N00302:896
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. Legalists look upon their own works to be meritorious, and think God unjust if he do not reward them eminently.
The Son is angry that his faithful service is not rewarded so much as with a kid: The Jews thought their fastings ill laid out, Isa. 58. begin. If they do not prosper, and all things go as their hearts can wish, legal spirited men think themselves abused.
Reas. Because such as rely upon their own works and doings, though they may have taken up an Evangelical profession, and have gotten the name of Christ in their mouths as a word of course; yet they were never truly broken off from themselves; they never saw the emptiness of their own righteousness, nor understood what unprofitable servants they are, when they have done all: There is a root of pride remaining in all unconverted men, they are not humbled as they ought to be: As long as a man thinks his doings to be of so much worth, he will consequently count himself injured, if they be not rewarded according to his expectation.