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Christianity Justified upon the Scripture Foundation
Christianity Justified upon the Scripture Foundation Author:Henry Stebbing Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: the next Chapter he fays, that textit{when the Gentiles which have not the Law [meaning the textit{written Law] textit{do by Nature the things contained in the L... more »aw ', thefe having not the Law are a Law untothemfelves, which Jheio the Work of the Law written in their Hearts, their Confcience aljb bearing wit- ne/s, and their Thoughts the mean while ac- (ujing, or elj'e excufing, one another, Rom. ii. It is very true (and the Apoftle here directly charges it upon the textit{Gentiles) that in fact both the true Knowledge of God, and alfo of the natural Law, was in a great meafure loft among them. But this he confiders as (chiefly) the Effect of their own wilfull Corruptions, and fuppofes, that God had given fuch Evidences of himfelf by the Works of the Creation, and flamped fuch legible Impreffions of Good and Evil, Right and Wrong, in the Hearts of Men, by the Reafon and Underftanding which he had given them; that, had they been ho- neftly confulted and attended to, they would have directed them to another kind of Be- jiaviour. God may well be fpoken of as having chapter{Section 4having textit{manifefted, or textit{flwwed himfclf to the textit{Gentiles, if he vouch fafed them that Light which (if rightly ufed) textit{would have made him manifeft, though (for lack of Care and Attention) the far greater Part of Mankind were very grofly miftaken in their Notions concerning him and his Worfhip. At leaft it is certain, that amidft all the Corruptions that prevailed in the textit{Gentile World, there was a Foundation left for more Religion and Virtue than was commonly practifed ; otherwife I do not fee how the Apoftle will be juftified in pronouncing |hem textit{without Excufe. You have now the Scripture Account, in what Senfe Mankind was textit{loft. Under the Forfeiture of L...« less