ty to question, and, with a witness, to Affent to what is not Evident.

17. He was indeed a great Master in the Rational way, but no Magnifier or Exalter of Human Reason. So far from that, that he seems to have had the most inward and feeling Senfe of its Infirmities and Defects, and the best to have understood what a poor little thing 'tis to be a Man, of any one in the World. As may be abundantly Collected from several paffages in his Writings (befides that the whole vein of them runs that way) particularly thofe two final Sentences wherewith he fhuts up his Principles and his Metaphyfics, At Nihilominus memor mee tenuitatis, nihil affirmo, &c. and, Natura noftra infirmitas eft agnofcenda. Which plainly fhew what a low debafing Senfe he had both of Himself and of Human Nature in general, as 'tis Natural for every man to have more and more, the wifer he grows, and the further he advances in Knowledge, which when all's done (provided you take a good Dofe of it) is the best Cure of Pride and Vanity.

18. And as he had thus flender an Opinion both of Human Reafon and his Own, fo he appears to have had alfo at the fame fuch an highraised and elevated Senfe of the immenfe Grandeur of God, and of the Magnificence of his Works, and how infcrutable the Profundities of both are to fuch Finite and Contracted Minds as ours, as can scarce any where be parallel'd. Two Characters certainly of Spirit, that are none of the apteft to difpofe a Man to Socinia

nifm. But not to dwell any longer upon Ra tional Prefumptions, there is a certain plain and deciding place in the Writings of this Great Man (which one would think had escaped the Eyes of fome) that is enough for ever to filence the Calumny of his being even in the leaft Socinianiz'd, and to shame those that have fo little Confcience or Judgment as to ftain his Memory with it. For who can fufpect him in the leaft infected with that Head-feizing Disease, which is now become fo Popular and Epidemic, when he fhall hear him ftill Purging and Apologizing for himself in these Vindicatory words, *Credenda effe Omnia que a Deo revelata funt, quamvis Captum Noftrum Excedant. And again, Ita fi forte nobis Deus de feipfo, vel aliis aliquid revelet, quod Naturales ingenii Noftri vires excedat, qualia jam funt Myfteria Incarnationis & Trinitatis, non recufabimus illa Credere, quamvis non Clare intelligamus. Nec ullo modo mirabimur multa effe, tum in immenfa ejus Natura, tum etiam in rebus ab eo Creatis, que Captum Noftrum excedant. Now how glad fhould I be to fee all the Soci nians in Christendom Subscribe to this Form of Words, and is it not ftrange then that he whose Originally they are fhould be fufpected of Soci nianifm, and that his Philofophy too fhould be thought to lead to it. But the Truth is, the Cartefian Philofophy leads juft as much to Socinianifm, as Philofophy in general does to Atheism, and I will venture to say, and be bound to make

Princip. Philof. p. 7.

make it good, that as no good Philofopher can be an Atheist, fo no good Cartefian can be a Socinian.

CHA P. VIII.

Wherein is fhewn what is the true Ufe of Reafon in Believing.

"R

EASON being the great Character and Principle of Man, that makes him like to the Angels above him, and distinguishes him from the Beafts that are below him, and which therefore only are below him for want of the Rational Power (being many of them in regard of their Bodily Endowments upon a level with him, and fome beyond him) 'tis but juft and natural it fhould appear in all that he does, and prefide and govern in all his Actions. For as the Conduct of the Infinitely wife and All-knowing God does always carry in it the Characters of his Effential and Confubftantial Reason, even of him who is the Wif dom of the Father, the true intelligible Light, fo fhould also the Conduct of Man express in Proportion the Signatures of his Reason, and though he cannot act by fuch exact and unerring Measures as his Glorious Maker, nor yet with all that Perfection of Wisdom that even fome Created Intelligences exprefs, yet at leaft

he

he should act like Himself, and not by doing any thing abfurd or unaccountable deny his Reasonable Nature.

2. This has ferv'd for a Principle to fome Scholaftick and Moral Writers whereon to build a very high, and (as fome think) very fevere Conclufion, viz that there is no individual Action of Man purely indifferent. Which I fuppofe may be true enough of those Actions of his which are properly Human, I mean that are done deliberately, with fore thought and Confideration, every one of which must, as far as I can fee, be either Good or Bad according to the Circumftances wherewith they are cloath'd, however fpecifically Confider'd in relation to their Objects only, and as abftracted from thofe Circumftances, fome of them may be indifferent. And certainly we cannot fuppofe any Action of a more Neutral and adiaphorous Nature than an unprofitable Word, and yet of fuch He that is to be our Judge tells us we fhall render an Account in the Day of Judgment. Which plainly fhews that there is no fuch thing as Indifferency in the Actions of Man as Individually and Concretely Confider'd, but that all of them are either good or bad according as the Principle, Manner, End, and other Circumftances are that attend the doing of them. And that because Man being a Rational Creature the Order of Reason is due at least to all his deliberate Actions, which accordingly ought to carry the Characters of a Rational Nature in them, the

Want

want of which will be enough to render any of them evil and imperfect.

3. But then if Reafon ought to prefide and direct in all the deliberate Actions of Man,much more ought it in things of the greatest Moment and Confequence, wherein his Intereft and Welfare is more nearly Concern'd, and which accordingly require his greateft Confideration, and the use of the beft Light that he has. And because there cannot be a thing of greater Confequence and Concernment to him than Religion, upon which both his Prefent and his Future, his Temporal and his Eternal Happinefs does intirely depend, hence it follows that the Principal Ufe he ought to make of his Rational Faculty is in Religion, that here if any where he ought to Think, Confider, Advife, Deliberate, Reafon and Argue, Confult both his own Light and that of others, neglect no advantage that may be had from Nature or Art, from Books or Men, from the Living or the Dead, but imploy all poffible Means for his direction and Information, and not be as the Horfe and Mule which have no Understanding, Pfal. 32. 10. For 'twas for this great End and Purpofe that his Reason was given him, and this is the best Use he can make of it. As for the Study of Nature, that turns to too little an Account, and as for the Affairs of Civil Life they in themselves and without relation to another World, are too little and inconfiderable for us to fuppofe that our Reafon was given us for the Management of them. Religion only bears