Excerpt from The Miscellaneous Works of the Late Reverend and Learned Conyers Middleton, D.D., Principal Librarian of the University of Cambridge, Vol. 3 of 5 Worfe, will, when examined, be found to'be falfe: for had not Natural Religion a fubfilt knee before Cbri/tianity was ever known to the 'world? And did not many by its fole influence 'attain to fuch an exalted degree of virtue, as few or none have ever fince arrived at and at this very day in Mabometan and Idolatrous Na tions, where Cbri/tianity has no influence, is it not necefi'ary to imagine, that there are many, who by the meer ligbt of Reafon fee through the cheat of the popular Religion, and by its help form to themfelves fome other more ra tional rule of life and manners 3 and lal'tly, in our own as well as other Cbri/tian countries, however inconceivable it may be to you, yet all who know any thing of the world, will eafily conceive, and aetually find it a very common cafe, to meet with men who with little or no regard for Revealed Religion, yet exprefs both by words and aetions a great reverence for Natural; of which number your Autbor, for any thing I know, or you have fald to the contrary, may poilibly be one: for fince in every part of his work he prolefi'es a very bn notion' of the excellency of Reafon, Trutb and Virtue; profeffes to believe a God, a Providence, a future flate both reafon and 'charity oblige us to look Upon him as fincere, till we are forced to think Otherwife by fome particular know ledge or information of his real life and cha taeter. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.