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motive; or in other words that virtuous and good comes more powerfully recommended to them under the notion of a law by which they shall be judged, than as a scheme of beauty and order, or as a rule of eternal and unalterable rectitude; and that, if all sense of the superintendence and government of God were banished from the minds of men, morality would infallibly decline, and vice in all her insolent excess pervade and triumph over the world.
Such, Christians, is the system of Atheism; such the consequences of it, under every form and modification. Call it by what name you please, yet if it resolves itself into this at last, that there is no God, or no Providence, human nature is degraded, the rational peace and most sublime pleasures of men are destroyed, the strongest fences and guards of virtue are thrown down, and a breach is made for the admission of all kinds of daring licentiousness.
If these propositions be true, as I trust they will appear to you all, you will easily perceive the irrationality and wicked tendency of Atheism. The Atheist acts against his own interest and duty, by introducing confusion and disorder into the universe: “The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God.”
From these propositions, the following plain inferences may be deduced, which are so many serious truths, important and undeniable; that he who believes that there is no God, cannot have such powerful inducements to hold the life, or property, or character of his neighbour sacred, as he who believes the existence, and moral government of a supreme deity; that by necessary consequences,
