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
THE DANGER OF PROSPERITY Discovered in several SERMONS Upon PROV 1. 27. Nihil infaelicius faelicitate peccantium qua poenalis nutritur impunitas mala voluntas velut interior hostis roboratur Aug. By William Bates D. D. LONDON Printed for Brabazon Aylmer at the three Pigeons against the Royal Exchange in Cornhil MDCLXXXV The PREFACE THE Experience of all Ages has verified that none are exposed to more dangerous Trials than the Prosperous in this World The great Tempter has found the Temptations of Prosperity so insinuative and prevailing with Men that he attempted our blessed Saviour expecting by the pleasant prospect of the Kingdoms of this World and their Glory to have fastned an Impression upon his Spirit and tainted his inviolable Purity But he found nothing in our Saviour not the least irregular inclination to his Allurements and could work nothing upon him 'T is otherwise with Men born of the Flesh in whom there is a carnal Heart the Centre of Apostacy and Corruption that is easily enticed and overcome by charming Complacencies Prosperity is a disguised Poison pleasant to the unwary sense but deadly in the operation and the more pernicious in the Effects because less dangerous in the Opinions of Men. The Temptations of Prosperity are so frequent and favour'd by us that they give vigour to the inward Enemy the sensual affections and boldness to the malicious Tempter They foment the carnal Appetites that defile and debase the Soul and are the more rebellious and exorbitant the more they are gratified Prosperity is the strongest obstacle against the Conversion and Reformation of Sinners Whilst they are plying their various Pleasures they have neither will nor leisure to advert to the Voice of Conscience so reproachful and stinging to them And many times Prosperity stupifies Conscience that Men are fearless of Divine Judgments involv'd in sensual Security They will not reverence and obey God's Authority till they feel his Power they abuse his Blessings to Pride and Vanity Idleness and Luxury and are hardned in their Impenitence dyed with the deepest tincture of Ingratitude they drive on through a course of Sin till Death puts a period to their Lusts. How destructive how penal is Prosperity to such graceless Souls When God rains Snares upon the Wicked when the affluence of this World is abused to satisfy their vicious Desires 't is a sad forerunner of the Shower of Fire and Brimstone and the horrible Tempest that shall overwhelm them at last Others in Prosperity are not openly profane and boldly vicious yet are corrupted and insensibly destroyed by it They over-value and over-delight in the good things of this World and please themselves in an opiniative Felicity in their present State They enjoy the World with more appearance of Reason and less Sensuality than the Riotous and Luxurious but their conversation with so many charming Objects alienates them from God They do not sanctify him in their Hearts placing their highest esteem upon his most amiable Excellencies and their dearest delight in communion with him They look upon Religion as a sour Severity and count nothing delightful but what is suitable to the fleshly Affections A deceit like that of a sick Person who feeling no pleasure but in the easy intervals between his Fits and the remission of his Distemper should imagine that if he were freed from his Disease he should lose all Pleasure whereas the Delights of Health are more full and durable The Angels are uncapable of sensual Pleasures their Happiness arises from the perfection of Good not the allays of Evil. The Beasts are only capable of sensual pleasures the remedies of natural Evils Hunger Thirst Weariness or accidental Evils Diseases and Pains And many are so sottishly deceived as to prefer brutish Pleasures that affect the Senses before Angelical Joys that arise from the fruition of God's Favour and Obedience to his Laws This is a sad Symptom of an unrenewed Heart and an heavy Presage of future Misery for God will not be our everlasting Joy in Heaven if he be not our exceeding Joy upon the Earth Others surrounded with Riches and Honours are neither thankful to their Divine Benefactor nor careful to employ their Prosperity and Power for his Glory The Law of Mercy requires a solemn affectionate recognition of God's Benefits but the Current of Prosperity drowns their sense of the Divine Goodness and incogitant practical Atheism is as destructive as Absolute and Speculative And how many by the deceitfulness of Riches are apt to imagine that they possess with Dominion what they receive in trust they might be rich in good Works and if their Hearts were according to their Ability be fruitful as Paradise but are as barren as the Sands of Africa They are in a mighty Debt for so many received Blessings for which their Account will be heavy and undoing with the highest Lord. These and many other Considerations make it evident how dangerous Prosperity is to the most that enjoy it here 'T is therefore a Point of high and holy Wisdom how to manage Prosperity so as to avoid the impendant Evils that usually follow it and to improve it for our eternal Advantage This is the Design of the present Treatise and humbly recommended to the Divine Blessing from one who most unfeignedly desires the Salvation of Mens Souls W. B. THE DANGER OF PROSPERITY PROV 1. 32. The Prosperity of Fools shall destroy them IN the former Verses the Divine Wisdom is introduc'd in a very elegant and pathetical manner reclaiming Men from their miserable Errors to partake of Light and Felicity The Address is directed to them with Upbraidings and Indignation at their Folly and with tender compassion for their Ruin How long ye simple ones will ye love simplicity and Fools hate knowledg Thus 't is said of our Saviour the Incarnate Wisdom of God That he look'd on the Pharisees with anger being grieved at the hardness of their hearts We have also exprest an earnest desire of their Conversion Turn ye at my Reproof And that is seconded by a gracious Promise I will pour out my Spirit upon you to illuminate and conduct you in the way of Life But for their stupid obstinacy in despising the Counsel and rejecting the Reproofs of Wisdom they are surprized with utter destruction This is described with that Train of killing Circumstances that are the most forcible Excitations timely to prevent that Evil which neglected will be remediless Because I have called and ye refused I have stretched out my hand and no Man regarded I will also laugh at your calamity and mock when your fear cometh When your fear cometh as a Whirlwind when distress and anguish cometh upon you then shall they call on me but I will not answer they shall seek me early but they shall not find me for that they hated knowledg and despised the fear of the Lord. In their distress they supplicate for Mercy but as they were unchang'd notwithstanding
