founded on the cleareft Reafon and Evidence, nor confequently to obey and worship him. For it is manifeft, that if a Man may without blame deny a God and a Providence, he may without blame neglect to render that Obedience and Adoration that is due from reasonable Creatures to the Supreme Being. Thus our Author has found out an admirable Expedient, by freeing Men from all Obligations to believe any Principles whatfoever, to free them from all Obligations to any Religion at all. Whereas, fuppofing God has given Men Faculties, by a right Ufe and Improvement of which they are capable of difcerning Truth, especially in Matters of great importance to their Conduct, and to their Happiness; then it is both in itself fit, and is what God may juftly require, that they should make a juft Ufe of their Reafon and Understanding for difcerning Truth. And if through a Neglect of ufing and improving their Reafon in a proper manner, they do not difcern or acknowledge thofe Truths; then that Neglect or Abuse of their Reafon and Understanding is really a Fault, and God may punish it as fuch.

What this Gentleman offers in fupport of his Scheme, amounts to this, that our Reason is ever neceffitated to determine just as fhe does of herself, and is by her nature incapable either of paying Compliments, or giving Offence. That the different Light things appear in to different Men, muft neceffarily create a different Senfe of things *. And before this, he had obferved, that the Determination we come to, is a neceffary and independent Event,

* P. 8.

Event, under no Influence of ours t. Upon this Foundation he afferts, that a Determination either right or wrong, in Matters that are not self-evident, or in which there is the leaft of Induction or Inference, and such are the most important Points of Religion, must be in itself equally meritorious .

The whole Strength of his Reasoning here depends upon this Suppofition, that by the very Conftitution of our Nature, and the Frame of the Human Understanding, we may be unavoidably neceffitated to take Error for Truth, or Truth for Error, even in Matters of the highest importance; and that, without any fault of our own, after the best, the strictest and most impartial Enquiry and Examination, we are capable of making. But this is a Suppofition that ought not to be admitted, because it refolves all our Errors into the Will and Conftitution of God himself; whereas I think it is much more reasonable and modeft to fuppofe, that Men's Errors in Matters of great importance, are owing to themselves, to fome wrong Affections and Difpofitions of Mind, fome Fault in their Enquiry. And their profeffing the contrary, is no Proof at all; because it cannot be expected, fupposing it ever so much their own Fault, that they would be willing to own it to be fo. But God, who searches their Hearts, may know it, and condemn them on the account of it. And where the Neglect of a good Practice follows upon a wrong Judgment flowing from faulty Caufes, he may juftly punish them both for that wrong Judgment, and for the evil Practice confequent upon it.

For

+ P. 5.

+ P. 17, 18.

For my part, I cannot be brought to think, that Truth and Falfhood is fo indifferent to the Human Understanding, that we are carried with equal Innocence to believe the one and the other, after the Evidence is fairly laid before us; and this with regard to Matters of great confequence to our Duty and Happiness. Since it cannot be denied, that there are fome Truths of very great importance, that lie at the Foundation of all Religion, and of a good and virtuous Practice; it is as certain, that it is the Will of God, that his reasonable Creatures fhould know and believe thofe Truths, as it is that he would have them practife the Duties that arife upon the Acknowledgment of those Truths, and to which they are neceffarily prefuppofed, e.g. It is as certain that it is the Will of God, that Men fhould believe there is a God that made and governs the World, and that there is a neceffary Difference between moral Good and Evil, as that it is his Will that Men fhould worship him, should love and reverence him, fhould fubmit to his Authority, and obey his Laws, and should practise Virtue, and abhor Vice. I cannot therefore think, that he hath fo formed Men, and given them fuch Faculties, that even making the best use of them, and without any fault at all, or wrong Difpofition on their parts, they may be invincibly ignorant of thofe Truths, or may innocently disbelieve or deny them. And as we may plainly fee in numberlefs Inftances, that Mens Affections and Appetites lead them wrong in their Actions, fo I doubt not they frequently caufe them to pafs wrong Judgments of things. And any one that knows any thing of Mankind,

Mankind, must be fenfible that they are not de termined by mere naked Evidence, but that fome corrupt Affection, fome wrong Byafs of Appetite or Intereft, which is really a Fault, in many inftances corrupts and depraves their Judgment; and that this might be guarded againft, if they used all the Care and Pains that is really and abfolutely in their power, and which the Importance of the thing deferves and demands.

It is particularly certain, that with regard to Truths of a moral and religious Nature, our believing or not believing them, is often very much influenced by the good or bad Difpofitions of the Mind, and has a great Effect upon the Practice. And therefore believing in thefe Cafes may be an important Duty, and Unbelief may be very crimi nal: Nor can I fee why God may not, as the fupreme Legislator, interpofe his Authority to require the one, and to warn Men against the other. This could not be properly called an arbitrary or unjust Proceeding, as this Writer represents it, or an erecting a Tyranny over the Understanding. To require Men to believe without Evidence, or without a Reafon for believing, or to believe contrary to Reason and Evidence, is unjuft; but for God to require his reasonable Creatures to believe, when he himself knows there is fufficient Evidence to engage them to believe, and that it will actually have that effect upon them, if it be not their own fault, and if they carefully attend to it with that Difpofition of Mind that becomes them, has nothing in it unjuft or unbecoming him as the God of Truth, the wife and righteous Governor of the World.

.

-For by requiring them to believe in that Cafe, he doth not require them to renounce or give up their Reason, or forbid them to make use of it; but he requires them to make a proper Ufe of their Reafon, and of the Faculties he has given them, to lay their Minds open to Conviction and Evidence, and to endeavour to get them clear'd from the Influence of corrupt Inclinations, and culpable Prejudices.

I cannot therefore think, that this Part of the Author's Argument hath any thing in it to prove that Christianity is not founded on Reafon, or agreeable to it. If God fhould in his infinite Goodnefs fend a Meffenger, or Meffengers, to bring Doctrines and Laws of great importance to Mankind, as it may be justly expected that in fuch a Cafe he would take care, that they fhould be attended with fufficient Atteftations to convince the World that he fent them; fo it is very reasonable to fuppofe, that he would require thofe to whom this Revelation, with its Evidences, was made known, to believe and to obey it. For to what purpose would it be to give a Revelation, and to interpofe in an extraordinary manner for confirming it with the moft illuftrious Atteftations of a divine Authority; if, after all, it were left to Men as an indifferent matter, whether they believed or received it or not? And to deny that God himfelf has a right to require it as a Duty of Men, to believe and receive what he has revealed, and confirmed by fuch Evidence, as he who knows the human Mind, knows to be fufficient to convince honeft and well

difpofed