N00302:331
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.
USE, I. Hence wonder not to see the men of the world carried out so instantly, and with such eagerness in pursuit of the things of this life: their poor, hungry, starving souls want supply, and they hope to fill their bellies with these things; they are their happiness: could we but see the inside of the greedy worldling, and know what conceptions he entertains himself withal, how he promiseth himself all peace, comfort, content and felicity in the creature, (our saviour characterizeth him to the life, in, Luk. 12. 17, 18, 19.) We would no more wonder at his violence, his eager and immoderate pursuit after them, every man loveth life, is loth to perish, and is therefore (in distress) ready to say, who shall show me good, and now through his own mistake, increased by the devils delusion, and the worlds flatteries, he conceives that he hath found it: Oh! thinks he, could I but have my belly full of these husks, I should be well of it: he envies the very swine their draff, and could he but be ⟨p. 131⟩quartered with them, he would desire no more.
USE, I. Hence wonder not to see the men of the world carried out so instantly, and with such eagerness in pursuit of the things of this life: their poor, hungry, starving souls want supply, and they hope to fill their bellies with these things; they are their happiness: could we but see the inside of the greedy worldling, and know what conceptions he entertains himself withall, how he promiseth himself all peace, comfort, content and felicity in the creature, (our saviour characterizeth him to the life, in, Luk. 12. 17, 18, 19.) We would no more wonder at his violence, his eager and immoderate pursuit after them, every man loveth life, is loth to perish, and is therefore (in distress) ready to say, who shall shew me good, and now through his own mistake, encreased by the devils delusion, and the worlds flatteries, he conceives that he hath found it: Oh! thinks he, could I but have my belly full of these husks, I should be well of it: he envyes the very swine their draffe, and could he but be ⟨p. 131⟩quartered with them, he would desire no more.