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

1. Prosperity is the continual Incentive of the vicious Affections, the fleshly Lusts that war against the Soul; that deprive it of its Beauty, Order, Freedom, and Felicity. Man is compounded of Flesh and Spirit; by the one he communicates in nature with the Beasts, by the other he confines with the Angels. By the original Law of Union, the Body was subject to the Soul; and tho taken from the Earth, did not oppress it, and hinder its Heavenly flight: The Flesh did not lust against the Spirit, nor the Spirit against the Flesh. But as the motion of the two Eyes in the Head is always uniform, and directed the same way; so Reason and Sense accorded, the Appetites were regular ⟨p. 15⟩and concentric with the Mind. Upon this established order, the internal Peace and Holiness of Man depends. But by the rebellious Sin of Adam, the Soul lost its regal Power and Freedom: and as in the first temptation the Soul infected the Body, so now the Body infects the Soul. The carnal Appetite, the spring of Lust and Anger (that infernal pair that reigns so universally) over-rules the rational Will, and gives Law to Men.

1. Prosperity is the continual Incentive of the vicious Affections, the fleshly Lusts that war against the Soul; that deprive it of its Beauty, Order, Freedom, and Felicity. Man is compounded of Flesh and Spirit; by the one he communicates in nature with the Beasts, by the other he confines with the Angels. By the original Law of Union, the Body was subject to the Soul; and tho taken from the Earth, did not oppress it, and hinder its Heavenly flight: The Flesh did not lust against the Spirit, nor the Spirit against the Flesh. But as the motion of the two Eyes in the Head is always uniform, and directed the same way; so Reason and Sence accorded, the Appetites were regular ⟨p. 15⟩and concentrick with the Mind. Upon this established order, the internal Peace and Holiness of Man depends. But by the rebellious Sin of Adam, the Soul lost its regal Power and Freedom: and as in the first temptation the Soul infected the Body, so now the Body infects the Soul. The carnal Appetite, the spring of Lust and Anger (that infernal pair that reigns so universally) over-rules the rational Will, and gives Law to Men.