abundantly pardon what needs more If then thou hast thoughts to return to God fix these thoughts and rise and do so if thou sit still faint or give back all is lost and thou art more miserable than ever but if thou rise and return this will evidence the truth of thy resolutions and thou shalt find all kind welcom and soul-satisfying entertainment with God which is the next thing that follows SERMON XX. Ver. 20. But when he was yet a great way off his Father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him WE come now to the third part of the Parable expressing the entertainment the Prodigal found with his Father which was with all kindness and highest expressions of greatest love The purpose of it is to set forth the riches of Gods Grace and inexpressible bounty to repenting Sinners and so expresseth the great benefit that come by believing deseribed ver 20 to 25. and here are two things to be noted 1. The meeting and greeting between him and his Father ver 20 21. 2. The Provision made for and entertainment afforded to him ver 22 23 24. In their meeting and greeting there are two parts 1. His Fathers carriage towards him ver 20. 2. His deportment towards his Father ver 21. In his Fathers carriage towards him we are to observe 1. The time of it when he was yet c. 2. The manner of it in several circumstances 1. To begin at the time when this entertainment or treaty was it is expressed by the circumstance of place at such time as he was at a great distance from him the right meaning of which Phrase is of weight to be understood for the confirming of the forementioned Doctrine of Repentance Some understand it to be spoken by way of anticipation and that this part of the Parable doth not follow the foregoing in order of time but that as in the second part he had described the Sons repentance in the order and method of it as it was done by him so in this third part setting forth the Grace of God by the Fathers entertainment he begins it at the first discoveries of it and that before being the leading cause of his Repentance q. d. before he could rise come to his Father he came to himself Others suppose the order of time is here observed and so account that here are the beginnings of saving Grace and so put over the former to preparatory work q. d. whiles he was resolving and practising to use means with a preparatory hope God comes in with saving Grace But I close rather with the first of these for doubtless this arising and going must express true Repentance and the expression in our Text discovers the preventing Grace of God and shews the original of his favour to be of himself and the beginning of the application of it to be before any Repentance of ours we might be ready to think that the Sons Repentance was that which moâ—ed his Fathers bowels and his acknowledgement had broken his heart Our Saviour tells us no God comes first his Bowels out-run our Repentings Hence DOCT. In the work of Conversion Gods free Grace prevents and so becomes the first and leading cause of our Salvation The first expressions of Gods saving love meet the Sinner when he is a great way off nature doth not prevent Grace but Grace nature it is not with God as with humane Fathers whose hearts are turned with their Childrens humble and submissive subjecting themselves to them Gods Grace indeed appears in receiving the truly penitent but it is neither moved by their penitence nor doth it here begin but it is the first and leads all the causes of Salvation By the Grace of God I here understand all that special good will which he bears to any of the Children of men in appointing them Heirs of Glory which Grace first appears to any in particular when it effectually works for their Salvation Grace neither is tied to nor waits for nor is consequent upon the natural operations of men A brief opening of this Doctrine may be couched in a few Propositions 1. The natural man cannot by his natural power move one step towards God the highest â—mprovements of nature by our own principles bring us not one foot in our way towards Heaven the Scripture expressions of mans being dead impotent dry bones a carcass c. though Metaphors yet are not Hyperhole's If by the image of God on man we understand the sanctification of his nature fitting him for the service of God that image is wholly defaced and there are not so much as any relicks of it left Man is Blind Deaf Dumb Dead 2. As God hath appointed his unto Salvation so hath he appointed a way in which he will bring them thereunto and this way becomes by his ordination a necessary medium to the attainment of it Faith and Holiness are the way to glory the Psalmist speaks of a Path of life Psal 16. ult out of this way none ever come to Heaven 3. Hence mans Salvation is wrought applicatorily by bringing him into and keeping him in this way Eternal life is ascertained to it Gal. 6. 