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
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
departing and wandring from God in the wayes of sin and that is impliedly contained in the latter expressions of the latter part of his reply viz. in these words Thy Brother was dead was lost 3. The comfortable estate of such wanderers returned to God by repentance and that is signified in the whole latter part of the said reply verse 32. It was meet that we should make merry and be glad for this thy Brother was dead and is alive again he was lost and is found Of these in order The first state And first for the good estate of the obeyers and walkers with God it is signified in a three-fold expression viz. 1. In the compellation Son They are the Sons of God 2. In the first Branch of the assertion to him Thou art ever with me They are ever with God And 3. In the latter Branch of it and all that I have is thine They have interest in all that is Gods A happy portion and such as one would think if minded might content any one and preserve them from envying at either the portion of the world or the portion of or Gods dealing with any of their Brethren View we it in each of these Branches in order 1 Branch First They that abide with God and depart not from him but walk righteously before him they are the Sons of God 1. Men might be called the Sons of God by virtue of their Creation in which they received their being of and from God much more then a childe his being from his Parents and so as we noted before it s said The Son of Adam which was the Son of God Luke 3.38 and by the Poet recited and approved by the Apostle Paul Acts 17.28 29. For we are also his off-spring from which the Apostle infers forasmuch then as we are the off-spring of God we ought not to think that the God-head is like to Gold c. For indeed God made man in his own Image and Likeness and therefore also man resembling God in some respects as the Son the Father might there-from be called and accounted his Son But that image and likeness especially as to any holiness purity innocency right knowledge yea or any right of dominion over the creatures liberty of will or the like was wholly lost in our departing from him and sinning against him we being there-through filled with the poison of sin the spawn and likeness of the Devil the old Serpent and inslaved by and to him children of wrath and heirs of destruction though the relation of creatures abode still yet the likeness of children was wholly lost But 2. God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son thereinto to be the Saviour of the world and to that purpose made him of a woman and under the Law that he might bear our sins in his own body on the Tree and by giving himself a ransome and sacrifice to Justice for all men as the Lamb of God take away the sin of the world by bearing and satisfying for it in himself and destroying by his death him that had the power over death even the Devil and his works Heb. 2.14 1 John 3.8 might free us or buy us from under his acquired jurisdiction and tyranny over us and from the wrath and destruction due to us into his own Dispose Lordship and Jurisdiction to be ruled over and disposed of by him John â— 16 17. 1 John 4.14 Gal. 4.4 5. 1 Pet. 2.24 1 Tim. 2.6 John 1.29 Rom. 14.9 For to this end he both died rose and revived that he might be Lord of both quick and dead Now in this that he became man he took the man-hood into unity of person with himself so as in him Man is become the Son of God the only begotten Son of God even the man Christ Jesus as he was also mightily declared to be by the Spirit of Holiness in the Resurrection of the dead as it is said Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee Rom. 1.3 4. Acts 13.33 and in that he in that nature hath suffered for us the just for the unjust and is become the propitiation for our sins even for the sins of the whole world and hath received into himself the immeasurable fulness of the Holy Spirit so as he may communicate to us thereof and Baptize us therewith he hath opened a way for us lost men to recover our nighness and likeness to God again that we receiving remission of sins through his Blood might be also adopted and taken into the account of his Sons being begotten by him through the revelation of his Son to us and of the grace in and by him to believe on his Son and approach to hope in and worship him in and by his Son Yea and 3. Because that man-hood which he purposed to cloath his Son with that body he prepared for him he chose and took it of the seed of Abraham Isaack and Jacob therefore to their seed also he of his Grace and Favour gave the adoption of Sons as it is said of the Jews They are Israelites to whom pertaineth the adoption the glory c. Rom. 9.4 when he is speaking of Israel after the flesh and such as for whom he could have wished himself accursed and had great heaviness and continual sorrow in his heart through the consideration of that state of unbelief they then lay in wherefore also of Israel it is said Israel is my Son my first-born and I say unto thee let my Son my first-born go Exod. 4.22 His Son both because Christ his Son in respect of the flesh he was to take was in them or some of them and in respect of the knowledge of Christ they the rest also were called to or also the Covenant the substance of which was Christ as it is said I have given him for a Covenant of the people Isa 42.6 and 49.6 and 55.3 I will make an everlasting Covenant with you the sure mercies of David Which the Apostle interprets to be Christ risen again Acts. 13.34 into which after a sort they were initiated and grafted by Circumcision a seal of the righteousness of the faith that Abraham had being yet uncircumcised as the Apostle saith Rom. 4.11 even the righteousness by the faith of Christ through whom and with respect to whom they were taken into Gods house and accounted and called his Sons and Children yea and there abiding in subjection to his instructions they continued so but many of them not understanding and walking in the Faith of Abraham of the righteousness whereof Circumcision was the Seal but resting short or wandring out of it yea and opposing of it they became so far from being the Sons of God that they were by our Saviour and John the Baptist John 8.44 rightly stiled Serpents a generation of Vipers yea the seed or children of the Devil Mat. 3.8 and 23.33 4. Yea whereas God gave to that people a holy and righteous Law to convince
