he observe the most weak and imperfect essays of the new birth or as the Apostle expresses it when Christ is beginning to be formed in men I saw thee saith our Saviour to Nathanael S. Joh. 1. 48. when thou wast under the fig-tree when thou wast reasoning about me whether I was the Messias or not I was privy to that conflict of thy thoughts between the report of the miracles wrought by me and the prejudicate opinion concerning the supposed place of my nativity I was not so much offended with thy objections as pleased with thy sincerity in that thou didst diligently inquire honestly debate and proceed to resolution upon rational satisfaction Most apposite to this purpose is that passage of the Prophet Jeremiah Chap. 31. vers 18 19 20. I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus Thou hast chastised me and I was chastised as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke Turn thou me and I shall be turned for thou art the Lord my God Surely after that I was turned I repented and after that I was instructed I smote upon my thigh I was ashamed yea even confounded because I did bear the reproach of my youth And after he had thus passionately described the first kindlings of repentance in the hearts of the people of Israel he then introduces God taking notice and expressing his compassions in the next words Is Ephraim my dear Son is he a pleasant child for since I spake against him I do earnestly remember him still therefore my bowels are troubled for him I will surely have mercy upon him saith the Lord. By all which we see that God despiseth not the day of small things NOW the consideration of this affords mighty incouragement to sinners to begin their motion to God-ward who would not put himself upon the way when the first attempt of returning shall be taken notice of If a man do but consider if he doe but pray if but breathe and pant after God there is a gracious eye upon him it is not altogether lost labour Nay saith our Saviour A cup of cold water given to a disciple in the name of a disciple shall not lose its reward And if such mean performances pass not unrewarded much less doth any thing of good escape God's notice and observation And upon the same consideration there is great reason of caution and that men take heed of discouraging any though never so small hopes of good and buddings of reformation in others for seeing God takes notice of beginnings he must needs be offended with those that obstruct them and will be sure severely to resent it Let therefore those that scoff at prayer and devotion as preciseness at seriousness and self-reflection as melancholy degeneracy of spirit that either press men forward into the same excess of riot with themselves and labour to divert or stifle all workings of Conscience by the means of sensual entertainments or treat those with contumely who boggle at their extravagancies and begin to take up and reform let all such I say consider well what they doe when God's eye is upon such beginings of good lest they be found fighters against God And let all that have any sense of goodness themselves or but so much as a reverence of God's all-seeing eye think it becomes them to incourage such beginnings to indeavour to kindle such sparks and blow them up into a flame of love to God and goodness to which purpose I take liberty to apply a passage of the Prophet Isaiah Chap. 65. vers 8. Thus saith the Lord as the new wine is found in the cluster and one saith Destroy it not for there is a blessing in it q. d. The wise Master of the Vineyard especially in an unfruitfull time takes special notice of those few Grapes in a cluster that have good juice in them and will neither permit them to be carelesly crushed with the hand nor cast away amongst refuse So will the God of Israel do by his Vineyard the House of Israel he will take notice of the few that are good in the midst of a bad generation and not destroy all together And in like manner he will not despise the first essays of emergency from former vice and wickedness But thus I am led to the second parallel § III. 2. The Father as soon as he saw his Son had compassion so hath God to mankind especially when he sees them on their way homeward He had always good will towards them as they were his Creatures made in his own image designed for his service and for the enjoyment of himself and upon all these accounts hath a propension to do them good But so long as any man continues in a course of rebellion against him all the issues and expressions of this good will are obstructed which nevertheless as soon as ever he begins to relent and come to himself break out again and discover themselves For as the Psalmist tells us Like as a Father pitieth his Children so the Lord pitieth them that fear him Psal 103. 13. NOT that we are to imagine the Divine Majesty to be subject to the weakness of humane passion in a strict and proper sense so as to feel any pain or trouble upon the account of his concern for mankind for that the spirituality of his nature the perfection of his understanding and his self-sufficiency will by no means admit of But he is pleased in Holy Scripture to represent himself after that manner to the intent that we may be incouraged to hope and to indeavour since we are assured that he is not a meer spectator of the conflicts and agonies of a Penitent but hath a real inclination to do him good and would by no means have him perish To this purpose Ezek. 33. 11. he swears As I live saith the Lord God I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from his way and live Turn ye turn ye from your evil ways for why will ye die O house of Israel What greater passion can any Father express towards his beloved Son then God here condescends to and what greater assurance can God give of his earnestness and reality then that of an Oath by himself WHILEST men are at the worst the divine goodness finds out some arguments of pity for he considers he made them fallible Creatures that he gave them not the bright and piercing intellects of Angels he joyned matter and spirit together in their composition by means whereof there is a continual contest between sense and reason a constant dispute betwixt bonum utile and jucundum that their transgression is not like that of Devils who sinned proprio motu without a tempter he knows the power of example the prejudices of education the long follies of Child-hood and therefore as I have shewed before is not implacable towards mankind whilest the state of life and this world lasts But when he takes notice that any man begins to
