Since therefore this Divine Wisdom is the Only true Self-Wisdom, let us no longer delude ourselves with Vain Dreams of Happiness from this World, but earnestly labour after that Wisdom which is from above, the only fure Guide to Eternal Happiness.

This Wisdom the Wiser Men are, the more they know how to value: And the Wisest of Men does earnestly exhort all, to Prefer it, to Value it, to Seek and Labour after it, above any thing that is in the World; for that she is more precious than Rubies, and Prov. iii. all the things that thou canst defire are not to be compar'd unto her. That she is a Tree of Life to all that lay hold of her, and Happy is every one that retaineth her. Therefore above all things (says he,) Get Wisdom, Get Understanding-Wisdom is the Principal Prov. iv. thing, therefore Get Wisdom. Or to speak to you in the Words of Wisdom herself Hear Instruction (says she,) and be Wife, and Prov. viii. refuse it not. Blessed is the Man that hear-33 eth me, watching daily at my Gates. For whoso findeth me, findeth Life, and shallobtain favour of the Lord: But he that finneth against me, wrongeth his own Soul: All they that Hate me Love Death. Now it is will known, that by Wisdom, in Scrip. ture Language, is meant that true Heavenly Wisdom, that alone can lead us to our Happiness.

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It is certainly then the greatest Folly, it is Infatuation, it is Madness, not to Confider these Things which are of such infinite Con cernment to us. What have we our Rea son for, but to reflect upon Ourselves, to mind what we do, and wifely to Confider and Compare Things together? And upon the whole matter, to Judge, and Choose, what makes most for our true Interest! To Confider our Whole Selves, our Souls as well as our Bodies; and our Whole Duration or Extent of Being; not only in this World, but in the Other; and to order all our Actions not with Regard to this present Time, but with Regard to Eternity? In all we do, to look forwards to the final Issue, to the last Event and Utmost Consequences of our Actions? To reckon as surely on what will furely be, as if it was already Present to us? And if we have reason to believe that we shall furely Die, and come again to a Future State after Death, in which we shall be either Happy or Miserable to all Eternity, according as we live here in this Life, it would certainly be our greatest Wisdom to make it our main Business and Design whilst we are in this World, so to Live in it, as to make ourselves of the Number of those, that shall be accounted Worthy to Escape the Wrath to come, and to stand before the Son of Man, when he shall come to Judge the World in Righteness.

Would

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1

Would Men but seriously Confider these Things, and the vast Importance of them, and frequently revolve and debate them with themselves, they could not Live so loosely and madly as they do; preferring their Bodies before their Souls, their Mammon before God, and Things Temporal before the Things which are Eternal.

God grant that We may be Wise in Time, to Consider the Things that belong unto our Peace, before they be hid from our Eyes.

A

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SERMON XII

How the True Wisdom is to be attained.

The Third SERMON on this Text.

PROV. IX. 12.

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

AVING already shewn, what is the Common Worldly Wisdom, and its Insufficiency to make us Happy; and also what that True Wisdom is, which will make us truly Wife for Ourselves; with the Advantages and Preheminences of it above all the Wisdom of this World, I now come in the

Vth and

Vth and Last Place to shew, How this
Heavenly Wisdom is to be attained.

Now it is to be attained by these Means.

I. By the Word of God, and the Divine

Instruction therein given us.

II. By the Assistance of his Holy Spirit.
III. By our own Endeavours, and
IV. By our Prayers.

I.

I. By the Word of God, and the Divine
Instruction therein given us.

Happiness is the CommonDefire of all Man-
kind: It is a Natural Defire, and therefore
all Men do, and must Desire it. But there
is Nothing in which they have more difa-
greed, than in the Way that leads to it. The
Wisest Men were much in the Dark in their
Search after it.

Quale per incertam Lunam fub luce maligna virg. Æn.
Est iter in Sylvis-

Or to use Job's Expressions, They wandered Jobxii.24.
as in a Wilderness where there is no Way,
they groped as in the Dark without Light. And
this was the Cafe, as has been already hinted,
of the greatest Men amongst them. How-
ever eminent they made themselves for other
Points of Knowledge, they All fail'd in the
only great Concern; they None of them
could ever find out the Sure Way to Happi.
ness. St. Paul therefore derides, and tri-
umphs

X 2