N00302:217
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.
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 ⟨p. 94⟩searcheth after the cause. The conviction of misery is that which here hath its consideration, that of sin follows afterwards. The first remove of the young man was, he felt himself to be in want, he found when the famine came and increased, that now he had nothing to live upon. In the Explication we may consider, 1. What is this conviction of misery? 2. How it is wrought? 3. The reasons of the Doctrine.
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 ⟨p. 94⟩searcheth after the cause. The conviction of misery is that which here hath its consideration, that of sin follows afterwards. The first remove of the young man was, he felt himself to be in want, he found when the famine came and encreased, that now he had nothing to live upon. In the Explication we may consider, 1. What is this conviction of misery? 2. How it is wrought? 3. The reasons of the Doctrine.
1. What is this conviction of misery?
Answ. It is the first legal work that is usually wrought in a sinner, making him to apprehend his present state of perdition, notwithstanding all that is either in himself, or in the world. It is, though not the full of a lost estate, yet leading to it, or a step towards it. In the Description observe,
1. I call it a legal work; now Divines are wont to call those works legal.
1. Which are usually wrought by the application of the Law, in which is the curse, and by which is the knowledge of sin, Rom. 7. 8. Misery ariseth out of the curse, and the curse comes upon the breach of the Law, Gal. 3. 12. The Law therefore firstly discovers it.
2. Which are common works, and not in themselves saving; and so the word legal is often used in Divinity, of which nature is this before us: Conviction of misery may befall hypocrites, ⟨p. 95⟩Isa. 43. 14. Yea, of it self this is hell begun in the soul, or conscience.
2. Which are common works, and not in themselves saving; and so the word legal is often used in Divinity, of which nature is this before us: Conviction of misery may befal hypocrites, ⟨p. 95⟩Isa. 43. 14. Yea, of it self this is hell begun in the soul, or conscience.
3. I call it the first legal work: my meaning is that God usually begins here, and so man for the most part is made to look upon the effect, before he discovers the cause, yea is led by it thereunto: he first sees and feels misery upon himself, and thence is led to see sin as the blameable & meritorious cause of all this misery: Man usually apprehends that he is condemned, before he apprehends sin to be the just condemnation, he feels himself miserable, before he justifieth God: for though it be sin which the law condemns, and hence he must so far see sin, as to know that he hath broken this law, yet he is not made to know sin in its just merit, but rather counts it a rigour of the law which makes him angry, with that and not with sin, Rom. 7. 5.
3. The proper effect of this conviction is to make him know and feel his perishing condition at present, that he is now going to perdition, viz. that he is under the curse of the law, bound over to eternal death, and that he is in the way to it, being held under the curse; the young man found himself perishing with hunger.
4. The efficacy of this conviction is that it unmasks the former delusion under which he lay, making him to see that he hath no remedy ⟨p. 96⟩against this misery either in himself, or in the world. In respect to himself, he finds that he hath spent all, in regard to the world, he finds that there is a famine in that land, and the conclusion that ariseth from hence is, that he is sensibly in want: i.e. he still wants that freedom from the curse, notwithstanding all God's favours, or his interest in the creature, this is the sum of this conviction: in which though we must confess that there is a change now made in the sinner, yet it is not a saving change of his state. For,
4. The efficacy of this conviction is that it unmasks the former delusion under which he lay, making him to see that he hath no remedy ⟨p. 96⟩against this misery either in himself, or in the world. In respect to himself, he finds that he hath spent all, in regard to the world, he finds that there is a famine in that land, and the conclusion that ariseth from hence is, that he is sensibly in want: i.e. he still wants that freedom from the curse, notwithstanding all God's favours, or his interest in the creature, this is the summe of this conviction: in which though we must confess that there is a change now made in the sinner, yet it is not a saving change of his state. For,
1. His state was as bad before, only the difference is, he then saw it not, but now he doth, he thought himself rich, and the world a trust friend: both these were mistakes, and now he finds them so to be; so that the substance of this charge is, now he is convinced that before he cheated himself: Hence,
2. His state is not properly mended by this conviction; for though he sees his misery in some degree, yet this sight doth not free him from it: Conviction is not Conversion, though God can, when he pleaseth, make it a step towards it: Conviction doth not make any man really better, though it doth give us hopes that where the spirit begins he may carry it on; for Cain and Judas fared never the better by it, though many souls have, by Divine Grace.
2. How this conviction is wrought?
Answ. 1. If we speak of the Author or ef••••• C••se of this work, it properly belongs to the spirit of God, who (in a work of common grace) brings the creature to the sense and apprehension of this misery. I deny not but that rational conviction may be gathered and applied from the rational consideration of things, but that this sensible conviction depends on a special work of the spirit, appears.
Answ. 1. If we speak of the Author or ef••••• C••se of this work, it properly belongs to the spirit of God, who (in a work of common grace) brings the creature to the sense and apprehension of this misery. I deny not but that rational conviction may be gathered and applyed from the rational consideration of things, but that this sensible conviction depends on a special work of the spirit, appears.
