98 Wifdom the Strength of the Mind. S E R Nr. meeteth danger with intrepidity, becaufe it IV. can only deprive him of things which are d:. -v--) not the higheft in his efteern, nay, are con - fidered only as minute circumftances in com- parifon, far from his principal and molt fubftantial felicity. That virtue is a greater good than riches, worldly honours, and car- nal pleafures, hath been profeffed as a prin- ciple by many heathens ; and every one who nameth the name of Chr /, and is his difci- ple, muft be fuppofed to avow it ; or, in words agreeable to the Rile of the gofpel, that the new creature, the image of God repaired in us, the fpiritual life effected in the foul by the grace of Chrift, and the operation of the Holy Spirit, is more excel- lent than any enjoyment in this life, and the immediate and molt necelfary preparation for the greateft happinefs in the next. But the wife man is thoroughly poffefed with thefe fentiments, and according to them formeth the difpofitions of his fpirit, and according to them are governed all his affec- tions and paflions, his define and aversion, his joy and grief, his hope and fear. zdly, The teftimony of our confcience concerning our fincerity, which is the pe- culiar enjoyment of the man whom Solomon calleth wife, is an effectual prefervative againl
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