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a Being, brings men under religious obligations, whether they discharge them or not; but it is only believing and feeling, as it were, by strongly impressed convictions of mind that there is such a Being with whom they have to do, that give conscience its power and urge to the fulfilment of them. And when such a Being is speculatively admitted, but practically denied—it is in effect not to have a God at all; but to banish him from the universe, and so to take away the force of all religious obligation. “The wicked hath said in his heart, I shall never be moved : his mouth is full of cursing, and deceit, and fraud : under his tongue is mischief and vanity. He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages; in the secret places doth he murder the innocent: his eyes are privily set against the poor to destroy them.” And the reason is assigned: “He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten, he hideth his face, he will never see it. Thou wilt not require it.”
I have selected these words, “The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God,” in order to speak to you of the folly of Atheism. I do not mean the folly of acting as if there were no God, while at the same time we admit his existence, his superintendence, and government of the world—a folly as criminal and as fatal, as it is common among men. That will occupy us some other day in its proper order and place, in the systematic scheme of instruction which by the help of God we purpose to follow. Our object is to shew the folly of Atheism itself, or the opinion that there is no God at all—no Creator of the universe—no Preserver and Controller—no Governor and Judge
