a city? To what degree of civilization did such people attain? How and with whom originated letters? Who first cultivated the arts? Who were the first students of philosophy? But, whatever degree of obscurity and uncertainty attaches to distant æras of the world, and to the circumstances of persons and things, then existing, there is one grand fact which stands out on every page of ancient history, and which, although the mere natural philosopher or antiquary may disregard it, will not fail to arrest and fix the attention of the religious inquirer; namely, the universality of a religious belief, coeval and commensurate with the human family.

2. The time was, probably, when political divisions of the earth did not exist; when kingdoms were not founded, nor cities built; when civilization had not imparted her refinements to the human species; when literature, the arts, the sciences, were little known: but, in what age was man without God? when were all mankind atheists? We can, however, get at the origin of many things; we can trace the commencement of some sections of the human race; we can tell who built certain cities, and founded the kingdoms, of which they became the capitals; we can assign authors to particular codes of laws and systems of philosophical opinions: but, who were the first believers in a Deity? Who first expressed religious sentiments? Who first built altars and offered sacrifices? The history of every people begins with an account of their religion, and would be incomplete without. The inference, we willingly leave to the consideration and disposal of the advocates of Atheism.

3. Some distant nations are as little known to us, as remote ages. Inquisitive and enterprising as we are, many things have tended to isolate mankind, and to retain the different sections of the human family, descended from the same stock and made of one blood, in inconvenient ignorance of each other. A love of

country, the labor and expence of travelling, the diversity of languages, the difference of climates, the tie of connection, and other causes, combine to withhold us from emigrating, and to fix us to the land of our fathers, and, for the most part, to the place of our birth. Accordingly, for a long series of time, the inhabitants of the several countries on the globe, knew, comparatively, little of each other. A spirit of enterprise, however, occasionally urged individuals to undertake travels, and nations to form colonies; and, of course, their knowledge of the world and of its inhabitants increased, as they proceeded. And whatever country they explored, or conquered, no people were found wholly destitute of religious ideas. The testimony of ancient writers, on this point, is so uniform, and so notorious, as not to require a particular mention.

And, now that facilities are provided for travelling, with surprising rapidity and safety, both by land and water; that, from whatever motives, the entire terraqueous globe is being traversed; that new countries are being discovered, and old countries more thoroughly explored; and that we are becoming acquainted with all nations and tribes of the human family, both civilized and barbarous, what is the fact, as to the universality of religious notions and feelings? We have seen that there was no section of the ancient world atheistical: and where now can be found a whole people, totally destitute of religious ideas, hopes, and fears? It is highly probable, that an entire people of this description never did exist, and could not now be found. Atheism, then, is not common in the world, nor natural to man. The child of nature is no atheist.

4. It is truly amusing and pitiable to learn how atheists account for a universality of religious belief, when they are not so ignorant or so impudent as to deny it. They tell us, that kings and priests conveyed it to the untutored minds of the common people, for sinister

purposes.' But has it not been found-and most vivid -where kings and priests never had a place or a name? What king or priest ever produced impressions of a Divinity or a Great Spirit, in the minds of hordes of poor wandering savages? And if they fancy that they behold him, or hear him in the elements, or in effects, the true cause of which they cannot assign; still the notion of such a Being must be previously in their minds. On no other presumption can suspicions or apprehensions of supernatural agency, in the minds of such untutored children of the desert, be accounted for.

But, “ It originated in times of great ignorance, for all ignorant people are superstitious." Had religious belief been confined to periods of extreme ignorance and barbarism,—had it receded before the progressive illuminations of science and the increasing refinements of civilization, like some dense and noxious vapour before the rising sun, this objection would seem to possess a degree of plausibility. But since times of great knowledge have not banished it from amongst men; and since it does so happen, that the most profound philosophers are also the most tenacious believers and the most devout worshippers, it falls to the ground. If this objection possessed validity, Lord Bacon's maxim must be reversed, namely, “A little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism; but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion."1

But, "It was produced by fear." This is a very old atheistical device, to evade an insurmountable difficulty. And the cause here assigned for religious belief is not less fictitious than the former. Why should fear have produced the notion of a God, rather than the notion of a God, fear? Why may not the well-known words of the heathen writer, Primus in orbe Deos fecit timorFear first made gods in the world-be changed into

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Primus in orbe timorem fecit Deus-God first made fear in the world? It certainly was, however, a most unaccountable thing, that any man, or body of men, should have been held in terror of a Being, of whom they had no previous notion whatever-had neither heard nor thought an absolute non-entity!

But, it may be added, "The notion of a God has been handed down by tradition." No doubt, the fact of the Divine existence has been a subject of traditionary communication through thousands of years. But,

whence arose the tradition? Who originated this opinion, which has been transmitted from father to son, and from generation to generation, beyond all historical date or antiquarian research? By what means has it reached every people of the world, and survived all the revolutions of human opinion? When we consider what the moral condition of the world has been for thousands of years, and that mankind, by reason of this condition, have had more to fear than to hope from the Deity, it is surprising that-provided the notion of a God were a chimera-they have not conspired to banish it from amongst them.

5. We may be reminded, that "the universality of an opinion is no decided proof of its correctness; and that many opinions have, ere now, obtained a general and powerful hold of the minds of men, which were afterwards shown to have had no foundation in truth." There is much speciousness and little weight in this remark, when made with a view to invalidate the universal belief of a Deity. A general belief of any thing is a presumptive proof of its truth. "What seems true to some wise men, is somewhat probable; what seems to the most, or to all wise men, is very probable; what most men, both wise and unwise, assent unto, doth still more resemble the truth; but what men generally consent iny hath highest probability, and approaches near to demonstrable truth; so near, that it may pass for ridiculous

arrogance and self-conceitedness, or for intolerable obstinacy and perverseness, to deny it."1

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If the world, in any instance, entertained unfounded notions, of which they were at length disabused, by what means were they undeceived? Not surely by empty declamation, or sophistical insinuation, or vulgar jęsts, or witty sarcasms. It was not by means such as these, that Columbus convinced the people of the Old World, that there was a fourth continent; or that Copernicus induced his cotemporaries to embrace his view of the solar system. Now, atheists find well nigh the entire world possessed of a common religious belief —the origin of which they attempt in vain to trace— and they call upon us to renounce it, to be of no belief, except what they, in the plenitude of their wisdom and benevolence, shall dictate. But on what grounds do they make this demand upon us? What voyage of discovery has put them in possession of the grand secret, which they pretend to have found out? By what process of investigation have they ascertained that throughout the universe there is nothing but matter?—that immense space is a vacuum, as to spiritual existence?

Nothing short of actual demonstration that there is. no God, should induce any sane man to turn atheist : and we have looked, without success, into the ablest atheistical writings, for the shadow of such a demonstration. Demonstration! An honest argument was never yet framed, sufficiently conclusive to shake the faith of an intelligent believer. And ignorant and impudent assertions, inuendoes against kings, priests, and saints, revilings and blasphemies, are not likely to entice honest-minded men to yield up their wellfounded and long-cherished confidence, to become the disciples of masters who employ such shallow artifices, to proselyte them to their senseless and baseless fancies.

1 Aristotle, quoted from Barrow's Sermons.