I speak not this to exclude all those requisites of wisdom that ought to be in the holiest and most valiant men. I may say in these times as the Apostle said of another virtue, There is great need of wisdom. The children1 ⟨image 5⟩of God ever have been, still are, and ever may be the wisest men upon earth. Let an unwise world think what it list. I mean not that wisdom (falsely so called) whereby a generation of men to save their skins, handle a good cause like a Venice-glass, loath they are to do any thing that may offend great persons with whom they would comply: or expose themselves to any danger or loss. (The very wisdom which caused Francis Spira to despair.) This is rather cunning or craft: or, to link them together in the language of the Apostle, bA cunning craftiness, it is not wisdom. True wisdom in the moral Schools of Philosophy, and in the purer Schools of Divinity, is that Queen of virtues, which like the soul in the body giveth life and cinformation to all the rest, commands all the affections, regulates all the actions of mans life, and adds an active quickening power to every virtue, to every faculty in man, directing them to a blessed issue. So that a wise man is a valiant man, a just man, a temperate man, an humble man, &c. But he that is addicted to any vice, a servant to any lust; proud; angry, ambitious, fearful, covetous, &c. is in all sound Morality and Divinity a very fool, Solus vir bonus (saith that great dPhilosopher) revera est prudens, Onely a good man is a wise man. And King Solomon makes this Philosophy good Divinity, Pro. 524. Vers. 4. Wisdom is too high for a fool, by whom throughout the Proverbs he means a wicked man. There is a connection in the virtues, the way to be wise, is to be good, and the way to be courageous▪ is to be wise. 6A wise man is strong, and a man of knowledge (saith Solomon) increaseth strength. From all which it is easy to conclude, and hard to be gain-said, that a cowardly person, let him swell never so big, let him carry his crest never so high, is neither wise nor good. The wicked flee 7when no man pursueth, but the righteous are bold as a Lyon.
I speake not this to exclude all those requisites of wisdome that ought to be in the holiest and most valiant men. I may say in these times as the Apostle said of another virtue, There is great need of wisdome. The children1 ⟨image 5⟩of God ever haue beene, still are, and ever may be the wisest men upon earth. Let an unwise world think what it list. I meane not that wisdome (falsly so called) whereby a generation of men to save their skinnes, handle a good cause like a Venice-glasse, loath they are to do any thing that may offend great persons with whom they would comply: or expose themselves to any danger or losse. (The very wisdome which caused Francis Spira to despaire.) This is rather cunning or craft: or, to linke them together in the language of the Apostle, bA cunning craftinesse, it is not wisdome. True wisdome in the morall Schooles of Philosophy, and in the purer Schooles of Divinity, is that Queene of virtues, which like the soule in the body giveth life and cinformation to all the rest, commands all the affections, regulates all the actions of mans life, and adds an active quickning power to every virtue, to every faculty in man, directing them to a blessed issue. So that a wise man is a valiant man, a just man, a temperate man, an humble man, &c. But he that is addicted to any vice, a servant to any lust; proud; angry, ambitious, fearefull, covetous, &c. is in all sound Morality and Divinity a very foole, Solus vir bonus (saith that great dPhilosopher) revera est prudens, Onely a good man is a wise man. And King Salomon makes this Philosophy good Divinity, Pro. 524. Vers. 4. Wisdome is too high for a foole, by whom throughout the Proverbes he meanes a wicked man. There is a connexion in the virtues, the way to be wise, is to be good, and the way to be couragious▪ is to be wise. 6A wise man is strong, and a man of knowledge (saith Salomon) increaseth strength. From all which it is easie to conclude, and hard to be gain-said, that a cowardly person, let him swell never so bigge, let him carie his crest never so high, is neither wise nor good. The wicked flee
- 1H•b. 10. 36.
- bEphes. 4. 14.
- cAnima est tota in toto, & tota in qualibet part.Anima est tota in toto, & tota in qualibet parte.
- dAristotle • o. Ethic.
- 5Et solus prudens revera est v•r bonus▪ contrà, stolidi & im•ntes sunt mali.
- 6K•ck. Syst. Ethic Lib 1. Cap. 3. p. 148.
- 7Prov. 28. 1.
