humour of the people; complacence in which is vain, SERM, and reliance upon it dangerous. That power and do- I. minion, which men fo impatiently ftruggle for, are but neceffary evils introduced to restrain the bad tempers of men; moft evil to them that enjoy them; requiring tedious attendance, diftracting care, and vexatious toil; attended with frequent disappointment, opprobrious cenfure, and dangerous envy; having such real burdens, and flavish incumbrances, fweetened only by fuperficial pomps, ftrained obfequioufnefs, fome petty privileges and exemptions fcarce worth the mentioning. That wit and parts, of which men make fuch oftentation, are but natural endowments, commendable only in order to use, apt to engender pride and vanity, and hugely dangerous, if abused or misemployed. What should I mention beauty, that fading toy; or bodily ftrength and activity, qualities fo palpably inconfiderable? Upon thefe and fuch like flattering objects, fo adored by vulgar opinion, Wisdom exercifing severe and impartial judgment, and perceiving in them no intrinfic excellence, no folid content fpringing from them, no perfection thence accruing to the mind, no high reward allotted to them, no fecurity to the future condition, or other durable advantages proceeding from them; it concludes they deserve not any high opinion of the mind, nor any vehement paffion of the soul, nor any laborious care to be employed on them, and moderates our affections toward them: it frees us from anxious defire of them; from being transported with exceffive joy in the acquifition of them; from being overwhelmed with difconfolate forrow at the miffing of them, or parting with them; from repining and envying at those who have better fuccefs than ourselves in the procuring them; from immoderate toil in getting, and care in preferving them: and fo delivering us from all these unquiet anxieties of thought, tumultuous perturbations of paffion, and tedious vexations of body, it maintains our minds in a cheerful calm, quiet indifferency, and comfortable liberty. On the other fide, things of real worth and high concernment, that produce great fatisfaction to the mind, and are

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SERM. mainly conducible to our happiness, such as are a right understanding and strong sense of our obligations to Almighty God, and relations to men, a found temper and complexion of mind, a virtuous disposition, a capacity to discharge the duties of our places, a due qualification to enjoy the happiness of the other world; thefe and fuch like things, by discovering their nature, and the effects refulting from them, it engages us highly to esteem, ardently to affect, and industriously to pursue; fo preventing the inconveniences that follow the want of them, and conveying the benefits arifing from the poffeffion of them.

XIII. Wisdom diftinguishes the circumstances, limits the measures, determines the modes, appoints the fit feafons of action; so preserving decorum and order, the parent of peace, and preventing confufion, the mother of iniquity, ftrife, and difquiet. It is in the bufinefs of human life as in a building; a due proportion of bigness, a fit fituation of place, a correspondency of shape, and suitableness of colour, is to be observed between the parts thereof: a defect in any of which requifites, though the materials hap to be choice and excellent, makes the whole fabric deformed and ugly to judicious apprehenfion. The best actions, if they fwell, and exceed their due measure, if they be unskilfully misplaced, if in uncouth manner performed, they lose their quality, and turn both to the disgrace and disadvantage of life. It is commendable to pray; but they that would always be performing that duty, by their abfurd devotion procured to themselves the title of heretics: and they that will stand praying in places of public concourse, deferved our Saviour's reprehenfions; and those men who, against the custom and ordinary use, would needs pray with their faces covered, you know St. Paul infinuates of them, that they were fond and contentious perfons. Friendly admonition is very laudable, and of rare use; but being upon all occafions immoderately used, or in public fociety fo as to encroach upon modefty, or endamage reputation; or when the person admonished is otherwise employed, and

attent upon his bufinefs; or being delivered in an impe- SERM, riously infulting way, or in harsh and opprobrious lan- I. guage; it becomes unfavoury and odious, and both in fhew and effect resembles a froward, malicious exceptiousness. It were infinite to compute in how many inftances want of due order, measure, and manner, do spoil and incommodate action. It is Wifdom that applies remedy to these mifchiefs. Things must be compared to, and arbitrated by, her standard, or else they will contain fomething of monftrous enormity; either strutting in unwieldy bulk, or finking in defective fcantnefs. If fhe do not fashion and model circumftances, they will fit ugly on the things that wear them; if she do not temper the colours, and describe the lineaments, the draught of practice will be but rude and imperfect, and little refemble the true patterns of duty: but if she interpose, and perform her part, all things will appear conformable, neat, and delicate.

