Our Ignorance of the fecret Things and Mysteries of God confidered.

SERMON XV.

DEUT. xxix. 29.

The Secret Things belong unto The Lord our God.

PR

RIDE, fays the Son of Sirach, was not made for Man; nor indeed Haughtinefs of Spirit for him that is born of a Woman.—The Infirmities and Imperfections of human Nature and its beft Performances, are fo many and great, as very ill become that exceffive Value and Esteem, which we ufually fet on what we attain, and what we do. Even the nobler Faculties of our Minds are limited and confined. They are indeed wifely adapted to our prefent Wants and Neceffities; but fall very fhort of that univerfal Knowledge and Comprehension of

Things, which we are fond of grasping at, and which fome Men vainly and abfurdly imagine, they can and do attain.-The Light of the Mind, if we would compare what we know with what we know not, would perhaps appear to be lefs than that of the fmallet Spark, when compared with the Sun; and yet we often, out of a vain Opinion of our Abilities, employ great Pains and Labour in endeavouring to learn what we can never find out; and fome Men are fo confident of their own Understandings, as to make them the Measure and Standard of all Truth, and impioufly to reject every thing as false and abfurd, which they cannot fully comprehend.-The Confequence of which is Vanity, Impertinence, and Affectation, in the Affairs of Life, and both Herefy and Scepticism in Religion.-Whereas, if we would content ourselves within the Boundaries, which The God of Nature has fet to our Faculties, we should be most ready to acquiefce in His Difpenfations, and fubmit to the Revelations of His Will; and we should be more humble, and more charitable in our Sentiments of ourselves, and one another.

In order to these Ends, it may be of use to us to remember the Caution, which Mofes here gives the Jews, that the fecret Things belong unto The Lord our God, i. e. that the Powers of our Minds are at present bounded and narrow, are not defigned to take in the whole Compafs of Nature, but those Things only, which are useful and convenient for us; and that we should be content with thofe Degrees of Knowledge we are capable of, and should neither ufurp on the divine Prerogative, by affecting to know what is beyond our Reach, nor impiously reject the Revelations which God has given us, because fome Matters contained in them are above our Reason, and past our Comprehenfion.-For these are some of those fecret Things, which belong, not to but unto The Lord our God.

us,

In fpeaking to which Words, I thall

1. Give two or three Inftances of these fecret Things, and confider in what Sense they properly belong to The Lord our God. And

II. Endeavour to fhew, how far we ourfelves are concerned in them, and

what

what Duties neceffarily arife from our Ignorance of them.

I. The first Inftance I fhall give of thefe fecret Things, is the Effence and Attributes of God. His Nature is to us unfearchable, and His Perfections paft finding out. His Exiftence is indeed moft certain, and is as. demonftrable, as perhaps any one Truth, which the Mind of Man can receive: But His real Nature and Effence is beyond the Powers of Man to conceive, and, as far as we can judge, beyond thofe of any other created Being whatever.-Since it is as clear: and certain, as any Thing can be, that nothing can produce nothing; it is likewise as certainly and neceffarily true, that there muft have been, from all Eternity, Some Caufe and Author of all other Things. And this Fountain of Being, from whofe Power and Will all other Things came, is what we understand and fignify by the Term, GOD. But the precife Nature of this Power and Wisdom, which have thus exerted and fhewn themfelves to us; what they are, and wherein they confift; is as much beyond our Understandings to comprehend,