THAT the Confusion at Babel, was not a Miracle to confound their Language, but a Quarrel about their Worship. That the grand Effort there was by Nimrod and his Friends to corrupt and extirpate the true Worship of the Elahim, or rather the Worship of the true Elahim, by building a Temple to the Heavens, God's Agents; and thereby not only establishing a false Worship, but also a false Objeft of Worship; about which they could not agree, nor understand one another, because God had confounded their Shapha Lip, [Confeffion.) This Disagreement produced a Separation, each Party carrying off with them a blind traditional Account of Things; which mixt with their own Imaginations, became the Rule of their Worship to their new and false Elabim. At length this Corruption became almost general, as was the Case when Abraham fled from אור Ur, of the Chaldeans, the Light, the Object of the Chaldean Worship: The Progress this spreading Plague made afterwards, render'd a litteral Revelation necessary (before which Hieroglyphics were only in Ufe.) This was given at Mount Sinai to Mofes; he communicated it to the Seventy Elders, they to the People. The Heathen dispersed Nations hearing of this Divine Difcovery attempted to make use of it, by which Means they confounded their Language, and produced new ones. The fame Event must happen again, if the fame Expedient was tried by Men, unacquainted with Letters; for the Roots in Heb. confift of never more than three Letters: Miftaking the Place or Power of one, and carrying it through the Conjugations of the Language, muft indubitably produce new ones, as often as 'tis try'd. By this Means Words will also become doubtful, and of various Significations, a Thing not known in that Language, and believed by none but fuch as don't understand it. From what is said above, the Origin of what is falfely called the Law of Nature may be seen.

THAT the modern Philosophers and Divines, have so confounded and puzzled Mankind, concerning the Mechanism of Nature, that following their Accounts, 'tis hard to conceive or know what a Miracle is; for according to them, there may be fome unknown Power in Nature, or fome invisible diabolical Agents; acting therein, by whose Instrumentality such or such Effects may be produced. Notwithstanding which the Miracles of Egypt will appear to be true and real Miracles, not effected by unknown Laws of Nature, nor by invisible, diabolical Agents, nor by the juggling of Mofes and Aaron, but by the immediate Power of Fehovah Elabim, controuling and suspending the settled Laws and Course of Nature, for Purposes which concern all Men now, as much as it did the Ifraelites and Egyptians then. And if the Defign, Propriety, and Reality of those Miracles were understood by our Free-Thinkers, it is prefumed it would bring them to their Senfes, and also fink the Value of some voluminous Tracts, and render the writing of others needless, by putting an End to fome Controverfies which have subsisted almost from that Day to this.

THAT the eternal Nature, the eternal Relation, Fitness, &c. of Things which Free-Thinkers and Moralifts talk so much of, is a Dream; for there can be no eternal Relation between Things which existed in Time, nor no Fitness between Things which become unfit from the very Nature of Man, which is changeable. For eternal Relation can only fubfift between Persons or Things which are eternal and immutable. God is unchangeable, Man quite otherwise. Between God and perfect Man, the Relation continued the fame as long as Man continued perfect; but upon the Fall, the Relation was ipfo fatto changed, and another Relation commenced, that subsisted not before; and this Relation was Christ the Aoyos, whom I believe to be now the eternal immutable Relation between God and Man. This is the true Ratio, which took Place at, and from the Fall, which the Free-Thinkers and Deists reject for an imaginary one. But 'till these wife Men prove that Man is now in the fame State he was created in at first, and neither has, nor can fall or forfeit that State, I will believe in, and trust this Λογω for my Redemption and eternal Salvation; and I know he is able to keep what I have committed to him; and as he never did, fo he never will, disappoint the Hope of such as truft him.

AND now the Reader is at Liberty, if he pleases, to call all this a Jumble of Words put together, without Meaning or Connection, provided he will give me Leave to think otherwise; and if he will not, he is also at Liberty to try his Talents to make that appear, and expose me; and when he has done, I will thank him; for I am a Proteftant, and maintain my Right to make my own Creed, and lay afide all Pretence of being angry with him for his, or injuring his Character for not believing mine. If, notwithstanding this, there be any who cannot let their Resentments dye, but will continue to call me Fool, Madman, Deist, Enthusiast, &c. (for the very feverest Things of this fort has been faid) all I have to reply, is, That my Reputation, and all that's dear to me in the World, is at their Service; if it can do this real Good, to prevail with them to believe, that no human System yet extant is wide enough to contain all Truth; to take

take nothing for granted from any Man, to read less, and think more, to part with their Prejudices, and act like Men.

AND now the candid Reader and I can have no Quarrel with each other, as long as we abide by these Principles; not that I am arrived to this Height of Vanity, as to expect to eradicate false ones in general. No; popular Prejudice, secular Interests, &c. are too many, and too strong, and if they believe not Mofes and the Prophets, no Conviction can lay hold of them; they will not be convinced, tho' one rose from the Dead.

But give me Leave once more to express my Astonishment, since there is such a Thing as Truth, and the Clue to it in our Hands too, that after so many Thousand Years the World should be no better agreed about what it is, and the Means of coming at it. The Differences about it will appear by comparing (to say nothing of the East and West Indians, Mahometans, &c.) the Papists and Protestants together, and each of these with themselves. I shall omit the Confideration of the particular Reasons of these Differences, because I would not dip my Pen inGall; the general Reasons will appear before we have done. I don't expect they will appear to every one, because my Way of shewing them, as it will be Unfashionable, so also Immethodical; besides Authorities and Numbers are against me. I confefs he that affirms an Object to be Scarlet, which others affirm to be Green, should suspect his own Eyes, rather than wonder that others can't see as he does. Whether my Eyes be clear or not, I shall not take upon me to determine; but all I pretend to maintain is, that I see, and I form my Judgment upon the fame Foundation that the wifest Men in all Ages have done; that is, upon upon the Evidence with which Things appear to me. Now it does appear to me with great Evidence, that there are but five possible Ways by which the Mind can receive the first Notices or Ideas of Things, or Truth; and these must be,

1st. By their being Innate ; or,

2dly, By their Entrance by the Senses; or,

3dly, They must be got by Reflection; or,

4thly, The Mind must have a Power to get them by Abstraction; or,

5thly, They must be received from Revelation. As I take this to be the Cafe, I shall act here as a Traveller does, where five Ways meet him; i. e. try if I cannot hit the true Path at first, and fo have no Business with the other Four. I shall take the second Path, conceiving it to be the true one; and in order to prove it so, shall lay down this Proposition: That the Understanding is passive, entirely fo; and if it acts at all, acts involuntarily.

Every Man's Understanding is thus framed. Whosoever doubts of this, let him turn his Eyes inward, and look upon his own Mind, and the Process of it, and then tell me, why he cannot fix his Mind always on the fame Object? or rather, why he cannot keep others out? Let him tell me, why so many Objects strike his Mind unawares? Is it owing to the Inattention of it? or, to the Weakness of its Fences? or what? Why cannot the Gouty drive away the Idea of his Pain ? Why cannot the mad Lover forget the Object of his Affections, when he would? Why, I say, does the Mind, in these and many other Instances, tor