"This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual,
devilish.

"For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil
work.

"But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable,
gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits,
without partiality and without hypocrisy."

"The wisdom from above is first pure." This purity of the mind and
spirit is peculiar to the Gospel. Our Saviour says, "Blessed are
the pure in heart, for they shall see God." A mind free from all
pollution of lusts shall have a daily vision of God, whereof
unrevealed religion can form no notion. This is it that keeps us
unspotted from the world, and hereby many have been prevailed upon
to live in the practice of all purity, holiness, and righteousness,
far beyond the examples of the most celebrated philosophers.

It is "peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated." The Christian
doctrine teacheth us all those dispositions that make us affable and
courteous, gentle and kind, without any morose leaven of pride or
vanity, which entered into the composition of most heathen schemes:
so we are taught to be meek and lowly. Our Saviour's last legacy
was peace, and He commands us to forgive our offending brother unto
seventy times seven. Christian wisdom is full of mercy and good
works, teaching the height of all moral virtues, of which the
heathens fell infinitely short. Plato indeed (and it is worth
observing) has somewhere a dialogue, or part of one, about forgiving