edness. Because, though to receive fuch SERM. I. Favours is fomething unufual to you; yet to do them is nothing new to them.

The more virtuous any Man is, the more modest and unpretending he must be. He must be fenfible of the numerous Diforders which lurk within, of his fickly Appetites, and the Corruption of his Heart; and how often the precarious Light of Reafon, that Candle which God has lighted up in his Mind, has been put out by fome fudden Guft of Paffion. If a Child could read those foolish, vain, wicked Imaginations, which the beft of us have fometimes indulged; we should be ashamed to look him in the Face, and be out of Conceit with ourselves: And yet we do not fometimes ftifle them immediately; though we know that He, whose tremendous Majesty fills the whole Compafs of Heaven and Earth, cannot but be privy to them, and difcern the fecret Meditations of our Heart. The Knowledge of the Greatest of Beings, who understandeth our Thoughts long before, hath less Influence, than that of the filliest of Mortals would have, fuppofing he could know the inward Workings of the Soul. We are not worthy to approach C 3

Him,

SERM. I. Him, who dwelleth in unapproachable Glory, but through the Merits of our Redeemer. We could not expect any Inftances of Goodness from a Being less than infinitely good.

And yet, notwithstanding our many Imperfections, I queftion whether, upon a Suppofition that all of us were to be the Judges and Rewarders of our own Merits; this World would be half large enough, that every one might take a little. other Words must be taken in, to recompense us, as we think, fully, and adjust the Rewards to our imaginary Deserts.

Several

He who thinks, that he has no Weakneffes to fubdue, either wholly or in Part; no virtuous Habits to acquire, or, at least, to improve and perfect; he who, in short, thinks himself quite good enough; proves, by the very Thought, that he is not fo. Then our Salvation is moft in Danger, when we dismiss all Apprehenfions about it.

But if Virtue (human Virtue) affords no juft Grounds for Pride; much less does human Knowledge, which bears no Proportion to our Ignorance. The greatest and the least Objects equally baffle our Enquiries.

Too great and difproportioned an

2

Object

Object embarraffes and overfets the Under- SERM. I.

ftanding; too little an one, eludes and escapes it. It is God alone, whofe Almighty Power, nothing is so great that it can encumber; whose infinite Wisdom, nothing is fo little that it can escape. Prefumptuous Mán! wouldst thou understand the Manner in which three Perfons exist in the fame unbounded Effence? Before thou ftriveft to fathom the Nature of the Greateft of all Beings; firft, if thou canft, comprehend how the least of Beings exist Animals a hundred Times lefs than a Mite, Myriads of fuch Animals, as can only be discerned by the Help of Glaffes. If the whole Body be fo minute, as to be undiscoverable by the naked Eye; how much lefs the Limbs, of which that whole Body is compounded? How much less still the Nerves, the Veins, the Blood in those Veins, the animal Spirits in that Blood; till we approach to the very Borders of Nothing? For these Animals contain, in Miniature, all thofe Parts which we have in larger Dimenfions. 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: C 4°

Yet

ŞERM. I. Yet we, who find almost all Things fo puzzling and unaccountable in the Book of Nature, expect that every Thing in the Book of Grace, which proceeds from the fame Author, fhould be plain and level to our Capacities.

True Knowledge is one of the ftrongest Fences against Pride. When good Sense and Reason speak, they come, like their great Author, God, in the fill Small Voice, without any empty Noife or Loquacity, or over-bearing Pretenfions. And those who keep the best Sense within, seldom hang out the Sign of Knowledge. Men of this Stamp will own their entire Ignorance in many Things, and their imperfect Knowledge in all the reft. Whereas the Ignorant are sometimes peremptory and pofitive in Matters quite above their Sphere, and, like fome Creatures, are the bolder for being blind. In a Word, the Ingenuous will confefs the Weakness of their Reason; and the Prefumptuous betray it by their being fo.

If we are born without an Aptitude to learn, and a Genius for Knowledge; we may resemble the Woman in the Gospel, who had Spent all he had upon Phyficians, and yet grew no better, but rather worfe. All the Tutors

and

and Inftructors in the Universe will avail No. SERM. I. thing: For they cannot open the Eyes of those, that are born blind. But, granting the utmost Happiness of natural Parts, yet he, who confineth himself to one Province of Knowledge, cannot understand even that throughly. Because there is that Harmony and Alliance between the feveral Branches of Science, that one reflects Light upon another. He on the other Hand who grafps at every Part of Knowledge, is only a fuperficial Smatterer in All; and is too general a Trader in the Republic of Letters to become rich. A Man of a flow Capacity is apt to fit down under a Defpondency of making any Advances in Literature: Men of quick Parts are sometimes distracted with Variety of Pursuits. So many Thoughts are continually rifing in their Minds, that, like Trees overladen with Fruit, they feldom bring any to it's juft Perfection.

After All, what fignifies all the Learning in the World, without a just Discernment and Penetration? And what is the Refult of our Penetration, but that we fee through the Littleness of almost every Thing, and our own efpecially? That we difcern, and are difgufted with, feveral Follies and Abfurdities, which are hid

from