A66106:929
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 father did not shut the elder son out, but he would not come in; yea, though his father entreated him he still refused.
Object. But he was not invited, how then should he come?
Ans. But if he had had an ingenious and brotherly spirit, he might have come when he heard of it: The word tacitly insinuate that the servant did entreat him, but he would not hear him. But to give a closer decision of the case; unregenerate men are not, and yet they are invited: There is not the inward, spiritual, powerful invitation which compels them, and by particular application of grace draws them: But there is a general, doctrinal, conditional invitation presented to all where the Gospel comes, in which God by his Servants speaks seriously, pleads earnestly, expostulates industriously, waits patiently, as one that is willing and desirous that they should come in; this is the invitation which they reject: and of such it is that our Saviour useth those expressions, Joh. 3. 29. Men choose darkness. Chap. 5. 20. Ye will not come unto me. Rom. 10. 2. All day long have I stretched forth my hand, unto a disobedient and gainsaying People.
Ans. But if he had had an ingenious and brotherly spirit, he might have come when he heard of it: The word tacitly insinuate that the servant did entreat him, but he would not hear him. But to give a closer decision of the case; unregenerate men are not, and yet they are invited: There is not the inward, spiritual, powerful invitation which compels them, and by particular application of grace draws them: But there is a general, doctrinal, conditional invitation presented to all where the Gospel comes, in which God by his Servants speaks seriously, pleads earnestly, expostulates industriously, waits patiently, as one that is willing and desirous that they should come in; this is the invitation which they reject: and of such it is that our Saviour useth those expressions, Joh. 3. 29. Men chuse darkness. Chap. 5. 20. Ye will not come unto me. Rom. 10. 2. All day long have I stretched forth my hand, unto a disobedient and gainsaying People.
Reas. Because they refuse to come up to the terms upon which they are invited. God bids all come, but he tells them how he expects they should come; but these terms are hard, and they cannot bear them: Men will not leave their farms and merchandise, they will not part with their darling lusts, they will not suffer loss of their own righteousness; the company doth ⟨p. 369⟩not please them, the Saints ere the People they hate: The eldest son its like would have come in, if his father would have turned his brother out of the doors: Men, instead of embracing the Gospel, pick quarrels with it, they will not come at all unless they may come in their own strength, bring their righteousness with them, &c. Rom. 10. 3.
Reas. Because they refuse to come up to the terms upon which they are invited. God bids all come, but he tells them how he expects they should come; but these terms are hard, and they cannot bear them: Men will not leave their farms and merchandize, they will not part with their darling lusts, they will not suffer loss of their own righteousness; the company doth ⟨p. 369⟩not please them, the Saints ere the People they hate: The eldest son its like would have come in, if his father would have turned his brother out of the doors: Men, instead of embracing the Gospel, pick quarrels with it, they will not come at all unless they may come in their own strength, bring their righteousness with them, &c. Rom. 10. 3.
USE, Hence how inexcusable will wicked men be, and without any Apology, when they shall be condemned to everlasting separation from the Saints and their joy? Time was when they might if they would, but they would not; they scorned the communion of the Saints here, and shall be justly denied it for ever: Then shall they remember the time when they were striven with, pleaded withal, earnestly entreated to be reconciled to God, but they scornfully refused, or pleaded impotency, and because they could not come of themselves, they would not let Christ help them, but kept off by unbelief: And if men thus despise the feast of the Gospel, and will not part with their lusts, vanities, carnal confidences, that they may feast it with Christ and his People, can they charge unjust dealing, or undue severity upon the master of the feast, if he swear against them that they shall never taste of his Supper? Is not the law of retaliation just? Prov. 1. 2. &c. Beware then how you despise, ⟨p. 370⟩or envy, or find fault with the dispensations of the Gospel unto a wilful exclusion of your selves; it will be bitterness in the latter end.
USE, Hence how inexcusable will wicked men be, and without any Apology, when they shall be condemned to everlasting separation from the Saints and their joy? Time was when they might if they would, but they would not; they scorned the communion of the Saints here, and shall be justly denied it for ever: Then shall they remember the time when they were striven with, pleaded withal, earnestly entreated to be reconciled to God, but they scornfully refused, or pleaded impotency, and because they could not come of themselves, they would not let Christ help them, but kept off by unbelief: And if men thus despise the feast of the Gospel, and will not part with their lusts, vanities, carnal confidences, that they may feast it with Christ and his People, can they charge unjust dealing, or undue severity upon the master of the feast, if he swear against them that they shall never tast of his Supper? Is not the law of retaliation just? Prov. 1. 2. &c. Beware then how you despise, ⟨p. 370⟩or envy, or find fault with the dispensations of the Gospel unto a wilful exclusion of your selves; it will be bitterness in the latter end.
