A SERMON Preached before the KING AT NEW-MARKET April 2. 1676.  
BY SAMUEL SCATTERGOOD M. A. Fellow of Trinity College in Cambridge.  
Published by his MAJESTY'S special Command.  
CAMBRIDGE, Printed by John Hayes, Printer to the University, 1676.   
Job 28.28. 
And unto Man he said, Behold the fear of the Lord that is Wisdom, and to departed from evil is Understanding.  
THere is nothing that Man doth more earnestly pursue and hunt after then Wisdom and Understanding; and there is nothing that God is more desirous that he should obtain. And yet such is the obstinacy of our will, and the perverseness of our Nature, that when God shows us the true wisdom and the way to it, we will not follow his directions, but seek for it according to our own fancy, where it is never to be had: And then no wonder if in the end we prove such fools, as to reap no other fruit of our labour but shame and repentance: no wonder if we meet with death where we expected life, and find destruction in those things wherein we sought for happiness. For it hath ever been the devil's policy, even from the very beginning of the world, so cunningly to counterfeit this inestimable Jewel, that if we have not constant recourse to God's Word, to try every thing we take for wisdom by that unerring touchstone, and weigh it carefully in the balance of the Sanctuary, we may easily be deceived with a worthless trifle instead of this pearl of great price; we may embrace a shadow for a substance, and court ignorance and folly instead of Wisdom and Understanding. Thus he overthrew our first Parents, by persuading them to aspire to a greater measure of Knowledge than God had thought fit to bestow upon them; and he hath all along made use of the same temptation to the ruin of their Posterity. He found it successful then, and it hath been so ever since; and among all his wiles and stratagems he hath none by which he can so easily inveigle us as this; no bait so fair, so taking, and so universally prevalent among the Sons of men as this of Wisdom and Knowledge. Nay I may in some sense say that he hath no temptation at all by which he can move us but this alone. For did he not persuade men into a good opinion of themselves, and that their wicked actions were wise and prudent, he could never induce them to embrace his temptations: and therefore he suits them to every particular man's humour and disposition. He offers not the ladder of Honour to the Sluggard, upon which he knows the ambitious man will venture his life and fortunes; but he brings a pillow to the one, and a sceptre to the other: he propounds ease, and idleness, and sleep to the former, and persuades him that wisdom shall court him in a dream; and he shows the latter all the kingdoms of the World and the glory of them, and tells him that Wisdom is to be found no where but in the highest honour and most splendid preferments. He tells the Miser that it consists in riches, and that he must hoard it up in his coffers, he tells the Glutton that he shall find it in a dainty dish, and he bids the Revenger drink it up in the blood of his enemies.  
But above all other persons, those who one would think should be the best able to resist his temptations (I mean the Learned) are often times most easily foiled by him. Their great learning and parts, most excellent endowments, which might be very serviceable to God's glory and the good of his Church, he persuades them to abuse in the maintaining of wrangling Disputations, and unnecessary (and sometimes dangerous) Controversies. By which means he rends the seamless coat of Christ, divides the Church into Schisms and Factions, and shakes all into disorder and Confusion. He tells them, that to know Christ and him crucified is but a mean piece of knowledge, fit only for men of weaker capacities to rest content with. But as for them, he would have them fore aloft, and employ their time and study about deeper contemplations: examine what God was doing before he created the World: scan all the intrigues of his Providence: sound the fathomless abyss of his unsearchable Decrees: rifle, if it were possible, his most secret closet, and curiously pry into those things which are concealed from Angels. This saith he, is Wisdom, and this is Understanding worthy to be acquired by men of Parts and Learning.  
