upon others nor do I care to endeavour the change of their Minds though I judge them mistaken as long as Vertue the Interests of Religion the Peace of the World and their own are not prejudiced by their Errors By this modest indifference I secure Charity for all the diversities of Belief and equally offer my Frienship and Converses to the several Sects and Perswasions that stick to the plain Principles of the Gospel and a Vertuous Life overlooking their particular fondnesses and follies This is the temper of my Genius and this some warm People who have more Heat than Light are apt to call Scepticism and cold Neutrality But that it deserves better Names I have made appear in some other Papers True it is That the Men of the meer Epicurean sort have left God and Providence out of their Accounts But other Philosophers have shewn what Fools they are for doing so and how absurd their pretended Philosophy is in supposing things to have been made and ordered by the casual hits of Atoms in a mighty Void And though their general Doctrine of Matter and Motion be exceeding ancient and very accountable when we suppose Matter was at first created by Almighty Power and its Motions ordered and directed by Omniscient Wisdom Yet the supposal that they are independent and eternal is very precarious and unreasonable And that all the regular Motions in Nature should be from blind tumultuous jumblings intermixtures is the most unphilosophical Fansie and ridiculous Dotage in the World So that there is no reason to accuse Philosophy of a Fault which Philosophy sufficiently shames and reproves and yet I doubt too many have entertain'd great prejudice against it upon this score and 't is a particular brand upon some of the modern Men that they have revived the Philosophy of Epicurus which they think to be in its whole extent Atheistical and Irreligious To which I say that the Opinion of the World 's being made by a fortuitous concurrence of Atoms is impious and vile And this those of Epicurus his Elder School taught Whereas the late Restorers of the Corpuscularian Hypothesis hate and despise the wicked and absurd Doctrine But thus far they think the Atomical Philosophy reasonable viz. as it teacheth That the Operations of Nature are performed by subtile streams of minute Bodies and not by I know not what imaginary Qualities and Forms They think That the various Motions and Figures of the parts of Matter are enough for all the Phaenomena and all the varieties which with relation to our Senses we call such and such Qualities But then they suppose and teach That God created Matter and is the supreme Orderer of its Motions by which all those Diversities are made And hereby Piety and the Faith of Providence is secured This as far as we know any thing of elder Times was the ancient Philosophy of the World and it doth not in the least interfere with any Principle of Religion Thus far I dare say I may undertake for most of the Corpuscularian Philosophers of our times excepting those of M. Hobbes his way And therefore I cannot but wonder at a late Reverend Author who seems to conclude those Modern Philosophers under the name and notion of such Somatists as are for meer Matter and Motion and exclude immaterial Beings whereas those Learned Men though they own Matter and Motion as the material and formal causes of the Phenomena They do yet acknowledge God's Efficiency and Government of all Things with as much seriousness and contend for it with as much zeal as any Philosophers or Divines whatsoever And 't is very hard that any number of Men should be exposed to the suspicion of being Atheists for denying the Peripatetick Qualities and Forms and there is nothing else overthrown by the Corpuscularian Doctrines as they are managed by those Philosophers So that methinks that Reverend Person hath not dealt so fairly with the great Names of Des-Cartes and Gassendus where he mentions them promiscuously with the meer Epicurean and Hobbian Somatists without any note to distinguish them from those Sadduces For both those celebrated Men have laboured much in asserting the Grand Articles of Religion against the Infidel and Atheist But 2. 