A66106:68
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.
1. They have their Original from his power and goodness: God formed the eye, he planted the ear, &c. Psal. 94. 9: God was under no natural obligation to the creature, he owed him not so much as his being, nor any either internal or external ornament of it; he stood no more engaged to give Wisdom to the wise man, than he did to the fool: Nabal had as much right, and as good a claim to counsel and understanding as Ahithophel, &c. Whatever men have they had it of him, and it was his bounty that bestowed it; it is he that gives life, breath, and being to all; and he gives it as he will: ⟨p. 20⟩He gives men their Songs in the night, i. e. their conveniences and comforts, and he teacheth them more than the beasts of the field, though they practically forget, or do not regard whence all this comes, as Elihu complains, Job 35. 10, 11.
1. They have their Original from his power and goodness: God formed the eye, he planted the ear, &c. Psal. 94. 9: God was under no natural obligation to the creature, he owed him not so much as his being, nor any either internal or external ornament of it; he stood no more engaged to give Wisdom to the wiseman, than he did to the fool: Nabal had as much right, and as good a claim to counsel and understanding as Achitophel, &c. Whatever men have they had it of him, and it was his bounty that bestowed it; it is he that gives life, breath, and being to all; and he gives it as he will: ⟨p. 20⟩He gives men their Songs in the night, i. e. their conveniences and comforts, and he teacheth them more than the beasts of the field, though they practically forget, or do not regard whence all this comes, as Elihu complains, Job 35. 10, 11.
2. They are preserved and upheld in being by him: It is he alone who maintains that which he had before conferred upon us: He keeps our soul in life, eye from tears, foot from sliding, Psal. 116. 8. He is called the preserver of men, Job 7. 20. Mens wits, abilities, powers, comforts and delights last no longer than he sees meet to maintain them, it is his hand underneath that keeps them up from sinking, and when he plucks it away, they die and perish, nor can they draw breath one moment longer than his sustaining providence supports them, Psal. 104. 29. Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled, thou takest away their breath, they die.
2. They are preserved and upheld in being by him: It is he alone who maintains that which he had before conferred upon us: He keeps our soul in life, eye from tears, foot from sliding, Psal. 116. 8. He is called the preserver of men, Job 7. 20. Mens wits, abilities, powers, comforts and delights last no longer than he sees meet to maintain them, it is his hand underneath that keeps them up from sinking, and when he plucks it away, they dy and perish, nor can they draw breath one moment longer than his susteining providence supports them, Psal. 104. 29. Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled, thou takest away their breath, they dy.
3. The power of improving or making use of any of them is from him: Observable is that passage of the wisemans, Pro. 20. 12. The hearear, and the seeing eye, the Lord hath made even both of them. Both the faculty and operation wholly depends upon him; we not only live but move also in him: If he at any time suspend his concourse, that very suspense gives sufficient check to our operations, Pro. 16. 1. The preparations of the heart, and the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. A man may have a ⟨p. 21⟩great estate, but without him a man hath no power to make use of, or take any comfort in it, Eccl. 6. 2:
4. God is by no natural necessity bound to give or continue these favours to the Children of men: Whatsoever he doth upon this score is mere bounty; though men may call it the portion of goods that belongeth to them, and seem to challenge it as due debt, yet God might, had he so seen meet, have given it all away from them, and done them no wrong: He cannot owe the creature any thing, except he voluntarily become a debtor by free promise, which puts upon the thing promised the proper quality of a gift.
4. God is by no natural necessity bound to give or continue these favours to the Children of men: Whatsoever he doth upon this score is meer bounty; though men may call it the portion of goods that belongeth to them, and seem to challenge it as due debt, yet God might, had he so seen meet, have given it all away from them, and done them no wrong: He cannot owe the creature any thing, except he voluntarily become a debtor by free promise, which puts upon the thing promised the proper quality of a gift.
