which they would undertake by force of argument to confirm. That
there is no God: for we read not of above three or four among the
heathens, that were of any fashion, which went this far; but such as
though in their discourse and serious thoughts they do not question a
deity, but would abhor any man that would not liberally allow unto
God all his glorious attributes, yet in their hearts and affections
they deny him; they live as if there was no God, having no respect at
all to him in all their projects, and therefore, indeed and in God's
esteem, become formally, and in strict propriety of speech, very
atheists. William Chillingworth, 1602-1643.
Verse 1. "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no
God." Why do men resist God's authority, against which they
cannot dispute? and disobey his commands, unto which they cannot
devise to frame an exception? What but the spirit of enmity, can make
them regret "so easy a yoke," reject so "light a burden," shun and
fly off from so peaceful and pleasant paths? yea, and take ways that
so manifestly "take hold of hell, and lead down to the chambers of
death," rather choosing to perish than obey? Is not this the very
height of enmity? What further proof would we seek of a disaffected
and implacable heart? Yet to all this we may cast in that fearful
addition, their saying in their heart, "No God;" as much as to
say, "O that there were none!" This is enmity not only to the highest
pitch of wickedness , to wish their common parent extinct, the
author of their being, but even unto madness itself. For in
the forgetful heat of this transport, it is not thought on that they
wish the most absolute impossibility; and that, if it were possible,
they wish, with his, the extinction of their own and of all being;
and that the sense of their hearts, put into words, would amount to
no less than a direful and most horrid execration and curse upon God
and the whole creation of God at once! As if, by the blasphemy of
their poisonous breath, they would wither all nature, blast the whole
universe of being, and make it fade, languish, and drop into nothing.
This is to set their mouth against heaven and earth, themselves, and
all things at once, as if they thought their feeble breath should
overpower the omnipotent Word, shake and shiver the adamantine
pillars of heaven and earth, and the Almighty fiat be defeated
by their nay, striking at the root of all! So fitly is it
said, "The fool hath in his heart" muttered thus. Nor are
there few such fools; but this is plainly given us as the common
character of apostate man, the whole revolted race, of whom it is
said in very general terms, "They are all gone back, there is none
that doeth good." This is their sense, one and all, that is,
comparatively; and the true state of the case being laid before them,
it is more their temper and sense to say, "No God," than to repent,
"and turn to him." What mad enmity is this! Nor can we devise into
what else to resolve it. John Howe.
Verse 1. "The fool hath said in his heart, there is no
God." He that shall deny there is a God, sins with a very high
hand against the light of nature; for every creature, yea, the least
gnat and fly, and the meanest worm that crawls upon the ground will
confute and confound that man that disputes whether there be a God or
no. The name of God is written in such full, fair, and shining
characters upon the whole creation, that all men may run and read
that there is a God. The notion of a deity is so strongly and deeply
impressed upon the tables of all men's hearts, that to deny a God is
to quench the very principles of common nature; yea, it is formally
deicidium , a killing of God, as much a sin the creature lies.
There are none of these atheists in hell, for the devils believe and
tremble. James 2:19. The Greek word priddoudi, that is here used,
signifies properly the roaring of the sea; it implies such an extreme
fear, as causeth not only trembling, but also a roaring and
screeching out. Mark 6:49; Acts 16:29. The devils believe and
acknowledge four articles of our faith. Matthew 8:29. (1.) They
acknowledge God; (2.) Christ; (3.) The day of judgment; (4.) That
they shall be tormented then; so that he doth not believe that there
is a God, is more vile than a devil. To deny there is a God, is a
sort of atheism that is not to be found in hell.
"On earth are atheists many,
In hell there is not any."
Augustine, speaking of atheists, saith, "That albeit there be some
who think, or would persuade themselves, that there is no God, yet
the most vile and desperate wretch that ever lived would not say,
there was no God." Seneca hath a remarkable speech, Mentiuntur qui
dicunt se non sentire Deum esse: nam etsi tibi affirmant interdi�
noctu tamen dubitant. They lie, saith he, who say they perceive
not there is a God; for although they affirm it to thee in the
daytime, yet by night they doubt of it. Further, saith the same
author, I have heard of some that deny that there was a God; yet
never knew the man, but when he was sick he would seek unto God for
help; therefore they do but lie that say there is no God; they sin
against the light of their own consciences; they who most studiously
go about to deny God, yet cannot do it but some check of conscience
will fly in their faces. Tully would say that there was never any
nation under heaven so barbarous as to deny that there was a God.
