248 ÁÚJN AND RECOVERY, &O. through the inhabitants of this province of God's dominion. John the apostle in oneof his letters, tells us, that there are few who areborn ofGod, as new creatures, but thewhole world lies in wickedness ; I Johnv. 19. Would the blessed God make a world of intelligentcreatures so ignorant and thoughtless of himself, and so insolent and re- bellious against him as man npw is ? Can we think of that gross and stupid ignorance of the true God, which reigns throughvast tracts of land in Asia, Africa, and America, and the thick dark- noss as well as toil and slavery which buries all the heathen countries, and reduces them yet further almost to brutes and savages ; can we think of the abominable idolatries, the lewd and the cruel rites of worship, which have been spread through some whole nations ; the impious, the wicked and ridiculous superstitions which are practised among the greatest part ofthe world, and yet believe the blessed God would put such wretched and polluted workmanship out of pure hands ? Can we survey the bold and desperate impiety and profaneness, the swearing and cursing, and wild blasphemy that is practised and pronounc- ed dailyand nightly, among vast multitudes in those countries which know and profess the true God ; can we behold that almost universal neglect of God, his fear, and his worship, and of the 'obedience due to him, which is found even among those inhabitants of this our world, who say they believe in God, and yet imagine that those wretches lovetheir Maker, that they wear his image, and are conformable to his will, as his original crea- ture must and ought to be ? Nor are mankind only negligent of their duty to God, but they seem to have abandoned their duties to their fellow-creatures also. Can we thinkof the perpetual practices of fraud and vil- 'zany in the commerce of mankind, the innumerable instances of oppression and cruelty which run through the world ; the pride and humour of the great, the wrath and ambition of most princes, their wild and mad extravagances of crime and folly, as well as their boundless insolence and tyranny over their subjects, and the endless iniquities and mischiefs that arise from envy, malice and revenge practised among lower people ; and yet suppose that man was ever made with these vices in him, and these disorders aroundhim, by that wisdom and goodness that created him ? If we take a survey of the impure scenes of lust and intemperance and drunken madness whichdefy the day-light, and pollute the darkness ; if we think of the monstrous barbarities which are continually committed by menin the christian inquisitions of Spain, Portugal,and Italy, and among all the brutal and wicked tribes of heathenism, the African savages, and the American cannibals, who kill and roast their fellow.ereatures, and eat up men as they cat bread; can we
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