That a sinner will try all ways, and go through the utmost extremities, ere he will return from his sins. The Prodigal here 1spends all, yet he returns not; he is pinched with famine, yet he returns not; he joins himself with a Citizen, and he sends him to feed Swine, yet doth he not return: if he could have got but the husks which the Swine did eat; husks are but poor, empty, light things, miserable nourishment; but if he could have made any shift, any way to have supported himself, he would not have returned unto his Father. Thus you read of Pharaoh, that though there were a Climax of plagues upon him, and wonders of ruin upon his Land, and Cattle, and Servants, rising like a Tide and Flood, yet till it came to his first-born, and the next stroke was to reach his own life, he would not obey the Voice of the Lord in letting of Israel go; like obstinate defendants in a City, which will lose one Outwork after another, and suffer the Undermining of their Walls, ere they will come to terms of Capitulation. So we read of the Israelites before the Captivity, how extremely they did endure a very succession of Judgments, and variety of strange punishments before they would return? Amos 4. 6. Cleanness of teeth, and want of bread; yet have they not returned to me, saith the Lord. Ver. 7. Rain was withheld, and great scarcity was there of water; yet, Ver. 8. Have ye not returned to me. Ver. 9. Smiting, with blasting, and mildew, and the Palmer worm, yet, &c. Ver. 10. Pestilence after the manner of Egypt, and the Sword; yet have ye not returned. Ver. 11. Overthrowing some of them as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and pulling some of them as a firebrand out of the burning; yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord. And thus was it with them after the Captivity, all the famine and miseries, which they suffered in the Siege, where the mothers were forced to eat their children of a span long, Lam. 2. And all the merciless devourings of the sword, and all the kinds of destroying sicknesses, did not turn them to the Lord against whom they had sinned; but after all, they spend the utmost of their policies for safety, running into Egypt, flying unto Ashur; they tried all sorts of fruitless confidences, before they would return unto the ⟨p. 46⟩Lord, therefore doth the Lord threaten to hedge their ways with thorns, and to make a wall that they shall not find their paths.
That a sinner will try all wayes, and go through the utmost extremities, ere he will return from his sins. The Prodigal here 1spends all, yet he returns not; he is pinched with famine, yet he returns not; he joyns himself with a Citizen, and he sends him to feed Swine, yet doth he not return: if he could have got but the husks which the Swine did eat; husks are but poor, empty, light things, miserable nourishment; but if he could have made any shift, any way to have supported himself, he would not have returned unto his Father. Thus you read of Pharaoh, that though there were a Climax of plagues upon him, and wonders of ruine upon his Land, and Cattel, and Servants, rising like a Tide and Flood, yet till it came to his first-born, and the next stroke was to reach his own life, he would not obey the Voice of the Lord in letting of Israel go; like obstinate defendants in a City, which will lose one Outwork after another, and suffer the Undermining of their Walls, ere they will come to terms of Capitulation. So we read of the Israelites before the Captivity, how extremely they did endure a very succession of Judgments, and variety of strange punishments before they would return? Amos 4. 6. Cleanness of teeth, and want of bread; yet have they not returned to me, saith the Lord. Ver. 7. Rain was withheld, and great scarcity was there of water; yet, Ver. 8. Have ye not returned to me. Ver. 9. Smiting, with blasting, and mildew, and the Palmer worm, yet, &c. Ver. 10. Pestilence after the manner of Egypt, and the Sword; yet have ye not returned. Ver. 11. Overthrowing some of them as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrha, and pulling some of them as a firebrand out of the burning; yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord. And thus was it with them after the Captivity, all the famine and miseries, which they suffered in the Siege, where the mothers were forced to eat their children of a span long, Lam. 2. And all the merciless devourings of the sword, and all the kinds of destroying sicknesses, did not turn them to the Lord against whom they had sinned; but after all, they spend the utmost of their pollicies for safety, running into Egypt, flying unto Ashur; they tryed all sorts of fruitless confidences, before they would return unto the ⟨p. 46⟩Lord, therefore doth the Lord threaten to hedge their ways with thorns, and to make a wall that they shall not find their paths.
- 1Doct. 1. A sinner will try all way•s, to the utmost extremities ere he will return from his sins.Doct. 1. A sinner will try all way•s, to the utm•st extremities ere he will return from his sins.
