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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.
1. For the seasonableness of it: God intending to advance himself in man's Salvation, and his Glory being declarative (for his essential Glory is incapable of any advancement) hence the more gracious he appears to be, the more Glory redounds to his great Name: Now the greatness of grace herein appears in one discovery of it, viz. the greatness of the misery from which the subject of this grace is delivered: For the illustration whereof, this work is very fit and seasonable: For, 1. Man must see his own misery, or else he will never admire God's mercy. 2. The best knowledge of this misery, is by a sensible apprehension of the distressing efficacy of it. 3. The sense and apprehension cannot be so well after conversion, because then the apprehension of God's mercy, applied to faith in the promise, cannot but afford some relief against the sense of misery: Thought it is true, the right improvement of this is after mercy hath been apprehended; yet still the remembrance of this distress is a main help to fill the soul with admiration, Isa. 53. 6.
1. For the seasonableness of it: God intending to advance himself in man's Salvation, and his Glory being declarative (for his essential Glory is incapable of any advancement) hence the more gracious he appears to be, the more Glory redounds to his great Name: Now the greatness of grace herein appears in one discovery of it, viz. the greatness of the misery from which the subject of this grace is delivered: For the illustration whereof, this work is very fit and seasonable: For, 1. Man must see his own misery, or else he will never admire God's mercie. 2. The best knowledge of this misery, is by a sensible apprehension of the distressing efficacy of it. 3. The sense and apprehension cannot be so well after conversion, because then the apprehension of God's mercy, applyed to faith in the promise, cannot but afford some relief against the sense of misery: Thought it is true, the right improvement of this is after mercy hath been apprehended; yet still the remembrance of this distress is a main help to fill the soul with admiration, Isa. 53. 6.
2. For the necessity of it in order to the receiving of Christ in the tenders of the Gospel. For, 1. Christ's work is Salvation-work. Hence he is called Jesus, the Saviour, and said to come on this errand, 1 Tim. 1. 15. Christ came to save sinners. 2. Hence this work is for ⟨p. 102⟩none but such as need Salvation, and that is such as are miserable: What should a Physician do among men that are hail and sound? Luk. 5. 31. 3. Hence till men feel this misery, they will certainly despise Christ; till then they will bid the Almighty to depart from them, Job 21. 14.
2. For the necessity of it in order to the receiving of Christ in the tenders of the Gospel. For, 1. Christ's work is Salvation-work. Hence he is called Jesus, the Saviour, and said to come on this errand, 1 Tim. 1. 15. Christ came to save sinners. 2. Hence this work is for ⟨p. 102⟩none but such as need Salvation, and that is such as are miserable: What should a Physitian do among men that are hail and sound? Luk. 5. 31. 3. Hence till men feel this misery, they will certainly despise Christ; till then they will bid the Almighty to depart from them, Job 21. 14.
USE, 1. For Information hence learn,
1. That they make more hast than good speed, that are great Professors of Faith in Christ, before ever they were made throughly sensible of their own misery. A Faith that antedates Conviction may justly be suspected: He that never knew his own distress, never went to Christ as a Saviour. There are indeed divers steps from this conviction to true conversion, but yet this is one step from natural security, and usually the first: Though a man cannot see sin sinful (which is the true conviction of sin) but by an eye of faith, yet, by the common work of Illumination, he may see the woeful estate of it. God, like a wise builder, digs for a foundation, before he lays it. Conviction of misery is not our foundation, Christ is the only foundation, Faith is that which only builds us upon him; but by Conviction, the loose and unstable earth is removed, the false and failing hopes of men are dug up. God is not wont to give hope, before he hath brought the soul to despair; he applies ⟨p. 103⟩not comforts antecedent to conviction. It may therefore put us upon it to enquire whether ever it were thus: It may be now you are rich in your own conceit, like Laodicea, but did you ever know your selves to be poor, and miserable, and blind, and naked? if not your riches are but a fancy, and your hopes are empty.
