look upon him but he knew him to be kind and that put him foreward so it should do thee hence God hath written his Name in letters of goodness Exod. 34. 6 7. And to help here 1. Consider how much God doth for such as never return to him nor ask mercy of him God's general goodness should lead sinners to repentance Rom. 2. 4. When you see how God spares prophane and wretched sinners and suffers them to live yea provides liberally for them fills them with hid treasures gives them more than heart can wish and the waters of an overflowing cup are wrung out unto them so that their hearts are filled with food and gladness they crown their heads with Rose-buds and spend their dayes in wealth and leave the residue to their babes Argue from hence what goodness hath he then in store for them that humble themselves forsake their sins repent and return to him with their whole hearts 2. Consider how many repenting Prodigals have upon their return been entertained and made welcome by him who once did as thou hast done run themselves out spent all and were ready to famish but betaking themselves to him they were fed and saved alive and this may give you hopes to find the like favour at his hand Consider therefore 1. They were such who as little deserved this favour as thou they had nothing of merit for which they should be bid welcome and relieved in their distress for all mankind stand guilty before God Rom. 3. 19. 2. They had gone away from him and wasted all in riot as thou hast done What a Prodigal was Manasseh how miserably had he run himself out yet he obtained favour What a great sinner had Paul been yet he was accepted 3. They were such as had as little to plead for themselves as thou hast They had nothing to plead but mercy condescending mercy undeserved mercy they had no more to say for themselves than the poor publican had Lord have mercy on me a sinner For themselves or of themselves all they could say was only to make this poor Prodigal 's acknowledgment vers 19. and yet were not rejected but found mercy 3. Consider what relentings there are in the hearts of men especiall of Parents towards their Children for that is the scope of the Parable to argue from the less to the greater q. d. If a father can have so much mercy a poor man that hath but a little kindness a little pitty with him what may we hope then that God will do Can a Prodigal so argue from his fathers bounty and encourage himself by it how much more a poor guilty sinner from the bounty of God with whom are everlasting mercies 4. Consider how richly God hath entertained returning sinners The poorest meanest Believer hath enough and to spare no Believer in Christs family wants for any thing that promise is fulfilled Ps 34. 10. God hath done for them more than they can express and though they sometimes seem to complain yet it is their infirmity and infidelity What can a Believer want which he hath not Pardon of sin title of inheritance to all good things favour with God grace to serve him a fatherly care for him yea and to spare he hath joyes consolations ravishing of soul he may not only feed but feast it by faith on Jesus Christ If you say what is all this to me who have no lot or share in this matter I answer it is this to thee it should encourage thee to hope and not utterly to despare of finding mercy and from hence to animate thy soul to go to God and wait upon him for it to seek him diligently in the use of means and to resolve not to sit still dy of the famine silently but to make thy moan to God and pour out thy complaint before him to arise and leave this far country where there is nothing but famine and death and with the Prodigal take up a resolution to return to God and ask gracious entertainment with him for a poor dying perishing sinner who is he alone with whom the fatherless findeth mercy SERMON XIV Vers 18. I will arise and go to my Father and will say unto him Father I have sinned against heaven and before thee Vers 19. And am no more worthy to be called thy son make me as one of thy hyred servants IN the former verse we had the Prodigal quickning and encouraging himself to return to his father which is the first part of his deliberation 2. In these words is set down his deliberate conclusion or consultation and determination what improvment to make of these arguments which is in summe to make proof of his fathers love in the most penitent and humble manner More particularly he resolves upon two things 1. That he will return to his father I will arise and go to my father 2. How he will demean himself when he comes to him viz. in the most submissive and self abasing manner that is possible and this appears both in his confession and petition 1. In his confession in which he acknowledgeth 1. His sin aggravated in two things 1. The object against whom against heaven 2. The presence in which before thee 2. The merit or desert of his sin I am no more worthy to be called thy son 2. His petition submitting to his fathers disposal Make me as one of thy hyred servants Before I enter upon particulars it will be needful to enquire to what head in Divinity this is to be referred whither to a preparatory or to a saving work and I suppose it may be made evident that it refers to a saving work and that true conversion is here deciphered and set forth in these and the following words verse 20. begin It is true we have in these words only his deliberate purpose expressed but we must remember that the will is the first subject of Religion and when that is truly turned to God there is a saving work wrought and the whole man will follow and so it did in this vers 20 he hath now renounced his far Country and made choice of God The work here described is Repentance but not a separate from but joyned with flowing from saving faith for it was the spirit of Grace working faith in him and acting of it who made him to draw this conclusion from the premises that enabled him to adventure his soul upon God and withal taught him how to do it in a penitent manner Hence those that place true Repentance in order before Faith mistake Though Faith usually first discovers it self to us in act of Repentance and the comforts of it are sensibly felt after Repentance yea the greatest and noblest actings of faith are those that are exerted in Repentance leading the soul in deepest sense of sin and unworthiness to adventure it self upon the mercy and power of a justly offended God in returning to him Furthermore we are not to think that because
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
but sin Every sin dishonours his Name by secret sin we dishonour him in our hearts by open sin we do it in our lives God is an holy God and it is only holiness that honours him Now this is to see sin sinfull when we are brought to see that it is against God wherein properly the sinfulness of it doth consist Nor can a soul ever know how great an evil sin is nor the meritoriousness of it nor the equity of the penalty threatned against it till he be fully perswaded and made to acknowledge that it is against Heaven 3. He aggravates it in that it was not only against but before his father Thus also David aggravates his sin Psal 51. 4. and done this evil in thy sight The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth in the sight and Sin is committed in the presence of God he stands by look on not only such sins as are committed in the sight of sun but such also as are done in the dark out or the sight of mortal men he sees into every corner Psal 139. 12. Divine Omnipresence fills all places and this is a great aggravation of Sin it argues either 1. Great heedlesness that men do not regard the presence of God and that shews much of Atheism Did men know or believe that God stood by and over-looked all their actions would they dare so to do as they do This was that which made them so impudently bold in Ezek. 9. 9. They say the Lord seeth not And thus men deny that glorious Attribute without which he were not God Or 2. Horrid prophaneness If men do acknowledge and yet regard not that God seeth them it argues that men have cast off the fear of God from them that they have lost the aw of his Judgements and are not afraid of his wrath It is the aggravation of Sodoms Sin Gen. 23. 13. They were sinners before the Lord. God comes to men and presents himself in his strict commands and severe threatnings tells them in his Word and Ordinances that his wrath shall burn against such Sins and such Sinners and yet they care not God speaks by his Word and speaks by conscience but to no purpose this proves mens obstinacy 2. The reason why God makes the true penitent thus see and acknowledge Sin is not to drive the soul beyond hope of mercy but it is I. To make the creature so touched with the sense of his own sin that he may thus see it in its worst colours and thence learn to loath it and himself for it that he may see Sin hateful not only in its consequents but in its self and thence what reason God hath and how just it is for him to be so severe and bear such a dreadful witness against Sin as he doth in his word and works Ezek. 36. 31. 2. That the greatness of the riches of his grace may appear and be known to be unsearchable that every believer may experience the meaning of that Rom. 5. 20. Where sin hath abounded grace did much more abound Hence Paul shall not only acknowledge grace but with an emphasis 1 Tim. 1. 15 16. The blacker the Sin looketh the brighter will grace appear and the more intense will the love of the soul be to God It is our Saviours argument Luk. 7. 