Meditations the Parable of the Prodigal Son, Chapter 5
CHAP. V.
Proceedeth to the two general Doctrines resulting from the first part of the Parable: particularly shewing, The natural and lusting desire that is in man to forsake God; and the Reasons hereof.
Verses the 12, 13, 14, 15, 16.
And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living.
And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far Countrey, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.
And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in the land, and he began to be in want.
And he went and joyned himself to a citizen of that countrey, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.
And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him.
I Have done with the general Scope and Doctrine of this quick and lively Parable, as Luther calls those of this Chapter: I now come to speak particularly of the three Persons which act their distinct parts in this Parable, the Father and his two Sons.
And our Saviour first holds forth to our view and consideration, the younger Son, a Prodigal; and the Picture of every natural man.
And first, we have his proud and peremptory Request, or rather Demand, of his Father; Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me: He would have his Father make his Will, and be his own Executor in his life; yea presently.
There are two things observable in this youngster. 1. He would have his Portion in his own hand, and be at his own finding; he would cast off his Father, and be independent: A strange thing! Fathers sometimes cast off their Sons; but here the Son casts off the Father, and will give no account of any thing he has or does: He gets his Portion into his own hand, and then goes into a far Countrey, v. 12. and part of the 13th.
2. This proud and heady Course of his was the cause of all his ensuing woes and misery: For hereupon followed, 1. His Luxury, v. 13. And there wasted his substance with riotous living. 2. His Calamity followed his Luxury at the heels, v. 14. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in the land, and he began to be in want. He satisfied his lusts, until he had nothing left to satisfie Nature.
And these two literal things in the Parable yield us these two spiritual Points of Doctrine, intended by him who spake the Parable.
Doct. 1 That every man by nature hath a lusting desire to leave God, and live at his own hand; he would stand on his own legs and bottom, and be at his own dispose: Thus it is with every man by Nature.
Doct. 2 This leaving of God, and walking after their own lusts, is the reason of mens sad estate both for sin and sorrow.
1. That every man by nature hath a lusting desire to leave God, and live at his own hand, and be at his own dispose: Thus it is with us all by nature; for this Prodigal Son is the picture of every natural man; and this is naturally mans proper inclination and tendency.
Here man lost his state of innocency, he waved God and his innocency together; and which, 'tis possible, he kept but a few hours; I cannot say days, as some do.
And this lust of his to leave God, and provide better for himself, as he thought, than did God, broke forth at a short temptation; Satan soon got his ear and heart to this cursed way, to cast off God, and to be as God himself; he sought to be an independent being; in plain terms, to be no more a Creature; Gen. 3.5.—Ye shall be as Gods: He took off his heart from God, to be a God himself. And man left God at first on a double account or reason.
1. Upon a dislike of his estate, though a large and lovely one, a goodly heritage, Psal. 16.as David said of his. He had hard thoughts of God, because he had put a restraint upon him from eating of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil; Gen. 3.he received a conceit that God kept him too much under, the Devil's own sin, who in dislike left his first estate, Jude 6. out of an aspiring mind to a higher estate than an Angels. So that man's first conception of sin lay in high thoughts of himself, and hard thoughts of God; and the nature of man hath taken the infection, and is apt to have high conceits of self, and hard conceits of God, as that King had 2 Kings 6.33. This evil is of the Lord, what should I wait for the Lord any longer? Matth. 25.And that Servant of his Lord, who intrusted him but with one talent, I knew thou wast a hard Man.
2. Man at first left God upon point of fear; he puts God into an ill shape, and then durst not come near him. Gen. 3.8.Adam hid himself from the presence of the Lord; and when he was asked why, I heard thy voice, says he, and was afraid. So that you plainly see how man cast off God betimes; gets himself, as he thought, from under God's government, and will have his own way: And this grievous distemper infects the whole blood; it is an hereditary and epidemical dyscrasy and disease of mankind; it is even in the godly themselves, so far as grace does not overpower it.
Pharaoh was an eminent instance in the case, Exod. 5.2. Who is the Lord that I should obey him? High language that layeth God low: as Nabal said of David in a despising way, Who is David? 1 Sam. 25.10.and who is the son of Jesse? so said Pharaoh of God, Who is the Lord, that I— The like language we read of, Job 21.14. They say unto God depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways: and this is the voice of every natural man's heart, though it break not out at his lips; The fool hath said in his heart there is no God; Psal. 14.1.so he would have it.
