Spiritual wisdom.

pure and spiritual in its nature, and in all its purposes and effects, true, real, lasting, and happy. To the possessors of this wisdom, and to such only, it is said, that they shall be had in everlasting remembrance.

Its origin is in grace from HIM, who is the Fountain of wisdom. And its first effect is in the renunciation and abasement of self, as that which is false and contrary. Thus the fear of the Lord is the beginning, or first fruits which the soul can present, of wisdom. It is a certain truth in every real Christian's experience, though a strange paradox to the rest of the world, that a man must become a fool, that he may be wise. The wisdom from above sees the ignorance of all other pretended wisdom, detects its base and groveling pursuits, and lifts up the soul, not to a temporary dying fame, which is often infamy with God, but to a solid and perpetual good, and to a weight, not a shadow, of glory. It discovers the deceivableness of unrighteousness in the heart and in the world, the poorness of every thing out of Christ, and the great value of Christ and the soul above all other things. It doth not lift up a man in himself, as a great and glorious doctor for human admiration; but it makes him low in his own eyes, through a view of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus his Lord; and it keeps him from aiming at vain glory, as being a kind of treason aginst God, and as an unjust attainment for himself, a poor, dependent, ignorant sinner, The Christian, made wise to salvation, dreads to be left to his own wisdom; because he knows that blindness is its other and its truer name.

Christ is made, of God, wisdom to the believer. He spake as never man spake; and none teach

Source of happiness.

eth like him. He often gives a poor and ignorant countryman such instructions, as render him abundantly more wise than the mere scholar by all the florid pomp of the schools. So engrafted too are his instructions, that the art of man, and the sophistry of Satan, cannot baffle those who possess them. His knowledge is solid, and real, and enjoyable; such as the heart can feel, the soul live by, the spirit exult in, the whole man act upon, amidst a thousand trials in the world, and in the nearest prospect of death and eternity.

Possessing this wisdom, how serenely can the Christian look down upon the bustling cares and pursuits of men, upon their honours, their pleasures, their riches; even as a man of great natural wisdom would look down upon the follies and recreations of boys! Toys and games employ the attention of children, and engage their passions, though frivolous and fleeting: And are the solicitudes of men, and of old men too, less idle or extravagant, when they lay out all their time and strength, and souls, for that which profiteth not even here, and which none pretend to be profitable in the day of wrath? What poor things are these of the world in the hours of sickness and pain? and how much poorer still in the hour of approaching death? Honours, titles, and estates cannot remove a pang, nor give one drop of consolation; but in many cases, afford a wish of dismal remorse to their owners, that they bad never obtained them. There is, I fear, more than one Dives in eternity, who laments that he had not been a hundred times poorer and sorer than any Lazarus (with grace) was or could be in this world.

True wisdom proves its own worth by seeking

Devout prayer.

and obtaining a proper and valuable end. On the other hand, that cannot be real, but delusive, wisdom, which is always working and promising, and at last concludes in nothing, or nothing but ruin. But this is the most, which is attained by the wisdom of this world, spiritually viewed. It gains air and dirt, a name and a perishing good, (if a good) below; and then it ceases to act, leaving its poor possessor only misery and disappointment, except indeed the fearful expectation of an unwished and unwelcome hereafter. Can the end of the merest idiot be more stupid and unwise?

Without a doubt, the affairs of this life must be carried on, and the Christian must more or less be engaged in them; but the wisdom of grace in his soul will teach him, that there are also other affairs to mind; affairs of infinitely more moment to him than all the world put together. If he should gain the utmost or the whole of this earth, and lose himself and the end of his being; where would be his profit and advantage? People, who can speculate clearly and calculate nicely for gains in common matters, would do well to carry their thoughts of profit and loss a little farther towards the end of time, when all things, which most deeply concern them, are to be balanced and settled for ever.

Lord, above all wisdom of earth, and earthly gain, may I obtain that wisdom, which leadeth to an happy immortality, and which shall abide with me beyond the bounds of time! I am a poor dying creature, going fast out of this world, and almost upon the very threshold of another. O help me to see then what can truly profit, or what may really hinder me; that the loins of my

Independence.

mind may be girt up with the girdle of saving wisdom, and that I may always be so running, as at length to obtain the crown! O preserve my heart from that unwise wisdom, which layeth up what must soon be lost, and squanders away what can never be regained! which thinketh much of airy trifles, and almost not at all, or not at all to the purpose, of an unperishing good!-Of a good which thy Spirit hath called, an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, a crown of glory that fadeth not away; a building of God eternal in the heavens, a kingdom which cannot be shaken; a blessedness, which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor entered into the heart of man; yea, rivers of joy and pleasure for evermore!-Lord, if thou give but the wisdom to obtain these, I shall very soon cease to lament the non-attainment of every other knowledge beside!

CHAP. XII.

UPON INDEPENDENCE.

MEN desire what is called independent fortunes, through their natural arrogance, and fond indulgence to their flesh: And because believers are flesh as well as spirit, therefore, in proportion as that flesh is spiritually uncircumcised and unsubdued, even do these require this meat of the world for their lust. It is very irksome to a believer's carnal nature, that he lives in his spirit the life of faith; and it will be more and more irksome to nature, as this life grows in him and is proved by trials, which tend to deny or abridge his earthly

Independence dangerous.

desires. The flesh cannot delight in any thing, that may not gratify its senses; but the life of the spirit consists greatly in crucifying the flesh, with its affections and lusts, in trusting God through a naked promise for what is yet unseen, and in giving up will, hope, desire, and every thing within and without, to his disposal. This is all horrid and dismal, yea, death itself, to the natural man. He hates, and abhors, and scoffs, and sets all his wits and passions at work to cry down a life so strange and peculiar, that he must even die to himself and all he loves, before he can live it. But whosoever will save this life of the car. nal mind shall lose it; and whosoever would lose it, shall, by the mercy of God, find a better, even a life of confidence and communion with Jesus Christ.

This principle of independence, or aversion to live in simple trust upon God, is the secret cause why many professors hasten to be rich, or will be rich in this world, though by it they fall into a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in ruin and perdition. "If I can get such and such a fortune, I will do so and so (say they, and then serve God without distraction." But the flesh is not to be laid asleep by indulgence, nor the fire to be put out by heaping up fuel. Experience shows, that large possessions do much oftener damp any little life or zeal for God, than quicken the Christian's hope and concern for a better world.

The spirit of faith teaches another lesson. It bids a man commit all his way to the Lord, and rather to fear than to court great riches; knowing what mischiefs and wretchedness they have brought upon many, who once seemed to run