Spirit quickned and raised to spiritual life endued with spiritual sense and perception of spiritual things and so of God and Christ and to spiritual breath and desires after them and motion towards them and in them and so spiritual understanding peace joy satisfaction according to the measure of Christ partook of by them but yet so as the room enlightned by the Sun retains its light by admitting that light from without into it so as if that be withdrawn and shut out the light within is gone or as the branch lives in the stock and root so as if it be separated therefrom it dies and withers so is it here The soul in thinking ro live on it self or what it hath in it self yea what life it hath received in it self from Christ and so with-drawing from Christ and from his Word and Spirit loses its life and dies as it lets slip departs from and rejects Christ or the Knowledge Faith and Spirit of God and Christ so it departs from and le ts slip its life Whence that of Moses Deut. 32.46 47. Set your hearts to all the words that I testifie amongst you this day for it is not a vain thing for you or an empty word for you for it s thy life and in this word as the Hebrew words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you shall prolong your dayes and so Prov. 4.13 Lay fast hold of instruction let her not go keep her for she is thy life and ver 23. Keep thy heart above all keeping or with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life and the Apostle John 2 John 9. tells us that He that transgresseth and abideth not in the Doctrine of Christ hath not God that is as by the opposition in the next branch of the verse appears the Father and the Son and so by consequent the Spirit of both they are strangers from the life of God and so without God and Christ in the world Ephes 4.18 and 2.12 and so they are dead 1. Spiritually as being deprived of spiritual life and destitute of it being in departing from the Word of God and obedience of the Spirit of Christ therein 1. Gone from Christ and his Spirit and the Spirit of Christ departed and gone from them as to any enlivening or living efficacies in them as a principle of spiritual life in them though in this there may be as a gradual departing from the word of God and from God and Christ and the Spirit therein so a gradual with-drawing and dying of the spiritual life in them as it is in the natural life when a man forsakes his meat that should preserve life in him yea and then 2. There is a spending consuming or dying of the spiritual gifts or efficacies of the Spirit of Life formerly infused and found in them though there may be for a time somewhat of these abiding as it is in a branch that though the life of it be gone yet something of the sap and greenness the effects of that life abide for a time and go away by degrees John 15.5 6. and as the heat in a dead body after the life and soul is gone yet something of the heat and warmth often abide that was the effect of the soul and life while there but that 's decreasing too and goes away at last and this may be signified in the Parable by the Prodigals spending his portion or substance in riotous living it was not all gone so soon as gone from his Father but it soon after went away and was spent though yet the rational sense as a man a natural man may abide and so he began to be in want he was sensible there was not that of gifts parts and graces fore-received from the Spirit of God as used to be but that there was a loss of those things and so of his comfort and hope springing from them they were gone but then 3. There is a senselessness of spiritual and divine things properly such and of his state in that respect no sight and view of the Glory of God that is in the face of Jesus nor of his excellencies and preciousness the Vertues of his Blood and Sacrifice no hearing of his Calls Counsels Instructions no spiritual hearing of his Voice when wholly gone from God and Christ he is deaf to all these things nor knows nor regards the meaning of them no taste and rellish of the Grace and Favour of God to and in his Spirit no sense and feeling of the joyes of Gods Salvation and the workings and breathings of his Grace in him Prov. 23.35 nor of his judgements upon him no savour or taste of his graciousness nor smell of his ointments could he but finde gifts or parts or some such things or have but the love respect or favour of such as admired him before it s all he desires is sensible of the want of or troubled about 4. There is no breath no spirit in any of his profession if the carkass of that remain an outward form of godliness there may be and of religious acts but no breath in them no divine force power or vertue from Christ as the body without the spirit is dead so faith without the works of it or that works nothing in the soul or upon others is dead James 2.26 Nor is there any inward spiritual breathing after God or towards him as is seen in the Parable where when the Prodigal began to be in want he hath no sense or remembrance of his Father or Fathers house nor desire after it but all spiritual things being gone he goes further from his Father and joyns up himself to a Citizen of that Countrey puts himself servant or an Apprentice to his lust or to Satan wholly to be given up and be at the beck thereof and to seek satisfaction in and from it as the Apostle saith His servants ye are to whom ye obey whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness Rom. 6.16 and so he only savors the things of the flesh now and desires the husks that the Swine feed on which this Citizen set him to keep even such things as bruitish men delight and rejoyce in and have their comforts from Nor 5. Is there any motion God-ward in him no creeping stirring much less going towards him in his heart or spirit but as a Swine-heard a moving only as a rational or bruitish man after the Swine and their husks after and with evil sensual and wicked persons but as no thought or desire after so no seeking to go to his Father till he came to himself from out of that spiritual swoon or death as we often finde the Scripture tells us the way of sinners is that being gone from God when they fall into misery or want yet they return not to God that smites them nor seek healing and help in Christ but run after dead works or empty lying vanities asking counsel but not of God and covering with a cover but
into that separation and with-drawing from his Father which brought upon him all this misery that befel him which now after so large a view taken of the elder Brothers state comes in the next place as the second Branch of this Text to be considered by us viz. CHAP. VIII The second state of wanderers from God in two Branches opened and applyed THE misery of departing and wandring from God implyed in these words This thy Brother was dead was lost a two-fold metaphorical expression to represent it by Let us briefly and but briefly consider them Branch 1. Was dead A sinner by leaving God and running after sin and Satan brings death upon himself becomes as a dead man So Solomon tells us too Prov. 21.16 He that wandereth out of the way of understanding shall abide in the congregation of the dead For as the Apostle saith also to the Believers Rom. 8.13 If ye walk after the flesh ye shall dye and it must needs be so for 1. With God is the fountain of life Psal 36.9 In his favour is liâ—e Psalm 30.5 and his eternal Word or Son is that eternal life that was with the Father in the beginning in whom was life and that was manifested in these last dayes more fully to us 1 John 1.2 with John 1 4. The Spirit of God is life and the spirit of life Rom 8.2.10 by whom God through Christ breaths in life and so this God this one Father Son and Spirit having life in himself gives life also to others as he pleases and hath given to all life and breath and all things and so in the beginning when he made man made him of the dust of the earth and breathed in him the breath of life and man became a living soul Gen. 2.7 both as his body and person was made alive in the world indued with breath sense motion and understanding and also as his soul or inward man being upright and having its dependance on God being in subjection to his Word and Spirit in his image and likeness and so in his favour while upright he was owned of him and in union with him and had peace and joy and spiritual life in himself as so deriving it from him but in departing from him his word and command which is life and tends to life also is death and man so doing he dyed Spiritually First as to the loss of the favour of God in which was his life and of his subjection to God and fellowship with his Word and Spirit the fountain and conveyor of life and he fell under his displeasure in and from which is death even the death of the spirit of man inasmuch as the favour and fellowship of God his Word and Spirit being withdrawn his life was withdrawn with them and inasmuch as it lay open to his anger to inflict misery upon it and so the inward state of the soul and spirit became unquiet dead without sense of the life of God the favour spirit and operations of his grace in it and was filled with fear shame guilt as the effects of the life withdrawn and misery deserved and exposed to and then bodily death as to its principles entred and so the sentence for dying at Gods pleasure bodily and for ever had not mercy looked upon man and prevented followed also Gen. 2.17 and 3.18 19 Rom. 5.12.18 2. But God rich in mercy looking back upon his prodigal Son man here devised his recovery and to that end sent his Son or Word that eternal life that was with him and made him flesh and in that flesh mortal and under the sentence of death that was upon man and accordingly delivered him up to death for our Sins who by his death destroyed him that had the power of death that is the Devil and swallowed up death from off the nature of man as it is in him and filled it with immortallity and eternal life so as he having dyed dyeth no more death hath no more dominion over him but the fulness of the God-head dwells in him bodily and all the fulness of his favour grace and blessing in which is life yea and the Spirit of Life is in and upon him so as he also in dying and by his death inasmuch as it was sustained by him for us even for all men hath obtained a release of all men from under that first Death and Judgement in which all universally and alike were condemned to dye