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
counsel c. So also in Psal 25.12 Who is the man that feareth the Lord him shall he teach the way that he shall chuse and again I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way that thou shalt go I will guide thee with my eye c. Psal 32.8 and again In all thy wayes acknowledge the Lord and he shall direct thy paths Prov. 3.6 and this also is an exceeding benefit and advantage we being childish foolish and apt to mistake in our wayes designs and undertakings and of our selves to chuse what would hurt us 3. His help and assistance in all services and difficulties Let your conversation be without covetousness for he hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee so that we may boldly say infers the Apostle from thence the Lord is my helper c. Heb. 13.5 6. A mighty powerful helper being God Almighty and of his help his obedient Children may be secure through Jesus Christ covering the imperfections of their obedience and pleading for them for help for them because he is their loving merciful Father and he helps 1. By his Word and Spirit therein incouraging them to and in their services and sufferings to do and bear what he calls and leads them to and that 's a good help in any work or combat to have a loving Father and one of authority and power standing by us and heartning of us as it were countenancing us by his presence and speaking comfortably to us and so doth God to his obedient Children as we finde him to Israel Deut. 31.3 4 6. The Lord will go over before thee and destroy these Nations from before thee Be strong and of a good courage fear not nor be afraid of them for the Lord thy God he it is that doth go with thee he will not leave thee nor forsake thee So also to Joshuah he himself saith the like Josh 1.6.7 Be strong and of a good courage for unto this people shalt thou divide the land for an inheritance c. Have not I commanded thee Be strong and of a good courage be not afraid neither be thou dismayed for the Lord thy God is with thee whither soever thou goest ver 9. And we may see the like to Gideon in Judg. 6.14.16 and to Jeremy Jer. 1.7 8. and to Ezekiel chap. 2.6 7. and 3.8 9. and in a word to all that wait on and hope in him as Psal 27.14 Wait on the Lord be of good courage and he will strengthen thine heart wait I say on the Lord and Psal 31.24 Wait on the Lord and he shall strengthen your hearts all ye that hope in the Lord so also in Isa 41.10 14. Fear not for I am with thee be not dismayed for I am thy God I will strengthen thee yea I will help thee yea I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness fear not thou worm Jacob. Yea he will have his Servants also to incourage them as in Isa â—5 4 Say to them that are of a fearful heart Be strong c. and so he comforts them in their griefs John 14.16 17. 2. By his Word and Spirit putting in strength into them both for doing and suffering his will and pleasure as Psal 138.3 In the day that I cried thou answeredst me and strengthnedst me with strength in my soul So God dealt with Daniel chap. 10.18 19. One like the appearance of the Son of man Christ touched him and strengthned him and said O man greatly beloved or man of desires fear not peace be to thee be strong yea be strong and when he had spoken unto me saith Daniel I was strengthned and said Let my Lord speak for thou hast strengthned me and so the Apostle Paul saith I can do all things through Christ that strengthneth me Phil. 4.13 3. By his hand and power the force of his Grace and Spirit or also the operations of his providence working with them and doing their work for them and therein helping them both 1. In carrying on their work and business as 1 Cor. 15.10 I laboured more abundantly then they all yet not I but the grace of God that was with me and so he answered Paul in his temptations and under the feelings of the buffetings of the messenger of Satan desiring to be freed of them My grace is sufficient for thee for my strength is made manifest in weakness 2 Cor. 12.9 His right hand also and glorious power fought for Israel against their enemies brought them in and planted them in the land of promise For they got not the Land in possession by their own sword neither did their own arm save them but Gods right hand and his arm c. Psal 44.3 Acts 23.11 12 16 17 18 19 c. and he helped Paul not only by incouraging him and strengthning his soul but also in ordering by his providence that his Sisters Son should hear of and discover the plot of those that conspired against him and moved the chief Captains heart to secure him from them 2. In keeping off and obstructing what might obstruct their work or oppress or overwhelm them in their suffering as in the now mentioned instance is also to be seen and so also it is said The wicked watcheth