N00302:706
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. XX.
Ver.20. But when he was yet a great way off, his Father saw him, and bad compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.
WE come now to the third part of the Parable, expressing the entertainment the Prodigal found with his Father, which was with all kindness, and highest expressions of greatest love. The purpose of it is to set forth the riches of Gods Grace, and inexpressible bounty to repenting Sinners; and so expresseth the great benefit that come by believing, described, ver. 20, to 25. and here are two things to be noted: 1. The meeting and greeting between him and his Father, ver. 20, 21. 2. The Provision made for, and entertainment afforded to him, ver. 22, 23, 24. In their meeting and greeting there are two parts: 1. His Fathers carriage towards him, ver. 20. 2. His deportment towards his Father, ver. 21. In his Fathers carriage towards him we are to observe, 1. The time of it, when he was yet, &c. 2. The manner of it, in several circumstances.
1. To begin at the time when this entertainment or treaty was, it is expressed by the circumstance of place, at such time as he was at a great distance from him: the right meaning of which Phrase is of weight to be understood, for the confirming of the forementioned Doctrine of Repentance. Some understand it to be spoken by way of anticipation, and that this part of the Parable doth not follow the foregoing in order of time; but that as in the second part he had described the Sons repentance in the order and method of it as it was done by him; so in this third part, setting forth the Grace of God, by the Fathers entertainment, he begins it at the first discoveries of it, and that before (being the leading cause of) his Repentance, q. d. before he could rise & come to his Father, he came to himself Others suppose the order of time is here observed, and so account that here are the beginnings of saving Grace, and so put over the former to preparatory work, q. d. whiles he was resolving, and practising to use means with a preparatory hope, God comes in with saving Grace. But I close rather with the first of these: for doubtless this arising and going, must express true Repentance; and the expression in our Text discovers the preventing Grace of God, and shows the original of his favour to be of himself, and the beginning of