as it did and must have stood upon us without his interposing and hath the ordering of Death and Grave and Hell in his hand and dispose with power and authority to bring us thereout and enliven and quicken soul and body yea and invest them with immortality and eternal life as pleases him he being in himself and for mankinde the resurrection and the life the deliverer and the raiser and the only ground or foundation cause and effector of the Resurrection in others either as to soul or body and the life quickning them and in which they being quickned live John 11.25 Yea in him is and God hath given to us even to the same us whom he commands to believe which is all men or men indefinitely eternal life so as that in partaking of him we partake of the Resurrection and are raised up in and by him in our spirits and partake of life spiritual life and so whosoever believeth in him though dead in himself is enlivened by him and shall live and being made alive in believing and going on yet to believe shall not dye shall not lose this life that he hath in and by him for ever but is alwayes in the raised state as to his state spiritually and shall be so at the last day bodily too and so alwayes in the favour of God in which is life in a justified state from sin and wrath curse and death and in a state of acceptation with God and heir-ship to the life promised further of God in and by him and hath his interest in and fellowship with God the fountain of life and the Spirit of God and its influences who is the Spirit of life and gives and upholds life as it is said He that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Son hath not life and so as all mankinde are in a released state from the destructiveness of the first death as in and of it self and in a possibility of life because in the hand of Christ where is life even spiritual and eternal life yea both for soul and body as in a root and fountain for them and communicable to them so all such of men as in hearing and receiving the Word and Doctrine of Christ which is called the word of life and life Acts 5.20 John 6.63 Prov. 4.13 because Christ objectively is in it as the matter of it set forth in and by it and his Spirit which is life and the Spirit of Life accompanies it and breaths in it are therein by the
and to that purpose of haunting walking or being yoaked up with them for they will prove snares to our souls and draw us away from God by their conversations Psal 1.1 Prov. 1.10 11. and 9.6 7. and 13.20 and 22.24 2 Cor. 6.14 15 16 17. 5. Of slothfulness in the way of God for that will cast into a deep sleep and lead to weariness and fainting Prov. 19.15 Be not slothful but follow their steps who through faith and patience have inherited the promises Heb. 6.12 6. Of giving way to our affections and passions Be sober be vigilant for our adversary the Devil goeth about like a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devour c. 1 Pet. 5.8 Mortifie we our Members that are upon the earth fornication uncleanness evil concupiscence inordinate affections and covetousness which is Idolatry put off also these things anger wrath malice blasphemy lying c. Col. 3.5 8. I might adde more as not to dally with temptations nor conceal but disclose them seasonably to some faithful friends c. But I forbear in reading and minding the Scriptures and calling upon God we may get such understanding as to discern and hate every false way Psal 119.104 Use 3. Think upon our wayes and bring them to the light of Gods truth and where we finde we have gone awry Turn we our feet to Gods testimonies searching and trying our wayes and turning to the Lord Psal 119.59 Lam. 3.40 Yea where we have turned out from God make haste to return and keep his Commandements again Let the wicked forsake his wayes and the unrighteous man his thoughts and turn to the Lord for he is gracious and to our God for he will abundantly pardon Isa 55.7 not continuing in sin to back-slide to a perpetual back-sliding refusing to return and holding fast deceit till there be no remedy but destruction not despairing of finding mercy and forgiveness with him upon returning to him for with him there is mercy and with him plenteousness of redemption in seeking to him that wounds for sin he will heal us yea he will revive and quicken us and the third day we shall live in his sight Hos 6.1 but that leads us to and springs from the third Branch viz. CHAP. IX The third state of Penitent Sinners in two Branches of it opened THE joyful and good estate of sinners that return to God after they have wandered from him and that 's signified in these expressions It was meet that we should make merry and be glad for this thy Brother was dead and is alive again was lost but is found in which are three expressions considerable as implying the goodness and joyfulness of such a state viz. 1. In that it is said He is alive again 2. In that it s said He is found 3. In that it s said It was meet that we should make merry and be glad Branch 1. First The converted repenting and returned sinner is alive again he is come to himself again ver 17. How comes that about 1. Not from himself he had no power while alive to keep himself of and by himself being with-drawn from his Father from dying None can keep alive his own Soul Psal 22.29 How much less when dead can any quicken himself again But 2. It was from and by the good Shepheard seeking him and restoring his soul Psal 23.3 Though sinners by departing from Christ in his Word and Spirit and so from God lose their life and dye Yet Christ from whom they depart loses not the life that 's in him for them in him yet is life as the root of mankinde or for mankinde to be enlivened by or as the fountain and spring of life and though the branch be dead yet this root can infuse life to it again and though the pipe being cut be dry yet the Fountain being a living Fountain can fetch in the pipe again and infuse living waters again into it Christ lives though the sinner dye and while he is not as a tree twice dead pluck't up by the roots and withered yea as a branch cut off from the stock withered gathered and cast into the fire and burnt such is the nature and excellency of this stock above all other stocks and of this root above all other roots that it can gather it into unity with himself again and infuse new life into it God is able to ingraft the cut off Branches in again Rom. 11.23 Yea some compared to trees twice dead may be pull'd out of the fire Jude 12,23 with Zech. 3.2 That is while a man is not wholly given up of God and rejected while the day of Grace is not wholly past and expired Christ hath life in himself for men and so as he can extend it to men to quicken them again and bring them back to himself and to the life in him for the Spirit is still upon him and is the Spirit of Life and the word is still in his mouth a living word and he can yet call to the dead and make them hear and hearing to live John 5.25 Adam when he was fallen and we in him he could not recover us again for he was but a living soul at first and being dead our root in him was dead and so we also irrecoverably lost and gone in him But this second Adam is not so he being dead for us raised himself again and he lives yet and hath the power or keyes of Hell and Death and can therefore revive us though dead therefore writing to the Angel of the Church of Sardis of whom he sayes That he had a name to live but yet was dead he saith Thus saith he that hath the seven Spirits and the seven Stars Having the seven Spirits of God though he that he speaks to be dead yet his speaking to him can put life into him and therefore he rationally enough bids him be watchful and strengthen the thing that be ready to dye and remember how thou hast heard and received and hold fast c Rev. 3.1 2 3. If he say Lazarus come forth though he was dead he lives because he is the Resurrection and the life and his giving forth this life by his Spirit in his word again brings in the nature and operations of life into the dead sinner though as rubbing and chafing men in a swoon often helps to revive them so here we may conceive Gods ordering the Prodigal to be so pinched with poverty might conduce to the receiving him See the like intimated Hos 5.15 with 6.1 but in the life infused was 1. An inward spiritual sense minde and remembrance of things that in the state of death were forgotten and not thought of or apprehended as we finde this dead Prodigal reviving calls to remembrance what he thought not on before at least with any livingness as that he had a Father and a Fathers House in which were many hired Servants and bread enough for them all and to spare and that he perisht there
A Gracious Reproof TO PHARASAICAL SAINTS Causlesly murmuring at GODS MERCIES TOWARD PENITENT SINNERS In Explication of Luc. 15.30 31. Written by JOHN HORNE sometimes Minister of Lin Allhallows Psal 119.1 2 3. Blessed are the undefil'd in the way who walk in the Law of the Lord. Blessed are they that keep his Testimonies and seek him with the whole heart They also do no iniquity they walk in his ways Bat As for transgressors wo to them for destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity Psal 37.38 Prov. 20.29 Is thine eye evil because mine is good Matth 20.15 London Printed for Tho. Passenger at the three Bibles on London bridge 1668. TO THE READER Reader WHither thou beest Saint or Sinner and one of them assuredly thou art thou maist through Gods blessing find something useful for thee I hope worthy thy perusall and serious consideration in this insuing Treatise If thou beest one that knowlest the grace of God in truth and thereby art sanctifyed to God and followest after holiness here is that that may perswade thee and shew thee causâ— to be holy still and to go on in denying all ungodliness and worldly lusts to live soberly righteously and godlily in this present world abiding in Christ and walking with God Both as it sets before thee the good and blessed state of those that so do and as it shews the miserable and sad state of those that do otherwise and especially of such as having tasted the graciousness of the Lord withdraw from him again and after they have begun to be good turn to do badly forsaking the way of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness Prov. 2.13 of which therefore also it doth admonish thee However strongly thou think thou standest that thou take heed of falling of