Heaven to save the World and when the Cross with its Infamy and horrour was in his view he avowed his Heavenly Kingdom And all those who suffer with him for his Truth and in conformity to his Pattern with his Meekness and Patience his Charity and Constancy shall reign with him And what is more powerful for the consolation and establishment of Christians than that their Sufferings for Christ shall end in Glory This is the Victory that overcometh the World even our Faith This did Miracles in the first Ages of the Church conquering all that was terrible to Flesh and Blood The Heathens despised the Hopes of Christians as wretched Illusions and with impious scorn upbraided them for their constancy under Persecutions Where is the God that can raise the dead and not rescue the living Unbelief is blind and cannot see beyond this World to the Eternal State But Faith in the blessed Redeemer opens a Prospect into the World to come so full of Glory that no Person that has an understanding and will to discourse and choose if he stedfastly believes it but must despise all the Evils that the wit and strength of Persecutors can inflict in comparison of it I reckon saith the Apostle that the sufferings of the present Life in all their kinds and degrees are not to be compared with the Glory that shall be reveal'd Inlightned Christians esteemed their Sufferings for the Cause of God no Arguments of his Weakness but his Wisdom to exercise and try their Loyalty and cordial Obedience before he rewarded them and had reason to admire his Providence not to suspect his Power and Love They knew that the power of Tyrants could only reach the Body the vile frail and mortal part of Man but the precious Soul was entirely exempted from their rage and Faith assur'd them of a glorious Resurrection after Death The Body of a Martyr shall be revived as a Phaenix out of its Ashes when the Body of a Persecutor shall be quickned as a Serpent out of a Dunghil the one to be glorified the other tormented for ever The belief of this made them extremely valiant in the face of all their threatning cruel Enemies But the evil Heart of unbelief causes a departure from the living God He that suspects God's fidelity in his Promises will suspend his own Nature will shrink at the first sight of imminent Dangers An Infidel that lives as if he were all Body and no immortal Soul judges the loss of the present Life and the comforts of it as his utter undoing and total perishing He has an appearance of reason to secure his present Possessions what-ever becomes of Religion for he expects no future Good that will infinitely more than countervail his present loss And that Prosperity inclines Men to Atheism and Infidelity has been proved before 2. The Love of God inspires Believers with a heavenly Fortitude to endure the worst Evils that may befal them for his sake Perfect Love casts out Fear keeps its Supremacy inviolate in the midst of the greatest Dangers Love is an active invincible Affection as strong as Death that none can vanquish The Love of God is a never-dying Flame in the Hearts of the Saints because it depends upon the unchangeable Love of God to them We love him because he first loved us Love esteems God as the greatest Reward A Saint does not so much love God for Heaven tho a place of inconceivable Glory as Heaven for God because he there reveals his Perfections to his People This Holy Love makes the Christians faithful and obsequious to Christ and to prefer his Honour incomparably before the present World The Martyrs of the divinest Courage were animated by this holy Affection they loved not their lives unto the death but chearfully offered them as a Sacrifice to his praise Love kindled in them a sacred Vehemence in despising all the glittering temptations of the World Love inspir'd them with a victorious Patience to blunt the edg of Cruelty They never repented the choice of his Religion but rejoiced when his Glory was set forth by their Ignominy and when their love to Christ appear'd in its radiancy and vigor through their Sufferings Love is the Principle of Constancy by which Religion reigns on Earth and is crown'd in Heaven On the contrary when Riches Honours and Pleasures are the Idols of Mens Heads and Hearts the chief Objects of their esteem and affections they will sacrifice their Souls rather than lose the World their dear Felicity Therefore St. John earnestly dehorts Christians Love not the World neither the things that are in the World If any Man love the World the love of the Father is not in him they are utterly inconsistent partly because the Heart cannot be entirely set upon contrary Objects and partly because love to the one requires what is directly contrary to love to the other From hence St. James vehemently upbraids carnal Professors Ye Adulterers and Adulteresses know ye not that the friendship of the World is enmity with God Whosoever therefore will be a Friend of the World is the Enemy of God The World is the powerful Star whose Aspect he regards