Bible Heaven/Bible Heaven.iso/spurgeon/ps14.1

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        TITLE.--This admirable ode is simply headed, "_To the
Chief Musician by David_." The dedication to the Chief Musician
stands at the head of fifty-three of the Psalms, and clearly
indicates that such Psalms were intended, not merely for the
private use of believers, but to be sung in the great assemblies
by the appointed choir at whose head was the overseer, or
superintendent, called in our version, "the Chief Musician," and
by Ainsworth, "the master of the Music." Several of these Psalms
have little or no praise in them, and were not addressed directly
to the Most High, and yet were to be sung in public worship;
which is a clear indication that the theory of Augustine lately
revived by certain hymn-book makers, that nothing but praise
should be sung, is far more plausible than Scriptural. Not only
did the ancient Church chant hallowed doctrine and offer prayer
amid her spiritual songs, but even the wailing notes of complaint
were put into her mouth by the sweet singer of Israel who was
inspired of God. Some persons grasp at any nicety which has a
gloss of apparent correctness upon it, and are pleased with being
more fancifully precise than others; nevertheless it will ever be
the way of plain men, not only to magnify the Lord in sacred
canticles, but also, according to Paul's precept, to teach and
admonish one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
singing with grace in their hearts unto the Lord.

        As no distinguishing title is given to this Psalm, we
would suggest as an assistance to the memory, the
heading--CONCERNING PRACTICAL ATHEISM. The many conjectures as to
the occasion upon which it was written are so completely without
foundation, that it would be a waste of time to mention them at
length. The apostle Paul, in #Ro 3|, has shown incidentally that
the drift of the inspired writer is to show that both Jews and
Gentiles are all under sin; there was, therefore, no reason for
fixing upon any particular historical occasion, when all history
reeks with terrible evidence of human corruption. With
instructive alterations, David has given us in #Ps 43| a second
edition of this humiliating psalm, being moved of the Holy Ghost
thus doubly to declare a truth which is ever distasteful to
carnal minds.

        DIVISION.--The world's foolish creed (verse #1|); its
practical influence in corrupting morals, #1,2,3|. The
persecuting tendencies of sinners, #4|; their alarms, #5|; their
ridicule of the godly, #6|; and a prayer for the manifestation of
the Lord to his people's joy.

                           EXPOSITION.

        "_The fool_." The Atheist is _the_ fool pre-eminently,
and a fool universally. He would not deny God if he were not a
fool by nature, and having denied God it is no marvel that he
becomes a fool in practice. Sin is always folly, and as it is the
height of sin to attack the very existence of the Most High, so
is it also the greatest imaginable folly. To say there is no God
is to belie the plainest evidence, which is obstinacy; to oppose
the common consent of mankind, which is stupidity; to stifle
consciousness, which is madness. If the sinner could by his
atheism destroy the God whom he hates there were some sense,
although much wickedness, in his infidelity; but as denying the
existence of fire does not prevent its burning a man who is in
it, so doubting the existence of God will not stop the Judge of
all the earth from destroying the rebel who breaks his laws; nay,
this atheism is a crime which much provokes heaven, and will
bring down terrible vengeance on the fool who indulges it. The
proverb says, "A fool's tongue cuts his own throat," and in this
instance it kills both soul and body for ever: would to God the
mischief stopped even there, but alas! one fool makes hundreds,
and a noisy blasphemer spreads his horrible doctrines as lepers
spread the plague. Ainsworth, in his "Annotations," tells us that
the word here used is _nâbâl_ <05036> <05034>, which has the
signification of fading, dying, or falling away, as a withered
leaf or flower; it is a title given to the foolish man as having
lost the juice and sap of wisdom, reason, honesty, and godliness.
Trapp hits the mark when he calls him "that sapless fellow, that
carcase of a man, that walking sepulchre of himself, in whom all
religion and right reason is withered and wasted, dried up and
decayed." Some translate it _the apostate_, and others _the
wretch_. With what earnestness should we shun the appearance of
doubt as to the presence, activity, power and love of God, for
all such mistrust is of the nature of folly, and who among us
would wish to be ranked with the fool in the text? Yet let us
never forget that all unregenerate men are more or less such
fools.

