SERMON XV.

ACTS viii. part of the 31ft Verfe.

And he faid, How can I, except fome Man
Should guide me?

T

HESE are the Words of a Man SERM. of great Authority, under Can XV. dace Queen of the Ethiopians, who had the Charge of all her Treafure, and bad come to Jes rufalem to worship; and the Occafion of them was this: As he was returning and fitting in his Chariot, he read Ifaias the Prophet. Then Philip, who had been directed by the Angel of the Lord to go towards the South, unto the Way that goeth down from Jerufalem unto Gaza, was order'd by the Spirit to go near and join himself to the Chariot: Accordingly he ran thither to him, and heard him read the Prophet Ifaias, and faid, Underftandeft thou what thou readeft? And he said, How can I exQ & 2 cept

SER M. cept fome Man fhould guide me? A modeftl XV. Anfwer, and very becoming an honest Mind i difpos'd to find out the Truth, however

unlike the Behaviour of our modern Infi dels, who think themfelves above Inftruc tion, as being, in their own Opinion at least, wifer than their Teachers.

217

In my following Difcourfe, I propose to fhew, 1. The Infufficiency of private Judg ment in Matters of Religion. 2. The Neceffity of a teachable Difpofition, from the Example of the Perfon concern'd in the Text, and a proper Submiffion to the Judg ment of others.

1. By private Judgment, I mean the Right which fome claim of judging for themselves, exclufive of all foreign Aid and Affiftance whatsoever. But this, if taken in a strict Senfe, is not only infufficient, but alfo impoffible; for no Being, but fuch as wants no Affiftance of any kind, pie ā Being infinitely perfect, is capable of doing this, because fo much Perfection as any Being wants, fo much Supply it must of courfe ftand in need of to make up that Deficiency. God alone is then able to judge abfolutely for himself, because he alone en joys abfolute Perfection, and nothing can poffibly be fuppos'd wanting to hinder him

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from

from doing it; fo that Man, whatever Claim SERM. he may make to this Privilege, has no man- XV. ner of Pretenfion to it; he may with equal n Modefty and Juftice lay Claim to infinite Perfection. But fince there are fome who have exalted Man to this high Station, ler us fee how they support him in it. Let us view this imperfect Creature, thus adorn'd with the Ornaments of the Deity, a filly Mortal cloath'd with Omnipotence, a Worm feated in the Throne of God. Well then, now he is invefted with thefe abfolute Perfections, is he become all-fufficient? Is he in the Poffeffion of all Knowledge and Truth? No, his Knowledge is very small, confin'd within a narrow Circle, and, even when it is at the highest Pitch, ferves only to make him the more fenfible of his Ignorance. He is not thoroughly acquainted with the Nature of any one Thing in the Univerfe; he knows little of himself, and lefs of the Being above him; and even as to that fmall Matter he does know, he is indebted to a Multitude of People for it, fniall as it is, who are contributing to the Little Stock. Of one he gets the Knowledge of one Thing, of another another, by which means there is fomething ftill contributing to make an Addition to his own Discove

SERM. Difcoveries. From the Phyfician, the Law XV. yer, the Artift, the Husbandman, he is fur

&

nifh'd with feveral good Rules and Obfervations concerning the Management of his Health, the Security of his Estate, and many other Neceffaries and Conveniencies of Life, which have been handed down from one to another, with perhaps fome fmall Improvements, and they again from others before them, and fo on: For the firft Begin nings of Knowledge are but fmall; by Degrees, as they have the Advantage of a Multitude of other Understandings from Time to Time, they grow larger, till at laft they rife into Arts and Sciences.

This is the Way that Syfteris of Knowledge of kind' whatfoever are form'd, any not by the Labour or Ingenuity of one Man, but by the Study of Thousands, and the Industry of Ages; for no Man can any more afcribe this Knowledge to himself, than a Part can call itself the Whole. The Cafe is this; Things are infinite, and are to be seen in infinite Views, and Men by the different Pofitions of their Understandings are differently fituated towards them, by which means, tho' they fea Things alike in general, yet, with refpect to Particulars, they fee them with fome Difference, the Union

of

of all which Differences makes the general SER M. Judgment, or the public Understanding; fo XV.

"

Now the

that no one can have any more than a cer-
tain proportionate View according as he
ftands to Things, and this he must have;
for the most inconfiderable Man upon Earth
has his Point of View, as he ftands to
Things, and may yield Instruction of one
kind or another to the wifeft.
Cafe being fo, that the Knowledge which a
Man has, is not the natural Production of
the Soil, but a Collection from Abroad en-
grafted upon it, 'tis a pleasant Sort of Va-
nity, when this becomes blended and incor
porated with his own, to fee a Man plume
himself upon it, and place it to his own
Account, as if it really was fo.

Thus when a Man has got into his Pof feffion, a certain Degree of Knowledge, tho it be indeed the Work of Ages to acquire, he cries out presently with David, tho' in another Senfe, I am wifer than the Aged, I have more Understanding than my Teach ers; whereas, were he ftripp'd of his imagi nary Superiority, and deprived of every foreign Affiftance, he would have then lefs Understanding than the Foolish. The Know ledge that is of a Man's own Growth, abe Atracted from what he gets from the reft of

the