It is God's restraining grace that keeps the world of natural men from this Atheism; as he said to Abimelech, Gen. 20.6.I withheld thee from sinning against me. Restraining grace is an awe that God keeps upon mens Consciences, which makes them forbear some sins, Hos. 2.2.though they do not hate the sins. Judea had an adulterous heart, though God hedg'd up her way with thorns.
Man would be at liberty from God and his Will, to follow and fulfill his own; Job 11.12.Man is born like a wild Asses Colt; vain man is so, saith Zophar. He hath a principium laesum, a devillish principle in his nature; an impulse to range about the earth, as Satan said of himself; Job 1.7.his lust would know no bounds, and so indeed he would be a God to himself. Moses was instead of God to Aaron, Exod. 4.16. but that was to discover the mind of God to him; for Aaron had not that familiarity and intimacy with God as Moses had; Exod. 33.11.The Lord spake to Moses face to face, as a man speaketh to his friend; that is, most familiarly, Deut. 34.10.as he did to none of the Prophets after.
But natural men would be as Gods to themselves; Our lips are our own, Psal. 14.4.who is Lord over us. My Brethren, whilst we seek to please our selves, and to be self-depending, what is this less then to seek to be as Gods? this was it that man sought for at the beginning; God knows ye shall be as Gods, Gen. 3.5.saith the Serpent when he tempted Eve, and she soon nibbled at this bait.
When men are and will be their own motives and ends, they are as Gods unto themselves. Ezek. 14.3.Carnal men make many Gods, they set up Idols in their hearts; and as they make Gods to themselves, so they make themselves their chief God: as it was said of Antiochus Epiphanes, Dan. 11.36.the notorious Grecian Monarch, called by Divines a Type of Antichrist, and by a famous Historian Epimanes, Polybeus.a mad man; of him it is said in the Prophet Daniel, That he would exalt himself, and magnifie himself above every God.
Indeed men cannot but own themselves Creatures, in asking and receiving, as the Prodigal here, Father give me my portion: but then they are, or would be Gods in using what they receive; for let them receive wealth, or beauty, or strength, or honor, or parts, they consume them upon their lusts. James 4.3.And this way a man makes a God of himself, his own humour and lust is his end in all. Nay, and in some respects men would be as Gods in receiving; for they would have to the uttermost of their minds and phansies. Our first Parents would have had more than God gave them, though he gave them all this lower world, and much of the world above too; his own image and likeness, and near communion with himself, and power to have kept this blessed state; yet they thought not this enough, it sufficed them not, but they would be as Gods.
And still men would live, and do live, Eph. 2.12.as without God in the world, as the Apostle saith. And this is one Reason, and a chief one, why natural men refuse grace, because grace layeth man low, and raises God high: grace casts man out of himself, and prompts him to self-denial, Matth. 19.which he cannot bear: That young, rich, great man, could not part with self for Christ.
The Reasons of the Doctrine.
The first is from man's instability and mutableness; Reas. 1 Gen. 49.4.he is, as Jacob said of Reuben, unstable as water: Man is a Creature given to change; why gaddest thou about so much to change thy way? Jer. 2.36.man would change every thing. Dan. 7.25.That King, that came after the ten in Daniel, changed times and laws. The Lord complained of the Jews, Isa. 24.5. Ezek. 5.6.that they had changed the Ordinance, and had changed his Judgments.
Yea, Jer. 2.11.they changed their God: Hath a Nation changed their Gods? but my people have changed their glory. Plin.Man by nature is a Novatian, as the Philosopher said, Est natura hominum novitatis avida, man is for some new thing: He has an itch this way, Acts 17.21.as it's said of the Athenians, that they spent their time in nothing, but either to tell or to hear some new thing: Judg. 5.8.And of Israel it is said, they chose new Gods.
Man naturally loves change of states and conditions, as feaverish palates do change of beer, and it may be none will please. This Prodigal liked not to live with his Father, nor near home; he must go into a far Countrey. It may in some sort be said of every natural mans heart, Dan. 4.16.as of Nebuchadnezzars, a beasts heart was given unto him. Man would have change of pasture, as some beasts will not stay where they are put, but break and leap Hedges to get into new grounds. Not only many of the Angels left their first estate, Jude 6.but all men in the first man left theirs; Man still wants something. Amnon, though a King's Son, yet was as if he wanted all, 2 Sam. 13.while he wanted his Lust of Tamar.
