SERM. to have made freer Enquiries after Truth, and to have fhaken off the Prejudices of Education more throughly: He fets up for examining things to the bottom, without taking them upon Truft, or re lying on the Authority of any Man. What God is pretended to have faid in the Holy Writings, what wife and Good Men have faid in all Ages, and Countries of the World, he is not much concern'd to know. To the Oracles of Right Reafon he goes, (by Right Reason always meaning his Own), and from thence he enquires what he is to think, and to do; raises fome Fanciful Scheme of things to himself, frames fome particular Set of Opinions; and then rejoices in the mighty Discovery he hath made, and wonders at the rest of the World, that they do not fall in with it, and adore it. Now these Pretences, the Wife-man tells us, are vain, and thefe Searches are vain; he hath taken a great deal of pains, only to be out of the way, and to mifs the mark which he aims at: A Scorner seeketh Wisdom, and findeth it not.

Having

V.

Having thus largely open'd the Senfe SERM of the Text, I fhall endeavour, in what follows, to justify the Truth, of the Obfervation contain❜d in it, by fhewing you, how it comes to pass, that the Men, who thus fet up for a more than ordinary pitch of Wisdom and Senfe, by Con temning Religion, and Deriding the Profeffors of it, do always, and must always, fail of the End which they propose to themselves; fince, whatever A bilities they may have in Other matters, yet they are the most unqualified and incapable, of all Men, to make impartial Enquiries after Divine Truth, and to difcern between That and Error.

There are Four things, which particu larly unfit a Man for fuch a Task, a very Proud, or a very Sufpicious Temper; Falfe Wit, or Senfuality. And Thefe are the Chief and Prevailing Ingredients in the Compofition of that Man, whom we call a Scorner. The Two Laft do generally, and in most instances, belong to him but the Two Firft are Effential to him, and infeparable from him.

SERM.
V.

Pride is that Ruling Quality which, of

all others, seems to take the fastest Hold Prov.xxi. of him; Proud and Haughty Scorner is 24. his Name, fays Solomon, elsewhere. And Prov.xxx. again, There is a Generation, O how lofty

13.

are their Eyes! and their Eyelids lifted up! The truth is, there never was, nor ever can be a fettled Contempt of Religious Principles, that is not built upon Pride, i. e. upon an undue Value, which a Man hath for himself, and for his own Opinion, and a Disregard for every thing befides: And, therefore, the Author of (that Fantastical Book) the Leviathan, doth, at the very Entrance of it, very honeftly, and in Terms confess, that he is a Man who Loves his own Opinions. And fo doubtlefs, doth every Man too, who treads in His Steps, tho' he doth not own it fo frankly, or perhaps know it fo throughly. Indeed a Modeft Humble Man can hardly bring himself once to think of fhaking off common receiv'd Principles, and going against the United Wisdom of Mankind : or, if he should entertain, yet will he never venture to publish that Thought;

but

V.

but will conceal it, as carefully as he s FR M. would his own Bofom Infirmity, or the Secret of his Friend. 'Tis the presumptuous and proud Man alone, who dares to trample on those Truths, which the reft of the World reverence; and can fit down quietly in the Affurance, that He alone is in the Right, and all Mankind befide in the Wrong.

Now, I fay, as there is no one Quality, that sticks more closely to a Scorner than that of Pride, fo is there none that doth more evidently obftruct right Reasoning, and an impartial Search after Truths of all kinds, especially those which relate to Virtue and Piety. And no wonder therefore, if on this Account, the Scorner, tho' he feek Wisdom, yet find= eth it not. Pride makes a Man seem sufficient in his own Eyes, for all manner of Speculations and Enquiries; and, therefore, puts him indifferently upon the Purfuit of all Knowledge, and the Determination of all Doubts, without giving him Leave to distrust himself in the least, or once to confider, which way his Genius VOL. I.

N

and

V.

S ER M. and Abilities lie. Hence it happens, that the Man, not being duly qualified for every Search, or, if he were, yet not having Leifure and Opportunity enough to go through with it, is fain to take up with flight and fuperficial Accounts of things; and then, what he wants in true Knowledge, to make up in downright Affurance. As foon as he hath touch'd on any Science, or Study, he immediately seems to himself to have mafter'd it; is as pofitive in his Opinions, and as hardy in his Affertions, as if the Thoughts of his whole Life had been directed that way only: Which is, as if a Coafter, who had gone from Port to Port only, fhould pretend to give a better Description of the Inland Parts of a Country, than those who have travell'd it all over. But this, I fay, is the mifchievous Nature of Pride; it makes a Man grasp at every thing, and, by Confequence, comprehend nothing effectually and throughly; and yet (which is worst of all) inclines him to despise and contradict those that do. It gives him just enough Understanding, to raise an Objection