tion, and the Absoluteness of his Power, all confpired to undermine his Virtue, and to leave him a ftanding Monument of the Treachery of Man's Heart, and a Warning to the World's End of the Danger, that even the best of Men are expofed to, when they are not upon their Guard against the first Approaches of a Temptation. This is a Spot that will never be wiped out of David's Character; and yet we cannot give up his Piety, which shines out illustriously in all other Parts of his Life. And as his Humiliation and Penitence were extraordinary, we must look upon him under this his Fall, as we do upon a Man attacked with a Fever, who grows delirious and raving for a fhort Time, but when he recovers his Senfes, is forry for every Thing that paffed during his Disorder. It is the general Habit and Courfe of any Man's Life that muft characterize him a good or a bad Man, and not a fingle Act or a particular Scene, when he happens to be overcome by a Temptation, and to be deferted by the Grace of God, in order to fhew him his own Weaknefs: then it is that Repentance is highly feasonable, and if it be fincere, it will avail to the Pardon of his

Guilt, as it did in the Cafe of this holy Man; but tho' the Wound was healed, yet the Scar remains to this Day. To name no more,

The shameful Tergiverfation of St. Peter is an Inftance of this Kind, well known to all. He thought it impoffible for him to defert his Master in the Time of his Distress; and bragg'd how he would ftand by him, even after his Mafter foretold him of his Frailty. But when the Trial came, his Heart fail'd him, and he not only bafely forfook him, but affirmed with Oaths and Imprecations, that he did not fo much as know the Man. This likewife was a single Act, that muft not be fet against the Habit of St. Peter's Life; it was the Effect of a Pannick, which deprived him of the Ufe of his Reason, as it does in all Cafes: the flight Incident of a Cock's crowing, was the Thing that recovered him to his Senfes; for immediately upon this he recollected our Saviour's Words, and went out and wept bitterly; a certain Proof that St. Peter was a good Man; tho' it may teach the Church of Rome, that he was not then infallible, after he had been for fome Years an Apoftle.

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These Instances may fuffice to fhew, that Men are ill Judges of their own Hearts, and know little of them till they come to be tried. And therefore God is pleased fometimes to let go the Reins, and leave them to the Mercy of Temptations, in order to convince them of their own Frailty and Infufficiency; and thus we read in the Cafe of the Babylonish Embaffadors, God left that 2 Chron. 32. most excellent King Hezekiah to try him, that he might know all that was in his Heart, intimating that Hezekiah never imagined he had fo much Pride, Vanity and Folly within him, till it appeared by that Experiment.

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Now the Conclufion I would draw from these Instances, is, that if no Man perfectly knows his own Heart, other Men cannot pretend to know it, because this is ftill. harder than the other. I grant that a Man of great Sagacity and Penetration, may of ten make a shrewd Guess at the inward Intentions and Designs of a Person he has been long acquainted with; but it is at best no more than Conjecture, and he cannot go even thus far, without comparing Facts and Circumstances together, that will lead him to a probable Conclufion. Diffimula

tion, affifted by lying, is of all Arts the fooneft learned, and the eafieft to put in Practice; and we often fee Persons of low and mean Understandings able to outwit the wifest Man, and know perfectly well how to cheat and deceive, tho' they know nothing else.

It is therefore evident, that to know Hearts is not within the Compass of Man.

2dly, This Knowledge is as certainly out of the Reach of Angels. By what Means pure Spirits communicate their Sentiments to one another, we are wholly ignorant; that it cannot be by outward Signs and Marks ftriking upon the corporeal Senfes, which Spirits united to human Bodies make ufe of to that End, feems past doubt. But we may certainly conclude that one Spirit cannot have that immediate Access to the Effence of another, as to know all his Thoughts by direct Intuition, whether he will or no.

For in the first Place, this would destroy a Privilege that is facred to every thinking Creature. We have not a greater Property in any Thing than in our own Thoughts, and fhould think our felves unhappy if it could be invaded by any Creature. And there

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therefore it does not seem confiftent with the Goodness of God, to permit even Angels to know all our Thoughts at pleasure, if the Thing were poffible.

In the next Place, this Knowledge in Angels cannot well be reconciled with the Accounts concerning their State, which we find in the holy Scriptures. For there we read of various Ranks and Orders of those celeftial Beings, of Angels, Archangels, Cherubims, Seraphims, Thrones, Dominions, Authorities, and Principalities; and without doubt the Angels of fuperior Order and Dignity, are endowed with fuperior Knowledge, as well as other Powers and Virtues befitting their high Stations and Diftinction. But this could not be fo, if one could look intuitively into the Mind of another, and know all his Thoughts, for then the loweft Angel must know as much as the higheft, and all Distinction would be taken away. And the Confequence of this must be, that there could be no fuch Thing as Society and Conversation in those bleffed Regions; for the Pleasure and Benefit of Converfation lyes in the Exchange of Sentiments and Ideas, without which there can be no fuch Thing as Society;

but