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Understand, ye brutish among the people: and se fools, when will ye be wife? He that planted the ear, fhall he not hear? he that formed the eye, fhall he not fee? He that chaftifeth the Heathen, fhall he not correct? he that teacheth man knowledge, fhall he not know? The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity.

DOCTRINE.

There is an extreme and brutish blindness in things of religion, which naturally poffeffes the hearts of

mankind.

AVING fhown how the truth of the doctrine is

Hevident, both by what appears in men's open pro

feffion, and by thofe things which are found by inward experience, and are manifeft by what is vifible in men's practice, I proceed to the

APPLICATION.

The firft ufe may be of inftruction, in the follwing particulars:

I. By this we may fee how manifeft are the ruins of the fall of man.. It is obfervable in all the kinds of God's creatures that we behold, that they have those properties and qualities, which are every way proportioned to their end fo that they need no more, they ftand in need of no greater degree of perfection, in order well to anfwer the fpecial ufe for which they seem to be defigned. The brute creatures, birds, beafts, fishes, and infects, though there be innumerable kinds of them, yet all feem to have fuch a degree of perception & perfection given them as beft fuits their place in the creation, and their manner of living, and the ends for which they were made. There is no defect visible in them; they are perfect in their kind; there feems to be nothing wanting, in or

der

der to their filling up their place in'the world. And there can be no reasonable doubt but that it was fo at firft with mankind. It is not reasonable to fuppofe, that God would make many thousands of kinds of creatures here in this lower world, and one kind the higheft of them all, to be the head of the reft; and that all the reft fhould be complete in their kinds, every way endowed with fuch qualifications as are proportioned to their use and end and this moft noble creature of all, only left exceeding imperfect, notoriously deftitute of what he principally ftands in need of to answer the end of his being.

The principal faculty by which God has diftinguifhed this noble creature from the reft, is his understanding: but would God fo distinguish man in his creation from other creatures, and then feal up that understanding with fuch an extreme blindness, as to render it ufelefs as to the principle ends of it; and wholly to difenable him from anfwering the ends of an underflanding creature, and to make his understanding rather a mifery than a bleffing to him: and rendering him much more mifchievous than ufeful?

Therefore, if the fcripture had not told us so, yet we might fafely conclude, that mankind are not now as they were made at firft; but they are in a fallen ftate and condition.

II. From what has been faid, plainly appears the abfolute neceffity of divine revelation. The Deifts deny the fcripture to be the word of God, and hold that there is no revealed religion; that God has given mankind no other rule but his own reafon, which is fufficient, without any word or revelation from heaven, to give man a right underftanding of divine things, and of his duty. But how is it proved in fact? How much trial has there been, whether man's reafon, without a revelation, would be fufficient or not? The whole world, excepting one nation, had the trial from about Mofes's time to the coming of Chrift, about fifteen hundred years. And was not this long enough for a trial, whether man's reafon alone was fufficient to mirućt him? Thofe na

tions, who all that time lay in fuch grofs dark nefs, and in fuch a deplorable helplefs condition, had the fame natural reafon that the Deifts have. And during this time, there was not only one man, or a fuccellion of fingle perfons that had the trial, whether their own reafon would be fufficient to lead them to the knowledge of the truth, but all nations, who all had the fame human faculties that we have. If human reafon is really fuflicient, and there be no need of any thing elfe, why has it never proved fo? Why has it never happened, that fo much as one nation, or one city, or town, or one affembly of men have been brought to tolerable notions of divine things, unless it be by the revelation contain ed in the fcriptures ? If it were only one nation that ad remained in fuch darknefs, the trial might not be thought fo great; becaufe one particular people might be under some difadvantages, which were peculiar. But thus it has been with all nations, except those which have been favoured with the fcriptures, and in all ages. Where is any people, who to this day have ever delivered themselves by their own reafon, or have been delivered without light fetched from the fcriptures, or by means of the gofpel of Jefus Chrift?

