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

Doth God enable the true penitent to a new and better life or ¹walking? then let us reflect on our ways and lives. How do we live? ²What kind of life is that which we do now live? Is it the life of a penitent or no? Never talk that thy heart is as good to God-ward as any mans though thy life be vile; thou deludest thy self; if thy life be evil, assuredly thy heart is not good: The Tree, says our Saviour, is known by his fruits; for a person to talk of a penitent heart, and what terror he hath had for sin, and in ⟨p. 230⟩some particulars to mak• a little semblance of godliness, when yet all this while he goes on in a course of drunkenness, or of uncleanness, of riotousness, or of lying, or of pride, or of covetousness, or of injustice, or of scoffing, &c. What a monstrous and wilful deceit is this of a mans soul? Thou a penitent, who art still a servant of Lust! Thou a penitent, who still walkest in darkness! Thou a penitent whose very course of life is nothing but a confutation of repentance, a trade in sin! Knowest thou not, O sinner, that where the heart is changed, the life will change? If thou hast once put off thy corrupt nature, thou wilt easily put off thy corrupt conversation. Who doth as he did, if he be not as he was? No, real repentance turns us, and that is, from the love of sin in the heart, and from the course of sin in the life; as it suffers thee not to be an hypocrite, so it abhors that thou shouldst be profane; if thy life be bad, question it not, thy heart is bad; that filthy speech comes from thy filthy Nature, that haughty look from thy proud Nature, that griping hand from thy cruel Nature, that fraudulent tongue from thy cozening Nature. 2. As much are they deceived who go on gently and gravely in their old, ³formal, cold, negative way of repentance; deeming themselves no less then Penitentiaries, who have this only to plead, They never in all their lives did wrong or harm, &c. But remember, O self-deceiver, if ever God gives to thee repentance indeed, thou wilt find other sinful courses to be left besides those of Commission; thou wilt find thine Omissions to be a highly guilty course of sin, that thou frequently omits calling upon God, hearing of his Word, reading of his Word, examining of thy heart, humbling of thy soul, walking in an holy, and heavenly, and exact manner, &c. Thou often criest out, What bad course am I in?