drink-offerings to him and the heart of man as believed in by us for God also sets him forth for us to feed upon His flesh as meat indeed and his blood as drink indeed for us John 6.33.55 Judges 9.13 even as of old God had communion with his people in their Sacrifices taking part by the Altar and Priests for himself and giving part to the Sacrificers so both God and his people feed together in Christ Jesus Yea God the Father here would have had his elder Son have come in and eat with him and his other Son and Servants of the feast prepared the fatted Calf only the elder Sons own frowardness kept him out and so he is in bed with his children too sometimes as it is parabolically expressed Luke 11.7 while and they spiritually rest and repose together in Christ Such in a sort their fellowship with him that obey and walk with him 3. With him so as in a sense in him The Church of the Thessalonians that is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ 1 Thess 1.1 and 2 Thess 1.1 and we are in him that is true 1 John 5.20 in him because in Christ as to their hopes heart love faith life Our life is hid with Christ in God Col. 3.3 in him in his eye or view For the eye of the Lord is over the righteous and they are ever in his sight walking with and before him as Noah Enoch Abraham Gen. 17.1 They being his spiritual House and Temple in Christ what was said by him of his Temple typically is true spiritually and more really as to them Mine eyes and my heart saith God shall be there perpetually 2 Chron. 7.16 1 Pet. 3.1 in his hand power and dispose to order hold or uphold them yea to lead guide or carry them in his love All his Saints are in thine hand Deut. 33.3 Psal 139.9 in his minde and remembrance The Lord thinketh upon me saith Psal 40.10 he forgetteth not the cry of the humble Psal 9 12 yea to that purpose they are ingraven as on the palms of his hand so as they are ever before him in all his works Isa 49.15 and set as a signet upon his arm yea they are in his heart his love and choicest affection as a seal upon his heart Cant. 8.6 his heart is ever upon them The Lord loveth the righteous Psal 146.8 His countenance doth behold the just his heart and eye is upon them for good because of Christ the well beloved of his soul as found in him He loveth them with the love wherewith he loves him even with a love of delight and pleasure taking John 17.23 26. with 16.28 Psal 32.18 and 147.11 and 149.4 4. With him they are as children with a loving kinde and careful Father who hath all power and sufficiency to help and succour them and therefore thence great advantages accrue to them because being with him he is also with and for them as is said 2 Chron. 15.2 The Lord is with you while ye are with him on his side and in his presence keeping at home with him and this is through Christ who is Immanuel God with us God and man in one person and the Mediator and band of union between God and man through him the Lord is with that is both on their side and present with them by his power favour and grace for their helpfulness whence they have cause of greatest security in him greatest quietness and confidence as appears from that song of the Virgin Souls Psal 46. The Lord of Hosts is with us the God of Jacob is our refuge as the burthen of the Song and that was the spring of their rejoycing gladness and fear-exceeding-confidence expressed by them verse 2 3 4. Therefore will we not fear though the earth be moved and though the mountains be cast into the depths of the Sea c. For from hence they may be sure of 1. His defence He being infinite both in power goodness and faithfulness and being immutable and eternal in what he is and he having said and promised that he will take the care of and defend them that are with and obey him For on all the glory shall be a defence Isa 4.5 The Lord God is a Sun and a Shield and he will give grace and glory and no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly Psal 84.11 Thence let all that trust in thee rejoyce for thou wilt defend them with favour wilt thou compass them as with a shield Psal 5.11 12. And thence that glorying The Lord is our defence the holy one of Israel is our King Psal 89.18 and who can harm them that are with God as their Father and have him with and nigh to them to defend them as in 1 Pet. 3.13 yea they have his defence both 1. By his Word and his Spirit therein yea his only Son pleading for and justifying them He is near that justifieth me who will contend with me let us stand together Isa 50.7 8. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect those that are in Christ Jesus walking not after the Flesh but after the Spirit to whom there is no condemnation from God It is God that justifieth who is he that condemneth it is Christ that died yea rather is risen again c. Romans 8.1 33 34. 2. By his truth and faithfulness love and favour covering them over as wings and feathers as an Hen her Chickens I will say of the Lord He is my refuge my fortress my God in whom I will trust sayes Psal 91.2 as one resolving to dwell in Gods secret place his Christ his Covenant and then saith his Holy Spirit to such He that so doth shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty and surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the Fowler and from the noysome Pestilence He shall cover thee with his feathers and under his wings shalt thou trust his truth shall be thy shield and buckler ver 1 3 4 5 and With favour will he compass them as with a shield Psal 5.12 3. By his right hand which doth valiantly and brings great things to pass by that he saveth them that trust in him Psal 17.7 even by his glorious power and providence graciously exercised over them for and about them and holding them from falling and all these together in one in Christ Jesus our Lord Ephes 1 19 20. 2. His counsel they may certainly expect that also for he is nigh to them to teach and instruct them in the way wherein they should go and being their Father will not withhold it from them they asking it of him and waiting upon him for it as it is said Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel and that as a consequent of Gods being with him and he with him for so it is said Psal 73.22 23. Nevertheless I am continually with thee thou holdest me by my right hand Thou shalt or wilt guide me by thy
