Isaiah 2:3 And many people shall go and say, Come you, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob… What I intend is to make use of the words as they express a sincere desire in many people of being better informed in the mind and will of God, by some particular revelation from Himself than they could be by the mere natural light of their own minds, reflecting only upon the general works of creation and providence. I. EVERY RATIONAL MAN, WHO BELIEVES A GOD AND A PROVIDENCE GOVERNING THE WORLD, IS UNDER A NATURAL OBLIGATION TO INQUIRE WHETHER GOD HAS MADE ANY PARTICULAR REVELATION OF HIS WILL TO MEN, WHICH THEY ARE ANY WAY CONCERNED TO TAKE NOTICE OF. II. WHOEVER SERIOUSLY MAKES THIS INQUIRY, WILL FIND IT REASONABLE TO CONCLUDE THAT SOME REVELATION MAY JUSTLY BE EXPECTED FROM GOD, CONSIDERING THE GENERAL STATE OF MANKIND. 1. In the nature of things, there is no impossibility that God should make a particular revelation of His will to men. That God should communicate His will to men in a particular manner, implies nothing contradictory, either to the nature of man or God. For if we believe that God is the Maker of mankind, and that from Him they received their reason and understanding, then it is unreasonable to suppose that the mind of man is incapable of receiving any impression of revelation or instruction from the Supreme mind, only because that Supreme mind is of an invisible nature. And it is yet much more unreasonable to suppose any incapacity in the Divine Being, of making such discovery of His will to the mind of man, as His wisdom sees fit; for this would, in effect, be to deny the perfection of His nature, and to make him a Being not acting freely but by necessity, without liberty or choice and this in the end comes to the same thing as denying His Being altogether. 2. Considering our natural notions of the goodness of God, there is no reason to think it incredible that He should at some time or other make such discovery of His will. 3. Considering the general condition of mankind, such revelation is by no means unnecessary. (1) It is evident, that there is a surprising corruption in human nature; that the generality of men have hardly ever attended duly, at any time, to the natural dictates of their own reason. But much the greater part have shewn themselves more prone to extinguish than to improve the light of reason. (2) Suppose they had really known the true state of their own case, yet the true cure for it was more than human power or skill could effect. Some of them had recourse to philosophy. But the disease was too inveterate and epidemical to be cured by so weak a medicine. (3) Supposing the philosophers had been really designed to reform the morals and religion of mankind, they were not sufficiently qualified for such an undertaking, because they them. selves were ignorant of many things necessary for it. As they knew not the first cause of the corruption of human nature, so they could know nothing of God's design in suffering it, nor of the scheme and order of His providence, by which He designed to conduct mankind out of it, into a more perfect and happy state than that from which they had fallen. (4) In matters of religion, which, naturally, have the greatest influence over the mind of man, and which therefore ought to be under the best and truest direction of all others, they were still more deficient than in anything else. When mankind had once generally fallen from the worship of the one true God, they sunk, by degrees, into the most brutal superstition and idolatry. (5) Divers of the wisest philosophers did themselves confess that they wanted a Divine revelation to set them right, even in matters which were of the utmost consequence. (6) Such men as now think that no revelation was ever necessary, but that the want of it might always have been sufficiently supplied by the use of human reason alone, do not state the matter fairly; because they confound part of that light which we insensibly receive by the revelation of the Gospel, with that light of nature which men had before it: that is, they do not distinguish between those notions which the mere heathen world were in possession of before, and those which they attained to after the preaching of the Gospel. III. IF THIS BE SO, THEN IT IS EVERY MAN'S DUTY TO USE ALL THE PROPER MEANS HE CAN TO FIND OUT WHAT IS TRUE REVELATION AND WHAT IS ONLY PRETENDED. (R. Boyle.) Parallel Verses KJV: And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. |
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