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and Authority of others. And it is hard to believe, that Men who think at all, can think as they speak, when they make use of this Objection. Will any Man fuppofe, that Temperance doth not preferve Health, tho' he should fee his Phyfician run into Excefs? or, that Poifon will not kill, tho' the Man who tells him fo, and advises him against it, be so desperate as to take it himself ?

But as abfurd as this Objection is in it felf, it is most of all abfurd, when it is urged against the Christian Religion; of which we are affured, that one of the Twelve who first preach'd it, was an Apoftate, and a Traitor; and our Saviour declares, that many who had preach'd and wrought Miracles in his Name, should be at last rejected by him, Matt. vii.21. And therefore, for any to make this Cavil against Christianity, is only to fhew, that they do not confider it, or will not remember the plainest and most remarkable Points of it.

3. The Causes of Unbelief amongst Christians, notwithstanding the clearest Evidence for their Religion, are too many to be here recounted: But I fhall mention fome of the chief of them.

1. Vicious Men are very unwilling to believe that Religion to be True, which is fo directly contrary to their whole Course of Life, and to all their Inclinations and Defires, but they are very ready to catch at any Cavils and Pretences against it. The Lives of too many Chriftians

Christians have brought a Scandal, though a very unjust one, upon the Religion which they profefs and Men who find themselves more inclined to do as they fee them do, than as they hear them acknowledge they ought to do, make no fufficient Enquiry into the Principles of Religion.

2. Divers Men have had a strange Ambition to say something new upon every Subject they treat of; and in order to that, have fet themfelves, with all their Skill and Power, to contradict and overthrow what has been faid by others, that they might make way for their own Opinions; or fo to refine upon the Notions of others, that they might appear New, and of their own Invention: which has made inconfiderate Men conclude, that we are always to feek in our Doctrine, and have no fix'd Principles: whereas Men of Learning and Judgment know, that commonly what is with fo much Oftentation propofed and recommended to us for New, has been confider'd and rejected of old, though not, perhaps, in the very terms, yet in the Sense and Substance of it; or else it is fome True Doctrine under a different Form and Manner of Expreffion.

The Improvements which have been made in Philofophy, this last Age, afford a real and great Advantage towards the Proof and Establishment of Religion in Mens Minds; and yet there are few things which have been more abused to the Dishonour of it. For when Men find it

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convenient to give fome Vent to the Philofophical Humour, they bethink themselves of a fit Subject for it to discharge it self upon; and this must be something Great, and fomething that is very New and Surprifing: and there is nothing which answers all these Qualities fo well as a New Account of the Origine of the Univerfe, and then the Hiftory of the Creation in Genefis, as well as the World it self, must undergo all the Alterations which they are pleafed to impose upon it, that it may perfectly submit and comply with their New Hypothefis. If this Fancy fhould hold, New Systems of the World will be as common as New Romances: They must pardon me the Expreffion; for Des Cartes himself, among his Friends, gave no better Name to his Syftem; which was the first ground and occafion to all the reft. And nothing is more eafie with a Philofophical Wit, than to build or destroy a World: but it is to be hoped, when they have wearied themselves with New Contrivances, they will let us have our Old World again. In the mean time, these Men, who have too much Philosophy to have no Religion, put dangerous Weapons into the Hands of those, who have neither the one nor the other, and know not how to use them but to do mischief. And there is nothing fo plain, but it may be rendred difficult and obfcure to many Men, by long and subtile Difputes. If great Numbers of Men fhould write concerning the Sun's Heat and Light, and Mo

tion for many Years, and every one should still contradict all that went before him, and strive to fay fomething New and Strange upon the Subject, the laft, for ought I know, might pretend to prove, that perhaps there may be no Sun at all: Which, indeed, is no more than what the Scepticks have faid. And this Infide lity and Scepticism concerning God, and his Providence, and Revelation, must end in the Scepticism of our very Senfes, if these Princi ples be purfued in their direct and unavoidable Confequences.

Others have been too bold with the Myste ries of Religion, and have pretended to explain them fo far, as if they would endeavour to prefent us with a Religion without all Mystery, which at the same time has exposed Themselves to Reproach, and Religion to the Scorn of such as are glad to take all occafions to fhew their Good-will to it. The evident and declared Design of the Socinians, is, to retain no Myftes ries, but by forced Interpretations of Scripture to expound them all to their own, that is, to a new and abfurd Sense; and it is but too plain, that there is a combined Defign carried on be tween Them and the Deifts, who are conten ted to pass for Chriftians, with a Distinction and without a Mystery: Anti-Trinitarian is a milder Word than Anti-Chriftian, and Unitarian is but a different Name for Deift.

Another fort have been very laborious in finding out Mysteries, where there are none;

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and under a pretence of reducing the plainest Doctrines to clear Principles, have only amufed and confounded Men in the true and obvious Notions of them. Thus the Duties of Love to God, and to our Neighbour, are plain in themselves, and are as plainly fet down in the Scriptures: And to raise abstracted and metaphyfical Speculations upon fo plain Texts, is only to tell us what we know before, in other and less intelligible Terms, or else to fall into the nice and rash Difputes of the School-men, or into the Enthusiastick Heats of the Mystical Divines; which can have no Tendency to the Peace or Edification of the Church, but gives an occafion to the Adversary to blafpheme.

3. A Third Cause of Infidelity, has been the Rathness of fome Criticks. For if any thing relating to Religion has been once call'd in queftion, by Men who have got themselves a Name, by writing more boldly than wifer Men have done, the Authority of fuch Men fhall be thought a fufficient Answer to all the Arguments which can be taken from any thing which they are pleas'd to dislike. Criticism, when it falls to the Share of a prudent Man, is, without doubt, a neceffary and moft valuable part of Learning: But it must be confefs'd, that there is hardly any thing more impertinent, than an impertinent Critick. It is a great thing, if it be well confider'd, to fet the Bounds, and fix the Territories of Learning, to adjudge to every Author his own Works, and fay, that this Book,

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