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appear in any Shape; let it addrefs the darling Affections of our Souls, and seem to fall in with the natural Frame and Constitution of our Being; let it come recommended by the prevailing Fashion of the Times, or the powerful Example of the Rich and Mighty; yet ftill the Bafeness of it fhould make us afham'd; the Danger of it fhould make us afraid to commit it.

THE Objects of worldly Contempt and Hatred are Poverty and Weakness: But God, whofe Thoughts are not as our Thoughts, hath a Regard to the low and defpifed Eftate of the Godly, and beholdeth the Sinner afar off: And if our Sentiments did but take their Measures from Truth and Juftice, Sin alone would fill our Souls with Indignation. Virtue, tho' cloath'd in Rags, and greatly depreffed in Fortune and Condition, is truly honourable; but Vice, though never fo highly exalted in Station, and enrich'd with Abundance of Wealth, and faring Jumptuously every Day, is but Scandal and Vanity at the beft; its Enjoyments are Shame and Emptinefs, and its End is eternal Destruction.

SERMON

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SERMON XII.

JOB Xxviii. 28.

'And unto Man He faid; the Fear of the Lord, that is Wifdom; and to depart from Evil, is Understanding.

W

ISDOM and Underftanding are to the Soul what Meat and Drink are to the Body; and Man's Appetites for the former, are naturally as univerfal and intenfe, as for the latter. Accordingly we find with what Closeness of Thought, and Application of Industry, Mankind in general purfues Knowledge; and in what Efteem

those

thofe Perfons are held in the World, who have been at all fuccefsful in their Pur fuits; thofe, for Inftance, who have made a more narrow Scrutiny, and produced more enlarged Discoveries of natural Things and Caufes in the material World; or those, who have funk deeper than ordinary in the abftracted Niceties of thofe Scienes, which relate to the Spiritual and Moral World; or those again, who by History and Converfation and Business have improved in Political Knowledge, and with fome Exactnefs underftand what we call Men and Manners.

BUT among these various Pursuits after Wisdom; amidst the many Searches and Researches, wherein the Men of Speculation and Business have been ever labouring, but continue ever diffatisfied and bewilder'd, they may with great Fairnefs and Reafon put this Question of Holy Job to themselves; Where shall Wifdom be found, and where is the Place of Understanding? The Anfwer to which we are likewife furnifh'd with from the fame facred Writer; The Fear of the Lord

Lord, that is Wisdom; and to depart from
Evil, is Understanding.

IT is ufual in Holy Writ to exprefs. the Whole of Religion by fome eminent Part of it. Both these Terms, viz. the Fear of God, and departing from Evil, are intended, tho' Branches only, to declare the Whole of our Duty; and Religion is here call'd the true, the only true Wisdom of Man: For indeed the Knowledge and Practice of that alone, doth denominate a Man truly wife; but without it, all other Sciences are mere Vanity and Emptinefs, all other Knowledge but foolish Amusements and pompous Ignorance.

In order therefore to establish what is here afferted, I fhall endeavour,

I. To enforce the Belief of the Propofition itself from these Words, Unto Man He Said.

And,

II. To prove the Truth of the Propofition more directly, by fhewing in what Respects, Religion is juftly ftiled true Wisdom.

Ift, THEN,

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