        The fool "_hath said in his heart_." May a man with his
mouth profess to believe, and yet in heart say the reverse? Had
he hardly become audacious enough to utter his folly with his
tongue? Did the Lord look upon his thoughts as being in the
nature of words to him though not to man? Is this where man first
becomes an unbeliever?--in his heart, not in his head? And when
he talks atheistically, is it a foolish heart speaking and
endeavouring to clamour down the voice of conscience? We think
so. If the affections were set upon truth and righteousness, the
understanding would have no difficulty in settling the question
of a present personal Deity, but as the heart dislikes the good
and the right, it is no wonder that it desires to be rid of that
Elohim, who is the great moral Governor, the Patron of rectitude
and the Punisher of iniquity. While men's hearts remain what they
are, we must not be surprised at the prevalence of scepticism; a
corrupt tree will bring forth corrupt fruit. "Every man," says
Dickson, "so long as he lieth unrenewed and unreconciled to God
is nothing in effect but a madman." What wonder then if he raves?
Such fools as those we are now dealing with are common to all
time, and all countries; they grow without watering, and are
found all the world over. The spread of mere intellectual
enlightenment will not diminish their number, for since it is an
affair of the heart, this folly and great learning will often
dwell together. To answer sceptical cavillings will be labour
lost until grace enters to make the mind willing to believe;
fools can raise more objections in an hour than wise men can
answer in seven years, indeed it is their mirth to set stools for
wise men to stumble over. Let the preacher aim at the heart, and
preach the all-conquering love of Jesus, and he will by God's
grace win more doubters to the faith of the gospel than any
hundred of the best reasoners who only direct their arguments to
the head.

        "_The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God_," or
"_no God_." So monstrous is the assertation, that the man hardly
dared to put it as a positive statement, but went very near to
doing so. Calvin seems to regard this saying "no God," as hardly
amounting to a syllogism, scarcely reaching to a positive,
dogmatical declaration; but Dr. Alexander clearly shows that it
does. It is not merely the wish of the sinner's corrupt nature,
and the hope of his rebellious heart, but he manages after a
fashion to bring himself to assert it, and at certain seasons he
thinks that he believes it. It is a solemn reflection that some
who worship God with their lips may in their hearts be saying,
"no God." It is worthy of observation that he does not say there
is no Jehovah, but there is no Elohim; Deity in the abstract is
not so much the object of attack, as the covenant, personal,
ruling and governing presence of God in the world. God as ruler,
lawgiver, worker, Saviour, is the butt at which the arrows of
human wrath are shot. How impotent the malice! How mad the rage
which raves and foams against him in whom we live and move and
have our being! How horrible the insanity which leads a man who
owes his all to God to cry out, "_No God_"! How terrible the
depravity which makes the whole race adopt this as their hearts'
desire, "no God"!

        "They are corrupt." This refers to all men, and we have
the warrant of the Holy Ghost for so saying; see the third
chapter of the Epistle to the Romans. Where there is enmity to
God, there is deep, inward depravity of mind. The words are
rendered by eminent critics in an active sense, "they have done
corruptly:" this may serve to remind us that sin is not only in
our nature passively as the source of evil, but we ourselves
actively fan the flame and corrupt ourselves, making that blacker
still which was black as darkness itself already. We rivet our
own chains by habit and continuance.

        "_They have done abominable works_." When men begin with
renouncing the Most High God, who shall tell where they will end?
When the Master's eyes are put out, what will not the servants
do? Observe the state of the world before the flood, as
pourtrayed in #Ge 6:12|, and remember that human nature is
unchanged. He who would see a terrible photograph of the world
without God must read that most painful of all inspired
Scriptures, the first chapter of the epistle to the Romans.
Learned Hindoos have confessed that the description is literally
correct in Hindostan at the present moment; and were it not for
the restraining grace of God, it would be so in England. Alas! it
is even here but too correct a picture of things which are done
of men in secret. Things loathsome to God and man are sweet to
some palates.

        "_There is none that doeth good_." Sins of omission must
abound where transgressions are rife. Those who do the things
which they ought not to have done, are sure to leave undone those
things which they ought to have done. What a picture of our race
is this! Save only where grace reigns, there is none that doeth
good; humanity, fallen and debased, is a desert without an oasis,
a night without a star, a dunghill without a jewel, a hell
without a bottom.

              EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS.

