prejudice of Scripture, though we had otherwise never fo many arguments for the divine original of it; and reject the authority of all that which is plain and clear there, for the fake of fomething which we do not comprehend.

Finally, God left thefe obfcurities in holy writ, on purpose to give us a taste and glympfe, as it were, of thofe great and glorious truths, which fhall hereafter fully be discovered to us in another world, but which now are, in fome measure sidden from our eyes; on purpose to make us earneftly afpire after, and long for that bleffed ftate and time, when all doubts fhall be cleared, and the veil taken off from all myfteries: When the book, that is now in some measure shut, fhall be opened, and every one of the feven feals theref

fed: Rev. v. 5. When that which is perfect fball come, and that which is in part shall be done awny : 1 Cor. xiii. 10. When we fhall exchange faith for fight, hope for enjoyment, reasoning for intuition, and fhall not (as we do now) fee through a glefs darkly, but know even as we are known, ver. 12. To that bleffed state God of his infinite mercy bring us all, &c.

SECOND

In which are fome things hard to be understood, &e.

IN

64

former difcourfe I fhewed you, that my thefe words of St Peter relate directly to the writings of St. Paul; in which he owns, there 66 are fome things hard to be understood;" and that they, who were unlearned, and unstable, wrefted them, as they did the other fcriptures, to their own deftruction." Whereby he intimates, that there are alfo in the other parts of fcripture, as well as in the writings of St. Paul, obfcure paffages, liable to be mifunderstood, wrefted, and perverted by unlearned, and unftable readers.

I have therefore taken an occafion from hence, to discourse to you at large concerning the difficult parts of holy writ, fo as to take in the general argument; and yet to keep my eye more partisularly all along, upon the books of the New

Teftament,

Teftament, to which St. Peter's words chiefly refer.

I propofed to treat of this fubject under the four following heads.

Firft, By enlarging a little on the propofition, allowed and laid down in the text, that there are in St. Paul's writings, and in other fcriptures alfo, "things hard to be understood."

Secondly, By giving fome account how, and for what reafon it hath come to pafs, that the fcriptures are and muft be, in fome measure obfcure: How neceffary and unavoidable it was, that there fhould be fome paffages in them dark and difficult even to thofe, who lived at the time when they were written, and yet more fo to us, who live at this distance from the age of the apostles.

Thirdly, By fhewing you, that this carries in it no reflection, either upon the goodnefs, or wif dom of God: Not on his goodness; because though he has left fome things in holy-writ hard to be understood, yet he has left enough there cafy and plain; enough to inform us clearly of the whole compafs of what we are bound to believe, and to practife. Not on his wifdom; because these dark parts of holy writ have their ufes, as well as the clear ones; there being many wife ends, and weighty reasons for inferting thems feveral of which I reckoned up to you in my last difcourfe.

Fourthly,

Fourthly, and laftly, I was to raife fome obfer vations from what hath been faid; to prevent the' wrong ufes that might, and to point out the true? and only ufe that ought to be made of it.

The two first of these heads have been fully fpoken to. The third has been entered upon, and In fome meafure cleared; and what remains bes hind of it, will fall into the fourth and laft general head, the enlarging on which fhall be the bufinefs of this prefent difcourfe.

And the first thing I thall obferve, from what has been faid on this fubject, fhall be, the folly and unreasonablenefs of thofe men, who endeav our frum the obfcurity of fome parts of Scripture, entirely to destroy the authority of it.

For thus they argue: The bible, fay they, is a book ordered by God to be written for the infor mation of mankind in what they are to believe and to do. And can we think that fuch a book from fuch an author, fhould have any defects in it? Can it be imagined, that God would fpeak to man, and yet not fpeak fo as in every cafe to be understood by him? Is he either not able, or not willing to exprefs himself clearly? If neither of thefe can be fuppofed without blafphemy, how comes it to pafs that this volume is to full of difficulties and myfteries? That this revelation of his will wants a yet further revelation, to give us a plain account of its meaning?

Thus do the " ungodly reafon with themfelves, but not aright;" Wifd. ii 1. as will.appear from thefe following confiderations.

VOL. III..

U

It

It is a ftrange fort of argument, furely, that a book, which comes from God, must have nothing in it obfcure, and hard to be underflood. On the contrary, I think, it were much to be fufpected, that fuch a book as this was not of divine authority, if it fhould be found to lie ready and open to the most ordinary apprehenfions, in every part and paffage of it. It is given to us, on purpofe to open to us fome difcoveries concerning the divine nature, its effence, and ineffable perfections; to inform us of myfterious truths, the fecrets of heaven, hid from natural reafon, and from former ages. And can a book, do we think, that speaks of these deep things of God, with which the natural man is utterly unacquainted, fpeak fo, as not to give us the leaft trouble in understanding it? Can that, like which "our eyes never faw nor our cars heard, nor hath it entered into the heart" to conceive any thing before, 1 Cor. ii. 9. be told us in words as easy to be apprehended, as those, by which we express the most common things, that we every day converfe with? It is not fo when we first set ourselves to learn any human art or science. The terms,

the principles, the propofitions of it are all at firft. fight ftrange and uncouth, and make no bright impreffion upon the mind. They amaze, they puzzel, but they do not enlighten us; till, by repeated views, we have made them familiar and cafy to us. And why then fhould we expect, that divine myfteries, and the things of another world fhould more easily be taught and learnt, than hu-. man arts and sciences? The obscurity of the fubject, whatever it be, muft needs caufe a propor

tionable