Meditations the Parable of the Prodigal Son, Chapter 24
CHAP. XXIV.
Containeth the Application of the foregoing Doctrine, in four Ʋses.
1. AND First, This may rectifie our opinion of the things of this world; when we set them in God's stead, they are but Swines meat, and they are swinish that set their hearts upon them, and seek happiness in them. Psal. 73.22.The Psalmist calls himself a Beast, for his conceit of mens being happy in having this world at will.
Would any of you think a man the richer for having his Garner full of husks or chaff? yet comparatively these worldly things are such, they are no more to an afflicted Conscience, and prove so at last to all that have confidence in them. Rom. 1.28. foreign.And yet how generally are men given over to an injudicous mind in this Case?
Yet the spiritual man, who alone can give a right judgment of things, 1 Cor. 2.15. he is of Solomon's mind, when returned to his right mind, That whoever seeks satisfaction in the best of this world, Eccles. 1.2.shall increase and multiply his vexation of spirit.
Worldly men look on worldly things through a magnifying Glass, a vitiated phansie; but a man of another world as well as this, looks on them through the Glass of God's Word, and his own Experience, and so escapes an errour in the Case. The more spiritual a man is, the less he'l mistake in his thoughts of the things of this world.
2. This point is useful to rectifie our desires of the things of this world. We may desire them, but not lust after them, as the Children of Israel did after flesh. Since the fall of man, man is composed and made up much of desires; his Soul runs out this way in desire after forbidden fruit; 2 Sam. 15.4.O that I was made Judge in the Land. So saith the carnal man's Soul, O that I had this, and that, without end.
And since the fall, man's desires do commonly corrupt into lust, as Amnon's did to Tamar. Natural men are taken with the outward appearance of things, as Samuel was with Eliab's goodly person, 1 Sam. 16.and for that he thought him to be the Lord's anointed. Gen. 25.Esau phansied a mess of Pottage better than the birth-right.
Well therefore said the Apostle, Rom. 8.5.They that are after the flesh, savour the things of the flesh; and they that are after the spirit, the things of the spirit. The honours, profits, and pleasures of this world relish, and go down better with the one; and the love and grace of God, interest in Christ, pardon and purging away of sin with the other. Many say, Psal. 4.6.who will shew us any good? Lord, lift thou up the light of thy Countenance upon me. Psal. 73.25.Whom have I in heaven but thee? Take what you will of the world from this man, and if you can give him God in the room, he is well. The Lord is my portion, saith my Soul. Lam. 3.24.But if you can take away God from him, and give him what you will, yet he complains; as he did concerning his Idols, in Judges 18.24. Ye have taken away my gods; and what is this that ye say unto me What aileth thee?
3. This discovers the great difference that is between meer natural men, and men that have grace. The one looks at present things; Demas hath forsaken me, 2 Tim. 4.10.and embraced this present world; such men are blind, and see not afar off, 2 Pet. 2.9. Heaven is a Countrey out of sight to such men; Pope Zachary condemn'd Virgilius a Bishop, for holding there be Antipodes.and a world to come is as uncouth to them as a world in the Moon, and as the Antipodes are to some. But men who have grace look more at things which are not seen, and eternal, 2 Cor. 4.18. They see and enjoy Promises that are afar off. Heb. 11.13.Grace sees as far as glory. And when the men of this world are full of the things of this world, and they empty; these see, and satisfie themselves with some better things that God hath provided for them.Heb. 11.40.
4. Let the people of God receive the word of Exhortation: Take heed that you degenerate not from the nature and temper of Saints; be not like natural men in your fondness of the things of this world. If God find your hearts going to and fro in the earth, as Satan said of himself, or like the hearts of carnal men; he will rebuke you for it some way or other, as he did Elias, when he said to him in the Wilderness, 1 Kings 19.13.What doest thou here Elias? Desires after the things of this world you may have, but gaged and bounded, as the waves of the Sea are.
Take heed your desires corrupt not into lust; and one of your great works, as Christians, is done.
Indeed, if there should be no desire, a Saints earthly enjoyments would have no sweet in them; where desire fails, Eccles. 12.5.the sweet of Creature comfort fails. What is bread to a man that hath no appetite? or drink, if he have not thirst?
Yet desire to these outward things corrupted into lust, is worse than no desire: So was Israel's lusting after flesh, and Amnon's lusting after Tamar, and Gehazi's lusting after a reward at such a season as that was wherein he did it. Corrupt desires will corrupt the things desired. Thus they shall be hurtful to you, as Saul was to Israel, or Delilah to Sampson.
If a man have a distempered thirst, the more he drinks, the more his distemper grows upon him; though he drink much, it satisfies little: the way is to get his preternatural thirst cured, for it cannot be satisfied.
Thus, the stronger desires are after the things of the world, the less content there is in them. The eye is not satisfied with seeing; Eccles. 2.8. & 5.10.and he that loveth abundance shall not be satisfied with increase.
Therefore if you feel a thirst in your hearts after the things of this world, get the Distemper heal'd; never expect to have your thirst satisfied.
Quest. But how may I cure it?
Answ. Why, exchange your carnal lustings into spiritual: Covet earnestly the best things. 1 Cor. 12.31.The better you taste the waters that Christ gives you, that is the grace and comfort of his spirit, John 4.14.the less thirsty you will be after the things of this world.
It is one of Solomon's sayings, Eccles. 10.19. That money answers all things, i. e. all outward things: and this is as true a saying, That the Spirit answers all things, all good things. Compare Matth. 7.11. with Luke 11.13. In the first place our Lord Jesus saith — how much more shall your Father in heaven give good things to them that ask him? In the other, How much more shall your heavenly Father give the holy Spirit to them that ask him? Christ makes the holy Spirit to answer all good things. And thus much for the first Doctrine in the sixteenth Verse, That the things of this world are comparatively but Husks or Swines meat, when separated from the enjoyment of God himself.