N00302:130
Mercy magnified on a penitent prodigal, or A brief discourse, wherein Christs parable of…
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 teacher of a church in Boston in New-England. ; [Two lines from Luke]
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. The natural man can spare nothing of these from his lusts: The truth is, all is too little; every thing is lost that doth not feed some lust or other: every lust is like Nabal, only generous and noble to it self, but churlish to David: It may be said of every lust, as was said of great Alexander. Unus Pellaeo juveni non sufficit orbis. Hence then it is no wonder if so many lusts think themselves straitened; the natural man is bound to please all his lusts, and there is not enough in a whole world to give them content, and then it is not to be thought strange, if he cannot spare any thing in the world from them.
5. The natural man can spare nothing of these from his lusts: The truth is, all is too little; every thing is lost that doth not feed some lust or other: every lust is like Nabal, only generous and noble to it self, but churlish to David: It may be said of every lust, as was said of great Alexander. Unus Pellaeo juveni non sufficit orbis. Hence then it is no wonder if so many lusts think themselves straitned; the natural man is bound to please all his lusts, and there is not enough in a whole world to give them content, and then it is not to be thought strange, if he cannot spare any thing in the world from them.
6. The serving of God and serving a man's ⟨p. 49⟩lusts are things directly contrary the one to the other; and hence a man cannot do them both. That man who seeks his own glory, cannot seek the Glory of God; they that mind their own things, cannot mind the things which are of God: And this is the very reason why men can allow God nothing of glory at all, because they think they shall then wrong themselves, dissatisfy their own lusts: If men should sincerely improve their wit and parts for God, they should then lose their own commendations from men; if they should lay out their health, and strength, and power, and wealth for God, their lusts would want it: and, it being so that they are full resolved in it to deny their concupiscence nothing, hence they gather all together, and leave nothing behind, and resolve that they will not part with so much as an hoof for God and his service.