and tho with the dishonour and displeasure of God he will by irreligious compliance secure his temporal Interests The pure refined Truth of the Gospel that has past the fiery Trial he will corrupt and embase by carnal temperaments the precious Truth so dearly bought by the Blood of the Martyrs he will vilely sell for the things of this World Nay of a Professor he will by degrees turn Persecutor of those who stedfastly own the Truth The love of the World so strangely inchants infects the Mind that a false Religion which a Man did abhor from yet when recommended by secular Advantages will appear tolerable then eligible then necessary and consequently the divine Truth must be supprest that contradicts it There are such frequent Examples of this in every Age that to insist upon many particular Instances were to tell great numbers of the dead to prove that Men are mortal The Young Man that so earnestly addrest himself to Christ for his direction how to obtain Eternal Life when commanded to give all his Estate to the Poor and to follow Christ he would not gain at so dear a rate Celestial Treasures but went away sorrowful Whereupon our Saviour declares with solemnity to his Disciples Verily I say unto you that a rich Man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven We read of two Tribes of the Israelites that chose their Inheritance on this side Jordan and would not have a share in the Land of Canaan thus the earthly-minded prefer the present World the Object of their choice and love before the heavenly Canaan The Ecclesiastical Historian relates that in the time of Persecution by Decius the rich Men among the Christians were most easily and miserably foil'd the love of the World was a dangerous earnest in
the lower Appetites is natural to Men but chiefly incident to those in Prosperity The great care of such should be to use worldly things with that modesty and measure that the Divine Part the Soul may be untainted by them that it may neither overvalue nor overdelight in them The first degeneracy of Man is by sensual satisfaction This expell'd him from Paradise and keeps him out ever since The excess of Pleasures darken the Mind stupify the Conscience extinguish the radiancy and vigour of the Spirit Wine and Women take away the Heart The Apostle speaks of those who are abandon'd to Pleasures they are past feeling without a quick and tender sense of their Sin and Danger That we may not in an unlawful degree use lawful things we should always be ordered by the Principles of Fear and Restraint not indulging our selves to the utmost of what may seem allowed for to be upon the Confines of Sin exposes us to be easily overthrown by the next gust of a temptation 'T is a Divine Command that Christians should rejoice as tho they rejoiced not and buy as tho they possessed not and use the World as not abusing it A Christian should converse with the World as a carnal Person converses with Heaven he prays for spiritual Blessings with that coldness as if he had no desire to obtain them he hears the Word with that carelessness as if he had no desire to profit by it He performs other Religious Duties without a Heart as if he had no desire to be saved such an indifferency of Spirit in outward Enjoyments is our Duty and Safety 'T is a prodigious disorder and the great Cause of the Sins and Miseries of Men that their Affections are lavishly wasted upon Trifles their Love Desires and Delights are let forth in their full vigour to the Honours Riches and Pleasures of this World but are wretchedly remiss to spiritual and eternal things They would enjoy the World as their Heaven and Felicity and use God for their Necessity And thus by embracing vanishing Shadows they lose the most substantial and durable Good 'T is a Point of great wisdom to consider the several respects of temporal things as they respect our sensitive Part and the present Life and as they respect our Souls and the future State and to use them that the outward Man may be a more active and ready Instrument of the Soul in working out our own Salvation 6. Let the Favour of God and Communion with him be most precious and joyful to us in the midst of Prosperity The highest esteem and most ravishing apprehensions of God the dearest delight in him as the most excellent suitable Good and in whom the Soul has the most intimate propriety is the honour due to his incomparable Perfection The Holy Psalmist often declares his transcendent Valuation and inflamed Affection towards God How precious are thy Thoughts unto me O God! no artifice of words could fully express it how great is the sum of them If I should count them they are more in number than the Sand when I awake I am still with thee As if he breathed not oftner than he thought of God with reverence and complacency Thus also he despises all that carnal Men pursue with violent desires in comparison of God's Favour There be many that say Who will shew us any Good that is a sensual Good for nothing is pleasant to them but what appears