_Direct._ XV. But alas, how short is the prosperity of the wicked! Read Psal. lxxiii. and xxxvii. Delay is no forgiveness: they stay but till the assize: and will that tempt you to do as they? How unthankfully do sinners deal with God! If he should kill you and plague you, that would not please you: and yet if he forbear you, you are imboldened by it in your sin. Thus his patience is turned against him; but the stroke will be the heavier when it falls. Dost thou think those men will always flourish? Will they always domineer and revel? Will they always dwell in the houses where they now dwell, and possess those lands, and be honoured and served as now they are? Oh how quickly and how dreadfully will the case be changed with them! Oh could you but foresee now what faces they will have, and what heavy hearts, and with what bitter exclamations they will at last cry out against themselves for all their folly, and wish that they had never been deceived by prosperity, but rather had the portion of a Lazarus! If you saw how they are but fatted for the slaughter, and in what a dolorous misery their wealth, and sport, and honours will leave them, you would lament their case, and think so great a destruction were soon enough, and not desire to be partners in their lot. _Tempt._ XVI. Another temptation is, their own prosperity: they think God, when he prospereth them, is not so angry with them as preachers tell them: and it is a very hard thing in health and prosperity, to lay to heart either sin or threatenings, and to have such serious, lively thoughts of the life to come, as men that are wakened by adversity have; and specially men that are familiar with death. Prosperity is the greatest temptation to security, and delaying repentance, and putting off preparation for eternity. Overcome prosperity, and you overcome your greatest snare.