16. they that find it and follow it and lose it not never miss of Glory the promise is so firm that it cannot fail all the difficulty lies in the performance of what is in order to the receiving it 4. That the discovering of this way and appointing Salvation in it is of Grace is evident for God and man were fallen out and God might chuse whether ever he would accept him any more nor is there any proportion between what is required and the consequent Salvation besides Christ by whom alone we have access to it was freely given to open this way 5. That the bringing of any into and keeping of them in this way is also of Grace is the thing which we have now to prove and will clear the truth of the Doctrine and indeed this alone is that which removes all legal respects from the Gospel and the truth of it will hence appear 1. That before the Spirit of God begins to work upon him there is nothing in an elect person to distinguish him from another he is dead as well as he a child of wrath even as others Eph. 2. 3. One hath not a better nature or better dispositions than the other Abraham was an Idolater Rahab an Harlot Mary Magdalen no better Paul a Blasphemer and Persecutor and in his rage the spirit met him 2. The very common work of preparation is not of nature but of grace There is common and there is special grace the Sinner doth not so much as convince himself it is not Conscience alone but it is Conscience awakened and improved by the Spirit of God that brings a Sinner under sense of sin and misery Joh. 16. 9. man is naturally stupid a convinced Sinner is nearer the Kingdom than another this is not of
himself 3. Saving Faith whereby we are entituled to Salvation is not of man himself but of grace he that believes shall be saved but God gives men to believe Eph. 2. 8. it is the gift of God Men would live and die in unbelief did not he exert his Almighty power Faith is a creating work 2 Cor. 4. 6. and the operation of the same power which raised Christ Eph. 1. 19 20. 4. The saving efficacy of all the means of Grace is of God it is not in them they have not power in themselves to produce this grace in us but that is according to his pleasure it was he that touched Lydia's heart Act. 16. the vertue of the means lies not in the skill grace good-will of instruments nor all their industry but in him 1 Cor. 3. 6. some are converted at the first Sermon they ever heard others have heard a thousand and are yet in their Sins Sermons are but the Prophets staff in the Servants hand 5. Though Gods ordinary method be â— first to prepare the Soul for Faith before he infuseth it yet not only the preparation is of Grace but the soul thus prepared is before believing a great way off from God he is still in a state of nature hath nothing in him that can challenge this Grace but if God bestow it upon him it is his meer favour there are many who have a common work and it proceeds no farther they have had many awakenings shakings terrors taken up many resolutions made many promises and yet never past from death to life but have either staid here or gone back again nay God is here Soveraing the Sinner is dead still and hath not a promise that God will give him life God when he passeth by may either look upon him and say to him Live or he may pass away USE 1. For Information 1. Of the absoluteness of the Grace of God it must needs be every way wholly free the first cause hath no dependence upon any other or any other but a voluntary obligation to them hence they undertake a vain task that will give any reason of mans Conversion beyond Gods will or why these and not those are converted and saved if there were any to sway that it were not the leading cause 2. Of the infallibility of the conversion and salvation of Gods Elect because it flows from Grace as that highest cause of it If it did firstly depend upon any thing in us our mutability would expose it to hazard and thence it would be dubious and alwayes questionable but if Grace lead all is certain for who or what can be able to frustrate Grace or disappoint it in all that it hath designed for our Salvation of Grace to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed Rom. 4. 16. 3. The reason why the means convert at one time and not at another and one man and not another Many a powerful Sermon awakening Providence c. pass and the man still goeth on frowardly in his wayes but at last that which seems to be in it self of less efficacy awakens melts humbleth healeth the Soul but this is when Grace begins to work and that only that is irresistible man's sinful heart is too hard for every thing else and this is done when and where God pleaseth John 3. 8. 4. That no man can lay any engagement upon God to do him any good No man can be too soon for him we cannot stir till he moves us we can do nothing for him till he first doth for us and in us and hence those whom God passeth by and leaves in their sin have no just ground of complaint which if they could do any thing first to oblige God they might have a shew for USE 2. For Exhortation 1. To the unconverted be hence advised 1. Not to think to earn Grace and Glory by your own endeavours or to do that of your selves which may bring you under the Covenant promise of life this will never be were there no more in the Gospel but only that counsel believe and be saved the grace of the Gospel would do us no good but when God speaks of making us to believe of working the will and deed that is