A92856:512
The parable of the prodigal. Containing, The riotous prodigal, or The sinners aversion from…
The parable of the prodigal. Containing, The riotous prodigal, or The sinners aversion from God. Returning prodigal, or The penitents conversion to God. Prodigals acceptation, or Favourable entertainment with God. Delivered in divers sermons on Luke 15. from vers. 11. to vers. 24. By that faithful servant of Jesus Christ Obadiah Sedgwick, B.D. Perfected by himself, and perused by those whom he entrusted with the publishing of his works.The parable of the prodigal. Containing, The riotous prodigal, or The sinners aversion from God. Returning prodigal, or The penitents conversion to God. Prodigals acceptation, or Favourable entertainment with God. Delivered in divers sermons on Luke 15. from vers. 11. to vers. 24. By that faithfull servant of Jesus Christ Obadiah Sedgwick, B.D. Perfected by himself, and perused by those whom he intrusted with the publishing of his works.
London: printed by D. Maxwel for Sa. Gellibrand, 1660
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.
Motives hereunto are these, 1. We shall hereby the better prolong 1and increase our assurance of divine mercy: I conjecture that you shall in your experience find this truth, viz. That assurance lives longest in a believing Eye, an humble Spirit, and in a Soul accustomed to the strict exercise of Repentance: the way to get assurance of pardon, is ever the best way to preserve and enlarge 2it. 2. Hereby our Consciences shall most acquit us for the sincerity of our confession: Antecedent acts do not always yield unto us that solid ground as subsequent acts: As about our outward mercies, after prayers do more denominate the celestial frame then former prayers, because those may be depending on self-love and necessity, but the other springs out of spiritual love and piety, and respects to divine glory. So is it in the business of confession of sin; to confess under the beams of mercy is a better temper then to confess under the strokes of Justice; it argues a more holy Ingenuity to acknowledge and bewail our vileness, being discharged of wrath and punishment, then only to exclaim either upon the Rack, or upon hopes to be taken off.
Motives hereunto are these, 1. We shall hereby the better prolong 1and increase our assurance of divine mercy: I conjecture that you shall in your experience find this truth, viz. That assurance lives longest in a believing Eye, an humble Spirit, and in a Soul accustomed to the strict exercise of Repentance: the way to get assurance of pardon, is ever the best way to preserve and inlarge 2it. 2. Hereby our Consciences shall most acquit us for the sincerity of our confession: Antecedent acts do not alwayes yield unto us that solid ground as subsequent acts: As about our outward mercies, after prayers do more denominate the celestial frame then former prayers, because those may be depending on self-love and necessity, but the other springs out of spiritual love and piety, and respects to divine glory. So is it in the business of confession of sin; to confess under the beams of mercy is a better temper then to confess under the strokes of Justice; it argues a more holy Ingenuity to acknowledg and bewail our vileness, being discharged of wrath and punishment, then only to exclaim either upon the Rack, or upon hopes to be taken off.