Mercy magnified on a penitent prodigal, or A brief discourse, wherein Christs parable of…

DOCT. 1. There is never any occasion of special joy over an Hypocrite. Son thou art ever with me.

The father insinuates that he was not wont to do things superfluously or without occasion: And we may see the evidence of the Doctrine, if we consider what is the ground of extraordinary expressions of joy among men. Now, though men that are given to excess will make occasions of feasting, and great shows of jocundity, where there is no reason; yet as joy is an affection moved by the apprehension of some present good; so, the extraordinary signifying of it by feasts, mirth, great entertainments, is when the reason of it is more than usual: Hence the most of those occasions recorded in ⟨p. 383⟩Scripture are either, 1. The revolution of birth days, so Herod kept his birth day, Mat. 14. 6. and Pharaoh, Gen. 40.20. 2. The time of weaning Children; so Abraham for Isaac, Gen. 21. 8. 3. Marriages; Christ honoured with his presence a wedding feast, and with his first miracle, Joh. 2. begin. 4. Great victorys ad deliverances, hence days of thanksgiving appointed, and hence the passover. 5. Gods signal blessing upon their labours, in giving them the fruit of the earth. Hence the feast of ingathering. 6. The entertainment of strangers, or occasional visitation of friends; thus Lot made a feast for the Angels, Gen. 19. 3. and David for Abner, 2 Sam. 3. 20. 7. The finding of that which was lost, Luk. 15. 6—9. But there is no such respect in one or another kind, on a spiritual account, with an hypocrite: whereupon God should make him a joyful entertainment: For,