matter, are to those exhibited in its properties and laws, as myriads to one. For the known properties and laws of matter are but few, while the dispositions or localities of matter are innumerable. Ską

7. The unorganized is the natural state of matter. This is prov ed by the fact, that in all cases as soon as life is extinct the matter composing organized bodies returns to an unorganized state, by the action of its inherent properties and laws. This fact demonstrates that bodies are not organized, by the action of affinities inherent in matter, but by a principle of vitality or life which modifies and overrules, for the time being, the action of the laws and affinities inherent in matter.

8. If matter were brought into an organized state by the force of its inherent properties and affinities, then all matter would be found in an organized state, and being once in that state, it would for ever remain in it, unless disorganized by some power out of itself.

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9. It is plain, then, that the properties and laws inherent in matter, and that power, whatever it is, that organizes matter into living bodies and sustains that organization, are antagonist forces.

10. There are three states in which matter is foundthe unorganized, as in the clods of earththat of vegetable organization and that of animal organization.

11. We have seen that the first of these states must be natural, because all matter, in whatever state of organization, tends, and if left to itself, returns to the unorganized state.

12. The other two states, those of vegetable and animal or ganization, are the antagonists of the first and differ so widely from each other that by no apparent possibility can these three states be ascribed to the inherent properties of matter.

13. Should it be admitted then, that matter with all its inherent properties and laws, is self-existent, this would not at all account for the dispositions and locations of matter, nor for the existence of liv ing bodies either vegetable or animal. bis.

14. If men, or any race of animals were extinct, no law of matter could restore them. I

15. If Geology proves any thing, it proves that the present races of organized beings have not existed always.

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16. The universal law that like begets like, proves that the present races of animals did not spring from former races whose remains have been disinterred by the labors of the geologists. This also is proved by geology itself.«

17. Therefore the existence of the present organized world demands the interference of a God, to say the least, at the commencement of its being.

But again This doctrine of an infinite series, the truth of which the Atheist assumes, admits that every event or change is conditioned or dependent upon its immediate cause, that the exis ence of matter in one peculiar form or state of combination is the cause of its passing into another form or state of combination, but a conditional

event implies and demands an unconditional cause, either immediTate or remote. Conditional events are like the links of a suspended chain--but a suspended chain, with an infinite number of dependent links without some absolute and independent support, is absurd and naturally impossible. An infinite series of dependent events, cannot be, the doctrine then of an infinite series is false and absurd.

"But as Atheism assumes its truth as its fundamental support, Atheism is itself false and absurd.

IV. Difficulty Atheism attempts to keep itself in countenance by demanding in support of theism, the most unreasonable and impossible kinds and degrees of evidence. For the existence of God, Atheists demand the testimony of sense, and inquire, "Who has seen God"? To this it may be answered:

1. That the objection is founded in a ridiculous ignorance or disregard of the first principles and laws of evidence, one of which is, that a proposition is to be supported by that kind or degree of evidence which the nature of the case admits. Bnt as God is a Spirit it is unreasonable and absurd to demand for his existence the direct testimony of sense.

2. But we have the indirect testimony of sense for the existence of God, just as we have for the existence of men. Who has at any time seen a man? Our senses inform us of the existence of a body, but this which we see is certainly not the man, the thinking agent, but from the phenomena exhibited to our senses by this body, we naturally and necessarily infer the existence of the man or living agent within, for we cannot conceive that these bodily actions and motions should have no cause, and as they are similar to those of which we ourselves are conscious, our reason affirms that the tenant within is a man like ourselves. As we infer the existence of man from the phenomena which he exhibits to our senses, so we infer the existence of God from the phenomena which he exhibits

to our senses.

V. Difficulty. Atheism as a system, if system it may be called, is founded on, or supported by no self-evident truth, but is merely a system of evasions, which evasions are founded in the denial of first and self-evident truths. ✅

VI. Difficulty. Atheism has not a particle of evidence for its support.

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VII. Difficulty. Atheism is contradicted by a universe of wit

VIII. Difficulty. Atheism is a ridiculous system of both credulity and incredulity. It is ridiculous credulity to believe that all things, or any thing comes by chance.

Should a man believe that a watch chanced to grow upon a tree, would not this be an evidence and an instance of ridiculous credulity? But Atheists pretend to believe that all things are by chance.

It is ridiculous incredulity to doubt what all men know to be true, that every event must have an adequate cause. #

IX. Difficulty. That modification of Atheism that denies the existence of the material universe is ridiculous incredulity, because it professes to doubt that for which all men have the evidence of all their senses.

..X. Difficulty. Atheism requires impossible credulity, for its fundamental doctrines never were, nor can be believed by a sane mind. For no human being ever did or can believe that the universe of events exists without a cause.

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XI. Difficulty. Its tendencies condemn it. These are,

1. To unsettle all belief, for if the evidence in favor of the existence of God, be rejected as inconclusive and insufficient to demand belief, it follows that nothing can be proved by evidence, and that universal scepticism on every subject, including our own existence, is the only reasonable state of mind.

2. A second tendency of Atheism is to destroy all science and all knowledge. If no credit is to be given to testimony, if all evidence is to be set aside, then the foundations of knowledge and science are destroyed and no one can reasonably say, that he is certain of any thing, not even of his own existence, or that he has any sufficient ground for believing any thing whatever.