1. That they make more hast than good speed, that are great Professors of Faith in Christ, before ever they were made throughly sensible of their own misery. A Faith that antedates Conviction may justly be suspected: He that never knew his own distress, never went to Christ as a Saviour. There are indeed divers steps from this conviction to true conversion, but yet this is one step from natural security, and usually the first: Though a man cannot see sin sinful (which is the true conviction of sin) but by an eye of faith, yet, by the common work of Illumination, he may see the woful estate of it. God, like a wise builder, digs for a foundation, before he layes it. Conviction of misery is not our foundation, Christ is the only foundation, Faith is that which only builds us upon him; but by Conviction, the loose and unstable earth is removed, the false and failing hopes of men are dug up. God is not wont to give hope, before he hath brought the soul to despair; he applyes
2. That there are some grounds of hope for those whom the spirit of God brings into a needy and destitute condition; whom he convinceth of their want and misery; who feel the curses of the Law, and can find no help in the world: I say, there is some hope, for there may be reason for fears and jealousies too, For, 1. This is but a common work, and therefore is no sufficient evidence of God's special love, no sure Character of an Elect Vessel. 2. There have been many under it, who yet through Satan's temptations, and God leaving them, have lost it again; yea, and manifold experience gives in a sad testimony to this truth. 3. The curse and condemnation is still as really upon them as ever it was: That is not taken off till believing. 4. There is no special promise made to them that God will carry on this work in them to effect: He may or he may not, and if he do not it will leave the man short of Heaven and Glory. But still there is more hope than there was before; for ⟨p. 104⟩while they lay secure in sin, and felt no wrath, they were in no order to Salvation, but now they are in such as way as God brings home his own by; and we may say they are a stop nearer to the Kingdom than before: Though they are not under saving Grace, yet they are under the means to it: A man that is without the City gates, though just by them, is as really without, as one an hundred miles off, but yet he is nearer to it.
2. That there are some grounds of hope for those whom the spirit of God brings into a needy and destitute condition; whom he convinceth of their want and misery; who feel the curses of the Law, and can find no help in the world: I say, there is some hope, for there may be reason for fears and jealousies too, For, 1. This is but a common work, and therefore is no sufficient evidence of God's special love, no sure Character of an Elect Vessel. 2. There have been many under it, who yet through Satans temptations, and God leaving them, have lost it again; yea, and manifold experience gives in a sad testimony to this truth. 3. The curse and condemnation is still as really upon them as ever it was: That is not taken off till believing. 4. There is no special promise made to them that God will carry on this work in them to effect: He may or he may not, and if he do not it will leave the man short of Heaven and Glory. But still there is more hope than there was before; for ⟨p. 104⟩
3. We have here a rule how to begin with men in our endeavours, for their spiritual good: Let us labour to show them their misery by sin: We must wound before we can heal, instrumentally: Be not afraid to show men their sins and the wrath of God for them: Misery is the first thing a secure soul is like to be affected withal, and that is preparatory to the rend•ing of Christ precious to them: We should indeed encourage all to go to Christ, but encouragements without convictions, are but the laying a foundation for presumption, and not the way to bring men truly to believe. Peter, in Act. 2. First preacheth his hearers to remorse, and then he directs them to Christ.
3. We have here a rule how to begin with men in our endeavours, for their spiritual good: Let us labour to shew them their misery by sin: We must wound before we can heal, instrumentally: Be not afraid to fhew men their sins and the wrath of God for them: Misery is the first thing a secure soul is like to be affected withal, and that is preparatory to the rend•ing of Christ precious to them: We should indeed encourage all to go to Christ, but encouragements without convictions, are but the laying a foundation for presumption, and not the way to bring men truely to believe. Peter, in Act. 2. First preacheth his hearers to remorce, and then he directs them to Christ.
USE, 2. For Conviction; let every unregenerate sinner see here (as in a Glass) his own miserable state: This young man's condition is thine spiritually: Thou hast nothing ⟨p. 105⟩of thine own to live upon, there is nothing in the world to relieve thee, thou art perishing if no help appear; and art not thou then in want? here take these Considerations:
1. Thou art a cursed creature by nature: Wrath is upon all the world of mankind, who are condemned before they are born, who are enemies from the birth, and come into the world Children of wrath, Eph. 2. 3.
2. Thou hast nothing with thee which can help thee out of this cursed condition, all the Portion of God's common favours which thou enjoyest, will not redeem thee out of the hands of wrath, they cannot afford thy soul one drop of relief or supply; nay, all thy natural and providential enjoyments are themselves under a curse as they are thine, Rom. 8. 20.
2. Thou hast nothing with thee which can help thee out of this cursed condition, all the Portion of God's common favours which thou enjoyest, will not redeem thee out of the hands of wrath, they cannot afford thy soul one drop of relief or supply; nay, all thy naturall and providential enjoyments are themselves under a curse as they are thine, Rom. 8. 20.
3. Thou hast by a vain and sinful life, abused all the favours of God, and thereby made thy accounts the greater; thy condemnation is augmented: thou hast laid out all upon sin, and that is the worst sort of spending that can be, for thou art by it not only made poor, but greatly in debt also, and God will call thee to an account for all his goodness, and thy riot will inflame thy reckoning.
3. Thou hast by a vain and sinful life, abused all the favours of God, and thereby made thy accounts the greater; thy condemnation is augmented: thou hast laid out all upon sin, and that is the worst sort of spending that can be, for thou art by it not only made poor, but greatly in debt also, and God will call thee to an account for all his goodness, and thy riot will enflame thy reckoning.
