Page:History of the Royal Society.djvu/381

 Depths a plain Believing is at last acknowledged by all to be our only Refuge. The Truth is, notwithstanding the great Stir they have made about Religion, if we had only followed their Light, we had still worshipp'd the Creator and Redeemer of the World under the same Title by which their Predecessors did formerly at Athens, as the unknown God.

This I have urg'd so far, because I am confident that the reducing of Christianity to one particular Sect of Philosophy, and confining it to that, is one of the most destructive Engines that ever was manag'd against it. Of this the Church of Rome, for her Share, has already found the ill Effects: And the Danger is apparent: For by this means the Benefit of Religion will become very narrow, seeing where Reason takes Place, it will only convince them who are of the same Opinions in Philosophy with those that convert them: And also, (that which is worse) if ever by any Fate of Times, or Change of Governments, or Succession of new Arts, that Sect shall chance to be quite broken, the Doctrine of Christ, relying upon it, were inevitably ruin'd, unless God were pleas'd to support it a supernatural Way, or to restore it again by new ''Miracles. Religion ought not to be the Subject of Disputations: It should not stand in need of any Devises of Reason: It should in this be like the temporal Laws of all Countries, towards the obeying of which there is no need of Syllogisms or Distinctions'', nothing else is necessary but a bare Promulgation, a common Apprehension, and Sense enough to understand the Grammatical Meaning of ordinary Words. Nor ought Philosophers to regret this Divorce; seeing they have almost destroy'd themselves, by keeping Christianity so long under their Guard; by fetching Religion out of the Church Rh