A66106:343
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.
Men labour hard, take a great deal of pains, ⟨p. 135⟩weary themselves in pursuit, and think why may not they obtain it as well as others? their opportunities are as fair, their understandings as pregnant, their endeavours as prudent and diligent, and still there is an unseen obstacle, a remora that is put to their endeavours, that they prosper not: That this is of God, the Prophet tells us, Hab. 2. 13. and he oftentimes makes it to be thus in order to their conversion and best good. And the reason why God takes this course is,
1. From the natural tendency which there is in outward prosperity to hinder a sinners conversion: for it is an occasion of making him proud, self-conceited, deaf to counsel, Jer. 22. 21. I spake to thee in thy prosperity, and thou wouldest not hear. When men are settled upon the world and their hearts are at ease, they. like not to be disturbed.
1. From the natural tendency which there is in outward prosperity to hinder a sinners conversion: for it is an occasion of making him proud, self-conceited, deaf to counsel, Jer. 22. 21. I spake to thee in thy prosperity, and thou wouldest not hear. When men are setled upon the world and their hearts are at ease, they. like not to be disturbed.
2. Because the natural man will never go to God as long as he hath any hopes else-where: if he can but have his belly full of husks, he cares for seeking no farther; he must therefore be taken off from every thing here, before he comes to rest upon Christ, who is the only foundation of true rest.
USE. 1. To teach us not to interpret God's providence in the worst sense: Do not be too ready to conclude that he hates you when he strips you of all, but observe the issue; be ⟨p. 136⟩not angry if he hides all created good from you, that he may make way throughly to reveal all his own increated excellencies to your souls; for know it, this is the best love of God you are capable of.
USE, 2: To advise such as are ceduced to the utmost straits what to do; i: e: betake your selves to God: Can you not get your bellies full of husks? are your enterprises defeated in the world, let that stir you up to think where there is bread to be had: It may be you have no husks to feed on, or if you have yet they give you no satisfaction: Let this put you upon it to enquire for that which is better, something which you may have to live upon in the famine, that when the men of the world, for all its draff, must famish and starve, you may have that bread to live upon which endures to eternal life.
USE, 2: To advise such as are ceduced to the utmost straits what to do; i: e: betake your selves to God: Can you not get your bellies full of huskes? are your enterprises defeated in the world, let that stir you up to think where there is bread to be had: It may be you have no husks to feed on, or if you have yet they give you no satisfaction: Let this put you upon it to enquire for that which is better, something which you may have to live upon in the famine, that when the men of the world, for all its draff, must famish and starve, you may have that bread to live upon which endures to eternal life.
Vers. 17. And when he came to himself, he said how many hired Servants of my Fathers have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger?
The first part of the Parable, containing the Prodigal's departure from his Father, with the effects following thereupon, hath been briefly handled: The second part containing his return to his Father, with the motives to, and manner of it, is next to be considered, and is described from verse, 17. to 20. The prime and general intent whereof is to express the ordinary way and manner of the conversion of a sinner unto God: In which there are two things to be observed.
THe first part of the Parable, containing the Prodigal's departure from his Father, with the effects following thereupon, hath been briefly handled: The second part containing his return to his Father, with the motives to, and manner of it, is next to be considered, and is described from verse, 17. to 20. The prime and general intent whereof is to express the ordinary way and manner of the conversion of a sinner unto God: In which there are two things to be observed.
1. A solemn and serious deliberation with himself, vers. 17, 18, 19.
2. His putting of this deliberation in execution, vers. 20. begin.
2. His puting of this deliberation in execution, vers. 20. begin.
1. In his deliberation we may consider, 1. The season or occasion of it, verse, 17. When he came to himself. 2. The things deliberated by him, which are, 1. Motives and encouragements to his return, verse, 17. 2. A strong conclusion or firm resolution built upon those arguments, vers, 18, 19. I shall begin with the first, viz.
1. In his deliberation we may consider, 1. The season or occasion of it, verse, 17. When he came to himself. 2. The things deliberated by him, which are, 1. Motives and encouragments to his return, verse, 17. 2. A strong conclusion or firm resolution built upon those arguments, vers, 18, 19. I shall begin with the first, viz.