't is alledg'd by some Philosophy disposeth Men to despise the Scriptures or at least to neglect the study of them and therefore is to be flighted and exploded among Christians To this I say That Philosophy is the knowledge of God's Works and there is nothing in God's Works that is contrary to his Word How then should the study of the one incline Men to despise the other Certainly had there been any such impious tendency in searching into God's Works to the lessening of our value of the Scriptures The Scripture it self would never have recommended it so much unto us Yea this is so far from being true that on the contrary the knowledge of God's Works tends in its proper nature to dispose Men to love and veneration of the Scriptures For by familiarity with Nature we are made sensible of the Power Wisdom and Goodness of God fresh Instances of which we shall find in all things And 't is one great design of the Scripture to promote the Glory of these Attributes How then can he that is much affected with them chuse but love and esteem those Holy Records which so gloriously illustrate the Perfections he admires Besides by inquiry into God's Works we discover continually how little we can comprehend of his Ways and Menagements and he that is sensible of this will find himself more inclined to reverence the declarations of his Word though they are beyond his reach and though he cannot fathom those Mysteries he is required to believe Such a disposition is necessary for the securing our Reverence to the Divine Oracles and Philosophy promotes it much So that though 't is like enough there may be those that pretend to Philosophy who have less veneration and respect for the Scripture than they ought yet that impious disesteem of those sacred Writings is no effect of their Philosophy but of their corrupt and evil Inclinations And to remove the scandal brought upon Natural Wisdom by those Pretenders it may be observed that none are more earnest or more frequent in the proof and recommendation of the Authority of Scripture than those of Philosophical Inclination and Genius who by 〈◊〉 â—…mblick Capacity and Profession have the best opportunities to give testimony to the Honour of that Divine Book But to justifie the imputation of the disservice Philosophy doth Religion and the Scriptures it may by some be pleaded That Philosophy viz. that which is called the new teacheth Doctrines that are coutrary to the Word of God or at least such as we have no ground from Scripture to believe For instance That the Earth moves and That the Moon is of a Terrestrial Nature and capable of Inhabitants which Opinions are presumed to be impious and Antiscriptural In return to this
deduce some Corollaries that may be of use for the better understanding of the whole Matter 1. Reason is certain and infallible This follows from the state I gave of the Nature and Notion of Reason in the beginning It consists in First Principles and the Conclusions that are raised from them and the Observations of Sense Now first Principles are certain or nothing can be so for every possible Conclusion must be drawn from those or by their help and every Article of Faith supposeth them And for the Propositions that arise from those certain Principles they are certain likewise For nothing can follow from Truth but Truth in the longest Series of Deduction If Error creep in there is ill consequence in the case And the sort of Conclusions that arise from the Observations of Sense if the Sense be rightly circumstantiated and the Inference rightly made are certain also For if our Senses in all their due Circumstances deceive us All is a delusion and we are sure of nothing But we know that first Principles are certain and that our Senses do not deceive us because God that bestowed them upon us is True and Good and we are as much assured that whatever we duly conclude from either of them is certain because whatever is drawn from any Principle was virtually contained in it 2. I infer That Reason is in a sense the Word of God viz. That which he hath written upon our Minds and Hearts as Scripture is that which is written in a Book The former is the Word whereby he hath spoken to all Mankind the latter is that whereby he hath declared his Will to the Church and his peculiar People Reason is that Candle of the Lord of which Solomon speaks Prov. 20. 27. That Light whereby Christ hath enlightned every one that cometh into the World John 1. 9. And that Law whereby the Consciences of the Heathen either accuse or excuse one another Rom. 2. 15. So that Hierocles spoke well when he said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To be perswaded by God and right Reason is one and the same thing And Luther called Philosophy within its own bounds The Truth of God 3. The belief of our Reason is an Exercise of Faith and Faith is an Act of Reason The former part is clear from the last Particular and we believe our Reasons because we have them from God who cannot mistake and will not deceive So that relying on them in things clearly perceived is trust in God's veracity and goodness and that is an exercise of Faith Thus Luke 12. The not belief of Reason that suggests from God's clothing the Lillies that He will provide for us is made by our Saviour a defect of Faith Vers. 28. O ye of little Faith And for the other part that Faith is an Act of Reason that is evident also For 'T is the highest Reason to believe in God revealing 4. No Principle of Reason contradicts any Articles of Faith This follows upon the whole Faith befriends Reason and Reason serves Religion and therefore they cannot clash They are both