now that he is returned it is not fit to heap sorrow upon sorrow I will wipe away all his tears and repair all his sufferings he shall take his fill of refreshment not only my heart but my hand my purse all my stores are open to him I have forgotten his rebellion and he shall forget his sorrows he hath by this last act effaced the memory of what he had done and I will take care there shall remain no marks of what he suffered and because all my family heretofore sorrowed for him they shall all now rejoice with me and him Enter O Son into thy Father's joy reap now the fruits of thy repentance I am satisfied with thy return satisfy thy self in this that all I have and all that belong to me shall speak thy welcom OR as if in the mystical sense our Heavenly Father should thus bespeak his penitent Children I am sensible as well as you what husks you have lived upon since you forsook me and when you neither loved me nor your selves I pitied you it was a long time before you would understand that in forsaking me you departed from your own happiness and now that you have believed that it was good for you to return you shall not find your selves deceived your own experience shall justify your choice you came indeed late into my vineyard yet I will reward you equally with those who have born the burden and heat of the day and though it was a great while before you would be perswaded over to my side yet now having acquitted your selves well I will crown you I have already set some marks of favour upon you but those are but earnests of greater which I intend you and that you may be sure I sought not my self but you when I put the task upon you of living vertuously and holily it shall now appear that I only educated and trained you up in that School for glory And now that I have by these preparations fitted you for it enter into the joy of your Lord you shall not have only the ornaments but the inheritance of Sons and shall partake of the same blessedness which my most dutifull Children that never went astray from me and which I my self am happy in Isa 25. 6. For in this mountain will I make unto all my servants a feast of fat things a feast of wines on the Lees of fat things full of marrow of wines on the Lees well refined c. Come ye blessed inherit the Kingdom prepared for you live with Saints and Angels and rejoice with them to all eternity § II. BUT to render this interpretation of this passage in the Parable the more clear and satisfactory and also to make way for some account of the admirable greatness of this favour let us take a little compass and in the next place consider the several phrases that the state of coelestial happiness is expressed by in Scripture and the most remarkable are these four it is called Paradise a Rest a City a Kingdom IN the first place it is described under the notion of Paradise which imports a Garden of pleasure and this name took its rise from that place and condition in which Almighty God settled our first Parents when they came immediately out of his hands and as there he had ordered all things to be at hand which ministred either to man's necessity or delight and had fenced him from all that could disturb and annoy him so it is here but in a far higher degree both of gratification and security as we shall see by and by 2. IT is called a Rest Hebr. 4. 9. There remaineth a rest for the people of God alluding to the Land of Canaan where God gave the Children of Israel rest and quiet habitation after a long servitude in Aegypt and a tedious pilgrimage through the Wilderness So in the world to come God gives all good men repose from all the troubles of life and from all the solicitation and disturbances of their enemies of all kinds Rev. 14. 13. Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord for they rest from their labours c. 3. IT is called a City Hebr. 11. 10. A City which hath foundations whose builder and maker is God In opposition to that temporary and flitting accommodation which the Children of Israel had in the Wilderness and to note the stability and perpetuity of the state of those that have finished their course and attained the crown of immortal life 4. IT is also called a Kingdom Matt. 25. 34. Come ye blessed of my Father inherit a Kingdom c. Principally as a Kingdom speaks grandeur and glory and affluence of all things far beyond the reach and capacity of a private fortune and so in the world to come God hath prepared and accumulated all the ingredients of felicity and glory NOW with all these figurative representations of the state of happiness in the world to come doth this in the Text of a Feast very well accord setting out the same thing in like manner by the entertainment of the senses wherein according to the notion of it not only the greatest delicacies and the greatest plenty of them are implied but also order and joy and unanimity in those that partake of them which together marvellously well represent that felicity we speak of TO speak fully and clearly about that estate is beyond the ability of any mortal man for besides that the Apostle hath told us 1 Cor. 2. 9. Eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man to conceive what God hath prepared for those that love him It is obvious to consider that infinite goodness and wisedom may easily contrive such instances of happiness as surpass our understanding till we come to enjoy them since he can either raise up new objects to entertain those faculties we have or create new powers in our Souls which shall be able to discover fresh and more quick and admirable delights then any we are now capable of especially when he sets himself to make demonstration of his magnificence and of the miracles of his love and therefore we may very well surcease our curiosity and rest our selves contented since we have both assurance of such a thing in general and of the greatness and compleatness thereof notwithstanding because some knowledge of particulars also will marvellously quicken us in our race thither and support us under the burdens we must undergoe in the mean time therefore I will by the guidance of the Scripture lay down these four particulars touching that estate § III. IN the first place it is that which the Holy Scripture insists upon as a principal ingredient of the happiness of the other world that whereas death had made a separation of Soul and Body and whatever circumstances the former might be conceived to be in in the mean time yet the latter lay under the power of the grave and was the
