low us, and show that we are children of the light, and not unfit to be admitted into such society, must be works which testify, that we have lived to the honour of God, to our own improvement in the ways of holiness, and, so far as we had ability, to the benefit of our neighbour. And if we have failed in doing these works, we must repent speedily and sincerely of our transgressions; and resolve, through the grace of God, to walk more circumspectly for the time to come. "Take heed to yourselves lest, at any time, your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares." Thus our Lord and Saviour cautions us. With the same compassionate concern for our welfare, he thus exhorts us: "Let your loins be girded about and your lights burning, and ye yourselves like to men that wait for their Lord." And for our encouragement he adds, "Blessed are those servants, whom their Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching."

And grant, Almighty God, that we may so keep the sayings and commandments of thy Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, that, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty, to judge both the quick and dead, we may rise to the life immor

tal, through Him who liveth and reigneth, with Thee and the Holy Ghost, now and ever.*

* This sermon appears, from a memorandum in the original manuscript now before the Editor, to have been composed Dec. 12. 1791, and preached at Malpas, Dec. 18, the last Sunday in Advent, of the same year. The venerable Author was then struggling with his last malady; and on Sunday evening, April 15. 1792, he expired, full of hope in Jesus Christ.

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DISCOURSE IV.

PROV. ii. 6.

FOR THE LORD GIVETH WISDOM: OUT OF HIS MOUTH COMETH KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING.

To teach us the knowledge of wisdom, is the design of the Proverbs of Solomon: who, having in the first chapter, pointed out the danger of neglecting or scorning her instructions, does in this second, show the blessedness of receiving them; and, that we may not mistake the nature of true wisdom, or the way of obtaining it, in the verse of the text he leads us to the fountain-head, where it flows, and whence only it can be drawn: "The Lord giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding." In which words, the wise man, first, declares, that the Lord is the giver of true wisdom; and, secondly, intimates that he bestows this wisdom on his church by means of his prophets, and other inspired writers, who are,

as it were, the mouth of the Lord to his people; and whose instructions, contained in the Holy Scriptures, are the word of the Lord.

In discoursing upon the text, thus understood, I shall, first, briefly consider the excellency of the wisdom contained in the Holy Scriptures; and, secondly, more particularly explain how and to whom God giveth this wisdom.

And, first, as to the excellency of Scripture wisdom; that, surely, may be accounted such, which enlightens the understanding with the noblest and most blessed truth, and directs the will to the choice of the greatest good. And this wisdom is to be obtained by the right use of the Holy Scriptures; which teach us, as far as we are capable of understanding in our present dark and imperfect state, what God is in himself; a God of infinite power and wisdom, of perfect holiness, justice, and goodness. And these being truths concerning the first, and best, and most excellent of Beings, are best suited to enlighten and improve, to raise and enlarge, the understanding of a reasonable creature; and being truths which have the fullest and clearest evidence, as declared by God himself, the God of truth, are best suited to satisfy a mind desirous of true knowledge. But the Holy Scriptures teach us, further, the relation there is

between God and ourselves; that he is our Creator and continual Supporter, in whom we live, move, and have our being; that he is our Supreme Governor and Judge, by whose appointment the spirit of man came into the body, and to whom, after its separation from the body, it must return to give an account of its works; according to whose sentence moreover, it will be received into the realms of endless light, or cast into the prison of utter darkness and final misery. And, therefore, the laws and rules of obtaining his favour, and of avoiding his displeasure, must be the safest, and wisest, and best direction of the will of man, in chusing good and refusing evil. Such, then, in brief, is the wisdom taught us by the Holy Scriptures; and which they only can teach with certainty, as both reason and experience clearly manifest. For reason tells us, that, the perfections of God, being infinite, cannot be measured by the line of any understanding less than infinite, that is, of any understanding but of God himself; and that, man, who hath a very weak and imperfect knowledge even of himself, can much less attain to any sure and satisfactory knowledge of God, and of his own relation to God, unless as He is pleased to reveal these truths, who is best able to speak of his own all-perfect nature, and best sees what