N00302:436
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. The usefulness of affliction in order to the conversion of sinners, and the reason why God is many times pleased to lay these chains upon ⟨p. 180⟩them; why they are very suitable for the helping forward this great affair in the soul: Hence when God would do Ephraim good, he afflicts him, Hos. 5. 15. with 6. 1. and see for this also, Job 37. 16. &c. Man is high minded, and self-conceited, when he hath his health, strength, wealth and honour in the world; he is too good to be spoken to: but affliction depresseth him, it helps to bore his ear, it puts him upon consideration, which we heard is the first step to conversion: Affliction is a School in which a sinner is set to study, here is his folly and vain trust anatomized; here his misery begins to appear, and he finds how he hath deceived his own foul. Not that affliction of and by it self will open a blind eye, or soften and hard heart: There are many that are hardened, and made worse by it, but when God is pleased to set in with it, it hath that in it which is of use to help man to see something of himself: Be not their angry with afflictions.
3. The usefulness of affliction in order to the conversion of sinners, and the reason why God is many times pleased to lay these chains upon ⟨p. 180⟩them; why they are very sutable for the helping forward this great affair in the soul: Hence when God would do Ephraim good, he afflicts him, Hos. 5. 15. with 6. 1. and see for this also, Job 37. 16. &c. Man is high minded, and self-conceited, when he hath his health, strength, wealth and honour in the world; he is too good to be spoken to: but affliction depresseth him, it helps to bore his ear, it puts him upon consideration, which we heard is the first step to conversion: Affliction is a School in which a sinner is set to study, here is his folly and vain trust anatomized; here his misery begins to appear, and he finds how he hath deceived his own foul. Not that affliction of and by it self will open a blind eye, or soften and hard heart: There are many that are hardned, and made worse by it, but when God is pleased to set in with it, it hath that in it which is of use to help man to see something of himself: Be not their angry with afflictions.