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SEAM.
I.1
NATURAL
RELIGION,
ITS
USES AND
DEFECTS.
11
the
unrighteousness
and
ungodliness
of
the
heathen
world:
Rom.
i.
18. So
in
the wòrld to
come,
not
one
condemned sinner shall
be
able to say,
God
is
unjust:
Every mouth
shall be
stopped, and the heavens and the
earth
proclaim
his
righteousness, when he
shall-
appear
in
his Son
Jesus
at
the
last day,
as
the
judge
of
all
man
-.
kind.
5.
This
knowledge
of
Go_
d
by
natural
light prepares
the
way
for
preaching and receiving the gospel
of
his-
brace:
and'that
he
loth
many
ways, viz.
Unless
men pre
first
acquainted that there
is
a
God,
who can make known his mind
and
will
to men,
'what
ground
is
there for preaching
any discoveries
of
his
mind
and
will
amongst them? Unless the heathens
are taught
that
he
is
a
God of
all
knowledge,
and
cannot
be
de-
ceived himself;
and
that
he
is
kind
and
good,
true and
faithful, and
will
not
deceive
his
creatures,
how
can they
be
persuaded
to believe
what
he
reveals
?
Unless they
are instructed
by
the light
of
reason,
that
he
is
an
Almighty
God
and
the Lord
of Nature,
how can
any
miracle
give
testimony
to the
truth
of
what
he
reveals
?
For
it
is
as
the Sovereign
Lord of
nature,
that
he
sets
the
seal
of
a miracle
to
his
divine
truths;
'a
miracle
which
is
above the power
of
nature
to
work.
Again, when sinners,
by
the
light and
law
of
nature
in
their
own
consciences are laid
under
conviction
of
sin
and
guilt,
and they are in
fear
of
the wrath
of God,
they become
more ready
to receive the gospel
of pardon
and salvation
as
glad tidings from heaven.
We
see
the
great apostle
St.
Paul
wisely' managing
his ministry to
the Athenians,
of
which
we,
have
but short
hints
in
Acts
xvii.
Q2,---30.
By
discoursing
first on
na-
tural
religion, he comes
at
last
to awaken men
to
re-
pentance,
and preaches
Jesus
with the
resurrection
of
the dead and
eternal
judgment,
.verse
31.
And agreeably
to this
method
of propagating
the gospel
among the
heathen nations,
we find,
in
fact,
that
where
there
was
any thing
of
the knowledge
of
the
true God,
either
by
the
light
of
nature,
or
by
tradition, there
the
gospel
was
soonest
received
;
the minds
of
men were
better
fitted
and
prepared
for faith in
Christ,
the
Son
of
God,
by
this
degree
of
knowledge
of God
the
Father.
Those
who
in the
book of the
Acts
are stiled the
devout