John Browne

“ Nay, nature may be dissolved, and the universe be made a complete desolation. And even though we were to suppose these impossible, where will man turn for true consolation under the calamities of life which are inevitable? It is poor comfort, indeed, to submit to an irreversible fate: or, if the world afford at any time sources of comfort under suffering; yet these, as sad experience tells us, are often shut up by innumerable and unexpected events, against which human ingenuity or force cannot struggle. ”

“ 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. ”

“ You must give up your claim to the rank and honors of rational beings; you must degrade yourselves to the level of the the brute creation. And can your honourable pride submit to such a degradation ? Shall the trifling honors of this world, which set us a little above each other, be sought by you with eagerness, and the honors which would render you happy for ever, be by you undervalued and despised ? ”

“ What good being but must hate him? Who could have the hope of pleasing him? Might not man, however honest and upright, suffer his indignation? If such were the Creator and Governor of the world nothing could remain but absolute uncertainty of happiness, anxious suspense, distraction of thought and apprehensions full of terror. And in this state (if it were possible) even the best of human beings might prefer Atheism itself. ”

“ If the more awful occurences of nature, such as earthquakes, inundations, stormy winds, threatening waves, all regulated in their movements, and controlled in their effects by the omnipotent arm and gracious purposes of God, be so tremendous and destructive, what would be the state of man, if left to their unbridled fury ?—May not the heavens be dissolved, the ocean burst her bounds and invade the earth, and the foundations of the earth be overwhelmed ? ”

“ Take away the Deity out of the universe, destroy the intimate relation which subsists bewteen him and his creatures, (as Atheism does) and you deprive man of all the consolation which flow from the contemplation of the boundless goodness, and watchful providence of God; more independent than any other which power wishes, or sensual enjoyments afford; and which can never fail while God exists, and men are fitly disposed to receive them. Suppose that there were no God, where will man find satisfaction? ”

“ If you allow all sense of a God, who made you what you are—preserves you by his unwearied goodness, and exercises a righteous government over you—and, of course, all sense of religious obligation, to be banished from your mind; or, if through the infatuation of vice, you come to be so insensible of his existence, and your relation to him, as never to enquire where is God, your Maker, how can you then know him? ”

“ But Atheism annihilates all these motives, and takes from virtue all its best and firmest supports ; from men their most efficacious principles of action, and from human nature its reasonable sentiments.
I have only to add on this head, that the generality of mankind, are always more influenced by the awe of a supreme authority, than by any other motive; or in other words that virtuous and good comes more powerfully recommended to them under the notion of a law by which they shall be judged, than as a scheme of beauty and order, or as a rule of eternal and unalterable rectitude ”

“ The sincere believer in God will rather rejoice in the reasonableness and wisdom of his conduct, and in his happiness in escaping the ruinous folly of Atheism—those who value the interest of society, will see who are the worthiest objects of esteem and confidence—those who seek their own prosperity in the world, will see what is the wisest course to promote it—and all will learn that the denial of a deity is at once a proof of a deranged understanding—of a depraved heart—of gross folly and wickedness. ”

“ Whence, it is now time to ask, could such a scheme as that of Atheism arise. If there be a human being who desires the existence of a Deity, and explodes his laws, he must be one of the most daring beings in creation ; and one could hardly conceive by what train of impressions he could have reached such awful insolence, as to defy all invisible power, to challenge every unknown being to evince his existence by his vengeance ”

“ Such, Christians, is the system of Atheism; such the consequences of it, under every form and modification. Call it by what name you please, yet if it resolves itself into this at last, that there is no God, or no Providence, human nature is degraded, the rational peace and most sublime pleasures of men are destroyed, the strongest fences and guards of virtue are thrown down, and a breach is made for the admission of all kinds of daring licentiousness. ”

“ A belief in God and a good conscience always go together. And as no man ever gave up the hope of immortality 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. ”

“ Thus, unless the Atheist knows all things, that is precludes another deity, by being one himself, he cannot know that the Being whose existence he rejects does not exist. And if he be, for all his pretended intelligence, but an ordinary man, one does not know whether to pity or to despise the rashness of his folly in avowing his disbelief of a God, and acting upon it.
No, Christian brethren, whatever pretensions may be made to superior lights of understanding, Atheism does not spring from accurate knowledge, but from other sources. ”

