But the Man that is truly Wife will look forwards; He will Confider the Future as well as the Prefent, and Provide for his Whole Duration. If This World was to be the Laft Scene of Life, and we were to make an End of our Beings Here, it were then our greatest Wisdom to take Care of ourselves Here, and above all things to make Provifion for all the Accommodations and Pleafurcs of this Life. But as we did not Make, fo neither can we Unmake ourselves. It is not in our Power to put an End to the Being that God has given us! Though we Muft Die and fink into Corruption, yet it is not left to our Choice whether we will continue it: We Muft rife again to another Life whether we will or no; for this Corruptible Muft 1 Cor. xv. put on Incorruption, and this Mortal Muft 53. put on Immortality; whether it be to endless Happiness, or to endless Mifery and Woc. Are we not then moft truly Wife for Ourfelves, when we prefer the Confideration of Eternal Duration, and are more careful to provide for it, than for this Short Span of Life? And this is the Wisdom of Religion; Religion opens a Man's Eyes, and gives him a Profpect of another World, and a future Life there, even for ever and ever, in Eternal Bliss and Glory. Here then is at last True Wisdom, the Wisdom we are seeking after; Wisdom that will make us truly Hap. U 4 15. py; that Wisdom which provides for our A Man with fuch a Happiness in his Eye Now if (as a Wife Author tells us,) The wild. ix. Corruptible Body preffes down the Soul, and the Earthly Tabernacle weigheth down the Mind; I fay, if the Natural Burden of the Flesh is fuch a Clog upon the Soul, much more must its contracted Worldly Inclinations, and all its Corrupt Affections and Lufts weigh it down, and hinder it from mounting Upwards, to the Things that are Above. But 18 But the Rules and Difcipline of Heavenly Wisdom are the only proper Inftruments for freeing the Soul, and difengaging it from those Clogs and Incumbrances, and for the helping to raise it Heaven-wards. "And as the "Soul fets in good earneft to purge and re"fine itself, and make itself fit for Heaven, and "the more it proceeds and profpers in the "Work, in the fame proportion (fays Hierocles,) does the Soul revive: It becomes ment. in "more Active and Vigorous, is collected with Pythag " in itself, and fill'd with Divine Strength "and Power. The Strength (fays he) that (fays Hie In Com was loft by the Blandifhments and Effemi. "nacies of the Senfual Life does now return; "the Wings of the Soul are again Unclog'd, "and refitted for their Flight, towards Hea "yen. For 3dly, This is another Excellency of true Wisdom, that it takes Care especially of the Soul, and has more Regard to That than to the Body. We learn from Arrian, the Difciple of Epictetus, with what a mixture of Derifion, and Admiration at the folly of Men his excellent Mafter was wont to exprefs himself, for their fo mifplacing their Pains and Care and Thoughts, on the World, and the Body, and their respective Interests, to the fhameful neglect of their Souls."How Careful (fays he,) are Men in improv ing all their little Worldly Advantages? "How Solicitous in ordering the little tri "Aing "fling Affairs of Life? But where is the "Man, (fays he) that makes it his Business "to study and feriously confider with him"felf, How fhall I become Wife and Good? "How fhall I improve my Mind? What fhall I do to fettle my Thoughts into a ແ right Frame? How fhall I get a right Judg. ment of things? How fhall I restrain my "Affections within their due Bounds, and "keep them to their Proper Objects? How "fhall I bridle and conquer my Pride, my "Anger, and all the other irregular Appe"tites and Paffions of my Nature, and bring "them into Subjection to the Reason of my "Mind? But the Wisdom of the Worldling is of another kind, and runs in another train; How they fhall increase their Stock; How they fhall make Provifion to Live at their Eafe all their Days, in Plenty and Pleasure. When the Rich Man in the Gospel had enlarg'd his Barns, and fill'd them with all manner of ftore, according to the Wisdom of this World he had acted a Wife Part, and he Bleffes himself, and applauds his own Wifdom, Luke xii. 19.-Soul, thou haft much Goods laid up for many Tears; Take thine Eafe, Eat, Drink and be merry: But God treats him under a very different Character, not as a Wifeman, but as a Fool, Stulte, hac nocte, Thou Fool (fays he,) this night shall thy Soul be required of thee: Then whofe shall all these thofe things be that thou hast provided? Thou Fool, that provideft only for thy Corruptible Body, and then callest upon thy Soul to folace itfelf therewith! For what are full Barns to the Nature or Neceflitics of the Soul? Or if it were fuitable Provifion, yet what are a few Years to everlafting Ages? What is a Provifion for many Tears, to a Soul that fhall Live for ever? When Death comes, perhaps this Night, all thofe Provifions fall off, and leave the Soul to take its Flight, naked and deftitute, into the other World. Once more, 4thly, Heavenly Wifdom may be Secure of Succefs, which Worldly Wif dom never is, nor ever can be, even in its low Defigns. The Men of this World are Content to toil and drudge and flave themselves, early and late, all their Life long: Yet after all their Care and Labour, they can never be sure of attaining their Ends: They are often thrown back, and have all to begin anew. Or if they have their End, they are yet fure to be difappointed in their Expectation. Men promise themselves Paradifes of Happiness from what they have fet their Hearts upon; fuch Happiness as nothing in this World ever yields.. When they have got All, and more than they at first so much as thought of, New Fancies and Defires start up, and grow upon them, and when they have attained Them allo, and after Them many more, yet ftill Curta ป |