Suppose the cafe to be fo, and confider whether we are not extremely obliged to revelation even upon this foot.

If men are naturally influenced by cuftom and the force of education to follow the opinions and practices of their country, and are, after all that has been faid to exalt human reason, incapable to de-. liver themselves from popular and national errors by the ftrength of their own reafon; two things muft, I think, be admitted:

First, that it was a great undertaking, and the work of a very extraordinary power, to root out ancient errors, which had for many ages had poffeffion of the whole world: And,

Secondly, that it was an act of great wisdom and goodness, as well as power, to introduce just principles and notions of religion, and, by giving them at firft a firm establishment, to throw the weight of custom and education on the fide of virtue and true religion, in oppofition to superstition and vice.

The firft propofition cannot be disputed; for, if the power of custom and education be as great as it is represented, the power must be very great that gets the better of it: and I believe it will be hard to fhew from hiftory, that ever a nation was reafoned out of their religious errors: it has been done by the power of miracles, and by the power of the fword; but in this laft method the nation and its errors have been commonly destroyed together. However, the Gofpel was not introduced by external force; and therefore the work must neceffarily be ascribed to a power of another kind.

As to the fecond propofition, it may be thought dishonourable to true religion to suppose it to be at all beholden to cuftom and education for its fupport; dishonourable to God, to fuppose that he can make use of any thing to propagate religion, but the reason and understanding of his creatures; and, confequently, that true religion is no longer religion, when it ftands by the force of cuftom and education.

I know how much has been faid of the use of reason in religion, to the exclufion of all other helps but I know too that the holy writers frequently call on us to train up a child in the way he fhould go, and give this reafon for it, that when he is old he will not depart from it. I know too that God called Abraham, and made of him a great nation, because he knew him, that he would teach his children after him to keep the commandments of the Lord: which precept to inftruct children betimes, and which declaration on God's part in relation to Abraham, cannot ftand with a fuppofition that true religion is the worse for the support it has from example and education.

But to confider this matter a little farther: if we know any thing with certainty of mankind, it is this; that their principles, opinions, and practices are ftrongly influenced by cuftom and education. I will ask any man, whether he thinks it poffible to alter this ftate of things, and to make all men as much philofophers, and as much above prejudices, as fome pretend to be? I believe no man in his Lenses ever thought this poffible. If then men are, and ever will be as long as they continue men,

greatly governed by cuftom and education, the fingle question is, whether it was an act beneficent to mankind, and becoming the wifdom of God, to direct this influence to the fide of virtue and true religion in order to make men happy, rather than to leave them to be miserable under the ftrong influence to vice, fuperftition, and idolatry, which had poffeffion of the world?

The true end of religion is to make men better, to lead them to a due discharge of their duty to God and to man. True principles and right and juft notions of God will lead men to a juft performance of their duty, independently of this confideration, whether their principles are the result of their own reasoning, or inftilled into them by education. If this be fo, the common people, whose religion is always treated as their prejudices, are as capable of performing the duties of religion, and as acceptably in the fight of God, as the greatest reasoners and philofophers.

Let us fuppofe, that some wife man had fully convinced himself by reafon of the being of God, of the holiness of his nature, and that he is a rewarder of all those who diligently feek him: fuppose too, that a plain countryman, not able to make deductions in a course of reasoning, was yet fully perfuaded of the fame truths from his Bible, or the instruction of his parish-prieft: I fay, in this cafe, that the countryman's principles are as good a foundation for all the duties and purposes of religion as the philofopher's; that they will be as beneficial to the world in making a good father, hufband, or mafter, and as beneficial to the man in

making him happy here and hereafter: and, though his inftruction, compared with the philofopher's deep knowledge, may, in the language of St. Paul, be called the foolishness of preaching, yet will it, if duly attended to, make him wife unto falvation.

I am not placing religion upon prejudice as its proper foundation: no; the Gospel was at firft introduced by the strongest appeal to reason, when it was introduced by the hand of God in figns and wonders and mighty works, which the Apostle calls the demonftration of the Spirit, and opposes it to the wisdom of the world: and the Gospel ftands upon the fame reason ftill. But this is a reason which, the wife ones of the world think, can produce nothing but prejudice, or fuch faith as differs but little from it. This then I fay, that it was worthy of God, by a strong hand and outstretched arm, in figns and wonders to beat down fuperftition and idolatry, and the corrupt notions of the world; and to plant in the room of them, not by the arts of man's wisdom, but by these demonstrations of the Spirit, true principles of reafon and religion; to give them poffeffion in the world, that they might be delivered down from generation to generation, and maintained under the natural influence which custom and education have, and always will have, upon mankind.

And, if we confider revelation in this light only, as removing falfe principles of error and fuperftition, and introducing just ones of truth and religion, independently of the reafon and evidence on which the Gospel stands, it must appear to be an act of divine love and goodness, which we ought to receive

with thankfulness. If men were supposed to be quite incapable of entering at all into the reason of things, and to be wholly guided by prejudice and cuftom, yet furely even then it would be an act of love to draw out of their minds principles full of mischief to themselves and others, and place in their room principles of love and benevolence to make themselves and others happy. And furely this at least must be allowed to the Gospel, that it did in fact expel the falfe and pernicious notions of heathenifm, and introduce principles upon which men may be at peace and in friendship with God and with each other. And from hence perhaps we may fee the reason why miracles were fo frequent in the beginning of the Gofpel, and why they ceafed afterwards. They were neceffary till truth had poffeffion of the world; but truth, throughly eftablished, was left to be propagated by the natural means of inftruction and education.

Every body fees what mischief and wickedness are often produced by falfe and corrupt opinions and principles; which owe not their strength to reason, for with reason they have no alliance, but to the poffeffion they have of the mind. Good principles, with the fame advantage of poffeffion, will be as powerful to good purposes, though the mind difcerns not the reafon from whence they flow. There are but few workmen, perhaps, who know the reason, and can demonftrate the mechanic powers of the inftruments they use; but, being perfect in the use and application of these powers, they are able workmen and mafter-builders; which all that is required of them. In like manner, if