4. Thou hast been in vain seeking thy Salvation among creatures; the world thou goest to is under the curse too for man's sin, and can yield thee nothing but briars, and thorns, ⟨p. 106⟩which will scratch and wound, but not relieve thee: They are but the shadow of a bramble, which will but mischief him that betakes himself thither for shelter: nothing but what will reconcile thee to God, and bring thee in to his favour, give thee a part in Christ, pay all thy debts, and save thy soul from hell, will do thee any good, and this thou canst not find here.
4. Thou hast been in vain seeking thy Salvation among creatures; the world thou goest to is under the curse too for man's sin, and can yeeld thee nothing but briars, and thorns, ⟨p. 106⟩which will scratch and wound, but not relieve thee: They are but the shadow of a bramble, which will but mischief him that betakes himself thither for shelter: nothing but what will reconcile thee to God, and bring thee in to his favour, give thee a part in Christ, pay all thy debts, and save thy soul from hell, will do thee any good, and this thou canst not find here.
5. Death and Judgment and Hell are coming upon thee: Thou art a mortal creature, thy day is coming, and may be nearer than thou art aware of; thou must ere long go down to the pit, and then Judgment calls thee to an account, and if thou art not better bestead, hell receives thee for ever, from whence all thy vain trust shall not be able to deliver thee, Isa. 28. 17,18. Know then and consider that it is an evil thing and a bitter, that thou hast gone so far away from the living God, Jer. 2. 19. Thou thinkest thou wantest for nothing, but I can assure thee that thou art oppressed with every want: There is a great deal goes to the eternal life of a soul, and thou hast none of it; thou wantest the love of God, which is better than life; thou wantest grace which is indeed the inward principle of life in the soul; thou wantest the promise which is the support of the soul here in this life; yea, what is it thou wantest not? Oh that thou knewest it! ⟨p. 107⟩thou wouldest not then be so secure and contented, thou wouldest bestir thy self, and seek for some remedy: Thou shalt find these words to be realities one day, God grant thou mayest be persuaded of them, and so persuaded as not to rest content till thou hast gotten good security about them: Wert thou but once stirred up to make inquiry, there is hope that God would of his rich mercy, in his own time point thee to the right way: This is certain there is no expectation that thou shouldest ever return to God, except thou first begin to be in want.
5. Death and Judgment and Hell are coming upon thee: Thou art a mortal creature, thy day is coming, and may be nearer than thou art aware of; thou must ere long go down to the pit, and then Judgment calls thee to an account, and if thou art not better bestead, hell receives thee for ever, from whence all thy vain trust shall not be able to deliver thee, Isa. 28. 17,18. Know then and consider that it is an evil thing and a bitter, that thou hast gone so far away from the living God, Jer. 2. 19. Thou thinkest thou wantest for nothing, but I can assure thee that thou art oppressed with every want: There is a great deal goes to the eternal life of a soul, and thou hast none of it; thou wantest the love of God, which is better than life; thou wantest grace which is indeed the inward principle of life in the soul; thou wantest the promise which is the support of the soul here in this life; yea, what is it thou wantest not? Oh that thou knewest it!
Vers. 15. And he went and joined himself to a Citizen in that Country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.
Vers. 15. And he went and joyned himself to a Citizen in that Country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.
2. WE are now to consider of the sordid course which the young man took for his relief, expressed in these words. ⟨p. 108⟩When once he felt his want, he sat not still: Sense of misery will readily drive the creature to seek supply: and so far he did well: God would not have awakened sinners to sit still: but yet he takes a very wrong course, and therein he discovered his folly: As good sit still as rise to fall. The course which he took is here expressed emphatically, and set forth notably; in two things doth the misery appear which he brought upon himself by this course.
2. WE are now to consider of the sordid course which the young man took for his relief, expressed in these words. ⟨p. 108⟩When once he felt his want, he sat not still: Sense of misery will readily drive the creature to seek supply: and so far he did well: God would not have awakened sinners to sit still: but yet he takes a very wrong course, and therein he discovered his folly: As good sit still as rise to fall. The course which he took is here exprest emphatically, and set forth notably; in two things doth the misery appear which he brought upon himself by this course.
1. The servitude or slavery which he voluntarily put himself upon, illustrated and aggravated in two circumstances. 1. It was his own act, He went and joined. 2. It was to one of that Country, to a stranger.
1. The servitude or slavery which he voluntarily put himself upon, illustrated and aggravated in two circumstances. 1. It was his own act, He went and joyned. 2. It was to one of that Country, to a stranger.
