Incredulity

“ By what right, then, do they exact that incredulity, which pretends to nothing supernatural, should produce effects which, according to their own admissions, their pretended divine religion fails to accomplish? ”

“ What is divine escapes men's notice because of their incredulity. ”

“ He had passed from incredulity to belief, from belief to incredulity, and when at last incredulity was firmly established, and the story to which he had listened proved the emanation of a drugged and heated brain, lo! the facts buffeted him in the face, and the story was shown to be true.
"I am alive once more," Mr. ”

“ Knowledge of divine things for the most part, as Heraclitus says, is lost to us by incredulity. ”

“ Was ever such a miracle, that a falsehood works truth?—that a delusion, instead of leading into marsh, or bog, or quicksand, as other will-o'-the-wisps ever and always have, leads along a morally elevated path where every footstep rings with the music of divine certainty, as though it trod upon a rock! Such a miracle, contrary to all reason, is worthy of acceptance only by the blind, childish, credulity of infidelity. ”

“ Behold the source of unbelief, the corruption of the heart. Yes, my brethren, find me, if you can, men wise, temperate, pure, regular, and lovers of truth, who believe not a God, who look forward to no future state, who look upon adulteries, abominations, and incests, as the inclinations and innocent pastimes of nature. ”

“ You prefer believing that I, whom you call your friend, am a deceiver or a pretender, to admitting the possibility of the falsehood of your hypothesis. You will not listen to my assurance, and you are angry with me because I will not lie against my own soul, and acknowledge sins which I have not committed. You appeal to the course of the world in proof of your faith, and challenge me to answer you. Well, then, I accept your challenge. The world is not what you say. ”

“ Is this the true world, after all—so utterly depraved and given over to evil? Are there no such things as truth, honesty, morality, religion, among us? Are there no men and women, no bodies, endowed with sense enough, power enough, and wit enough to give the lie to this, and bring this false world with shame to their feet? ”

“ They can see clearly the lens of their telescope is not dim. Who drifts into unbelief? Those whose hearts are full of the smoke of sin, of the mist of evil passions; those who are averse to the holy truths of religion and detest its threats and admonitions on account of the sinful lives they are leading. It would be wonderful indeed, if such persons could see as clearly as those who, free from evil passions, follow after truth.
3. Yes, it is vice, evil, unruly, unbridled passions, which deprive men of their faith. ”

“ Do we speak of wise credulity—of intelligent credulity? We may say theological credulity, or Christian credulity, but certainly not intelligent credulity. Is the flattery of the ignorant and credulous—the flattery being based upon that which ignorance and credulity have accepted—acceptable to any intelligent being? Is it possible that we can flatter God by pretending to believe, or by believing, that which is repugnant to reason, that which upon examination is seen to be absurd? The Archdeacon admits that God cannot possibly be so flattered. ”

“ Thou hast given me 'the heritage of those that fear thy name;' I am satisfied with my portion. Amen. Be my God and the God of my seed, and glorify thy name in us."
"OCTOBER, 1797.
"'Remove far from me vanity and lies,' Psa. 119. Every deviation from rectitude and truth is sin. Who that knows any thing of the corruption of the human heart, and its strange tendency to stray, to err, yea, even to pervert the plainest, simplest, and most obvious truths, but must see the propriety of his joining the psalmist, and crying out, Lord, remove far from me the way of lies. ”

“ Help nothing on that is noble—nothing that is honest,—nothing that is of God, or for God,—print every lie, grudge every truth, and let your trumpet-note be that of blatant Atheism and Devilry to the end! ”

“ Is not faith more convincing than words? Man's words may deceive you, but not the word of God. If you were to hear from me, what you have so often heard from others, "I absolve you from your sins," what assurance would you have, that you were really absolved? What am I, but a sinner, like yourself? Do you apply for health to a sick man, or for wealth to a poor one? ”