47. To whom little is forgiven the same loveth little That believer that hath seen and known the worst of himself ever hath the most precious thoughts of Christ USE 1. Here we see how far those are from true Repentance who instead of aggravating do mince and extenuate their Sins and endeavour to make them look as small as they can that they may be little affected with or humbled for them Many pretend they have come to God and believed in him but how did they come Why as the Pharisee with their proud boastings not as the Publican with a Lord have mercy on me a sinner They have looked for Grace and Mercy not on the account of Christ alone but their encouragement hath been they have been better than others have good a nature have not been tainted with such Sins nor so dishonoured God c. This is not the way of Gospel-Repentance such as these are far from true conversion there is yet a great work to do for and upon them if ever they come to be made sharers of saving mercies USE 2. This may serve to answer that usual objection or discouragement which many awakened sinners are exercised withal and deterred by from coming to Christ viz. the greatness of their sins their hainousness their amazing aggravations they have not finned at the ordinary rate but exceeded and none have sinned like them they have gotten to speak terribly against themselves and hence they are ready to draw a desperate conclusion there is no hope for me This you see directly contradicts the Gospel method whereas you ought thus to argue therefore there is the greatest need for me above all Let those that think their wounds small that hope to cure them themselves or to out-grow them let such tarry away but for me I must perish if I go not to the Physitian yea this may animate you to this to consider this is the way of Christ he makes sin very bitter Jer. 2. 19. Where he intends to afford his grace and salvation and till you find it to be so you are not fit for mercy there is no plea for mercy more acceptable to or prevalent with Christ than that which is framed from the sensible acknowledgement of its Sin in its greatest aggravations The worse we count of our selves the better he likes us and the fitter we are for his grace to work upon let this then drive thee the more resolutely to him USE 3. From counsel to such as are encouraged with the hopes of mercy and would go to God for it how to go so as to find acceptance i. e. in summe labour to be as vile in your own eye and esteem as can be get the deep sense and apprehension of the greatness of your sin charge Sin as God chargeth it aggravate Sin as the word of God aggravates it judge your selves by the righteous law of God feel the weight and burden of Sin and groan under it as those that are weary and oppressed with it such are encouraged Matt. 11. 28. Come to me ye that are weary and heavy laden Add every proper weight to Sin that may make it the most burdensome and insupportible thing in the world In particular 1. Make it your own and take the blame to your selves Sin ever affects us more or less according as we find our selves interested in it so much as we fault others so much of self Justification will follow and the less we have known Sin to be our own the less will the grace of Christ be sweetned in our apprehension When Cicero would set forth Caesar's great clemency he makes his own fault every way his own
thing himself being a Sinner to be defiled with it Sin is not only vile in it self but it renders every one so that is polluted by it the best of creatures are vile if compared with God but sinful Man much more Job 11. 14 15 16. this hath rendred Man loathsome to God whose pure eye hates Sin and shall render him so to himself when God shall do him good Ezek. 36. 31. this hath pulled off his Scarlet and thrown him upon a Dung hill this hath defaced his beauty and covered him with deformity degraded his Glory and filled him with Ignominy yea overspread him with wounds ulcers and putrifying sores so that now he can see nothing in himself that might attract love but justly cause loathing 3. Vile in all that he doth Such as is the principle such are the acts Like tree like fruits Mat. 7. 16. see Job 14. 4. If he look on none but his best actions that he doth yet here he seeth his own filthiness so deriving it self into them that he cannot place any esteem upon them but declare them vile things Isa 64 6. Filthy rags Filthy the word is variously translated and by all to set out loathsome vileness The like you have of Paul Phil. 3. 8. dung The truly humbled soul sees no excellency in himself which he can call his own nor any thing done by him which is not polluted So Paul Rom. 7. 18. In my flesh dwells no good thing So that he dares not put his actions upon the tryal but deprecates it as David Psal 14. 3. 2. Enter not into Judgment with thy servant This is the root of Humility 2. The fruit that proceeds from this root is the debafing of him in his own esteem and firstly the sensible acknowledging his unworthiness of mercy and defect of misery 1. His unworthiness of any mercy the Prodigal confesseth that he deserveth no kindness from his father so doth the truly humbled soul see that he deserves nothing at the hands of God In particular 1. He acknowledgeth that he is unworthy of the least outward mercy so far from being worthy to be treated as a son as not to deserve to be treated as a creature and here he acknowledgeth 1. That he is unworthy of his life that he is a Child of wrath by nature and doth not deserve that God should suffer him to breath in his world it is a great kindness that he is not consumed and destroyed from off the face of the earth and turned down into the pit long before this Lum 3. 22. 2. That he is unworthy of livelyhood he cannot challenge as a debt from God so much as the least bit of bread or draught of water but if he do bestow it upon him it is a condescending favour Gen. 32. 10. 3. Unworthy that God should condescend to step aside to do him the least courteousie at all that he should visit him with any mercy Matt. 8. 8. Hence he wonders at all saith as David Who am I or as Mephibosheth 2 Sam. 9. 8. What is thy servant that that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I am The ungrateful sinner is quarrelling with God let him shew him never so much kindness but the humble sinner wonders at God let him shew him never so little kindness because he judgeth that none can be little to such a worthless creature as he 2. He acknowledgeth that he is much more unworthy that God should pardon his Sin and take him among the number of his Children that he should relieve his famishing Soul and bestow his Grace upon him it is such a thing that he dareth hardly speak of Luk. 18. 14. when Paul speaks of his calling to the Ministry how doth he set it forth see Eph. 3. 18. To me who am less than the least of all Saints how much more may every one say so of his Conversion he will acknowledge that if God refuse to come and save him he doth him no wrong Rom. 9. 19 20. if he do it it is meer Grace Eph. 2. 8. 2. He acknowledgeth his worthiness of all misery that he is not only undeserving but ill-deserving that he hath not only forfeited all mercies but procured to himself all woes is not only unprofitable but is also a great provocation to God In particular 1. He acknowledgeth that all the sorrows and sufferings of this life are not only his desert but less than his desert Ezra 9. 13. Job 11. 6 He will not only justifie Gods anger but magnifie his mercy in all the sorrows that befal him here in this World Lam. 3. 22. if God take â— way his Estate comforts of his life strip him naked of all yet naked as he is he chargeth not God but blesseth him Job 1. 20 21 22. the threatnings of God are just his executions of them righteous and his moderation of them merciful 2. That the utmost of the wrath and curse of God is duly and truly his merit that he hath done things worthy of Death and that it belongs to him as his wages Rom. 8. ult Dan. 9. 8. he sees Hell to be a place proper for him and confesseth that it is mere patience that hath hitherto kept him out of it else he had been there ere this he sees weight enough in his Sin to sink him down into the nethermost Hell and that he is not there as well as others undergoing endless easeless remediless torments is not because he is better but because God is more merciful to him Now when the humbled Soul is thus made sensible of his own worthlessness hereupon these further fruits of it discover themselves 1. He is really taken off from all confidence in himself he now dares to rest no longer upon any thing that is his whether of nature or grace to give him favour with God and plead for him in his presence He now dares not to rely upon his duties though done with never so much seriousness and sincerity no they are Loss Dung Rags to him they are not to be trusted in or accounted of 2. He is taken off from exalting himself and his own duties all self-conceits are beaten down and his business is to undermine them and undervalue them he denies himself this is true humility Mat. 16. 24. He despiseth his own services they are nothing nor is he ever the more worthy for them 3. He comes before God with self-abhorence comes not as a proud man that thinks he comes for nothing but what he may expect and challenge and it will be an affront to deny it him as they did Isa 58. 3. No but he layes all his excellencies and all his moralities and all his good duties in the dust under God's feet and acknowledgeth that he may if he sees meet trample upon them and do him no wrong Job 42. 6. If he had thought a thought or spoken a word in defence of his own worth or deserving he loaths himself for that word or thought