        Whole Psalm.--There is a peculiar mark upon this Psalm,
in that it is twice in the Book of Psalms. The fourteenth Psalm
and the fifty-third Psalm are the same with the alteration of one
or two expressions at most. And there is another mark put upon
it, that the apostle transcribes a great part of it.--#Ro
3:10-12|.

        It contains a description of a most deplorable state of
things in the world--ay, in Israel; a most deplorable state, by
reason of the general corruption that was befallen all sorts of
men, in their principles, and in their practices, and in their
opinions.

        First, it was a time when there was a mighty prevalent
_principle_ of atheism got into the world, got among the great
men of the world. Saith he, "That is their principle, they say in
their hearts. 'There is no God.'" It is true, they did not
absolutely profess it; but it was the principle whereby all their
actings were regulated and which they conformed unto. "_The
fool_," saith he, "_hath said in his heart, There is no God_."
Not this or that particular man, but the fool--that is, those
foolish men; for in the next word he tells you "_They are
corrupt_;" and verse #3|, "_They are all gone aside_." "The fool"
is taken indefinitely for the great company and society of
foolish men, to intimate that whatsoever they were divided about
else, they were all agreed in this. "They are all a company of
atheists," saith he, "practical atheists."

        Secondly, their _affections_ were suitable to this
principle, as all men's affections and actions are suitable to
their principles. What are you to expect from men whose principle
is, that there is no God? Why, saith he, for their affections,
"They are corrupt;" which he expresseth again (verse #3|), "They
are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy." "All
gone aside." The word in the original is, "They are all grown
sour;" as drink, that hath been formerly of some use, but when
grown vapid--lost all its spirits and life--it is an insipid
thing, good for nothing. And, saith he, "_They are altogether
become filthy_"--"become stinking," as the margin hath it. They
have corrupt affections, that have left them no life, no savour;
but stinking, corrupt lusts prevail in them universally. They
say, "There is no God;" and they are filled with stinking,
corrupt lusts.

        Thirdly, if this be their principle and these their
affections, let us look after their actions, to see if they be
any better. But consider their actions. They be of two sorts:--1.
How they act in the world, 2. How they act towards the people of
God.

        1. How do they act in the world? Why, consider that, as
to their duties which they omit, and as to the wickednesses which
they perform. What good do they do? Nay, saith he, "_None of them
doeth good_." Yea, some of them. "_No, not one_." Saith he,
verses #1,3|, "There is none that doeth good, no, not one." If
there was any one among them that did attend to what was really
good and useful in the world, there was some hope. "No," saith
he, "their principle is atheism, their affections are corrupt;
and for good, there is not one of them doeth any good-- they omit
all duties."

        What do they do for evil? Why saith he, "_They have done
abominable works_" --"works." saith he, "not to be named, not to
be spoken of--works which God abhors, which all good men abhor."
"Abominable works," saith he, "such as the very light of nature
would abhor;" and give me leave to use the expression of the
Psalmist--"Stinking, filthy works." So he doth describe the state
and condition of things under the reign of Saul, when he wrote
this Psalm.

        2. "If thus it be with them, and if thus it be with their
own ways, yet they let the people of God alone; they will not add
that to the rest of their sins." Nay, it is quite otherwise,
saith he, "_They eat up my people as they eat bread_." "Those
workers of iniquity have no knowledge, who eat up my people as
they eat bread, and call not upon the LORD." What is the reason
why he brings it in in that manner? Why could he not say, "They
have no knowledge that do such abominable things;" but brings it
in thus, "They have no knowledge who eat up my people as they eat
bread"? "It is strange, that after all my dealings with them and
declaration of my will, they should be so brutish as not to know
this would be their ruin. Don't they know this will devour them,
destroy them, and be called over again in a particular manner?"
In the midst of all the sins, and greatest and highest
provocations that are in the world, God lays a special weight
upon the eating of his people. They may feed upon their own lusts
what they will; but, "Have they no knowledge, that they eat up my
people as they eat bread?"

        There are very many things that might be observed from
all this; but I aim to give but a few hints from the Psalm.

