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until every spark of virtue was extinguished in his soul, so no man ever denied the being of a God until his impurity and vice made it his happiness to think, and his interest to wish, that there were no God." The Psalmist hath spoken the truth; " The fool hath said in his heart there is no God." To calm his conscience, he endeavours to persuade himself that there is no God, as he feels he cannot pass unpunished, if there be one seated on the throne of the universe, an eternal avenger of wickedness. His conscience and his reason rebel in secret against his impiety; he cannot stifle the cry of nature which proclaims incessantly its Author; but he regards it as a prejudice of infancy, and a remnant of superstitious terror, which education, rather than nature, has produced in his soul. Wickedness has in this world no other resource than to throw off the restraints of religion if she wishes to throw off the yoke of virtue, and enjoy tranquilly the pleasures of sin. A religious impression of a God cannot be allied with a dissolute life for it must poison every criminal pleasure. A wicked man must either abandon vice, or support the unceasing remorse and fears which accompany it. The choice is soon made ; the Deity disappears from the universe that man may live tranquil in his crimes. Let me hope that none of you may ever be so far bent on wickedness and resolved to have the undisturbed enjoyment of it, as to deny the existence of God. Be always on your guard against the temptations which may seduce you; for under the common language of men, there lurks a secret spirit of Atheism. When they talk of fate and chance, or