abandoned him my youthfull heat and folly precipitated me upon my own ruine but as he hath more wisedom then I so perhaps the affections of a Father are more strong then those of a child and the more he sees my foolishness the more arguments will he find to shew me mercy At least I will make trial of his clemency I will humbly prostrate my self before him I 'le embrace those knees that educated me I 'le lick the dust of that threshold which I contemptuously forsook I 'le own my fault and take shame to my self and so both magnify his mercy if he receive me and justify his proceedings if he reject me I know my Father is subject or obnoxious to no body who shall blame him for pardoning or set limits to his mercy nay who can tell the measure of a Father's bowels It may be too there is irresistible eloquence in misery and the spectacle of a sons adversity may have rhetorick enough in it to carry the cause where a Father is Judge Or if he provoked by my folly at first and extravagancy since will no more own me as a son perhaps he may receive me as a servant for if my rebellion hath extinguished in him the peculiar affections of a Father yet it hath not destroyed the common passions of humanity mercy and pity If he will receive me in that lower quality I am now broken to the condition of a servant and shall think his yoke easy hereafter having been inured to so sharp and heavy an one I will chearfully submit my ear to be bored to his door-post and be his servant for ever Or lastly if he will not trust a runnagate nor believe that he will ever prove a constant and perpetual servant that hath once deserted his station let him be pleased to take me as an hired servant whom he may turn off at pleasure make trial of me and admit me only upon good behaviour But if all fail and he should utterly cast me off which yet I hope he will not I can but perish and that I doe however Well this being resolved he casts a longing look towards his Fathers house and puts himself on his way thither But no sooner was he on his way though yet a great way off but his Father spies him those lean and wan cheeks and the hollow sunken eyes his extremity had reduced him to had not so disfigured him nor those rags unable to cover his nakedness so disguised him but his Father knew him and the memory of his former disobedience had not so cancelled the interests of a son or shut up the bowels of a Father but that the sight of his present misery kindled his compassion And whilest the son partly through that weakness which his vices and his sufferings had conspired to bring upon him and partly through a combination of shame and just fear of his Fathers indignation with difficulty makes towards him the Father prompted by paternal affection and transported between joy and pity runs to meet him falls on his neck and kisses him The Son though astonished at this condescension and surprized with the unexpected benignity of such a reception yet could not but remember what his Fathers joy made him forget namely his former disingenuity and rebellion And therefore humbly falls on his knees again and with shame and remorse makes his contrite acknowledgement after this manner Father for so this admirable goodness of yours gives me incouragement to call you more then the bloud and life which I derived from you I have I confess forfeited all the interest the priviledges of my birth might have afforded me in your affection having become a rebel both towards God and you had I not first neglected him I am sure I had never grieved you and having forsaken you I have not onely violated the greatest obligation I had upon me save that to his divine Majesty but also despised and affronted a goodness like to his whatsoever therefore I have suffered was but the just demerit of my folly and contumacy and whatsoever sentence you shall pass upon me further I submit to and here expect my doom from you I condemn my self as no more worthy to be called your Son be pleased to admit me but into the condition of your meanest servant and I have more then my miscarriages give me reason to hope for Whilest the Son was going on at this rate the Fathers bowels yearned too earnestly to admit of the delay of long Apologies and therefore chooses rather to interrupt him in his discourse then to adjourn his own joys or the others comfort And because he thought words not sufficient in the case he makes deeds the interpreters of his mind commanding his servants forthwith to bring out the best robe and to put it upon his Son together with a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet i. e. in all points to habit him as his Son and as the Son of such a Father by all which he maketh the full demonstration of a perfect reconciliation And not content herewith to give vent to his own joy that it might not overpower him whilest he confined it to his own bosom and perhaps also that those who had shared with him in his sorrows for the loss of a beloved Son might participate also in the joy of his recovery he goes on Bring out also the fatted calf and kill it and let us eat and be merry for this my Son was dead and is alive again was lost and is found and they began to be merry In the midst of this extraordinary jollity it happens the Elder Son who as we said before had always continued in his duty towards his Father comes out of the fields where he had been negotiating his Fathers affairs and wonders at the unusual Jubilee And when demanding the occasion they of the family had made him acquainted with the whole matter he takes it ill and interpreting this marvellous transport of joy at his Brothers return to be in derogation from himself as if his Father was too easy and inclinable towards him but severe to himself and unmindfull of the long and faithfull service he had done him begins to expostulate the matter somewhat warmly with his Father But the good old man mildly replies Son I am very sensible of and set a just value upon the long course of your obedience and I have it both in my power and in my will to reward you 't is true I have not hitherto made such solemn expressions of my love to you as I have now done upon this occasion for the case did not require it you as you have been always dutifull to me so you have had my house and all I have constantly to accommodate you as you have never rebelled against me so you have never felt the hardships your poor Brother hath undergone by his foolishness and as you that have never offended me never could distrust my favour nor need such
