Book I. of Jesus Christ. 9

that a Day of Judgment there will come, wherein Mea- fures will be taken very different from ours , when the Enquiry, upon which our Affairs muft all turn, will be, not how much we have Heard or Read , but how much we have Done ,- not how Eloquent our Expredions, but hew Pure and Devout our Lives ; how much our Manners, not our Capacity or Breed- ing, our Wit or Rhetorick^ diftinguifhed us from com- mon Men. But if the Credit and Honour of the thing were the only Confideration, yet even thus, Where is the Fruit of all this mighty Toil ? What is become of all the Eminent Divines, Philofophers, Lawyers, Orators, Perfons celebrated far and near juft at the time when they lived and flourifhed ? but now fomebody elfe enjoys the Gains of all that Learning and Fatigue ; and 'tis odds, whether he that lives upon their Labours, ever fo much as fends one Thought after them. Thefe Men, fo eminent in their refpec^tive Profeffions, no doubt, thought themfelves confiderable in their own time ; but now that time is gone, and they are loft in univerfal Silence : Their very Names buried as deep as their Bodies ; and the one was fcarce fooner out of Sight, than the other out of all Mention and Remembrance.
Ah wretched Men .' How have you been deluded? How fhort and withering a Good does that Fame and Reputation prove, which you vainly promifed your felves would be Eternal ; always frefh and flourifhing;, always precious in the Mouths and Memories of Po- fterity ? But this, and no better, is the Condition of all worldly Honour. Oh ! had you but been equally careful to improve in Piety, and rendred your Virtues as eminent as your Learning, your Studies then had not been fruitlefs ; but followed with a Recompence which would not thus have forfaken you. But this is the fatal Error of our Age, that infinite Numbers are deftroyed by unprofitable Knowledge, They lay
B 3 them-
lo €>( ttft gimttatiott Book I.
themfelves out upon Subtleties arid Curiofities, which turn to no Account ; and the only Thing, which can make them amends at lait. Religion and the Service of God^ that they give themfelves no manner of Trouble about , but flight as not worth their Care or Thought. The great Occafion of the Fantaftical Opinions^ and dangerous Corruptions^ with which the World is pefter'd, is certainly this. That Men propofe no end of their Studies but to be great, and to have other People think as highly of them, as they do of themfelves,- and becaufe of all things, they detell Hu- mility, and a Submiffion to Truth , God gives them the due Reward of their Vanity, and fuffers them to
be feduced by their own Abfurdities and Rom. 1. 21. Imaginations, But if we would be Great, let us take the proper Courfe for it : For, None is truly fo, but he that abounds in the Love of God, and in Good Works ,• None is truly fo, but he, who thinks modeftly of himfelf, and is got above the Tem- ptations of Ambition and Vain-glory. The Man who is Wife to purpofe, is he, who counts ail that
this World can boait of, but Drofs and Phil. m. 8, Dungy that he may win Chrifi, And he is an expert and learned Man indeed, who hath learnt to give the Preference to God's Will, before his own ; who refolutely complies with His Commands, and as refolutely denies his own Inclinations.
CHAP.