bumanity. If fome men cannot be fatisfied with the evidences of revelation, or will not duly attend to them, fhall we therefore be fo cruelly officious as to hand them down into the depths of irreligion and atheism? God forbid! On the contrary, till their minds be more open to conviction, let them be exhorted and affifted to hold faft thofe principles which they do acknowledge, and which are indeed the fundamentals of all religion. Whoever fincerely believes a God, a providence, and a future flate, is furely much more fufceptible of Chriftianity than he who is deftitute of thefe effential principles. It may therefore be propofed and recommended to the former with much greater hopes of fuccess. In the one cafe, we have only a fuperftructure to raife on firm foundations; in the other, we muft either dig very deep, or build on a quickfand.On these, and feveral other accounts, I apprehend no man can be mifemployed who contributes, even in the lowest degree, to the establishment or illuftration of truths fo greatly and univerfally momentous. SER SERMON XVI. The Folly and Wretchedness of an Atheistic Inclination. PSAL. XIV. Part of the first Verse. The fool hath faid in his heart, there is no God. F all the falfe doctrines, and foolish opinions, which ever infefted the mind of man, nothing can poffibly equal that of atheism; which is fuch a monftrous contradiction to all evidence, to all the powers of understanding, and the dictates of common fense, that it may well be queftioned, whether any man can really fall into it by a deliberate ufe of his judgment.-All nature fo clearly points out, and fo loudly proclaims, a Creator of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness, that whoever hears not its voice, and fees not its proofs, may well be thought wilfully deaf, deaf, and obftinately blind. If it be evident, felf-evident to every man of thought, that there can be no effect without a caufe; what fhall we fay of that manifold combination of effects, that series of operations, that system of wonders which fill the univerfe; which prefent themselves to all our perceptions, and strike our minds and our fenfes on every fide! Every faculty, every object of every faculty, demonftrates a Deity. The meanest infect we can fee, the minutest and most contemptible weed we can tread upon, is really fufficient to confound atheifm, and baffle all its pretenfions. How much more that aftonishing variety and multiplicity of God's works with which we are continually furrounded! Let any man furvey the face of the earth, or lift up his eyes to the firmament; let him confider the natures and inftincts of brute animals, and afterwards look into the operations of his own mind-will he presume to fay, or fuppofe, that all the objects he meets with are nothing more than the refult of unaccountable accidents, and blind chance? Can he poffibly conceive that fuch wonderful order fhould fpring out of confusion? or that such perfect beauty should be ever formed by the fortuitous operations of unconfcious, unactive particles of matter? As well, nay better and more more easily, might he fuppofe, that an earthquake might happen to build towns and cities; or the materials carried down by a flood fit themselves up, without hands, into a regular fleet. For what are towns, cities, or fleets, in comparison to the vast and amazing fabric of the universe!-In short, the principle spoken of in my text offers fuch violence to all our faculties, that it feems fearce credible it should ever really find any footing in human understanding. But is it not there exprefsly afcribed to the foolish man, and reprefented as his opinion; which though perhaps he may not think to speak out, he whifpers to himfelf, and fays it in his heart? But thefe words, for a reafon already given, seem to require another conftruction; and will, I believe, fairly admit of it; for the heart of man is generally reprefented in Scripture as the feat of his affections, rather than of his judgment. Conformably whereto, the expreffion in my text may denote, not the man's real opinion or perfuafion, but his inclination and defire. He fecretly wishes that there was no God, and endeavours to draw his belief that way as much as he can.-If the words be thus understood, as they well may, the fubject arifing from them will be the extreme folly folly and madness of fo defperate a wish, either in respect of the public or of himself. To wish against the being of a God, is to with mankind the greatest mischief and diftrefs that can poffibly be conceived. It is to wish away the grand fupport and security of human fociety, and to overturn the foundations of all truft, faith, and confidence between man and man. Was there no awe of a Supreme Being, no terrors of a future judgment to restrain us, what government upon earth would be able to maintain itself, or find protection for its fubjects? Injuries and outrages, fraud and falfehood, would prevail and fpread far and wide, and the iniquities of mankind know no bounds.-What wife man would choose, and even dare to live in a community of atheifts, if fuch a one could be found? Let us for the prefent fuppofe fuch a one, and that it fubfifted under an advantageous and well-chofen form of government. How loofe and precarious, nevertheless, would be the obligations both of the governors and the governed! the one ruling, and the other fubmitting, not in the fear of God, but only in the fear of each other; the one unawed by any apprehenfions of an invisible power, which might call them to an account for mal-administration; the other obeying not for |