There are two classes of Atheists in the world. One class denies the
existence of God in the most positive language: the other denies his
existence in duration or space. One says, "There is no God;" the other
says, "God is not _here_ or _there,_ any more than he exists now and
_then_." (Isaac Taylor's Physical Theory of Another Life Chap. II.) The
infidel says, God does not exist anywhere. The Immaterialist says, "He
exists _Nowhere_." (Good's Book of Nature.) The infidel says, There
is no such substance as God. The Immaterialist says, There is such a
substance as God, but it is "_without Parts_." (First of the Thirty
Nine Articles; also I Art. Methodist Discipline.) The Atheist says,
There is no such substance as _Spirit._ The Immaterialist says, "A
Spirit, though he lives and acts, occupies no room, and fills no space,
in the same way and after the same manner as matter, not even so much
as does the minutest grain of sand." (Rev. David James on the Trinity,
in Unitarianism Confuted. Lec. VII., page 382.) The Atheist does not
seek to hide his infidelity: but the Immaterialist, whose declared
belief amounts to the same thing as the Atheist's endeavours to hide
his infidelity under the shallow covering of a few words.
The "thinking principle," says Dr. Thomas Brown, "is essentially one,
not extended and divisible, but incapable by its very nature, of any
subdivision into integral parts." (Brown's "Philosophy of the Human
Mind." Lec. XCVII.) What is this but the rankest kind of infidelity
couched in a blind, plausible form. That which is "not extended and not
divisible" and "without parts," cannot be anything else than nothing.
Take away these qualities and conditions, and no power of language can
give us the least idea of existence. The very idea conveyed by the
term existence is something extended, divisible, and with parts. Take
these away, and you take away existence itself. It cannot be so much
as the negative of space, or, what is generally called, an indivisible
point, for that has a relation to the surrounding spaces. It cannot be
so much as the negative of duration, or, what is generally called, an
indivisible instant, for that has a relation to the past and future.
Therefore, it must be the negative of all existence, or what is called
absolutely NOTHING. Nothing, and nothing only, is a representative
of that which has no relation to space or time--that is, unextended,
indivisible, and without parts. Therefore, the immaterialist is a
religious Atheist; he only differs from the other classes of Atheists,
by clothing an indivisible unextended NOTHING with the powers of a god.
One class believes in no God; the other class believes that NOTHING
is god, and worships it as such. There is no twisting away from this.
The most profound philosopher in all the ranks of modern Christianity,
cannot extricate the Immaterialists from atheism. He cannot show the
least difference between the idea represented by the word _nothing_,
and the idea represented by that which is unextended, indivisible,
and without parts, having no relation to space or time. All the
philosophers of the universe could not give a better or more correct
definition of _Nothing._ And yet this is the god worshipped by the
Church of England--the Methodists--and millions of other atheistical
idolaters, according to their own definitions, as recorded in their
respective articles of faith. An open Atheist is not so dangerous as
the Atheist who couches his atheistical doctrines under the head of
"ARTICLES OF RELIGION." The first stands out with open colours and
boldly avows his infidelity; the latter, under the sacred garb of
religion, draws into his yawning vortex, the unhappy millions who
are persuaded to believe in, and worship an unextended indivisible
_nothing_ without parts, deified into a god. A pious Atheist is much
more serviceable in building up the kingdom of darkness than one who
openly, and without any deception, avows his infidelity.
No wonder that this modern god has wrought no miracles and given no
revelations since his followers invented their "Articles of Religion."
A being without parts must be entirely powerless, and can perform
no miracles. Nothing can be communicated from such a being; for, if
nothing give nothing, nothing will be received. If, at death, his
followers are to be made like him, they will enjoy, with some of the
modern Pagans, all the beauties of annihilation. To be made like him!
Admirable thought! How transcendently sublime to behold an innumerable
multitude of unextended nothings, casting their crowns at the feet of
the great, unextended, infinite Nothing, filling all space, and yet
"without parts!" There will be no danger of quarrelling for want of
room; for the Rev. David James says, "Ten thousand spirits might be
brought together into the smallest compass imaginable, and there exist
without any inconvenience for want of room. As materiality," continues
he, "forms no property of a spirit, the space which is sufficient for
one, must be amply sufficient for myriads, yea, for all that exist."
(Rev. David James on the Trinity, in Unitarianism Confuted. Lec. VII.,
page 382.) According to this, all the spirits that exist, "could be
brought together into the smallest compass imaginable," or, in other
words into no compass at all; for, he says, a spirit occupies "no
room, and fills no space." What an admirable description of Nothing!
_Nothing_ "occupies no room, and fills no space!" If myriads of
Nothings were "brought together into the smallest compass imaginable,"
they would "there exist without any inconvenience for want of room."
Everything which the Immaterialist says, of the existence of _Spirit,_
will apply without any variation, to the existence of _Nothing._ If
he says that his god cannot exist "Here" or "There," the same is true
of _Nothing._ If he affirms that he cannot exist "Now" and "Then,"
the same can, in all truth, be affirmed of _Nothing._ If he declares,
that he is "unextended," so is _Nothing._ If he asserts that he is
"indivisible" and "without parts," so is _Nothing._ If he declares
that a spirit "occupies no room and fills no space," neither does
_Nothing._ If he says a spirit is "Nowhere," so is _Nothing._ All that
he affirms of the one, can, in like manner, and, with equal truth, be
affirmed of the other. Indeed, they are only two words, each of which
express precisely the same idea. There is no more absurdity in calling
_Nothing_ a substance, and clothing it with Almighty powers, than there
is in making a substance out of that which is precisely like nothing,
and imagining it to have Almighty powers. Therefore, an immaterial god
is a deified Nothing, and all his worshippers are atheistical idolators.