N00302:764
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.
USE 2. Learn hence also not to be discouraged from going to God in the sense of your own misery: Though you are altogether unworthy, and have nothing of your own to plead with him, which deserves to impetrate his mercy, yet you see here that his own compassion leads him to be merciful, and that the object which it hath chosen to express it self unto, is miserable sinners, such as are every way miserable; helpless and hopeless creatures: And if thou knowest, findest, and feelest thy self to be such an one, there is no reason to be discouraged; thou art one of such whom God hath chosen to express his compassion upon; and he who knows thy condition, if he will, can have mercy on thee: Such as are helpless, he is ready to help, Isa. 63.5.
USE, 3. It may be a ground of wonderful encouragement to poor sinners to go to God, and to wait upon him for mercy: to consider that God is a God of compassion, and that this compassion is the original of all the good ⟨p. 308⟩which the creature receives.
USE, 3. It may be a ground of wonderful encouragement to poor sinners to go to God, and to wait upon him for mercy: to consider that God is a God of compassion, and that this compassion is the originial of all the good ⟨p. 308⟩which the creature receives.
1. To consider that he is a God of compassion. We have heard, say they, That the Kings of Israel are merciful Kings. He is a God that delights to exalt and magnify himself by those titles of Merciful, Gracious, Compassionate, &c. His bowels stir towards, and he pities dying sinners, and therefore he comes o their Graves and bids them live. The commendation of a pitiful and a compassionate nature in a prince, will bring in rebels apace, to come and throw themselves upon his mercy, & sue for a pardon; who if they knew him to be pitiless and inexorable, would run utmost adventures, as those that know they can but die, and can hope for no better by submission.