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

4. God is by no natural necessity bound to give or continue these favours to the Children of men: Whatsoever he doth upon this score is mere bounty; though men may call it the portion of goods that belongeth to them, and seem to challenge it as due debt, yet God might, had he so seen meet, have given it all away from them, and done them no wrong: He cannot owe the creature any thing, except he voluntarily become a debtor by free promise, which puts upon the thing promised the proper quality of a gift.

4. God is by no natural necessity bound to give or continue these favours to the Children of men: Whatsoever he doth upon this score is meer bounty; though men may call it the portion of goods that belongeth to them, and seem to challenge it as due debt, yet God might, had he so seen meet, have given it all away from them, and done them no wrong: He cannot owe the creature any thing, except he voluntarily become a debtor by free promise, which puts upon the thing promised the proper quality of a gift.

5. And he either withholds or taketh them away according to his Sovereign pleasure; yea, and bestows them too in what degree he sees meet, without being accountable unto us: Hence proceeds the various distribution of these gifts and favours of God: One is born a natural, another with excellent endowments; one is rich, powerful, highly honoured, another poor, ignoble and despised; yea, and the same men are now up and then down; Job in the morning the most opulent and flourishing of the East, at night, poor to a Proverb: Yea, and we can give no reason of the distribution, wicked Dives is rich, and abounds in all worldly delights; honest Lazarus, is a beggar and ⟨p. 22⟩full of sores; and if a reason of all this be demanded, Solomon will give us the answer, Eccles. 9.11. yea, and our Saviour Christ in Job. 9.3.