21
the influence of stars in the affairs of the world, and mean by these any thing else than that fixed order which God hath settled in regulating and conducting them; they speak the language of Atheism, and cherish the spirit of it. You may meet with such spirits openly denying the God that made them, but listen not to their perverse reasonings—no, reject them with detestation, and avoid as much as possible their society; for you are liable to that infatuation which promises you, after this life, the comfort of non-existence, and of course, impels you to fill up the measure of iniquity, till divine wrath come upon you to the uttermost.
One of the best means of keeping alive in your minds a sense of God, is to associate the notion of God with every subject of your thoughts. This would add a new pleasure and interest to all your thoughts. The thought of virtue would then suggest the thought of a lawgiver and rewarder; the thought of crime, that of an avenger; the thought of sorrow, that of a comforter ; the thought of an inscrutable mystery, that of a sovereign intelligence that understands it; the thought of that ever-moving activity which prevails in the system of the universe, that of a supreme agent; the thought of the human family, that of a common Father; the thought of every existence, that of a Creator; the thought of life, that of a preserver ; and the thought of death, that of a righteous judge. Thus the permanent objects around you, or vanishinga ppearances of the creation, will lead you up to the Author of your being, bring you into his presence, keep you in his fear, and inure you
