A66106:179
Mercy magnified on a penitent prodigal, or, A brief discourse
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 ...
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.
2. That every natural man is a very fool: For what is folly if this be not, for a man to wast away his substance unprofitably, to spend away profusely what he should have improved for his eternal benefit and good? How well might this young man have lived if he had traded with his Stock, & improved it in a way of commerce? whereas by living on it, & laying it out lavish he wasteth all: And what might many men do for their souls, had they the prudence to trade with their Stock in heavens market, and exchange their outward blessings for spiritual benefits? but herein lies their folly, the young man thought his Estate would bear him out, thus men outwardly favoured of God, think they may live as they list, and this their way is their folly.
2. That every natural man is a very fool: For what is folly if this be not, for a man to wast away his substance unprofitably, to spend away profusely what he should have improved for his eternal benefit and good? How well might this young man have lived if he had traded with his Stock, & improved it in a way of commerce? whereas by living on it, & laying it out lavish he wasteth all: And what might many men do for their souls, had they the prudence to trade with their Stock in heavens market, and exchange their outward blessings for spiritual benefits? but herein lyes their folly, the young man thought his Estate would bear him out, thus men outwardly favoured of God, think they may live as they list, and this their way is their folly.
3 That every unregenerate man is in the high road way to misery. The young man while he lives high upon his Stock, is bringing it apace to that bottom, it is wasting. The common favours of God are of a spending nature, and, if laid out upon mens lusts, will quickly be gone, and come to nothing: There is nothing but saving grace that will increase by the expense, every thing else wears out and decays: If you see a man giving up the rains to his corruptions, and pleasing himself in his vain and ⟨p. 71⟩profligate courses, you may easily read that man's misery in his life.