N00302:445
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⟩