his worst Enemies his Lusts and Satan This will be amplified more in the following parts of the Discourse This being premis'd we come to shew how Prosperity abus'd is destructive to Sinners both meritoriously as it induces a deadly guilt and makes them obnoxious to the revenging Wrath of God and effectively as 't is opposite to the felicity and perfection of Man that consists in the renovation of the Image of God in the Soul and in joyful Communion with him for ever This will appear by the following Considerations 1. Prosperity is the continual Incentive of the vicious Affections the fleshly Lusts that war against the Soul that deprive it of its Beauty Order Freedom and Felicity Man is compounded of Flesh and Spirit by the one he communicates in nature with the Beasts by the other he confines with the Angels By the original Law of Union the Body was subject to the Soul and tho taken from the Earth did not oppress it and hinder its Heavenly flight The Flesh did not lust against the Spirit nor the Spirit against the Flesh. But as the motion of the two Eyes in the Head is always uniform and directed the same way so Reason and Sence accorded the Appetites were regular and concentrick with the Mind Upon this established order the internal Peace and Holiness of Man depends But by the rebellious Sin of Adam the Soul lost its regal Power and Freedom and as in the first temptation the Soul infected the Body so now the Body infects the Soul The carnal Appetite the spring of Lust and Anger that infernal pair that reigns so universally over-rules the rational Will and gives Law to Men. The love of sensual Pleasures is natural to Men as Temptations are more charming and increas'd 't is more predominant The Senses the Fancy and the Passions are in a conspiracy against the Soul and there is a continual circulation in their working they excite one another By the Sences pleasing things obtain an easy entrance into the Fancy and Fancy has a strange power to charm or terrify by false Representations it amplifies the Evil and heightens the seeming Good of things and by the inspiration of Fancy the Passions are moved and the Passions being allured bribe and seduce the Mind and draw the consent of the Will by the actual Pleasure that is mixt in the gratifying of them And as Adam lost his Innocence and Paradise by his compliance with the blandishments of his Wife so the Soul loses its purity and happiness by yielding to the Desires of the Flesh that is in conjunction with it For this reason Man in his fallen State is called Flesh as if there were no other Principle in his Nature and of his Operations The Spiritual and more noble Faculties that were made for delightful Communion with God are sunk into Carnality The description of Men in their natural State by the Apostle is a full proof of this We all had our Conversation in times past in the Lusts of the Flesh fulfilling the desires of the Flesh and of the Mind 'T is observable that the lusts of the Flesh that spring from the sensual Part are drawn forth into act by the concurrent Wills of the Flesh and of the Mind The nobler Faculties the Understanding and Will are depraved and freely indulge the Carnal Appetites in their pursuit of Pleasures Prodigious degeneracy of the reasonable Creature Of this we have a resemblance in the marvellous transforming Power of Nature If a Cyon be grafted into a Tree of another kind the Fruit that grows on it will not be according to the Nature of the Stock but of the Graft that over-rules the Sap and turns it to its own quality Thus the Beast is grafted into the Man and the intellectual Powers are corrupted and carnal The Mind is employed to disguise the Ignominy and Guilt that attend the Lusts of the Flesh and the Will consents to a submission to those ignoble and unruly Appetites Man has only this privilege that he is a more ingenious Brute to spring new Pleasures to make provision for his sensual Desires and to accomplish them Now in Prosperity when the Senses are entertained with variety of alluring Objects the Fancy is more predominant and contagious It has more force vivacity and extent the more 't is conversant about sensible things And the polluted Imagination is the most active and general Principle of corrupting the Heart for the Mind transcribes a Copy of what is written in the Fancy and presents it with a false gloss to the Will that is ready to chuse what brings actual pleasure And the sensitive Affections are excited by the Fancy so that the presence of a suitable Object foments the warmth into heat and turns the heat into fire and the fire into flame And the more the carnal Affections are indulg'd the more they are inlarg'd the more importunate and head-strong they become and the Soul is utterly disabled from recovering it self from the besotted vile prostitution to the ignoble and unruly Appetites Millions had been less guilty and defiled and less miserable for ever if they had not been surrounded by pleasant Temptations and intanglements of Iniquity 2. Prosperity occasionally incenses the irascible Appetite For the usual Incentives of Anger are the crossing the Desires and Contempt and the stronger the Desires the more impatient they are to be controll'd and in proportion to the height of mind is the indignation for any contempt that is offer'd Now prosperity makes the carnal Desires more exorbitant and consequently raging when frustrated Violent burning Desires when controll'd provoke violent burning Anger and Anger inflam'd extinguishes the calm Light of Reason becomes blind and furious in revenging apprehended Injuries 'T is the Inquiry joyn'd with Conviction by St. James From whence come Wars and Fightings among you Come they not from your Lusts that war in your Members The voluptuous ambitious covetous Passions when disappointed are the common and natural Causes of all the bloody Disorders in the World The other cause of Anger is Contempt either real or suppos'd and that is more provoking to those who rais'd by Pro sperity look with a distance of Mind upon others below them Prosperity in any kind swels Men with a vain opinion of their Worth and Dignity and makes them insolent and intolerable There is a strange distemper of the Eyes in some Persons where-ever they look their own Image visibly encounters them The reason of it is assign'd by an inquiring Philosopher ' That the visive Faculty has not spirits and vigour to penetrate through the Air to see other things and the Air as a Glass makes the reflection of their own Image Thus one of a shallow and weak Understanding is continually representing to himself his own conceited Excellencies And Prosperity increases their esteem of themselves unmeasurably above their just value 'T is like a Concave Glass that breaks the Rays and dilates the visive Angle and by a