which there is need enough to be admonished in this back sliding and truly and too shamefully adulterous and sinful generation Wherein they that depart from iniquity make themselves a prey and wherein men being frighted from or scoffed and derided at for nothing so much as truth and plety there is too general a temptation upon men be afraid or ashamed to be or however to confess and shew themselves to be seriously holy and religious Atheisme Prophanesâ— Popery and all manner of debauchery growing into fashion and nothing scarce looked upon as more obsolete and antick than soundness and sincerity with true zeal and fervency in the exercise and practise of the truth of Religion And yet it also admonisheth thee to beware of the leaven Pharasees which is hypocrisie of being too rash and censorious in judging those that having been prophane and evil livers or abusers of God's grace and truth return therefrom to a better mind or of judging God's and Christ's or his Servants dealings with such when by the profession of such persons he or evidently and apparently they are more gracious and ready to receive sinners than thou wouldst have them There is nothing more eminently discovered in God than love and charity to the souls of men whereof the whole Gospel and all the holy men in the Scriptures bear their testimony especially in his receiving repentant sinners And therefore nothing should be more desired by us and rejoyced in on their behalf than their conversion to him and finding his gracious acceptance God's children should be and are in some measure like to God himself who is their Father and therefore as his elect holy and beloved put on bowels of mercy kindness lowliness of mind long-suffering and above all charity which is the bond of all perfection as the Apostle exhorteth Col. 3.12.14 Nor doth any thing scarce make men liker the Devil than to endeavour to hinder or to repine at the conversion of sinners or God's mercy to them as that was one concomitant or product rather of the Pharasees zeal and religion their opposing Christ and grudging at him for his charity to sinners so I suppose it was none of the least of the ingredients of that evil frame which occasioned his stiling them the children of the Devil Joh. 8.44 Well may we be glad indeed when we find any such thing as a sincere convert in these evil days and God gracious to sinners therein When there are so many Apostates from God so few Converts to him Converts there may be some to this or that opinion or practise from some open prophanness sometimes to thriftiness and worldliness and yet even such conversions are not so frequent in these days as from thriftiness to prodagality and rudeness sometimes possibly to some opinionative profession or zealous endeavour after righteousness that is not Gods but mens own but few that when they return return to the Lord Jer. 4.1 to mind and receive and walk in the knowledg and faith of him and his great goodness to mankind in Jesus Christ our Lord and so to behold his glory as thereby to be changed into his image by the operation of his power and spirit and so to worship God in the spirit as testifying of his grace in his Son Phil. 3.3 Rejoyce in Jesus Christ have no confidence in the flesh When we see any turning to this we have cause to be glad and rejoyce for them for they turn from death to life from misery to salvation and unspeakable felicity But alas more play the Prodigals in going from Christ and God and the living in the faith and knowledge of him as the fountain of life and righteousness to live upon either their outward or inward receits from him their riches friends wit parts or their righteous frames and endeavours receits and attainments which lived upon will soon with the Prodigals patrimony be spent and leave them to losse and beggary or â— servile drudgery and desire of husks then do imitate him in returning to God and Christ to live in his house and upon him and his provision therein the grace not in us but in Christ Jesus 2 Tim. 2.1 which is and may be matter of great lamentation Yet if thou beest a sinner walking in thy self thine own will wisdom righteousness lusts affections or appetites and so not in Christ Jesus not in the way of understanding not in the spirit but in the flesh and so in a state of sin as such there be great store both of persons in a sort zealous and of prophane here is that that may move thee to repent and to turn to God therefrom Both the evil and dangerousness of the state of sin and sinners and the acceptableness to God of true and unfeined repentance in returning to Christ and so to God in and by him is here toucht upon and it s largely evidenced that God is ready to embrace such as so do return and to give them the most sure signs and pledges of his mercy toward them as having joy in their salvation And indeed this is the main scope of the Parable herein paraphrastically explicated and of the Text opened and applyed and by
and Servants at a greater distance this belonged to Israel alone Psal 147.19 20. and 148.14 yet in this he bound not his own hands but that in case these his adopted children or houshould servants rebelled against him and would neither by mercies and lenity nor by his threatnings and punishments be reclaimed he might harden and give them up yea and cut them off and destroy them as any of the other Nations about them and call in others into their places as he pleased Even as Solomon suppose chose himsef houshold-servants who had great priviledges so as to be pronounced happy in them because they might stand before him and bear his wisdome so as his remote subjects could not though he was good and just to them also yet he was at liberty for all that choise to cast off or put to death any of those his servants as well as others in case they lifting up themselves in pride should rebel against him and might have taken out of his remoter subjects whom he had pleased the dispose of honours being not of any of the servants however forward or obedient but of himself the Lord though to such as were ready to obey he would be ready to give good honours and rewards as he saw fitting So was the case here as the proposals of his choice honours by him of whom the dispose is even him that shews mercy and not of any that wills or runs for them upon condition of their obedience to be continued to them and his threatningt of destruction otherwise and to call in and honor those that were not a people into their place evince see Exod. 19.5 6. Deut. 7.10 11 12. and 8.19 20. and 28.1 13 43 44. and 32 21. with Rom. 10.19 though yet out of love to their Fathers he ingaged that he would not utterly cast away all their seed but reserve a remnant always with whom he would take pains as it were further and use means still to reclaim them to obedience and being made obedient receive them into favour again see for this Jer. 30 11. and 46.28 Zech. 13.8 9. with Rom. 11.28 and in all this he exercised and still exerciseth such power over men as a Potter over his clay framing them in his providential government one to honour and another to dishonour executing wrath also on one when fitted to destruction and shewing mercy and long-suffering to another and so having mercy on whom he will have mercy and hardâ—ning in their sins and rebellions whom he will and so he hath had mercy now on us Gentiles and framed us to honour even the honour fore-given to Israel as to many things in it having called us into their place and hath shewed severity to them giving them up to hardness and blindness and framing them to dishonour because of their unbelief and stumbling at Christ Rom. 9.30 31 32 33. and 11 20. though yet he hath not so rejected them but that the Apostle still prayed for them and endeavoured even for such as had stumbled that they might be saved Rom. 10.1 and 11.14 telling us they have not stumbled that they might fall â—nd that God is able to graft them in again â—â—d will if they continue not in unbelief nor hath he so honoured us but that if we continue not in his goodness we also shall be broken off Chap. 11.11 23 24 That 's the substance of those two too much mistaken Chapters of Rom. 9. and 11. and what I have here said of them agrees with the other Scriptures 3. Now in all this God still reserves the dignity of giving eternal life to Jesus Christ only to which he hath chosen in him from before the foundations of the world all that are or come to be and abide in him through the prevailing force of his grace with them chusing culling and bringing them out of the world into him or daining framing and disposing their hearts to eternal life and so to believe on him for it whither they be of the Jews or Gentiles the honoured or dishonoured vessels 2 Tim. 2.21 as it is said Know ye that God hath set apart for himself that is to be holy and blameless before him in love so as all the chosen into the former priviledges of the visible Church are not the man that is Godly Psal 4.3 typified in Isaac Gal. 4.23 28 31. Eph. 1.4 rejecting all that refuse and disobey Christ whither Jews or Gentiles whither they be workers for life according to any law of works and rejoycers in their fleshly priviledges of whom Ishmael was a type Gal. 4.22 23 24 25. or prophane abusers of the goodness and grace of God typified in Esau Heb. 12.16 17. and therefore it behoves thee and all men to come to Christ and to his grace wherein the Election is For 4 As salvation comes of the Jews by Gods Election and hath in it blessing for all the families of the earth so from that even from Christ who is Gods salvation to the ends of the earth Isa 49 6. none in Scripture language are called Reprobate till through their willful resistances against the light truth and grace of God extended to them through Christ all means used towards them becoming ineffectual God gives them up and leaves striving with them as Psal 81.10 11 12 13. Jer. 6.8 8 29 30. Rom. 1.21 24 28. 1 Thes 2.10 11 12. for Christ that blessed seed and Gods salvation hath dyed and therein given himself a ransome for all and tasted death by the grace of God for every one and is the propitiation for the sins of the whole world 2 Cor. 5.14 15 1 Tim. 2.6 Heb. 2.9 1 Joh. 2.2 And God himself who cannot lye hath sworn as he lives that he hath no pleasure none neither secret nor revealed in the death of the wicked by his still sinning but rather that he should turn and live and therefore calls such even the worst of sinners the simple scorners fools that hate knowledge and such as disobeying these his calls to the end shall perish and he will laugh at the destruction of saying Turn ye at my reproofs behold I will pour out my spirit to you and make known my words Isa 55.7 Exek 33.11 Proc. 1.22 23 24 25. Thence doth Paul the Apostle of the Gentiles tell us that God wills that all be saved and come to the knowledge or acknowledgment of the truth which in a measure therefore at all times he was making known to and in the heathens so as they of them also that rebelled were without excuse Rom. 1.18 19 20 21. with 2.22 14 15 he being one God both of Jews and Gentiles and having constituted one Mediator of God and Men indefinitely the man Jesus Christ even him who hath given himself a ransome for all a testimony in due or in their proper seasons whence those frequent calls of all Nations all the earth to make a joyful noise to God serve him with gladness enter his Courts
