N00302:178
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.
1. What man is like to come to if once he be separated from Gods gracious presence. If God leave men, they wast all: That every unregenerate man is not as vile and profligate as ever any was, is of God's restraining grace; if be but withdraw, and that man be left to himself, all goes to rack; let God do never so much for him, put never so fair a price into his hands, he but abuseth and squandereth it all away: It is therefore a dreadful judgment of God for any man to be left to himself: See, Psal. 81. 12. Rom. 1. 16. Every distance that ⟨p. 70⟩man stands at from God, is one step to his ruin and undoing.
1. What man is like to come to if once he be separated from Gods gracious presence. If God leave men, they wast all: That every unregenerate man is not as vile and profligate as ever any was, is of God's restraining grace; if be but withdraw, and that man be left to himself, all goes to rack; let God do never so much for him, put never so fair a price into his hands, he but abuseth and squandereth it all away: It is therefore a dreadful judgment of God for any man to be left to himself: See, Psal. 81. 12. Rom. 1. 16. Every distance that ⟨p. 70⟩man stands at from God, is one step to his ruine and undoing.
2. That every natural man is a very fool: For what is folly if this be not, for a man to wast away his substance unprofitably, to spend away profusely what he should have improved for his eternal benefit and good? How well might this young man have lived if he had traded with his Stock, & improved it in a way of commerce? whereas by living on it, & laying it out lavish he wasteth all: And what might many men do for their souls, had they the prudence to trade with their Stock in heavens market, and exchange their outward blessings for spiritual benefits? but herein lies their folly, the young man thought his Estate would bear him out, thus men outwardly favoured of God, think they may live as they list, and this their way is their folly.