“ It is too common for men to consider opinions respecting religion, as matters of no great moment, provided their practice be good; but practice will ever be found on right religious principles, and where there are no such principles as you have seen, there can be no motives of any power to produce a good practice. Every man who knows himself, and the temptations to which he is exposed, will, upon consideration, admit that he has need of every motive to right conduct, which the belief of a God affords ”

“ We may allow that various strong motives to the practice of all kinds of goodness arise from the attractive and amiable nature of virtue itself, independently of any positive law or constitution whatever; and that an Atheist may feel the force of them, and be just, beneficient, and temperate, because these virtues have in them something that is amiable and worthy of praise. But it must appear evident that these motives must be stronger upon the acknowledgment of a Deity, than upon any scheme which denies him. ”

“ Can you reasonably suppose that you will faithfully and constantly discharge your moral duties, when you openly set yourself free from the law of all rational beings, and from all fear of a supreme inspector and judge? ”

“ If there be no God, no almighty, omniscient, and inflexibly just Governor and Judge of mankind, by whose sentence the fate of their whole being must be irreversibly fixed, where is there place for the overawing power of a reverential fear? If there be no God, and righteous rewarder of all, who acts an honourable and worthy part, where are the motives to a right and good conduct, necessary to influence the human heart? Good men are drawn out by gratitude—bad ones overawed by fear ”

“ 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. ”

“ Fate and chance, the idols which he substitutes in the place of God, are with him names of no such estimation as to control him ; for he, who has dared to put the true God out of the world, will surely not be so cowardly as to be afraid of a mere name. If he thinks that the state of mankind is unfitly settled, that the state of the world is wrong, and the rules of moral conduct naturally resulting from them are wrong likewise, he can have no restraints but self-interest, and the dread of civil punishment, to prevent his surmounting every obstacle to the free gratification of his desires. ”

“ Atheism will rob you of the highest honor, which consists in your likeness to God. You should seriously consider, that man was designed to be not only a moral but religious being; he must therefore be a very imperfect creature, if he be not a religious one; he must be as imperfect without religion, as a human body is imperfect without some of its most important members. ”

“ 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.) ”

“ What is there, how ever dreadful and appaling to human nature, that may not happen, and happen the next moment to all of us, on the supposition of an ungoverned world, such as Atheism supposes ours to be? ”

“ 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. ”

“ The scheme of Atheism, or the denial of the being and providence of God, is an unnatural offence against the peculiar and distinguishing excellency of our nature, and a foolish giving up of the most eminent prerogatives and advantages of it. ”

“ We, ourselves, become a mystery which we cannot solve: we have minds of vast intellectual powers, and souls of vast desire drawn up to heaven ; and yet see no infinite mind existing that bestowed the one, and excited the other: no infinite mind to direct the one to some worthy purpose, and to satisfy the other with some worthy object. ”

“ The spirit of true religion breathes gentleness and affability. It gives a native unaffected ease to the behaviour. It is social, kind, and cheerful; far removed from that gloomy and illiberal superstition which clouds the brow, sharpens the temper, dejects the spirits, and teaches men to fit themselves for another world, by neglecting the concerns of this. Let your religion, on the contrary, connect preparations for heaven with an honourable discharge of the duties of active life. Of such religion, discover, on every proper occasion, that you are not ashamed ”

“ While religion sheds around him a venerable grandeur, Atheism destroys all the dignity of his character, by blotting out of existence that God, the belief of whose being and perfections is necessary to make him uniformly religious and moral in the whole tenor of his conduct. ”

“ For unless this man be omnipresent, and unless he be at this very moment in every place in the universe he cannot know but there may be, in some place, manifestations of a God, by whom he might be overpowered. If he does not know absolutely every agent in the universe, the one that he does not know, may be God. If he is not himself the chief agent in the universe, and does not know who is so, he who is so may be God. If he is not in absolute possession of all the propositions which constitute universal truth, the one which he wants may be, that there is a God. ”

“ TEMPER OF RELIGION.
Impress your minds with reverence for all that is sacred. Let no wantonness of youthful spirits, no compliance with the intemperate mirth of others, ever betray you into profane sallies. Besides the guilt which is thereby incurred, nothing gives a more odious appearance of petulance and presumption to youth, than the affectation of treating religion with levity. Instead of being an evidence of superior understanding. it discovers a pert and shallow mind; which, vain of the first smatterings of knowledge, presumes to make light of what the rest of mankind revere. ”