Mercy magnified on a penitent prodigal, or, A brief discourse

1. Converting grace makes sin appear in its own colours. The sun-light of saving grace makes Sin look more ugly than ever: Beauty and deformity are not discerned in the dark; the candle-light of common conviction made but obscure discoveries: Now he sees it Sin, before he did not: he had two discoveries of it before; viz. 1. That it was displeasing to God, his Law being against it. 2. That it was a procuring cause of misery, by reason of the curse: These two he saw in the Glass of the Law. But now grace discovers Sin to him. 1. As contrary to the nature of God, opposite ⟨p. 325⟩to his holiness, Hab. 1. 13. 2. Hence to be in it self an odious thing, and that separate from the hell that follows. He now sees the beauty of grace, and that shows him the deformity of Sin.

1. Converting grace makes sin appear in its own colours. The sun-light of saving grace makes Sin look more ugly than ever: Beauty and deformity are not discerned in the dark; the candle-light of common conviction made but obscure discoveries: Now he sees it Sin, before he did not: he had two discoveries of it before; viz. 1. That it was displeasing to God, his Law being against it. 2. That it was a procuring cause of misery, by reason of the curse: These two he saw in the Glass of the Law. But now grace discovers Sin to him. 1. As contrary to the nature of God, opposite ⟨p. 325⟩to his holiness, Hab. 1. 13. 2. Hence to be in it self an odious thing, and that separate from the hell that follows. He now sees the beauty of grace, and that shews him the deformity of Sin.

2. God's love manifested in Conversion, discovers Sin under divers aggravations, which before were not seen. 1. That it was against that God who had loved him with an everlasting love,