and seeketh to slay him but the Lord will not leave him in his hand nor condemn him when he is judged Psal 37.32 33. and Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee and the remainder thereof thou wilt restrain He will cut off the spirit or anger of Princes he is terrible to the Kings of the earth Psal 76.10 12. So he suffered no man to harm the Patriarchs he rebuked Kings for their sakes dried up the Sea and cut off the waters of Jordan before his people and many the like 4. His care and providence for the Children lay not up for the Fathers but the Fathers for their Children and he being both a great and good Father and they being with him on his side and at home with him he will take care of them as a Father of his obedient Children Whence it is said Let your moderation be known to all men the Lord is at hand In nothing be careful but in all things make known your requests to him by prayers and supplications with thanksgivings and the peace of God that passeth all understanding shall guard your hearts through Christ Jesus Phil. 4.6 7. And again cast thy burthen upon the Lord he will sustain thee Psal 55.22 And Cast all your care on the Lord for he careth for you 1 Pet. 5.7 And the Lord is my shepheard I shall want nothing he makes me lie down in green pastures and leads me by the still waters c. Psal 23.1 2. Yea He is a sun and shield and will give grace and glory and with-holds no good thing from them that are upright with him 5. His infinite sweetness satisfactions joy and pleasures for in his presence is fulness of joy and at his right hand
in the dishes and upon the trenchers if they had any and in their hands and mouths as they eat it and could they have needed to have eaten of it till this day might have grown upon them yet such this fatted Calf in the spirit and mystery of it unless we take it for some particular visit refreshing and chearing of the repentant sinners heart like to a Posset or a Caudle made by a tender Mother for her almost drowned Childe when being pulled out of the Pit and brought home she puts it to bed and should the other Children that kept themselves in the house and safe from the pit murmur at such a thing as that when they may at all times sit at meat with their Father and eat of his meat yea and if they please take part of that Posset too made for that escaped Childe take it in either sense the murmuring was unreasonable as the acts of envy and discontent all be It was a good saying of an ancient Doctor Tolle invidiam quod meum est tuum est si ego tollo invidiam quod tuum est meum est Take away envy and frowardness and what 's mine is thine too and if I put away envy from me that that is thine is mine with thee This is on the contrary to envy the excellency of Divine Love and Grace it makes all common that may be so lawfully or with expediency and as God gives us an interest in all that he hath leads us to say to our brethren too all that we have is yours for your usefulness as the Saints in the Primitive Church that said nothing that they had was their own they were so free to communicateâ— it to all others also Had this Brother said to his younger Brother as the Father to him welcome home Brother let us live lovingly together and as my Father gives me interest in and the use of all he hath so I freely give thee leave to take part with me in all I have with him and by his gift It had been an entertainment of him worthy such a condition of a Son of such a Father and that that may be proposable to us for imitation 3. This also shews the goodness of living at home with God or walking with him dutifully in his wayes seeing he that is so infinitely full is so infinitely free too to them that love him and keep his Commandments not only a Sun and a Shield but also gives grace and glory and withholds no good thing from them that walk uprightly with him therefore O Lord God of Hosts blessed is the man that trusteth in thee and so abides in thy courts alwayes Psal 84 10 11 12. Whither can we go from God to better our selves as Peter said Whither shall we go thou hast the words of eternal life John 6.68 All is ours if we be with and keep to God and we cannot have more then all by going from God or sinning against God Nay that 's the way to go from all for all is in and with God and without him nothing but sin emptiness vanity and vexation of spirit 4. Therefore also it may provoke us not to leave him but to keep close to him as David or Asaph saith Ps 73.28 It is good for me to draw nigh to or as the vulgar reads it to hold me fast by God seeing then we have all whether would this Elder Son go or what would he do that he will not come to his Fathers house and so to his Father Brother the rest therein what will he exclude himself from his Fathers house and so deprive himself of all and because his Father receives him in will he that is so angry at his Brothers naughtiness out of anger throw himself into his Brothers condition and divest himself of all because his Brother is admitted to a share with him surely he took the course thereto by so doing or would he turn his Father and Brother out of doors or at least his Brother to make room for himself as if the house was too little to hold them both and a Kings Estate too little to maintain them both sure it s better to submit to God and to resist the Devil from whom proceeds such a temptation and by living at home to keep possession of all rather then by standing out or departing to divest our selves of all But if we would keep at home with God we must take these helps and directions against discontent 1. Minde the goodness of God to us in Christ rather then our goodness or