A66106:970
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 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 ⟨p. 383⟩Scripture are either, 1. The revolution of birth dayes, so Herod kept his birth day, Mat. 14. 6. and Pharach, Gen. 40. 20. 2. The time of weaning Children; so Abraham for Isaak, Gen. 21. 8. 3. Marriages; Christ honoured with his presence a wedding feast, and with his first miracle, Joh. 2. begin. 4. Great victorys and deliverances, hence dayes of thanksgiving appointed, and hence the passeover. 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,
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.
4. He never was a conqueror over his lusts, nor got victory upon his corruptions; but remains a slave of sin and satan, led about at his pleasure, and serving divers lusts: Sin rules him, his Chains were never knocked off, nor his prison doors broken open, but he lives under the power and condemnation of sin.
4. He never was a conquerour over his lusts, nor got victory upon his corruptions; but remains a slave of sin and satan, led about at his pleasure, and serving divers lusts: Sin rules him, his Chains were never knockt off, nor his prison doors broken open, but he lives under the power and condemnation of sin.
5. He hath brought forth no fruit to God, or to his own souls comfort; is a dry heath and barren ground, a fig tree, which if it have the leaves of a profession, yet hath no fruit of sanctification; a vine, which if it bear any grapes, they are sower wild grapes; a fig-tree long waited on for fruit, and ready for that sentence, Cut it down, why cumbers it the ground, Luk. 13. 7. A piece of ground that is nigh unto cursing. Heb. 6. 8.
5. He hath brought forth no fruit to God, or to his own souls comfort; is a dry heath and barren ground, a fig tree, which if it have the leaves of a profession, yet hath no fruit of sanctification; a vine, which if it bear any grapes, they are sower wildgrapes; a fig-tree long waited on for fruit, and ready for that sentence, Cut it down, why cumbers it the ground, Luk. 13. 7. A piece of ground that is nigh unto cursing. Heb. 6. 8.
6. He never came to God for entertainment, not so much as like a stranger to ask his friendship and favour: much less as a son who had absented himself, to seek his fathers pardon; but he lieth out from him, keeps at a distance, will not come to Christ for life, Joh. 5. 40.
6. He never came to God for entertainment, not so much as like a stranger to ask his friendship and favour: much less as a son who had absented himself, to seek his fathers pardon; but he lyeth out from him, keeps at a distance, will not come to Christ for life, Joh. 5. 40.
7. Though he be a lost creature in himself, yet he was never found, but is lost still; he is yet in the wilderness, wandering upon the mountains: and whiles it is thus, what occasion can there be of special joy over him?
7. Though he be a lost creature in himself, yet he was never found, but is lost still; he is yet in the wilderness, wandring upon the mountains: and whiles it is thus, what occasion can there be of special joy over him?
Use, 1. Hence the joys and boastings of unregenerate men are groundless: Many talk of their hopes, and comforts, and soul satisfactions; they tell how God refreshed them at this and that time with these and those promises; nay, they have had tastes of the powers of the world to come: Alas! infatuated souls! God doth not scatter his joys promiscuously: Though men may, God will not make a needless feast.
Use, 1. Hence the joyes and boastings of unregenerate men are groundless: Many talk of their hopes, and comforts, and soul satisfactions; they tell how God refreshed them at this and that time with these and those promises; nay, they have had tastes of the powers of the world to come: Alas! enfatuated souls! God doth not scatter his joyes promiscuously: Though men may, God will not make a needless feast.
USE, 2. It may put men upon enquiry, when they cannot find that comfort and joy in their service which they expect, whither this may not be the reason of it: I do not say it is always so, the best Saint may sit in the dark, Isa. 50. 10. And there are other reasons why the all-wise God will make his own Children to fast, and to mourn too: Many falls, much heedlessness; yea, their weakness to bear much ⟨p. 386⟩of this new wine; God stints his own People, and will not kill them with Cordials: But I say, it is a good enquiry, hast thou not, nor ever hadst any taste of these joys? ask then, am I new born, &c? If there be none of this, wonder not, there was no occasion: most men act preposterously, they try their grace by their joys, whereas they ought to try their joys by their Grace.
USE, 2. It may put men upon enquiry, when they cannot find that comfort and joy in their service which they expect, whither this may not be the reason of it: I do not say it is alwayes so, the best Saint may sit in the dark, Isa. 50. 10. And there are other reasons why the al-wise God will make his own Children to fast, and to mourn too: Many falls, much heedlesness; yea, their weakness to bear much ⟨p. 386⟩of this new wine; God stints his own People, and will not kill them with Cordials: But I say, it is a good enquiry, hast thou not, nor ever hadst any tast of these joyes? ask then, am I new born, &c? If there be none of this, wonder not, there was no occasion: most men act preposterously, they try their grace by their joyes, whereas they ought to try their joyes by their Grace.
What ever they think they have to say for themselves, yet God wrongs them not: The father could entertain the younger son, without injuring his elder: This will appear if we consider,
1. That God in the dispensing of his grace, acts as a free Agent. This is insinuated in that Parable, Mat. 20. 15. A Father is not bound to give an account to his Children how he improves his estate; much less is God to sinful men how he distributes his grace. The Creature cannot oblige the Creator, much less a sinful creature, who hath forfeited all: It is the Apostles Challenge, Rom. 11. 31. Who hath ⟨p. 387⟩given to him at any time? There cannot be respect of persons in gratuitis; there is no binding rule of justice in the bestowing of kindness, and where the benefit is a free favour▪ the choosing one, and passing by another is arbitrary, and depends on the will of the Donor. In Gods bestowing of Grace on the Children of men, there can be none worthy, and if he will pitch upon the most unworthy, to make his favour the more notable, who shall call him to an account?
1. That God in the dispensing of his grace, acts as a free Agent. This is insinuated in that Parable, Mat. 20. 15. A Father is not bound to give an account to his Children how he improves his estate; much less is God to sinful men how he distributes his grace. The Creature cannot oblige the Creator, much less a sinful creature, who hath forfeited all: It is the Apostles Challenge, Rom. 11. 31. Who hath ⟨p. 387⟩given to him at any time? There cannot be respect of persons in gratuitis; there is no binding rule of justice in the bestowing of kindness, and where the benefit is a free favour▪ the chusing one, and passing by another is arbitrary, and depends on the will of the Doner. In Gods bestowing of Grace on the Children of men, there can be none worthy, and if he will pitch upon the most unworthy, to make his favour the more notable, who shall call him to an account?
2. That the best works of the most refined hypocrites are no ways obliging or deserving. An unregenerate man may do many things materially good, he may pray, confess his sins, read the word, attend upon ordinances, carry fair among men, abstain from many evils, do many duties; but still they deserve no favour, nay, they deserve the wrath of God; Their prayer is abomination, their ploughing sin, their oblations detestable, Isa. 66. begin. If the Godly do confess their best to be rags, their holy duties dung; what then must we say of what the unregenerate do, who have no saving principle of holiness, no mediator through whom to obtain acceptance, no good end in their performances?
2. That the best works of the most refined hypocrites are no ways obliging or deserving. An unregenerate man may do many things materially good, he may pray, confess his sins, read the word, attend upon ordinances, carry fair among men, abstain from many evils, do many duties; but still they deserve no favour, nay, they deserve the wrath of God; Their prayer is abomination, their plowing sin, their oblations detestable, Isa. 66. begin. If the Godly do confess their best to be rags, their holy duties dung; what then must we say of what the unregenerate do, who have no saving principle of holiness, no meadiatour through whom to obtain acceptance, no good end in their performances?
