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

3. Penitential Executions, if present, will be more easy, and ¹more comfortable. 1. They will be more easy. St. Austin had almost wasted his spirits with resolutions and conflicts; Quamdiu, cras, cras, &c. and he thought it many times impossible for him ever to be rid of such an inmate as sin: But when his resolution brake out into practise, then Facile & suave, the work grew easy and sweet. When we come to the acting part, then the Lord will exert and put forth his power in our weakness: the acting and doing Christian partakes of most assistance. Do we not find it thus in Prayer, and in many other Duties, which perhaps we look upon with much fear and suspicion? But when we are acting of them, how singularly doth the Lord enlarge our thoughts and affections? Why! this holds in the very Duty of Repentance; seta against thy sins in good earnest, set upon a holy course in good earnest, thou shalt experimentally find, that it was thy own deceitful heart which represented the work with more difficulty; but now having taken upon thee the yoke of Christ, thou shalt find it easy, and that God can as well work in thee to do, as to will. 2. They ²will be more comfortable. Mere purposes cannot spring up such comforts as actings; nay, even weak actings yield a thousand times more comfort than strong resolutions: All the sap in the root doth not make the flower to smell sweet, unless that sap comes to a blossom. We cannot say our resolutions are solid, if unactive. If they do not alter the course, for ought as we know yet, they may be but false flashes, occasional impressions, not springing from renewing Grace, (which will break out into practise,) but from servile causes, which may be sufficient to stop a sinner, and with Saul, to profess he will persecute David no more: But when Execution attends Resolution, now the heart may be confident, that there is a renewing Principle implanted, which carries the soul from one degree to another; from convictions to resolutions, from resolutions to actions, from actions to courses with steadfastness and fruitfulness.

3. Penitential Executions, if present, will be more easie, and ¹more comfortable. 1. They will be more easie. St. Austin had almost wasted his spirits with resolutions and conflicts; Quamdiu, cras, cras, &c. and he thought it many times impossible for him ever to be rid of such an inmate as sin: But when his resolution brake out into practise, then Facile & suave, the work grew easie and sweet. When we come to the acting part, then the Lord will exert and put forth his power in our weakness: the acting and doing Christian partakes of most assistance. Do we not find it thus in Prayer, and in many other Duties, which perhaps we look upon with much fear and suspition? But when we are acting of them, how singularly doth the Lord enlarge our thoughts and affections? Why! this holds in the very Duty of Repentance; seta against thy sins in good earnest, set upon a holy course in good earnest, thou shalt expermentally find, that it was thy owne deceitfull heart which represented the work with more difficulty; but now having taken upon thee the yoke of Christ, thou shalt find it easie, and that God can as well work in thee to do, as to will. 2. They