our meat and drink our drink that our heavenly Father hath provided for us we shall never be merry Fasting and mirth are not meet concomitants but feasting and mirth Our Father hath killed for us the fatted calf indeed he bid his Servants do it and so they do in a sort in their ministerial holding forth Christ crucified for us Yea all are his servants they that crucified Christ did but therein what his hand and counsel had determined to be done Act. 4.28 But the Son puts it upon the Father Thou hast killed for him the fatted calf God hath prepared him for us delivered him up for our sins and raised him again for our justification Sets him forth in the Gospel as a sacrifice offered up for our sins and gives him to us as the bread of life to eye and believe in exercise faith in and so feed upon him We are not put upon it or called upon in this feast to bring any dish with us but only to eat what he hath prepared and made ready for us It will make our Father's heart glad to see us accept his love and eat heartily of his meat and eat together like brethren lovingly He will not think his fatted calf ill bestowed on us if we will but eat heartily on it Yea therein he hath delighted its meat and drink to him his Sons obedience and righteousnesse and in and through him its as meat and drink to him to see us eat heartily on him too Do not look upon our meat only though its good to look on it too for it s so lovely and altogether pleasing to an enlightned eye that it will allure us to eat but also eat of it feed on it put it in our mouths let it go down into our bellies or hearts Cause our bellies to eat and fill our bowels with it Ezek. 3.3 If thou confesse with thy mouth Jesus the Lord and in thine heart believe that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved Rom. 10.10 But what have we no drink to our meat yes yes I warrant you our Father keeps a good bountiful house he hath a cup of good wine for us spiced wine the most choise wine the blood of the grape and yet it s but the fatted calf still For his flesh is meat indeed his being incarnate and made flesh for us his being delivered up to death for our ransome and redemption He as therein the way for us to God the mediator of God and us the receptacle for us and convayer of the grace and blessing of God to us This is our meat and its meat indeed And his blood is drink indeed his abasement and sufferings as obtaining for us and confirming to us the New Testament and its precious promises which are all in him by vertue of this his most pretious blood obtaining for us the continual pardon of our sins yea and Amen Affirmed and confirmed or ratified for and to us This this and the love herein testified is drink indeed Joh. 6.55 His love is better than wine will cause the lips of those that are asleep to speak Cant. 2.2 and 7.9 come then let us eat together of this meat this is better than to feed on the flesh of our own arms Isa 9.20 That 's pittiful stuff that is what we can do and gather up to and for our selves by our own strength our fastings prayers whinings pinings works of righteousnesse of our own doings our humblings and self abasements as reflected on by us The flesh and blood of this fatted calf is ten thousand times better it will make us strong to labour and work what is good and make us thankful to him that gives it to us and to acknowledge our selves infinitely unworthy such a dish to have been prepared for us but these things are the fruits and effects of it fed on not the meat we are to eat much lesse what is but the issue of our own power and strength Come then Brethren let us sit at it here and eat and drink heartily if we will be merry and glad and make our Father merry and glad and our Brethren merry and glad Let 's eat and drink and be merry here This will never make us Epicures nor drunkards nor riotous eaters of flesh Here is no excesse in this feast eat and drink of it what we can Eat we that that is good and let our souls delight themselves in fatnesse Hereto we are invited and called upon Isa 55.2 3. And here call we upon one another too as our Lord doth upon us all Eat oh friends yea drink yea drink abundantly of my love as some translate that Cant. 5.1 Our Father will never chide us or tax us for it as gluttonous eaters of flesh or drunkards I say for eating our fills here nor shall we need to spare this fatted calf is a living dish that will grow upon us in the eating it the more we eat the more we may eat and the more we eat of it the more welcome And the wine here will do like the oil in the miracle increase as we empty it or drink of it Here 's a Princely feast no law to limit us how much to eat or drink Oh! that all the Epicures drunkards and gluttons in the world would lay aside their epicurism in which they spend and wast God's creatures and break his laws and bring upon themselves misery and destruction and turn gluttons and drunkards here if they can Yea here its lawful and a priviledge to be drunken for