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
them of sin and shew them their need of Christ and the forgiveness of their sins through him and to signifie and shadow him out with the grace in and by him that as by a School-master they might be directed to him to seek him and righteousness and life in him Whence it is said Moses wrote of him and the Law witnessed to the righteousness of God that is by the faith of him Gal. 3.23 24 25. John 5.46 Rom. 3.21 Many of them not understanding the Law nor seeing to the end thereof which was Christ for righteousness to every one that believeth Rom. 10.4 being blinded by their unbelief and listning to Satan and closing their eyes and stopping their ears against Gods Doctrine who so speaks of Christ in all his teachings that whosoever hears and learns of him comes to him John 6.45 rested only in the Type Shadow and work of the Law seeking righteousness as it were thereby and not coming to Christ for life nor submitting to him as the righteousness of God but stumbling at him John 5.40 Rom. 10.3 yet these not seeing their sinfulness and the curse they were under by the Law in all their works but conceiting themselves alive in the observations of it took themselves to be the Children of God and are called in a sense as the Children of God either they or the Judaizing Christians which I think the likelier being compared to one of the Sons of Abraham who bare a kinde of Type or representation of God in his two sons But these indeed are servants or such sons as Ishmael the Law gendring to bondage and so bond-men and not such Sons as are ever with God as a Son with his Father but were to be cast out and are cast out with their Mother that bare them from inheriting with those that are indeed his Sons as Isaac was and of this stamp too are they that being ignorant and neglective of the Grace of God in Christ do live upon their duties and observances of outward ordinances under the Gospel 2 Cor. 3.13 14 15. and 4.4 Matth. 13.15 Rom. 9.30 31 32. and 10.3 John 8.41 Gal. 4.22 30. Luke 18.9 11. and such Sons the Pharisees might be But 5. They and they only that being Baptized into Christ or initiated into him do put on Christ or being called of God to him do receive him own entertain and believe in him do by vertue of him and in union with him become the Sons of God in the choice sense of of it and attain that dignity and priviledge so to be made and called being in the gracious call of God to him overcoming them to receive and believe in him born also of God begotten of that immortal seed of his word that lives and abides for ever and in believing on Christ receive by and through him the spirit of Son-ship even the Spirit of the Son framing them to a child-like love to and confidence in God as their Father and infusing into them his Divine Nature and so renewing them in or in them the Image of Christ Jesus his only begotten Son and making them like to him by degrees Who is the first-born amongst many brethren Rom. 8.29 And now sure they that being thus made Sons of God do also follow after and are led by and so retain the Spirit of the Son are and must needs be the Sons of God as it is said To them that received Christ to them he gave this priviledge to become the Sons of God even to those that believe in his name who are born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God John 1.12 13. and Ye are all the Sons of God by faith in Jesus Christ Gal. 4.26 and If ye know that he is righteous ye know that every one that doth righteousness namely in believing on him and so being led by his Spirit is born of him Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the Sons of God 1 John 2.29 and 3.1 and So many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God Rom. 4.14 15. being thereby led into and kept in union with and dependence on the Son of God and made like to him in conformity in righteousness holiness c. And indeed men being made the Sons of God by this divine regeneration into and in the Son of God and brought to God what can unson them again if they abide and tarry with God not departing from him God who at so dear a rate and in so great love hath made them his Sons will not out of mutability of minde unson them again No his gifts and calling are without repenting of them Rom. 11.29 Sins and failings they may have froward passions and peevish distempers as other mens Sons and Children have and may have and therefore as in their infancy and minority under the Law they were under Tutors and Governors to nurture and order them till the time appointed of the Father Gal. 4.1 2 3. So also still they may need to feel the rod of their Father though no longer under the tutorage of Moses Law as formerly as it is said Whom the Lord loveth he chastneth and scourgeth every Son whom he receiveth Heb. 12.6 and such will be their state while here till they come to perfect age To the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ till they see him as he is for then they shall be compleatly like him and have nothing more of ignorance error frowardness or disobedience in them Eph. 4.14 1 John 3.1 2. but those frailties and failings peevishnesses and passions do not unson them unless they wholly turn them out from Christ the Son in whom they have their Son-ship and are Sons Indeed if any depart from him so as to be abolished from him then they fall from that Grace and Favour in which the Believer and abider stands even from the Grace of Son-ship Christ shall profit them nothing Gal. 5.2 3. or as the Parable hath it become Sons dead and lost that are as if they were not and without a reviving perish from Gods presence and if they may be called Sons as Abraham calls the rich man in Hell his Son they can have but only the title and the quondam relation the nighness and priviledges of Sons with their Father and in his house they can never obtain when the gulf is fixt upon them for ever and ever as the Parable hath it in Luke 16.25 26. But the walkers with God the continuers in his Faith Fear and Service must needs be his Sons inasmuch as they abide in Christ his Son Such the first Branch of this hapy state they are Sons of God Vse 1. And is this nothing or is it but a small matter to be a Son of God is it not a very spring in and through Christ of infinite and unspeakable hope and consolation a Son of God who
his Word and Spirit so to be diligent to hear and learn of him that being therein drawn we may come to and believe on him who cannot of our selves come to him nor have any way to be the Sons of God in truth but in and by him received and believed on as the Apostle James also instructs us when having said Of his own good will begot he us by the word of truth that we might be a kinde of first-fruits of his creatures to him James 1.18 19. Then he addes Let every one be swift to hear slow to speak and slow to wrath namely that so he also may be begotten of him to like priviledges In Gods drawing us then with the cords of love and bands of a man take heed of breaking his bands and casting his cords from us of closing the eye and stopping the ear and hardening the heart lest we should see with the eye and hear with the ear and be converted and Christ should heal us and advance us to so high favour and dignity and so we deprive our selves thereof but hear we his voice while its called to day and yield we to his drawings of us to believe in him obey we and follow we after the Holy Spirit sent forth in his Name with his Word and Doctrine to us to convince us of sin and glorifie him to us that in obeying his voice we may be led to him and knowing his name through his light and teaching we may by his renewing quickning vertue be framed and strengthned to believe in him John 6 45. and so being born of Water and of the Spirit may be made the Sons of God in him Phil. 9.10 John 3.3 3. Yea what ground of content with our conditions may we here see being brought into Christ and made thee Sons of God by faith in him what cause or ground is there for such to envy or murmur at others for being high born rich honourable or mighty in this world what 's all the dignity and happiness of the greatest Princes Children or of the wealthiest and most potent Monarchs in comparison of the happiness of those that have God for their Father and can truly say they are born of him How poor and sorry shadows are all titles excellencies and enjoyments to what this dignity admits to and to the substance that is therein should a Princes Son envy another because he is Son to the Mayor of some decayed Corporation or because he wears a few glittering brazen Buttons or silken Ribbands when he happily hath none such but hath that that is ten thousand times more precious on him Nay not only no ground to envy sinners but none to envy any other Sons of God or any of our Brethren for what have they right to but we have also the same having one Father and one infinite Inheritance in and with him all in common though we have not the same stature the same employments the same garb yet we have the same rich powerful and loving Father that is an impartial lover of his Children and designs to make them all his children in sharing his Inheritance amongst them or rather making each of them heirs of the whole ground here is of love rightly considered but of envy and fretting for the Fathers now smiling upon one rather then upon another none 4. Yea what folly and madness must they needs be guilty of that