Looking unto Jesus a view of the everlasting gospel, or, the souls eying of…

1. Parabolically, especially in those three Parables, of the lost Groat, and of the lost Sheep, and of the lost Son; I shall instance in this last,¹ which may well serve for all the rest.—When the Prodigal was yet afar off, his Father saw him, and had compassion on him, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. In these words, observe, 1. His Father sees him before he sees his Father; no sooner a sinner thinks of Heaven, but the Lord spies him and takes notice of him. 2. The Lord sees him whiles he was yet a great way off; he was but in the beginning of his way: his Father might have let him alone till he had come quite home to his house, and it had been a singular mercy to have bid him welcome then; but he takes notice of him yet a great way off: sinners may be far off from God in their own apprehensions, and yet the Lord even then draws near, whiles thus they apprehend. 3. His Father had pity or compassion on him; the Lords bowels even yearn, and work, and stir within him at the sight of his returning prodigals; when Ephraim had bemoaned himself, Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, ²as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke; why then cries God; Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleasant child? for since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still; therefore my bowels are troubled for him, I will surely have mercy upon him saith the Lord.—4. His Father run: there is much in this: As, 1. It had been mercy though his Father had stood still, till his Son had come. 2. What a mercy is this, that his Father will go, and give his Son the meeting? 3. But above all, oh what abundant mercy call we this, that the Father will not go, but run? If he would needs meet his Son, might he not have walked towards him in a soft slow pace? O no, if a sinner will but come, or creep towards Christ, mercy will not go a foot-pace, but run to meet him; bowels full of mercy ⟨p. 190⟩out-pace bowels pinched with hunger; Gods mercy is over all his works, and so it is over all our needs, and over all our sins. 5. He ran, and fell on his neck; (i.e.) he hugged and embraced him; O wonder! who would not have been loth to have touched him? was he not in his loathsome stinking rags? smelt he not of the hogs and swine he lately kept? would not some dainty stomachs have been ready to have cast all up upon such embracements?