so some read that in Cant. 5.1 Drink and be ye drunken oh my beloved or with my love And to be sure if Christ make men drunk he will never fault them for it if men drink here till they loose their own understanding reason senses it will never harm them for they loose them not for the worse as in bodily and sinful drunkennesse to be made like beasts but for the better to be made like Angels or conformable to Christ To be drunk into his Spirit his will mind judgment and to be carried above not beneath our selves Here we may call for cups and flagons too Stay me with flagons Cant. 2.5 be not drunk with wine then wherein is excesse but be filled with the spirit of love and of Christ there 's no excesse in that Eph. 5.18 19. This wine will exhilarate or chear us while it assures us of God's love in Christ and ascertains us of the injoyment of his promises yea and convays them to us This wine will indeed make glad our hearts Let 's eat drink and be merry then here not for tomorrow we shall dye but and we shall never dye We shall never drink our selves dead here as the drunkards of this world do but we shall drink our selves alive we shall drink death away and drink our selves into eternal life For whoso eateth my flesh saith our Lord and drinketh my blood hath eternal life Joh 6.56 And this will
pining away in the sense of it and I will go to my Father Go no more after Idols Hosea 14.8 that afford no comfort or profit but to him whose love at first begat hope as well as at first his hands did make me And I will say to him Father I have sinned against heaven and before thee A resolution to confess his sins against God and man against Christ the heavenly one against the Holy Spirit that is from Heaven and against the Word that is from Heaven too and against the Angels in Heaven whose Service and Ministry is abused in our sin And before thee that is in the sight of and so against God himself in all this and in all other his mercies abused All which confession springs from hope in God whence he challenges him for his Father though offended by him but yet addes as humbling himself before him and submitting himself to him and his Dispose Verse 19. I am no more worthy to be called thy Son as if he should say though I am by Creation and by thy former gracious Call Adoption and Regeneration thy Son yet I have forfeited that relation as to thy owning me so any longer and giving me the title and priviledges of a Son I have so defaced thy Image and likenesse in me by my sin and so disobliged thee by my disobedience Make me as one of thy hired Servants Give me but a room in thy house and let me have but their portion who serving thee for themselves only and thy reward are under thy maintenance and protection a speech in which he judges himself and submits himself to any mean condition So his Father would but take him into his house again though to be under the servitude of the Law rather then to be left still to be a drudge to Sin and Satan Thus Sinners come home by weeping cross forfeiting their priviledges honour favour and dignities by their transgressions but all this while here is only repentance resolved on the practice of it must follow the resolution And so it was Verse 20. And he arose and came to his Father there 's the practice of repentance the arising from sin and from the discouragements under the consideration of sin to return and come by Faith Hope and the desire of heart to God to seek after him and submit to him as he discovers himself to us in and by Christ And now see the mercy of God to penitent Sinners painted out in the compassions of a tender hearted Father to his Prodigal but repenting and returning Son for it follows 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 Oh how quick sighted is Love and Charity of what is good fatherly love to a returning lost Childe the love of God to truly penitent Sinners While the Sinner is yet short in his Repentance and a great way off from coming up to God in conformity to what his word requires yet he being really in the way thereto seriously desirous of and endeavouring after it God sees he takes notice pittieth his misery and is ready to encourage and animate him in his Repentance The Son goes towards his Father as being between hope and fear of acceptance with him but the Father runs towards his Son as it were to hasten his endeavours or prevent them with encouragement to more assured confidence of welcome therein yea and before the Son can fall at his Fathers feet with tears of Repentance the Father falls on his neck and kisses him with kisses of his welcome the kisses of his mouth the sweet encouragements of his Word and Spirit which hinder not but quicken the Sons repentant Confession and humbling of himself to him Verse 21. And the Son said to him Father now he may call him so with more boldness as having found before-hand such renewed testimonies of his former kindeness and tender mercies I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight and am no more worthy to be called thy Son The sense of Gods love and mercy quickens confession of sin and self-abasement in the sight of our vileness Ezek. 16.60 61 Nothing humbles and melts so much as Gods love preventing and following us being notwithstanding our unworthiness streamed forth to us and perceived by us But before the Son can say as he pre-resolved Make me as one of thy hired Servants his Father prevents him as follows Verse 22. But notwithstanding the Son had so sinned and judged himself unworthy to be any more called his Son the Father forgiving all past and glad of his lost Sons return said unto his Servants Bring forth the best robe and put