and Honours of this World, more than God and Heaven; and ufes them more for ferving and pleafing the Flefh, than for honouring God, or promoting our own Salvation. It defires a greater Meafure of Riches or Honour, than our fpiritual Work and Intereft requires. It fills us with reftlefs Impatience, Anxiety, and Difcontent; indifpofes us to all devout Converfe with God; and renders our Converfe with Fellow-Creatures altogether unedifying. In our Families, and in the House of God, it fteals away our Hearts from the beft of our Duties. In Profperity, it hardens our Hearts, breeds Security and Self-Confidence, and leads us to overvalue the Rich, and to defpife the Poor. It makes us more thankful to Mortals for giving us any worldly Enjoyments, than to God for all his fpiritual Bleffings. It puts us upon inordinate Labours, and plunges us into unneceffary Perplexities. It has greedy Expectations from the Liberality and Kindnefs of others, without due Concern to promote any one's Intereft but our own. It can at any Time diffolve the Bonds of Love and Friendship, and turn the Peace of Society into a State of War. It has no Bowels of Compaffion for the neceffitous, nor any Fear of unlawful Gain; but prefers Riches and Grandeur for our Children, before their Humility, Purity, or Freedom from the most dangerous Temptations.

$3. Guard against those plaufible Pretences by which worldly Minds flatter, deceive, and ruin themSelves Tho' the Creatures of God are good, and Profperity is his Bleffing, and tho' Chriftianity does not require the auftere Life of an Hermit; yet if

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< you live after the Flesh, you shall die (d).' Temporal Bleffings are too good, to be facrificed to the Flesh and the Devil; and not good enough, to be loved more than God, and preferred before your Innocence and Salvation.- -Tho' it may be neceffary for you, not only to labour faithfully, but with the greatest Diligence in your private Station; yet no Neceffity will excufe your anxious Cares about the World, and your inordinate Love to it. -You may plead, that you covet Nothing but what is your own. But the Question now is not, what you covet, but what you love. If the World has your Hearts, you are not living to God. Know ye not that the Friendship of the World is Enmity with God? Whofoever therefore will be a Friend of the World, is the Enemy of God' (e).'What tho' you fay, you defire to grow rich by lawful Means? I am not now fpeaking of your getting, but of your loving the World. If your Hearts are more fet on Riches, than on God, you turn all lawful Means into Sin, by abufing them to ungodly Ends. What Worldling would not pray, if he believed that praying would make him rich-You may profefs you are contented with your Condition, and defire no more. But the Queftion is, whether you are more pleafed with Heaven and Holinefs, or with your worldly Profperity. You may thank God for all your earthly Enjoyments. But if you thank him as a Cherifher of your Lufts, you add Hypocrify to your Sin. For the Queftion is, whether you love God as your San&ifier, better than you do the gratifying of your carnal

(d) Pom. viii. 13.

(e) James iv. 4.

carnal Inclinations. You may give fomething to the Poor, and may intend to leave them fomething at your Death. So it is probable the Rich

Man' did, at whofe Gates Lazarus was laid. What Hypocrite, or covetous Perfon, will not give Alms now and then? But the Question is, whether your Hearts are most set upon God or the World, and what it is you delight in as your greateft Treafure? -You may have full Conviction that Heaven is better than Earth, God than the Creature, and Holiness than any finful Delight. Thoufands have the fame Conviction, who never practically preferred God, Holiness, and Heaven, as the most fuitable for their own Happiness. Obferve not only your Opinion of Things, but what it is you most love, defire, and delight in, and are most unwilling to lose, and most eager to obtain.

-You may really hate others for their Covetoufnefs. This is eafy, and will coft you Nothing; and perhaps it is because their Covetoufnefs is a Rival to your own. What is more eafy or common, than for covetous Preachers to preach against Covetousness? It is far more eafy to commend God, than to love him fupremely; and to cry out against the World, than to have a Heart truly weaned from it, and fixed on a better World.

You may also plead your Poverty, as an Evidence that you are in no Danger from Profperity. But you may inordinately defire what is far out of your Reach. And it is doubly finful, to love a World which loves not you. Who can be more unfit for Heaven, than he that loves a Life of Labour, Want, and Mifery better than Heaven? Alas! it is but a little the greatest Worldlings have inftead of Salva

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tion; but if they are poor, they sell Salvation for lefs, and therefore defpife it the more.

$4. View the aggravated Sinfulness of a Worldly Temper, to render it abominable in your Eye. It is a real and odious Idolatry; and a blafphemous Contempt of God and Heaven; and in Effect says, The fatisfying of fleshly Inclinations for a few Months or Years, is better than God and the Joys of Heaven to all Eternity. It is a Sin of Intereft, and not merely of Paffion; of Deliberation and Contrivance, and not of Surprize by fudden Temptation. It is a continued Act of Sin, which is always idolizing the World, and always denying Love to God; and not only perverts one particular Action, but even the whole Courfe of Men's Lives, and confequently mifipends all their Time. It ungratefully turns all the Creatures of God against himself; and greatly debafes the Soul of Man, which was made to know and love the Father of Spirits. It is an irrational Vice,. that unmans us, hiring out our Reason to be a Servant to flefly Lufts; and indeed is pregnant with a Multitude of other Vices. Be ever attentive to the mifchievous Effects of this Sin. See how it alienates the Heart from God and Heaven; fills Men with Enmity to God and Holiness; and often makes them violent Perfecutors of the Godly. Obferve how it corrupts the facred Offices of the Miniftry, and thereby fpreads Schifms, Cruelties, and Declenfions in Piety, thro' the Churches: For when wellmeaning Charity has adorned the Miniftry with. Wealth and Honour; then the most proud ambitious, and worldly Men will be moft folicitous to engage in it, as their Trade. Obferve alfo, how this Sin makes the Word of God unprofitable, hinders

Prayer

Prayer and devout Meditation; filences all edifying Difcourfe; profanes the Lord's Day; deftroys brotherly Love; occafions Fraud and Injuftice, Rebbery and Oppreffion, Lying, Perjury, and Murthers, Wars and Diftractions in Nations and Families makes Men unfit to to fuffer for Chrift, confumes their precious Time, and thus they are found very unwilling and unprepared to die.

§ 5. Judge of the World as it will appear to you, and ufe you, at Death. The Grave is a fufficicient Difgrace to all the Vanities on Earth, tho' there must be something more to raise the Heart to Heaven. Dream not of long Life. A little of the World will ferve for a little Time. Mortify the Flefh, and you overcome the World. Cure the thirty Difeafe, and you will need none of the Worldling's Ways to fatisfy it; but Plenty, Pleasures, and Honours will be useless. Get a prevailing Love to God, and a lively Faith in eternal Glory. Nothing lefs will be able to cure a fenfual Life, and an earthly Mind and Conversation. - Turn Satan's Temptations to World'inefs against himself. If he tempts you to Covetoufnefs, give fo much more to the Poor. If to Pride and Ambition, be so much the more in Self Abafement. If to vain Amusements, fpend the more Time in ufeful Labours and fervent Devotions. Attempt not hypocritically to reconcile God and Mammon. Religion and Worldlymindednefs, gratifying the Fleth and faving the Soul, are Things never to be united together.But improve your Projperity to its proper Ends. Intirely and abfolutely devote it to God. This will be faving it from Lofs, and yourself from Deceit and Condemnation.

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