PREFACE. TO "THE RUINAND RECOVERY OF MANKIND." .A.MIDST the darknessof our degenerate state, Godhas been pleased to furnish us with two springs of light, to leadus into the knowledge of our own misery, and to direct us in the way to 'his favour and our happiness. These are well known by the names of reason and revelation, that is, the reason of man and the revelation of God. Right reason is ever uniform and consistentwith itself, and is the same in all ages. It wasgiven to man at first, to teach him all that we call natural religion ; and even now, in its diminished glory, it gives sufficientevidence of our ruin, and assures us feelingly of' our universal degeneracy, our lost inno- cence and peace: It affords us also many hints of' the favourable condescen- sions of divine mercy, the necessity of our repentance of sin, and our trust in divinegrace, in order to our recovery. It is granted that the dictates of reason amongst the various tribes and generationsof fallen mankind, have been mingled with a thousand prejudices, weaknessesand wanderings, with the mistakes of fancy, and the follies of superstition ; and at hest it has not been found of itself practically sufficient to instruct us in all things that relate to our salvation : Yet still, reason is a lightgiven us by God himself, and it has very much to do in our direction toward our present duty and our final felicity. But since our reason is so defective, both in its discovery of' our min and our restoration, God has been pleased to teach in a more immediate manner by the light of revelation, and has given to mankind earlydiscoveriesof his mind and will before scrip- ture was written, and then by Moses and other holy writers, he has furnished them with knowledge of their original aposiacy from God, their guilt and wretchedness ; and he has been ever since leading them onwards by different steps or degrees towards the full discovery of his will and their salvation by Jesus Christ, theMediator. And since the revelations of God to men, havebeen no very early and various, and have been delivered to us by different persons, and in different ages, there may be some difficulties arising from this variety : There may be some seemin. inconsistencies between the several parts of it, and some sup- posed oppositions to the light of reason : Yet it is certain that the two only lightswhich God has favoured us with in order to learn his will and our duty, can never contradictthemselves, nor each other. There is not anyone part of divine revelation which is really inconsistent with reason, or with any other parts of revelation itself. There is certainly a glorious connexion and divine harmony between them all, and all join together to make up one complete scheme, gradually advancingto perfection, and terminating and centering at last in our full recovery to the favour and image of God by the promised, Messiah or Saviour. Now as therevelation of God in an illustrious manner supplies the deficiencies of our reason, and enlightens our natural darkness in the knowledge of divine things, so the exercise of our reasoning powers isvery necessary to assist us not only in the understandingof the several parts of revelation, but in reconciling them to each other as well as to the dictates ofright reason. It is our reason winch shews us this blessed harmony. If it should be fotmdt that in my sentiments on this subject I have fol- lowed no human scheme, no established system, no hypothesis of any con- tending party, let it be known that my studieshave been more engaged in VOL. IV. P
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