it on him and put a ring on his hand and shooes on his feet He finds his Son in a poor tattered case in a ragged condition cloathed with vile Apparel or in a manner wholly naked like a Swineheard far unlike what became his Son so sin makes us and he dislikes it and pitties it And now the Servants must apply themselves too to recruit and comfort him and such the gladness of a loving Father to have his lost Son again that forgetting all his offences and not so much as once upbraiding him instead of shutting his doors against him or calling for Rods and Staves to beat and correct him he calls for the best Robe with Ring and Shooes to adorn him which the Servants must apply to him and put upon him too as thinking nothing too good for him to be afforded him He will have him clad and waited on as his Son again to signifie as what sin continued in deprives us of so also how acceptable it is to God that his Servants and Gospel Ministers make it their business to incourage comfort and restore penitent Sinners Yea he addes further Verse 23. And bring hither the fatted calf and kill it and let us eat and be merry The poor sinning Childe was hungry as well as ragged ready to Famish and his Father knows his needs and will supply them with what may best shew his love and gladness for his return When he was keeping Swine Bread and Cheese would have been welcome might he have had them yea now being returned he would have been glad and accepted it might he have had ordinary fare and Servants entertainment in his hunger he mentioned only bread enough in his Fathers house but that suffices not his Fathers love to him to testifie how gladly he receives him no if there be one Robe better then another he shall have it to clad him and if one dish better then another he shall have it to feed him the fatted Calf The Righteousness of Christ is the penitent Sinners cloathing and garment the Father gives him The Vertues of Christ and his Spirit incircle his Works as a Ring his Finger The preparations of the Gospel of Peace shod his Feet and the choicest demonstrations of Love and Grace shewed forth and exhibited in
Christ Crucified and the precious promises therethrough made by his blood ratified are his feeding and nourishment And now behold at this feast of fat things God and his Angels and Servants will rejoyce with the restored convert who shall sit down and feast and rejoyce with them in Christ Jesus Yea God himself by his Spirit calls upon both his restored Son and his ministring Setvants to rejoyce together saying Let us eat and be merry And why not because the sinner hath so greatly sinned but because he who by his sin was so near destruction is by grace reduced and brought back to salvation for so it follows Ver. 24. For this my Son was dead and is alive again was lost and is found and they began to be merry Oh the wonderful grace and love of a merciful Father Here are now no bad tearms given 't is not this Rogue or Vagabond this Adulterer or Murtherer but this my son was dead and is alive was lost and is found And they began to be merry for they had Musick and Dancing saith the next verse not such as he used to have in his riotous living that is sit for Rogues and Whores Bawds and Ruffians but such as may become the Palaces of Religious Princes or the Saints of Heaven such as Davids when he danced before the Ark and as the Virgins and women of Israel used and sometimes the Holy men upon occasions of rejoycing and thanksgiving to God But the Devil will marr this musick and disturb this mirth if he can and to this purpose though he could not prevail with the elder Son to leave his Father and turn Prodigal too but he was hitherto dutiful and obedient yet he will now infuse a bad and envious thought into him against his Brother and put him into a froward and pettish humour against his Father and the Servants and all that forward the such entertainment giving to one so far unlike him in his former demeanour For so it follows Verse 25. Now his elder son was in the field Not with his Father in the house but it may be wandring in his minde or his own wisdom or perhaps about his Fathers business and looking after his affairs in the services of his Law and as he came and drew near to the house to take notice how things were in Gods Church He heard Musick and Dancing he perceived some more than usual mirth and rejoycing and wondering at it Verse 26. He called one of the Servants and asked what these things meant Verse 27. And he the Servant said unto him Thy brother is come thinking that whom their Lord owned for his Son the Servants might well call his Brother And thy Father hath killed the fatted Calf hath made a costly Feast because he hath received him safe and sound A fair answer and well given Thy Father hath killed the fatted Calf as knowing his authority should be great with him and the very saying it was his Fathers act should satisfie and content him Whereas if they had done it and made merry of their own heads without him they might worthily have been charged with rashness by him But yet here is not only the Fathers authority alledged to satisfie him but the ground and reason too upon which the Father did it Viz. Because he hath received thy Brother safe and sound That love to his Brother as well as duty to his Father might work upon him Verse 28. But he was angry and would not go in Was discontented at his Fathers kindeness and love to his Brother and would not joyn with him his Brother and Servants in their merry meeting and rejoycing and in this our Lord brings up this parable to the occasion of it to shew the evil unreasonableness of the Pharisees murmuring and taking offence