Chapter IX
The uses of the preceding doctrine : That all men should examine themselves, whether the signs of this folly are not in them, and consider the misery and
danger of such a condition. How we are to become wise.
Use 1. The first use is to all men in the estate of nature, that they would
try and examine themselves by all that hath been spoken, whether they do not find in themselves hitherto all want of this true wisdom, and hitherto
to have been fools. Let this be the beginning of wisdom in you, and the first
fruit of it, to consider your estates, which fools do not ; and you that never
yet knew yourselves to be unregenerate, but your ways are right in your own
eyes, of all fools you are the worst. There is more hope of a fool than of
such, as Solomon says, Prov. xxvi. 12, Seest thou a man wise in his own
conceit ? there is more hope of a fool than of him.
. 1. Consider the misery of that condition ; for whilst thou art in it, God can take no pleasure in thee ; he delights not in thee : Eccles. v. 4, When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it ; for he hath no pleasure in fools : pay that which thou hast vowed. God hath no pleasure in fools, and therefore will not communicate himself nor his secrets, nor give his Son in marriage to them, unless they become wiser; for who that is wise would keep company with a fool, or marry a fool, or tell his mind to a
fool?
2. Consider the danger of being in that estate, and of dying a fool. Know
that whilst thou art such thou canst never enter into heaven, and hast no
portion in that inheritance there ; for fools inherit not, neither by God s laws nor man s ; and though you hope to go to heaven as well as the best,
yet this conceit of yours puts you but into a fool s paradise, for heaven is a
paradise was never made for fools. Honour is not seemly for a fool, says Solomon : Prov. xxvi. 1, As snow in summer, and as rain in harvest : so honour is not seemly for a fool, much less is heaven, and to be a king, seemly for him. That is not all ; but if thou art a fool, hell and destruction
is a-preparing for thee, and thou art fit for nothing else : Prov. xxvi. 3, A
whip for the horse, a bridle for the ass, and a rod for the fool s back. That
is fitter for him than honour ; hell than heaven ; nay, God will, instead of
delighting in thee, rejoice and laugh at thy destruction : Prov. i. 22-20, How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity ? and the scorners de
light in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge ? Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my Spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you. Because I have called, and ye refused ; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded ; but ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof
: I also will laugh at your calamity ; I will mock when your fear cometh ; as thou didst make sin a sport, God will make thy torment a sport to him.
Use 2. Of direction how thou art to become wise.
1. Apprehend and acknowledge that thou art a fool, 1 Cor. iii. 18; that
is the first lesson wisdom teacheth a man, that so he may be wise. Appre hend thy condition ; go not on as a fool, gaping and being careless, and
thinking thy ways right when they are not. What says Agur, a wise man, when converted? Prov. xxx. 2, Surely I am more brutish than any man, and have not the understanding of a man. And so Paul, for all his wit and
learning, confesseth that he was foolish in all his ways ; that all his ways were folly
: Titus iii. 3, For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, dis-
CHAP. IX.] IN RESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 215
obedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and
envy, hateful, and hating one another.
2. Go to God to give thee wisdom to turn thy heart : if any man lack wis dom, let him go to God for it : James i. 5, If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not, and it
shall be given him.
3. Go to God in Christ, and for Christ, who is made wisdom to us as well
: 1 Cor. i. 30, But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and re
as all other things
: therefore, Isa. ix. 6, he is called the mighty Counsellor. As we became fools in Adam, so we must recover our wits by Christ, and by being born of him ; and it is of all cures the greatest to cure one who is born a fool ; therefore go to Christ, for none else can do it.
demption
4. Turn to the wisdom of the just. Luke i. 17, it is said, that John turned men to the wisdom of the just : And he shall go before him in the
spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people pre pared for the Lord. Do thou turn to the wisdom of the just, i. e. frame
thy opinions according to the word, and the opinion of holy men ; lean not
to thy own wisdom and carnal understanding, thereby to judge of the ways of God, or trust not to the opinions of carnal man ; but come in, and sub mit thy judgment to the wisdom of God, and of good men. He that is a
fool begins then to be wise, when he, apprehending himself to be a fool, will
listen to what wisdom speaks. Frame, then, thy judgment of the work of
grace, and of holiness, and of the worth of grace ; and what the way to heaven is, by what God says, and what thou seest wise, and holy men pro fess and practice. What says God ? Isa. viii. 19, 20, And when they shall
say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep and that mutter : should not a people seek unto their God ? for the living to the dead ? To the law and to the testimony
: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. Do thou
go to the law and to the testimony, and lean to the commandment ; think upon all occasions, and in all straits, My wisdom is to stick close to it, and if I go astray, it is the greatness of my folly. Those ways carnal rea son sees no reason for, yet do thou take God s judgments for them, and
bring every thought into the obedience of Christ. Know that the Scrip tures are only able to rnake4hee wise unto salvation ; take, then, their coun
* Thy testimonies also are my delight and my counsellors. Take God s judgment in what is best for thee ; if he will have thee poor, be content : lean not to thy own wisdom, as Solomon says, Prov. iii. 5, Trust in the Lord with all thine heart : and lean not unto thine own understanding. Take also the judgment of holy men as to spi ritual things, for they have had experience of them, and therefore ought to be believed in their own art : Prov. ix. 10, The fear of the Lord is the
sel, as David did : Ps. cxix. 21,
beginning of wisdom : and the knowledge of the holy is understanding. Isa. xxxv. 8, And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be
called the way of holiness ; the unclean shall pot pass over it, but it shall be for those : the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein/ And do thou justify wisdom too, and stand up in defence of its ways, Mat.
xi. 19.
216 AN UNREGENERATE MAN S GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BOOK V.