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

Here is the Swearer, Drunkard, Whoremonger, Sabbath-breaker, &c. And now out comes the lost sinner, with a trembling heart, and a guilt-smiting spirit, Lord, who is it that you look for? do you look after a sinner, a lost sinner? I am the man you look for: Oh I have sinned, I have wandered, I have been lost all my Oh I have sinned, I have wandered, I have been lost all my days; What shall I say unto thee, O thou preserver of men? or what shall I do? Oh! if thou takest not pity on me, if thou showest not mercy unto me, I perish, I die, I am lost for ever. ⟨p. 240⟩6. He deals with this sinner to return and come back unto him. Hos. 14. 1. O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God; for thou ¹hast fallen by thine iniquity. And there are four ways which the Lord useth to prevail upon a lost sinner, to turn back unto him: ²1. By Expostulation: What have I been unto thee, or what have I done unto thee, or what iniquity hast thou found in me, ³that thou hast all this while departed from me? Was not I the God that formed thee? the Father that brought thee forth? the Master that fed thee, and took care of thee? Was there not goodness, and kindness, and fullness enough in me? why hast thou dealt thus unkindly with me? 2. By Conviction of his ⁴wandering condition, with the baseness and miserableness thereof. These are thy ways, and these have been thy doings, and what profit hast thou by those things whereof thou art or mayest be now ashamed? Why! what hast thou got by all thy sinful wanderings? See how naked thou art of all spiritual good, how shameful thy course hath been: Is the Wilderness a place for a Child? How poor and undone thou art! Thou hast spent all; and if thou continuest in thy sinful ways, thou wilt certainly perish with hunger: Sin hath been thy loss; and if thou return not, it w•ll certainly be thy ruin. Return, O lost Sinner, return, return, why wilt thou die and perish for ever? 3. By