But pray where’s the force of this Argument, "This is true because such a Person or such a Number of Men have said it. Or, which commonly weighs more, because I my self, the dear Idol of my own Heart have sometimes embrac’d and perhaps very zealously maintain’d it?" Were we to Poll for Truth, or were our own particular Opinions th’Infallible Standard of it, there were reason to subscribe to the Sentiments of the _Many_, or to be tenacious of our _Own_. But since Truth tho she is bright and ready to reveal her self to all sincere Inquirers, is not often found by the generality of those who pretend to seek after her, Interest, Applause, or some other little sordid Passion, being really the Mistress they court, whilst she (like Religion in another Case) is made use of for a Stale to carry on the Design the better; since we’re commonly too much under the power of Inordinate Affections to have our Understandings always clear and our Judgments certain, are too rash, too precipitate not to need the assistance of a calmer thought, a more serious review; Reason wills that we shou’d think again, and not form our Conclusions or fix our foot till we can honestly say, that we have without Prejudice or Prepossession view’d the matter in Debate on all sides, seen it in every light, have no bias to encline us either way, but are only determin’d by Truth it self, shining brightly in our eyes, and not permitting us to resist the force and Evidence it carries. This I’me sure is what Rational Creatures ought to do, what’s then the Reason that they do’t not? Laziness and Idleness in the first place; Thinking is a pain to those who have disus’d it, they will not be at the trouble of carrying on a thought, of pursuing a Meditation till it leads them into the confines of Truth, much less till it puts ’em in possession of her. ’Tis an easier way to follow on in a beaten road, than to launch out into the main Ocean, tho it be in order to the making of new Discoveries; they therefore who would be thought knowing without taking too much pains to be so, suppose ’tis enough to go on in their Fore-fathers steps, to say as they say, and hope they shall get as much Reputation by it as those who have gone before.