26 / 652
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
of
the 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 glory
of
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