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

2. A second sign of spiritual life is, a spiritual sense of spiritual wants. This is an undoubted truth, That where there is ¹life, there is sense; and where there is sense, there is life: If the life be a spiritual life, then the sense is a spiritual sense, a feeling of our spiritual wants. When the Prodigal began to live, he began to feel; to feel; to feel his nakedness, to feel his poverty, to feel his wants: And when Paul began to live, he began to see his wants; Rom. 7. 14. The law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin: I know that in me there dwelleth no good thing; how to perform that which is good, I find not. O when God gives grace unto the heart, that grace, though never so weak; affords two operations: 1. It gives you a clearer sight of sin; 2. it gives you a fuller sight of your wants. It is Learning which makes us to see how much Learning we want; it is Health which makes you see how much Health you want; it is Grace which makes you see how little Grace you have, and how much you still need: No man rightly feels the want of more Faith, but by some Faith; the want of more Softness, but by some Softness.

1. 1A spiritual sense of spiritual wants.

Object. But now the Question may be, How a man may ¹know, that the sense of his wants be a spiritual sense of them? for many men say that they want such and such spiritual Graces, and yet they have not a spiritual life in them. Sol. I answer• There are four things which declare the sense of our spiritual wants to be a true spiritual sense: 1. Ordinarily, it follows after a deep Conviction of sin; that man ²deceives himself, who talks of spiritual wants, and yet never saw his spiritual fullness of sin. The Lords ordinary way in Conversion is, To strip us wholly of our selves; and therefore, 1. He opens our eyes to see how rich we have been in sin; 2. To see how poor and nothing we are in Grace. 2. If it be a spiritual sense, it is an humbling