observable 1. His confession of Guilt I have sinned 2. Aggravation of the fact I have sinned against Heaven and before thee 3. The severe judgment he passes upon himself I am no more worthy to be called thy Son 4. Lastly His deprecation Yet make me as one of thy hired Servants All which deserve a little consideration the rather because we shall find them all exactly and literally exemplified in the true Penitent 1. Then the Son assumes to himself his own guilt and takes shame to himself I have sinned c. Non in aetatem non in malos consiliarios culpam rejicit sed nudam parat sine excusatione Confessionem saith the excellent H. Grotius He excuses not himself by the injudiciousness of his youth nor casts the blame upon his evil Counsellors neither accuses God nor man but himself by a plain and ingenuous acknowledgement IN like manner the true Penitent knows it is to no purpose to play the Hypocrite with God Because all things are naked and open to the eyes of him with whom we have to doe He seeth not as men see beholding the outward appearance but he searches the hearts and tries the reins of the Children of men He remembers that he that hideth his sins shall not prosper but that he that confesseth and forsaketh them shall find mercy Therefore with blushing and confusion of face saith I have sinned and done very foolishly Thus the poor Publican is represented by our Saviour S. Luk. 18. 13. whenas the Pharisee stood upon his own justification and with a brazen impudence out-faces Heaven God I thank thee that I am not as other men are c. He standing afar off as not thinking himself worthy to approach so great a Majesty not daring to lift up his eyes to Heaven as dejected with the apprehension of his own demerits smites upon his breast with indignation against himself and brings out onely this contrite sigh God be mercifull to me a sinner And so the Psalmist David in that penitential Psalm of his Psal 51. vers 3. I acknowledge my transgression and my sin is ever before me Against thee thee onely have I sinned and done evil in thy sight Behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my Mother conceive me c. And this is the course of every Penitent for though it be too true that Confession may be without true and compleat Repentance yet it is impossible that Repentance should be true without Confession I enter not into a discourse of Confession to men because my Text leads me not to it further then as it concerns the person injured in which case it is often necessary for the satisfaction of our Consciences and where-ever there is any ingenuity in the offended person it must needs be very prevalent towards his forgiveness But as for the Divine Majesty who is always injured in every transgression and can never have any reparation otherwise then by it it must needs be always reasonable and necessary as we shall shew more fully by and by 2. BUT the Son contents not himself with a bare acknowledgment of his fault in general but goes on to aggravate it I have sinned against Heaven and before thee If we consider the letter of those words they import I have sinned both against God and thee my earthly Parent for so the Jews were wont to express themselves calling the Divine Majesty by the name of Heaven as we may observe S. Luke 20. 4. The Baptism of John was it from Heaven or of men i. e. Was it it of God's institution or man's invention So also 1 Macc. 3. 18. It is all one with Heaven to save with few or with many i. e. with the God of Heaven And we may easily take notice that in most of the Parables of our Saviour that which is sometimes called the Kingdom of God is otherwhile expressed by the name of the Kingdom of Heaven and by both nothing else is meant but the Gospel that divine institution of Religion but if we attend to the intent of this acknowledgement of the Prodigal Son the words import an aggravation of his disobedience q. d. There was no necessity lay upon me to transgress thy yoke was easy and reasonable and therefore in disobeying thee I disobeyed God too Or I must first have cast off all reverence of God before I could be undutifull towards thee It was not the harshness and severity of my Father that drove me away but my own levity and folly that betrayed me and my stubbornness that I forsook him And the same consideration affects the heart of the Penitent For saith he I have not only offended the Divine Majesty but rebelled both against a rightfull and a gracious Sovereign have broken wise and just and equitable Laws been ingratefull towards him that had obliged me by infinite favours have slighted the most glorious propositions and neglected the most gracious and condescending conditions of being happy There was no invincible temptation upon me it was not in the power of example to debauch me I was not opprest by fate but have chosen my own destruction It is not the Apostasy of Adam that can excuse me for it was my own act I cannot say the Fathers have eaten sour grapes and the Children's teeth are set on edge for I sinned against light and Conscience with full consent and against the motions of God's Spirit to the contrary AFTER this manner the Penitent is apt to lay load upon himself no body can think or speak worse of him then he thinks and confesses of himself so far is he from extenuating his crimes that no malice can paint them worse then grief and indignation at himself doth In short with St. Paul he esteems himself the chiefest and worst of sinners THIS is a quite contrary course to that which men use to take when they plead at humane Tribunals either they deny the fact or extenuate or justify it either they plead ignorance or pretend necessity or prescribe for it from the custome and prevailing example of the world but none of these ways are of use before God and therefore are not the pleas of the Penitent The Argument of the Psalmist though it may seem a very strange one is frequent with such men Psal 25. 10. O Lord pardon my sin for it is great q. d. I am only fit to magnify thy mercy for I have sinned beyond any mercy but thine my guilt is too great a burden for me to bear if thy unspeakable mercies relieve me not What shall I do unto thee O thou redeemer of men Such a Soul is not only ashamed but loaths and abhors himself his Spirit is broken his countenance dejected his confidence dismounted he feels pain and remorse he goes heavily he is pricked to the heart and cries out in the anguish of his Soul What shall I doe But 3. HE goes on not only to accuse but to condemn himself also I am not worthy to be
