N00302:135
Mercy magnified on a penitent prodigal, or A brief discourse, wherein Christs parable of…
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 teacher of a church in Boston in New-England. ; [Two lines from Luke]
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 more God doth for sinners, the further they seek to get away from him.
The Prodigal could not be content to live by himself, near his father, where he might have been advised and directed how to improve or husband his estate to profit, but he goes in another Country; yea, a far Country: Thus wicked men (like Cain) go out of the presence ⟨p. 53⟩of God; hence they are said to be far from God, Psal. 73. 27. The wickeds Apostasy is here compared to a journey, men go step by step, they grow worse and worse, by abusing of all the goodness of God afforded to them. In the explication we may consider, 1. What it is to go away from God? 2. The evidence that sinners, especially prospering sinners so do, and the reason of it.
The Prodigal could not be content to live by himself, near his father, where he might have been advised and directed how to improve or husband his estate to profit, but he goes inanother Country; yea, a far Countrey: Thus wicked men (like Cain) go out of the presence ⟨p. 53⟩of God; hence they are said to be far from God, Psal. 73. 27. The wickeds Apostacy is here compared to a journey, men go step by step, they grow worse and worse, by abusing of all the goodness of God afforded to them. In the explication we may consider, 1. What it is to go away from God? 2. The evidence that sinners, especially prospering sinners so do, and the reason of it.