Meditations the Parable of the Prodigal Son, Chapter 26
CHAP. XXVI.
Wherein is observed, That when God hath a purpose to convert a sinner, he suffers nothing to yield relief and comfort but himself. With the Reasons wherefore he doth thus. And the Ʋses we are to make hereof; from the latter part of the sixteenth Verse, And no man gave unto him.
FROM these words we may learn, Doctr. 3 That when God hath a purpose to bring a convinced sinner to conversion, he will stop all ways of relief and comfort but from himself: He will disable all other Refuges.
So that such a man may traverse the world over for peace, as Solomon did for happiness, and for certain receive disappointment. Every Refuge besides God will say as the Sea and the Depth did, Job 28.14. Isa. 23.12.It is not in me. Pass over to Chittim, there also shalt thou have no rest. Sin and Conscience will find out the convinced sinner every where, till Christ hath said to him, as he did to that man, Be of good cheer, Matth. 9.2. Luke 7.thy sins are forgiven; and as he said to that woman, Thy sins are forgiven, go in peace.
For sinners troubled in Conscience to think they shall find ease and rest in any other Refuge, it is but a cheat upon the Conscience, a present charm. It's like Sampson's sleeping on Delila's lap, a snare and forerunner of mischief to his soul.
It is a sad sign that God intends not such a kindness to a sinner in bringing him home to himself, when he sees him running to Self-refuges, and says, Let him alone; as he said of Ephraim, Hos. 4.17.Ephraim is joyned to Idols, let him alone.
O! it's a much better sign, when the Lord hedges up such a sinners way to false Sanctuaries, as he did theirs Hos. 2.6. when God charges all other Sanctuaries but himself not to succour such a sad sinner; help him not, ease him not, supply him not, satisfie him not, this is a mercy to a sinner; and a good sign, when the Lord brings a sinners thoughts of relief into so narrow a compass, as to seek it in himself, and no where else; and makes all other Refuges say to him, as the King of Israel did to the woman that cried to him for help in a time of famine; 2 Kings 6.How should I help thee, if God help thee not?
When God will save a sinner, he will trouble his Conscience, and let it sting, and the wound bleed, till he indeed draw in his eyes and thoughts to relief by Christ. When a man places a Net in the water to catch fish, or on the land to get fowl, he'l stop all hopes of escape: And so will God, when he purposes to save a man; he'l stop all inlets of peace and comfort, but what is from himself.
It was happy for that diseased woman, Matth. 9.that she found no help from any of her Physicians; for by this means she became acquainted with Jesus Christ, and was fully cured by him. God will beat a sinner from every bush, under which he thinks to shelter himself on this side Christ, and Christ as offer'd by the Gospel, when he intends his conversion and salvation.
Reasons of the Doctrine.
If God did not thus by those he means to save his Election would be frustrate, Reas. 1 and the Scripture would fail, Rom. 11.7.which saith, The election hath obtained it. For the Elect would persist in opposition to their Conversion, as well as other men; there is no difference between them and others, till their Calling make it. There is a difference in Gods purpose, not in theirs; the Elect are as willing as other men to stay in their natural state. Gen. 19.As Lot was loth to leave Sodom, as well as his sons in law; but God being merciful to him, the Angel brought him forth, that he should not perish in the City.
No man by nature hath any desire to a state of grace, John 6.44.but the very Elect resist, till the Father draw them; as Reuben and Gad had no mind to go over Jordan into Canaan. Therefore when the Spirit does his office in convincing such of sin, he lets them not find rest at any Sanctuary on this side God himself.
If a convinced sinner, a sinner troubled within, Reas. 2 should meet with any ease and rest in other Refuges, he would love these more than God. If a wounded man find a weed in the field that gives him ease, he'l love that weed more than the best and sweetest flowers in a Garden. Men will commend most the Medicine that helps their distemper, and asswages their pain.
So that if God did not make a sinners Refuge bitter to him, as well as his sins, he would love such things better than God. As the Israelites straits in the wilderness made them like Egypt better than Canaan, because of the flesh-pots and onyons, &c. they had there their fill of. And therefore God will break, or empty Cisterns, that men may have more mind to the Spring.
When God brings the sinner out of trouble of Conscience, he does it in such a way, as a man may see that he is beholding to God only for quenching the sparks of Hell in his Conscience.
Hereby God magnifies his own Free-grace, Reas. 3 in that after a sinners trial elsewhere for ease to no purpose, he will cure the wound himself. God does not do or say in the like case as men do; as he said in Terence, Cum nemini obtrudi potest, itur ad me. I am thy last Refuge; if thou couldest have had peace any where else, thou hadst not come to me.
But God is free in the case, that he may thereby honour his Free-grace; as he said of Ephraim, Isa. 57.17, 18. I hid me, and was wrath. Ephraim has a taste of the wrath of God in his soul; and what then, does he humble himself to God? No; but he went on frowardly in the way of his heart; he shirk'd and shifted up and down to get off the trouble, but could not: And what then? did God leave him thus? No; I have seen his ways, and will heal him. O how greatly does God here commend his Free-grace to sinners! He useth to say to poor undone sinners as he did to Israel, Hos. 13.9, 10.O Israel, thou hast destroyed thy self, but in me is thy help. There is none other that can save thee.