Conscience that is now stupified by sensuality will make furious reflections upon the folly of their Choice and be more tormenting than the infernal Fiends When Cresus the rich King of Lydia was bound to the Stake and the Fire kindled for his burning he lamentably cried out Solon Solon Solon and being ask'd the reason of it declared that in the height of his Prosperity that wise Grecian had advised him to prepare for a Revolution from his Glory and Greatness into a miserable State and his neglect of that Counsel was more tormenting than the loss of his Kingdom How piercing will the remembrance be to lost Souls of their despising the Instructions Warnings and gracious Methods of the Divine Wisdom to have prevented their ruin that Mercy was so often and so rebelliously resisted this will be the Hell of Hell 2. The certainty of their Destruction is next to be considered 'T is unchangeably establish'd by the Divine Ordination that the Pleasures of Sin shall end in the misery of obstinate Sinners This is declared in the Word of God If ye live according to the Flesh ye shall die And as 't is founded in destributive Justice so it shall be executed from his Truth Our Saviour tells us Heaven and Earth shall pass away but one jot or tittle of the Law shall not be unfulfilled All the threatnings of it in their fearful extent shall be accomplish'd upon impenitent Sinners the proper Objects of Vengeance God cannot deny himself in ceasing to be Holy and True and his Power seconds his Word to inflict the full effects of it upon the Guilty and Impenitent for a time they are spared that they might repent for Mercy is not only over all the Works of God but paramount to all his Attributes it suspends his Power from Acts of Vengeance it delays and mitigates his Justice we may appeal from Justice to Mercy in the Court of Heaven but when God's Mercy has been affronted and exasperated by the continual abuse of his Benefits when 't is renounc'd and forfeited by Sinners their destruction is irreversible for 't is Mercy alone atones his righteous Anger and this being so fearfully provok'd there is no Advocate in his Bosom to plead for them Did he not expel from Heaven the rebellious Angels Spirits of a higher Order and more excellent Endowments than Men and in their number perhaps exceeding the whole Progeny of Man Now as the Apostle considering that the Israelites the chosen People of God and dear to him above all others yet when they became unfruitful were broken off from the true Olive Tree and the wild Gentiles were grafted into it leaves this Caution in eternal memory Be not high-minded but fear For if he spared not the natural Branches take heed lest he spare not thee We may strongly infer If God spared not the Angels that sinned in their first act of disobedience but cast them down to hell and delivered them into Chains of Darkness to be reserved unto Judgment Certainly he will not spare sinful Men that hate to be reformed and continue in the voluptuous course of Sin to the last The secure and foolish Sinners that now make a mock of Sin and have so far lost their Innocence and Ingenuity that shame and request for their foul Actions is counted a vicious Infirmity a degenerous Humour they shall understand in what degree Sin is hateful to the Holy God They who now sleep out all the denunciations of the Law will find at last they have to do with a terrible inexorable God Because I have called and ye refused I have stretched out my hand and no Man regarded But ye have set at nought all my Counsel and would have none of my Reproof I also will laugh at your Calamity and mock when your Fear comes When your Fear comes as Desolation and your Destruction comes as a Whirlwind when Distress and Anguish come upon you Then shall they call upon me but I will not answer they shall seek me early but they shall not find me For that they hated Knowledg and did not chuse the Fear of the Lord. This dreadful Threatning is pointed against foolish Sinners who abuse Prosperity When those who shut their Eyes against Danger shall be constrained to open them and see the fearful Face of Death attended with Judgment and Judgment with an eternal Hell when Diseases in the Body and Anguish in the Soul shall assail them at once like two Clouds that by collision break forth in Thunder and they mournfully cry for Mercy their Prayers will be rejected with scorn and their Ruin be remediless The carnal Conceit that God will graciously receive Sinners when the World has left them that when by calamitous constraint they are at last brought to confess their wickedness and are only sorrowful for the evil Consequences of it the conceit that they shall find Mercy is Atheism of as blasphemous a nature as the denial of a God for to ascribe such a Mercy to God as is inconsistent with his Wisdom Holiness Justice and Truth is to deprive him of his purest Perfections and in effect to ungod him In the rebellions of their lives they exprest open enmity against God and their Devotion at their death is secret Flattery in his account For thus t is said by the Psalmist of such Sinners When he slew them then they sought him and they returned and enquired early after God Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth and lied to him with their tongues For their heart was not right with him and they were not stedfast in his Covenant 'T is true God is rich in Mercy and most willing to pardon returning Sinners when their contrition is sincere when they are truly sorrowful that Sin has made them unholy as well as unhappy that they have abus'd the Mercies of God our gracious Creator and Preserver compassionate Redeemer and blessed Comforter as well as provok'd his Anger and when the resolutions of amendment are so deeply rooted as would prove effectual if they should be tried by the lengthning of their Time in this World But those who defer their repenting whilst God defers punishing and like the unjust Steward never think of making provision for their Souls till they are cited to give an account of their unrighteous and ungrateful abuse of his Blessings those who renounce their Sins when unable to commit them and resolve to live well when they can live no longer have great reason to suspect their own hearts and to be fearful of their future state If a Minister be call'd to assist such in their dying hours there is infinite reason he should be cautious of assuring them of Pardon and Salvation lest natural Sorrow be mistaken for godly Sorrow and the Repentance declar'd by them would be retracted upon new temptations 't is safe to imitate a discreet Physician that is unwilling to declare what he fears will be the issue of the
