159 



faculty ; and while lie presents it with facts sufficient to 

 awiaken its powers, or convey a hint, of the discoveries it may 

 reach, lie appears most scrupulously to abstain from stifling 

 its eiforts- by ^n overwhelming pressure of incont<rovertible 

 testimony. He suffers it to err and detect itg errors — to build 

 hypotheses and then to overturn them, and perhaps amidst 

 thi? ruins tp discover the hidden foundations of truth— to ac- 

 quire strength in its progress from the birth to tl^ie maturity 

 of its possessorr-rfrom the birth to the maturity of the species 

 — unassisted unbias.sed, and uncontrolled by his interference. 



We may therefore expect that in his revel'ations to man, 

 however authenticated by miracles, he will always leave room 

 for the exercise of this power. Nor should we be astonished, 

 if his instruments be huifnan, to detect human doctrines 

 sometimes mingled witlj divine. Much less have we any 

 grounds to suppose, if an unauthorised host of expositors 

 and disputants misapprehend his promulgations, and preach 

 their own follies in his name, that he will miraculously re- 

 form their reason, or control their free will. And least of all 

 ;if in support of their impious absurdities, they weaken and 

 corrupt his doctrines by interpolations, forgeries, frauds, 

 .and false miracles, that his divine intervention will interrupt 

 thqir career, by a preternatural obstacle, when he has pre- 

 viously provided a sufficient impediment, in the Reason he 

 ha-s given us. 



Much has already been done by this natural guide, in de- 

 tecting and exposing the silly and criminal inventions of 



