A66106:960
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 finds the Prodigal in his far Country; his eldest brother is at home, and yet past by. In our Saviours time there were more Publicans converted than Scribes and Pharisees; afterwards the Heathen Gentiles came flocking in upon the preaching of the Gospel by the Apostles, whiles the Jews obstinately refused it: So true is that of our Saviour, Luk. 13. 28, 29, 30. Mat. 21. 31, 32. The Publicans and the Harlots go into the Kingdom of God before you, &c.
God finds the Prodigal in his far Country; his eldest brother is at home, and yet past by. In our Saviours time there were more Publicans converted than Scribes and Pharisees; afterwards the Heathen Gentiles came flocking in upon the preaching of the Gospel by the Apostles, whiles the Jews obstinately refused it: So true is that of our Saviour, Luk. 13. 28, 29, 30. Mat. 21. 31, 32. The Publicans and the Harlots go into the Kingdome of God before you, &c.
Reas. 1. From the deep interest of self in a legal Professor: The profane persons sins are almost convincible; whereas the other thinks his righteousness to be of great worth, and is ⟨p. 378⟩not easily persuaded of the unprofitableness of it, Rom. 9. 31, 32.
Reas. 1. From the deep interest of self in a legal Professor: The profane persons sins are almost convincible; whereas the other thinks his righteousness to be of great worth, and is ⟨p. 378⟩not easily perswaded of the unprofitableness of it, Rom. 9. 31, 32.
Reas. From the wisdom of God, to make his free grace thus the more manifest, The more profuse any have been, the more visible and observable is that grace which is made to appear to be in them: The Physician gets no credit by administering to one that thinks himself well already; the more desperate the disease is apprehended, the more eminent is the cure acknowledged to be, Luk. 5. 31.
Reas. From the wisdom of God, to make his free grace thus the more manifest, The more profuse any have been, the more visible and observable is that grace which is made to appear to be in them: The Physitian gets no credit by administring to one that thinks himself well already; the more desperate the disease is apprehended, the more eminent is the cure acknowledged to be, Luk. 5. 31.
USE, 1. To awaken carnal Professors; you may easily be cheated: Why are you no more concerned with the awakening means which you enjoy? you think your selves to be whole and sound, and these warnings are for the vain and profane; beware! you may be lost, when those whom you despise may be saved.
USE, 2. To advise us not to despair of, but to pray for the worst sinners: God both knows how to magnify his mercy upon them, and not only so, but is often pleased to single out these to make illustrious monuments of his saving grace, despair not then of them, but pray hard for them, that they may be converted, and believe.
USE, 2. To advise us not to despair of, but to pray for the worst sinners: God both knows how to magnifie his mercy upon them, and not only so, but is often pleased to single out these to make illustrious monuments of his saving grace, despair not then of them, but pray hard for them, that they may be converted, and believe.
USE, 3. To encourage any that have been grievous sinners against God; despair not, such are often chosen to be the subjects of grace, and if God hath awakened and humbled you, ⟨p. 379⟩hope in his mercy; he knows how to get him a name in your Salvation.
Vers. 31. And he said unto him, Son thou art ever with me and all that I have is thine. Vers. 32. It was meet that we should make mercy, and be glad. for this thy Brother was dead and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.
IN the last place we have to consider of the fathers vindication of the righteousness and equity of his carriage to his younger son, in which he asserts three things. 1. That there was no such occasion offered of making such a feast for him, thou art ever with me. 2. That there was no wrong done to him by thus entertaining of his brother, it diminished not his Portion, nor put him besides his own, all that I have is thine. 3. That there was sufficient cause for the joyful reception of his Prodigal son; It was meet, &c. and he gives the reason of it, vers. 32.
