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

4. They raise up manifold afflictions and calamities which shorten our pleasures and delights.¹

1. 1They raise up manifold afflictions.

But I proceed to the opening of the second branch, viz. the endings of sin. That though a sinful course may begin in many ¹pleasures, yet it shall end in many miseries, extremities, and straits. There are diverse sorts of ending of things: some end by way of annihilation, as the souls of the beasts, they shall cease to be, they are resolved into nothing; some end by way of perfection, as the souls and ways of holy men, Glory and Salvation is their end; some end by way of corruption, as when the beauty of a thing is marred, or a goodly body is turned; and ends in a loathsome carcass, or sweet Wine turns to sharp Vinegar. After this manner doth sin end, or a sinful course end: as it was with the day in which Sodom was destroyed, it began with the pleasant light of the Sun, but it ended in fire and brimstone: Thus was it with those sinners, their delightful flames of lust ended in horrid flames of Vengeance. There are two sorts of sorrow and trouble: one Penitential, and the other Judicial; one of these sin must end in. Achans wedge pleased his eye, but it lost his life. Ahab's desire was satisfied to get Naboths Vineyard, but his blood paid for it in the portion of Jezreel. Gehazi obtained the garments and talents, and at the end a Leprosy to his dying day. Judas gets favour with the chief Priests, and money to betray his Master, but he got horror of conscience, final despair and damnation for his treachery. The young man in the Proverbs is enticed with the filthy flattery of the ²Whore, her bed was perfumed with Myrrh, but her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death; those chambers ³