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

But now it is demanded; Why should the expressions of mercy elicit confession of sin, if it be pardoned? why any more confession? Reasons though hereof be many. 1. Piety in man is ¹not opposite, but only subordinate to Pity in God. Divine love doth not destroy, but increase duty: Assurance follows the habits, and always advances the acts of grace: As it is our duty to seek our pardon by confession, so also to carry away the same with continued confessions; confession of sin is not a transient, but a constant duty; As the Mathematicians speak of a Line, That it is not punctum, but fluxus punctorum; so I say of any duty, It is not one indivisible act only, but an act repeated: to believe is a duty, in which one act only is not enough, for I must still keep my ⟨p. 197⟩eye upon Christ. So to confess sin, is a duty not done altogether, because once done; but still to be done, because a duty to be done: though God be pleased to forget, yet it is our duty to remember. But secondly, By confession of sin, after remission and testimony, ²mercy is now acknowledged to be mercy: What a man may speak in straights is one thing, what in free circumstances, when extra aleam, is another. Many a man cries out for mercy, who perhaps scarce will give mercy all the glory afterward. But when we are pardoned, and yet confess sin, we do really profess, That it was not Worthiness in us, but only Goodness in God, that pardoned. No man can more fully give the glory of his pardon to sole mercy, then he who doth confess his sins after mercy: What is this confession of sin, but as if the person should say, O Lord, to me, indeed, nothing did belong but shame and confusion; for I, for my part, have thus and thus sinned against thee, and deserved thy wrath, but it was mere mercy that saved and pardoned me? 3. The more pardoning mercy God shows, The more humility is thereby wrought in the heart; ³for who can behold much pardon, but withal must know, it was much sin that hath that much pardon? He hath greater cause of shame, because all this while a God of such mercy hath been offended: So that here is more cause for the heart to abase it self and to confess its own vileness. 4. Upon ⁴