having in and through Christ way made and advantage afforded for attaining this dignity either take up so much content in being the children of some mortal rich or great ones or in having such earthy estates pleasures or fading enjoyments or else are so taken up with care to get and keep some earthy worldly things that will not either satisfie or save them that they utterly neglect and trample under feet like Swine or very luke-warmly and coldly seek after and so miss for want of more hearty seeking such a pearl of so infinite value as this is as if there were more in being the Sons or Daughters of Gentlemen Knights or Princes or more in a few perishing riches deceitful pleasures or empty titles or honours then in being the Sons of the highest and having his favour and affection placed for ever on us Sure this is great folly and madness and yet through the deceits of Sin and Satan it is most common 5. And how might it provoke such as are the Sons of God to cleave to and tarry at home as it were with him and to that purpose to beware of accompanying themselves with the world or being unequally yoaked and bound up with them lest they draw them into disobedience and rebellion and so to deprive themselves of the love and friendship of so high a Father and provoke his anger and displeasure against them but rather take the Apostles counsel and keep to it to Come out from amongst the world and be separate to God in Christ and not touch the unclean things the unclean principles or practices of the world that so God may receive them more and more as his and be their Father and they may be to him as Sons and Daughters Yea as obedient children not to fashion themselves to the lusts of their former ignorance but as he that hath called us is holy to be holy in all manner of conversation 2 Corinth 6.14 17 18. 1 Pet. 1.14 15 16 17. 6. And it may provoke them to behave themselves as the Sons of God and so 1. To be followers of God as dear children imitating him in love mercy and goodness as Ephes 4.32 and 5.1 2. Seeking to honour God as their Father in word and conversation Malachy 1.6 3. And to that end to live chearfully in God not giving way to or sinking under cares and fears c. Phil. 4 4 5 6. 1 Pet. 5.7 Luke 12.32 4. Loving their Brethren as Sons of God also with them Ephes 5.1 2. 5. Putting on and wearing such apparel as becomes such high born persons Putting on as the elect of God holy and beloved bowels of mercy meekness humbleness of minde c. Col. 3.9 10 11 12 13. 6. Living above the world and the things of it yea contemning such worldly lusts and delights as far below them 1 Pet. 2 11. Tit. 2.11 12. And great is the advantage of being obedient children to God and not running from him but living as his children with him as follows CHAP. VI. The second Branch opened and applied THOV art ever with me They that are obedient to God and Christ and depart not away through pride and folly from him have the advantage of being ever with him For God doth not as other Fathers sometimes do send away his Children to live from him they that forsake not him shall not be forsaken or thrust away by him They that come unto Christ and so unto God in Christ he will in no wise cast them away or lose them John 6.33 and 18.9 Other Fathers that have divers Children
must send some of them away because they either want love for them all or if not yet have not alwayes room for them all in their Houses and Farms or the like but it s not so with God he hath room enough in his heart for them all and room and bread and provision enough in his house for them all too and for more then all The same love that led him to beget them through the painful sufferings of his Son and the troublesome travels of his Soul and by the powerful influences of his Spirit leads him also to keep and look to them And thus they are in and by vertue of Christ who is their Head and in whom they are as Branches in the Stock or Root John 15.4 as members in the Head or in union with it by Faith and Spirit being in Christ they are in him ever with God for he is ever with him in his presence in his bosom at his right hand in his power and authority ruling and ordering all things for and over and about them and as the great High-Priest making intercession for them We were with God even all men in our first Parents in the Garden of Eden injoying intercourse with him till we in them offended and sinned and then he justly cast us out thence as unclean and nasty creatures and banished us from his presence setting a Cherubim with a flaming Sword in his hand to keep us thence yet not content to leave us so in his pitty and mercy he devised a way a new and living way by which he might without violation to his truth and justice which stood against us as in our selves become sinners admit us again into his presence and have intercourse with us To that purpose he sent his Son into the world for us and he became as a banished person from his presence for a time crying out as forsaken of his Father that so taking away the sentence of banishment by satisfying the demands of Law and Justice in his own body for all men as fallen in Adam and therefore expelled from him he might become himself the way of access the fiery flaming Sword in the hand of the Cherubim that was every way wielded against us being removed by his being made under and bearing the sentence of the fiery Law for us and by him now we may return to God again He hath suffered for us the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God 1 Pet. 3.18 To which purpose being raised again and become the mediator of God and us he calls us by him to himself and though we are so unclean in our selves that he can admit us to no immediate fellowship with himself yet in and by him Who is the way the truth the life the new and living way that makes alive and clean righteous and holy all that enter into and walk in him and so come unto God by him he being made to us of God Wisdom Righteousness Holiness and Redemption there he can speak to and commune with us from off that mercy-seat and admit us to behold him present our selves to and before him and have most intimate and intire fellowship with him and no way or where else By him as the door and gate of life opened for all though strait to the flesh because of its crossness to its corrupt wisdom will and affections and because of the many reproaches persecutions and afflictions attending it so as few finde and enter it he invites all to return to God again Commanding all men by the Gospel every where to repent Acts 17.30 and sending forth his Spirit with his calls in which he stretcheth forth his hand and power that thereby men might be inlivened quickned and strengthned to approach to God by him And through him by that one Spirit all whether Jews or Gentiles that listen to and close with him have access and come to the Father so as they are no longer strangers or forreignors but fellow Citizens with the Saints and of the houshold of God Eph. 2.17 18 19. Prov. 1.23 24 32. and so being made the Sons of God in Christ are also ever with him 1. With him on his side to take part with him as in that sense Hezekiah saith 2 Chron. 32.7 8. There be more with us then there are with him with us is the Lord our God And our Saviour saith He that is not against me is with me and He that is not against us is with us but that is not so properly the sense here As 2. With him nigh to him A people near unto the Lord Psal 148. ult made nigh by the blood of Jesus shed for and sprinkled on them Eph. 2.13 so nigh that he is within their call when they cry and call to him he hears them The Lord is nigh to all that call upon him to all that call upon him in truth he will fulfil the desire of them that fear him he also will hear their cry and he will save them Psal 145.18 19. within his view and favourable sight The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his ears open to their cries Psal 34.14 within his favourable reach or touch so that he can as he pleases and doth as need is uphold them when they are like to fall and gives them with the right hand of his righteousness what he pleases so nigh him as they may also hear his voice see his face behold his fair beauty take hold of his arm or his strength hold them by him and lean upon him Psal 94.17 18 19. and 34.24 and 63.8 2 Chron. 13.18 and 16.8 Isa 27.4 3. With him in fellowship with him 1 John 2.3 Our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ and if we walk in the light as he is in the light then have we fellowship one with another verse 7. that is God with us to take part with us in our sorrows sufferings services c. In all their afflictions he was afflicted and the Angel of his presence saved them in his love and in his pitty he redeemed them he bare them and carried them all the dayes of old Isa 63.9 and we with God to take part with him in his grace strength fulness taking hold of his strength Isa 27.4 and Being filled with his fulness Ephes 3.19 yea they dwell together in one house Christ Jesus in whom all the fulness of the God-head dwelleth bodily and in whom whoso believeth and in exercise of faith eateth or feeds upon him dwells also Col. 2.9 John 6.56 eating and drinking and feasting together for Christ is the bread of God the meat or sacrifice offered to God and accepted of him with and through the vertues of whose sacrifice and sufferings he is cheared and strengthned to forgive sins to give grace and blessing and to work all his works in and for us as he also is the Vine whose juyce chears the heart of God as poured out in
