Meditations the Parable of the Prodigal Son, Chapter 17
CHAP. XVII.
Wherein is shewed, That great pain and sorrow do always follow the pleasures of sin. With Meditations hereupon by way of Ʋse; from the fourteenth Verse, And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty Famine in that Land, and he began to be in want.
IN the former Verse this younger Son, the Picture of every man by Nature, acted his part in sin; and in these Verses we see him acting his part in sorrow: there we saw his bravery, here his misery. And here let us consider,
1. His misery it self in the fourteenth Verse; And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty Famine in that Land; and he began to be in want.
2. The Course he took for his relief, in the fifteenth Verse; And he went and joyned himself to a Citizen of that Countrey: and he sent him into his field to feed Swine.
3. The Ineffectualness of that Course in order to his relief, in the sixteenth Verse; And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks which the Swine did eat, and no man gave unto him.
First, Of his distress and misery we have here expressed a double occasion; 1. He had spent all; and 2. There arose a mighty Famine in that Land. He was distressed within and without: Within, for he had nothing of his own left; he had spent all his Substance, his whole Portion; all was gone: And without also; there was a Famine in the Land whither he was rambled from his Father's House; so that he was straitned on all hands. Though there had been a famine, if he had had something of his own, his case had been tolerable; or though he had nothing of his own, had there not been a Famine in the Land, he might have had hopes of supply: but he is every way distressed, as those Lepers were. If we say, we will go into the City, the Famine is there, 2 Kings 7.and there we shall die: and if we sit still, we die also. And observe, It is said, there arose, or began, a mighty Famine in the Land; and he began to be in want. All his straits were but the beginning of sorrow, as Christ said, when he had spoken of many sore evils that would befall Judea and Jerusalem; All these are the beginnings of sorrow: Matth. 24.8.So was it with this man's straits; for like the flood, they increased, and prevailed mightily day after day, Gen. 7. The misery of graceless men hath a beginning, but no end, if free grace dispose not otherwise of it in their conversion, as it did in this Prodigal's Case. But we come to the spiritual things which this part of the Parable means and intends.
1. This intimates to us, That great pain and sorrow follows the pleasures of sin: first he spent all his Substance upon his lust; and then he was in want, and hedged in with straits.
2. It intimates to us, That when men leave God to shift for themselves in this evil World (which is a far Countrey from God) they shall find a Famine therein; i. e. they shall find no satisfaction in the Creature: Let them have never so great a Portion, they shall have no satisfaction.
The first of these shall be the subject of this Chapter, viz. Doct. 1 That great pain and sorrow follows the pleasures of sin. The sweet of sin is but for a season, and ends in bitterness, Heb. 11.25.as Joab said of the Sword. Sin's best will be soon spent, and then comes its worst; but this is not gone so quickly. The Bee hath a sting as well as honey: There is a core in the forbidden Fruit, that will stick in a man's throat when he has eaten it. The pleasures of sin are not immortal things, but very flashes, and they go out like a Candle, with a stinking snuff. Roses stay not always on the Tree, but are gathered, or wither, and shed, and then they leave prickles behind them.
The pleasantness of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge was soon gone from Adam and Eve, Gen. 3.and changed into nakedness, and fears, and amazement. When the affections have acted their part in sin, then sin acts its part on the Conscience: yea when the pleasing affections, love, desire, delight, have had their time in sin, then the bitter affections, grief, and sorrow, and vexation, have their season, and that for ever with many; Cain, and Amnon, and Judas are examples.
While Belshazzar was drinking Wine in the golden Vessels of the Temple, Dan. 5.3, 4, 5, 6he saw that handwriting on the wall, which made his countenance change, and his thoughts trouble him, and all his joynts to tremble. Sin will punish and plague men when they have spent their love upon it; Jer. 2.19.Thine own wickedness shall correct thee.
And though a man have a long day of the pleasure of sin, yet that day will have a night; and if bitter repentance prevent not, that night will never have day more after it. Rev. 21.25. Matth. 8.12.As the Saints in heaven have no night, so the damned in hell have no day, but utter darkness. The pains of sin have a longer season than the pleasures. Rejoyce, O young man, Eccles. 11.9.in thy youth, or youthful lusts, saith the Preacher, and let thy heart chear thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thy heart, and in the sight of thine eyes; but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee to judgment.
