A29699:256
Paradise opened, or, The secrets, mysteries, and rarities of divine love, of infinite wisdom,…Paradice opened, or, The secreets, mysteries, and rarities of divine love, of infinite wisdom,…
Paradise opened, or, The secrets, mysteries, and rarities of divine love, of infinite wisdom, and of wonderful counsel laid open to public view also, the covenant of grace, and the high and glorious transactions of the Father and the Son in the covenant of redemption opened and improved at large, with the resolution of divers important questions and cases concerning both covenants ... : being the second and last part of The golden key / by Thomas Brooks ...Paradice opened, or, The secreets, mysteries, and rarities of divine love, of infinite wisdom, and of wonderful counsel laid open to publick view also, the covenant of grace, and the high and glorious transactions of the Father and the Son in the covenant of redemption opened and improved at large, with the resolution of divers important questions and cases concerning both covenants ... : being the second and last part of The golden key / by Thomas Brooks ...
London: printed for Dorman Newman, 1675
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
when persons are justified, their sins shall be as if they had not been, God will bid them welcome into his presence, and embrace them in his arms, and will never object to them their former unkindness, unfruitfulness, unthankfulness, vileness, stubbornness, wickedness, as you may plainly see in the return of the Prodigal, and his father's deportment towards him; Luk. 15. 20, 21, 22, 23. When he was a great way off: The Prodigal, was but ⟨p. 61⟩conceiving a purpose to return, and God met him. The very intention, and secret motions, and close purposes of our hearts, are known to God: The old Father sees a great way off; dim eyes can see a great way, when the Son is the object (his father saw him, and had compassion:) His bowels roll within him; the Father, not only sees, but commiserates and compassionates the returning Prodigal, as he did Ephraim of old; My bowels 1are troubled for him, I will, surely have mercy on him; or as the Hebrew runs, I will, having mercy, have mercy, have mercy on him, or I will abundantly have mercy on him. Look, saith God, here is a poor prodigal returning to me, the poor child is come back, he hath smarted enough, he hath suffered enough; I will bid him welcome, I will forgive him all his high offences, and will never hit him in the teeth with his former vanities. (And ran) The feet of mercy are swift to meet a returning sinner: It had been sufficient for him to have stood, being old, and a Father; but the Father runs to the Son: (And fell on his neck) He cannot stay and embrace him, or take him by the hand; but he falls upon him, and incorporates himself into him. How open are the arms of mercy, to embrace the returning sinner, and lie him in the bosom of love: (and kissed him) Free, rich and sovereign mercy hath not only feet to meet us, and arms to clasp us; but also lips to kiss us; one would have thought that he should rather have kicked him or killed him, than have kissed him: But God is pater miserationum, he is all bowels. All this while the father speaks not one word, his joy was too great to be uttered; he ran, he fell on his neck, and kissed him; and so sealed up to him mercy and peace, love and reconciliation with the kisses of his lips. And the son said unto him; (Father, I have sinned against heaven; and in thy sight) Sincerely confess and the mends is made, acknowledge but the debt, and he will cross the book: