N00302:501
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.
1. Rising being an Anastasie, implies the sinner before conversion to be in a state of Apostasy, or a fallen state: it speaks that man was once in a good state, but now hath lost it: God therefore useth this as an argument to quicken them to Repentance, Hos. 14. 1. Thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. A man that never was up may rise; but he was once standing that riseth again: God made man upright, in our first Parents we once had a standing in God's favour, but have lost it by Sin, and now the whole race of mankind, till Grace raiseth them, lie grovelling in iniquity; nay, they are dead in Sin, for this rising is a resurrection, Eph. 2. 1. And this shows that it is not a man's own strength, but the Almighty power of God that giveth Repentance.
1. Rising being an Anastasie, implyes the sinner before conversion to be in a state of Apostasie, or a fallen state: it speakes that man was once in a good state, but now hath lost it: God therefore useth this as an argument to quicken them to Repentance, Hos. 14. 1. Thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. A man that never was up may rise; but he was once standing that riseth again: God made man upright, in our first Parents we once had a standing in God's favour, but have lost it by Sin, and now the whole race of mankind, till Grace raiseth them, ly groveling in iniquity; nay, they are dead in Sin, for this rising is a resurrection, Eph. 2. 1. And this shews that it is not a man's own strength, but the Almighty power of God that giveth Repentance.
2. It implies that in order to true Repentance, the soul must be furnished with a new principle of spiritual life: Self-motion, such as rising is, is a life act, and supposeth a life habit: It is the property of dead things to lie still and move no further then they are forcibly moved; they are only living things that move by a power implanted in them: It therefore presumes that the Spirit of God hath been at work, moving upon the dead soul, and breathing into it the breath of life: our Saviour saith, it is the spirit that quickeneth: He gives life to dry