at Christ for his receiving Publicans and Sinners to hear him and eating with them that it was but like the folly pride and frowardness of such an Elder Son that should be angry at such a Father and his Servants for making merry for and giving good entertainment to a prodigal repentant Son But yet to instruct us in Gods lenity and goodness to all his Children even his pettish Sons too He addes Therefore came his Father out and entreated him A perfect pattern of a loving Father and a right Emblem of God our heavenly Father who when by his authority he might check and reprove the forwardness of a peevish Son and command his coming in waves the exercise of his authority and gives way to his bowelly affection to steer and lead him and therefore he goes out and intreats him It had been the Sons part to judge his Father wiser then himself and to have acquiesced in his wisdom and authority and hearing that the mirth was by his order and at his appointment to have complyed with him But where the Son fails of his duty the Father exercises the more love and laying aside his authority seeks to gain him to a better Decorum by his greater condescension and goodness towards him And well may the Servants intreat froward Children and not be froward and fretful against them when their Lord sets them such a pattern But see how tenacious the passionate creature is of his peevishness instead of the Sons being ashamed that his Father that might command him in should abase himself so as to come out to him and intreat him as if he had shifted place and relation with his Father very sturdily and proudly replies upon him And Verse 29. He whose mouth should have been stopt by the very authority and presence of his Father much more by his intreating him expostulates the matter with him and answering said to his Father Lo these many years have I served thee neither at any time have I transgressed thy commandment and yet thou never gavest me a Kid that I might make merry with my friends Here is a very undutiful demeanour an unchildlike answer no sign of any reverence neither Sir nor Father to usher in his saying but only a charge of unlovingness towards him as if according to the old complaint of froward people he had served God his Father for nought and there was no profit in so doing He draws up an account of his many years Service his great dutifulness and obedience forgetting and quite blotting out of his minde all the great engagements that were upon him toward his Father which might challenge more from him then he did or could have done and he layes a charge against him of neglect or sparingness toward him He had never given him a Kid a lesser matter then the fatted Calf to make merry with his friends Here we meet with a proof of the position we began with that as men are apt to minde and keep strict account of their own righteousness and services so its hard for them that do so not to be proud and from that principle wrangle with God if he in all things please them not in
also greedily with Harlots consumed his living and yet see how unequal the Father between them he in all those years never gave him a Kid which was far less then the fatted Calf though to eat in an honest way and to make merry not with Whores and Drabs but with his friends who he being so dutiful a Son could be no such lewd Varlots but persons of good fashion and honest reputation whereas on the other side his love was such to his other Son that notwithstanding all his badness disobediences and mis-spendings of his substance he could no sooner see him coming towards him but he runs to meet him and quicken him in his pace and instead of chiding him pitties and kisses him and kills the fatted Calf too so soon as he gets him home to feast him And had not this elder Son great reason 〈…〉 his Father and refuse to joyn 〈…〉 with him and his other Son and Servants in such a merry frollick so inconsiderately made as he hath represented it to him have we not many that are ready to be of his minde what when they have said their Prayers a thousand times over been good Church-men honest livers sober persons no Thieves Drunkards Whoremongers Harlots or wicked livers but have as they think served God justly accordingly to the laudible customs of the Church and perhaps also in private Prayers and Devotions hearing Sermons praying in their Families fasting as often and making as many and as long Prayers as the Pharisees strict and zealous in their conversations abstaining from all gross and known sins yet they could never be assured of Gods owning them nor meet with such ravishments of heart as to cause them to rejoyce much in God and to be willing to dye and depart this life and lo here or there a grat Sinner a Whore a Thief a Murtherer a wanton Person being convicted of their Sins and confessing their faults and crying to God for his Mercy listning to and imbracing his Gospel so inwardly filled with and outwardly testifying their sense of Gods love and exceeding comfort and consolation therein that they can glory in God as forgiving them their Sins have hope in their Death and talk of their assurance of Gods favour as if they had been all their lives Saints must not these either be deluded persons or what what shall we say or think of God but as those in Ezek. 18.25 That his wayes are unequal or as in Mal. 2.17 That every one that is evil is good in the sight of the Lord or else where is the God of judgement or judgement of God where the equity of his doings and proceedings with men But thou art holy O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel and wilt be justified in thy sayings and overcome when thou art judged