their Hearts of their revolting back to Pagan Idolatry and the Bondage of Satan And in the time of the Arian Persecution how many who by their Titles and Office were specially obliged to be valiant for the Truth and to contend earnestly for the Faith yet did accommodate their Profession to their aspiring Ambition and greedy Avarice The Standard of their Religion was the pitch of the State they had a politick Faith and appear'd either Orthodox or Arian as the publick Favour shin'd upon Truth or Heresy They rob'd our Saviour of the Honour of his Deity O astonishment rather than part with their beloved Dignities and Riches So powerful are humane Respects in those who mind earthly things Great force is requisite to pluck up a Tree that has its Roots spread and deeply fastned in the Earth and it cannot be so entirely separated but that part of the Roots will be broken thus when the Affections are deeply set in the World and by Pleasures and Riches fastned to it how hardly is it rent from it every Fibre of the Heart is broken with sorrow As Lot's Wife when by an Angel forc'd out of Sodom yet cast a lingring affectionate look after it and was turn'd into a Pillar of Salt The Separation is as bitter as the Possession is sweet and none are more unwillingly divorc'd from the World than those who enjoy the confluence of earthly happiness Now when secular Interest outweighs Duty when apparent Danger induces to deny the Truth of Christ how terrible and unavoidable will be the punishment of that disloyalty Our Saviour's threatning is universal Whosoever shall deny me before Men him will I deny before my Father which is in Heaven A most righteous and dreadful retribution They denied him as their Lord and he denies them as his Servants They usurp'd the Title of Christians the Relation of his Disciples and in the last Day he will publickly disown them When that sad Sentence shall come from their Judg Depart ye cursed I know you not what confusion what anguish will seize upon them They shall be banish'd from his glorious Kingdom excommunicated from his blessed Society and tormented with the rebellious Angels for ever 'T is true this universal and peremptory Threatning must be understood with an exception of those who after their falling away are restor'd by Repentance Sometimes a Christian that has deliberately and entirely devoted himself to Christ that has sincerely resolved rather to part with his Life than that for which Life is worthy the enjoying yet by strong temptations has been faint-hearted and denied the Truth like one that disannuls in the heighth of a Fever the Will he made in his composed Mind but afterward such have resumed new courage and have by enduring the sharpest Sufferings confirm'd the Truth and ascended to Heaven in a fiery Chariot Lastly The Prosperity of Sinners is the great temptation to delay repentance till their state is desperate Nothing fills Hell with so many lost Souls as the putting off Repentance till hereafter How many Diseases would be cur'd in time if they threatned present Death but their Malignity being of a slow operation they are despised as not worth the trouble of a Cure till they are desperate 'T is in Spiritual Diseases as 't is in those of the Body for Sin that is a sickness unto Death might be prevented by speedy Repentance but many not apprehending present Danger neglect the precious Remedy till they are desperately ruin'd To day if you will hear his Voice harden not your Hearts The Command respects the Season as well as the Duty As our Obedience must be entire without reserves so it must be present without delay even in our early Age and continued in the whole tenor of our Life The Worm of Conscience sometimes nips Security and there is a strange union of Contrarieties in the Breast of a Sinner that makes him inexcusable and incurable He complains of the bondage to his Lusts yet takes pleasure in it he is convinc'd 't wil be destructive yet voluntarily continues in that sweet captivity If Conscience be troublesome he pacifies it with an intention to reform hereafter and thinks that a future Repentance will be sufficient to prepare for a future Judgment And none are so easily and willingly deceived to their everlasting ruin by this pretence as those who enjoy the present World Prosperity makes them forgetful of the Grave and humane Vicissitudes and hardens them in deep Security 'T was the Divine Prayer of Moses So teach us to number our days as to apply our hearts unto Wisdom implying that the great Cause of Mens destructive folly is from not reflecting upon the shortness and uncertainty of their Time here Death is certain to the Old and Life uncertain to the Young There are many back Doors to the Grave and Men are led surprisingly thither The time of their residence here is fixed by the Divine Determination and concealed from their Eyes How many in their Youth and Prosperity have presum'd upon a long Life yet unexpectedly have returned to their Earth as a Wall covered with Ivy that falls on a suddain with its green Ornaments by its weight and weakness The Hour of Death is the hour of mens Destiny for ever There is no space of Repentance in the interval between Death and Judgment but the Soul immediately after its departure receives a decisive irrevocable Doom that is in part executed and shall be publick and entirely executed at the last Day Yet Men boldly venture to continue in their pleasant Sins upon the forlorn hope of a Season to repent hereafter Astonishing enormous Folly as if they were assured of Time and the Divine Grace And thus 't is fully proved how fatal and destructive Prosperity is to the Wicked The second thing to be consider'd is the Folly of prosperous Sinners Folly is the Cause of their abusing Prosperity and the Effect of their Prosperity abused The most proper Notion of Folly is that the Understanding mistakes in judging and comparing things from whence the Will slides into Error and makes an unworthy choice And according to the weight and consequence of things the more remarkable is the degree of Folly in not discerning their Differences Now when Men value and are delighted in temporal Prosperity as their Happiness and Heaven with its Glory Joys is neglected and vilified in the comparison 't is Folly above all wonder Folly of so rare and singular a Nature that if the judicative Faculty were not corrupted it were impossible they should be guilty of it This will appear by considering the essential and inseparable Properties of Man's Felicity 't is perfective and satisfying of Man in his supream Faculties 1. The perfection of Man does principally consist in the excellencies of his spiritual immortal part As in the various kinds of Creatures there is something that is their proper Excellency for which they were made and accordingly are valued as
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
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