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

4. The efficacy of this conviction is that it unmasks the former delusion under which he lay, making him to see that he hath no remedy ⟨p. 96⟩against this misery either in himself, or in the world. In respect to himself, he finds that he hath spent all, in regard to the world, he finds that there is a famine in that land, and the conclusion that ariseth from hence is, that he is sensibly in want: i.e. he still wants that freedom from the curse, notwithstanding all God's favours, or his interest in the creature, this is the sum of this conviction: in which though we must confess that there is a change now made in the sinner, yet it is not a saving change of his state. For,

4. The efficacy of this conviction is that it unmasks the former delusion under which he lay, making him to see that he hath no remedy ⟨p. 96⟩against this misery either in himself, or in the world. In respect to himself, he finds that he hath spent all, in regard to the world, he finds that there is a famine in that land, and the conclusion that ariseth from hence is, that he is sensibly in want: i.e. he still wants that freedom from the curse, notwithstanding all God's favours, or his interest in the creature, this is the summe of this conviction: in which though we must confess that there is a change now made in the sinner, yet it is not a saving change of his state. For,

1. His state was as bad before, only the difference is, he then saw it not, but now he doth, he thought himself rich, and the world a trust friend: both these were mistakes, and now he finds them so to be; so that the substance of this charge is, now he is convinced that before he cheated himself: Hence,