fetters, and fuch as we are not willing to be SE'R M. freed from. Fear and terror, pain and mifery, XX. do indeed ruffle and difcompofe the fpirits of men, but they do not leave that deep impreffion upon the confcience; for we are apt to refift and ftruggle with them to the last: But the allurements of eafe and pleafure gain upon us by thofe inclinations that are most intimate to our nature, and make their way through our hearts; which difference of the temptations that affault us in our way to heaven, is well reprefented in the fable, by the conteft between the fun and the wind, which fhould have the greatest force and influence upon the traveller; the gradual heat and warmth of the fun brought to pafs effectually, what the ruder violence of the wind could not effect. And thus it is with the funfhine of profperity, it diffolves all the powers of our fouls, it enervates and breaks the ftrength of all our refolutions, and too commonly leaves us nothing but faint and languishing defires of virtue and goodness, juft enough to keep us in in a good opinion of it, but not to influence us ftrongly to the practice of it.

2. Another great difadvantage of a wealthy and profperous state is, that it fupplies all the finful inclinations of our natures with objects to gratify them; want of opportunity hath kept thousands in innocence, which from thence hath been improved into folid virtue and holinefs. But riches and honours fupply

men

SER M. men with fewel for all their lufts; they lay XX. before us all the allurements of this world, and

ply all our vicious inclinations inceffantly, and give us opportunities for indulging them all; they befet us round with temptations, and ftrow gins and traps in our way; fo that we meet them at every turn, and it is impoffible for man with his ordinary ftrength to be fo perpetually on his guard, as to contradict and overcome them all.

3. Another thing which makes the charms of cafe and plenty fo unconquerable, is the tendency they have to gain upon our affections. We have a natural abhorrence of those things which are any way the occafion of pain or grief to us, and it is easy to fet ourselves against them when they would draw us into fin: But when temptations are agreeable to the inward inclinations of body and mind, and are apt to engage all our affections, and take faft hold of all our paffions, it is very hard to shake them off; they cling about us and kill us with a prepofterous fondness; they blind our understandings and deprave our judgments, fo as to carry our reafon along with them into all manner of fin: And when once they have brought us into a love of the world (which they feldom fail to do) then the love of God and religion is not in us, (i. e.) they take away all just regard to the service of God and the prefervation of a good confcience: This is the reafon of our Saviour's faying that is hard for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven, (i. e.)

(i. e.) as he himself explains it for them that S E R. M. truft in riches; but this makes it a little eafier XX. only in appearance, because it is hard for them n not to truft in their riches: It is the moft unlikely thing in the world, that a. rich man fhould not in a great degree place his confidence in his riches, and rest upon them; them; and it is very hard for him to conquer or avoid those temptations which they neceffarily bring upon him; it is very rare they do not fet their hearts upon them, for where their treasure is there will their hearts be alfo: Therefore we are often warned in fcripture against this love of the world, and bid to fet our hearts on things above, and not to be conformable to this world; but that we fhould be transformed in the renewing our minds.

4. The last thing which renders the temptations of a wealthy and profperous condition fo dangerous, beyond that of a lower rank, is the tendency it hath to make men thoughtless of another world. Neceffity and want, and all manner of afflictions are apt to make men think and reflect; they wean them from all the pleasures of this life, and put them upon thinking of another world; but plenty and ease make people careless and negligent; they divert all thoughts of death and judgment, and of that endless state of happiness or mifery that is to follow them. In troubles and afflictions all men are apt to call upon God, and apply themselves for mercy and affiftance; but in their profperity they forget him, and themVOLL. IL

H

felves

SER M. felves too; as it is represented by our Sa-
XX. viour in the cafe of the rich man in the Gof-

pel, whofe thoughts were all so taken up in the
management of his ftores, that he had no
leifure to confider of the time when his foul
fhould be required of him. This is a very ge-
neral cafe among us, and it is ordinary to see
people fo intent and eager upon getting of
wealth, that they are ever in a perpetual hurry,
and in a restlefs greedy pursuit of it: So
that every thing is time loft that doth not fome
way promote their worldly intereft. Thefe
are the very men in the parable, who, being
invited to the wedding-fupper, had no leisure
to come and pay their attendance: And there
fore the
poor and the maimed, the halt and
the blind were invited in; those who had no-
thing else to do, and fo little worldly business,
that they could, not tell how to dispose of
themselves.

And thus we fee how poverty and a low condition are often the greatest mercies in this world, as being a means to difpofe men for virtue and holinefs: fo that riches and honours are so often a curfe upon those who have them, that it is not eafy to tell when they are not fo. And this brings me to the third thing I propofed, which was,

3. To fhew wherein the wifdom of God appears, in propofing the truths of the Gofpel to men after fuch a manner, that they should be hidden from the great and prudent men of this world, and be revealed unto Babes.

This

would

would appear very plainly if I had but time S ER M to fhew at large, how it could not have been XX. otherwise from the prefent condition of our infirmity, and the nature of thofe things which go to make up the body of a religion if they will have any; and how they must live a life of faith, if they will have any religion at all. But I fhall at prefent give you only one obvious reason, which abundantly justifies the wisdom and goodness of God in this manner of difpenfation, and that is,

That, if the Gofpel was not thus contrived, it had not been a religion for all the world; the revelations of God were defigned for the falvation of all men, and therefore they must have been adapted to all forts and conditions, to all ages, fexes, and degrees of men; that which was defigned for all men must have been plain, and obvious, and intelligible to the moft natural reason of a man; and therefore thofe wife men of the world, who are apt to defpife it for being fo, muft neceffarily lose the benefit and advantage of it. Had God given us a religion which was dark and ab ftrufe, made up of fcience and demonstration, and that fort of evidence and worldly wisdom which the Greeks fought after formerly, and our modern opposers of revelation require from us now; it had been a religion but for a very fmall number of men: For very few even of those who infift upon this are capable of understanding it rightly if they had it. Had God given us a religion made up of clofe argument,

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