Of Godline /. 217 of any fenfe of religious and moral obliga- SERM. tion, of a reverence for the Deity, or aft- VIII. ing with a regard to his will and approbation.` But of all the nations of men that God has made to dwell upon the face of the whole earth, there is none fo barbarous, as to be without all fenfe and all form of religion, which thews how connatural it is to man, that the fervice of our Maker is one high purpofe we were made for, and that without it we do not an- fwer the end of our creation, nor fill up the place affigned to us, and perform the proper offices belonging to us, as a part in the regu- lar fyftem of God's works. All his works praifè him. The inanimate part of them can do it no otherwife, than by miniftering occafion to intelligent beings to glorify him. But thefe latter, as the apoffle fays * are without excufe, if when that which may be knozem of God is manifeft in them (for he bath (hewed it unto them, for the invifible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly feen, being underflood by the things that are made) they glorify him not as God, neither are thankful. Thus, it appears, not only from fcripture, but the light of nature and reafon, that godlinefs in the aria fenfe, * Rom, i. zo. that
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