N00302:211
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.
5. Now the world in which he trusted will without doubt leave him at a loss: The Magazine from whence he hoped to fetch his livelihood, will be found empty, the Cistern will appear to be broken, and have no water in it; he shall be far from finding it able to direct him to true & solid comfort, or so much as point him to that which can indeed give him life. If a sinner be perishing, he must needs perish ⟨p. 88⟩for all that the world can do to save him; here is not one morsel of the Bread of Life to keep a soul from Perdition; if he could gain it all, that would not save his soul, Mat. 16. 26. If he ask for bread, it gives him a stone, if a fish, a •••pion; he may wander from sea to sea, seeking the bread of life, and find none: Hence the wise man, in answer to the great question, where good is to be found, or where a man may fill himself with substance, and find content, returns it in the Negative, respecting the world and all that is in it, and that because it is empty, vain, and vexatious, in the proof whereof he spends a whole Book, viz. that of Ecclesiastes. If a man wants eternal life, he may ask every creature for it, but all answer no, it is not in me: he that doth for the present rely here, and hopes it shall be well with him, doth but feed upon ashes, and cherish him self up with false expectations. As man cannot find his life in himself, so neither shall he mend himself in the world; he goes but from one want to another, from a famine within doors to a famine abroad; if he goes to the world he dyes, and if he rests in himself he dyes; he doth but rise to fall, he doth but go abroad to meet with that death which was coming home to him.
5. Now the world in which he trusted will without doubt leave him at a loss: The Magazene from whence he hoped to fetch his livelihood, will be found empty, the Cistern will appear to be broken, and have no water in it; he shal be far from finding it able to direct him to true & solid comfort, or so much as point him to that which can indeed give him life. If a sinner be perishing, he must needs perish ⟨p. 88⟩for all that the world can do to save him; here is not one morsel of the Bread of Life to keep a soul from Perdition; if he could gain it all, that would not save his soul, Mat. 16. 26. If he ask for bread, it gives him a stone, if a fish, a •••pion; he may wander from sea to sea, seeking the bread of life, and find none: Hence the wiseman, in answer to the great question, where good is to be found, or where a man may fill himself with substance, and find content, returns it in the Negative, respecting the world and all that is in it, and that because it is empty, vain, and vexatious, in the proof whereof he spends a whole Book, viz. that of Ecclesiastes. If a man wants eternal life, he may ask every creature for it, but all answer no, it is not in me: he that doth for the present rely here, and hopes it shal be well with him, doth but feed upon ashes, and cherish him self up with false expectations. As man cannot find his life in himself, so neither shal he mend himself in the world; he goes but from one want to another, from a famine within doors to a famine abroad; if he goes to the world he dyes, and if he rests in himself he dyes; he doth but rise to fall, he doth but go abroad to meet with that death which was coming home to him.
USE, 1. To teach us the certain necessity ⟨p. 89⟩of the perdition of all those souls that have no thing else to trust to in their need, but this world and the vanities of it. What fools are the sons and daughters of men, that lay out their time, and thoughts, and care to get into the worlds favour, and secure to themselves a refuge here? What will you do when the day of distress comes upon you? Men think they shall inherit substance, but they purchase nothing but famine. The world seems full to a carnal mind, he thinks it affords all that heart can wish, if he can have this to friend, he fears no want: but the soul shall to its cost find that it is empty, void, and wast. The soul of man must have something to live upon, or else it is undone, this is the great want, and for this want the creature hath no supply; whiles it feeds the body the soul starves: It is not it self soul-food, it cannot be the happiness of any man, neither can it be the price of the purchase of it; earths Money will not pass in heavens Exchange; riches profit not in the day of wrath, Prov. 11. 4. What is it then that the Children of Men are doing, whiles they dig deep, and labour hard to build up a fabric for themselves with such materials, with which they cannot ward themselves from wrath, buy themselves out of the hands of death, nor bribe the flames of hell? he that hath laid in nothing else to live upon to all eternity but ⟨p. 90⟩this vanishing world, must needs famish: and therefore,
