N00347:146
A brief discourse of justification. Wherein this doctrine is plainly laid down according to…
A brief discourse of justification. Wherein this doctrine is plainly laid down according to the Scriptures. : As it was delivered in several sermons on this subject. / By Samuel Willard, teacher of a church in Boston. ; [Ten lines of quotations]
Boston: printed by S for Samuel Phillips, 1686
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.
4. Because at the same time when God justifies a sinner, he might by the sinners own acknowledgement justly condemn him: he hat plea enough against him; when a poor sensible sinner, ready to sink under the load of sin and guilt, betakes himself to God in the ⟨p. 79⟩name of Christ for pardon and peace, he there ingeniously confesseth his own unworthiness of it, and that in himself he can lay no claim to it, thus doth the Prodigal, Luke. 15. 18, 19. Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy Son; yea he confesseth his own worthiness to be condemned, Dan. 9. 8. to us belongeth shame and confusion of face; and therefore he puts mercy and forgiveness together, and acknowledgeth them to be Gods prerogative, ver. 9. to the Lord our God belongs mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him; and what can such an imputation be less than free grace, that is applied to one that lies at the foot of Sovereignty, and is persuaded that if God spurn him away to hell, he shall do him no injury at all? that knows nothing but mercy can spare and save him.
4. Because at the same time when God justifies a sinner, he might by the sinners own acknowledgment justly condemn him: he hat plea enough against him; when a poor sensible sinner, ready to sink under the load of sin and guilt, betakes himself to God in the ⟨p. 79⟩name of Christ for pardon and peace, he there ingeniously confesseth his own unworthiness of it, and that in himself he can lay no claim to it, thus doth the Prodigal, Luke. 15. 18, 19. Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy Son; yea he confesseth his own worthiness to be condemned, Dan. 9. 8. to us belongeth shame and confusion of face; and therefore he puts mercy and forgiveness together, and acknowledgeth them to be Gods prerogative, ver. 9. to the Lord our God belongs mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him; and what can such an imputation be less than free grace, that is applied to one that lies at the foot of Soveraignty, and is perswaded that if God spurn him away to hell, he shall do him no injury at all? that knows nothing but mercy can spare and save him.