Unity, his Omniprefence, and infinite Knowledge, it has furnished us even with Principles of Reafon, by which we reject and condemn the Rites and Ceremonies of Heathenism and Idolatry, and discover wherein the Beauty and Holiness of divine Worship confift: For the Nature of divine Worship must be deduced from the Nature of God; and 'tis impoffible for Men to pay a reasonable Service to God, till they have just and reasonable Notions of him. But now, it feems, this is all become pure Natural Religion; and 'tis to our own Reafon and Understanding that we are indebted for the Notion of God and of divine Worship: And whatever else in Religion is agreeable to our Reason, is reckoned to proceed entirely from it: And, had the Unbelievers of this Age heard St. Peter's piteous Complaint; Lord, to whom shall we go? they would have bid him go to himself, and confult his own Reafon, and there he fhould find all that was worth finding in Religion.

But let us, if you please, examine this Pretence, and fee upon what Ground this Plea of Natural Religion can be maintained. If Nature can inftruct us fufficiently in Religion, we have indeed no Reafon to go any-where else; fo far we are agreed: But whether

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whether Nature can or no, is, in truth rather a Question of Fact, than mere Speculation; for the Way to know what Nature can do, is to take Nature by itself, and try its Strength alone. There was a Time when Men had little elfe but Nature to go to; and that is the proper Time to look into, to fee what mere and unaffifted Nature can do in Religion. Nay, there are ftill Nations under the Sun, who are, as to Religion, in a mere State of Nature: The glad Tidings of the Gospel have not reached them, nor have they been bleffed, or (to fpeak in the modern Phrase) prejudiced with divine Revelations, which we, lefs worthy of them than they, fo much complain of: In other Matters they are polite and civilized; they are cunning Traders, fine Artificers, and in many Arts and Sciences not unfkilful. Here then we may hope to fee Natural Religion in its full Perfection; for there is no Want of natural Reason, nor any Room to complain of Prejudices or Prepoffeffion: But yet, alas! these Nations are held in the Chains of Darkness, and given up to the blindest Superstition and Idolatry. Men wanted not Reafon before the Coming of Chrift, nor Opportunity nor Inclination to improve it: Arts and Sciences had long before obtained their juft Perfection;

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the Number of the Stars had been counted, and their Motions obferved and adjusted; the Philofophy, Oratory, and Poetry of those Ages are still the Delight and Entertainment of this. Religion was not the least Part of their Inquiry; they fearched all the Receffes of Reafon and Nature; and, had it been in the Power of Reason and Nature to furnish Men with juft Notions and Principles of Religion, here we should have found them: But, instead of them, we find nothing but the groffest Superstition and Idolatry; the Creatures of the Earth advanced into Deities, and Men degenerating and making themfelves lower than the Beafts of the Field. Time would fail me to tell of the Corruptions and Extravagancies of the politest Nations. Their Religion was their Reproach, and the Service they paid their Gods was a Dishonour to them and to themselves: The moft facred Part of their Devotion was the most impure; and the only Thing that was commendable in it, is, that it was kept as a great Mystery and Secret, and hid under the Darkness of the Night; and, was Reason now to judge, it would approve of nothing in this Religion, but the Modesty of withdrawing itself from the Eyes of the World.

This being the Cafe wherever Men have been left to mere Reafon and Nature to direct them, what Security have the great Patrons of Natural Religion now, that, were they left only to Reason and Nature, they fhould not run into the fame Errors and Abfurdities? Have they more Reason than those who have gone before them? In all other Inftances Nature is the fame now that ever it was, and we are but acting over again the fame Part that our Ancestors acted before us: Wisdom and Prudence and Cunning are now what they formerly were; nor can this Age hew human Nature in any one Character exalted beyond the Examples which Antiquity has left us. Can we fhew greater Inftances of civil and political Wisdom, than are to be found in the Governments of Greece and Rome! Are not the civil Laws of Rome ftill had in Admiration and have they not a Place allowed them ftill in almoft all Kingdoms? Since then in nothing else we are grown wifer than the Heathen World, what Probability is there, that we fhould have grown wifer in Religion, if we had been left, as they were, to mere Reafon and Nature? To this Day there is no Alteration) for the better, except only in the Countries where the Gospel has been preached. What

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fall we fay of the Chinese, a Nation that wants not either Reason or Learning, and in fome Parts of it pretends to excel the World? They have been daily improving in the Arts of Life, and in every Kind of Knowledge and Science; but yet in Religion they are ignorant and fuperftitious, and have but very little of what we call Natural Religion among them: And what Ground is there to imagine that Reafon would have done more, made greater Difcoveries of Truth, or more entirely fubdued the Paffions of Men, in England or France, or any other Country of Europe, than it has in the Eaftern or Southern Parts of the World? Are not Men as reasonable Creatures in the Eaft, as they are in the Weft? and have not they the fame Means of exercising and improving their Reafon too? Why thenfhould you think that Reafon would do that now in this Place, which it has never yet been able to do in any Time or Place whatever?

This Fact is fo very plain and undeniable, that I cannot but think, that, would Men confider it fairly, they would foon be convinced how much they are indebted to the Revelation of the Gofpel, even for that Natural Religion which they fo fondly boast of: For how comes it to pafs, that there is fo

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