USE, 1. To teach us the certain necessity ⟨p. 89⟩of the perdition of all those souls that have no thing else to trust to in their need, but this world and the vanities of it. What fools are the sons and daughters of men, that lay out their time, and thoughts, and care to get into the worlds favour, and secure to themselves a refuge here? What will you do when the day of distress comes upon you? Men think they shal inherit substance, but they purchase nothing but famine. The world seems full to a carnal mind, he thinks it affords all that heart can wish, if he can have this to friend, he fears no want: but the soul shal to its cost find that it is empty, void, and wast. The soul of man must have something to live upon, or else it is undone, this is the great want, and for this want the creature hath no supply; whiles it feeds the body the soul starves: It is not it self soul-food, it cannot be the happiness of any man, neither can it be the price of the purchase of it; earths Mony will not pass in heavens Exchange; riches profit not in the day of wrath,
USE, 2. Let it be a loud and awakening Call to all unregenerate sinners, if you would not suffer the utmost distress of the most pinching famine, to get away from the world: Make hast out of your natural state, live no longer in this far Country; your distance from God is your misery, return to him and you shall be happy: You that live jocund and pleasant, you that think all is well, and shall be so though you add iniquity to sin, be persuaded to take this warning: As much pomp and splendour as you now live in, as satisfied as you are at present, ere it be long a famine will come, a mighty famine, and what will you do then? O•, fly from it before you come to the utmost distress: Did Abraham go to Egypt, the Shunamite to the Philistines, being warned of a temporal famine? Do not you then despise this warning, to come out of Egypt and Philistia, to escape a spiritual famine: Be assured, it will be a sore and distressing thing to feel wrath and misery seizing upon you, and have nothing but a vain world to go to; miserable comforters shall you find all these things to be; they will not afford you one dram of consolation, nor give one morsel of quiet to your souls: you may cry and roar in your distress, but there will be none to help you; God whom you have ⟨p. 91⟩forsaken, it may be will not, and to be sure the world in which you have trusted cannot: It will be a complicate misery to be a bankrupt, and in a far Country, and there to be seized with a mighty famine; now you are called to avoid this: All you want is with God, for though the world be empty, he is full; that can supply no spiritual necessity, he can satisfy all; there you must needs perish, here you may be saved and satisfied: There is bread in Egypt when all other countries have none, but look one upon another, and pine and die: There is no want with God, there is nothing else but want every where else: Do but open your eyes, the Lord open them for you; the famine is upon you now though you discern it not; see and be affected with and fly from it: and let this be your encouragement, that though you have provoked God by going from him, and abused his goodness, yet, as there is with him enough and to spare, so upon your penitent return you need not doubt or fear, but to find relief and welcome with him, as will also appear in the sequel of the Parable:
USE, 2. Let it be a loud and awakening Call to all unregenerate sinners, if you would not suffer the utmost distress of the most pinching famine, to get away from the world: Make hast out of your natural state, live no longer in this far Country; your distance from God is your misery, return to him and you shal be happy: You that live jocund and pleasant, you that think all is well, and shal be so though you add iniquity to sin, be perswaded to take this warning: As much pomp and splendor as you now live in, as satisfied as you are at present, ere it be long a famine will come, a mighty famine, and what will you do then? O, fly from it before you come to the utmost distress: Did Abraham go to Egypt, the Shunamite to the Philistins, being warned of a temporal famine? Do not you then despise this warning, to come out of Egypt and Philistia, to escape a spiritual famine: Be assured, it will be a sore and distressing thing to feel wrath and misery siezing upon you, and have nothing but a vain world to go to; miserable comforters shal you find all these things to be; they will not afford you one dram of consolation, nor give one morsel of quiet to your souls: you may cry and roar in your distress, but there will be none to help you; God whom you have
Only do you know your misery, and fly to God in time to get a redress of it; so shall you find in him, all that which is in vain and to no purpose you have been seeking in an bowling wilderness, in a famishing world.
Only do you know your misery, and fly to God in time to get a redress of it; so shal you find in him, all that which is in vain and to no purpose you have been seeking in an bowling wilderness, in a famishing world.
