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

2. He looks not too much upon instruments and occasions; he lays not his own blame to another; doth not charge it as Satan's fault, that he yielded to the Temptation, but counts it his own; Peter blames Ananias, that Satan had tempted him, Deut. 5. 3. It was Satan's fault to tempt, but his to be tempted.

2. He looks not too much upon instruments and occasions; he layes not his own blame to another; doth not charge it as Satans fault, that he yielded to the Temptation, but counts it his own; Peter blames Ananias, that Satan had tempted him, Deut. 5. 3. It was Satan's fault to tempt, but his to be tempted.

3. Chargeth it upon his own vile heart and nature, that fountain and original of all actual Transgression: he is therefore led up to it, and made to bewail that before God, as the root of all, Psal. 51. 5. I was shapen in iniquity. q. d. Hence comes all this, here it is fountained; thus the Prodigal, Father, I have sinned, I asked my Portion, and was not content till I had it in mine own hands; I took at and went away into a far Country, and washed all there in riot,; I dishonoured my original by becoming a slave to a stranger, keeping swine, and feeding with them upon husks: I did all thus voluntarily without any compulsion; I did it against the law of nature, and bond of filial obedience; he doth not say, it was a trick of youth, and these good follows, pot companions, gamesters and harlots, drew me in, and so I did it. The truly, penitent, so sees his own guilt and wilful obstinacy, that he can look no where else: what ever his occasions or temptations were, yet still he sees that the Law of God was against it, which he ought ⟨p. 223⟩to have hearkened to notwithstanding all Temptation; and his heart was in it, else they could never have prevailed; he gave his consent, or else it had never been.