386 Walking by Faith, not by Sight, S E R M. into the evidence upon which it is founded. XV. So the mind of man is fram'd, that fome ideas ` -`^' and perceptions do neceffarily arife in it from external obje&s, or by an attention to its own powers and operations. There are alfo felf- evident truths, which we cannot help affenting to as foon as they are intelligibly propofed. But the principles of Religion are not of this fort ; the exiftence of God himfelf, the firft of them all, we have not fuch an intimate know- ledge of as we have of our own exiftence, but muff by fearching find it out, that is, coiled it by reafoning, or infer it from the exiftence of other beings, and from other truths firft difcerned and acknowledged ; upon this foundation the underftanding pro - ceedeth to difcover the divine attributes and works, and by confidering the relations we and other creatures Rand in to God and to each other, attending at the fame time to the fenfe of good and evil indelibly written in our hearts, we are convinced of moral obligations, and are enabled to form a fyftem of duty which is the proper guide of life. In like manner chriftianity is fo propofed to us that we may have a rational perfuáfion of its truth ; the divine Author of it and his apoftles addrefïed their dot trines to the underftandings of men, fupporting them with
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