Element all that he possesses to supply his want and satisfy his desires is from pure Mercy and the more eminent the advantage of some is above others in this World the greater are their Receits and Obligations and who would be proud that he is in a mighty Debt rich and poor honourable and mean are distinctions among Men but in respect to God all are equally mean and low Neither do these things give any inherent worth and make Persons more acceptable to God Poor Lazarus who was a miserable Spectacle his Body corroded with Ulcers yet had a precious Soul under it the glorious Angels descended from Heaven to receive it at the point of Death and convey it to the reviving presence of God but the rich Man was cast into Hell Besides how uncertain are all the admired things of this World Is he truly rich whose whole Estate lies in a Ship abroad that is to pass through Seas exposed to Tempests and infested with Pirats and runs a double hazard of being rob'd or cast away And the Consideration thereof is a proper Argument to cause us to keep a low Mind in a high Condition 'T is the Apostle's counsel Let the rich and the great in the World rejoice in that he is made low because as the Flower of the Grass he shall pass away when the florid Beauty is displayed it presently withers How many survive their Estates and Dignities and by unforeseen Revolutions become poor and low Many that were overflowing in Riches and Pleasures are as dry and desolate as the Desart And is it not a disparagement to our Reason to admire Shadows and be proud of transient Vanities But suppose they continue with Men here can they preserve the Body from Diseases and Death or the Soul from oppressing Sorrows And is it not miserable folly to pride themselves in secular Greatness that is so insufficient to prevent the worst Evils But especially the consideration how Man is vilified by Sin should make him be abased and low in his own Eyes As that blessed Martyr Bishop Hooper says Lord I am Hell thou art Heaven I am a Sinck of Sin thou art the Fountain of Holiness And the more gracious and bountiful God is to Men the more sinful should they appear to themselves Humility discovers our native Poverty in the midst of rich Abundance our true Vileness in the midst of glittering Honours that nothing is ours but Sin and Misery and makes us say with the Spirit of that humble Saint We are less than the least of all God's Mercies Now the more of Humility the more of Heaven is in the Soul 't is that disposition that prepares it to receive the Graces and Comforts of the Spirit in an excellent degree God resists the Proud the Self-conceited and Aspiring he is at defiance with and abhors them he justly deprives them of Spiritual Treasures who value themselves and bear it high for the abundance of this World But he gives Grace to the Humble The due sense of our Wants and Unworthiness makes us fit to partake of Divine Blessings 2. A meek temper and deportment is an excellent preservative from the evil of Prosperity Humility and Meekness are always in conjunction and most amiable in the Eyes of God and Men. A meek and quiet Spirit which is in the sight of God of great price They are the brightest Jewels that adorn Humanity and shin'd so gloriously in our blessed Saviour the supream Pattern of Perfection and are propounded as signally imitable by us Learn of me for I am meek and lowly When he came in his Regal Office he is thus described Rejoice greatly O Daughter of Sion Behold thy King cometh unto thee he is just and having Salvation lowly the Church is excited to rejoice in his mild Monarchy And Christians who in Profession are his Disciples are commanded to be gentle and to shew all meekness to all Men. This especially concerns those who are in a superior Order for Prosperity is apt to make Men insolent and intollerable and to treat with an haughty roughness those that are below them But there is nothing more becoming Men in Prosperity and Power than a sweetness of Spirit not easily provok'd by Injuries and easily pardoning them a gracious condescension exprest in Words and Actions even to all Inferiors And especially meekness is necessary in a submissive receiving Reproofs for Sin whether by the Ministry of the Word or by a faithful Friend Prosperity is never more dangerous than when Sin takes sanctuary in it when Men think Riches and Power to be a privilege to free them from sound and searching Reproof and damn themselves with less contradiction And an humble submission with respect to the Authority of God and an ingenious tractableness with respect to the sincere affection of those who are faithful in their Counsels for our Souls is an eminent instance of Meekness and preserves from the danger of Prosperity 3. Solmn and affectionate Thanksgiving to God for his Mercies sanctifies Prosperity This is the certain consequent of an humble disposition of Soul Pride smothers the Receits of God's Favours Thankfulness is the homage of Humility This is infinitely due to God who renews our Lives as often as we breath and renews his Mercies every moment yet so unjust and ungrateful are Men especially in Prosperity that they strangely neglect it From hence are those Divine Warnings so solemnly repeated to the Israelites When thou shalt have eaten and art full then beware lest thou forget the Lord. And lest when thou hast eaten and art full and hast built goodly Houses and dwelt therein then thy heart be lifted up and thou forget the Lord thy God This was the wicked effect of their Prosperity According to their pasture so were they filled they were filled and their heart was exalted therefore have they forgotten me There is a great backwardness in a carnal heart to thanksgiving for Mercies Prayer in our distress is a Work of Necessity but thankful Praise is an Act of Duty carnal Love is the cause of the one divine Love of the other Even David how ardently does he excite his Soul to the performing this Duty Bless the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me bless his Holy Name Bless the Lord O my Soul and forget not all his Benefits The earnest and repeated Address to make a lively and fervent Impression upon his Soul is a tacit intimation of the drowsy negligence he found in himself This Duty is Spiritual and to be performed by the Soul that is our noble part and capable to understand our Obligations to the Divine Goodness Indeed 't is often exprest in the vocal praises of God for there is a natural correspondence between the Tongue and the Heart as between the Hand of a Clock and the Motion of the Wheels within but the chief part is performed in the Soul and is only of value and acceptance
