by all these, we fee not at all; or thro' a false Medium, or infer amifs; judging That to be Sufficient Teftimony which is Not, or perhaps no Evidence at all; Laying a Stress upon what will bear None, or not fo much, or even on what in Reality makes for the Other Side; and that oftentimes as we are influenced by the present State of our Bodies, from Health, or Sickness; Fair, or Foul Weather; Diet, or Exercise; nay we shall have a Different View of things immediately upon the pouring into our Stomachs of a few Spoonfulls of Liquor, or taking into our heads the Vapour of a burnt Weed.

Moreover ourIdeas are often Weak, and Confus'd; nor can we Have, Retain, and Confider fo many as are often neceffary to be Had, and to be seen at once in order to give Right Judgment upon a Question. The Infinite Mind fees All Things

at

at One View, and just as they Are; We have a conftant Succeffion of Ideas which arise, and pass away, and of which we have often but a Tranfient View. All things are Equally, and Eternally present to him with whom we have to do; Our Mental, like our Corporeal Sight can fix ftrongly but upon One fingle Point at One time, all other Objects round about us are then feen Confusedly, or not at all.

Notwithstanding what has been faid of our Senfes of Humane Teftimony, and of Reason in General, there are Particular Cases (tho❜ but Few in proportion to the reft) where tho' we cannot arrive to Abfolute Certainty by Their means, we can have fo great a Degree of Perfuafion as is to all Intents and Purposes Equivalent to it.

And fo with relation to the Evidence that is to be had, what I have faid is true in General; But

as

as that may appear Rational to One Man, which does not seem so to Another; and as there is nothing fo Abfurd, and Falfe which Some Men will not affert; and as (Lastly) Mens Senfes are Sometimes impos'd upon, it cannot be said that there is Any thing of which Particular Men may not have Evidence ; and Such may have None for what Another thinks is true Plainly, and Infallibly.

If the Deficiency of Evidence, and the Imperfection of the means by which we have it convey'd to us were Unknown, we should affent Readily, and with Confidence; but as it is Generally Known, and Obferv'd, in the fame Degree by much the greater part of our Perfuafions must have a mixture of Doubt. And according as we are mistaken in our Evidence, we must be fo in our Affent, or Diffent, in the Main, or in the Degrees of it;

if they have Any, that is, if the thing is not Self-evident, or Demonftrable; Often we are fo in the Main, in the Degree Always; because as when we fee an Object with our Eyes we fee it not as it Really Is, but as it Appears through the Coats, and Humours of the Eye, befides the External Medium; our Mental Sight has the like Defects, and things are not Thus feen as they Really are.

Thus there are Some Truths God has open'd Fully to us; Others we see but as through a Mist, and Others are Envelop'd in Thick Clouds, and Darkness, and referv'd for a Better State: And (God knows how often!) We fancy we poffefs Truth, but Is there not d Lye in our Right Hand?

When we confider the Magnitude of the Globe we inhabit, and have at the fame time in our Minds the diftances from one Town to

another

another on our own Ifland, we have an Idea of something Vaftly Great. But when we compare This with the Unbounded Universe 'tis but a Spot, an Atom, the smallest Duft in the Balance. So when we confider Our Selves as compar'd with all the Species of Creatures below us; when we think upon the whole Compass of Humane Abilities, Lord what is Man! Thou haft made him little lower than the Angels! Thou hast crown'd him with Glory, and Honour! But when we turn our Thoughts to confider how much is hid from us.

Worlds beyond Worlds that deep in Ether lye. Philips.

When we remember that of that (comparatively) Little Number of Perfuafions we Can have, how Few are without fome Mixture of Doubt, and how many where our Doubts, tho' overbalanc'd are Otherwise