Meditations the Parable of the Prodigal Son, Chapter 7
CHAP. VII.
Wherein follows the Second general Doctrine resulting from the First Part of the Parable: shewing both the sinful and miserable consequences of mens forsaking of God. The gross mistake of most men herein; and the Means to be used for prevention.
I Have finished the first general Doctrine from the first part of the Parable, viz. That every man by nature hath a lusting desire to leave God, to stand upon his own legs, and to be at his own disposal. Let us now see the sad effects hereof in the second general Doctrine, viz. That mens leaving and casting off God's Government, to live of themselves, and to be at their own dispose, is the cause of very much sin and sorrow in their lives.
This was the younger Son's case in this Parable, he leaves his Father, and is led by his own Lusts, and at last comes to great penury and drudgery; he kept Swine, and eat with them too; he fed them, and fed of the same meat with them, and at length could not get that; he would gladly have filled his belly with the Husks which the Swine did eat, but could not get them.
It's to be observed, that his first step to happiness was his thoughts of returning to his Fathers house; and his first step to misery was his leaving his Father. And thus it is with every man that waves the will of God, as to his Rule, and follows his own. It is his undoing, he now becomes a man of sin and sorrow, as to leave father and mother, &c. for God, is the way to be a blessed man or woman; as it was said of Levi, who said to his Father and to his Mother, Deut. 33.9, 11.I have not seen him— And what followeth? Bless Lord his substance, and accept the work of his hands, and strike through the loyns of them that rise against him. So to leave God, and follow our selves or men, it is the high way to sin and sorrow.
If they forsake me, I will forsake them, Deut. 32.16, 17.and many evils and troubles shall befall them. When those Jews in the 42. and 43. of Jeremiah rejected the Word of the Lord for their stay in their own Country, and would go down into Egypt, they there perished miserably.
And when Jonah fled from the presence of the Lord, he met with a rough Sea, Jonah 2.2.and was cast into it, and swallowed into the belly of hell. And what a deluge of sin and sorrow did Adam bring upon the World by casting off the will of God, Rom. 1.12. and 8.22.and following his own? God said eat not; he would eat: this brought him and all the World under sin and misery, and the whole Creation into a groaning state.
Quest. Quest. But doth any man cast off God?
Answ. Answ. Though men do not so in formal expressions, Tit. 2.16.yet really, and indeed many do. In words they profess they know God, but in works they deny him. Men may cast off God when they know not that they do so, Gen. 19.as it is said of Lot, That he perceived not when his daughters lay down, nor when they arose. We know how strange the Jews made of it when the Lord charged them particularly and exprefly, Mal. 1.6. and 2.17.O ye Priests that despise my Name: But they reply, Wherein have we despised thy Name? Ye have wearied the Lord: Wherein have we wearied him? Ye have robbed me: And they reply, Wherein have we robbed thee? Return unto me: but they say, wherein should we return? Your words have been stout against me, Mal. 3.7, 8, 13.saith the Lord; yet you say, Wherein have we spoken so much against thee? So plain is it that men may cast off God, and not perceive it.
Quest. Quest. But when do we cast off God?
Answ. Answ. When we make to our selves false Rules to walk by, or false Refuges to rely upon, now we cast off God: when we set the Creature in God's stead, and let our own wills take place of him, now we cast off God.
When Ephraim saw his sickness, Hos. 5.13.and Judah his wound, then went Ephraim to the Assyrian, and not to God: Jer. 44.16.And Judah refused the word of the Lord, and did after their own wills. And this is common with men to make the Creature their refuge, and their own wills their rule, and now they cast off God.