3. Another tendency of Atheism is, to beget universal distrust, and to annihilate that confidence upon which all society is founded, Hence:

4. Another tendency of Atheism is to annihilate all government. Without confidence, certainly no government can exist. If no degree of evidence is to be credited, there is in no case any foundation for confidence, and if no foundation for confidence, government is an impossibility. If then the principles of Atheism were carried out, they must inevitably overthrow all science and all gov

ernment.

5. Fifth tendency of Atheism is to unbalance mind and to produce universal insanity. What is insanity, but a state of mind that is not influenced by evidence? And Atheism, if real, must to say the least, be a species of moral monomania; as it is, in respect to the existence of God, the setting aside of all evidence and therefore the perfection of irrationality.

6. A sixth tendency of Atheism is to annihilate all restraint upon sin. Remove from the human mind those powerful motives that are connected with a belief in the existence of God, and you unchain the tiger, and burst open the flood-gates of lust and every species of iniquity.

7. Another tendency of Atheism is to confirm selfishness. That selfishness is the character of unregenerate man is a matter of fact. That selfishness is detestable, is what all men feel. Nothing can annihilate it but faith in the existence, attributes, and character of God. To deny these, is to perfect and perpetuate selfishness forever.

8. Another tendency of Atheism is to annihilate all those motives to virtue which are alone influential in a world like this.

9. Another tendency of Atheism, is to annihilate the domestic virtues and affections. If the existence of God, and that the domestic relations are a divine institution be denied, there can be, in a world like this, no sufficient support and protection of those relations, and consequently universal licentiousness must prevail. Hence,

10. Atheism delivers men over to the gratification of lust as their highest wisdom. Denying as it does the existence of God, of a future state, and all distinction between virtue and vice-all moral accountability and responsibility, the inference of Paul is just, "Let us eat and drink for to morrow we die."

11. Another tendency of Atheism is to lessen infinitely the value of life. Deny the existence of God, the immortality of the soul and adopt the system of Atheism, and of what comparative value is human life? Let the horrors of the French revolution answer." 12. Atheism leaves the mind in universal doubt and distress in regard to all existences and events. Truth is the natural element of the mind. It can by no possibility be at peace without it. To overthrow all evidence-all knowledge-all confidence, is to render the happiness of mind impossible, and to deliver it over to mourning, lamentation, and woe.

13. Atheism renders virtue impossible. It denies the foundation of all virtue. In denying the existence of God and the immortality of the soul, the relation of cause and effect, it completely annihilates the distinction between right and wrong, and renders it impossible that there should be any such thing as holiness, or virtue in the universe.

14. It produces present and insures eternal misery. That Atheists are eminently wretched men, is evident from their history, and from the very nature of mind it must be so. Truth is the element and natural food of mind, and in just as far as it is fed with and conformed to the truth it is happy. But in proportion as it departs from truth it is miserable.

Atheism is the extreme of error, and for this reason it is necessarily the extreme of agony.

XII. Difficulty. The spirit of Atheism condemns it. Atheism manifestly has not its seat in the understanding but in the heart. It is not properly a sentiment, but a temper. This is evident,

01. From the fact that it does not proceed from any want of evidence of the existence of God.

2. Nor is it based on any contrary or opposing evidence. For Atheism has not a particle of evidence for its support.

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3. Nor is Atheism an affirmation of reason, but as directly opposed to reason as possible.

4. Nor is Atheism a deduction or a doctrine of science, but, as we have seen, it involves a denial of all science.

5. Nor is it founded in an incapacity to see the bearings of the evidence of Theism. Nothing is more patent, than the everywhere abounding evidence of the Divine existence.

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6. Nor does it proceed from a want of time or opportunity to weigh and consider the evidence in favor of Theism.

7. Nor does it proceed from the manifest useful tendency of Atheism, for it were madness to affirm the usefulness of its tendency.

3. Nor has Atheism grown out of any hurtful tendency of Theism.

9. But Atheism is manifestly a spirit of selfishness. It manifests itself, and its own nature in many ways.

(1.) It is a spirit of ingratitude. Should a man on a desolate island, find that every night while he is asleep, his cave was supplied with all the necessaries of life, and should thus continue from month to month and from year to year, without exciting in him the earnest desire to know and thank his benefactor, universal reason would affirm that that was the spirit of ingratitude. And what is Atheism, but ingratitude the most detestable ?

(2.) Atheism is an uncandid spirit. It is the spirit of caviling against stubborn and undeniable facts.

(3.) Atheism is hatred to truth.

(4.) Atheism is a reckless spirit. It strikes with ruthless hand and endeavors to blot out the existence of God and virtue from the universe.

(5.) It is a spirit of prejudice, as is evident from its ex-parte examination of the great question of Theism.

(6.) It carps and cavils at the few apparent, though unreal discrepancies of the word of God.

(7.) It lays great stress upon the absurdities of vulgar prejudice as it profanely styles the sincere though unlearned opinions of believers in a God.

(8.) It triumphs much over the weak and inconclusive arguments of some Theists.

(9.) Atheists are in the habit of ascribing the events of the universe to nature, instead of nature's God.

(10.) Atheists cavil, and stumble, and triumph, in view of the physical and moral evils of the world, which could not be, did they possess a considerate and benevolent state of mind.

(11.) Atheists triumph greatly, when in the infancy of any new form of science, any thing is discovered that appears to be inconsistent with the doctrine of Theism, but when fuller investigation has corrected their error, and science gives its unqualified testimony in favor of Theism, they are neither convinced nor silenced, but shift their ground and continue their cavils.