15, 16. SER M. fion, and right judgment about matters of highest XII. importance to us, is the prize of industry, and not to be gained without it; nature conferreth little thereto, fortune contributeth much lefs; it cannot Job xxviii. be bought at any rate; It cannot, faith Job, be gotten for gold, neither shall filver be weighed for the price thereof; it cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx or the fapphire; it is the offfpring of watchful obfervation and experience, of ferious meditation and study; of careful reflection on things, marking, comparing, and weighing their nature, their worth, their tendencies and confequences; these are needful to the getting of wisdom, because truth, which it feeketh, commonly doth not lie in the furface, obvious to a fuperficial glance, nor only dependeth on a fimple confideration of few things; but is lodged deep in the bowels of things, and under a knotty complication of various matters; fo that we must dig to come at it, and labour in unfolding it nor is it an easy tafk to void the prejudices fpringing from inclination or temper, from education or cuftom, from paffion and intereft, which cloud the mind, and obftruct the attainment of wisdom. Ecclef. i. 1 Kings iii. If we will have it, we must get it as Solomon him17. ii. 3. felf did, that great mafter of it. How was that? I 2. iv. 29. gave, faith he, my heart to know wisdom. He who Sap. viii, 21. made it his option and choice before all things; who Ecclef. ii. fo earnestly and fo happily did pray for it; upon Jam. i. 5. whom it is fo exprefsly faid, that God in a fpecial manner and plentiful meafure did beftow it; who ix. 17. 26. averreth God to be the fole donor of it (for, The Prov. ii. 6. Lord, faith he, giveth wisdom, out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding), yet even he did firft give his heart to it, before it was given into his heart he did not only gape for it to receive it by mere infusion; but he worked and ftudied hard for Nec rude quid profit video ingenium. Hor. de Arte Poct. it. He was indeed a great ftudent, an inquifitive S ER M. fearcher into nature, a curious obferver of the world, XII. a profound confiderer and comparer of things; and by that industrious courfe, promoted by divine bleffing, he did arrive to that great stock of so renowned a wisdom. And the fame method it is which he prescribeth to us for getting it; exhorting us, that we incline our ear Prov. ii. 2, unto wisdom, and apply our heart to understanding; that 3,4. we cry after knowledge, and lift up our voice for underStanding; that we feek her as filver, and fearch for her as for bid treasures; in following which course he doth affure us of good fuccefs; for then, faith he, shalt thou Prov. ii. 5. underftand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God, which is the head or chief part of wisdom; and Blessed, faith he again, in the person and place Prov. viii. of wisdom itself, is the man that heareth me, watching 34, 35. daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors; for be that findeth me, findeth life, and fhall obtain favour of the Lord. It is the way he fuppofeth, of finding wifdom, to watch affiduoufly, to wait diligently upon the means of attaining her; and how infallible the acquift of her is thereby, the doth again by his mouth thus acquaint us; I love them that love me, Prov. viii. and those that feek me early fhall find me; and she, faith 17. his imitator, is easily feen of them that love her, and Sap. vi. 12, found of fuch as feek her; whofo feeketh her early, shall have no great travel, for he fhall find her futing at his doors. 13, 14. This indeed is the only way; idleness is not capable of fo rich and noble a purchase: a flothful perfon may be conceited, yea needs must be fo; but he can never be wife: A fluggard, faith Solomon, is Prov. xxvi. wifer in his own conceit, than feven men that can render 16. a reafon. This conceit of wifdom is a natural iffue of his ignorance; and it is indeed no small part of his folly, that he doth not perceive it; being no lefs ftupid in reflection on his own mind, than in confidering other matters: being always in a flumber, XII. SER M. he will often fall into fuch pleasant dreams; and no wonder that he should prefume upon abundance of knowledge, who not lifting to take any pains in the fearch or difcuffion of things, doth fnatch the first appearances, doth embrace every fuggeftion of his fancy, every conceit gratifying his humour, for truth. What should I fpeak of learning, or the knowledge of various things, tranfcending vulgar apprehenfion? Who knoweth not that we cannot otherwife reach any part of that, than by affiduous study and contemplation? Who doth not find that all the power in the world is not able to command, nor all the wealth of the Indies to purchase, one notion? Who can be ignorant, that no wit alone, or ftrength of parts can fuffice, without great industry, to frame any fcience, to learn any one tongue, to know the hiftory of nature, or of Providence: it is certainly by Horace's method *, Multa tulit, fecitque