said to intrap him in his discourse, to accuse him to the rulers, or to vilify him in the eyes of the people. Again: when this same doctrine was taught by the Apostle Paul in another proud city, as proud of its philosophic schools, as Jerusalem was of its temple, many a contemptuous sophist, we may believe, disdained to listen at all to the foolishness of preaching; and of those few who did, some, we know, mocked, while others negligently asked their companions, What would this babbler say? But how will both these be astonished in the last day to find themselves judged by that word which they neglected, or contemned; by that word, which they would not hear, though it was brought home to their doors, or which they rejected with scorn, when they did hear it!

Nor think, because neither Jesus nor Paul hath preached in person to us, that therefore our case is much different. Jesus and Paul still speak in the ministers of the word: or, what if the speakers be widely different, the word is the same: this treasure we still have, though in earthen vessels. Nay, in one respect, our guilt exceeds theirs. The Phari

g 2 Cor. iv. 7.

sees and Philosophers were, alike, ignorant and unbelieving. We profess to know, and to believe.

Let us, then, take heed what we hear; lest our knowledge and belief add terrors to that day, when the neglected word shall sit in judgment upon us.

SERMON XV.

PREACHED NOVEMBER 24, 1765.

4

ROM. xvi. 19.

I would have you wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil.

OUR blessed Lord had given it in charge to his followers to be wise as serpents, and harmless as doves3. And the Apostle explains and enforces this command of his Master, when he enjoins us in the words of the text, To be wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil.

I confine myself, at present, to the former part of the text, and shall enquire into the properties or characters of CHRISTIAN WISDOM.

a Matth. x. 16.

This wisdom consists in the prosecution of what the Scriptures declare to be the true end of man, and by such means as they prescribe

That end is the SALVATION of our souls; and the means, which lead to it, are FAITH and OBEDIENCE. Thus far there can be no mistake. The wise Christian is he who is intent on securing his eternal interest; and who, to that end, fortifies his mind with a firm belief of the doctrines, and conducts his life according to the precepts, of the Gospel.

I. But PERFECT WISDOM, which consists in a strict attention to these several particulars, and according to the true worth of each, is rarely the lot of human nature. And there are two ways, in which we are most apt to for feit our pretensions to it. ONE, is, when our minds, wholly taken up with the ultimate object of their hopes, neglect the means which are appointed to bring them to it: The OTHER, when we rest in the intervening means themselves, without a due regard to that final purpose, for the sake of which they were ap pointed. AvaƆ lɔ aeromod to voltou ag

1. The FORMER of these defects we may observe in those persons who, from a too warm and enthusiastic turn of thought, are for subliming all piety into the trances of mystic contemplation; as if morality and faith scarce deserved their notice; and the beatific vision were as well the object, as end of the Christian life. Here the fault lies in an impatience to come at the point we propose to ourselves, without observing the proper methods which are to put us in possession of it; and is much the same phrenzy as we should charge on those travellers, who, being on their way towards a distant country, stop short in the contemplation of all the wonders they have heard reported of it, without pursuing their journey, or indeed without taking one step towards it.

2. The OTHER defect of wisdom is seen in those less sanguine, and, in truth, lukewarm Christians, who do not, indeed, altogether neglect the subservient duties of their profession, but, as not enough considering the prize of their high calling, grow remiss in the exer cise of them: in which they too much resemble those same travellers; who, when taking the ordinary means of arriving at their journey's end, fall into an idle way of loitering on the road, and use not that dispatch and diligence