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

2. That there is such a strength in sin, that all the degrees of Grace unto which a converted person can possible attain in this life, are not able totally to rid the soul of it. Till the mud-wall be quite pulled down, some of the Ivy will stick unto it; Jacob went halting unto his grave. Till death makes an end of our lives, Grace cannot make an end of our sins. Is it thus with the converted person, that neither Counsels, nor Exhortations, nor Grace received can utterly extirpate sin? nay is sometimes too weak for sin? verily then there can be no conversion of a sinner without an Almighty power: the power of sin in an unconverted man being in fullest strength, in every faculty and making highest resistance to Grace, because naturally of deepest contrariety thereunto.

3. Nay thirdly, consider as there is a mighty strength ¹in sin, so there is a mighty strength joined with sin, to oppose the sinners Conversion; and the sinner cannot be converted until both these armies be conquered: 1. Satan's strength is joined with the strength of sin: the sinner is under the dominion of sin, and he is likewise under the dominion of Satan; and as sin is a powerful Lord, so Satan is a powerful Prince; he is the God of this world, he works mightily in the Children of disobedience, ⟨p. 298⟩Ephes. 2. 2. He takes them captive at his pleasure; and as Pharaoh raised all his host, when the Children of Israel were to go out of Egypt; so doth Satan stir up all his policy, and put forth all his power, to withhold a person from being converted. He arms the Judgment with reasons, exceptions, shifts, disputes; and he arms the Will with averseness, unreasonableness, stubbornness, pride; And he arms the Conscience, and he arms the Affections. O what corrupt reasonings? how many proud denials? what hideous representations of the ways of Grace? what delights, what profits we have had by sin? what impossibilities, what disputes, what fears, what terrors, what dampings of the Word, what distractions in Prayer, what agonies, and continual, and vehement, and violent conflicts, doubts, scruples, &c? 2 All these must be answered, and all these must be conquered, if the soul be converted. And can all this be done by a moral power? O no; it must be an Almighty power, which must rescue a poor soul out of the hands of two such mighty Lords. The people of Israel could not be delivered from one King, and with a temporal deliverance, but by the exceeding greatness of Gods power, and by an high and insuperable working of divine Grace. 4. There is more then an ordinary power required for effects which fall short of Conversion: and if