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SERM.III. would have been thought the most generous Plants, that any Soil is capable of producing. Unhappily for them, our heavenly Father bath planted them, and commanded us to eat of them, and live for ever. How admirable, in thofe aforementioned Writers, would have seemed the indirect Manner of fuggefting Knowledge under the Veil of Parables and Allegories; that useful, but otherwife offenfive, Truth might enter, as it were, by a By-path into the Underftanding, when all the direct Avenues were shut up against it as an Enemy! How would thofe ftrong Paintings have been extolled, the least Praise of which is their Beauty! Their chief Commendation is, that their Beauty is made fubfervient to nobler Purposes; and that while they entertain the Fancy with agreeable Imagery, they convey to us the most beneficial Sentiments, and impress them more deeply upon the Mind: Like Bloffoms, which, though they seem to be made only to please the Eye, are neceffary for the Production of Fruit, and the Prefervation of the Seed; Nature concealing, as it were, it's grand End, and appearing intent to beautify the Creation, at the fame Time it is benefiting it.

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It would be easy to multiply Instances SERM.III. to make it appear, that thofe Objections, which are looked upon as the Result of a fuperior Sagacity and Discernment, are, in Reality, the Effect of a profound Ignorance of facred, and fometimes of profane, Antiquity. One scarce indeed knows, what some People deem Objections. Trifles, light as Air, often tried in the Balance, and found wanting, fink as deeply in unfurnished Minds, and make as much Impreffion there, as Difficulties of a weightier Nature; like Feathers defcending in a Void with a Force and Velocity equal to that of much more fubftantial and maffy Bodies. From this Set of Men you continually hear the stale Objection of David's being a Man after God's own Heart: And fo he might be, comparatively with Saul, as to his public Character, in answering all the Purposes (the meaning of the Phrase, after God's own Heart) which the Deity had in vefting him with Kingly Power, by beating down Idolatry, and promoting true Religion, which was the fole End of the Jewish Polity. Or he might be fo, even as to his private Character, though not in Respect of the Crime he committed; yet in Respect VOL. I.

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SERM.III. of the Severity of his Repentance, which

bore Proportion to the Enormity of his Crime, and reinstated him in God's Favour; not to mention his prevailing good Qualities, and the main Tenour of his Life. I would not diffemble, however, that Revelation, as all other Things, has it's dark, as well as bright Side; is a Mixture of Light and Darkness; and that, as God has been pleased to give bright and illuftrious Indications of it's Divinity to those that seek after Truth with all their Soul and with all their Strength, he has turned the Pillar of the Cloud to the difingenuous and perverfe. Notwithstanding, though the Matter of our Faith be dark or myfterious, yet the formal Reason of it is not fo. Whereas Facts imperfectly related in a fummary View, without defcending to Particulars, and therefore liable to Objections; mysterious Doctrines; the unfathomable Difpenfations of Providence; Obfcurities occafioned by Forms of speaking widely different from ours; Accounts of the invifible World, and of the Offices of evil Angels; these, and many other Things of which we know little or nothing, and therefore cannot af firm or deny any Thing with Certainty,

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the formal Reasons of Infidelity. To thefe SERM. III. Men of this Stamp retreat, as to Haunts impervious to the Beams of the Sun, when we would fet before them the Brightness of that Light, which arose with Healing in it's Wings.

The Difference between a Chriftian and a Deift does not confift in this, that the one affents to nothing but what is evident ; the latter affents to Things inevident in themselves. But here the Distinction lies; the Deift affents to Things inevident in themselves, without any Ground or Reason at all; the Chriftian affents to Things inevident in themselves upon the Authority of God. Thus the Deift believes there is only One Solitary Perfon in the Divine Nature; the Chriftian, that there are Three: both Propofitions inevident in themselves: And he, who affirms the former, no more perceives any neceffary Agreement of Ideas, than he who maintains the latter. Nor is there any plausible Plea, that can be offered for a Singleness of Perfon, but that exploded one of a foreign Philofopher, viz. whatever is, there is a fufficient Reafon appearing to us, why it is, rather than why it is not. And an ingenious Stirrer up of Doubts G 2 might

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SERM.III. might raise as many Cavils against the solitary Unity of Perfon in an Effence everywhere prefent, as an Antitrinitarian can do against a Trinity of Subfiftences. Truth is, both these Doctrines are equally incomprehenfible: And he who rejects a Trinity, refigns his Underftanding to a Propofition, of which he has neither intrinfic nor extrinfic Proofs; he who admits it, believes it upon the only Proofs, that the Nature of the Thing admits of, or our Nature requires, Extrinfic ones. Evidence for Christianity preponderates the Objections, for this plain Reason: because moft, if not all, the principal Objections turn upon Points, of which we are incompetent Judges. But we are able to have a perfect Knowledge, and form an adequate Judgment, of the Evidence on which Christianity stands. Though therefore we ought to abide by our Judgment where it is sufficiently informed; we ought to lay no great Weight upon it, where it is infufficient and unequal to the Things to be judged of. We have no Right to judge where we have not a competent Ability to judge. For the Right of Judgment cannot extend beyond our Ability of judging.

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