And tho' nothing can be more evident to those who reflect thereupon, than that Mens Actions should be regulated, and directed by that Faculty in them which shows them the different properties, relations, and dependencies of things, and not by their Appetite, which only can tell what will at the present please, or offend them; not what will, upon the whole, procure to them the most pleasure, or uneasiness; yet such appears to be the unreflecting Nature of the generality of Mankind, and such their fondness of present pleasure, as either not to consider this Truth, or when they do so, to be induc'd (in consequence thereof) to obey the most manifest dictates of Reason, or Natural Light, which will lay any restraint upon their pleasing, and, oftentimes, violent Inclinations: Much less will they be at pains to search for any such Measures of their Actions in the Constitution and dependances of things; which is indeed what the far greater part of Men have not the Capacity, or Leisure to do: Neither are Any able to do this so early as to prevent their irregular Inclinations from being first strengthen'd and confirm'd by ill habits: which when once they are, Reason does in vain oppose them, how clear soever her dictates appear. On the contrary, our Passions grown strong, do usually so far corrupt our Reason as to make her joyn parties with them against her self; we not only doing amiss, but likewise finding Arguments to justify our so doing, even to our selves as well as others.
But there is still, beyond this, a farther impediment to Mens obeying the Law of Nature, by vertue of the meer Light of Nature; which is, that they cannot, in all circumstances, without Revelation, make always a just estimate in reference to their happiness. For, tho' it is demonstrable that the Law of Reason is the Law of God, yet the want of an explicite knowledge of the penalty incur'd by the breach of that Law, makes it not to be evident to all Men that the incuring of this penalty shall (in all cases) make the preference of breaking this Law, an ill Bargain: which it may, sometimes not be to many, in regard of the discernable natural consequences of such a Transgression. For tho' observance of the Law of Reason is, in the constitution of Natural Causes, visibly to those who consider it (generally speaking) the means of our greatest happiness, even in this present World, yet if there be no future Life (which that there is, is made certain to us, only by the Revelation thereof in the Gospel) to answer in for Transgression of this Law; the breach of it may, tho' not naturally, yet accidentally, in some cases, conduce to Mens greater happiness; and, very often, notwithstanding that to have obey'd the Law of Reason they may discern would have been better for them than to have follow'd their Appetites, had they been early so accustom'd, yet now that they have contracted different Habits, which are like a Right Hand, or Eye to them, the difficulty of a new course of Life may appear too great for the attempt of it to be adviseable; since the consideration of the shortness and uncertainty of Life may make Men apt to say to themselves on such occasions,
Who would lose the present Hour,
For one that is not in his Power?
Or not be happy now he may,
But for a Future Blessing stay:
Who know not he shall live a Day?
The Revelation of an Eternal Life after this, with an express Declaration of Everlasting Rewards and Punishments annex'd to our Obedience, or Disobedience, to the Law of Nature (tho' such a Future State may be reasonably infer'd from all things happening alike to the Good, and to the Bad in this World, and from Men's Natural desire of Immortality) is yet but a necessary inforcement of the Law of Nature to the far greatest part of Mankind, who stand in need of this knowledge, and are uncapable of an Inference so repugnant to what their Senses daily tell them in the case; and wherein the Truth asserted has scarcely ever procur'd an unwavering assent from the most rational of the Heathen Philosophers themselves. Now the unquestionable certainty of a Future State, wherein Men shall receive Everlasting Rewards, and Punishments, we alone owe the knowledge of to Jesus Christ, who only has brought Life and Immortality to Light. The willingest to believe the Souls Immortality were before our Saviours coming, at best, doubtful concerning it; and the generality of Mankind, were yet far less perswaded of it.
Fables indeed concerning a life hereafter (wherein there were Rewards and Punishments) the Greeks had; and from them, they were deriv'd to some other Nations; but that for Fables they were taken is evident, and we are expressly told so by Diodorus Siculus, who applauding the Honours done to Good Men at their Funerals, by the Egyptians, because of that warning and encouragement which it gave to the Living to be mindful of their Duty, says, That the Greeks, as to what concern'd the Rewards of the Just, and the Punishment of the Impious, had nothing among them but invented Fables and Poetical Fictions which never wrought upon Men for the Amendment of their Lives; but on the contrary, were despis'd and laugh'd at by them.
