy to have all those mercies that you have thus abused taken from you and to be turned down into the place of woes and miseries Hell is a place fit for you and the torments of it a due reward Thus thou art unspeakably unworthy that God should shew thee any mercy Get then to be deeply abased and ashamed of thy self hang down thy head with the Publican and so go to the throne of Grace and ask mercy of God for his own sake for Christ's sake this is the way in which God is to be found and entertainment to be had with him God is not wont to send such away ashamed but contented SERMON XVII 2. VVE have heard of the Prodigals confession now follows his petition Make me as one of thy hyred servants True humility as was hinted before hath two things in it viz. 1. A low esteem of one-self 2. A yielding one-self to God's dispose this latter is here presented to us The world is much altered with this younger son time was when the place and condition of a son in the family would not content him but he must have his Portion and take his liberty but now he would be glad so he might but fare as a servant in his Father's house God in the work of Conversion will hide pride from man and make him very low There is naturally a self-soveraignty in every Child of Adam though beggars they would yet be chusers and if they may not have their will they will rise up in rebellion This God breaks him off from whom he takes to himself Make me c. i. e. handle me treat me as one of thy hyred servants hyred servants are 1. Members of the family 2. The meanest sort of members except slaves It intends two things 1. The son desires admission into his fathers family under his favour and care 2. Submits to be disposed of as he sees meet and will not repine but account it a favour Hence DOCT. In true Conversion a sinner is brought to a voluntary resignation of himself to God's dispose He voluntarily throws himself down at Gods feet and leaves him to do with him as he sees meet This is the highest part of self-denial which Christ requires in those that come unto him Mat. 16. 24. And this will follow upon a true sight and sense of our own unworthiness and both of these are rooted in the right apprehension of our own vileness It will not be amiss to look into the nature of this Grace and its operation in an humble soul and there is in it somthing Negative and somthing Positive 1. The Negative part of it is that he will be no longer at his own dispose He finds that he hath been so long enough already to his cost The Prodigal found that it was the taking upon himself the Goverment of himself that brought him to all his misery and this taught him to see how unable he was to rule and guide himself He hath no wisdom no discretion but is a meer childish thing hence resolves against it as they Hos 14. 3. He confesseth himself to be bruitish and ignorant readily consents that it is not of man of himself to direct his own way or make a good choice for himself 2. The Positive part of it is that he is willing God should do with him as he seeth meet to place and order him according to his wisdom and pleasure But me thinks in the very front of this discourse a great and puzling question seems to assult us viz. Whether in this part of Humiliation God requires the souls to be so low as to be willing to be damned if he sees meet Some have been troubled about it else I should think the question unnecessary But lest any may think themselves not humbled enough for want of this I shall answer it and I may safely lay it down as a positive assertion That no man is bound to be willing to be damned You see how the Prodigal though he yields to his Father's wisdom and will in disposing of him yet he begs for a place in his family and be as one of the houshold he would be there where he may have bread and not famish Thus ought every son and daughter of Adam to labour to escape damnation to use utmost diligence in it and to pray and weep and strive against it For. 1. A desire after happiness and an abhorrence of misery are naturally seated in a man by a concreated principle Now such principles as God put into man's nature in Creation and stamped indelebly upon his being not capable of being obliterated were therefore put in him to be helps to lead him right to his end for which he was made therefore to be willing to be damned is a transgression against the nature of man it is a violence offered to his own being and inclinations 2. God hath made it the duty of all men to seek after and use means to obtain happiness yea all that duty which God hath laid upon men in the first and second Covenant it is with an eye and aim at happiness This is the motive in each to spur man on to his duty God promised life to Adam if he obeyed for life therefore was he to obey and Christ also promiseth salvation to him that believes he is therefore to believe for salvation or that he may be saved 2 Thes 2. 10. 