Love of God includes an Act of the Understanding a transcendent esteem of his Favour Thy loving-kindness is better than Life it inspires the Soul with ardent desires after him My Soul follows hard after thee it produces the most joyful satisfaction in Communion with him The Thoughts of God are unspeakably precious and sweet the Ordinances the blessed Means of conveying his Grace are highly valued and Sin that displeases and separates from God is hated as the greatest Evil. Now the Soul must be refined to a heavenly temper to some degrees of Angelical Purity before 't is capable of Light to see his spiritual Excellencies and Love to enjoy them And if the Soul does not make the Body Heavenly and Spiritual the Body will make the Soul Earthly and Fleshly From hence it is that the affluence of things pleasing to the Senses fastens the carnal Heart to the World as its Happiness and Heaven it darkens the Mind and vitiates the Affections that the Soul can neither taste nor see how good the Lord is 'T is the universal Character of Men in the carnal State they are lovers of Pleasure more than lovers of God And a remisser degree of Love is comparative Hatred A Sin of astonishing guilt and not less odious to God and damning in its Nature tho little observed and resented by carnal Men for the highest dishonour of God is complicated with disobedience in it A Sin that deserves and inflicts the sorest Punishment for God alone whose goodness is infinite can make us perfectly and eternally happy and the spiritual separation from him is such an unvaluable loss that when truly understood is the foundation of the heaviest sorrow 3. The Fear of God is a most distant affection from the Heart of the foolish Sinner in his Prosperity The Fear of Reverence and the awful esteem of God that proceeds from the reflection upon his glorious greatness is a grace that remains in Heaven the Angels in all their bright degrees of Excellence cover their faces before his Throne The fear of Circumspection that restrains from displeasing him upon the account of his Justice and Power is a proper Affection to Men in the present state The Blessed in Heaven are above this Fear being confirm'd in a state of unchangeable perfection and felicity the Damned in Hell are below this Fear in that no change can make their Condition worse but 't is most useful and congruous in this middle state This Fear of God is the beginning of Wisdom the first and chiefest part of it in respect of Order and Dignity For the true Notion of Wisdom consists in the foresight of Evils in the choice and use of effectual means to avoid it and it is the best Wisdom that avoids the greatest Danger This Fear is the Principle of Conversion from Sin to Holiness exciting us to make God our Friend who is so dreadful an Adversary so Holy and Just that he will not connive at Sin and spare the Guilty and Impenitent and so powerful that with one stroke he can utterly destroy his most stubborn Enemies Carnal Security is directly opposite to this Fear of God and nothing does more harden and fortify Men in Security than a prosperous State The Voluptuous and Sensual are without apprehension of Danger till imminent and in their view Because they have no changes therefore they fear not God Uninterrupted Prosperity tempted them to Atheistical Security and as none are sollicitous and in anxiety lest the Sun whose presence is the support and beauty of the World should not arise in the morning because its regular course is establish'd and constant and it would be a Miracle contravening the Order of Nature if it should be stop'd Thus the long enjoyment of Plenty and Ease and Peace renders Men constantly secure and fearless as if the tenor of their Prosperity were invariable and no evil could disturb it or at least they will set back the expectation of Evil at a great distance like those prophane Scorners mentioned by the Prophet They say the Vision he sees is for many days to come he pro phesies of the times afar off and with a brutish stupidity slight the Divine Threatnings And from hence it follows that none are so rebelliously and boldly disobedient as the prosperous Sinner which is the fourth thing to be considered 4. Entire Obedience is due to the Supreme Lawgiver who is able to save and destroy for ever yet he is mercifully inclin'd to pardon the Infirmities of Men and greater Sins retracted by Repentance There are Sins of Ignorance when a Man dashes blindfold against the Law and of suddain surreption when there is no time to deliberate and for recollection and the best are not exempted here from Sins of this nature there are Sins of deadly malignity when Men are careless of God's Commands and indulge their Lusts tho not without some remorse But the prosperous Sinner is usually most presumptuous he sins with a high hand and incurrs a greater guilt and shall be exposed to greater punishment When the Fear of God is extinguish'd Luxury takes the Reins and breaks through the Hedg of the Law without feeling the wounding Thorns the fearful Threatnings in it and drives on through all the degrees of Sin 'T is the aggravation of the Israelites Ingratitude Jesurun waxed fat and kicked and lightly esteemed the Rock of his Salvation They were like Beasts high fed that become fierce and untractable will endure no Yoke upon them The prosperous Sinner securely despises the Commands of God and by an implicit Blasphemy dares his offended Omnipotence as if he were stronger than the Lord. He concludes his safety from his present success and says in his heart I shall have peace tho I walk in the imagination of mine heart and add sin to sin The Lord will not spare him but the anger of the Lord shall smoke against that Man to his destruction 3. Prosperity exposes dangerously to the tempting Power of Satan whose Subtilty Malice and Diligence is always exercised in training Men to Perdition His destructive Power cannot make immediate impressions on the Soul but he tempts by Objects without and the Affections within the World and the Flesh that are in combination with him He is accordingly stiled the God of this World as he reigns in the Men of the World by using the things of the World to obtain and establish his Kingdom He blinds their eyes by glittering Temptations deceives and surprizes them by his Fallacies And altho 't is difficult to conceive and unfold his internal Agency and pernicious Operations and 't is certain he cannot make a forcible entry into the Soul and tempt with prevalency and success without the consent of the Will yet we are told that he is a prime Mover in the sins of Men. He entred into Judas and by putting a lustre on the Silver exciting his covetous desires prevail'd with him to betray the Lord of Glory He