1. The season or occasion of this deliberation, in these words, When he came to himself: This is the proper English of the words: Piscator renders it, quum in se descendisset; when he descended into himself: i. e. by serious reflection and consideration, how profusely he had wasted his Patrimony, and what miserable exigencies he had brought himself to: Beza reads it, quum ad se rediisset; when he had returned to himself: in which sense the generality of Interpreters understand it, as intimating that he had been all this while not himself, or besides himself, by which phrase we express a mad man, or one distracted; one that hath not the use of his reason: And the phrase, ad se redire, or to come to ones self, is among the Latins used to express a recovery from a frenzy, and restoring a man to his right mind. Hence,
1. The season or occasion of this deliberation, in these words, When he came to himself: This is the proper English of the words: Piscator renders it, quum in se descendisset; when he descended into himself: i. e. by serious reflection and consideration, how profusely he had wasted his Patrimony, and what miserable exigencies he had brought himself to: Beza reads it, quum ad se rediisset; when he had returned to himself: in which sense the generality of Interpreters understand it, as intimating that he had been all this while not himself, or besides himself, by which phrase we express a mad man, or one distracted; one that hath not the use of his reason: And the phrase, ad se redire, or to come to ones self, is among the Latines used to express a recovery from a frenzy, and restoring a man to his right mind. Hence,
As long as a man seeks happiness and soul satisfaction any where else but in God, he is spiritually distracted, out of his wits, a mere mad-man: Hence the Scripture call every natural man, a fool, Psal. 14. 1. a mad-man, Eccl. 9. 3. one that is without knowledge, Jer. 4. 22. It is the natural, habitual, and hereditary distemper of all Adam's posterity. Man got a fall in the Cradle of his infancy, which hath not only lamed his feet, but crazed his brain, which craziness runs in the blood, and is propagated to his Children. Folly, dotage, and madness, are but the divers degrees of one distemper and are indifferently used in Scripture to hold forth the same thing. Now the evidence of the Doctrine will appear, when we have considered what are the symptoms and notes whereby a fool and frantic are to be known, and have seen the like to be in the unregenerate and secure sinner, and they are such as these.
As long as a man seeks happiness and soulsatisfaction any where else but in God, he is spiritually distracted, out of his wits, a meer mad-man: Hence the Scripture call every natural man, a fool, Psal. 14. 1. a mad-man, Eccl. 9. 3. one that is without knowledge, Jer. 4. 22. It is the natural, habitual, and hereditary distemper of all Adam's posterity. Man got a fall in the Cradle of his infancy, which hath not only lamed his feet, but crazed his brain, which craziness runs in the blood, and is propagated to his Children. Folly, dotage, and madness, are but the divers degrees of one distemper and are indifferently used in Scripture to hold forth the same thing. Now the evidence of the Doctrine will appear, when we have considered what are the symptoms and notes whereby a fool and frantick are to be known, and have seen the like to be in the unregenerate and secure sinner, and they are such as these.
1. An ignorant preferring of the worst things before the best: because he knows not the worth of things, but follows his own fancy, therefore his bauble is of greatest worth and excellency: If things shine, and make a fair ⟨p. 140⟩show, they are the things in his account: He judgeth of things not by their worth, but by appearance: Such are unregenerate men, the little things, the trifles of this world, the shining glories of it, only win credit with them, and they incomparably prefer them to the glory of another world: A little earthly pel• is better than all the treasures of Heaven, a little frothy pleasure is more worth than everlasting joys, the worlds applause out-weighs the Crown of Glory in their esteem: They call good evil, they see no excellency in God and his ways, Isa. 5. 20. Job 21. 13, 14.
1. An ignorant preferring of the worst things before the best: because he knows not the worth of things, but follows his own fancy, therefore his bauble is of greatest worth and excellency: If things shine, and make a fair ⟨p. 140⟩shew, they are the things in his account: He judgeth of things not by their worth, but by appearance: Such are unregenerate men, the little things, the trifles of this world, the shining glories of it, only win credit with them, and they incomparably preferr them to the glory of another world: A little earthly pel• is better than all the treasures of Heaven, a little frothy pleasure is more worth than everlasting joyes, the worlds applause out-weighs the Crown of Glory in their esteem: They call good evil, they see no excellency in God and his wayes, Isa. 5. 20. Job 21. 13, 14.
2. In the choice which they make: And this follows upon the former: a crazed understanding, accompanied with a perverted will, makes a mad-man. It was a rule of old to try a fool by his choice, presenting him some gay nothing, and some other thing of worth: Thus every unregenerate man sitting under the Gospel, hath Heaven and Earth set before him, fading vanities and everlasting mercies; and he chooseth these poor things, and leaves those other, he runs away with the world, and the contemptible things of it, and scorns the proffers of Grace and Glory, chooseth a lump of earth rather than a Crown of Stars: The great things of the Law are counted strange things; the little things of the world are excellent things, Isa. 66: 3: They have chosen their own ways.
2. In the choise which they make: And this follows upon the former: a crazed understanding, accompanied with a perverted will, makes a mad-man. It was a rule of old to try a fool by his choise, presenting him some gay nothing, and some other thing of worth: Thus every unregenerate man sitting under the Gospel, hath Heaven and Earth set before him, fading vanities and everlasting mercies; and he chuseth these poor things, and leaves those other, he runs away with the world, and the contemptible things of it, and scorns the proffers of Grace and Glory, chuseth a lump of earth rather than a Crown of Stars: The great things of the Law are counted strange things; the little things of the world are excellent things, Isa. 66: 3: They have chosen their own wayes.