3. Man was made to glorifie God i. e. the end of the precept for which man was by duty obliged was that he might serve honour and glorifie him and having lost this power by the fall it is every mans duty to labour after true Grace whereby he may again please God for without this principle we cannot do it and where this principle is it necessarily includes or involves Salvation in it We cannot desire to be converted but we do withal desire to be saved We are to pray for Grace without which we can do no service for God Now Eupraxy is happiness formally to be willing to be damned therefore includes in it to be willing to be without Grace and consequently dishonouring God for ever as the damned do Object But no unregenerate man knowes whether he be Chosen to life and he ought to be willing to be disposed of according to Gods Decree Ans This Objection labours of great ignorance For 1. Not God's Decrees but his Commands are the rules of mens actions Deut. 25. 29. It is not for us in enquiring after our duty so much as to propose
also was another ground of and defect in the doings of these Pharisees Mat. 6. 7. Rom. 9. 31 32. USE 1. Here see the Reason why some that have in their time been great Professors and careful do afterwards degenerate and grow licentious for if all that so profess are not sincere do not act from a sound principle no wonder if they decline If the seed that hath no rooting though it grow a while and out-grow many do at last dy wither decay we are not to wonder nor ought this any way to discourage those that are sinners USE 2. Let it counsel us to have a care that we do not ground our confidence in this that we do more than others think not our selves better or surer meerly for this Though God will not reprove you for your sacrifices yet he may for your hypocrisie and so you may weary him with your vain oblations Isa 1. 13. Remember there is no Justification legal by the work we do DOCT. 2. The Hypocrite is not acquainted with nor invited to the solemnization of the great joy which is at the conversion of a sinner Whiles this joyful entertainments is provided for and afforded to this younger son his elder brother is in the field the father doth not send and call him in unto it This is not without its spiritual meaning hypocrites may seemingly do a great deal but still they are strangers to and have no share in the joy of true Believers Prov. 14. 10. Reas Because he is a meer stranger to that which is the cause of his joy viz. converting grace he doth not know what it is what is the worth and excellency of it nor what are those grounds of spiritual joy which proceed from it these are spiritual things and therefore a natural man cannot receive them 1 Cor. 2. 14. The hypocrite is truely unregenerate and hence he moves in an inferiour orb and can no more know what the joyes of a Believer are than a beast can understand the nature and advantages of a life of reason he is in the flesh but these are not fleshly joyes USE 1. This may shew us the true reason why hypocritical men are so little affected with the conversion of a sinner to God when the report of it comes to them it may be they are angry and envious however they are not stirred up by it to praise God for them to congratulate with them their happiness and partake in their joyes Alas they were not invited they do not see nor know what it is to have been dead and be alive to be restored from spiritual death to be brought home to God of a Prodigal to be made a son USE 2. Here we also see a reason why unconverted men wonder when they hear the People of God speak of their joyes and comforts whereas they look upon them as sorrowful and miserable men and think them mad to please themselves with phantasms and dreams whereas their own blindness and ignorance is the cause of their admiration Foelix thinks Paul is distracted whereas he himself is distempered Hence let not the People of God judge themselves by or think worse of themselves for worldly mens opinion concerning them USE 3. If Hypocrites may not feast it with the People of God here much less shal they do it in the Kingdom of Glory If they may not partake with them in the feast of Tabernacles much less in their consummation How miserable a thing then is it to be a professor and no more to hew wood and draw water with the Gibeonites to do the drudgery of the Law but not to partake of the joyes of the Gospel a legal life is a life of much business but of no comfort there are many terrours which may oppress the conscience for defaults and much labour in striving to attain an unattainable legal perfection but no true joyes which can only flow from the sense of God's love and pardon in Jesus Christ beware than of Hypocrisie 2. We may observe the ground of the offense viz. The information he had of his brothers kind entertainment this he guesseth at by the noise he heard of joy but waits for further information which he receives by one of the servants who readily informs him of it and fully acquaints him with the occasion The action of this servant is exemplary it tells us thus much Observ That in our relation of matters of fact we should do it with all fidelity and candor to make the best of things and not the worst The servant both tells what his master had done and gives a good reason for it that one would think might have been convincing however it is otherwise taken It is very certain that a story may be true and yet so told as may be advantageous or prejudicial to him whom it concerns Doeg for all that we read spake true of Ahimelech but in such manner as was pernicious and carried a ly in it and is therefore called a lying tongue Psal 52. begin Which may give us warning to beware how we represent matters in our relation of them have a care therefore of a spirit of detraction else its certain the most spotless actions of the most innocent persons may be laid open to the malice and spite of men and the rather avoid it because it is a disease the times labour of There is something also commendable and imitable in the action of the eldest son he enquires before he determines he doth not presently conclude from what he hears but seeks to be certified in the truth which if it were more practised amongst Christians would prevent many unjust censures which are by over credulity past upon the innocent But I especially intend to take notice of the ground it self of his offense whence observe this DOCT. 3. It is the guise and Character of an hypocrite that he is offended and angry at the grace of God manifested to those whom he converts and takes into favour They cannot bear that God should shew any love to repenting Prodigals The elder brother is angry that his father should make a feast for his returning son The comforts and consolations of a Penitent are his great eye-sores The Scribs and Pharisees could not bear that Christ should converse with Publicans and sinners Hence the more they observe of God's love to any the more they hate and abhorr them This was Cain's sin and for this very cause he murdered his innocent brother because God had more respect to his sacrifice than to Cain's this is the ground of persecution and their prosecuting them with all malice and studying by all means to do them injury they are the joyes of the People of God that these men cannot bear I shall give the evidence of the Doctrine in two things 1. The natural enmity of the wicked against the Godly makes them to grieve at all their prosperity which they partake in Wicked men are of the evil one who next to God himself
We live in a world of change and there are varieties of conditions in which we are thrown up and down and shall never carry it right in them without Humility And here 1. Carry it humbly in respect of affliction there are many changes passing over our heads God brings many cloudy and mournful dayes upon his people he sees meet ever and anon to chasten them and it is fit that a vale of sin be a vale of tears All calls us to be humble The Child should stoop when his father is correcting him Humble sense of our vileness is a fit posture to meet afflicting times in For help 1. Justifie God in all the tryals that he brings upon us Hence labour feelingly to acknowledge our desert Dan. 9. 8. Accept of the punishment of your iniquity say the Lord is righteous You are Believers what then Christ hath satisfied God as a condemning Judge yet he will lay his fatherly chastisements upon his faulty Children and they have no reason to complain of being beaten 2. Bear affliction with meekness patience and self-abhorrence Mic. 7. 9. With patience be in subjection to your father when he doth nothing but right we should be silent Job 40 4 5. He that is vile hath nothing to say and with self-loathing the more we loath our selves the more we shall love an afflicting God It is the Lord c. Look on thy self as a poor inconsiderable thing and that will teach thee meekness What wonder if a worm be trod on Quest. But why doth God deal worse with me than with other sinful men Answ 1. Possibly some are in a worse condition than thou 2. Dost thou know any one by nature worse than thou art 3. Canst thou say thou art afflicted more than thy deserving or indeed up to it 4. Is not he the Potter and thou the clay let him alone if he be Soveraign thou must be silent 3. Let every affliction help to embitter sin to thee that is one great end of it to wean us from sin and make us know it evil and bitter and we shall bear our afflictions the better when we know and confess that our iniquities have procured them trouble for sin will swallow up other sorrows 4. Think not worse of God or his wayes because of the afflictions you meet withal but be willing to wait on him through all Break not with God nor leave him nor abate of your love to him believe that he can take away the affliction and believe that he will sanctifie it to you and resolve with Job that though he slay you you will trust in him 2. Carry it humbly towards God in regard of his mercies There are many mercies which God bestowes upon us and if we would carry worthily under them we must carry humbly Therefore 1. Acknowledge your unworthiness of the least outward mercy joyn with Jacob in his Confession Gen. 32. 