5. And he either withholds or taketh them away according to his Sovereign pleasure; yea, and bestows them too in what degree he sees meet, without being accountable unto us: Hence proceeds the various distribution of these gifts and favours of God: One is born a natural, another with excellent endowments; one is rich, powerful, highly honoured, another poor, ignoble and despised; yea, and the same men are now up and then down; Job in the morning the most opulent and flourishing of the East, at night, poor to a Proverb: Yea, and we can give no reason of the distribution, wicked Dives is rich, and abounds in all worldly delights; honest Lazarus, is a beggar and ⟨p. 22⟩full of sores; and if a reason of all this be demanded, Solomon will give us the answer, Eccles. 9. 11. yea, and our Saviour Christ in Joh. 9. 3.
USE, 1. This affords us a wholesome caveat, that none of us pride our selves in our inward or outward, natural or moral endowments; these are not things to be gloried in, Jer. 9. 23. Remember you purchased them not to your selves, you have nothing but what you received: Are you tempted to despise others? Reflect and think who it is that hath made you to differ: Have you excellent wits and parts? Remember that it was of God that you and the veriest fools did not exchange places: Have you wealth? Had God seen meet, this might have been the beggars portion, and his yours; God made both; it's Solomon's note: Pro. 22. 2. And if once you come to pride your selves in these things, God can blast them in a moment, and put a disgrace upon your glory: Be not high minded, but fear.
USE, 1. This affords us a wholsome caveat, that none of us pride our selves in our inward or outward, natural or moral endowments; these are not things to be gloried in, Jer. 9. 23. Remember you purchased them not to your selves, you have nothing but what you received: Are you tempted to despise others? Reflect and think who it is that hath made you to differ: Have you excellent wits and parts? Remember that it was of God that you and the veriest fools did not exchange places: Have you wealth? Had God seen meet, this might have been the beggars portion, and his yours; God made both; it's Solomon's note: Pro. 22. 2. And if once you come to pride your selves in these things, God can blast them in a moment, and put a disgrace upon your glory: Be not high minded, but fear.
USE, 2. Here see what great reason there is why we should improve all that we have and are to the glory of God: as also the greatness of their sin that misuse them to his dishonour. Be we then exhorted to beware to ourselves what improvement we make of them. It was a convincing reproof which God gave unto them, Hos. 2. 8, 9. She did not know that I ⟨p. 23⟩gave her Corn, &c. I will therefore return and take away my Corn, &c. God claims all the common gifts which you have received, as his; he saith it is my corn, my flax, he counts your knowledge, your good natural dispositions, your wealth, your power, to be his, and expects that you use them for him; and if you shall do otherwise, he will let you know of it, and it will be a sad reckoning that he will call you unto. God's goodness leads men to Repentance, Rom. 2. 4. And withal know that God designs his own Glory by whatever he doth and if you do not so do too in your improvement of all, he will in a judicial way recover it at your hands, and get himself a great name upon you: God will not be a loser by any of his Creatures: Let this humble and awaken such as have a more liberal portion than others, considering that where much is given, much is expected.
USE, 2. Here see what great reason there is why we should improve all that we have and are to the glory of God: as also the greatness of their sin that misuse them to his dishonour. Be we then exhorted to beware to ourselves what improvement we make of them. It was a convincing reproof which God gave unto them, Hos. 2. 8, 9. She did not know that I ⟨p. 23⟩gave her Corn, &c. I will therefore return and take away my Corn, &c. God claims all the common gifts which you have received, as his; he saith it is my corn, my flax, he counts your knowledge, your good natural dispositions, your wealth, your power, to be his, and expects that you use them for him; and if you shall do otherwise, he will let you know of it, and it will be a sad reckoning that he will call you unto. God's goodness leads men to Repentance,
There are two assertions contained in this Doctrine.
