Meditations the Parable of the Prodigal Son, Chapter 22
CHAP. XXII.
Sheweth, what care natural men take in making provision for the lusts of the flesh: with the Application; from the last Clause of the Fifteenth Verse, And he sent him into his fields to feed Swine.
NOW we come to the second thing in the fifteenth Verse, viz. the Prodigal's imployment; He sent him into his field to feed Swine; a course and base imployment. He sent him not into the City to traffick and converse with men, but to feed Swine, and at last to feed with them, as in the next Verse.
This passage of the Parable may the better be understood by considering the Jews, to whom it was spoken, Lev. 11.7, 10, 11.in their great dis-affection to Swine: Swine were an abomination to them; It was one of their unclean Beasts.
And here is the marrow of this Bone: This signifies what a monstrous miserable man this younger Son became, by leaving his Fathers House to follow his own Lusts; he fell from the Son of a rich Father to be a Swineherd: And
The Scripture sets forth natural men by Swine for their uncleanness and filthy lusts wherein they wallow and bemire themselves, Matth. 7.6. 2 Pet. 2.22.and prefer before Grace.
The Devil possessed Swine; Matth. 8.32.and those that are of the Devil, and in his power, feed Swine; they feed themselves with their own lusts. Psal. 14.3.The Psalmist saith of natural men, They are altogether become filthy. And St. Jude calls some natural men filthy dreamers, v. 8. The Observation we may make from hence is this, Doctr. That carnal men make provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof. This is implied in that of St. Paul to the Romans, c. 13. v. 14. Make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof; i. e. as carnal and fleshly men do.
The lusts of the flesh are the things that such men take most care for. The lusts of the flesh, 1 John 2.16.the lusts of the eye, and the pride of life, are by some Divines called, The Worlds Trinity.
Natural men are very drudges to their lusts; Isa. 57.10.Thou art wearied in the greatness of thy way, in pursuing thine own lusts. The soul of man, since the fall, is chiefly made up of desires, like a Spunge which is still sucking in. The most vigorous bent of the soul lies in this faculty of desire, which in the fall of man was, and still is in natural men, corrupted into lusts.
So that it is natural to men to walk after their own lusts, either of pleasure, or profit, or honour: These are the three sorts of lusts that are in the World, 1 John 2.16.as St. John enumerates them. St. Paul makes himself an instance in the case, Tit. 3.3.as well as others in the state of nature; We our selves were sometimes foolish and disobedient, serving divers lusts and pleasures. Lust is a natural man's Master; he serveth divers lusts. It's possible that a godly man may be an unwilling slave for a time to a lust, but he cannot be a willing servant to it; Rom. 7.23, 24.O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death! He may suffer a rape by his lust, but he cannot prostitute himself to them. It is the natural man that indulgeth his lusts; they are his sweetmeats, Prov. 9.17. & 20.17.as Solomon saith of stoln waters, and the bread of deceit.
He is fond of his lusts, as David was of Adonijah, never chides them: It is the very tenor of a natural mans life to do his lusts: Rom. 13.14.Ye are of your Father the Devil, and his lusts ye will do. John 8.44.They are not estranged from their lusts, nor can be; Psal. 78.30. Jer. 13.23. James 1.14.A natural man is drawn away of his own lusts, or enticed: His lusts have the command of the whole man, as the primum mobile has of the motion of all the other Spheres.
Sin laps and rolls up it self in sugar to natural mens lust, 2 Cor. 7.1.though it be filthiness in it self. The mire and dunghill are filthy and stinking things, 2 Pet. 2.22.and yet it's pleasure to Swine to wallow in it.
Application.
This shews us, That to serve sin and lusts is a base service; it is the Devil's drudgery he sets carnal men about: As such are slaves to Satan, 2 Tim. 2.26.who leads them at his pleasure so are they slaves to their own lusts, yet willingly so; so they love to have it. Jer. 5.31.As Ephraim walked willingly after the commandment of their idolatrous Princes, Hos. 5.11.so carnal men walk willingly after the command of their own lusts, their corrupt and worldly desires: As they said to Jeremiah, Jer. 18.12.We will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart.
O that men would consider it, that the service of sin is a base service, it makes men Swineherds. It may be pleasure to them, as mire is to Swine; but to sanctified souls it's base and fulsome: Carnal men are unclean Creatures. As in the Law there were clean and unclean Creatures, so are there such under the Gospel; regenerate and spiritual men are the one, and natural carnal men are the other. Spiritual men are so ashamed of the filthiness and uncleanness of their natural state they are got out of, Ezek. 6.9. c. 16.63. c. 20.43. c. 36.31.that they loath themselves at the thoughts of it: But natural men glory in their shame, Phil. 3.19.
God made man an honourable Creature, Gen. 1.26.in his Image, Psal. 49.12, 20.and after his Likeness: but man hath made himself like a Beast; else it would be a strange thing, that men, who are Creatures capable of the highest enjoyments, even of glory, and of the God of glory himself, should take up with so low and base things, as any sinful sensual pleasures. And whereas God put all things under his feet, Psal. 8.6.he now puts himself under foot, under the basest of things, the vilest lusts. This man does by nature and custome in sin.
Some men make their bellies their gods; Phil. 3.19.St. Paul speaks of such with tears. Israels golden Calf was their god. Exod. 32. Isa. 36. Dan. 11.Some men make themselves gods; as Sennacherib, Antiochus Epiphanes, and many more. As it was said to Judah, Jer. 2.28. According to the number of thy Cities, so are thy gods, O Judah; so may it be said to a natural, carnal man, according to the number of thy lusts, so are thy gods.
And you who are now spiritual, you your selves were as these in your natural state, as the Prodigal was before his conversion; you fed Swine, and fed with them while you were unconverted; Tit. 3.3.We our selves were sometimes foolish and disobedient, serving divers lusts. Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past, in the lusts of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh, Eph. 3.3.and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, as well as others. There is no difference among men, till effectual Calling make it. Election leaves men equally vile and wretched, till Conversion come and distinguish. It's true, Election makes a difference in God's purpose, but not in the quality of the persons, till grace doth it. There is no difference in the Clay whilst in the lump, but only in the Potter's intention, and hands afterward.
And so we are all alike in sin, 1 Pet. 2.9.and under wrath, till effectually called by God out of darkness into his marvellous light.
God suffers his Elect to be born in sin, and live in sinful lusts till the time of their Conversion, and then he makes them visibly to differ from other men: and therefore a judgment of the final state of natural men, even the greatest sinners, cannot be made by their present state; for though they are now in a natural condition, they may be elect vessels, and if so, shall be called to grace in their time. Indeed, such a mans state may be judged what it is at present; but his final estate is a secret.
And for such as are effectually called to grace, you should often look back to what you were by nature; Such were some of you, saith St. 1 Cor. 6.11.Paul to the converted Corinthians, fornicators, idolaters, &c. And to the believing Romans, Rom. 6.17.Ye were the servants of sin; and to the Ephesians, Eph. 2.3.We were by nature the children of wrath as well as others.
And hereupon admire free grace in your change, that when you were in your blood, I say, Ezek. 16.6.when you were in your blood, the Lord said unto you live. This my Son was dead, and is alive. And now you have this priviledge, that you are out of that base service and drudgery to sin and lusts, which carnal men are in. And let this indear the love and free grace of God and Christ to you, and of the Spirit in you, That you can say, and say truly and feelingly, as he did in the Ninth of John, I was blind, but now I see: I was an unclean Creature, but now am washed: I fed Swine, and did feed with them; but now at my Father's Table. Thus much for the fifteenth Verse.