N00302:251
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.
3. We have here a rule how to begin with men in our endeavours, for their spiritual good: Let us labour to show them their misery by sin: We must wound before we can heal, instrumentally: Be not afraid to show men their sins and the wrath of God for them: Misery is the first thing a secure soul is like to be affected withal, and that is preparatory to the rend•ing of Christ precious to them: We should indeed encourage all to go to Christ, but encouragements without convictions, are but the laying a foundation for presumption, and not the way to bring men truly to believe. Peter, in Act. 2. First preacheth his hearers to remorse, and then he directs them to Christ.
3. We have here a rule how to begin with men in our endeavours, for their spiritual good: Let us labour to shew them their misery by sin: We must wound before we can heal, instrumentally: Be not afraid to fhew men their sins and the wrath of God for them: Misery is the first thing a secure soul is like to be affected withal, and that is preparatory to the rend•ing of Christ precious to them: We should indeed encourage all to go to Christ, but encouragements without convictions, are but the laying a foundation for presumption, and not the way to bring men truely to believe. Peter, in Act. 2. First preacheth his hearers to remorce, and then he directs them to Christ.
USE, 2. For Conviction; let every unregenerate sinner see here (as in a Glass) his own miserable state: This young man's condition is thine spiritually: Thou hast nothing ⟨p. 105⟩of thine own to live upon, there is nothing in the world to relieve thee, thou art perishing if no help appear; and art not thou then in want? here take these Considerations: