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 reasons 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 Gods veracity and goodness and that is an exercise of Faith Thus Luke 12. The not belief of Reason that suggests from Gods cloathing the Lillies that He will provide for us is made by our Saviour a defect of Faith ver 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 Phancy 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 indeavour to unty 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 indeavour 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith 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 a non-sensical kind of Faith And ought not to receive any thing as an Article in a sense that palpably contradicts Reason no more than we may receive any in a sense that contradicts other 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 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 Gods 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 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 it is not from God his veracity and Authority is not concerned since I am ready however to give a chearful assent to whatever 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 loath 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 Gods Word And though the Scripture be sufficient to Its 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 understanding 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 give me leave to speak a word to You my Brethren of the CLERGY Those I mean of the Younger sort for I shall not presume to teach my Elders You have heard no doubt frequent and earnest declamations against Reason during the years of your Education and Youth we know receives impressions easily And I shall not wonder if you have been possessed with very hard thoughts of this pretended terrible enemy of Faith and Religion But did you ever consider deeply since what ends of Religion or Sobriety such vehement defamations of our faculties could serve And what Ends of a Party they did I hope these things you have pondered as you ought and discern the consequent mischiefs But yet I shall beg leave to refresh your thoughts with some Considerations of the dangerous tendencies and issues of such Preachments 1. To disclaim Reason as an Enemy to Religion tends to the introduction of Atheism Infidelity and Scepticism and hath already brought in a floud 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 Phancy 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 Iulian the Apostate against the Primitive Christians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That their only wisdom was to believe as if they had no ground for their Faith And those that renounce and decry Reason justifie Iulian in his charge Thus Religion will have no bottom but the Phancy of every one that professeth it and how various and inconstant a thing Imagination is every man knows These are the Consequences of the 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 And when others also hear Reason disparaged as 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 occasion 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 quam refellendum censuerunt The Ubiquitarians 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 Phancies 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 Phancy 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 phancied 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 every thing but what is sober whatever is wild will be suck'd in like the Air but what is reasonable will be fled like infection So that if a man would recommend any thing for his life to those enemies of Reason it must be some odd non-sense in the cloathing of Imagination and He that can be the Author of a new kind of madness shall lead a Party Thus hath Religion by the disparagement of Reason been made a medley of Phantastick trash spiritualized into an heap of vapours and formed into a Castle of Clouds and exposed to every wind of humour and Imagination 3. By the same way great advantage is given to the Church of Rome Which those
be done by shewing 2. That it ought to be believed though the manner of it be not known For instance if any one denies all sorts of Creatures were in the Arke under pretense that it is impossible they should be contained within such a space He that can shew how this might be by a distinct enumeration of the kinds of Animals with due allowance for the unknown Species and a computation of the particular capacity of the Arke he defends the Sacred History the first way But if another denies the conversion of Aaron's rod into a Serpent upon the same account of the unconceivableness of the manner how it was done this cannot indeed be defended the former way But then it may by representing that the power of God is infinite and can easily do what we cannot comprehend how it is effected and that we ought to believe upon the credit of the Testimony that being well proved to us though the manner of this miraculous performance and such others as it relates be unknown And as it is in this last case so it is in all the mysteries of Faith and Religion Reason cannot defend them indeed the first way But then it doth the second by shewing that the Divine Nature is infinite and ovr Conceptions very shallow and finite that 't is therefore very unreasonable in us to indeavour to pry into the secrets of his Being and actions and to think that we can measure and comprehend them That we know not the Essence and ways of acting of the most ordinary and obvious things of Nature and therefore must not expect throughly to understand the deeper things of God That God hath revealed those holy Mysteries unto us and that 't is the highest