Psalms 14:1 «To the chief Musician, [A Psalm] of David. » The fool hath said in his heart, [There is] no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, [there is] none that doeth good.
Ver. 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. Nabal, a fool or a churl; Nebalah, a carcase, Leviticus 11:40. That apostate, in whom natural principles are extinct, and from whom God is departed; as when the prince is removing 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, φυχικος, 1 Corinthians 2:14. That wicked man, hereafter described, that studieth atheism,
Hath said in his heart] As David proves afterward by his practice; for there are practical atheists as well as dogmatic. See a like passage, Psalms 36:1, "The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart" (that is, my mind gives me, and I am strongly persuaded) "that there is no fear of God before his eyes." This is the charge; but what proof is there? proof good enough, Psalms 14:2,4, "For he flattereth himself," &c. So here; he is a flat atheist; for corrupt he is, and become abominable, &c. That which Cicero (De Nat. Deor.) saith of Epicurus, that lest he should offend the Athenians, verbis reliquit deos, re sustulit, in words he affirmed there were Gods, but in deed he denied a Deity, is found true in many even to this day; for all places are full of them, and so is hell too. Lucian is their Old Testament, and Machiavel their New. Worse they are than Agrippa, who was almost a Christian; worse than Protagoras with his De diis utrum sint, non ausim affirmare. For in their hearts and lives there is heard this hellish language,
There is no God] Oh horrible! Not that atheism can ever find a perfect and continual assent in man's heart; for there is no nation under heaven so barbarous but yields that there is a God. When man fell from God this truth stood; as when cities and great buildings are overthrown by war some towers, some pinnacles, survive the violence. They lie, saith Seneca, who say that they hold there is no God; for though to thee they say so by day, yet to themselves and by night they doubt it, at least. And when they come to die they sometimes cry out they are damned; as did Thomas Blaverus, chief counsellor sometime to the king of Scots; and one Arthur Miller, a professed atheist; and, before them both, a certain desperate dean of Paul's (Sword against Swearers).
Corrupt are they, and become abominable] Or loathsome; how should they be better, that have laid hands upon all the principles in their heads, and made a clean riddance of them, that they may run riot in sin without restraint or control? which, while others see, they also are ready to say, with that poet,
Sollicitor nullos esse putare Deus.
I have read of a woman who, living in professed doubt of the Godhead, after better illumination and repentance, did often protest that the vicious life of a great scholar in that town did conjure up those damnable doubtings in her soul (Mr Ward's Happ. of Parad.).
There is none that doeth good] i.e. None to speak of, no considerable number,
Apparent rari nantes in gurgite vasto.