this is the moving cause of all the mercy which he shews to a Sinner 1 That God is a God of Compassion appears 1. Because it belongs to his Attributes Exod. 34. 6 7. merciful and gracious forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin Hence his People ascribe this title to him Psal 86. 15. But thou oh Lord art a God full of compassion 2. Because his works declare him to be so his works of providence towards his visible Covenant people evince it Psal 78. 37. But he being full of compassion forgave their iniquity and destroyed them not His works of special favour towards his Elect in pardoning their Sins and accepting of them to be his Children do more notably confirm it 2. That this is the moving cause of alâ— the mercy which he shews to a sinner will appear 1. From the nature of God He is the first mover to his own actions and cannot possibly be moved by any thing out of himself Hence man's pity and God's differ in respect of the the moving cause Man hath such an affection habitually but it lyes still till an object excite it but God is otherwise it moves it self That which moves in us hath the respect of a cause and that which is a cause is in nature before the effect but the good will of God to man whence all his compassion flowes was from Eternity Jer. 31. 3. I have loved thee with an everlasting love therefore in loving kindness have I called thee 2. God renders this is a reason of all his mercy towards his Creatures When he speaks of pitying and relieving them he reduceth it to our good-wil and mercyful nature Jer. 3. 12 13. Hos 11. 9. Rom. 9. 15. Psal 78. 38. 3. Because there is nothing in the Creature can be rendred as a sufficient moving cause of his compassion towards it 1. Not the Creatures misery in it self For 1. The sinners misery is not a fortuitous thing or befalling an innocent person but it is the just penalty of his sin inflicted by God himself and that according to the equity of an holy and just Law Lam. 3. 39. A man for the punishment of his sin 2. Then must God be equally moved to compassion to all sinners who are alike miserable and alike need succour and then why are not all saved That compassion which saves one could as well save another but there are but some sharers in this saving compassion others suffer his rigour Rom. 11. 7. The Elect obtained it the rest were blinded 2. Not their legal convictions and tenors and confessions and softly walkings c i. e. No preparatory work For 1. The Son was for all them a great way off when his Father pittied him 2. There are that Call and God will not hear that seek him early and shall not find him Prov. 1 28 3. Not legal Repentance and Reformation turning from many sinful practises and doing many things For these are nothing but sin Esau repented and wept but it profited him not Heb. 12 17 Herod's reformation engaged not God to him In summ God's compassion is according to his will and that is absolutely free nor to be regenerated by the creature Rom 9 16 with 18 4. Because God's design in the Salvation of a sinner is the manifestation of his Grace which grace discovers it self in shewing him compassion Now this grace of God hath described its subjects from eternity and therein distinguishing Grace is made to appear when it falls upon a subject that hath nothing in it to engage him nor could of it self do any thing in the least to move him USE 1. Here we see how far the name and term of merit is a stranger from Gospel language and what care we ought to take that we do not entertain any thoughts of it God is no debter to his creatures except voluntarily as it was free to him to make them so also to assign them their end and use and it is certain that he designed or appointed no creature to any use but withal compleatly furnished it for that end and if through its own default that be lost it can claim no restitution at Gods hands hence let no man think that his misery should be a sufficient ground to engage Gods mercy to him no nor his acknowledgment of his sin and misery neither for if we stand at the tribunal of Justice unto which merit is properly reckoned it doth not deserve pardon for a delinquent to fall down at the Judges feet confess his fault and beg that it may be past by and not imputed to him if the Law condemns him and he stands guilty before the Bar it is only a free pardon that can acquit him Now though an humane Judge may be moved by the submiss and lamentable expressions of a justly condemned person yet God is capable of no such impressions but if he intends a soul good he puts this very frame into him and then accepts him in this way though not for this carriage but in all this there is not any room or occasion to speak of merit USE 2. Learn hence also not to be discouraged from going to God in the sense of your own misery Though you are altogether unworthy and have nothing of your own to plead with him which deserves to impetrate his mercy yet you see here that his own compassion leads him to be merciful and that the object which it hath chosen to express it self unto is miserable sinners such as are every way miserable helpless and hopeless creatures And if thou knowest findest and feelest thy self to be such an one there is no reason to be discouraged thou art one of such whom God hath chosen to express his compassion upon and he who knows thy condition if he will can have mercy on thee Such as are helpless he is ready to help Isa 63. 5. USE 3. It may be a ground of wonderful encouragement to poor sinners to go to God and to wait upon him for mercy to consider that God is a God of compassion and that this compassion is the originial of all the good which the creature receives 1. To consider that he is a God of compassion We have heard say they That the Kings of Israel are merciful Kings He is a God that delights to exalt and magnifie himself by those titles of Merciful Gracious Compassionate c. His bowels stir towards and he pitties dying sinners and therefore he comes to their Graves and bids them live The commendation of a pitiful and a compassionate nature in a prince wilbring in rebels apace to come and throw themselves upon his mercy sue for a pardon who if they knew him to be pityless and inexorable would run utmost adventures as those that know they can but dy and can hope for no better by submission 2. To consider that this compassion is the root and spring of the mercy he shews Hence we may silence all uprising of heart and discouraging temptations
Mercy Magnified ON A PENITENT Prodigal OR A Brief DISCOURSE wherein Christs PARABLE of the Lost SON found is Opened and Applied As it was Delivered in Sundry SERMONS By SAMVEL WILLARD Teacher of a Church in Boston in New-England Luke 19. 10. For the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which is lost BOSTON IN NEW-ENGLAND Printed by Samuel Green for Samuel Philips and are to be Sold at his Shop at the West end of the Town-House 1684. Christian Reader IF the skill in handling of it had any way answered the excellency and utility of the subject handled in the following Sermons there would have needed no Apology for the publication of them The Parable under consideration comprizeth in most lively and heart-affecting allusions many pretious truths Here are divers Mysteries of Providence cleared pointing to those secret wayes wherein God carries his Decree of Election under ground a great while before it rise and break out in effectual Calling here we learn how far a chosen one may run from God before he turns here we are instructed in the methods God useth to bring wanderers home and recover the most profligate Sinners by Repentance the nature of true Repentance is here curiously limned and the transactions between God and a Sinner in his Conversion pathetically described yea how miserable a thing it is to be a Sinner how happy to be a Saint is wonderfully illustrated The fountain of Grace is here opened and the deep streams in which it runs revealed and all this accommodated to the most feeling apprehensions of the soul I confess I have but drawn a veil upon the picture and am deeply sensible of my own insufficiency to Display these Mysteries all the account which I can give of the publishing this imperfect thing is knowing it the desire and duty of those that fear God as they have opportunity to do all the good they may in their places God having so far afforded his Presence and Blessing with these Sermons in the Preaching that many Souls have born witness to the benefit received by them some of whom have desired they might have the further advantage of their being made publick I was therefore induced for this reason to consent to it hoping withal if God sees meet that it may be further beneficial to some or other to shew them to themselves and instruct them in the way of life to give light also to and help some to prove themselves and their own state only let it be for caution adverted that I have not here undertaken to confine the Spirit of God in his wayes and methods with his Elect in bringing them home but only have signified that something of all that is herein expressed is one way or other done in the Soul that is savingly brought over to Christ The work of Conversion begins to be thought a small thing and a matter of little observation or wonderment for a Sinner to become a Saint Many Commence Believers before they were either convinced or humbled and that is the reason why so many prove Apostates The great design of the Parable and aim of this Discourse upon it is that proud and secure Sinners may be awakened and humbled and brought off from their empty and undoing courses and that abased and self-loathing Sinners may be encouraged notwithstanding all their profuse and prodigal wayes to return to God in Christ for his mercy and so may tast of the Royal Feast and be entertained at that noble Table which God hath prepared for them who come home from their far Countrey by true Repentance My encouragement is that out of the mouth of Babes and Sucklings God hath ordaâ—â—â—â— praise to his blessing I commend this 〈◊〉 and may his Name have the Glory and 〈◊〉 Souls be made so to partake in benefit 〈◊〉 as to give him his due acknowledgmeâ—â—â— shall have reached the utmost of my aim Who am the Unworthiest Laboureâ— in Christs Harvest S. 