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

2. He would fain have all these favours at his own dispose: He is not content unless he may have them in his own hands; like a child, who, when he begins to grow up to years, presently grows weary of Family Government, and cannot bear to be limited or controlled in any thing by his Parents, but must have his Estate given him, and set up for himself: This truth is evident by the lives of men; For,

1. They are not content to be restrained and directed by the Laws of God, in the improvement of these gifts; the bounds of the precepts are too narrow for them, they must walk at large; tell them of the Command, they regard it not, and their lives say as they did with their tongues, Jer. 44.16. As for the word which ⟨p. 27⟩thou hast spoken to us in the Name of the Lord we will not hearken unto thee.

1. They are not content to be restrained and directed by the Laws of God, in the improvement of these gifts; the bounds of the precepts are too narrow for them, they must walk at large; tell them of the Command, they regard it not, and their lives say as they did with their tongues, Jer. 44.16. As for the word which ⟨p. 27⟩thou hast •poken to us in the Name of the Lord we will not hearken unto thee.

2. Men do not manage themselves in the use of these things to the advancement of the honour and glory of God in the world: They do not serve God with their gifts, and estates, but serve divers lusts; they make panders of them for their corruptions: Great Wits are usually loose and licentious, great Estates are mens security to sin against God with the more boldness: It is a rare thing to see men that have the greatest visible advantages for it, to be very zealous for God-