N00302:428
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. In Conversion the spirit of God comes into the Soul, and fills it with his Grace; in order to which filling it is needful that the Soul be first emptied, for as long as a Man is full of himself, of the World, of his carnal hopes, of his legal righteousness, there is no room for the spirit of God, hence he comes to the poor and needy, Isai. 41.17.
3. In active Conversion, there is a voluntary motion of the Soul: the will of man is that which doth first renounce Sin, Satan and World, and lay hold upon Christ; now a voluntary action is the action of a reasonable creature, applying himself to his object, not upon compulsion, nor by the force of instinct, but by the inclination of his own mind; so that as he doth it willingly, he also (and therefore) doth it rationally, or upon some apprehended grounds: and from this it will appear, how needful it is that a Sinner be made thus sensible in order to his Conversion: For,
1. Man by nature is a proud Creature, and loth to go or be beholden to any other as long as he hath any hopes to do well of himself: ⟨p. 177⟩This appeared before, in the consideration of the sordid course the needy Prodigal took to supply his want.