have deserved or with the same in the Lamentations It is the Lord's mercy that we are not consumed and wherefore doth a living man complain a man for the punishment of his sins He not only considers the irresistible power of God and yields as knowing there is no contending with him but he acknowledges also his sovereignty and the right which the great Creatour of the world hath to dispose of him and all other Creatures as he pleases and therefore quarrels not prerogative but saith with Old Eli It is the Lord let him doe what seemeth him good and with the Psalmist I was dumb and opened not my mouth for it was thy doing q. d. If I saw nothing but rigid fate over-bearing me though I knew it was even then to no purpose to contend yet I should be tempted to repine at my hard fortune but when I saw God in it I laid my hand upon my mouth for that word speaks wisedom justice and goodness as well as power every of which are infinitely above my match And when I reflect upon my self I cannot but discover that it is not meer power and will in God that oppresses me but it was just with him to appoint me this adversity nay I cannot but own his wisedom too in it he understands my frame and therefore is best able to judge what is good necessary for me My heavenly Father knows what things I have need of And consequently I must conclude since he hath ordered it so that it was best for me that I should be put into the condition I am in He saw I was not able to bear a full tide of prosperity and therefore sent cross winds to check me he foresaw I should be apt to luxuriate and run riot again should he have planted me in the warm Sun and therefore he made choice of the shade for me UPON all these considerations and especially that which I first suggested namely his modest reflection upon his own demerits and therewithall the contemplation of that transcendent happiness in another world which will abundantly compensate all defects in this the Penitent is brought intirely to surrender himself to the divine will So that he doth not only patiently abide what he cannot help but in some good measure of chearfullness harmoniously falls in with the divine providence I will saith he no longer have any will of my own but thy will be done as I will indeavour to frame the course of my life and actions by thy Laws and revealed will so my mind my will and passions shall be shaped in conformity to thy secret will THIS temper every true Penitent must and doth arrive at in good measure for untill this be done the principle of pride which was the first spring of apostasie is not destroyed in him and it will be impossible that he should discharge the former part of active obedience unless this passive frame be in conjunction with it since a malecontent and murmuring spirit can never become a good and dutifull subject of God's Kingdom because he plainly betrays that he neither loves nor reverences him and therefore will not obey him Besides that most assuredly such a temper affords perpetual invitation and incouragement to the Devil to be attempting upon him to inflame him into some rebellion against God Whereas the man that is contented with his condition that submits to God discourages Satan in all his attempts of stirring up sedition he gives him no hold he disarms and defeats him THIS therefore with the two former make up the summ of Religion and consequently the intire character of a true Convert and the just terms of his reconciliation with the offended Majesty of Heaven By these three steps the Son recovered himself and his Father's favour And thus the sinner returns to God CHAP. V. Of the necessity of Actual Reformation THE CONTENTS § I. A recital of several loose opinions about repentance which debauch men's practice in this important affair § II. Four arguments demonstrating the absurdity of all those opinions jointly and the necessity of bringing forth such fruits of repentance as are described in the former Chapter 1. From Scripture 2. From the nature of God 3. From the nature of Heaven and Hell 4. From the nature of Conscience WHILST in the foregoing Chapter I indeavoured in three instances plainly and accurately to describe actual returning to God as the condition of reconciliation with our heavenly Father as I think I out-went not the figurative intimations of the Parable so I am most confident that therein I dealt faithfully with the Souls of all such men as are concerned in that discourse neither requiring more nor admitting less then what is both fit for God to accept and for men to yield to him therefore it was reasonably to be hoped that men's judgments being convinced herein they would practise accordingly and so I might proceed immediately to the third and last part of the Parable and there shew the admirable success of this method and the comfortable greeting betwixt the Father of Spirits and his returning Children NOTWITHSTANDING partly because I am aware in the general how willing men are even to put a cheat upon themselves for a cheap and an easy cure and that to such that which we have been discoursing will seem to be durus sermo a hard Chapter as we say and partly also I am not ignorant that there are abundance of Mountebanks in Theology who pretend to administer comfort to troubled Consciences upon far easier terms that therefore I may wholly omit nothing that I conceive usefull in this important affair I will here though briefly demonstrate the truth and absolute necessity of what we have now laid down but first I think it not amiss to take notice of the principal of those mistakes which make it necessary that I so doe and they may be reduced to these four heads 1. IT was the opinion of some of the Jewish Doctours that when the Messias came there would be no necessity of repentance at all as if his intercession should perfectly excuse men all the trouble of working out their own salvation with fear and trembling And a like absurd conceit hath possessed some Christians that nothing is to be done by us but trusting and relying upon Christ Jesus and his sacrifice and satisfaction as if he had not only satisfied for the transgressions of the old covenant but having brought in no new one had set men perfectly at liberty from all moral obligation or as if it were a derogation from the merits of Christ's death that any thing should be required of us in order to justification This is the doctrine of the Antinomians Which some carry yet higher and suppose justification from eternity founded meerly in the secret decree of God and so not only exclude repentance but even the mediation of Christ Jesus himself 2. THERE is a second sort of men and those called Christians too that require
