10.

quests. Riches and Honours, Houses and
Lands, and all other Fruits of their Worldly
Labour, Men may leave behind them, for
Friends or Children to Inherit: But Wisdom
and Knowledge are not Matter of Inheri-
tance; They Dye together with their Own-
ers. When the Breath of Man goeth forth, Pf.cxlvi.3.
be turneth again to his Earth, and all his
Thoughts perish. There is no Wisdom nor Ecclef. ix.
Knowledge in the Grave, whither thou goest.
Death, whene'er it comes, wipes out all the
fair Ideas that had fo long been gathering in
his Brain; all the Treasures of Knowledge
and Wisdom are vanished in a Moment, and
their late Admir'd Owner is brought again
to a Level, and laid down together with
the Fool. So foon as ever the Soul is once
departed, none can see by what remains,
which was the Wife Man, and which the
Foolish.

This is what the Great Solomon does
(methinks,) regret, and somewhat feelingly
reflects upon it, that he himself, fuch a One
as He, who was the Wonder of his Age,
fam'd throughout the World for his Wisdom,
must shortly be equall'd with the Fool in his
Death,-Ecclef. ii. Then faid I in mine
Heart, as it happeneth to the Fool, so it
happeneth even to me; And why was I then
more Wife? Then I said in mine Heart, that
This also is Vanity. For there is no Re
membrance

membrance of the Wise, more than of the Fool for ever. Then he puts the Question,and How Dyeth the Wife Man?-returning this short Answer to himself, Even as the Fool.

And as no Man's Learning nor Knowledge can secure him from Death, so neither can they comfort nor support him under it. It does not appear, that the greatest Oracles of Learning that the World has had, have had any great Satisfaction or Comfort from all their Human Learning when they came to Dye. "When Grotius, that Prodigy of "Learning, was surpriz'd upon his Journey, " (at Rostock in Germany,) with that Sick" ness which prov'd to be his Last, during "his Sickness all the Learned Men in those " Parts, of every Sect, one after another, " resorted to him, Lutherans and Calvinists, " Anabaptists and Socinians, each of them " entertaining him with their Learned Dif" courses and Arguments in their several " Ways, suitably to his Genius as they " thought: But Learning had no longer any " Relish with him: He gave little Heed to " them, nor any Answer at all to any of "them, but only This, I do not under" stand you. And when he had therewith " filenc'd them, would then say, If you will " entertain me now, let it not be with "Learning or Argument, but give me fuch

" Advice

« Advice as is proper for a Dying Chri" Stian*.

Thus have we seen the Fruits of the Wifdom of this World, in some of the most confiderable Instances of it; and how far short they are of making a Man Happy, even in this World. And if all the Good that the Politician and the Worldling, the Senfualist and Epicure, reap from all their Labours, is every way so insufficient to Happiness, so Uncertain and Imperfect, so Defective in itself, and so dash'd with Troubles and Disappointments in This Life, which yet is the Only Scene for their Enjoyment; What must they then think of their Choice, when their Life is drawing towards an End, and they begin to confider, how vainly they have spent it in Sin and Folly, or Vanity, and must now lye down in Sorrow, to Rise again to Misery?-They then see their Error, but fee it too late to redeem it.

But God grant that We may be Wife in
time, to follow the Things that make
for our lasting Happiness, Things that
accompany Salvation, before they be hid
from our Eyes.

: :

1

1

SERMON XI.

What is our True Wisdom:
The Properties and Pre-
heminencies of it above
Worldly Wisdom.

The Second, SERMON on this Text.

PROV. IX. 12.

-If thou be Wife, thou shalt be
Wife for thyself.

I

N treating on these Words I have al ready confidered,

I. What is the Common Wisdom of the World, That which passes most for Wisdom amongst Men.

II. I have considered, (in several Instances,) what Account this Worldly Wisdom turns to; whether it is true Self-Wisdom, that Wisdom which will make us Wife for ourselves. And having shewn, that None of the Ways of Worldly Wisdom answer this Design, I now come in the

III.

IIId Place to confider, What is indeed true Wisdom, or what Sort of Wisdom it is, that will make us truly Wife for Ourselves.

Now by True Wisdom, I mean nothing else but a Right Judgment in all Things; fuch as will lead Men to the Choice of the Best End, and to the Profecution of it by the Properest Means.

Rational Creatures being made capable of Happiness and Misery, must well and wisely confider, how they may attain the one, and avoid the other: They must rate things to their real Worth, and value every thing according to its Worth. They must well confider wherein their Great Interest lies, what it is that will make them truly Happy; and must Unite and fix their Thoughts and Hearts to it. That is to be the main End and Scope, the Centre of all their Actions and Designs.

For it is not enough for any One to Know what would make him Happy. A Man may be convinc'd in his Understanding, that Herein lies his Happiness; but if Sloth, or

I

Cowardice,