Date: 1711

"Passions impatient of the Rein, disown / Reason's Dominion, and usurp her Throne."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1711

"Thy subtile Sons, O Rome, to recompense / Their Loss of Pow'r, did Means succesful find / To found a wider Empire o'er the Mind."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1711

Popes, "Who, as erroneus, Nature's Light asperse; / The Judgment, which our Senses pass, reverse; / And by th' usurp'd Authority of Heav'n / Repeal the just Decrees by Reason given: / Who Schemes of new Religion have enjoined, / Impos'd Belief, enslav'd the free-born Mind, / And artful by the man...

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1711

"Know, hardy Atheists, who insulting say / Some populous Realms to Gods no Homage pay, / And therefore Nature's universal Law / Imprints not on the Mind Religious Awe; / That those, who no superior Being own, / Are more from Beasts by Shape, than Reason known."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1711

"These active Liquors, which Admission find / Thro' the strait Paths, and leave the coarse behind, / Swift to the inmost Rooms their Passage beat, / And crowd around the Soul's Imperial Seat."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1711

"Of subtile Matter form'd, refin'd and bright, / As Light'ning sprightly, and serene as Light, / Watching their Soveraign's Nod, they ready stand / Apt to perform the Mind's supream Command."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1722

"[E]rring conscience must as well controll /Our acts, as when it moves and guides the soul"

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1722

"He, who the revelation owns, yet brings / The sacred truths and high mysterious things / Of Christian faith, which heav'nly light reveals, / To reason's bar, to a wrong court appeals."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1722

"For reason, reason's self being judge, by laws, / That rule her province, can't decide the cause."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1722

"The sole business of reason in this case is to examine and judge of the evidence that is brought to prove that any proposition about the nature of God is clearly revealed by himself."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)