Sermons upon death and eternal judgment

Saint Paul had this Title of Honour eminently conferred upon him, the Apostle of the Gentiles: This Office he ⟨p. 4⟩performed with persevering diligence, diffusing the Light of Life to those that sate in darkness, and in the shadow of Death. In this Chapter we have recorded the substance of his Sermon to the Athenians; wherein his admirable Zeal and Prudence are remarkable, in the Matter and Order of his Discourse, to convince and persuade them to receive the saving Truth of the Gospel. He first lays down the Principles of Natural Religion, to prepare them for the more easy belief of supernatural revealed Religion. The depravation of the Minds of Men was in no instance more prodigious than in their vilifying Conceits of the Deity: They attributed his Name and Honour to various Idols, and ascribed to him their own Figure, and which was infinitely more unworthy ⟨p. 5⟩and dishonourable, their own Passions and Vices. They adored their own vain Imaginations. The Idols of their Hearts were erected on their Altars. Venus was a Goddess, because impure Love reigned in their Breasts. Bacchus had Religious Rites, because sensual Pleasures as sweet as Wine intoxicated their Spirits. These Errors, as gross as impious, were universal: the Philosophers themselves were not exempted from the Contagion. The Apostle therefore makes use of the clearest Arguments, to give Authority to the plain conspiring Voice of Nature, that had so long in vain recalled them from Idolatry to the Worship of the only true God. He therefore declares, that the Divine Maker of all things,