242 The Proud and Scornful S E R M. for it is fuppofed that the fcorner may leek X. wifdom, and be at pains for it, and yet ne- ver find it. Not that he difcerneth wifdom to cònfift in true religion and virtue, and feeketh after thefe ; for in a diligent purfuit of this kind his labour fhould not be loft: But he feeketh after wifdom, that is, know- ledge and [kill to make the belt of life; in which he either doth not include religion at all, or it is of fuch a kind as will by no means anfwer the end : For as to true reli- gion, his temper, as we [hall afterwards fee, difqualifieth him as much for feeking as finding it. Let us, farfl, confider the chara6ter. We meet with it often in the writings of Solo- mon, and in other parts of fcripture, by at- tending to which we (hall find the following ingredients in it : Fir[{ , pride, which figni- fieth an undue delire of honour, or an over- valuing one's felf, and a joy and triumph of heart on account of fome apprehended ex- cellence or advantage, with a contempt of others fuppofed inferior. To have a jult notion of this evil, againft which the facred writers inveigh with fo great feverity, re- prefenting it as what rendereth men ob- noxious to the divine difpleafure, and pre - cipitateth them into the moll fatal mifcon- dud,:
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