25. But suppose knowledge were a more glorious excellence than it is; suppose it were a greater perfection than virtue; yet still this competition would be utterly against reason; since we can’t have the former now _in any measure_, and shall have it hereafter _without measure_: but the latter we may have _now_ (for we may _love much_ tho’ we cannot _know much_) and can’t have it _hereafter_. Now the question is, whether we ought to be more ♦sollicitous for that intellectual perfection, which we can’t have _here_ and shall have _hereafter_; or that moral perfection, which we may have _here_, and cannot have _hereafter_? And I think we need not consult an oracle, or conjure up a spirit, to be resolved. ♦ “solicitious” replaced with “sollicitous” for consistency *26. This consideration alone is sufficient to justify the measure we have prescribed for our intellectual conduct, that we ought to prosecute knowledge no farther than as it conduces to virtue: and consequently, that whenever we study to any other purpose, or in any other degree than this, we are unaccountably, impertinently, I may add, sinfully imployed. For this is the whole of man, _To fear God and keep his commandments_, the whole of man in this station particularly, and consequently this ought to be the scope of all his studies and endeavours. 27. And accordingly it is observable, that the scripture, whenever it makes mention of wisdom, with any mark of commendation, always means by it either religion itself, or such knowledge as has a direct influence upon it. Remarkable to this purpose is the 28th chapter of _Job_; where having run thro’ several instances of natural knowledge, he adds, _But where shall wisdom be found, and where is the place of understanding_? As much as to say, that in none of the other things mentioned, did consist the wisdom of man. Then it follows, _Man knoweth not the price thereof, neither is it found in the land of the living. The depth saith, It is not in me, and the sea saith, It is not in me._ Not in the depths of learning, nor in the recesses of speculation, _Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living. Destruction and death say we have heard of the fame thereof with our ears_: as much as to say, that after this life, and then only, unless perhaps about the hour of death, men begin to have a true sense and lively relish of this wisdom. But in the mean time, _God understandeth the way thereof, and he knoweth the place thereof_. And unto man he said, _Behold, the fear of the Lord that is wisdom, and to depart from evil, that is understanding_! To man he said: had it been to another creature, suppose an angel, in a state of security and confirmation, he would perhaps have recommended for wisdom the study of nature, and the arcana of philosophy. But having to do with man, a probationary, unfixed creature, that shall be either happy or miserable eternally, according as he demeans himself, in this short