2 Thus of the causes of, or leading occasions to this young Man's misery; it follows to take notice of one great effect arising from it, according as it is expressed in this vers. He began to be in want. The word that is used in our Text signifies to be, or to fall behind, and is wont to be used of such as come too late to a Feast, as the five foolish Virgins, Mat. 25. 11. or of men that are left behind in a Race, as Heb. 4. 1. The meaning of it in our Text is, that he now began to be pinched with indigence, now the sense of the misery of his condition came upon him: Such is our English phrase, to fall behind, and to be brought into straits. Things are here expressed (as we heard) according to appearance, a man is not pinched with want till he feels it, and is oppressed with it: Hence,
2 THus of the causes of, or leading occasions to this young Man's misery; it follows to take notice of one great effect arising from it, according as it is expressed in this vers. He began to be in want. The word that is used in our Text signifies to be, or to fall behind, and is wont to be used of such as come too late to a Feast, as the five foolish Virgins, Mat. 25. 11. or of men that are left behind in a Race, as Heb. 4. 1. The meaning of it in our Text is, that he now began to be pinched with indigence, now the sense of the misery of his condition came upon him: Such is our English phrase, to fall behind, and to be brought into straits. Things are here expressed (as we heard) according to appearance, a man is not pinched with want till he feels it, and is oppressed with it: Hence,
God, in the ordinary and usual method of converting sinners under the means of Grace, begins with the discovery of their empty, needy, poor and miserable condition: Here began the ground and motive of the young man's returning to his Father, though it did not presently work to this end; had he not been reduced to the greatest straits, he had never thought of returning; his being in want was that which set him to seeking relief, and this is it which did at last (though not immediately) drive him home.
Among the works ascribed to the spirit of God, there are some which are called common and preparatory; common, because they may be found in Reprobates; preparatory, because they are wont (in the Elect) to be steps towards conversion, or works preparing the soul, as a rational Agent to entertain Christ as he is tendered in the Gospel.
The first of these works is Conviction, which hath two things for objects, viz. Sin and misery; one is the cause, the other the effect, Conviction usually proceeds Analytically, it first discovers the effect, and from thence ⟨p. 94⟩searcheth after the cause. The conviction of misery is that which here hath its consideration, that of sin follows afterwards. The first remove of the young man was, he felt himself to be in want, he found when the famine came and increased, that now he had nothing to live upon. In the Explication we may consider, 1. What is this conviction of misery? 2. How it is wrought? 3. The reasons of the Doctrine.
The first of these works is Conviction, which hath two things for objects, viz. Sin and misery; one is the cause, the other the effect, Conviction usually proceeds Analytically, it first discovers the effect, and from thence ⟨p. 94⟩searcheth after the cause. The conviction of misery is that which here hath its consideration, that of sin follows afterwards. The first remove of the young man was, he felt himself to be in want, he found when the famine came and encreased, that now he had nothing to live upon. In the Explication we may consider, 1. What is this conviction of misery? 2. How it is wrought? 3. The reasons of the Doctrine.
1. What is this conviction of misery?
Answ. It is the first legal work that is usually wrought in a sinner, making him to apprehend his present state of perdition, notwithstanding all that is either in himself, or in the world. It is, though not the full of a lost estate, yet leading to it, or a step towards it. In the Description observe,
1. I call it a legal work; now Divines are wont to call those works legal.
1. Which are usually wrought by the application of the Law, in which is the curse, and by which is the knowledge of sin, Rom. 7. 8. Misery ariseth out of the curse, and the curse comes upon the breach of the Law, Gal. 3. 12. The Law therefore firstly discovers it.
2. Which are common works, and not in themselves saving; and so the word legal is often used in Divinity, of which nature is this before us: Conviction of misery may befall hypocrites, ⟨p. 95⟩Isa. 43. 14. Yea, of it self this is hell begun in the soul, or conscience.
2. Which are common works, and not in themselves saving; and so the word legal is often used in Divinity, of which nature is this before us: Conviction of misery may befal hypocrites, ⟨p. 95⟩Isa. 43. 14. Yea, of it self this is hell begun in the soul, or conscience.
3. I call it the first legal work: my meaning is that God usually begins here, and so man for the most part is made to look upon the effect, before he discovers the cause, yea is led by it thereunto: he first sees and feels misery upon himself, and thence is led to see sin as the blameable & meritorious cause of all this misery: Man usually apprehends that he is condemned, before he apprehends sin to be the just condemnation, he feels himself miserable, before he justifieth God: for though it be sin which the law condemns, and hence he must so far see sin, as to know that he hath broken this law, yet he is not made to know sin in its just merit, but rather counts it a rigour of the law which makes him angry, with that and not with sin, Rom. 7. 5.
