and preserved from all error that is destructive. And as for those who are already too far advanced in a different method of procedure, may they at last see their danger, and retreat. May their part be not taken away out of the book of life, though they have inadvertently committed the sin against which that severe punishment is threatened. In some measure, they handle the word of God deceitfully; but they consider not sufficiently that it is his word, and that thou, Lord, hast spoke it. May this be offered in extenuation of their crime, as once it was of the greatest that could be committed, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they doc.

b 2 Cor. iv. 2.

c Luke xxiii. 34.

SERMON XI.

2 TIM. iii. 7.

Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of

the truth.

How deep soever natural or philosophic truths may lie concealed, and with whatever difficulties the search after them may be attended, we must acknowledge in honour, and in justice to the gospel of Christ, that it has plainly revealed the important points of religion, and the great articles of faith. If men study the scriptures with any tolerable degrees of diligence and sincerity, and make use of the proper assistances which are commonly within their reach, there is no doubt, but that generally they will attain to the knowledge of those truths which alone are able to save their souls. An all-wise Being must certainly be both able and willing to make any revelation, which he is pleased to give men, answer all the ends which he originally designed it should; and therefore, if in the event it prove insufficient or ineffectual to these purposes, with regard to any particular men; this must be ascribed, not to any defect in the revelation, but to some misconduct of their own. This reflection indeed will bear hard upon a numerous part of mankind; some or other of whom there have been in all ages, who, notwithstanding the clearest discoveries of the truth, have entertained it with difficulty and distrust, or even

a James i. 21.

SERM. XI. The chief Causes of Scepticism, &c. 201 actually gone over into the tenets of error. This is too visibly the temper of our own times; and we find, that even the days of inspiration themselves were not entirely free from it. The truths delivered immediately by the inspired teachers of it, were misapprehended through the weakness of some, and gainsaid by the wickedness of others. False teachers arose, speaking perverse things, and, in opposition even to the apostles, were able to draw away disciples after them. It is concerning some of these disciples that the apostle speaks in the text; persons, who, besides their natural levity and fickleness of temper, are charged by him as being under the influence of corrupt appetites and passions, laden with sins, led away with divers lusts. It is no wonder, that persons thus qualified, and who had moreover chosen seducers for their guides, though ever learning, should never be able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

But, abstracting from their particular case and character, I crave leave in this discourse to suggest what I take to be the chief causes of scepticism, in matters of religion. And though it be far from being probable, that the state and temper of the persons here spoken of was properly that of scepticism, or a philosophical suspense, (for though they withheld their assent from the truth, they gave it to divers errors, were tossed about by every wind of doctrine, and successively delivered over from one delusion to another,) yet in other parts of their character they bear some resemblance to the sceptics, whose case I have now in view: and, by pointing out these marks of resemblance in two or three instances, I shall

b Acts xx. 30.

open the way to what I am going to offer, and limit the discourse to that sort of scepticism which I would be understood to mean.

The

And the persons here spoken of by the apostle were such as owned the authority of the Christian religion, and the obligations arising from it; and their defects in the knowledge of the truth concerned not the truth of the gospel in general, but only some particular truths delivered in it. Agreeably hereto, the sceptics I would be understood to intend are not such as distrust the authority or evidence of Christianity at large, but only suspend their assent to some particular doctrines which it teaches. persons also spoken of in the text were not entirely negligent and idle about religious inquiries, but employed much pains and application in them; though for want of proper qualifications of mind, and proper methods of conducting these pursuits after sacred knowledge, they failed at last in the attainment of it. In consistency with this observation, the sceptical persons, here supposed, are such only as are masters of some application in the study of religious truths; excluding the careless and carnal part of mankind, who doubt of the articles of their faith, only because they never made any serious inquiries about them.

It may be proper to observe further, that though the apostle makes use of a very strong expression, with reference to the persons he speaks of, viz. that they were never able to come, &c. yet he does not hereby design to intimate any natural impossibility in the thing, but only suggests a moral inability or incapacity in the persons, arising wholly from some wrong conduct or defect in themselves.

According then to this limitation of the subject, I am now to inquire how it comes to pass, that persons who admit the truth of the gospel, and are far from neglecting the study of the truths contained in it, do yet, through some mismanagement, suspend their assent to some doctrines, more or fewer, or at least entertain them with some degree of diffidence and distrust?

And as, in consequence of the last observation, we must look for the causes of this scepticism only in the persons themselves, so perhaps it may be proper to refer them in general, either,

First, to some errors in the conduct of the understanding; or,

Secondly, to some defects in the regulation of the

will.

I. In the first place then, with respect to the errors of the understanding.

As the persons here supposed are only partial, and not universal sceptics, it will be no absurdity to mention false principles and maxims amongst the causes of the sceptical temper. Such an one is the following that articles of faith and points of doctrine are matters only of speculation and mere indifference, or at most but of little moment and concern. It is evident, that a man, who conducts his religious inquiries under the influence of this persuasion, will not be so solicitous as he ought to be about the issue and success of them; since, though he find and hold fast the truth, he supposes himself not much the better; neither, if he miss of it, does he imagine himself the worse. His studies are designed to exercise his faculties, or perhaps only to amuse his time, rather than to instruct his mind in saving knowledge, and