ion, they will inevitably fall into one
or other of these two extremes, or rather, that they will oscillate
alternately between the two,--in seasons of ease and prosperity living
"without God in the world," and in seasons of distress or danger
betaking themselves for relief to the rites of a superstitious worship.
The apostle describes at once the secret cause and the successive steps
of this sad degeneracy, when, speaking of the Gentiles, he says that
"when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were
thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart
was darkened; professing themselves wise, they became fools, and changed
the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to
corruptible man."--"And even as they did not like to retain God in their
knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind."[17] The secret cause
of all these evils was a latent "enmity against God,"--"they did not
_like_ to retain God in their knowledge." From this proceeded, in the
first instance, a _practical habit_ of Atheism,--"they glorified him not
as God, neither were thankful;" and from hence proceeded, in the second
instance, the gross superstition of _Polytheistic belief and
worship_,--"they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an
image made like to corruptible man,"--"they changed the truth of God
into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the
Creator, who is blessed forever."

But, while practical Atheism and blind Superstition are the two extremes
which divide among them the great majority of mankind, there have always
been some more thoughtful and inquiring spirits, who have sought to
penetrate the mysteries of their being, and to account for the present
order of things. They have asked, and have attempted to answer, such
questions as these: What are we? what was our origin? what is our
destination? Whence came this stupendous fabric of Nature? Is it
self-existent and eternal? or did it come into being at some definite
time? If not eternal, how was it produced? by chance or by design? by
inevitable fate or by spontaneous will? Whence the order which pervades
it, and the beauty by which it is adorned? Whence, above all, the evil,
moral and physical, by which it is disfigured and cursed? And, in reply
to these thoughtful questionings, various theories have been invented to
account for the existing order of things, while not a few of the most
daring thinkers have