SECT. II.

Uses of Reason.

Let us now proceed to follow up the inquiry respecting the immediate uses to which reason exclusively is subservient.

And I may premise that we may place it at the head of all those intellectual powers that take cognizance of outward events, and suppose their cooperation, as perception, attention, memory, association,* &c. We may lawfully admit that by this noble faculty, which, according to the exercise we give it, determines our several stations, not to say our destiny in life, and fixes our allotments, as it were, for ourselves, man is enabled to treasure up knowledge of the past and to profit by the lights of experience. It enables him, by art and skill, to combine means with wonderful precision, for the attainment of certain ends; to provide with sagacious foresight for the

"For know that in the soul
Are many lesser faculties that serve
Reason as chief. Among these, Fancy next
Her office holds. Of all external things,
Which the five watchful Senses represent,
She forms imaginations, airy shapes ;
Which Reason joining or disjoining, forms
All what we affirm, or what deny,
And call our knowledge or opinion.

Milton.

future by observation of the past; and to adapt his conduct to climate and season, and to endless changes in his outward situation. It enables him to subject even the elements to his use,-fire, air, water, minerals, and metals; to discover their properties and various relations; and even to ascertain with mathematical certainty the laws and complicated movements of some of the heavenly bodies. By Reason also he tames the natural fierceness of brutes, and makes them obedient to his service.

Moreover, by the native strength and unassisted light of Reason, man may be enabled to discover the rules of a wise and consistent conduct; because experience proves that immorality entails misery and disgrace both to individuals and to society; and nothing is more certain than that the devoted slave of appetite and passion is degraded below the brute. Reason, unquestionably, must be considered that instrument of the understanding, without which the knowledge of external relations could never be obtained, except by inspiration. For, though the outward senses might discover the qualities of things as they do to brute animals; and though they are necessary ministers to reason; yet the latter alone can search into, and compare; trace analogies, and arrange; observe the consequences of actions; and deduce the laws and principles of events. Hence it must be considered the founder and builder of human knowledge. For, no other power can lay the materials in order, select, and fit them in their places,

and raise the superstructure. This is the masterwork-the peculiar office of Reason: and it bears the same relation to the subordinate faculties, that the architect of a building does to the labourer and

mason,

SECT. III.

Limitation of Reason.

Now, after all the discursive range we have given to Reason, it does not seem in any way to follow from its functions or its capacity, that although it should make the circuit of natural knowledge it could approach a single step nearer to the knowledge of nature's God. For, natural knowledge, or philosophy so called, can amount to nothing more, after all its pretensions, than to a mere speculative knowledge of the manifest qualities of bodies and the laws of their mutual relations. It cannot reach to the hidden power which gives energy, life, and motion.

Therefore a knowledge of the Deity, or more properly of his attributes, obtained through the medium of outward things, that is, of his works, would, to man, be as obscure, distant, and imperfect, as the knowledge of the Sun ascertained in no better way than by its reflexion upon the Moon: it is only as it shines immediately upon the eye of the beholder,

that he can form the least conception of its majesty. And, in like manner, it is only as the ray of divine light is emitted from the fountain itself upon the mind, that any human being, so favoured, can form an adequate notion, however faint and imperfect, of its transcendent glory. It is in the mind of man, therefore, that the only true knowledge of the Creator can be discovered. Because, without, all is mediate, like sounds to the deaf, or colours to the blind. We cannot discover an obvious connexion between outward knowledge and inward feeling. The cold and heartless acknowledgment of a Creator, may be made perhaps by reason, when in physical inquiries, it is driven to an ultimate first cause. But the knowledge of his works does not necessarily tend to produce the warm internal evidence of his love and power. How much so ever Reason can know, it has no pretension to feeling. By reasoning, no human being can tell that a benevolent Creator regards him with the smiles of his favour; nor can outward observation ever discover that the soul of man has a near affinity with the supreme ruler of the world. The hearing of the ear cannot make the heart glow with love and gratitude. Nor can he, who sets himself inquisitively to examine the outward proofs of the existence of a Deity,-who questions them one by one, and resolves to admit no other evidence, expect to meet that approving welcome,-that love and sympathy, and sunshine of the heart, which it might be supposed an illustrious parent would give

his child anxiously seeking his acquaintance, to whom he was unknown.

It is not, surely, by standing aloof, and distrusting every outward sign, that an individual whose highest interest it is to cultivate an acquaintance with some distinguished relative, warmly disposed to do him service, can gain his favour. Yet this is the predicament in which the advocates of Reason's sufficiency, excluding a divine intelligence, would place the human mind in relation to its author. They would make a wider barrier between man and his Creator, than is known to subsist between the natural parent and his child. But is any one prepared to say that there is a closer affinity in the latter case than in the former? We all stand in the relation of children to one Almighty Parent: we all owe him love and obedience, and depend upon his care. Now in what manner does the natural parent proceed with regard to his son ?—He instils into his mind the principles of knowledge; he watches the opening of his understanding; he caresses him with fondness, cheers him with encouragement, approves with smiles of favour, and punishes with looks of disapprobation. He requires of him, in return, docility, perfect obedience, unremitting watchfulness, and humility. But, according to the doctrine in question, the benevolent Father of all, who himself formed the soul, after having endowed it with Reason, resigned the government to this faculty, making it his sole vicegerent. Consequently the natural energies of the creature are sup