N00302:66
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.
DOCT. I. That all the common gifts and graces, and worldly favours which men enjoy in this life, are the gifts of God.
The son, however otherwise wicked, yet in this did express that which was true, by acknowledging that his father had his portion in his hand, and at his dispose, & that by a power of sovereignty, although he did not acknowledge ⟨p. 19⟩the justice of it, as will be seen in the next Doctrine. And truly nature it self teacheth this lesson, and the providence of God in the arbitrary and unaccountable disposal of these things, evidently affirms it; so that a man must first blot out the remains of the Law of nature, and put out the eyes of his experience before he can deny it. It is God who gives to men all their natural faculties, and the power of them, he makes not only the eye, but the seeing eye: Mens understandings and affections, wits and wills, parts and dispositions, and all the benefits and blessings that in this world they are accommodated withal, are the proper fruits of God's bounty to the Children of men. They are God's gifts in several respects.
The son, however otherwise wicked, yet in this did express that which was true, by acknowledging that his father had his portion in his hand, and at his dispose, & that by a power of soveraignty, although he did not acknowledge ⟨p. 19⟩the justice of it, as will be seen in the next Doctrine. And truly nature it self teacheth this lesson, and the providence of God in the arbitrary and unaccountable disposal of these things, evidently affirms it; so that a man must first blot out the remains of the Law of nature, and put out the eyes of his experience before he can deny it. It is God who gives to men all their natural faculties, and the power of them, he makes not only the eye, but the seeing eye: Mens understandings and affections, wits and wills, parts and dispositions, and all the benefits and blessings that in this world they are accommodated withal, are the proper fruits of God's bounty to the Children of men. They are God's gifts in several respects.