"And they heard the voice of the Lord God."
Some, I know, say that man thought out for himself, in his own
reason, the notion of God; that he by searching found out God. But
surely that is contrary to all experience. Our experience is, that
men left to themselves forget God; lose more and more all thought of
God, and the unseen world; believe more and more in nothing but what
they can see and taste and handle, and become as the beasts that
perish. How then did man, who now is continually forgetting God,
contrive to remember God for himself at first? How, unless God
himself showed himself to man? I know some will say, that mankind
invented for themselves false gods at first, and afterwards cleared
and purified their own notions, till they discovered the true God.
My friends, there is a homely old proverb which will well apply
here. If there had been no gold guineas, there would be no brass
ones. If men had not first had a notion of a true God, and then
gradually lost it, they would not have invented false gods to supply
his place. And whence did they get, I ask again, the notion of gods
at all? The simplest answer is in the Bible: God taught them.
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