The fathers dealings seem very irregular and unrighteous to his eldest son: This was the frame of that self-cheating people, Isa. 58. 2. They think God doth them wrong: thus it was with Cain, he counted himself injured, because his brother was accepted before him; yea, it was too common a thing among the Jews to say, God's ways are not equal, Ezek. 18. 25.—29: &c.
The fathers dealings seem very irregular and unrighteous to his eldest son: This was the frame of that self-cheating people, Isa. 58. 2. They think God doth them wrong: thus it was with Cain, he counted himself injured, because his brother was accepted before him; yea, it was too common a thing among the Jews to say, God's wayes are not equal, Ezek. 18. 25.—29: &c.
Reas. 1. Negatively; not because God doth any wrong, for he who is the judge of the whole earth cannot but do that which is right, though he often acts sovereignly, yet he never acts injuriously: he will plead his cause and vindicate it one day, to the silencing of all those who now seek to impute injustice to him.
Reas. 1. Negatively; not because God doth any wrong, for he who is the judge of the whole earth cannot but do that which is right, though he often acts soveraignly, yet he never acts injuriously: he will plead his cause and vindicate it one day, to the silencing of all those who now seek to impute injustice to him.
Positively: The ground of it is,
Reas. 2. Because Hypocrites judge of things only by outward appearance, and that cannot be righteous Judgement: the causes of Gods providence are many times obscure, but never ⟨p. 371⟩irregular: He that looks upon the outward face of things may be amazed, but he that beholds that an all wise hand of God doth all, will suspend, his Judgement, and wait till the time when all things shall be made clear.
Reas. 2. Because Hypocrites judge of things only by outward appearance, and that cannot be righteous Judgement: the causes of Gods providence are many times obscure, but never ⟨p. 371⟩irregular: He that looks upon the outward face of things may be amazed, but he that beholds that an al wise hand of God doth all, will suspend, his Judgement, and wait till the time when all things shall be made clear.
2. Because of their ignorance of the ways of God: they are above them, and they cannot see into them: Ignorance and a good opinion of themselves, meeting together, is the reason of all the mis-judging of carnal men: Through self conceit they argue thus, that because they cannot see the reason, therefore there is none; as if we were bound to confess that the sun shineth not, because a blind man sees it not: Wisdom is too high for a fool, therefore he condemneth it of folly.
USE, 2. It may teach us that if we would escape the just censure of being hypocrites, we labour to have reverend thoughts of all God's ways: Though you cannot always discern the depth of them, yet be not rash in censuring then: condemn not the things you know not, but rather admire them; and when you cannot give a reason of this or that providence, remember you are men, and then you need not to wonder at it: When many parts of Divine wisdom are too high for you, and with the Psalmist, Psal. 72. you are pained within you, with searching into them, then satisfy your selves in this, that it is God that sits at ⟨p. 372⟩helm, and he is good, and cannot do ought but good.
USE, 2. It may teach us that if we would escape the just censure of being hypocrites, we labour to have reverend thoughts of all God's wayes: Though you cannot alwayes discern the depth of them, yet be not rash in censuring then: condemn not the things you know not, but rather admire them; and when you cannot give a reason of this or that providence, remember you are men, and then you need not to wonder at it: When many parts of Divine wisdom are too high for you, and with the Psalmist, Psal. 72. you are pained within you, with searching into them, then satisfie your selves in this, that it is God that sits at ⟨p. 372⟩helm, and he is good, and cannot do ought but good.
The Son is angry that his faithful service is not rewarded so much as with a kid: The Jews thought their fastings ill laid out, Isa. 58. begin. If they do not prosper, and all things go as their hearts can wish, legal spirited men think themselves abused.
Reas. Because such as rely upon their own works and doings, though they may have taken up an Evangelical profession, and have gotten the name of Christ in their mouths as a word of course; yet they were never truly broken off from themselves; they never saw the emptiness of their own righteousness, nor understood what unprofitable servants they are, when they have done all: There is a root of pride remaining in all unconverted men, they are not humbled as they ought to be: As long as a man thinks his doings to be of so much worth, he will consequently count himself injured, if they be not rewarded according to his expectation.