sin and order it that Whereas the Fathers have eaten sour grapes the Children's teeth should be set on edge This he himself acknowledges would represent his ways unequal or if he should as some have had the confidence to assert by an horrible decree pre-judge a great part of mankind to eternal torments before they had done good or evil or without respect to their carriage in times to come meerly for the demonstration of his Sovereignty or the inhansing of his favour to others whom he alike absoluetely decrees to save this would notoriously blemish his justice and therefore he neither can nor will ever do any such thing But now to resolve to punish one less then another when both have deserved ill alike or to give more and greater favours to one then to another when both have deserved equally well is very agreeable to the Divine Majesty and that which we see instances of in common experience For who shall say the rest of the Galileans were not as bad as those Eighteen upon whom the Tower of Siloam fell or those other whose bloud Pilat mingled with their sacrifices Or who will be so uncharitable as to affirm that every man whom we observe to be rich and prosperous in this world is a better and more vertuous man then he whose fortune is lower and less comfortable In neither of these cases any man is wronged only some are favoured and in the first of these two cases God remits of his own right to punish and in the latter he exercises his bounty and liberality So our Saviour hath determined the case in the Gospel when those that came early into the Vineyard expostulated when they observed that those which came in at the last hour fared as well as they Matt. 20. 12. Is thine eye evil because mine is good shall I not do what I will with my own q. d. Is it any wrong to you that another speeds better then he deserves or must God not only give account of his justice but of his bounty too And this will be as apparent if we suppose two persons to have deserved unequally that is to say when one hath indeed deserved better in the same kind then another but neither of them have been in any sort proportionable to the reward which is bestowed for then it is plain that there can be no wrong because there is no merit properly so called AND this is the very case in hand suppose a very holy man that hath constantly persevered in a course of the strictest vertue if now another man that becomes vertuous at last be admitted into the Kingdom of Heaven as well as he there can be no ground of murmuring because Heaven is no man's due no man deserves it but in the words of our Saviour St. Luk. 17. 10. When we have done all that we can we must say we are unprofitable servants and have only done what was our duty to do In short the great blessings of the Gospel which we not long since spoke of namely the gift of the Holy Ghost the Resurrection of the Body and the glories of the Kingdom of Heaven are all the effects of meer and unspeakable grace to which no man hath any right antecedent to God's promise and therefore since no man could have complained of God if he had not propounded them to us no more then the posterity of Esau could challenge God that he promised not the Land of Canaan to them as well as to the off-spring of Jacob consequently lest of all can any man reasonably think himself injured if God by prerogative admit other men besides himself into the participation thereof Especially if we consider 2. IN the second place that one man's injoyment of those glories is no abatement of another man's happiness that partakes of them For thus saith the Father Son all that I have is thine q. d. I am still able to reward thee though I have been thus liberal to thy Brother I will be just to thee though I have been thus kind to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I esteem thee for thy vertuous course and have mercy on him for his wise recourse or return I love thee for thy constant holy life and him for his happy conclusion Thou shalt have never the less then I promised though he have more then he could expect NOw although it be somewhat difficult to make this literally true in the narrow condition of humane affairs for first it is very common for Parents to take off that love from one Child which they bestow immoderately upon another and again if their affections were infinite yet their fortunes are not and a great liberality to one must make the other fare the worse yet the mystical sense is very easy for God is neither narrow hearted nor strait handed he can imbrace infinite Souls and reward innumerable observances He neither despises one when he loves another nor is disabled to requite an old Servant when he shews favour to a new Convert He like Isaac hath more then one blessing so that Jacob need not plot to supplant Esau nor Esau despair because Jacob hath been first blessed The feast of good things God hath prepared is sufficient to accommodate all the Guests whether they come early or late Heaven is wide enough to hold both the one and the other WITH this consideration our Saviour comforts his Disciples Jo. 14. 2. In my Father's house are many mansions if it were not so I would have told you before q. d. I will not deceive you with vain hopes Heaven is capacious enough to receive all you my Disciples and though I leave you for the present there I will entertain you all and if there be different degrees of glory yet no vessel shall be empty every man shall be as full of happiness as it is possible Therefore there can be no cause of emulation no room for discontent where there is no power or capacity unsatisfied Besides as I have shewed already the society in Heaven is a principal ingredient of the happiness thereof where blessed Spirits communicate with delight in exhilarate and ravish each other and therefore the more arrive at that state the more glorious is the appearance the fuller is the harmony and the more redoubled and multiplied are the reflections of joy and blessedness ENVY is common in this world where because there is not enough for all one man 's excessive happiness proves the disappointment of the hopes of another for the same wheel that brings one man up must cast another down And the Courts of Princes are full of jealousies rivalties and emulations because the hearts of the greatest men are narrow and cannot admit several competitors in any eminent degree of sincere affection But where both these and all other causes of discontent are removed that is where the heart and good will of God who confers this happiness is infinite where the powers of those that receive
