Mercy magnified on a penitent prodigal, or A brief discourse, wherein Christs parable of…

4. There is an hour of distress which the riotous sinner shall bring upon himself: It is certain that he shall find himself at a loss and undone; conscience will sooner or later speak, and tell him that he hath wasted all; hope will in a while fail, carnal confidence will shrink up to nothing, and his soul be filled with perplexing sorrows.

4. There is an hour of distress which the riotous sinner shal bring upon himself: It is certain that he shal find himself at a loss and undone; conscience will sooner or later speak, and tell him that he hath wasted all; hope will in a while fail, carnal confidence will shrink up to nothing, and his soul be filled with perplexing sorrows.

5. Now the world in which he trusted will without doubt leave him at a loss: The Magazine from whence he hoped to fetch his livelihood, will be found empty, the Cistern will appear to be broken, and have no water in it; he shall be far from finding it able to direct him to true & solid comfort, or so much as point him to that which can indeed give him life. If a sinner be perishing, he must needs perish ⟨p. 88⟩for all that the world can do to save him; here is not one morsel of the Bread of Life to keep a soul from Perdition; if he could gain it all, that would not save his soul, Mat. 16. 26. If he ask for bread, it gives him a stone, if a fish, a •••pion; he may wander from sea to sea, seeking the bread of life, and find none: Hence the wise man, in answer to the great question, where good is to be found, or where a man may fill himself with substance, and find content, returns it in the Negative, respecting the world and all that is in it, and that because it is empty, vain, and vexatious, in the proof whereof he spends a whole Book, viz. that of Ecclesiastes. If a man wants eternal life, he may ask every creature for it, but all answer no, it is not in me: he that doth for the present rely here, and hopes it shall be well with him, doth but feed upon ashes, and cherish him self up with false expectations. As man cannot find his life in himself, so neither shall he mend himself in the world; he goes but from one want to another, from a famine within doors to a famine abroad; if he goes to the world he dyes, and if he rests in himself he dyes; he doth but rise to fall, he doth but go abroad to meet with that death which was coming home to him.