before we proceed to consider the Parable learn this short but excellent Lesson namely That when sudden ill Accidents befall our Neighbours we do not presently make Conclusion as is too often done especially where there has been any Enmity or Difference between the Parties that God has met with them by his Judgments for some Extraordinary Wickedness of theirs and pronounce them worse Men than our selves or others that escape because they suffer such things for this is a very rash and uncharitable Sentence and may be far from Truth But rather by God's Severity upon others be inclined to reflect upon our selves and humble our selves before him for our own Iniquities and entirely resolve to forsake every Evil Way lest we likewise fall under the like Expresses of his Vengeance in this World or of infinitely worse in that which is to come In the Parable it self is represented God's Method of Proceeding with Sinners now under the Gospel from first to last and it is this First He plants them in his Vineyard the Church of Christ that there by the good Cultivating of the Ministers of his Kingdom and the refreshing Influences of his Blessed Spirit upon their Souls they may become Fruitful of such good Works as may fit and prepare them for the Enjoyments of his Heavenly Kingdom to which in due season they are to be transplanted After they are thus plac'd in his Vineyard and Cultivated by the Sermons of the Gospel he looks for a proportionable Fruitfulness from them and that after all his Care and Goodness to them they would for their Part make him a due Return of the Fruits of Evangelical Righteousness As when a Tree is remov'd from a Poorer to a Richer Soil and much Care and Husbandry used about it 't is expected it should grow and flourish accordingly and bring forth more and better Fruit. After God has with much Patience and Forbearance yearly sought for Fruit from them and is as often disappointed his Wisdom and his Justice prompt him to rid his Vineyard of the Incumbrance of those Unprofitable Trees to remove from the Society of his Faithful Disciples those that are a Trouble and a Scandal to them and as Barren Trees are laid aside to be burnt so to consign them to those everlasting Burnings prepar'd for the Devil and his Angels But though in Justice he purposes the Destruction of the Unfruitful yet his infinite Mercy through the Intercession of the Compassionate Jesus the Dresser of this his Vineyard the Head and Governor of the Christian Church inclines him to a still farther Forbearance till they shall be cultivated and manur'd afresh by the again repeated Instructions and Exhortations of his Servants the Ministers of the Gospel and the reiterated Motions of the Blessed Spirit of Life and Holiness And then if they bear Fruit well Happy will it be for them but if not after that he will cut them down and utterly destroy them Of each of these Particulars we shall now discourse in their Order The first is God's wondrous Care and Tenderness of Sinners in Planting them in his Vineyard as the Parable expresses it that is receiving them into the Church of Christ where they are cultivated by the Ministers of his Kingdom and their Souls water'd with gentle Showers from Above the blessed Influences of the Holy Spirit that they may Flourish and become Fruitful of such good Works as may prepare them for the Felicities of Heaven to which in due time they shall be Transplanted Before the Coming of our Saviour the Jewish Church was God's Vineyard his peculiar Inclosure and the Subject of his more immediate Care and Government and all but the Seed of Jacob were excluded as wild uncultivated Trees and left to Themselves in the Wilderness of the World For so in a spiritual Sense was all but the Land of Jewry the Lot of their Inheritance Afterwards when the Fullness of Time was come that God would take Pity upon the whole Race of Adam and receive all Mankind to his Favour he then enlarg'd that his Vineyard and gave a Free Admittance to all that would submit to the Culture and Government of his Eternal Son whom he sent to break down the former Inclosure and make it more capacious even as large as the World it self and committed it to his Management made him the great Dresser of this Vineyard the Head and Governour of this Universal Church that through his excellent Directions and the Care and Industry of his Servants and the Decrees from Above of his Divine Grace and Assistance And above all through the wondrous Efficacy of his Precious Blood with which he plentifully enrich'd this his new Plantation it might thrive and flourish and bring forth Fruit meet for him by whom it was dress'd even the Fruits of the Spirit and such as are meet for Repentance such as may advance the Glory of God by the Salvation of innumerable Souls that none made after his Image might perish but all come to Everlasting Life God's Vineyard then being thus enlarg'd and his Church now no longer confin'd to a Corner of the World but by the Coming of