good doings for or towards him that was slipt out of this Sons eye when he stands thus at a distance and comes not in the minding his Fathers goodness would have given him such satisfaction as to have contented him in all his service with his Fathers dealings with him and made him thought himself happy that he might so live with and serve him still The application of the medicine informs us of the disease the Fathers minding him what he afforded him and what priviledges he enjoyed with him shews us that the Son had forgot them when he fell into this froward discontented passion 2. Consider the abundant fulness in God the abundant sufficiency in him together with his freeness to satisfie and content us and all others There is room enough saith Abraham to Lot in the land for us both therefore let us not fall out between our selves being brethren Gen. 13.8 9. Had this Brother minded how large his Fathers house was and how large his estate and how free he to communicate it it might have kept him from this murmuring 3. Be not hasty in our spirits but wait for Gods counsels inquire at his mouth and be swift to hear what he hath to say to us and slow to speak slow to wrath James 1.19 This Son was too hasty he should first have heard what his Father could say for his doings before he had given way to his anger 4. When the right eye offends pluck it out and cast it from thee and so when the right hand and foot offends cut them off and cast them from us Cast away the weight that presseth down and the sin that easily besets Keeping our eye single to what is set before us in the testimony of God It was this Brothers looking with an evil eye at his Fathers kindeness to his Brother made him sullen and the minding what his hand and foot had done for his Father how he had wrought and walked for him that puft him up with pride and caused him to think his Brother got too much love that had done worse and less then he Good and needful it is to cast away such considerations as draw to discontent and with draw us from him As it was also the Prodigals eying an excellency in his conceit in having a portion in his own hands and a sufficiency in himself to manage it distinct and apart from his Father that led him
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 of them to the spirits of just men made perfect to be their brethren followers of their faith and to be in the hope of and to have the title and way to their enjoyments and to God the judge of all to protect bless reward and satisfie them And to Jesus the mediator of the New Testament and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things then the blood of Abel to be prepared for kept and brought to the enjoyment of the Glory of God by him and in the vertues of that his precious blood Yea coming to Christ the living stone they are made living stones too and are built up a spiritual house and an holy Priesthood c. A chosen generation a royal Priesthood an holy Nation and a peculiar people to shew forth the praises of God who hath called them out of darkness into his marvellous light Heb. 12.23 24. 1 Pet. 2.5 9. Can there be a better state and condition in a word it s the same condition that the person is in that keeps to God and never departs from him a state of Son-ship to God of being ever with God and having interest in and benefit by all that is his for as Blessed is the man that is undefiled in the way and walks in the Law of the Lord so also Blessed is the man whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered Psal 119.1 and 32.1 2. Blessed is he to whom the Lord will not impute sin c. Both of them are in a blessed state and what can be better then blessed wherin is a removing of all evil and an estating in all that is good either as to the way to it or end attained Such is this condition Good in it self and then it s 2. It s good to others also as 1. To God in such a sense as any thing besides himself can be good to him not as if it added to him who is infinitely perfect in himself and not to be added to by any thing but good to him as its pleasing to him as a satisfaction to his love an attainment of his desired end in all his goodness expressed and testified towards the sinner at least so far as he hath attained He would have all men saved he hath no pleasure in the death of the wicked but rather that he turn and live He hath pleasure then that a wicked man turn and live Ezek 33.11 1 Tim. 2.4 That 's good then to God that 's pleasing or a pleasure and delight to him That that he is glorified in and by even his mercy and truth in Christ are herein glorified Psal 1 â—5 1. Such a person will praise him The living the living they shall celebrate or shew forth thy praises Psal 115.17 18. Isa 38.19 Yea and others will glorifie God in and for such a person as they did in Saint Paul Gal. 2.23 and his house and kingdom is hereby increased and the Kings honour is in the multitude of his Subjects Prov. 14.28 2. To Christ also upon all the same accounts It s matter of joy to him when what he labours for and in succeeds That his Plantation thrives and that any tree of his setting revives and prospers John 15.12 3. To the Holy Spirit for as God is love and Christ the Son of the Father in love and truth so the Spirit is the Spirit of Love and its a rejoycing to love when it hath what it may love and when what it loves succeeds and is well as he is grieved and vexed in his peoples ill-doing and rebelling so he is delighted in their well-doing and repenting Isa 63.10 11. Ephes 4.30 4. To the holy Angels who loving men and their good desire it and in such persons have their desire answered and the number of