certain both the Truths of God and one Truth doth not interfere with another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Aristotle Truth agrees with all things that are Whatsoever contradicts Faith is opposite to Reason for 't is a Fundamental Principle of that That God is to be believed Indeed sometimes there is a seeming contradiction between them But then either something is taken for Faith that is but Phansie or something for Reason that is but Sophistry or the supposed contradiction is an Error and Mistake 5. When any thing is pretended from Reason against any Article of Faith we ought not to cut the Knot by denying Reason but endeavour to unite it by answering the Argument and 't is certain it may be fairly answered For all Hereticks argue either from false Principles or fallaciously conclude from true ones So that our Faith is to be defended not by declaiming against Reason in such a case which strengthens the Enemy and to the great prejudice of Religion allows Reason on his side But we must endeavour to defend it either by discovering the falshood of the Principles he useth in the name of Reason or the ill Consequence which he calls Proof 6. When any thing is offered us for an Article of Faith that seems to contradict Reason we ought to see that there be good cause to believe that this is divinely revealed and in the sense propounded If it be we may be assured from the former Aphorisms that the Contradiction is but an Appearance and it may be discovered to be so But if the Contradiction be real This can be no Article of Revelation or the Revelation hath not this sense For God cannot be the Author of Contradictions and we have seen that Reason as well as Faith is his I mean the Principles of Natural Truth as well as those of Revelation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 faith Aristotle Truth is throughout contrary to falshood and what is true in Divinity cannot be false in Reason 'T is said indeed in the Talmud If two Rabbins differ in Contradictories yet both have their Opinions from Moses and from God But we are not obliged to such an irrational kind of Faith And ought not to receive any thing as an Article of it in a sense that palpably contradicts Reason no more than we may receive any sense that contradicts the direct Scriptures Faith and Reason accord as well as the Old Testament and the New and the Analogy of Reason is to be heeded also because even that is Divine and Sacred 7. There is nothing that God hath revealed to oblige our Faith but he hath given us reason to believe that he hath revealed it For though the thing be never so clearly told me if I have not reason to think that God is the Revealer of what is so declared I am not bound to believe it except there be evidence in the thing it self For 't is not Faith but vain credulity to believe every thing that pretends to be from God So that we ought to ask our selves a Reason why we believe the Scripture to be the Revelation of God's Will and ought not to assent to any sense put upon it till we have ground to think that that sense is his mind I say we must have ground either from our particular Reasons or the Authority of the Church otherwise our Faith is vain Credulity and not Faith in God 8. A Man may hold an erroneous Opinion from a mistaken sense of Scripture and deny what is the truth of the Proposition and what is the right meaning of the Text and yet not err in Faith For Faith is a belief of God revealing And if God have not so revealed this or that as to give us certain ground to believe this to be his sense he hath not sufficiently revealed it to oblige our Faith So that though I deny such or such a sense while I believe
cannot conceive a Spirit or any being without extension whereas others say They cannot conceive but that whatever is extended is impenetrable and consequently corporeal which diversity I think I have reason to ascribe to some difference in the natural temper of the mind 2. But another very fatal occasion of our mistakes is the great prejudice of Custom and Education which is so unhappily prevalent that though the Soul were never so truly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Philosopher call'd it an unwritten table in it self yet this doth very often so scribble on it as to render it incapable of other impressions we judg all things by those Anticipations and condemn or applaud them as they differ or agree with our first Opinions 'T is on this account that almost every Country censures the Laws Customs and Doctrines of every other as absurd and unreasonable and are confirm'd in their own follies beyond possibility of conviction Our first Age is like the melted wax to the prepared Seal that receives any impression and we suck in the opinions of our Clime and Country as we do the common Air without thought or choice and which is worse we usually sit down under those Prejudices