the life of Gospel Grace Christ bids us to come but if he come not first he would keep his Salvation to himself 2. Not to put away the grace of God from you till you have made your selves fit for it Many say what have I to do to ask Grace who am so vile and cannot come to God I answer none hath more need of it than such an one and therefore do not say I will wait till I have fitted my self but wait on God for his preventing grace to fit and prepare and turn you unto him say not if I could get up yonder to him it would be well but wait for him to come to your pit 3. Not to rest in means and endeavours as if they were able to do for you what you need but look up to Grace to help you to attend upon the means and bless that attendance for your Spiritual good Promise not to your selves any thing from Ordinances themselves but only so far as he shall breath in them Wait therefore for the north and south wind to blow 4. Be willing to wait the leisure of free-grace If that lead it must not be limited but suffered to take its own time only it is our duty to be waiting in the use of all means not growing weary fainting or repining 2. To the converted learn you also from hence 1. Not to be proud of your grace or think highly of your selves above others He hath but a shadow of grace and not that which is true who is apt to say I am not as this Publican It is certain where grace is most eminent there the creature is least in his own eyes not arrogating or ascribing any thing to it self That Grace is the most insuspectible and renders us most unworthy in our own esteem 2. Would you be serviceable in your generation to the glory of God be directed to go to him in all you have to do for his grace that by it alone you may undertake Paul will engage in any thing so Christ shall stand engaged to strengthen him It may teach us to begin every work with prayer which we desire to have succeed for if God be not in it leading and strengthening it will certainly fail Not all other advantages of helps and means will be otherwise then abortive if grace give them not their efficacy If you set about any thing without engaging God in it the very spring and rise and strength of all is wanting 3. If you find the work of Conversion wrought in your selves or see it wrought in others be sure to ascribe it to the grace of God as the leading cause No flesh hath any cause to glory but all the glory is his due you have used means attended on
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
condemnation the first grace must come from him and it is at his pleasure whether he will give you to believe or no. He hath indeed freely engaged himself in promise to believers but he hath not promised to you that he will make you such and if he do not you cannot since then the case is such that without Faith no Salvation and you no way deserve that God should give it you but have many wayes provoked him to deny it what remains but that you cast your selves down at his feet and ask it not only as beggars that deserve no alms but as traitors that have forfieted your lives and stand to the courtesie of their Prince of his own free favour to pardon and restore them 2. You that are believers here is that which may teach you to carry it humbly all your days and in all respects There is none hath more reason to be humble than a child of God whose all is of grace hath nothing but what he hath freely received in particular walk humbly towards God and towards man 1. Carry it humbly towards God and that both in respect of his special and spiritual grace and in respect of his outward Providences 1. In respect of his special and spiritual grace and the both in regard of the first gift of saving grace and progress of it 1. In respect of the first gift of saving grace let the constant remembrance of it serve to make and keep you humble And therefore remember 1. Who thou wast to whom God brought this grace Ezek. 16. begin One in thy blood 2. That thou didst nothing to the working of this great work Eph. 2. 9. Not of your selves 3. How much thou didst to obstruct it how often thou didst resist God's calls and counsels wert obstinate rebellious not hearkening to his Spirit shutting thine eyes stopping thy ears rising up against reproofs c. God often came to thee and entreated thee but thou hadst no mind to hear him but didst all thou couldst to have undone thy soul 4. The patience which the great God used with thee how long he waited upon thee pittying chine obstinacy bewailing the hardness of thy heart and would not let thee alone though many a time thou baddest him departfrom thee 5. Much meditate upon the distinguishing grace which was revealed in thy conversion 1. How few are saved and that thou shouldest be one of them 2. That thou art no better than they hast nothing more to commend thee to God than Cain or Judas had nothing out of God could move him 3. Thou didst many wayes more dishonour God before thy conversion than any of them did that young man Mat. 19. might shame thee 4. That the same means which hardened others converted thee And when thou hast laid all these things together put thy mouth in the dust and let God's converting