3rd.—His boasting and impudent demand of God’s attention to his service—“Lo, take notice how many years I have served thee.”—An awful proof he had never been in the stripping room—in the element of free grace all boasting is excluded. But this is not the only place where the Saviour has exposed such PROUD BOASTERS. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied, preached in thy name, and in thy name done many wonderful works as the ground of our acceptance? Mind, the Saviour does not say they did so, but this is their plea and boast. So also the pharisee that went up into the temple to pray; (Luke xviii) but there is not a word of prayer in all he said—but with a heart full of pride and a mouth full of lies he arrogantly addressed God—at the same time told seven lies in his presence. 4th.—His murmuring: “Thou never gave me a kid”—that is, not the smallest remuneration for his long services. Here the pride of the heart is awfully manifested—wanting to bring in God a debtor to him for his paltry, ragged, rotten, worm-eaten cobweb righteousness. The grand design of grace is to humble the heart, and to cause us gratefully to acknowledge that all we have and all we are out of hell is favor and mercy indeed. 5.—His rebellion: “The father went out and intreated him, but he was angry and would not come in.” This refers to the ministry of the gospel and its external call, The Jews were first favored with it; but in the pride of their heart, they rejected it, and their ecclesiastical rulers would neither go into a profession of the Messiah nor let others, without much opposition; and so it is to this day in some places where the doctrine of free grace is preached. Pharisee preachers and people are angry at the doctrine; they will neither hear it themselves, though intreated to listen to sterling truth, but they persecute those that receive it; they have neither will nor desire—of course they have not the spirit of God who makes his people willing. 6th.—Notwithstanding his boasted perfection, holiness, morality, and long service, yet he was quite destitute of those things. The prodigal was blest with conviction of his danger, a deep sense of need, self despair, the spirit of power on his will, humble confession of sin, the spirit of adoption, the ring, the robe, the calf, the shoes, the music, and the holy company—he was a perfect stranger to these twelve blessings, that every believer, more or less, is led to enjoy.