Let. 2. Lord HERBERT of Cherbury. 21 which they were not ſo expreſly obliged to believe and practiſe before. And it would be a ſtrange thing to complain againſt revelation on this account, or accuſe it of falſnood, and to chooſe rather to be without the ſignal advantage of ſuch a re- velation, and its glorious benefits, privileges, and hopes, than to be obliged to receive the diſcoveries it brings, and to prae- tiſe the duties which reiult from them.

One of the firſt Enghib writers that publiſhed animadverſions on Lord Herbert's ſcheme(for I fhall not takeé notice of wWhat ) was Mr. RKichard

that

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ſome learned foreigners have done this way Baxter, in a bôok publiſhed in 1671, which he calls,“ « reaſons for the Chriſtian religion, and no reaſon agai And which he deſigned as an appendix to his excell of the reaſons of the Chriſtian religion. One part otf contains, Animadverſions on a Tractate de Veritate, written * by the noble and learned Lord Edward Herbert, Baron of Cherbury. This writer makes judicious refiectious on ſeveral paſſages in that book; but takes no notice of his Tract de Re- ligione Laici, nor of that learned work de Religione Gentilium, which probably he had not ſeen. The celebrated Mr. Lock, in his Eſſay on Human Underſtanding, hath ſome obſervations on Lord Herbert's five articles, to ſhew, that however reaſonable they may appear to be, they cannot be juſtly accounted common notices in the ſenſe in which that Lord repreſents them; viz. as clearly inſcribed by the hand of God, in the minds of all menc. And in his ˙ Raaſonableneſs of Cbriſtianity as deli- vered in the Scrißtures,“ he hath, without formally mentioning Lord Herbert, furniſhed a proper antidote againſt his ſcheme, by ſhewing, with great clearneſs and force, the uſefulneſs of divine revelation for ſetting the great principles of the law of nature, and the important duties of religion and morality in a ſtrong and convincing light, and inforcing them wirh the moſt powerful motives; and that the mere natural unaſſiſted light of reaſon was, as things were circumſtanced, inſufficient and in- effectual for that purpoſe a. This matter is alſo fully and di- ſtinctly treated in Dr. Wbhitby's learned work, intituled, The MNeceſſity and UÜſefulneſs of the Chriſtian Revelation, by reaſon of the Corruptions of the principles f natural Reli and Heathens. London, 8vo, 1705.

The only author among us, that Iknow,

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conſidered the whole of Lord Herbert'sé

c Eſſay on human Underſta i. c. 3. S 1. 15. 17. 18, 19. d Ses his works, vol. ii. P. 74,& 1 Ath edit

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