edness. Because, though to receive such SERM. I. Favours is something unusual 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 sensible of the numerous Diforders which lurk within, of his fickly Appetites, and the Corruption of his Heart; and how often the precarious Light of Reason, 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 best of us have sometimes indulged; we should be ashamed to look him in the Face, and be out of Conceit with ourselves: And yet we do not fometimes stifle them immediately; though we know that He, whose tremendous Majesty fills the whole Compass of Heaven and Earth, cannot but be privy to them, and difcern the secret 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, supposing he could know the inward Workings of the Soul. We are not worthy to approach Him,

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

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And yet, notwithstanding our many Imperfections, I question whether, upon a Supposition 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. Several other Words must be taken in, to recompense us, as we think, fully, and adjust the Rewards to our imaginary Deserts.

He who thinks, that he has no Weaknesses 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 so. Then our Salvation is most in Danger, when we dismiss all Apprehenfions about it.

But if Virtue (human Virtue) affords no just 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

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Object

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Object embarrasses and oversets the Under- SERM. I. standing; too little an one eludes and escapes it. It is God alone, whose Almighty Power, nothing is so great that it can encumber; whose infinite Wisdom, nothing is so little that it can escape. Presumptuous Man! wouldst thou understand the Manner in which three Persons exist in the fame unbounded Effence? Before thou strivest to fathom the Nature of the Greateft of all Beings; first, if thou canft, comprehend how the least of Beings exist Animals a hundred Times less than a Mite, Myriads of such Animals, as can only be difcerned by the Help of Glafsses. If the whole Body be so minute, as to be undiscoverable by the naked Eye; how much less 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 those Parts which we have in larger Dimensions. In short, for one Thing, that we can plausibly account for in the Book of Nature, there are Millions of Things, of which we can give no Account:

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, should be plain and level to our Capacities.

True Knowledge is one of the strongest Fences against Pride. When good Sense and Reason speak, they come, like their great Author, God, in the ftill small Voice, without any empty Noise 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 rest. Whereas the Ignorant are sometimes peremptory and positive in Matters quite above their Sphere, and, like fome Creatures, are the bolder for being blind. In a Word, the Ingenuous will confess the Weakness of their Reafon; and the Presumptuous 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 fpent all she had upon Physicians, and yet grew no better, but rather worse. All the Tutors and

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and Instructors in the Universe will avail No- SERM. I. thing: For they cannot open the Eyes of those, that are bornblind. 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 several 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 Despondency 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 seldom bring any to it's just Perfection.

After All, what fignifies all the Learning in the World, without a just Discernment and Penetration ? And what is the Result of our Penetration, but that we fee through the Littleness of almost every Thing, and our own especially? That we difcern, and are disgusted with, several Follies and Absurdities, which are hid from