their blessed company in a sort increased Luke 15.10 Heb. 12.23 5. To their Brerhren whose number is added to or preserved from being in such diminished and whose spiritual desires breathings prayers and endeavours are herein answered and they may have benefit by them in mutual fellowship with them if here surviving or if not yet edification however in the beholding or here-say of the Vertues of Christ and his Sacrifice and the power of the Grace of God appearing in them in their dying 6. Yea to all other men its good either as making them fit to pitty pray for and seek the good of them and be useful to them or as affording inducement to them to repent also and seek God and hope in him and it cannot but be 7. Good to a mans self such and so happy a condition as in which is the confluence of all good to a man Now that that is good and so good surely it is meet that all that are good and love what 's good or may have good by it should rejoyce and be glad for it And so God makes this mirth here and a feast hereat for all that can and will be glad of it and we should make merry by exhorting and exciting all to gladness by all means we can upon such occasions 2. It is meet we should make merry and be glad on such an occasion because of the relation the sinner stood and stands in to us to God and his people especially This thy Brother and ver 24. This my Son Love will lead us to be glad for strangers or enemies if they come to good to what 's truly good to what 's spiritually and eternally good but how much more for a mans own near relation The Lord rejoyces in his works the works of his hands as being all as his works good and holy and just but how much more in man his choice work for whose sake he made and to whose good he ordered all the rest made in his own likeness and image and so his Son but yet how much more for and in those that were and are again Sons in his Son in his only begotten and beloved Sonâ— Those whom he begot with such desire and love as through the gift of his Son and his Son bare and brought forth with the travail of his soul poured out to Death and brought to be his Sons by the Word thereof and by his Spirit breathing therein and whom he nourisht up with the flesh and blood of his Son and vertues thereof Should not the Father rejoyce and make merry to see his Son and so dear a Son in a good condition And should not Brethren make merry and be glad at the preferment good or recovery of their Brethren Would it not be unnatural for Brethren not to rejoyce in love for one another when they do well very well and one as well as another and all well Shall the Angels not so related to us Men be glad of our good and shall not we Men for one another and especially for such as have been our whole Brethren and so are Yea and should not all the Servants be glad of the happiness of their Masters Sons with
may be sorry also warning all to take heed of so doing yet in regard of God's goodnesse in general to repentant sinners and in particular to this or that to whom he gives repentance and restores and comforts we may make merry and be glad Especially seeing our heavenly and gracious God and Father calls upon us so to do joyning in himself with us saying Let us eat and be merry We may by good authority do so yea it 's unmannerlinesse and peevish frowardnesse like this elder Brothers in this Parable to be fullen and sad when God says Let us eat and be merry and its meet we should make merry and be glad Shall not the Children and Servants be merry and chearful to see their Father merry and chearful and in such a rejoycing temper Surely its meet then we should make merry and be glad Again CHAP. XII The third state and the Text further improved in some further usefulness 3. IT may teach us that God is a good God not a Spirit of sadness or that delights in our melancholly dumpish tempers but is a chearful though a most holy Spirit One of the fruits of the Spirit is joy but sadnesse is not reckoned amongst them Not but that the Spirit of God leads men to be sad sometimes or rather through sadnesse to gladnesse as of old his people through a wilderness to the land of promise and in most cases sorrow is better than laughter than a vain foolish worldly frothy laughter or affliction than prosperity for us because by the sadnesse of the countenance the heart is made better Yet sadness and sorrow are occasioned by and spring from another cause viz. sin and its fruits were it not for them in our selves or others the Spirit of God would scarce ever lead us to be sad His ways are ways of pleasantnesse and all his paths are peace Prov. 3.17 He is a chearful spirit and leads to chearfulnesse and loves not sullen sowre frames and dispositions Yet we poor foolish creatures as I prove sometimes my self are apt to be either carnally lightly wantonly and vainly merry or else on the other extream to espouse to our selves a sad glumpish spirit a melancholly rugged harsh disposition or Pharasaical face For they put on sowre sad countenances as too many yet do as a piece of religion Mat. 6.16 as if God delighted in such Cynick or Stoick frames formal bodily humilities a whining voice a head hanging down like a bul-rush and such like self-tormenting carriages No no God is a chearful Spirit as having infinite joy and delight in himself and in his Son and in his works and doings and He and his Spirit call for and lead to chearfulness in his service Whence he saith Make a joyful not a doleful sad lamentable noise to the Lord all ye lands serve the Lord with gladness he saith not with sadness and come before his presence with a song Not with a complaint as thinking hardly of him or being afraid of his harshnesse and aptnesse to be displeased with us Psal 100.1.2 He loves not to have his Altar covered with tears he accepts not such offerings at our hands except in case of sorrowing after God and for our sins Mal. 2.13 He loves a chearful server of him as well as a chearful giver 2 Cor 9.7 In his presence is fulnesse of joy and pleasures at his right hand for evermore And they are to reward his followers and worshippers Psal 16.11 Thence those many exhortations to the righteous his worshippers to rejoyce Finally my Brethren rejoyce in the Lord Philip. 