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
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
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
easily have seen plainly have discovered and so prevented that which now thou feelest they were words of weight which were spoken to thee but thou wouldest not hear nor consider and art therefore justly fallen into that pit from whence there is no recovery and drowned in that destruction from which thou mightest have been delivered And is it not better to consider now than to deferr it till then If now thou wilt consider it may tend to life and the saving of thy soul and so prove thy happiness but assure thy self hells considerations will be torments and fiery reflections yea that eating worm that dies not but shall pray upon the soul for ever Be wise then in time The matter of this consideration is the next thing to be taken notice of in the following words of our Text. SERMON XII HAving thus considered of the Prodigals deliberation in general we now come to look upon the motives themselves by which he argued himself into a resolution to return to his father and these are two which do comprize under them in general the two main heads of consideration the one respects his father the other himself The order of them is Rhetorically propounded where the first argument is last placed in the deliberation for doubtless mans necessity first drives him or else God's goodness would never draw him Proud man will live at home as long as he can The motives are joyned together because neither alone will do but both together are needful to make a full perswasive to a Sinner to return to God Man's misery throughly apprehended without the discovery of Gods mercy would drive to despair and Gods mercy propounded to a man that is insensible of his need of it would be slighted and refused But where these two meet in one the former drives a man out of himself and the latter draws him to God I shall endeavour to speak of them severally 1. The first motive is taken from the consideration of his own condition in these words I perish with hunger As the word bread is Synechdochically used to express all manner of necessary supplyes so is hunger for every want of what is needful for the comfort of man's life and here in a spiritual sense it intends the absence of all that might save the soul from destruction Hunger also is by a Metonymy of the effect put for famine which produceth hunger by taking away that which should prevent it The words express the deep distress which the young man was reduced unto sensibly apprehended by him and is Emphatically set forth 1. By the cause of it hunger or famine he hath nothing whereon to live 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 deficere there was a failing or want of provision 2. By the effect of it sensibly felt and personally applyed I perish The word in our text is of an harsh signification the best sense of it is to die but it signifies not death barely but Destruction it is q. d. this hunger will certainly destroy me I have no hopes to live in this famine I might here observe DOCT. I. The Soul of Man without sutable spiritual supplies must needs perish There is a natural consequence of dying upon a famine if no relief come and if the soul have nothing to live upon it must needs die for ever which might learn us USE 1. Their folly who take care only for their bodies and neglect their souls and truly every unregenerate man is such an one he takes heed to provide for the feeding and clothing of his body but layes in no provision for his better part and so much the greater is this folly in as much as ten thousand bodily deaths are not comparable to the death or loss of a soul Mat. 16. 26. USE 2. To teach us to prize the means and supplies which God affords for the relief of our souls That is a terrible famine mentioned Amos 8. 11 12. Not of bread nor of waters but of hearing the word of God Deprecate it as the sorest evil And having such provision made for your souls as God is pleased to give you in a place of such plenty of the means of grace labour to love to prize to feed and live upon it starve not in the midst of plentty lest you be found wilful self-murderers But I shall not insist on this the main thing follows therefore DOCT. II. In order to the conversion of a sinner God makes him deeply apprehensive that he is perishing with hunger We must carefully distinguish between the reality of a mans state and the sense that he bears of that state The famine was all over that land but none feels the distructiveness of it but this poor Prodigal All mankind whiles in a state of nature are famishing creatures but it is but some few among them that feel it the rest perish insensibly The work we are here speaking of is that which Divines call a lost state and it comprehends in it the first part of preparatory humiliation which is properly the beating of a sinner wholly off from himself and all that is in himself in point of sufficiency In the Explication of the Doctrine we may consider 1. Some thing of the nature of this work 2. The necessity of it in order to Conversion 1. Concerning the nature of this work of what it is for a Soul to be sensibly perishing with hunger and how he is brought unto this sense observe The Spirit of God raiseth in him a manifest and irresistable conviction of three things which laid together do reduce him to this exigency or distress and all this is the work of the Spirit in the means for all mens conditions being really one and the same by nature why else should not all that enjoy the same means of Conviction be alike apprehensive of it but the spirit imprints it upon some and not others Now the things are these 1 He kindles in him an eager and pinching hunger note that besides that spiritual and gracious hunger of the Soul after righteousness mentioned Mat. 5. 