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SERMON XXI.

A PRICE IN THE HAND OF A FOOL
TO GET WISDOM.

Prov. xvii. 16.

Wherefore is there a price in the hand of a fool to get wisdom, seeing he hath no heart to it?

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A FOOL, in Solomon's Proverbs, constantly means a wicked man, and wisdom with him is but another term for godliness. The text intimates, that a wicked man has "a price put into his hand to get wisdom;" so that had he a heart for it, he might become godly. So much cannot be said for the condition of fallen angels. In the just judgment of God they, after having fallen by sin, remain exposed to the consequences of their rebellion for ever. But for sinful mankind there is a remedy-that which is the constant theme of all true preaching-the mediation of Jesus Christ the righteous. A price is put into our hands to get wisdom. The means are before us; and it is said, "seek and ye shall find.”

May not there be times, think you, when evil spirits feel the keenest envy on this account, and may not this fill them with rage and malice against men? "They may be saved, we are shut up in despair." On this account Satan may tempt men with the more eagerness, and labour to blind their minds, lest "the light of the glorious gospel of Christ should shine unto them." And alas! the folly of

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men gives him but too great advantages. There is a" price to get wisdom in the hands of a fool;" but he has no heart to it. He relishes it not; he might find much comfort here, as well as solid bliss hereafter; but he chooses to remain as he is; foolish, and therefore miserable.

I shall endeavour to show this in several steps, of the proceedings of fools. Some, perhaps, go through them all in order; some only through a part; but in all of them I would meet the consciences of some or other of my hearers, with a view to lay open to them the folly of wickedness, to rouse them to a sense of danger, and lead them on to seek true wisdom with all the heart.

The first and grossest sense in which the text evinces itself, is in the conduct of a thoughtless rake, or drunkard, or debauchee. Even his worldly friends, especially the aged and prudent, can tell him, that he has a "price in his hands to get wisdom," and foolishly throws it away. I mean, they can show him his want of human prudence. How easily might he obtain friends, and earn his bread, and enjoy the good things of this life with a fair character, and with temperance and sobriety! He has had many opportunities; but he throws them all away. He will not learn wisdom by experience. He involves himself in debt and penury by foolish extravagance. He injures a good constitution by excesses. He lays himself open to the frauds of knaves, and by bad company exposes himself to many miseries continually.

I wish the place we lived in did not afford too many proofs of this; for surely idle, vain and dissi

pated young men abound among us, even in respectable families. And I wish their parents could stand clear in their own consciences of having neglected to teach them the fear of God, which alone can effectually secure men from these evils. If young men see the old to be immoderately saving, and hear no other lecture from them, but "get money, and save money," they may fancy that their parents have done this sufficiently already, and may be tempted to the other extreme of extravagance and idleness.

But if it be so, young men! you are not excused. What was good in their advice you should follow, and you have the word of God before you for a guide. Yes, the word of God, which you leave to your SISTERS to attend to. Do you suppose that religion belongs to women only-that men have no souls, and will not rise again at the last day? The careless lives of young men among us might tempt one to suppose they thought so. One hears from time to time of the other sex being awakened to solid concern for their souls; and truly the evidences of true conversion and its fruits do appear among some of them; but with young men, especially of the richer sort, is it not far otherwise? How seldom are they seen in public worship, and how constantly do they profane the Lord's day! When do they ever read the Scriptures? Yet they have learnt to read, and considering the use they make of the talent, it had been better for many of them if they had not. Inflammatory publications, that teach sedition and self-conceit, suit their taste better than the word of God. They set up to correct both King and Government, when it appears, by their conduct, they are unfit to govern a private

family. Nay, they have not learnt to govern their own lusts and passions, and, what is worse, have no desire to learn. Oh! unhappy youths! Who thus mispend your time in reading seditious pamphlets, novels or plays, or whatever tends to inflame your passions. I would mourn over you; I would engage you to mourn over yourselves. Take the text and apply it. None have more cause. Why is a price put into your hands to get wisdom, seeing you have no heart to it?" You might have been growing in Scripture knowledge; but you are foolish, both for this life and the next. Why will you go on in a way to please Satan? Why will you die, while the Lord exhorts you to turn and live?

But some of these reform their manners, and grow more prudent. The instructions they have received in the arts of getting money, as if this was all the business of human life, are not lost on them. They begin to see it a foolish thing to do nothing but spend money. They, at length, apply themselves to labour to gain some. After a few years experience they grow more cautious, and he who at eighteen was quite a spendthrift, becomes at thirty a miser, eager and keen after every opportunity of enriching himself. This is no uncommon case. Such may be more agreeable to their aged friends; but alas! from God they are just as distant as ever. The price that was put into their hands to get wisdom, they still have no heart to. Formerly pleasure, and now business, takes them up all the day long. Indeed some fill up their time between both; at any rate prayer, self-examination, the word of God, and all serious attention to his word, are still set aside.

I speak to your case. Can you read what our Saviour so solemnly declared, "ye must be born again," and yet expect to enter into the kingdom of heaven without the new birth? Can you be fit for heaven, who have no worship of God in your houses, nor in your closets; who think it quite sufficient to come to this house once a week, and hear a single sermon, and attend to nothing of religion the whole week besides; but place your happiness in amassing riches? What would you do in heaven? You would soon be weary of its employments.

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I could mention many things, which become a servant of God; the honouring of his holy name and word; the propagation of his gospel; the support, and encouragement of his ministers; the bringing of children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. All these things are quite neglected. You live to yourselves, just as if there were no God to govern the world. Being quite strangers to his grace, and having no idea of any pleasure in communion with him, you certainly have not one of those marks which belong to a christian, set forth in the word of God. Your heart is dead to God, buried in the world, and taken up with business. Anxious after this world's profits, you look at those who are richer than yourselves, and intend, by and by, to become as rich as they. For you measure happiness by sums of money, and with you, the man of ten thousand pounds is twice as happy as the man of five thousand. If you read the Scriptures, and attended to what passes within you, in a due manner, you would see, that the nature of man is corrupt altogether. "There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God."

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