N00302:833
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.
DOCT. 3. There is a very eminent and glorious change wrought in Conversion.
This is expressed, vers. 24. under two resemblances, wherein the state of man before and after conversion is opposed.
1. Of one that was dead, and is now alive▪ the natural man is spiritually dead, Eph. 2. 1. This part of the curse actually fell upon Adam, as soon as he fell, and falls on his posterity as soon as they are born, or have a being. They are every way like one that is dead, have no principle of spiritual life, being wholly without Sanctification, which was the informing principle of their Theological life: he can do nothing that is good, can neither stir hand or foot to the service of God; he stinks in the nostrils of God, all that comes from him is rotten and noisome, he sees, hears, understands nothing spiritually. But the convert is alive, Gal. 2. 20. I live; the Image of God is restored, his eyes are opened, ears bored, and he is made capable of doing God service, and glorifying of him in his life; he can now savour the things of God, and walk in his ways.
1. Of one that was dead, and is now alive▪ the natural man is spiritually dead,