superstitious veneration; who looked for the direct interference of an invisible power, to terminate all their judicial disputes; and, who yielded themselves, obsequiously, to the guidance of those whom they viewed as the ministers of that power, were not likely to be chargeable with atheism. They would as soon have thought of denying, or doubting, their own existence, as of calling in question the existence of God.'

7. After the revival of science and literature in Europe, sceptics sprang up to a fearful extent, both in this country and on the continent, who, to be free-thinkers in religion and morals, adopted and recommended a latitudinarianism repugnant alike to right feeling and sound philosophy; a freedom built upon the rejection of all restraint,—of all that can really dignify and endear human nature; an universal irreligion. We here contemplate one of those counter excesses, to which the mind of man is frequently liable; like the pendulum of a clock, which flies from side to side of the case in which it moves. From a blameable mental quiescence, they became inconveniently restless; from a stupid credulity and tame submission, which effectually restrained them from discussing the correctness of any opinion, or the wisdom of any ceremony, they passed to a criminal incredulity and confidence; and, from being, in a certain sense, too religious, to be radically impious. The writings of the ancient atheists were brought out from their dusty recesses; their contents were perused with avidity; and all their obsolete objections against God, Providence, and a future life, were urged with singular ingenuity. To ignorant and unwary minds, these objections may seem to possess some validity; but to others, they are without point or force.

1 For a farther account of the matters incidentally touched upon in the above paragraph, we beg to refer the reader to Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire; to Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History; but especially to Hallam's History of the Middle Ages, a work of great research and learning.

8. Some sceptics, of the last century, carefully preserved method in their madness; and, with desperate notions about religion, retained much modesty of feeling; studying to conceal, rather than to disclose, their real sentiments; insinuating, rather than avowing, their opinions; and confining their reveries to their own families and a few select friends. And even others, who openly avowed their horrid conjectures-for beyond conjecture no sceptic can proceed-nibbled at some property of the Divine Nature, at some feature of his moral character, at his providential and moral administration, or at some part of it: but in their career of error, they hesitated to take the ultimate step-to perform the last insane act, and declare themselves confirmed atheists.

9. There are persons in the present day - acute, learned, entitled to consideration-who are atheists, or whose religious belief is, at least, doubtful. They do not declaim against an intelligent almighty Creator; but they profess to account for every thing by natural causes: nor scoff at religious belief, for they think it a harmless delusion, or a useful expedient; nor decry pious observances, but they deem them needless. Whatever province of the works of the Creator they traverse, in prosecuting their inquiries, they are not led 'through nature, up to nature's God.' And here is the wonder! Others, far more gifted and famed than themselves, see God in every thing, while they see him in nothing. The original discoverers of the great laws of the creation did not stop short of God, in their views and explanations of the universe: they felt, that there is a cause beyond all, hitherto, discovered causes; a law, superior to all mechanical laws; an ultimate principle of life and motion, which operates universally, unseen and unspent; an intelligent Power, that first produced, and still sustains, the entire system of nature. But these minor philosophers, who avail themselves of the results

of the stupendous labors of others, and adopt their discoveries as the basis of their own reasoning, or as the data of their own calculations, do not, however, sympathize with their religious views and feelings.

10. Atheistical opinions are, indeed, no longer confined to a select few:-they are spreading amongst the multitude: they are changing sides, and, by a transition not unaccountable, are passing from philosophers to the rabble, and from palaces and mansions, to workshops and taprooms: they are not now associated with modesty and diffidence-with the feelings which would suggest, 'We may be wrong, and, therefore, it behoves us to pause;' for atheists have grown impudent, glory in their shame, boast of their singularity, exult in the visionary hope of a speedy universality for their sentiments; and have openly commenced a crusade against all religion, an enterprise to undeify the Deity, and banish his worship and his name from the world. They are no longer shy of a candid declaration of their sentiments; they do not now throw out mysterious hints, or propose religious enigmas, to an intimate acquaintance, or to a coterie of attached and confidential friends; but proclaim, aloud and explicitly, their confirmed disbelief of all and every thing which other persons believe, as to religious matters. They do not, as formerly, seek to recommend their poisonous notions, by means of a sprinkling of philosophy, or the attractions of eloquence; for, we have now barefaced atheism exhibited, in association with the lowest vulgarity and illiteracy; and, persons can spout blasphemy, who can hardly subscribe their names, or repeat the letters of the alphabet.

11. A great moral strife has undoubtedly commenced: and in this strife, the points at issue between the antagonists are not, which is the safest path to immor tality; but, whether an immortal life be an ingenious fiction or a grand reality: not, what modification of re

ligion is to be preferred; but, whether there shall be religion at all: not, what worship of the Deity is most expedient or becoming; but, whether there be a God to be worshipped. Atheists have arrived, at length, to the very acme of impious and insolent daring; to such a degree of assurance and recklessness, that, even in ordinary conversation, they affirm oracularly, that the Deity is an imaginary being-a contradiction-an impossibility; that fools, old women, and children only believe that there is a God, as silly people, in days gone by, yielded a ready credence to the tales of centaurs and fairies; and, that future generations, renovated by the discoveries of philosophy, will treat the present notions of a Divinity, as we regard the mythology of pagan antiquity!

12. It is impossible-and the attempt would be preposterous-to shut our eyes to the character of the times on which we have fallen; times, portentous of mighty events-events, which threaten to convulse and revolutionize the world-the world, especially, of mind and morals. Much good, no doubt, is working; but much evil is working too. The powers of darkness will, by and by, have no new and untried expedient, to demoralize and destroy us. For many ages, they employed false religions, to accomplish their malevolent designs; subsequently, they leagued with suitable instruments, to corrupt the true religion; and now, they have formed a confederacy, with kindred agents, to try a no-religion scheme. Clubs are industriously got up, to concoct plans and procure pecuniary means; publications, to a great numerical amount, are continually sent forth from the press; stated lectures are delivered, -and all for this wise, virtuous, and benevolent end-to eradicate from the public mind what are called silly and pernicious notions of a Deity-and to implant, in their place, more philosophical and useful sentiments! The real aim of all these agencies is not what is pretended;

but to destroy our institutions; to annihilate, at once, our hearths and altars; to dry up the very springs of morality and religion; to make us helpless orphans in an orphan world; to send us to burrow in the earth for our highest joys and hopes; and, in short, to commingle, in one general chaos, all the existing elements of society.

13. It is the opinion of an author whose writings are deservedly popular, that atheism is hastening to occupy the ground, which superstition long ago vacated. The correctness of this opinion is, however, doubted; and, by a strange delusion, some well-meaning persons pertinaciously maintain, that a genuine case of atheism does not exist,-that no man really disbelieves that there is a God. A few persons, it is said, in ancient times, were called atheists, because they contemned and ridiculed the popular superstitions: but, they were not, in fact, atheists; they did not repudiate the idea of a God. The objection may be correct enough, in relation to some of them; but it cannot be applied to all, without the rejection of evidence which ought to produce conviction in every honest and candid mind. When persons—whether in Greece, or in Britain, thousands of years ago, or yesterday, avow certain opinions, as their own, defend them against all opposition, and suffer much and long, rather than renounce them, they are entitled to credit for sincerity,-they really believe the opinions which they profess, however false and injurious. By what means these opinions are attained, and with what tempers they are held, are totally distinct: -What we wish to impress is simply the fact, that there may be genuine cases of atheistical opinion. To deny this fact, argues great ignorance of ancient and modern history; nor less of the present state of society, both amongst ourselves and in other countries.

14. The ranks of atheists, it is boasted, have of late received considerable accessions: and from this, it is