Christ made Universal that all men might come to the Knowledge of the Truth Man is again as 't were seated in Paradise and reconciled to God 'T is again put into his Power to continue in his Makers Favour and after a Happy Life in this World to be transplanted into that Heavenly Country where is the Residence of the Divine Majesty and Rivers of ineffable Pleasures which flow for evermore As through the Disobedience of the first Adam Mankind was driven out of Paradise and doom'd to Live and Labour amongst Briars and Thorns as under the Displeasure of his Creator and then to Dye and Return to his Dust so through the Obedience of the second Adam even to the Death of the Cross through the Merits of his Blood and the Atonement of his Sacrifice all that sad Sentence and Condemnation is in a spiritual Sense revers'd and we are again planted in the Vineyard and Garden of God recall'd from the Portion of Thorns and Briars and restor'd to the Favour of our Creator and at length to change this Corruptible for Incorruptible this Dishonour and Weakness for Glory and Power this Natural for a Spiritual Body this Mortal Life for Immortality and by this means is brought to pass the Saying that is written 1 Cor. 15. Death is swallowed up in Victory O Blessed Alteration O happy Change of Misery and Shame for Happiness and Glory O the Miraculous Love and Goodness of God to Mankind in thus commiserating our deplorable Condition and delivering us from the Power of Darkness and translating us into the Kingdom of his Dear Son and making us meet to be Partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light Happy are they who have heard of these Glad Tidings and are planted in this Spiritual Vineyard and under the Care and Cultivation of the great
securing our main Interest the Happiness of Eternity and when Time shall be at an End that is to every particular Person when Death shall put a Period to this Life then comes that Night in which no Man can work then the Opportunity shall be for ever at an End and according as Men have improv'd or wasted their Time in this World so shall their Eternity be happy or miserable in the next And therefore he is indeed very foolishly prodigal who without any Thought of hereafter wastes this precious Treasure this only Opportunity of making himself for ever happy in Vanity and Folly in pleasing and humouring his Body and neglects the Improvement of his Soul and instead of working out his Salvation with Fear and trembling secures to himself Eternal Misery And this does every wilful Sinner when with the Prodigal in the Parable he wastes this his Substance in Luxurious and Riotous Living and studies nothing but how to gratifie the lower Life looking no further than this present World for Happiness 'till his Opportunity be quite lost and he is surpriz'd into an unchangeably Miserable Condition because when 't was put into his Hand to make himself happy if he would he neglected it and chose the Track to Ruine Thirdly The Glorious Reversion of our Heavenly Inheritance is a Treasure likewise that can never be sufficiently valu'd for Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard neither can it enter into the Heart of Man to conceive the Felicities and Glories of it Now this we are assur'd by him that cannot lie and whose it is to bestow shall be the Reward of Vertue and sincere Religion all this is laid up for them that love God and keep his Commandments And therefore for a Man that knows all this to be so prodigally to throw away all Expectation of and Title to such a Reversion as this upon such low and profligate Accounts as the wallowing in the filthy Pleasures of a Goat or a Swine or the heaping up Treasures of Gold and Silver which are as unsatisfying as they are uncertain and perishing or for the Sake of a little empty Honour or the like This is the very Highth of profligate Extravagancy and such as one would think no sensible Man should ever be guilty of Upon these and many other nay indeed all Accounts 't is very true that a wicked Man is the greatest Prodigal in the World for he wastes and throws away what is of highest Value to a Man and that for what is no better than Vanity and Vexation of Spirit And thus much for the first thing expressed in this Parable viz. the great Extravagancy of ungodly Men when they give themselves up to the Guidance of their own Wills and Affections and grow weary of the Government of God their Heavenly Father Like the Prodigal Son they waste their most precious Substance in riotous and profligate living The second thing express'd in this Parable is the sad Condition such Men soon reduce themselves to by that their Extravagancy and loose self-will'd Course of Life or in other Words the Miserable Consequences of Debauchery and Riot and of following so Blind a Guide as Mens unruly Passions and Lusts For so in the Parable when the prodigal Young Man had spent all there arose a mighty Famine in that Land and he began to be in Want and went and