3.1 and rejoyce in the Lord evermore and again I say rejoyce Phil. 4 4. and in 1 Thes 5.16 Rejoyce evermore See also Psal 32.11 33.1 as checking that aptness to be sad that is in his worshippers and signifying that it displeases him and well it may for its dishonorable to him occasioning people to be offended at his service and ways as affording nothing but sadnesse and melancholly to them that walk therein And as signifying the great goodnesse of God and the good and abundant cause that God's people have of rejoycing in him For as he is the only good God and infinitely better than any other god or object of trust and worship so there is infinitely more cause of gladness in and from him than any where else Nor have any people such cause of rejoycing and confidence and boldnesse as those that are God's and belong to him considering what they have in and with him and what a portion and happinesse he is to them All other things are muddy cisterns in point of causing or affording joy and chearfulness He is the free and full and perpetually running fountain of joy delight and consolation He gives everlasting consolation and good hope through grace 2 Thes 2.16 We have not found God then so as to know him indeed till we meet with and have in him yea under and notwithstanding all occasions of heaviness that befal us joy unspeakable and full of glorying 1 Pet 1.6 7 8. None may rejoyce so as the righteous they that are in Christ Jesus and walk with him such may boldly say The Lord is our helper Come what will come We will not fear what can man do unto us Oh! seek we him and the knowledge of him till we finde it so as to have rejoycing evermore in him Though we may have manifold occasions of sadnesse both from within us and from without us yet we have cause being in him and walking with him of a perpetual and evermore rejoycing Away away then with all hypocritical Pharasaical thoughts to please God in our demure looks and sowre countenances as if therein stood our being humble before him and let us take the advise and counsel of our Lord and Father and accept his exhortation Let us eat and be merry Make merry and be glad Quest But what must we do to make merry and be glad Answ Alas what can we do to make merry and be glad it must all come from God as the ground and Author of it He must go before and it s our parts to comply with him and follow after him If he frown upon us we have no cause to make merry but to mourn before him till he call us to mirth and further then he calls us to mirth and to make merry we shall do well to be sober and attend to him But when he calls us to joy and gladnesse as here and to make merry we may in the supplies of his grace do something as to say we may and let us 1. Hearken to the voice of God and his servants calling us thereto and opening the cause thereof and the grounds for it to us Such as be his mercy towards sinners and to us and our Brethren in what he hath done for and to both us and them As the Servants say here to the elder Son inquiring the cause of their mirth Thy Brother is come and thy Father
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
hear his voice harden not your hearts Heb. 6.7 8 15. 2. They that maintain those premises as true yet approve not thy inferences either therefore thou inferrest groundlesly or else the premises themselves be very faulty that will bear such inferences as the owners of the premises be almost all ashamed of Sure as no lye is of the truth so that cannot be sound doctrine that will support shameful and vitious inferences 3. Thy conceptions of the business of election to life are evidently gross mistakes while thou supposest that any such as thou art may possibly be of God's Elect in their present unconverted state for the Elect in Scripture language have such characters and descriptions as agree not to thee or to any unconverted sinful livers For to instance they are such as 1. Cry night and day to God Luc. 18.7 so as neither thou nor any such as thou doth 2. They can scarcely if possibly be deceived by the most subtle seducers Mat. 24.24 but thou and all unconverted sinners are actually under the power of the deceits of sin and Satan and any of the Libertines that would intice thee to sin saying it cannot hinder thee of salvation may soon deceive thee being in such principles already snared 3. The Elect are such as none can lay any thing to the charge of or condemn being justified of God and Christ's death resurrection ascension and intercession being prevalent with God to present them acceptable to him Rom. 8.33 34. which is the priviledge of such as are in Christ Jesus not walking after the flesh as thou and unregenerate sinners do but after the spirit and not of any walking after the flesh Rom. 8.1 13 14. for God doth and men with his allowance may lay sin to the charge of such and so to thee and condemn both thee and them For he that believeth not in the Name of the Son of God is condemned already because he hath not believed on him Joh. 3.18 19. Yea and 4. The Election hath obtained namely to righteousness when