The Being, Nature and Offices of I PET. V. 9. latter Part. Your Adverfary the Devil, as a 'N difcourfing on I Ist, Confider the Being, Nature and Offices of Evil Spirits. And, IIdly, Make fome Inferences. MAN has little Reafon to think, that He is the Master-piece of the whole Creation; or, that the Fulness of God's Power and Wisdom is exhaufted upon a weak, frail, impotent Creature, that is probably the lowest in the Scale of reasonable Beings. It is much more confiftent with God's Attributes L 4 SERM. VI. tributes to fuppofe; that we, who are next to the Beasts that perifh, are far from making the nearest Approaches, without any intermediate Order of Beings, to an allperfect Deity; that, as the Chain of Beings defcends uninterrupted from Man to Brute, from Brutes to imperceptible Infects; fo it afcends, by a beautiful and regular Gradation, from Man' to Angel, Archangel, and all those thousand thousands that ftand before God; and the ten thousand times ten thoufand that minifter unto Him. The Tranfition in this Poem of Nature, from one Kind to another, being fo extremely fine and delicate, that we fcarce know where the one ends, and the other begins. Yet the Dignity of the nobleft of those Beings bears no more Proportion to His, who dwells in unapproachable Glory, than a gilded Cloud, on which the Evening Sun has impreffed it's Beams, and enriched with beautiful Stains of Light, does to that great Abyfs of Light, from which it derives it's reflected Beauty. He can ftill make Beings, which shall as much furpass Archangels of the highest Class; as an Arch angel of the highest Class surpasses the most despicable Insect. For every finite Crea Creature, how great foever, must be infinite SERM. VI. Defcents beneath an all-perfect Being. The World is one large univerfal Kingdóm divided into feveral Provinces; where there are Diverfities of Beings and Adminiftrations, but the fame God which worketh all in all. God's manifold Wisdom may have diverfified the wide Expanfe of the Creation with Variety of fpiritual, fuperior Beings, of whofe tranfcendent Powers and Faculties we, whofe Knowledge is widely difproportionate to the whole Extent of even material Beings, have no more Notion, than a Reptile has of the Faculties and Wisdom of a Man. The Query is, how Beings ennobled with these Distinguished Abilities, could fall from that Eftate in which they were placed, and plunge themselves into an Abyss of Woe. To this it may be answered; That it is probable, all Kinds of rational Beings as well as we, have their State of Probation; That an uninterrupted, everlasting Enjoyment of unallayed Happinefs, Virtue, Truth, is too great a Prize to be attained without any antecedent State of Trial; without any Difficulties proportionable to the Strength of their Nature, to call SERM. VI call forth their Worth, and put it to the Teft. And if they had Difficulties correfpondent and fuitable to their fuperior Strength; it is no difficult Matter to fuppose, they might be foiled and overcome by them, before they were in a confirmed and established State of Goodness. The Scripture makes Pride the Cause of their Fall a Fault from which the brighteft Geniuses are not always the most exempt. They are too apt to be enamoured with the Beauty, and dazzled with the Luftre of their own Excellencies. an To find Men of diftinguished Parts, and uncommon Reach and Quickness of Thought, rejecting the received Notions, and disbelieving the great Truths of Chriftianity, ftaggers the Faith of fome Men; who should reflect, that these Men as often act contrary to the Rules of common Sense, as they think differently from the rest of the World. A Fool with more of Wit than half Mankind; a Fool, I mean, as to the Conduct of his Affairs, and the Management of his Eftate, is no uncommon Character. And why should it be any more a Matter of Wonder, that Men, notwithstanding the Superiority of their Parts, fhould think, talk, The talk, and write wildly, and out of the Way, SERM.VI. in religious Matters, than that they should behave indifcreetly in the Oeconomy of their private Concerns, of which we every Day fee Inftances? People may cry up fine Senfe, exalted and fuperior Senfe; yet common Senfe, if exerted with due Care, and attended with Humility, is the best Guard against any fatal Errors in Religion, or Miscarriages in common Life. Devil was distinguished for his great Abilities, yet He fell through an overweening Opinion of himself. How art thou fallen from Heaven, O Lucifer, Son of the Morning! For thou haft faid in thy Heart, I will afcend into Heaven, I will exalt my Throne above the Stars of God, I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to Hell, to the Sides of the Pit. The Meaning of which Paffage is plainly this; that Pride had been the Destruction of the Babylonian King, just as it had been of Lucifer, to whom he is here compared. And St. Paul warns us, left being puffed up with Pride, we fall into the Condemnation of the Devil. The Corruption of the best Things is always the worst: no wonder therefore that a |