N00302:235
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.
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.