“ Whether unmasked by others, or by myself, is it not equally true that I have been playing false, and am now punished for it? What do the world care for your having returned to truth? You have offended by deceiving them, and that is an offence which your repentance will not extenuate. ”

“ Then again, everything that God made was good—and this dust man is more evil than good; and as God, who is conceded as being all good, made all, and pronounced all He made good, this dust or material man, being evil, was never made, but, through a misapprehension, we think man to be material, and believe him to be the real man. To illustrate what I mean, say some one told you a falsehood and you believed it to be the truth; then the lie would seem true to you. ”

“ Not for a moment have you come face to face with the world:
You are weaving your bondage of falsehood, your words are full of deception:
With the load of desires which you hold on your head, how can you be light? ”

“ Nevertheless such worshippers, if their worship is really genuine—that is to say, if it includes love, trust, and awe, carried to their highest limits, and not merely that kind of awe which is inspired by “mighty works”—will do well to avoid this book. If doubt has not attacked them, why should they go to meet it? In pulling up falsehood by the roots there [8] is always a danger of uprooting or loosening a truth that grows beside it. ”

“ God sees the pride in the heart and hates it there; but, when it prevails to that degree that the show of men's countenance witnesses against them that they overvalue themselves and undervalue all about them, this is in a special manner hateful to him, for then pride is proud of itself and sets shame at defiance. 2. Falsehood, and fraud, and dissimulation. Next to a proud look nothing is more an abomination to God than a lying tongue; nothing more sacred than truth, nor more necessary to conversation than speaking truth. God and all good men hate and abhor lying. ”

“ They delude those that put their trust in them, make fools of them, or, rather, they make fools of themselves. Enquire into the use of them and you will find they are the work of errors, grounded upon the grossest mistakes that ever men who pretended to reason were guilty of. They are the creatures of a deluded fancy; and the errors by which they were produced they propagate among their worshippers. (2.) Infer hence what the idolaters are that worship these idols. ”

“ And they who drink most deeply at the fountain head of Divine truth learn to estimate these things in the same manner; to feel what we might describe as a lordly disdain for all infidel objections drawn from this sort of petty, paltry, cavilling, carping, creeping criticism. Let our faith at last, God helping us, be strong enough and decided enough to override a few or a multitude of such objections. ”

“ In the human agency, such faith in God as existed was overlaid with misunderstanding and distrust of God. But notwithstanding the petty and mean devices, the short-sighted slyness, the blundering unbelief, the profane worldliness of the human parties in the transaction, the truth and mercy of God still find a way for themselves. ”

“ I am wearied with seeing the conduct of some of this people, their theiving, lying, tattling, deceiving, running after the Gentile spirit, after the spirits of this world, receiving delusive spirits, and adhering to all manner of principles that are not of God. ”

“ Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God—misrepresented his invisible attributes, eternal power and Godhead, and the glory of his perfections, visibly displayed in his works of creation and providence—by an image made like to corruptible men, and to birds, and four-footed beasts and creeping things; and changed the truth concerning God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. ”

“ The preacher who professes to believe in God is here having a part with an infidel contrary to the Word of God. You who are professing to be a light in the world, how can you in the fear of God take the oaths necessary to make you a member of a secret order? How can you join in the worldly hurrah and laughter, and foolish, ungodly pranks as played upon the candidate within the secret walls? What do you think of a preacher, or layman, becoming the laughing-stock of infidels, lawyers, saloon-keepers, drunkards, and gamblers, as he trembles beneath the blindfold? ”

“ Yes, faith, enthusiasm, love, were so many cheats, so many lies. All beings who, like himself, were worshippers of the ideal, all dreamers of better things, all lovers of love, were inevitably doomed to deception, treason, and the stupid ironies of fate. ”

