throw ourselves out of his Protection. Let SERM. V. as confider how vain all Schemes of Happiness are, out of which He, the Fountain Head of Happiness, is left, who can dash the Joys of Profperity with fuch unpalatable Ingredients, as render them no Joys at all; and qualify the Bitterness of Poverty with fuch Infufions of Joy and Gladness, as fhall make it easy and tolerable. And perhaps He, who made the Soul, can alone make it thoroughly happy or miserable: He can pierce it through and through with Sorrow and Pain, and make it, when incorrigibly bad, irretrievably wretched; or he can pervade it and fill the whole Capacity of it with unconceivable Blifs. Then, and not till then, we are intirely undone, when God has caft out our Soul, caft it from his Prefence, from the Comforts of his Prefence. For his Presence is every where: But it is to the Good and the Wicked, juft what it was to the Ifraelites and Egyptians before the Red Sea: To the former a Pillar of Light to brighten up every Thing around them; to the latter a Cloud and Darkness to trouble and difquiet them. While we enjoy the Light of the divine Countenance, we need not be dejected at the Frowns of the whole

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SERM. V. whole World. For if God be FOR us, it will in a fhort Time fignify little or nothing, who was against us: But if He be against us, what will it fignify, who was for us? Our Communication and Intercourse with our nearest and dearest Relations may be intercepted by our Misfortunes: But our Intercourse with the nearest Object of all, even Him, in whom we live, and move, and have our Being, cannot be intercepted but by our Vices. He who never faileth them that feek him, will never forfake us, till we forfake Him and Virtue. He is, according to the expreffive Defcription of St. John, Light and Love, pure unclouded Light, without any Mixture of Darkness and Ignorance; and pure unallayed Love, without any Tincture of Malice and Hatred: He knows whatever is really Good for us; and will do whatever in his unerring Judgment is most effectually conducive to our Good, making every disastrous Incident finally terminate in our Benefit.

SER

SERMON VI.

The intrinfic excellency of the Scriptures, a Proof of their divine Infpiration.

In Two SERMONS.

*******

**********

I PETER III. 15.

Be ready always to give an Answer to every
Man that afketh you a Reason of the
Hope that is in you.

"T is surprising to obferve, what a close SERM.VI.

I

Connexion and Alliance one material

Truth has with another. Thus, for Inftance, that there is a God, those manifeft Traces of infinite Wisdom, which appear through the whole Oeconomy of Nature, fufficiently make out. The whole World is in this refpect, as it were, one great Temple, where, as in the Jewish, the Shechinah or divine Prefence fhines. confeft

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SERM.VI. confeft in a vifible Glory.

The fame Ar

guments, that prove our own Existence, demonftrate God's. How do we prove there is a vital Principle within any Perfon? Why, because he moves, he thinks and acts: And can we from these Operations conclude there fubfifts within us a Principle, which actuates and informs the Body: And shall we not from the stupendous Operations of the Universe conclude, there is a Being that actuates and invigorates all Nature? Matter cannot be a neceffarily exiftent Being. Because that alone is neceffarily exiftent, which exists immutably, and cannot but be what it is. Whereas, on the other hand, Matter does not perfift in an uniform State of Being, but is liable to Changes, and admits of new Modifications.

*Eft, eft profecto illa Vis: neque in his Corporibus, atque in hac imbecillitate ineft quiddam, quod vigeat ac fentiat et non ineft in hoc tanto Naturæ tam præclaro motu; nifi forte idcirco effe non putant, quia non apparet, nec cernitur: proinde quafi noftram ipfam mentem, quâ fapimus, quâ providemus, quâ hæc ipfa agimus ac dicimus, videre, aut plane qualis, aut ubi fit, fentire poffumus. Cicero pro Milone. Unde fcis tibi ineffe vitale Principium? Refpondebis, quia loquor, quia ambulo, quia operor. Stulte, ex operibus corporis agnofcis viventem; ex operibus Creationis non agnofcis Creatorem? S. Auguftinus.

fications. The infinite Variety, that there SER M.VI. is in the World, which shews a manifold Wisdom, is no more confiftent with the Scheme of unintelligent Neceffity; than Regularity, Uniformity and Defign is with that of Chance.

And if there be a God, there must be fome Religion; or, in other Words, fome Homage must be due from an indigent and dependent Creature, to his great Creator, Preferver and Benefactor. And if fome Religion be neceffary, it must be one that is fufficient, or is fufficiently calculated for the Generality of Mankind. Now, that natural Religion, or that Religion, which the Light of Nature dictates, is not sufficiently calculated for the Generality of Mankind, is evident from hence; that to trace a confiderable Number of Doctrines up to the Fountain-Head from which they flow, by the Strength of unaffifted Reason, and to pursue them to their remotest Confequences, is a Task at least extremely difficult to Men of Letters, but I may venture to Lay impracticable to the Ignorant. Befides, pure natural Religion is a mere Utopian Scheme, which may perhaps have existed in the Minds of fome few reclufe contem

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