grace make thee nothing in thine own eyes and let this grace never be forgotten but alwayes magnified by thee only by humility is converting grace glorified 2. In respect of the progress of grace in your souls the people of God meet with many changes exercises temptations and in these diversities of out-lettings and withdrawings of grace and without humility cannot carry it right in these interludes in particular 1. Limit not God to such a measure or or manner of the dispensation of his grace as we should desire all grace so we should be thankful for every portion of it Beggars must not be chusers Paul would have grace to vanquish temptation God would have him content with grace sufficient to keep him from being vanquished by it If you have any Grace it is a gift and if you would have more you must be humbled 1 Pet. 5. 5. 2. Be humble when God denies thee the special communication of grace Whether it be of enlarged assistance though ragged and poor and canst scarce do any thing but art ready to slip and fall thou hast earned nothing and God knows what is best for thee Or in respect of consolation thou hast not those ravishing apprehensions which thou wouldest but he seems to hide the light of his countenance complain not he is soveraign and just resolve to wait Isa 5. 17. Be not discontented Thou takest much pains waitest diligently on all means and their seems to be but little coming in let not this make thee weary thou art sowing it is not yet harvest grieve but fret not pray but pine not and know the harvest will come in God's time Gal. 6. 9. 3. Be willing to follow hard after God though through many difficulties We are forward while our way is fair but if grace comes to a tryal now we shrink and are discouraged But this is a time that calls for us to be humble we must now follow God as good souldiers we must endure hardship God is worthy to be followed it is his mercy thou hast any grace which may be exercised and the end shall be happy 1 Pet. 1. 7. 4. Humbly depend upon and go to God for all supplies of grace in every work you have to do Proud man would have his stock in his own hand to make use of when and as he pleaseth but God will have us to come and ask for every Grace wait on him for it and the humble soul will do so If you consider that you deserve nothing you will be glad that you may have it for asking Remember you are but Children and have not wisdom enough to manage your own stock but would soon prove bankrupts this should animate you that whatever you want God is ready to give if you ask Mat. 7. 7. 5. Carry it humbly towards God though he doth not bestow so much grace upon you as on others We are sometimes ready to say though I deserve nothing at God's hands yet I am as deserving as another God can afford such an one so much wisdom faith patience comfort c. and why may not I have it as well This spirit of envy and emulation is contrary to Humility and this very argument rightly improved might make thee silent Is God a free disposer is it his own that he gives and may he not deal it out at his liberty is thy eye evil because his is good doth not poor man challenge as great a liberty as this is and will you deny it God nay because thou art unworthy thou hast cause to be thankful that thou hast any at all when there are so many millions that have none and who hath made thee to differ from them yea call thy self to an account how hast thou husbanded thy little if ill that should humble and silence thee if well then comfort thy self that he who improved his two talents well had his master's Euge and entred into the Lord's joy yea how knowest thou but that their work and temptation is greater than thine and therefore stand in need of more 2. Carry it humbly in respect of Gods outward providences
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
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
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
so doth the Sinner wish earnestly that his misery may be eased the cause taken away and the wrath of God impending removed he is fearfully amazed at the apprehensions of the anger of God he cannot tell how to bear it or to be able to endure it and fain he would if there were any possibility be delivered Isai 33. 14. Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings although he doth not know whither to go in particular for a redress yet in general he saith Who shall shew me good yea he cannot satisfie himself he is restless his soul is disquieted and filled with tumultuations these terrors make him afraid 2. He makes him to find and discover that there is no relief to be had in any of these wayes and courses which he hath been taking and this makes his hunger to be the more distrossing when an hungry stomach meets with a well furnished Table it is a pleasure to have a good appetite but when hunger and penury meet together this is tormenting When the cravings of the soul are insatiable there are no supplyes to be gotten for it this is terrible such is the condition of the soul now where it thought to have meat there it can find nothing but husks and that both 1. In the world in which he formerly trusted and in the enjoyment whereof he was wont to say to his soul eat drink and be merry for thou hast goods laid up for many years This world cannot satisfie him now it will not still the cry of Conscience it will not comfort him against the anger of God and fears of hell Riches cannot profit him in the day of wrath He cannot feed and refresh himself upon its fair promises and glossing insinuations-It will not ease his troubled mind but like Belshazzar he cryes out in the midst of his cups and companions his hiding place of deceit is washt away and he sees that the world is empty and void and wast Nah. 1. 