A66106:276
Mercy magnified on a penitent prodigal, or, A brief discourse wherein Christs parable of the lost son found is opened and applied as it was delivered in sundry sermons / by Samuel Willard ...
printed by Samuel Green for Samuel Philips, 1684
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.
The Prodigal binds himself out for a servant. The two terms used in the Doctrine may seem contradictory, but they are not: His bondage is necessary; when he had spent all, and there was no friend to relieve him, what could he now do? he saw no other way, but either he must bind himself out or starve. The curse that fell upon Ham literally, fell upon all mankind spiritually: This servitude is therefore necessary, because, being a part of the curse, it falls upon the natural man undoubtedly, being a punishment inflicted upon man by God for sin, Joh. 8. 3. Whosoever committeth sin, is the servant of sin. And ye it is.
The Prodigal binds himself out for a servant. The two terms used in the Doctrine may seem contradictory, but they are not: His bondage is necessary; when he had spent all, and there was no friend to relieve him, what could he now do? he saw no other way, but either he must bind himself out or starve. The curse that fell upon Cham literally, fell upon all mankind spiritually: This servitude is therefore necessary, because, being a part of the curse, it falls upon the natural man undoubtedly, being ae punishment inflicted upon man by God for sin, Joh. 8. 3. Whosoever committeth sin, is the servant of sin. And ye it is.
2. Voluntary; men give themselves up to this slavery; they will do it, Joh. 8. 44. You are of your father the Devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. This bondage is man's own choice: Had this son been willing to return to his father, the necessity had been taken away; but men give themselves up to satan; and the ground of this lies in the very nature of sin, which is a relinquishing of the service of God and enslaving a man's self to satan. Now this bondage is not bodily so much as spiritual; ⟨p. 114⟩it is an enslaving or binding of the soul to his service, and consists in these things.
2. Voluntary; men give themselves up to this slavery; they will do it, Joh. 8. 44. You are of your father the Devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. This bondage is man's own choice: Had this son been willing to return to his father, the necessity had been taken away; but men give themselves up to satan; and the ground of this lyes in the very nature of sin, which is a relinquishing of the service of God and enslaving a man's self to satan. Now this bondage is not bodily so much as spiritual; ⟨p. 114⟩it is an enslaving or binding of the soul to his service, and consists in these things.
1. He is now at Satan's beck, and ready to hearken to, and attend every hint from him, to come and go at his pleasure; he hath given him the lordship of his soul, and bids him to take him under his government; hence he is said to rule in the Children of disobedience, Eph. 2. 2.
2. He is ready and forward to do all Satan's commands, let them be what they will; he refuseth none, though never so base; if he sends him into the field to keep swine, he goes readily, and willingly about his business, so sordid and slavish a spirit hath he gotten.
2. He is ready and forward to do all Satans commands, let them be what they will; he refuseth none, though never so base; if he sends him into the field to keep swine, he goes readily, and willingly about his business, so sordid and slavish a spirit hath he gotten.
3. He is devoted to his own lust; for Satan rules in the unregenerate, by leading them after the lusts of their own hearts, which are also in the Scripture, called the lusts of Satan, because he busily sets them on work, and serves himself and his own ends by them.
4. Here he hath his whole dependence or reliance for relief, this is the utmost essay he hath to make, it is his last shift, and if this course fails him he is undone: As a servant expects (at least) food and raiment for his work, so the sinner hopes to get quiet and settlement in the service of Satan. Now the reason why men do thus often times, after they have been convinced of misery, lies here, because ⟨p. 115⟩this conviction doth not so properly put man upon it to get rid of sin, but to get his terrors removed, to get off his fears; and now Satan persuades him with many wiles to yield to him, and he will effect it, but how poorly he performs it for them, we shall soon hear.
4. Here he hath his whole dependance or relyance for relief, this is the utmost essay he hath to make, it is his last shift, and if this course fails him he is undone: As a servant expects (at least) food and rayment for his work, so the sinner hopes to get quiet and settlement in the service of Satan. Now the reason why men do thus often times, after they have been convinced of misery, lyes here, because ⟨p. 115⟩this conviction doth not so properly put man upon it to get rid of sin, but to get his terrors removed, to get off his fears; and now Satan perswades him with many wiles to yield to him, and he will effect it, but how poorly he performs it for them, we shall soon hear.
USE. Hence we may learn what to judge of all those who are remaining in a state of nature; they are in most servile slavish condition, and let every unregenerate man lay it to heart, consider therefore.
1. Whom it is that you are enslaved to, it is Satan himself, he is that Citizen the Prodigal bound himself under.
2. What a manner of bondage you are in, viz.
1. It is necessary; I mean that which you have made so by your folly, for your natural condition leads you to it uncontrollably, and Satan hath gotten the possession of your wills, and all your faculties; and hence natural men are said to he led about by him at his will, 2 Tim. 2. 26.
1. It is necessary; I mean that which you have made so by your folly, for your natural conditon leads you to it uncontrolably, and Satan hath gotten the possession of your wills, and all your faculties; and hence natural men are said to he led about by him at his will, 2 Tim. 2. 26.