being baptized with the baptism of John i. e. They entring into a penitential state which John's baptism initiated them into condemned themselves and proclaimed the righteousness of God's methods 3. SIN is a tacit denial of God's omniscience the sinner saith with them in the Psalmist Tush doth God see and is there knowledge in the most High Psal 73. 11. And with those other in Job How doth God know can he judge through the dark Clouds Thick Clouds are a covering to him that he seeth not and he walketh in the circuit of Heaven Job 22. 13 14. Either they conclude with the Epicureans that it is below the Majesty of God to mind the affairs of men or that it would create him too much trouble and business or some odd conceit or other they may well be presumed to have who dare adventure to sin forasmuch as the consideration of an all-seeing eye would give the most curbing check to sin that can be And indeed this Attribute is one of the most glorious perfections of the Divine Nature and so necessary that it is not intelligible how he should be God that is how he should govern the world for the present or judge it hereafter without it and consequently it is if not the only foundation yet the immediate obligation to all worship and religious observance For suppose a God as the Epicureans did that either could not or would not mind the actions of men and make him otherwise as great excellent and adorable as we will yet will it be impossible to restrain men from hypocrisy and contempt of him whilst they are under no apprehensions that their actions and carriage towards him are eyed by him Now he that ingenuously confesses his sin and takes shame to himself for it doth honour to this Divine Perfection and upholds the pillar of the world and thereby recommends himself to the Divine mercy IT was the saying of Joshua to Achan Jos 7. 9. My Son give glory to God and confess thy fault q. d. Thou hast dishonoured God by thy sin and both reproached his wisedom in making such a Law and also called in question his Omniscience by thy daring to violate it now therefore make him the best amends thou canst by an ingenuous confession and make it appear that though when thou wast tempted to doe wickedly thou wert so foolish as to promise thy self security yet now upon more deliberate thoughts thou acknowledgest there is nothing can hide thee from him 4. SUCH acknowledgements as aforesaid do right to the holiness and purity of God for thereby the sinner expressing his shame and blushing at his own impurity seems to loath himself for his unlikeness to the Divine Majesty who is the chief and original perfection TO which add in the last place that besides that in this confession of sin the sinner places himself in the nearest posture and under the very eye of God and the quickest apprehensions of him and the greatest awefullness of his Majesty he also puts a brand and odious mark upon all sin and by his thus suffering for sin in the sense of his Soul condemns sin in the flesh and withal expresses a great distast of it shews an abhorrence a mind alienated from it and so consequently by that sense of the bitterness of it gives the best security against relapses into it again Upon all which it is not untruely said quem poenitet peccâsse paenè est innocens and though it be best of all not to sin yet he is in a good degree towards innocency who is thus penitent for his offences and consequently in a fair way for pardon WITH respect to which the Psalmist who both could and would if that would have done as well have brought the most costly Sacrifices to God to have atoned his sin and made his peace with him yet pronounces the Sacrifice of God to be only a contrite Spirit and that a broken and contrite Spirit God would not despise Those other Sacrifices it seems though God permitted them and in some cases accepted yet were not of his institution at first only they were ways which men thought apt to express their homage and dependance upon God or by which to acknowledge their gratitude or by the cost of them to impose a mulct upon themselves for offending or otherwise by being converted to the use of those that attended immediately upon him might be supposed to be a means to propitiate him towards them as if in the language of our Saviour men sought this way to make to themselves friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness Notwithstanding in themselves all those costly oblations seemed to reflect dishonour upon God as representing him a necessitous and indigent Deity for which cause several of the wisest and best Philosophers of old forbad all costly Sacrifices and required only such things as might properly be reputed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Platonists express it i. e. the worship of a full and perfect Being and such especially is this of a broken and contrite heart which as it is that which every man hath to give that will so is fittest to be the sacrifice of all mankind to the common Father of them and as it costs them least so it doth the truest honour to him AND whereas Paganism admitted no repentance and in their Philosophick writings we meet often with expiations and lustrations but no such thing as repentance the reason must be because they had no right notions of God commonly considering him only under the notion of rigid fate or of absolute sovereignty without any apprehension of benignity or compassion in him which whoso rightly understands God must needs conceive to be in him in an eminent degree as we have shewed before and he that so considers him can have no reason to doubt but those instances of penitence we are now upon are very acceptable to him especially if they come attended with real reformation which we come now in the next place to speak of as the second part of the Penitent's Resolution and the last and principal point of Repentance CHAP. IV. Of Actual Returing or Reformation THE CONTENTS Actual Reformation consists in three things 1. Care of God's Worship 2. Conscience of all his Commands 3. Submission to his Providence All which are described according to such measures as are practicable in themselves necessarily required by God and conscientiously observed by all true Converts WE have hitherto in the letter of the Parable seen the formerly extravagant Son performing the first part of his resolution confessing his fault condemning his folly falling at his Father's feet and imploring his pardon But there was something else meant when he said I will return to my Father and he was not ignorant that filial reverence and obedience for the future was the best apology for his former transgressions for though he knew how great an interest the very relation of a Son gives in the affections of a Father and