10. 2. In himself and his own duties and righteousness He was wont to please himself in them and feed himself with vain hopes thinking to appear with them and hold up his head before God but now he finds that these will not suffice they cannot atone God appease his anger turn away his fury or procure him happiness They are unprofitable he hath now no more self-sufficiency he cannot do what the Law requires nor pay the debts he ows it nor pick up any resolution out of his best services Conscience now tells him all this is nothing Num. 17. 12 13. 3. He causeth him to draw this positive and sad conclusion that in this condition he must certainly perish He is now shaken out of all his vain hopes fond expectations wherewith he was wont to feed his fancy and cherish his soul There is now nothing but misery hell and destruction in his eyes and thoughts The Law is rigorous and will be satisfied God is holy and will be glorified he is by this Law condemned and hath no satisfaction to make to it the world is a priceless thing and if he had it it would not be taken in exchange for a soul and thus between longing and despair he is ready to faint and die This whole condition is amply described to us in apt and pertinent metaphors Isa 41. 17. The poor and needy seek water and there is none and their tongue faileth for thirst 2. Touching the necessity of the work in order to conversion we may observe 1. That conversion is the turning of a sinner from sin to God Now Sin is properly the relyance of the creature upon something else which stands in competition with and opposition to God which thereforeit must leave or else it 's impossible that it should come to him he that goes to one contrary must in so doing go away from the other the Apostle opposeth these two 1 Tim. 6. 15. That they trust not in uncertain riches but in the living God 2. In Conversion the spirit of God comes into the Soul and fills it with his Grace in order to which filling it is needful that the Soul be first emptied for as long as a Man is full of himself of the World of his carnal hopes of his legal righteousness there is no room for the spirit of God hence he comes to the poor and needy Isai 41. 17. 3. In active Conversion there is a voluntary motion of the Soul the will of man is that which doth first renounce Sin Satan and World and lay hold upon Christ now a voluntary action is the action of a reasonable creature applying himself to his object not upon compulsion nor by the force of instinct but by the inclination of his own mind so that as he doth it willingly he also and therefore doth it rationally or upon some apprehended grounds and from this it will appear how needful it is that a Sinner be made thus sensible in order to his Conversion For 1. Man by nature is a proud Creature and loth to go or be beholden to any other as long as he hath any hopes to do well of himself This appeared before in the consideration of the sordid course the needy Prodigal took to supply his want 2. Man is naturally most opposite and contrary to God and will not be sure come to him until he be driven It is very evident that he will try every way turn every stone use all means to do well otherwayes before he will betake himselfe to God the Prodigal will live meanly fare hardly scramble and debase himself if that will do rather than return to his father's house as long as a sinner hath any hopes that he can make a shift to keep up himself from sinking he flyes not unto God the Raven if he can have carrion to light upon and feed of returns not to the Ark for till now he hath no need of God A man must be sick before he will send for a Physitian and dangerously sick heart sick before he will send for one whom he hates other Physitians must first fail him 4. In Conversion there must be a whole reliance upon God and that must presuppose an litter rejection of all other helps and props Hos 14 3. Ashur shall not save us c. Now man hath naturally such an opinion of himself and of the creature that till he be throughly convinced of its emptiness he will not forsake it and till that he cannot close truly with God who will not be a divided trust or part glory with another Isa 42. 8. USE 1. For Information here we see 1. The reason why Jesus Christ and his salvation are no more welcome and acceptable to the most of men and so why the work of conversion is so rare and infrequent even there where the Gospel comes with most clearness it is because the most of men have yet something of their own to live upon they have not spent all they are not nipt with