Serm. XI:II. The LI!ifalona of Religion, 29 Conftitutions, and meet hnflances of Sovereign Will and Power ; but wife Rules and Means to procure and advance our Happinefs. And in like manner, all that Wifdom whichMen life to compafs their Worldly Defigns, of fiches and Greatnefs, without Confideration of the Providence of God, and Dependance upon it for the Succefs of our Affairs, is all perfect Folly and Miftake. For tho' the Defign be never fo well laid, and vigoroufly profecu- ted, and noMeans which Humane Wifdomcan devife for the attaining of our End, have been omitted by us ; yet if we leave God out of the Account, we forget that which is principal, and lignifies more to the Succefs of any Defign, than all other things put together. For if God favours our Defigns, the molt improbable (hall take effect; and if he blow upon them, the moft likely !hall mifcarry. Whenever he pleafeth to interpofe, to crois the Counfels and Defigns of Men, the Race is not to thefwift, nor the Battle to the firong ; neither yet Bread to the wife, nor Riches to men of underflanding, nor Favour to men of skill; but Time and Chance happens to all. So thatit is great Folly, not to confider the Providence of God in all our De- figns and Undertakings, not to implore his Favour and Bleffing, without which nothing that we take in hand can profper. That which is Principal to any Pur- pofe, ought to be confidered in the fir1t Place, nothingbeing to be attempted ei- ther without, or againft it. And fuch is the Providence of God in all Humane Affairs ; it is more con(iderable to the promoting or hindringof any Event, than all things in the World betides ; and therefore all Policy, which Pets aude God and his Providence, is vain ; becaufe there is no wifdom, nor underflanding, nor counfel againfl the Lord. So likewife all that Wifdom which only' confiders and regards this fhort Life, and the narrow Concernmentsof ir, and makes Provifion only for our Welfare in this World ; and therefore can only be tempted with the Hopes of Temporal Advantages, and terrified only with the danger ofTemporal Evils and Sufferings; but bath no Senfeof an Immortal Spirit within us, no Profpect of a Life after Death; no Confiderationof a happy or Miferable Eternity, of Rewards and Pun- ilhments, infinitely greater thanall the Temptations and Terrors of Time and Senfe ; I fay, all this is a prepofterous and pernicious Wifdom, and proceeds up- on a falfe Suppofition, and a quite contrary Scheme ofThings to what really is; and confequently our whole Life, and all the Defigns and Aûions of it do run upon a perpetual Miftake, and a'falfe flating of our own Cafe ; and whatever we do purfuant to this Miftake is foolifh andhurtful, and fo far from conducing to our true Intereft, that it is all either' befides it, or contrary to it ; becaufe we aft upon a Suppofal only of-this Life, and a Being only in this World, and that there is nothing either to be fearedor hoped for beyond it g and being thus grofly mifraken, we let our Hearts only upon Temporal Things, and fludy our prefent Security and Satisfaflion, and in all our Counfels and Actions are fwayed only by the Confideration 'of "Temporal Good and Evil, of the prefent Eafe and Pleafure, theDi(turbance and Pain of our Flethly and Senfual Parts ; without any Senfeof our own Irnurortality; and of that Everlafting State which remains for us in another World. But there is (my Brethren,) molt certainly, there is another Life after this ; we,are notBeafls, if we donot make ourfelves fo ;` and if we die, we {hall not die like them neither (hall our la(t End- be like theirs. For whatever we may think'orwi(h, , it will not'be in our Power toextingui(h our own Beings when we have a mind to be rid of then, and to chufe whether or no we (hall live forever. And if this be a falfe Scheme of Things'which wehave framed to our felves; and proceeded upon (as undoubtedly it is) then our whole Life is one great Error, anda perpetual Miftake, and .tve arequite wrong in all that we deign todo. Our Wifdom bath begun at the wrong End, and we have made a' alle Calculation and Account ofThings, and have put'our Cafe orherwife than it is; and the farther we proceed upon this Miftake, our Mifcarriage will 6ê'fo much the more fatal in the Iffue. But if ourWifdom begin at the right End; and ourCafe be P p e truly
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