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head of the whole visible creation. It is this which allies us to angelic spirits, and constitutes our nearest resemblance to the Divinty ; and there are no beings in this world, but men, who by their excellent faculties are qualified to rise to the Maker and Ruler of the universe. But many through inattention, or the infatuation of vice, discover not that Being who gave them their directing powers, and by their not discovering him reduce themselves to the level of the brute creation, and give up the most eminent prerogatives and advantages of their nature. Atheism may decently fit a creature void of reason, that cannot even form an idea of a Maker, and much less discover that there exists an almighty and eternal, but invisible one, who preserves and rules the universe; but not a human being, formed on purpose for a serious and successful search after him. That man, who denies the existence of God, displays a folly, of which no one can, or will be guilty who has not become through the greatest inattention, brutishly stupid and insensible to the honourable rank and station assigned him in the scale of existence.
As this exalted capacity of finding out the Deity, the noblest subject of human thought, constitutes the superior dignity of human nature, so it is the source of its most elevated and refined pleasures, and surest consolations. Take away the being of God, (as Atheism wishes.) and you deprive man of the pleasures arising from the contemplation of his Maker, (which, while they fill the soul, at the same time purify it,) whose perfections are the highest objects of human admiration; of pleasure, which remove it at a greater distance from the animal
