The danger of prosperity discovered in several sermons upon Prov. I. 27 /

This misery will be amplified under the following Heads.

3. We are to consider the Justice, the certainty and the heaviness of the Destruction, that shall seize on foolish Sinners that abuse Prosperity.

1. To illustrate the Justice of God in their destruction, I shall only insist on that Reason that is so admirably amplified in this Chapter for their conviction; that¹ is, their Destruction is the Fruit of their own choice. The Divine Wisdom allures and invites them, by all the most tender and powerful Persuasives, to forsake their ruinous Course, and the Spirit of Grace should be poured upon them, which is the Earnest of Glory; but they would not be convinced and reformed; they loved simplicity, the vain volatile Pleasures of Sin, though attended with Perdition: They hated Knowledge, Godliness, though recommended by the assurance of a blessed eternal Reward: therefore their Destruction is resolved into ⟨p. 153⟩their own Choice. Indeed no Man can directly and absolutely choose Misery, or reject Happiness, but virtually and by real consequence the most do. A Prodigal that wastes his Estate, does not intentionally and deliberately choose Poverty, but thus he thinks, this Expense is for my Honour, this for my Pleasure, and proceeding to innumerable Expenses, he at last becomes poor, and his poverty is voluntary, because 'tis the issue of his voluntary exorbitant profuseness. The evil of Sin, though it be destructive, and in that respect not eligible by Man, yet 'tis pleasing to his corrupt Nature: and the depraved Will is so allured by the present Pleasure, that it anticipates the Reflections of the Mind, ⟨p. 154⟩