themselves can be willing to be fo shamefully degraded, do they think, that all others too are bound to follow their example? Oh, what hard thoughts have these of Religion ? do they look upon it only as on a bird of prey,that comes to peck out the eyes of men? Is this all the nobility,that it gives, that men by veriue of it must be beheaded presently? do's it chop off the intelle&uals at one blow? Let's hear awhile what are the offences of Reason? are they so heinous, and capital? what ha's it done ? what laws ba's it violated ? whose commands ha's it broken? what did it ever do againf the Crown, and Dignity of Heaven, or against the peace, and tranquility of men? Why are a weak, and perverse Generation, so angry, and displeased with it? Is it because this Daughter of the morning is fallen from her primitive glory? from her original vigour, and perfe&ion? Far be it from me to extenuate that great, & fatal overthrow, which the sons of men had in their first, and original Apoftafe from their God; that, under which the whole Creation fighs, and groans: but, this we are sure, it did not annihilate the soul, it did not destroy the elfence, the powers, and faculties, nor the operations of the soul; though it did defile them, and disorder them, and every way ina dispose them. Well then, because the eye of Reason is weakned,and vitiated, will they therefore pluck it out immediately? and muft Leab be hated upon no other account, but because she is blear.eyed? The wliole head is wounded,& akes, and is there no other way, but to cut it off? The Candle of the Lord do’s not shine so clear. ly, as it was wont, muftic therefore be extinguished presently? Is it not better to enjoy the faint and languishing light of this Candle of the Lord, rather then to be in palpable and disconsolate darkness? There are indeed but a few seminal sparks left in the alhes, and must chere he whole floods of water cat on them to quench them ? 'Tis but an old imperfe& Manuscript, with some Broken periods, some lecters woru out;muft they therefore withi an unmerciful indignation rend it, and tear it asunder? 'T'is granted, that the pi&ure ha's loft its glors, and beauty, the oriency of its colous, the elegancy of its lineaments, the comliness of ics proportion; muft it therefore be totally defac'd ? muft it be made one great blot? and must the very frame of it be broken in pieces? Would you perswade the Lucanift to cut all his frings ig Ba in funder, because they are out of Tune? And will you break the Bowe upon no other account,but because it's unbended?because men have not so much of Reason as they should, will they therefore resolve to have none at all? Will you throw away your Gold, because it's mix'd with dross? Thy very Being,that's im. perfe& coo,thy graces, they are imprefe&t'; wilt thou refuse these allo? And then conlider, that the very apprehending the weak. ness of Reason, even this in some measure comes from Reason. Reason,when awakned, it feels her own wounds, it hears her own jarrings, she sees the dimness of her own fight. 'Tis a glass, that discovers its own spots, and muft it therefore be broke in pieces? Reason her self ha’s made many fad complaints unto you; the ha's told you often, and chat with tears in her eyes, what a great shipwrack (he ha’s suffered, what goods she ha's lott, how hardly The escaped with a poor decayed Being; she ha's shewn you often Come broken reliques,as the sad remembrancers of her former ruines; she told you how that, when she swam for her life, the had nothing, but two or three Jewels about her,two,or three common notions ; and would you rob her of them allo? Is this all your tenderness, and compaffion? Is this your kindness to your friend? ? Will you trample upon her now she is so low? Is this a fufficient cause to give her a Bill of Divorcement, because she ha's loft her former beauty, and fruitfulness ? Or is Reason thus offensive to them, because she cannot grasp, and comprehend the things of God? Vain ren, will they pluck out their eyes, because they cannot look upon the Sun in his brightness, and glory? What, though Reason cannot reach to the depths, to the bottomes of the Ocean, may it not therefore swim, and hold up the head, as well as it can? What, though it ( cannot enter into the Sanctum Sanctorum, and pierce within the Veil ; may it not, notwithstanding, ly in the Porch, at the gate of the Temple called Beautiful, and be a Door-keeper in the House of its God? Its wings are clipt indeed, it cannot die so high, as ic might have done ; it cannot fie so swiftly, so strongly, as once it could: will they not therefore allow ic to move, to stir, 10 Autier up and down, as well as it can? The Turrets,and Pinnacles of the stately ftru&ture are fallen: will they therefore demolish the whole Fabrick, and shake the very Foundations of it, and down with it to the ground? Though it bę not a Jacob's Ladder Ladder to climbe up to Heaven by, yet may they not use it as a faff to walk upon Earth with all ? And then Reason it self knows this also and acknowledges, that'ois dazled with the Majesty, and Glory of God; that it cannot pierce into his mysterious and unsearchable ways ; it never was so vain, as to go about to measure immensity by its own finice Compass, or to span out absolute Eternity by its own more imperfe& duration. True Reason did never go about to comprize the Bible in its own Nut-shel. And, if Reason be content with its own Sphere, why should it not have the liberty of its proper motion ? Is it, because it opposes the things of God, and wrangles a. 3. gainst the Myfteries of Salvation, is it therefore excluded? An heinous and frequent accusation indeed; but nothing more false, and injurious: and if it had been an open Enemy, that had done her this wrong, why then the could have born it; but it's thou, her friend, and companion ye have took sweet counsel together, and have entred into the House of God as friends, 'tis you, that have your dependance upon her ; that cannot speak one word to purpose against her, without her help, and a liftance. What mean you thus to revile your most intimate, and inseparable self? why do you thus flander your own Beings ? would you have all this to be true, which you say. Name but the time if you can, when ever right Peafon did oppose one jot, or apex of the word of God. Certainly, these men speak of distorted Reason all this while. Surely they do not speak of the Candle of the Lord, but of Come shadow, and appearance of it. But if they tell us, that all Reason is distorted, whether then is theirs so, in telling us so ? if they say that they do not know this by Reason,but by the Word of God, whether then is that their Reason, when it acknowledges the Word of God? whether is it then distorted, or no ? Besides, if there were no right Reason in the World, what difference between sobriery,and madness,between these men and wiser ones? how then were the Heathen left without excufe, who had nothing to fee by, but this Candle of the Lord? & how do's this thrust men below sensitive creatures ? for better have no Reason at all, then such as do’s perpetually deceive them, and delude them. Qr do's Reason thus displease them, because the blackest Er 4 rours sometimes come under the fair disguise of so beautifull a name,and have some tin&ture of Reason in them? But truly this is fo so far from being a disparagement to Reason, as that 'cis no small commendation of it:for agorator X Si Juan ThaRugés, Men love to put a plausible title, a winning frontispiece upon the fouleft Ers rours. Thus Licentiousness would fain be called by the name of Liberty; and all Diffoluteness would fain be countenanced, and secured under the Patronage, and Prote&ion of freeGrace. Thus wickedness would willingly forget its own name, and adopt it self into the family of goodness. Thus Arminianism'pleads for it self under the specious notion of God's love to Mankind. Thus that Glly Erroor of Antinomianism will needs Aile it self an Evangelical Honey-comb. Thus all irregularities, and anomalies in Church Affairs, must pride themselves in those glittering titles of a New Light, A Gospel.way, An Heaven upon Earth. No wonder then that some allo pretend to Reason, who yet run out of it, and beyond it, and besides it; but muft none therefore come near it ? because Socinus ha's burnt his wings at this Candle of the Lord, muft none therefore make use of it ? May he not be conquer'd with his own weapons, and beat out of bis own ftrong holds, and may not the head of an uncircumcised Philistine be cut off with his own sword? Or laftly, are they thus afraid of Reafox, because by vertue of this, men of wit, and subtily, will presently argue, and dispute them into an Ercour, so as that they shall not be able to difintangle a Troth, though in itself it be never so plain and unqueftionable ? But firit, Reason it self tells them, that it may be thus,and so prepares, and forcifies them against such a tryal; and then, , this only shews, that some mens Reason is not so well advanc'd and improv'd, either as it might be, or as others is; a sharper edge would quickly cut such difficulties a sunder. Some have more refned and clarifi'd intelle&uals, more vigorous and sparkling eyes than others, and one foul differs from another in glory; and thao reason, which can make some shift to maintain Erroor,might with a great deal less sweat, and pains, maintain a Truth. There's no question, but that Bellarmine, and the rest of the learned Papists could have, if they had pleased, far more caily defended the Protestant Religion, than that of their own. Be. sides, the vigour,and triumph of Reason is principally to be seen in those firft born-beams,those pure and unspotted irradiations that Ihine from it ; I mean those first bublings up of common Princi. ples, a ples,'hat are uwu’d,and acknowledged by all ; and those evident, and kindly derivations, that flow from i hem. Reason thews her face more amiably and pleasantly in a pure and clear ftream, then in those mudded and troubled waters in which the Scholemen (that have leafure enough ) are always filhing. Nay, some of their works are like so many raging Seas full of perpetual toflings, and disquietings, and foamings, and sometimes cafting up mire,and dirt; and yet these vast and voluminous Leviathans love to sport i herein, and that, which is moft intolerable, these grand espoi,chat seem'd lo zealous for Reason,at length in express terms disclaim it, and in a moft blindfold and confi sed manner, cry up their great Diana, their idol of Traosubftantiation, and the Lutherans are very fierce agaioft Reason too, much upon the fame account, because it would never allow of that their mone Arous and mis-shapen lump of Consubftantiation, But why have I all this while beaten the air and spilt words upon the ground? why do I leak to fuch, as are incurable and incapable ?, for if we speak Peason to them, that's that, which they so much disclaim : if we do not speak Reason to them, that were to di claim it too. But I speak to men, to Christians, to the friends of learning; to the protesfours of Reason: to such as put this. Candle of the Lord into a golden Candlestick, and pour continual Oil into it. Yer left any among yoli, Athenians, should ere& an Alter to an unknown God; lett you should ignorantly worship him, we will declare hm to you, And that, which we have now said, may serve as a Porch, and Preamble, to what we fhall speak hereafter out of those words, shall tinde, mon light of Reason. contrary to the light of Reason; nothing repugnant to this sov СНАР; |