The parable of the prodigal. Containing, The riotous prodigal, or The sinners aversion from…

Our excellencies are weak, and the Lord be merciful unto us, how often do we weaken them? our work is but little that we do, very little; take aside the averseness, the indispositions, the formalities, the coldness, the distractions, the unbelief, the weariness, the inconstancy, the infinite infirmities which accompany them, what poor things will they then appear? may we not fall down and say, having done our best, We are ⟨p. 124⟩but unprofitable servants. Nay, and that which being known may likewise abase us, is this, we may justly say of all our poor excellencies, as the Widow of her Vessels, They are but borrowed ware; What have we which we have not received? Every Gift and Grace which we have, is but a Beam born of the Sun, a drop coming from another Fountain then our Natures: all our good is but free Gift; take the borrowed feathers from the Crow, it is then a most black creature alone. So that consider our good aright, either in the initial cause of it, viz. Divine and free Grace; or in the upholding cause of it, Divine assistance; or in the qualities of it, how weak and imperfect; or in the acts of it, how rare and uneven; all these are the springs as it were, which feed humbleness of heart in the true Penitent.

Our excellencies are weak, and the Lord be merciful unto us, how often do we weaken them? our work is but little that we do, very little; take aside the aversness, the indispositions, the formalities, the coldness, the distractions, the unbelief, the weariness, the inconstancy, the infinite infirmities which accompany them, what poor things will they then appear? may we not fall down and say, having done our best, We are ⟨p. 124⟩but unprofitable servants. Nay, and that which being known may likewise abase us, is this, we may justly say of all our poor excellencies, as the Widow of her Vessels, They are but borrowed ware; What have we which we have not received? Every Gift and Grace which we have, is but a Beam born of the Sun, a drop coming from another Fountain then our Natures: all our good is but free Gift; take the borrowed feathers from the Crow, it is then a most black creature alone. So that consider our good aright, either in the initial cause of it, viz. Divine and free Grace; or in the upholding cause of it, Divine assistance; or in the qualities of it, how weak and imperfect; or in the acts of it, how rare and uneven; all these are the springs as it were, which feed humbleness of heart in the true Penitent.