〈◊〉 Mercy Magnified ON A PENITENT Prodigal SERMON I. Luke 15. 11. And he said a certain man had two Sons c. THe Riches and Freeness of the Grace of God manifesting it self in the Conversion and Salvation of undone self-ruined Sinners having by the same Grace first provided for this in the glorious Redemption wrought out by Christ is one of the great designs of Gospel discoveries Proud nature slights it it self and envies it to others The self-conceited Pharisee deems none to deserve favour but himself and thinks he hath reason to find fault with a merciful God if he reveal and apply his mercy to any other A notable Instance of this the Chapter afore us doth afford our Saviour Christ is recorded ver 1. and it was not the first time that he had so done to condescend to teach Publicans and Sinners in the great concerns of their Souls and instruct them in the way to eternal life Ver. 2. The Pharisees and Scribes those self-admiring Justiciaries take great offence and when the almost did they otherwise than find fault with the spotless actions of Christ but when offence is taken and not given the woe denounced falls upon those that take it Christ therefore doth not for this abstain lest they should be prejudiced but strenuously maintains and justifies that which he hath done against all their cavils The main things which we aim at in this vindication are the discovering 1. That the Subjects of Gods Grace are not Pharisees but Publicans not men righteous in their own vain Opinion but such as are sinners both in their own and others account 2. That God is the first in this great work he seeks up lost sinners before they seek after him 3. That the greatest distance which sinners have set themselves at from God can neither hinder their return when he comes to convert them nor give obstruction to his merciful and kind acceptance of them returning This our Saviour Christ illustrates in three Parables the two former more brief and succinct and being taken the one from a sensitive the other from an inanimate thing not so full the third more ample and large as carrying in it a very great Analogy to the thing which last is the subject of the ensuing Discourse In order to the entrance upon this Subject give me leave to premise a few words touching the nature and use of Parables in general Parables are properly Aenigmatical or Allegorical comparisons wherein under the representation of other persons actions or things some other like thing is intended and commended to our consideration The word Parable is variously used in Scripture in Heb. 11. 19. it is used for an exchange in Heb. 9. 9. for a pattern but in the Gospel usually for a representation of heavenly truths under earthly similitudes The Scripture maketh mention of two ends of the using of Parables which indeed seem to be contrary which contrariety chiefly ariseth from the different way of expressing them 1. They are to wrap up
1. The soul of man absolutely needs some object to rely upon man 's dependance for soul as well as body is out of himself that must have something to live upon or else it cannot do Man was made for an end and the attainment of his end is the fruition of his object hence the Church calls God the portion of her soul Lam. 3. 24. 2. Hence the soul can hold up no longer than it hath some object to depend upon either really or imaginarily able to support it The soul therefore sinks when it hath nothing to trust to and that is the proper nature of despair viz. the sinking of a soul for want of a stay and the reason why every sinner is not a desponder is only because he stayes upon the things of the world and hopes they will support him hence they are said to trust in them Psal 49. 6. 3. God and the creature cannot both be a man's stay These are set in opposition in the Scripture and will alone be our confidence or not at all Deut. 32. 12. Therefore the Apostle opposeth these two trusts to each other 1 Tim. 6. 17. 4. Hence in order to conversion the soul is broken off from his hope trust or reliancy upon any created being he is made to find himself with the Prodigal a bankrupt creature living in a famishing world which hath nothing in it but husks and he cannot feed upon them he sees Ashur cannot save he is in a pit wherein no water is and now he is ready to dy perish can find no comfort here 5. In this state there is nothing but hope can sustain the soul from utterly despairing and without this the heart would certainly break For that man who knows that he must certainly perish without help and all help which he relyed on utterly fails him hath only this to relieve him to hope that help may come some other way else his heart must sink and dy within him Now this hope must be preparatary for 1. It flows not from an interest in Christ for it is the encouragment of a soul that hath been estranged from him to go to him for God allures the soul to Christ by setting this hope before him and effectually perswading him to embrace it and it is the usual method of the spirit to come in with it into the soul so Ephraim Jer. 31. 18. 2. It ariseth only from a possibility or at furthest a probability that he may here find acceptance and obtain a full supply of all the good he needs and not from a certainty or promise or covenant in which he may claim it you have it expressed in Jonah 3. 9. Who knows but the Lord may be gracious The sinking soul hears news that there may be a redress had for him that there is one who not only can do but hath done as much for such as he which makes him to bear up and puts him upon waiting in the use of means 2. What of encouragment ariseth from these considerations Answ Here is the only Rational encouragment of an humbled sinner He can find none with looking elsewhere if he look upon the world he sees nothing but famine if upon himself he hath spent all and is utterly undone it is only in God that he can expect to find any relief Now the Soul is not first made to believe and then see the reason of it but the spirit of God draws the soul to believe by making it see the excellency of the object and so perswading it he is first made to see the ground of hope and then to follow as the Prodigal here Now both of these Attributes are full of encouragement 1. The sufficiency of God it cannot but animate the Prodigal to think that there is bread enough and to spare in his fathers house Starving beggars are not wont to ask relief of beggars like themselves but they go to the rich Men account it vain to ask an alms where they know there is nothing to be had but where they understand there is enough they will be very importunate because they know such an one can if he hath an heart to it do them a kindness So here the soul discovers a possibility that he may have succour because God is able there is all fulness in him he can save him from hell and wrath and misery and bestow life and salvation upon him if he sees meet When Jacob heard there was bread in Egypt he said to his Sons Why do you sit still and look one on another and dy So when a soul hears there is all Grace with God it prompts him to say why do I tarry here then and perish God therefore thus propounds himself to destroyed Israel Hos 13. 9. In me is thy help And Christ propounds it as a question to them in order to their cure Matt. 9. 28. Believe ye that I am able to do this Now possibility apprehended gives ease to extream necessity and when a soul hears of it it will not cast off all hope till it hath made utmost proof and hence the soul is helpt to come to Christ believing hence the poor Leper makes this his argument and comes with it Mat. 8. 2. If thou wilt thou canst make me clean 2. The bounty of God added to his sufficiency gives further strength to hope in that it discovereth more than a possibility viz. some probability The Fathers bounty to hired servants made the son think he not only hath enough but is very free of it why then may not I who am a son though a Prodigal make proof of it Beggars go more chearfully to and knock more liberally at a bountiful man's door because they are ready to promise themselves relief not that they deserve more of him than of another but because he is more ready to communicate his favour than a churle is When a poor sinner considers how kind God is how full of mercy how liberally he distributes his favours how he deals his kindnesses undeserved and scatters them not with a sparing but bountiful hand now thinks he why may I not speed why may not I come as well as another and hope to find him kind to me as well as others have done Hence God puts this argument into their mouths Hos 14. 3. With thee the fatherless findeth mercy You find David makes a plea of this Psal 86. 5. Thou O Lord art good and ready to forgive Now though the soul have never a promise to rely on for that is received in believing yet he hath a support against despair and argument to drive him to go to God for his mercy 3. That this encouragment is of use only to perishing sinners The Prodigal comes not to this thought till he is at an utter loss and he joynes it to that consideration I perish with hunger And there is great reason for this for 1. As long as a sinner hath any thing at home he minds not nor regards God
