and his prophets and apostles used, doth seem too rough for silken ears. Their honour must not be blotted with the mention of their odious sins, and deplorable misery. To be a glutton, or a drunkard, or a wanton, or a filthy fornicator, or a malicious Cain, they can endure; but to be told, “Thou art the man," though it be in secret, and with love and tenderness, they cannot bear. The minister is thought to wrong them that shall secretly and faithfully admonish them, and tell them truly what will be the end: but Christ will execute all his threatenings, and make them feel what now they hear, and yet constrain them to confess that he doth not wrong them. We wrong them now, if we tell a gentleman of his impiety, and sensuality, and pride, and of his vilifying precious time, and casting it away on cards, and idleness, and unprofitable talk; yea, though he be so far forsaken of common grace and reason, as to hate and deride the serious practice of his own profession, and the way that the God of heaven hath prescribed as flatly necessary to salvation, yet cannot he endure to hear of his enmity against the Lord, nor to be told that he beareth the image of the devil, while he is against the image and laws of Christ. Should we but privately read a text to them that condemneth them, they are as angry with us as if we made the Scripture which we read; and it were not the word of God, but ours. If we tell them that "Without holiness none shall see God," (Heb. xii. 14,) and that "Except they be regenerated, converted, and become as little children (in humility beginning the world anew) they cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven," (Matt. xviii. 3; John iii. 3. 5, 6,) that "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, the same is none of his," (Rom. viii. 6,) or that "Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge,” (Heb. xiii. 4,) and that "The unrighteous, the fornicators, effeminate, covetous, extortioners, drunkards, or revilers, shall not inherit the kingdom of God," (1 Cor. vi. 9—11; Eph. v. 3—6,) they think we talk too precisely or presumptuously to them. You' would think by their proud contempt of his threatenings, and their boldness and carelessness in sin, that these silk-worms did imagine that they had conquered heaven, and the Righteous God were afraid to meddle with them; or that he would reverse his laws, and pervert his judgment for fear of dishonouring or offending them. Little do they think how many Dives are now in hell. But methinks they might easily believe, that their honourable flesh is rotten, and turned to common earth; and

death will make bold to tell them, also, when their turn is come, that they have been pampering but a piece of clay; and that it was not worth the loss of heaven, not the suffering of hell, to spend so much time, and care, and cost, to feed up a carcass for the worms. We must now submissively ask their leave, to tell them what God hath said against them. But God will not ask them leave to make it good upon the highest, the proudest, and most secure of them all; "For God shall wound the head of his enemies, and the hairy scalp of such a one as goeth on still in his trespasses." (Psalm lxviii. 21.) "He is not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness; neither shall evil, dwell with him. The foolish shall not stand in his sight; he hateth all the workers of iniquity." (Psalm v. 3, 4.) The ungodly (that delight not in the law of the Lord) are like the chaff that the wind driveth away; they shall sit not in judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous." (Psalm i.) "The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God." (Psalm ix. 17.) Cannot you endure to hear and consider of these things? How then will you endure to feel them? God will not flatter you. If all your greatness enable you not to repulse the assaults of death, nor to chide away the gout or stone; and all your honour and wealth will not cure a fever, or ease you of the toothach; how little will it do to save you from the everlasting wrath of God! or to avert his sentence which must shortly pass on all that are impenitent! And yet prosperity so befooleth sensual men, that they must hear of none of this; at least not with any close and personal application. If you speak as Christ did to the Pharisees, (Matt. xxi. 45,) that they perceived that he spake of them, they take you for their enemy for telling them the truth, (Gal. iv. 16,) and meet our doctrine as Ahab did Elijah (2 Kings xxi. 20,) "Hast thou found me, O mine enemy !" and, (1 Kings xviii. 17,) "Art thou he that troubleth Israel?" or as the same Ahab of Micaiah, (1 Kings xxii. 8,) "There is one man (Micaiah) of whom we may inquire of the Lord; But I hate him; for he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil." Or as Amaziah the priest said of Amos to King Jeroboam, "He hath conspired against thee; the land is not able to bear all his words." (Amos vii. 10, 13.) "Prophesy not again any more at Bethel; for it is the king's chapel, and it is the king's court." They behave themselves to faithful ministers as if it were a part of their inviolable honour and privilege, to be mortally sick without the trouble of a physician, and to have

nobody tell them that they are out of their way, till it be too late or that they are in misery till there be no remedy; and that none should remember them of heaven till they have lost it; nor trouble them in the way to hell, and seek to save them, lest he should but torment them before the time. And thus prosperity makes them willingly deaf and blind, and “turn away their ears from the hearing of the law," and then their prayers for mercy in their distress are rejected as abominable by the Lord. (Prov. i. 24-33; xxviii. 9.)

