N00302:471
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. That God is able to help thee: He hath all that, and more than all that which thou needest: He hath eternal life with him to give to all those that ask it of him; thou art starving, but he can feed thee, thou art perishing, but he can save thee: God loves to commend his power to us, that we may take hold of it, Isa. 27. 5. Let him lay hold of my strength, that he may make peace with him. Look upon him,
1. As he is God: That word is enough to tell thee he is able; God thinks it a word big enough to encourage his desponding, and almost despairing people, Isa. 45. 22. Look unto me, for I am God. The reason why thou canst find no help among the creatures, is because they are not God, Isa. 31. 3. The Egyptians are ⟨p. 197⟩men, and not God. And that you may know what he can do as God, look upon the work of Creation: when God would hearten his people to rely upon him, he calls up their consideration hither, Isa. 44. 24, 25. 12. 15. What cannot he who made a world out of nothing, do? Could God call for a world, and it answered his call, and can not he save a poor sinner from perishing? doubtless he can: what serve all the Divine Attributes for, but to display the greatness and immensity of the power of God?
2. As he is God in Christ: And there you shall see how he is not only absolutely able, but also suitably laid in with sufficient supply to save the perishing souls of prodigal sinners from perdition: Christ is a great Store-house, in whom is laid up all provision needful for the famishing posterity of fallen Adam: the great discouragement of a convinced sinner is, how can God do it and be just? Though there be a fountain of goodness in God, able to satisfy the soul that enjoys it, yet sin hath stopped up the channel, and Divine Justice interposeth, condemning the sinner to die: But now in Christ all these Channels are opened again; he hath satisfied Justice, and so broken open a new and and living way to God, and presented him sitting on a Throne of Grace; and thus God is able, notwithstanding his Justice, to open treasures