us.

fentence, The Supreme Being expects to be ferved by us according to that portion of reafon which he hath imparted to Sometimes by reason we mean the moral fenfe, moral virtue in general, or more particularly the virtue of juftice; as. when we fay, it is contrary to reason to make one law for ourselves and another for other people; and thus we call a man good who is governed more by reason than by appetite and paffion. And fometimes it is taken for the power of faculty of judging or drawing a conclufion from promifes, which is the greatest mean by which we arrive at knowledge. The difference between the knowledge of God and of his intelligent creatures is, that he knows and fees all things, with all their poffible combinations and circumftances, by intuition, at one view. Whereas we come to our knowledge by flow degrees, and after many deductions of one thing from another. But as all good things come from God, we could

not poffibly have any knowledge at all unless he had been pleased to communicate to us fome portion of his own divine knowledge, and made us to perceive and fee by intuition, and at the firft view, fome certain truths that we call Axioms, Data, or felf-evident principles, which, by the use of our reason or faculty of comparing and judging, fhould lead us on to other truths, and raise us ftep by step to larger views and more extensive knowledge. This is the highest and most proper fenfe of the word REASON: and this includes the intellectual, the moral, and the difcurfive powers of the mind: the two former as certain principles, the latter as the power of comparing objects which are thus prefented to us with each other, and thereby finding out wherein they agree or difagree. This is what we commonly call Reafoning, or exercifing our REASON. This is the characteriftic of human nature, this distinguishes

man

man from all the other animals of the earth, and makes them wiser than the beafts that perifh. The very definition of a MAN is, that he is a rational or a reasonable creature. This is his glory: This is his honour.

FROM what hath been faid then, We may obferve that REASON is two-fold, Intrinfic and Extrinfic. Intrinfic Reason

is a complex idea, and comprehends the intellectual, the moral, and the difcurfive powers of the mind. Extrinfic Reason is what affects thefe powers from without, and induces the intrinfic faculties to act; 'and hereby all subjects, within our comprehenfion, become the objects of our mental reafon. Every thing, from the bowels of the earth to the most distant stars, employs our reafon. All the duties which flow from the various relations we bear to the great variety of beings around us, all come under the cognizance and examination of

our reafon. Yea the existence and attributes of the Supreme Being himself are found out and judged of by it. So extenfive, fo univerfal is human reason. It is, or ought to be, to every man, the test of truth and proper guide of life. But fome will fay, the particular revelation which God hath made of his will in the Holy Scriptures is the only criterion or ftandard of truth, and therefore must be our guide in all cafes, whether it be agreeable to our reason or not. This objection feems to fuppofe that Divine Revelation may not be agreeable to reafon, which is but a bad compliment to any revelation. Now this argument put into form ftands thus, Whatever God hath been pleased to give us as the criterion or ftandard by which we are to judge of truth fhould be our guide in all cafes. But God hath been pleased to give us the Holy Scriptures as the criterion or ftandard of truth. Therefore they should be our guide in all cafes.

Very true. Let us now apply the fame argument to the faculty of reason. Whatever God hath been pleased to give us as the criterion or standard by which we are to judge of truth fhould be our guide in all cafes. But God hath been pleased to give us our reason as the criterion or standard of truth. Therefore it fhould be our guide in all cafes. It is certain that our gracious Creator hath given us reafon as well as revelation, and great part of the business of this faculty is to judge concerning revelation itself. For befide the true revelation, we see in the world a great many writings or fcriptures, produced at feveral times, by confident people, as revelations coming from God, which have most certainly been the impoftures of men. We might give many inftances in the heathen world, in the grand Coran of Mahomet; the decrees of many councils, the Rofary of St. Dominic, and a thousand legendary tales, amongst fome who call themselves

Chriftians.