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to which so much is attributed, and on which such reliance is placed, by atheistical philosophers, can never be evinced. I myself believe, indeed, that it exists; but I also know, that its existence cannot be proved.

REMARKS.

From these observations it is evident, in the

1st. place, that Atheism in all its forms is a specimen of the most absolute credulity.

The three great atheistical schemes of existence, here recited, and undoubtedly the best which have been formed, are founded on mere assumptions, or gratuitous hypotheses, unsupported by a particle of argument, or evidence. But to adopt a mere assumption, especially in a case of infinite importance, is credulity in the extreme, and folly which cannot plead even a pretence. More than this, each of these schemes is refuted by direct demonstration. Beyond even this, they are unanswerably proved not only to be false, but to be impossible. Still the Atheist goes on quietly with his faith in these hypotheses; and resolves to believe, in defiance of demonstration, and impossibility.

2dly. There are still men, in considerable numbers, and of no small ingenuity, who profess themselves Atheists; and who thus prove that Atheism has its seat in the heart, and not in the understanding. Nothing can be more evident, than that these doctrines can never have been embraced from argument, or conviction, or by an unbiassed understanding. They were, therefore, certainly adopted under the influence of the heart; and believed, only because they were loved, or because God was dreaded and hated. Thus the heart is the true source of the belief that there is no God; and he is a fool, who, governed by its wishes, thus believes against all reason and evidence.

3dly. As such men have thus believed under such an influence; so, if we indulge such wishes, we may be given up by God to these, or any other, fatal doctrines, and of course to destruction.

The great danger lies in the heart; and in its hostility to God and his character. What we wish we easily believe; and what we dread, or hate, we easily disbelieve. As we dread the anger of God against sin, and against ourselves particularly as sinners, and all his designs to punish it; as we hate to renounce it, and its pleasures; we contrive easily, and naturally, to disbelieve his designs, character, and existence. Especially is this the case, when God, provoked by our rebellion and opposition, gives us up to a reprobate mind.

How greatly ought we then to fear this mass of guilt, danger, and ruin! How earnestly ought we to watch, and strive, and pray that we fall not into this train of temptations and miseries! Let us resolve to receive the truth, at all events, however humbling or painful, in the love of it. And may God grant that it may make us free from the bondage of corruption, and translate us into the glorious liberty of his Children. Amen.

SERMON III.

COMPARATIVE INFLUENCE OF ATHEISM AND CHRISTIANITY.

PSALM XIV. 1.-The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt ; they have done abominable works; there is none that doeth good.

IN my last discourse, I considered the objections of Atheists against the being and government of God; and those doctrines concerning the origin and existence of things, which they have substituted for the doctrines of Theism and the Scriptures, on this most important subject. The objections I endeavoured to prove unsound and nugatory, and the doctrines to be mere hypotheses, demonstrably false, and plainly impossible. Hence I concluded them to be the doctrines of the heart, and not of the intellect. Hence also I concluded, that he who embraces them is, according to the language of the text, a fool. There is no more absolute folly than to believe doctrines because we love them, and to reject doctrines because we hate them: or, in other words, to suffer our inclinations to govern our understanding.

The consequences of these doctrines, or of Atheism generally, are in the text declared in these words, They are corrupt; they have done abominable works: there is none that doeth good. In other words, Atheists are corrupt; they do abominable works: there is none of them that doeth good. This character of Atheists, seen by the Psalmist, and declared by the Spirit of God, three thousand years ago, has not changed for the better, at any period, down to the present day. They have ever been corrupt; they have ever done abominable works; there has never been among them a single good or virtuous man.

It cannot but be an useful employment to examine this interesting subject, and to learn, from such an examination, the manner in which these false principles, dictated and embraced by a bad heart, contribute, in their turn, as powerful causes, to render that heart still more corrupt; to fill the life with abominable actions; and to prevent every one, who embraces these doctrines, from assuming the character of virtue.

Before I enter upon the direct discussion of this subject it will be proper to observe, that Virtue is nothing but voluntary obedience to truth; and Sin nothing but voluntary obedience to falsehood. Or, more generally, virtue and sin consist in a disposition or preparation of the heart, flowing out into acts of obedience, in the respective manners which I have mentioned. From these definitions which, it is presumed, cannot be successfully denied, it is evident, that every false doctrine, which is relished by the heart, will, of

course, govern its affections and volitions; and will, therefore, control the conduct. Nor is it less evident, that, in the present case, the doctrine in question, being embraced only because they are loved, will eminently influence the heart which has dictated them, and eminently affect all the moral conduct.

It will also be clear to all persons, accustomed to the investigation of moral subjects, that the character of a man must, at least in a great measure, be formed by his views of the several subjects, with which he is acquainted. As these are expanded, magnificent, and sublime; or narrow, ordinary, and grovelling; the taste, the character, and the conduct, will be refined and noble, or gross and contemptible. A man, accustomed to an exalted sphere of life, and to a regular intercourse with great objects, will assume of course a dignity and greatness of mind, and a splendour of personal character, which cannot be assumed by him, whose views have ever been limited to a few and small objects, and whose life has been passed in actions of no significance. There is something princely, of course, in men even of moderate endowments, when properly educated for the inheritance of a throne. There is every thing diminutive, of necessity, in him, who is trained only to be a campboy or a shoe-black.