of Education and Custom all our Lives after For either we are loth to trouble our selves to examine the Doctrines we have long taken for granted or we are scar'd from inquiring into the things that Custom and common Belief have made Venerable and Sacred We are taught to think with the Hermit that the Sun shines no were but in our Cells and that Truth and Certainty are confin'd within that Belief in which we were first instructed From whence we contract an obstinate adherence to the conceits in which we were bred and a resolv'd contempt of all other Doctrines So that what Astrologers say of our Fortunes and the events of common life may as well be said of the opinions of the most that they are written in their Stars having as little freedom in them as the effects of Destiny And since the Infusions of Education have such interest in us are so often appeal'd to as the dictates of Truth and impartial Reason 't is no wonder we are so frequently deceiv'd and are so imperfect in our Knowledg Another cause of which is 3. The power that Interest hath over our Affections and by them over our Judgments When men are ingag'd by this they can find Truth any where and what is thought convenient to be true will at last be believed to be so Facilè credimus quod volumus So that I do not think that the learned Assertors of vain and false Religions and Opinions do always profess against their Consciences rather their Interest brings their Consciences to their Profession for this doth not only corrupt Mens Practise but very often pervert their Minds also and insensibly mislead them into Errours 4. But our Affections misguide us by the respect we have to others as well as by that we bear to our selves I mentioned The Instances of Antiquity and Authority We look with a superstitious Reverence upon the accounts of past Ages and with a supercilious Severity on the more deserving products of our own a vanity that hath possest all times as well as ours and the golden Age was never present For as an inconsiderable Weight by vertue of it's distance from the Centre of the Ballance will out-weigh much heavier bodies that are nearer to it so the most light and vain things that are far off from the present Age have more Esteem and Veneration then the most considerable and substantial that bear a modern date and we account that nothing worth that is not fetcht from a far off in which we very often deceive our selves as that Mariner did that brought home his Ship Fraught with common Pebbles from the Indies We adhere to the Determinations of our Fathers as if their Opinions were entail'd on us and our Conceptions were ex-Traduce And thus while every Age is but an other shew of the former 't is no wonder that humane science is no more advanced above it's ancient Stature For while we look on some admired Authors as the Oracles of all Knowledg and spend that time and those pains in the Study and Defence of their Doctrines which should have been imploy'd in the search of Truth and Nature we must needs stint our own Improvements and hinder the Advancement of Science Since while we are Slaves to the Opinions of those before us Our Discoveries like water will not rise higher then their Fountains and while we think it such Presumption to endeavour beyond the Ancients we fall short of Genuine Antiquity Truth unless we suppose them to have reach't perfection of Knowledg in spight of their own acknowledgments of Ignorance And now whereas it is observ'd that the Mathematicks and Mechanick Arts have considerably advanc'd and got the start of other Sciences this may be considered as a chief cause of it That their Progress hath not been retarded by this reverential awe of former Discoveries 'T was never an Heresie to out-limn Apelles or to out-work the Obelisks Galilaeuâ—… without a Crime out-saw all Antiquity and was not afraid to believe his Eyes in reverence to Aristotle and Ptolomy 'T is no disparagement to those famous Optick Glasses that the Ancients never us'd them nor are we shy of their Informations because they were hid from Ages We believe the polar vertue of the Loadstone without a Certificate from the dayes of old and do not confine our selves to the sole conduct of the Stars for fear of being wiser than our Fathers Had Authority prevail'd here the fourth part of the Earth had been yet unknown and Hercules Pillars had still been the Worlds Ne ultra Senecd's Prophesie had been an unfulfil'd Prediction and one Moity of our Globes an empty Hemisphere 'T is true we owe much reverence to the Ancients and many thanks to them for their Helps and Discoveries but implicitly and servilely to submit our Judgments to all Opinions is inconsistent with that respect that we may and ought to have to the freedom of our our own Minds and the dignity of Humane Nature And indeed as the great Lord Bacon hath observ'd we have a wrong apprehension of Antiquity which in the common acception is but the nonage of the World Antiquitas seculi est juventus Mâ—…di So that in those Appeals we fetch our Knowledg from the Cradle and the comparative infancy of days Upon a true account the present Age is the greatest Antiquity and if that must govern and sway our Judgments let multitude of days speak If we would reverence the Ancients as we ought we should dâ—… it by imitating their Example which was not supiâ—…ly and superstitionsly to sit down in fond admiration of the Learning of those that were before them but to examine their Writings to avoid their Mistakes and to use their Discoveries in order to the further improvement of Knowledg