pleasures for evermore therefore it is also said O how excellent is thy loving kindeness O Lord therefore the sons of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings they shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house and thou shalt make them drink of the rivers of thy pleasures for with thee is the fountain of life Psal 16.11 and 36.8 9. See also Psal 65.4 5. though the dimness of our sight and the vail that is over our eyes hinders our full sight and knowledge of him and so deprives us while here of that fulness of satisfaction that is in him Object But some may say Oh but we see Gods people fall into troubles and wants oftentimes what meant Asaph else to complain that he was plagued all the day long and chastned every morning and yet he was one that cleansed his heart and washed his hands in innocency as Psal 73.13 14. tells us And did not Lazarus beg at the rich mans door though afterward carried into Abrahams bosom Luke 16. and are they not often poor in this world that are rich in faith James 2.5 Answ True but yet in all this God defends and helps them and they want no good thing nor sustain any evil that walk uprightly with him for as 1. Oftentimes his children that sustain such things bring it upon them by departing from him running themselves into mischief and misery as the prodigal and then they may fault themselves and the case is not the same we speak of So 2. When such things befal upright and obedient ones it is but for tryal of them their faith patience submission love and other vertues and for the exercise of them that they might be intire and want nothing James 1.2 3 4. 1 Pet. 1.6 7 8. and then in these things also they prove and try the faithfulness of God and finde him nigh to them to defend counsel incourage help supply and satisfie them with himself Yea 3. These are of those things that he sees good and not hurtful for them and therefore also in love and faithfulness to them orders to befal them as means of brighting purifying and profiting them many wayes as Psal 119.74 75. Prov. 3.11 12. Heb. 12.6.7 As it is said By this shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged and this is all the fruit to take away their sin Isa 27.8 9. And the Apostle saith in these chastisements He doth all things for our profit that we might be made partakers of his holiness Hebrews 12.10 So that as washing is sometimes needful for the best Linnens and the Plough and Harrow for the best Earth and the fining Pot for the best Silver and the Furnace for the choice Gold and the Flail and Fan for the best Corn and the Rod for the best Children so are these tryals for Gods best Children here yea the Lord himself in whom was no sin went not unto his Glory but through sufferings in which he never fails his obedient ones nor suffers them to miscarry Object 2. But do not such holy ones also sometimes complain that God is far from them though they walk with him as Psal 10.1 and 22.12 Answ Even from such he may seem to their senses to be far off sometimes when as yet in truth he is nigh to them as when Christ complained that he was forsaken of his Father yet even then he upheld him Compare Psal 22.1 with Isa 42.1 As sometimes the indulgent Mother to try the Childes behaviour and how it will look for and prize her presence will hide her self behinde the Wall or Curtain and while the Childe calls and cryes and seeks her and yet neither can see nor hear her he concludes she is gone away and is at a great distance when yet all the time perhaps she is both within the sight and hearing and reach of her Childe and though she try it will suffer it to take no harm even so God is a God that sometimes hides himself and yet even then is the God of Israel and his Saviour nigh at hand to all that call upon him that call upon him in truth and in his due time discovers his nighness also Isa 45.15 17. Psal 34.17.18 and 145.18 19. Use 1. This truth thus cleared then represents it an excellent thing to be a dutiful and obedient childe of God and not depart from or rebel against him seeing all that are dutiful are so with him nigh to him have fellowship with him are in him even in his arms and bosom in his choice love and affections and he nigh to them in all they stand in need of and call upon him for to protect counsel incourage help care for and satisfie them who can express how rich a vein this is of strong comfort and consolation if minded by them and they judge not after sense and flesh but faith and spirit therein Oh what a ground of peace security and tranquility of spirit is this where enjoyed and minded how indeed may they worthily let their moderation in their desires cares fears griefs appear to all men seeing they have God so nigh them and how well may they be without carefulness and be filled with peace and confidence being with such a Father and ever too with him Phil. 4.5 6 7. What cause have they of discontent or frowardness and fretting at the worlds portion that are strangers from God and in their fulness otherwise have not him with them nor are they with him but against and far from him Alas their portion is sad For all they that be far from him shall perish and he will destroy all that go a whoring from him Psal 73.27 either in mercy as to their peace comforts designs delights here that they might not rest content in them but seek him and his name that they might have him for their portion to delight in or else if that will not do it but they yet persist in their whoredoms from him destroy them in fury in and with their sins for ever and then as the Psalmist notes how sad is their portion They are set in slippery places and God casts them them down from all their riches pomp dignity into destruction and then how are they brought into desolation as in a moment they are utterly consumed with terrors but great peace have they that love Gods law and nothing shall offend them minding the happiness of their condition they need envy none no nor any of their brethren because of any parts or gifts or places in which they may have more then they for they have their Father alwayes nigh them and their nighness to him is alwayes for good for the chiefest good to them through Jesus Christ whose blood cleanseth them from all sin Indeed there is not a just man upon earth that doth good and sinneth not The best have their passions and their affections apt to be disordered their mixtures their mistakes their failings so that should God enter into judgement
he was a rich creature and in honour with him But man being in honour did not consider so as to resist the temptation of the wicked one but being drawn by him into rebellion against his Maker because he forbad him the tasting of one Tree planted in the pleasurable Garden into which he put him he forfeited all that God bestowed upon him yea both mental and bodily endowments of excellency nay his very life and being and all the whole Creation given him and deserved to have been thrust back into his own nothing again or rather with the Serpent into Hell and destruction far worse then nothing Poor man But oh the riches of the mercy of the Lord that was not well pleased to see his creature man so poor but devised a way how to set him up and inrich him again and to that purpose sent forth his rich Son the Lord in heaven the maker and heir of all things and by making him one with the nature of man made him in the poverty of man that by laying down his infinite riches for man as a price of his redemption yea his rich and precious life as man he might redeem man and inrich him again and so it is said Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ one with his Father complying with and yielding to him in that design that he being rich became poor for your sakes that ye through his poverty might be made rich 2 Cor. 8 9. But how 1. He that made himself or became poor in man made man even the manhood in himself the man Christ Jesus infinitely rich in God by so great a price as so impoverished him having satisfied Justice fulfilled Truth paid the Debt of Man overcame and got the better of what impoverished him having wrought himself out of it as it were and being raised again he was taken up to the Throne of God and accounted of God his Father as he is also judged to be by Men and Angels worthy to receive and be filled with the unsearchable riches of God So in Rev. 5.11 12. The Angels about the Throne with the Beasts and Elders pronounce Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and blessing Yea God and all his fulness is given wholly to him All the fulness of the God-head dwells bodily in him The Father is in him and he in the Father his God his Father the Spirit is upon him his Spirit the Spirit of Christ The Angels of God minister to him and attend upon him his Angels and the Angels of his might Heaven is his Throne yea the heaven and heaven of heavens is the Lords and the earth is his too and all the fulness thereof the world and all that dwell therein yea all power in heaven and upon the earth is given to him Mat. 28.19 The Father hath loved the Son and given him all things John 3.35 So that here we may say in the first place now Lord what is man that thou takest knowledge of him and the Son of man that thou makest such account of him and so the Apostle applies it Heb. 2.6 7 8. And so here in the first place as in the root and foundation all that God hath is mans and man is ever with him the Son of God 2. Through him God makes known himself to other men for he is the light of the world the true light enlightening every one coming thereinto and as God hath done all that he hath done to him in abasing and glorifying him for mans sake and ovt of love and pitty to man and desire of his good Oh the riches of his love and mercy to fallen man God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son and herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his only begotten Son to be the propitiation for our sins John 3.16 1 John 4.10 So he hath in him thus inriched and glorified having by his death and sufferings ransomed man from death and destruction into his dispose wonderfully provided for man even prepared all this infinite fulness in his Son as God-man as an infinite treasury for the inriching of man for the Grace the remission of Sins the redemption from Thrall the fulness of Spirit and all spiritual blessings in him and possession given him it is for us men and for our Salvation and inriching but so to be enjoyed as only in and with him to whom therefore God calls and draws men both by the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long-suffering leading men to repentance Rom. 2.4 5. and by the unsearchable riches of Christ as preached in the Gospel to men inviting and alluring them to him that they might be saved by him and inriched with him Ephes 3.8 with Rom. 1 16. 1 Cor. 1.23 2 Cor. 8 9. and they that hereby are begotten to receive him and knowing his name trust in him as they in and through him receive the priviledge of Sons so being made in him the sons of God they also by vertue of him and in him become the heirs of God both as their Father and as their Inheritance joynt heirs with Christ sayes Rom. 8.16 17. for as the Father hath loved the Son so he again loves his Disciples that believe in and follow him and makes and owns them as his Friends and Brethren And as God gave him all things that were and are his so he again gives all his things and they are all things to his brethren All things are yours 1 Cor. 3.21 22. and so the beggars are lifted out of the dust again and the needy from the dunghil and set upon the throne with Princes not the Princes of this world who perish but which is far more excellent with the Princes of his people whose Kingdom shall endure for ever James 2.5 Psal 113.7 8. praised be the Lord though oftentimes they be in appearance as Princes disguised in Beggars habit and state as having nothing and yet possessing all things 2. Cor. 6.10 going on foot while servants even to Sin and Satan ride on horseback Eccles 10.7 This indeed is a mystery that the world sees not because they have not faith and therefore not understanding of it they slight it but the holy Spirit of Truth asserts it All things are yours whether Paul or Apollo or Cephas or world or life or death or things present or things to come all are yours But how theirs 1. Not as to actual possession fruition and enjoyment of all in their own persons and comprehensions for the Kingdom is not yet received by them only prepared for and promised to them that love him but in that respect He that overcometh shall inherit all things and I will be his God and he shall be my Son sayes Revel 21.6 7. See 1 Corinthians 2.9 But 2. In Christ their Head they possess all things He possesses all things for them and
