The Sun.
London, England, 1821-12-31 00:00:00

[an by the conviction of his tnind, " The fool

has said in his heart, there is no GOD I." if he then
dared to entertain such an opinion, he had not. the
audacity to avow it publibly. There are, how-
ever, in our days, men more foolish and more au-
dacious, who have made, a public profession of

Atheism. They have not been satisfied with

conceiving this monstrous idea—they did not
think it sufficient to whisper it around them—they
have boldly printed it, they have published it to
the world as the only doctrine which an

gent being could possibly adopt. Making a
mockery of terms, they have styled themselves
Philosophers, and assumed a denomination given
to the greatest sages of antiquity, most of whom
considered atheism as the height of absurdity.

The existence of real atheists has been reasonably

doubted. Vanity, pride, the violence of pas-
sions, may have led some men to profess such a
belief in public; but in the solitude of their

rooms, in the inmost recesses of their hearts, they I
have felt, and have, been compelled to acknow-
ledge, the existence of a GOD.
In the pride of his nothingness, i❑ the unac-
countable vanity of his limited understanding,
man has ventured to make his own reason the
standard of his faith, and to deny the existence
of whatever he cannot clearly comprehend. In
adopting this line of argument, he has unwittingly
exposed only his own ignorance, since his very
existence must then become problematical. He
is every where surrounded by wonders ; wherever
he turns he perceives evident signs of order, har-
mony, and design ; the mechanism of the mi-

nutest insect is far above his comprehension. Ye

he cannot deny the existence of the objects tha

strike his senses ; although he is forced to con-
fess that he is unable to comprehend the cause
or the mode of their existence.

According to SPINOSA, matter and motion were
alone sufficient to form the universe. This as-
sertion will be correct, if he add with DESCARTES,
that the quantity of motion, as. well as. its com-
bination, -must have been determined. In this
Case tho wcistence of some intel-
ligent Being by whom motion received the direc-
tion requisite to produce the Universe; and this
intelligent Being is the GOD whom we adore.—
Aware of this necessity, but unwilling to
coati! to this conclusion, the Atheist attri-
butes the arrangement of all things to Na-
ture. But unless we take this word to ex-
press the effects we perceive around us, it is
wholly destitute of any meaning ; and if by
Nature the Atheist mean the cause frotn which
every thing proceeds, the source 'of universal
existence,* the Power that established, and
the wisdom that regnlateS,the law of the universe,
then does he-mean only what we term GOD? If
by Nature he mean, however, only the actual
organization of matter, and its inherent self-
existing- principle, we must then wholly differ
from him. • Nature, indeed, is evidently not a
primitiVe cause, it is only a well regulated.
machine, which possesses no free agency, hut is
governed by certain determinate and inviolable
laws, and continually re-produces similar effects.
It is, therefore, a reproductive but not a creative
cause ; and the constant and invariable unifor-
mity of its operations shew that it does not pos-
sess that free agency' which should be one of
the characteristic distinctions of a first cause.,
If it be a machine, it must have had a maker:
if it be not a cause, but only an effect, it must
have had a-cause of its existence ; and this cause
must necessarily be out of Nature, because no-'
thing material can 'contain within itself the cause
of its own existence, But if it have'a cause, this
cause must. have existed when Nature did not
exist, since the cause must necessarily precede.
the effect. The eternal existence of Nature 'is,
therefore, in opposition to reason, and this first
article of the atheistical creed is repugnant to
common sense. It has been justly observed, and
even 'by VOLTAIRE himself, that every conclusion
drawn from the notion that there is no Goo, is
necessarily absurd and inconceivable ; and that
to adopt the creed of the Atheiit required a
greater portion of faith than to belieVe in the
existence of a GOD. The following sketch of
the atheistical doctrine will prove the truth of
this assertion :
Determined not to admit the existence of a
supreme and intelligent Being, whose power
created, and whose wisdotn preserves and go-
verns, the universe, the Atheist believes'matter
to be eternal and uncreated. Compelled to al-
low that, fro:n its inertness, this matter is incap-
able of changing its actual state, he must never-
theless believe. that, without,any &eternal impulse,
it has put itself into a state of. motion, Though
wholly destitute of intelligence;and consequently
incapable of design, it has, however, .by a for-
tuitous concurrence of unaccountable circum-
stances, arranged itself so as to produce the
heavens and all their wonders ; the earth an:; all
its various productions; the, immutable laws, by.
which the operations- of Nature are' regulated ;
the wisdoui displayed in the variety of parts,