Q. How doth God prune a vine in a spiritual sense? A. By correction and wholesome punishment for sin. Q. Who are briars and thorns? A. Evil men, whether disobedient Jews, or unbelieving Gentiles. Q. What is meant by commanding the clouds that there should be no rain? A. Withdrawing the blessings of divine grace. Q. What is every Christian to expect who is unfruitful? A. That God will judge him, as he judged the Church of Jerusalem. THE TEXTS. Isaiah v. 1-7. Psalm lxxx. 8-16. ́ John xv. 5. I am the vine, ye are the branches; he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. 6. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered: and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. XII. THE K 2 XII. THE CHAPTER OF THE PRODIGAL SON. BY two brethren of opposite characters, two parties of people are signified; the one good, the other evil. In Cain, that wicked wretch, who slew his brother, we have a pattern of the whole world of unbelievers; in Abel, of the whole army of persecuted saints and martyrs, from the creation to the day of judgment. When Rebekah was about to bring forth twins, the Lord said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels. The same is intended in the parable of the Prodigal Son. Here are two manner of people, the Jews and the Gentiles, represented to us under the persons of two brethren, the elder, and the younger: and their characters are suitable in every respect. The Jew is at home, and lives in the house of his father, that is, in the Church of God: the Gentile, who was also in it from the beginning, departs from the true worship, and goes afar off into idolatry. The parable shews us, first, what became of him; and secondly, how the Jew behaved upon his brother's repentance and conversion. When the Gentile left the Church of God, he carried off off the substance of what he had there been taught; but it was soon wasted, and a famine. succeeded; such as the mind suffers, when it has not the word of God to live upon. Thus falling into riot and debauchery, such as was practised by the Heathens, even in their religion, the prodigal becomes fit company for swine, and is disposed to feed as those filthy creatures do. His misery brought him to himself: and he resolved to return to the house of his father; wherein the lowest and the meanest were better provided for than he. The father remembers no more what he had been, but receives him with tenderness and affection; puts on him the best robe-gives him the cloathing of righteousness--puts a ring on his hand, to signify that he is again adopted for a son-and his feet which were bare, are shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace. The fatted calf, the sacrifice, so long reserved, and in which all other sacrifices were fulfilled, is killed for him; and he partakes of the feast with mirth, and music, and dancing, that is, with all the pleasures of devotion, which are no where to be found but in the house of our Father. He is now raised from the death of sin unto the life of righteousness: he was dead, and is alive again K 3 again he was lost, as a poor straying starved sheep, but is now found, and received into the fold. The proud selfish Jew, seeing the conversion and reception of the Gentiles, is filled with envy instead of charity. Thy brother is come, said the servants: but that which gives pleasure to the angels of heaven, the conversion of a sinner, gives no pleasure to an envious mind. When God, of his infinite mercy, granted to the Gentiles repentance unto life, the Jews were so angry, that they determined never to come under the same roof with them; and they hold their wicked resolution to this day. They justified themselves, and pleaded that they had never transgressed; and that, in return for it, God had used them hardly, and disappointed them; though in fact they had all along enjoyed the privileges of the Church, and had still the first claim to all its promises, if they would accept of them. Ever since the time when they refused to come into the house of their Father, they have been wandering about the field of this world. There they are to this day; and there we suppose they will remain; till the Gentile shall once more turn prodigal, and his time also shall be fulfilled. THE THE QUESTIONS. Q. What does the Scripture signify by two brethren? A. Two manner of people. Q. Who are the two brethren in the parable of the Prodigal Son? A. The Jew and the Gentile. Q. What became of the Gentile? A. He turned prodigal, and left the house of his father. Q. Whither did he go? A. Afar off into the country of idolatry. A. In spiritual fornication with idols, and in all manner of wickedness. Q. What is meant by the famine which him? came upon A. The emptiness of the mind, which has lost the word of God: for man liveth not by bread alone, but by the word of the Lord. Q, What is it to feed swine? A. To satisfy our own sinful lusts: and he who doth that, is all the while empty himself, and perishing with hunger, because the mind is unsatisfied. Q. Why is it said, that he came to himself? K 4 |