And Eccles. 8.11. Though a sinner do evil an hundred times, and his days be prolonged, yet it shall not be well with the wicked. And wo unto the wicked, it shall not be well with him; Isa. 3.11.for the reward of his hands shall be given to him: that is, God's unavoidable doom, Rom. 2.9. Tribulation and auguish upon every soul of man that doth evil. The end of these things is death.Rom. 6.
If men might have the pleasures of sin on earth, and after have the pleasures of God in heaven, the Scriptures would be disproved, and Christ should die in vain, and the Law curse sinners in vain, and upon the matter, God would be found a lyar; he that believeth not God hath made him a lyar. 1 Joh. 5.10.And what a heap of blasphemies would these suppositions rise to?
Nay, if a righteous man should return to the pleasures of sin, Ezek. 18.24.God hath professed that he should die, and not live. If a righteous man could do the one, God would do the other. If Angels sin, they must not stay in heaven, but be damned. All the world cannot forbid the banns between the pleasures of sin and eternal sorrow, unless Conversion alter the case.
If David will have the pleasure of sin, he must have the pain of it too; Psal. 6.2, 3. Psal. 51.his flesh must wither, and his bones be broken; and his soul must be vexed in him.
It's true, that our dear Lord Jesus Christ hath taken off the sorrows of sin from the Saints so far, Rom. 8.1. Heb. 12.10.as they are mortal; but not so far as they are medicinable. Though they are kept out of hell, yet they may be brought to the borders. Though the Canaanites shall not hinder Israels possessing of the good Land, yet they may give them great disturbance. It is convenient that sin should end in sorrow in the Elect in this life, that they may taste what sorrow Christ felt for their sins; and what sorrows the damned do, and shall feel there; that so they may learn to set a high price and value upon the pardon of their sins, and their escape from condemnation. O when a godly man's Conscience comes to feel the bitter that follows the sweet of any sin, this makes him a great admirer of the free grace of God.
Application.
1. Let this be for a lamentation, That the world, yea much of the Christian world, should be so sottish as to buy the pleasures of sin for a season at such an excessive dear rate, as the hazard of eternal pains. This is like Esau's selling his birth-right for a mess of Pottage. How can such men read or hear the Scripture in Job 21.13. if they believe it, without horrour? They spend their days in mirth (so it is in the Margent) and suddenly, or in a moment, go down into the grave; and it may be into hell one part, before into the grave the other.
Satan is the Prince of this world, John 14.30. 2 Cor. 4.4.and the god of this world by usurpation; and he rewards his Subjects with the pleasures of this world, and lusts of this world, to fit them to be tormented with himself in the next. As Abraham said to Dives, Luke 16.25.Remember, that in thy life time thou hadst thy good things, the pleasures of this world; but now thou art tormented.
The Devil could not tempt Christ with all the Kingdoms of the world; but he tempts thousands with the base lusts of the world: He puts many tricks and cheats upon poor sinners. He lessens and sweetens sin before, and in the act; but greatens and imbitters it afterwards.
He troubles not for sin before he have tempted men to it, and then he often falls on the Conscience, as he did on Cain's; Gen. 4.13.Mine iniquity is greater than can be forgiven; and the punishment of my sin is greater than I can bear. Sin may be sweet in the swallow, as some Vomits are; but then it torments when it is in the stomack, and brings up bitter stuff: But here is the misery of it, that men will not believe till they feel, John 20.as Thomas his unbelief said; except I feel, and see, I will not believe. Those that tell men of these things, they seem to them as mockers, Gen. 19.14.as Lot did to his Sons in Law, and say in their hearts as those scoffing Jews at the Prophets threatning their sins with judgments; Let him make speed, Isa. 5.19.and hasten his work, that we may see it; and let the counsel of the holy one of Israel draw nigh, and come, that we may know it.
It hath been an old practice of sinners to flatter themselves in the fulfilling their lusts; Deut. 29.19.I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine own heart. He flattereth himself in his own eyes, till his iniquity be found to be hateful, Psal. Matth. 24.36.2. Our blessed Saviour saith, that in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, &c. and knew not till the flood came, and took them all away. And knew not! Did not Noah forewarn them many years? Yes, but they did not regard or believe him, Hos. 4.11.till they saw it: Whoredome, and wine, and new wine, took away their hearts, and reason, Hos. 11.12.and senses. Thus men compass themselves about with lies, Isa. 50.11.and with the sparks of their own fire; with their own fond reasonings and vain hopes. But what saith God to them? This ye shall have at my hands, ye shall lie down in sorrow.