Psal 22.3 and 51.4 stay then and let us see what the Father hath to say to his offended and discontented Son before we justifie his plea and pronounce on his side and that is held forth in the words that I have chosen herein to treat on as followeth CHAP. III. The Text Pharaphrased Verse 31.32 And he said unto him Son thou art ever with me and all that I have is thine It was meet that we should make merry and be glad for this thy Brother was dead and is alive again was lost and is found IT is a true saying of Solomon He that is first in his own cause seemeth just but his neighbour comes and searches him out Prov. 18.17 For here we have an answer confutes all the Son hath said in his passion and clearly evinces the equity of the Fathers carriage between them and of his thus entertaining his Son in his return And first here we may admire the Fathers meekness and gentleness towards a froward passionate Son in that he gives him no bad nor angry language He sayes not thou proud and insolent fellow that offerest to make thy self wiser then thy Father and liftest up thy self above him to call him him to an account and draw a charge against him for his actings as if thou wert wiser and of more authority then he whereas it s thy part and place to submit thy self to him and give him honour in judging him wise and righteous in his doings No such angry speech proceeds from him but only he gently calls him Son and gives him a fair answer to his charge and an account of his doings shewing the great condescension and goodness of God to his pettish people in their spiritual Distempers He sees his Son was in a passion and he would not take the course further to heat and inflame him but seeks to calm him like a loving Father who seeing his Childes Body over-heated and in danger to fall into a Feavour endeavours some wayes its prevention being wiser then his Son he sets not himself to answer him according to his childish folly but exercises love with judgement and discretion towards him and though his Son in his anger would neither vouchsafe to call him Father nor his Brother Brother yet he in whom fury is not but Love Meekness and Charity will not therefore disown or provoke him but pacifie and rectifie him and therefore calls him Son Oh the graciousness of God as a loving Father to froward and male contented Children especially while he sees their frowardness proceeds from ignorance weakness or the strength of temptation a pattern worthy imitation Be we followers of of God as dear children and walk we in love as Christ hath loved us c. Shall we weak purblinde and sinful men be froward with and harsh to our froward brethren when through temptation and weakness envyings swellings and discontents befal them when as our great God and Father is so graciously tender milde and gentle to such yea to our selves when so distempered and discomposed towards him But see again how blinde passion is though it seems to see very much yea and to see more then others that have not their hearts thereby heated and quickned to make diligent observation of things before them It is indeed quick-sighted of what makes for its nourishment and strengthning in its cause but while it looks upon all such things as it were through Multiplying and Magnifying Glasses and sees them more and greater then they be and so represents them it is so filled with the sight of them that it over-looks and sees not other things before it that judgement charity and right reason takes notice of and the sight whereof reduces the other things seen to their due scantling and proportion For the calm judgment and charity of the wise and patient Father the representative of the most wise and merciful God sees and observes here what the Son over-lookt and what might stop the mouth of his most clamorous passion He was Eagle-eyed to see yea more than was to be seen of his own service and obedience which yet in this his passion he shewed but little of but see not
is great in power rich in glory in mercy in wisdom in love and goodness able to do all things good to all and his tender mercies over all his works bountiful to Servants that are but hirelings and serve him only for their own interests and rewards and may not abide in the house for ever being not made Sons How many hired Servants saith the Prodigal are in my Fathers house that have bread enough and to spare Luke 15.17 Yea good to his enemies loving them and doing good to all making his Sun to shine and rain to fall on the good and on the bad the unthankful and evil giving whole Lordships yea and Kingdoms of this world in his great bounty to them also that regard him not bâ—t hate him careful of the very inferiour creatures feeding the Ravens caring for the Fowls of Heaven even the little Sparrows five of which are sold for two farthings and not one of them is forgot before him Yea he giveth food to all flesh for his mercy endureth for ever If David counted it so great an honor and priviledge to be Son in Law to Saul an earthly and mortal King whose breath was in his nostrils and his power of narrow compass in comparison of Gods as well as his goodness Oh what may not a soul promise it self of felicity and happiness in being the Son the adopted and genuine Son of a King so great so full so good so free so liberal to and careful of all even of the worst men and creatures as God is what cannot what will not such a Father do for his Children especially such Children too as obey and abide with him Yea what may they not upon that consideration incourage themselves to look for and expect from him having also such an elder Brother with him as is infinitely perfect and dear to him to