N00302:278
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. III. The folly of sinful man brings him into a state of necessary and voluntary bondage.
The Prodigal binds himself out for a servant. The two terms used in the Doctrine may seem contradictory, but they are not: His bondage is necessary; when he had spent all, and there was no friend to relieve him, what could he now do? he saw no other way, but either he must bind himself out or starve. The curse that fell upon Ham literally, fell upon all mankind spiritually: This servitude is therefore necessary, because, being a part of the curse, it falls upon the natural man undoubtedly, being a punishment inflicted upon man by God for sin, Joh. 8. 3. Whosoever committeth sin, is the servant, of sin. And ye it is.
The Prodigal binds himself out for a servant. The two terms used in the Doctrine may seem contradictory, but they are not: His bondage is necessary; when he had spent all, and there was no friend to relieve him, what could he now do? he saw no other way, but either he must bind himself out or starve. The curse that fell upon Cham literally, fell upon all mankind spiritually: This servitude is therefore necessary, because, being a part of the curse, it falls upon the natural man undoubtedly, being a punishment inflicted upon man by God for sin, Joh. 8. 3. Whosoever committeth sin, is the servant, of sin. And ye it is.
2. Voluntary; men give themselves up to this slavery; they will do it, Joh. 8. 44. You are of your father the Devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. This bondage is man's own choice: Had this son been willing to return to his father, the necessity had been taken away; but men give themselves up to satan; and the ground of this lies in the very nature of sin, which is a relinquishing of the service of God and enslaving a man's self to satan. Now this bondage is not bodily so much as spiritual;