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.4 RATIONAL DEFENCE
OF
THE GOSPEL.
[s!RM.
xvr.
train of
viítues and graces
as
shall
adorn
the doctrine
of
God our
Saviour
;
and
by
such
a comparison
as
this,
men would
be
constrained
to
confess
that
God
is
among
us
of
a
truth.
III.
The
various
and
divided opinions, the sects
and
parties
that
are
found
in
the
christian
world, have
been
another
occasion
of
scandal and
offence to
the infidels.
"
How
can we ever
come, say they,
to any
certainty
what your
religion
is,
since you do
not
agree
about
it
among yourselves
?"
"
All
Europe pretends
to
be
christian, and
to believe
the
gospel
;
yet France, and
Spain,
and
Italy, and
Po-
land, and a
good
part
of Germany,
tell
us,
that true
christianity
is
found
only
amongst
them.
But
in
the
coun-
tries
of Denmark
and
Sweden,
and
the
northern parts
of
Germany, and
in
the
British
islands,
there
is
another
religion professed
of
a
very
different
kind, and they call
theirs
,the
pure
gospel,
and reformed
christianity.
The
protestant
and the papist
divide these western
parts
of
the
world,
and they are ready
to
tear
one
another
to
pieces
upon the
account of their
different opinions
and
practices. Now
if
the books
that
contain the religion
of
Christ
be
of
so
very
uncertain
sense
and
signification,
truly
we
are ashamed
of
such a
doubtful
religion
;
it
is
even as
well
for
us
to
content
ourselves
with
the
religion
that
the light
of nature
teaches
us,
and
the
dictates
of
our
own
common
reason,
which
we
think has more cer-
tainty
in
it."
To
this
I
answer,
that
it
is
a
great
mistake to imagine,
that
the light
of
nature
and reason,
if
left
entirely
to
it-
self
in
this
corrupt
and fallen state, has more
certainty
in
its determinations than
scripture
bath. How many
wild
opinions bath
the
corrupt
mind
of
man
produced among
the inhabitants
of
the
heathen
world,
and
this same
light
of nature
has
not corrected them
?
What
infinite
diver-
sity
of
vain
and monstrous
fancies
bath past
for
religion
and
devotion among them
?
And the light of
nature
has
been
supposed
to
dictate
some
of
them, for they did
not
always
pretend
revelation for
them.
There
have been
wide
and irreconcileable
differences among the
philoso-
phers,
as
well
as
among the priests and
the
people
of
different nations. The light
of nature
and reason
is
a
poor dark
bewildered thing,
if it
hath
no commerce,
nor