him The Heathens are charged by St Paul That they with held the Truth in Unrighteousness The Notion of God as the Supream Law-giver and to be obeyed according to his Law imprest upon Conscience was a natural Truth and should have reign'd in their Hearts and Lives but they would not suffer it to exert its Power in ordering their Actions There is a natural Miracle seen in Egypt every Year when the River Nilus overflows the Plains many living Creatures are half form'd and part remains slimy Earth without Life or Motion Altera pars vivit rudis est pars altera tellus Such Monsters were the ungodly and unrighteous Heathens half Men in their Understandings and half Mud in their filthy Affections And there are innumerable such Monsters in the Christian world 2. The Testimony of Conscience is supprest and neglected by the prosperous Sinner If Conscience be in some degree Righteous and faithful in its Office and reproves him and sets his Sins in order before his Eyes he will not regard its earnest Warnings He is as unwilling to hear that sincere Witness in his Bosom as Ahab was the inflexible Prophet Micaiah of whom he said I hate him for he doth not prophesie Good of me but Evil. Prosperity affords many diversions whereby the sinner shifts off conversing with Conscience and remains ingaged in his sinful state I hearkned and heard saith the Prophet Jeremy but they spake not aright no Man repented of his Wickedness saying What have I done What foul ignominious Acts how defiling and debasing my Soul how offensive to the pure Eyes of God who is so glorious in Majesty and dreadful in Power Such a sight of Sin would make the Conscience boil and chill the Passions and urge sinners to return to their Duty But whilst they prosper they are obstinate in Rebellion Every one turn'd to his course as the Horse rushes into the Battel As the Horse when inflam'd by the noise and other Accidents of War furiously rushes to his own destruction thus sinners when they encounter alluring Objects that divert the Mind from serious consideration either they do not discern or will not observe the Dangers before them and with as little consideration and as much fierceness as the Beasts venture upon their own destruction Conversion is the product of the most serious and sad thoughts from which a prosperous sinner is most averse 2. The external means for converting sinners are usually ineffectual upon them whilst they enjoy Prosperity 1. The Gospel is the Power of God to Salvation to them that believe and the preaching of it is by divine Institution the ordinary means of Conversion God could by the immediate illumination of the Mind and influence upon the Will and Affections convert sinners from the Errors of their Ways but his Wisdom and condescending Goodness makes use of the Ministry of Men to convey the Word of Truth and Life to the World This way is very congruous both to the compounded Nature of Man by the Senses to work upon the Soul and to the native freedom of his Will for tho the supernatural Agent infallibly changes the Heart yet the Instrument can only direct and perswade Men as those who are endowed with intellectual and elective Faculties and thus the efficacy of Divine Grace is insinuated in a way suitable to the reasonable Nature The Ministers are stiled the Light of the World to discover to Men their undone condition by sin and to point out the way to their everlasting Peace Our blessed Redeemer saves the lost Remnant of Mankind by the sacred Ministry and where there are no Evangelical Preachers sent or only a doleful succession of blind Guides what Tertullian says of Scythia a Country that by the extremity of the cold is hard and dry and perpetually barren but the residence of fierce Cruelty is applicable to a Nation the Hearts of Men are frozen to their sins there is no melting in the tears of true Repentance no holy Heat only their brutish Lusts are ardent and active But where the Embassadors of Christ are faithful and zealous to induce sinners to break off their sins by repentance and to be reconciled to God there are none more uncapable of the sanctifying Power of the Gospel than sinners in Prosperity 1. Pride the Vice of Prosperity makes them fierce and stubborn against the holy and strict Rules of the Word We will not hearken to thee but will certainly do whatsoever goes out of our own mouth If a faithful Minister represents the inside of their foul Souls their uncomely Passions are rais'd against him if he recommends the earnest study of Holiness and Godliness they entertain his Counsels with derision and disdain Those to whom the dearest and most affectionate Honour is due being spiritual Fathers and Physicians are despised in their Persons and Office by Fools in their Prosperity They condemn what they do not understand and affect not to understand what condemns them They hear Sermons to censure and censure that they may not be troubled by them What hope is there of reducing haughty Scorners to the Obedience of the Gospel Even the Miracles and Ministry of our Saviour was without success upon the Pharisees who heard and derided him If such are convinc'd in their Minds and not disarm'd of their Pride and Self-will they refuse to yield themselves to the Lord. Meekness is a requisite Qualification for receiving the Word with its saving Vertue We are directed to lay aside all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness and with meekness to receive the ingrafted Word that is able to save our Souls We are prepared for Divine Grace by a serious sense of our want of it and earnest desire to obtain it He fills the hungry with good things and the Rich he sends empty away None are so insensible of their spiritual Wants and avers from the humble acknowledgment of them as the Prosperous Sinner and none more unlikely to obtain spiritual Riches 2. Infidelity that is occasion'd and confirm'd by Prosperity in Sin renders the Gospel ineffectual to the Salvation of Men. The Word preached did not profit the Jews not being mixt with Faith in them that heard it A stedfast belief of Divine Revelations is the principle of Obedience without it Motives of the highest strain are ineffectual Eternal things are not within the prospect of Sense and tho set forth with the clearest evidence of Reason and enforced with the greatest earnestness of Affection yet the Sons of Darkness sleep profoundly in their sins If Heaven with its Joys and Glory be revealed in the most affecting manner it has no more efficacy to move them than charming Musick to awaken one out of a Lethargy only violent Remedies bleeding scarrifying and burning are proper and powerful for his recovery If they are warned that the everlasting King will shortly open the Clouds and come with terrible Majesty to the universal Judgment and require an account for his abused Mercies
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