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

(2.) Supreme Love to God is an indispensable Duty from Men upon the account of his most amiable Excellencies and Benefits. Thou shalt love the Lord with all thy Heart, with all thy Soul, with all thy Strength, and with all thy Mind; ⟨p. 32⟩this is the first and great Commandment, and consequently a coldness and indifferency to God▪ much more a strong aversion from him, is a sin of the most heinous nature: now Prosperity has a special malignity to disincline the Heart from God. The supreme Love of God includes an Act of the Understanding, a transcendent esteem of his Favour; Thy loving-kindness is better than Life; it inspires the Soul with ardent desires after him; My Soul follows hard after thee; it produces the most joyful satisfaction in Communion with him. The Thoughts of God are unspeakably precious and sweet; the Ordinances, the blessed Means of conveying his Grace, are highly valued; and Sin that displeases and separates from God, is hated as the ⟨p. 33⟩greatest Evil. Now the Soul must be refined to a heavenly temper, to some degrees of Angelical Purity, before 'tis capable of Light to see his spiritual Excellencies, and Love to enjoy them. And if the Soul does not make the Body Heavenly and Spiritual, the Body will make the Soul Earthly and Fleshly. From hence it is that the affluence of things pleasing to the Senses, fastens the carnal Heart to the World as its Happiness and Heaven; it darkens the Mind, and vitiates the Affections, that the Soul can neither taste nor see how good the Lord is. 'Tis the universal Character of Men in the carnal State; they are lovers of Pleasure, more than lovers of God. And a remisser degree of Love is comparative Hatred. A Sin of astonishing guilt, ⟨p. 34⟩and not less odious to God, and damning in its Nature, tho little observed and resented by carnal Men: for the highest dishonour of God is complicated with disobedience in it. A Sin that deserves and inflicts the sorest Punishment; for God alone, whose goodness is infinite, can make us perfectly and eternally happy; and the spiritual separation from him is such an unvaluable¹ loss, that when truly understood, is the foundation of the heaviest sorrow.