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SERMON I. ·

ON THE EXISTENCE AND ATTRIBUTES OF GOD.

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GENESIS, i. 1.

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."

'I BELIEVE in God," is the first article of our Creed: Let us examine its foundation. To demonstrate his existence and perfections, no elaborate process of reasoning is necessary; for, who requires a torch to discover the brightness of the morning? Mankind, in every period of their history, and in every portion of the globe, have believed that there is a God, and their faith in this important doctrine

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is founded on principles which are clear and incontrovertible; namely, that the universe must have proceeded from a cause, -and that the regular operation of means to an end (means so admirably adapted for accomplishing the purpose in view) implies intelligence. These sentiments result from the very constitution of the human mind-sentiments, which all the pedantry of scepticism and the perversion of science have never been able to obliterate. Speculative men have frequently differed in opinion respecting the origin of the belief in the being of a God; but, whether it proceeded from primeval revelation, from the deductions of reason, or from an internal sense, of its universality not a doubt can be entertained.

All nature is full of God. He shines, so to speak, in the brightness of the sun;

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Jovis omnia plena.--VIRG.

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thunders in the clouds; "sits King on the
floods; walks on the wings of the wind;"
and stills the rage of the tempest,
"In
the beginning God created the heaven and
the earth." Matter could never produce
mind: " By the word of the Lord were
the heavens framed, and all their hosts
by the breath of his mouth." To ascribe
the formation of the world to chance or
necessity, is absurd. These terms do not
denote real agents.
They are, in fact,
only modes of expression descriptive of
human ignorance. They admit, indeed,
the operation of some cause; but, by em-
ploying such phraseology, there is a vir
tual acknowledgment on the part of those
who use it, that they know nothing of the
nature of the cause to which they refer.
Unless atheistical men were present in
every part of the universe, how can they be
certain that there are no proofs of a Deity
which would overpower their incredulity?