St. Paul reckons this amongst the sins of the last times or days; 2 Tim. 3.4.Men shall be lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God. They let their own lusts take place of God in their hearts. What is it to be lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God, but to follow a man's own lusts, rather than the will of God? When a man's pleasures take him off, or put him by any duty that God commands him, why now he loves his pleasure more than God: It's a plain conviction in the case.
For as Faith works by love, Gal. 5.6. so love worketh by obedience. John 14.15.If ye love me keep my Commandments. So that when men will break through a Command of God to take their own pleasure, now they are lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God. But, O ye simple ones, Prov. 1.21.how long will ye love simplicity? O turn ye at this days reproof; It's infinitely better to grieve and afflict your souls for sin, than to take pleasure in it. O sorrow for sin at present, that ye may not sorrow by it for ever; unless you do the former, you must do the latter; unless you do sorrow, you shall sorrow, as he said, Periissem, nisi pertissem, I had been undone, if I had not been undone. Seek then to sorrow for sin with sorrow that is to conversion, that ye may escape sorrow for sin that will be to your confusion.
Let me put this Question to every such person that takes pleasure in their lusts that count it pleasure to riot in the day time; 2 Thess. 2.12. 2 Pet. 2.13. Rom. 13. ult.sporting themselves with their own deceivings; making provision for the flesh.
Let me ask these that question which was asked those Oppressors in Isa. 10.3. What will ye do in the day of Visitation? Do ye think to escape the Judgment of God? Rom. 2.3. You must feel the bitter of sin, as well as the sweet: If I have done so and so, saith Job; Job 31.What shall I do when God riseth up? and when he visiteth, what shall I answer him? And if Job cannot, how canst thou? Thou wilt have nothing within or without to speak a good word for thee.
Thy affections will lothe the things that thou did so lust after, 2 Sam. 13.as Amnon did. And thy memory will be wormwood and gall to thee, as theirs was, Lam. 3.19. And thy Conscience will vex and trouble thee; it will be the Executioner of God's displeasure upon thee for thy pleasure taken, and sinful ways. John 12.48.And that Word of God which thou despisedst and rejectedst, will judge thee. And thy Companions in evil, that were wont to encourage and drill thee on to evil, they'l say to thee, as the High Priest did to Judas in his agony of Conscience, Mark 27.I have betraied innocet blood; Caveat emptor; what's that to us? See thou to that.
Yea, every thing that thou expectest relief from in the day of thy sorrow, and bitterness of thy soul, all will say to thee, as the King of Israel did to that Widow which cried out, 2 Kings 6.Help, O King: If the Lord do not help thee, whence should I help thee?
And again, to take every man off from taking pleasure in sin, in sin that offers the most, let a man consider this, That there is more real evil in sin that appears most pleasing, than there is in all the sorrows and miseries of the world: therefore Moses chose rather to suffer afflictions, Heb. 11.25.even the greatest tribulations with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin; And other Saints have chosen the greatest torments imaginable, rather than sin, or a sinful escape from them, verse 35, 36, 37.
And our Lord Jesus Christ, who was willing to be a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, Isa. 53.1. yea, to be made a curse, and to suffer the wrath of God, which was hell to his soul, Mark 1.so long as it lasted, and all to save his people from their sins: yet would he not have done the least sin himself, to have kept them from hell; Who did no sin, 2 Pet. 2.22. and knew no sin (i. e.) by experience in himself: The former text explains the latter. 2 Cor. 5.21.He was willing to bear all their sins upon him, 1 Pet. 2.24. but would not have the least of sin in him. The Prince of this world cometh, John 14.30.and hath nothing in me.
And so holy Paul groaned more under the weight of sin, than of all his sufferings; when in 2 Cor. 11.23.— he had numbred them to a great sum; In stripes above measure; in prisons more frequent; 2 Cor. 12.11.in death oft— yet he could glory in these, verse 30. and take pleasure in them, as brave Souldiers do in their scars, as badges of honour. But when he speaks of sin that dwelleth in him, he groans grievously; O wretched man that I am—Rom. 7.24.
