03ST MATTERS OP BELIEF. gj 



moft refpectable and enlightened part of fociety for ^ 

 long time pail to .fhut their eyes againft many objects 

 highly worthy of their attention, of which the enemies 

 of reafon have taken great advantage, and that it is ex- 

 actly the fhade under which all kinds of religious weeds 

 thrive with moll: luxuriance. Probably no more than 

 another fifty years, like the laft, is requihte fbr putting- 

 it into the power of fanatics and zealots to ]eave our 

 pofterity no greater freedom of reflection and belief, 

 than the holy inquihtion has allowed the inhabitants of 

 Goa. As long as the exercife of this freedom is mere 

 accidental toleration ; as long as the right of protefrants 

 to a free unlimited liberty of confcience, and an unli- 

 mited examination of all human opinions, interpreta- 

 tions, and decifions in matters of faith, is not confefTed 

 to be an evinced and efrablifhed axiom, but remains to 

 fome a problem, and is held by others for a herefy : 

 fo long have we little caufe to imagine ourfelves fafe 

 from the danger of falling back under the yoke which 

 our fathers were unable to bear. 



But how, it may reafonably be alked, how can tkat 

 right, on which the very exiftence of proteltants refts* 

 be ftill problematical in their own pofTeffion ? Where is 

 the covenant, by which they, who fet themfelves free, 

 have doomed their pofterity to new arbitrary fetters ? 

 Or, if there were fuch a covenant, what obligation could 

 it lay upon us ? Who can renounce, in the name of 

 his children, the future exercife of their reafon ? Under 

 what pretence can lb unnatural a disheritance ever 

 take place ? The right of which we are fpeaking, if 

 they had it themfelves, they muft have left to us i 

 for it was either natural right, or nothing. 



VOL. II. h Out 



