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of it; a folly rare and not so avowed among men, but still more criminal and fatal ; and in our day insinuated into the unguarded minds of youth, like a subtile poison, through artful tales, embellished with all the charms of poetry, that deeply interest the sentiments of the human heart. Not that we suspect any one of you of this folly, but that we are anxious to guard you all against it; and we are sure that by exhibiting it in it its own proper light, we shall do all that is necessary to make you abhor it.
The scheme of Atheism, or the denial of the being and providence of God, is an unnatural offence against the peculiar and distinguishing excellency of our nature, and a foolish giving up of the most eminent prerogatives and advantages of it.
The inferior orders of living creatures, from an original defect in their constitution, or the want of an intellectual principle, though supported by the omnipotent God, enlivened by his invigorating presence, and refreshed by his overflowing goodness, can neither discern the power that upholds, the presence that animates, nor the kind and gracious influence which cheers and comforts their frame. But there is in man a principle of intelligence, which cannot only converse about the millions of objects of which our senses inform us, but of millions which our senses cannot reach; a principle of intelligence by which we can rise by lofty steps, through the contemplation of the works of creation, and the ways of Providence, to the knowledge of the invisible Author of all. It is by this that we are chiefly distinguised from all the inferior orders of living creatures,—it is this that sets us at the
