N00302:156
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.
DOCT. That wicked men grow to the height of profaneness by degrees.
DOCT. That wicked men grow to the height of prophaness by degrees.
Men conversing in the region of sin are upon a Journey, every step they take sets them at a farther distance from God: Wickedness grows upon men by degrees, there are few men that commence high profane per saltum: from but a visible and sober profession to the top of wickedness there are divers steps a man hath to take, he must first leave a great deal behind him before he arrives at it: he must root out the efficacy of good education, he must suppress the activity of a stirring conscience, ⟨p. 62⟩he must put off and get rid of his accustomed modesty, he must lay by the awe and dread of Gods Judgments; and all this requires time, and travail, and pains: it will cost a man something to be flagitiously wicked, that hath been formerly professedly religious: you may see this exemplified in Saul and others.
Men conversing in the region of sin are upon a Journey, every step they take sets them at a farther distance from God: Wickedness growes upon men by degrees, there are few men that commence high prophane per saltum: from but a visible and sober profession to the top of wickedness there are divers steps a man hath to take, he must first leave a great deal behind him before he arrives at it: he must root out the efficacy of good education, he must suppress the activity of a stirring conscience, ⟨p. 62⟩he must put off and get rid of his accustomed modesty, he must lay by the aw and dread of Gods Judgments; and all this requires time, and travail, and pains: it will cost a man something to be flagitiously wicked, that hath been formerly professedly religious: you may see this exemplified in Saul and others.