SERMON 1. EXISTENCE OF THE DEITY. PSALM XIV. 1. THE FOOL HATH SAID IN HIS HEART, THERE IS NO GOD. THE doctrine which stands at the beginning of all revelation and religious teaching is, the doctrine respecting God. Nothing is before it, nothing is beyond it, nothing is important without it, or independent of it. Existence, responsibility, happiness, all rest upon it. That infinite and inscrutable Being, who fills and influences all, and without whom all perishes, - unperceived by human sense, yet every where planting the footsteps of his perfections, is the first and greatest object of human thought; in the knowledge of whom is the highest wisdom; in the obedience of whom is all virtue; in the love of whom all bliss. him Nature speaks aloud in all her works. Him revelation proclaims in a yet fuller and distincter voice. To him the church universal, in its worship and its instruction, perpetually bears witness, seeking to make him known to his children, and to bring his children to him. Nature, and revelation, and the church, testify always with one witness, that he is; that his perfections are infinite; that his government is over all. To this teaching let us listen. Let us seek to bring ourselves nearer to him, and him nearer to us, Of |