joyn'd himself to a Citizen of that Country who sent him into his Fields to feed Swine And he would fain have fill'd his Belly with the Husks that the Swine did eat but no Man gave unto him The first ill Consequence then of this Prodigality or Lawless Extravagant Living is Spiritual Want or a Scarcity and Famine of the Divine Grace in the Soul which is by so much more to be dreaded than a Famine of Provisions for the Body as Eternal Misery and Death is more terrible than Temporal The Grace of God is questionless the Nourishment of the Divine Life and which if once withdrawn will leave the Soul dead in Trespasses and Sins Now an obstinate Course of Disobedience to the Divine Will drives out that Life-giving Power and makes the Soul uncapable of Vital Union with so pure a Spirit and as a Humane Soul is forc'd to leave a Body rotten and wasted and unapt any longer to entertain it so this Divine Spirit is thrust out from a corrupted sinful Soul And consequently there must be a famine in that Soul of that Heavenly Bread which is absolutely necessary to eternal Life and the Consequence of that is Eternal Death And certainly no Man that considers what a Dismal Condition that Soul is in which is reduced to such Extremity of Spiritual Want as this how full of Horrour and Despair as doom'd to endless Misery and seal'd up to Destruction which he sees dayly nearer and nearer approaching and no way to escape but like a Wretch immur'd between two Walls there to be starv'd to Death in continual Expectation of her sad End No Man that considers this with that Seriousness he ought but will be very careful not to waste what is so necessary to his Spiritual Subsistence i. e. by no means grieve or resist or quench that Life-giving Spirit by whom all true Religion lives and moves and hath its Being and which if neglected and oppos'd will be withdrawn and that perhaps for ever If like Esau we sell this inestimable Blessing for a Mess of Pottage forfeit the Food of our Souls that we may indulge our Sensual Appetites we may fear that a Spiritual Famine will be our Punishment and no Place left for Repentance no Blessing remaining for us though we seek it earnestly with Tears As the Prodigal in the Parable when after he had wasted his Substance in riotous Living and then wanted and was ready to perish with Hunger so that he would have been glad of the meanest and coarsest Fare would fain have sill'd his Belly with the Husks that the Swine did eat even that he could not obtain for no Man says the Parable gave unto him Another ill Consequence of this Spiritual Prodigality and loose wicked Course of Life and to name no more amongst a numerous Train of them is that it extreamly degrades and debases a Man and engages him in the vilest Drudgery imaginable the serving Bestial Lusts and Devilish Passions This is express'd in the Parable by the Prodigal's being sent into the Feilds to feed Swine a thing the most abject in it self and the most detestable to the Jews to whom our Lord spake the Parable who were taught by their Law to esteem that Creature among the most unclean And as low or lower than this does he debase his Nature who neglecting the Noble Precepts of Religion makes his Sensual Appetite the Rule and Measure of his Actions For what more Beastly and Detestable than ungovern'd Lust The wretch himself that is guilty of it is asham'd publickly to commit it and takes Advantage of Holes and Corners and
Death though they dread it above all things and know that it will certainly come and are uncertain how soon they make as little Provision as if they were immortal as the Angels in Heaven what a Bundle of foolish Inconsistencies is here They look upon Death as the greatest of Evils and yet regard it the least of all things they know it highly concerns 'em to make Preparation for it by a good Life and they know the sad Consequence if it surprize 'em unawares and they are not sure they shall not be surpriz'd the next Hour or Minute and yet for all this they put the evil Day far from them and by all Arts endeavour to remove such melancholy Thoughts as if they were resolv'd not to avoid but suffer what they fear and secure to themselves the Miserie 's consequent upon an untimely and unprepar'd Death And what is this but just the same Piece of Folly and Madness as for a Man because he greatly dreads the Plague therefore to run into an infected House because he is afraid of Poverty therefore to grow prodigal and squander away what he hath And what can be more strangely foolish and contradictious than this Indeed a Sinners whole Life is the greatest Folly and Contradiction but 't is most gross and palpable with Relation to dying for because a Man loves his Body therefore so to indulge it in this World as to make it become eternally miserable in the next and live in such a Course of sinful Pleasures as will be repaid with a double Death is unaccountably foolish and against all the Dictates even of natural Reason I need not say more I