whether Nature can or no, is, in truth, rather a Question of Fact, than mere SpecuCir: preslation; for the Way to know what Nature unpitiva 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 see 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 Phrafe) 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 just Perfection;

the

the Number of the Stars had been counted, and their Motions obferved and adjusted; the Philosophy, 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 Reason and Nature; and, had it been in the Power of Reafon and Nature to furnish Men with just 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 Beasts of the Field. Time would fail me to tell of the Corruptions and Extravagances 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 most 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 Reafon 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 Reason 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 should not run into the fame Errors and Abfurdities? Have they more Reason than those who have gone before them? In all other Instances. 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 shew human Nature in any one Character exalted beyond the Examples which Antiquity has left us. Can we fhew greater Instances 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 still in almost all Kingdoms? Since then in nothing else we are grown wifer than the Heathen World, what Probability is there, that we should 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

fhall

fhall 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 Reason would have done more, made
greater Discoveries 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 Eastern or Southern Parts of the
World? Are not Men as reasonable Creatures
in the East, as they are in the West? and
have not they the fame Means of exercising
and improving their Reason too? Why then
fhould
you think that Reason 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 so 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 Gospel, even for that Natural Religion which they fo fondly boast of: For how comes it to pass, that there is fo

much

+

much Reason, fuch clear Natural Religion, in every Country where the Gospel is profeffed, and fo little of both every-where else?

But is there then, you will fay, no such Thing as Natural Religion? Does not St. Paul lay the Heathen World under Condemnation for not attending to the Dictates of it? Becaufe, fays he, that which may be known of God is manifeft in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invifible Things of him from the Creation of the World are clearly feen, being understood by the Things that are made, even his eternal Power and Godhead; fo that they are without Excufe: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their Imaginations, and their foolish Heart was darkened. Profeffing themselves to be wife, they became Fools; and changed the Glory of the uncorruptible God into an Image made like to corruptible Man, and to Birds, and four-footed Beafts, and creeping Things.-A fad Account this of the State of Religion in the Heathen World, and a manifeft Proof how much Nature ftands in need of Affiftance! What we learn from St. Paul is plainly this; That, notwithstanding the Care which God had taken to display the Evidences of his own Being and Godhead in every Work of the Creation,