N00302:139
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.
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.
1. What it is to go away from God?
Ans. There is an essential, and a providential Omnipresence of God, from which no creature can withdraw it self, for in it we live, move, and have our being; this presence fills heaven, earth and hell; it is the preservative of all beings, it is the godly man's joy, and the wicked man's prison. Neither is this going away from God a local motion, but a spiritual withdrawing. We may therefore observe, that besides the general presence of Gods common and universal Government of the world, by which he is intimately present with all creatures, and besides that presence of special and powerful Government, by which God leads all reasonable Creatures to an everlasting estate, and in which he drives wicked men to their end, and gets Glory by them, there is also a presence of special Grace, often pointed at in Scripture, by which God guides and leads his own people by his Word and Spirit, in all their