Reafons; there are, even of the few who read for their own Entertainment, and have a real Curiofity to fee what is faid, several, which is prodigious, who have no fort of Curiofity to fee what is true: I fay, Curiofity; becaufe 'tis too obvious to be mentioned how much that religious and facred Attention, which is due to Truth, and to the important Queftion, What is the Rule of Life, is loft out of the World.

FOR the Sake of this whole Clafs of Readers, for they are of different Capacities, different Kinds, and get into this way from different Occafions, I have often wished, that it had been the Cuftom to lay before People nothing in Matters of Argument but Premifes, and leave them to draw Conclufions themfelves; which, though it could not be done in all Cafes, might in many.

THE great Number of Books and Papers of Amusement, which, of one Kind or another, daily come in one's way, have in Part occafioned, and most perfectly fall in with and humour, this idle way of reading and confidering things. By this Means, Time even in Solitude is happily got rid of, without the Pain of Attention: Neither is any. Part of it more put to the Account of Idlenefs, one can fcarce forbear faying, is fpent with lefs Thought, than great Part of that which is fpent in Reading.

THUS

THUS People habituate themselves to let things pafs through their Minds, as one may fpeak, rather than to think of them. Thus by Use they become fatisfied merely with feeing what is faid, without going any further. Review and Attention, and even forming a Judgment, becomes Fatigue; and to lay any thing before them that requires it,. is putting them quite out of their Way.

THERE are, alfo Perfons, and there are at leaft more of them than have a Right to claim fuch Superiority, who take for granted, that they are acquainted with every thing; and that no Subject, if treated in the Manner it should be, can be treated in any Manner but what is familiar and easy to them.

'Tis true indeed, that few Perfons have a Right to demand Attention; but 'tis also true, that nothing can be understood without that Degree of it, which the very Nature of the thing requires. Now Morals, confidered as a Science, concerning which speculative Difficulties are daily raifed, and treated with Regard to thofe Difficulties, plainly require a very peculiar Attention. For here Ideas never are in themselves determinate, but become fo, by the Train of Reafoning and the Place they stand in; fince 'tis impoffible that Words can always ftand for the fame Ideas, even in the fame Author, much lefs in different ones. Hence an Argument may not readily

A 4

readily be apprehended, which is different from its being mistaken; and even Caution to avoid being mistaken may, in fome Cafes, render it lefs readily apprehended. 'Tis very unallowable for a Work of Imagination or Entertainment not to be of eafy Comprehenfion, but may be unavoidable in a Work of another Kind, where a Man is not to form or accommodate, but to ftate things as he finds them.

IT must be acknowledged that fome of the following Difcourfes are very abftrufe and difficult; or, if you pleafe, obfcure: But I must take Leave to add, that those alone are Judges, whether or no and how far this is a Fault, who are Judges, whether

no and how far it might have been avoided--thofe only who will be at the Trouble to understand what is here faid, and to fee how far the Things here infifted upon, and not other Things, might have been put in a plainer Manner; which yet I am very far from afferting that they could not.

THUS much however will be allowed, that general Criticifms concerning Obfcurity confidered as a diftinct thing from Confufion and Perplexity of Thought, as in some Cafes there may be Ground for them; fo in others, they may be nothing more at the Bottom than Complaints, that every thing is not to be underflood with the fame Eafe that

that fome things are. Confufion and Perplexity in Writing is indeed without Excuse, because any one may, if he pleafes, know whether he understands and fees through what he is about: and 'tis unpardonable for a Man to lay his Thoughts before Others, when he is conscious that he himself does not know whereabouts he is, or how the Matter before him ftands. 'Tis coming Abroad in Disorder, which he ought to be diffatisfied to find himself in at Home.

BUT even Obscurities arifing from other Caufes than the Abftrufeness of the Argument, may not be always inexcufable. Thus a Subject may be treated in a Manner, which all along fuppofes the Reader acquainted with what has been faid upon it, both by ancient and modern Writers; and with what is the prefent ftate of Opinion in the World concerning fuch Subject. This will create a Difficulty of a very peculiar Kind, and even throw an Obfcurity over the whole before those who are not thus informed; but thofe who are, will be difpofed to excufe fuch a Manner, and other Things of the like Kind, as a faving of their Patience.

HOWEVER upon the whole, as the Title of Sermons gives fome Right to expect what is plain and of eafy Comprehenfion, and as the best Auditories are mixt, I fhall not fet about to justify the Propriety of Preaching,

or

or under that Title Publishing, Difcourfes fo abftrufe as fome of these are: Neither is it worth while to trouble the Reader with the Account of my doing either. He must not however impute to me, as a Repetition of the Impropriety, this fecond Edition, but to the Demand for it.

WHETHER he will think he has any Amends made him, by the following Illuftrations of what feemed moft to require them, I myself am by no Means a proper judge.

THERE are two Ways in which the Subject of Morals may be treated. One begins from inquiring into the abstract Relations of things: the other from a Matter of Fact, namely, what the particular Nature of Man is, its feveral Parts, their Oeconomy or Conftitution; from whence it proceeds to determine what Courfe of Life it is, which is correfpondent to this whole Nature. In the former Method the Conclufion is exprefs'd thus, that Vice is contrary to the Nature and Reafon of things: In the latter, that 'tis a Violation or Breaking in upon

Our own

Nature. Thus they both lead us to the fame thing, our Obligations to the Practice of Virtue; and thus they exceedingly strengthen and enforce each other. The firft feems the moft

The Preface ftands exactly as it did before the fecond

Edition of the Sermons.