If human reafon is fufficient without the fcripture, it is flrange, that in thefe latter ages, lince navigation has been fo improved, and America and many other parts of the world have been difcovered, which were before unknown; and many hundreds of nations have been found out, which the Chriflian world before knew nothing of; I fay, it is very ftrange, that among all thefe newly difcovered nations, no one nation has any where been found already enlightened and poffeffed of arue notions about the Divine Being and his perfections, and free from Heathenifh dark nefs, by virtue of that human reafon they have been poffeffed of this fo many thoufand years. The many poor barbarous nations here in America, had the faculty of human réafon to do what they pleafed with before the Europeans

pleated

T.

came

came hither, and brought over the light of the gofpel. If this human reafon alone was fufficient, it is ftrange no one people were found, in any corner of the land, who were helped with their reason.

There has been a great trial as to what men's reason can do, without Divine help, in those endless difputes that have been maintained. If human reafon alone could help mankind, it might be expected that these difputes would have helped them, and have put an end to men's darkness. The Heathen philofophers had many hundreds of years to try their skill in this way;

but all without effect.

That divine revelation which the church of God has been poffeffed of, has been in the world "as a light "fhining in a dark place," 2 Pet. i. 19. It is the only remedy which God has provided for the miferable, brutish blindness of mankind: a remedy without which, this fallen world of mankind would have funk down forever in barbarifm and brutality without any remedy. It is the only means that the true God has made fuccefsful, in his providence, to give the nations of the world the knowledge of himfelf; and to bring them off from the worship of falfe gods.

If human reafon be the only proper means, the means that God has defigned for the enlightening of mankind, it is very ftrange that it has not been fufficient for this, nor has anfwered this end in any one inftance. All the right fpeculative knowledge of the true God, which the Deifts themfelves have, has been derived from Divine revelation

How vain is it to difpute against fact, and the experience of fo many thoufand years? And to pretend that human reafon is fufficient without Divine revelation, when fo many thousand years experience, among fo many hundreds of nations, of different tempers, circumftances, and interefts, has proved the contrary? One would think that all should acknowledge, that fo long a time is fufficient for a trial; especially confidering the miferies that the poor nations of the world

have been under all this while for want of light: the innumerable temporal calamities and miferies; fuch as facrificing children, and many other cruelties to others, and even themfelves; befides that eternal perdition which may reafonably be fuppofed to be the confequence of fuch darkness.

III. This doctrine should make us fenfible how great a mercy it is to mankind, that God has fent his own Son into the world, to be the light of the world.

The doctrine fhows what great need we stand in of fome teacher to be fent from God. And even fome of the wifer men among the Heathen faw the need of this. They faw that they difputed and jangled among themfelves without coming to a fatisfying difcovery of the truth; and hence they faw the need there was of a teacher fent from heaven; and fpake of fuch a thing." And it is a wonderful inftance of Divine mercy that God has fo beheld us in our low eftate, as to provide fuch a glorious remedy. He has not only fent fome created angel to inftruct us, but his own Son, who is in the bofom of the Father, and of the fame nature and effence with him; and therefore infinitely better acquainted with him, and more fufficient to teach a blind world. He has fent him to be the light of the world, as he fays of himself, "I am come a light into the "world," John xii. 46. When he came he brought glorious light into the world. It was like the dayfpring from on high, vifiting a dark world, as Zacharias obferves, Luke i. 77, 78, 79. After Chrift came, then the glorious gospel began to fpread abroad in the world into one nation and another, delivering those that had fitten in darkness, and in the region of the "fhadow of death."

What reason have we to rejoice and praise God, that he has made fuch excellent provifion for us; and has fet fo glorious a Sun in our firmament, fuch a "Sun "of righteousness," after we had extinguished the light which at firft enlightened us; and had, as it were, brought the world into that state in which it was when " without