N00302:443
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.
SERMON XIII.
The second Motive is taken from his Father, in whom he observes two things. Viz. Plenty, and bounty: for he had enough and to spare: Bounty, for so much was allowed to his hired servants, from whence he argues, he will not, if I go, suffer me, who am a Child to perish; and therefore joins to these, his relation to his plenty, it was his father that had it.
THe second Motive is taken from his Father, in whom he observes two things. Viz. Plenty, and bounty: for he had enough and to spare: Bounty, for so much was allowed to his hired servants, from whence he argues, he will not, if I go, suffer me, who am a Child to perish; and therefore joyns to these, his relation to his plenty, it was his father that had it.
The main difficulty in the words is to know what is meant by, or alluded to in these hired servants that were so well provided for; some by these understands visible Members of the visible Church, that were only outward professors, and not sincere, who, like hirelings, only serve God for sinister ends; and then by bread they understand Ordinances, as Prayer, Preaching, and the Sacraments, of which they have enough and to spare, more than they would care for: The word is, do abound, a Metaphor from a fountain that runs ⟨p. 187⟩over; no• doth I wholly reject this interpretation from being part of the meaning, and may teach as thus much; That an enlightened soul expects his spiritual food in and by the Ordinances. But it seems to come nearer the condition of a sinner in such a state as we have been considering, if we look upon the phrase to have no particular allusion, but only to be a comparative illustration of Divine bounty: Hired servants in great houses are not wont to be greatly cared for; he is a bountiful housekeeper indeed that feeds such plentifully. Or it may be an allusion to the general care which God takes of all his creatures, as he is Lord of the world and provider of the great family of the earth, even the worst and meanest of creatures,