be presum'd that there are, from the meanest Gentlewoman to the
greatest Ladies, that can give any such account of the Christian
Religion, as would inform an inquisitive Stranger what it consisted
in; and what are the grounds of believing it? Such Women as understand
something of the distinguishing Opinions of that Denomination they
have been bred up in, are commonly thought highly intelligent in
Religion; but I think there are but very few, even of this little
number, who could well inform a rational Heathen concerning
Christianity itself: Which is an Ignorance inexcusable in them, tho',
perhaps, it is very often the effect only of the want of other useful
Knowledge, for the not having whereof, Women are much more to be
pitty'd than blam'd.

The improvements of Reason, however requisite to Ladies for their
Accomplishment, as rational Creatures; and however needful to them for
the well Educating of their Children, and to their being useful in
their Families, yet are rarely any recommendation of them to Men; who
foolishly thinking, that Money will answer to all things, do, for the
most part, regard nothing else in the Woman they would Marry: And not
often finding what they do not look for, it would be no wonder if
their Off-spring should inherit no more Sense than themselves. But be
Nature ever so kind to them in this respect, yet through want of
cultivating the Tallents she bestows upon those of the Female Sex, her
Bounty is usually lost upon them; and Girls, betwixt silly Fathers and
ignorant Mothers, are generally so brought up, that traditionary
Opinions are to them, all their lives long, instead of Reason. They
are, perhaps, sometimes told in regard of what Religion exacts, That
they must _Believe_ and _Do_ such and such things, because the Word
of God requires it; but they are not put upon searching the Scriptures
for themselves, to see whether, or no, these things are so; and they
so little know why they should look upon the Scriptures to be the Word
of God, that but too often they are easily perswaded out of the
Reverence due to them as being so: And (if they happen to meet with
such bad examples) are not seldom brought from thence, even to scoff
at the Documents of their Education; and, in consequence thereof, to
have no Religion at all. Whilst others (naturally more dispos'd to be
Religious) are either (as divers in the Apostles Days were) _carry'd
away with every wind of Doctrine, ever learning and never comi