10. A sinner is not worthy of a piece of bread or a drop of water all our daily refreshments are meer mercy yea our very life Lam. 3. 22. You never earned your meat or drink all the work you do is not worth a farthing 2. Wonder that God should do any thing for you David makes a great wonderment at it Psal 8. 4. Art thou a Believer that is Grace in thy self a wretched man There is not the best man upon earth but hath cause to stand admiring that God should condescend to look so low as to take any notice of him or to do him the least kindness 3. Be exceedingly thankful for all God's mercies Humility only is thankful That God should give to us such as we are such mercies this makes it exceeding great mercies to see a sinner one that deserves nothing eating and drinking and compassed with mercies this changeth gratitude 4. Let these mercies break thy heart and quicken thee to obedience If we did but know our selves the least mercy would do this That is a proud heart that is not softened by mercies and quickened to duty too The humble souls language is What shall I render to the Lord Psal 116. 12. How should I live What manner of one should I be who enjoy such favours who might have been a back-log in hell or ground between the milstones of Divine revenge See therefore that you are unspeakably in debt to God for every favour be it never so little yet if the soul be humble as it ought to be it will point us to God and put us upon obedience 5. Be content with the portion of mercy that you enjoy It it pride that acknowledgeth not God in what we have because we want our wills in something that God denies us An humble soul is content with any thing though he be poor despised afflicted yet that he lives hath any health strength c. sets him down quiet Learn to be humble and that will teach you to close with all God's dispensations 2. Carry humbly towards men A true apprehension of our own vileness will make us little in our own eyes Hence 1. Beware of despising any we mistake if we think it an effect of true grace to carry it contemptuously to any Are they unworthy so are you Are they Prodigals so you have been 2. Think better of others than your selves Phil. 2. 3. He that sees himself vile will think these cannot be worse than I it may be they are better it may be they have better moral excellencies or have never finned so fearfully so scandelously and against such means as I. 3. Think it not hard to be in low esteem with others We are ready to be dejected when men look with low and little respect upon us But he that reckons himself a worm will not think it strange if every one treads on him but wonder he is no more contemned 4. What ever esteem God gives thee among men assume it not to thy self let God have the whole honour of it Boast not of thy excellencies or graces but chuse rather to be speaking of thy infirmities and if thou hast the praise or acclamations of others take it not to thy self but say It is by the Grace of God that I am what I am who of my self am nothing Thus are we in all respects to carry over selves humbly and this is the way to obtain grace and favour with God the way to grow in Grace yea by this we shall give God his glory and shall enjoy his presence here and when he hath dwelt â— while with us to comfort and establish us he will translate us to dwel with him in his Kingdom of Glory for ever SERMON XIX Vers 20. begin And he arose and came to his Father VVE have considered the Prodigal's deliberation In these words we see him putting it in execution where it is to be observed that his practice corresponds to his purpose He resolved to leave his far Country and return to his Fathers house and so he did Such also is the
practice of every true penitent True Repentance begins at the heart but it ends in the life It rests not in thoughts and purposes but proceeds to practice Hence DOCT. True Repentance is practical Repentance In the work of Conversion there are not only deliberate purposes but real acts In order of nature there must be first resolving before doing yet where true grace is when men are resolved they will do Although the will be the first mover yet it is not the sole mover it rests not in Elicite but proceeds to Imperate acts Of the nature of rising and going I have before spoken that which we have now to enquire into is the inseparable connexion between grace in the heart and grace in the life We saw before the Prodigal's resolution was gracious and the Reason given was because it was the root and spring of practice it was the beginning of the work in the superiour faculties which was to influence the whole man And the sincerity of it herein discovers it self because as he said so he did as he resolved so he acted It gives us a note of difference between false and true Repentance Here then we may consider 1. The evidence of the truth of the Doctrine 2. What is this practice of Repentance 1. For the evidence of the truth of the Doctrine take these Conclusions 1. There may be some kind of deliberations and purposes in the heart of a sinner that is unconverted about repenting and returning to God Every