up to uncleannefs." But let us proceed to confider the confequences of this behaviour.

"And when he had spent all, there arofe a mighty famine in that land, and he began to be in

Having forfaken God, and loft his grace and love, and at length all knowledge of him, he could find nothing elsewhere but that poverty, mifery, and want, which the fall had brought upon the earth. This wretched ftate of the Gentile world is pictured to us by the lively and ftriking idea of a famine. "There arose a mighty dearth in that land," a mighty dearth and scarcity of divine knowledge, which is the bread of life to the foul; for "man doth not live by bread alone, but by the word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” A famine of this fort is thus described by the prophet Amos; "Behold the days come, faith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. And they fhall wander from fea to fea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to feek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it." This was exactly the cafe of the Gentiles, when they had fquandered away the riches of divine knowledge, which they had received from their heavenly father at the beginning. Then there arose a sad famine of the word of God, and they began to be in want of fomething that would fatisfy the empty foul. Then their philofophers and feckers after wisdom ran to and fro from one end of the earth to the other, to procure a little true religious knowledge; but it was not to be found. And the famine was over all the face of the Gentile world, and the land fainted by reafon of the famine. But

as

as there was no true bread of life to be procured, the foul must endeavour to fatisfy itself with some thing. Accordingly, we read of our young prodigal, that,

"He went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he fent him into his fields to feed fwine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the hufks which the swine did eat, and no man gave unto him.”

"No man (fays Chrift) can serve two masters." But one he must ferve.

And if he quits the fervice of God, he foon becomes a flave to the devil. This was the cafe of the Gentile prodigal. When he had deferted the service of his heavenly father, God Almighty, the next thing we hear of him is, that he had joined himself to another master, namely, to him who, fince he has been caft out of heaven, walks up and down in the earth, feeking those who he left their old master and father, to hire them into his fervice. The prodigal was in that condition; and accordingly Satan took poffeffion of him. For thus St Paul tells the Ephefians, that before their converfion, they walked according to the prince of the power of the air, the fpirit that worketh in the children of disobedience.” And the defign of the Gospel is elfewhere faid to be, to ❝turn the Gentiles from the power of Satan to God." While they were Gentiles therefore, they were under "the power of Satan." Now the employment which the grand adversary of man's happinefs finds for him, when once engaged in his fervice, is this. He fends him into proper fcenes of fin and wickedrefs, vanity and folly, there to gratify the defires of corrupt nature, inflaving him by this means to his own brutish lufts and paflions. This is most exactly described in the parable, by

THE PRODIGAL SON.

193.

the circumstances of his being " fent into his mafter's fields to feed fwine;" to which ravenous and unclean animals, the infatiable, earthly lufts of concupifcence are, with great propriety, refembled in Holy Scripture. The mifery of the employment is, that these lufts are never to be fatisfied. A truth to which the heart of every finner will bear a fad teftimony. Befides, God made the foul of man for himself, and therefore bequeathed it unquietnefs, till poffeffed of its maker. Vain then is the employment of those, who feek to procure the happiness of the foul, by indulging the appetites of the body. Men are daily inventing new fchemes to effect it, till diverfion is grown a fcience, and amusement become a toil. But if we ask them, they will one and all tell us, it is not yet effected. Something, to a man poffeffed of all that earth can give him-Something is ftill wanting. O fools and flow of heart to believe what the prophets and the apostles have spoken! The comforts of religion are wanting, and these they will not look after; but ftill, copying the example of their ancestor, the poor Gentile prodigal, they would "fain fill their bellies with the hufks which the fwine do eat;" they are endeavouring to nourish their immortal fpirits with the empty unfatisfying things of this corruptible world, which are calculated for the bo dily appetites only. But let all who have followed this prodigal in his departure from his father, come hither, and hearken, and he will tell them what God hath done for his foul, and call them to fellow the noble example he has fet them in his return, and reconciliation.

And here, let us obferve with attention a compleat description of the process of true repentance and justification in the Gentiles, and all who are VOL. II. finners,

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finners, like them. The violence of the famine had brought the wretched prodigal to the last stage of diftrefs. He had tried in vain to fatisfy himself with "that which was not bread. Hungry and thirfty, his foul fainted in him, and he drew near to the gates of death." But now the grace of God, which leadeth to repentance, began to work upon him. It had been ready to do fo all along; but as It is faid of Chrift, that he "could do no mighty works in fome places, because of men's unbelief," fo his grace does not work upon men's minds, when they are determined not to suffer it. While the prodigal's heart was in the flutter, and hurry, and diffipation of pleasure and extravagance, no mighty works of falvation could be wrought in it. But when it was humbled by affliction, and broken with continual tribulation, it became a proper fubject for the operations of divine grace. Accordingly, the good Spirit of God immediately began with his preventing favour, and led him step by step, till his repentance and reconciliating were compleated. "And when he came to himself, he faid, how many hired fervants of my father have bread enough, and to fpare, and I perish with hunger? [ will arife, and go to my father, and will fay unto him, father, I have finned against heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called ́ thy fon; make me as one of thy hired fervants.'

A fenfe of fin is the beginning of repentance, and a sense of mifery begets a fenfe of fin. The Gentiles (and the cafe is the fame with finners of all ages) could not but feel the poverty and wretchedness into which they had fallen. And when a man feels himself miferable, it is but him to confider how he came to be fo. appeared plain enough to the Gentile,

natural for The cause

when enlightened

lightened at first by the Scriptures of the Old Teftament difperfed in the Septuagint verfion, and then by the Gofpel preached through all nations. Aided in his meditations by these helps, he quickly, traced all his misfortunes up to the fountain head, which was his leaving the church, the house of the living God, his heavenly father. Now he began thoroughly to comprehend the mifery of his ftate, and to envy the happiness of those who had continued in their father's house, and ferved him day and night in his temple. They were not confounded in the perilous time, and in the days of dearth they had enough, and to fpare. They feasted ever-more at the table of their heavenly Father, and found the light of his countenance to be life,. and his favour and grace as a cloud of the latter rain; while his foul was ftarving for lack of knowledge and truth, and frozen for want of charity. "How many hired fervants of my father have bread enough, and to fpare, and I perifh with hunger?" He was now (as it is finely expreffed): "come to himself," and to a remembrance of his true condition and intereft. From the hour he left: his father's house to this moment, he had been in a dream, and found himself, juft awaked out of what may be called a deep fleep, in the language of St Paul, who thus addreffes a finner, "Awake, thou that fleepeft, and arife." Accordingly, being now awake, he determined inftantly to arife, and tread back the steps by which he had departed from his father; to make a frank and full confeffion to him of his paft fins? to acknowledge him-felf utterly unworthy of any favour at his hands.; and to declare his readinefs to fubmit to any penance, to live in any state of humiliation, that his father fhould be pleased to impofe; only begging, R. 3

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