A92856:674
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.
And there are eight Reasons, why a man (made sensible of 1his great sinnings) inclines to think that God will never convert him. 1. Because he hath been one who hath exceedingly provoked God to wrath against him: He sees great wrath in God, and that he hath, by his continual sinnings, incensed the Lord. O, saith he, it is mercy that must convert; but I have turned a merciful God into a just God, and a kind God into an angry God; my great sins have put me into the hands of his great wrath. 2. Because such a person sees his condition lying under the threatenings of God, and out of the reach of the promises of God; God threatening him, Warrants issued out to take and arrest him, an Arrow levelled at him; God hath said, That he will wound the hairy scalp of him that goes still on in his iniquities; and that he who hardens his heart, being often reproved, shall be destroyed without remedy; Now I have been that sinner. 3. Because such a person feels the impressions of Gods displeasure on his Conscience: He is in the very hands of wrath; Conscience tells him, Thou art the man, and these have been thy sinnings, these have been thy ways and thy doings; and Conscience condemns him for one who hath delighted himself in evil, and secretly goes and smites him with unavoidable fears and terrors. Now when a man feels wrath, 'tis an hard thing to persuade him, that God hath any thoughts and intentions of mercy and grace for him. 4. Such a person ordinarily looks more upon the examples of destruction, than upon the instances of conversion; rather what God hath done against them, than for any of them. O, saith he, God in Scripture hath often left such and such great sinners to their 2own hearts lusts, and he hath given them up to Satan's delusions, and to a reprobate mind and sense, and would not have mercy on them, he would deal with them no more. 5. The distance twixt his greatly sinning soul, and converting grace, seems to him ⟨p. 285⟩wondrously large: If I had been but sick and weak! but can a dead man live? should a Rebel be embraced? can a Blackmore be made white? It is great grace to convert a little sinner, but what grace is sufficient to convert so great a sinner? 6. He measures the disposition of Divine Grace, by the indisposition of his own heart. O, saith he, I have been, how long, how stubbornly unwilling to receive grace, how violent to oppose grace!