A92856:109
The parable of the prodigal. Containing, The riotous prodigal, or The sinners aversion from…
The parable of the prodigal. Containing, The riotous prodigal, or The sinners aversion from God. Returning prodigal, or The penitents conversion to God. Prodigals acceptation, or Favourable entertainment with God. Delivered in divers sermons on Luke 15. from vers. 11. to vers. 24. By that faithful servant of Jesus Christ Obadiah Sedgwick, B.D. Perfected by himself, and perused by those whom he entrusted with the publishing of his works.The parable of the prodigal. Containing, The riotous prodigal, or The sinners aversion from God. Returning prodigal, or The penitents conversion to God. Prodigals acceptation, or Favourable entertainment with God. Delivered in divers sermons on Luke 15. from vers. 11. to vers. 24. By that faithfull servant of Jesus Christ Obadiah Sedgwick, B.D. Perfected by himself, and perused by those whom he intrusted with the publishing of his works.
London: printed by D. Maxwel for Sa. Gellibrand, 1660
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. An afflicted condition is no infallible testimony of a safe condition. Some people are of an opinion, that if God doth punish 1them in this life, in crosses, losses, sicknesses, penuries, &c. they have all their portion of misery already, and undoubtedly shall be saved. To which I reply, 1. Though as the Israelites came at length to Canaan through the Red Sea, and through the wilderness; so a person may after many afflictions and miseries come to heaven: Heaven can admit of a poor Lazarus, and of a distressed Job, and of a pursued David. 2. Yet it is not always so: ⟨p. 27⟩A person may be under many miseries, and notwithstanding them, he may never be happy: the mere presence of miseries is of common providence, and not a distinguishing privilege; by what is before us, whether outward good, or outward evil, we can know neither love nor hatred; but as it is with the Ships at sea, whether of the Kings Loyal subjects, or of hostile pirates, either of them are exposed to winds and storms, to leaks and rocks, and sands; so is it with good men and bad men, each of them are exposed to outward calamities, as each of them are capable of outward mercies; there may be a change in their outward condition, when yet there is no change in their inward dispositions. Job may hold fast his uprightness under all his miseries, and Pharaoh may retain his hardness under all his Judgments. And where the sinful affection and practice is still retained, he shall not be free, because of his present miseries, but for ever rejected, because of his continued iniquity.
1. An afflicted condition is no infallible testimony of a safe condition. Some people are of an opinion, that if God doth punish 1them in this life, in crosses, losses, sicknesses, penuries, &c. they have all their portion of misery already, and undoubtedly shall besaved. To which I reply, 1. Though as the Israelites came at length to Canaan through the Red Sea, and through the wilderness; so a person may after many afflictions and miseries come to heaven: Heaven can admit of a poor Lazarus, and of a distressed Job, and of a pursued David. 2. Yet it is not always so: ⟨p. 27⟩