hope to see natural religion in its full perfection; for there is no want of natural reason, nor any room to complain of prejudices or prepossession; but yet, alas! these nations are held in the chains of darkness, and given up to the blindest superstition and idolatry. Men wanted not reason before the coming of Christ, nor opportunity nor inclination to improve it: arts and sciences had long before obtained their just perfection; the number of the stars had been counted, and their motions observed and adjusted; the philosophy, oratory, and poetry of those ages are still the delight and entertainment of this. Religion was not the least part of their inquiry; they searched all the recesses of reason and nature; and had it been in the power of reason and nature to furnish men with just notions and principles of religion, here we should have found them; but instead of them we find nothing but the grossest superstition and idolatry; the creatures of the earth advanced into deities; and men degenerating and making themselves lower than the beasts of the field. Time would fail me to tell of the corruptions and extravagances of the politest nations. Their religion was their reproach, and the service they paid their gods was a dishonor to them and to themselves the most sacred part of their devotion was the most impure; and the only thing commendable in it was, that it was kept as a great mystery and secret, and hid under the darkness of the night; and were reason now to judge, it would approve of nothing in this religion, but the modesty of withdrawing itself from the eyes of the world.

This being the case, wherever men have been left to mere reason and nature to direct them, what security have the great patrons of natural religion now, that, were they left only to reason and nature, they should not run into the same errors and absurdities? Have they more reason than those who have gone before them? In all other instances nature is the same now that ever it was; and we are but acting over again the same part that our ancestors acted before us; wisdom, and prudence, and cunning, are now what they formerly were; nor can this age show human nature in any one character exalted beyond the examples which antiquity has left us. Can we show greater instances of civil and political wisdom than are to be found in the governments of Greece and Rome? Are not the civil laws of

Rome still had in admiration? and have they not a place allowed them still in almost all kingdoms? Since then in nothing else we are grown wiser than the heathen world, what probability is there that we should have grown wiser in religion, if we had been left, as they were, to mere reason and nature? To this day there is no alteration for the better, except only in the countries where the gospel has been preached. What shall we say of the Chinese, a nation that wants not either reason or learning, and in some parts of it pretends to excel the world? They have been daily improving in the arts of life, and in every kind of knowlege and science; but yet in religion they are ignorant and superstitious, and have but very little of what we call natural religion among them: and what ground is there to imagine that reason would have done more, made greater discoveries of truth, or more entirely subdued the passions of men in England, or France, or any other country of Europe, than it has in the eastern or southern parts of the world? Are not men as reasonable creatures in the east as they are in the west? and have not they the same means of exercising and improving their reason too? Why then should you think that reason would do that now in this place, which it has never yet been able to do in any time or place whatever?

This fact is so very plain and undeniable, that I cannot but think, that, would men consider it fairly, they would soon be convinced how much they are indebted to the revelation of the gospel, even for that natural religion which they so fondly boast of: for how comes it to pass, that there is so much reason, such clear natural religion, in every country where the gospel is professed, and so little of both every where else?

But is there then, you will say, no such thing as natural religion? Does not St. Paul lay the heathen world under condemnation for not attending to the dictates of it? Because,' says he, that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath showed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead so that they are without excuse; because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were

thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools; and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things.'-A sad account this of the state of religion in the heathen world, and a manifest proof how much nature stands in need of assistance! What we learn from St. Paul is plainly this, that notwithstanding the care which God had taken to display the evidences of his own Being and Godhead in every work of the creation, so that men could not but have a notion of the Deity; yet, so little did they profit by that knowlege, that it served only to render them inexcusable in their superstition and idolatry; for when they knew God,' (as indeed all the heathen world had a notion of a supreme Being) yet they glorified him not as God; but changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like unto corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things.' And was not nature an excellent guide to follow, that thus stumbled at the very threshold, and, having from natural reason the notion of a supreme Deity, sought to find him among the four-footed beasts and creeping things of the earth? Can you say what it was that thus debased the reason and understanding of mankind? What evil was it that had diffused itself through the whole race, and so possessed their senses, that, 'seeing, they did not perceive, and hearing, they did not understand?' or, do you think that you alone are exempt from this common, this universal blindness; and that the same reason and nature, that hitherto have misguided all the world into error and idolatry, would lead you out of the common road into truth and pure religion?

