discourse, and to come to particulars as soon as we can, I shall show what trials are made of our graces in this world, by our prosperity and our adversity, by our corruptions and our duties, and, lastly, by our suffering upon the score and account of religion.

SECTION III.

Prosperity, success, and the increase of outward enjoyments, are to grace what fire is to gold. Riches and honors make trial what we are; and by these things many a false heart has been detected, as well as the sincerity and eminency of the graces of others discovered. We may fancy the fire of prosperity to be rather for comfort than trial, to refresh us rather than to prove us; but you will find prosperity to be a great discoverer, and that scarcely any thing proves the truth and strength of men's graces and corruptions more than that does. "To find humility with honor," says Bernard, "is to find a Phoenix." Letan obscure person be lifted up to honor, and how steady and well composed soever he was before, it is a thousand to one but his eyes will be dazzled and his head run round, when he is upon the lofty pinnacle of praise and honor. "As the fining-pot for silver, and the furnace for gold, so is a man to his praise," Prov. xxvii. 21. Put the best gold into the fining-pot of praise, and it is a wonder if a great deal of dross does not appear. The vain-glory of good Hezekiah rose like froth or scum upon the pot, when heated by prosperity, Isa. xxxix. 2. It was such a fining-pot to Herod, as discovered him to be dross itself, Acts xii. 23. How did that poor man swell under this trial into the conceit of his being a god, and was justly destroyed by worms, because he forgat himself to be a worm! We little think what a strange alteration an exalted state will make upon our spirits. When the prophet would abate the vain confidence of Hazael, who would not believe that ever he could be turned into such a savage beast as the prophet had foretold, he only tells him, "The Lord hath showed me, that thou shalt be king over Syria," 2 Kings viii. 13. The meaning is, Do not be too confident, Hazael, that thy temper and dispo

sition can never alter to that degree; thou never yet sattest on a throne. When men see the crown upon thy head, then they will better see the true temper of thy heart.

How humble was Israel in the wilderness! The people were tame and tractable in a lean pasture; but bring them once into Canaan, and the world is strangely altered; then "We are lords," say they," we will come no more unto thee," Jer. ii. 2, 7, 31. Prosperity is a crisis both to grace and corruption. Hence is that caution to Israel

in Deut. x. 11, 12; "When thou hast eaten, and art full, then beware lest thou forget the Lord thy God;" then, beware; that is the critical time. Surely that man must be acknowledged rich, very rich in grace, whose grace suffers no diminution or eclipse by his riches; and that man deserves double honor, whose pride the honors of this world cannot provoke and inflame.

It is related of a pious divine in Germany, that being on his death-bed, and being somewhat disconsolate on reflecting upon the barrenness of his life, some friends took thence an occasion to commend him, and reminded him of his painful ministry and fruitful life among them; but he cried out, "Withdraw the fire, for I have yet chaff in me;" meaning, that he felt his ambition like chaff catching fire from the sparks of their praises. Like this was the saying of another, "He that praises me, wounds

me."

But to descend to the particular discoveries that prosperity and honor make of the want of grace in some, and of the weakness of grace in others, I will show you what symptoms of hypocrisy appear in some men under the trial of prosperity, and what signs of grace appear in others under the same trial.

SECTION IV.

Prosperity discovers many sad symptoms of an ungodly heart: and among others, these are ordinarily most conspicuous

1. It casts the hearts of some men into a deep oblivion of God, and makes them lay aside all care of duty. The altars of rich men seldom smoke, Deut. xxxii. 13, 14, 15. Jeshurun sucked honey out of the rock, eat the fat of lambs, and kidneys of wheat; but what was the effect of

this? He kicked and forsook God who made him, and lightly esteemed the rock of his salvation. Instead of lifting up his heart in an humble thankful acknowledgment of God's bounty, he lifted up the heel in a wanton abuse of his mercy. In the fattest earth we find the most slippery footing.

He who is truly gracious may, in prosperity, remit some degrees; but a carnal heart loseth there all that in a low condition it seemed to save. Agur's deprecation, as to himself, was, no doubt, built upon his frequent observation how it was with others; "Lest I be full, and deny God," Prov. xxx. 8, 9.

It is said, Eccl. v. 12. that "the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep ;" and I wish that were the worst injury it did him; but, alas! it will not suffer him to pray, to meditate, to give time and thought to his eternal concerns. He falls asleep in the lap of prosperity, and forgets that there is a God to be served, or a soul to be saved. O this is a dangerous symptom of a very graceless heart!

