Supposing God not to be an _arbitrary being_, but to act constantly, as the perfections of his own nature make it _fit_ and _reasonable_ for him to act, then there is an utter impossibility of our comprehending the reasonableness and fitness of many of his actions. * For instance; look at the _reason_ of things, and the _fitness_ of actions, and tell me how they moved God to create mankind in the state and condition they are in. Nothing is more above the reason of men, than to explain the reasonableness of God’s providence in creating man of such a _form_ and _condition_, to go through _such_ a state of things as human life is. No revealed mysteries can more exceed the comprehension of man, than the state of human life itself. Shew me according to what _fitness_, founded in the _nature_ of things, God’s infinite wisdom was determined to form you in such a manner, bring you into such a world, and suffer and preserve _such a state_ of things, as human life is, and then you may have some pretence to believe no revealed doctrines, but such as your own reason can deduce from the nature of things. But whilst your own _form_, whilst _creation_ and _providence_ are depths which you cannot thus look into, ’tis strangely absurd to pretend, that God cannot reveal any thing to you as a matter of religion, except your own reason can shew its foundation in the nature and reason of things. _Revelation_, you say, is on your account, and therefore you ought to see the _reasonableness_ and _fitness_ of it. And don’t you also say, that God has made you for your _own sake_; ought you not therefore to know the reasonableness and fitness of God’s forming you as you are? Don’t you say, that providence is for the _sake_ of man? Is it not therefore fit and reasonable, in the nature of things, that there should be no _mysteries_, or _secrets_, in providence, but that man should so see its methods, as to be able to prove all its steps to be constantly fit and reasonable? Don’t you say, that the _world_ is for the _sake_ of man; is it not therefore fit and reasonable that man should see, that the _past_ and _present_ state of the world has been such as the reason and fitness of things required it should be?