ry, as this doctrine of the Trinity; and therefore we may with equal justice deny the truth of them all. For instance, it is against the laws of nature, that a human body should be able to walk upon the water, as St. Peter is recorded to have done; or that a dead carcafe fhould be raised from the grave after three days, when it began to corrupt; which those who understand anatomy, will pronounce to be impoffible by the common rules of nature and reafon. Yet thefe miracles, and many others, are pofitively affirmed in the gospel; and these we must believe, or give up our holy religion to Atheists and Infidels.

I fhall now make a few inferences and obfervations upon what hath been said.

First, It would be well if people would not lay fo much weight on their own reafon in matters of religion, as to think every thing impoffible and ab furd which they cannot conceive. How often do we contradict the right rules of reafon in the whole courfe of our lives? Reafon itfelf is true and juft; but the reafon of every particular man is weak and wavering, perpetually fwayed and turned by his interefts, his paffions, and his vices. Let any man: but confider, when he hath a controverfy with an-other, though his cause be ever fo unjust, though the whole world be against him, how blinded he is by the love of himfelf, to believe that right is wrong, and wrong is right, when it makes for his own advantage. Where is then the right ufe of his reafon, which he fo much boafts of, and which he would blafphemoufly fet up to control the commands of the Almighty?

Secondly, When men are tempted to deny the myfteries of religion, let them examine and fearch into their own hearts, whether they have not fome favourite fin, which is of their party in this dif pute, and which is equally contrary to other comnds of God in the gofpel. For why do men

love darkness rather than light? The fcripture tells us, Because their deeds are evil; and there can be no other reafon affigned. Therefore when men are curious and inquifitive to difcover fome weak fides in Christianity, and inclined to favour every thing that is offered to its difadvantage,. it is plain they with it were not true: and thofe wishes can proceed from nothing but an evil confcience; becaufe, if there be truth in our religion, their condition must be miferable *.

And therefore, thirdly, men fhould confider, that raifing difficulties concerning the myfteries in religion, cannot make them more wife, learned, or virtuous; better neighbours, or friends, or more ferviceable to their country; but, whatever they pretend, will deftroy their inward peace of mind, by perpetual doubts and fears arifing in their breafts. And God forbid we fhould ever fee the times fo bad, when dangerous opinions in religion will be a means to get favour and preferment; although, even in fuch a cafe, it would be an ill traffic, to gain the world and lofe our own fouls. So that, upon the whole, it will be impoffible to find any real ufe towards a virtuous or happy life, by denying the myfteries of the gospel.

Fourthly, Thofe ftrong unbelievers who expect that all myfteries fhould be fquared and fitted to their own reafon, might have fomewhat to fay for themselves, if they could fatisfy the general reafon of mankind in their opinions. But herein they are miferably defective, abfurd, and ridiculous. They ftrain at a gnat, and fwallow a camel: they can believe, that the world was made by chance; that

It is an high encomium on reformed Chriftianity, and a strong argument of its fuperior excellence, that a corrupt life always inclines men to wish it were not true. It does not appear, that Mahometans and Papifts with their religion to be tale in proportion as their lives are immoral; and it is faid of Dryden, that not being able to fortify bimfelf in infidelity, he died a Papift.

God

God doth not concern himself with things below, will neither punish vice nor reward virtue; that religion was invented by cunning men to keep the world in awe; with many other opinions equally falfe and deteftable, against the common light of nature as well as reafon; against the univerfal fentiments of all civilized nations, and offenfive to the ears even of a fober Heathen.

