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"substance," the riches of his understanding, "in "riotous living," and devoured his estate, the means by which his spirit was to be supported, with harlots; in a word, he fell into idolatry, which not only is itself spiritual fornication, but opened a door to all manner of lasciviousness, by introducing it even into the temples and services of the gods. For which reason St. Paul closely connects them in his account of this very transaction, the apostasy of the nations, Rom. i. "They changed the glory of the incorrup"tible God into an image-WHEREFORE God also gave them up to uncleanness." But let us proceed to consider the consequences of this behaviour.

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

Having forsaken God, and lost his grace and love, and at length all knowledge of him, he could find nothing elsewhere but that poverty, misery, and want, which the fall had brought upon the earth. This wretched state of the Gentile world is pictured to us by the lively and striking idea of a famine. "There "arose a mighty famine in that land," a mighty dearth and scarcity of divine knowledge, which is the bread of life to the soul; for "man doth not live

by bread alone, but by the word that proceedeth "out of the mouth of God." A famine of this sort is thus described by the prophet Amos: "Behold, the "days come, saith 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 shall wander from sea to sea, and "from the north even to east; they shall run to and

"fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not "find it." This was exactly the case of the Gentiles, when they had squandered 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 something that would satisfy the empty soul. Then their philosophers and seekers 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 reason of the famine. But as there was no true bread of life to be procured, the soul must endeavour to satisfy itself with something. ingly, we read of our young prodigal, that,

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"He went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed "swine. And he would fain have filled his belly "with the husks which the swine did eat; and no (6 man gave unto him."

"No man," says Christ," can serve two masters.” But one he must serve. And if he quits the service of God, he soon becomes a slave to the devil. This was the case of the Gentile prodigal. When he had deserted 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, since he has been cast out of heaven, walks up and down in the earth, seeking those who have left their old Master and Father, to hire them into his service. The prodigal was in that condition; and

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accordingly Satan took possession of him. For thus St. Paul tells the Ephesians, that before their conversion "they walked according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience." And the design of the Gospel is elsewhere said to be, to "turn the Gen"tiles 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 happiness finds for him, when once engaged in his service, is this. He sends him into proper scenes of sin and wickedness, vanity and folly, there to gratify the desires of corrupt nature, enslaving him by this means to his own brutish lusts and passions. This is most exactly described in the parable, by the circumstances of his being "sent into his master's fields to feed swine;" to which ravenous and unclean animals, the insatiable, earthly lusts of concupiscence are, with great propriety, resembled in holy Scripture. The misery of the employment is, that these lusts are never to be satisfied; a truth to which the heart of every sinner will bear a sad testimony. Besides, God made the soul of man for himself, and therefore bequeathed it unquietness till possessed of its Maker. Vain then is the employment of those who seek to procure the happiness of the soul, by indulging the appetites of the body. Men are daily inventing new schemes to effect it; till diversion is grown a science, 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 possessed of all that earth can

give him-something is still wanting. O fools and slow of heart to believe what the prophets and apostles have spoken! The comforts of religion are wanting, and these they will not look after; but still, copying the example of their ancestor, the poor · Gentile prodigal, they would "fain fill their bellies "with the husks which the swine do eat :" they are endeavouring to nourish their immortal spirits with the empty unsatisfying things of this corruptible world, which are calculated for the bodily 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 soul, and call them to follow the noble example he has set them in his return and reconciliation.

And here let us observe with attention a complete description of the process of true repentance and justification in the Gentiles, and all who are sinners like them. The violence of the famine had brought the wretched prodigal to the last stage of distress. He had tried in vain to satisfy himself with "that which "was not bread. Hungry and thirsty his soul faint"ed 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 hath been ready to do so all along; but as it is said of Christ, that he "could do no mighty works in some places, be"cause of men's unbelief," so 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 dissipation of pleasure and extravagance, no mighty works of salvation could

be wrought in it. But when it was humbled by affliction, and broken with continual tribulation, it be came a proper subject 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 reconciliation were completed. " How

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"And when he came to himself, he said, many hired servants of my father have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! "I will arise, and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and be"fore thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son; make me as one of thy hired servants."

A sense of sin is the beginning of repentance; and a sense of misery begets a sense of sin. The Gentiles (and the case is the same with sinners of all ages) could not but feel the poverty and wretchedness into which they had fallen. And when a man feels himself miserable, it is but natural for him to consider how he came to be so. The cause appeared plain enough to the Gentile, when enlightened at first by the Scriptures of the Old Testament dispersed in the Septuagint version, and then by the Gospel 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 miseries of his state, and to envy the happiness of those who had continued in their Father's house, and served him day and night in his

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