who judged, by the true
rule of Reason, what was right, and what was wrong, in the first of
these; and who contemning the Fopperies of the last, were oftentimes
(thro' their means who most found their Account in those Matters) in
danger of passing with the silly People for Atheists: such as search
for their opinions, and the Measures of their Actions in the Reason
and Truth of Things, having always been very unacceptable to Those
whose Interest it has been to keep up the Credit and Authority of vain
Traditions and Superstitious Practices; because if _These_ should be
hearken'd to, _Those_ Apprehended that they should become useless.

Men of this third sort are They who are vertuous in a Rational and
Christian estimation; for if adherence to the Rule of Mens Actions (be
that what it will) denominates Men vertuous among those of their own
perswasion therein; then That which denominates a Man vertuous amongst
Those who take the prescriptions of right Reason, or of the Gospel
(for these are but one, and the same, differently promulg'd) for the
Rule of their Actions, must be an adherence to the Law of right
Reason, or of this Revelation: Which Rule, is not (as all others are)
a changeable, because (as we have seen) no Arbitrary thing; it being
founded in Relations, and Connexions, which are as immutable as that
determinate constitution in Things, which makes every thing what it
is. From whence it has been that such Men in all Ages, and Places, as
were above the prejudices of their Country Religion, and Manners,
_viz._ such as we have now spoken of, have ever had much the same
Sentiments in respect of Vertue. But these have always been but a
small Number: Custom, and blind Opinion, have ever govern'd the World;
and the light of Reason has neither appear'd to Men to be, nor in
Fact been any where sufficient to direct the generality of Mankind to
Truth; as some imagine it capable of doing; who because of that clear
Evidence which Reason gives to those verities that Revelation has
already taught them, think that they owe, or might have ow'd to this
light of Reason what they are not indebted to it for; and what it is a
Thousand to One odds they would not have receiv'd from it, had they
been Born where there was no other than Natural Light.

For we find not any Country in any Age of the World, wherein Men did
generally acknowledge, by the meer force of Reason, Natural Religion
in its full extent; or where the Law of Nature was by