in a fleshly fashion Lord lift thou up the light of thy Countenance upon us Thou hast put gladness in my heart more than in the time that their Corn and their Wine increased The carnal Man who is a stranger to spiritual Joys has a sweeter relish of carnal things than a Saint that has a new Nature that deads the Appetite to dreggy Delights and in the Vintage and Harvest there is a Spring-tide of carnal Joy yet David feels a more inward joy and cordial contentment in the fruition of God's Favour than a natural Man has in the flower of his worldly Felicity Nay he prizes the Favour of God before Life it self which is our most precious possession in this World Thy loving kindness is better than Life therefore my lips shall praise thee Communion with God is the beginning of Heaven and differs from the fulness of Joy that is in the Divine Presence above only in the degrees and manner of Fruition As the Blushes of the Morning are the same Light with the glorious brightness of the Sun at Noon-day The natural Man is averse from this heavenly Duty and most in Prosperity 'T is the observation of holy Job They spend their days in Wealth therefore they say to the Almighty Depart from us we desire not the knowledg of thy Ways 'T is the malignant property of worldly things to deface the Notions and cause a disrelish of sublime and spiritual things The Objects that pleasantly affect the carnal Faculties draw the Soul from God This is the principal and universal temptation of the present World by the corruption of our Hearts and never so dangerous as in our Prosperity 'T is a rule in Building that chief care must be taken for the contriving of Windows for the transmission of a liberal Light to refresh the Inhabitants Now to build in a Plain where the Heavens are open on all sides and the pure Light shines 't is easy to make the House convenient but to raise a luminous Fabrick in a City thick set with Houses and straitned for room requires Art and the Building must be higher thus a Person that is surrounded with the Honours Riches and Pleasures of the World that are so apt to darken the Soul and to exclude the Influences of Heaven has need of holy Skill to preserve a free communication with God and to be always receptive of his Grace Then holy Duties should be frequent and fervent wherein the Soul ascends to God by raised desires and God descends into the Soul by the Operations of his sanctifying and comforting Spirit And as we see in Nature the Flowers of every kind open their Leaves to the rising Sun to be reviv'd with his vital Heat so we should every day open our Hearts to God in Prayer and Praises And since all his Mercies invite and conduct us to the blessed Author and temporal Benefits are sensible Arguments of his Love those who most richly enjoy them are obliged infinitely more to value and delight in the Giver than in the Gifts themselves If the Heart be set upon Riches which 't is very apt to be when they increase or upon pleasures God is neglected and vilified and tho many are not openly vicious and profane yet so pleasantly the things of the World insinuate into their Affections that they cannot taste how good the Lord is a sad indication of their unregenerate state for the Divine Nature in a Saint inclines him to God as his supream Good his only
Treasure and exceeding Joy and as soon as he begins to breath the Life of Holiness he dies to the Vanities of the World And when Prosperity alienates the heart from God 't is as surely destructive as when it draws forth the sensual Appetites into exorbitant and foul actions A Consumption kills as surely as a Calenture Those who abuse the Favours of God to impiety and luxury throw themselves headlong into the bottomless Pit and those who in their abundance are remiss and cold towards God gradually descend thither for God will not be our Joy for ever in Heaven if he be not our exceeding Joy upon the Earth But when in the midst of Prosperity the Soul is fill'd with a noble admiration of the Divine Excellencies when it tastes incomparable more sweetness in the Love of God from whence outward Blessings are derived than in the things themselves when the chief Joy arises from the contemplation of his Favour in Christ whereby we are pardon'd and preferr'd to be his Brethren Coheirs with him of the immortal and undefiled Inheritance then we know how to abound Our Saviour commands his Disciples not to rejoyce that Spirits were subject to them tho an admirable testimony of his Favour but that their Names were written in Heaven Much less should this perishing World be the matter of our Joy in comparison of our Title and the blessed hope of Heaven Spiritual Joy purifies and fortifies the Soul against the insnaring and corrupting Allurements of the World The Joy of the Lord is their strength that of which he is the Author and Object is both productive and preservative of the Vigour of the Soul to resist the Charms of the World 'T is said of Orpheus when he past by the Syrens who by their charming Voices