Of course they tried it, but God did not give them consistent results because it was not necessary for material phenomena to obey simple laws comprehensible by man. No-one who keeps God constantly on his mind would need an explanation of this fact, but nowadays it must be given. The construction of intricate theories to explain the world is necessary only to man with all his fleshly limitations. God, because He is omniscient, has no need to be intellectual. He has no need for Occam's razor, and it is no convenience to Him to have objects fall according to a simple law.
Scientific law is a grace given to Christian men.
The first bestowal of quantitative physical law was to Galileo. After praying in Church, he noticed the chandelier swinging and speculated that the period of the sway did not depend on the amplitude of the oscillation. So pleasing had his prayers been to God, that this speculation was instantly and retroactively granted. Galileo was rewarded by having several of his conjectures made true, but evidently God must have had some patience and affection still left for the Roman church, since Galileo was punished for his quarrels with this church by having his theory of the cohesion of water disallowed. The next really virtuous man to be rewarded was the theologian and saintly man Isaac Newton.