N00302:328
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.
Reason. 1. From the sensuality which possesseth ⟨p. 129⟩the heart of every natural man: Man is become a slave to his sense, whence it comes to pass that he is persuaded to judge these things to be most suitable for him: sin having thrown all out of order; sense is now gotten above reason; hence, as swine run after husks, because they suit their nature, and are proper for their kind, so natural men find and taste a sensitive sweetness in the things of the world, and that makes them to say, Happy is the People that is in such a case▪ Psal. 144, ult.
Reason. 1. From the sensuality which possesseth ⟨p. 129⟩the heart of every natural man: Man is become a slave to his sense, whence it comes to pass that he is perswaded to judge these things to be most sutable for him: sin having thrown all out of order; sense is now gotten above reason; hence, as swine run after husks, because they sute their nature, and are proper for their kind, so natural men find and taste a sensitive sweetness in the things of the world, and that makes them to say, Happy is the People that is in such a case▪ Psal. 144, ult.
Reas. 2. From the natural ignorance which there is in unregenerate men of better things: Man by sin hath lost the knowledge and apprehension of spiritual and heavenly things, he understands not what they mean, I Cor. 2. 14. The natural man receiveth not (i. e. into his understanding) the things of the spirit of God. The highest reach of his understanding is to find and apprehend some seeming outward repast in the comforts and conveniences of this world, and hence he aspires no higher. As a beast is not acquainted with the excellency of a rational life, and hence he accounts his own the best, looks after no better: Now every man i become brutish, as the Scripture informs us.