A66106:828
Mercy magnified on a penitent prodigal, or, A brief discourse
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.
DOCT. The day of a sinners Conversion to God is a day of great rejoicing.
DOCT. The day of a sinners Conversion to God is a day of great rejoycing.
When God comes to receive a penitent Prodigal into favour again, it is a time of singing and mirth. It is a day of joy.
1. To God himself the father testified his joy for his Son's recovery, by his entertainment; so doth God by his of a sinner: though God properly have no affections, which are passions, and tokens of imperfection, yet he assumes such things to himself for our instruction: and not only so, but providentially in the application of himself to the soul, he doth such things, as are witnesses of such affections in men: Where men love much, they will do much: Feasts are tokens of joy, great feasts of great joy.
Reas. 1. From his relation; he is a son, though he hath been a Prodigal; he was chosen from Eternity; and this relation blots out all. Alexander told Antipater, accusing his mother of vile actions, one tear of a mother will obliterate all anger: God useth this argument for Paul, when Ananias speak hard of him, Act. 9. 15