Reason befriends Religion by laying its corner stone And the next to this is the other Principle mentioned II. The divine Authority of Scripture This also is to be proved by reason and only by It. The great argument for the truth of Scripture is the Testimony of the Spirit in the miracles wrought by Christ and his Apostles Our Saviour himself useth this argument to gain credit to his Doctrines Believe me for the works sake The works that I do bear testistimony of me and if I had not done among them the works that no other man did they had had no sin Joh. 15.24 And the Apostles continually urge that great miracle the Resurrection of Christ from the dead for the conviction both of the Iews and Gentiles That he was the Son of God and his Doctrines true Now Miracles are an Argument to our Reasons and we reason from them thus Miracles are Gods Seal and they are wrought by his Power and He is true and good and would not lend these to Impostours to cheat and abuse mankind Therefore whoever works real miracles for the confirmation of any doctrine it is to be believed that He is taught of God and Commissioned to teach us And that Christ and his Apostles did those things which are recorded of them is matter of Testimony and Reason clears the validity of this by the aggregation of multitudes of Circumstances which shew that the first Relators could not be deceived themselves and would not deceive us nor indeed could in the main matters if they had designed it And the certainty of the conveyance of these things to us is evinced also by numerous convictive Reasons So that the matter of fact is secure and that such doctrines were taught as are ascribed to those divine persons and those persons inspired that penned them are proved the same way And so it follows from the whole that the Gospel is the Word of God and the Old Testament is confirmed by that Thus Reason proves the Divine Authority of Scripture and those other Arguments that use to be produced for it from Its style and Its influence upon the Souls of men from the excellency of its design and the Providence of God in preserving it are of the same sort though not of the same strength Reason then proves the Scriptures and this only For that they are from God is not known immediately by sense and there is no distinct Revelation that is certain and infallible to assure us of it and so Reason only remains to demonstrate this other Fundamental Article These two great Truths The Existence of God and Authority of Scripture are the first in our Religion and they are Conclusions of Reason and Foundations of Faith Thus briefly of those Principles of Religion that are Fundamentally such We have seen how Reason serves them by demonstrating their Truth and certainty I COME now to the SECOND sort of Principles viz. those that are formally so They are of two sorts mixt and pure The mixt are those that are discovered by reason and declared by Revelation also and so are Principles both of Reason and Faith Of this kind are the Attributes of God Moral good and evil and the immortality of humane souls The Principles of pure Faith are such as are known only by Divine Testimony as the Miraculous Conception the Incarnation and the Trinity The first sort Reason proves as well as Scripture this I shew briefly in the alledged instances 1. That the Divine Attributes are revealed in the Holy Oracles 't is clear and they are deduced from Reason also For 't is a general Principle of all Mankind That God is a Being absolutely perfect And hence Reason concludes all the particular Attributes of his being since Wisdom Goodness Power and the rest are perfections and imply nothing of imperfection or defect and therefore ought to be ascribed to the infinitely perfect Essence 2. That there is moral good and evil s discoverable by Reason as well as Scripture For these are Reasons Maxims That every thing is made for an end and every thing is directed to its end by certain Rules these Rules in Creatures of understanding and choise are Laws and the transgressing these is Vice and Sin 3. The immortality of our Souls is plain in Scripture and Reason proves it by shewing the Spirituality of our natures and that it doth from the nature of Sense and our perception of spiritual Beings and Universals Of Logical Metaphysical and Mathematical Notions From our compounding Propositions and drawing Conclusions from them From the vastness and quickness of our Imaginations and Liberty of our Wills all which are beyond the powers of matter and therefore argue a Being that is spiritual and consequently immortal which inference the Philosophy of Spirits proves Also the Moral Arguments of Reason from the goodness of God and his Iustice in distributing rewards and punishments the nature of virtue and tendencies of religious appetites conclude I think strongly That there is a life after this Thus in short of the Principles I called mixt which Reason demonstrates BUT for the others viz. II. Those of pure Revelation Reason cannot prove them immediately nor is it to be expected that it should For They are matters of Testimony and we are no more to look for immediate proof from Reason of those things than we are to expect that abstracted reason should demonstrate That there is such a place as China or that there was such a man as Iulius Caesar. All that it can do here is to assert and make good the credibility and truth of the Testimonies that relate such matters and that it doth in the present case proving the Authority of Scripture and thereby in a remoter way It demonstrates all the Mysteries of Faith which the divine Oracles immediately discover And it is no more disparagement to our Reasons that they cannot evince those Sacred Articles by their own unaided force than it is a disgrace unto them that they cannot know that there are such things as Colours without the help of our eyes or that there are Sounds without the faculty of hearing And if Reason must be called blind upon this account because it cannot know of it self such things as belong to Testimony to discover the best eyes in the world may be so accounted also because they are not sagacious enough to see sounds and the best Palate dull and dead because it cannot taste the Sun-beams But though I have said that Reason cannot of it self immediately prove the truths of pure Revelation Yet 1. it demonstrates the divine Authority of the Testimony that declares them and that way proves even these Articles If this be not enough I add the second Assertion II. That Reason defends all the Mysteries of Faith and Religion and for this I must desire you to take notice that there are two ways whereby any thing may be defended viz. Either 1. By shewing the manner how the thing is or if that cannot
