-- Chapter I: Eccles. 7:29
unto thine own understanding.' Take also the judgment of holy men as to spiritual things, for they have had experience of them, and therefore ought to be believed in their own art: Prov. 9:10, 'The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.' Isa. 35:8, 'And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called the way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it, but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.' And do thou justify wisdom too, and stand up in defence of its ways, Mat. 11:19.
BOOK V:
That reason in man being corrupted by sin, useth its strength and force to advise and contrive the satisfaction of his lusts; whence it is that reason, which should have acted for God, now acts for sin and lusts
CHAPTER I
Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.—ECCLES. 7:29
Now I am next to speak of the corruptions of reason itself, and to discover to you what great assistance, and manifold and several
concurrences and orders, it gives to the power and kingdom of sin within us.
And indeed, however we may think that reason in us fights against and opposeth our lusts, yet the truth is, that but for carnal reason sin would not know how to do; for as reason of state doth all in kingdoms, so fleshly reason in us. No man sins, no man goes to hell, without reason.
Now the assistance reason gives to sin is double. First, As a counsellor, to advise to, and plot for the acting of it and satisfying its desire, which out of this text we shall speak to.
Secondly, As a protector and defender of the power and kingdom of sin, against all the assaults and invasions that the word and knowledge of God might make against it. This corrupt reason doth, by gathering to itself many carnal pleas for men's bad courses and estates, as also by gathering up together all the discouragements and objections against the ways of grace that ever it can, as out of the 2
Cor. 10:4 we shall have occasion more largely to insist on, he there comparing reasonings, λογισμοὺς, to the strongholds that are in a kingdom to defend it, where all the weapons and armoury lies; and so indeed in reason doth the utmost strength of sin consist.
Now, first, concerning that counselling and plotting assistance which reason affords. This text mentions it, and indeed lays the fault and the blame of the wickedness that is in man's heart to the reasonings and inventions that are therein, and thereby chooseth to express their corruptions and the causes of them.
The word translated here inventions, which indeed are acts of reason, is the same with that in ver. 25, which they have translated reason, and the Septuagint translate it λογισμοὺς, and most Latin interpreters ratiocinia, reasonings. The word in the Hebrew is
השבכות, which signifies a cunning artificial invention, as the same word is used 2 Chron. 26:15, and his scope you may see to be to give
the reason and cause of those many villanies in men's lives, and to see the depth of them; I saw all men corrupted, and I searched out the reason and cause of that folly and wickedness, and depth of villany discovered to be in them, and it all lies in invention, in wily, cunning wickedness; and (says he) this I found, that though God made man upright in the image of God at first, yet now being fallen, and deprived of that image, and so of that blessedness in communion with God, like sharks cast off by their friends, and cut short of that inheritance they were ordained for, they live by their wits, and that reason which they have left they use in manifold and several sinful practices. It leads them into many crooked ways and by-paths, 'they have sought out many inventions.'
Now for the proof of this I will give you but these arguments.
1. Man, you all know, is a reasonable creature; and as he himself was principally ordained for action, so to help him therein reason was principally given him to guide and steer him. So that as God works all things according to counsel,—Eph. 1:11, 'In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will,'—so as he hath a reason for everything he doth, though he manifest it not,—Job 33:13, 'Why dost thou strive against him? for he giveth not account of any of his matters;'—so also man being created in the image of God, doth work all things according to counsel also, and useth reason in all, such as it is, for that is part of that image of God which is a likeness to his essence which is not razed out.
And therefore, 2, now man is corrupted, reason still remains and is used in all. For sin hath not made man a beast, he useth reason in all his sinful actions, otherwise they would not be sins; and therefore, in man now fallen, the estate of nature is called a kingdom, though of sin, as truly as the other is a kingdom of grace. And every king must have his privy councillors to advise, and plot, and manage his affairs; and such is reason now unto sin, as well as once it was to grace. For sin, as it enters upon the same territories and possessions which
grace in Adam once had, so it keeps up the same form of government for substance, and turns out no officers, but all keep their former places. Our affections and members are as the common soldiers and people: so Rom. 6:19, 'I speak after the manner of men, because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity, even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.' Our lusts are as laws, and axioms of state; and reason, who was sole privy councillor afore, and master of all the ports and strongholds, keeps his place still. Only as sin hath gained the rest to be for it, all our lusts to be laws of sin, all our members to be weapons of unrighteousness, so reason also to be a counsellor and plotter for sin, and which is as true and faithful to that wicked purpose as ever it was before to God. And therefore, Ps. 81:12, to give a man up to his heart's lusts is all one as to give him up to his own counsels: Ps.
81:12, 'So I gave them up unto their own hearts' lust: and they walked in their own counsels;' and the lusts of sin are therefore called the lusts, τῆς διανοίας. Eph. 2:2, 'Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience,' even of reason and that discoursing faculty within us.
And in the 1 Cor. 4:5, the counsels of the heart are there mentioned as those things which shall especially be discovered and judged at the latter day: 'Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the heart; and then shall every man have praise of God.'
Now reason is gained to be for sin.
1. By reason of that blindness I have discovered to be in it, to discern, and taste of the goodness of things spiritual, so to know them as to make deeper impression of their goodness, than the pleasures sin propounds; and thus knowing no better, it must be for them.
And, 2, by reason also of that unbelief even of those first principles of grace and godliness, which it should have recourse unto in all our actions, and should reason from them.
Now, the first office of reason is to advise and counsel upon all occasions what is best to be done. With it a man's heart always adviseth, and unto it are brought all deliberate actions to have reason's approbation, and broad seal to them, ere they pass to execution; and though indeed it hath lost the power of sole propounding, which in the estate of grace it had, no affection stirring without it, yet all motions still must have their grant from it, ere they get act into execution.
But self-love being the viceroy, lord paramount in this kingdom of sin (for when God was deposed from being our utmost end, ourselves succeeded as next heirs), therefore now the main and chief principle, that practical reason which guides us in our actions (for of that we speak), is self-love, and all the power and force that reason hath is turned and bent to advance and set it up, to maintain and uphold its prerogative. And now, then, that self-love is made a man's utmost end, and is the lord paramount and chief governor in this new erected kingdom of sin, therefore reason now must needs be guided by it on all occasions. Therefore that reason which now we consult with and employ when we crave to do anything, that practical reason
(for of that I speak; not of that reason whereby we dispute, but of that reason only which is to and for a man's self), all the force, counsel, and strength reason hath in us, bends itself that way. And this brings me to the third head.
That, 3, self-love being now become man's sole and utmost end in all he doth, God being deposed, and ourselves having succeeded as next heirs, and so are become ourselves lord paramount, and king in this kingdom, therefore it must needs gain for itself all that reason that is in us which is called practical, whereby we are guided in our actions, whereof we now speak. For the definition of practical reason that guides us is that which reasons for some end; for as we work always
for an end, so the reason which guides us in working must reason to and for that end.* Therefore self-love being made our utmost end, all the reason we have in us (whereby we do anything) is wholly turned for it, and hath its eye on it, as the mariner on the compass, whereby to steer, it reasons wholly for it, and to it, and from it. For that which is a man's end is that which always sways a man's reason when he comes to do anything, so as by this means sin hath gained all the reason which is in men.