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and what may be their Condition in ano- SER. VII. ther. As to other Things, who is there that can answer all the Queftions, I will not fay, which God puts to Job in the XXXVIIIth Chapter, but, which may be afked Him by the very next Idiot that He meets? Some are fo eager to know what is meant by the obfcurer Parts of Scripture, that they never put in Practice the plainer Precepts of it: which if they did, it would fignify little or nothing whether they underftood the obfcurer Parts or no.

Prefumptuous Man! wouldft Thou tho= roughly understand the Manner in which Three Perfons exift in the fame unbounded Effence of the Deity? Before Thou strivest to fathom the Nature of the Greatest of all Beings, firft, if Thou canft, comprehend how the leaft of all Beings, an Animal an hundred Times lefs than a Mite does exist.

Myriads of fuch Animals as can only be difcerned by the Help of Glaffes. If the whole Body be fo minute as to be undifcoverable by the naked Eye, How much less must be the Limbs whereof that whole Body is compounded? How much less still must be the Veins, the Blood in those Veins, the Animal Spirits in that Blood, till we

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SER. VII. approach to the very Border of nothing?

For yet This Animal contains in Miniature all thofe Parts which we have in larger Dimensions. In fhort, for one Thing that we can plaufibly account for in the Book of Nature, there are Millions of Things of which we can give no Account at all. Yet we, who find almost all Things fo puzzling and unaccountable in the Book of Nature, expect every Thing in the Book of Grace, which proceeds from the fame Author, fhould be plain and level to our Capacities.

Most of the Objections against Scripture proceed from hence, that we set up for Free-Thinkers in Cafes where we can be but Half-Thinkers at least, or even less than that; as wanting a great many Ideas, that are neceffary to be taken into the Account to make our Reasonings juft, full and exact. Strange Free-Thinkers who will not believe what they cannot comprehend! As well might they think that the Horizon, which determining their Profpect, was the Boundary of the Univerfe; as that their Understanding was the Measure of all Truth. They must not believe they think at all, unless they first could comprehend

(what

(what is impoffible) by what Springs the SER. VII. thinking Being is put in Motion; or how the Body acts upon the Soul, and the Soulupon the Body; upon which their Thinking at present, in a great Measure depends.

The Truth of the Matter is; We are

Beings defigned for Action, not for SpecuElation. This Life is the proper Sphere of

Action; the next is that of Knowledge. Here we fee through a Glass darkly, but there, in a future State, Face to Face. Here we know in Part, but there we shall know

even as we are known. If you make it your Business here to lay in a Stock of Knowledge, without putting it in Practice; there remains after this Life no farther Op=portunity to acquire virtuous Habits. But if you make it your main Purpose of Living to acquire and cultivate virtuous Habits, your Thirft of Knowledge will be = fully gratified hereafter. Be virtuous here, you will be knowing hereafter: If you neglect Virtue here, that great Work must be undone for ever. Why then should any Man be over-induftrious to purchase, with much Trouble and Expence, that Estate of Knowledge, which, as foon as one

weak,

SEP. VII. weak, dropping Life expires, will of

Course, except it is His own Fault, fall to
Him without any Trouble or Expence at

all?

The Sum of what I would fay is this, the only Opportunity we have of being Good is now; the main Opportunity of being Knowing is in a Life to come. Yet if we may judge from the Practice of the World, one would imagine they were in a different Way of thinking: for there were never more Scholars, and perhaps never fewer good Scholars. Hence fo many Men feem to value fome Branches of Knowledge juft as others do fome Kinds of Food; merely because they are rare and uncommon, not because they are fubftantial, nourishing and useful: Their Difficulty and Obfcurity, not their Serviceableness to the World, ftamp a Value upon them. Hence their Heads refemble thofe Cabinets that are ftored with useless Rarities and curious Trifles; fit for Shew and Oftentation, not for any valuable Purposes of Life. Hence no Hours are fometimes more idly spent than those which are employed in Reading. I will not except thofe which are employed in Reading Books of Morality, if

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our Studies intirely terminate in a barren SER. VII. Knowledge of thofe Truths, without endeavouring to acquire thofe Habits and Difpofitions which are inculcated by moral Tréatifes. When Men retire into their Closets to form Rules for the Conduct of Life, to examine into themselves, to reform their Manners, and fubdue their Paffions, they will come out much better Men than they went in: But if they go thither merely to furnish themselves with Materials for Conversation, to get a Set of Notions floating in the Head, without finking deep into, and influencing, their Heart, they only heighten their Vanity; they fwell and puff up the Mind, they do not fill it with Food convenient for it.

Hence we may account for the strange Conduct of fome very thoughtful Men. It has staggered a great many to find Men of distinguished Abilities, who have laid out their Lives in the Research of Knowledge, either doubting of almost every Thing, or profeffing a determined Difbelief of those great and fundamental Truths, which the reft of the World have held facred and unquestionable. And they are ftill more staggered to observe, that they have the Cha

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