they had generally silly and fantastick conceptions of Free Grace Gospel-liberty Saving knowledge Pure Ordinances The motions of the Spirit Workings of Corruption Powerful preaching Liberty of Conscience Illuminations and Indwellings That their Admirers generally talk'd those words by rote without knowing the meaning of them and that the Teachers themselves understood them in a false and erroneous sense That bating such words and the talk of Outgoings Incommings Givings-in Dawnings Refinings Withdrawings and other Metaphors there was nothing extraordinary in their whole Divinity but the non-sense and absurdities of it Thus They declar'd freely against the Gibberish of that Age and stated the right Notion of those points of Religion which the others had so transformed and abused FUrther Whereas the Sects kept up loud cryes against the Church of Bensalem as guilty of Superstition Will-worship undue Impositions and Persecution They took them to task here also and declar'd That Superstition in the properest sense of it imports An over-timerous and dreadful apprehension of God which presents him as rigid and apt to be angry on the one hand and as easie to be pleas'd with flattering devotions on the other so that Superstition works two wayes viz. by begetting fears of things in which there is no hurt and fondness of such as have no good in them on both which accounts they declar'd the Ataxites to be some of the most superstitious people in the World They shew'd That their dreadful notions of God which represented him as one that by peremptory unavoidable decrees had bound over the greatest part of men to everlasting Torments without any consideration of their sin only to shew the absoluteness of his power over them I say They declar'd that those black thoughts of Him were the Fountain of numerous superstitions That their causless fears of the innocent Rites and usages of the Church of Bensalem which were only matters of order and decency appointed by the Governours of the Church and not pretending any thing in particular to divine Institution was very gross and silly superstition That they were very superstitious in being afraid and bogling at prescribed Forms of Prayer kneeling at the holy Sacrament the Cross in Baptism and the like becomming and decent Institutions That 't was Ignorance and Superstition to fly off with such dread from a few injoyn'd Ceremonies because forsooth they were symbolical and significant That the Ceremonies that are not so are vain and impertinent That the Ruling Powers may appoint such for the visible instruction and edification of the People and for the more reverence and solemnity of Worship That the current principle among them That Nothing is to be done in the Worship of God but what is particularly commanded and prescribed in Scripture is a foolish groundless conceit and the occasion of many Superstitions That though this is always pretended and said yet it was never proved That to observe the Church in such appointments without any opinion of their antecedent necessity is a due act of obedience to it But to fly from them as sinful and Anti-christian is great Superstition These things they declar'd and prov'd against the negative Superstitions of Taste not Touch not handle not And They shew'd also how justly chargeable the Ataxites were with many Positive ones in that they doated upon little needless foolish things and lay'd a great stress of Religion upon them That the keeping such stir about pretended Orthodox opinions and the placing them in their Creeds among the most sacred and fundamental Doctrines was a dangerous and mischievous Superstition That it was very superstitious to dignify private conceits or uncertain tenents with the style of Gospel-light Gods Truths precious Truths and the like expressions of admiration and fondness That to intitle the Spirit of God to the effects of our imaginations and the motions of natural passions was Superstition and that so was the opinion of the necessity and spirituality of suddain conceiv'd prayer That there was much Superstition in their Idolizing their particular ways of Worship and models of Discipline as the pure Ordinances and Christs Government and Scripture Rules