SERM. common a thing it is for Men to defife and

VIII. pursue those things as good which are really

evil, and the other how apt they are to re ject and refuse those things as evil which are really good.

As to the first, what is a greater Evil than Sin, whether we confider it in it's Nature, it's present Effects, or future Confequences? and yet there is nothing in which fome Men take more Delight. And what is the reason that they delight in so destructive an Evil? but that it puts on the Appearance of Good, and thereby deceives them. There is no man can chufe Evil for itself, or under the notion of Evil: when it is chofen it is always under the Semblance of Good and it is only the false Appearance of things, fo favourable in this cafe to our corrupt Inclinations, that thus imposes upon us, and leads us to this wrong and wretched choice. Take any one Sin, for inftance, to which fome Men are addicted more than others, whether Pride, Drunkennefs, Senfuality, Avarice, or the like, and you will find that it tempts them with the promise of fome imagined Profit or Pleafure; that is, it puts on the Appearance of

Good,

Good, and thereby easily gains their Con- SERM.

fent.

Again, deceived by the same falfe Appearances Men often reject that as evil which is really good. Elfe what is the reason that Multitudes fo much neglect Religion, and fome intirely reject it? when it is fo certain that there can be no true Peace in this World, nor Happiness in the other without it: what is it, I say, but because it appears to their ill-biaffed Judgment as evil? They take either a false or a partial View of it, look only on it's outfide, or on some of it's Circumstances and Appendages, or on the wrong Representations which some Men make of it either by their Words or Actions; and from fuch false and disagreeable Appearances of it they become prejudiced against it. Whereas Religion, taken in it's proper nature, in a true and intire view, is the most delightful and most amiable thing in the World, and ought to be always fo reprefented.

In like manner, take any particular Duty of Religion, as Prayer, for inftance, whence is it that so many can content themselves to live in the neglect, or total difufe of fo delightful

VIII.

SERM. lightful and neceffary an Act of religious VIII. Worship, but because their carnal Prejudices

represent it to their Minds as disagreeable and burdenfome; and fo under a pretence of the Difficulty of it, their Unfitness for it, or Indifpofition to it, they fatisfy themselves to continue in a conftant or frequent Omiffion of it, to the danger of their Souls, the lofs of their Peace, and the ruin of their Hopes.

And thus by the mere force of false Appearances Men are apt to call Evil, Good; and Good, Evil; to form very wrong notions, and thence to fall into very wrong Practices in things of the greatest ImportWhich fhews of how great weight and neceffity is the Caution which our Lord gives us in the text, Judge not according to the Appearance.

ance.

3. In all Points of Controverfy and Debate this Rule is of excellent Service. And indeed if it were univerfally followed, that is, if Men did not take up with fuperficial views, were not too foon determined by bare Probabilities and Appearances, but would take pains and patience to go to the Bottom and search the Foundation of things, it would go a good way to make us all of one Mind,

and

VIII.

and banish all difputes out of the World. SERM. The cause and ground of our different Opinions then would be only the difference of our Abilities and Fitnefs for a critical Research. But as the cafe now ftands, it often happens that Persons of the meanest Capacities by the help of a fincere Enquiry and an honeft Heart, come directly at the Truth, whilst others of much greater Understanding and Knowledge, deceived by Prejudices and Appearances, wander fartheft from it.

In all matters of Debate then we cannot have a more useful Motto to fet before us than this of our text, Judge not according to the Appearance. Because by the arts of Controversy and false Colouring, Error may be fet off fo well, and made to appear fo much like Truth, that it requires great Pains, Penetration, and Judgment, fometimes to distinguish the one from the other; to ftrip Error of it's falfe Ornaments, expose it in it's native Habit, and fhew the real Difference between that and Truth. As on the. other hand, Truth itself may, by the fame artful Gloffes and Mifrepresentations, be made to look fo much like Error, as to be often mistaken for it; and by fome weak, VOL. II.

un

SERM. undifcerning Minds, that judge only by ApVIII. pearances, is fometimes actually rejected as fuch. And moreover either through Ignorance or Design, Truth and Error are fometimes fo equally blended and mixed. together, like the Chaff and the Wheat, that it is extremely difficult to fift or feparate the one from the other. Which fhews how neceffary great Caution, Penetration and Judgment are in the right management of intricate Controverfies; and how unfit they are to judge of, or decide them, who are unversed in the arts of Difputation, the nice methods of distinguishing, and the Rules whereby to judge between Argument and Sophiftry. Every thing is not right, which, at first view, appears fo to us; nor is every thing wrong which, at first fight, we may think to be fo. This we often find in matters of Fact. And it is as certain and as common in matters of Speculation; wherein if we fuffer ourselves to be governed and determined only by Appearances, we shall be as much deceived as the Boy was, who made hafte to the top of a diftant Hill, hoping then to touch the Skies, which appeared to him to reft upon it.