they in him as they are his and he Gods In him we are compleat Col. 2.9 10. And 3. In and through Christ in our persons in title and interest by promise as Abraham Isaack and Jacob did the Land of Canaan while yet they had it not in possession for Israel did not take away wrongfully the Land of Canaan from the Inhabitants they claimed but their own by the gift of him who is the Lord of all the earth and had sworn to give it them and so the Fathers that are said to dye in faith not having received the promises Heb. 11.13 are yet said to have received them Heb. 6.14 that is as to promise or covenant and the title that gave them thereto Thence too the believers are said to be heirs according to promise Gal. 3.29 4. In hope and expectation that being justified by faith ye might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life which God that cannot lye hath promised before the world began Tit. 3.7 and 1.2 5. In usefulness and benefit all things working together for good to them that love him that are the called of God according to purpose Rom. 8.28 And so they that overcome and keep Christs words and keep with God are heirs of all things All that I have is thine Let us take a brief view or survey of their riches 1. God is theirs and all that he is not that he can be comprehended of and by them seeing he comprehends them and all things and is himself incomprehensible but by himself but he is their God their Father their Portion and Inheritance as to be worshipped and acknowledged by them so to inrich save and satisfie them The portion of Jacob is not like unto them he is the former of all things the Lord of Hosts is his name Jer. 10.16 and the Lord is my portion saith my soul therefore will I hope in him Lam. 3.24 I go to my God and your God my Father and your Father saith Christ John 20.17 an infinite portion for in having him we have infinite Wisdom to order and dispose of all things for us and our benefit and of us also for our own greatest happiness and to advise counsel and direct us in all our difficulties infinite power to effect and bring about what in the counsel of his will or wisdom he sees good to be effected and to prevent and hinder remove or destroy what he sees destructive to us infinite strength to bear up all things for us and us in all cases and to strengthen us in all services and sufferings infinite duration to continue and lengthen out our happiness for ever that we may never be deprived of it but enjoy it to eternity infinite goodness to lead him to exercise all his other attributes for our infinite and everlasting advantage infinite truth and holiness to perform all his words and promises to us c. and all this for us in and through Christ Jesus 2. Christ is Gods 1 Cor. 3.23 and he is theirs and all his infinite fulness I am my beloveds and my beloved is mine saith the Spouse Cant. 2.18 and 6.3 He that hath the Son hath life and he that abideth in the Doctrine of Christ that is that continueth in the belief and obedience of it He hath both the Father and the Son 1 John 5.11.2 2 John 9. and it s in having Christ that any man hath God his God and portion and hath all his fulness for him for he that transgresseth and abideth not in the Doctrine of Christ hath not God and it s in him he hath all things who hath and abideth in him even unsearchable riches in him infinite wisdom to order and manage all things with God for us and from God to over and about us and to direct and guide us in all conditions In him righteousness infinite and everlasting for presenting us just and acceptable in the sight of God and in him all the promises of God are yea and Amen affirmed and confirmed true and certain 2 Cor. 1.19 20. Isa 45.23 24. In him holiness infinitely for us and therein dedication to God and renewing into his image and likeness grace to make us holy and renew us and so to make us also Gods Inheritance his chosen generation Royal Priesthood Holy Nation peculiar people In him Redemption even forgiveness of sins through or in his blood Eph. 1.7 Col. 1.14 even infinite plenteousness of Redemption for redeeming us from all iniquities Psal 130.7 8. and so from all troubles miseries bondages death the fruits of sin lying upon us Psal 25.22 Yea even from bodily death and Grave yea from hell and destruction Rom. 8.23 Hosea 13.14 John 11.25 26. in him son-ship heir-ship title to the Inheritance John 1.12 Gal. 3.26 27. Yea in a word This is the record God hath given of his Son that God hath given us eternal life and this life is in his Son he that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Son hath not life 1 John 5.11 12. 3. God hath an infinitely Holy Spirit which he hath put upon Christ to bring forth Judgement to the Gentiles and this he also gives in and through Christ to them that obey him Acts 5.32 to help their infirmities teach and lead them into the knowledge of Christ glorifying him to them and so into all truth to bring his words to remembrance justifie them in their Consciences sanctifie and wash them in the Blood and Name of Jesus comfort them in their exercises tribulations and temptations be a Spirit of Holiness to and in them leading them in the way of and framing and quickning them to holiness teaching them to pray and groan after God and his Grace and Mercy in Christ for their helpfulness In a word to inhabit and dwell in them through the Word or Faith of Christ and be in them as a spring of living Waters springing up unto everlasting life and gifting them for usefulness to others and so to be as rivers of living waters flowing out of their bellies or inward man to seal them up also to the day of redemption and be to them the anointing and furnisher for Gods Service the earnest of conductor to and raiser up of their dead bodies to the enjoyment of the Inheritance Rom. 8.14.26 27. John 16.14 15. and 14.16 17 26. 1 Cor. 6.11 Isa 11.2 Gal. 5.16 Psal 143.10 and 119.37 and 51.10 11. Zech. 12.10 Eph. 2.22 and 5.18 19. with Col. 3.16 1 Cor. 12.7 John 4.14 and 7.37 38 39. 2 Cor. 1.21 22. Ephes 1 14. and 4.30 4. God hath an innumerable company of Angels to minister to him Dan. 7.10 11. and these are in and with Christ the Believers and Obeyers of him Pitching their tents about those that fear him to deliver and save them Psal 34.7 Bearing them up in their hands and keeping them in all their wayes Psal 91.11 12. Sent forth to minister to the heirs of salvation Heb. 1.14 Inâ—iâ—â—â—ing the
Throne of God the Camp or Congregation of the Saints as attendants about them Rev. 5.11 and 7.11 bearing the souls of the just when taken hence into rest and peace as in Luke 16.22 c. 5. God hath many servants on the earth furnished with spiritual gifts for profiting the body of Christ as Apostles Prophets Evangelists Pastors and Teachers these are all theirs that obey and abide with him Let no man glory in man for all things are yours whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas not you theirs but they yours 1 Cor. 3.21 Son of man saith God to Ezekiel as both the Hebrew Greek and Latine read it I have given thee to the house of Israel for a watchman c. not them to thee to use as thou pleasest and to exercise Lordship over them but thee to them Ezek. 3.17 and and so the Apostle We preach not our selves but Jesus Christ the Lord and our selves your servants for Jesus sake 2 Cor. 4.5 and he ascended up on high and gave gifts to men and he gave some Apostles some Prophets c. for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the ministry for the edifying of the body Christ c. Eph. 4.8.11 12. 6. God hath the world as his the frame and fabrick of it and the Government orders dignities and fulness of it This is theirs also All things are yours the world 1 Cor. 3.21 22. The heavens and heavenly influences and Inhabitants He rides on the heavens for Israels help Deut. 33.26 27. their motions and influences the light warmth and influences of the Sun Moon and other Stars the Clouds and their shadow from the Heat the Rain c. and whatever passeth through the air animate or inanimate as also the Air it self they are all for the benefit of Gods obedient Children amongst and with more special eye to them then to other men for their nourishment maintenance refreshing chearing and sometimes for the exercise of their faith patience the Spirit of Prayer c. Psal 74.12 16 17. and 89.12 13 14 15. Deut. 33.27 28. Judges 5.20 Josh 10.11 14. Zech. 19.1 2. the earth and its fulness the Sea and all therein affords them supplies and God out of them and by them Gives meat to them that fear him and will ever be mindeful of his Covenant Psal 111.4 5. besides the manifold occasions that they afford them to admire and bless the Lord as manifestations of his Glory Power Wisdom Providence Mercy Justice Truth c. in his providential ordering of them and their several Hosts Psal 19.1 2 6. and 65.6 7 8. and 104. and 148. and manifold lessons and instructions that they teach and suggest occasionally to us Job 5.8 9 and 12.7 8. Matth. 