others are hardned or blinded Rom. 11.7 with 9.30 31. but thou and all unconverted impenitent sinners are short of righteousness and have not obtained it 5. The Elect and Chosen to salvation are chosen to it in or through the sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth saith 2 Thess 2.13 and in or by the sanctification of the Spirit to obedience and sprinkling of the bloud of Jesus Christ saith 1 Pet. 1.2 But thou that art an unconverted sinner art a stranger to all those things being not sanctified in thy spirit by God's Spirit but an unbeliever of and disobedient to the truth and therefore also unsprinkled in thy mind and conscience with the precious blood of Christ These things shew that thy supposition of being possibly one of the elect is very groundless nor yet do I conclude thee a reprobate and one that mayst not in repenting be saved for though no ungodly one can be called an Elect one yet for ungodly ones Christ hath dyed Rom. 5.6 and God calls such to repentance and such repenting have been saved Isa 55.7 1 Cor. 6.9 10 11. 4. I might adde with Luther Deus huic curiositati occurrit dicens Ego tibi praedestinationem egregiè manifestabo c. God meets with thy curiosity saying I will excellently manifest to thee the mystery of my Election but not in that way of reason and fleshly wisdom which thou imaginest but thus I will do of a God unrevealed I will become a God revealed and yet I will abide the same God still I will be incarnate I will send my Son who shall dye for thy sins and rise again and so I will fullfil thy desire Lo this is my beloved Son hear him behold him lying in the Manger or in his Mothers Lap and hanging on the Crosse mind what he hath done and said there thou mayst behold me if thou hearest and lovest him then thou art predestinate to life other ways of reason slay thou because God detests them Let this be thy business to receive the Son of God let him be pleasing in thy heart in his Nativity Miracles and Crosse for there is the Book of Life in which mens names be written Thus Luther excellently on Gen. 26. To which let me adde 5. It is good for us to know the truth as it is in Jesus and there we may rightly discern Election and Reprobation both in Decree and Execution the eternal purpose and grace given us in Christ before the agey times 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being now made manifest by the coming of Christ c 2 Tim. 1.9 10. and so certain it is 1. That God of mere favour and grace chose the seed of Abraham of Isaac of Jacob of David even Jesus of Nazareth made of their seed according to the flesh to be the Saviour of the world and the heir and inheritor even in the manhood of all the fulness of the grace spirit blessing and glory of God so as by him and him only they may be communicated to others also and in all this to be the seed in whom all the families of the earth were to be blessed see Isa 42.1 Gal. 3.16 17. 1 Pet. 2 4. 2. With respect to Christ he chose Abraham and his seed after him to excellent honour and priviledges above all other people yet not all his seed nor any merely upon that account but him in whom his seed even Christ should be called that is Isaac Gen. 21.12 Rom. 9.7 whereas Ishmaell also was his seed after the flesh And of Isaac before his two children were born or had done any good or evil that his purpose of Election might stand not of works but of him that calleth he chose Jacob to be the progenitor of Christ and to have the choise knowledge of God and his Oracles deposited with him and he took or adopted all his children to be brought up as his houshold-servants or children under the nurture and instruction of the same and so to have the preheminence therein even above Esau and his posterity whom he destinated Nationally to be servants to them see Gen. 25.23 Mal 1.1 2. which as it is an act of less love may be called hatred as less love is in the Scripture so called Gen. 29.30 31. Luc. 14.26 though it is not said He hated Esau till it 's said too and he laid waste his Mountains not before the two children were born but in Malachies time Mal. 1.2 with Rom. 9.13 yet so as the blessing in Jacob's seed that is Christ should be for all the Nations or Families of the earth Gen. 28.13 out of which number Esaus could not be excluded in submitting to and serving him but the honour to have the blessing to spring out of his seed and so that salvation should be of them and they to be as his children or houshold-servants a people near to him in respect of whom others were to be as Subjects
or woman for the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here is of both Genders or Sexes and extends to either man or woman though carried on after in the Masculine with reference to and for the fitter resemblance of God but what I say would any man or woman do think you if having but two Sons they should lose one of them would they not more industriously seek him and finding him again would they not be much more glad for him though they have another beside then for a Sheep and then a woman though never so great a Housewife for a six pence Such the scope of this third Parable in which our Lord shews his and his Fathers fatherly affection to mankinde as made by him and as his Off-spring as the Poet saith descended of him and much more to such as are his by Adoption and special grace of Regeneration by and through Jesus Christ The fruit of the travel of his Soul and the issue of his Word and Spirit vouchsafed to and working in and upon them And so he saith and I shall a little paraphrase on it CHAP. II. The Parable of the Prodigal Paraphrased to the Text. A Certain man had two