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
it is well this is accepted of God and he that gives to will will also give to do But if it be not so what is thy hope built upon what are thy comforts but delusions what are thy assurances but undoing deceit USE 4. For Exhortation and let me direct it particularly to such as being under the sense of perishing in themselves have made discovery of the great power and goodness of God and received some preparatory hope by it he hence encouraged and counselled to arise and go to God Do you feel your selves under a condition so miserable and have you discovered an object so glorious and sutable take heart and resolve to adventure into his presence and throw your selves upon him Consider God therefore reveals himself to be such an one to such as you are to this very end that you may be wooed and won to him and if now you put him away by unbelief you will slight Mercy Remember withal though there be so much supply with God as is enough to make you compleatly happy and to spare yet it is only for comers If you will taste of this Feast you must accept of the invitation and come and be ghuests you must come out of those hedge-rows and high-wayes in which you ly starving you must go to the waters if you will have wine and milk Isa 55. 1. Halt no longer between two opinions if it be good perishing sit still but if it be good to be saved arise and come away come to a resolution draw up your conclusion If you object and say I can resolve nothing of my self except God put his Grace and resolution in me I answer It is true but remember also that as God is a free Agent so we are obliged by duty and the ty of it is such that we must except we will bring guilt upon our selves set about it and this is our duty to believe and resolve not in your strength but in the strength of God nay it is one of Satans cheats to tell us we must wait before we 〈◊〉 till we discover Grace coming in whereas the habits of Grace come in undiscerned and the first fruit of Grace is to be found in the resolution it self If God helps us to this resolution we must by that know that his Spirit is come into us and it is our duty in the use of means to stirr up our selves to believe Resolve then in the strength of God here thou art perishing there is mercy with him that he may be feared he saith if thou comest he will not upbraid thee he saith The hungry he will satisfie with bread and give the longing soul the desires of his heart he saith he will give the weary rest in a word if ever you obtain Salvation it must be with him hills mountains all created beings will not afford it Thou hast tyred thy self to no purpose in seeking it there already and why shouldest thou again make a vain essay if God will he can and he is a merciful God the fatherless have found him so Do thou but resolve to leave all for him and make choice of him for thy trust and he will do it for thee what ever it be that thou wantest grace glory and every good thing will he bestow upon thee SERMON XV. THus of the Prodigals resolution to return 2. His purpose how to demean himself on his return follows to be considered in which are shadowed out to us divers necessary concomitants of true Repentance or qualifications wherein the truth of it doth appear and serve to instruct us in the true and genuine working of saving Grace to the humbling of the soul and rendring him vile in his own eyes And this is in two things viz. his Confession and his Petition In the one he makes himself as bad as he can be as little as low and sinful in the other he yields himself to be what ever his father would make him To begin with the first 1. In his confession he acknowledgeth his sin and the merit of it 1. In the acknowledgment of his sin 1. He makes it his own I have sinned 2. He aggravates it 1. By the object against whom against heaven 2. By the presence in which before thee The phrase against heaven means against God himself the word Heaven is used both by Hebrew and Greek writers for God either as one of his names or else Metonymically because heaven is the place where he most gloriously appears Divers useful truths may hence be gathered I shall draw them all up into this one DOCT. Where God gives true Repentance such an one will confess his sins with the greatest aggravation He will not mince or extenuate and go about to make them look little and small but acknowledge them in their height greatness present them in their blackest and ugliest colours so doth this Prodigal son resolve to go to his father and so did Though every sin in its proper nature nakedly considered as it is a Transgression of the Laws of God an affront offered and an offence given to the Majesty of Heaven is on that account great yet there are several circumstances with which it is clothed which if truly looked upon do exaggerate or heighten the vileness of it these the Hypocrite endeavours to cover over and hopes thereby to excuse himself â tanto as the Pharisee I am not thus and so but contrariwise in sound Repentance when the sinner comes to humble himself before God and confess his sins he makes himself as vile as he can Sin is made exceeding sinful An hypocrite hopes to plead that he hath not been so bad therefore he may hope for mercy but Paul was of another mind 1 Tim. 1. 25. Christ came to save sinners of whom I am chief And David Psal 25. 11. Pardon mine iniquity for it is very great Now the aggravations in our text are three under which heads the most that can be said may be ranked these let us a little look into 1. He takes the whole blame upon himself I have sinned it is I have done this thing so David calls it his own sin Psal 51. 9. q. d. Whatever blame or guilt there is in it I take it all to my self He confesseth it roundly and plainly without any excuse or extenuations or putting it off to any other cause occasion or tempter And this is one difference between the repentance of an hypocrite and a true penitent the one would put off his sin as much as he can seek excuses find others to lay it upon and bear as little of the blame as possibly he may he would divide the fault that he may leave the least part of it to himself and he finds many occasions or causes to change it upon 1. He throwes it upon everlasting decrees and would make the holy counsel of God to have a causal influence into his wickedness and will say if God had intended me so to have been I
Nullâ vi coactus judicio meo voluntate meâ ad ea arma profectus sum quae sumpta sunt contra te Pro Ligar Thus must you do and thus shall you bring glory to pardoning mercy See and say it was your own choice your heart was in it you were not compelled but acted freely resolutely and therefore have justly deserved to be rejected when you have nothing to plead for your selves then you are fit to plead mercy Remember therefore that God made man upright it is he that hath sought out many inventions God hath given to no tempters either Men or Devils power over your wills to compel them 2. See how vile your Sin must be in that it hath been against God you never look aright upon it until you bring it up hither It is true Sin cannot rob God of his essential glory which is out of the reach of the creatures malignity but his declarative glory is thereby abused you have not only wronged man that is a worm but you have injured the God of Glory It is his holy Law that you have broken else it is not Sin you have preferred a base lust a lying vanity before him you have rejected the rule of infinit wisdom which only can direct man to his end you have despised and trampled upon the great reward of happiness which was propounded to you you have cast off the yoke of supream soveraignty under which you ought to have put your selves You have placed Sin in God's Throne and given it the precedency you have slighted the gracious and precious invitations of the Gospel which have been set before you you that are worms of the dust have risen up against an infinite Majesty And is not this a sore and grievous thing Can you be too much affected for that Sin which is of so deep a dye this is the true and kindly sence which every penitent Soul enlightned by the Spirit of Grace hath of his Sins 3. How bold must that Sin needs be which hath been committed before the face and presence of God Would you not have been afraid and ashamed if sinful men like your selves had stood by and looked on when you committed these and those Sins how then were you not afraid to do them when God looked on if you did not consider it was not that an Atheistical Spirit or if you cared not for nor regarded it was it not a brazen face you were not afraid of his terrors nor awed with his judgments you either forgat God which is desperate security or you despised him which is high Prophaneness Thus confess your Sins to God if you hope to find mercy hide not cover them not under your tongues be not afraid to make the worst of them you cannot confess worse than God knows judge your selves if you would not be judged of the Lord if you now hide your Sins God will unmask them before Angels and Men but if you thus confess God is just to forgive Be not afraid to confess your selves the chief of Sinners this cannot set you beyond the hope of mercy since Christ is more able to save than we are to destroy our selves since it is before a God who can abundantly pardon since Christs business is to save Sinners labour to know and confess your selves to be really and truly so and the more you know and feel your selves to be such the more encouragement you have to go to Christ Remember Sin hath taken away all other Pleas from fallen man and left no room for him to say any thing more or other for or of himself but that he hath sinned and thereby exposed himself to wrath and hath no other thing to fly to but the Grace of God in Christ Jesus on which account it is that he hath this one plea left him humbly to present For thy Name sake O Lord pardon my iniquity for it is very great SERMON XVI 2. THus of the Prodigal's Confession of his Sin it follows to consider his Confession of the merit of it expressed in these words I am no more worthy to be called thy Son The Words are a Meiosis or a diminutive expression in which less is said than intended The thing here aimed at is Gospel Humiliation an ingredient into Repentance and concomitant of saving Faith and is consequent upon the right apprehension of Sin and the aggravation of it and he that hath known what Sin is indeed cannot but acknowledge himself unworthy of mercy and worthy of misery and so this negative comprizeth the contrary affirmative Hence DOCT. Where God gives true Repentance he makes the Sinner to see and confess himself to be utterly unworthy of any mercy and worthy of all misery The Grace we are here considering of is true Humility a fruit and discovery of Faith and concomitant of sound Repentance You shall see that our Saviour finds and acknowledgeth true and great Faith in it Mat. 8. 