A Saint is not well pleased with any sin, nor does he at any time rejoice in sin, as he usually doth in his sufferings for well-doing; as Moses chose rather to suffer affliction, than to enjoy the pleasure of sin, Heb. 11.25. Sin of it self is misery; as God in himself is blessedness. There is bitterness in sin, as well as for sin. It is bitterness to the people of God, Psal. 38.abstracted from its punishment; Mine iniquities are a burthen too heavy to bear. And sin is bitter to God himself: That in Lam. 2.18. Lam. 2.18.I have rebelled against his Commandment, may be read, I have made bitter his mouth. So in Deuteronomy, De…ut. 32.32.Their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter: Their Vine was their sinful nature; and their grapes their sinful works; and these were bitter to God, to speak, as himself doth, after the manner of men.
There is more evil in sin, than in the punishment of it. Indeed sin it self is the greatest punishment that God inflicteth on sinners in this World: Because those Heathens sinned so greatly, therefore, as a punishment, Rom. 1.26, 28.God gave them up to vile affections, and to a reprobate mind. Their latter sins were the punishment of their former, without any unrighteousness in God: And therefore when the Apostle had spoken of Gods punishment God inflicted on them for their sins, viz. his giving them over to sin, he saith of it, foreign, it was that which was meet; receiving in themselves that recompence of their errour which was meet, in the 27th. verse. O how great is the evil of sin, when God makes sin the highest punishment of sin out of hell? 2 Thess. 2.12.Because they received not the love of the truth; for this cause God shall send them strong delusions, that they should believe a lie.
Quest. But how can men take pleasure in sin, if sin be the greatest punishment of sin in this life?
Answ. Because whilst they are under the power of sin, it is no burthen to them, but pleasure: As a man that swims or dives under the water, feels it not a burthen, but pleasure to him; whereas if he went out of the water, the tenth part of that water on his shoulders would make him groan, and sink him down. And so when a man is delivered from under the dominion of sin, as he is when he cometh into a state of grace, those sins which were easie and pleasant to him before grace, are now the greatest trouble and vexation.
You see then how little reason men have to phansy pleasure in sin, or to reckon themselves happy when they may have their lusts; let not therefore our eyes dazzle at the men of this world, that have their fill of the pleasures of sin, and have liberty and opportunity to fulfill their lusts. Psal. 73.12, 13. Jer. 12.12.It was Asaph's infirmity, and Jeremiah's too, to be troubled in their minds at such a sight.
Alas, all their pomp is but a phantasy, as St. Paul saith of that of Agrippa and Berenice; Acts 25.28. Psal. 39.so it is in the Greek: All is but a vain shew; as is a Dream when one awaketh; So, O Lord, Psal. 73.20.when thou awakest thou shalt despise their image. Dreams of honour, and pleasures, and riches, are not real, but imaginary things; men find it so when they awake out of their dreams.
Thus doth God make all these mens delight and pleasure in their lusts, the lusts of the flesh, 1 John 2.16.the lusts of the eye, and the pride of life to be but imaginary delights in their own sense and experience, when he awakens to Judgment, and awakens their Consciences unto Judgment.
We should therefore tremble at their courses, as well as their ends. So did holy Paul at their debaucheries he speaks of in Philip. 3.19. Many walk of whom I have told you often, and now tell you weeping, that they are enemies to the Cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.
These men seem like to Leviathan, Job 41.33.made without fear; they laugh at mens threatnings, and God's threatnings for sin, as Leviathan is said to do at the shaking of a Spear. Job 41.20.These spend their days in sinful mirth, Job 21.and in a moment go down to the grave, or to hell. They have pleasure and mirth no where but on earth; not in the grave, for that is darkness and silence; not in hell, there is nothing but weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth; and they are sure to have none in heaven, for no unclean thing comes there. O that these would remember what Father Abraham said to Dives; Luke 16.Son, remember that thou in thy life time hadst thy good things, but now thou art tormented. Sins that have been sweet to the affections, will be bitter at length to the Conscience: As St. Rev. 10.John's Book was sweet in his mouth, but bitter in his belly. Hos. 2.6, 7. Gen. 3.O happy were men, if God did hedge up the way from the pleasures in sin, as he did the way of the Tree of Life from man by a flaming Sword.