The Lord doth thus to make such a sinner, Reas. 4 when converted, a way-mark to other conscience-smitten sinners after him. Psal 51.13.After David's recovery from his fall by his great sin, he taught other sinners the way to God: And experience made Luther a Soul-affecting preacher to distressed Consciences. When Ministers speak to sinners more from bowels than from brains, this is likely to affect and effect most.
Application.
1. This informs us, That God hath a secret work on the hearts of sinners, whom he will convert, towards their conversion, while they themselves are hindering it. When the sinner labours under convictions, which God intends shall be to conversion, God keeps him from despair on the one hand, and from presuming on Self-refuges on the other, that he may neither wilfully refuse relief, nor lean upon broken Reeds; that he neither perish on the Rocks or Sands, but flie to God, betake himself to the Lord as the only sufficient Sanctuary: Is…. 45.21, 22.There is no God besides me, a just God, and a Saviour; look unto me, and be ye saved.
2. This shews, that a man's estate is never the worse liking, when he can settle his Conscience, his unquiet Conscience, with nothing on this side God himself, and his Free-grace in Christ. Art thou troubled in Conscience for sin, and canst find no satisfaction or ease, though thou hast tried twenty ways? why, all this may be; because God intends to do the Cure himself, and make thee to know it; that so when thy Conscience is settled, thou maiest say as the Psalmist said, This is the Lord's doing, Psal. 118.23.and it is marvellous in mine eyes. When the man that had an infirmity thirty eight years, John 5.could not be healed by the Pool of Bethesda, because he could not get in of himself, Christ himself healed him.
That troubled sinner is in a dangerous condition, whose trouble of Conscience meets with peace on this side the Free-grace of God in Jesus Christ; it's a sign God leaves that man to his deceitful Refuges and Sanctuaries, where he sculks at present from the sense of sin and wrath: As he did by Ephraim, when he took up with Idols, Let him alone, Hos. 4.17.says God; let him see what will come on't.
And on the other hand, if in thy Consciencetrouble and distress thou hast been beaten from bush to bush, where thou thoughtest to have had comfort, but still hast met with disappointments, live in some hope that God means thee good, that he has in his own thoughts named thee Ruamah, Hos. 2.1.having obtained mercy.
O let no convinced sinner think himself the better, because he hath company to divert his troubled thoughts, or worldly business to take up his thoughts, or the thoughts of some good thing in himself to please and stroke himself with, or some good purposes to be better hereafter; alas, these are but charms to get a little ease for present: They do but hinder thy thorow humiliation for sin, and thy sinful state, which is previously needful to thy thorow conversion to God.
It were a better sign that all Refuges should fail thee on this side thy looking after God himself for peace with him, and from him.
And if God should not do thus with men, they would never get beyond the first step of humiliation in their sinful state: For so soon as they have a sense of sin, and are afraid of wrath, they begin to look about them for a hedge, or a house, to get from the storm, in hopes it will be over; therefore God disables their shifts, and beats them from one to another, till from all, that when they find no footing on dry ground, they may, like the Dove, sly to the Ark. God allures sinners, whom he will convert and save, Hos. 2.14.into the Wilderness, and there speaks to their hearts.
When you are brought to this failure of expectations, Jer. 14.19.We looked for peace, and there is no good; and for the time of healing, but behold trouble; now you will fall upon plain dealing with your own souls, and with God, and cast your selves upon mercy and Free-grace: So it follows, Jer. 14.20. We acknowledge, O Lord, our wickedness, for we have sinned against thee; do not abhor us for thy Name sake.
I have been the larger in the Application of this point, because of the errour and mistake of poor souls on both hands: Some in betaking themselves to false Refuges in their gripes of Conscience. For though there were many Cities of Refuge in the Law, yet there is but one in the Gospel, that is Christ, and the Free-grace of God through him.
Others again, disquieted in Conscience by, and for sin, and seek, and can find no rest for their souls under Heaven, they think themselves quite lost, and that they shall perish for ever; whereas it is a better sign to them than they are aware of, viz. That Christ means to bring them from all other Sanctuaries to himself; Matth. 11.28.Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
3. This may inform us, What a mercy it is to God's people to be disappointed in many things their hearts gad after, thinking of content and self-pleasing in them. God may, and often doth disappoint them for their good; he knows that if they should have them, and content in them, they would be a snare to them, Judges 8.27.as Gideon's Ephod was to his house. When things prosper not in your hands that would draw your hearts off from God, it is a mercy to you.
They shall follow after their lovers, Hos. 2.6, 7.but shall not overtake them; and by this means they resolved on a return unto God, and there fixed their hearts.
O look upon it as a kindness from God, when he crosses you thus, Psal. 141.5.as David did the reproofs of the Righteous; Let the righteous smite me, and it shall be a kindness. The Lord did David a good turn in taking away his child, though he begged so hard for the life of it.
Let us therefore learn to look on't as a kindness, when God will not let us be at hearts ease in Creature injoyments. Peter did not wish his own happiness so much as he thought, when he said on Mount Tabor to Jesus, Luke 9.33.Master, it is good for us to be here. The Lord's end in giving check to our satisfaction in the Creature things, or persons, or places, may be, that we may seek it in himself, and to bring us to say by proof, Psal. 87. ult.All my springs are in thee.