Meditations the Parable of the Prodigal Son, Chapter 27
CHAP. XXVII.
Sheweth, That the lowest step of a sinner's misery is, to see himself remediless by any carnal means whatsoever: Together with the Application hereof; from the whole sixteenth Verse, And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks which the Swine did eat; and no man gave unto him.
I Come now to the fourth and last Doctrine from the sixteenth Verse, Doctr. 4 That when a man feels himself in a lost condition, and withal sees no way of relief, this is the lowest step of his misery to his own sense; yet in Gods method and meaning may be a fair step to mercy in his Conversion.
When the Prodigal was in such want, that he would have eaten what men gave to Swine, and none gave unto him, this, to his own apprehension, was the very depth of misery, and yet it proved the inlet of mercy: As the valley of Achor, or the valley of trouble, was given by God to Israel for a door of hope. Hos. 2.15.Bare conviction of sin leaves a man as far from God as before, till he be beaten out of all his creeping holes. It's true, the first work of the Spirit in order to Conversion is conviction of sin, that this man is a sinner. I but, saith this man, so are others, so are all men. Therefore the Spirit goes further, and convinces this man that he has no grace, but is in a state of sin. Otherwise, though men be convinced that they are sinners, yet they think they have some grace; and so their opinion of grace keeps out grace. It's a step towards a state of grace, for a man to be thorowly convinced that he has no grace.
A man is never the poorer for casting away counterfeit grace; that which he thought to be grace, but is not. He that wakens out of a rich Dream, and finds it not with him as he dreamed, is never the poorer, because he never had the riches he dreamed of.
Application.
Labour than for a double conviction in order to Conversion; a conviction of sin, and a conviction of the vanity of all Sanctuaries but God himself, against whom men have sinned. Sight and sense of sin and wrath, will send men to a Citizen of a far Countrey, to something of this World for relief; but experience of the unprofitableness of this way sends them to their Father's house, where is help in deed.
The more a man is emptied of himself, and the Creature, the nearer he is to God. It is darkest a little afore day break. When a convinced sinner is at worst for relief in his own thoughts, he is fair for it.
Quest. But are there not some sinners troubled in Conscience by sin, that find no releif in the World, and yet look not after it in God; as Cain and Saul, and the men that were scorched with great heat, Rev. 16.9.and yet blasphemed God?
Answ. There is no preparative to a sinner's Conversion that works further in a sinner than God leads it on: Converts are born of the will of God, John 1.13.and not their own. The Plow is not the cause of the earths bearing fruit, but the Seed that is cast into it: though there be plowing and harrowing, and the first and latter rain; yet there can be no fruit, if there be no seed.
It's true, that God ordinarily brings about a sinners Conversion by preparatives; which although we should say they work Physically, yet can they go no further than their own nature, as preparatives, and so can never finish the work.
It was not the water of Jordan that cured Naaman's leprosie so much as the will of God put forth in it, and the word of God that commanded it. 2 Kings 5.Though the wax be melted, yet it's the owners hand that sets on the Seal, and makes the impression. A man may be convinced of his sinful state, and helpless state, and yet not be converted, except the will and power of God work-up conviction so far. It was not the whirl-wind, Job 38.2.but the powerful voice of God in it, that humbled Job to silence and self-abhorrence. And therefore men should give God the glory of the effectual working of all their preparatives to Conversion: Psal. 115.1.Not unto us, Lord, not unto us, but unto thy Name give the glory, for thy mercy and for thy truths sake. When God hath a will to save a sinner, he puts powerful and effectual influences into the preparatives of his Conversion.
Object. But then a convinced and conscience-afflicted sinner is still at an uncertainty for his Conversion; when beaten off of all his Refuges, his Conversion still depends on God's will and power.
Answ. I answer that such a man is not at that uncertainty as before: For first, he is at a certainty for God's power, that that cannot fail him, though all his other helps have fail'd. And secondly, if the turning of the Scales hang upon God's will, his solemn invitations and promises may incourage him as to the will of God in the case; Ezek.— why will ye die, O ye house of Israel? It's mens own wills, and not God's, that damns them. Though there may be ground of a sinner's despair in himself, yet there is none in God. God hath so set forth himself to a sinner, both as to his power and will, as to leave no cause of despair. God hates and abhors the despair of a sinner more than all his other sins.
The Devil cannot revenge himself more on God, than to bring reproach on him by a sinner's despair; for herein the Devil makes the sinner likest to himself: He is himself a desperate sinner, and he would have other sinners to be so. This is one of the chiefest sins that Satan aims at in his temptations to sin; his tempting to other sins is to dispose men to this; as wooll hath first a tincture of a lighter colour, that it may receive a deeper die.