that the saying of the Apostle is especially and most remarkably verified in the charity of Parents that it beareth all things hopeth all things believeth all things for they readily believe well of their Children because they so passionately desire it should be so notwithstanding the Son could not think his Father so soft and easy as to be imposed upon with words and ceremonies and himself was not now so ill natured as to go about to abuse so much goodness if it it had been in his power Wherefore the Text saith vers 20. So he arose and came to his Father i. e. he did not only change his note his address his countenance but he changed his course he returned to his Father and to the duty of a Son AND we have under this type in the former part of it seen described the preface and introduction to repentance towards God namely the sinner bewailing his sin taking shame to himself under agonies of mind pricked to the heart humbly imploring the divine favour and crying earnestly for mercy But this is not all that repentance means the principal part of it is yet behind viz. Actual Reformation This is that which every awakened Conscience in its agonies promises and resolves upon this God expects and every sincere Convert really performs For without this all the rest is but empty pomp and pageantry and meer hypocrisy as we shall shew anon But when this is added to the former such a person from thenceforth is a new man and in a new estate he hath compleatly made his return to God as the Son in the Text is said to have actually returned to his Father I have noted heretofore that all irreligion and profaneness is wont in the language of the Scripture to be expressed by the phrase of departing from God or going out from him or forsaking him and so the whole practice of Religion is contrariwise set forth by drawing nigh to or coming to God particularly Hebr. 11. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he that cometh to God q. d. he that becomes a Proselyte to Religion for from thence doth that word Proselyte take its original Wherefore now we will first observe what is implyed by this phrase of the Son 's returning or coming to his Father and in proportion thereto describe this most important business of the Penitent's returning to God which is his Actual Conversion or Reformation and in the former these three things seem plainly to be comprehended 1. That the Son now returns home to his Father's family and presence 2. That he returns to the duty of a Son by obedience and compliance with his Father's commands 3. That he submits to his Father's government and provision Therefore in the latter namely conversion to God these three things must semblably be implied 1. That the Penitent puts himself under the eye of God and lives in a constant practice of piety and devotion 2. That he frames himself to universal obedience to all God's commands 3. That he gives himself up to the divine disposal and intirely submits to his providence and government 1. CONCERNING the first of these there is nothing more evident or remarkable to all experience and observation then the great fervor of devotion in all true Converts from an evil life insomuch that there is not that man to be found under such a character but presently with great solemnity and seriousness he sets up the worship of God to which purpose we find in the history of the Acts of the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Worshippers or Devout persons to be the common name by which Converts to Religion are expressed and these Acts 13. 48. are said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Candidates of eternal life or put into order and disposed for salvation Compare vers 43. with 48. More particularly it is observable of St. Paul that when from a superstitious Pharisee and bitter enemy of Christianity he was reclaimed and made a Christian the assurance that God gives to Ananias of the truth of his conversion is Acts 9. 11. Behold he prays And so of Manasses 2 Chron. 33. 18. amongst the instances of his real reformation the Scripture takes especial notice of the prayer that he prayed AND this is so universal a truth that I think from hence it cometh to pass that those who have a mind hypocritically to put on the guise and appearance of Religion are wont to be notably carefull in this point for so the Pharisees cloaked all their villanies with this garb of piety Now hypocrisy would miss altogether of its design if it did not resemble the truth of things and usually their over solicitude and overdoing herein betrays them to act a part only in Religion BUT it is not only the duty of prayer which the true Penitent expresses his conversion by though this be by some too phantastically called Duty as if all piety consisted in that only for as the literal Prodigal returns to his Father's house and family so the mystical returns to God's house which is his Church and associates himself with God's servants in all the offices of Religion viz. in hearing the word reading meditation Sacraments c. Now he thinks a day spent in God's Courts better then a thousand and had rather be a door-keeper in the house of the Lord then to dwell in the tents of the wicked This one thing he desires of the Lord and is most passionate in that he may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of his life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his Temple And he so highly values the priviledge of God's Church that no private opinion no trifling scrupulosity nor petty disgust shall ever alienate him from it Here he finds himself fortified and incouraged by the great examples of holy men his prayers strengthened by the concurrence of all good people here he is under the publick dispensations of the means of grace and knowledge the very plainness and simplicity of which he now with the great Convert St. Austin values and admires more then all the Greek or Roman eloquence of Speech or subtilty of Philosophy to which every thing else seemed flat and insipid before Above all the holy Sacrament puts him into an ecstasy in this he thinks himself in God's presence in an extraordinary manner and admitted a guest at his Table the Crums of which he thinks himself unworthy of here he refreshes his hungry Soul with the Bread of Life and his wounded Conscience by the Bloud of his crucified Saviour and in both he thinks he sees his provoked but compassionate Father stand with open arms to receive him This he approaches with great reverence with shame and sorrow for his sins past together with faith and hope in God's mercy and will therefore never be negligent of it IN these and all other duties of Religion both publick and private the Convert expresses such an excellent spirit and extraordinary