A66106:456
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.
5. In this state there is nothing but hope can sustain the soul from utterly despairing, and without this the heart would certainly break: For, that man who knows that he must certainly perish without help, and all help which he relied on utterly fails him, hath only this to relieve him, to hope that help may come some other way, else his heart must sink and die within him. Now this hope must be preparatory, for,
5. In this state there is nothing but hope can sustain the soul from utterly despairing, and without this the heart would certainly break: For, that man who knows that he must certainly perish without help, and all help which he relyed on utterly fails him, hath only this to relieve him, to hope that help may come some other way, else his heart must sink and dy within him. Now this hope must be preparatary, for,
1. It flows not from an interest in Christ, for it is the encouragement of a soul that hath been estranged from him to go to him; for God allures the soul to Christ, by setting this hope before him, and effectually persuading him to embrace it; and it is the usual method, of the spirit to come in with it into the soul; so Ephraim, Jer. 31. 18.
1. It flows not from an interest in Christ, for it is the encouragment of a soul that hath been estranged from him to go to him; for God allures the soul to Christ, by setting this hope before him, and effectually perswading him to embrace it; and it is the usual method, of the spirit to come in with it into the soul; so Ephraim, Jer. 31. 18.