6. there is also a preparatory hunger which is oppressive to and grievously distresseth the soul see Isai 65. 13. My Servants shall eat but ye shall be hungry Now this hunger is made up of these two things Viz. 1. A deep apprehension of distressing misery lying upon him and making his spirits to fail and heart to faint God opens the Sinners eyes to see and find that which before he neither knew nor believed that the wrath of God is upon him that he is a cursed creature that he hath lost all grace and is in danger of the miseries of Hell he finds his Soul to be in a condition extreamly dangerous exposed to the executions of divine Vengeance he now believes because he feels that wrath is upon him sees a Sword of vengeance drawn against him 2. An earnest longing to be rid of and free from this distress as the hungry man longs that he may have some food
hates God's law and wayes as God hates his way and course God is therefore said to see the proud afar off Psal 178. 6. And the sinner is said to be far from God Psal 73. 27. 2. That in Repentance it is not enough to leave off sinful wayes and courses but we must also put holiness in practice rising out of sin is neither true nor sufficient except there be returning unto God hence they are both put together Isa 35. 7. This is but like the Pharisee's negatives which could not declare him justified we must not only cease to do evil but we must also learn to do well 3. That God alone is the object of true Repentance He goes to his father It is vain for an awakened sinner to go any where else it is but to wander from mountain to hill from one vanity to another hence that restriction Jer. 4. 1. If thou wilt return return to me The distressed soul is full of projects and would try many conclusions but the repenting Believer is resolved in this that he will go to God and no whither else Jer. 3. 23. Joh. 6. 68. 4. That in the work of conversion there is not only a passive reception of grace but also an actual improvment of it unto active Repentance If God gives us life we must stir if he gives us legs we must go Cant. 1. 4. God so calls a sinner in conversion as that he makes him answer his call rise and come away Reas 1. From the nature of saving faith which is a trusting in God for life Now such trust of thesoul necessarily requires repentance in both parts of it for if God be trusted in all other trust must needs be forsaken and rejected to dwel by Cisterns argues the fountain is relinquished He that will find mercy must say Ashur shall not save and if God be trusted in for life then the soul must needs go to him for it Isa 55. 1. Faith without exercise is dead and the working of faith and love is the exercise of Repentance as without faith there is no salvation so faith cannot be but it will bring forth fruit in Repentance Reas 2. Because as happiness and misery are contraries so the way to the one and the other must be contrary Now the way in which man brought himself into misery was by departing from God and falling into Sin The Prophet describes it Jer. 2. 13. and aslong as the cause of misery remains the continuance of it must be As long as a sinner lyeth in Sin he must needs be miserable the foundation of happiness is laid in saving us from Sin Mat. 1. 12. He shall save his People from their sins And therefore the way to Salvation must be retrograde i. e. by rising from Sin and coming back to God Man's felicity consists in his enjoyment of God he cannot enjoy him till he comes to him every distance from God is a misery Sin is contrary to God he therefore cannot in that sense come to us his holiness forbids Christ doth not save us in our sins but from our sins and that is by working us to a true and and through Repentance a sinner must become holy else he cannot see God Heb. 12. 14. USE 1. To teach us that it exceeds the power of a natural man to effect his own conversion or bring about his own salvation Man by nature is dead in trespasses and sins and is it possible that a dead man should rise and go by his own strength till a vital principle be put into him as well might Lazarus dead and ready to stink have by his own vertue shaken off his grave cloths and come forth without a Divine word as the sinner fallen and dead in sin rise and return to God this is an act of spiritual life and requires a principle of it and that can proceed from no less power than Omnipotency Paul therefore compares it with the work of Creation 2 Cor. 4. 6. and with the power of Resurrection Eph. 1. 19. 