And that in these and many other respects they that talk'd so much against Superstition were themselves most notoriously guilty of it As to Will-worship They taught after your most learned Hammondus That the Apostle in the only place where it is mention'd Col. 2. doth not speak of it in an evil sense But that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imports a free and unconstrain'd worship which is the more acceptable for being so That Sacrifices before the Law Free-will-offerings under it The feasts of Purim and Dedication Davids design of building the Temple the Austerities of the Rechabites and St. Paul's refusing hire for his labour among the Corinthians were of this sort That men are not to be blamed for Will-worship except they would impose it without Authority as necessary That when they thus teach for Doctrines their own Traditions and grow so proud and conceited with them as to separate from the publick Communion upon the fancy that they are more pure and holy then others That this their Will-worship is sinful and Pharisaical which was the case of the Ataxites who therefore were Will-worshippers in the evil sense But the Anti-fanites shewed that the pious Institutions of just Authority were no way lyable to any such imputation That such might impose particular Circumstances and Decencies and that those Impositions were no way contrary to Gospel Liberty That that was only Freedom from the Jewish yoke from the bondage of sin and power of Sathan not Liberty from the Injunctions and Appointments of Civil or Ecclesiastical Governours That all or the chief power of these conconsisted in fixing and appointing circumstances of order and decorum that were left undetermined and not prescrib'd in Scripture That if they may not do this they are in a manner useless That the Church of Bensalem impos'd nothing that was grievous or prohibited They minded the Ataxites that themselves were great Imposers That they imposed Oaths and Ceremonies in that part of Religious Worship a form of words the lifting up of the hand and That they would have impos'd numerous doubtful and false opinions to have been subscrib'd as a necessary Confession of Faith making thereby their own private tenents of equal moment and certainty with the great fundamental Articles which is proper imposing upon the Conscience That they would not by any means allow Liberty of Conscience when they were in power that this then was the great Abomination and the most accursed thing in the world That they persecuted the Bensalemites for their Consciences with wonderful inhumanity That when other power is taken from them they are grievous persecutors with their Tongues and are continually shooting the Arrows of bitter scornful words against all that are of different judgment Thus Those Divines disabled all the charges and pretences of the Fanites and turn'd the points and edge upon themselves And
it is not from God his veracity and Authority is not concerned since I am ready however to give a chearful assent to what-ever is clearly and sufficiently revealed This Proposition follows from the former and must be understood only of those Doctrines that are difficult and obscurely delivered And that many things are so delivered in Scripture is certain For some are only hinted and spoken occasionally some figuratively and by way of Parable and Allegory some according to Mens Conceptions and some in Ambiguous and Aenigmatical Phrases which Obscurities may occasion mistake in those who are very ready to believe what-ever God saith and when they do I should be loth to say that such err in Faith Though those that wrest plain Texts to a compliance with their Interests and their Lusts Though their Affections may bring their Judgments to vote with them yet theirs is Error in Faith with a witness and capable of no benefit from this Proposition 9. In searching after the sense of Scripture we ought to consult the Principles of Reason as we do other Scriptures For we have shewn That Reason is another part of God's Word And though the Scripture be sufficient for its own end yet Reason must be presupposed unto it for without this Scripture cannot be used nor compared nor applied nor understood 10. The Essentials of Religion are so plainly revealed that no Man can miss them that hath not a mighty corrupt bias in his Will and Affections to infatuate and blind his Vnderstanding Those Essentials are contained in the Decalogue and the Creed Many speculative remoter Doctrines may be true but not Fundamental For 't is not agreeable to the goodness or justice of God that Mens eternal Interests should depend upon things that are difficult to be understood and easily mistaken If they did No Man could be secure but that do what he could he should perish everlastingly for not believing or believing amiss some of those difficult Points that are supposed necessary to Salvation