38 THE KNOWLÈOGE OF GOD. drove them far away from the truth. What shameful viceswere. authorised by some of their great men ? Theft, in some places was commended as a feat of dexterity, and revenge as a point of honour ; while public robberies ofnations were the glory of their heroes.' The murder and ravage of whole countries, were al- lowed for the enlargement of their do niuions, and the blood of kingdoms was made an offering to the ambition of neighbour- ing kings. In some countries, the youth and flower of con- quering nations were doomed a sacrifice to their idols ; and sometimes filthy and abominable lewdness were the ceremonies of their worship. How blind was the eye of their reason, not to see this madness ? And how feeble its power, that it made nò remonstrances against these lewd and bloody scenes of pre tended piety ? All these instances indeed do not effectuallyprove, that rea- son could not possibly teach them better; but the experience of long ages, and of whole nations, sufficiently shew us, that their reason neither did inform them better, nor was ever likely to do it. Even the best of the philosophers could giveus but a sorry system of religion compared with our bible ; so that St. Paul roundly expresses it; 1 Cor. i. 21. TIte world by wisdom knew not God. 3. "All the knowledge of God which they arrived at, by the light of nature, had actually but little influence to reform the hearts, or the lives'of mankind." I say; it had but little in- fluence in comparison of what it might, or should have lead ; for this knowledge of God, which was attained by their owit reason, suffered the Gentile nations to walk in their own ways, as my text expresseth it; Acts xiv. 16. Wretched and perverse ways of idolatry and mad superstition, withregard toGod, and falsehood, treachery, hatred, malice, and envy, towards their fellow-crea- tures. See the iniquities pumbered up in a large and detestable catalogue ; Rom. i. 23-32. The histories of the heathen world confirm these dismal accounts given us bythe sacred writers, and enforce the charge upon them with abundant proof. And it is no wonder at all, that this knowledge had so little influence on the generality of mankind, when so fewof them ever attained it, when it was so imperfect as to the discoveries of it, and so dim and feeble in its evidences, It came into their heads a little, but it reached not to their hearts : or if it did touch them, it was but feebly, and with very small authority, and was not enforced ul'sonpthe conscience with, Thussaith the Lord. A single sentence, . with this preface, has vastly greater power on the hearts and consciences of men, than whole volumes of their dark uncertain reasonings. 4. This knowledge of God, by the light nature, as doth
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