And Haman, when he had the greatest favour, honour, and estate of a Subject, yet he wanted Mordecai's knee.
Man is very much a dissatisfied and discontented Creature, till grace comes, and much grace: It was much grace that brought St. Phil. 2.Paul to so contented a mind. And this is one Reason why naturally man would be loose from God, and left to himself, because he is so uncertain and unstable a Creature.
A second Reason of the Doctrine is from the ignorance that is in all natural men; Reas. 2 this makes them to leave God, and live on self.
First, a natural man's ignorance of himself; he knows not, or considers not, what it is to be a Creature, so weak a Creature as himself is; for if he did, he would not trust so much, as its plain he doth, to his own strength; strength of parts, or strength of purposes, or strength of phansie: vain man would be wise, i. e. in his own thoughts, in contriving his own happiness, Job 11.12.though man be born like a wild Asses colt, but little differing from a bruit; he is like the beast,—like the beasts that perish. Psal. 49.12, 20.How could the hop stand without the pole, or the vine without the wall? And yet man thinks he could live without God, and in a sort does.Eph. 2.12.
If holy men think themselves, at least sometimes, not to have the understanding of a man, as Hagur, Prov. 30.2. but foolish and ignorant as a beast, as Asaph, Psal. 73.22. What is the natural man's wisdom? the Apostle saith, Their wisdom makes them fools; Rom. 1.22.professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. The wisest of meer natural men, and the learnedst, know not enough what it is to be Creatures, and through this ignorance would be as Gods.
For what is it to be a Creature? not to be of our selves, 2 Cor. 6.or to our selves, not to be our own; Ye are not your own, saith St. Paul to the Corinthians; and so whatever ye do, 2 Cor. 10.31.do all to the glory of God. And therefore when men would live of themselves, and to themselves, they would live above the capacity of Creatures.
Some great men, through this ignorance of themselves, have aspired to be Gods over other men: So did the Prince of Tyrus, Ezek. 28.2.Thou hast said I am a God, I sit in the seat of God: And Herod was well pleased when the people cried him up for a God. Acts 12.22.And Alexander the Great could scarce be content to be a man; and every man that hath not grace enough to make him the more humble and modest (for as grace is given to the humble, so grace maketh humble) every man would be as God to himself; he would please himself, and live to himself; he would be his own rule, and his own end, and serve his own turn on God as well as men.
Now, I say, this is because men naturally are ignorant of what it is to be a Creature; what it is to be of another, and for another; even of God, and for God; Rom. 11.36.of him, and through him, and to him are all things. Prov. 16.4.The Lord hath made all things for himself. The wheel spins not for it self, but for him that made it, and him that bought it: and so the Ax cuts not for it self. By living of, or to our selves, we do, as far as we can, overthrow our being Creatures: and men consider not the evil of offering to sit in the seat of God.
Suppose other Creatures should be to themselves, should be proud towards us, as we are prone to be towards God, and should refuse to do our service and work, as we too often do by God, we would think it a strange ataxie, and the course of nature to be quite inverted; we should say as Ptolomy of the great and unexpected Eclipse at Christ's death, Deus naturae patitur; the God of Nature suffereth; this is the spirit of a man towards God, wherever there is not grace, and so much grace to teach us better. Though he made us, yet we have an itch to be our own, to serve our own turn, and not his; and in doing so, we seek so much as in us lyeth, to alter our selves from the condition of Creatures.
Secondly, Our ignorance of God makes us to turn our back upon him; men see not a sufficiency of good in God, and so they look for it elsewhere. God is an unknown God to the most of men; and though they profess him, yet that may be written on their Profession, which was upon the Altar that St. Paul saw at Athens, To the unknown God: Acts 17.23. Psal. 50.21.Many men phansie God to be like themselves. Through deceit they refuse to know me, saith the Lord, Isa. 9.6. and every man is brutish in his knowledge, Jer. 10.14.
