mistake. And as success in enquiry after truth affords matter of joy and triumph; so being conscious of error and miscarriage therein, is attended with shame and sorrow. These desires wisdom in the most perfect manner satisfies, not entertaining us with dry, empty, fruitless theories upon mean and vulgar subjects; but by enriching our minds with excellent and useful knowledge, directed to the noblest objects and serviceable to the highest ends. Dr Barrow.

27.

Wisdom is exceedingly pleasant and peaceable; in general, by disposing us to acquire and enjoy all the good delight and happiness we are capable of; and by freeing us from all the inconveniences, mischiefs, and infelicities our condition is subject to. For whatever good from clear understanding, deliberate advice, sagacious foresight, stable resolution, dextrous address, right intention, and orderly proceeding doth naturally result, wisdom confers: whatever evil blind ignorance, false presumption, unwary credulity, precipitate rashness, unsteady purpose, contrivance, backwardness, inability, unwieldiness and confusion of thought begets, wisdom prevents. From a thousand snares and treacherous allurements, from innumerable rocks and dangerous surprises, from exceedingly many needless incumbrances and vexatious toils of fruitless endeavours, she redeems and secures us.-Dr Barrow.

28.

ill

Wisdom makes all the troubles, griefs, and pains, incident to life, whether casual adversities, or natural afflictions, easy and supportable, by rightly valuing the importance and moderating the influence of them. It suffers not busy fancy to alter the nature, amplify the degree, or extend the duration of them, by representing them more sad, heavy and remediless than they truly are. It allows them no force beyond what

aturally and necessarily they have, nor contributes ourishment to their increase. It keeps them at a lue distance, not permitting them to encroach upon he soul, or to propagate their influence beyond their >roper sphere.-Dr Barrow.

29.

Wisdom is the principal thing, therefore get wisdom.-Solomon's Proverbs.

30.

In the search after God and contemplation of Him, our wisdom doth consist; in our worship of God and our obedience to Him, our religion doth consist; in both of them, our happiness doth consist.-Dr Whichcote.

31.

We are born under a law: it is our wisdom to find it out, and our safety to comply with it.-Dr Whichcote.

32.

Since the time that God did first proclaim the edicts of his law upon the world, heaven and earth have hearkened unto his voice, and their labour hath been to do his will. "He made a law for the rain; he gave his "decree unto the sea, that the waters should not pass his commandment." Now, if nature should intermit her course, and leave altogether, though it were for a while, the observation of her own laws, if these principal and mother elements of the world, whereof all things in this lower world are made, should lose the qualities which they now have; if the frame of that heavenly arch erected over our heads, should loosen and dissolve itself; if celestial spheres should forget their wonted motions, and by irregular volubility turn themselves any way as it may happen; if the prince of the lights of heaven, which now, as a giant, doth run his unwearied course, should, as it were, through a languishing faintness, begin to stand, and to rest himself; if the moon

should wander from her beaten way, the times and seasons of the year blend themselves by disordered and confused mixture, the winds breathe out their last gasp, the clouds yield no rain, the earth be defeated of her heavenly influence, the fruits of the earth pine away, as children at the withered breasts of their mother no longer able to yield them relief; what would become of man himself, whom these things do now all serve? See we not plainly, that obedience of creatures unto the law of nature is the stay of the whole world?-Hooker.

33.

The Laws of God are not impositions of will or of power and pleasure, but the resolutions of truth, reason, and justice.-Dr Whichcote.

34.

Let us begin from God, and shew that our pursuit from its exceeding goodness clearly proceeds from Him, the Author of good and Father of light. Now in all divine works, the smallest beginnings lead assuredly to some result; and the remark in spiritual matters, that "the kingdom of God cometh without observation," is also found to be true in every work of divine Providence; so that every thing glides quietly on without confusion or noise, and the matter is achieved before men either think or perceive that it is commenced.-Bacon.

35.

God hath set up two lights to enlighten us in our way; the light of reason, which is the light of His creation, and the light of Scripture, which is an after-revelation from Him. Let us make use of these two lights, and suffer neither to be put out.Dr Whichcote.

36.

Men have entered into a desire of learning and knowledge sometimes upon a natural curiosity and inquisitive appetite; sometimes to entertain their

minds with variety and delight; sometimes for ornament and reputation; and sometimes to enable them to victory of wit and contradiction; and most times for lucre and profession; and seldom sincerely to give a true account of the gift of reason to the benefit and use of man. As if there were wrought in knowledge a couch whereupon to rest a searching and restless spirit; or a terrace for a wandering and variable mind to walk up and down with a fair prospect; or a tower of state for a proud mind to raise itself upon; or a fort or commanding ground for strife and contention; or a shop for profit or sale; and not a rich storehouse for the glory of the Creator, and the relief of man's estate.-Bacon.

37.

With whatever faculties we are born, and to whatever studies our genius may direct us, studies they must still be. I am persuaded that Milton did not write his Paradise Lost, nor Homer his Iliad, nor Newton his Principia, without immense labour.— W. Cowper.

38.

Children and fools choose to please their senses rather than their reason, because they still dwell within the regions of sense, and have but little residence among intellectual essences. And because the needs of nature first employ the sensual appetites, these being first in possession would also fain retain it, and therefore for ever continue the title, and perpetually fight for it; but because the inferior faculty fighting against the superior is no better than a rebel, and that it takes reason for its enemy, it shews such actions which please the sense, and do not please the reason, to be unnatural, monstrous, and unreasonable. And it is a great disreputation to the understanding of a man, to be so cozened and deceived, as to chuse money before a moral virtue ; to please that which is common to him and beasts,

rather than that which is a communication of the Divine nature; to see him run after a bubble which himself hath made, and the sun hath particoloured. -Bp Jeremy Taylor.

39.

The end answers the means. The childe was taught no obedience when it might; now it is too olde to learn. The childe was not bended when it was tender; now it is too stiffe, it will follow its own bent. The parent may thank himselfe for the evill consequences from that neglect, and humble himselfe to smart patiently, for smart he must, if he have any feeling. He had his childe in his hande, and might have carried him on fairly, and have taught him to knowe God, himselfe, and his parents.-Woodward.

40.

For if ye suffer the eye of a young gentleman once to be entangled with vain sights, and the ear to be corrupted with fond or filthy talk; the mind shall quickly fall sick, and soon vomit, and cast up all the wholesome doctrine that he received in childhood, though he were never so well brought up before. And being once inglutted with vanity, he will straightway loath all learning, and all good counsel to the same; and the parents, for all their great cost and charge, reap only in the end the fruit of grief and care.-Roger Ascham.

41.

A young man, born with the certainty of succeeding to an opulent fortune, is commonly too much indulged during infancy, for submitting to the authority of a governor. Prone to pleasure, he cannot bend to the fatigues of study: his mind is filled with nothing but plans of imagined happiness, when he shall have command of that great fortune. No sooner is he in possession, than he lets loose all his appetites in pursuit of pleasure. After a few years of gratification, his enjoyments, by familiarity