But as
these appearances are sure, all of them, to prove deceitful,
philosophy will very soon find herself very unequally yoked with
her new associate; and instead of regulating each principle, as
they advance together, she is at every turn perverted to serve the
purposes of superstition. For besides the unavoidable incoherences,
which must be reconciled and adjusted, one may safely affirm, that
all popular theology, especially the scholastic, has a kind of
appetite for absurdity and contradiction. If that theology went not
beyond reason and common sense, her doctrines would appear too easy
and familiar. Amazement must of necessity be raised: Mystery
affected: Darkness and obscurity sought after: And a foundation of
merit afforded to the devout votaries, who desire an opportunity
of subduing their rebellious reason by the belief of the most
unintelligible sophisms.
"Ecclesiastical history sufficiently confirms these reflections.
When a controversy is started, some people always pretend with
certainty to foretell the issue. Whichever opinion, say they, is
most contrary to plain reason is sure to prevail; even when the
general interest of the system requires not that decision. Though
the reproach of heresy may, for some time, be bandied about among
the disputants, it always rests at last on the side of reason. Any
one, it is pretended, that has but learning enough of this kind to
know the definition of _Arian_, _Pelagian_, _Erastian_, _Socinian_,
_Sabellian_, _Eutychian_, _Nestorian_, _Monothelite_, &c.
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