Cosmologia Sacra

Whoever shall think fit to read the following discourse, I have this piece of justice to request of him: that he will begin with it. For though he should be less acquainted with some of the subjects treated of, yet will he be master of so much all along, as to discern the dependence of one thing on another, from first to last; and will then come to see that religion is so far from being inconsistent with philosophy, as to be the highest point of it.

To say that no man is an antiscripturist but for want of wit is neither good manners nor good sense. But this I say: that if any man will study the grounds of religion with the like application as he does anything else he takes to be his business to think of, I will then give him leave to be an antiscripturist if he can.

The hardest question I have been asked is this: "Do you think to dam up the Thames?" I answer: No; yet a bridge may be laid over it. And this, too, may be so far from stemming the tide as only to cause it to make a greater noise. But as the bridge may not be able to stop the tide, so I trust the tide shall never be able to beat down the bridge, but that many will hereby land themselves safe from drowning in the common stream.