Whether, or no, Men should subsist after Death depending plainly upon the good Pleasure of their Maker, the Pagan World (to whom God had not reveal'd his Will herein) could not possibly have any certainty of a Life after this. Arguments there were (as has been said) that might induce rational Men to hope for a future Existence as a thing probable; and they did so: But the Gross of Mankind saw not the Force of these Reasonings to be perswaded thereby of a thing so inconceivable by them as that the Life of the Person was not totally extinguish'd in the Death of the Body; and a Resurrection to Life, was what they thought not of, the certainty of which, together with future Reward and Punishment, by enabling us to make a right estimate concerning what will most conduce to our happiness, plainly brings this great encouragement to our Observance of the Law of God, that it lets us see our happiness, and our Duty, are inseparably united therein; since whatever pleasure we voluntarily deprive our selves of in this World from preference of Obedience to God's Commands, it shall be recompenced to us manifold in the World that is to come: So that now we can find our selves in no Circumstance, wherein our Natural Desires of Happiness, or love of Pleasure, can rationally induce us to depart from the Rule of our Duty.
The little which has been said, do, methinks, sufficiently evince the need of Revelation both to Teach and inforce Natural Religion: But the defectiveness of the Light of Nature to this end, is a Verity of so great use to be establish'd, that the consideration thereof should not be left upon such short Reflections as these; was not this Truth at large made out in a late Treatise intitled, The reasonableness of Christianity as delivered in the Scriptures.
A work which the unhappy mistakes and disputes among us concerning the Christian Religion, makes useful to all Men; and which has been peculiarly so to many, as the only Book wherein they have found the insufficiency of Natural Light to Natural Religion, has been fully shewed, although that to reconcile Men to, or establish them in the belief of Divine Revelation, nothing was more requisite to make this appear, in an Age wherein the prevalency of Deism has been so much and so justly complain'd of.
But against the insufficiency of Natural Light to the ends of Natural Religion, the World having been so many Ages without it, is, by some, thought an Objection: For, if Supernatural Light had been so needful as is pretended to be, how could it comport, say they, with the Wisdom of God not to have given it to Men sooner and more universally?
To judge of all the Ends and Designs of the Divine Wisdom in the Creation or Government of the World, is to suppose that we have a comprehension of God's Works, adequate or commensurate thereunto; which is not only to conceive of his Wisdom as not being infinite, but even to circumscribe it within very narrow bounds. If the Wisdom of God, (like his other Attributes) does infinitely surpass our reach, his Views must, for that reason, be necessarily oftentimes, as much beyond our short Sight. For us then, when we see not the reason why any thing is, to take upon us to say that such a thing does, or does not comport with the Wisdom of God, must needs be the highest Folly that can be, since it implies a presumption, that we see all in respect of such a Subject that God sees: And the Objection here made turns only upon the unaccountableness of the Divine Wisdom herein to our Understandings. For God's dealing thus with Men, can by no means be said by us to imply any contradiction to his Wisdom. Whilst we having an assurance highly Rational (from those numberless Worlds which surround us) that we are but a small part of the Intellectual Creation of our Maker; and being certain that our abode here bears but a very inconsiderable proportion of Time to millions of Ages, and is as nothing to Eternity, cannot tell but that to know much more than we do, in this State, of the intire Scheme of Providence with respect to the whole extent of intelligent Beings, may be necessary to our seeing the Beauty of anyone part of the design of our Creator. And it is the most suitable to the All-comprehensive Wisdom of God for us to conceive, that without having this knowledge, we may be far less able to judge of the Divine oeconomy, in reference to his Dealings with us here, than he who should see but one Scene of a Dramma, would thereby be capacitated to judge of the Plot or Design of the whole. In Objecting therefore against the need of Revelation to support Natural Religion, because that we understand not why, if Revelation was necessary to this end, the World had it no sooner: Men are guilty of so great an Absurdity as to argue from a Matter only unknown to them against the reality of that evidently is: Which is always irrational to do; but is especially so, when, if we cannot answer what is Objected, we yet see plainly that That Objection may be very answerable, and accountable for, even to our Conceptions; were but our views a little more enlarged, and such as, perhaps, they shall be hereafter.