SERMON XXIII.

DIVINE PROVIDENCE.

PSALM liii. 1.

"The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God."

In reading the history recorded in the Old Testament, we are sometimes ready to think that the wonderful interpositions of Almighty Power, which were wrought in favour of the children of Israel, must necessarily have deprived that people of their freeagency. We think that unbelief could not hold out against the sensible evidence that was brought to bear against it; that the man who witnessed the evident proofs of God's perfections and providence, could no more doubt that God was the Creator and Preserver, than he could doubt that he

was himself a sentient and living thing; and that it was just as impossible to deny God's existence, as it was to deny his own existence. And so it was. The evidence as addressed to the reason was irresistible. It was God who acted, God must therefore be. It was God who spoke, it was therefore quite impossible reasonably to deny that there was a God. But still it seems there were persons, who, in the face of all this, ventured to say in the Psalmist's time, "There is no God;" who denied the providence, perhaps the existence, of an Almighty Author of the universe.

Upon the principles with which we are furnished by the Bible, it is not difficult to account for this. The Psalm which commences with the words of the text, describes the natural condition of our race. "God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God. Every one of them is gone back: they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one." Here is a complete explanation of the difficulty.

Instances of obstinate unbelief are not at all astonishing, in a race of which this is the natural character. It is affirmed that, naturally, none "understand, nor do any seek after God." And it is quite to be expected, that those who sink deeper than their fellows in sin, should obstinately reject the belief of a Judge and a retribution, and say in their hearts, and with their lips, as they do say in their lives, that "there is no God."

But how does the Psalmist characterize such persons? What is the inspired estimate of these men? They lay claim themselves to unusual strength of mind; it is a matter of high self-congratulation with them that they have been able to shake off the chains of opinion, and to stand up in the proud attitude of intellectual independence. Their character is disposed of by inspiration in a single epithet. It would be too great a compliment to them to brand their notions in a lengthened denunciation; they are not giants, they need not be scathed with the thunderbolt. A word of truth strips them of all their

agnificent pretensions; and there they and for ever shivering in the brief senence, "The fool hath said in his heart, 'here is no God."

It is right easy to establish the Psalmist's verdict, and to evince the absolute folly of those who say there is no God. But the atheist is a monster. He is, to continue the metaphor, not one of a variety, but a misshapen and unformed thing, of occasional and rare occurrence, regarded by all thinking men as a moral curiosity. We must not, therefore, treat the text as denouncing only the atheist. It evidently has in view those who deny the Providence of God. Indeed, in the Psalmist's time, to deny a Providence, was to deny a God. It was reserved for more subtle unbelievers to conceive the notion of a Creator that would not care for his works. The denier of Providence clearly therefore comes within the grasp of the text. It is quite fair to regard it as extending still farther to those who impugn what the Supreme Being has revealed concerning himself. All who doubt what God has said, must be con

sidered as denying God; and as coming within the reach of the branding sentence, "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God." May the Author of " every good and every perfect gift, the Father of lights," enlighten our souls, and keep us in the knowledge of all that it concerns us to know concerning himself!

Much has been said, and much disputed, concerning the origin of man's knowledge of God. Certain it is that the belief of a Deity has prevailed universally in every age and every land, among men who have had the slightest pretensions to civilization. There have, it is said, been found some tribes who seem to possess no idea of a God. But then they are in the lowest state of degradation. They may be almost said to have lost every thing which distinguishes man from the brutes, and have sunk very far below the level of the species. In spite of this apparent exception, the rule holds as strongly as everthat the belief of a Deity is universal. Now without inquiring whether any ever reasoned themselves into this belief, whe