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VIII.

Reafon of Mankind, as a Part is less than SERM. the Whole. Now befides the Abfurdity of 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 absolute Lord for himself, contrary to the Nature of his Condition and Make,

Befides, if this were the Cafe, that every one's own Reafon 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 2

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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 respect modern Deifm 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

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mended to their Faith. Befides, Faith SERM. being a fort of an unknown Principle be- VIII. fore Christianity, what there was of it, as a Syftem, being in the Poffeffion of a Handful of People in Judea, it would not be fo great a Surprize, if they had not fo eafily embrac'd a Revelation, if it had been offer'd them: But after Christianity has been established for fo many Hundred Years, and Faith is known to be not only a Principle in Man, but a reasonable one too, to disbelieve now argues a great Slavery somewhere in Heart, or Mind, or both.

But do they, who are for fhaking off Faith, do fo in reality? Are they uniform, and all of a Piece in this Practice? No, they shake it off only in Religion; they are not Unbelievers, but only with refpect to Chriftianity; in no other Cafe, but only where there is the greatest Foundation for Faith: They believe ftill at the fame time that they profefs not to do it, and that too upon the smallest Grounds. without any real Reafon at all: They can believe, that the Reason of every fin

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SERM.gle Man is equal to the Reason of all VIII. Mankind; and not only fo, but to the

Reafon of God: They can believe, that tho' God made Man a Creature compounded of Sense and Paffions, which ought to have their proper Influence, together with a mind capable of Reflexion, all which together make up what we call a Rational Creature, yet that he ought to tear this Compofition afunder, render one half of it useless, and fet up the other to act a Part to which it is not at all proportion'd; for notwithstanding all the fine Things, that fome have faid of Humane Reason, and the extraordinary Compliments that have been paid to it, as if it really was right Reason, or Reafon in Perfection, yet it is in truth a Compofition of all these, or very much influenc'd by them; for let a Man endeavour to reafon ever so abstractedly, yet the Senfes and the other Faculties will fteal in, if I may fo call it, infenfibly into the Imagination, and give a Tincture to the Thought: They can, I fay, digeft fuch Contradictions as thefe: They can believe themselves

out

out of their Senfes; nay, believe away SERM.

their

Belief. very

But this is a very un

fair Practice; for Faith ought to be quite

discarded, or else it should be shewn why Christianity is the only Scheme, that fhould be depriv'd of it.

But what, if after all, Reafon itself should lead us to Revelation? Nay, that Revelation fhould be founded upon the highest Reason? 'Tis true it is an Object of Faith, but it is nevertheless reafonable for that, but on the contrary it contains in it the Sum of all Reafon, it is the Reafon of God Substituted in the room of the Reason of Man.

It appears then now that Faith is by no means contrary to Reafon, but Reason fublimated, and carried to a higher Pitch: To shake it off therefore, when it has all the Marks of a Revelation come from God (which I fhall now take for granted, because this muft depend upon fome other Proof, which neither the Time, nor Subject will permit me to enter upon here) to shake it off, I fay, under Pretence of being govern'd by Reafon, as if Faith was fome

what

VIII.

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