7. Yea, if there be any persecution raised against the church of Christ, who are the chief actors in it, but the prosperous, blinded, sensual great ones of the world? The princes make it their petition against Jeremiah to the king; "We beseech thee let this man be put to death: for thus he weakeneth the hands of the men of war—and the hands of all the people in speaking such words unto them: for this man seeketh not the welfare of his people but the hurt." (Jer. xxxviii. 4.) It was the presidents and princes that said of Daniel, "We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the law of his God." (Dan. vi. 5.) Were it not lest some malicious hearer should misapply it, and think I sought to diminish the reputation of magistrates, while I show the effects of the prosperity of fools, I should give you abundance of such lamentable instances, and tell you how commonly the great ones of the world have in all ages set themselves, and taken counsel, against the Lord and against Christ. (Psal. ii.) And stumbled upon the corner-stone, and taken no warning by those that have been thus broken in pieces before them. How ready is Herod to gratify a wanton dancer with a prophet's head! In a word, as Satan is called the prince of this world, no wonder if he rule the men of the world, that have their portion in this life. (Psal. xvii. 14.) "And to command his armies, and engage them against the servants of the Most High that run not with them to the same excess of riot. (1 Pet. iv. 4.) And as James saith (as before cited) "Do not the rich oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seats? Do they not blaspheme that worthy Name by which you are called?" (Jam. ii. 6, 7.)

8. And in all this sin and misery how senseless and secure are the prosperous fools! As merry within a year, or month, or week of hell, as if no harm were near. How wonderful hard it is to convince them of their misery! The most learned, wise, or godly man, or the dearest friend they have in the world, shall

not persuade them that their case is such as to need a conversion and supernatural change. They cannot abide to take off their minds from their sensual delights and vanities, and to trouble themselves about the things of life eternal, come on it what will; they are resolved to venture, and please their flesh, and enjoy what the world will afford them while they may, till suddenly God surpriseth them with his dreadful call, "Thou fool! this night shall thy soul be required of thee; then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided?" (Luke xii. 20.) "So is he that layeth up riches for himself, and is not rich towards God." (v. 21.),

II. I shall next show you how it is that prosperity thus destroyeth fools. Briefly, 1. By the pleasing of their sensitive appetite and fancy, and so overcoming the power of reason. "Perit omne judicium cum res transit in affectum." Violent affections hearken not to reason. The beast is made too headstrong for the rider. (Deut. xxxii. 15.) “Jerusalem waxed fat, and kicked-then he forsook God that made him, and lightly esteemed the rock of his salvation."

2. "The friendship of the world is enmity to God: and if any man love the world, the love of the father is not in him." (Jam. iv. 4; 1 John ii. 15.) And undoubtedly, the more amiable the world appears, the more strongly it doth allure the soul to love it. And to the prosperous it appeareth in the most enticing dress.

3. And hereby it taketh off the soul from God. We cannot love and serve God and Mammon. The heart is gone another way when God should have it. It is so full of love, and desire, and care, and pleasure about the creatures, that there is no room for God. How can they love him with all their hearts who have let out those hearts to vanity before?

4. And the very noise and bustle of these worldly things diverts their mind, and hindereth them from being serious, and from that sober consideration that requireth some retirement and vacancy from distracting objects.

and sweetness doth make Little do they think what

5. And the sense of present ease them forget the change that is near. is necessary to comfort a departing soul, when they are in the heat of pride and lust, or taken up with their business and delights. In the midst of bravery and plenty, feasting and sporting, and such other entertainments of the senses, it is hard to hold communion with God, and study the life to come in such

a college or library as this.. Prosperity and pleasure make men drunk; and the tickled fancy sports itself in abusing the captivated mind. And these frisking lambs, and fattened beasts forget the slaughter; they think in summer there will be no winter; and their May will continue all the year. Little do do they feel the piercing, griping, tearing thoughts, that at death or judgment must succeed their security and mirth. O how hard do the best men find it, in the midst of health and all prosperity, to have such serious thoughts of heaven, and of the change that death will shortly make, as they have in sickness and adversity, when death seems near, and deluding things are vanished and gone! The words of God have not that force on a sleepy soul in the hour of prosperity, as they have when distress hath opened their ears. The same truths that now seem common, lifeless, inconsiderable things, will then pierce deep, and divide between the joints and marrow, and work as if they were not the same that once were laughed at and dis-. regarded. (Eccles. vii. 2, 3, 4.) "It is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting; " (do you believe this?) "For that is the end of all men, and the living will lay it to heart. Sorrow is better than laughter; for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth." I beseech you take patiently your character and name here from the word of God.

6. Moreover these fools are by prosperity so lifted up with pride, that God abhors them, and is as it were engaged to abase them. For "The Lord will destroy the house of the proud. (Prov. xv. 25.) Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord; though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished." (Prov. xvi. 5.) " He scattereth the proud in the imagination of their hearts: He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree: He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he hath sent empty away." " (Luke i. 51, 52, 53.) "In the things wherein they deal proudly, he is above them." (Exod. xviii. 11.) "For every one that exalteth himself shall be abased: and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted." (Luke xviii. 14.) "For God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble.” (1 Pet, v. 5.)

7. But no way doth their prosperity so desperately precipitate them, and make them the scorn of heaven, and the football of divine contempt, as by engaging them in opposition to the word, and ways, and servants of the Lord. When it hath