purpose is not an evidence of sincerity A man held under the sting and lashes of an awakened accusing Conscience may be made to vomit up his morsels and in a fright to make forced promises of leaving off his sinful wayes and upon the hearing of the Gospel may resolve as John's Generation of Vipers te flee from the wrath to come distressed Consciences are often hurried to it rashly to throw themselves upon such resolutions and some visible practise and that violent for the while 2. That which discovers the falshood of these resolutions is that they are very short-lived they soon expire many of them do not live long enough to make any visible shew in practice but die in the womb many a sick man in horror promiseth Reformation if God will spare him but he recovers not so fast as his resolutions decay and die Others that have had a more forcible impulse do a little seemingly but are like the stony ground Mat. 13. they are often too violent to be permanent and by this discover that they are acted by external force and not an inward principle 3. The whole man is gone away from God by sin and therefore the whole must return by repentance Not only the heart is defiled but the life is polluted not the inward man alone but the outward too is gone away from God and must return to him now true Repentance is not a partial but a whole turning we ow God the whole man Soul Body and Spirit 1 Thess 5. 23. 4. The declarative glory of God is the great thing which all our doings should aim at In Conversion therefore we are not only to praise him but to shew forth his praise and how is this done but in life Repentance God only sees the heart men observe and judge of our lives 5. The Will being commandress over the whole man is not only to resolve for it self but for the whole man Purposing or resolving is properly an act of the will but it is for the whole it being representative of all and being able to indent for all thus the young man promiseth for himself I will arise true purposes are an obligation laid on the whole man for the performance of them 6. Hence if the Will be indeed sincere in purposing practice will follow This is unquestionable to him who knows what power it hath in man You shall find in Scripture that impenitence or unconversion is charged here Ezek. 33. 11. Joh. 5. 40. Psal 81. 12. and why but because where the Will leads the whole man naturally and necessarily follows at least in true and real endeavours A Believer may indeed fail in the manner of performance when his Will is intense but yet where purposes have been taken and promises made of Repentance and not put forth in endeavour but men sit still where they were those promises were made with a deceitful heart Isai 44. 90. and this hinders thorough repentance Psal 78. 37. their heart was not right where the heart is truly given to God such an one will not sit still but be up and doing 2. What is the practise of Repentance which is requisite Ans It is a speedy constant and industrious endeavour in the mortifying of Sin and quickening of Grace by the help of Gods Holy Spirit When the Spirit of God hath wrought the habits of Grace in the heart he alwayes adds the bringing of them forth into act which is their end and use He that works the Will works the Deed too Phil. 2. 13. so that the Soul no sooner is furnished for its work but it sets about it when Christ raised any or healed them they rose and walked so that practical Repentance is nothing else but improvement of Grace 1. The business of this Grace or that about which it is conversant is the mortifying of Sin and quickening of Grace rising out of Sin is a rejecting relinquishing casting it off which is done in mortification Sin claims the power of a Prince in a natural man commands him Reigns over him Rom. 6. 12. It must therefore be vanquished its dominion cast off by such as rise out of it Sin so dwells in us that it is no more left than it is mortified returning to God is an exciting of Grace a quickening of it it is an exerting of faith in him and love to him in these Repentance consists Rom. 6. 11. 2. That which is to be done in this business is 1. To be using all means to strengthen hatred of Sin the more we hate Sin the more we are gone from it he whose heart most abhors it is gotten furthest off from it Hence there is an using such helps as may make it loathsome which are a viewing the evil nature of it as discovered in the Word of God viz. its pollution its contrariety to God the wrong it doth the Soul and also the cross of Christ on which we should crucifie the World and its Lusts Gal. 6. 14. 2. To be by all wayes engaging our hearts to God to love and fear him and hence to get more and more perswaded of his goodness of the riches of Grace in Christ of the great happiness of those whom he admits into favour with himself the better we are acquainted with and perswaded of God the more intense will be the actings of our Grace Psal 9. 10. 3. The qualities of this act are these three 1. It is a speedy work if repentance be begun in the heart it cannot rest