Yea, in any sin that a man doth knowingly and deliberately, he casts off God: Thus did Saul when he spared Agag, &c. contrary to his express Commission, Thou hast rejected the word of the Lord: 1 Sam. 15.And when a man rejects his Word, he rejects the Lord himself. He that heareth you, heareth me, Luke 10.16.and he that despiseth you, despiseth me. I say, where a man doth any thing he knoweth to be sin, or neglects to do any known duty, when he doth thus deliberately, and not through the transport of a temptation, he rejects the Lord, and gives him reason to reject him: Num. 3.3.But God keeps his Covenant when we break it; our unfaithfulness makes not the faith or fidelity of God of none effect: His mercy endureth for ever: He taketh not the many advantages we give; Psal. 103.10.He hath not dealt with us after our sins, saith David by experience. O how often do we cast off God, and yet he will be our God still! He keeps his Covenant when we break it; therefore is that Promise, I will heal their backslidings; Hos. 14.4.I will love them freely.
It is an accursed disposition in every man by nature to cast off God, and to do our own will; and he that knows not this by himself, knows not his own heart enough, but is a stranger there: Every heart by nature is poisoned with this, though it may be unseen to us, as Laban's Gods were to Jacob, though in his House.
And the Reason why men thus cast of God, Reas. is the prejudice they have at his ordering their conditions; men usually like not God's way he taketh with them. When he brought Israel into the Wilderness, then they had rather have been in Egypt; we are too apt to be displeased at God's disposing of us, Gen. 48.17.as Joseph was at the manner of his Father's blessing his two Sons; and the Reason is because we pass a Judgment on God's disposals by sight, 2 Cor. 5.7.and not by faith: Now sight is a false Medium to take a view of Providence by, which is much more the object of faith, as the Creation is; By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God. A Staff that is streight when looked on through the air, seems crooked if looked on in the water.
But I come to speak to the two Branches of the Doctrine, That to cast off God, and follow self, leads men into abundance of sin and sorrow. Into abundance of sin: It's a notorious inlet to sin; it pulls up the sluces and floodgates of wickedness, and brings in a deluge of sin and ungodliness.
For 1. it's certain that the knowledge of God, and acquaintance with him, is the only sufficient barr against sin. Joseph's acquaintance with God was his preservation against the importunate temptation of his Mistress; Gen. 39.9.How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God? The servants of former Governours bare rule over the people, that is, used their pleasure on them, but so did not I, saith Nehemiah, Neh. 5.15.because of the fear of God. To have God much and aright in our thoughts, is a forcible Caveat against all sin: As it is a powerful barr, so it is an universal barr against sin; it keeps from all sorts of sin, because all sin is against God. When a man so knows God, as to reverence him in his thoughts, and to close with his will, this is both a powerful and universal barr to sin.
A man's reason and parts, and his natural Conscience, may be a fence against some sins, but not all; there are sins that any of these Hedges will let in: Nothing is a sufficient fence against all sin, Psal. 4.4.but a holy aw of God; Stand in aw, and sin not. The Devil cannot easily tempt to sin where the Word of God is hid in the heart; thus saith S. Psal. 119.11.John to those young men 1 John 2.14. I write unto you young men, because ye are strong, and the Word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one.
They shall all know me, and I will cause them to walk in my statutes, are links in the Covenant of Grace; and therefore those that live in any known sin, may conclude they know not God with a New Covenant knowledge.
And again, as a man's reason and parts, or natural Conscience may be curbs from some sins, so may shame from others, but these are only outside sins; for shame is no barr against sins within doors. Lusts may swarm there; there may be iniquity and hypocrisie to the full within, notwithstanding the thing we call shame.
There are no bounds against sins within doors, but an holy aw of God, and his holy Word; a setting these always before us, as David did. Psal. 16.8. Psal. 10.4.But when men put God from their thoughts and minds, as those Professors of wisdome among the Gentiles did, of whom the Apostle speaks in Rom. 1.22, 28. As they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient—I say, when men cast God out from their minds, then they sin with the greatest freedom: Our lips are our own, Psal. 12.4.who is Lord over us? There is no hope, but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imaginations of his evil heart. Jer. 18.12.This is the first demonstration of men's leaving God to be the inlet to sin, because there is no powerful and universal barr to sin, but a reverend, hearty, and experimental knowledge of, and acquaintance with God.
