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 vertue of it must be beheaded presently? do’s it chop off the intellectuals at one blow? Lets hear awhile what are the offences of Reason; are they so hainous and capital? what has it done? what lawes has it violated? whose commands has it broken? what did it ever do against the crown and dignity of heaven, or against the peace and tranquillity 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 perfection? Far be it from me to extenuate that great and fatal overthrow, which the sons of men had in their first and original apostasie from their God; that under which the whole Creation sigh’s and groanes:10 but this we are sure, it did not annihilate the soul, it did not destroy the essence, the powers and faculties, nor the operations of the soul; though it did defile them, and disorder them, and every way indispose them.
Well then, because the eye of Reason is weakened, and vitiated, will they therefore pluck it out immediately? and must Leah be hated upon no other account, but because she is blear-ey’d?11 The whole head is wounded, and akes, and is there no other way but to cut it off? The Candle of the Lord do’s not shine so clearly as it was wont, must it therfore be extinguisht 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 darknesse? There are indeed but a few seminal sparks left in the ashes, and must there be whole floods of water cast on them to quench them? ’Tis but an old imperfect Manuscript, with some broken periods, some letters worn out, must they therefore with an unmerciful indignation rend it and tear it asunder? ’Tis granted that the picture has lost its glosse and beauty, the oriency of its colours, the elegancy of its lineaments, the [15] comelinesse of its proportion; must it therefore be totally defac’d? must it be made one great blot? and must the very frame of it be broken in pieces? Would you perswade the Lutanist to cut all his strings in sunder, 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 mixt with drosse? Thy very being that’s imperfect too, thy graces, they are imperfect, wilt thou refuse these also? And then consider, that the very apprehending the weaknes of Reason, even this in some measure comes from Reason. Reason, when awaken’d, it feels her own wounds, it hears her own jarrings, she sees the dimnesse of her own sight. ’Tis a glasse that discovers its own spots, and must it therefore be broke in peices? Reason her self has made many sad complaints unto you; she has told you often, and that with teares in her eyes, what a great shipwrack she has suffered, what goods she has lost, how hardly she escaped with a poor decayed being; she has shewn you often some broken reliques as the sad remembrancers of her former ruines; she told you how that when she swam for her life, she had nothing but two or three Jewels about her, two or three common notions; and would you rob her of them also? is this all your tendernesse and compassion? Is this your kindness to your friend? will you trample upon her now she is so low? Is this a sufficient cause to give her a Bill of divorcement,12 because she has lost her former beauty and fruitfulnesse?
Or is Reason thus offensive to them, because she cannot grasp and comprehend the things of God? Vain men, will they pluck out their eyes because they cannot look upon the Sun in his brightnesse 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 Veile; may it not notwithstanding lie in the Porch, at the gate of the Temple called beautiful, and be a door-keeper in the house of its God?13 Its wings are clipt indeed, it cannot flie so high as it might have done, it cannot flie so swiftly, so strongly as once it could, will they not therefore allow it to move, to stirre, to flutter up and down as well as it can? the turrets and pinacles of the stately structure 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 be not a Jacobs ladder to climbe up to heaven by, yet may they not use it as a staffe to walk upon earth withall? and then Reason it self knows this also and acknowledges, that ’tis dazled with the Majesty and glory of God; that it cannot pierce into his mysterious and unsearchable wayes; it never was so vain as to go about to measure immensity by its own finite Compasse, or to span out absolute eternity by its own more imperfect duration. True Reason did never go about to comprize the Bible in its own Nutshel. And if [16] 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 against the mysteries 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 she 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,14 ’tis you that have your dependance upon her; that cannot speak one word to purpose against her, without her help and assistance. What mean you thus to revile your most intimate and inseparable self? why do you thus slander your own beings? would you have all this to be true which you say? Name but the time if you can, when ever right Reason 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 some 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 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 sobriety and madnesse, between these men and wiser ones? how then were the heathen left without excuse,15 who had nothing to see by but this Candle of the Lord? and 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.
Or do’s Reason thus displease them, because the blackest Errours sometimes come under the fair disguise of so beautiful a name, and have some tincture of Reason in them? But truly this is so farre from being a disparagement to Reason, as that ’tis no small commendation of it, for πρόσωπον χρὴ θέμεν τηλαυγῃς,16 Men love to put a plausible title, a winning frontispiece upon the foulest Errours. Thus licentiousnesse would faine be called by the name of liberty, and all dissolutenesse would faine be countenanced and secured under the Patronage and protection of free-grace. Thus wickednesse would willingly forget its own name, and adopt it self into the family of goodnesse. Thus Arminianisme pleads for it self under the specious notion of Gods love to mankinde.17 Thus that silly Errour of Antinomianisme will needs stile 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.18 No wonder then that some also pretend to Reason, who yet run out of it, and beyond it, and besides it; but must none therefore come near it? because Socinus has burnt his wings at this Candle of the Lord, must none therefore make use of it?
May he not be conquer’d with his own weapons, and beat out of his own [17] strong holds? and may not the head of an uncircumcised Philistine be cut off with his own sword?19
Or lastly, are they thus afraid of Reason, because by vertue of this, men of wit and subtilty will presently argue and dispute them into an Errour, so as that they shall not be able to disintangle a truth, though in it self it be never so plaine and unquestionable? But first, Reason it self tells them that it may be thus, and so prepares and fortifies 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 asunder. Some have more refined and clarifi’d intellectuals,