8. with 10. It is a Grace which God requires and earnestly calls for in Scripture and is made the end of many solemn dispensations of God to his People Deut. 8. 14 15 16. now this Humility hath two things in it viz. 1. A low and vile esteem of one self 2. Which follows a yielding one self up to Gods dispose the former we have now to consider the latter follows in the next words This first is an utter renouncing of self-excellence Man by nature is very proud he thinks himself to be of some desert and worth hence he counts all the evil that befals him an injury and all good a debt the Soul is not fit for Christ but God when he draws him home to himself makes him know that he is the most worthless creature in the World to receive any good and worthy of all evil And that we may make some particular discovery of this Grace we may consider it in two things viz. 1. The root of it 2. The fruit proceeding from it 1. The root of this Humility and that which influenceth each part of it is a deep sense and apprehension of his own vileness The Spirit of God gives him to see find and feel himself to be a vile creature this is Job's Confession Job 40. 4. I am vile the word signifies contemptible or worthy of no esteem he finds and confesseth himself every way vile 1. Vile as he is a Man a piece of Clay a little dust of the Ballance God made man so as that he might ever see cause to have low and little thoughts of himself Gen. 2. 7. his body a lump of dirt his breath a blast himself a Brother of worms God must stoop to take notice of man in his greatest excellency hence the Psalmist thinks of it with admiration Psal 8. 4 What is man that thou art mindful of him 2. Much more because he is a sinful creature the sence and apprehension of his own Sin renders him unspeakably abominable in his own eyes he sees Sin to be a vile
all this and still wait If mercy seem like that unjust Judge to stop its ears anger to sit in the countenance of the the most high he will submit and yet throw self upon the mercy of an angry and offended God Mic. 7. 9. 4. He is resolved that if God will accept him witness his love to him and acknowledge him in Christ his free mercy shall have the full and whole Glory of it and he will engage his heart to magnifie mercy by degrading himself and keeping in mind his own unworthiness God shall have the praise of all his heart shall eccho grace grace through all his life and heaven shall ring with these glorious acclamations to all eternity This is the true Gospel humility which the spirit of God worketh in every soul whom he draws home to himself This is a true qualification of Repentance of Faith and the modification of it in respect of the term to which the sinner returnes viz. God and those that so come shall find mercy For the Reasons why God brings the soul thus to his foot they are such as these Reas 1. To take away all boasting from the creature that the soul may have nothing at all before it to confide in man is emptied of himself as long as there is any self-soveraignty remaining in him he doth not cannot acknowledge all to come from God till he utterly relinquish the disposal of himself He cannot see that his Salvation is wholly out of himself as long as he thinkshe may capitulate with God about it Now God will hide pride from man 2. That his glorious Soveraignty may be fully subscribed to Hence God will save none till they do yield that he might damn them and hath no obligation from them to do otherwise God will be seen in his royalty to dispense grace from a throne or not at all hence we are to go to a throne of grace Heb. 4. 16. God's Soveraignty is a most precious pearl in his Royal Diadem and he will not suffer it to be pluckt out Job shall be convinced of this before he returnes his captivity 3. That the grace of God may not lift them up but keep them low and humble That they may not despise others nor think of themselves beyond what is meet that they may not be high minded but fear that they may always remember who hath made them to differ from others and may dwel upon that that it is by Grace they are saved and not of themselves USE Give me leave here to improve the former and present Doctrine in a serious word of Exhortation as you would prove your selves true penitents to get and keep humble before God Ply this work of humiliation and exercise the grace of humility get humble walk humbly before the Lord Renounce self-sufficiency and cast off self-soveraignty For Motive 1. Consider how acceptable an humble soul is to God and how displeasing pride is to him God takes great delight in those that are humble he dwels with them Isa 57. 15. If any are like to have more of Gods refreshing and comforting presence than others it is those that are humble where this grace is in exercise God will give more grace Their services are highly esteemed by God Psal 51. 17. he hath a peculiar respect to them Isa 66. 2. 2. Consider how much reason and how many causes you have to be humble to see and count your selves vile creatures and to ly low before God 1. Your sins should make and keep you humble The sin of your heart the leprosie of your nature the body of death that heart-ful of filthiness and corruption your daily sins of act in omission of duty in transgressing the command especially your particular enormities Psal 51. 1. This evil It will be a truth for ever that you have committed things worthy of death and are not worthy to be called sons and daughters of God an hyred servants place is too good for you 2. Your duties should humble you Hast thou done any thing for God it was not thou didst it of thy self but the spirit in thee And in all your duties you may see humbling confiderations how cold your affections how little impression had they on your hearts of how little continuance even as the morning dew How little sincerity how much hypocrisie How little grace how much corruption 3. All your afflictions should humble you God hath hung many weights on thy heart to crush thee and thou shouldest be ashamed that they have brought thee no lower All personal all publick rebukes of God's Providence all Wilderness Tryals are to humble the people of God Deut. 8. 15 16. 4. All God's mercies should humble you you have not deserved them but the contrary The mercies of your being preservation special deliverances above all those saving mercies the grace of God in Christ and the promise of eternal life In a word whoever thou art whether Believer or unbeliever thou hast abundant cause to be alwayes affecting thy heart unto a low frame and to bring thee down to the foot of the great God and ly there as a poor despicable nothing resigning thy self up to and placing all thy hope upon his meer love mercy in Christ and endeavouring that that may have the praise and glory of all SERMON XVIII THe Directions may be 1. To the awakened sinner to come humbly to and wait humbly upon God for his grace 2. To the believer to carry humbly all his dayes 1. Art thou one who finding thine own misery and hearing of God's plenty art thinking to make proof of it Wouldest thou speed â— then in a deep sense of thy own unworthiness Throw thy self down at his feet would you find God merciful be you sure to be humble And for help 1. Remember how much you have done to provoke God to reject you and hide his face from you Think what manner of lives you have led and in special how you have slighted the Gospel despised the Calls counsels reproofs encouragements that have been given you how often you have refused to accept of tendered Grace and Salvation and therefore well may God refuse to hear you when you cry unto him and bid you go to the Gods that you have served Jer. 2. 28. 2. Think how useless and unprofitable creacures you are in your selves no wayes fit to be active in glorifying of him The whole world is become unprofitable Rom. 3. 12. Have neither will nor power of their own to glorifie God till he restore it Philip. 2. 13. What can you do for him till your enmity be taken away your rebellion subdued Nothing but his grace can fit you to do him any the least service 3. See that you have nothing by which you can challenge the least favour from him It is true the Gospel saith If you believe you shall be saved but it also tells you this believing is not of your selves Eph. 2. 9. Till you believe you are under
