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CHAP. III. 



"^yT AN, when he beginneth to exercife his ra- 

 tional faculties, ought to fet before his 

 intelle6lual mind the ideas of truth and falfhood, 

 and endeavour to find out, in the moft ftri6t and 

 abfolute fenfe, what they are ; and, when he hath 

 found them, he ought to govern all his allions 

 by the former, and avoid the latter : but it is 

 exceeding hard to difcover what truth is in a 

 world of falfhood and controverfy, where all of 

 us fuck in error with our milk. Is not great part 

 of the world taught to believe, that their fenfes 

 are liars, and that things which appear to be 

 the fame, to the ftrideft fcrutiny of our fenihs^ 

 are really and abfolutely quite oth'erwife ? Many 

 we know fufter themfelves to be led into fuch 

 inconfiftenc beliefs as thefe ; but it is a fixed and 

 firm article of my private faith, that God hath 

 given us our fenfes as a touchftone of truth ; 

 and that when any writing, tradition, or bold af- 

 fertion, advances any opinions, that diredly and 

 flatly contradid the fenfes which God hath given 



us 



