N00302:389
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.
4. Besides this he hath taken up strong prejudices against the way of conversion; and that partly through the contrariety of his heart and nature to it, in which there is a congene•••• averseness to all which is good; and partly through the temptations and misrepresentations of Satan, who endeavours to exhibit it before his thoughts in the blackest and ugliest colours that may be; and that both against the beginning and progress of it; Godly sorrow, mourning for sin, forsaking of our evil ways, turning into the strict ways of God, and living a life of Godliness; these are harsh lessons, and hard sayings, not readily entertained by a soul that loves jollity, and cares not to be molested: the thoughts of such a work and way are frightful, and set him violently against conversion in the very first motions of it: These are dull, dark, strait, melancholic ways; besides the cross and persecution that is in them: Hence the natural man is persuaded to think that there are none who live so miserably and unhappily as the People of God, and if they should be converted, farewell to joy and quiet, they must ever after be men of sorrows ⟨p. 157⟩and contention, and good days must be at an end with them.
4. Besides this he hath taken up strong prejudices against the way of conversion; and that partly through the contrariety of his heart and nature to it, in which there is a congene•••• aversness to all which is good; and partly through the temptations and misrepresentations of Satan, who endeavours to exhibit it before his thoughts in the blackest and ougliest collours that may be; and that both against the beginning and progress of it; Godly sorrow, mourning for sin, forsaking of our evil wayes, turning into the strict wayes of God, and living a life of Godliness; these are harsh lessons, and hard sayings, not readily entertained by a soul that loves jollity, and cares not to be molested: the thoughts of such a work and way are frightful, and set him violently against conversion in the very first motions of it: These are dull, dark, strait, melancholick wayes; besides the cross and persecution that is in them: Hence the natural man is perswaded to think that there are none who live so miserably and unhappily as the People of God, and if they should be converted, farewel to joy and quiet, they must ever after be men of sorrows ⟨p. 157⟩