2. Because such as leave God are left of God to their own lusts: Psal. 81.11, 12.My people would not hearken to my voice, and Israel would none of me: so I gave them up unto their own hearts lusts. When men cast off the true God, he casts them under the power of a lying Spirit, 1 Kings 22.as he did Ahab's Prophets: The fool hath said in his heart there is no God. Observe what follows, Psal. 14.2.They are corrupt, they have done abominable works. Thus for the Reasons of the first Branch.
The Reasons of the second Branch of the Doctrine, That mens leaving God lets in upon them abundance of sorrow. When Cain went out of the presence of God, Jer. 20. Gen. 4.14.he was a man of fears, and a terrour to himself, as Pashur was; I shall be a fugitive, and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me. The reason of this is,
1. Because God will fill a man with his own ways, Prov. 1.30. They would none of my counsel, therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. The Prodigal had enough of his farr Countrey, and the Children of Israel of the Flesh they lusted after: He that soweth to the flesh, Gal. 6.8. Hos. 8.7.shall of the flesh reap corruption: They have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. That is a plain Text in the case in the Prophet Isaiah; Isa. 50.11.Behold all ye that kindle a fire, that compass your selves about with sparks: walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled: this shall ye have of mine hand, ye shall lie down in sorrow.
2. In this case God observes the Law of Retaliation; Eye for eye, Exod. 21.24.tooth for tooth— Where men cast off God, he will cast off them; here is the Law of Retaliation. Thus said David on his Deathbed to his Son Solomon, If thou forsake him, 1 Chron. 28.9.he will cast thee off for ever. With the froward thou wilt shew thy self froward, Psal. 18.26. Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, Jer. 2.16. And what says Jonah by dear experience? Jonah 2.8.They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercies. Jonah thought to have found safety in going from the presence of the Lord, but this involv'd him in such dangers as he never knew before; he fell into the belly of hell. This was also the case of Saul when he rejected the Lord, in rejecting his word; 1 Sam. 15.23. and 16.14.The Lord rejected him from being King; yea, the Spirit of the Lord departed from him, and an Evil Spirit from the Lord terrefied him. Yea, when Solomon sought happiness out of God, all his findings were vanity and vexation of spirit. Whenever we forsake the fountain of living water, we hew out Cisterns, broken Cisterns, that can hold no water, Jer. 2.13.
Application.
1. This shews us the gross and grievous mistake, I would I might not say of most men, to call that their happiness which is indeed their misery, that is to be loose from God and his Word, and to be tied to their own wills, and led by their own lusts. O how many think it a fine World when they can say, Our lips are our own, Psal. 12.who is Lord over us? Men think this a mercy, but the Lord deliver me from such mercy, said St. Bernard. That which men think their mercy, is their misery.
It is better for us that God hedge up our way with thorns, i. e. with difficulties and distresses, than let us take our own way, and run wild, as we are by nature; Jer. 2.24.for man is a wild Ass, used to the Wilderness, that snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure. If God did not hedge up mens way, they would be mostly upon the Devil's Commons: Forsake God, 2 Tim. 2.26.and the God of this World hath you in his paws, and at his will.
Whilst a man is farr from God, Psal. 119.115.Salvation is farr from him; yea, the further any man's thoughts and desires, and cares are from God, the nearer Satan is to that man to enter into him, as he did into Judas. For if Satan will get to a man's right hand when he stands before the Lord, Zach. 3.2.as he did to Joshua the Jews High Priest, he will get into his heart when he is out of God's presence.