T. Brooks.
Verse 1. "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no
God." Popery has not won to itself so great wits as atheism; it
is the superfluity of wit that makes atheists. These will not be
beaten down with impertinent arguments; disordered hail-shot of
Scriptures will never scare them; they must be convinced and beaten
by their own weapons. "Hast thou appealed to Caesar? To Caesar thou
shalt go." Have they appealed to reason? Let us bring reason to them,
that we may bring them to reason. We need not fear the want of
weapons in that armoury, but our own ignorance and want of skill to
use them. There is enough even in philosophy to convince atheism, and
make them confess, "We are foiled with our own weapons;" for with all
their wit atheists are fools. Thomas Adams.
Verse 1. As there is no wound more mortal than that which
plucketh forth man's heart or soul; so, likewise, is there no person
or pestilence of greater force suddenly in men to kill all faith,
hope, and charity, with the fear of God, and consequently to cast
them headlong into the pit of hell, than to deny the principle and
foundation of all religion—namely, that there is a God. Robert
Cawdray's "Treasury or Storehouse of Similes," 1609.
Verse 1. "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no
God." Who in the world is a verier fool, a more ignorant,
wretched person, than he that is an atheist? A man may better believe
there is no such man as himself, and that he is not in being, than
that there is no God; for himself can cease to be, and once was not,
and shall be changed from what he is, and in very many periods of his
life knows not that he is; and so it is every night with him when he
sleeps; but none of these can happen to God; and if he knows it not,
he is a fool. Can anything in this world be more foolish than to
think that all this rare fabric of heaven and earth can come by
chance, when all the skill of art is not able to make an oyster? To
see rare effects, and no cause; an excellent government and no
prince; a motion without an immovable; a circle without a centre; a
time without eternity; a second without a first; a thing that begins
not from itself, and therefore, not to perceive there is something
from whence it does begin, which must be without beginning; these
things are so against philosophy and natural reason, that he must
needs be a beast in his understanding that does not assent to them;
this is the atheist: "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no
God." That is his character; the thing framed, says that nothing
framed it; the tongue never made itself to speak, and yet talks
against him that did; saying, that which is made, is, and that which
made it, is not. But this folly is as infinite as hell, as much
without light or bound, as the chaos or the primitive nothing.
Jeremy Taylor, 1613-1667.
Verse 1. "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no
God." A wise man, that lives up to the principles of reason and
virtue, if one considers him in his solitude as taking in the system
of the universe, observing the mutual dependence and harmony by which
the whole frame of it hangs together, beating down his passions, or
swelling his thoughts with magnificent ideas of providence, makes a
nobler figure in the eye of an intelligent being, than the greatest
conqueror amidst the pomp and solemnities of a triumph. On the
contrary, there is not a more ridiculous animal than an atheist in
his retirement. His mind is incapable of rapture or elevation: he can
only consider himself as an insignificant figure in a landscape, and
wandering up and down in a field or a meadow, under the same terms as
the meanest animals about him, and as subject to as total a mortality
as they, with this aggravation, that he is the only one amongst them
who lies under the apprehension of it. In distresses he must be of
all creatures the most helpless and forlorn; he feels the whole
pressure of a present calamity, without being relieved by the memory
of anything that is past, or the prospect of anything that is to
come. Annihilation is the greatest blessing that he proposes to
himself, and a halter or a pistol the only refuge he can fly to. But
if you would behold one of these gloomy miscreants in his poorest
figure, you must consider him under the terrors or at the approach of
death. About thirty years ago, I was a shipboard with one of these
vermin, when there arose a brisk gale, which could frighten nobody
but himself. Upon the rolling of the ship he fell upon his knees, and
confessed to the chaplain, that he had been a vile atheist, and had
denied a Supreme Being ever since he came to his estate. The good man
was astonished, and a report immediately ran through the ship, that
there was an atheist upon the upper deck. Several of the common
seamen, who had never heard the word before, thought it had been some
strange fish; but they were more surprised when they saw it was a
man, and heard out of his own mouth, "That he never believed till
that day that there was a God." As he lay in the agonies of
confession, one of the honest tars whispered to the boatswain, "That
it would be a good deed to heave him overboard." But we were now
within sight of a port, when of a sudden the wind fell, and the
penitent relapsed, begging all of us that were present, as we were
gentlemen, not to say anything of what had passed. He had not been
ashore above two days, when one of the company began to rally him
upon his devotion on shipboard, which the other denied in so high
terms, that it produced the lie on both sides, and ended in a duel.
The atheist was run through the body, and after some loss of blood,
became as good a Christian as he was at sea, till he found that his
wound was not mortal. He is at present one of the free-thinkers of
the age, and now writing a pamphlet against several received opinions
concerning the existence of fairies. Joseph Addison (1671 -
1719), in "The Tattler."
Verse 1:—
"'There is no God,' the fool in secret said:
There is no God that rules or earth or sky.'
Tear off the band that binds the wretch's head,