Use 1. The use that we will make of it shall he to stir its vp to imitation of the blessed apostle St Paul. I speak to them that their breeding and parts have raised many of them I hope from base filthy lusts ; so that the danger is now of ' fleshly wisdom.' The devil is more in the bram than in the heart, as he said of a cursed politician. Many men have the devil in their head. He is not altogether in the heart and afiections, but in the brain ; and there he works his engines. And politic subtle men, they are the great engineers of Satan ; and that which he cannot do by himself, he doth it by them.
Therefore, I beseech you, let us not be instrumental to Satan, who was * See Note p 159.-^1.
270 COMMENTAKY ON
the first antlior of this carnal wisdom ; for by his temptation wc offimdcd God, and then camo all shifts upon it. You see what shifts came presently upon Satan's temptation.
Man did naturally affect wisdom ; to know good and evil. What wisdom did he get after he liad fallen ? He had wisdom to flee from God. There was his wisdom, to run from God. So all the wisdom of a man that hath not grace, it is to shift, to run away from God, and to have liclps and supports against God. A foolish thing it is, as if he could do it ! And then, an- other shift of Adam was, to cover himself with fig-leaves, a silly shift. And then to translate liis fault upon another. So, this sliifting of carnal wit it came presently upon the fall. Take heed, therefore, of carnal wisdom ; it is devilish : presently upon yielding to the temptation of the devil it came in.
And that you may not make it your rule, and live by carnal wisdom, con- sider seriously what I said before, how it hinders you from all that is good ; how it hinders you from reforming that which is ill in your places and call- ings ; how it stirs up to all that is ill ; how it stirs you up to cover ill. It teaches you wit to do ill, and to cover ill when it is done. As we see in David's adultery, what a deal of wit there was to practise it. And then what a many windings and turnings there were to cover it. But God laid him open, and brought him to shame in this world, being a good man.
And as I said, who will be ruled by his enemy ? If a man be on the land, and be ruled by a thief that will lead him out of his way, it is ex- tremity of sottishness. Or if he be on the sea, and be guided by a pirate, what good can come to that man that is ruled by those that seek his ruin ? Now if a man be ruled by carnal wisdom, he is ruled by his enemy ; and if all the enemies in the world should plot to do a man that mischief that his own head and carnal wit doth him, he would cry out of them. In Isa. xlvii. 10,* ' Thy wisdom hath made thee to rebel.' It is wisdom that makes men to rebel against God. Too much trusting to tricks and shifts of carnal wisdom, it makes men take contrary courses to God, and so provoke him. ' Are we wiser than he ? are we stronger than he ?' 1 Kings xx. 23, 25. Doth he not daily and continually make those the buttsf of his displeasure and wrath, that adventure their wisdom and policy against his wisdom ? Yes, surely ! God delights to catch the wise in their own craftiness ; he delights to overturn the builders of Babel. It is but a building of Babel to rear anything by politic wisdom, contrary to the rules of religion, and con- trary to the practice of piety. To do anything against conscience and honesty ; to do anything against the truth by politic shifts, it is to build a Babel that will fall upon our own heads. It is like the foolish fire that leads a man out of his way.]; This foohsh fire of carnal wisdom, it leads men to heUish strength : it makes them forsake God's light, and the light of his Spirit and word, and follow a false light of their own imagination and invention. And therefore you see what the prophet Isaiah saith of the people that were in those times, Isa. 1. 11, that did much plod in tricks of policy, ' Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about wdth sparks : walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled : this ye shall have of my hand, ye shall lie down in sorrow.' So, consider this, it falls out ofttimes, that God suffers a man to walk in the light of his own fire that he hath kindled, and in his own comforts. He will have comforts, and a distinct way from God's ways ; and he will
* Misprinted ' Jeremiah.' — G. J That is, the Ignis fatuus. — G.