Meditations the Parable of the Prodigal Son, Chapter 3
CHAP. III.
Giveth the Reasons of the Doctrine in the foreging Chapter; and the Demonstrations of its unquestionable Truth.
HAving thus cleared the Doctrine, viz. That God doth very graciously receive returning sinners: I shall now proceed to give you the grounds and reasons hereof. And the first
Is from the Nature of God, Reas. 1 which he calls his Name, Exod. 33.19. and his back parts, v. 19. by which expression he means his Relative Attributes, which are his Attributes that concern us sinners: For God hath two sorts of Attributes; some that describe him what he is in himself, as I am hath sent thee. His Infinity, Omnipotency, Eternity, there are his two parts or face, which he calls his glory; and so Moses called them, I beseech thee shew me thy glory, v. 18. and of which the Lord told him, No man can see my glory and live. John 16.12.No man in the body could bear such a sight, as Christ said to his Disciples in another case.
And then God hath Relative Attributes, which set him out what he is to us, as poor undone Sinners: these he calls his back parts; and these he shewed Moses, and made proclamation of them for all repenting Sinners to mind for their encouragement.
And the Lord passed by before him, Exod. 34.6.and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth; keeping mercy for thousands, and forgiving iniquity, and transgression, and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty: all but the last are to keep from despair; but that from presumption. All these Attributes but one, are encouraging to all sorts of sinners to repent and return to God, and that one is engaging and enforcing. When Benhadad's Servants had heard that the Kings of Israel were merciful Kings, they put Sackcloth on their Loins, and Ropes upon their Heads, 1 Kings 20.and say, Peradventure the King of Israel will save thy life. Why, there is no Sinner but hath heard that God is a merciful God to mournful Sinners; and the Sinner heareth not only one word of encouragement come from his mouth, but very many, and every one very inviting to a sinner to come in.
The Hebrews say there are thirteen Titles in this Name of God, and but one of them vindicative; all the rest alluring to Sinners to repent, and come into God.
The Lord, the Lord God, Jehovah, Jehovah, Ael. These three Attributes may import his Essence and Subsistence in three Persons, as in 2 John 5.7. Jehovah, Jehovah, the Lord doubles his Name for Moses his better notice, who it was that made this so solemn Proclamation. Jehovah, even Jehovah speaks, as in Isaiah 43.25. I, even I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake. And he adds, The Lord, the Lord God. Ael, that is, strong and mighty, to make good all that follows in his Name he here proclamed; as Moses says in Num. 14.17. And now I beseech thee, let the power of my Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying, The Lord is longsuffering, and of great mercy, &c. Which shews plainly, that it was God himself that proclam'd his Name, and not Moses, as some have thought.
And here we may take notice, That to pardon sin is an act of power as well as grace; so saith our Lord Jesus, Matth. 9.6.—That ye may know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins. It follows,
Merciful. This is sutable to a Sinners misery; every Sinner being by nature naked, Ezek. 16.and in his blood, and cast out to the loathing of his person; and by nature the child of wrath: Now the Lord, Eph. 2.3.the Lord God merciful, is a word indeed for a Sinner in misery to take hold on, as Benhadad's Servants did on the word Brother from the King of Israel's mouth: Yea, and God is not only merciful, but the Father of mercies, and he is so for ever; 2 Cor. 1.3.therefore it is said six and twenty times in one Psalm 136. For his mercy endureth for ever.
Gracious. This the Sinner, the convinced Sinner is to oppose to his own unworthiness; Exod. 33.1…I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious. A Sinners call would not be of Grace, if there were any thing of worth in him; therefore the objects of God's Call unto grace are commonly the foolish, and the weak, 1 Cor. 1.26.and the base, and the despised things of the world: Go and tell John, Matth. 11.5.that the poor have the Gospel preached to them: and this was amongst the wonders that Jesus did, which might convince John's doubting Disciples that he was the Christ.
Long-suffering. This may answer a repentant Sinners fears that arise from his long withstanding the offers of grace; Isa. 30.18. Isa. 57.18.Therefore will the Lord wait that he may be gracious. — He went on frowardly in the way of his heart; I have seen his ways, and will heal him. Jer. 3.1.Thou hast played the Harlot with many lovers, yet return again to me saith the Lord.
Abundant in goodness. Therefore can he overcome all the evil of a Sinner: Rom. 12.He enables his people to overcome evil with good; much more can, and will he do it himself.
And abundant in truth. This may answer all thy doubts about God's promises to receive returning Sinners: He often eminently asserts his truth in his Promises; Psalm 100.— his truth endureth from generation to generation. There have been famous proofs of the truth of God's Promises to such Sinners in all Ages; the Lord may say to all converted Sinners, Ye are my witnesses— Isa. 43.10.
Pardoning iniquity, transgression, and sin. This is to prevent despair that might rise from the multitude of sins and magnitude of sins. Isa. 55.7.Let the wicked turn to our God, for he will abundantly pardon; Isa. 1.Hebr. he will multiply to pardon. Put away the evil of your doings, and then, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wooll. Scarlet and Crimson are colours of a deep die, nothing can thorowly wash them out; Yes, 1 John 2.7.but the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth from all sin; even sins that have the most hellish and devilish tincture. The wooll of those Counries was exceeding white; Dan. 7.9.Psalm 147.16. He giveth snow-like wooll; pure wooll, as it was said of the hair of the head of the Ancient of days, described there not in his Essence, but in his Presence. The expressions import, Ovid. Metam. lib. 15.That God hath a white Stone (an Emblem of Absolution or Pardon, a custome among the Heathens) to give to the chief of Sinners, when repenting and returning to him.
Keeping mercy for thousands. God is an unexhausted fountain of mercy; James 2.13.and therefore mercy rejoyceth or glorieth against judgment; as if there were a strife between Mercy and Judgment about sinners, and Mercy gets the victory: says the Prophet Micah, He delighteth in mercy. Mic. 7.18.Mercy is as pleasing to God as to the Sinner. As the motion, which the woman of Tekoa made to David for Absolom's return from banishment, was as pleasing to David as to Joab, who had a hand in it; it's said, 2 Sam. 14.1.Joab perceived that the King's heart was towards Absosolom.
Lastly, And that will by no means clear the guilty: i. e. That shall be guilty of despising and abusing the former Attributes of God in this his Name, inviting Sinners to come in to him. When a Sinner comes to be contumacious and stubborn, and a presumptuous Sinner, then he is past mercy. As it is with some Felons, that are not allowed the Clergy: so it is with presumptuous Sinners, there was no Sacrifice in the Law for them.
The Soul that doth ought presumptuously, Num. 15.30.or with a high hand, the same reproacheth the Lord, and that Soul shall be cut off from among his people. So in Deuteronomy, If a man bless himself in his heart, Deut. 29.19, 20saying, I shall have peace though I walk in the imagination or stubbornness of mine heart— The Lord will not spare him, his anger and his jealousie shall smoak against that man, and all the Curses that are written in this Book shall lie upon him, and the Lord shall blot out his name from under Heaven.
So that this last Clause of God's Name, And will by no means clear the guilty, is terrible indeed; but it's so only to the presumptuous and stubborn sinner; Jer. 20.3, 4.and it's enough to make such a sinner Magormissabib, or fear round about, a terror to himself. But this part of God's Name takes not place, till all the former are rejected and despised. Hos. 5.15.This, and by no means will clear the guilty, belongs not to those that acknowledge themselves to be guilty, and carry it accordingly. And this is the first Reason why God doth, and will so graciously receive self-humbling and repenting sinners, Because it is in his Nature to deal so with such.
A second Ground or Reason of it is from the Son of God's espousing the nature of man, Reas. 2 and that after the fall of man, on purpose to bring back lost man unto God. 1 Pet. 3.18.Christ hath once suffered for sins; i. e. in the sinners nature, that he might bring us to God, bring God and sinners together again, that he might reconcile and make them friends. When Jesus Christ took on him actually the Seed of Abraham, Luke 2.14.then the Angels sung on earth peace, good will towards men.
And indeed if God should not entertain returning sinners, and again take them into friendship, then did Christ take on him their nature in vain, and die in their nature in vain, and then is our preaching in vain, and your faith in vain, 2 Cor. 15.
It is to no porpose for a sinner to think of addressing himself to an absolute God; there can be no intercourse between God and him without Christ: Christ is the middle person that perswades with both. This is Christ's office and great work, 1 Pet. 3.18.to bring God and sinners together.
There are great differences between them, that cannot without him be taken up; but Christ can take up all: He brings Publicans and Harlots home to God; He preached peace to you that were afar off, as well as to them that were nigh, Eph. 2.17. Neither Moses, nor Samuel, nor Noah, nor Daniel, nor Job, might turn God's mind to the Jews, Jer. 15.1. Ezek. 14.14. I but Jesus Christ hath turned the mind of God towards the greatest of returning Sinners; Ye who were sometimes alienated, and enemies in your minds by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled unto God, Col. 1.21.