power they cannot make use of the Armor of God for their Defence and their Lusts are strong they are patient of his Drudgery constant at the Oar and faithful to their Chains And from hence 't is evident that Men are never more dangerously under the destructive power of Satan than when they enjoy Prosperity 3. Prosperity is destructive to many in that it affords them advantages to corrupt others and reciprocally exposes them to be corrupted by others Persons in Dignity Wealth and Power when depraved in their Inclinations and Actions are like publick Fountains poison'd that convey a spreading ruin abroad Their evil Example has a pernicious Influence and more commanding Efficacy as a Rule than their Laws they ordain as Rulers The Manners of Princes are as current as their Mony that being stamp'd with their Image and Superscription tho the Metal be base passes freely among the People The reason of it is evident for without the restraints of shame and fear the sensual Passions are riotous and licencious Shame is a displeasure at Evils that are attended with dishonour and infamy especially at sinful Evils that are so shameful in their own Nature that the most sordid things in comparison are less ignominious Now foul Vices when practis'd by Men of conspicuous Eminence do not seem with that turpitude and deformity as is inherent in their Nature As a muddy Vapour drawn up by the Sun and enamel'd with the Rays of Light appears amiable to the Eye not dreggy and foul as 't is in it self Innumerable miscarry by the vicious Examples of Persons in Honour for when Sins are gilded over with creditableness many think it necessary to be unholy that is truly vile that they may be fashionably noble And when those that are in Power abuse it as a privilege for licenciousness in Sin inferiors are viciously bold expecting Facility and Indulgence in the pardoning those Faults of which their Superiors are guilty And those who do not fear to be punish'd do not fear to sin Thus amongst the Heathens Lasciviousness was lawless because they ascribed their vicious Passions to their supposed Deities and did not fear their revenging Justice for what was practis'd by them Besides Prosperity exposes the Rich and Great to be more corrupted by others Servile Spirits will be cruelly obsequious to the Humors and Lusts of those upon whom they depend and the ready Instruments of accomplishing their irregular Desires 'T is their Interest to please them from whom they receive Favours and Benefits And how few have so firm a Vertue as to break the twisted Temptations of Pleasure and Profit The Rich and Great in the World are usually attended with a train of Dependents or vicious Associates whose compliance is very influential to harden a vicious Disposition into a corrupt Habit. These are underworkers to Satan the Mastertempter and feed the double Element of infernal Fire Lust and Rage in the Breasts of those with whom they converse 'T is the peculiar misery of Men in a high and flourishing Condition that they have many Flatterers and few Friends Few or none dare faithfully represent their Sins and Danger lest the sight of their Guilt in its true reflexion should offend them As Love is blind to others so especially to one's self and mercenary Wretches by the most vile flattery endeavour to make them believe of themselves what is pleasing to them to believe Such to ingratiate will commend the mere shadows of Vertue as substantial Vertue and excuse real gross Vices as but the shadows of Vice By deceitful Arts they colour and conceal the native ugliness of Sin under a thin appearance and name of Vertue The arrogant and revengeful they call generous the covetous frugal the lascivious gentile the prodigal magnificent the malicious wary and cautious the brutish and secure couragious The Conversation of such is infinitely dangerous and corrupting for under the disguise of Friendship they are the most deadly Enemies What greater danger of being poison'd can there be than when by Art the taste of Poison is taken away from the Poison and there is no suspicion of the Traitor that gives it Thus 't is further evident that Prosperity is very dangerous to the Souls of Men. 4. The Prosperity of Sinners usually renders the means of Grace ineffectual that should reclaim and reform them and consequently their Destruction is remediless The Means of Grace are Internal or External Internal the motions of the Holy Spirit and the Convictions and Excitations of Conscience External the Ministry of the Word and the Counsels of faithful Friends all which are usually made frustrate and inefficacious by the Vices and Lusts of the Prosperous 1. Prosperity makes Sinners more uncapable of receiving the heavenly Impressions of the Spirit and obstinate in resisting his gracious working The Flesh and the Spirit are contrary And accordingly as the carnal Appetite has dominion and over-rules in Men such is their opposition to his restraints from Evil or his motions to what is holy and good The sensual have not the Spirit They wilfully refuse to give admission to him when by inward impulses he sollicits them and have a stubborn and active contrariety to his Attributes and gracious Operations He is stiled the Spirit of Power and Love and a sound Mind He communicates a sacred Sovereign Vertue to the Soul whereby the irregular Passions are reduc'd to the obedience of the sanctified Mind and the reigning power of Sin is dissolv'd He is a free Spirit and restores the Soul to true and perfect Liberty by inlarging the Will and making it commensurate with the Divine Will and from hence it is the inseparable Character of a converted Person he is willing to do what God will have him do and to be what God will have him be But sensual Persons by the pleasant infusions of servility from the Tempter and carnal Objects have lost their power and desire of spiritual Liberty and resist the holy Spirit when he offers to break the Bands of their Lusts. The Spirit in converting the Soul inspires it with heavenly Love to God for the ever-satisfying beauty of his Perfections and from Love proceeds intellectual delight in communion with him in affectionate ascents to him and his gracious descents to the Soul but the Sensual are fastned in the Mire of their sordid Pleasures and can take no heavenly flight and relish no divine Comforts The Spirit produces a sound Mind to judg sincerely of things as they are And from hence the corrupting Vanities of the World lose their attractive Charms and eternal things appear in their reality and excellency and are chosen and sought with persevering diligence But the sensual Heart is a perpetual Furnace whose Smoke darkens the Mind that it cannot discover sublime and heavenly Excellencies and whose impure Heat fires the Will that 't is earnest in the pursuit of fleshly Pleasures Briefly nothing does more quench the Spirit in his
