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The firft is, that as our Reason can be of no Use to us in forming comprehenfive Notions of the Nature of God, and the Manner of his Existence and Operations, we ought implicitly to fubmit to any Declarations he is pleased to make to us of himself. We can form no pofitive Ideas of him, more than that of Existence; his Nature is infinitely beyond our Capacity; and if therefore he is pleased to reveal Things of himself which we cannot comprehend, our Want of Comprehenfion is no Reafon why we should reject fuch a Revelation. It would be thought a very idle and ridiculous Pretence for a Man to fay, he does not believe any Propofition in Euclid or Sir Ifaac Newton to be true, because he cannot demonstrate it; and if then the Teftimony of Men be thus great, furely the Teftimony of God must be allowed to be greater. Sir Ifaac Newton, fays the Mathematician, has demonftrated this Propofition to be true, and therefore you ought not to doubt of it, tho' you do not understand or comprehend it: God, who cannot lie, fay Divines, has declared this of himself, and therefore you ought to receive it as true, though you cannot comprehend it. So far as the Want of Comprehenfion is an Objection, and farther the present Argument does not go, I can fee no Difference in the Cafes, but what makes the Argument infinitely ftronger in Favour of Revelation, and renders the Abfurdity of Difbelievers much greater

in the latter Cafe than the former.

This is

not being implicit to any Man, or Body of Men, who, whether confidered fingly or collectively, are fallible like ourselves, but to the infallible and unchangeable God; and when he fpeaks concerning himself, furely it must be the Duty of mortal Men to believe and worship. Thus in the Doctrines of the everbleffed Trinity and the Incarnation, I cannot understand how the Father is God, and the Son God, and the Holy Ghoft God, or how the Lord Jefus was God and Man at the same Time; but then neither can I understand how God is at all, or how my own Soul is united to my Body. And in relation to Things then, of which I can form no Notion, it is not a hard, but a reasonable Service, to receive his Declarations for Truth, who cannot deceive, or be deceived. I fay, to believe him, as fupposing him to have revealed these things, becaufe I allow that nothing less than fuch a Revelation can warrant fuch a Belief. But when it appears that he affirms, bold as the boldest must be that Man, who shall dare to difbelieve or deny.

2dly. As our Reason can be of no Ufe in discovering the Secrets of the Divine Nature, fo neither in discovering the Manner of God's Operations; and confequently in this Cafe too it is but just to confult his Word, and not our Understandings, in relation to his Difpenfations, and to believe the Thing, tho' we can

not

not explain the Manner of it. Thus in the Cafe of the Divine Affiftances of the Holy Ghoft; that God's Grace is fufficient for us; that he will give his Holy Spirit to them that afk bim; that he will not fuffer us to be tempted above what we are able, but will with the Temptation make a Way for us to cfcape; and that we can do nothing of ourselves, as of ourfelves; is as certain as a Revelation from God can make it; and these Doctrines ought therefore to be stedfastly believed by the Faithful, tho' they cannot understand how God operates upon the Mind, or conveys his Divine Influences to the Soul. There is nothing in these Truths that contradicts any one Principle of right Reason; all the Difficulty lyes in the Manner of them, of which we are no Judges; and concerning which therefore we may furely, without any great Degree of Humility, fubmit to the Declarations of God. We really know very little, if any thing at all, of the Manner of the Production of those Effects of which we think ourselves most certain; they must for the most part, if not all, be at last refolved into the Divine Will: And in like manner therefore the Divine Word ought in Reason to be abundantly fufficient to make us acquiefce in all it teaches us of Divine Grace, and to make the Faithful humble themselves in the Sight of God, and the Penitent hope for his Affiftance.

Again; The Doctrine of the Refurrection of the Body is a great Stumbling-block to many, merely because they cannot understand how it will be done; but this is no juft Objection against our believing that to be true, which God declares to be fo. There is nothing impoffible or abfurd in this general Truth; every Man must allow it to be as easy for God to raise a Body, as to make one; and what Abfurdity can be pretended in it, if it be his Pleasure that we fhould be clothed with Bodies in the next World as well as in this? And fince then he has revealed this, it must be the indifpenfible Duty of all who receive his Word to believe it. If fome in endeavouring to explain this Doctrine have involved themselves in Abfurdities and Contradictions, to themselves be the Confequences. Word of God is plain, that all Men fhall rife with their Bodies, and give an Account of their own Works; and it is therefore abfolutely neceflary, and indeed highly reasonable, that Chriftian fhould believe that there will be a Refurrection both of the Just and the Unjust.

every

The

To conclude then: Thus we fee how far our Reason ought to go, and no farther; that it is our Duty to enquire into the Proofs of our Belief; to endeavour, as far as our Capacities will give Leave, to understand God's Word, and to apply his Laws to ourselves; and that it is highly prefumptuous and vain to pretend

pretend to form comprehensive Notions of the Divine Nature, or the Manner of his Operations ; and highly unreasonable and abfurd to object to the Truth of the Scriptures on that Account.

From all which I fhall draw only this Observation; that we ought on the one hand to be very careful, left out of an Humility falfely fo called we give up our Understandings to our Fellow-Creatures, and receive the Doctrines of Men as the Doctrines of God; that, on the other hand, we cannot be too watchful over ourselves, left from a Principle of real Pride, we set up our own Reason in Oppofition to the Divine Understanding; and that the best Way to avoid both these Extremes, is to receive with due Reverence the Oracles of God, and strictly and tenaciously adhere to that infallible Word of Promise, which is able, and which alone is able, to make us wife unto Salvation,

SERMON

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