or disturb her in her preparations for a better life. We befeech thee also, O Lord, of thy infinite goodness to remember the good actions of this thy fervant; that the naked fhe hath clothed, the hungry fhe hath fed, the fick and the fatherless whom she hath relieved, may be reckoned according to thy gracious promise, as if they had been done unto thee. Hearken, O Lord, to the prayers offered up by the friends of this thy fervant in her behalf, and especially thofe now made by us unto thee. Give thy bleffing to those endeavours used for her recovery; but take from her all violent defire, either of life or death, further than with refignation to thy holy will.. And now, O Lord, we implore thy gracious favour towards us here met together; grant that the fenfe of this thy fervant's weakness may add strength to our faith, that we, confidering the infirmities of our nature, and the uncertainty of life, may, by this example, be drawn to repentance before it fhall please thee to vifit us in the like manner. Accept these prayers, we beseech Thee, for the fake of thy dear Son Jefus Chrift, our Lord; who, with Thee and the Holy Ghoft, liveth and reigneth ever one God world without end. Amen.

A

SERMON.

I COR. iii. 19.

The wisdom of this world is foolishness with GOD.

I

T is remarkable that, about the time of

our Saviour's coming into the world, all kinds of learning flourished to a very great degree, infomuch that nothing is more frequent in the mouths of many men, even such who pretend to read and to know, than an extravagant praise and opinion of the wisdom and virtue of the Gentile fages of those days, and likewise of those antient philofophers who went before them, whofe doctrines are left upon record either by themselves or other wri-, ters. As far as this may be taken for granted, it may be said, that the providence of God brought this about for feveral very wife ends and purposes. For, it is certain that these philofophers had been a long time before searching out where to fix the true happinefs of man; and, not being able to agree upon any certainty about it, they could not poffibly but conclude, if they judged impartially, that

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all

all their enquiries were, in the end, but vain and fruitlefs; the confequence of which must be not only an acknowledgment of the weaknefs of all human wif dom, but likewise an open paffage hereby made, for the letting in those beams of light, which the glorious funshine of the gofpel then brought into the world, by revealing those hidden truths, which they had fo long before been labouring to difcover, and fixing the general happiness of mankind beyond all controversy and difpute. And therefore the providence of God wifely fuffered men of deep genius and learning then to arife, who fhould fearch into the truth of the gospel now made known, and canvafs its doctrines with all the fubtilty and knowledge they were mafters of, and in the end freely acknowledge that to be the true wisdom only which cometh from above. James iii. 15, 16, 17.

However, to make a further enquiry into the truth of this obfervation, I doubt not but there is reafon to think that a great many of thofe encomiums given to antient philofophers are taken upon truft, and by a fort of men who are not very likely to be at the pains of an enquiry that would

employ

employ so much time and thinking. For the ufual ends why men affect this kind of discourse, appear generally to be either out of oftentation, that they may pafs upon the world for perfons of great knowledge and obfervation; or, what is worse, there are some who highly exalt the wif dom of thofe Gentile fages, thereby obliquely to glance at and traduce Divine Revelation, and more especially that of the gofpel; for the confequence they would have us draw, is this: That, fince thofe antient philofophers rofe to a greater pitch of wisdom and virtue than was ever known among Christians, and all this purely upon the strength of their own reason and liberty of thinking, therefore it must follow, that either all Revelation is falfe, or, what is worse, that it has depraved the nature of man, and left him worse than it found him.

But this high opinion of Heathen wifdom is not very antient in the world, nor at all countenanced from primitive times: Our Saviour had but a low esteem of it, as appears by his treatment of the Pharifees and Sadducees, who followed the doctrines of Plato and Epicurus. St. Paul likewife, who was well verfed in all the Gre

cian literature, feems very much to defpife their philosophy, as we find in his writings, cautioning the Coloffians to beware left any man spoil them through philofophy and vain deceit. And, in another place, he advises Timothy to avoid prophane and vain babblings, and oppofitions of science, falfely fo called; that is, not to introduce into the Christian doctrine the janglings of thofe vain philofophers, which they would pafs upon the world for fcience. And the reasons he gives are, firft, That those who profeffed them did err concerning the faith: Secondly, Because the knowledge of them did encrease ungodlinefs, vain babblings being otherways expounded vanities, or empty founds; that is, tedious difputes about words, which the philofophers were always fo full of, and which were the natural product of difputes and diffentions between several fects.

Neither had the primitive fathers any great or good opinion of the Heathen philofophy, as it is manifeft from several paffages in their writings: So that this vein of affecting to raise the reputation of those fages fo high, is a mode and a vice but of yesterday, affumed chiefly, as I have faid,

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