58 The Perjorz of C/;rift tlJe great ~prefentatic-ve Hence they thought ofold when they hadfeen an Angel,that fo much of the D1vine Perfections had been manifefl:ed unto them that thereon they mufl clye,Judg, .r )· 2r,22.Howbeitthey come infinitely ihort of making any compleat Reprefentation ofGod, nor is it otherwife with any Creature whatever·. 4· Mankind feemed to have alwaies had a common Appre– henjion, that there was need of a _nearer and more full Repre– fentation of God unto them, than was made .in any of the Works of Creation or Providence. TheHeavens indeed.de– clarecl his GlorJ·; and the Firmament always ihewedhis han· ·dy work. The Invijible things of his eternal Power and Godhead, were continually made known by the things that are made. But men generally mifcarried and miffed it in the Contemplation ofth~m, as the Apoflle declares,. Rom. r. For frill they were influenced by a common Prefumption, that there mufi be a nearer and more evident Manifefl:ation ofGod; ~hatmade by the WorksofCreationand Providence being not fufficient to guide them unto him. But in the per– fuit hereof, they utterly _ruined themfelves. They would do what God had not done. By common Confent theyfra: med Reprefentations of Godunto themfelves ; ~nd were fo befotted therein, that they utterly lofi the benefit which they might have received by the Manifeflation ofhim in the Works ofthe Creation, and took up with mofi foolifh Imaginations. For whereas they might have learned from thence, 'the Be– ing, of God,.his Infinite Wifdom, Po·wer and Goodnefs, name· ly, in the Impreffions and CharaHers of them on the things . that were made; in their own Reprefentations of him, they changed the Glory of the lnvifib!e God into an Image made like unto corruptible man, and to birds, ancl fourfooted beajfs, and creepir.g, thi·ngs, Rom. I. 2 3· Wherefore this common Pre· fumption that there was no way to attain a due fenfe of the Divine Being, but by fome Reprefentation of it, though tr~e 111
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