says Christ, "and be at peace one with another." "With all thine offerings," says God, "thou shalt offer salt; nor shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy burntofferings." "It is a good thing that the heart be established with grace." "He that loveth pureness of heart, for the grace of his lips, the king shall be his friend." Without the new cruse and salt in the spring-head, all is death. The letter killeth, whether it be taken out of the Old Testament or out of the New; but the Spirit giveth life. All gifts, without grace, have their seat in the mind, will, and understanding; hence we read of a fleshly mind puffed up; and of voluntary humility and will-worship; and of understanding all mysteries, and yet being nothing. The seat of God in Zion, and the throne of the King of kings, and the eternal residence of the Holy Spirit, are in the conscience, and in the affections of the saints. God dwells in the contrite heart, or in the tender conscience; and he circumcises the heart to love him; and "He that loveth dwelleth in God, and God in him." Hence we see that all ministerial gifts, without charity, and without the springing-well of grace to feed them, wither and die; and carnal men gather such branches into their company and they are burnt. Prophesying, light in the understanding, working miracles, gifts of tongues, gifts of speech, like the tongues of men and of angels; reformation, fiery zeal,

and sound notions without grace; together with all temporary faith, the joy of natural affections, and dissembled love; are nothing but bodily exercise, a fair show in the flesh, and having a name to live while dead: "The letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life." It is by an eager embracing of these things that many fail of the grace of God, and come short of the promised rest; as may be seen by the knocks and calls of the foolish virgins, and by the plea of those who plead, “Have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name cast out devils, and done many wonderful works?" and who, notwithstanding all these gifts and performance, are sent away with, "Depart from me, I know you not." But to be plain, honest, and faithful, in these things, incurs the hottest displeasure of empty professors, and exposes one to all the reproach and scandal that Satan can invent, or malice propagate.

Thirdly. But I come now to show where the wise man's heart gets all this wisdom; why God tells us that he will make the seed of his dear Son to endure for ever, and that he will build up his throne to all generations. Now we know that it is God's work to root up, and to throw down, to build and to plant. There is none under heaven that builds us up in a spiritual sense but God. "Ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building." And the principal graces that are employed in carrying up the building of mercy are, first, faith. "But ye beloved, building up yourselves on your

most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost," Jude 20. And it is charity that edifieth. Charity, or love, raises the edifice, or builds the soul up in God, for love draws the whole soul out of itself, and draws it into God, till the whole grows up into an holy temple in the Lord. And this growing up is explained by Christ of having our treasure where our heart is; and Paul calls it setting our affections above, at the right hand of God, where Christ sitteth. And sure I am, that when God builds up Zion he shall appear in his glory. The heart, in short, is the seat of the most holy and ever-adorable Trinity. God dwells in the heart by love; for "He that loveth dwelleth in God, and God in him.” Christ dwells in the heart by faith. This Paul witnesseth when he says, "I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." And the Holy Ghost dwells in us by the witness that he bears to our adoption, and by the stedfast and constant cry of Abba, Father. From the indwelling of these adorable divine persons hath the wise man's heart all this wisdom, and all these mighty works; which makes the wise man a wonder to many, and a wonder to himself. And thus "Our sufficiency is of God." And it is wholly owing to the body's being the temple of God, and the heart being the seat and throne of God, that this wis-, dom of the wise man is displayed in the world. "Zion," says God, "is my rest; here will I dwell

for ever; for I have desired it." Out of Zion the Lord roars, and utters his voice from Jerusalem; which Jerusalem is nothing else but his covenant, and the elect of God in it. Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath and will for ever shine; but this shining is into our hearts, to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Fourthly. But the wise man's heart not only teacheth his mouth, but it addeth learning to his lips. Alexander Pope says, that there is difference between learning and languages; and perhaps there is. There is a deal of difference between the wisdom of God in a mystery, and the wisdom of this world, that comes to nothing. We read of all the words of this life, in the Acts; and we read of great swelling words of vanity, in Peter. Homer's Iliad, which is so much esteemed, is full of such. They are empty sounds, like bladders full of wind; prick them, and, like ether, they evaporate into air. And the whole account is nothing else but the potsherds of the earth striving with the potsherds for mastery. He tells us of the mountains of the dead, the ample shield, and reeking gore; and of the earth trembling at the fall of his warriors. The word of God calls all these the drop of a bucket, worms of the earth, the dust of a balance, grashoppers, and the crushing of a moth, Isaiah xl, 15; . Job iv. 19. These words debase fallen men to a level with the meanest creatures, when Homer exalts them to be almost as gods. But as the wis

dom of this world is opposed to the wisdom of God, so the words which God teacheth are opposed to the words of human wisdom. "Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual." The glorious things which the ancient prophets saw in the visions of God, and have left upon record, are as puzzling to the learned as to the illiterate. "And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it is sealed. And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned." The scholar that could not read this book of visions was a man of human learning, and he complains that the book is sealed; so that he owned that spiritual things cannot be discerned but by the Spirit of God. Hence it appears that divine teaching is necessary in order to understand divine things. And God has made provision for this also. He tells us that the law is our schoolmaster; and he will chasten us and teach us out of his law. And Christ says, "Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me;" that we may sit down at his feet, and receive of his word; for the words of eternal life are in his mouth; as Job saith, "Who teacheth like him?"

The things which we are to learn are in the scriptures of truth. "For whatsoever things were