VII. escapes our Notice. It is God alone, whofe SE r m. Almighty Power nothing, however great, can encumber; whofe Infinite Wisdom, nothing, however little, can escape. Our main Knowledge is to know ourselves; what we are at prefent as to our inward State, Temper and Frame of Mind; whether we have thofe Habits which are the Ground-work of our future Hopes. By looking often into ourselves, and knowing thoroughly what we are at present; we may know what we are to be hereafter. And yet Those who have but little Time to fpare, will spend it in any Thing fooner than in reading, or hearing read, those Books which may fhew them the Way to their true Happiness; -why they came into this World, and what may be their Condition in another. 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 asked 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 thoroughly underftand the Manner in which Three Perfons exift in the fame unbounded Effence SER M. Effence of the Deity? Before Thou ftrivest VII. to fathom the Nature of the Greatest of all Beings, firft, if Thou canft, comprehend how the least of all Beings, an Animal an hundred Times less than a Mite, does exift. 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 approach to the very Border of nothing? For yet This Animal contains in Miniature all thofe Parts which we have in larger Dimenfions. In short, 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. Moft of the Objections against Scripture proceed from hence, that we fet up for Free-Thinkers in Cafes where we can be but Half-Thinkers at leaft, or even lefs than that; as wanting a great many Ideas, that are neceffary to be taken into the Account V.II. Account to make our Reasonings juft, full SER M. and exact. Strange Free-Thinkers who will not believe what they cannot comprehend! As well might they think that the Horizon, which determines their Prospect, 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 firft could comprehend (what is impoffible) by what Springs the thinking Being is put in Motion; or how the Body acts upon the Soul, and the Soul upon the Body; upon which their Thinking at prefent, in a great Measure depends. The Truth of the Matter is; We are Beings defigned for Action, not for Speculation. 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 Opportunity to acquire virtuous Habits. But if you make it your main Purpofe of Living to acquire and cultivate virtuous Habits, your Thirst of Knowledge will be fully gratified hereafter. Be virtuous here, you will be knowing hereafter: If you neglect SER M. neglect Virtue here, that great Work muft VII. be undone for ever. Why then fhould any Man be over-induftrious to purchase, with much Trouble and Expence, that Eftate of Knowledge, which, as foon as one 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 Know ledge just 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, stamp 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. ; 1 VII. I will not except those which are employed S ER M. Hence we may account for the ftrange |
