370 ADVANCEMENT OP LEARNING. [bOOK IX. 



somewhat of Pythagoras, and the other wise men ot Greece, 

 and believed them to have been great men ; but that they 

 held a certain fantastical thing, which they called law and 

 morality, in too great veneration and esteem." s We cannot 

 doubt, therefore, that a large part of the moral law is too 

 diiblime to be attained by the light of nature : though it is 

 still certain, that men, even from the light and law of nature, 

 have some notions of virtue, vice, justice, wrong, good, and 

 evil. 



We must observe, that the light of nature lias two signi- 

 fications ; 1. as it arises from sense, induction, reason, and 

 argument, according to the laws of heaven and earth ; and 

 2. as it shines in the human mind, by internal instinct, 

 according to the law of conscience, which is a certain spark, 

 and, as it were, a relique of our primitive purity. And in 

 this latter sense, chiefly, the soul receives some light, for 

 beholding and discei'ning the perfection of the moral law ; 

 though this light be not perfectly clear, but of such a nature 

 as rather to reprehend vice than give a full information of 

 duty; whence religion, both with regard to mysteries and 

 morality, depends upon divine revelation. 



Yet tlie use of human reason in spmtual things is various, 

 and very extensive : for religion is justly called a. reasonable 

 service.'' The tj\)os and ceremonies of the old law were 

 rational and significative, differing widely from the cere- 

 monies of idolatry and magic : which are a kind of deaf and 

 dumb show, and generally uninstructive even by inuendo. 

 But the Christian faith, as in all things else, excels in this, 

 that it preserves the golden mean in the use of reason, and 

 dispute the child of reason, between the laws of the heathens 

 and of Mahomet, which go into extremes : for the heathen 

 religion had no constant belief or confession, and the Maho- 

 metan forbids all disputes in religion :* whence one appears 

 with the face of manifold error, the other as a crafty 



K StraLo, XV. J* St. Paul, Rom. xii. 1. 



' This is erroneous. The Mohammedan religion, though not divided 

 into so many churches as the Christian, is, notwithstanding, disturbed by 

 the cry of conflicting parties under the generic titles of Soonees and 

 Sheeahs ; the former comprise the orthodox, the latter the heretics. 

 It is needless to add that the hatred of the rival sects is most cordial 

 and intense. Ed. 