subdued Men to sleep and then destroyed them that he played on his Harp and the sweet sound made him despise their singing and prevented the danger The Fable is fitly moralized Joy in the Lord as our Portion and that infinite sweetness that is in communion with him makes such an impression upon the Soul that the insnaring and destructive Pleasures of the World are abhorr'd in comparison with them That firm Peace and pure Joy passes the Understanding our most comprehensive Faculty whereas all the Pleasures of the World do not satisfy our Senses 7. When Riches and Power are employed for the Glory of God and the good of others they are a happy advantage to those that possess them All Benefits are virtual Obligations and the greater our Receipts are the greater our Accounts will be God has a soveraign Right in all things we have and they are not to be employed meerly for our Pleasure or Profit but according to his Will and for his Honour 'T is true he enjoys his own Eternity his own Glory and Blessedness to which there is no possibility of accession his essential Glory cannot be increas'd but his declarative Glory may be more manifested in the Eyes of Men and he strictly requires that we should use his Gifts so as to shew forth his Glory to declare how highly we value his Glory and how ardently we desire and endeavour that others should bless and praise him Thus Men in high Dignity should govern their Greatness so as to make it subservient to this blessed End that the Wisdom Power Holiness Justice and Mercy of God may be manifested in their administration And those who enjoy a present abundance should according to their capacity relieve the Wants of others The wise God has order'd several degrees in the Society of Men the Rich and Poor that the inequality may be an occasion of the exercise of Charity And 't is a special favour that he is pleased to make some his Treasurers to dispense his Benefits to his Family Whilst others can only be charitable in their compassionate Desires he gives to some an ability os diffusive Goodness and 't is Injustice mixt with foul ingratitude not to pay that Tribute of which he has appointed the Poor to be his Receivers not to abound in good Works when from his most free and special Favour he enables Men to imitate and honour him who is rich in Mercy 'T is more blessed to give than to receive The present Reward is excellent 't is our Saviour's encouragement Give Alms of such things as you have according to your Capacity and behold all things are clean unto you As under the Law by offering the first Fruits in the Temple the whole Harvest was consecrated and bless'd so by a charitable distribution the Rich have a pure and comfortable enjoyment of their Estates And the Reward hereafter will be glorious by infinite degrees exceeding the most costly and liberal Charity 'T is the Encouragement used by the Apostle Charge them that are rich in this World that they do good that they be rich in good Works ready to distribute willing to communicate laying up in store for themselves a good foundation for the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal Life Some by corrupt prodigality waste their Estates are profuse as the Sea some heap up Riches as the Sand and both must be responsible to the Righteous Lord who will severely call them to an account for the abuse of his Blessings But those who according to their utmost ability honour him with their Substance and by their charity and beneficence open the hearts and lips of many in thanksgivings to God shall be accepted and rewarded from the Divine Mercy Especially doing good to those whom God loves who bear his Image who are peculiarly related to him shall have an excellent Reward The Apostle tells us that some by entertaining Strangers received Angels the honour is incomparably greater that in relieving the Godly Jesus Christ the Lord of Angels is fed and cloathed in his Members And at the last Day he will publickly own those Acts of Mercy as done to himself Then he will give to the contented Poor the Crown of Patience and to the charitable Rich the Crown of Liberality In short Riches and Honour Power and Prosperity are Temptations to the Carnal that draw forth their Lusts and increase their Guilt and Misery but to wise and faithful Christians they are Talents improved for their Master's Honour and their own everlasting Good 7. A firm resolution to part with all Possessions and Dignities when God's Honour and the testimony of his Truth requires it is an excellent Antidote against the Evil of Prosperity God doth sometimes call forth his Servants to hard Trials to declare with more strength and evidence their love to his Name their zeal for advancing his Glory Satan is an irreconcileable Enemy to God and his Saints and inspires the perverted World with his own Malice against them Rage has no Reason the Jews would excommunicate the blind Man because he saw and ascribed the Glory of the Miracle to our Saviour and Lazarus must die because he was raised