20. It is true it is the man that riseth and goeth the act of Repentance proceeds formally from the Believer but it is God by his Spirit that enforms him with this power and grace whereby he is enabled to do it Hence also we see how ineffectual means of themselves must needs be unless they be influenced by the spirit of grace how vainly do they dream who attribute to man a power of converting himself and put a Divine honour upon Moral swasion as if it could of it self attract and draw the heart after it No though God require means and ordinances yet they are but the staff of Elisha and except the Lord God be there the touch awakens not the dead man Ezekiel must prophesie over the dry bones but it is the spirit that moves to bring them together and puts life into them Let no man then ascribe this to himself it may be thou knowest not how this wind blew or how this babe of grace was formed no more doth the Child how it was begotten and formed in the womb but if you find the effect that you are enabled to arise and go to your heavenly father you must say the singer of God was here and ascribe all the glory of it to him USE 2. This discovereth their vain and presumptuous hopes who live and ly in sin and yet expect to be saved and yet there are a great many of these they boast of their hopes and yet tarry in their far country live among the swine and feed upon husks they are far from God and will not return to him by Repentance they hold their vain courses and approve not of the wayes of holiness these certainly forsake their own mercies and will be found among the dead and not among the living had not the Prodigal resolved to rise and return he had perished and so must all these Psal 73. 27. They that are far from thee shall perish USE 3. For Examination it may put us upon it by this Rule to try our hopes of Salvation whither they be rightly grounded and hopes that shall not perish Thou art by nature a Child of wrath thou hast been a poor Prodigal hast destroyed thy self and in this state there is nothing but misery to be expected Rom. 3. 16. Destruction and misery are in all their wayes In God only is help and that is only to be had in going to him and thou canst not go to him except thou risest and forsakest thy vain and carnal trust in lying vanities Where art thou what hast thou done art thou pursuing lies art thou sitting still and despairing or art thou going upon thy return to God art thou yet deliberating or art thou resolved art thou consulting with flesh and blood or hast thou said resolutely I will arise and go to my father If thou art in the full purpose of thy heart set against sin and for the glory of God resolving by his grace so to do
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
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
what is decreed what not For though God hath made it a rule of his own works yet he hath given us another of ours 2. No man can know whether he be elected or no till he can make his calling sure 2 Pet 1. 10. As for reprobation there are no ordinary infallible notes known to a man of it nor doth God reveal the other but by drawing the soul effectually home to Christ 3. The invitations of the Gospel are to all where the sound of it comes and all such are bound by the precepts to obey them except they will bring guilt on themselves and encrease their condemnation Joh. 3. 29. 4. Men are not damned under the Gospel because they are reprobated but because they slight the Gospel and wilfully refuse to accept of Christ and his Salvation ibid. 5. It is both lawful and a duty to pray for things that God hath never purposed to bring to pass Stephen else have sinned in his last words Act. 7. ult Nor could we ever know whom to pray for lest we should sin Quest If it be then enquired how far the soul should resign itself up to Gods dispose I answer He doth in this act submit himself to the Soveraignty Justice and Mercy of God He throws himself down at the feet of these Attributes not one alone but all of them 1. He submits himself to the Justice of God acknowledging him to be righteous in all his dealings with him yea that he cannot in any wise do him the least wrong He is incapable of injury from the Almighty 1. If he bring long sore and heavy Judgements upon him wasting and perplexing calamities such as make him groane yet he is righteous Neh. 9. 33. 2. If he should delay to hear him or give him any answer of peace though he have prayed and begged yet it is no affront it is right and it is his duty to wait till he will let it be whensoever he pleaseth Isa 8. 17. 3. If he should judge and condemn him by passing a sentence upon him and declaring his reward to be with sinners still he must be justified Psal 51. 4. 4. If he please to damn him everlastingly to harden his heart against him yet even this also hath he truly deserved and it is at his liberty whether he will do otherwise with him yea or no Dan. 9. 8. He hath but that which doth properly belong to him it is but his wages Rom. 6. 