for them to fet up one Deity in oppofition to S ER M. another, to make them clafh and quarrel, XIX. and difpute one another's dominion after the manner of petty Princes among men.

But it is revealed religion alone that hath clearly discovered to us the fovereignty of one abfolute univerfal power, wholly independent of all other, and fole manager and difpofer of all things, who is infinite in power, and wifdom, and goodnefs; who created, preferves, and governs all things; who is the fountain of all perfection, and from whom alone every good and perfect gift cometh; whose kingdom ruleth over all, whofe mercy is over all his works, and who governs all things both in heaven and earth: And we are told that his providence is fo particularly and immediately concerned in the management of the affairs of this world, that a Sparrow cannot fall to the ground without him; and that the very bairs of our heads are numbered: Therefore he is reprefented to us as omnipresent and filling heaven and earth; a description of which David gives us in the 139th Pfalm, in a strain of eloquence beyond any thing that ever entered into the head or heart of a heathen.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, I cannot attain unto it; whither then Shall I go from thy fpirit, and whither shall I go then from thy prefence? If I climb up into heaven thou art there; if I go down into hell thou art. there alfo; if I take the wings of the morning and remain in the uttermost parts of the fea,

SER M. even there alfo thy hand fhall lead me and thy XIX. right hand fhall hold me: If I fay the darkness

Shall cover me, then shall my night be turned into day, for the darkness and light to thee are both alike.

Having thus laid before you the accounts from revealed religion of thefe important queftions, together with the best folutions we have of them from the wifeft of those men, who were void of all revelation, I fhall at present only make two or three inferences from what hath been faid.

1. And the first thing I fhall obferve to you from hence is, the great improvement revealed religion is in point of knowledge, and what light it gives us into matters of pure fpeculation; not to say any thing now of those practical points which are directly consequent to them: So that it hath given us a clear and open view of things, in which the wifeft of men without it had no notion at all, or at least but very rude and imperfect gueffes; they knew those were the things which ought to take up their thoughts, and that there is no concernment in this world of fuch confequence as the being refolved in them; they were fenfible they had not this knowledge in themfelves, and yet they knew not where to look for it, and therefore were forced to take up with thofe odd inventions and extravagant fancies which they made a fhift with instead of the truth.

But

But revelation hath given us fuch a refoluti-S E R M. on of these important queftions as any reafon- XIX. able man may acquiefce in, fo as to look no farther, but reft fatisfied in the account we have of those points, which are the very things that are faid to be hid from the wife and prudent, and revealed unto babes.

These matters which lay fo far out of the ́reach of the greatest Philofophers, and puzzled all the learning and wisdom of the heathen world, are now brought down to the capacities of all men. In those days, (speaking of the times of the Gofpel) faith the Lord, I will put my laws into their mind and write them in their hearts, and they shall not teach every man his neighbour and every man his brother, for they shall all know me from the greatest even to the leaft; which is fo literally verified, that by the light of the Gospel all these important truths are made fo plain that they are become obvious and easy to the common fense and reafon of men; fo that a mean illiterate perfon knows more of those things, and hath a larger profpect and clearer infight into them, than the greatest wits and most learned men of the heathen world.

As far as they are neceffary for us we know nothing better, and now they are difcovered to us we know they are true, for truth always carries along with it an evidence to diftinguish it from error, and fuch infallible marks of its divinity, that men a ways

know

SER M. know it to be fo when ever they light upon XIX. it; so that we need not now complain for

want of neceffary knowledge of these matters, and fay, who shall go up for us into heaven and bring it down to us, for the word is nigh unto thee in thy mouth and thy heart, that thou mightest know them; we require no new revelation for them, nor exact elaborate skill in arts and sciences; they are made plain and intelligible to every capacity, and fall in so easily with the innate fenfe of mens minds that they feem to be born with them, and nothing but prejudice and wilful clofing of their eyes can hinder men from feeing them.

2. I shall obferve to you from hence the tendency that revealed religion only hath to procure peace and tranquillity to the minds of men: If these things were matters of speculation only, the want of a competent knowledge in them need not give us any great difturbance; but when our life is in them, and the welfare of body and foul both now and for ever depends upon them, then nothing can make us eafy and fatisfied but what gives us a reasonable account of these things; and yet where is it out of revelation that this is to be had? What religion in the world can give a

ny

reasonable account of any one of thefe fix points? Whereas the Gospel gives us full fatiftisfaction in them all, fo as to convince the reafon of any unprejudiced man, that he may now come to a refolution with himself and know

know in what to acquiefce: This fhews him S ER M. a folid foundation for his hopes and fears, so XIX. as that he is not carried to and fro with delu-✔ fion and the fuggeftions of his own or other people's imaginations.

So that we have now fuch a religion as all good and confidering men would bewail the want of if they were without it, and there is nothing they would make such strict enquiry after; and when a man had let his thoughts range and wander as far as poffibly they could, the refult of all his wifhes would be, that fome kind fuperior being would reveal to him just such a religion as this is, which should enlighten his mind, and give him a reasonable fatisfactory answer to all thofe important queftions, upon the knowledge of which the eternal well-being of mankind depended, and difcover thofe truths which alone are anfwerable to all the straits and exigencies, all the wishes and defires of human nature.

Man is born to trouble as the fparks fly upwards; the condition of our nature is fuch that our minds are full of ignorance and error, and especially in those things which concern us moft; we are furrounded with weakneffes and infirmities of body; we are subject to many evils and calamities both within and without; and all thefe miferies follow our being by the fame natural neceflity that the fparks fly upwards: So that of ourfelves, and in a state of nature, we are the most helpless

creatures