FOOLS SAY THERE IS NO GOD. 79 yond the grave! No God to make a sinner tremble on his dying bed, in view of an end to all his sensual enjoyments, and an exit from this world to annihilation! or, he knows not where! Such are some of the men who are determined on the abolition of CAPITAL PUNISHMENT, without the fear of a God, while in their hearts they say "There is no God!" such men wise? Hear ye the answer. But, are "FOOLS" only, say in heart, "There is no God!" LECTURE III. ARGUMENT. If one of God's laws is abolished by human legislation, for alleged reasons that the law was barbarous when enacted, and is now antiquated and rendered obnoxious by the refinement of society, then all God's laws may undergo the same fate for the same reasons. It has been shown in the preceding lectures, that the Bible contains a Divine Law which forbids murder on penalty of death by the executioner of public justice. And, that a portion of the community, in this age of the world, are opposed to the penalty of that Bible Law of God, and are desirous of its legal abolition from the code of human laws. The subject of this lecture will be to show, that if the penalty of that law of God be abolished from the civil code, by human legislation, then all other Divine laws, and their penalties, may be abolished also on the same principle, by a total renunciation of the Bible, of its laws, doctrines, and religion; and also of the God who ordained them. This position may be illustrated by considering, I. What men would do if they could. And, III. The result of an EXPERIMENT, by which men can certainly know, whether it is in their power, effectually, to abolish any portion of the Moral Law of WHAT MEN WOULD DO IF THEY COULD. 81 Ten Commandments from its binding influence on the generations of mankind. Let it be considered, I. What men would do if they could. Mankind are free moral agents. They always act according to their will, unless prevented by some restraining power. But the overcoming power, whatever it may be, which prevents men from doing their pleasure, does not, necessarily, destroy their will. The thing that a man wills or chooses to do, he performs, if it is in his power to do it. But, though he may not be able to accomplish his desire, still, his will to do it may remain unabated. All the acts of mankind are good or evil. But, to which of these classes an act must be assigned, can be determined only by the nature of the act in connection with the correctness or incorrectness of the principles on which the act is based, and the motives. which influenced to its existence, so far as the motives can be ascertained. To do right, from good motives, is always commendable. Such acts must be considered to be good, so far as morality is concerned. To do wrong, knowingly, from base motives, must always be considered as evil, and, in a degree, criminal. It is, hence, evident that there must be some standard by which principles, words, actions, and motives may be tested, and proved to be good or bad; beneficial to mankind, or injurious in their nature and tendency. The true Christian contends, that such a standard is not only indispensable, but that the Holy Bible, divinely inspired and authenticated, both by internal and external incontrovertible testimony, is the true and only infallible standard by which principles, words, actions, and motives of all men, from the king on his throne to the peasant, or menial household servant, are proved to be good or evil, praise or blameworthy, just and beneficial to mankind, or criminal, and destructive to peace and happiness here and hereafter. But rejecters of the Bible claim that the Light of Nature, (understood, and explained by the professedly illuminated, and boasted philosophy of Human Reason,) is the only needful, and the all-sufficient standard, to test all the principles and conduct of mankind. Hence, such diversity of sentiment, even on the standard of judging good and evil actions, produces an equal diversity of opinion on the moral quality of the actions themselves. Adherents of the Bible understand, that all acts of mankind which are in conformity with Bible injunctions and prohibitions, are morally good. And that all acts, contrary to Bible requisitions, are evil. But rejecters of the Bible consider all the acts of mankind, which conduce to the honor, self-interest, happiness, and sensual enjoyment of this life, to be good and commendable. And that no acts can be morally evil, but such as impose a restraint upon the natural inclinations and propensities of mankind in the pursuit and enjoyment of sensual delight. Hence, by the one class, a violation of any point of the Moral Law of Ten Commandments, is considered to be a moral evil. But, by the other class, a violation of the whole Moral Law is considered to be no evil, because every precept of it imposes some restraint upon the natural inclinations of mankind. And hence, it must be admitted, that standards, producing such diametrically, opposite results, cannot both be true. One or the other of them must be false. If the Bible be true, then the Moral Law is true. Every jot and tittle of it is as binding now, as it was when first enacted; and will continue to be binding on all the genera BONAPARTE AND THE POPE. tions of mankind while the world stands. 83 And it will always be true, while time lasts, that the God of the Bible is the only living and true God; that He requires the murderer to be punished with death; and that no satisfaction shall be taken for his life. But Infidels renounce the Bible as a false book. All Atheists disregard Bible laws, as unwarrantable assumptions of priestcraft, to restrain mankind from what they consider to be the superlatively rational and sensual enjoyments of life. Is it so? Then, be it so ; till they consider the tendency, result, and absurdity of their Infidel policy. What, then, would such men do if they could? Human nature, in the exercise of will, unrestrained, leading on to ambitious desires of dominion, power, and revenge; or, to licentious desires of unmolested and unrestrained self-gratification; furnishes an obvious answer to the question,-What would haters of the Bible do if they could? What would Bonaparte have done, had it been in his power? He would first have conquered Russia, then England, then all the kingdoms of Europe, then, only, all the rest of the habitable world; and by the consecution of military prowess, he would have formed all the kingdoms, empires, and republics of earth, into his one, contemplated, anti-commercial empire, for the gratification of his ambitious desires for territorial domination. The Pope, Hierachy, and Jesuit priests of Rome, if they could, would, instantly, exterminate the Protestant Bible, and the Protestant religion from the United States, and establish Popery as the great, infallible, political, ecclesiastical Church-and-State Empire of the whole Western Continent; sustained by courts of Inquisition, and auto da fe punishments, for a word |