N00302:712
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. The natural man cannot by his natural power move one step towards God: the highest improvements of nature by our own Principles, bring us not one foot in our way towards Heaven: the Scripture expressions of mans being dead, impotent, dry bones, a carcass, &c. though Metaphors, yet are not Hyperbole's. If by the image of God on man, we understand the sanctification of his nature, fitting him for the service of God, that image is wholly defaced, and there are not so much as any relics of it left: Man is Blind, Deaf, Dumb, Dead.
1. The natural man cannot by his natural power move one step towards God: the highest improvements of nature by our own Principles, bring us not one foot in our way towards Heaven: the Scripture expressions of mans being dead, impotent, dry bones, a carcass, &c. though Metaphors, yet are not Hyperbole's. If by the image of God on man, we understand the sanctification of his nature, fitting him for the service of God, that image is wholly defaced, and there are not so much as any relicks of it left: Man is Blind, Deaf, Dumb, Dead.
2. As God hath appointed his unto Salvation, so hath he appointed a way in which he will bring them thereunto; and this way becomes by his ordination, a necessary medium to the attainment of it: Faith and Holiness are the way to glory: the Psalmist speaks of a Path of life. Psal.16. ult. out of this way none over come to Heaven.
2. As God hath appointed his unto Salvation, so hath he appointed a way in which he will bring them thereunto; and this way becomes by his ordmation, a necessary medium to the attainment of it: Faith and Holiness are the way to glory: the Psalmist speaks of a Path of life. Psal.16. ult. out of this way none over come to Heaven.