A66106:718
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.
1. That before the Spirit of God begins to work upon him, there is nothing in an elect person to distinguish him from another: he is dead as well as he, a child of wrath even as others, Eph. 2. 3. One hath not a better nature, or better dispositions than the other: Abraham was an Idolater, Rahab an Harlot, Mary Magdalen no better, Paul a Blasphemer and Persecutor, and in his rage the spirit met him.
2. The very common work of preparation is not of nature, but of grace. There is common, and there is special grace: the Sinner ⟨p. 290⟩doth not so much as convince himself: it is not Conscience alone, but it is Conscience awakened, and improved by the Spirit of God, that brings a Sinner under sense of sin and misery, Joh. 16. 9. man is naturally stupid, a convinced Sinner is nearer the Kingdom than another, this is not of himself.
3. Saving Faith whereby we are entitled to Salvation, is not of man himself, but of grace: he that believes shall be saved, but God gives men to believe, Eph. 2. 8. it is the gift of God. Men would live and die in unbelief, did not he exert his Almighty power: Faith is a creating work, 2 Cor. 4. 6. and the operation of the same power which raised Christ,