N00302:845
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.
Reas. 2. From the different degrees of their fruition: They have something now to live upon by Faith, there is something of heaven that doth come down into the souls of Believers here upon earth, but they are but earnests, like a bunch of grapes to refresh them in a wilderness; which, though it be sweeter than all that is in the world, yet it is but little to that Canaan where these grow in abundance: they have spiced draughts here, but then the mountain of spices, Psal. 16. ult. fullness of joy is in thy presence.
Reas. 2. From the different degrees of their fruition: They have something now to live upon by Faith, there is something of heaven that doth come down into the souls of Believers here upon earth, but they are but earnests, like a bunch of grapes to refresh them in a wilderness; which, though it be sweeter than all that is in the world, yet it is but little to that Canaan where these grow in abundance: they have spiced draughts here, but then the mountain of spices, Psal. 16. ult. fulness of joy is in thy presence.
Reas. 3. From the mixture and allays of their joys here, which shall not be in another world. The joys of Believers are here sometimes interrupted, a cloud intercepts the Sun, a curtain is drawn before their window, they are in the dark and see no light: Though Faith be never lost, yet sense is many times taken away; they have broken bones to pain them: Yea, all along the presence of sin, that captivating power of the body of death, put them into mourning; their clearest sunshine is attended with showers, so that their present joys cannot be full: but there no cloud doth arise, that upper world enjoys a perpetual serenity; There is no sin to molest them, no frown of a father to deject them, ⟨p. 353⟩nothing to cut off their full and endless communion with Jesus Christ the fountain of life and glory.