Improved Reason will do more towards Religion, than a sound bodily Constitution; but yet the Moralists, for all their Reason, were far enough from being religious. Indeed, reason rightly improved, is a special help, a serviceable Hand-Maid to Religion; but as they used it, or rather abused it, it became an Opposite and Enemy to Religion. The Mind or Understanding, which is the supreme faculty of the Soul, they set up in defiance of Revelations, and with it they out-face Illumination. [Greek or Hebrew], the natural man, animalis homo, he that hath no more than a reasonable Soul, perceiveth not the things of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned, 1 Cor. 2.14. Natural ⟨p. 374⟩Light will not help a man to see spiritual Objects; (because there is no proportion between the Faculty and the Object) and because it cannot apprehend them, therefore it condemneth them as foolish and ridiculous. It hath its high thoughts, and carnal reasonings, and vain imaginations, in which strong holds, Lust shelters it self against all the Convictions of our own Spirit. And as the Moralist deifieth his Understanding in opposition to Faith, so he idolizeth the liberty of his Will in opposition to the special Energy and Virtue of the Holy Ghost. Liberty, saith the Philosopher, I have by Nature; that is, a freedom to choose Good or Evil, I have in common with the rest of Mankind, but goodness to that liberty, or an application of it to the choice of good rather than evil; this I have from my self, my Reason, and I am beholden to my self for it. So that, as Austin saith, if this be true, Si nobis potest libera voluntas ex deo est, quoad hoc potest esse, vel bona, vel mala, bona vero voluntas ex nobis est; melius est id quod a nobis quam quod ab illo est, De peccat. merit. lib. 2. ⟨p. 375⟩cap. 18. If our Will be free from God, it may be good or bad; but if it be good from our selves, better is that which we have from our selves, than that which we have from God. In short, this moral Votary differs from the natural, that the Original of the latter's Religion, is the Constitution of his Body, of the former's is the chief faculty of his Soul; but neither of these can make a man religious, for where the Vitals are tainted, and the inward parts infected, it's in vain to use Plasters or outward Medicines.
Improved Reason will do more towards Religion, than a sound bodily Constitution; but yet the Moralists, for all their Reason, were far enough from being religious. Indeed, reason rightly improved, is a special help, a serviceable Hand-Maid to Religion; but as they used it, or rather abused it, it became an Opposite and Enemy to Religion. The Mind or Understanding, which is the supream faculty of the Soul, they set up in defiance of Revelations, and with it they out-face Illumination. 〈non-Latin alphabet〉, the natural man, animalis homo, he that hath no more than a reasonable Soul, perceiveth not the things of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned, 1 Cor. 2.14. Natural ⟨p. 374⟩Light will not help a man to see spiritual Objects; (because there is no proportion between the Faculty and the Object) and because it cannot apprehend them, therefore it condemneth them as foolish and ridiculous. It hath its high thoughts, and carnal reasonings, and vain imaginations, in which strong holds, Lust shelters it self against all the Convictions of our own Spirit. And as the Moralist deifieth his Understanding in opposition to Faith, so he idolizeth the liberty of his Will in opposition to the special Energy and Virtue of the Holy Ghost. Liberty, saith the Philosopher, I have by Nature; that is, a freedom to choose Good or Evil, I have in common with the rest of Mankind, but goodness to that liberty, or an application of it to the choice of good rather than evil; this I have from my self, my Reason, and I am beholden to my self for it. So that, as Austin saith, if this be true, Si nobis potest libera voluntas ex deo est, quoad hoc potest esse, vel bona, vel mala, bona vero voluntas ex nobis est; melius est id quod a nobis quam quod ab illo est, De peccat. merit. lib. 2. ⟨p. 375⟩cap. 18. If our Will be free from God, it may be good or bad; but if it be good from our selves, better is that which we have from our selves, than that which we have from God. In short, this moral Votary differs from the natural, that the Original of the latters Religion, is the Constitution of his Body, of the formers is the chief faculty of his Soul; but neither of these can make a man religious, for where the Vitals are tainted, and the inward parts infected, it's in vain to use Plaisters or outward Medicines.
