know of the true ftate of that nature from which they would derive this imaginary religion. For how can that system of religion be called natural, which was never yet difcovered by any of the fons of men, while left to themselves in a ftate of nature, without a guide or inftructor? Or if it could have been difcovered by men thus uninftructed and untutored, yet how could fuch a religion be fuited to man in his prefent ftate, which takes no notice of any change that has happened to him, but fuppofes him to be ftill in that pure, holy and happy condition, in which he came originally from the hands of a pure and holy God, and therefore capable of performing fuch a worship and fervice as that God requires, and will accept from an innocent, unoffending creature? No propofition, I think, can be more clear and evident than this; that Natural Religion, if it has any meaning at all, muft mean that religion which is fitted for, and peculiar to the present state of man's nature, as fomething very different from that, in which he first received his being. But how can that be deemed a religion at all calculated for man in his prefent state, which leaves out of the account the doctrines of his fall and his restoration; which never tells, nor can tell him, how he died in Adam, and was and will be made alive again in Chrift? That "in Adam "all died," and in confequence of the mortal nature received from their first parent, all his pofterity are liable to death, is a truth no lefs confirmed by experience, than plainly declared in holy writ. But the

caufe,

cause, as well as the fting, of death is fin; and how fin can be pardoned, and its effects removed from the finner, no light of nature has ever been able to fhew, nor give any glimpse of hope, but what may arise from the dark, uncertain profpect afforded by repentance; of which it can only be faid, "who can tell "if God will accept it?" God alone could tell the terms on which "repentance and remiffion of fins 66 were to be preached among all nations; and it "behoved Chrift to fuffer, and to rife from the dead "the third day,"* that in his name, the promife of this univerfal bleffing might be authoritatively declared by thofe commiffioned for that purpose: "For "in him," fays one of thefe authorized preachers, "all the promises of God are yea, and in him "amen;" in him they are all made fure to us, and by him are truly and effectually accomplished.

But" remiffion of fins" is not of itself fufficient to fill up the measure of divine mercy promised to man in his bleffed Redeemer, and which the light of nature could never have exhibited to the eye of faith: "there is ftill," as an eminent writer beautifully expreffes it, "fomething farther that nature craves, "fomething which with unutterable groans the

pants after, even life and happiness for evermore. "She fees all her children go down to the grave; "and all beyond the grave is to her one wide wafte, "a land of doubt and uncertainty: when fhe looks

I. 2

"into

• St. Luke xxiv. 46, 47.

+ 2 Cor. i. 20.

"into it the has her hopes, and fhe has her fears; "and agitated by the viciffitude of these paffions, fhe "finds no ground whereon to reft her foot. How "different is the scene which the gospel opens! there "we fee the heavenly Canaan, the new Jerufalem; "in which city of the great God, there are man"fions, many manfions for receiving them, who "through faith, and patient continuance in well

doing, feek for glory and immortality."* How properly then may we join in the words which an apostle addreffed to his Saviour, "Lord, to whom "fhall we go? Thou haft the words of eternal "life." Thou haft exhibited in thine own perfon a clear undeniable proof, that "life and immortality "are now brought to light," and therefore need not be fought in the dark uncertain gueffes of human reason, which mav ferve well enough in the affairs of this life, and in pointing out fome of the common duties between man and man; but when it exceeds its bounds, and prefumes to meddle with the deep things of God, and to dictate in the great points of religion, its weakness and infufficiency do then manifeftly appear. It is but "the blind leading the

blind," and will fooner betray us into error and danger, than deliver us out of them. Shall we then quit the glorious light difplayed in the gospel of Christ, to follow the faint and feeble glimmering of natural reafon? Shall we feek for clearness in the midft

See Bishop Sherlock's Difcourfe on St. John iii. 16.

§ St. John vi. 68,

midst of obfcurity, or hope to meet with truth in the labyrinths of error and uncertainty? Thou bleffed Saviour of the world! If we leave thee, to whom fhall we go? Where fhall we find a guide like thee, a conductor fo kind, fo compaffionate, fo infinitely wife, fo divinely merciful?" Thou light of the Gen"tiles and glory of Ifrael !" How great must be the blindness and infatuation of thofe who, refufing to be guided by the radiant beams of thy heavenly doctrine, walk on in the falfe and treacherous ways of their own devifing, and neither difcern, nor defire to know the truth? What egregious folly, as well as bafe ingratitude is it, thus to fpurn at all the gracious defigns of heaven, and seek to fall back into the miferable gulfs of heathen ignorance and idolatry; there to lie loft and bewildered by the light of that reafon which we have now been viewing, as fet up through all its weakness and wanderings, in oppofition to divine revelation!

Reason, we acknowledge, is the gift of God to man; and had it always been employed, as it ought to have been, in the fervice, and for the honour of the Giver, it would have proved what it was designed to be, an able advocate for the truth of revealed religion; which, it is evident from that common mark of distinction, could not have been known, till it was revealed or discovered by its gracious Author.

See Mr Daubeny's excellent reasoning on this fubject, in the first difcourse of his work above mentioned.

thor. Yet human reafon would be muttering against this divine truth, and holding up fome femblance of religion as natural to man, which, therefore, it was not requifite for God to reveal; the discovery of which we shall allow to be a natural enough confequence of the pride and vanity of the human heart. But the misfortune is, that this fpecious theory happens to be directly contrary to matter of fact: For if there be any truth in revelation, which those who talk fo much of the connection between natural and revealed religion feem to acknowledge; nothing is more certain than that God fpake, or revealed his will to Adam in paradife, and that too, as foon as he was created; a circumstance which cuts off all right of precedence in any other mode of difcovery, and leaves no room for that imaginary system of human invention-the religion of nature. Yet no fooner had revelation thus commenced in Paradife, than we are immediately informed of that ambitious defire of obtaining knowledge by other means, which proved fo fatal to our first parents. "Ye "fhall be as Gods, knowing good and evil," was the temptation which took hold of the human understanding upon its firft perverfion; and the fuccefs which the tempter gained on that occafion, has encouraged him to go on with a continued repetition

of

It has been well obferved, that right Reafon, as expreffed in Latin by Ratio recta, must mean reafon ruled, or directed by a law, that is, by the law or will of God.