        Well, what is the state of things now? You see what it
was with them. How was it with the providence of God in reference
unto them? Which is strange, and a man would scarce believe it in
such a course as this is, he tells you (verse #5|),
notwithstanding all this, they were in great fear. "_There were
they in great fear_," saith he. May be so, for they saw some evil
coming upon them. No, there was nothing but the hand of God in
it; for in #Ps 53:5|, where these words are repeated, it is,
"There were they in great fear, where no fear was"--no visible
cause of fear; yet they were in great fear.

        God by his providence seldom gives an absolute, universal
security unto men in their height of sin, and oppression, and
sensuality, and lusts; but he will secretly put them in fear
where no fear is: and though there be nothing seen that should
cause them to have any fear, they shall act like men at their
wits' end with fear.

        But whence should this fear arise? Saith he, it ariseth
from hence, "_For God is in the generation of the righteous_."
Plainly they see their work doth not go on; their meat doth not
digest with them; their bread doth not go well down. "They were
eating and devouring my people, and when they came to devour
them, they found God was among them (they could not digest their
bread); and this put them in fear; quite surprised them." They
came, and thought to have found them a sweet morsel: when
engaged, God was there filling their mouth and teeth with gravel;
and he began to break out the jawbone of the terrible ones when
they came to feed upon them. Saith he, "God was there." (Verse
#5|.)

        The Holy Ghost gives an account of the state of things
that was between those two sorts of people he had
described--between the fool and the people of God--them that were
devouring, and them that had been utterly devoured, had not God
been among them. Both were in fear--they that were to be
devoured, and those that did devour. And they took several ways
for their relief; and he showeth what those ways were, and what
judgment they made upon the ways of one another. Saith he, "_Ye
have shamed the counsel of the poor, because the Lord is his
refuge_."

        There are the persons spoken of--they are "the poor;" and
that is those who are described in the verses foregoing, the
people that were ready to be eaten up and devoured.

        And there is the hope and refuge that these poor had in
such a time as this, when all things were in fear; and that was
"the LORD." The poor maketh the Lord his refuge.

        And you may observe here, that as he did describe all the
wicked as one man, "the fool," so he describes all his own people
as one man, "the poor"--that is, the poor man: "Because the LORD
is his refuge." He keeps it in the singular number. Whatsoever
the people of God may differ in, they are all as one man in this
business.

        And there is the way whereby these poor make God their
refuge. They do it by "counsel," saith he. It is not a thing they
do by chance, but they look upon it as their wisdom. They do it
upon consideration, upon advice. It is a thing of great wisdom.

        Well, what thoughts have the others concerning this
acting of theirs? The poor make God their refuge; and they do it
by counsel. What judgment, now, doth the world make of this
counsel of theirs? Why, they "shame it;" that is, they cast shame
upon it, contemn it as a very foolish thing, to make the Lord
their refuge. "Truly, if they could make this or that great man
their refuge, it were something; but to make the Lord their
refuge, this is the foolishest thing in the world," say they. To
shame men's counsel, to despise their counsel as foolish, is as
great contempt as they can lay upon them.

        Here you see the state of things as they are represented
in this Psalm, and spread before the Lord; which being laid down,
the Psalmist showeth what our duty is upon such a state of
things--what is the duty of the people of God, things being thus
stated. Saith he, "Their way is to go to prayer:" verse #7|, "_O
that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! when the Lord
bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice,
and Israel shall be glad_." If things are thus stated, then cry,
then pray, "O that the salvation of Israel were come out of
Zion," etc. There shall a revenue of praise come to God out of
Zion, to the rejoicing of his people.--^John Owen.

        Verse 1.--"_The fool_." That sapless fellow, that carcase
of a man, that walking sepulchre of himself, in whom all religion
and right reason is withered and wasted, dried up and decayed.
That apostate in whom natural principles are extinct, and from
whom God is departed, as when the prince is departed, hangings
are taken down. That mere animal that hath no more than a
reasonable soul, and for little other purpose than as salt, to
keep his body from putrefying. That wicked man hereafter
described, that studieth atheism.--^John Trapp.