And this vain and wicked Curiosity, this unlawful thirst after that Knowledge, which is hidden from us, was the occasion of these words of my Text, and indeed of this whole Chapter. For Jobs three Friends were very bold, and foolishly positive in their assertions concerning Gods Decrees. They thought it was altogether inconsistent with his infinite Goodness to suffer either the Righteous to be in adversity, or the Wicked to prosper in this world. And therefore when they considered that their friend Job, who but a while before had been a mighty Prince, was all of a sudden reduced to most extreme poverty; and as it were in a moment, by unparallelled disasters, deprived of his whole Estate, his Children, his health, and brought down from a Throne to a Dunghill, they stood all amazed and astonished at his unexpected calamity; and instead of performing the duty of Friends, and comforting him in his affliction, they most unfriendly and uncharitably censure him. And as if they had been of God's privy Counsel, had stood by him, and throughly understood the whole design of his Providence in afflicting so severely his servant Job, they presently conclude him to be a most grievous sinner; and that whatsoever specious and fair shows he had made of Righteousness and Integrity, yet they were all false and counterfeit, and that God had now unmasked him, and by his heavy judgements plainly discovered to all the world that he was a most notorious Hypocrite, and that he had marked him and set him up as a Butt against which he would shoot all the Arrows of his fury and indignation.  
All this Job hears and endures with patience. He was sensible enough that God had afflicted him, and he knew too that it was not for his Hypocrisy, but for some secret end best known to his infinite Wisdom: and therefore he inquires not after it, but labours to perform his own Duty, and to receive evil from the Hand of God, if he sends it to him, as well as good, and patiently to bear whatsoever burden he lays upon him; as one that was well assured that though in a little wrath he hide his face from him for a moment, yet with everlasting kindness he would have mercy on him.  
This is all the wisdom he aspires to, he meddles not with God's secret counsel, nor searches after the Knowledge which he knew was too wonderful for him. And what he himself practices he advises his Friends here to practise too, and blames them for pretending so fond to give an account of the actions of God's Providence, and for thirsting after that Wisdom which they can never attain to. 'Tis the subject of this whole chapter, in which he sets forth most eloquently the impossibility of ever acquiring this Wisdom, which God hath reserved to himself as his own peculiar prerogative. For when he hath made a careful enquiry after it throughout all the world; ransacked the Air, the Earth, the Sea; nay even hell itself, and yet not found it: he concludes in the 23 Verse of this Chapter that God understands the way thereof, and he knows the place thereof.  
God understands it, and he only understands it; and he will have none else to understand it, or meddle with it. He hath ordained another sort of Wisdom for Man to seek after, which though it will not satisfy the fond curiosity of every inquisitive Brain that is still longing for the forbidden Fruit, yet it will be sufficient to make every one that attains to it wise unto Salvation. And this is the Wisdom which is here recommended to us in my Text with this emphatical word Behold before it, to command our attention and to make us rouse up our spirits, and turn away our eyes from those Vanities and that false Wisdom which we are too ready to follow after, and fix them upon the true. And unto Man he said, Behold the fear of the Lord, that is Wisdom, and to departed from evil is Understanding.  
In the handling of which words I shall endeavour, First to show what is here mean by the Fear of the Lord. Secondly, what it is to departed from evil. And thirdly prove that to departed from evil in the Name and Fear of the Lord is the greatest wisdom that Man is capable of. Of these in order.  
And First of the fear of the Lord. There is a fear of the Lord which is not Wisdom, nor Understanding: nay it is Folly, it is Madness, it is Sin. I mean such a fear as is peculiar only to wicked men; a fear that represents God to them frowning; armed with thunder, and ready to take vengeance on their crimes: a very unwelcome guest in their Breasts, which shows them as it were Hell in epitome, and gives them a taste here of those eternal torments which shall be their portion hereafter. This is the evil spirit from the Lord which troubled Saul. This is that fear which loosed the joints of Belshazzars loins, and smote his knees one against another, when he beheld the hand-writing against him upon the wall: that fear which made Cain a fugitive and a vagabond in the Earth; and drove Ahitophel and Judas to desperation. This is so far from being a blessing, that it is a curse, a vexation, a tormenting Fury which wicked men labour all they can to chase out of their hearts: but alas it is all in vain; it haunts them still, and will never departed from them, till they depart from evil. Indeed perhaps it may sometimes give them a little intermission: but yet it returns again with the greater violence. No place is secure from it where wicked men can come; but it follows and pursues them every where; embitters all their joys and pleasures; torments them day and night, and affrights them even in their dreams. This is one fear of the Lord; but not that fear which is here meant in my Text: for if this be all the wisdom man can attain to, surely then of all creatures he is the most miserable.  
