d

That the Jewish Religion indeed fubfifted without this Doctrine is a late favourite and much efpoufed Tenet; a Tenet which I will endeavour to review at large in a feparate Treatise; and 'therefore I shall only observe farther here, with refpect to the Divine Perfections above confidered, that it was an Attempt worthy no doubt the Refinements of modern Philofophy to affert the Honour of God by denying his Attributes, or at least by fuppofing them to be totally irreconcileable with fuch Rules and Principles by which alone we are capable of forming any Judgment about them. However, 'tis to be hoped that neither the thin Sophiftry, nor the dogmatical Pofitiveness, nor the unpolite Raillery, nor even the elegant Language, in which the main Strength of a late noble Philosopher, whom I have had in view, confifts, will be able to shake the folid Foundations of Religion, and cancel in effect all moral Obligations. For the Support and farther Confirmation of thefe, therefore, let us proceed to examine the Evidences for revealed Religion; for if this fhould appear to be true, this unfubftantial Fabrick of Scepticism falls to Pieces of Course.

It is fufficient for my prefent Argument to obferve, that the Chriftian Religion at least is most clear and explicit upon every fundamental Point

d See next Treatife.

which we have been endeavouring to establish by the Authority of Reason itself; and therefore if that Religion be true, these groffer Principles of Infidelity muft vanish before it. Now there is the greater Occafion to inquire into the Credibility of revealed Religion; because many, who profess to entertain fuitable Notions of the Deity, and readily acknowledge the Force of all rational Obligations, and the Certainty of a future State, do yet reject all Revelation as fuch, i. e. all the Mysteries of it, and confider it as an abfurd Imposture tyrannizing over Nature and Reason.

Others again there are, who, though they acknowledge the Holy Scriptures to be the Word of God, and to contain the perfect and final Revelation of his Nature, Attributes, and Will, and as fuch to have an indisputable Claim upon our utmost Reverence, Affent, and Obedience, do yet aver them to be far from being fufficiently full, clear, and explicit, in respect of certain most material Particulars, and indeed fuppofed effential Articles, and that therefore we must in Piety, as well as Reason, openly, or tacitly at least, refuse our Affent to fuch Particulars, by whomsoever it may be required. Accordingly every Branch and Degree of Infidelity will come under the Cognifance of the Examination I propofe to make; to which, before I proceed, I will beg Leave to lay down

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down a few, 'tis prefumed, undeniable Maxims or Corollaries, grounded upon Truths afferted in the foregoing Pages, and properly preparatory to the fucceeding.

It appears then from what has been advanced, that all Religion, Natural as well as Revealed, must be grounded on Faith, and Faith on Reason. The first Article of Religion, the Being of God, is evinced by apt Inferences and Deductions. We are not affured that God exifts, by the fame abfolute Knowledge, if I may fo fpeak, and immediate Conception by which we are affured that we exist ourselves. It is the Ufe of Reason then that directs us to the Acknowledgment of this Truth; now we do not reason about what we strictly and abfolutely know, and confequently the Acknowledgment of the Being of God is an Act of Faith. Indeed the Atheist himself is a Believer, though a very abfurd one; for if the Theift does not, strictly speaking, know that there is a God, the Atheist surely does not know that there is no God; and accordingly he believes this either upon falfe Grounds, or no Grounds at all.-Here then, exclufive of all Revelation, is laid the Foundation of a rational and implicit Faith; our Belief in the Existence of God is fuch a Faith; it is rational with regard to our Notion of the Certainty of that Existence; it is implicit with regard to our No

tion of the Ratio, or Manner of it; for if we believe God exifts, we must believe that there never was, or ever will be a Time when he did not exift; that is, we believe him to be eternal; and if we believe him to be eternal, we believe him to be entirely incapable of Corruption, or Diffolution ; that is, we believe him to be an immaterial Being, or a Spirit; thefe Truths, to which, if Occafion required, we might add more, result from each other by logical and necessary Deductions and Conclufions; and yet we can no more comprehend the Nature of a Spirit, or of Eternity, than we can naturally conceive that there are three Perfons in the Unity of the Godhead. Although therefore the readily-acknowledg'd Belief of a Truth utterly incomprehenfible in itself, as the Eternity or Spirituality of the Deity cannot be urged as a Motive for our Faith in any inconceivable Propofition proposed to us, (because of Things incomprehenfible in their own Nature, fome may plainly refult from neceffary rational Deduction, and others not) yet thus much may and must be inferred from that Confideration, that no Propofition (that is not self-contradictory) can be concluded false, merely for Want of our Ability to comprehend it. The fundamental Doctrine of Chriftianity, therefore, that of the Bleffed Trinity, is not incredible, purely because it is inconceivable. For if it be, then it will follow that it is impoffible, and implies

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a Con

a Contradiction, that there fhould be any Mysteries in the Divine Nature capable of, and cognisable only by, an efpecial Revelation fupervenient to the Light of Human Reafon. Now the Divine Nature is confeffedly myfterious, and therefore a more full and ample Revelation of it is fuppofable in the Nature of the Thing. For to fay that God cannot reveal himself is a notorious Impeachment of his Power; and therefore the Queftion will be, whether he has revealed himself, or not.-Again, even the Mysteries peculiar to fuch a Revelation could not, as fuch, be any Proofs against the Truth of it; because the Divine Nature must be mysterious still, and a Revelation of an infinite Being or Nature to our finite Capacity would teach us more fuitably to acknowledge and adore the Perfections and Attributes of that Nature, but could not poffibly give us more clear, or adequate Conceptions of it. For a Revelation cannot poffibly be fuppofed to alter the Human Nature, or the Divine; and if not, there must be the fame Difproportion ftill between finite and infinite, and confequently between the Nature of God and our Ideas and Comprehenfions. It will follow then, that in the Cafe of a pretended Revelation, the Authority, and not the Doctrine of that Revelation must be the great Object of rational Inquiry; for, as no human Institution has a Right to impofe Articles of Faith upon rational Creatures, if God has not revealed.

himself;