Before I come to particular observations, it ⟨p. 380⟩is needful to clear these words from an objection. I have in this discourse interpreted the elder son to aim firstly at the Scribes and Pharisees, and so under them at hypocritical Professors, legal men, and vain boasters; but here seems to be a scruple, viz. How comes it then that his father saith, All that I have is thine? Have unregenerate men a title to Gods, spiritual grace and favour? This objection seems at first blush to carry some force with it, and hath so far prevailed with some, as to make them interpret this eldest son to signify the Godly, who (by a religious education) have not fallen into, but been kept from such foul enormities; and through infirmity are sometimes stumbled at such providences of God: But then as great a scruple may arise on the other hand, viz. Shall the penitent Prodigal have no portion again? Is not all repaired in Christ, which we lost in Adam? Was not Paul, though he had been a persecutor, &c. upon his conversion made a just heir? But to come to some resolution: It is certain Christ must aim at the Pharisees in this eldest son, else the scope and purport of the Parable had been Alien from his present design, and so to no purpose; for his business is to silence their murmurings: You have the occasion of the Parable, verse. 1. 2. Hence the interpretation of every particular must be such, as may be reduced to the general, ⟨p. 381⟩and may bear & suit with it according to the Analogy of faith. It is a good rule in Divinity, That all expressions in Parables must be so interpreted as to agree with other plain Scriptures, referring to the same thing. Parables are similitudes, in which spiritual things are familiarized to us by earthly things, by way of allusion: Now though there be a vast disproportion between God and the Creature, between heavenly and earthly things, yet there is some shadow of those in these, and that is all that we seek in a Parable. Our Saviours design is to convince the Pharisees of the unreasonableness of their murmurings; and he doth it by an argument â majori ad minus. q. d. The Son might seem to have some plea against his Father, but indeed had none, much less have you against me: Though his son had been faithful, and careful, and was heir, yet his father could make a feast, and receive his younger son without detriment to the other;
Before I come to particular observations, it ⟨p. 380⟩
much more may I entertain Publicans and Sinners, without injuring you, who deserve nothing, who are holy only in pretence. Or the argument may be by way of Concession: We know the Pharisees thought well of themselves, but saith our Saviour, put case you are the men you pretend, yet what wrong is this? Is there not room left for free grace to a Prodigal? So Tertullian glosseth it, Posuit illos ⟨p. 382⟩in parabold, non quales erant, sed quales esse debuerant. Except we take this rule, we shall scarce find any Parable, but will involve us in difficulty. We must not think, because every labourer had his penny, therefore the degrees of glory are all equal: because the Master bid the servants let the tares grow till harvest, therefore Churches are to suffer manifest hypocrites without censuring of them: but this may suffice. I now proceed to make some observations.
The father insinuates that he was not wont to do things superfluously or without occasion: And we may see the evidence of the Doctrine, if we consider what is the ground of extraordinary expressions of joy among men. Now, though men that are given to excess will make occasions of feasting, and great shows of jocundity, where there is no reason; yet as joy is an affection moved by the apprehension of some present good; so, the extraordinary signifying of it by feasts, mirth, great entertainments, is when the reason of it is more than usual: Hence the most of those occasions recorded in ⟨p. 383⟩Scripture are either, 1. The revolution of birth days, so Herod kept his birth day, Mat. 14. 6. and Pharaoh, Gen. 40. 20. 2. The time of weaning Children; so Abraham for Isaac, Gen. 21. 8. 3. Marriages; Christ honoured with his presence a wedding feast, and with his first miracle, Joh. 2. begin. 4. Great victories and deliverances, hence days of thanksgiving appointed, and hence the passover. 5. Gods signal blessing upon their labours, in giving them the fruit of the earth. Hence the feast of ingathering. 6. The entertainment of strangers, or occasional visitation of friends; thus Lot made a feast for the Angels, Gen. 19. 3. and David for Abner, 2 Sam. 3. 20. 7. The finding of that which was lost, Luk. 15. 6-9. But there is no such respect in one or another kind, on a spiritual account, with an hypocrite: whereupon God should make him a joyful entertainment: For,
The father insinuates that he was not wont to do things superfluously or without occasion: And we may see the evidence of the Doctrine, if we consider what is the ground of extraordinary expressions of joy among men. Now, though men that are given to excess will make occasions of feasting, and great shews of jocundity, where there is no reason; yet as joy is an affection moved by the apprehension of some present good; so, the extraordinary signifying of it by feasts, mirth, great entertainments, is when the reason of it is more than usual: Hence the most of those occasions recorded in
1. He hath no birth day; was never born again, but lives and lies in sin: All his legal and moral duties are but splendida peccata: He is the same he was, there is no gracious change wrought in him: There is more reason to mourn over him as a dead man; than to rejoice over him as a living man; to celebrate his funeral, than his birth: The state of nature is a state of death, Eph. 2. 1.
1. He hath no birth day; was never born again, but lives and lies in sin: All his legal and moral duties are but splendida peccata: He is the same he was, there is no gracious change wrought in him: There is more reason to mourn over him as a dead man; than to rejoyce over him as a living man; to celebrate his funeral, than his birth: The state of nature is a state of death, Eph. 2. 1.
2. He was never weaned from the world and ⟨p. 384⟩vanities of it, but still hangs upon its breasts, seeking his contentment among creatures, and to satisfy his appetite upon these things; His name is written in the earth, he lives upon lying vanities, cannot say as David, Psal. 131. 2. I am like a weaned Child.
2. He was never weaned from the world and ⟨p. 384⟩vanities of it, but still hangs upon its breasts, seeking his contentment among creatures, and to satisfie his appetite upon these things; His name is written in the earth, he lives upon lying vanities, cannot say as David, Psal. 131. 2. I am like a weaned Child.
3. He is not married to Christ; his league with sin and satan was never broken, he was never dead to the law that he might be united to a Saviour: How should there be a marriage feast without a marriage? Christ indeed hath wooed him, but he never gave his consent, nor will leave playing the harlot with other lovers; never embraced that call, Jer. 3. 2.
3. He is not married to Christ; his league with sin and satan was never broken, he was never dead to the law that he might be united to a Saviour: How should there be a marriage feast without a marriage? Christ indeed hath woed him, but he never gave his consent, nor will leave playing the harlot with other lovers; never embraced that call, Jer. 3. 2.