But we may go a degree further still, and yet come short of the true Fear of God. For there are some men that so fear Him, as that they will endeavour to abstain from gross and scandalous sins: but not out of any true love they have for God, or any hatred they bear to sin; but merely out of Self-interest, that they may (if possible) escape that vengeance which they know will one day be executed upon the Ungodly.  
I will not say that this fear is in all men a sin: for it is in some a Virtue; and if it be not the Wisdom here in the Text, yet it is at least a good step toward the obtaining of it. For as it is a true Maxim, that no man can all of a sudden become a most notorious sinner: so it is as true one the contrary, that no man that hath been a sinner (and such we are all by Nature) can, without such a miracle as was wrought at the Conversion of S. Paul, in the twinkling of an eye become a Saint of the first Magnitude. No, we must be content to acquire this perfection by degrees; we must creep, before we can go: be Babes in Christ before we can be strong Men. We must pass from strength to strength; from grace to grace, before we can appear before God in Zion. For certainly God would never have set before us Life and Death; never have propounded to us in his word Rewards and Punishments; nor have told us of a cursed and a blessed Eternity, if he did not allow us to fear the one, and to desire the other.  
Nay this fear of God's wrath is so far from being unlawful, that it is absolutely necessary. We must receive the Spirit of Bondage to fear, before we can have that of Adoption to cry, Abba, Father. We must be affrighted by the severity of the Law, that we may be sensible how great need we have of a Saviour. Our wounds must be cleansed with a Corrosive before we pour in Oil; and they must first smart with the Waters of Marah, before they be refreshed with the Balm of Gilead. We must fear God as an angry Judge, before we can love him as a tender Father; and we must tremble at his Terrors before we can adore his Mercy.  
But although this fear be good in those Persons who are careful to improve it, and make it a step to further Graces: yet it is sinful and wicked in all those who rest content with this, and never aim at any higher Perfection; but think that they are good Christians, if they abstain from some sins merely out of hopes to escape damnation; though they never had (nor intent to have) any zeal for the Glory of God, nor any hatred for Sin: nay though indeed they love it at their heart, and could wish that there were no God to condemn them, nor Hell to torment them, that so they might have a licence to commit wickedness even with greediness; to drink iniquity like water; and securely gratify all their lusts and corruptions. This is a second degree of the fear of God; or indeed it is rather the fear of Hell; or to speak most properly, 'tis the love of ourselves.  
I come now to show you what the true fear of God is, that fear which the Text tells us is Wisdom. And this is such a fear of God as proceeds from love; nay indeed it is nothing else but love; not of ourselves, as the former fear, but of God, as the only object that can deserve our affections; as the greatest, the only Good, and the sole author and fountain of all our Happiness. So then this Grace may be styled indifferently either Fear or Love. And it is no mystery neither, Fear being ever an inseparable companion of Love. For he that loves fears nothing more than to offend the person whom he loves: and if he have the ill fortune to do it, is ready to submit to any terms that will procure him a reconciliation. So it is with the Saints: they love God if not with an infinite, yet at least with an ineffable love, far above all the World. And by how much the greater their Love is, so much the greater is their Fear too. So that if their Love be infinite (and it is so in respect of its Object, which is infinitely glorious and infinitely good) than the fear also which they have of miscarrying in their Love, and displeasing that infinite Majesty which doth so well deserve their Love and Adoration must be infinite too.  
