20 / 652
10
NATURAL
RELIGION,
ITS
USES AND
DEFECTS.
[SER14I.
I.
4.
This
natural
knowledge
of
God,
which
is
attain-
able
by
the
light of
nature,
serves
to
vindicate
the
con-
duct of
God,
as
a
righteous governor
in his severe
dealings with
obstinate and
wilful sinners,
both here and
hereafter. This
will
leave them
without
excuse in
the
great
day,
when
God
shall
judge
the secrets
of
all
hearts.,
Their
own consciences
will
accuse
them; and bear wit-
ness
against them.
Rom.
i.
20. 21.
and
ii. 15.
"
Is
God
unrighteous
who
taketh
vengeance on such
sinners?
God
forbid
;
for
how then shall he
judge
the
world
?"
Rom.
iii.
5,
6.
As
there
have been many
instances
of
a
righ-
teous providence
in the
present
life
whereby
the.
great
God
has
already
revealed
his
wrath
from heaven
against
standing their
sins,
may evidently
and
justly excite
in
their
hearts some
hope
of
forgiving grace
:
and
I
think the
words
of
any
text
cannot
intend
less
than
this,
that
"
God
has
not left them without
witness, when he
gave
them rain
from
heaven, when he
satisfied
their
appetites with
food,
and
filled
their
hearts with gladness."
What
was
it
that
these benefits
of
their
Creator
bore witness to
?
Was
it
not
that
there
was
goodness
and mercy to
be
found with
him,
if they
would
return
to
their duty,
and abandon
their
own ways
of idolatry
and
vice.
Surely,
it,
can never
be
supposed,
that
the
apostle 'here means
no
more
than
to
say,
that
the daily instances
of
divine bounty
in
the
common comforts
of
life, assured
them,
that
God
had
some goodness
in
him, and
blessings to bestow on
their bodies; but
ave them
no hope
of
his
acceptance of
their
souls,
if they
should
return
and
repent ever
so
sincerely.
The
Ninevites themselves, when
threat
ened
with destruction,
"
repented
in
sackcloth and ashes;
for,
said
they,
who can tell
but
God
will
turn
and repent, and
turn
away
from his
fierce
anger,
that
we
perish not
?"
Nor
were
they
mistaken
in
their
hope
;
for
°
God
saw:
their
works,
that they
turned
from
their
evil way,
and
he
re:
pented
-of
the
evil
that
he had
threatened
;" Jonah iii.
5
-10.
And
there
is
yet
a more express
text
to
this purpose,
lion.
ii,
1.
CQ
Despisest thou
the
riches
of
his goodness, arid
forbearance, and long
-
suffering, not know-
ing
that
the
goodness
of God leadeth thee
to
repentance
?
°' And
if
God
leads
us
to
repentance,
by
a sense
of
his goodness,
surely
hé
gives
hope
that
our
repentance
shall not
be in
vain: and though, perhaps,
I
could
not
affirm
it with
boldness,
and
certainty
by mere light of
reason,
yet
r
may
venture
to
declare, upon
the
encouragement
of
these scriptures,
that
if
there
should be found
any
sinner in
the heathen
world,
who shall
be
thus
far wrought
upon
by
a sense
of the
goodness
of
God,
as
to be led
sincerely
to
repent of
sin,
and
seek
after mercy, God
would find
a
way
to
make
a.
discovery
of
so
much
of
the
gospel,
as
was
necessary
for
him to know,
ra-
ther
than such a penitent sinner should
be
left under condemnation,
or
that
a
guilty creature should
go on
to
eternal death
in
the
way of repent-
ance. Cornelius,
the
centurion,
who
feared God,
who
prayed to
hint
daily,
and
wrought righteousness, according to the
light
of
his
conscience,
had both an angel and
an
apostle sent
to
him
that
he
might
receive more
complete instruction in the
i}tatters
of
his
salvation. .4cts
x,
1
-6
and
frout,30,
-35,