ent
Propositions are delivered to Children as if they were so visible
Truths that a reason, or proof of them was not to be demanded by them,
what effect can this produce in their Minds but to teach them betimes
to silence and suppress their Reason; from whence they have afterwards
no Principle of Vertue left; and their practices, as well as
opinions, must needs (as is the usual consequence hereof) become
expos'd to the Conduct of their own, or other Men's Fancies?

The existence of God being acknowledg'd a Truth so early receiv'd by
us, and so evident to our Reason, that it looks like Natural
Inscription; the Authority of that Revelation by which God has made
known his Will to Men, is to be firmly establish'd in People's Minds
upon its clearest, and most rational evidence; and consequentially
They are then to be refer'd to the Scriptures themselves, to see
therein what it is that God requires of them to _believe_ and _to do_;
the great Obligation they are under diligently to study these Divine
Oracles being duly represented to them. But to exhort any one to
search the Scriptures to the end of seeing therein what God requires
of him, before he is satisfy'd that the Scriptures are a Revelation
from God, cannot be rational: since any ones saying that the
Scriptures are God's Word, cannot satisfy a rational and inquisitive
Mind that they are so: and that the Books of the Old and New Testament
were dictated by the Spirit of God, is not a self evident Proposition,
but a Truth that demands to be made out, before it can be rationally
assented to.

It should also be effectually Taught, and not in Words alone, That it
is our Duty to study and examine the Scriptures, to the end of seeing
therein what God requires of us to _believe_, and to _do_. But none
are effectually, or sincerely taught this, if notwithstanding that
this is sometimes told them, they are yet not left at liberty to
believe, or not believe, according to what, upon examination, appears
to them to be the sense of the Scriptures: for if we must not receive
them in that sense, which, after our best inquiry, appears to us to be
their meaning, it is visible that it signifies nothing to bid us
search, and examine them.

These two things, _viz._ a rational assurance of the Divine Authority
of the Scriptures, and a liberty of fairly examining them, are
absolutely necessary to the satisfaction of any rational Person,
concerning the certainty of the Christian Religion,