A66106:489
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.
God wins the soul to himself nextly, not by terrors, but his benignity. It is true, God prepares them to entertain his kindness, by terrible discoveries, that so he may make it the more welcome; but still, these do but terrify, amaze, make afraid; but this is that which wins the soul, breaks the heart, encourageth hope, and by this way the spirit worketh the soul to Repentance. Hence that, Job 13. 20, 21.
God wins the soul to himself nextly, not by terrours, but his benignity. It is true, God prepares them to entertain his kindness, by terrible discoveries, that so he may make it the more welcome; but still, these do but terrifie, amaze, make afraid; but this is that which wins the soul, breaks the heart, encourageth hope, and by this way the spirit worketh the soul to Repentance. Hence that, Job 13. 20, 21.
USE, Thus may teach us that for Ministers to preach nothing but terrors, or for poor awakened souls to look upon nothing but terrors, is not the way to promote the work of the Gospel, or conversion of Souls: This drives only to despair: All our Doctrines, and all our hopes, must centre in the free Grace of God. But I come to the words themselves.
USE, Thus may teach us that for Ministers to preach nothing but terrours, or for poor awakened souls to look upon nothing but terrours, is not the way to promote the work of the Gospel, or conversion of Souls: This drives only to despair: All our Doctrines, and all our hopes, must center in the free Grace of God. But I come to the words themselves.
1. The first part of his resolution is general: viz. that he will return to his father; I will arise, and go to my father. In this the work of Repentance is generally, and comprehensively intimated, in which there is;
1. The terminus â quo: the place from whence he came, viz. his far Country: where he was, though not locally, yet spiritually distant from God, far from him in heart and life; this is it he will leave:
1. The terminus â quo: the place from whence he came, viz. his farr Country: where he was, though not locally, yet spiritually distant from God, far from him in heart and life; this is it he will leave:
2. The terminus ad quem: or whether he will go, to his father: How God may be said to be his father, who is an unregenerate profligate sinner: I here intend not to make particular enquiry; though it may possibly be intimated to us by this words, being so often used in the parable, that by virtue of the Everlasting Covenant of Redemption, every Elect Person, in his greatest degeneracy and Prodigality, is looked upon as a Child, chosen in Christ to the Adoption of Children: But it here mainly intends his going to God as a Father of Mercies.
2. The terminus ad quem: or whether he will go, to his father: How God may be said to be his father, who is an unregenerate profligate sinner: I here intend not to make particular enquiry; though it may possibly be intimated to us by this words, being so often used in the parable, that by vertue of the Everlasting Covenant of Redemption, every Elect Person, in his greatest degeneracy and Prodigality, is looked upon as a Child, chosen in Christ to the Adoption of Children: But it here mainly intends his going to God as a Father of Mercies.
3. The form of Repentance it self; I will arise, and go: Where is the beginning of that motion, I will arise, and the progress, and go? or the respect that it bears to both the terms; to the far country, I will arise, i. e. I will sit or tarry no longer here, I will leave it: to his father, I will go to him: In the Greek it is, rising, I will go: And the word [rise] properly signifies, rising again: q. d. after some fall: and hence the noun is used for a resurrection, either from sin, or from the grave: and because this Anastasie, presumes a former Apostasy, hence,
3. The form of Repentance it self; I will arise, and go: Where is the beginning of that motion, I will arise, and the progress, and go? or the respect that it bears to both the termes; to the far country, I will arise, i. e. I will sit or tarry no longer here, I will leave it: to his father, I will go to him: In the Greek it is, rising, I will go: And the word [rise] properly signifies, rising again: q. d. after some fall: and hence the nown is used for a resurrection, either from sin, or from the grave: and because this Anastasie, presumes a former Apostasie, hence,
As he formerly went away from him, so now he must return to him: Hence God in the proclamation of his Grace thus invites, Jer. 3. 12, 13. & 4. 1. Hos. 14. 1. In the Explication we may consider. 1. The import of this rising and going to his father. 2. The reasons of the Doctrine.
As he formerly went away from him, so now he must return to him: Hence God in the proclamation of his Grace thus invites, Jer. 3. 12, 13. & 4. 1. Hos. 14. 1. In the Explication we may consider. 1. The import of this rising and going to his father. 2. Thereasons of the Doctrine.
1. The import of this rising and going: we heard in general, that it denotes the act of Repentance, not as separated from, but as the first fruit of saving Faith, and therefore both implying and including of it: Faith and Repentance are propounded in the Gospel as conjunct, Mark 1. 15. Repent, and believe the Gospel. Because they are practically inseparable: Now this Repentance of Faith is suitably expressed by these two phrases, and if they be well pondered, they will give light to the nature of it: Repentance is of two sorts, Legal, and Evangelical; it is the latter of these we are now speaking of, which is a saving turning from sin to God. Of the motives and means of it: I shall not here speak, only of the act resembled by these allusions of rising an going.