And let convinced and self-judged sinners consider, that despair puts them actually under the punishment of Hell in part, when as other sins only bind them over to condemnation; even the greatest of Gospel sins, which is unbelief: John 16.9. Mark 16.16. John 3.18.He shall convince the world of sin, because they believe not in me; and he that believeth not shall be damned. He is condemned already, Sentence is passed upon him, but it is not executed; but in a sinner's despair, execution is begun.
O then let not sinners in trouble of Conscience for sin consult with reason disorder'd and mated by temptation in the case: This reason is low of stature, like Zacheus, and cannot see mercy and free grace in the throng and press of his sins; but standing on the Promise, as Zacheus did on the Tree, on that Promise in Isa. 55.7. or of the like nature, he will be in sight of hope.
A man may have mighty sins, but not almighty; Amos 5.12.but the mercy of God is almighty mercy. The mercy of God is unlimited to those that do not limit it; that is, who seek for cleansing and purging mercy, as well as pardoning. And therefore for sinners that would be penitent, as well as pardoned sinners, for such to say in their hearts, Can God forgive my sins? is as great a sin, as it was to Israel to say in their straits, Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?
Remember and consider what the Lord saith in this case, My thoughts are not your thoughts; Isa. 55.7.he can pardon abundantly.
The very holiness of God inclines him to mercy, as man's wickedness inclines him to cruelty: The tender mercies of the wicked are cruel. Prov. 12.10.The Devil, who is the greatest of sinners, is disposed to the greatest revenge and cruelty: he would revenge himself on God if he could; and therefore he belies God to man, as well as he does man to God: As he charged Job with hypocrisie to God, so he charged God with cruelty to Job. Job 2.9.Doest thou still retain thy integrity? Curse God and die. There is no such thing in the Devil, as the least pity towards any sinner. But God's holiness disposes him to pity poor sinners, when their Souls are in trouble for sin. Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose Name is holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, Isa. 57.15.with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite one.
The holy God can be righteous in pardoning sinners, 1 John 1.9.as well as in damning them for sin; If we confess our sins, he is just and faithful to forgive us our sins— Oh therefore, if there be any one that the Spirit of God hath convinced of their dangerous and damnable state in sin, and set their Consciences on the rack by the spirit of bondage, and withal beatten them from all false refuge, let such come to God, and try him.
Obj. But is it likely that God will harbour such a wretched sinner as I, who make him my last refuge, when all others have failed me, and now I come to him on meer necessity?
Answ. Yes, meer necessity may turn a sinner's eye to God at first. Luke 14.23.At first God compells men to come into the feast. Sinners are constrain'd upon necessity to betake themselves to God for sanctuary. God allows men to come to him out of self-love at first, though after love to God must keep them with him. It's well that mens sense of their own misery will force them to seek after mercy in God. The Father will suffer those things in a child, which he will not do after. Joh. 4.39, 41.The Samaritans believed Jesus at first for the womans words; but after because of his own word.
That woman which had a bloody Issue was driven to Christ for healing on necessity, Matth. 9.20.for she had spent all on the Physician, and to no purpose; and when all would do nothing, she applied her self to Jesus Christ for cure, and he heals her; and it redounded to his honour, that he could do, and had done that which no other means could do.
And therefore it is good for poor sinners in their Soul-straits to look at the power and freeness of God's grace, which can and will help them, when other refuges have fail'd them, that they may magnifie God's grace above all.
God's time of giving grace, is when he may have the honour of it: James 4.6.Therefore he gives grace to the humble, because he knows the humble will give him the glory of his grace.
But then, though a sinner may go to God of pure necessity, and self-love at first; yet when he is come to God, Psal. 73.28.he must and will abide with God in love to God himself; he will now say, It is good for me to draw near to God.
And now let the presuming sinner live in sin, and the convinced troubled sinner despair of mercy from God, at their own eternal peril. For the first, Deut. 29.19, 20.God will assuredly curse that sinner, who blesseth himself in his sins.
And for the convinced and conscience-pricked sinner, who hath mercy offered him by the Gospel, and yet despairs of mercy from God by Christ, it argues a defect in that sinners humiliation for sin: For it is not so much the greatness of sin, as the greatness of the sinners spirit, that is the cause of his despair. To those Jews who said, Jer. 2.…5. Ezck. 33.10.There is no hope, we shall pine away in our sins, God hath said, Your words have been stout against me. Mal. 3.13, 14.Wherein say they: Ye have said, It is in vain to serve God, and so to seek him.
I may not doubt to say, that there was never any sinner outed of his sins and himself, who missed of mercy, if he sought it of God. Thus much for the sixteenth verse, with which endeth the first part of the Parable.
FINIS.
End of the text · Obadiah Grew, Meditations the Parable of the Prodigal Son (1678)