Now considering how the work of Redemption was wrought in our Nature, and God is manifested in the Flesh on purpose to be a Redeemer; that our Nature in him might be meritorious, and savable in us; that God was manifested in the flesh to satisfie God offended by us; God was offended, and God was satisfied by God in the offenders Nature: How that the Scripture saith, The Father hath sent forth his Son to be a propitiation for the remission of sins; and the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which is lost, Luke 19.10. I say, these things considered, are a second Demonstration of the willingness of God to receive returning Sinners.
The Covenant of Grace shews, Reas. 3 that God doth verily intend to be gracious to sinners. Had God continued the old Covenant of Works, or made a new Covenant of Works, poor sinners had been where they were, because of their incapacity to perform the Conditions of such a Covenant: But the Covenant being altered into a Covenant of Grace, the tearms are not, I will, if they will; but I will, and they shall; Ezek. 36.27.I will put my spirit within you, and ye shall keep my judgments and do them. God undertakes for himself and us.
And it is notably evident in the Scripture, that the great design of God in the Covenant of Grace was, and is, to advance the glory of his grace, his free grace, and that upon objects unlikeliest to natural Reason. The Gospel is made up of acts of grace; 2 Cor. 2.26. —You see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called; but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise—that no flesh should glory in his presence— The good pleasure of his will is his motive, and the praise of the glory of his grace is his end, in all his merciful actings towards sinners, Eph. 1.5, 6.
God is gracious to repenting and returning sinners, Reas. 4 because he will be true to his word, and make good his promises to this purpose. Isa. 1.16. Wash ye, make you clean, put away the evil of your doings— Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow—
The import of the Phrase is, That upon repentance they should have remission of sins, though they had been sinners of the greatest sort: And which is to be noted, God hath designed the Lord Jesus Christ to give repentance as well as remission of sins, Acts 5.32.
The holy Scriptures are full of promises and offers to poor Sinners, highly engaging to repentance for sin, and from sin, Isa. 55.7. Let the wicked forsake his way— and turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him, and he will abundantly pardon him. That of the Apostle Rom. 5.20. answers this of the Prophet, Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. And Jer. 3.1. Thou hast played the harlot with many lovers, yet return again to me, saith the Lord. And come unto me, saith Jesus to Sinners labouring under the sense of sin, Matth. 11.28. and I will give you rest. Come unto me, and I will not bind heavy burthens, and grievous to be born, as the Scribes and Pharisees do, Matth. 23.4. but i'le take off their burthens, and i'le give you a light burthen; My yoke is easie, and my burthen is light, v. 30. Come unto me, Joh. 6.37.for him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. Whom the Pharisees had cast out, Christ received, John 9. And it's to be observed, That Jesus Christ is said to have a Commission from his Father thus to treat sinners; as he said John 12.49. The Father gave me a commandment what I should say— And so the Apostle Paul tells the Corinthians, That he and the other Apostles had Commission both from the Father and Son, to treat Sinners with the most winning offers, 2 Cor. 5.20. Now then we are Embassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.
And now for a Sinner to question whether God can forgive such sins as his, it is almost to act over Cain's part, Mine iniquity is greater than can be forgiven. Gen. 4.And if a Sinner question whether God will forgive him, and receive him upon his return, this is to question truth it self, and his promises, for whom it is impossible to lie.Heb. 6.18.
The last Ground I shall mention of the Doctrine, Reas. 5 is the Presidents which are upon Record by the holy Ghost in the Case; as Adam that filled the World with sin; and Manasseth that filled Jerusalem with blood; yet these were pardoned Sinners upon their repentance and return to God.
There is a great deal of mercy in setting down the patterns of mercy in great Sinners: St. Paul saith as much of himself, and his own Case: 1 Tim. 1.13, 16. Who was a blasphemer, and a persecuter, and injurious, but I obtained mercy: And for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe.
It is true, Paul saith in v. 13. though he had been a blasphemer, and a persecuter, yet he obtained mercy, because he did it ignorantly in unbelief: But this he says to shew that his blasphemy and persecution was not the sin against the holy Ghost, else he could not have obtained mercy: He acted out of his blind zeal, and not against knowledge, and of meer malice, as many of the Pharisees, and some of the Rulers did, Matth. 12.24. Some, not all; St. Peter clears some, Acts 3.17.—I wot that through ignorance ye did it, that is, put Christ to death, as did also your Rulers.