strife I say 't is very probable these might be comprehended also But Reason is no otherwise concerned in all this but as condemning and reproving these dangerous follies THUS we see the pretensions from Scripture against Reason are vain But there are other Considerations by which it useth to be impugned as 1. OUR Reason is corrupted and therefore is not fit to meddle in spiritual matters To this I say That Reason as it is taken for the faculty of understanding is very much weakened and impaired It sees but little and that very dully through a glass darkly as the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 13. And It is very liable to be mislead by our senses and affections and interests and imaginations so that we many times mingle errors and false conceits with the genuine dictates of our minds and appeal to them as the Principles of Truth and Reason when they are but the vain Images of our Phancies or the false conclusions of ignorance and mistake If this be meant by the corruption of Reason I grant it and all that can be inferred from it will be That we ought not to be too bold and peremptory in defining speculative and difficult matters especially not those that relate to Religion nor set our Reasonings against the Doctrines of Faith and Revelation But this is nothing to the disreputation of Reason in the object viz. Those Principles of truth which are written upon our Souls or any Conclusions that are deduced from them These are the same that they ever were though we discern them not so clearly as the Innocent state did They may be mistaken but cannot be corrupted And as our understandings by reason of their weakness and liableness to error may take falshoods for some of those or infer falsly from those that are truly such so we know they do the same by the Scriptures themselves viz. they very often misinterpret and very often draw perverse conclusions from them And yet we say not That the Word of God is corrupted nor is the use of Scripture decried because of those abuses But here advantage will be taken to object again 2. That since our natural understandings are so weak and so liable to mistake they ought not to be used in the affairs of Religion and 't will signifie little to us that there are certain Principles of eternal Reason if we either perceive them not or cannot use them To this I answer That if on this account we must renounce the use of our natural understandings Scripture will be useless to us also For how can we know the meaning of the words that express Gods mind unto us How can we compare one Scripture with another How can we draw any Consequence from it How apply General Propositions to our own particular cases How tell what is to be taken in the Letter what in the mystery what plainly what in a Figure What according to strict and rigorous truth What by way of accommodation to our apprehensions I say without the exercise of our understandings using the Principles of Reason none of these can be done and without them Scripture will signifie either nothing at all or very little to us And what can Religion get this way This inference therefore is absurd and impious All that can justly be concluded from the weakness of our understandings will be what I intimated before that we ought to use them with modesty and caution not that we should renounce them He is a mad-man who because his eyes are dim will therefore put them out But it may be objected further 3. That which men call Reason is infinitely various and that is reasonable to one which is very irrational to another Therefore Reason is not to be heard And I say Interpretations of Scripture are infinitely various and one calls that Scriptural which another calls heretical Shall we conclude therefore That Scripture is not to be heard Reason in itself is the same all the world over though mens apprehensions of it are various as the light of the Sun is one though colours Its reflexes are infinite And where this is it ought not to be denied because follies and falshoods pretend relation to it or call themselves by that name If so farewell Religion too But 4. 'T is Socinianism to plead for Reason in the affairs of Faith and Religion And I answer 'T is gross Phanaticism to plead against it This name is properly applicable to the enemies of Reason But the other of Socinianism is groundlesly applied to those that undertake for it and it absurdly supposeth that Socinians are the only rational men when as divers of their Doctrines such as The Sleep and natural mortality of the soul and utter extinction and annihilation of the wicked after the day of judgment are very obnoxious to Philosophy and Reason And the Socinians can never be confuted in their other opinions without using Reason to maintain the sense and interpretation of those Scriptures that are alledged against them 'T is an easie thing we know to give an ugly name to any thing we dislike and by this way the most excellent and sacred things have been made contemptible and vile I wish such hasty Censurers would consider before they call names No truth is the worse because rash ignorance hath thrown dirt upon it I need say no more to these frivolous objections Those that alledge Atheism and tendency to Infidelity against the reverence and use of Reason are disproved by my whole discourse Which shews that the enemies of Reason most usually serve the ends of the Infidel and the Atheist when as a due use of It destroys the pretensions of both I COME now IV. to the Inferences that may be raised from the whole 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 as certain because whatever is drawn from any principle was vertually 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 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