6.26 27 29 30. Prov. 6.7 8. and 30.24 25 c. And then the orders of the world the Magistrates Kings and Governors and Authorities c. They are the Ministers of God saith the Apostle to thee for good not for mischief and harm Rom. 13.3 4. if thou doest well to protect thee that thou mayest live a peaceable and quiet life in godliness and honesty 1 Tim. 2.2 and if they do otherwise yet it s for good to thee to exercise thy faith and patience and quicken thee up to more mindefulness of the way to the heavenly inheritance and make thee cry more earnestly Arise O God judge thou the earth for thou shalt inherit all Nations Rev. 13.5 6.10 Psal 82.8 and whether they preserve thee from being broken or scower and make thee look brighter thou hast no dammage but benefit by them and so for all other things of the world Believers are the seed of Abraham and heirs and blessed with him and he was heir of the world Rom. 4.13 7. Life is Gods to give and dispose of this is the Believers too he is an heir of life and of the grace of life 1 Pet. 3 8. Spiritual life is his to enjoy and serve God and Christ in and with yea and eternal life is his inheritance nay but this life is his too and not he its as a servant to this life but it is a servant to him to afford him time and opportunity to do his Fathers work in that he may receive the fuller reward and to give him leasure to renew the spiritual things that by any means decay in him that he may come to his Grave as a shock of Corn fully ripe Job 5.26 Psal 39.13 Psal 6.4 5. and 30 9. and 115.17 18. Isa 38.19 John â— 4 Eccles 9.10 and 12.1 8. Yea Death is Gods too in his hand to dispose and it s his Saints too not they its not its Vassals and Captives but it s theirs and for their good sometimes to cut off and destroy their enemies that molest them 1 Sam. 26.10 Isa 51.7.8 15. Sometimes to take themselves from evil men and things and give them rest and peace from their troubles Isa 57.1.2 Rev. 14.13 and the more to exercise their faith in God for the performance of his promises when they see death seems to cut them off and put them out of all possibility of attainment Ezek. 37.11 12. John 11.25 16 40. Rev. 13.9 10. and to give them more experience of Gods power and glory in the Resurrection Ezek. 37.11 13. John 11.4 40. 9. Things present are theirs Whatever God doth and orders now in this present world or time his mercies theirs to incourage them to hope in him his judgements theirs to make them fear and stand in awe of him prosperity their 's to give them advantage to serve God with more chearfulness and adversity theirs to exercise their faith and patience and give them the more experience of Gods care of and faithfulness to them and the sufficiency of his Grace for them yea the very falls of others are theirs to awaken and admonish them to more watchfulness over themselves and others and to exercise charity in pittying them and seeking their recovery Yea all his wayes are mercy and truth to them that love God and keep his testimonies Psal 25.10 10. Things to come as they are Gods in his hand to produce and distribute according to his pleasure so they are theirs in and through Christ for their good both as now proposed in the word of God the everlasting rewards of righteousness to allure incourage and confirm them in the wayes of the Lord to seek and press after him and keep his wayes in the love and obedience of him Heb. 10.35 36 37 and 12.1 2 3. and the unspeakable terrors of the Lord and destruction of the wicked to stir them up to more watchfulness and care lest they should sin against him and depart from him they are but as armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left 2 Cor. 6.7 and 5.1 10 11. and the revelations and accomplishments of them in the time to come The joy glory and happiness to come is theirs to reward and satisfie them the woe and vengeance
not of his spirit that they may adde sin to sin Isa 30.1 2 15. When God calls to return to him they have no breath desire sense of motion after the things in him But we will ride upon horses say they and flee upon the swift and as in Hos 5.13 When Ephraim saw his sickness and Judah his wound then went Ephraim down to Assyria and sends to King Jareb c. No motion towards God but from him and therein 6. As from a dead body there issues forth filth and stinch blood and matter sometimes that is loathsome and abominable and makes it unfit to be amongst the living so is it with dead souls devoid of the life of God as Psal 14.1 2 3. The fool or fallen man fallen from God and Christ saith in his heart there is no God there 's his voidness of spiritual life sense or motion or faith towards him as also in that Rom. 3. â—2 There is none that understandeth none that seeketh after God but then beside it follows Corrupt are they and have done abominable works there is none that doth good no not one they are all become filthy or as in the Margin stinking loathsome And as in Rom. 3.13 Their threat is an open Sepulchre nothing breaths out thence but putrifaction and filth and stench things abomâ—nable to God and unacceptable to God and good men When the Doctrine of God and the Spirit of God and Christ are gone once and the savour of his Grace lost though there may be yet too a form of Prayers Fasting and outward formalities and observances yet then they are all dead works Heb. 9.14 as a menstruous cloth a filthy thing The sacrifices of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord Prov. 15.8 and 21.27 Isa 1.11 13 14. and unpleasing to men unsavory to those that are spiritually men indued with sense reason and understanding nay often gross prophaneness and debauchery issues from them 7. And then as dead bodies they are separated from the living from the living God and his living Houshold and Family God cannot endure to look towards them with any delight or likement of them or have them in his sight or presence they are condemned of him loathed and detested as to their dead estate by him cut off from him and and his justifying and approving Grace and then objects of his anger or displeasure as any evil or vain Spirit may bring them before him or make them come as dead carkasses possessed with evil spirits into his sight 2. And so if they be not through some miraculous mercy revived they be dead as to body not only in that they must as all others come to a natural death in the appointed time but often are also exposed to in danger of and sometimes taken away by judicial deaths as either in some judgement or testimony of wrath from God as Pharaoh when drowned in the Red Sea Saul conquered by the Philistines and slaying himself and many of the Rebellious Israelites destroyed in the Wilderness or else as sometimes by some judicial deaths from men as Zedekiah and Ahab whom the King of Babylon rosted in the fire Jer. 29.22 The two Malefactors that were put to death with Christ God sometimes permitting and in anger against his people for their voluntary goings from him giving them up so far to their own hearts lusts as Psal 81.11 12. as to suffer them to fall into notorious sins such as bring not only shame but exemplary punishments by death also or however persisting they dye in their sins as to their bodies also yea and if by these things mercy be not extended so as to turn them to God and pull them out of spiritual death there follows at length 3. Eternal death of body and soul wholly cast out and separated from God and from his presence into everlasting misery and torments both in souls and bodies for ever in which is both a perfect loss and deprival of all good things both bodily and spiritual and also a perfect and eternal subjection to all misery and mischief pain sorrow and unspeakable torment upon soul and body for ever a sad and doleful portion of the workers of iniquity and of those that having been quickned up to a spiritual life let it slip again and depart from it by going away from the Doctrine of Christ and so from Christ and the Holy Spirit and so finally persist but this last was through mercy here prevented This is one expression of the sad estate of the sad estate of such persons The wages of sin is death Rom. 6.23 The other is Branch 2. He was lost The word say some Criticks here translated Lost is at the best of a harsh signification 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the best to dye yea to dye by some miserable way to perish as in this parable I perish with hunger ver 17. and so the expression of coming to himself implyes that he was extinct for a time fainted and dyed away through hunger but that the mercy of God revived him he had quite perished which is worse then simply dead perisht as we properly say of those that dye of hunger and cold and are lost for want of help or looking to he being gone away from them that used to look to him or with reference to the other Parables where whatever the Criticks say the same word is used of the sheep and groat lost â—o as not forthcomâ—ng or found and so being a loose Son he was not only a loser but quite lost himself too Such the fruit of mens sinning and wandring from God Let us view it in some particulars 1. He was a loser though that 's not all he lost his Father and his Fathers house his portion and patrimony his enjoyments he was wont to have and his brother yet had all that entertainment food rayment harbour shelter lodging attendance respect and honour which he had in his Fathers house formerly these and all things of that nature were wholly lost and gone from him and from his enjoyment and interest and is this nothing for sinners to lose both livelihood and life yea such a livelihood and such a life as God in Christ is and gives such safety satisfaction content rest and refreshing hope and rejoycing as his Word and Spirit and Christ in and by both and God in and by all give to the abiding soul to lose a most sweet secure satisfying and abiding livelihood and life it cannot be expressed to lose a Kingdom with all its contents But 2. He was lost himself he was gone quite out of all these things and out of the way to them again as a sheep lost out of its pastures He was not to be found either in his Fathers house or Fields under none of his promises under no engagement of his shelter or protection in no way of his or of his servants and peoples walkings He was gone and so are sinners out of all Gods paths and so