It is true virtuous men are
exposed to censure; and they are, indeed, ever reprehensible in this
life, through their natural imperfections; but yet the most vicious
cannot totally efface in themselves the idea of true virtue. There
never was yet any man upon earth that could prevail either with
others, or himself, to allow, as a received maxim, that to be
knavish, passionate, and mischievous, is more honourable than to be
honest, moderate, good-natured, and benevolent.
SECT. LVII. Reason in Man is Independent of and above Him.
I have already evinced that the inward and universal master, at all
times, and in all places, speaks the same truths. We are not that
master: though it is true we often speak without, and higher than
him. But then we mistake, stutter, and do not so much as understand
ourselves. We are even afraid of being made sensible of our
mistakes, and we shut up our ears, lest we should be humbled by his
corrections. Certainly the man who is apprehensive of being
corrected and reproved by that uncorruptible reason, and ever goes
astray when he does not follow it, is not that perfect, universal,
and immutable reason, that corrects him, in spite of himself. In
all things we find, as it were, two principles within us. The one
gives, the other receives; the one fails, or is defective; the other
makes up; the one mistakes, the other rectifies; the one goes awry,
through his inclination, the other sets him right. It was the
mistaken and ill-understood experience of this that led the
Marcionites and Manicheans into error.
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