SERMON XIV.

Wicked Men injurious to their own Souls.

Preach'd before

The University of CAMBRIDGE.

Proverbs VIII. xxxvi.

But he that finneth against me, wrongeth his own Soul; all they that hate me, love Death.

"HIS Book doth contain divers Rules

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and Precepts of Morality, which ferve to direct Men in most of their Ways and Actions, how they may behave themfelves wifely and live happily; in order to which End great Care is taken therein to poffefs

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poffefs the Minds of Men with due Reverence and all pious Affections towards God, that being the true Method of difpofing them, the plain Way of obliging them, to put those Precepts into Practice. Thus the wife Man openeth his Defign in the begin fing of this Book, ch. 1. v. 7. The Fear of the Lord, fays he, is the beginning of Wifdom, fhewing, that he intended to inftruct Men in true Wisdom, by teaching them the Fear of the Lord. Thus in the begin ning of the Second Chapter, v. 3, 4, 5, 9. If thou criest after Knowledge, and liftest up thy Voice for Understanding: If thou feekeft her as Silver, and fearcheft for her as for bid Treasures: Then shalt thou understand the Fear of the Lord, and find the Knowledge of God, Then fhalt thou understand Righteoufnefs, and Judgment, and Equity; yea, every good Path. So that if a Man be defirous of true Knowledge, he must arrive thereunto by pious Difpofition and Practice. This is alfo the Scope of this Eighth Chapter, wherein the wife Man observes, that the Will of God is fufficiently made known: Doth not Wisdom cry, and Understanding put forth her Voice? v. 1. That her Laws are proper for and fuitable to Humah Nature: Unto you, O Men, I call, and my Voice is to the Sons of Men, v. 4. That they are the Doctrines of unchangeable Truth and Righteousness: Hear, for I will speak of excellent

Things; and the opening of my Lips fhall be right Things. For my Mouth fhall Speak Truth, and Wickedness is an Abomination to my Lips. All the Words of my Mouth are in Righteoufnefs, v. 6, 7, 8. That they are intelligible to an honeft Mind: They are all plain to him that underftandeth, and right to them that find Knowledge, v. 9. That they are Rules given by infinite Wisdom and Almighty Power: Counfel is mine, and jound Wifdom: I am Underftanding, I have Strength, and needful for them that are in fupreme or fubordinate Authority: By me Kings reign, and Princes decree Justice, and Nobles, even all the Judges of the Earth, V. 14, 15, 16. In Conclufion, that they are the Results of that Wisdom which was from everlasting: The Lord poffeffed me in the beginning of his Way, before his Works of old. I was fet up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the Earth was, v. 22, 23. And the Ufe that is made of thefe Confiderations is this, v. 32, 33. Now therefore bearken unto me, Oye Children: for bleed are they that keep my Ways. Hear Inftructi on, and be wife, and refufe it not.

The Sum of all is, that the Laws of God are the Rules, and our Obedience to them the Measure of our Happiness.

Wherefore the wife Man concludes these Confiderations with an Inftruction that feems to unite the Force of them all toge

ther:

ther: He that finneth against me, wrongeth his own Soul; all they that hate me, love Death. This is a Confideration in it self of great Force, and of fo much greater, in that it leads from all Sin to all Duty, in that it alfo lays hold equally upon all Perfons, all are equally concern'd in it; and if there be any one whereby all are equally capable of being mov'd, it is This, because it touches Self-Interest so nearly, a very plain and fenfible Argument, which is neither above the meanest nor beneath the higheft Understanding to be affected with; and certain we may be, that he who is not affected with this, will be affected with none at all.

The former Part of the Text fheweth that every wicked Man is injurious to himfelf, the latter that he is knowingly and wilfully fo, which if he understands and believes, he lies under the strongest Obligations to Repentance. And what is thus recommended to his Confideration by the Authority of the wife Man, or rather of the all-wife God, is very plain alfo upon Grounds of natural Reafon, which I fhall now lay before you, and thereby fhew most effectually that all Ungodliness and Unrighteousness of Men is without Excufe.

He that finneth against God, wrongeth his own Soul. This will appear plainly enough if we look into our felves, and confider the Capacities and Privileges of our Natures as

we

we are Men, which are, Understanding, and Freedom of Will, and Choice. In thefe Refpects we are little lower than the Angels, but vaftly fuperior to all other living Creatures. But that by departing from our Duty to God we wrong our own Souls, will be very clear, if it appears that Men by their Ungodlinefs and Unrighteousness fo order the Matter, that it had been better for them to have been of a lower Rank in the Creation, and to have been in no higher Degree than the Ox or the Afs, or any the meanest Animals or vileft Things.

This will be fhewn by infifting upon thofe Privileges, which the free Obedience of a reasonable Soul makes it capable of, and alfo upon the contrary Evils, which it is equally liable to, and which the Neglect of that Obedience will certainly produce.

First then, By Obedience and Righteoufness, in a thorough Discharge of our Duty, we are capable of procuring a certain Joy and Delight to our felves, peculiar to our Natures, and we may and fhall feel great Contentment and Satisfaction therein, but by the contrary we become liable to Guilt and Anguish of Mind; whereas unreafonable Creatures; as they are not capable of the one, so are not in Danger of the other. Hath not God planted in our Minds a Sense of his Being and Perfections, and given us to apprehend his Authority, to know his