1. The import of this rising and going: we heard in general, that it denotes the act of Repentance, not as separated from, but as the first fruit of saving Faith, and therefore both implying and including of it: Faith and Repentance are propounded in the Gospel as conjunct, Mark 1. 15. Repent, and believe the Gospel. Because they are practically inseparable: Now this Repentance of Faith is sutably expressed by these two phrases, and if they be well pondered, they will give light to the nature of it: Repentance is of two sorts, Legal, and Evangelical; it is the latter of these we are now speaking of, which is a saving turning from sin to God. Of the motives and means of it: I shall not here speak, only of the act resembled by these allusions of rising an going.
1. Rising implies these things.
1. Rising implyes these things.
1. Rising being an Anastasie, implies the sinner before conversion to be in a state of Apostasy, or a fallen state: it speaks that man was once in a good state, but now hath Jost it: God therefore useth this as an argument to quicken them to Repentance, Hos. 14. 1. Thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. A man that never was up may rise; but he was once standing that riseth again: God made man upright, in our first Parents we once had a standing in God's favour, but have lost it by Sin, and now the whole race of mankind, till Grace raiseth them, lie grovelling in iniquity; nay, they are dead in Sin, for this rising is a resurrection, Eph. 2. 1. And this shows that it is not a man's own strength, but the Almighty power of God that giveth Repentance.
1. Rising being an Anastasie, implyes the sinner before conversion to be in a state of Apostasie, or a fallen state: it speakes that man was once in a good state, but now hath Iost it: God therefore useth this as an argument to quicken them to Repentance, Hos. 14. 1. Thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. A man that never was up may rise; but he was once standing that riseth again: God made man upright, in our first Parents we once had a standing in God's favour, but have lost it by Sin, and now the whole race of mankind, till Grace raiseth them, ly groveling in iniquity; nay, they are dead in Sin, for this rising is a resurrection, Eph. 2. 1. And this shews that it is not a man's own strength, but the Almighty power of God that giveth Repentance.
2. It implies that in order to true Repentance, the soul must be furnished with a new principle of spiritual life: Self-motion, such as rising is, is a life act, and supposeth a life habit: It is the property of dead things to lie still and move no further then they are forcibly moved; they are only living things that move by a power implanted in them: It therefore presumes that the Spirit of God hath been at work, moving upon the dead soul, and breathing into it the breath of life: our Saviour saith, it is the spirit that quickeneth: He gives life to dry ⟨p. 209⟩bones, and then they rise and walk, else they had never forgone their Graves: A dead carcass cannot so much as will to arise.
2. It implyes that in order to true Repentance, the soul must be furnished with a new principle of spiritual life: Self-motion, such as rising is, is a life act, and supposeth a life habit: It is the property of dead things to ly still and move no further then they are forcibly moved; they are only living things that move by a power implanted in them: It therefore presumes that the Spirit of God hath been at work, moving upon the dead soul, and breathing into it the breath of life: our Saviour saith, it is the spirit that quickeneth: He gives life to dry ⟨p. 209⟩bones, and then they rise and walk, else they had never forgone their Graves: A dead carcass cannot so much as will to arise.
3. It implies that in true Repentance there must be a forsaking of all Sin: we must not lie in Sin, if we will return to God: those are directly opposite terms, Sin and God are contraries; the far Country in which the Prodigal was, is the Kingdom of Sin, which he must leave, else he can never come to his father; nor can a sinner ever come to God, till he hath rejected and abandoned his sinful life and way: Hence that counsel, Isa. 55. 7. Let the wicked forsake his way. There is no salvation to be had by sitting still.
3. It implyes that in true Repentance there must be a forsaking of all Sin: we must not ly in Sin, if we will return to God: those are directly opposite terms, Sin and God are contraties; the farr Country in which the Prodigal was, is the Kingdom of Sin, which he must leave, else he can never come to his father; nor can a sinner ever come to God, till he hath rejected and abandoned his sinful life and way: Hence that counsel, Isa. 55. 7. Let the wicked forsake his way. There is no salvation to be had by sitting still.
2. Going to his father implies these things.
2. Going to his father implyes these things.
1. That every natural man, in his unconverted state, is at a great distance from God: Sin is therefore said to make a separation, Isa. 59. 2. This means not a local distance, for Gods Omnipresence fills all places, and is with the sinner to eye and observe diligently all his ways: but it intends a distance in heart and affection, an alienation; that God and the sinner are enemies; he hates God's law and ways, as God hates his way and course; God is therefore said to see the proud afar off, Psal. 178. 6. And the sinner is said to be far from God, Psal. 73. 27.
1. That every natural man, in his unconverted state, is at a great distance from God: Sin is therefore said to make a separation, Isa. 59. 2. This means not a local distance, for Gods Omnipresence fills all places, and is with the sinner to eye and observe diligently all his wayes: but it intends a distance in heart and affection, an alienation; that God and the sinner are enemies; he hates God's law and wayes, as God hates his way and course; God is therefore said to see the proud afar off, Psal. 178. 6. And the sinner is said to be far from God, Psal. 73. 27.