illuminating quickning and attractive Operations than Sensuality and nothing more heightens sensuality and increases the aversness of carnal Men to the holy Law of God and makes their Conversion more difficult than Prosperity Indeed the Spirit of God can by effectual Grace convert the most unprepared habituate Sinner the most obstinate Enemy of Holiness he can melt the most rocky stubborn Heart into a holy softness and compliance with its Duty for creating Power is of infallible Efficacy and there are some Objects and Miracles of Divine Grace that are the everlasting Monuments of its glorious Power in subduing the most fierce violence of rebellious Sinners But the Spirit of God does not work as natural Agents that are active to the extent of their Power The Winds blow with all their force and the Sun inlightens the Air with all its luster The holy Spirit is an intelligent and voluntary Agent whose Power in working is regulated by his Will and directed by his Wisdom There are some things repugnant to the Divine Attributes ' that 't is impossible God should do them the Apostle saith that God cannot lye for 't is contrary to his Truth one of his essential Perfections And 't is as impossible that he should do any thing unbecoming his Wisdom He threatned the sensual World My Spirit shall not always strive with Man for he is Flesh that is corrupt and indulgent to his fleshly Appetites and alway opposing and controuling the pure Motions of the Spirit We read that our Saviour could do no mighty Works in his own Country because of their unbelief Not as if their Infidelity abated his Divine Power but they were unprepared to receive benefit by them his Miracles would have been cast away upon such inconvincible Persons Who will sow the barren Sands or water dead Plants or give a rich Cordial to a furious Patient that will spill it on the ground And 't is an Act of Justice to deprive Sinners of those Inspirations which they have so long resisted Those who are tender and tractable and unfeignedly resign up themselves to his conduct in the Ways of Life shall receive more powerful Influences to perfect the blessed Work begun in them He will give more Grace to the humble But those who are so far from valuing his Graces and Comforts that should be received with the highest respect that they ungratefully despise them and rebel against his Motions and Counsels he righteously deserts St. Stephen in his Charge against the Jews to compleat the aggravation of their Sins reproaches them Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in Heart and Ears ye always resisted the Holy Ghost The obstinate Sinner rebels against his Authority and contemns his Mercy The Tempter with his Charms is presently entertain'd as the Devils easily enter'd into the Swine but the Holy Spirit with his gracious Offers is rejected Wretched Indignity rather to obey a Slave and an Enemy than the lawful Soveraign If the Saints grieve the Spirit of God by a wilful neglect of his assisting Grace and fall into presumptuous sins altho from the perfection of his Nature he is not capable of passionate grief yet he infinitely dislikes their sins And as grief when 't is oppressing causes the Spirits to retire to the Heart and Nature is as it were shut up in its springs and obstructed from communicating agility and vivacity in the ordinary operations of the senses thus the holy Spirit when grieved withdraws and there follows a disconsolate eclipse and interruption of his reviving quickning presence But the indulgent habituate Sinners provoke him finally to leave them to their own Lusts. 'T is true his deserting them is usually gradual as in a consumptive Person the stomach the colour the strength decline by degrees till Nature sinks irrecoverably under the Disease so the motions of the Spirit in those who have often repell'd them are not so frequent and vigorous as before his after calls are weaker wasting and dying every day till his total withdrawing from them How fearful and hopeless is the state of such a sinner This spiritual Judgment always proceeds from inexorable severity and ends in the eternal ruin of sinners For without the Spirit 's supernatural working they can never be renewed to Repentance never reconciled to God They may for a time live in a voluptuous course or follow the Business of the World and a little breath may separate between them and Hell but they shall at last die in their sins in an impardonable state for ever 'T is said of the Jews They rebell'd and vexed his Holy Spirit therefore he turned to be their Enemy and fought against them 2. The Convictions and Excitations of Conscience are prevented or made ineffectual by the prosperity of sinners Conscience is the applicative Mind that respects Practice it directs in our Duty both by inhibitions from what is evil and by instigations to what is good and by comparing our Actions with the Rule testifies our innocence or guilt and approves or condemns us This intellectual Ray was planted in us by the wise God in out Creation and extended to the Divine Law the Object and End of it to keep us to our Duty And since our revolt 't is being enlightned and sanctified the vital Principle of Conversion to God the powerful means of rescuing the lapsed Soul from its prostitution to the Flesh and recovering it to a temper of Purity becoming its Original Excellence and Relation to the Father of Spirits 'T is true the Love of God is the primary Rule of our Duty and the Holy Spirit is the Efficient of our Renovation but the inlightned Conscience is the immediate Rule and the immediate Mover of us to return to our Duty And if Conscience which is the Eye of the Soul be covered with a film of Ignorance if it be blear'd with the false glitterings of the World if it totally neglects its Office or makes but a cold application of saving Terrors that may controul the licentious Appetites if it be disregarded when it suggests and excites to our Duty the sinner is hardned and setled in his lost state Now Prosperity foments the sensual Affections that obscure the Light of Conscience that corrupt its Judgment that smother and suppress its Dictates or despise and slight them that 't is powerless tho constituted God's Deputy to order our Lives 1. Affected Ignorance is the usual Concomitant of sensual Lusts for the enlightned Conscience will convince and condemn Men for their Pollutions and force them here to feel the beginning of sorrows and thereby make them apprehensive what the issues and consummation will be hereafter and this will cast an aspersion of bitterness upon their sweet sins and lessen the full pleasure of them From hence our Saviour tells us Every one that loves to do Evil hates the Light neither cometh to the Light lest his Deeds should be reproved that is by the instructed and awakned Conscience Men love darkness