We read in Job 1.6. Job 1.6.how Satan got among the holy Angels when they presented themselves before the Lord; (not that Satan comes into Heaven; for God and his holy Angels may be there where Satan may also be; in the air, or upon the earth: It is a similitude from earthly Kings; 1 Kings 22.) how much more may Satan joyn himself to men that are at a distance from God? Psal. 10.4.when their thoughts and minds are remote from God, than Satan is nigh them to influence them, and to be a lying Spirit to them, 1 Kings 22.22.and in them, as he was in Ahab's Prophets; he shews them happiness and pleasure in doing their own wills and lusts, which proves but a cheat, like Juglers tricks.
That day wherein a man is a stranger to God, is a day of Errors, and a day of Terrors in the conception, if not in the birth: It's thought a fine thing for every man to do that which is right in his own eyes. If men might do what they would, Judges 17.6.and have what they list, without check from God's Word and their own Conscience, O this would be a brave World with many men! but alas, this will be to them as abundance of flesh was to Israel, Psal. 116.15.leanness to their Souls; Num. 11.33.this sweet meat would be sawced with the wrath of God, as the Quails were; and the sweetness of their own lusts would be to them as abhorring as Tamar was to Amnon; 2 Sam. 13.15.and as meat on which a man surfeits.
So that it's a thousand times better to have our judgments, reason, wills, and affections under God's command and power then our own: It's infinitely better to abide with God, than to be loose from him in any of our faculties or ways. God never did any man hurt that set his heart upon him; but all other things do; yea, they undo us when we set our hearts upon them; Isa. 55.2.we now spend our money for that which is not bread; and our labour for that which sufficeth not.
O then, if ever you will do your selves good, acquaint your selves much with God. Job 22.21.A man acquainted with God, need not say as many do, Who will shew us any good? Psal. 4.6. Exod. 33.19.For God saith to him what he did to Moses, I will make all my goodness pass before thee. Remember Samuel's words to Israel, 1 Sam. 12.21. Turn ye not aside from the Lord, for then should ye go after vain things which cannot profit, for they are vain.
All your projects and contrivances for content out of God's way, Hos. 9.14.will be but as miscarrying wombs, and dry breasts. You may sometimes conceit that God deals hardly with you, Psal. 73.12, 13.worse then with wicked men, as Asaph under a temptation did, and as Job did, Job 10.3. but these good men eat their words, and recall'd their error; So foolish was I, and ignorant, Job 42.3.said the one; I have uttered that which I understood not, says the other. Doubtless God's worst is better than the World's best, or Satan's best, or the Flesh's best. God's worst will turn it self into good, Exod. 3.3, 4.as the Serpent, Moses was afraid of, presently turned into a Rod in his hand.
But the Devil's best turns to the greatest evil; Adam and Eve found it so: Gen. 3.He pleased them when he told them they should be as Gods, but they presently saw they were naked. And so the World's best, Eccles. 1, & 2.when the heart is set upon the World, turns into vanity and vexation of spirit; so Solomon found it. And the best of self proves as bad. When Jonah would wave God's Call, and follow his own humour, he learnt by sad experience, and dear bought, that they that observe lying vanities, Jonah 2.8.forsake their own mercies: He went from the presence of God to save himself, but he lost himself first in the Sea, and then in the belly of Hell.
If to depart from God and his Government, Ʋse 2 to be at our own dispose, be the inlet to sin and misery, then take heed of such sins as cause your departing from God. And what sins are these?
First, Ignorance of God, of his worth and excellency; ignorance of his Allsufficiency, when men profess an unknown God, as St. Paul saw in Athens an Altar to the unknown God: Acts 7.13. Ignoti nulla. cupido.Now their spirits sit loose from God; they have no great affections for him, nor do they much stand in aw of him, but sin with liberty and liking; Jer. 9.3.They proceed from evil to evil; for they know not me, saith the Lord.
Mens ignorance of God's Attributes, and Word, and Works becomes sin to them, 2 Kings 12.13.as Jeroboam's Calves at Dan and Bethel did to Israel. And Ignorance of God becomes mens misery too, as is said of the people whom the King of Assyria placed in the Cities of Samaria, that because they knew not the manner of the God of the Land, 2 Kings 17.26.therefore he sent Lions among them, and they slew them; because they knew not the manner of the God of the Land.