        Verse 1.--"_The fool_," etc. The world we live in is a
world of fools. The far greater part of mankind act a part
entirely irrational. So great is their infatuation, that they
prefer time to eternity, momentary enjoyments to those that shall
never have an end, and listen to the testimony of Satan in
preference to that of God. Of all folly, that is the greatest,
which relates to eternal objects, because it is the most fatal
and when persisted in through life, entirely remediless. A
mistake in the management of temporal concerns may be afterwards
rectified. At any rate, it is comparatively of little importance.
But an error in spiritual and eternal matters, as it is in itself
of the greatest moment, if carried through life, can never be
remedied; because after death there is no redemption. The
greatest folly that any creature is capable of, is that of
denying or entertaining unjust apprehensions of the being and
perfections of the great Creator. Therefore, in a way of
eminence, the appellation of _fool_ is given by the Spirit of
God, to him who is chargeable with this guilt. "_The fool hath
said in his heart, There is no God_."--^John Jamieson, M.A.,
1789.

        Verse 1.--"_The fool_," a term in Scripture signifying a
wicked man, used also by the heathen philosophers to signify a
vicious person, _nâbâl_ <05036> as coming from _nâbêl_ <05034>
signifies the extinction of life in men, animals, and plants; so
the word _nâbêl_ <05034> is taken, #Isa 40:7|, _tsïyts nâbêl_
"the flower fadeth" (#Isa 28:1|), a plant that hath lost all that
juice that made it lovely and useful. So a fool is one that hath
lost his wisdom and right notion of God and divine things, which
were communicated to man by creation; one dead in sin, yet one
not so much void of rational faculties, as of grace in those
faculties; not one that wants reason, but abuses his
reason.--^Stephen Charnock.

        Verse 1.--"_The fool hath said_," etc. This folly is
bound up in every heart. It is sound, but it is not tongue-tied;
it speaks blasphemous things against God, _it says_, there is
"_no God_." There is a difference indeed in the language: gross
sins speak this louder, there are crying sins; but though less
sins speak it not so loud they whisper it. But the Lord can hear
the language of the heart, the whisperings of its motions, as
plainly as we hear one another in our ordinary discourse. Oh, how
heinous is the least sin, which is so injurious to the very being
of the great God!--^David Clarkson.

        Verse 1.--"_The fool hath said in his heart, There is no
God_." If you will turn over some few leaves as far as the
fifty-third Psalm, you shall not only find my text, but this
whole Psalm, without any alteration, save only in the fifth
verse, and that not at all in the sense neither. What shall we
say? Took the Holy Spirit of God such especial particular notice
of the sayings and deeds of a _fool_, that one expression of them
would not serve the turn? Or, does the babbling and madness of a
fool so much concern us, as that we need to have them urged upon
us once and again, and a third time in the third of the Romans?
Surely not any one of us present here, is this fool! Nay, if any
one of us could but tell where to find such a fool as this, that
would offer to say, though in his heart, "_There is no God_," he
should not rest in quiet, he should soon perceive we were not of
his faction, We that are able to tell David an article or two of
faith more than ever he was acquainted with! Nay, more; can we
with any imaginable ground of reason be supposed liable to any
suspicion of atheism, that are able to read to David a lecture
out of his own Psalms, and explain the meaning of his own
prophecies much clearer than himself which held the pen to the
Holy Spirit of God? Though we cannot deny but that in other
things there may be found some spice of folly and imperfection in
us, but it cannot be imagined that we, who are almost cloyed with
the heavenly manna of God's word, that can instruct our teachers,
and are able to maintain opinions and tenets, the scruples
whereof not both the universities in this land, nor the whole
clergy are able to resolve, that it should be possible for us
ever to come to that perfection and excellency of folly and
madness, as to entertain thought that _there is no God_: nay, we
are not so uncharitable as to charge a Turk or an infidel with
such a horrible imputation as this.

        Beloved Christians, be not wise in your own conceits: if
you will seriously examine the third of Romans (which I mentioned
before), you shall find that Paul, out of this Psalm, and the
like words of Isaiah, doth conclude the whole posterity of Adam
(Christ only excepted), under sin and the curse of God; which
inference of his were weak and inconcluding, unless every man of
his own nature were such a one as the prophet here describes; and
the same apostle in another place expresses, "_Even altogether
without God in the world_," i.e., not maintaining it as an
opinion 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 thus
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 droop
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 as in the creature lies. There are none of these atheists
in hell, for the devils believe and tremble. #Jas 2:19|. The
Greek word _phrissousi_ <5425>, 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. #Mr 6:49; Ac 16:29|. The devils believe and acknowledge four
articles of our faith. #Mt 8:29|. (1.) They acknowledge God; (2.)
Christ; (3) The day of judgment; (4.) That they shall be
tormented then; so that he that 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 interdiu 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
not 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 of 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 pomps
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 them 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 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,
        That God may burst upon his faithless eye!
        Is there no God?--The stars in myriads spread,
        If he look up, the blasphemy deny;
        While his own features, in the mirror read,
        Reflect the image of Divinity.
        Is there no God?--The stream that silver flows,
        The air he breathes, the ground he treads, the trees,
        The flowers, the grass, the sands, each wind that blows,
        All speak of God; throughout, one voice agrees,
        And, eloquent, his dread existence shows:
        Blind to thyself, ah, see him, fool, in these!"

