exalted truths to the ftandard of human reafon ¿ thefe attempts having in fome measure invited its enemies to join iffue with thofe that appear to be friendly to it, that the former may ftrengthen their hands by the unguarded conceffions of the latter.

So in fact it has been found, that fome of the ftrongeft, and most pointed attacks that have been made on Christianity, have derived their chief strength, from the acknowledgement of this principle, that natural religion is the foundation of all that is infti tuted and revealed :-a principle, which as fome have been pleased to confider as the ground of their faith, others have been bold to hold forth, at least with lefs inconfiftency, as the fupport of their infidelity. And if it be true, as fome Chriftian divines have thought proper to allow, that "unless all the

great things contained in the law of nature are "first known and believed, the revelation of God "himfelf can fignify nothing," it may no doubt be affirmed with equal confidence, that where all thefe things are already known and believed, revelation can fignify but little. For if nature and reafon can fo easily discover the most important truths, and be fufficient to direct man in the way of his duty, and lead him to the happiness defigned for him, there does not appear to be much neceflity for any other guide; nay there is hardly room left for any other, where the mind is already preoccupied with the fufficiency of its own powers, and feels itfelf in poffeffion of every religious truth that is worth the enquiring after.

The

The confequence of all this must be, that in proportion as reason is exalted, and the comprehenfion of the human mind enlarged beyond its proper limits, the importance and value of revelation will be just fo far depreffed and under-rated, till at last reafon becomes abfolutely independent and felf-fufficient, and will either have a religion entirely of its own devifing, or none at all.

Thus does the pride of human nature tempt men to employ the reason which God has given them, in direct oppofition to the will and intention of the Giver, without confidering the folly and baseness of fuch unworthy conduct, and into what grofs abfurdities it must infallibly lead them. If these men would know what reafon is without revelation, and to what it would lead them in matters of religion, if unassisted, and left to itself, let them confult the hiftories of those heathen nations, who knew nothing of the Old Teftament, while it was the only fcripture, or who fince then have never heard of Christ, and his gofpel. There they will foon discover what ftrange work their idol reafon has made in the world; how it has multiplied Deities like the fand of the fea, and "changed the glory of the incorrup"tible God, into an image made like to corruptible

man, and to birds, and four footed beafts, and "creeping things;"* how it has led men to offer facrifice unto devils, in a variety of forms, and in the

moft

• Rom. i. 23.

most inhuman and barbarous manner; and in a word, that there is scarce any thing fo abfurd, and ridiculous, or fo monftrous, and abominable, but what the vain, self-sufficient reason of man has made an object of religious worship.

To use the words therefore of a late admirable address to the patrons, and profeffors of the new philofophy: "Let the modern reafoner, who would make "as good a religion by the help of nature, and his "own faculties, as we have received from the lights ❝of revelation, and the doctrines of the gospel, take "his ground where he will, provided he does not go "without the heathen pale; and let him keep it.— "Let him borrow no affiftance from Mofes, and let "him affume to himself all the lights that he can "find, all the rational religion he can collect, not only "in the world then known, but in the world fince "difcovered; in all the nations of the Eaft, where "reafon surely, as far as arts and sciences were con❝cerned, was in no contemptible state; in America, "to the North and to the South, in all the Conti"nents and Islands, which modern navigation has "added to the map of the world, as the Romans "knew in the Augustan age; let him pursue his re"searches, and when he has made his tour through "all their temples and pagodas, let him erect his "trophies to reason, and publish his discoveries with "what confidence he may. Alas! for mankind, "and the boasted dignity of human reason, he will bring back nothing but a raree-fhow of idols, a "museum,

❝ museum of monfters, Egyptian, Indian and Chi"nese deformities, and non-defcripts, the creatures ❝of earth, air and fea, fnakes, reptiles, even stocks "and ftones promoted to be gods, and man degene,

rating, and debafing himself to kneel down before "thefe dumb divinities, and pay them worship."And now, if this is all that he, who opposes the "religion of revelation, can difcover, and make "prize of in the religion of reason, I give him joy "of his discoveries, and with him candidly to de"clare, if upon refult of thofe difcoveries, he can "believe fo well of himself as to fuppofe, that had " he lived in thofe days, he would have found out 66 any thing more than was found out by those who "lived in them: whether, if he had fingly engrof"fed the collected wisdom of the seven wise men of "Greece, he would have revealed a better system ❝ of religion to the world than Christ has revealed; "and whether he would have known the will of "God better than God knew it himself, and more "clearly have communicated it to mankind."*

Whoever duly confiders the fcope and force of this reasoning, can be at no lofs to discover the obvious conclufion in favour of divine revelation; to which it is evident, that men are indebted for all that pretended religion of nature which they fo fondly boast of, and which is no other than what they deri

ved

* See this fubje farther pursued and illustrated in an excellent little Tract called, A few plain Reasons why we fould believe in Chrift, and adhere to bis Religion. By Richard Cumberland Efq. London, 1801.

ved from the use of the facred writings, and the inftruction received from thofe who had the care of their education. Thus the revealed truths, which took early poffeffion of their fouls, which they were taught with the first rudiments of learning, and of which no perfon living in a Christian country can be fuppofed wholly ignorant; these they mistake for the pure natural conceptions of their own minds, and ascribe to reason, and the light of nature, that very knowledge of divine things which they have derived from the gofpel of Chrift, and which they yet fet up in oppofition to it. But is it right and reasonable to treat in fuch a difingenuous manner the religion of Him, who came to be, and actually proved himself to be, the light, and life of the world? "Ought "the withered hand, which Chrift has restored and "made whole, to be lifted up against him?- Or "fhould the dumb man's tongue, juft loofened from "the bonds of filence, blafpheme the power that fet "it free?" Yet thus bafely do thofe men act, who employ the knowledge, which they have from fcripture, against scripture itself, and make ufe of their religion of nature, as an engine to batter down the religion of Christ.

But little do these men confider what it really is, which under the name of Natural Religion they thus fondly admire, as fuch a powerful weapon in the hands of infidelity: Little indeed do they feem to know

L

See Bishop Sherlock's Difcourfes on this fubject.