What is the reason that the Saints depend on God, and dare not scatter their trust to Creatures? because they know him, and have acquaintance with him; Psal. 9.10. Jer. 24.7.They that know thy Name will put their trust in thee: God gives them a heart to know him: and this was the reason why Pharaoh would be his own Lord, I know not the Lord, Exod. 5.7. Because men know not the Lord so, as to know that their happiness is bound up in him, as Judah said, that his fathers life was in the lads life, Gen. 44.30. Therefore men leave God, and rely on themselves, or some other Creature; She did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oyl, and multiplyed her silver and gold, wherewith they made Baal; so these last words are in the Margin, Hos. 2.8.
There is a natural instinct in all men to desire to be happy, but where this Golden vein lyes, every man by nature is to seek; men are scepticks or seekers indeed in this; but miss as much, or more than they that make experiment of the Philosophers Stone.
The wisest men of this world have abounded in their conjectures of it; there have been fourscore, some say a hundred, of distinct opinions in the case, viz. wherein true happiness lieth, and all have been mistaken: For it is to be observed, they have all seated the Summum bonum, man's chief good, in the Creatures, and not in God.
But grace teacheth us to find it in God, and in God alone, Psal. 73.25.in the enjoyment of God himself; Whom have I in Heaven but thee? and there is none on earth that I desire besides thee.
Solomon, who might better be called Nature's Secretary than Aristotle, ransack'd the whole Creation, all things under the Sun for it, but found it not; only vanity and vexation of spirit instead of it.
Every Creature answered Solomon, when he sought felicity in them, as the Depths and the Sea answer men who seek wisdom in them, Job 28.14.It is not in me, nor it is not in me. Men set up false marks, when they aim at contentation and satisfaction in any creature excellency; so that if they do hit the mark they aim at, they hit a false mark. Suppose a man aim to be happy in riches, or honour, or pleasures, or moral vertues, or parts, or humane learning, and suppose he hit the mark he aims at for happiness; why he hits a false mark, and so is as far from true happiness as before he took his aim.
The enjoyment of all these, laid to the enjoyment of God himself, Isa. 55.2.are but as Esau's Pottage to the Blessing or Birthright; Men lay out their strength for that which satisfieth not, and their money for that which is not bread, who hunt for happiness in the Creature: They are like a man sick of a Fever, O if he had but drink, how well should he be! but this is the cry of his Distemper; for give him drink to his mind, and it does but feed his Disease, not satisfie Nature, but disturb it more.
It's considerable what the Lord saith in this case, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, Jer. 9.23.nor the mighty man glory in his might; let not the rich man glory in his riches: but let him that glorieth, glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, &c. Acquaintance with God is more to a man's peace and composure of mind than all the former; Acquaint now thy self with him, Job 12.21.and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee.
It is true, we may seek comfort in the Creature, and find it; yet it's imperfect comfort; it's comfort but in part: As we know here but in part. We may look for light from the Moon, and have it; but we may not think to find the light of the Sun in the Moon. And as great a difference there is between the Joy we may have in the Creature, and that we may have in God; Psal. 104.34. Psal. 16.5, 6.My meditation of him shall be sweet. When David said, The Lord is the portion of mine Inheritance; he adds, the lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places.
What vertue God hath put into the Creature, we may seek it; but when we find it, it is to mind us of much more to be found in God: God intends not that the comfort we find in any of the Creatures should draw our hearts from him, but to him, and more to him than before: Josh. 15.19.Caleb's daughter must have the upper springs with the neather in her blessing. In a word, we must seek God in the Creature, as Jacob saw God in Esau's face, and seek the Creature for God, as well as our selves, or else we mistake the way to true comfort and content in both, which method no natural man observeth. And thus much for the second Reason of the point.
A third Reason is the pride of man; Reas. 3 man's pride makes him turn his back upon God, and think to stand by himself: Man is naturally a proud Creature, as the sinning Angels were; man is among the children of pride; Job 42.3 Psal. 10.4.The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God; God is not in all his thoughts.
What is pride but an opinion of a man's self-sufficiency and self-excellency? as we see in that proud Pharisee, I am not as other men, Luke 18.nor as this Publican: and in those proud superstitious Jews, who said to others, Stand by thy self, Isa. 65.5.come not near to me, for I am holier than thou: This is the dialect and language of pride; it is the vent of tow'ring thoughts of a man's self: You may more easily pull down the strongest Castle, than the proud heart of man. Pharaoh was long plagued before he would own God; Who is the Lord, Exod. 5.that I should obey his Voice? This was the Leaven which first sowred man's heart in his fall, We shall be as Gods, Gen. 3. and ever since natural man would be some great one, Acts 8.9.as Simon Magus gave out himself to be.
