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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

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.

PSALM XIV. 1.

IN 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 docth 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 doctrines 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 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

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 analyse the chemical 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 of 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 contemplation, turn his eye from this scheme of things to his only alternative, the doctrine of Chance, he will find himself equally distant from refreshment and from hope. Here, himself and all other beings in earth, sea, and sky, with all their properties and operations, are mere accidents, involved and perplexed in their movements, like the particles of dust in a whirlwind. In his view, if he understand his system, and will think consistently with himself, his thoughts, volitions, and efforts, the continuance of his own being, and that of all other things, are mere casualties, produced by no cause, upheld by no support, directed by no wisdom, and existing to no purpose. Mere abortions, precarious in the extreme, possessed only of a doubtful and fluctuating existence, they tremble and flutter in a dreadful state of suspense, over the gloomy abyss of Annihilation. All here is doubt and discouragement. Not a plan can be rationally formed, not a hope consistently indulged. Where every thing is to happen, if it exist at all; or where the result of the casualty is, with the same probability, seen to be any thing or nothing; it is plain that nothing can be expected. Against every expectation, the chances are millions of millions to one; for every supposable thing is as likely to exist as any other.

Should it be said, that the Atheist refutes these declarations by his conduct, because he lives and acts like other men, and is no more influenced than others by a regard either to fate or chance, I answer, that the objection is erroneous. The Atheist, instead of refuting these observations, refutes himself. He denies his own principles, and avails himself of the prin