erial use, by which the subject-matter of the particular
doctrines is submitted to inquiry.

"Thus arose that of which the generic name is Rationalism, or that law
or rule of thinking, intimately united with the cultivation of talent
and mind, by which we think that as well in examining and judging of all
things presented to us in life and the range of universal learning, as
in those matters of most grave importance which relate to religion and
morals, we must follow strenuously the norm of reason rightly applied,
as of the highest faculty of the mind; which law of thinking and
perceiving, if it be applied to prove any positive religion (theological
Rationalism) lays it down as an axiom that religion is revealed to men
in no other manner than that which is agreeable both to the nature of
things and to reason, as the witness and interpreter of divine
providence; and teaches that the subject-matter of every supposed
supernatural revelation, is to be examined and judged according to the
ideas regarding religion and morality, which we have formed in the mind
by the help of reason.... Whosoever, therefore, despising that supremacy
of human reason, maintains that the authority of a revelation, said to
have been communicated to certain men in a supernatural manner, is such
that it must be obeyed by all means, without any doubt,--that man takes
away and overturns from the foundation the true nature and dignity of
man, at the same time cherishes the most pernicious laziness and sloth,
or stirs up the depraved errors of fanaticism.... As to that which is
said to be above reason, the truth of which can by no means be
understood, there is no possible way open to the human mind to
demonstrate or affirm it; wherefore to acknowledge or affirm that which
is thought to be above reason is rightly said to be against reason and
contrary to it.

"The persuasion concerning the supernatural and miraculous, and at the
same time immediate, revelation of God, cannot be reconciled with the
idea of God eternal, always consistent with himself, omnipotent,
omniscient, and most wise, by whose power, operative through all
eternity and exerted in perfect harmony with the highest wisdom, we
rightly teach that the whole nature of things exists and is
preserved.... This being so, it seems that the natural revelation or
manifestation of God, made by the works of nature, is the only one which
can be rightly defended, and this may be divided into universal