glad to see his old acquaintance, and they as glad to see him, and
he could not in civility but accomodate them with a bottle or two
of Wine, or a dozen or two of Drink.

Atten. And did the old man give him money to set up with?

Wise. Yes, above two hundred pounds.

Atten. Therein, I think, the old man was out. Had I been his
Father, I would have held him a little at staves-end, till I had
had far better proof of his manners to be good; (for I perceive
that his Father did know what a naughty boy he had been, both by
what he used to do at home, and because he changed a good Master
for a bad, &c.) He should not therefore have given him money so
soon. What if he had pinched a little, and gone to Journey-work
for a time, that he might have known what a penny was, by his
earning of it? Then, in all probability, he had known better how
to have spent it: Yea, and by that time perhaps, have better
considered with himself, how to have lived in the world. Ay, and
who knows but he might have come to himself with the Prodigal, and
have asked God and his Father forgiveness for the villanies that he
had committed against them. {66d}

Wise. If his Father could also have blessed this manner of dealing
to him, and have made it effectual for the ends that you have
propounded; then I should have thought as you. But alas, alas, you
talk as if you never knew, or had at this present forgot what the
bowels and compassions of a Father are. Why did you not serve your
own son so? But 'tis evident enough, that we are better at giving
good counsel to others, than we are at taking good counsel our