When men are educated to contemplation, and science, it may not unnaturally be imagined, that their minds, allowing for the difference of their endowments, will, from the similarity of their pursuits, be formed into a similarity of character. This, however, is, to a great extent, a mistaken opinion. The very objects, with which such men are equally conversant, may, from their respective modes of viewing them, become totally unlike, and even contradictory, in their apprehension. It will not be questioned, that the mind of a Heathen, studying, with the views of a Heathen, the polytheism of Greece and Rome, would be affected very differently from the mind of a Christian, investigating the same subject. The manner, in which we regard any object of inquiry, may differ from some other manner almost as much, as any two objects of inquisition may from each other. The views of him, who regards the firmament as a great blue canopy, and the stars as little sparks of light, differ from the views of the Astronomer, who considers the firmament as a boundless expansion, and the stars as an innumerable multitude of Suns, almost as widely, as the two objects of contemplation differ. The manner, therefore, in which human contemplations are directed, may be very various, although the objects are the same. In truth it is not the grandeur or diminutiveness of the objects, but the greatness or littleness of the views entertained of them, which affect, and form, the character.

differ

The taste, or relish, of the mind, particularly, will, in a great measure, if not wholly, be formed by this cause. The mind, by an early habit accustomed to little views, will soon learn to relish no other. Accustomed from the beginning to a connexion with gro

velling objects only, it soon ceases to be pleased with any other objects. Accustomed to form diminutive and debased schemes of action, it becomes easily, and finally, disgusted with every thing of an enlarged and superior nature.

As these things are true of all the views, entertained by Man; so they are especially true of those, which may be called original, and fundamental; which involve all subordinate ones; which direct every future course of thought; and to which the mind thinks it necessary to reconcile every succeeding purpose, relish, and opinion. If the stem, here, be a mere twig; the branches must be poor and diminutive indeed. Thus, he, the basis of whose religion was an idol, must form a system of theology and ethics, dismally lean and contemptible.

All the motives to human conduct are found, either in the Objects, with which we converse; or in the VIEWS, with which we regard them. If the objects, or the views, be low and debased, low and debased motives, only, will arise out of them. But motives originate all our conduct, regulate its progress, and determine its nature. If they be low and debased, the conduct will partake of the same characteristics, and will of course be grovelling, unworthy, and odious.

Thus the objects, with which we are conversant, and the views which we form of them, will determine both the internal and external character of Man.

It will be remarked, that I have considered this subject, independently of the peculiar doctrines of Christianity; and for this reason; that I am arguing with those, who deny a divine Revelation.

These things being premised, I assert, in accordance with the text, that the proper, natural, and necessary influence of Atheism is to contract, and render grovelling, the views, to corrupt the character, and to deform the life of Man. The truth of this assertion I shall attempt to illustrate under the following heads:

I. The views, which the Atheist forms of the Natural World: 2. His views of the Moral World:

3. His views of the Future World:

All these I shall, also, from time to time, compare with the views, which the Christian entertains of the same subjects.

1. I shall consider the views, which the Atheist forms of the Natural World.

In this consideration, I am disposed to allow the Atheist all the advantages which he can derive from endowments or acquisitions. He may, with my consent, be, what I well know he can be, a Chymist, a Botanist, a Mineralogist, or an Anatomist. He shall, if he pleases, be a Mathematician, a Natural Philosopher, an Astronomer, a Metaphysician, or a Poet. I mean, that he may be any, or all, of these, so far as one man, of his opinions, can be reasonably supposed to sustain the several characters specified. I will not

even avail myself of the celebrated remark of Lord Bacon, that a little Philosophy will make a man an Atheist, but a great deal will make him a Christian: although I entertain not a doubt of its truth. My business is not to dwell on minute things, but to show the nature of those which are of higher importance.

The Atheist, then, may with enlarged understanding, and skill, contemplate the structure of the heavenly Bodies. He may, with the eye of a Naturalist, explore the organization of the vegetable kingdom; may analyze the chymical principles, and combinations, of plants and minerals; and may trace, to use his own language, the hidden walks of Nature in her mysterious progress through the system. Or, with the imagination of the Poet, and the science of the Astronomer, he may be fascinated with the beauty, splendour, and sublimity, of the landscape, or delighted with the distances, magnitudes, motions, harmony, and magnificence, of the planetary and stellary systems; still his views of all these, and all other, natural objects, although in his mind the most illustrious objects which exist, will be poor and pitiable.

All of them, in his opinion, owe their being to fate, accident, or the blind action of stupid matter. They exist for no end; and accomplish none. They spring from no wisdom; and display none. They are, therefore, what they would have been, had they been made, and moved, by an Intelligent Cause, without any purpose, or design, in their creation: a vast apparatus of splendour and magnificence, assembled together for nothing: an immense show, in which nothing was intended, and from which nothing can be gained. The Mind, in surveying them, asks instinctively, and irresistibly, How came this train of wonders into being? and is answered with nothing but perplexity and folly, but doubt and despair. In the same manner it inquires, Of what use will this mighty assemblage of worlds and their furniture prove? The only reply is, Of none. All, with all their motions, furniture, and inhabitants, are the result, and under the control, of that iron-handed necessity, which exists in the blind operations of unconscious Matter; that gloomy Fate of the Heathens, to which they sullenly submitted because they deemed it inevitable; and which, while it showered calamities in abundance, cut off every hope, and every effort, for the attainment of deliverance. To the wretch, whose mind is effectually imbued with this scheme of things, the Universe is changed into a vast Prison, where himself and his companions are confined by bolts and bars, forged by the hand of blind, immoveable, and irresistible Destiny; where no heart is found to pity their sufferings, and no hand to lend relief; where no eye looks with sympathy, and no ear listens with tenderness; where the walls reach to heaven, and are hung with clouds and midnight; and where every effort to escape, conducts the miserable tenants only to the sullen cavern of Despair.

Should the Atheist, sick with the forlorn and hopeless contem