1. He reckons upon them to be his own: the Son claims a Portion as due to him, he pretends such a right thereto as by the rule of equity ⟨p. 24⟩he may challenge, and though upon Sovereignty he may withhold it, yet he deems it injustice if he deny him: Thus, whatsoever God is pleased to do for sinful men, they are so far from acknowledging his immerited beneficence therein, that they account it a debt. I know there is something Connectively or Hypothetically belongs to the Creature, but still the whole depends upon God's good pleasure. If God will have such a Creature, serve to such an end, there must be a capacity and suitableness put in to it unto this service and end, else it can never reach it, but all this is only Hypothetical, for God properly owes to the creature neither its being nor its end: & yet vain man thinks he holds all in capite, that he is a natural and rightful heir to all the Wit, Wisdom, Wealth, &c. that he hath. Thus Nebuchadnezzar, boasts of his Babylon, he made it, and for his glory, Dan. 4. 30. and thus they, Psal. 12. 4. Our Lips are our own, who is Lord over us? Reason for this there is none, for if men knew themselves, or would eye the work of Creation and Providence, they would find full conviction of their low & depending estate, and deep obligations unto God for distinguishing undeserved favours: But the Reason of it is from the pride which is in the heart of man, and hath been there ever since he aspired to be as God, whence he doth not willingly acknowledge any subordination ⟨p. 25⟩or dependence; and is so far from owning of that condition which Creation placed him in, viz. of a subordinate depending Creature, that he counts himself a Lord, and beholden to none, much less then will he yield the merit of that miserable state which sin hath reduced him unto, in which all the subordinate Covenant-right, whatever it was which before the fatal Apostasy he had, is forfeited. And that men do thus account of these things appears in this one invincible Demonstration: viz. That as they do not thank God for these things, so neither do they aim higher than at themselves in the improvement of them. Have natural men Wit, Wealth, &c. they seek their own glory and not God's: Thus did Herod,
USE. To convince and reprove this folly in the Children of men: Are these things your own? how came you by them? what did they cost you? whence had you to pay for them? did you put them into, or procure them for your selves? who was it that taught you more than the beasts of the field, you your selves, or God? what did that little piece of common Mass or matter merit of God to be made into a man, and not a brute? have you any thing which God did not bestow upon you? and ⟨p. 26⟩what obligation had you laid upon him to do it? wherein stood he more engaged to you than to others? can you keep them as long as you please? or can you entail them upon your posterity? nay, can you say they shall be yours the next hour? if you can do none of all this, why then do you boast and pride your selves in these things? be assured if you are grown too proud to confess them to be God's it's the ready way not to have them long yours: If Nebuchadnezzar will not give God the honour of making him a man, he can soon let him know how easily he can change him into a beast.
USE. To convince and reprove this folly in the Children of men: Are these things your own? how came you by them? what did they cost you? whence had you to pay for them? did you put them into, or procure them for your selves? who was it that taught you more than the beasts of the field, you your selves, or God? what did that little piece of common Mass or matter merit of God to be made into a man, and not a bruit? have you any thing which God did not bestow upon you? and ⟨p. 26⟩what obligation had you laid upon him to do it? wherein stood he more engaged to you than to others? can you keep them as long as you please? or can you entaile them upon your posterity? nay, can you say they shall be yours the next houre? if you can do none of all this, why then do you boast and pride your selves in these things? be assured if you are grown too proud to confess them to be God's it's the ready way not to have them long yours: If Nebuchadnazzar will not give God the honour of making him a man, he can soon let him know how easily he can change him into a beast.
2. He would fain have all these favours at his own dispose: He is not content unless he may have them in his own hands; like a child, who, when he begins to grow up to years, presently grows weary of Family Government, and cannot bear to be limited or controlled in any thing by his Parents, but must have his Estate given him, and set up for himself: This truth is evident by the lives of men; For,
1. They are not content to be restrained and directed by the Laws of God, in the improvement of these gifts; the bounds of the precepts are too narrow for them, they must walk at large; tell them of the Command, they regard it not, and their lives say as they did with their tongues, Jer. 44. 16. As for the word which ⟨p. 27⟩thou hast spoken to us in the Name of the Lord we will not hearken unto thee.
2. Men do not manage themselves in the use of these things to the advancement of the honour and glory of God in the world: They do not serve God with their gifts, and estates, but serve divers lusts; they make panders of them for their corruptions: Great Wits are usually loose and licentious, great Estates are mens security to sin against God with the more boldness: It is a rare thing to see men that have the greatest visible advantages for it, to be very zealous for God.
