~

may amend our Ways, turn from our Ch. 4. Iniquity, and cheofe Life. Encouragements are propos'd to fuch as do fo. We can, upon serious Reflections, fee our Faults, and find that what we held most unreasonable, did only appear fo from fuperficial Difquifitions, or want of neceffary Helps; from Deference to Authority, and Principles taken upon Trust; from irregular Inclinations and Self-intereft,or the Hatred of a Party.

32. But notwithstanding all this fome are at a world of Pains to rob themselves (if they could) of their Liberty or Freewill,the nobleft and most useful of all our Faculties, the only thing we can properly call ours,and the only thing that neither Power nor Fortune can take from us. Under whatever Vail thefe Men. endeavour to hide their Folly, yet they are engag'd in it by extreme Pride and Self-love: For, not willing to own their Ignorance and Mifcarriages, (which proceed from Paf fion, Sloth, or Inconfideration) they would remove all the Blame from their Will, and charge it upon a natural Impotency not in their Power to cure, Thus they ingeniously cheat themfelves, and

chufe

Sect.II. chufe rather to be rank'd in the fame Condition with Brutes or Machines, than be oblig'd to acknowledg their humane Frailties,and to mend.

33. Since therefore the Perfection or Soundness of our Reafon is fo evident to our felves, and fo plainly contain’d in Scripture,however wrefted by fome ignorant Perfons, we should labour to acquire Knowledg with more confident Hopes of Succefs. Why fhould we entertain fuch mean and unbecoming Thoughts, as if Truth, like the Almighty, dwelt in Light inacceffible, and not to be discover'd by the Sons of Men? Things are always the fame, how different foever the Conceptions of Men about them may be; and what another did not, I may happily find out. That nothing escap'd the Sight of former Ages is a Tale to be told where one Perfon only speaks,and no Body present must contradict him. The Slips and Errors which are taken notice of in the World every Day, serve only to put us in mind that many able Men did not examine the Truth with that Order and Application they should or might have done.

There

There are a thoufand things in our Ch. 4. Power to know, of which, through Prejudice or Neglect, we may be, and frequently remain ignorant all our Lives; and innumerable Difficulties may be made by imagining MYSTERIES where there are none, or by conceiving too difcouraging and unjust an Opinion of our own Abilities: whereas, by a Parity of Reason, we may hope to outdo all that outdid others before us, as Pofterity may exceed both. 'Tis no Prefumption therefore for us to endeavour fetting things in a better Light; as to know what we are able to perform is not Pride, but foolishly to presume none else can equal us, when we are all upon the fame Level: For who maketh thee to 1 Cor.4.7% differ from another? And what haft thou that thou didst not receive? Now if thou didft receive it, why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not receiv'd it? Have we not all the fame fure and certain Promises of Light and Affiftance from above, as well as the Privilege of Reafon in common? If any lack Wifdom, let him ask it of God, who gives to all Jam.1. 5. Men liberally, and upbraideth not, and it Shall be given him. 34. To

Sect.II.

34. To conclude, let no Body think to be excus'd by this imaginary Corruption, but learn from the Scripture, our infallible Oracle, that the Gospel, if it be the Word of God, is only contrary to the Opinions and Wishes of 2 Pet. 3.3. lewd Men, that love to walk after their own Lufts; of those that speak Evil of the things which they understand not, and Jude,v.10. debauch themselves in what they know in common with Brutes. It is hid to them 2 Cor. 4. whofe Minds are blinded by the God of this World; and to those who live by the Ignorance and fimple Credulity of their Brethren. To be brief, It is contrary to the falfe Reafoning of all that will not know what it is to reflect or confider; but it is not above the Poffibility of their Reafon when they fhall better improve their Faculties. The Creation of the World was against the Syftem of Ariftotle, the Immortality of the Soul against the Hypothesis of Epicurus, and the || Liberty

3, 4.

of

How the abfolute Liberty we experience in our felves, confiftent with God's Omnipotency and our Dependance on him, fhall in due Place be confider'd

of the Will was impugned by many Ch. 4. antient Philofophers. But is this to be contrary to Reason? Have not these Men been quite baff'd by as very Heathens as themselves? And are not their other Errors fince detected and exploded by moft of the Learned? Befides, they wanted a principal mean of Information, viz. REVELATION: