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confiderable to the promoting or hindering of any event, than all things in the world befides; and therefore all policy, which fets afide God and his providence, is vain; because there is no wisdom, nor understanding, nor counsel against the Lord.

So likewife all that wisdom which only confiders and regards this fhort life, and the narrow concernments of it, and makes provision only for our welfare in this world; and therefore can only be tempted with the hopes of temporal advantages, and terrified only with the danger of temporal evils and fufferings; but hath no fenfe of an immortal spirit within us, no prospect of a life after death, no confideration of a happy or miferable eternity, of rewards and punishments, infinitely greater than all the temptations and terrors of time and fenfe; I fay, all this is a prepofterous and pernicious wifdom, and proceeds upon a falfe fuppofition, and a quite contrary fcheme of things to what really is; and confequently our whole life, and all the defigns and actions of it, do run upon a perpetual mistake, and a falfe ftating of our own cafe; and whatever we do purfuant to this miftake is foolish and hurtful, and To far from conducing to our true intereft, that it is all either befide it, or contrary to it; because we act upon a fuppofal only of this life, and a being only in this world, and that there is nothing either to be feared or hoped for beyond it; and being thus grofly miftaken, we fet our hearts only upon temporal things, and study our prefent fecurity and fatisfaction, and in all our counfels and actions are fwayed only by the confideration of temporal good and evil, of the prefent eafe and pleasure, the difturbance and pain of our flefhly and fenfual parts; without any fenfe of our own immortality, and of that everlafting ftate which remains for us in another world.

But there is (my brethren, ) most certainly, there is another life after this; we are not beafts, if we do not make ourselves fo; and if we dy, we fhall not dy like them, neither fhall our laft end be like theirs. For whatever we may think or wifh, it will not be in our power to extinguifh our own beings

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when we have a mind to be rid of them, and to chufe whether or no we fhall live for ever.

And if this be a falfe fcheme of things which we have framed to ourfelves, and proceeded upon (as undoubtedly it is) then our whole life is one great error, and a perpetual mistake, and we are quite wrong in all that we defign to do. Our wifdom hath begun at the wrong end, and we have made a falfe calculation and account of things, and have put our case otherwife than it is; and the farther we proceed upon this mistake, our miscarriage will be fo much the more fatal in the iffue. But if our wifdom begin at the right end, and our cafe be truly ftated, that God hath put into thefe frail and mortal bodies of ours, immortal fpirits that fhall live for ever; and hath fent us into this world to fojourn here for a little while, and to be difciplined and trained up for eternity; and that after a fhort proof and trial of our obedience, we fhall be translated into an everlafting state of unfpeakable happiness or mifery, according as we have demeaned ourselves in this world; if we believe this to be truly our cafe, our interest is then plainly before us, and we fee where our happinefs lies, and what remains for us to do, in order to the obtaining of it, and what we are to expect to fuffer, if we do it not.

1. Now this foundation being laid, it is evident, that the best thing we can do for ourselves, is to provide för our future ftate, and to fecure the everlasting happiness of another life. And the best way to do that, is to live in obedience to thofe laws which our maker and our fovereign hath prefcribed to us; and according to which he will one day fentence us to eternal rewards or punishments.

It is evident likewife, that all our fenfual appetites and defires are to be bounded by the rules of reafon and virtue, which are the laws of God; and that no prefent cafe and pleasure, trouble and fuffering, are to be confidered and regarded by us, in competition with the things which are eternal; and that fin is of all other the greatest evil, and most mischievous to our main intereft, and therefore with all poffible

care to be avoided; and that the favour of God is to be fought, and the falvation of our fouls to be provided for, at any pains and expence whatfoever, and even with the hazard and lofs of our deareft interefts in this world, yea and of life itself.

And now, if this matter hath been rightly ftated, then religion, and the fear of God, is the first principle and foundation of true wisdom, and that which we are to confider, and take along with us in all the defigns and actions of our lives; and all wisdom which does not begin here, is prepofterous, and will prove folly in the iffue.