Reas. 1. From the rebellion of the nature of fallen man: Man in his Apostasy shook off the yoke of obedience, and cannot endure to take it on him again: Ephraim professeth himself as an untamed heifer, that, not being accustomed to, knew not how to stoop under the yoke, Jer. 31. 18. Man is therefore said to be born as the wild Ass-colt, Job 11. 12. which never keeps in the inclosures, but hath the Wilderness for his range: Mans heart is become rebellious, and filled with a principle of enmity against, which makes him hate subjection to the law of God, Rom. 8. 7:
Reas. 1. From the rebellion of the nature of fallen man: Man in his Apostasie shook off the yoke of obedience, and cannot endure to take it on him again: Ephraim professeth himself as an untamed heifer, that, not being accostumed to, knew not how to stoop under the yoke, Jer. 31. 18. Man is therefore said to be born as the wild Ass-colt, Job 11. 12. which never keeps in the inclosures, but hath the Wilderness for his range: Mans heart is become rebellious, and filled with a principle of enmity against, which makes him hate subjection to the law of God, Rom. 8. 7:
Reas. 2. From the mistaken opinion which he hath taken up of liberty. Liberty is, if truly known, a most desirable good, and a great part of a Believers happiness, but the heart of ⟨p. 28⟩sinful man hath foolishly put that glorious title upon the worst of licentiousness, and hereupon he accounts himself to be under intolerable restraint, so long as he may not take his swing in the world: and hence he esteems the law to be no better than a prison, which is indeed a perfect law of liberty.
Reas. 2. From the mistaken opinion which he hath taken up of liberty. Liberty is, if truly known, a most desireable good, and a great part of a Believers happiness, but the heart of ⟨p. 28⟩sinful man hath foolishly put that glorious title upon the worst of licentiousness, and hereupon he accounts himself to be under intolerable restraint, so long as he may not take his swindge in the world: and hence he esteems the law to be no better than a prison, which is indeed a perfect law of liberty.
1. He reckons upon them to be his own: the Son claims a Portion as due to him, he pretends such a right thereto as by the rule of eequity ⟨p. 24⟩he may challenge, and though upon Sovereignty he may withhold it, yet he deems it injustice if he deny him: Thus, whatsoever God is pleased to do for sinful men, they are so far from acknowledging his immerited beneficence therein, that they account it a debt. I know there is something Connexively or Hypothetically belongs to the Creature, but still the whole depends upon God's good pleasure. If God will have such a Creature, serve to such an end, there must be a capacity and sutableness put in to it unto this service and end, else it can never reach it, but all this is only Hypothetical, for God properly ows to the creature neither its being nor its end: & yet vain man thinks he holds all in capite, that he is a natural and rightful heir to all the Wit, Wisdom, Wealth, &c. that he hath. Thus Nebuchadnazzar, boasts of his Babylon, he made it, and for his glory, Dan. 4. 30. and thus they, Psal. 12. 4. Our Lips are our own, who is Lord over us? Reason for this there is none, for if men knew themselves, or would eye the work of Creation and Providence, they would find full conviction of their low & depending estate, and deep obligations unto God for distinguishing undeserved favours: But the Reason of it is from the pride which is in the heart of man, and hath been there ever since he aspired to be as God, whence he doth not willingly acknowledge any subordination ⟨p. 25⟩or dependence; and is so farr from owning of that condition which Creation placed him in, viz. of a subordinate depending Creature, that he counts himself a Lord, and beholden to none, much less then will he yeild the merit of that miserable state which sin hath reduced him unto, in which all the subordinate Covenant-right, whatever it was which before the fatal Apostacy he had, is forfeited. And that men do thus account of these things appears in this one invincible Demonstration: viz. That as they do not thank God for these things, so neither do they aim higher than at themselves in the improvement of them. Have natural men Wit, Wealth, &c. they seek their own glory and not God's: Thus did Herod, Act. 12. 21. Hence they ascribe all to themselves, Hab. 1. 16. They sacrifice to their net, and burn incense to their drag.
