time of trial, the only wisdom he advises to such a creature in such a station, is to study religion and a good life. 28. From authority let us descend to example: and two I would particularly recommend, of men both eminently wise and learned; I mean _Moses_ and St. _Paul_. The latter professedly declares, _I determine to know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified_. And the former complaining of the gross ignorance of his people, breaks out into this passionate wish. _O that they were wise! that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!_ 29. _Moses_ had been bred a scholar as well as a courtier, and was well instructed in all the secrets of philosophy. And besides the advantages of _Pharaoh_’s court, he had God himself for his tutor; he had conversed personally with his maker, and therefore must needs be supposed to know what was true wisdom. But he does not make it consist in courtly education, or the mysteries of philosophy; but in considering our latter end. He wishes that his people were wise; and to this end does not wish, that they were as well-bred, or as learned as himself, but only that they understood this, this one thing, that they would consider their latter end. This he makes the summary and abstract of all wisdom. Not unlike _Plato_, who defines philosophy, _the theory of death_. 30. And here, if a short digression may be dispensed with, I would observe, how much _Plato_ is in the right, and what an excellent part of wisdom it is, to consider death seriously. To make this distinctly appear, I shall shew first, that the consideration of death is the most proper exercise for a wise man, and secondly, that it is the most compendious way of making him wise that is not so. 31. First, It is the most proper exercise for a wise man. Wisdom consists in a due estimation of things; which then are duly estimated, when they are rated, both as they are in themselves, and as they are in relation to us. If they are great and extraordinary in themselves, they deserve to be considered for their own sakes; if they nearly relate to us, they deserve to be considered for ours. And on both these accounts, death and its consequences, are highly deserving a wise man’s thoughts. 32. For, first, they are in themselves great and extraordinary transactions, and as such, deserve the attentive consideration, even of a stander by, of any other indifferent being, suppose an angel; even though he were no otherwise concerned in it, than as ’tis a great event, a noble and wonderful scene of providence. On this single account, death is as fit a subject for the contemplation of a wise man, as any in nature.