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

2. The certainty of their Destruction is next to be considered. 'Tis unchangeably established by the Divine Ordination, that the Pleasures of Sin shall end in the misery of obstinate Sinners. This is declared in the Word of God, If ye live according to the Flesh, ye ¹shall die: And as 'tis founded in distributive Justice, so it shall be executed from his Truth. Our Saviour tells us, Heaven and Earth ²shall pass away, but one jot or tittle of the Law shall not be unfulfilled. All the threatenings of it, in their fearful extent, shall be accomplished upon impenitent Sinners, the proper Objects of Vengeance. God cannot deny himself in ceasing to be Holy and True, and his Power seconds his Word, to inflict the full effects of it upon the Guilty and Impenitent; for ⟨p. 158⟩a time they are spared, that they might repent: for Mercy is not only over all the Works of God, but paramount to all his Attributes, it suspends his Power from Acts of Vengeance, it delays and mitigates his Justice: we may appeal from Justice to Mercy in the Court of Heaven: but when God's Mercy has been affronted and exasperated, by the continual abuse of his Benefits, when 'tis renounced and forfeited by Sinners, their destruction is irreversible: for 'tis Mercy alone atones his righteous Anger; and this being so fearfully provoked, there is no Advocate in his Bosom to plead for them. Did he not expel from Heaven the rebellious Angels, Spirits of a higher Order, and more excellent Endowments than Men, and in their ⟨p. 159⟩number perhaps exceeding the whole Progeny of Man? Now as the Apostle, considering that the Israelites, the chosen People of God, and dear to him above all others, yet when they became unfruitful, were broken off from the true Olive Tree, and the wild Gentiles were grafted into it, leaves this Caution in eternal memory, Be ³not high-minded, but fear. For if he spared not the natural Branches, take heed lest he spare not thee. We may strongly infer, If God spared not the Angels that sinned in their first act of disobedience, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into Chains of Darkness, to be reserved unto Judgment. Certainly he will not spare sinful Men that hate to be reformed, and continue in the voluptuous course of Sin to the last.