11 The great and talented do not acquaint themselves with 13 Scoffers of the last days are wilfully ignorant of Bible 64 66 69 75 78 23 Inconsistency and credulity of the rejectors of the gospel, 86 24 Men who cast away the Bible are credulous in the extreme, 96 25 Men adopt false opinions without inquiry, 28 An example, 29 A second example, 35 Effect of the use of remedies, 36 Works on the evidences of Christianity recommended, THE CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. CHAPTER I. INFIDELITY is produced by two causes, acting conjointly. The primary, or more remote cause, is man's depravity; the second, or proximate cause, is man's want of knowledge. As it regards the first, or original cause, man's wicked nature, we can readily see how it would lean his belief towards the side of falsehood. It must incline him to reject the sacred volume, which enjoins every thing that is righteous, self-denying, pure and holy. Again, we can easily understand how this first cause of unbelief, (man's sinfulness,) must tend toward the production of the second cause, his lack of information. It retards his labours in searching after truth; it aids in continuing his want of knowledge; it prevents his activity in search after facts which sustain the truth. As it regards the secondary, or proximate cause, want of knowledge; it sounds strange to speak of the ignorance of the learned. This seeming contradiction will be fully explained after a time. For the present, we must begin with the original cause. Man's depravity claims our notice first. |