to cover their nakedness and foul deformity They are averse from knowing their Duty and will not search lest they should discover such terrible Truths that cross their sensual Humour The Apostle foretells That Scoffers should come in the last days who are willingly ignorant of the beginning and end of the World as if there were no Divine Maker of all things who has power to destroy them and consequently no Judg to whom Men must be accountable for their disobedience to his Laws they assent to the most evident Absurdity that all things were and shall continue in the same tenor and the cause of their willing ignorance is insinuated in the Character that describes them that they might walk after their own Lusts more securely freely and joyfully 2. Sensual Lusts do not only hinder Mens search after Knowledg but obscure the Light of Conscience and corrupt its Judgment There is such an intimate Communion between the Soul and the Body that interchangably they corrupt one another the sins of the Flesh sink into the Spirit and corrupt the moral Principles from whence the sensible Conscience springs of Good and Evil. And the sins of the Spirit Infidelity Incogitancy Error Security break out in the Deeds of the Body and make the Flesh more outragious in its Desires St. Paul declares that unto the defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure but even their Mind and Conscience is defiled A purged Heart is requisite for a clear Mind but where Lust dwells it taints and perverts the practical Judgment from whence so many Disorders follow in the Life The natural Conscience in many Cases in its simple judgment of things sincerely declares what is to be done and what to be avoided but when compounded and stain'd with a tincture of Sensuality it judges according to the Desires The rebellious Israesites in the Wilderness are described It is a People that do err in their Hearts the Heart was the erroneous Fountain of all their Miscarriages and forty Years instruction could do them no good Those who are given up to carnal Delights and are in a confederacy with the gross Senses even their directive and judging Faculty is carnal in its apprehensions A reprobate Mind and vile Affections are naturally and judicially the Cause and Effect of one another Even natural Truths that are plain and bright as the essential distinction between moral Good and Evil between Vertue and Vice and the belief of a Judgment to come that is inseparably connext with it yet through the perversness and crookedness of Mens Hearts are strangely darkned Men wish according to their carnal Interest and what they wish they would fain believe and as when there was no King in Israel every one did what was good in his own Eyes so if there were no after-reckoning Men would without the check of Conscience follow the Wills of the Flesh therefore they are Atheists in desire and if not scared by the pangs of a throbbing Conscience will be so in their thoughts The Heathens cancell'd the Law of Nature and transgress'd all the Rules of Duty and Decorum they securely indulg'd those Lusts that are a derogation and debasement to the reasonable Creature and make Men below Men. The reason of this prodigious degeneracy was their Manners corrupted their Minds St. Paul charges the Ephesians not to walk as the other Gentiles in the vanity of their Minds having the Understanding darkned being alienated from the Life of God through the Ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their Heart who being past feeling have given themselves over to lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness A dead Conscience and a dissolute Life are inseparable And how many that are surrounded with the Celestial Beams of the Gospel are as impure and impenitent as those in the black Night of Paganism They stand at the entrance of the bottomless Pit yet do not smell the Brimstone that inrages the Fire there the flames of their Lusts have feared their Consciences to a desperate degree of hardness and insensibility Of such the Apostle speaks But these as natural brute Beasts made to be taken and destroyed speak evil of the things they understand not and shall utterly perish in their own corruption and shall receive the Reward of Unrighteousness as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time spots they are and blemishes sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you They violated all the Prescriptions and Restraints of natural Reason they had lost all the ingenuous bashfulness of the humane Nature and pleas'd themselves in their false licentious Principles whereby they endeavoured to justify their enormous Actions and set a superficial gloss upon their foul Deformities Now a seduced and seducing Mind make the conversion of a Sinner most difficult Whilst the Judgment condemns what the Affections approve Men are not so invincibly and irrecoverably lost the inlightned Conscience is an earnest of their return to their Duty But when the Spirit is deceived the flesh always prevails and Men are most dissolute corrupt and desperately wicked Our Saviour says If the Light that is in us be Darkness how great is that Darkness how disorderly and ruinous will the course be If the Salt hath lost its savour wherewith shall it be salted If the Conscience that should be as Salt to preserve the Soul from tainting Pleasures be corrupted wherewith can it be restored 3. Fleshly Lusts smother and suppress the Dictates and Testimony of the enlightned Conscience that they are not influential upon the Life The Dictates of Conscience are in a direct Line instructing and advising Men in their Duty the Testimony is by reflexion upon their Errors from the Divine Rule and condemning them for their Guilt 1. The Dictates of the inlightned Conscience are supprest 'T is the observation of the Philosopher concerning sensual Persons that they have Reason in the Faculty and Habit but not in the Use and Exercise The practical Understanding declares our Duty that 't is absolutely necessary to obey God and Men assent to it in the general but when this Principle is to be applied to Practice in Particulars that are ungrateful to the corrupt Will Lust draws a Veil over it that it may not appear to check the sensual Inclinations Whilst the Mind seduc'd by the Senses is intent upon the pleasing Object it does not actually and strongly consider the Divine Command and Conscience is brought under the controul of the impetuous Passions The Light of Reason as well as of Divine Revelation discovers that the blessed Beginning and the happy End of Man is to be like God and to enjoy his Love but when there is a competition between his Favour and the things of the World the carnal Heart suppresses the Dictates of the Mind and makes a blindfold choice of things present and sensible as if Man were all Earth and there were no spark of Heaven within
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
