86 



LIBERTY OP REASONING 



mo& perfect equity, or (which implies the fame thing) 

 the moft perfect wifdom and goodnefs — connected 

 with the belief of the continuation of our own original 

 being, no lefs infcrutable to us, with the confcioufnefs 

 of our own perfonality, and a progrefs to ever-increa- 

 ling perfection, which will be modified by our beha- 

 viour in this life. 



Of this belief I maintain, that : 



ift, It is a moral requilite of mankind; 



2-dly, That it lies lb deeply rooted in our nature, andf 

 is even, in a manner, fo abforbed into all the veffels of 

 it, that, for wholly extirpating it from a man, the man 

 faifhfelf mutt be deftroyed ; 



3dly, That it is fufficiently fupported by reafon, for 

 deferring the name of a rational belief ; and 



4thly, That, as far as it is free from fuperftition or 

 daemoniHery, it is not only entirely harmlefs, but is 

 fupremely beneficial, and in a certain fenfe, indifpen- 

 fably neceffary to the human race ^. 



Unhappily, it was not poffible for mankind, in the 

 constitution and circumftances wherein they were placed 

 in the primitive times, long to preferve their religion 

 in its original purity ; admitting that there was a time 

 when it was as limple and pure as the weaknefs of the 



* I deliver thefe four proportions, without fubjoining their dc- 

 monftrations, as having long been made out, and known to all 

 whom thefe reflections can any way intereft. Should any one, 

 -who makes the enquiry into truth a ferious bulinefs, think he has 

 new reafons fur not holding thefe axioms to be fo thoroughly 

 proved as I do j the imparting and examining of thefe reafons 

 would have its ufe in placing the truth doubted of in a new light. 



infant 