and all those that are ignorant and of weak understanding must perish without help or they must be saved by implicit Faith in unknown Fundamentals THESE are some Propositions that follow from my Discourse and from one another The better they are considered the more their force will be perceived and I think they may serve for many very considerable purposes of Religion Charity and the peace of Mankind ANd now as a Conclusion to the whole I shall add some Considerations of the dangerous tendency of the common practice at least among the Sects of declaiming against Reason as an Enemy to Religion 1. It tends to the introduction of Atheism Infidelity and Scepticism and hath already brought in a flood of these upon us For what advantage can the Atheist and Infidel expect greater than this That Reason is against Religion What do they pretend What can they propose more If so there will be no proving That there is a God or That the Scripture is his Word and then we believe gratis and our Faith hangs upon Humour and Imagination and that Religion that depends upon a warm Phansie and an ungrounded belief stands but till a Disease or a new Conceit alter the Scene of Imagination and then down falls the Castle whose Foundation was in the Air. 'T was the charge of Julian the Apostate against the Primitive Christians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That their Wisdom was to believe as if they had no ground for their Faith And those that renounce and decry Reason justifie Julian in his Charge If this be so Religion will have no bottom but the Phansie of every one that professeth it and how various and inconstant a thing Imagination is every Man knows These are the Consequences of defamations of Reason on the pretended account of Religion and we have seen in multitudes of deplorable Instances That they follow in practice as well as reasoning Men of corrupt inclinations suspect that there is no Reason for our Faith and Religion and so are upon the borders of quitting it And the Enthusiast that pretends to know Religion best tells them that these Suspicions are very true and thence the Debauchee gladly makes the desperate Conclusion Or at least when they hear that Reason is uncertain various and fallacious they deny all credit to their Faculties and become confounded Scepticks that settle in nothing This I take to have been one of the greatest and most deadly occasions of the Atheism of our days and he that hath rejected Reason may be one when he pleaseth and cannot reprehend or reduce any one that is so already 2. The denial of Reason in Religion hath been the principal Engine that Hereticks and Enthusiasts have used against the Faith and that which lays us open to infinite follies and impostures Thus the Arrians quarrelled with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it was deduced by consequence but not expressed in Scripture The Apollinarists would by no means allow of Reason And St. Austin saith of the Donatists that they did calumniate and decry It to raise prejudice against the Catholick Faith and elsewhere Doctores vestri Hominem dialecticum fugiendum potius cavendum quà m refellendum censuerunt The Vbiquitarians defend their Errors by denying the judgment of Reason and the Macedonians would not have the Deity of the Holy Ghost proved by Consequence The later Enthusiasts in Germany and other places set up loud and vehement out-cries against Reason and the Lunaticks among us that agree in nothing else do yet sweetly accord in opposing this Carnal Reason and this indeed is their common Interest The impostures of Mens Phansies must not be seen in too much light and we cannot dream with our eyes open Reason would discover the nakedness of Sacred Whimsies and the vanity of Mysterious Non-sense This would disparage the Darlings of the Brain and cool the pleasant heats of kindled Imagination And therefore Reason must be decryed because an enemy to madness and Phansie set up under the Notion of Faith and Inspiration Hence Men had got the trick to call every thing that was Consequent and Reasonable Vain Philosophy and every thing that was Sober Carnal Reasoning Religion is set so far above Reason that at length it is put beyond Sobriety and Sense and then 't was fit to be believed when 't was impossible to be proved or understood The way to be a Christian is first to be a Brute and to be a true Believer in this Divinity is to be fit for Bedlam Men have been taught to put out their eyes that they might see and to hoodwink themselves that they might avoid the Precipices Thus have all Extravagancies been brought into Religion beyond the Imaginations of a Fever and the Conceits of Midnight Whatever is phansied is certain and whatever is vehement is Sacred every thing must be believed that is dream'd and every thing that is absurd is a Mystery And by this way Men in our days have been prepared to swallow