N00302:794
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 XXIII.
Vers. 21. And the Son said unto him, Father I have finned against heaven, and in thy fight, and am no more worthy to be called thy Son.
WE now come to observe the Son's deportment to his Father; or how he carried it under these large and liberal expressions of his love to him; and that is, with all humble and penitent carriage. The blotting out and pardoning of his sins, doth not blot them out of his remembrance, or make him ever the less apprehensive of his unworthiness; no, but it draws out his humble and penitent confession. This acknowledgement, is the same for substance which he had resolved upon, vers. 18, 19. He purposed, if ever he could meet his father, thus he would say; he now not only sees him, but finds himself in his embraces, and here he pours out his soul to him. There is only the last clause omitted, ⟨p. 320⟩and why omitted is not essential to enquire; divers reasons are given, and that which seems most probable, is that his father's kind carriage, and abundant expression of his love, had left him no room for it, because he now found himself accepted in quality of a son. The particular meaning of these words, as they express the nature of true repentance hath been spoken to from, vers. 18, 19. That which we have now to consider, is only his expressing of them at this time, viz. after his father had shown himself, fully reconciled, and so signally testified it in his carriage to him. Hence,
WE now come to observe the Son's deportment to his Father; or how he carried it under these large and liberal expressions of his love to him; and that is, with all humble and penitent carriage. The blotting out and pardoning of his sins, doth not blot them out of his remembrance, or make him ever the less apprehensive of his unworthiness; no, but it draws out his humble and penitent confession. This acknowledgment, is the same for substance which he had resolved upon, vers. 18, 19. He purposed, if ever he could meet his father, thus he would say; he now not only sees him, but finds himself in his embraces, and here he poures out his soul to him. There is only the last clause omitted,