N00302:308
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.
1. Negatively, not that they are things in themselves to be contemned undervalued, or in their place and use to be despised. For,
1. They are the creatures of God, and therefore good in their place and use for which he appointed them; God made nothing in vain, Gen. 1. ult.
2. They are outward blessings and so to be acknowledged by these that enjoy them; they are called his hid treasure, Psal. 17. 14. Yea, such blessings as God will call men to an account for, and if he takes them away, it is a punishment, Hos. 2. 8,9.
3. They are things by which the people of God are in this life sustained, and comforted, and by the want whereof they are afflicted: They were made for the supply of their bodies, and when God chasteneth his Children, he sometimes takes them away,