SERMON XLV. The Knowledge of God bythe Light of Nature, together with the Uses of it, and its Deeects. ACTS xiv. 15, 16, 17:The livingGod, which made heavenand earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein : who in times past suffered all na- tions to walk in their own ways. Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave itsrain from heaven, and fruitful sea- sons, fillingour hearts with food and gladness. WHEN the apostle Paul gave authority to his ministrations at Lystra, by working a miraculous cure on a man who was born a cripple, the inhabitants imagined thathe and Barnabas were gods, and were immediately preparing a sacrifice for them ; but to di- vert this madness and superstition of paying divine worship to creatures, the apostles, with holy jealousy and indignation, ran into the midst of them, and preached to them the living and the true God. " We, say they, are utterly unworthy of these divine honours ; for we are men of such flesh and bloodas yourselves, and are liable to the like infirmities we preach to you, that 'ye should turn from these vanities to the living God, who made hea- ven and earth, &c. Fromwhich words we may raise these three distinct observa- tions I. f° God may be known by the light of nature." Surely he that made mankind, and doth them so much good, bath given them somehints and notices of himself ; " He hath notleft him- self without witness." II. " The knowledge of God, which is attainable by the light of nature, hath its váribus uses ;" of which this is one, that it is a witness for God and his goodness among men. III. " Yet this knowledge of God by the light ofnature, bath great defects and imperfections in it. Notwithstanding all this knowledge,which iswithin the reach of men, yet.all the na- tions ofmankind besidesthe Jews, continued towalk in their own ways, their ways of idolatry, of wild superstition and various wickedness. It is said indeed, that God suffered them to walk thus ; not that he ever permitted them to doit as a Governor ; but as a Creator and a Sovereign, he neither restrained them from it by his almighty power, nor by such special revelations of grace as he madeto the Jewishnation : and their own natural know- ledge did not secure them from it.
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