This is that Fear which supported Job under his mighty afflictions; enabled him to baffle all Satan's designs; made him triumph over the fury and malice of Hell, and transported him to that incomparable expression of the confidence he reposed in his God, Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him. He knew that so long as he retained his integrity, however God seemed for the present to frown upon him, yet he would not cast him off for ever. He knew that this storm would ere long blow over, and that the sunshine of God's favour would again enlighten him, and break through this black cloud, which for a while seemed to intercept it. But come what will on't; whether he live or die, he is resolved both to live & to die in the Fear of the Lord. This is his Load-star, by which like a skilful Pilot he steers through the tempest. And though his riches have made themselves wings and are fled from him: though his children be all slain in a moment: though his friends brand him for an Hypocrite, and the wife of his bosom rail against him, and give him that desperate and hellish counsel, to curse God and die: though he is become a laughingstock to those Persons whose fathers once he would have disdained to have set with the dogs of his flock: though he be thus forsaken of all the world, destitute, afflicted, tormented, and in all outward appearance forsaken even of God himself too, and made a rueful spectacle of his wrath and indignation; yet he sins not for all this, nor charges God foolishness, nay he cleaves to him the closer, well knowing that notwithstanding he seemed to be his enemy, he was still in reality his greatest, his only friend. And therefore he worships him as well when the days of affliction have taken hold on him, as when God preserved him, and made his candle to shine upon his head. He adores him as much on the Dunghill as on the Throne; praises his Name as well when his head is covered with ashes, as if it wore a Diadem; and gives him thanks, when he hath left him nothing but a potsherd to scrape his sores, as hearty as when he made him the greatest of all the men of the East, and crowned him with loving kindness and tender mercies.  
This I say is that fear which carried Job through such a sea of troubles; armed him against the strength and policy of Satan, and made him a glorious Conqueror over Principalities and Powers. A fear which is as comfortable, as the former is terrible. That represents God to us as the greatest evil, and drives us from him as from a consuming fire: this makes us long for him (as in reality he is) as the greatest Good, and wish that we had wings like a Dove that we might fly into his embraces. That is a fear of his Justice, and this of his Mercy; that a fear of punishment, and this of sin. In a word, that is a flash from Hell fire, and this is a glimpse of the joys of Heaven. This then is the true fear of God which is here meant in the Text, and that fear which every man must get into his heart, as he tenders his eternal Salvation. I do not say that every man shall be damned that attains not to that Seraphic Perfection which was in Job, and S. Paul, and many others of Gods most eminent Saints: but certainly this I may fasely say, that whosoever doth not either actually attain to it, or else hearty be wall and lament his want of it, and earnestly beg of God that he would bestow it on him, is very far from the Kingdom of Heaven.  
And now what I promised to show you in the next place, viz. what it is to departed from evil, I have in some measure performed already: for this is a necessary consequence and fruit of the fear of the Lord. I shall therefore tell you only in a word what this evil is which we must departed from; and that is sin: which, if we consider it aright, is the only thing in the world which we can properly call evil. For every thing is good that God hath made, and God hath made every thing else but sin. That he utterly disclaims; 'tis the work of the Devil and Man, and not of God. Nay 'tis so far from being a work of his, that it defaces and destroys his work. 'Tis a burden which wearies the whole Creation; yea and the Creator himself too: for the Scripture tells us that because of this it repent the Lord that he had made Man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. The whole earth had been one continued and universal Paradise until this day, had not sin turned it into a Desert. 'Tis this which hath made the Heaven over our heads to be Brass, and the Earth under us to be Iron, and caused it to bring forth thorns and thistles instead of wheat and barley. There had been no sickness, had not sin cursed the very food we put into our mouths, and made us eat our poison. There had been no death, had not sin armed him and sharpened his sting. There had been no Devil, had not sin blacked him; and there had been no Hell, had not sin kind led God's wrath, and blown up that flame which never shall be quenched.  
