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

One distinction more I cannot omit; It is this, The perfective change is likewise two-fold 1. Relative and forinsecal, as in the Justification of a sinner: when a sinner is Justified, the state of this sinner is changed; before it he was in the state of death and condemnation; after it he is in the state of life and absolution. 2. Inherent and intrinsical; as here in the conversion of a sinner, which is a change within a man; a change not so properly of his condition, as of his disposition; even from one contrary to another, and that à Genere ad Genus, from one kind of quality to another kind. A sinner hath sometimes a contrary motion of good to evil put into him, but this is not Conversion; for it is not a mutation, but a motion: A sinners inclination is sometimes withheld, that he doth not sin; yet this is not conversion, for it is a chaining only, not a changing of his disposition; the Lyon is a Lyon in chains. A sinner goes from one sin to another; he leaveth his riotousness, and turneth to covetousness; he leaveth profaneness, and turneth to hypocrisy; yet this is not Conversion, for his sinful disposition is not altered from kind to kind: It is but a shifting from one evil to another evil; as the wind from one point to another; it is not a change from evil to good. If a man could leave all the sins in the world, and yet he loved and served but one, this man is not a converted man, because conversion is a change from one kind to a contrary kind, which the man comes short of whose heart is still set on any one sin.

One distinction more I cannot omit; It is this, The perfective change is likewise two-fold 1. Relative and forinsecal, as in the Justification of a sinner: when a sinner is Justified, the state of this sinner is changed; before it he was in the state of death and condemnation; after it he is in the state of life and absolution. 2. Inherent and intrinsecal; as here in the conversion of a sinner, which is a change within a man; a change not so properly of his condition, as of his disposition; even from one contrary to another, and that à Genere ad Genus, from one kind of quality to another kind. A sinner hath sometimes a contrary motion of good to evil put into him, but this is not Conversion; for it is not a mutation, but a motion: A sinners inclination is sometimes withheld, that he doth not sin; yet this is not conversion, for it is a chaining only, not a changing of his disposition; the Lyon is a Lyon in chains. A sinner goes from one sin to another; he leaveth his riotousness, and turneth to coveteousness; he leaveth profaneness, and turneth to hypocrisy; yet this is not Conversion, for his sinful disposition is not altered from kind to kind: It is but a shifting from one evil to another evil; as the wind from one poynt to another; it is not a change from evil to good. If a man could leave all the sins in the world, and yet he loved and served but one, this man is not a converted man, because conversion is a change from one kind to a contrary kind, which the man comes short of whose heart is still set on any one sin.