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2. Prosperity, meeting with a graceless heart, makes it wholly sensual, and entirely swallows up its thoughts and affections. Earthly things transform and mould such a heart into their own similitude and nature; the whole strength of the soul goes out to those enjoyments. Thus these graceless, yet prosperous persons are described in Job. xxi. 11, 12, 13; "They take the timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ: they spend their days in wealth." They take the timbrel, not the Bible. They rejoice at the sound of the organ;" not a word is said of their rejoicing in God. They sent forth their little ones in the dance;" that is all the catechism they are taught. "They spend their days in wealth:" their whole time, that precious stock and talent is wholly laid out on these sensitive things. Either the pleasure of it powerfully charms them, or the cares of it wholly engross their minds, so that there is no time to spare for God. "They live in pleasure upon earth," as it is in Jam. v. 5; just as the fish lives in the water, its proper element ! Take such a man off from these things, and put him on spiritual, serious, heavenly employments, and he is like a fish on the dry land.

Now though prosperity may too much influence and ensnare the minds of good men, and estrange them too much from heavenly things, yet for worldly things thus to engross their hearts, and convert them into their own similitude and nature, so that these things should be the centre of their hearts, the very proper element in which they live, this is utterly impossible. A hypocrite indeed may be brought to this, because, though Janus like, he has two faces, yet he really has but one principle, and that is wholly carnal and earthly; so that it is easy to make all the water run into one channel, to gather all into one entire stream, in which his heart shall pour out all his strength to the creature. But a Christian indeed has a double principle influencing him. Though he has a law of sin that moves him one way, yet there is in him also the law of grace which thwarts and crosses that principle of corruption; so that as grace cannot do what it would, because of sin, so neither can sin do what it would, because of grace, Gal. v. 17. The heart of a Christian, in the midst of ensnaring sensual enjoyments, finds indeed a corrupt principle in it, which would incline him to fall asleep on such a soft pillow, and forget God and duty; but it cannot. O no! it cannot do so. There is a principle of grace within him, that never leaves disturbing and calling upon him, till he rise and return to his God, the true rest of his soul.

3. A false pretender to religion, a hypocritical professor, meeting with prosperity and success, grows altogether unconcerned about the interest of religion, and senseless of the calamities of God's people. Thus the prophet convinces the Jews of their hypocrisy in Amos vi. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6; "They were at ease in Zion, and trusted in the mountain of Samaria ;" and so, having a shadow of religion and a fulness of all earthly things, they fell to feasting and sporting; "they drank wine in bowls, and anointed themselves with the chief ointments, but were not grieved for the affliction of Joseph;" they condoled not over the breakings or tearing to pieces of Joseph. If they were once out of danger, let the church shift for itself; they are secure in a warm nest; let the birds of prey catch and devour that flock with which they some

imes associated, they are not touched with it. Moses could not do so, though in the greatest security and confluence of the honors and pleasures of Egypt, Acts vii. 23. Nehemiah could not do so, though the servant and favorite of a mighty monarch, and wanting nothing to make him outwardly happy; the pleasures of a king's court could not cheer his heart, or scatter the clouds of sorrow from his countenance, whilst his brethren were in affliction, and the city of his God lay waste, Nehemiah ii. 1, 2, 3. Nor indeed can any gracious heart be unconcerned and senseless; for that union which all the saints have with Christ their head, and with one another as fellow-members in Christ, will beget sympathy among them in their sufferings, 1 Cor. xii. 26.

SECTION V.

But as the fire of prosperity discovers this and much more dross in a graceless heart, so it discovers the sincerity and grace of God's people. I say not that it discovers nothing but grace in them. O that it were so! Alas! many of them have had a great deal of dross and corruption discovered by it. But yet in this trial, the graciousness and uprightness of their heart will appear in these and such like workings of it.

1. Under prosperity, success, and honor, the upright heart will labor to suppress pride, and keep itself lowly and humble; and still the more grace there is, the more humility there will be. If God lift him up, he will lay himself low, and exalt his God high. So did Jacob when God had raised and enlarged him; "I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth which thou hast showed unto thy servant, for with my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I am become two bands," Gen. xxxii. 10. Great was the difference in Jacob's outward condition at his return, from what it was at his first passage over Jordan; then poor, now rich; then single and comfortless, now the head of a great family; yea, but though his outward estate was altered, the frame of his heart was not altered. Jacob was a holy and humble man when he went out, and so he was when he return