Sons that 's but a few the smallest number that can be but by how much the fewer the loather would the Father be to lose one of them Ver. 2. And the younger of them said to his Father give me the portion of Goods that falleth to me shewing that the beginning of mans departure from God is his not liking to live upon God and Christ by Faith in him but desiring to have his portion in himself in his own hand dispose and keeping that he might be a Lord in himself Jer. 2.31 and live apart from God in his own sufficiency of Wisdom Power Understanding c. And he divided unto them his living signifying the readiness of God to distribute to men his gifts and benefits as pleases him Verse 13. And not many dayes after the younger Son gathered all together either as arrogating to himself what he had received of God or taking a view of and contemplating his riches received from God so as to estimate himself accordingly the Spring of Spiritual pride and subjecting them to his own will And he took his journey into a far Countrey went away and departed in heart and life from his dependance on and obedience to the Lord and from close cleaving to him for counsel protection direction and blessing and he there in the world or state of Apostacy from God wasted spent or scattered his substance whatever substantial gift or grace he had received of God with riotous living living carelesly and spending Gods Gifts on his own lusts and pleasures Verse 14. And when he had spent all as a man may soon spend and lose all in being departed from God who should and would continually supply him in depending on him and being guided by him there arose or was a mighty famine in that Land a great want and spiritual emptiness to the soul from the world in that its departed and separated state from God there being nothing in the Idols to which the soul is gone out but emptiness and misery And he began to be in want to be sensible of the loss of satisfaction he was wont to receive from God and had in his gifts and of the emptiness of his soul in their absence or loss Verse 15. And he went yet further from God instead of repenting and turning back to him and fastned joyned himself to a Citizen of that Country Such the folly of the heart of man departed from God that under the sense of its loss and want it rather goes further from him and layes about more earnestly for and sticks more closely to some creature comfort Idol yea or to the Devil and his counsel thinking to finde help there then looks back to God So long as it can hope to finde help or life out of him any where else it comes not to him And he sent him into the fields to feed swine Such is the base drudgery work of sin and the Devil that he employes the soul in an employment far below a Princes Son and yet so foolish be the disobedient departed sons of God that they rather submit to any base servile drudgery where they hope to finde though never so poor a subsistence rather then repent and go back to God See this in other phrases Isa 30.1 2 15 16. Hosea 5.13 14. Jeremiah 2.13 and many other places Verse 16. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks the Swine did eat of but no man gave unto him Such the baseness of the revolted lost Soul that it could be content to subsist or finde its life and pleasure in the vilest things rather then to return to God and to the things above that he hath prepared in Christ for us Such the emptiness and vileness of all worldly enjoyments that they be fitly resembled to husks Swines meat rather then Mans And such the merciful providence of God toward his strayed children as oft-times not to suffer them to finde satisfaction or supplies from any thing they sinfully seek it in for this was the way to cure him as mad men and men distracted sometimes are by being kept fasting and hunger bit And such was he now as follows when it s said Verse 17. And when he came to himself Men are drunk with Sathans delusions sins deceits or the worlds lushious fulness while they can finde therein what to feed themselves on or are made men while without sense of their sin and misery and without mindefulness of God But God often by afflictions and crosses recalls them and brings them again to their Sences to see what they have done and whitherto they be brought and what course they should now take as it s added He said How many hired Servants of my Fathers have bread enough and to spare and I perish with hunger The beginning of Conversion is when the Sinner is made sensible of his misery and sees and beholds also Gods goodness and sufficiency to relieve and help him remembers whence he is fallen and what relation God stands in toward him in his Son there is the beginning of his quickning and reviving again God is good to hired Servants those that walk in his wayes and do his work only with eye to themselves and their own advantages thereby and have not been begotten to him through the immortal seed of the word the grace in his Son discovered to and received by them But how much more to such as being begotten to him by his love do in love to him depend on and serve him Thence he resolves Verse 19. I will arise Sin overthrows the sinner and makes him by groveling and groaning under its burthen and pressure when discerned but grace perceived and called to remembrance quickens and gives motion strength and resolution to arise from the practice of it and from
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
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
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
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
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