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Man to fearch the Bible, to prove that SERM. there is a Difference between Black and IV. White, Hard and Soft, or to expect a Revelation to discover those Truths, which no Body doubts of; and no lefs ridiculous is it, for a Man to inquire whether that, which all his Senfes tell him is Bread and Wine, is not the real Body and Blood of Chrift? And, therefore, when any Text of Scripture feems to contradict the Verdict of our Senfes, it is plain that it is not to be taken in a literal Senfe whereas the Doctrine of the Trinity in Unity is a Point, which is beyond the Ken of Senfe or Reafon, and can be difcovered to us by no other Means, than that of Divine Revelation; and therefore all that we understand, about it, must be dug out of thofe Depths of Knowledge, the Holy Scriptures, and revealed to us from above; and what we find plainly revealed ought to be affented to; For to fcan these divine Truths, by the Maxims of Reason, would be as foolish an Employment, as to endeavour to fpan the Distance between Heaven and Earth, or to fathom the Sea with a Plum-line of a Yard long. Our Faith is the Hand which alone can lay hold of thofe Myfteries, and

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SERM. the more ftrong our Faith is, the more IV. reasonable we are; and therefore,

4. and Laftly, we may from hence learn to be candid and charitable, and to avoid all hard Cenfuring, and fierce Contention, about these Matters, and especially Impofing upon others fuch Articles of Faith, as are not exprefly revealed in the Holy Scriptures. 'Tis evident there is nothing we are more at a Lofs in, than to explain the Doctrine of the Trinity in Unity; and yet there is no Point which has been controverted with more unchristian Zeal, and unwarrantable Contention, both in the primitive and more modern Times: Which feems to proceed chiefly from hence; becaufe pious and learned Men are apt to be too fond of the Iffue of their own Brains, and therefore endeavour to impofe them as legitimate upon others, and oblige them to follow what they themselves do not underftand, nor can give any clear or plain Explication of; which would be in a great Measure prevented, by the Obfervation of this plain Rule: To hold fast what is clearly revealed in the Holy Scripture, and mutually to forbear one another, as to thofe Points which are obfcure and difficult to be understood. For God is not fo hard a Tafk-mafter to us, as we are to

one

one another; he has made the most useful SERM. Truths the most plain and intelligible; IV. and those, which are not fo, are lefs neceffary to be believed: And is it not highly unreasonable, that, when God has been fo kind to us, we fhould be fo inexorable one towards another ?

God grant that we may hold faft the Truth in all Things necessary and fundamental: And that we may fo follow after Truth, as to retain that divine Grace of Charity, through Jefus Chrift the Prince of Peace, to whom, with the Father, and the Holy Ghoft, three Perfons and one God, be given all Obedience, Worship, Praife, and Glory, now and for ever.

SERMON

[94]

SERM.

V.

SERMON V.

The Eternity of GOD.

PSALM XC. 2.

Before the Mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the Earth and the World: Even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art

God.

T

HIS Pfalm is the firft of the fourth Part of the Collection of Pfalms, and is, by most Interpreters, acknowledged to be a Prayer of Mofes, at that Time, when the People of Ifrael fo highly provoked God (by murmuring against him, and believing that evil Report which the Spies brought of the promised Land, Numb. xiv.) that he fhortened their Lives, and reduced them to threescore and ten, or fourfcore Years at the moft. At this Time, Mofes prays to

God

God for the Forgiveness of their Sin; and SE RM. that God's Judgments might have a good V. Effect, to better and reform them. He begins his Prayer with an Acknowledgement of God's particular Kindness towards their Fore-fathers, who were under his immediate Protection, guided and defended by him, when they were Strangers in the Land of Canaan: Lord, thou hast been our Dwelling-place in all Generations, Ver. 1. which was a reasonable Ground to excite their Truft and Confidence in God, who was not only the fame God at that Time that he was, in the Time of their Fore-fathers; but also had an infinite, almighty Being, before the Creation of the World; and would be the fame after the Frame of this World should be diffolved. Before the Mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the Earth and the World: Even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. The Words then are a plain Acknowledgement of God's eternal Duration; and tho', in the literal and strict Sense of them, they only imply thus much: That God was the great Creator of the World, and therefore did exist before this World was created, and would do fo after it was reduced to its first nothing and diffolved; yet if we confider

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