make of the powers given them for this great difcovery, that inftead of adoring the Peing thus manifefted to them, in purity and truth, they fell into the moft grofs and abfurd delufions ;- -changed the glory of the incorruptible God, into an image made. like unto corruptible men,-to birds,to four-footed leafts and creeping things;

-Profeffing themfelves to be wife, they became fools. --All their fpecious wifdom was but a more glittering kind of ignorance, and ended in the most difhonourable of all mistakes,--in fetting up fictitious gods, to receive the tribute of their adoration and thanks.

The fountain of religion being thus poisoned,

no wonder the stream

fhewed its effects, which are charged upon them in the following words, where he defcribes the heathen world as full of all unrighteousness,--fornicovetoufnefs,-- maliciousness,

cation,

---full of murder,--envy,--de bate, -- malignity, ---whisperers, backbiters, haters of GOD, proud,boafters,

-inventors of

evil things-difobedient to parents, without understanding, without natural affection,-implacable,—— unmerciful!--GOD in heaven defend us from fuch a catalogue!

But thefe diforders, if fairly confidered, you'll fay, have in no ages arifen fo much from want of light, as a want of difpofition to follow the light which God has ever imparted:

"

that the law written in their hearts,

was clear and exprefs enough for any reasonable creatures, and would have directed them, had, they not fuffered their paffions more forcibly to direct them otherwife: that if we are to judge from this effect, namely, the corruption of the world, the fame prejudice will recur even against the Chriftian religion; fince mankind have at feaft been as wicked in later days, as in the more remote and fimple, ages of the world; and that, if we may truft to facts, there are no vices which the Apoftle fixes upon the heathen world, before the preaching of the gofpel, which may not be paralleled by as black a catalogue of vices in the Chriftian world fince.

This neceffarily brings us to an inquiry, Whether Christianity has done the world any service?and, How far the morals of it have been made

better fince this system has been embraced?

In litigating this, one might oppofe facts to facts to the end of the world,

1 1478 1979 11

without coming one jot nearer the

point. Let us fee how far their miftakes concerning the Deity, will throw light upon the fubject.

1.

That there was one fupreme Being who made this world, and who ought to be worshipped by his creatures, is the foundation of all religion, and fo obvious a truth in nature,

-that

Reafon, as the Apostle acknowledges,

was always able to difcover it: and

yet it feems ftrange, that the fame faculty which made the difcovery, fhould be fo little able to keep true to its own judgment, and fupport it long against the prejudices of wrong heads, and the propensity of weak ones, towards idolatry and a multiplicity of gods.

For want of fomething to have

gone hand in hand with reafon, and fixed the perfuafion for ever upon their minds, that there was in truth but one GOD the Maker and Supporter of Heaven and Earth,-infinite in wif dom, and knowledge, and all perfec-tions; how foon was this fimpleidea loft, and mankind led to difpofe; of thefe attributes inherent in the God-. head, and divide and subdivide them again amongst deities, which their own.