reason in the world to believe That what He saith is true though we do not know how these things are These are all considerations of Reason and by the proposal of them It sufficiently defends all the Mysteries that can be proved to be contained in the Sacred Volumn and shews that they ought to be received by us though they cannot be comprehended Thus if any one should ask me How the Divine Nature is united to the Humane and declare himself unwilling to believe the Article till he could be satisfied how My answer would be in short That I cannot tell and yet I believe it is so and he ought to believe the same upon the credit of the Testimony though we are both ignorant of the manner And I would suggest that we believe innumerable things upon the evidence of our senses whose nature and properties we do not know How the parts of matter cohere and how the soul is united to the body are questions we cannot answer and yet that such things are we do not doubt And why saith Reason should we not believe Gods revelation of things we cannot comprehend as well as we do our senses about matters as little understood by us 'T is no doubt reasonable that we should and by proving it is so Reason defends all the propositions of Faith and Religion And when some of These are said to be Above reason no more is meant than that Reason cannot conceive how those things are and in that sense many of the affairs of nature are above it too Thus I have shewn how serviceable Reason is to Religion I am next to prove II. That Religion befriends it and here I offer some testimonies from the holy Oracles to make that good and in them we shall see how GOD himself and CHRIST and his APOSTLES do own and acknowledge Reason I consider then that GOD Isa. 1.18 calls the rebellious Israelites to reason with him Come now and let us reason together saith the Lord and by reason he convinceth the people of the vanity of Idolls Isa. 44 9. And he expostulates with their Reasons Ezek. 18.31 Why will ye die ye house of Israel And Mich. 6.3 O my people what have I done unto thee And wherein have I wearied thee Testifie against me He appeals unto their Reasons to judge of his proceedings Isa. 5.3 And now O inhabitants of Ierusalem and men of Iudah judge I pray you between me and my vineyard are not my ways equal and are not your ways unequal In this he intimates the competency of their Reasons to judge of the equity of his ways and the iniquity of their own And OUR SAVIOUR Commands the Disciples of the Pharisees to give unto Caesar the things that are Caesars and to God the things that are Gods implying the ability of their Reasons to distinguish between the things that belonged to God and those that appertained to Caesar. And he in divers places argues from the Principles and Topicks of Reason From that which we call a Majori ad Minus from the greater to the less Iohn 13.14 He shews it to be the duty of his Disciples to serve their brethren in the meanest Offices and to wash one anothers feet because he had washed theirs Ver. 14. inforcing it by this consideration of reason for the Servant is not greater than his Lord Ver. 16 and useth the same Iohn 15.20 to shew that they must expect persecution because He their Lord was persecuted And Luke 12.23 He endeavours to take them off from carking care and solicitude about Meat and Rayment by this consideration from reason that the Life is more than Meat and the Body than Raiment intimating that God having given them the greater there was no doubt but he would bestow the less which was necessary for the preservation of that To these instances I add some few from the Topick A Minori ad Majus from the less to the greater in the arguings of our Saviour Thus Mat. 7.11 If ye being evil know how to give good gifts to your Children how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to those that ask him The ground of the Consequence is this Principle of Reason That God is more benign and gracious than the tenderest and most affectionate of our earthly Parents So Luke 12.24 He argues that God will provide for Us because he doth for the Ravens since we are better than they How much more are ye better than the Fowles Which arguing supposeth this Principle of Reason that that wisdom and goodness which are indulgent to the viler Creatures will not neglect the more excellent He proceeds further in the same Argument by the consideration of Gods cloathing the Lillies and makes the like inference from it Ver. 28. If God so cloath the grass how much more will he cloath you And Mat. 12. He Reasons that it was lawful for him to heal on the Sabbath day from the consideration of the general mercy that is due even to brute Creatures What man shall there be among you that shall have one sheep and if it fall into a Pit on the Sabbath day will he not lay hold of it to lift it out How much then is a man better than a
sheep Ver. 12. Thus our Saviour used arguments of Reason And the APOSTLES did so very frequently St. Paul disproves Idolatry this way Acts 17.29 Forasmuch then as we are the Off-spring of God we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto Gold or Silver or Stone graven by Art And the same Apostle proves the resurrection of the dead by the mention of seven gross absurdities that would follow the denial of it 1 Cor. 1.15 viz. If the dead rise not Then 1. Christ is not risen And then 2. our Preaching is vain and we false Apostles And if so 3. your Faith is vain And then 4. you are not justified but are in your sins And hence it will follow 5. That those that are departed in the same Faith are perished And then 6. Faith in Christ profits only in this life And if so 7. we are of all men the most miserable Because we suffer all things for this Faith From