“ But the abominable, auricular confession which is so highly esteemed by the world, is nothing but hypocrisy, human righteousness and superstition, open delusion of unbelievers, a false hope of the impenitent sinner, and a subtle invention of gain by the avaricious priests, whereby they set aside true confession and repentance, and comfort and encourage the world in their reckless, ungodly life. ”

“ Again, on the other hand, are to be considered the evils that may, and undoubtedly do, spring from a spirit of too much faith — a spirit of excessive credulity — which in the name of religion is ever ready to grasp every and all ridiculous beliefs and superstitious practices. ”

“ He only desires of you and your people that you shall abandon your errors and accept the true faith which he has commissioned me to announce. You are living under a false religion. You are worshipping senseless blocks, made by your own hands. ”

“ Thinking we trust God, when it is some false revelation of the devil, or some delusion of deceivers, or some dream, or fancy, or brain-sick, proud conceit of our own, which indeed we believe, and ground our trust upon: as those do that are deluded by false prophets and false teachers, and fantastical fancies of their corrupted imaginations. 6. When men in presumption and carnal security will rashly venture their souls in the darkness of uncertainty, (as well as in the neglect of a holy life,) and cast away all the sense of their miserable state ”

“ The tongue of the hypocrite may deceive men, but not God; nay, we may deceive ourselves by our own verbiage, but God distinguishes the prayer inspired by the Spirit of truth, from the empty declaration of excitement. ”

“ When they turned their hearts from God, their reason became more and more blinded by their evil passions, and they fell into the utmost spiritual ignorance, and into the most foolish idolatry. Pride and vice still lead many men to unbelief. ”

“ And may not our ignorance in these respects be specially ordained to test the faith of man—to check presumptuous confidence—to repel palsying despair; in a word, to make man walk humbly with his God, in constant and implicit dependence upon him? ”

“ Though I no longer believe, I shall do the actions of believers—and, if my god be false, I shall believe so firmly in him that I shall make him true!—Yes, the lowest, the most senseless superstitions, I venerate them, I exalt—I glory in them! ”

“ Why has God so ordered the world and human nature, that pride punishes itself? Because, I presume, pride is begotten and born of a lie, and God hates a lie, because all lies lead to ruin, and this lie of pride above all. ”

“ And how many are there who play false in life, less from the gain than the gratification of vanity!—a kind of diabolical pride in outwitting and overreaching those whose good faith has made them weak! ”

“ So that he, or they, are blessed, whose ears are not open to their clamours, but whose hearts are joined to the Truth, and who are led by the Spirit of God as their instructor; for such shall discern hypocrites, and false-hearted men, under every pretence of flattery or dissimulation; for the folly of these begins to be manifest unto all men. ”

“ Can God be pleased with those who do not confide in Him, and who do not trust Him? Our Lord's own chiding words to His disciples are a proof of His displeasure at any distrust in His power and goodness. ”

“ Be not godless in your hearts, and lie not and alter not the words of uprightness, nor charge with lying the words of the Holy Great One, nor take account of your idols; for all your lying and all your godlessness issue not in righteousness but in great sin. 10. And now I know this mystery, that sinners will alter and pervert the words of righteousness in many ways, and will speak wicked words, and lie, and practise great deceits, and write books concerning their words. ”

“ In this weird example is typified the condition of those who have received the truth, and thereby have been freed from the unclean influences of error and sin, so that in mind and spirit and body they are as a house swept and garnished and set in cleanly order, but who afterward renounce the good, open their souls to the demons of falsehood and deceit, and become more corrupt than before. ”

“ In matters of faith, friendship, love, or the spirit world, many are willing to be deceived; and when they fall into the hands of the shrewd and designing, who can appear the impersonation of truth, virtue, honesty, and even piety itself, they are emphatically humbugged, and give their money and their testimony to confirm the fraud. ”

“ A hazy mistrust of all Scripture has been insinuated into the hearts and minds of countless millions, who in this way have been forced to become doubters,—yes, doubters in the Truth of Revelation itself. ”