by the Principles of his Belief, is a Question beside my present Purpofe. I am now only to obferve, that, in Fact, there are other Principles, whereby Man is governed, befides thofe of Light and Knowledge, and that every Man experiences in himself, whether he may be able, or not, to give a philofophical Account of the Effect, and to answer all Difficulties on fo very nice a Subject, that there is a Law in his Members warring against the Law of his Mind, and bringing him into Captivity to the Law of Sin which is in his Members.

V. The firft Thing, therefore, we have to do, if we would affert the Authority of Reafon, and reeftablish her in the Throne; if we would give her that fovereign Command which fhe ought to

have, and which fhe is defigned by God to have over the whole Machine, and all the Springs of Action in it, is to confider where the main Strength of our Enemy doth lie? What the Order and Number of their Forces are, and where they will most probably attack us? To the End, we may not only be better prepared to defend ourselves, but to chaftife their rebellious Attempts; and to make them fenfible, it does not become Subjects to give, but to receive Laws,

VI. Now, the most dangerous Enemies to Reafon, the moft apt to excite rebellious Motions against her Orders and Authority, deriving their chief Force, either from the Senfes, the Imagination, or Paffions, what it principally concerns us to do is, to pre

vent their Action so much as poffibly we can; but, when that cannot be done, to refift it with all our Might, and thereby to weaken their Force, till, by Degrees, we reduce them to Obedience.

VII. I fhall apply this Rule feverally to the Senfes, Imagination and Paffions, according to the Order wherein they are here fpecified.

VIII. In refpect to the Senfes, the Use of them is abfolutely neceffary to the Preservation of the fenfible Life; to which End, indeed, as they are admirably formed, they appear to be folely given. So that it is not only reafonable, if we would follow the Order of Nature, that we should ufe them; but we may, lawfully, in fome convenient Measure, gratify and indulge them. IX.

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IX. The Defign, therefore, of thofe, who would lay down the Rules of a juft and practicable Morality, is not, with the myftical Writers, to prescribe fuch Denudations, and abstract Flights of the Soul out of the Body, as if, for the Time, the Laws of Union, between thefe two Subftances,were of no more Ufe or Occafion to the Soul, than if fhe really fubfifted in a separate State: Leaving thefe fublime Myfteries to thofe, who are able to explicate them intelligibly, or to regulate the Motions of the Soul, and deftroy the natural Effects of thofe in the Body, by them: I fhall readily allow, that Man, while he is in the Body, and stands in his present Relation to other Bodies, ought, fo far as the neceffary Ends of fuch his prefent State may require,

to

Bodies, ought, fo far as the neceffary Ends of fuch his prefent State may require, to maintain a Commerce in the fenfible World agreeable to it, and to fupport himself in that State fo long as he can: Which yet he has no other Way of doing, but by ufing his Senfes, and by following, but ftill under the Direction and Restraint of Reason, the Motions of them; and using them no further, than in pursuing the true Ends for which they were given.

X. But, because it would carry me too far beyond the Bounds have prescribed myfelf, to apply this Rule to every Senfe in particular; I fhall confine my present Reflections to that of Sight, this being the most capacious and extended of all the Senfes, and whereby, indeed, thofe other M

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