Is it not the utmost presumption to think thus, and to imagine that we alone are able to surmount the difficulties which all the world before has sunk under? And yet thus every man must think, who sets up natural religion in opposition to revelation: for has mere nature ever yet, in any one part of the world, extricated itself from error? Do the nations of old, or those which now are, afford any instance of this kind? But still you think that nature is sufficient to direct you; and what else

is this but to distinguish yourself from all the world, as if you only were privileged against the common failings and corruptions of mankind.

But you will say, Are there not complete schemes of natural religion drawn from principles and axioms of reason, without calling in the help of revelation? and are they not evident de monstrations that nature is able to furnish us with a religion that is pure and holy, and agreeable to the divine attributes? Allow this but let us then be informed how it came to pass, that never any system of this pure religion was in use and prac tice in any nation, or indeed ever fully discovered, till the gospel had enlightened the world. You may boast of Socrates and Plato, and some few others in the heathen world, and tell us perhaps of their great attainments on the strength of mere reason. Be it so: but what is this to the present question? Must millions in every age of the world be left in ignorance, because five or six among them may happen to extricate themselves? Would it be reasonable to suffer a whole nation to perish without help in a plague, because some few were not tainted with the distemper? or, will you say all men are seven feet high, because we see now and then some who are?

I question not but the wise Creator of the world formed us for his own service, and that he gave us whatever was requisite either to the knowlege or the performance of our duty and that there are still in nature the seeds and principles of religion, however buried under the rubbish of ignorance and superstition, I as little question. But what was it, I beseech you, that op. pressed this light of reason and nature for so many ages? and what is it that has now set it free? Whatever the distemper was, nature plainly wanted assistance, being unable to disengage herself from the bonds and fetters in which she was held: we may disagree, perhaps, in finding a name for this evil, this general corruption of nature; but the thing itself is evident; the impotence of nature stands confessed: the blindness, the ignorance of the heathen world are too plain a proof of it. This general corruption and weakness of nature made it necessary that religion should be restored by some other means, and that men should have other helps to resort to, besides their own strength and reason. And, if natural religion is indeed arrived

to that state of perfection so much boasted of, it gives a strong testimony to the gospel, and evidently proves it to be an adequate remedy and support against the evil and corruption of nature. For where the gospel prevails, nature is restored; and reason, delivered from bondage by grace, sees and approves what is holy, just, and pure: for what else can it be ascribed to but the power of the gospel, that, in every nation that names the name of Christ, even reason and nature see and condemn the follies which others still, for want of the same help, are held in subjection to?

Can this truth be evaded or denied? And what a return then do we make for the blessing we have received! and how despitefully do we treat the gospel of Christ, to which we owe that clear light even of reason and nature which we now enjoy, when we endeavor to set up reason and nature in opposition to it! Ought the withered hand, which Christ has restored and made whole, to be lifted up against him? or should the dumb man's tongue, just loosened from the bonds of silence, blas→ pheme the power that set it free? Yet thus foolishly do we sin, when we make natural religion the engine to batter down the gospel; for the gospel only could and only has restored the religion of nature; and therefore there is a kind of parricide in the attempt, and an infidelity heightened by the aggravating circumstance of unnatural baseness and disingenuity.

Nor will the success of the attempt be much greater than the wisdom and the piety of it: for when once nature leaves her faithful guide, the gospel of Christ, it will be as unable to support itself against error and superstition, as it was to deliver itself from them, and will by degrees fall back into its original blindness and corruption. Had you a view of the disputes that arise even on the principles of natural religion, it would show you what the end will be; for the wanderings of human reason are infinite. Under the gospel dispensation we have the immutable word of God for the support of our faith and hope. We know in whom we have believed; in Him, who can neither deceive, nor be deceived; and, poor as our services are, we have his word for it, that our labor of love shall not be forgotten. But to them who rely on nature only, it is not evident, nor can it be, whether any future reward shall attend their religious