Secondly, As religion is the beginning of wisdom, fo it is the perfection of it, it is the highest point of wifdom in which we can be inftructed, The fear of the Lord (fays Solomon, Prov. xv. 33.) is the inftruction of wisdom. A good understanding (fays Dávid, Pfal. cxi. 10.) have all they that do his commandments. The practice of religion is the perfection of wisdom; and he understands himself beft, who lives moft according to the laws of God. And this I might fhew, by inftancing in particular virtues, the practice whereof is much wifer, and every way more for our intereft, than the contrary vices; but this is too large an argument to engage in, and therefore I fhall content myself at prefent briefly to fhew, that the chief characters and properties of wisdom do all meet in religion, and agree to it,

The first point of wisdom is, to understand our true intereft, and to be right in our main end, and in this, religion will beft inftruct and direct, us. And if we be right in our main end, and true to the intereft of it, we cannot mifcarry: But if a man miftake in this, he errs fatally, and his whole life is va nity and folly.

Another property of wifdom is, to be fteady and vigorous in the profecution of our main end; to oblige us hereto, religion gives us the most powerful arguments, the glorious happinefs, and the difmal mifery of another world.

The next point of wifdom is, to make all things ftoop and become fubfervient to our main end. And

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wherever religion bears fway, it will make all other things fubordinate to the falvation of our fouls, and the interest of our everlasting happiness; as the men of this world make every thing to fubmit and give way to their covetous, and ambitious, and fenfual defigns.

Another part of wifdom is, to confider the future, and to look to the laft end and iffue of things. It is a common folly among men, to be fo intent upon the prefent, as to have little or no regard to the future, to what will be hereafter. Men defign and labour for this present life, and their fhort continuance here in this world, without taking into ferious confideration their main duration, and their eternal abode in another world. But religion gives us a clear pro fpect of a life after death, and overlooks time, and makes eternity always prefent to us, and minds us of making timely provifion and preparation for it. It takes into confideration our whole duration, and infpires us with wisdom, to look to the end of things, and to what will be hereafter, as well as to what is prefent.

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It is likewise a great property of wisdom, to fecure the main chance, and to run no hazard in that. And this religion directs us to take care of, because the neglect of it will prove fatal.

Another mark of wifdom is, to lay hold of opportunities, thofe efpecially, which, when they are once paft, will never return again. There are fome feafons wherein great things may be done, which if they be let flip, are never to be retrieved. A wife man will lay hold of these, and improve them; and religion inculcates this principle of wisdom upon us, that this life is the opportunity of doing great things for ourselves, and of making ourfelves for ever; this very day and hour may, for ought we know, be the laft and only opportunity of repentance, and making our peace with God: Therefore to day, whilft it is called to day, let us fet about this neceffary work, left any of us be hardened through the deceit fulness of fin; to-morrow it may be too late to begin it, and the justice of God may cut us off whilft we

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are wilfully delaying it; and the opportunities of faving our immortal fouls, may vanish, and be for ever hid from our eyes.

The next property of wifdom is, to forefee dangers, and to take timely care to prevent them. The prudent man (faith Solomon) forefeeth the evil, and hideth himself; that is, fhelters and fecures himself against it; but the simple pass on, and are punished; that is, the evil overtakes them, and their folly is punished in their fatal ruin. Now the greateft danger is from the greateft power; even from him who is able to fave and to deftroy. I will tell you (fays the wisdom of God) whom ye shall fear; fear him, who after he hath killed, can deftroy both body and foul in hell.

Again, another main point of wifdom is, to do as little as we can to be repented of, trufting rather to the wifdom of prevention, than to that of remedy. Religion firft teacheth men innocency, and not to offend; but in cafe we do, (as in many things we offend all) it then directs us to repentance, as the only remedy. But this certainly is folly, to fin in hopes of repentance, that is, first to make work for repentance, and then run the hazard of it; for we may certainly fin, but it is not certain that we shall repent. And if it were, yet it is great folly to lay in before-hand, and to make work for trouble; na tu ftultus homuncio es, qui malis veniam precari, quàm

peccare, was a wife faying of old Cato; thou art (fays he) a filly man indeed, who chufeft rather to ask forgiveness, than not to offend. If a man had the best remedy in the world, he would not make himself fick to try the virtue of it, and it is a known comparison, and a very fit one, that repentance is tabula poft naufragium, a plank after shipwrack. But I am greatly afraid that thousands of fouls, who have trifted to it, have perifhed before they could get to land, with this plank in their arms.

The laft character of wifdom I fhall mention is, in all things to confult the peace and fatisfaction of our own minds, without which nothing elfe can make us happy; and this obedience to the laws of God does

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