disobedience to those laws, whether written. or unwritten, which relate to man as an accountable creature; and then, prejudiced indeed must that mind be, which refuses its assent that there is a God which ruleth in the earth.

"I remember it is the saying of one," says Tillotson*, "who hath done more by "his writings to debauch the age with "atheistical principles than any man in it, "That when reason is against a man, then "a man will be against reason." I am "sure," he adds, "this is the true account "of such men's enmity to religion. Religion "is against them, and therefore they set "themselves against religion.-It is found

by experience that none are more appre"hensive of danger, or more fearful of "death, than this sort of men; even when

they are in prosperity, they ever and anon "feel many inward stings and lashes; but "when any great affliction or calamity "overtakes them, they are the most poor

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spirited creatures in the world." Indeed,

* Sermon II.

a bold

a bold professor of atheism there cannot be. The compunctions of conscience, which he cannot by any sophistry remove, prevent it. The reputed atheist, therefore, if you ever meet him in your passage through the world, suspect as a deceiver. The mask which he now holds before his face, will drop as he approaches the grave, and he will wishhow vainly then!-that he had not endea voured to palliate his vices by infidelity.

In every age there has been too much reason to lament, that "the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately

wicked;" yet as few instances, if any, have occurred, where wickedness took its rise from deliberate atheism, we may reasonably conclude that no such principle exists: but that whereever it appears to influence the conduct of mankind, it is raised up, as an hideous phantom, to vindicate the dreadful excesses of immorality. How far self-deception may be carried upon this head, is evident from a striking anecdote related by Sir Thomas Browne in his Religio Medici *. "It is disputed," he says,

"whether there have been atheists or not; "but what will you say of Vaninus, who

was burnt alive for atheism at Thoulouse "in France, anno 1620, who as he was going from the prison to the stake, said "to those who led him, among other things, Pray feel my pulse and see if you can

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86

perceive the least emotion or alteration in "it; you shall not find me utter the least "word of despair as your Christ did when "he was upon the cross. And when he was

brought to the stake, and felt the heat of "the fire, he cried out, my God! my God! "A certain monk, who stood by, hearing "this, asked him, how he came to call upon "God now, since he had denied him all "his life before? Upon which he answered

him, from the midst of the flames, Sir, it "is only the manner of speaking."

The author of the book of Wisdom, in a beautiful strain of eloquence, imputes infidelity to a previous depravity of heart. He introduces the ungodly reasoning on the shortness of life, and on the final extinction of being by death; and from these argu

ments

ments encouraging themselves in sensuality, injustice, and oppression.

"The ungodly said, reasoning with them

selves, but not aright, our life is short and

tedious, and in the death of a man there "is no remedy: neither was there any man "known to have returned from the grave. "For we are born at all adventure: and we "shall be hereafter as though we had never "been for the breath in our nostrils is as "smoke, and a little spark in the moving "of our heart: which being extinguished,

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our body shall be turned into ashes, and

our spirit shall vanish as the soft air, and "our name shall be forgotten in time, and

no man shall have our works in remembrance, and our life shall pass away as the "trace of a cloud, and shall be dispersed as

a mist that is driven away with the beams "of the sun, and overcome with the heat "thereof. For our time is a very shadow "that passeth away; and after our end "there is no returning: for it is fast sealed, "so that no man cometh again. Cóme on, therefore, let us enjoy the good things "that are present; and let us speedily use

"the

"the creatures like as in youth.

Let us

"fill ourselves with costly wine and oint"ments, and let no flower of the spring pass

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by us: let us crown ourselves with rose"buds before they be withered: let none of us go without his part of our voluptuous

ness let us leave tokens of our joyful"ness in every place for this is our portion "and our lot is this. Let us oppress the

poor righteous man, let us not spare the "widow, nor reverence the ancient gray "hairs of the aged. Let our strength be "the law of justice: for that which is feeble "is found to be nothing worth. There"fore let us lie in wait for the righteous; "because he is not for our turn, and he is "clean contrary to our doings, &c."

"Such things they did imagine, and "were deceived: for their own wickedness " hath blinded them. As for the mysteries "of God, they knew them not: neither

hoped they for the wages of righteous66 ness, nor discerned a reward for blame"less souls. For God created man to be im"mortal, and made him to be an image of