any thing vicious, as to make it vir tuous; and if fo, Reason is certainly the worst, as well as the best Faculty we have, and not only the Principle of Virtue, but the certain Caufe likewife of all that is bafe and fhameful in humane Life. Brutes, we know, are incapable of Imprudence and Immorality, because none of their Actions are Actions of Reafon; and therefore, if our Reason is the only Faculty, that diftinguifhes us from Brutes, it muft certainly follow, that all thofe Irregularities, whether of Humour, Paffion, or Affection, which cannot be imputed to Brutes, must folely be afcrib'd to the Faculty, whereby we are diftinguished from them; and, confequently, every thing that is vain, foolish, fhameful, falfe, treacherous, and bafe, muft be the fole Product of our Reafon: fince, if they proceeded from any other Principle, they could have no more Vanity, Falfenefs, or Baseness in them, than Hunger or Thirst have. And therefore, as all, that is faithful, juft, and wife, can only be attributed to that which is done by our Reafon, fo, by plain confequence, all that is vain, falfe, and fhameful, can only be imputed to any acts, as they are the acts of Reafon. And if this be the the true State of Reafon; if all that is wife or abfurd, holy or profane, glorious or fhameful, in Thought, Word, or Deed, is to be imputed to it; then is it as grofs an Abfurdity to talk of the abfolute Perfection of human Rcafon, as of the unfpotted Holinefs of humane Life, or the abfolute Infallibility of humane Conjectures: Since upon Examination it is found to be a Principle of an uncertain Nature, productive of Vice as well as Virtue, and capable of leading us into Error, as well as difcovering to us Truth. . But its high eft Im prove ment un 2. To take Reafon under a more Reafonin favourable Afpect, we will fuppofe it, at prefent, raised to its higheft Pitch of Improvement, and fo enquire, whether it is capable, in this State, to fettle a fettle a proper Rule of Religion and Morality Rule of for the Conduct of human Life. able to Religion. ledge 1. It cannot be denied indeed, but Theancithat, almost in every Age, there have ent Philobeen, in the Heathen World, fome had their wife, brave, and good Men, who have beft carried Humane Reafon to a great KnowHeight, and, in the Study and Difqui- from Refition of Natural Religion, have made velation. no mean Discoveries: But then there is room to fufpect, that their Discoveries of this kind were not fo much owing to the Strength and Sagacity of their Reason, Ee 3 e Reason, as to the Traditions, they might receive from their Ancestors, or.the Converfation, they might have with the Hebrews and Egyptians. That there were certain Principles, deliver'd by God to Noah, and thence propagated among his Pofterity, thro' all Ages and Nations, is what we fhall hereafter obferve: And therefore, allowing the Fact at present, we cannot but imagine, that many Things, which feem now to be Deductions from natural Reason, might have their Original from Revelation; because Things, once difcovered, may feem eafy and obvious to Men, which they, notwithstanding, would never of themselves have been able to find out. We wonder now, not a little, that Men could ever suppose there were no Antipodes, and are apt to admire how America cou'd be fo long concealed, rather than how it came at laft to be discovered. The Cafe is the fame in many other Discoveries, especially in moral Truths, which are fo agreeable to Reafon, that they may seem the natural Productions с of Fofephus tells us, that Pythagoras and Thales were the Scholars of the Caldeans and Hebrews, and quotes Hermippus, as afferting, that Pythagoras derived many Truths of his Philofophy from his Converfation with the Jews, which he might well do, having ftudied in Egypt above twenty Years. Richardfon's Usefulness and Neceffity of Revelation. .' Jenkins's Reasonablenefs, L. I. of it, though a contrary Cuftom and Inclination, and the Subtilty of Satan, working upon our depraved Nature, might perhaps have made it very difficult, if not impoffible, without a Revelation, to difcern many Doctrines, even in Morality, which are now common and familiar to us. However this be, 'tis certain, that the moft eminent Philofophers, fuch as Pythagoras, Plato, Democritus, and others, finding but a Dearth of Knowledge at Home, travelled for Improvement into other Parts and, as Egypt was accounted the chief Seat of Learning, there were few Men of Note, who went not thither to compleat their Studies; where, converfing with the Jews, who were there in great Numbers, and having the Opportunity of confulting the Law of Mofes in the famous Ptolemean Library, they might from thence collected many remarkable Doctrines, though, when they came to publish them, they disguised and blended them with their own Notions and Inventions. a proper We will suppose however, that one Were Igof these Sages, without any fuch foreign norant of Affiftance, had, by deep and intense Form of Study, fatisfied himself of the Exiftence Divine of a God; acquired right Notions of Worship. Ee 4 his 1 his Power, Wisdom, Juftice, and Good- Clark's Demonftration, &c. the |