SERMON VII.

Curiofity in unneceffary Matters cenfured and condemned.

If I will, that He tarry till I come, what is that to Thee? Follow Thou me.

T

HESE Words contain our Sa- SER. VII viour's fignificant Rebuke to St. Peter's curious Inquiry, what would become of that Difciple whom Jefus loved? "If I will that He live till my coming to "the Destruction of Jerufalem, that does

not at all concern you. Your great Concern is to follow Me; to obey my Precepts, and believe my Doctrines; all "other Knowledge, but what relates to your Happiness, is impertinent and vain. "That is enough, without launching out into foreign Inquiries, to engross your Time, and demand your whole Atten

❝tion.'

SER. VII.

Indeed it was our Saviour's general Method when any curious and unconcerning Question was propofed, inftead of answering it directly, to ftrike off into fome Point of general Use and Importance that had a Connection with it. Thus when He was afked, "Are there few that be faved?" Inftead of gratifying an idle Curiofity, He commands them to lay out their Endeavour, that they may be of that Number whatever it be: Strive to enter in at the ftrait Gate, &c. When the Question was put to Him: "Who was the greatest in "the Kingdom of Heaven?" He, instead of answering them, fet a Child before them, and told them, that except they had the Simplicity and Humility of Children, they should in no wife enter into it. Inftances of this Procedure are endless; therefore I fhall mention only one more: "Lord, "did this Man" (whofe Soul we suppose præ-existed before it entered the Body) "fin, or His Parents, that He was born "blind?" Here a Philofopher, full of Himself, and of His unedifying Notions, would have been glad of an Opportunity to have expatiated upon a Speculative Point, and to have given a decifive Verdict in Fa

vour of, or against a Præ-existence of Souls: SER. VII. Our Saviour, who always looked upon fuch Speculations as foreign to the main Point in View, leaves the Queftion as He found it, undetermined; but gives them to underftand, that whatever Evils God fuffered to take Place upon particular Perfons, they were always productive of fome great and general Good. Neither did this Man fin, nor his Parents; "This Blindness was not "occafioned either by this Man's Vices,

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or his Parent's, but was permitted, that "the Glory of God might be manifested " in Him."

Give me Leave therefore to fhew,

It, The Folly, Abfurdity, and dangerous Confequences of an over-curious Pursuit of Knowledge, any farther than as it relates to Happiness.

IIdly, To confider the Goodness of God in bounding our Knowledge, and shortning our Profpect.

It, Our Understanding has it's Boundaries; and when it is arrived at it's full Growth and Height, we cannot, how much

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Thought

SER. VII. Thought foever we may take, add one Cu

bit to the Size and Stature of it. We may Shorten the Line of our Knowledge, as we may do that of our Lives, by our own Default; but we cannot lengthen the Line of it, any more than we can that of our Lives, beyond the Period affigned by God. The greatest and the least Objects equally baffle our Inquiries. Too great and difproportioned an Object embarraffes and overfets the Understanding; too little a one eludes and escapes our Notice. It is God alone, whose Almighty Power nothing, however great, can encumber; whofe Infinite Wisdom, nothing, however little, can efcape. Our main Knowledge is to know ourselves; what we are at prefent as to our inward State, Temper and Frame of Mind; whether we have thofe Habits which are the Ground-work of our future Hopes. By looking often into ourselves, and knowing thoroughly what we are at prefent; we may know what we are to be hereafter. And yet Those who have but little Time to fpare, will spend it in any Thing fooner than in reading, or hearing read, thofe Books which may fhew them the Way to their true Happiness ; why they came into this World,

and

and what may be their Condition in ano- SER. VII. ther. As to other Things, who is there that can answer all the Questions, I will not fay, which God puts to Job in the XXXVIIIth Chapter, but, which may be afked Him by the very next Idiot that He meets? Some are fo eager to know what is meant by the obfcurer Parts of Scripture, that they never put in Practice the plainer Precepts of it which if they did, it would fignify little or nothing whether they underftood the obfcurer Parts or no.

Prefumptuous Man! wouldft Thou thoroughly understand the Manner in which Three Perfons exift in the fame unbounded Effence of the Deity? Before Thou strivest to fathom the Nature of the Greatest of all Beings, firft, if Thou canft, comprehend how the least of all Beings, an Animal an hundred Times lefs than a Mite does exist.

Myriads of fuch Animals as can only be discerned by the Help of Glaffes. If the whole Body be fo minute as to be undiscoverable by the naked Eye, How much less must be the Limbs whereof that whole Body is compounded? How much less still must be the Veins, the Blood in those Veins, the Animal Spirits in that Blood, till we

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