SERM. of being free, i. e. free to do what is
VIII. right in their own Eyes; to do right or

wrong, just as it happens; free from all
Laws and Obligations whatsoever. Now,
if they could make it out, that they are
then indeed free, when they do whatever
they please, whatever Fancy, or Caprice
leads them to; that when they difpenfe
with the Obligations which the Wisdom
of God and Man has laid upon them,
they become then fo free, as to be subject
to no other Laws, or Obligations, there
might be fone Plaufibility in it: But if, on
the contrary, when they thus do what is
right in their own they are not
therefore free, but tied down and enflav'd
to fome wrong
Principle within: If
when they shake off all Religious Obliga-
tions, they are at the fame time bound
fafter with the strong Cords of Obftinacy,
and Perverfenefs: If they defpife and de-
preciate the Common-Senfe and Reason
of all Men, and yet at the fame time ido-
lize, and deify their own, and Liberty
is nothing else in fact but Licentiousness;
then they, that pretend thus to promise

Eyes,

Liberty,

Liberty, promife more than they can per- SERM. form. Let us now see whether this be VIII. not the Cafe.

And here, the first Step, that is taken in order to procure Liberty from the fide of Infidelity, is that which moft effectually drives Men from it; and that is, to shake off all Reveal'd Religion: For to fet out upon this Principle is to fet out upon a Principle of Slavery; it is to fet out with a full Refolution not to give the Faculties within us their proper Scope, but to hinder the free Exercife of them by subjecting all to one, or by making one or two to govern the reft as for example, the making the Reafon, which is but a fingle thing, and that too rather the Refult of all the reft, than a leading Principle, predominant over every thing else. For if the Faculties had the Power to exercise themselves as they ought, Revelation must have a Weight with us in Proportion to its Truth; i. e. if we believe, and hope, and fear, &c. freely, Revelation must carry a Weight with it in Proportion to the Reason there is in it for fa

SER M. doing; but if we allow either of these too

VIII.

great a Weight, it will of course bear down the rest in exact Proportion; and tho' a Man may do this, yet Obstinacy, and not Liberty, must be the Principle by wich he does it.

But after all, let us examine a little more particularly how the throwing off Revelation fets a Manat Liberty. Does he by leaving this go over to fome better Scheme? This is pretended, and in order to make it out, it is faid, that Reafon alone is a fuffi. cient Guide, and in following that we follow Nature, and confequently Christianity, being by the Suppofition unneceffary, becomes an Incumbrance, and muft be taken off in order to be free, and at liberty. If by Reason was meant right Reafon, this might be true enough, if we could but tell how to come at it: But this is not the Meaning of it, nor do they mean the Reason of Mankind, but only an infinitely fmall Pittance of it, the Reason of an Indidual, which comes as short of right Reafon, as finite does of infinite; and not only fo, but is also as much below the

Reafon

Reason of Mankind, as a Part is less than SERM. the Whole. Now befides the Abfurdity of VIII. crowding the whole of Reafon into a Part, that is not capable of containing it, this is to fet up Mankind independant upon one another, every one an abfolute Lord for himself, contrary to the Nature of his Condition and Make.

Befides, if this were the Cafe, that every one's own Reason were to be his Religion, there must then be as many Religions as there are Men in the World, or rather no Religon at all; for every one having by the Suppofition as much a Right to a Syftem of his own, as every other, there would never be a Public Manifeftation of any, because it would want a proper Authority to fupport it; which in this Cafe could not be had, no one being of Importance enough to be a Center of Unity to the reft; and fo every one would move round his own Axis without any Dependance upon, or Relation to any other, and would never unite in any regular System, but perpetually move on Y 24

in

SERM. in the utmost Disorder and Confufion.

VIII.

And indeed, to fay the Truth with respect to all human Schemes whatsoever, how wife foever the Authors of them may be, yet if they have not infinite Wisdom, tho' it is right to put fome Trust in them in proportion to their Knowledge, they can have no Foundation in them for an abfolute Truft. This belongs only to an abfolute Perfection.

But the Scheme I am talking of, does not fuppofe any Degree of Truft to be plac'd any where, but fets out in Defiance of all Faith: And in this refpect modern Deism is worse than Heathenifm, because that does not exclude Faith, but only wants to know how to make it compleat, Accordingly the true Deifts, among whom we may reckon fome of the best of the Philofophers, never made Unbelief a Principle; If they did not believe a Revelation, it was certainly not out of a Principle of difbelieving every thing, but because they were out of the Reach of it, and for want of having it rightly recom mended