XIV. Wisdom difcovers our relations, duties, and concernments, in respect of men, with the natural grounds of them; thereby both qualifying and inclining us to the discharge of them: whence exceeding convenience, pleafure, and content enfues. By it we understand we are parts and members of the great body, the univerfe; and are therefore concerned in the good management of it, and are thereby obliged to procure its order and peace, and by no irregular undertaking to disturb or discompofe it; which makes us honeft and peaceable men: that we proceed from the same primitive stock, are children of the fame father, and partake of the fame blood with all men; are endowed with like faculties of mind, paffions of foul, fhape of body, and sense of things: that we have equally implanted in our original constitution inclinations to love, pity, gratitude, fociableness, quiet, joy, reputation : that we have an indispensable need and impatient defire of company, affiftance, comfort, and relief; that therefore it is according to the defign of nature, and agreeable to reason, that to those, to whom our natural condition by so many bands of cognation, fimilitude, and mutual neceffitude, hath knit and conjoined us, we should bear a kind respect and

SERM. tender affection; should cheerfully concur in undergoing the 1. common burdens; fhould heartily with and industriously promote their good, affift them in accomplishing their reasonable defires, thankfully requite the courtefies received from them, congratulate and rejoice with them in their profperity, comfort them in their diftreffes, and, as we are able, relieve them; however, tenderly compaffionate their disappointments, miferies, and forrows. This renders us kind and courteous neighbours, sweet and grateful companions. It reprefents unto us the dreadful effects and infupportable mischiefs arifing from breach of faith, contravening the obligations of folemn pacts, infringing public laws, deviating from the received rules of equity, violating promises, and interrupting good correspondence among men; by which confiderations it engages us to be good citizens, obedient fubjects, juft dealers, and faithful friends. It minds us of the blindness, impotence, and levity, the proneness to mistake, and misbehaviour that human nature neceffarily is fubject to; deferving rather our commiferation, than anger or hatred, which prompts us to bear the infirmities of our brethren, to be gentle in cenfure, to be infenfible of petty_affronts, to pardon injuries, to be patient, exorable, and reconcileable to those that give us greatest cause of offence. It teaches us, the good may, but the evil of our neighbour can in no wife advantage us; that from the suffering of any man, fimply confidered, no benefit can accrue, nor natural fatisfaction arife to us; and that therefore it is a vain, base, brutish, and unreasonable thing, for any cause whatsoever, to defire or delight in the grief, pain, or mifery of our neighbour, to hate or envy him, or infult over him, or devife mifchief to him, or profecute revenge upon him; which makes us civil, noble, and placable enemies, or rather no enemies at all. So that Wisdom is in effect the genuine parent of all moral and political virtue, justice, Prov. viii. and honesty; as Solomon fays in her perfon, I lead in the way of righteoufnefs, and in the midst of the paths of judgment. And how fweet thefe are in the practice, how comfortable in the confequences, the teftimony of conti

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nual experience, and the unanimous confent of all wife SERM. men fufficiently declare. But farther,

XV. The principal advantage of Wisdom is, its acquainting us with the nature and reafon of true religion, and affording convictive arguments to perfuade to the practice of it; which is accompanied with the pureft delight, and attended with the most folid content imaginable. I fay, the nature of religion, wherein it confists, and what it requires; the mistake of which produceth daily so many mischiefs and inconveniences in the world, and exposes fo good a name to fo much reproach. It fheweth it confifteth not in fair profeffions and glorious pretences, but in real practice; not in a pertinacious adherence to any fect or party, but in a fincere love of goodness, and dislike of naughtiness, wherever discovering itself; not in vain oftentations and flourishes of outward performance, but in an inward good complexion of mind, exerting itself in works of true devotion and charity; not in a nice orthodoxy, or politic subjection of our judgments to the peremptory dictates of men, but in a fincere love of truth, in a hearty approbation of, and compliance with, the doctrines fundamentally good, and neceffary to be believed; not in harsh cenfuring and virulently inveighing against others, but in careful amending our own ways; not in a peevish croffness and obftinate repugnancy to received laws and cuftoms, but in a quiet and peaceable fubmiffion to the exprefs laws of God, and lawful commands of man; not in a furious zeal for or against trivial circumstances, but in a confcionable practising the substantial parts of religion; not in a frequent talking or contentious disputing about it, but in a ready observance of the unquestionable rules and prefcripts of it: in a word, that religion confifts in nothing elfe but doing what becomes our relation to God, in a conformity or fimilitude to his nature, and in a willing obedience to his holy will: to which by potent incentives it allures and perfuades us; by representing to us his tranfcendently glorious attributes, conspicuously displayed in the frame, order, and government of the world: that wonderful Power, which

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