G NATURAL RELIGION, ITS USES AND DEFECTS. [SEEN'. f. dations be destroyed or despised, we may be terribly shaken, and beat off from all our hope in some evil and unhappy hour. This gives us a rational ground for our faith in God, and it is necessary in order to our faith in Christ Jesus, his Son. As St. Paul made glorious use of it in his discourse with the Athenian infidels, so we may be called by providence to converse with atheists and unbelievers, and we should be furnished with the same doctrines and principles of argument : for so far as they are just and true, they are divine, since they proceed from God, as the God of nature, who is the Author of our reasoning powers, as well as of all the revelations of grace. Reflection II. Since this knowledge of God, which is attainable by the light of nature, has so many defects, let us never venture to rest in it. Dare not :content your- selves with the lessons of the book of nature, which are very imperfect and obscure, in comparison of the dis- coveries ofthe book of grace. The sun in the firmament, with the moon and all the stars, can never.give us that, light to see God, which is derived from the Sun of Righ- teousness. What a deplorable thing is it, that multitudes in our nation, where the gloryof the blessed gospel shines with such brightness, -should be running back to the glim- mering light of nature, and satisfy themselves with hea- thenism and philosophy ! That they should chuse to walk in twilight as the happiest and safest way, and refuse to be conducted by the blaze of noon, as though it were a deceitful and foolish light! What an affront against the authority and mercy of the God of heaven to renounce his brightest blessings! " The God of this world hath blinded the eyes of them who believe not;" 2 Cor. iv. 4. and we have reason to fear, he is leading them blindfold to eternal darkness. Reflection III. Since the nations, which have only the light of nature, are forced to feel out their way to God through such dusky glimmerings let us bless the Lord with all our souls, that we are born in Great Britain, a land of clear light, where the gospel shines in its beauty and power, and surrounded with various evidences ; a land where the book of grace lies open before us, as well as the book of nature, to teach us the knowledge of God 3
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=