think to expose the Folly of not making Preparation for so great a Change as Death will effect in every Man's Condition or in the Phrase of this Parable of not keeping Oyl in our Lamps nor watching against the divine Bridegroom's coming but slumbering in a careless Inadvertency to those great things of Religion Death and Judgment till they overtake us as a Thief in the Night And from what has been said of the Folly of not preparing for that Time of Terrors and greatest Concern to every Man we may in a few Words collect the great Wisdom of being always in a Readiness to obey the Summons of our great Lord with Chearfulness For in short to be ready and prepar'd to die when God shall please to call us has all the Wisdom in it of making a constant due Provision against the greatest and most concerning Change that can befall us and which we must certainly undergo and how soon we know not and that but once neither and which will be follow'd by the final Judgment without any new Opportunity being afforded wherein to amend the Errors of our then irrecoverably past Life 'T is to make such a Preparation for this great Change as may render it advantageous to us whenever it shall come than which no greater Piece of Wisdom can be imagin'd For that certainly is the greatest Wisdom that makes a Man wise to Salvation Wherefore to conclude this Parable Since it is appointed to Men once to dye and after that the Judgment or in the Stile of this Parable since Jesus the divine Bridegroom will one time come to summon every particular Member of the Christian Church his mystical Spouse to leave this World and attend him in the World of Spirits there to partake with him if ready and adorn'd with the Wedding Garment and their Lamps burning with the Oyl of Righteousness of the everlasting Felicities of this heavenly Kingdom or else if not prepar'd to appear before him then to be for ever excluded his Presence and thrust into the dire Abodes of the Devil and his Angels Since this is so let us all make it our sincere Endeavour by a serious and hearty Observation of those holy Rules of living which our Lord has mark'd out to us as the Way to Immortality and a Preparation for his Appearance to be always ready to go out and meet him that we may enter with him into the Marriage Chamber before the Door be shut and not hear that dismal Sound I know ye not depart from me ye Workers of Iniqutity And because this great Coming of the Bridegroom will be but once for 't is appointed to Men but once to dye and after that but one final Judgment let us by no means trifle away this only Opportunity of working out our Salvation in Folly and Impertinency much less in Wickedness and Vice but often reflect upon the Agonies we shall feel when we shall find this one only Life which we have so wretchedly mispent drawing to a Conclusion and no Hopes of any further Opportunity to recover our selves in but just as we then are in that deplorable unprepar'd Condition be hurried away to give Account of our Works Lord What Confusion must such wretches feel what horrid Tortures must needs pierce their Souls to see Hell gaping to receive 'em and no Possibility of Escape or so much as a Reprieve but plunge they must into those Lakes of Fire and Brimstone which yet they might have avoided if they would If this be a Case infinitely deplorable and if this be not certainly nothing is then it nearly concerns us all while we have Time that is while this one only Life does last to make Provision for a happy Departure out of it by a more holy and circumspect Conversation in it And because the Time when this one only Life shall end is wholly in the Dark to us and we know not the Day nor the Hour when our Lord will come let this awaken us into serious Thoughts and Resolutions of making the best Use of the remaining Portion of our Lives and break off immediately our sinful Course of living lest the Opportunity for so doing be gone before we think of it and we be surpriz'd into endless Misery e're we are aware Let us always keep our Lamps burning our Souls employ'd in holy Meditations and our selves in a Readiness by a good Life and then though it is appointed for us all to die and that but once and after that the Judgment and we know not the Day nor the Hour when the Summons shall be given We may with Comfort wait for our dear Lord's appearing and say Come Lord Jesus come quickly The PRAYER I. O Glorious Jesus The Saviour and the Judg of Mankind before whose just Tribunal we must all certainly appear but when we know not and there give Account of our Works and be rewarded according to them assist me I beseech thee with thy Grace that I may make it my chief Care with Cheerfulness and Comfort to obey thy Summons to this great Audit whenever thou shalt call And to that End grant I may be frequent in the Contemplation of my Mortality how short and frail my Life is here how inevitably and closely Judgment follows Death and how certainly the one will find me as the other leaves