enquiry For what End am I created for what do I consume my Time If my Endeavours are all for the Earth what remains for Heaven what do I prepare what shall attend me what shall I meet in the next State How long will it be before I must leave this visible World and after the irrevocable step into the next immediately appear before the inlightned Tribunal of God whose Judgment is so strict that the Righteous are scarely saved and so heavy that the strongest Sinners cannot endure Can the World prevent my doom to Hell or release me from it Will the remembrance of the Enjoyments here afford any refreshment in Everlasting Burnings By such sad and frequent Soliloquies the vicious sensual Affections are eradicated and the Heart is transplanted from Earth to Heaven If Men would wisely ponder things if Conscience the sincere and unsuspected Judg did hold the Ballance and put into one Scale the Glory the Riches and Pleasures of this World and into the other the Promises that belong to Godliness here and hereafter how despicably light will they be found 'T was truly said that false Scarlet appears with lustre till compared with the Rich and True so the fictitious Felicity of this World is very specious and ravishes the Minds of Men till compared with Coelestial Felicity Worldly Honour is counterfeit because 't is no certain Argument of inherent worth Vain-glory and real Infamy often meet in the same Person yet 't is admir'd and ambitiously sought till compar'd with the Honour of the Saints What is a Reputation and Honour with the Worms and Moles of the Earth compared with the Honour that comes from the esteem of God and Angels and other blessed Spirits above who incomparably exceed all Mortals in number and infinitely in understanding What is a vanishing shadow of Reputation against an eternal inestimable weight of Glory What are the Riches of this World Gold and Silver and Jewels for gaining of which so many lose their Souls but vile trash compared with the sacred Treasures of Heaven the Graces of the Saints What are the empty delights of the Senses compared with the Peace of Conscience and Joy in the Holy Ghost that can sweeten all our Sorrows here and the fulness of Joy that springs from God's Presence in Heaven If Men would make judicious Comparisons their Affections would cool towards perishing Vanities But they will only look upon what is pleasant and attractive in the World without regarding its miserable Defects without considering what is infinitely better and most worthy of their ardent desires and vigorous endeavours They are so pleas'd with their Error so ingaged in the sweet captivity of the World that they cannot extricate themselves if they would because they will not if they could 2. 'T is a culpable and guilty Folly When Children prefer things of Lustre before things of Value their childish Toys before real Treasures when they chuse a little present Enjoyment before a future Good that is incomparably better their Folly is innocent because Reason cannot display its operations in them But when Men who are capable to distinguish between the things that are seen and temporal and the things that are not seen and eternal when they sottishly prefer sensible things before Spiritual notwithstanding the vast difference between them both in the quality and duration their choice is so criminal as deserves an everlasting Hell If Esau had been a Child when he sold his Birthright for a Mess of Pottage his folly had been excused for he was compelled by hunger and the glorious dignity of the Birthright was disproportionate to his Appetite and Understanding but in his mature Age when capable to understand his Interest to part with so sacred and precious an advantage for a little sensual satisfaction was so profane an Act that he was justly deprived of the Divine Blessing that was annext to the Birthright That Beasts are wholly led by their sensual Appetities is natural and regular their voracity and crueâ—ty folly and filthiness envy and fury are not vicious passions because Sense is the superior Faculty in them But when Men are so brutish that the Objects that please their Eyes and carnal Senses are the only Attractives of their affections 't is unnatural and monstrous because Reason should have the supremacy in them If a Woman remain in a single state she has power over her Actions and may freely govern her self but if married is subordinate to her Husband and disobedience to his Authority and prudent Counsels is culpable The Body considered as the Seat of the Senses has natural Appetites and might enjoy what is suitable to them according to their capacity but united with an immortal Spirit that is stampt with the living Image of God its desires must be limited and directed by the Mind and the pleasing of Sense in Actions forbidden by the Mind is rebellion against the ruling Faculty If one be under a Disease that Wine inflames and increases and the Physician forbids it as deadly yet the Patient will judg only by his Pallate whether Wine be good for him were it not a kind of brutishness worthy of the Evil that attends it Such perverse Folly are Men guilty of in their sensual Satisfactions whereby the Soul is unspeakably wronged and God highly dishonoured who has given to Man a more excellent Spirit than to the Fowls of the Air that he may judg of things not as they appear but as they are 3. 'T is the most ignominious Folly Shame arises from the sense of a debased Excellence the Understanding is the most excellent Faculty in Man and nothing brings a greater disreputation to him than when he is deceived by the ignorance or inconsiderateness of his Mind And the delusion is most shameful in matters of great moment Now for a Man to exchange his Soul that is of Angelical Eminence for transitory Vanities O folly how enormous how astonishing The Lord Jesus who as the Creator and Redeemer of Souls perfectly knew their Worth puts the Question so as to imply the strongest denial What is a Man profited if he shall gain the whole World and lose his own Soul or what shall a Man give in exchange for his Soul The vanity of the Purchase and the value of the Loss is such that no Man conscious of his Immortality in the next state but must acknowledg that he is an infinite loser and prodigious Fool that gains the World by the loss of his Soul 'T is said of the ancient Germans that in their Commerce with the Romans receiving Silver for their Amber that has no virtue but to draw Straws to it they were amazed at the price And certainly the great Tempter cannot but wonder at the foolish exchange that Men make in giving their immortal Souls to him for perishing Vanities and having this scornful advantage will much more upbraid them hereafter than ever he allur'd them here The shame that attends this Folly is sometimes felt
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