The Heathen Inexcusable for Their Idolatry [pp. 427-448]

444 The Heathen inexcusable for their Idolatry. [JULY
the fact that the existence of God is taken for granted. We
are not told that in the beginning God was; but in the beginning God made the heavens and the earth. He is spoken of
as already known, and the further fact of his being the Creator
is asserted. In fact, it could not be otherwise. A revelation
supposes a revealer. If the credibility of revelation rests upon
the authority of God, we cannot turn round and make the
evidence of his existence rest upon the authority of revelation.*
Revelation can only be taken for proof of the existence of God
in the same way that his other works can. The entire harmony of its different parts, its various excellencies, and nice
adaptation to the wants of man, all show that as an effect it
must have had a cause, and a cause adequate to produce these
results. But if any question the existence of God, the statements of the Bible would form no proof of it, for if his existence
be denied, revelation is of course denied, for there can be no
revelation without a revealer. If the outer world, with all its
glories and perfections, could have existed without a God, so
might the Bible too. Man may write a book, though not such
a book, but he cannot create a world. Some other foundation,
some other prior proof, must exist for the belief in one God.
Such foundation we have in man's religious nature, constraining
him, as a dependent being, to worship some object or being;
and such proof is therein the works of God, in the things that
are made, that both reason and revelation unite in declaring
him that rejects it to be without excuse.
Let us then, secondly, look at the direct proof which the
Bible presents. In Acts xiv. 17, it is said that "God left
not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us
rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with
joy and gladness." This was spoken by the apostles at Lystra,
to a company of heathen, who, with the priest of Jupiter, were
about to sacrifice to them in consequence of a miracle wrought
upon an impotent man. God has not left himself without wit ness, a witness which is plain and legible to all men-to the
heathen, for such was he addressing-for to all has he done
good. The rain and fruitful seasons show a providential
* See Morell's History of Modern Philosophy, Appendix, note A.