Ver. 14 to ver 19. And the whole Chapter contains Philosophical Reasoning either to prove or illustrate the Resurrection or to shew the difference of glorified bodies from these And St. Peter in his second Epistle Chap. 2. shews that sinful men must expect to be punished because God spared not the Angels that fell Instances in this case are endless these may suffice And thus of the Second thing also which I proposed to make good viz. That Religion is friendly to reason and that appears in that God himself our Saviour and his Apostles own it and use arguments from it even in affairs of Faith and Religion BUT Scripture the Rule of Faith is pretended against it and other Considerations also These therefore come next to be considered and the dealing with those pretensions was the III. General I proposed to discuss AS for Arguments from Scripture against the use of reason 'T is alledged 1. From 1 Cor. 1. where 't is said That God will destroy the wisdom of the wise ver 19. And the world by wisdom knew not God ver 21. And not many wise men after the flesh are called ver 26. And God chose the foolish things of this World to confound the wise ver 27. By which Expressions of wisdom and wise 't is presumed that Humane Reason and rational men are meant But these Interpreters mistake the matter much and as they are wont to do put arbitrary interpretations upon Scripture without ground For by Wisdom here there is no cause to understand the reason of men but rather the Traditions of the Iews the Philosophy of the disputing Greeks and the worldly Policy of the Romans who were the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Rulers of that World That the Iewish learning in their Law is meant the Apostle intimates when he asks in a way of Challenge ver 20. Where is the Scribe And the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies one that was skill'd in their Laws and Customs And that the Philosophy of the Greeks is to be understood likewise we have ground to believe from the other question in the same verse Where is the Disputer of this World Which though some refer to the Doctors among the Iews also yet I humbly think it may more properly be understood of the Philosophers among the Grecians For the Apostle writes to Greeks and their Philosophy was notoriously contentious And lastly that the worldly Policies of the Romans are included also in this wisdom of this World which the Apostle vilifies there is cause to think from the sixth verse of the second Chapter where he saith He spake not in the wisdom of the Princes of this World And 't is well known that Policy was Their most valued wisdom Tu regere imperio To govern the Nations and promote the grandeur of their Empire was the great Design and Study of those Princes of this World Now all these the Apostle sets at nought in the beginning of this Epistle Because they were very opposite to the simplicity and holiness self-denial and meekness of the Gospel But what is this to the disadvantage of Reason to which indeed those sorts of wisdom are as contrary as they are to Religion And by this I am enabled 2. To meet another Objection urged from 1 Cor. 2.14 But the Natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they ate spiritually discerned Hence the Enthusiast argues the Universal inability of Reason in things of Religion and Its Antipathy to them Whereas I can apprehend no more to be meant by the words than this viz. That such kind of natural men as those Scribes and Disputers and Politicians having their minds depraved and prepossess'd with their own wisdom were indisposed to receive this that was so contrary unto it And they could not know those things of God because they were spiritual and so would require a mind that was of a pure and spiritual frame viz. free from that earthly wisdom of all sorts which counts those things foolishness and which by God is counted so it self 1 Cor. 3.19 which place 3. Is used as another Scripture against reason The wisdom of this World is foolishness with God But it can signifie nothing to that purpose to one that understands and considers the Apostles meaning What is meant by the wisdom of this World here I have declared already And by the former part of my Discourse it appears that whatever is to be understood by it our Reason cannot since that either proves or defends all the Articles of Religion 4. And when the same Apostle elsewhere viz. 2 Cor. 1.12 saith that They had not their conversation in fleshly wisdom we cannot think he meant humane reason by that reason directs us to live in simplicity and Godly sincerity which he opposeth to a life in fleshly wisdom By this therefore no doubt he means the reason of our Appetites and Passions which is but sense and imagination for these blind guides are the directors of the Wicked but not the reason of our minds which is one of those lights that illuminate the Consciences of good men and help to guide their actions And whereas 't is objected 5. From Col. 2.8 Beware lest any spoil you through Philosophy I answer there is nothing can be made of that neither for the disgrace of reason for the Philosophy the Apostle cautions against is the same which he warns Timothy of 1 Tim. 1.4 Neither give heed to Fables and endless Genealogies that minister Questions calling these prophane and vain bablings and oppositions of Science falsly so called 2 Tim. 6.20 By all which learned Interpreters understand the pretended knowledge of which the Gnosticks boasted which consisted in the fabulous pedigrees of the Gods under the name of Aeones and it may be the Genealogies of which the Iews were so fond and the disputing Philosophy among the Greeks which was properly Science falsly so called and did minister Questions and endless