plead for them and take away the defects and sailings of their obedience towards him shall he be good to strangers provide for inferiour creatures give large crumbs and offals to dogs and birds and beasts and will he not give what is convenient to his children surely yes Shall he give good things to his enemies and neglect his children surely no. Surely he hath far better things for them then for any others not so near to him nor in such relation with him It is our Saviours argument Consider the fowls of the air for they sowe not neither do they reap nor gather into barns yet your heavenly Father feedeth them Mark the Emphasis Your Father and therefore loves you Your heavenly Father who in that he is heavenly is above all and hath all power and all creatures subject to him and in that he is heavenly is holy and pure from earthly affections as covetousness and other passions which our earthly Fathers are bemudded with He is your Father your heavenly Father yet he feeds them that are of no compare with him to you and to whom he owns no such relation shall he feed them and neglect you what earthly Father will do so to feed his chickens and forget or famish his children much less can or will your heavenly Father Matth. 6.26 and the like in Matth. 10.29 Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing and not one of them shall â—all to the ground without your Father as â—f he would say doth he that is so early related and dearly affected to you who stiles himself your Father and owns you as his Children take such care of so inconsiderable a creature as a sparrow two whereof are sold for a farthing and who are so infinitely below him that he stiles not himself in such a relation to them and can he neglect you who are his Children whom he hath so valued as to give a price greater then heaven and earth even his own Son for you Fear ye not therefore ye are of more value namely with him then many sparrows This then is a relation estating in such a condition as affords exceeding ground of highest confidence and greatest expectation in and through Christ in whom he makes and takes us for his Children of greatest advantages and fullest happiness and in the mean while of all that he that is so great and good can do for us and sees good and meet to be done Behold then what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us who are in Christ Jesus that we should be called the Sons of God Surely it s well worthy of our beholding for there is in it to be seen heighth and strength of love and affection and matter of marvellous consolation and in beholding this we may 2. Behold also how infinitely we are ingaged to God and to our Lord Jesus Christ to love and live to them to honour and glorifie them for what love was that that led the Father to give his only begotten Son to be the Son of Man and thereby exposed to all the miseries of man yea all that man by his sin had deserved as its just reward to be sustained and born by him that he might open the way from destruction to such an high priviledge as Son-ship to God by him and make him the root of it for and to us through what he hath done to him in the body he prepared and gave him could it be less then infinite love in him that moved him to design such exaltation of so base and vile creatures as we by the so great abasement of one so high and glorious as he and oh what love was that in Christ Jesus what grace what pitty what mercy and kindeness not to shrink back from the state of service to make us sons yea from the state of sin and death For he that knew no sin was made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him and died for all that through him we might attain such dignity and glory as cannot be valued by us how should it engage our hearts and affections to him and make us ready with all diligence to obey and live to him that to such and so glorious an end died for us and rose again For he was made under the Law for such as were under the Law as in a sense all were Rom. 3.19 that we being redeemed from the Law might receive the adoption of Sons Gal. 4.4 5. 2. Herein also we may see and be instructed into the way whereby sinners may be made the Sons of God even they that are not so but are the children of wrath For as Christ hath by his sufferings opened and made the way for it so he thereby as raised from the dead and taken up to glory in the nature of man and owned as the Son of God and glorified is become the root of Son-ship unto us as is said and therefore the way for us to be made the Sons of God is to receive and close with him the Son of God as God is commending him and setting him forth to us by
rebuking his fellow sufferer for his reproaching Christ acknowledging the justness of their sufferings and our Saviours innocency and praying Christ to remember him when he came into his kingdom he heard this comfortable word which doubtlesse strengthened his confidence and gave him full assurance of his salvation Verily I say unto thee this day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Surely this was written for an incouragement even for such offenders also to hope in God by Jesus Christ and betake themselves to him for mercy in an humble acknowledgement of their offences and of his power to forgive and help them which that they also may obtain of him even to the giving them large confidence in him and full assurance of their salvation Christ's graciousness to him doubtless doth testifie that none may say what should such hainous sinners dye like Saints though yet in one sense such dye not as Saints while they glory not in nor justifie the cause of their death as those that dye for Christ and righteousness sake may and often do but in that regard take shame to themselves and acknowledge the righteousnesse of the shame and punishment ordered to them as deserved by them and submit themselves thereto And surely it would be too great an injury to the grace of God and to his love to mankind and to their welfare and too great a derogation to the vertues of the precious blood and sacrifice of the Lord Jesus to imagine that such mercy may not be shewed to them that are so great sinners both as to make them in their receit of it hearty in their repentance and chearful in their spirits under their sufferings in the hope of God's salvation Object Ah! but the suddainnesse of the conversion and speedinesse of the consolations and the coming so easily by them without more drooping and humiliation makes some question They expect such great sinners should long lye under dejection and sadness before they get a good word from God and if not so they are apt to conclude them under a delusion or but hypocrites in their profession of joy and consolation Answ Truly I would not be misunderstood to speak in behalf of any that are not truly penitent and turned in to Christ or that are daubed with untempered morter and slightly healed Yet this is evident that sometimes the grace of God makes quicker work in mens conversion and he more speedily comforts them thereupon than the wisdom of the flesh or of man judges fitting as by this Parable appears as also by the carriage of the Pharasees toward Christ often censuring him for his receiving sinners while it appears they were not satisfied of their conversion I conceive had they been first made Pharasees they would not then have been offended and judged them sinners still The woman that at Simon 's house stood behind Christ and washed his feet with her tears c. had not satisfied the Pharasee that she was a convert for then would he not have had indignation thereat nor said in his heart If this man were a Prophet he would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him for she is a sinner Luc. 7.39 Surely Christ knew her better then he did and knew her to be a real convert though it seems she had not so publickly bewailed her self and bewailed her sin as to satisfie the Pharasee that she had left it And what appears to have been the sorrow and humiliation of the Malectour we finde nothing said thereof and yet evident tokens appear of his real conversion and he had speedy absolution For 1. He rebuked his fellow for his carriage towards Christ as if he had been turned a suddain Preacher of repentance to him Fearest thou not God seeing we are in the same condemnation 2. He confessed his sins and justified the righteousness of his death submitting himself upon that account to bear it patiently And we indeed justly for we receive the due reward of our deeds 3. He confessed Christ and justified him in his sufferings and that when the whole multitude the Princes Priests and zealous Pharasees and learned Rabbies the chief builders did most of all reject him despise and deride him And when he was in his deepest sufferings But this man hath done nothing amiss 4. He in this lowest case of Christ when his own Disciples durst not own him owns and professes his faith in him that he was Lord and King and that he should have the kingdom and so that God would glorifie him through and after those his sufferings saying Lord remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom And 5. In that faith he calls upon him as upon the Saviour of the world or of sinners saying Lord remember me c. as intimately professing his faith that he could forgive and save and blesse him We finde no great lamentation for his sin nor dejection under the sense of it but yet a better confession of faith we scarce finde from any of the Apostles who were now shrunk from him Yea Peter that thought to have stood it out denied him See here how suddainly and silently the grace of God may work a notable alteration as to conversion and then see the speediness of Christ in forgiving and comforting He lets him not hang long drooping to his death upon the Crosse but presently tells him This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise And was it not so with David he said he would confess his sin and God forgave the punishment of it He said but I have sinned and Nathan replies the Lord also hath taken away thy sin thou shalt not dye Psal 32.5 2 Sam. 12.13 So Peter had but begun to speak to the Gentiles and presently the Holy Ghost fell on them and they spake with tongues without any long humbling them first for the sins of their Gentilism or bringing them into the profession of Judaism by circumcision as it seems the Disciples of the Jews had some thought he should have done by their quarrelling with Peter for his eating with and receiving them Acts 11. Yea and Peter himself says what was I that I could withstand God! as if there might be some such leaven in him also as to have kept them longer out from comfort and made them more humbled first before he would have received them had they been at his disposing Truly I suspect it s our hypocrisies or want of thoroughness in coming off from our idols our sticking long in the place of the breaking forth of children that increases and lengthens our throws and sorrows Hos 13.13 As while David kept close his sin his bones waxed old and he roared out with daily disquiets Psal 32.1 2. the heart that comes off soon and roundly from its sin is sooner comforted So the compassionte Father here so soon as he sees his Sons resolution and finds him upon his way to him yea While he was yet a great way off presently runs to