It remains then that sin, which is the cause of all this, is the only true and real evil in the world. And if so then surely to departed from such an evil must needs be Understanding, which brings me to the third and last particular,  
Which is this, That to departed from this evil of sin in the Name and Fear of the Lord, is the greatest wisdom that Man is capable of. But then we must be sure to do it in the fear of the Lord. For otherwise though we have never so ardent an affection and love for Virtue; though we depart from vice with never so much care and vigilancy (for wholly departed from it no man can) we shall still be but fools in the end. To fear god and to departed from evil are inseparable companions: they are constantly joined together in Scripture; and what God hath joined let not Man put asunder. Job was perfect and upright, saith the Text, one that feared God, and eschewed evil. By the fear of the Lord men depart from evil, saith Solomon. And if we will perfect Holiness, S. Paul will tell us that it must be done in the fear of God. These two are like Soul and Body; one cannot be complete without the other. Fear the Lord aright we cannot, except we depart from evil: and we cannot departed from evil, except we fear the Lord. This crowns all our actions, and makes our weak and imperfect endeavours after Holiness to be accepted of in Heaven, through the merits of Christ.  
And now that thus to departed from Evil is our greatest Wisdom, what need I spend many words to prove? Methinks, there should be no man so destitute of reason as not readily to acknowledge it. But though we have all reason enough to discern the excellency of this Wisdom: yet in most men that is but a slave to their lusts, which tyrannize over them, and lead them captive with open eyes to meet their destruction. The ambitious man knows what a Kingdom is prepared for the Saints from the foundation of the World; and yet he will forfeit it for the breath of the Multitude. The Miser knows that it would be better for him to lay up for himself treasures in Heaven then upon Earth; and yet for all that he will have his inheritance on this side Jordan, and sell his Soul that he may enrich his Heir. The Swearer knows that everyone that swears shall be cut off; and yet he prefers this gentile and modish embellishment of his discourse before all the Anthems and Music of the Heavenly Chore. The Voluptuous man knows that the love of Christ to his Church passes the love of Women; and yet a smile from Beauty will move him more than all the melting entreaties and passionate importunities of a wooing Saviour. Thus though our reason acknowledges this Wisdom, yet our lusts disavow it; and most of us I fear, are as careless in the practice of it, as we are apt to be loud in its commendation. Seeing therefore that we have all by Nature such a propensity in us to gratify our lust rather than to obey our reason; I hope as I shall encourage all those wise and happy Souls that have found this inestimable Treasure, to the careful keeping of it; so I shall not deter those unhappy Persons from seeking it that have hitherto despised it, if according to my ability I endeavour to evidence the worth of it briefly in these three following particulars. First, it will deliver us from the greatest Evil. Secondly, it will procure for us the greatest Good. And Thirdly, all other Wisdom without this is but mere folly; but this of itself alone, without the help and concurrence of any thing else, which the world calls Wisdom, is sufficient to make us happy.  
First, This departing from evil in the fear of the Lord is our greatest Wisdom, because it will deliver us from the greatest evil both here, and hereafter; from Sin and Hell. This Fear secures us from all other fears whatsoever. He that fears not God fears every thing; and so long as he hath the Creator for his enemy, thinks (as well he may) that the whole creation is armed against him for his destruction. There is nothing so mean and contemptible, but it can make him tremble. He is jealous even of his own shadow, lest it should be some Imp sent to devour him. He sympathizes with every shaking leaf he hears, and flees (as Solomon speaks) when no man pursues him. His heart misgives him at every thing, and he hath such a continual faintness upon him, as God threatens to send upon the rebellious Israelites. He finds no true satisfaction in any thing; hath no comfort in any of his actions, nor in any of his hours: but in the morning he saith would God it were evening, and in the evening, would God it were morning. All the remedies he makes use of, so long as he neglects this one in my Text, are but like water given to one that is sick of a fever; so far from healing, that they augment and enrage his distemper. His Friends, his merry Companions, and his full Bowls however they may seem for a while to mitigate his pain, to deafen the cries of his guilty Conscience, and stave off that worm which gnaws him; yet he will find in the end that he takes his measures false, and that he drinks his Poison instead of his Antidote. For Conscience will still cry, yea and cry the louder too, the more he endeavours thus to silence it. And that Worm, though perhaps it forbear a little; yet it will return again more fiercely than ever, and by't with a greater fury, with a sharper appetite.  