Laftly, Since the world abounds with peftilent books, particularly written against this doctrine of the Trinity, it is fit to inform you, that the authors of them proceed wholly upon a mistake. They would fhew how impoffible it is, that three can be one, and one can be three: whereas the fcripture faith no fuch thing, at least in that manner they would make it; but only that there is fome kind of unity and diftinction in the divine nature, which mankind cannot poffibly comprehend. Thus the whole doctrine is fhort and plain, and in itself incapable of any controverfy; fince God himfelf hath pronounced the fact, but wholly concealed the manner. And therefore many divines, who thought fit to anfwer thofe wicked books, have been mistaken too, by anfwering fools in their folly, and endeavouring to explain a mystery which God intended to keep fecret from us. And as I would exhort all men to avoid reading those wicked books written againft this doctrine, as dangerous and pernicious; fo I think they may omit the anfwers, as unneceffary. This, I confess, will probably affect but few or none among the generality of our congregations, who do not much trouble themselves with books, at least of this kind. However, many who do not read themfelves, are feduced by others that do; and thus become unbelievers upon truft, and at fecond hand; and this is too frequent a cafe: for which reafon I have endeavoured to put this doctrine upon a fhort and fure foot, levelled to the meanest understanding;

by

by which we may, as the apoftle directs, be ready always to give an anfwer to every man that afketh us a reason of the hope that is in us, with meeknefs and fear.

、

And thus I have done with my fubject; which probably I should not have chofen, if I had not been invited to it by the occafion of this feafon, appointed on purpose to celebrate the myfteries of the Trinity, and the defcent of the Holy Ghoft, wherein we pray to be kept ftedfaft in this faith; and what this faith is, I have fhewn you in the plainest manner I could. For, upon the whole, it is no more than this: God commands us, by our dependence upon his truth and his holy word, to believe a fact that we do not understand. And this is no more than what we do every day in the works of nature, upon the credit of men of learning. Without faith we can do no works acceptable to God; for if they proceed from any other principle, they will not advance our falvation; and this faith, as I have explained it, we may acquire, without giving up our fenfes, or contradic in our reafon. May God, of his infinite mercy, i fpire us with true faith in every article and mystery of our holy religion, fo as to difpofe us to do what is pleafing in his fight: and this we pray through Jefus Chrift; to whom, with the Father and th: Holy Ghoft, the myfterious incomprehenfible One God, be all honour and glory, now and for evermore. Amen.

This is one of the beft fermons in its kind. Dr. Swift feeme not to have made fuch a plan his voluntary choice, nor to have built, fuo ex motu, upon fuch a bafis; but he has completed the fuperftructure in a moft mafterly manner. The materials anfwer the dignity of the edifice; and the artificer may affume great honour, upon the completion of fo noble, fo fimple, and fo ufeful a pile. The myfte rious parts of our religion are apt to have dreadful effects upon weak minds. The general comments upon the facred writings, and the VOL. I. fevera]

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feveral fermons upon the most abftrufe points of fcripture, are too often compofed in the gloomy style. Damnation, eternal damnation, is placed with all its horror before our eyes; and we are fo terrified at the prospect, that fear makes us imagine we can compre. hend mysteries, which, on this fide of the grave, must be for ever denied to our limited understandings. Swift has taken the safest and the propereft method of expounding thefe arcana. He advances every pofition that can be established upon fo incomprehenfible a fubject. He fuftains the belief, avows the doctrine, and adapts the matter of faith as well as poffible to the human capacity. His manner of reafoning is mafterly, and his arguments are nervous, particularly, where he fays, " It is highly probable, that if God fhould "pleafe to reveal unto us this great myflery of the Trinity, or fome "other myfteries in our holy religion, we should not be able to un"derstand them, unless he would at the same time think fit to be"ftow on us fome new powers or faculties of the mind, which we "want at prefent, and are reserved till the day of resurrection to life "eternal." p. 9. Orrery.

SERMON II.

ON MUTUAL SUBJECTION.

I St. PETER V. 5.

Yea, all of you be fubject one to another.

THE apostle having, in many parts of this epistle, given directions to Chriftians concerning the duty of fubjection or obedience to fuperiors; in the feveral inftances of the fubject to the prince, the child to his parent, the servant to his master, the wife to her husband, and the younger to the elder; doth here, in the words of my text, fum up the whole, by advancing a point of doctrine,