23. Thus though the poor creature is loth to be damned and earnestly deprecates it and cannot think of it without trembling and amazement yet he yields this to God that he may with all equity do it and if he do he shall for ever have cause to be silent and nor in the least to complain against him as unjust 2. He submits himself to the Soveraignty of God acknowledging it to be his prerogative to dispense himself to his creatures at his pleasure And hence 1. He owns and yields himself to be at the Soveraign dispose of God being one of his creatures and he may appoint him to what he will without wrong If the Potter may order his mass of clay though his fellow creature to make vessels of the same lump for several uses some honourable some dishonourable much more may God dispose of him who gave being to the lump it self of which he was made Rom. 9. 21. 2. Hence he layes himself down before Gods Soveraignty and yields himself to become a subject of it he puts himself into God's hands as a Soveraign as a rebel yields himself up freely to his Prince resolving with himself that God shall do with him what he will whether it be in judgement or in mercy He will not strive contend or make any rebellious resistance against him Thus did Eli 1 Sam. 3. 18. and David 2 Sam. 15. 26. Here I am let him do to me as seemeth good unto him 3. Hence he resolves not to reply against any of God's dispensations be they never so sharp or sever upon him There is a great difference between being willing to be damned and being willing that God should be Soveraign God commands us to fly from hell and yet he expects of us both to acknowledge that we have deserved it and also that we cannot lay claim of title to any such favour at his hands as Salvation till he doth freely bestow it upon us and that if he doth we ow the acknowledgement of it to his Soveraign good pleasure Rom. 9. 18. He hath mercy on whom he will have mercy We must desire and seek to be saved but we must submit those desires to him who hath the Key of David and unlocks heavens doors to none but to whom he pleaseth 3. He submits himself to God's free mercy to which alone he repairs and on which only he depends for acceptance and he submits to this 1. By a free and constant acknowledgement that all that he hath ever received of God hath flowed from this fountain his life his livelihood the proffers of Grace and if ever he obtain Salvation it must be from mercy If God should deny him Grace he should be just but if for his own names sake he will take him up into everlasting arms this is meer mercy and every inviting call every encouraging promise every smile of his countenance is undeserved mercy 2. By a free ready willing earnest desire to be saved in a way of mercy and in no other way he now looks no more for any merit in himself or any righteousness of his own by which he might please God satisfie the law deserve favour he no longer sticks at any of these things but would have mercy to reap the whole honour and praise of his salvation Psal 115. 1. 3. He takes up a firm resolution to ly and tarry at the door of mercy to repair to this fountain for all good and to expect and wait for all here 1. He hath not nor will he make use of any other Attribute or plead for acceptance by and this hope is in God's Grace and all his pleading is For thine own Name sake As far as mercy may be moved to look favourably upon him so far his hope reacheth and no further 2. Hence he resigns himself to mercy's disposal Text. Let God but accept of me take me into his house and now let mercy do what it sees fit May I be but a subject of saving mercy I will trust that for the rest 3. Here he will wait God's time for the discovery of himself in his love He knows he is at the foot of mercy and here he will not limit the holy one of Israel but will tarry his leisure Isa 8. 17. He remembers it is mercy he hath to do with and therefore it must not be commanded but waited for 4. If mercy seem to turn from him and indignation to burn against him If mercy seem not to regard as Christ to the Canaanitish woman yet he will bear
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
and be animated to break through all I can do nothing but if I could it would but obscure his compassion Be encouraged Satan presents God in arms against us tells us we must appease him with sacrifices of obedience but God accepts of no sacrifice but that of Christ he looks that his mercy alone should be sought unto learn then to make heaven ring with thy cries ask mercy put God in mind of these Attributes which he hath commended himself in to the Children of men Exod. 34. 6 7. put that into every prayer to encourage thy hope Psal 86. 5. Thou art good and ready to forgive and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee And Dan. 9. 