Serle - BT590 N2 S47 1776

I %t 3 upon the fame Suhje&. Nay, MaximusTyrius himfelf: in treatingof Plato's Notion of the Godhead *, acknow- ledges, that fcarce any two Perfons (among the Hea- thens) have thought alike upon the SubjefL And if they do not exactly agree ; who than arbitrate the Dif- ference ? Shall another Man's Reafon ? Shall the Reafon of a thoufand Men ? Thefe could, at belt, only prove that one muftbe in the wrong, without being able to give an infallible Determination, which of them is in the right. They might do worfe : By taking the erro- neous Side, they would ftrengthen the Miftake in others ; and yet be utterly incapable of correcting it in them- felves. Upon this Ground too, is not the Deity made to bejuft what his Creatures think of him ? And fup- pole, on this uncertain Plan (to fay the bell of it), one or many of thefe think amifs, and offer Worthip to what has confequently no Exiftence but in their own Ideas ; is not fuch a Deity an Image of the Brain ; and is not fuchWorthipdireft Idolatry? Were not the Gods of the Heathens juft fuch Creatures of Fancy ? And is not fuch Service as much of the Effence of Superftition (though perhaps more refined, and refined too by the Aid of Revelation itfelf), as the Egyptian Adoration of a Dog or an Onion ? It is a Matter of perfe& Indif- ference, what falfe God, or Idol, Men worthip ; when they have not Grace enough to worship the true. But, as none can fay, without Rafhnefs andFolly, that GOD cannot exift in the Mode, which He has revealed; how can any, without Prefumption and Pride, pretend to define the Mode, in which He mutt exift, or efta- blifh, from their ownHeads, any Poftulatum or Dogma about it ? " Suppofe a Man should, fays Dr. fonathan Edwards, from the Obfervation which he bath made of Plants, pretend to make a Judgement of theNature and Faculties of Animals, and thence thould conclude, that it is abfolutely impollible that fuch and fuch Powers F 4 and

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