266 SEVENTH SERMON recorded unto all ages for fools and madmen. Well;. I have preached amongst you many years together (sixty are the fewest that we can well compute, some say seventy, others above eighty) but alas, what en- tertainment hath mine embassy received ? What ope- ration or success bath it had amongst you ? Are there not the calves still standing at Dan and Bethel ? Do not carnal policies prevail still against the express will of God ? O if there be any wise, any prudent men amongst you, (and O that all God's people were such,) let them, now at length in the close of my ministry towards them, show their wisdom, by giving heed to what I have declared from the Lord, that they may learn to walk in God's righteous ways, and may not stumble and perish by them. Here are two words used to express the wisdom which God requireth in those who would fruitfully hear his word ; the one importing a mental knowledge of the things, and the other a practical and prudential judgment in pondering them, and in discerning the great moment and consequence of them unto our eternal weal or wo. So the apostle prays for the Colossians, that theymight be filled with the know- ledge of God's will in all wisdom and spiritual under- standing, Col. i. 9. In mere notional things which are only to be known for themselves, and are not further reducible unto use and practice, it is sufficient that a man knows them. But in such things the knowledge whereof is ever in order unto a further end, there is required besides the knowledge itself, a faculty of wisdom and judgment to apply and manage that knowledge respectively to that end, and for the advancement of it. Now we know that theological learning is all of it practical, and hath an intrinsical respect and order unto worship and obedience ; there-
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