Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typ...os. Excerpt from book: SERMON II. ATHEISTICAL OBJECTIONS AND SCHEMES OF DOCTRINE CONSIDERED. Psalm xiv. 1 ? The fool hath said in his heart, there it no Goo. IN the preceding discourse, I endeavoured to prove the existence of God by arguments which have appeared to men of great distinction for learning and wisdom, to be not only satisfactory, but unanswerable. Plain men, also, though comprehending them imperfectly, have admitted both the force of the arguments themselves; and the point which they are intended to establish; without a question, and almost without an exception. Yet it cannot be denied that there have been atheists, speculative as well as practical. A few of them may have existed in the uneducated classes of mankind, but almost all have been found among those who, professedly at least, have been more or less learned. But to whatever class these persons may belong, and whatever pretensions they may make to knowledge and wisdom, they are in the text universally characterized by folly. The fool, says David, hath said, there is no God. In other words, every man who says this, is a fool; and the assertion is the result of his folly only. It is remarkable that this assertion is declared to be made in the heart of the fool; that is, to flow from his wishes, and not from his understanding. For the words, there is, in the translation, there is nothing in the original. Hence, it has been supposed by some commentators, that the passage ought to be rendered, let there be no God. Whether this rendering be admitted, or not, there can be no doubt that the chief reason why the assertion is adopted at all, is the indisposition of the heart to acknowledge the existence of the Creator. That we easily believe what we wish to believe, is a truth so obvious, as to have passed into a proverb. H...Detailed info »« Brief info