![]() But who is there to point it out? - to mark down the middle way? That great master of reason, Mr. Is there, then, no medium between these extremes, - undervaluing and overvaluing reason? Certainly there is. But we may likewise add many who are in the other extreme men of eminently weak understanding men in whom pride (a very common case) supplies the void of sense who do not suspect themselves to be blind, because they were always so.ĥ. To these over-valuers of reason we may generally add men of eminently strong understanding who, because they do know more than most other men, suppose they can know all things. Nay, this is the same thing for in denying him to be the supreme God, they deny him to be any God at all: Unless they will assert that there are two Gods, a great one and a little one!) All these are vehement applauders of reason, as the great unerring guide. (Indeed some of these say they do not deny his Godhead but only his supreme Godhead. They that are prejudiced against the Christian revelation, who do not receive the Scriptures as the oracles of God, almost universally run into this extreme: I have scarce known any exception: So do all, by whatever name they are called, who deny the Godhead of Christ. They look upon it as the all-sufficient director of all the children of men able, by its native light, to guide them into all truth, and lead them into all virtue.Ĥ. They are wont to describe it as very near, if not quite, infallible. They are fond of expatiating in its praise they make it little less than divine. They paint it in the fairest colours they extol it to the skies. How natural is it for those who observe this extreme, to run into the contrary! While they are strongly impressed with the absurdity of undervaluing reason, how apt are they to overvalue it! Accordingly, we are surrounded with those (we find them on every side) who lay it down as an undoubted principle, that reason is the highest gift of God. In the foremost of these we commonly find the whole herd of Antinomians all that, however they may differ in other respects, agree in “making void the law through faith.” If you oppose reason to these, when they are asserting propositions ever so full of absurdity and blasphemy, they will probably think it a sufficient answer to say, “O, this is your reason ” or “your carnal reason:” So that all arguments are lost upon them: They regard them no more than stubble or rotten wood.ģ. Having an infallible guide, they are very little moved by the reasonings of fallible men. We cannot expect that men of this turn will pay much regard to reason. Among them that despise and vilify reason, you may always expect to find those enthusiasts who suppose the dreams of their own imagination to be revelations from God. But never was there a greater number of these in the Christian Church, at least in Britain, than at this day.Ģ. And there has not been wanting a succession of men who have believed and asserted the same thing. Even then there were not wanting well-meaning men who, not having much reason themselves, imagined that reason was of no use in religion yea, rather, that it was a hinderance to it. ![]() Very many have been the instances of it in the Christian as well as the heathen world yea, and that in the earliest times. It is the true remark of an eminent man, who had made many observations on human nature, “If reason be against a man, a man will always be against reason.” This has been confirmed by the experience of all ages. ![]() “Brethren, be not children in understanding: Howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men.” 1 Cor. Sermon 70 73 73(text from the 1872 edition) The Case of Reason Impartially Considered
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