ven. He
circumscribes his prospects within the narrow range of "things seen and
temporal," and thus removes every stimulus to dignity of sentiment, and
every incentive to elevation of character. His wretched creed (if a
series of cold negations may be called a creed) must be fatal to every
disinterested and heroic virtue; let it prevail, and the spirit of
self-sacrifice will give place to Epicurean indulgence, and the age of
martyrdom will return no more. Substitute Nature, or even Humanity, for
God, and the eternal standard of truth and holiness and goodness being
superseded, every moral sentiment will be blighted and obscured.
Conscience has a relation to God similar to that which a chronometer
bears to the sun. Blot the sun from the sky, and the chronometer is
useless; deny God, and conscience is powerless. And the vices which, if
not subdued, were yet curbed and restrained by the overawing sense of an
unseen omnipresent Power, will burst forth with devastating fury,
snapping asunder the feebler fetters of human law, and overleaping the
barriers of selfish prudence itself; vanity and pride, ambition and
covetousness, sensual indulgence and ferocious cruelty, will rise into
the ascendancy, and establish their dark throne on the ruins of
Religion.

If such be the natural and legitimate effect of Atheism on the personal
happiness and moral character of individuals, we can be at no loss to
discover what must be its influence on society at large. For society is
composed of individuals, and its character and welfare depend on the
aggregate sentiments of its constituent members. The question whether
Atheism might not be consistent with social well-being, with the
continued authority of the laws, and the general comfort of the
community, is answered historically by the fact, that in modern France
the Reign of Atheism was the Reign of Terror, and that in ancient Rome
its prevalence was followed by such scenes of proscription,
confiscation, and blood, as were then unparalleled in the history of the
world. The truth is that, wherever Atheism prevails, GOVERNMENT BY LAW
must give place to GOVERNMENT BY FORCE; for law needs some auxiliary
sanction; and if it be deprived of the sanction of Religion, it must
have recourse, for its own preservation, and the prevention of utter
anarchy, to the brute power of the temporal sword. It is worse than
useless to discuss, in this connection, the question, revived by
Bayle,[23] whether Athei