Direction 5. F thou wouldst not be destitute of saving Grace, let thy Reason be exercised about the matters of thy salvation, in some proportion of frequent, sober, serious Thoughts, as thou art convinced the weight of the matter doth require.

Direction 5. F thou wouldst not be destitute of saving Grace, let thy Reason be exercised about the¹ matters of thy salvation, in some proportion of frequent, sober, serious Thoughts, as thou art convinced the weight of the matter doth require.

1. 1Direct. 5.

§. 1. To have Reason is common to all men, even the sleepy and distracted: To use Reason is common to¹ all that have their senses awake and fit to serve their Minds: To use Reason in the greatest matters, is proper to wise men, that know for what end God made them Reasonable. Inconsiderate men are all ungodly men: For Reason not used is as bad as no Reason (and will prove much worse in the day of reckoning.) The truth is, though sinners are exceeding blind and erroneous, about the things of God, yet all Gods precepts are so Reasonable, and tend so clearly to our joy and happiness, that if the Devil did not win most souls by silencing Reason, and laying it asleep, or drowning its voice, with the noise and crowd of worldly business, Hell would not have so many sad inhabitants. I scarce believe that God will condemn any sinner that ever lived in the world (that had the use of Reason) no not the Heathens that had but one talent, but he will be able to say to them as Luk. 19. 22. Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant: Thou knewest, &c. To serve God and labour diligently for salvation, and prefer it before all worldly things, is so Reasonable a thing, that every one that Repenteth of the contrary course, doth call it from his heart an impious madness. Reason must needs be for God that made it. Reason must needs be for that which is its proper End and Use. Sin as it is in the Understanding, is nothing but Unreasonableness: a blindness and error: a loss ⟨p. 11⟩and corruption of Reason in the matters of God and our salvation. And Grace (as in the understanding) doth but cure this folly and distraction, and make us Reasonable again: It is but the opening of our eyes, and making us wise in the greatest matters. It is not a more unmanly thing to love and plead for blindness, madness and diseases, and to hate both sight, and health, and wit, than it is to love and plead for sin, and to hate and vilify a holy life.