What folly then, what madness is this, to harbour such an implacable enemy in our bosom, as will suffer us to enjoy no peace, nor comfort in this World; yea and will follow us into the next World too, and there torment us to Eternity! And if it be the greatest folly to run into such an unconceivable evil as this; then certainly on the contrary, it must needs be the greatest wisdom imaginable to avoid it: or if we be fallen into it, to make a speedy escape out of it again. And to do this no other course can be taken but that which my Text here prescribes to us, To fear the Lord, and to departed from evil.  
But secondly, as this Wisdom delivers us from the greatest evil, so it procures for us also the greatest good. To rescue a man from danger, and afterwards to take no further care of him, is no extraordinary kindness. But as Pharaoh did by Joseph, to exalt a man from a Prison to a Palace; to knock off his iron shackles, and put him on a ring of gold; not only to give him his freedom, but to make him Ruler over a mighty Kingdom, is a favour beyond all expectation. But this, and much more, doth this Wisdom do for us. If it had only rescued us from that everlasting misery to which we are all obnoxious; it had then been no common Benefactor: but it does more for us then so. It does not only deliver us from Hell, but it entitles us to Heaven. It does not only free us from the bondage and tyranny of Sin and Satan; but it advances us also into the glorious liberty of the Children of God. It does not only pluck us from the jaws of that roaring Lion; but it lodges us safe and secure in the arms of our Saviour.  
And now as he that hath not this Fear of God before his eyes fears every thing; so he that hath it fears nothing else, but God alone. This Fear arms and fortifies him against whatsoever appears to other men formidable. He cares not, though the whole world be his enemy, while God is his Friend. He is not to be won by its enticements, nor daunted by its threaten: but he stands firm and unshaken upon this rock, exalted above its frowns and smiles.  
Conscience, that is so terrible an enemy to him that fears not God, is his most faithful friend (and it is as comfortable a friend, as it is a dreadful enemy) It always joins with God, it is his Viceroy to pronounce that sentence on Earth which he passes in Heaven. While this therefore tells him that God is his refuge and strength; he may say with the Psalmist what follows, I will not fear though the Earth be removed, and though the Mountains be carried into the midst of the sea. This will enable him to comport and demean himself like a Child of God in all conditions. It will teach him with S. Paul, in whatsoever state he is therewith to be content. This will sweeten every bitter cup. This will lighten the burden of his affliction. This will make all his bed in his sickness. This will fill him with joy even at the hour of his death, and enable him to deliver up his soul into the hand of God with comfort, and full assurance of a blessed Resurrection. And then in that great and terrible day of the Lord, wherein the Heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat; when the whole World shall tremble, and neither Heaven nor Earth be able to abide the dreadful approach of that great Judge, but both shall pass away and be consumed before him; when the Wicked shall call in vain to the Mountains and Rocks to fall on them, and all the tribes of the earth shall mourn: Then shall Conscience show itself to be a most faithful friend; embolden him to lift up his head with joy; plead for him against all his Accusers, and through the merits and mercy of Christ acquit him at that grand Tribunal: Then shall this Wisdom as it hath freed him from the greatest evil, from sin and hell; so also confer upon him the greatest Good, and invest him with eternal Holiness and Happiness.  