puer, by much exercise and endurance of pains, that any one can arrive to the mark of being learned or fkilful in any fort of knowledge. But farther yet, Virtue, the nobleft endowment and richeft poffeffion whereof man is capable; the glory of our nature, the beauty of our foul, the goodlieft ornament and the firmest support of our life i that alfo is the fruit and bleffing of industry; that of all things moft indifpenfably doth need and require it, It doth not grow in us by nature, nor befal us by fortune; for nature is fo far from producing it, that it yieldeth mighty obftacles and refiftances to its birth, there being in the beft difpofitions much averfe Qui cupit optatam curfu contingere metam, Multa tulit, fecitque puer, fudavit et alfit. Hor. de Art. Poet. † Τῇ μὲ κακίᾳ ἡδονῇ, τῇ δὲ ἀρετῇ συγκεκλήρωται πόνος. Chryf. in Job. Or. 36. Κακία μὲν γὰρ αὐτοδίδακτον· ἀρετὴ δὲ σὺν πόνῳ κτᾶται. Sen. de Provid. 2. nefs nefs from good, and great proneness to evil; fortune s ER M. doth not further its acquifts, but cafteth in rubs and XII. hindrances thereto, every condition prefenting its allurements, or its affrightments from it; all things within us and about us confpire to render its production and its practice laborious. It is, 'tis true, a gift of heaven, and cannot be obtained without a special influence of divine grace; but it is given as children are (of whom it is faid, Lo, Pfal. cxxvii. children are an heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the 3 womb is his reward), not without fore travail and labour of the mother, not without grievous difficulty and pangs in the birth. In our converfion to embrace virtue God doth guide; but to what? to fit ftill? No, to walk, to run in his ways: Grace doth move us, but whereto? to do nothing? No, but to ftir, and act vigorously; The holy Spirit doth help our Rom. viil, infirmities: but how could it help them, if we did not 26. vai conjoin our best, though weak, endeavours with its Heb. xii. 4. operations? To what doth it cuvavrinaμláver, or co-Rom x. 35. belp us, but to frive against fin, to work righteousness, to perform duty with earneft intention of mind, and laborious activity; God, faith St. Chryfoftom, bath parted virtue with us, and neither hath left all to be in us, left we should be elated to pride, nor himself bath taken all, left we should decline to floth. * Indeed the very nature and effence of virtue doth confift in the most difficult and painful efforts of foul; in the extirpating rooted prejudices and notions from our understanding; in bending a stiff will, and rectifying crooked inclinations; in over * Εμερίσατο πρὸς ἡμᾶς τὴν ἀρετὴν ὁ Θεὸς, καὶ οὔτε ἐφ' ἡμῖν ἀφῆκε τὸ πᾶν εἶναι, ἵνα μὴ εἰς απόνοιαν ἐπαιρώμεθα, οὔτε αὐτὸς τὸ πᾶν ἔλαβεν, ἵνα μὴ εἰς ῥαθυμίαν αποκλίνωμεν ἀλλ' &c. Chryf. Tom. 5. Or. 28. † Οὐδὲ γὰρ ἡ περὶ τὰ καλὰ τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἐγχείρησις δίκα τῆς ἄνωθεν βοηθείας τελειωθήσεται· ἐδὲ ἡ ἄνωθεν χάρις ἐπὶ τὴν μὴ σπουδάζοντα παρ βαγένοιτ' ἂν, ἀλλ ̓ ἑκάτερα συγκεκρᾶσθαι προσήκει, σπουδήν τε ανθρωπίνην, καὶ τὴν διὰ πίσεως ἄνωθεν καθήκουσαν συμμαχίαν εἰς τελείωσιν ἀρετῆς. Baf. Conft. Mon. cap, 15. $ 2 ruling λαμβάνεται. Rom. ii. 10 SER M. ruling a rebellious temper; in curbing eager and imXII. portunate appetites; in taming wild paffions; in withftanding violent temptations; in furmounting many difficulties, and fuftaining many troubles; in ftruggling with various unruly lufts within, and encountering many ftout enemies abroad, which affault our reafon, and war against our foul: in fuch exercises its very being lieth; its birth, its growth, its fubfiftence dependeth on them; fo that from any difcontinuance or remiffion of them it would foon decay, languish away, and perish. What attention, what circumfpection, and vigilancy of mind, what intention of spirit, what force of refolution, what command and care over ourselves doth it require, to keep our hearts from vain thoughts and evil defires; to guard our tongue from wanton, unjust, uncharitable difcourfe; to order our steps uprightly and fteadily in all the paths of duty? Kai Tí Chryf. in ex iimovov Tv The deerns; and what, as St. Chryfoftom Job. Or. 36. afketh, of all things belonging to virtue is not laborious It is no small task to know it, wherein it confifteth, and what is demanded of us; it is a far more painful thing to conform our practice unto its rules and dictates. If travelling in a rough way; if climbing up a fteep hill; if combating ftern foes, and fighting fharp battles; if croffing the grain of our nature and defires; if continually holding a strict rein over all our parts and powers, be things of labour and trouble, then greatly fuch is the practice of virtue. Indeed each virtue hath its peculiar difficulty, needThef. i. 3. ing much labour to mafter it: Faith is called you 2 Thef. i. Tissus, the work of faith; and it is no fuch easy work, Juha vi. 29. as may be imagined, to bring our hearts into a thorough perfuafion about truths croffing our fenfual II. * Τῆς ἀρετῆς ἱδρῶτα θεοὶ προπάροιθεν ἔθηκαν Καὶ τρηχύς. Hef. ἔργ. α'. conceits, |