2. It is your own doing and choice: thou wentest and joinedst thy self to him, hoping so to advance and meliorate thy condition, but all to no purpose, as will anon appear; and let this humble thee, to think that thou hast given Satan that possession of thy heart, that thou hast indented with him, and joined thy self to ⟨p. 116⟩him: Learn hence also that thou canst not lay the blame of thy misery upon any but thy self; it is the course thou hast deliberately taken to rid thy self of misery by, but will be found a delusive project, and that which will involve thee in the greatest distress. Ah, what poor shifts are they which wretched sinners are driven to, when God makes them know themselves miserable, but reveals not to their souls the only way to recover out of it.
2. It is your own doing and choice: thou wentest and joynedst thy self to him, hoping so to advance and meliorate thy condition, but all to no purpose, as will anon appear; and let this humble thee, to think that thou hast given Satan that possession of thy heart, that thou hast indented with him, and joyned thy self to ⟨p. 116⟩him: Learn hence also that thou canst not lay the blame of thy misery upon any but thy self; it is the course thou hast deliberately taken to rid thy self of misery by, but will be found a delusive project, and that which will involve thee in the greatest distress. Ah, what poor shifts are they which wretched sinners are driven to, when God makes them know themselves miserable, but reveals not to their souls the only way to recover out of it.
This our Saviour aims at, by the Citizens setting him to keep swine: Swine were of old by the Ceremonial Law reckoned among unclean beasts, and still they are of brutes the most brutish: A swineherd among men is accounted the most low, sordid and contemptible employment: Such and so vile; yea, and incomparably more base are those services which Satan Employs wicked men about; we may conceive of this, if we consider what it is he puts them upon doing: It is called in the Scripture, a fulfilling of his lusts, Joh. 8. 44. and those are vile lusts so called, Rom. 1. 26. If we should examine in particular, what it is that wicked men do, in obedience to Satan's will, we shall find it all to be filthy and swinish: ⟨p. 117⟩What is the drunkards employment, but swilling himself, and turning his body into a living cask, and so losing that little of man which he had in him, and wholly becomes a beast? What doth the lewd and voluptuous man follow, but the giving scope to his lustful humour, and so throws himself into the perpetration of those base and obscene actions of which it is a shame to make any mention? As for the Epicure, Philosophy it self calls him not a swine-herd, but a very swine: Epicuri de grige porcum. And in truth all lusts are brutish; it hath its seat in the sensitive part of man, and its highest aspirings are but to give content to the body and senses, with a total neglect of the soul. Let us but consider what man was made for, viz. the service of God, those high and noble employments which Angels delight in, and account their glory, and then look and see what a world of men are doing, one courting his pleasures, another chasing after honours, a third heaping up wealth, a fourth studying his revenge, &c. unto any of which (in a true judgment) keeping of swine is a noble and honourable employment: And yet these are the things with which Satan seeks to divert men, and in the pursuit after which he makes them to hope that they shall get a living in this famine.
This our Saviour aims at, by the Citizens setting him to keep swine: Swine were of old by the Ceremonial Law reckoned among unclean beasts, and still they are of brutes the most bruitish: A swineherd among men is accounted the most low, sordid and contemptible employment: Such and so vile; yea, and incomparably more base are those services which Satan Imployes wicked men about; we may conceive of this, if we consider what it is he puts them upon doing: It is called in the Scripture, a fulfilling of his lusts,
Reas. From the malice which Satan bears against ⟨p. 118⟩the Children of men: Who can▪ expect favour or fidelity from an enemy? It is true, Satan promiseth men fair, and pretends to be a sure friend in a time of need, and makes them believe he proffers to do them a kindness, and thus with many fair words and deceivable, he draws them after him; but in truth, he hates the whole race of mankind, and all his contrivance is •o compass their utter and unavoidable ruin: He undid himself (as is thought by divers judicious) that he might undo man, and having by this horrid attempt of his lost his own felicity, without any the least glimmering hope of any retrieval for ever, how is it possible we should believe that he can study man's welfare,? And the truth is, Satan's Kingdom is most properly a Tyranny, and it comes to pass through the righteous judgment of God: Satan being, of a fellow-servant, risen to be a master, and man having forsaken God, and joined himself to him, choosing rather to be at his courtesy, than under God's directions, the Devil now in stead of a subject makes of him a slave.
Reas. From the malice which Satan bears against ⟨p. 118⟩the Children of men: Who can▪ expect favour or fidelity from an enemy? It is true, Satan promiseth men fair, and pretends to be a sure friend in a time of need, and makes them believe he proffers to do them a kindness, and thus with many fair words and deceivable, he draws them after him; but in truth, he hates the whole race of mankind, and all his contrivance is •o compass their utter and unavoidable ruine: He undid himself (as is thought by divers judicious) that he might undo man, and having by this horrid attempt of his lost his own felicity, without any the least glimmering hope of any retrival for ever, how is it possible we should believe that he can study man's welfare,? And the truth is, Satan's Kingdom is most properly a Tyranny, and it comes to pass through the righteous judgment of God: Satan being, of a fellow-servant, risen to be a master, and man having forsaken God, and joyned himself to him, chusing rather to be at his courteousie, than under God's directions, the Devil now in stead of a subject makes of him a slave.
