N00302:226
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.
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.
1. Because the same means of conviction are used with others, who yet are not thus convinced: We preach sin and misery to a great many; discourse with them of the distressed condition of the poor prodigal man; but it is but now and then one that is touched with remorse, and cries out of it, or acknowledgeth it sensibly.
1. Because the same means of conviction are used with others, who yet are not thus convinced: We preach sin and misery to a great many; discourse with them of the distressed condition of the poor prodigal man; but it is but now and then one that is touched with remorce, and cries out of it, or acknowledgeth it sensibly.
2. Because the same means may have been formerly used with this person, and yet did not gain their effect: It may be he had heard the same thing many a time, and his judgment assented to it to be truth, but yet he regarded it not, nor was affected with it: yea, possibly he had had it more urged, with more strength of argument, and pressed with more morally persuasive motives by others, but yet it never gained upon or got within him till now; and why now rather than at any other time? there was as much to have driven if home before; it must needs therefore proceed from ⟨p. 98⟩the power of the Holy Ghost working when he sees meet. But,
2. Because the same means may have been formerly used with this person, and yet did not gain their effect: It may be he had heard the same thing many a time, and his judgment assented to it to be truth, but yet he regarded it not, nor was affected with it: yea, possibly he had had it more urged, with more strength of argument, and pressed with more morally perswasive motives by others, but yet it never gained upon or got within him till now; and why now rather than at any other time? there was as much to have driven if home before; it must needs therefore proceed from ⟨p. 98⟩the power of the Holy Ghost working when he sees meet. But,
2. If we speak of the means by which it is wrought, I answer, God's spirit doth it sometimes by the ministry of the Word, sometimes by the concurrence of wisely ordered Providences, speaking in them to the soul; and it is a very frequent thing for God to back the Word in his providence for the bringing of a sinner under the power of this conviction: yea, providence sometimes begins and gives a general conviction, the Word then sets in and more particularly points out his condition: Providence many times tells a man that he is miserable, and then the Word comes and tells him how he came to be so: More particularly.
1. The Word of God gives a […] demonstration of the natural state of all mankind; it tells us both what we are, and how we came to be so; it declares the wrath of God, and shows how man came to be subjected […] it; it convinceth by clear and plain evidence; it is a Glass in which a natural man may see his own face, without those paintings wherewith carnal reason is wont to varnish and hide it. It is one of the ends for which the Scripture is given, 2 Tim. 3. 16.
1. The Word of God gives a 〈…〉 demonstration of the natural state of all mankind; it tells us both what we are, and how we came to be so; it declares the wrath of God, and shews how man came to be subjected 〈…〉 it; it convinceth by clear and plain evidence; it is a Glass in which a natural man may see his own face, without those paintings wherewith carnal reason is wont to varnis• and hide it. It is one of the ends for which the Scripture is given, 2 Tim. 3. 16.
2. Divine Providence concurs to the setting home of this truth, thus.
2. Divine Providence concurrs to the setting home of this truth, thus.
1. God often brings secure sinners into an ⟨p. 99⟩afflicted condition, who were before that prosperous, and whiles prosperous, they were secure; but now Gods begins to open their eyes: Thus it was with this younger son, Text, and Context.
2. In this afflicted estate men are apt to ponder and think of their condition: Affliction puts men upon consideration, and makes them usually more ready to hear, and take into their meditation such things as may concern them, Hos. 5. 15.
3. Now God many times brings home the Word to them, and moves them to a more serious and particular consideration of it: Their own concerns are now in it, whereas they looked at themselves as unconcerned before: In prosperity they would not hear, but now the Word is made more to affect them than formerly.
4. Now the spirit of God takes and opportunity to make many truths which before were very unwelcome to them, and they had put them away, to be thought upon, and credited, so that,
