N00302:216
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. When God intends saving Grace to any, he first makes them effectually sensible of their own miserable and undone state.
God, in the ordinary and usual method of converting sinners under the means of Grace, begins with the discovery of their empty, needy, poor and miserable condition: Here began the ground and motive of the young man's returning to his Father, though it did not presently work to this end; had he not been reduced to the greatest straits, he had never thought of returning; his being in want was that which set him to seeking relief, and this is it which did at last (though not immediately) drive him home.
Among the works ascribed to the spirit of God, there are some which are called common and preparatory; common, because they may be found in Reprobates; preparatory, because they are wont (in the Elect) to be steps towards conversion, or works preparing the soul, as a rational Agent to entertain Christ as he is tendered in the Gospel.
The first of these works is Conviction, which hath two things for objects, viz. Sin and misery; one is the cause, the other the effect, Conviction usually proceeds Analytically, it first discovers the effect, and from thence