SERM.IV. of human Understanding, and the utmost Efforts of our Abilities.

What then? Would you have us to 'admit any Thing that contradicts any clear Principle or evident Conclufion of Reason? No, I would have you act agreeably to the clear Dictates of Reafon; it being a clear Dictate of Reason, that partial and imperfect Views may, and often do, occasion an Appearance of Wrongness and Absurdity, which a full comprehenfive Knowledge of the whole Cafe entirely removes. These Appearances of Abfurdities are but Shadows, which are owing to a Privation of Light, or that the Light does not diffuse itself over the whole Body of Truth, which has to us it's dark as well as bright Side, We fhould remember that we know many Things but in Part; that the most extenfive Understanding hath it's Boundaries; and that, when it is arrived at it's full Height, the Man cannot, however much Thought he may take, add one Cubit to the Stature or Size of it: that though we may shorten the Line of our Knowledge, as we may do that of our Lives, by our own Default, we cannot extend it beyond the

Period affigned by God: Or if we could, SERM.IV. it would be but Labour and Sorrow: The Deity fometimes being equally gracious in what he has hidden from our Eyes, as in what he hath revealed to them,

After all, fuch an Answer as this is fufficient as to moft, if not all, of the Objections against the main Articles of our Belief. And fuch an Answer as this, plain Senfe, without much Learning, might fuggeft. "Such a moral Evidence, as there "is for Christianity, is eafy to be under"ftood; and fuch moral Evidence is the

only Guide of Life; that by which our "Conduct is influenced, and our Behaviour "determined in all practical Cafes. Upon "this therefore I will reft, as God intend"ed I should do: Whereas your Objections against the Poffibility of a general Refurrection, the Redemption, the Trinity and other fundamental Doctrines, depend upon metaphyfical Intricacies, of " which we, the Bulk of Mankind, are no Judges at all, whether there be not some "Flaw in them; and the very ableft Men

are, it may be, but very incompetent
Judges, Shall I then be determined to

"" fet

SERM.IV. fet Revelation afide, upon the Account "of what I do not understand at all, and "Men of great Reach of Thought under"stand but in Part, viz. fine-spun Subtil"ties of Difputation? Or fhall I adhere "to it upon the Account of, what are easy "to be understood, moral Proofs? those

very Proofs, which are a Light unto my "Paths, and direct my Steps in the com"mon Purfuits of Life? Whatever Value

you may set on your laboured Deduc"tions, and a long Chain of abstruse Reafoning (as fome do upon far-fetched and

coftly Rarities) yet fuch is the Goodness "of God, that those Arguments are gene

rally the beft, which are the easiest " of Apprehenfion; as that Food is fo, "which is the eafieft of Digeftion. Away "then with your abstracted Arguments a

gainst Religion, by which you, the Dif "puters of this World, can throw a studied "Obfcurity over any great Truth, how"ever clear, and give a plaufible Turn to

any Falfhood, however palpable. They "feem to me to be mere Trials of Skill "and Dexterity, and are not, I have heard,

66

quite fo good as those of an ancient Phi

❝lofopher

lofopher against the Poffibility of Mo- SERM.IV. "tion, and those of a modern One + a

gainst the Reality of Matter: Arguments

" however that would baffle a very wife Man, though they would not convince

even a very weak one. Duft they are, "raised to obfcure more important Truths, " and to Duft they must return; or, after having been troublesome for a while, fall, unregarded, to the Ground. Moral Evidences, on the other Hand, are fuit"ed to my Capacity, and much better fit"ted to enfure a lafting Conviction to "Creatures fo formed as Men are, than

any of those specious Kinds of arguing, "which are fet up in Oppofition to them. They are a Lantern to my Feet, near at Hand, and portable to my Memory: "whereas Metaphyfical Proofs, be they

never fo good, are like the fixed Stars; "which, though they may enlighten Beings, that move in an Orb much fupe"rior, afford little or no Light to Perfons "in my low Situation."

See Bayle's Dictionary in the Article ZENO. +See Berkeley's Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous.

VOL. I.

I

We

SERM.IV.

We are guilty of no Immorality in fuppofing the Reason, why we cannot conquer an Objection, to be, not that the Objection is unanswerable in itself, but that we want fufficient Forces of Understanding to conquer it, or perhaps fufficient Skill to conduct and manage thofe Forces we have to the best Advantage: Nay, in fo doing we fhew our Modefty: And it were to be wished, that fome great Pretenders to Knowledge were Masters of the most valuable Part of it, that Part which teaches them Humility; the Knowledge of their total Ignorance in many Things; and their partial Ignorance as to all the reft. But we are guilty of an Immorality of a very deep Dye in refufing to fubmit to Moral Certainty; it being confeffedly criminal for any Man to do that in any Cafe, which, if all Men were to do in every other Cafe, would interfere with the general Happiness, and fubvert the very Pillar on which So ciety refts.

Since the World began no one Instance can be given, that any Man was mifled by trufting to fuch Proofs as Christianity is confirmed by. For whoever has been mifled, it was not by yielding his Affent to

Moral