ing in a different Manner, may be undivid- SERM. II. ed; and to what is undivided and incapa

ble of any Difunion, we may, with at least as ftrict Propriety of Speech, afcribe the Denomination of one Being, as we can to any Thing, of which we have a pofitive Idea, in the whole Universe.

Again, the Understanding may perceive that it implies no Contradiction, that there may be fuch a Relation in the divine Nature, as, according to our poor and low Ways of thinking and fpeaking, greatly difproportioned to the Originals which they should represent, is best shadowed out to us by that of a Son to a Father, to which it may bear fome faint Refemblance. But the Imagination falls immediately to work, and afcribing it to the Deity in as ftrict a Sense, as when it is applied to the human Nature, forms as many abfurd Conclufions, its own Workmanship, as it does, when it argues from our fucceffive Duration to, what is infinitely different from it, the Duration of God. Whatever Abfurdities fome People may fancy upon this Subject, they have all been occafioned by this, that they have con founded Strength of Reafon, and Strength of Imagination: they did not perceive any

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SERM. II. Difagreement in the Ideas themselves, Ide as of pure Understanding, they only per→→ ceived a Difagreement in the Ideas of Imagination which it borrows from created and even material Beings; whereas it is evi dent that no Ideas of the Imagination, none but thofe of pure Intellect, ought to be employed, except by Way of Figure, in defcribing a pure intellectual and spiritual Being. Something like this happens in the Point of God's Omniprefence. The Understanding clearly proves, that the Deity must be present to every Thing, which he made and governs. But the Imagination, ever obtruding beyond its Sphere, is impatient to bring down this Doctrine to its own Level; and not being able to conceive the Prefence of any Being that is unextended, it confiders the Deity under the grofs Idea of infinite Extenfion, of infinite Length, Breadth, and Height; and then a numerous Train of Contradictions break in upon us; as that Extenfion implies Parts; that Parts by the very Term imply Imperfection, which cannot belong to an All-perfect Being; that there must be as many distinct Confcioufneffes as there are diftinct Parts, and confequently an infinite Number of di

stinct Consciousneffes in what is infinitely SERM. II. extended. The only Remedy for which is, to confider, that as there is a Demonstration that there is one spiritual Being which is prefent, fo there is a Demonftration too, that he must be present in a Manner, about which we can imagine nothing at all; because no Imagery of a fpiritual Being, or it's Prefence, can be drawn on the Fancy, as that of material Beings is. It is thus too as to the Trinity. Though we have Ideas of Union and Distinction, and know well enough what we mean by them, when we apply them to the Divine Nature, yet those Ideas are fo defective that we cannot exactly compare them and, where our Ideas are so defective that we cannot exactly compare them, there we cannot have an evident Perception of a Contradiction or Difagreement of Ideas, which depends entirely on a full and exact Comparison of Idea's.

Arianifm feems to be divided from Deifm, and that again from Atheism, by thin Partitions. The Man who is obftinate in the Disbelief of his Saviour's Godhead, must be, one would think, ftrongly tempted to reject the Scriptures, as a Book big E 3 with

SERM. II. with Blafphemy, fince every Idea distinctive of God from his Creatures is there exprefsly afcribed to him; unless Paternity, a mere Relation of Order, be the distinctive Idea of God; which yet is fo far from implying any Inferiority, that it proves the very Reverse. For unless only Son and only begotten fhould fignify the only created (the Confequence of which would be, that our Saviour is the only Creature in the Universe) it must follow, that he is uncreated and of the fame Nature with his Father. Well, fuppofing him now turned Deift; the Transition from thence to Atheifm or Scepticism would be almost unavoidable, because Eternity, Omniprefence, and Foreknowledge are encumbered with as great Difficulties as the Doctrine of the Trinity. Some Writers, who fet out with oppofing the Divinity of the Son, have at laft, by a natural Gradation of Error, ended in combating the Prescience of God; and made at leaft very near Approaches to Atheism. For next to believing there is no fuch Thing as an infinitely perfect Being; the greatest Abfurdity is to believe, there is an infinitely perfect and wife Being, who does not know, what to

morrow,

morrow, nay what the next Hour may bring forth. And indeed I do not know whether the Denial of any one fundamental Truth might not, if purfued to its utmost Confequences, lead or rather mislead one, by a juft Train of Deductions, to the Rejection of every other, that is fo.

One would undoubtedly wish for some fixed Anchor, fome Haven and secure Situation, when one fees and hears of so many who have either made Shipwreck of their Faith, or are driving at the Mercy of the Wind: which can be only this: that Moral Certainty is a fufficient Ground of a full Affurance, where there appears no abfolute Impoffibility to overbalance it, as there does not in the Cafe of Christianity. The Confequence of which is,

IIIdly, That a thinking Man may enjoy himself, with perfect Eafe and Tranquillity, in the Profeffion and Belief of Christianity, which he could not do, if he thought upon the Stretch, in a State of Infidelity.

SERM. II.