N00302:459
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.
2. It ariseth only from a possibility, or at furthest a probability that he may here find acceptance, and obtain a full supply of all the good he needs, and not from a certainty, or promise, or covenant in which he may claim it: you have it expressed in Jonah, 3. 9. Who knows but the Lord may be gracious? The sinking soul hears news that there may be a redress had for him, that there is one who not only ⟨p. 191⟩can do, but hath done as much for such as he, which makes him to bear up, and puts him upon waiting in the use of means.
2. It ariseth only from a possibility, or at furthest a probability that he may here find acceptance, and obtain a full supply of all the good he needs, and not from a certainty, or promise, or covenant in which he may claim it: you have it expressed in Janah, 3. 9. Who knows but the Lord may be gracious? The sinking soul hears news that there may be a redress had for him, that there is one who not only ⟨p. 191⟩can do, but hath done as much for such as he, which makes him to bear up, and puts him upon waiting in the use of means.
What of encouragement ariseth from these considerations?
What of encouragment ariseth from these considerations?
Answ. Here is the only Rational encouragement of an humbled sinner: He can find none with looking elsewhere: if he look upon the world he sees nothing but famine; if upon himself, he hath spent all, and is utterly undone, it is only in God that he can expect to find any relief. Now the Soul is not first made to believe, and then see the reason of it, but the spirit of God draws the soul to believe, by making it see the excellency of the object, and so persuading it; he is first made to see the ground of hope, and then to follow, as the Prodigal here. Now both of these Attributes are full of encouragement.