The divine life in three treatises

III. Walking with God, is the only course that can prove and make men truly wise. It proves them wise that make so wise and good a choice, and are disposed and skilled in any measure for so high a work. Practical Wisdom is the solid, useful, profitable wisdom: And Practical Wisdom is seen in our Choice of Good, and Refusal of Evil, as its most immediate and excellent effect. And no Choosing or Refusing doth show the Wisdom or Folly of man so much as that which is about the Greatest matters, and which everlasting life or death depends on. He is not thought so wise among men that can write a Volume about the Orthography or Etymology of a word, or that can guess what wood the Trojan Horse was made of, or that can make a chain to tie a Flea in, as he that can bring home Gold and Pearls, or he that can obtain and manage Governments, or he that can cure mortal maladies: For as in lading we difference Bulk and Value, and take not that for the best commodity which is of greatest quantity or weight, but that which in most precious and of greatest use: so there is a bulky knowledge, extended far, to a multitude of words and things, which are all of no great use or value; and therefore the Knowledge of them is such as they: And there is a precious sort of Knowledge, which fixeth upon the most precious things; which being of greatest Use and Value, do accordingly prove the Knowledge such. Nothing will prove a man simply and properly wise, but that which will prove or make him Happy. He is wise indeed, that is wise to his own and others good: And that is indeed his Good, which saveth his soul, and maketh him for ever blessed. Though we may admire the Cunning of those that can make the most curious engines, or by deceiving others advance themselves, or that can subtly dispute the most curious niceties, or criticize upon the words of several languages; yet I will never call them Wise, that are all that while the Devils slaves, the enemies of God, the refusers of Grace, and are making haste to endless misery: And I think there is not one of those in Hell who were once the subtle men on earth, that now take themselves to have been truly wise, or glory much in the remembrance of such Wisdom.

III. VVAlking with God, is the only course that can prove and make men truly wise. It proves them wise that make so wise and good a choice, and are disposed and skilled in any measure for so high a work. Practical Wisdome is the solid, useful, profitable wisdome: And Practical Wisdome is seen in our Choice of Good, and Refusal of Evil, as its most immediate and excellent effect. And no Choosing or Refusing doth shew the Wisdome or Folly of man so much as that which is about the Greatest matters, and which everlasting life or death depends on. He is not thought so wise among men that can write a Volume about the Orthography or Etymology of a word, or that can guess what wood the Trojane Horse was made of, or that can make a chain to tye a Flea in, as he that can bring home Gold and Pearls, or he that can obtain and manage Governments, or he that can cure mortal maladies: For as in lading we difference Bulk and Value, and take not that for the best commodity which is of greatest quantity or weight, but that which in most precious and of greatest use: so there is a bulky knowledge, extended far, to a multitude of words and things, which are all of no great use or value; and therefore the Knowledge of them is such as they: And there is a precious sort of Knowledge, which fixeth upon the most precious things; which being of greatest Use and Value, do accordingly prove the Knowledge such. Nothing will prove a man simply and properly wise, but that which will prove or make him Happy. He is wise indeed, that is wise to his own and others good: And that is indeed his Good, which saveth his soul, and maketh him for ever blessed. Though we may admire the Cunning of those that can make the most curious engines, or by deceiving others advance themselves, or that can subtilly dispute the most curious niceties, or criticize upon the words of several languages; yet I will never call them Wise, that are all that while the Devils slaves, the enemies of God, the refusers of Grace, and are making haste to endless misery: And I think there is not one of those in Hell who were once the subtile men on earth, that now take themselves to have been truly wise, or glory much in the remembrance of such Wisdome.