9. To thee Lord our God belong mercies and forgiveness USE 4. For Exhortation to Believers This truth tells you what is the work you have to do all your lives viz. To adore admire and magnifie God's compassion those wonderful bowels of mercy that have appeared in your delivery out of all that misery into which Sin had cast you This is the great subject which should take up the thoughts and words of the Saints Grace Grace it should be the voice with which the Temple should resound Think therefore often with yourselves where you once were what was your former condition who it was that transformed you when it was that he looked upon and had regard to you what miserable sinners you were and how near to the pit of eternal destruction Follow this compassion up to the beginnings of its actings towards you think not that it only met you as you were returning but call to mind that it came to your dungeon and lifted you out thence that it followed you into your far Country and fetcht you from among the swine or else you had still been there and perished for ever SERMON XXII THus far we have considered the cause of of the Father's kind carriage to his son the Effect follows in the carriage it self his is expressed in three words He ran he fell upon his neck and kissed him All these acts refer to the work of Conversion and serve to express what love God applyes to the soul in this work they shew us how much of Divine affection breaths forth in the first act of special grace passing from God to a sinner They carry in them the most Pathetical intimations of the greatest love it being a custom among the ancients especially in those countries to discover the superaboundance of their overflowing affections in these kinds of gestures one notes upon this ver that although all Christs Parables are very moving to the affections that none carry so much in them as this doth He ran Love is active it cannot stand still nor yet go softly where it seeth its object to stand in need of speedy succour it shakes off all sloth and rather seems to fly on wings than go He fell on his neck God takes the sinner in his arms falls upon him i. e. with his distinguishing Grace And kissed him Kissing was used among other things to express 1. Intimacy and peculiar affection and then especially when dear friends meet after long absence thus Moses and Aaron Exod. 4. 27. 2. Reconciliation after some distance by reason of injuries and provocations thus David kisseth Absolom 2 Sam. 14. ult DOCT. God manifests his choice and incomparable love to a sinner then when he converts him to himself Here it is that God's special grace is made to appear and such love as all comparisons are but dark shadows and resemblances of God indeed shews a great deed of common favour to the world the goodnesss they â—â—st of is called his hid treasures But all this fall incomparably short of that which he confers upon an elect person in his conversion This love of God was from eternity sealed up in his own breast It began generally to be published and made known in the world as soon as man had by his fall brought ruine and misery upon himself and his progeny as was whispered in that first Gospel promise Gen. 3. 15. He shall break thy head And more abundantly shone forth when the Lord Jesus Christ had laid down his life at the foot of Justice but these were more general demonstrations of it It more especially and particularly first begins to appear to the sinner himself then when he is regenerated and eternal life begun in him The manner and nature of this work was then opened when we considered the Prodigal's return that which is here to be observed is the greatness of this love and how or wherein it expresseth its self according to the spiritual meaning of these phrases I might here expatiate but I shall confine this discourse to the words in our text by a reduction of them to a spiritual sense 1. The first expression of this love is in that he raâ— to him herein is intimated a twofold declaration of divine love one positive the other comparative 1. Positive It points out God's coming to the sinner where he is to bestow his grace upon him The sinner could never have gone to God he therefore cometh to him He was a great way off and could come no nearer The rock of his salvation is higher than he is Though as to rational and common actions man is capable of using means yet as to spiritual life-actions he is void of a principle of them like Lazarus he is both dead and bound in his grave cloths God therefore by his spirit comes to his graves side to his pits mouth where he is perishing and thence he fetcheth him and is not this wonderful love Had not God come hither the sinner neither could nor would ever have come to him that is Emphaticall Zech. 9. 11. I have sent forth my Prisoners out of the pit where there is no water 2. Comparative he not only comes but he comes in hast to the help of the poor dying creature Bis dat qui citò dat Running is a note of speed and signifies a great commotion of the affections God makes great hast to bring relief to a perishing sinner The Heathen painted love with wings noting the swiftness of this affection in its actions Here therefore God's wonderful love to a sinner manifests it-self in that he comes to him unsent for and brings his grace when it was unsought Isa 63. 1. 2. The next expression of his love is He fell upon his neck When men embraced each other in one anothers arms they were said to fall upon one anothers necks It notes embracing And this serves to express the favour which God takes a sinner into It holds out that union which in conversion is made between Christ and the soul They which were at a great distance are now made near God doth not only come and do something for his relief but he takes him into his arms and now those that were enemies are in mutual embraces Such were the greeting between Jacob and