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
wait on God for the like favour not repining that it comes not yet but counting and confessing it an high favour if ever it comes DOCT. 4. A man may live a long while in Christs visible family and also in a careful outward attendance to duty and yet never be made to partake in his special love and favour Never be feasted with his special spiritual grace never have a kid killed for him to feast it with his friends The hypocrite never tasts one crumb of the Childrens bread Reas 1. From their incapacity they are not in a state and condition to be feasted joys and feasts are for the living and not for the dead whereas these men are not alive they are painted sepulchres but full of dead mens bones they are really dead though seemingly alive Reas 2. Because the dispensation of God's special love and favour are not Legal but Evangelical dispensations God doth nothing for any of Adam's sinful progeny for the sake of their righteousness but only of his free grace as long therefore as men boast of their doings they may do all their lives long and God nâ— whit regard so as to accept of them the proud Pharisee is not justified USE 1. To teach us that when man hath done his utmost still grace is free and not owing to him The father had not been unkind much less injurious to his son though he served him and he killed no kid for him God ows not conversion nor the benefits that come by it to our endeavours USE 2. Hence wonder not if many Professors in the visible Church are lifeless and sapless hold no spiritual communion with Jesus Christ It is not to be wondred at if we consider how great difference and distance there is between being a son in the visible family and a son received into special grace and favour with his father USE 3. It may also teach us to beware that we rely not upon our selves and our duties but to renounce all and fly to the Grace of God in Christ that is the only way to come by and be partakers in special and soul refreshing grace DOCT. 5. Wicked men delight in aspersing the People of God with their former follies How eloquent is the elder son in rehearsing the wickedness of his brother but not a word of his repentance They love to remember what the Saints were not what they are if in their youth they have been vain profuse prodigal this shall never be forgotten but their reformation deep sorrow and sincere repentance shall never be taken notice of they are like Scaribees that live upon dung hils and suck nothing but corruption like flyes that live upon sores And this they do 1. In enmity against the grace of God The eldest son doth it to cast a blemish upon his fathers kindness as if he therefore favoured such wickedness When one objected against Beza some wanton youthful Poems he said Hic homo invidet mihi gratiam Dei 2. To justifie themselves they hope by this means to gain the better reputation they that have no real goodness of their own think to shine by comparison I am not as this Publican USE To teach those that are the People of God to avoid this frame of spirit Consider not what the People of God were but what they are if they have been Prodigals yet if now they are Converts acknowledge the grace of God and magnifie it If God hath blotted his sins out of his book of remembrance do not you record them Remember if you your selves have not been such in your outward conversation you had as bad hearts and it was only restraining grace that did prevert you else your like natures had appeared in as bad actions Be sure consider alwayes that it is the grace of God by which you are what you are be not envious at them but labour to strengthen your faith by their example Think how glorious a God you serve that is able to pass by and pardon such sins trust him the more love him the better rely on him with the greater confidence DOCT. 6. God's converting grace many times meets the profane Prodigal in his Career and turns him when it passeth by the moral and legal Professor God finds the Prodigal in his far Country his eldest brother is at home and yet past by In our Saviours time there were more Publicans converted than Scribes and Pharisees afterwards the Heathen Gentiles came flocking in upon the preaching of the Gospel by the Apostles whiles the Jews obstinately refused it So true is that of our Saviour Luk. 13. 28 29 30. Mat. 21. 31 32. The Publicans and the Harlots go into the Kingdome of God before you c. Reas 1. From the deep interest of self in a legal Professor The profane persons sins are almost convincible whereas the other thinks his righteousness to be of great worth and is not easily perswaded of the unprofitableness of it Rom. 9. 31 32. Reas From the wisdom of God to make his free grace thus the more manifest The more profuse any have been the more visible and observable is that grace which is made to appear to be in them The Physitian gets no credit by administring to one that thinks himself well already the more desperate the disease is apprehended the more eminent is the cure acknowledged to be Luk. 5. 31. USE 1. To awaken carnal Professors you may easily be cheated Why are you no more concerned with the awakening means which you enjoy you think your selves to be whole and sound and these warnings are for the vain and profane beware you may be lost when those whom you despise may be saved USE 2. To advise us not to despair of but to pray for the worst sinners God both knows how to magnifie his mercy upon them and not only so but is often pleased to single out these to make illustrious monuments of his saving grace despair not then of them but pray hard for them that they may be converted and believe USE 3. To encourage any that have been grievous sinners against God despair not such are often chosen to be the subjects of grace and if God hath awakened and humbled you hope in his mercy he knows how to get him a name in your Salvation SERMON XXVIII Vers 31. And he said unto him Son thou art ever with me and all that I have is thine Vers 32. It was meet that we should make mercy and be glad for this thy Brother was dead and is alive again and was lost and is found IN the last place we have to consider of the fathers vindication of the righteousness and equity of his carriage to his younger son in which he asserts three things 1. That there was no such occasion offered of making such a feast for him thou art ever with me 2. That there was no wrong done to him by thus entertaining of his brother it diminished not his Portion nor put him besides his
A piece of ground that is nigh unto cursing Heb. 6. 8. 6. He never came to God for entertainment not so much as like a stranger to ask his friendship and favour much less as a son who had absented himself to seek his fathers pardon but he lyeth out from him keeps at a distance will not come to Christ for life Joh. 5. 40. 7. Though he be a lost creature in himself yet he was never found but is lost still he is yet in the wilderness wandring upon the mountains and whiles it is thus what occasion can there be of special joy over him Use 1. Hence the joyes and boastings of unregenerate men are groundless Many talk of their hopes and comforts and soul satisfactions they tell how God refreshed them at this and that time with these and those promises nay they have had tastes of the powers of the world to come Alas enfatuated souls God doth not scatter his joyes promiscuously Though men may God will not make a needless feast USE 2. It may put men upon enquiry when they cannot find that comfort and joy in their service which they expect whither this may not be the reason of it I do not say it is alwayes so the best Saint may sit in the dark Isa 50. 10. And there are other reasons why the al-wise God will make his own Children to fast and to mourn too Many falls much heedlesness yea their weakness to bear much of this new wine God stints his own People and will not kill them with Cordials But I say it is a good enquiry hast thou not nor ever hadst any tast of these joyes ask then am I new born c If there be none of this wonder not there was no occasion most men act preposterously they try their grace by their joyes whereas they ought to try their joyes by their Grace DOCT. 2. Vnregenerate men have no cause to complain that God shews more special favour to repenting sinners that he doth to them What ever they think they have to say for themselves yet God wrongs them not The father could entertain the younger son without injuring his elder This will appear if we consider 1. That God in the dispensing of his grace acts as a free Agent This is insinuated in that Parable Mat. 20. 15. A Father is not bound to give an account to his Children how he improves his estate much less is God to sinful men how he distributes his grace The Creature cannot oblige the Creator much less a sinful creature who hath forfeited all It is the Apostles Challenge Rom. 11. 