Man is not easily made nothing in his own thoughts; he very hardly owns his need and want in spirituals: I am rich, and want nothing, Rev. 3.17.was the brag of the Laodiceans. Now as God beholds the proud afar of, Psal. 138. so the proud heart of men by nature keeps afar off from God; They say unto God, depart from us, Job 21.14.for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.
The pride of man's heart hath a hand in those two soul-undoing sins, that keep men off from God, Presumption and Despair. Presumers, Psal. 10.through the pride of their countenance, will not seek after God: and Despairers will see some worth in themselves before they will go to God. It is not usually through the excess, but defect of humiliation, that souls in despair will not cast themselves on Christ, as they said Jer. 2.25. There is no hope; No: I have loved strangers, and after them will I go. Despair is a proud sin, as well as Presumption: It made Spira wish he were above God.
The pride of man is a greater barr against the grace of God, Matth. 21.31.than grosser sins; Verily I say unto you, that the Publicans and Harlots go into the Kingdom of God before you. Meer civil men need more humbling, in some respects, than grosser sinners, because they have more to be proud of. It's self-liking and self-flattering that keeps a man upon his own bottom.
And as a man is prone to like himself, so to seek himself is at the end of all his actions; whether he pray, or preach, or hear, or confer, or trade, or eat, &c. self is his bias: And as proud man seeks himself, so he is self-depending; he lays the stress of duties on his parts, and the stress of reforming any sin upon his own purposes and resolutions, and his successes upon his own worth or wisdom.
To this the Lord saw the Children of Israel to be inclined, Judg. 7.2.—lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me. See the reasoning between Joshua and Israel in Josh. 24.19, 21. Ye cannot serve the Lord, for he is a holy God, he is a jealous God. Nay, but we will serve the Lord. There is a tang of this in the spirits of godly persons; for alas, how seldom do they act grace, or in duty so, as considering that God must help the acts of grace, as well as give the habits? But for natural men, the Lord may say to them as to Edom, Isa. 49.16.The pride of thy heart hath deceived thee, thou hast cast of God, and relied on thine own strength.
Fourthly, Reas. 4 Passion and peevishness in the nature of man begets prejudices against God: As natural men cannot please God, so God cannot please them. There is something of this leaven in God's own people, and the most eminent of them: 2 Sam. 6.8.David was displeased, because the Lord had made a breach upon Ʋzzah: Jonah 4.1.and Jonas was exceedingly displeased that the Lord spared Nineveh.
It cannot be said of God and his people, as it was of David and his, 2 Sam. 3. Whatsoever the King did, it pleased the people; nay too often, much of that that we vent in prayer, or under the name of prayer, is but passion, and the effect of a feverish distemper on our spirits. Observe what is written of Jonah in this case, It displeased Jonah exceedingly: And he was very angry, angry in prayer: he was very angry, and he prayed unto the Lord, and said, I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my saying when I was in my Countrey — What was this praying, but the vent of humane passion unto prejudice against God? Yea, and which was much, he justified himself in it to the face of God. Jonah, Jonah 4.9.saith God, dost thou well to be angry? and he said, I do well to be angry unto death.
Fifthly, Reas. 5 The natural wilfulness and rebellion of man is the cause why he will leave God, and be at his own finding and dispose; man would not submit to God: Jer. 44.16, 17.As for the word that thou hast spoken to us in the Name of the Lord, we will not hearken to thee, but we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth —
There hath been a contest between God's Will and mans, from mans beginning, Gen. 3.and so is to this day. God layeth all the wickedness of man upon his own rebellious will; Psal. 81.11. Joh. 5.40.Israel would have none of me. And so did Christ the Jews unbelief; ye will not come to me that ye might have life: And how often would I, and ye would not? Matth. 23.27. O the rebellion of the Clay against the Potter! the Apostle hints it in the Ninth Chapter to the Romans. Many a man will damn himself, rather than he will submit himself to the will of God; Job 21.15.What is the Almighty that we should serve him?
How do men say in Prayer, Lord, thy will be done, and yet in their practice contend with God for their own? Those Jews were not alone in this, Jer. 18.12. We will walk after our own devices, and we will every man do the imagination of his own evil heart. The Prodigal Son would have his portion from his Father into his own hands, that he might have his own will.