Meditations the Parable of the Prodigal Son, Title page – Preface
MEDITATIONS UPON OUR SAVIOUR'S PARABLE OF THE Prodigal Son.
BEING Several SERMONS on the fifteenth Chapter of St. Luke's Gospel.
By OBADIAH GREW D. D. late Minister of the Gospel in Coventry.
PART I.
LONDON, Printed by S. Roycroft for Nevill Simmons at the Prince's Arms in St. Paul's Church-yard. 1678.
Imprimatur,
Aug. 15. 1677. GƲIL. SILL.
THE PREFACE.
NO Man, I think, who shall consider the Allegorical Comments which some, especially of the Fathers, have given us upon several Parts of Scripture, and even St. Paul himself, and our Saviour also upon divers of his own Parables, but will say, I have been modest in the Doctrinal Inferences made from the Parable here before us.
It cannot be denied, but that as a wise man may have more Reasons than One for what he saith, so may he design to teach more than one thing, or sort of persons thereby: How much more reasonable is it then, that we allow the same to that infinite Wisdome, by which our Blessed Saviour always spake? Not only directing his Words to the Generation then in being, but also inspiring his Apostles to transmit them in writing to all Posterity. So that as they had their. Lessons to learn then, so have we ours now, from the self same words, so far as our Case may any way bear a proportion unto theirs. For it is not intelligible, to what end they should be left us in writing, if we were not concerned to learn something of Importance from them, as well as they.
Something, I say, and that from every Word or Clause, so far, as without any vain and affected straining may be soberly inferr'd, and the truth thereof confirm'd by other parts of Scripture. For it were highly dishonourable to our Saviour, to think, That he, who was so much against Battologies in his Disciples, should himself have the Vanity, or be forced, for want of skill, to use any words only to fill up Vacuities in his Discourse. So that, although nothing should be strained, yet is there not a Clause in this whole Parable, which affords not some particular and important Instruction. Otherwise our Saviour could very easily, and would much rather have left it out.
From the consideration of what hath been said, it seemeth plain, That this first part of the Parable of the Prodigal pointeth not only to the Scribes and Pharisees, but to every unconverted man, whose Nature and Condition are herein clearly and fully represented; as one that is wilfull and heady, blind and desperately bent upon his Lusts, against the will of God, to the wounding, and greatest danger of undoing his own Soul. In a word, shewing him to be nothing else but Decalogus inversus, the Ten Commandments turned upside down. The deformity of fall'n Man being greater than even that of Nebuchadnezzar, when from a mighty Monarch, he fell into a kind of Brutality, and was turned out to graze with the Beasts of the field. What saith the Spirit of God himself? Psal. 49.20. Man that is in honour, and understandeth not, is like the Beasts that perish.
Nor doth this Character belong only to the Vicious and Debauched, but unto the Wisest and most Civilliz'd of Men, who do not what they do in a sound Faith of God Almighty's Word, a sincere Obedience to his Law, in dependance upon the help of his Holy Spirit, out of Love and Design for his Glory, and that through the merits of Jesus Christ they may be happy in the enjoyment of him in the end. Far greater Things than the most accomplished Morality (as we take the word from the Latines, and they their Notions hereof from the Greeks) could ever pretend unto. So far, that I shall not do so great a dishonour to the Christian Religion, as to make it a Question, by going about to prove it.
That wise man Cato, who was called Homo Virtuti similllimus, the very Picture of Virtue; yet (in the fourth Book of his Morals) scoffed at God's Institutions in the Ceremonial Law, which prefigured the death of our Lord Jesus Christ for lost Sinners. Stultitia est, morte alterius sperare salutem. And Plato, though styled Divine, yet did rather dream of God than know him distinctly, as was the judgment of Lactantius concerning him; Lib. de vanitate Philosophiae & Philosophorum.
But however it may be to us a secret, what God, the Sovereign Lord of all, may do with any persons from amongst the Jews, and before the Gospel; yet as for those to whom it hath been preached, we are sure, That without Faith it is impossible to please God: And, that he that believeth not, so doth not all those things that are the demonstrations of a Gospel Faith, shall be damned.
Let me therefore conclude with this Exhortation to every Reader: First try your self by this Standard, whether you are weight, by the Character here before you, whether you be included in it, and that it expresseth your own heart, yea or no. If it doth, then be afraid of your self, and tremble at the Condition you are in. If it doth not, then have compassion on those whom it doth include: And to Compassion add, you cannot choose but add, your Prayers; and to both your best and prudent endeavours to reclaim them; remembring, amongst many other encouragements, that great one which the Apostle James mentions, viz. That he who converts a sinner from the errour of his way, shall save a Soul, and hide a a multitude of sins. And that this may be the blessed fruit, as of the ensuing Treatise, so of all other means to be used in order thereunto, is the most affectionate Prayer of the Authour
O. G.