facred writers, when they addrefs that infinite Being, by whom they were created and fuftained? * Whither fhall I go from thy fpirit, or whither fhall I flee from thy prefence? If I afcend into heaven, thou art there if I go down to Hades, thou art there alfo. If I take the wings of the morning, and remain in the uttermost parts of the fea, even there alfo fhall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I fay, peradventure, the darkness fhall cover (and conceal) me, then shall my night be turned unto day. But will God indeed dwell upon earth? fays the royal preacher. Behold the heaven, and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee much less the house that I have made.-Again -‡ The heaven is my throne, faith the Lord, and the earth my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me; or what is the place of my reft? Hath not my hand made all thefe things? The fublimity of these paffages, and the truths which they contain, manifeftly fhew the fuperiority of the Scrip - Pfalm cxxxix. 7, 8, &c. +1 Kings viii. 27. ↑ Acts vii. 49.-Ifaiah lxvi. 1. &c. ; tures tures over the writings of the Gentile world. And from the ignorance of the philofophers, and the darkness in which the world was involved, we learn the neceffity of revelation. Concerning the Light of Nature. There are, however, fome, who deny this neceffity. They infift, that without any revelation, the light of nature will plainly dif cover to us a first cause: and the law of nature will enforce its worship, and all other moral duties. But, as I have before said, I cannot conceive that any law can be binding, which has not a lawgiver to give it his fanction. I cannot help doubting of its existence. And as to the light of nature, which is fuppofed to afford fuch univerfal information, how came it to fail in the many instances, which I have produced? If so many persons of learning, who fought diligently for the truth, mift of it, how can we imagine that it would be found among people, who did not fearch after it, among the Celts and Scythæ, among the Afiatic tribes of of wandering Arabs, or the wild hords of Getulians, and Garamantians in the deserts of Africa? The philosopher Cicero however is persuaded, that there was never any nation fo very rude and barbarous, which had not fome notion of the Gods *. And though people might not know which God out of many to adopt, yet all were perfuaded, that fome God was to be worshipped. And this opinion he thinks is innate: and the fame is faid Seneca. The authority of these philofo-. phers has often been applied to, in order to fhew, that there is in the minds of all men an original imprinted idea of the Deity, and that it has univerfally prevailed at all times, and in all places. But the whole has been grievously misapplied; for what these learned men allude to, and would enforce, is the worship of their national gods, and the gods of other countries ; all which tended to the exclufion of the true God; of whom they make no mention, and of whom they had no true * Cicero, Tufc. Q. L. 1. § 13. p. 1145. Gronov. ed. + Cicero de Leg. L. 1. § 8. p. 1288. Senecæ Epift. 117. P. 577. vol. 2. Var. idea. The whole, that is faid above, relates to fuperftition and idolatry, and to a plurality of Deities. The words therefore of these philofophers have been by no means understood: for they militate against the very purpose for which they were introduced. The true God was not to be found amid that herd of monsters: nor did the honours paid to them relate to his worship. It is faid, that they did not know which to adopt. In truth, there was not one worth adopting. It is therefore idle to conclude, that among these base divinities the only true God was included. Apostle St. Paul bears witness to this truth, when he tells the Galatians, that there was a time when they knew not God; and he adds, at that time ye did fervice to them, which by nature are no Gods. The Notion bafe, and of a bad Tendency. The Such opinions may be in fome degree pardonable in the writers above mentioned, * Galat. iv. 8.-The Apoftle mentions in another place, that the world with all its wisdom knew not God. 1 Cor. i. 21. and and in other philofophers, who held the fame tenets. They were excellent men in their day, who laboured after the truth; and made great advances, though they could never attain to the bleffing, and who thought, that any worship was better than none. But the fame allowance will not perhaps be made to Mr. Pope: who goes beyond the Heathen in his fentiments: and who thinks that all rites, however base, and all idolatry, however grofs and shocking, related ultimately to the worship of the one true God. This is to be feen in the first stanza of his celebrated paraphrase of the Lord's Prayer: Father of all, in ev'ry age, In ev'ry clime ador'd, By Saint, by Savage, and by Sage, It must hurt a truly pious mind, to fee the Creator of all things, the everlasting God, Jehovah, brought upon a level with Jupiter, and Baal, (who is the fame, as Lord) and (as we find intimated) with all the foul and horrid deities of the Pagan world. Who would imagine that the God of all purity a |