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many to be here recounted: But I shall mention fome of the chief of them.

(1.) Vicious Men are very unwil ling to believe that Religion to be True, which is fo directly contrary to their whole courfe 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 have brought a Scandal, though a very unjust one, upon the Religion which they profess: and Men who find themselves more enclined to do as they see 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 fay fomething new upon every Subject they treat of; and in order to that, have fet themselves, 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

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upon the Notions of others, that they that 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 confidered and rejected of old, though not, perhaps, in the very Terms, yet in the Sence and Subftance 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 laft 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 convenient to give fome vent to the Philofophical Hu

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mour, 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 Surprising and there is nothing which answers all thefe Qualities fo well as a new Account of the Origin of the Universe, and then the History of the Creation in Genefis, as well as the World it felf, muft undergo all the Alterations which they are pleased to impose upon it, that it may perfectly fubmit and comply with their New Hypothefis. If this Fancy fhould hold, New Syftems of the World will be as common as new Romances: They muft 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 them

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felves with New Contrivances, they will let us have our Old World again. In the mean time, thefe Men, who have too much Philofophy 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 mifchief. And there is nothing fo plain, but it may be rendred difficult and obfcure to many Men, by long and fubtile Difputes. If great numbers of Men should write concerning the Sun's Heat and Light, and Motion for many Years, and every one fhould ftill 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 Infidelity and Scepticifin concerning God, and his Providence, and Revelation, muft end

in the Scepticism of our very Senfes, if these Principles be pursued in their direct and unavoidable Confequences.

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Others have been too bold with" the Myfteries 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 fame time has expofed Themselves to Reproach, and Religion to the Scorn of fuch as are glad to take all occafions to fhew their Goodwill to it. The evident and declared Defign of the Socinians, is, to retainTM no Myfteries, but by forced Interpretations of Scripture to expound them all to their own, that is, to a new and abfurd fence; and it is but too plain, that there is a combined Defign carried on between Them and the Deifts, who are contented to pafs for Chriftians, with a Distinction, and without a Myftery: Anti-Trinitarian is a milder word than Anti-Christian, and Unitarian is but a different Name for Deift. b

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