1.

SERM. by Miracles) would not be perfuaded, I though one arofe from the Dead. Farther, 6. Sixthly, From the General Drift and Tenour of the Argument we have been handling, it may be juftly collected, that the more any Doctrine affects Secrecy, and declines Tryals of any Sort, the more Reason we have to Sufpect, and ■ Joh. iv. to Examine it: Beloved, believe not every Spirit (fays St. John) but try the Spirits, whether they be of God; and most particularly, thofe Spirits, which defire to be believed, without being tried: For this looks, as if they were afraid of being brought to the Teft; and Fear generally arifes from a Consciousness of Guilt, as the fame Apoftle, in this very Joh. iii. Cafe, argues. Every one (fays be) that 20, 21. doth Evil, hateth the Light, neither cometh to the Light, left his Deeds fhould be reproved; but he that doth the Truth, cometh to the Light, that his Deeds may be made manifeft, that they are wrought in God.

This Reflection cannot but once again put us in mind of thofe Articles of the

Roman

i. 7.

Roman Catholick Faith, by which it SERM. ftands diftinguished from the Faith of I. all other Chriftians. We are not allowed to doubt of them, or to reafon upon them. They are to be received implicitly, without any particular Difcuffion and Enquiry: From the great Doctrine of Infallibility they proceed, and into that they are finally refolved: As the Ecclef. Rivers run into the Sea, into the Place from whence the Rivers come, thither do they return again: And how can That which hath the Stamp of unerring Authority upon it, become the proper Subject of any Man's Private Debates and Reasonings? Now this is the greatest Prejudice imaginable against the Truth of the Doctrines of any Church, or the Sincerity of its Pretences: For if what it proposeth to us, be True and Reafonable, why should it decline the Examination and Judgment of Reason? If all be pure Gold, without Allay, how comes it thus to fly the Touchstone? 'Tis the Property of Error only to sculk and hide its Head; but Truth we know

SERM. is open and barefaced; like our first Pa

I.

rents, in the State of Innocence and Happiness, Naked, but not ashamed. And therefore, though it be very unreafonable in the Church of Rome to impose her Doctrines upon us, without allowing us to examine them; yet is it not unreasonable in Us to reject thefe Doctrines, thus propofed, even without Examina

tion.

The fame may be faid of thofe Wild Opinions set up by Fanaticks and Enthufiafts, as Dictates of the Spirit, and which they will fuffer to be tried by the Spirit only; not by the dead Letter of Scripture,or by Carnal Reasoning. There needs no more than this very Confideration, to convince us of the Abfurdity of their Pretences; for if Scripture and Reason were for Them, They would not be against Scripture and Reafon; Men do not use to decline the Arbitration of their Friends.

Far different from this is the Conduct of that Excellent Church, to which we belong. She deals Openly and Fairly,

I.

w

brings all her Doctrines to the Light, and SERM. invites all her Members to fearch and enquire into them. She defires nothing more, than to be tried at the Bar of unbyassed Reason, and to be concluded by its Sentence: She knows, that her Teftimony is true, and that the Truth of it will appear the more, the more it is fifted. Even in those Mysteries, which She proposes as Objects of Faith, divinely revealed, She pretends not to fhut out the Use of Reason, but only cautions us to exercise it Soberly and Discreetly, and to keep it within its due Bounds: Not to reject a Divine Truth, because we are ignorant of the particular Manner in which it may be made out; Not to reafon from the Properties of Finite to those of Infinite Beings; Not to pretend to find Contradictions in Points, the Depth of which we cannot Fathom or Comprehend. Under these Restraints, She encourages us to use our Reason, in the Difcuffion of Myfteries, as freely as we, pleafe; and She questions not, but that the more freely we use it, the more Rea

fon

SERM. fon we fhall find to believe thofe MyfteI. ries, and to revere them.

Would to God, All Men dealt as fairly with Her, as She deals with all Men! She would not then, by Ill Tongues and Pens, be traduced, as guilty of Pious Cheats and Prieftcraft; Things, which She detefts utterly, and hath done more toward Expofing them, where they are practised, than any of Those who make the Loudest Noife with them. She would not then have thofe Accufations, of Impofture and Defign, laid at her Door, which She herself hath so often and juftly charged on the Church of Rome; Accusations stolen, by Her Adversaries, from Her matchless Writings against that Church, and applied to Her, without Ground or Colour, without Senfe or Reafon. But our Comfort is, That Our Cafe, in this respect, is like That of good David, when he appealed to God, and faid, The Reproaches of Them that Reproached Ixix. 9. Thee are fallen upon Me. These Enemies of our Church are equally Enemies of all other Churches, and all Religions; on

Pfal.

ly