2. Unbelief is a sin that makes men to depart from God. Hebr. 3.12.Take heed Brethren, lest there be in any of you an heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. foreign & foreign sunt cognata.Unbelief is the ground of mens drawing back from God. Israels unbelief in the Wilderness made them change their God into a golden Calve; their unbelief caused a double casting off; they cast off God, and God casts off them; and the Land of Canaan would not receive them, So then they could not enter in because of unbelief. Heb. 3.19.As Faith is the grace of union between God and Men, so Unbelief is the sin of separation.
3. Spiritual Pride makes us leave God, and God us. Psal. 10.4. Psal. 138.6.The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God; God is not in all his thoughts: and so God beholds the proud afar off. God keeps at a distance from a proud heart; Psa. 57.15.his abode is with the humble spirit, but the proud man dwells by himself: Self-depending, and self-seeking, and self-ascribing, are the Idols of a proud heart, and keep God out of that his Chair of State.
O take heed then of the poyson that corrupt nature extracts from good parts, from moral vertues, and from great priviledges; these are very good and desirable in themselves, but through man's corrupt nature, there is a poyson that follows them; as the Bee has a sting as well as honey: And this poyson is our aptness to settle on our own bottoms, and to think of our selves above what is meet, as Simon Magus gave out that himself was some great one.Ac… 2.9.
St. 2 Cor. 12.Paul himself was in this danger, to be exalted through the abundance of revelations. They drive the heat inward, they draw a man's eye too much on himself, and so keep him at a distance from God, Judges 8.27.which becomes a Snare to him, as Gideon's Ephod did to him, and to his House.
As a man's Castle or Fort, Simile. well furnished with Ammunition and Provision, is a good defence against an Enemy; but if he keep it against his Prince, it may prove his ruin: Thus a mans parts and gifts and priviledges, may render him useful many ways; but if once they draw his eye off from God to self, to self-esteem and self-applause, he'l depend little on God, and ascribe little to him; and so they are his undoing.
It was self-righteousness that kept the Jews off from Christ, and the Scribes and Pharisees from sense of their sinfulness, and sorrow for it. Parts and moral Vertues, and a fair outward Carriage do often prove as great an impediment to the receiving of Christ, and the free Grace of God, as gross sins, and sometimes greater. A man that is full of self has no room for God; as a Glass that is full of clear water will hinder the pouring Wine into it, as much as a Glass full of Water that is muddy.
Lastly, If you would not leave God, and his Government, and disposal of you, get his New-Covenant-fear into your heart, and keep it there. I will put my fear into their hearts, Jer. 32.40.that they shall not depart from me. This, I say this fear of God in the heart of man will link man to God faster than Ruth to Naomi, or Jonathan to David.
Quest. But what is this New-Covenant-fear of God in a man's heart?
Answ. It is such a reverend and high esteem of God, through inward acquaintance with him, and his Laws in our minds and hearts, as makes us, we will leave any thing rather than God: Gen. 12:as Abrahams fear of God, such fear as is here spoken of, made him leave his native Countrey and Kindred to follow God. O feel this fear of God in your hearts, and it will be impossible to part you and God: Be his present dispensations towards you never so sharp, you'l cling to him, as the Child does to the Mother when she chides it; Job 13.15.Though he slay me, yet wil… I trust in him.
And let your outward condition be never so low, yea, Cant. 7.10.and your parts never so mean, that men see no form or comliness in you, why they should desire you: yet Christ's desire will be towards you; and God's Soul is knit to yours so, Heb. 13.5.that he will never never leave you nor forsake you. Be but poor within as well as without, and God will have your Company to choose; Isa. 66.2.To this man will I look that is poor, and of a contrite spirit. Isa. 57.15.I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit. And so much for the second general Doctrine taught us in this first part of the Parable.