ply to it. What could be more applicable to SER M. a good Man, in this State of Mind; or bet- XIV. ter exprefs his prefent Wants and diftant Hopes, his Paffage through this World as a Progress towards a State of Perfection, than the following Paffages in the Devotions of the Royal Prophet? They are plainly in an higher and more proper Senfe applicable to This, than they could be to any Thing else. I have feen an End of all Perfection. Whom have I in Heaven but Thee? And there is none upon Earth that I defire in Comparifon of Thee. My Flesh and my Heart faileth: but God is the Strength of my Heart, and my Portion for ever, Like as the Hart defireth the Water-Brooks: fo longeth my Soul after Thee, O God. My Soul is athirst for God, yea, even for the living God: when shall I come to appear before Him? How excellent is thy Loving-kindness, O God! and the Children of Men fhall put their Truft under the Shadow of thy Wings. They shall be fatisfied with the Plenteouf ness of thy House: and Thou shalt give them Drink of thy Pleasures, as out of the River. For with thee is the Well of Life: And in thy Light fhall we fee Light. Bleed is the Man whom thou choofeft, and receiveft unto Thee: SERM.Thee: he shall dwell in thy Court, and shall XIV. be fatisfied with the Pleasures of thy House, even of thy boly Temple. Bleed is the People, O Lord, that can rejoice in Thee: they hall walk in the Light of thy Countenance. Their Delight fhall he daily in thy Name, and in thy Righteousness fhall they make their Boaft. For thou art the Glory of their Strength: and in thy Loving-kindness They shall be exalted. As for me, I will bebold thy Prefence in Righteousness : and when I awake up after thy Likeness, I fhall be fatisfied with it. Thou shalt fhew me the Path of Life; in thy Prefence is the Fullness of Joy, and at thy right Hand there is Pleasure for evermore. SERMON SERMON XV. Upon the Ignorance of Man. ECCLES. viii. 16, 17. When I applied mine Heart to know Wif dom, and to fee the Bufinefs that is done upon the Earth: Then I beheld all the Work of God, that a Man cannot find out the Work that is done under the Sun: Becaufe though a Man labour to feek it out, yet he shall not find it; yea further, though a wife Man think to know it, yet Shall be not be able to find it. T HE Writings of Solomon are very SERM. much taken up with Reflections up- XV. on Humane Nature, and Humane Life; to which he hath added, in this Book, SERM.with in his Researches into the general ConXV. ftitution of Nature, might be the Occafion of his confining himself, fo much as he hath done, to Life and Conduct. However, upon that joint Review he expreffes great lgnorance of the Works of God, and the Method of his Providence in the Government of the World; great Labour and Weariness in the Search and Obfervation he had employed himself about; and great Disappointment, Pain, and even Vexation of Mind, upon that which he had remarked of the Appearances of things, and of what was going forward upon this Earth. This whole Review and Inspection, and the Result of it, Sorrow, Perplexity, a Sense of his neceffary Ignorance, fuggefts various Reflections to his Mind. But, notwithstanding all this Ignorance and Diffatisfaction, there is fomewhat upon which he affuredly rests and depends; fomewhat, which is the Conclufion of the whole Matter, and the only Concern of Man. Following this his Method and Train of Reflection, let us confider, I. THE Affertion of the Text, the Ignorance of Man; that the wifeft and most knowing cannot comprehend the Ways and Works of God: And then, II. WHAT are the juft Confequences of SE RM, this Obfervation and Knowledge of our own XV. Ignorance, and the Reflections which it leads us to. I. THE wisest and most knowing cannot comprehend the Works of God, the Methods and Defigns of his Providence in the Creation and Government of the World. CREATION is abfolutely and intirely out of our Depth, and beyond the Extent of our utmost Reach. And yet it is as certain that God made the World, as it is certain that Effects must have a Caufe. It is indeed in general no more than Effects, that the most knowing are acquainted with: For as to Causes, they are as intirely in the Dark as the moft Ignorant. What are the Laws by which Matter acts upon Matter, but certain Effects; which fome, having observed to be frequently repeated, have reduced to general Rules? The real Nature and Effence of Beings likewife is what we are altogether ignorant of. All these things are fo intirely out of our Reach, that we have not the leaft Glimpse of them. And we know little more of ourselves, than we do of the World about us: How we were made, how our Being is continued and preserved, what the Faculties |