N00302:865
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.
Reas. Because he is a mere stranger to that which is the cause of his joy, viz. converting grace; he doth not know what it is, what is ⟨p. 359⟩the worth and excellency of it, nor what are those grounds of spiritual joy which proceed from it: these are spiritual things, and therefore a natural man cannot receive them, 1 Cor. 2. 14. The hypocrite is truly unregenerate, and hence he moves in an inferior orb, and can no more know what the joys of a Believer are, than a beast can understand the nature and advantages of a life of reason: he is in the flesh, but these are not fleshly joys.
Reas. Because he is a meer stranger to that which is the cause of his joy, viz. converting grace; he doth not know what it is, what is ⟨p. 359⟩the worth and excellency of it, nor what are those grounds of spiritual joy which proceed from it: these are spiritual things, and therefore a natural man cannot receive them, 1 Cor. 2. 14. The hypocrite is truely unregenerate, and hence he moves in an inferiour orb, and can no more know what the joyes of a Believer are, than a beast can understand the nature and advantages of a life of reason: he is in the flesh, but these are not fleshly joyes.
USE, 1. This may show us the true reason why hypocritical men are so little affected with the conversion of a sinner to God: when the report of it comes to them, it may be they are angry and envious, however they are not stirred up by it to praise God for them, to congratulate with them their happiness, and partake in their joys: Alas, they were not invited, they do not see nor know what it is to have been dead, and be alive, to be restored from spiritual death, to be brought home to God, of a Prodigal to be made a son.