31. Who hath given to him at any time There cannot be respect of persons in gratuitis there is no binding rule of justice in the bestowing of kindness and where the benefit is a free favour the chusing one and passing by another is arbitrary and depends on the will of the Doner In Gods bestowing of Grace on the Children of men there can be none worthy and if he will pitch upon the most unworthy to make his favour the more notable who shall call him to an account 2. That the best works of the most refined hypocrites are no ways obliging or deserving An unregenerate man may do many things materially good he may pray confess his sins read the word attend upon ordinances carry fair among men abstain from many evils do many duties but still they deserve no favour nay they deserve the wrath of God Their prayer is abomination their plowing sin their oblations detestable Isa 66. begin If the Godly do confess their best to be rags their holy duties dung what then must we say of what the unregenerate do who have no saving principle of holiness no meadiatour through whom to obtain acceptance no good end in their performances 3. That the same grace is tendered to them and the same means of obtaining it are afforded them if therefore they go without it it is their own fault Men are indeed ready to say God's wayes are unequal when their own wayes are so The proffer of Grace in the Gospel is universal if men thirst God shews them the waters and bids them come freely if they thirst not and will not come who is to blame God stretcheth out his hand all the day long but they gain say God saith If they will repent and believe they shall be saved but they say These many years have I served thee neither at any time transgressed I thy commandment God saith if you be sick here is a Physitian they say we are well and need him not And what wrong then is it to them if when a company of sick souls who feel their malady and are ready to dy of it come to him for healing he shows his skill if when a company of hunger-starved beggars come to him for food he feeds them yea plentifully feasts them USE Learn we hence in stead of quarreling with to admire the free grace of God which opens a door of hope to the greatest and worst of sinners Do not discourage or dash the hopes of any be not afraid to invite the worst to come to Christ upon Gospel-terms nor let any poor soul that is stung with sin that sees it ly as mountains between him and God despair of Salvation Lo Christ came skipping over the mountains and leaping over the hills Say not can God save me and be just He hath satisfied his own Justice and will silence the cavils of Men and Devils Say not there is no hope for me think therefore of the Prodigal Are there such bowels in men and are not God's thoughts above ours This Parable was written for thy sake who hast been a chief sinner and now art humbled to encourage thee to go to God in the name of Christ and to hope for his mercy DOCT. 3. Then and not till then is there true cause of rejoycing over a sinner when he is converted and brought home to God This the father thinks enough to silence all the grumblings of his discontented son vers 32. What cause there is of joy at such time hath been expressed under a former Doctrine that there is none before may in a word be cleared from the consideration of what every sinner is before conversion I confess men may differ in many things of an inferiour nature one may be better morally disposed than another one may have more restraining grace a more affable nature carry it more obediently to his Parents be more reformed c. than another But in this the state of all unregenerate men before conversion is alike viz. that they are 1. Dead creatures under the power of spiritual death rotting in the grave of sin we do not use to rejoyce over our dead Children and relations but to weep and mourn They can do nothing for God nor for their own souls Salvation they cannot glorifie him c. 2. They are Children of wrath Eph 2. 3. They are blasted by the curse held under condemnation
ordinances been constant in duties now you find grace coming in upon these Faith to believe in Christ and rely upon him an heart subdued to obedience say not now that this is your own work you saw not how it came in but by this effect you are led up to the cause and must say the finger of God was in it Others have done the like for the matter of it and never the near You see that your labours with your Children or your servants are blessed your reproofs and counsels take effect think not now that you have done the work or deserve the praise of it but consider it God's blessing upon your labours which havh done all others have been as careful and yet can see no fruit God so dispenseth himself to the Children of men as to take away all boasting and when we look upon all our gains attainments we must conclude with Paul it is by the grace of God we are what we are Had not he come home to us we had never gone forth to him had not he been gracious to us we had died in our sins Have you seen your sin and misery he opened your blind eyes have you arose and gone to him he saw you first and being moved with compassion came to you and took you up in his arms Study therefore to live to the praise of his Grace and still wait upon him for the continuance of it for the compleating of your Salvation and bringing of you to glory knowing that he who hath begun a good work in you must also perfect it to the day of the Lord if ever it be done and except he leads you can never follow SERMON XXI THus much for the season now let us consider the manner of the Fathers carriage to his Son according as it is described 1. By the cause of it 2. By the effect or carriage it self 1. The cause of it he saw and had compassion 2. The effect He ran c. 1. To begin with the cause his seeing his Son and having compassion on him do not decipher two acts but only one God chuseth miserable man to be a subject of his mercy and makes his misery an occasion of discovering it but mans misery is not the impulsive cause but Gods mercy the meaning of the expression is that he looked upon him with a compassionate eye when lying in his misery and his own pity moved him to do as he did Divine Attributes the declarative glory whereof God designs in the World have a subject in which they are pleased to discover themselves but this subject doth not move them but they incline themselves to the subject The word Had compassion comes from a root that signifies bowels and the English of it is his bowels did earn and the bowels being the seat of the affections especially of pity Hence the word is used to express great and active pitty Thence DOCT. The compassion of God is the only moving cause prompting him to shew favour to a poor perishing sinner In the former Doctrine we heard that Grace prevents here we see what grace it is that first moves viz. The fathers compassion when once this begins to set it self on work he can sit still no longer but riseth runs c. Here consider 1. What the compassion is 2. The evidence and reason of the Doctrine 1. What is the compassion of God which leads him to shew favour to a sinner Answ Compassion when it is attributed to men or reasonable creatures is a compound affection made up of love and grief and admits of this description It is an affection stirring up the soul to be grieved at the discovery of some miserable object and moving of him to endeavour its succour or relief Affections are the feet of the soul and prime mover of the will of man hence they are moved with reason either true or apprehended and lead unto actions suitable to that motion now though God be in himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not capable of being moved with any outward object and unchangeable in his will and hence never more propense to any thing at one time than at another but performes all things according to the everlasting counsel of his will which is unalterable Yet speaking of himself after the manner of man he assumes affections as love hatred joy compassion c. And that because in operibus ad extra or in the works of providence there are such manifest fruits as are wont in men to proceed from such affections so that we may see something resembling this description in the present case observe then 1. The object of compassion is a miserable thing A creature brought into distress groaning under his misery and standing in need of his succour Such an one is the sinner he is one famishing and ready to dy he is the forlorn creature a miserable wretch going without hope to the pit an helpless creature whom no created being can relieve and rid of his misery he is both poor and perishing as we before heard 2. The affections which go into compassion are two 1. Grief whereby the mind is moved and troubled at the creatures misery the sight of it oppresseth the heart when he sees it he cannot tell how to bear the sight of it hence also often proceed sighs and tears of pity over the object Thus God also speaking in our dialect seeing poor Sinners in their misery expresseth himself like one whose heart is ready to burst Hos 11. 8. How shall I give thee up how shall I deliver thee my heart is turned my repentings are kindled And after like manner Jer. 31. 20. in this grief also we are wont to be troubled at our selves if we have done any thing to bring the creature into such a miserable condition and hence we relent and repent and so God also speaks of himself in the forecited Hos 10. 8. 2. Love for without love there can be no compassion hatred is inexorable it rejoyceth and triumpheth in the misery of its enemy and the more miserable it sees him the more it can rejoyce in it but compassion argues good will hence God useth such expressions concerning Ephraim Jer. 31. 10. Is Ephraim my dear Son is he a pleasant Child c. 3. The natural operation of this affection in us is to stir us up to do what we can for the succour of the person thus in misery If we do indeed throughly pity the condition of one that is in sorrow we cannot sit still this affection will hale men to action they will certainly afford the best help they can thus God by vertue of this compassion of his succours saves delivers the Sinner frees him from misery restoreth him to a better state this affection sets him on work Jer. 31. 20. My bowels are troubled for him I will surely have mercy upon him 2. In the clearing up of the Doctrine consider 1. That God is a God of compassion 2. That