N00302:769
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 XXII.
Thus far we have considered the cause of of the Father's kind carriage to his son, the Effect follows in the carriage it self: his is expressed in three words: He ran, he fell upon his neck, and kissed him. All these acts refer to the work of Conversion, and serve to express what love God applies to the soul in this work: they show us how much of Divine affection breaths forth in the first act of special grace passing from God to a sinner: They carry in them the most Pathetical intimations of the greatest love; it being a custom among the ancients, especially in those countries, to discover the super-abundance of their overflowing affections in these kinds of gestures: one notes upon this ver. that although all Christs Parables are very moving to the affections, that none carry so much in them as this doth.
THus far we have considered the cause of of the Father's kind carriage to his son, the Effect follows in the carriage it self: his is expressed in three words: He ran, he fell upon his neck, and kissed him. All these acts refer to the work of Conversion, and serve to express what love God applyes to the soul in this work: they shew us how much of Divine affection breaths forth in the first act of special grace passing from God to a sinner: They carry in them the most Pathetical intimations of the greatest love; it being a custom among the ancients, especially in those countries, to discover the super-aboundance of their overflowing affections in these kinds of gestures: one notes upon this ver. that although all Christs Parables are very moving to the affections, that none carry so much in them as this doth.
[He ran] Love is active, it cannot stand still, nor yet go softly, where it seeth its object to stand in need of speedy succour; it ⟨p. 306⟩