N00302:668
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.
Mercy Magnified ON A PENITENT Prodigal. › Sermon 19 › DOCT. True Repentance is practical Repentance.
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.
DOCT. True Repentance is practical Repentance.
In the work of Conversion, there are not only deliberate purposes but real acts. In order ⟨p. 274⟩of nature, there must be first resolving before doing; yet where true grace is, when men are resolved, they will do. Although the will be the first mover, yet it is not the sole mover, it rests not in Elicit, but proceeds to Imperate acts. Of the nature of rising and going, I have before spoken, that which we have now to enquire into, is the inseparable connection between grace in the heart, and grace in the life. We saw before the Prodigal's resolution was gracious, and the Reason given was, because it was the root and spring of practice; it was the beginning of the work in the superior faculties, which was to influence the whole man: And the sincerity of it herein discovers it self, because, as he said, so he did, as he resolved, so he acted. It gives us a note of difference between false and true Repentance: Here then we may consider. 1. The evidence of the truth of the Doctrine. 2. What is this practice of Repentance?
In the work of Conversion, there are not only deliberate purposes but real acts. In order ⟨p. 274⟩of nature, there must be first resolving before doing; yet where true grace is, when men are resolved, they will do. Although the will be the first mover, yet it is not the sole mover, it rests not in Elicite, but proceeds to Imperate acts. Of the nature of rising and going, I have before spoken, that which we have now to enquire into, is the inseparable connexion between grace in the heart, and grace in the life. We saw before the Prodigal's resolution was gracious, and the Reason given was, because it was the root and spring of practice; it was the beginning of the work in the superiour faculties, which was to influence the whole man: And the sincerity of it herein discovers it self, because, as he said, so he did, as he resolved, so he acted. It gives us a note of difference between false and true Repentance: Here then we may consider. 1. The evidence of the truth of the Doctrine. 2. What is this practice of Repentance?