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

2. It implies that in order to true Repentance, the soul must be furnished with a new principle of spiritual life: Self-motion, such as rising is, is a life act, and supposeth a life habit: It is the property of dead things to lie still and move no further then they are forcibly moved; they are only living things that move by a power implanted in them: It therefore presumes that the Spirit of God hath been at work, moving upon the dead soul, and breathing into it the breath of life: our Saviour saith, it is the spirit that quickeneth: He gives life to dry ⟨p. 209⟩bones, and then they rise and walk, else they had never forgone their Graves: A dead carcass cannot so much as will to arise.

2. It implyes that in order to true Repentance, the soul must be furnished with a new principle of spiritual life: Self-motion, such as rising is, is a life act, and supposeth a life habit: It is the property of dead things to ly still and move no further then they are forcibly moved; they are only living things that move by a power implanted in them: It therefore presumes that the Spirit of God hath been at work, moving upon the dead soul, and breathing into it the breath of life: our Saviour saith, it is the spirit that quickeneth: He gives life to dry ⟨p. 209⟩bones, and then they rise and walk, else they had never forgone their Graves: A dead carcass cannot so much as will to arise.

3. It implies that in true Repentance there must be a forsaking of all Sin: we must not lie in Sin, if we will return to God: those are directly opposite terms, Sin and God are contraries; the far Country in which the Prodigal, was, is the Kingdom of Sin, which he must leave, else he can never come to his father; nor can a sinner ever come to God, till he hath rejected and abandoned his sinful life and way: Hence that counsel,