Thirdly and lastly, All other Wisdom without this is but mere Folly; but this of itself alone, without the help and concurrence of any thing else which the world calls Wisdom, is sufficient to make us eternally happy. For in what else shall we place Wisdom, if not in the Fear of the Lord? Shall we place it in pleasures? Alas there are none to be found any where, but at God's right hand. The pleasures of this world are but torments: they seem perhaps to delight us a little for the present; but soon after they sting us to the heart. Shall we place it in Riches? They are but fading and perishing enjoyments, and must shortly leave us: and if they should tarry with us never so long, the wise man tells us, that they profit not in the day of wrath. Shall we place it in Honour? there is nothing more uncertain than that: for though it be never so splendid and glorious for a while; yet it must ere long be laid in the dust. Indeed Honour and Authority is so far from being an ordinary and indifferent thing; that if we consider it aright, it is perhaps the greatest temporal Blessing that God hath to bestow upon Man: and Kings and Rulers have this happiness above the rest of Mankind, that they have power to do more good in the world, and to bring greater glory to God then inferior persons, and consequently may procure for themselves a more honourable Throne, and a brighter Crown in Heaven. All shall be there full of glory, and every one perfectly satisfied and content with his own condition: but yet there shall be a difference; and while some shall but twinkle as the Stars, others shall shine as the Sun. The meanest Subject that hath been loyal to his King, and obedient to his God, shall at the last day be rewarded with an incorruptible Crown; for we shall all be Kings and Priests unto God. But I know not any thing in Scripture that doth not freely permit a godly and religious Prince to hope to be as highly advanced above his Subjects in Heaven, as ever he was here one Earth, if he manages his Sceptre with this Wisdom here in my Text, which will be sure to establish his Throne, and make his Crown to flourish. Again, shall we place Wisdom in Learning? This also, if it be sanctified by Grace, is a very great Blessing: but without that it is as great a Curse; without Grace it will but enable a man to sin more powerfully: insomuch that he that hath a learned head, and an unsanctified heart, may almost stand in competition with the Devil himself, who should be the Master worker of iniquity, and gain most Proselytes to the kingdom of Darkness. The ignorantest Peasant may make a sorry shift to grope out his way to hell, even blindfold: but the learned Atheist sees so many roads to it, that he will pick and choose his way so discreetly, as to be sure to provide for himself one of the hottest places. S. Paul had continued a Persecutor to his dying day, notwithstanding all that Learning that he got at the feet of Gamaliel, had he not also learned Christ. And therefore he professes this to be the only true Wisdom: for, saith he, I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, Phil. 3.8.  
But to rise yet one step higher than Learning can advance us. Suppose God should endue us with the Spirit of Prophecy to foretell things to come; or with a power to work Miracles and to cast out devils; yet we should be never the nearer to Heaven for all this, without the Wisdom here in my Text. For one of these faculties was bestowed on Balaam; and yet, for all his good wishes 'tis probable that he died not the death of the Righteous: and the other on Judas; and yet himself was a Devil. Alas what were we the better, if we knew the hour of our death; if we knew too that from that hour our everlasting punishment should bear its date? What would it profit us, though we knew the minute when the Archangel should begin to sound his Trump; if we knew withal that that sound should summon us to hear the Sentence of our eternal condemnation? Such Wisdom as this would be so far from making us happy, that it would antedate our misery, and torment us before the time. All other things then, so long as we want this one thing which is needful, will be but weak Advocates to plead our cause before Christ's Tribunal.  
And as all the Wisdom of the world will profit us nothing without this, so this of itself alone is sufficient to make us happy. He that hath never been either at Rome or Athens; nay though he knows not so much as one letter of the Alphabet, is wise enough, if he hath but learned the Cross of Christ. He that is never so poor, hath wealth enough, if he be but rich in Faith; and though he appear to men as having nothing, yet possesses all things. The Brother of low degree, that is never so mean and contemptible in the eyes of the world, if he hath but this Wisdom in the Text, is highly honourable in the sight of God.  
But to what purpose should I spend any more words in illustrating the incomparable worth of this Wisdom, which as it deserves all, so it needs no commendation? I will therefore detain you no longer, but conclude all in the words of the Prophet Jeremiah, cap. 9 v. 23, 24. Thus saith the Lord, Let not the Wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the Mighty man glory in his Might; let not the Rich man glory in his Riches. But let him that glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord which exercise loving kindness, judgement, and righteousness in the Earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord.  
FINIS.