Page:Bangorian Sermon.djvu/8

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4
A SERMON Preach'd

the Passions and Bad Designs of Others, are the great Instruments of this Evil: which, even when it seems to affect only indifferent Matters, ought in reason to be opposed, as it tends in it's nature to confound Men's Notions in weightier Points; but, when it hath once invaded the most Sacred and Important Subjects, ought, in Duty, to be refitted with a more open and undisguised Zeal, as what toucheth the very Vitals of all that is good, and is just going to take from Men's Eyes the Boundaries of Right and Wrong.

The only Cure for this Evil, in Cases of so great Concern, is to have recourse to the Originals of Things: to the Law of Reason, in those Points which can be traced back thither; and to the Declarations of Jesus Christ, and his immediate Followers, in such Matters, as took their Rise solely from those Declarations. For the Case is plainly this, that Words and Sounds have had such an Effect, (not upon the Nature of Things, which is unmoveable, but) upon the Minds of Men inthinking