^Giovanni Cotta.

        Verse 1.--
                "The owlet, _Atheism_,
        Sailing on obscene wings across the noon,
        Drops his blue-fringed lids, and shuts them close,
        And, hooting at the glorious sun in heaven,
        Cries out, 'Where is it?'"

^Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1772-1834.

        Verse 1.--"_They are corrupt, they have done abominable
works_." Sin pleaseth the flesh. _Omne simile nutrit simile_.
Corruption inherent is nourished by the accession of corrupt
actions. Judas's covetousness is sweetened with unjust gain. Joab
is heartened and hardened with blood. #1Ki 2:5|. Theft is fitted
to and fatted in the thievish heart with obvious booties. Pride
is fed with the officious compliments of observant grooms.
Extortion battens in the usurer's affections by the trolling in
of his moneys. Sacrilege thrives in the church-robber by the
pleasing distinctions of those sycophant priests, and helped with
their not laborious profit. Nature is led, is fed with sense. And
when the citadel of the heart is once won, the turret of the
understanding will not long hold out. As the suffumigations of
the oppressed stomach surge up and cause the headache, or as the
thick spumy mists, which vapour up from the dark and foggy earth,
do often suffocate the brighter air, and to us more than eclipse
the sun, the black and corrupt affections, which ascend out of
the nether part of the soul, do no less darken and choke the
understanding. Neither can the fire of grace be kept alive at
God's altar (man's heart), when the clouds of lust shall rain
down such showers of impiety on it. _Perit omne judicium, cum res
transit ad affectum_. Farewell the perspicuity of judgment, when
the matter is put to the partiality of affection.--^Thomas Adams.

        Verse 1.--"_They are corrupt, they have done abominable
things: there is none that doeth good_." "Men," says Bernard,
"because they are _corrupt_ in their minds, become _abominable_
in their doings: _corrupt_ before God, _abominable_ before men.
There are three sorts of men of which none doeth good. There are
those who neither understand nor seek God, and they are the dead:
there are others who understand him, but seek him not, and they
are the wicked. There are others that seek him but understand him
not, and they are the fools." "O God," cries a writer of the
middle ages, "how many are here at this day who, under the name
of Christianity, worship idols, and are abominable both to thee
and to men! For every man worships that which he most loves. The
proud man bows down before the idol of worldly power; the
covetous man before the idol of money; the adulterer before the
idol of beauty; and so of the rest." And of such, saith the
apostle, "They profess that they know God, but in works deny him,
being _abominable_ and disobedient, and unto every good work
reprobate." #Tit 1:16|. "_There is none that doeth good_." Notice
how Paul avails himself of this testimony of the epistle to the
Romans, where he is proving concerning "both Jews and Gentiles,
that they are all under sin." #Ro 3:9|.--^John Mason Neale, in
loc.

