8 A View of tbe DEISTICAL Writers. Let. 1.

mon notices, ſo clear that he can ſcarce be accounted a reaſon- able creature who denieth them. And yet I am afraid, if all theſe things are to be looked upon as neceſſary, many that call themſelves Deiſts will be as loth to admit his Lordſhip's natural and catholic religion, as Chriſtianity itſelf. There is reaſon to apprehend, that ſome of their ſtrongeſt prejudices againſt Chriſ- tianity ariſe from its ſetting thoſe principles in too clear a light, and inforcing them in too ſtrong a manner. It is true, that when they are for putting a fair gloſs upon Deiſm, and aſſerting the ſufficiency and perfection of natural reſigion abſtracted from all revelation, they are willing to have it thought that their re- ligion includeth the belief of thoſe important articles. They are then obliged to have recourſe to his Lordſhip's ſyſtem, and the arms he hath furniſhed them with; but at other times they make it plainly appear that they are far from being fixed in theſe principles. His Lordſhip declares, that it is neceſſary theſe ar- ticles ſhould be well explained. And indeed they are expreſſed in very general and indefinite terms. But there is no great like- lihood of their agreeing in the explications of them. It is a thing well known, that many who have made no ſmall figure among our modern Deiſts, have denied ſome of his Lordſhip's five articles, at leaſt taken in the extent in which he ſeems will- ing to underſtand them. God's moral government and parti- cular providence; his worſhip, eſpecially as it includes prayer and praiſe; man's free agency, the immortality of the Soul, and a future ſtate of retributions, have made no part of their creed. Some of them have been far from pleading for that ſtrictneſs of virtue, which his Lordſhip tells us natural religion obliges men to; and inſtead of urging the neceſſity of repentance, have, after Spinoſa, repreſented it as a mean, an unreaſonable, and wretched thingl. And the rewards and puniſhments of a future ſtate have been exploded under the notion of bribes and terrors, a regard to which argueth a ſordid and mercenary tem- per of ſoul, inconſiſtent with a true and generous virtue. Another reflection that it is proper to make on Lord Herbert's Scheme is this: that theſe five principles, in which he makes his univerſal religion to conſiſt, were not ſo very clear and well known to all mankind, as to make an external revelation need- leſs or uſeleſs. His Lordſhip indeed ſuppoſeth them to be com- mon notices inſcribed by a divine hand in the minds of men:

1 Pœnitentia virtus non eſt, ſive ex ratione non oritur: quem facti pœnitet pis miſer ſeu impotens eſt. Spin. Eth. Pt. 4. Prop.

54 and