Excerpt from The Works of the Revered and Learned Isaac Watts, D.D, Vol. 4 of 6: Containing, Besides His Sermons, and Essays on Miscellaneous Subjects, Several Additional Pieces, Selected From His Manuscripts II. Hence it comes to pass, that in describing the several religions of men, or the public dispensations of God, we do not so much enter into his eternal designs, or the secret and inward transactions of his grace, either with, or concerning the children of men, in order to bring them into his covenant of grace; nor do we search into his early and divine transactions with Christ Jesus, his Son, in the covenant of redemption, in order to the salvation of men: But it is sufficient, here, to set forth the outward discoveries of God's mind and will to men, in his public government of the universe, or those several constitutions by which he will either justify and reward, or condemn and punish mankind, as he is their supreme Lord and Judge. These are the things most properly signified by his dispensations towards men, and which I propose as my present theme. III. We must here take notice, in the first place, that natural religion, or that religion which rises from the nature of God and men, and from their relations to God and one another, runs through every one of these dispensations, whether in a state of innocency; or after the fall. And wheresoever divine revelation or the scripture hath not given man positive, express and particular notice of his duty, there the light of nature or reason must be supposed to come in both before and after the fall of man, to clear up what is doubtful, and to supply what is wanting; even as revelation is to supply us where the light of reason is defective or dubious. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.