        Verse 1.--The argument of my text is the atheist's
divinity, the brief of his belief couched all in one article, and
that negative too, clean contrary to the fashion of all creeds,
"_There is no God_." The article but one; but so many absurdities
tied to the train of it, and itself so irreligious, so
prodigiously profane, that he dares not speak it out, but saith
it softly to himself, in secret, "_in his heart_." So the text
yields these three points; Who is he? A "_fool_." What he saith,
"_no God_." How he speaks it, "_in his heart_." A fool, his bolt,
and his draught. I will speak of them severally ... There is a
child in year's, and there is a child in manners, _aetate et
moribus_, saith Aristotle. So there is a fool; for fools and
children both are called _nêpioi_ <3516>, There is a fool in wit,
and there is a fool in life; _stultus in scientia, et stultus in
conscientia_, a witless and a graceless fool. The latter is worthy
of the title as the first; both void of reason; not of the
faculty but of the use. Yea, the latter fool is indeed the more
kindly of the twain; for the sot would use his reason if he
could; the sinner will not though he may. It is not the natural,
but the moral fool that David means, the wicked and ungracious
person, for so is the sense of the original term ... It is time
we leave the person, and come unto the act. What hath this fool
done? Surely nothing; he hath only _said_. What hath he _said_?
Nay, nothing either; he hath only _thought_: for to _say in
heart_, is but to _think_. There are two sorts of saying in the
Scripture, one meant indeed so properly, the other but in hope;
one by word of mouth, the other by thought of heart. You see the
Psalmist means here the second sort. The bolt the fool here
shoots is atheism: he makes no noise at the loss of it, as bowmen
use; he draws and delivers closely, and stilly, out of sight, and
without sound he saith, "_God is not_," but "_in heart_." The
heart hath a mouth; _intus est os cordis_, saith Augustine. God,
saith Cyprian, is _cordis auditor_, he hears the heart; then
belike it hath some speech. When God said to Moses, _quare
clamas_? why criest thou? we find no words he uttered: _silens
auditur_, saith Gregory, he is heard through saying nothing.
There is a silent speech (#Ps 4:4|), "Commune with your own
heart," saith David, "and be still." Speech is not the heart's
action, no more than meditation is the mouth's. But sometimes the
heart and mouth exchange offices; _lingua mea meditabitur_, saith
David. #Ps 35:28|. There is _lingua meditans_, a musing tongue;
here is _cor loquens_, a speaking heart. And to say the truth,
the philosopher saith well, it is the heart doth all things,
_mens videt, mens audit, mens loquitur_. It is the heart that
speaks, the tongue is but the instrument to give the sound. It is
but the heart's echo to repeat the words after it. Except when
the tongue doth run before the wit, the heart doth dictate to the
mouth; it suggests what it shall say. The heart is the soul's
herald: look what she will have proclaimed, the heart reads it,
and the mouth cries it. The tongue saith nought but what the
heart saith first. Nay, in very deed, the truest and kindest
speech is the heart's. The tongue and lips are Jesuits, they
lease, and lie, and use equivocations: flattery, or fear, or
other by-respect, other wry respect adulterate their words. But
the heart speaks as it means, worth twenty mouths, if it could
speak audibly.--^Richard Clerke. D.D., 1634 (one of the
translators of our English Bible).

        Verses 1,4.--The Scripture give this as a cause of the
notorious courses of wicked men, that "God is not in all their
thoughts." #Ps 10:4|. They forget there is a God of vengeance and
a day of reckoning. "_The fool_" would needs enforce upon his
heart, that "_there is no God_," and what follows: "_Corrupt they
are, there is none doeth good: they eat up my people as bread_,"
etc. They make no more bones of devouring men and their estates,
than they make conscience of eating a piece of bread. What a
wretched condition hath sin brought man unto, that the great God
who "filleth heaven and earth" (#Jer 23:24|) should yet have no
place in the heart which he hath especially made for himself! The
sun is not so clear as this truth, that God is, for all things in
the world are because God is. If he were not, nothing could be.
It is from him that wicked men have that strength they have to
commit sin, therefore sin proceeds from atheism, especially these
plotting sins; for if God were more thought on, he would take off
the soul from sinful contrivings, and fix it upon
himself.--^Richard Sibbes.

                       HINTS TO PREACHERS.

        Verse 1 (first clause).--The folly of atheism.

        Verse 1.--Atheism of the heart.--_Jamieson's Sermons on
the Heart_.

        Verse 1 (whole verse).--Describe: I. The creed of the
fool. II. The fool who holds the creed: or thus, Atheism. I. Its
source: "the heart." II. Its creed: "no God." III. Its fruits:
"corrupt," etc.

        Verse 1.--I. The great source of sin--alienation from
God. II. Its place of dominion--the heart. III. Its effect upon
the intellect--makes man a fool. IV. Its manifestations in the
life--acts of commission and omission.

        Verse 1 (last clause).--The lantern of Diogenes. Hold it
up upon all classes, and denounce their sins.