TABLE OF CONTENTS. Ever learning, and never able to come to the 1 Timothy, iii. 7. ......................................PAGE 9 THE CAUSES AND REMEDY OF SCEPTICISM. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. THE PERILS OF ATHEISM TO THE NATION. This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come; for men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, diso- bedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but deny- ing the power thereof: from such turn away. For of this sort are they who creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts; ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. 2 Timothy, ..73 THE PERILS OF ATHEISM TO THE NATION. there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the THE ATTRIBUTES AND CHARACTER of god. And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, merci- ful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, and trans- gression, and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the childrens' children, unto the third and to the fourth genera- LECTURE I. CAUSES OF SCEPTICISM. 1 TIMOTHY, III. 7. EVER LEARNING, AND NEVER ABLE TO COME TO THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE TRUTH. TRUTH is the reality of things-It is natural as it respects the material world, and moral as it respects mind, accountability, and moral government. Our knowledge of truth is by consciousness, intuition, the senses, and evidence. Consciousness is the mind's recognition of its own being, powers, and actions. Intuition is the mind's perception of obvious, primary truths, which are the elements of demonstration-such as, that every effect must have a cause; and that the parts are equal to the whole. It is intuition which constitutes the premises of demonstration, the primary truths being seen by the mind, and each step in the process, also, being a matter of intuition, or of mental perception. The reports of the senses are called knowledge, because they so uniformly correspond with the reality of things, that occasional aberration occasions no distrust, but rather confirms the general rule. There is a yet wider field of knowledge which lies without the sphere of consciousness, and beyond the range of intuition, and the cognizance of the senses, the realities of which are certified to us by evidence; and the confidence produced is called belief. The evidence which sustains belief, is either the evidence of human testimony, or the accumulation of probabilities from the uniform operation of the laws of nature. This last evidence rests on the self-evident proposition, that no effect can exist without a cause— that what has been and is, will continue to be, where there is no perceived cause of change, derived from a supposition of a stated order of cause and effect; and rises from faint probability to moral certainty, according to the frequency and uniformity of the effects produced. Had the sun never risen before to-day, the evidence of its rising to-morrow, would be no greater than the appearance of a meteor in the sky would be of its return. But had the meteor appeared as uniformly as the sun has appeared, the evidence in both cases would be equal, of a stated order of cause and effect. The difference between demonstration and moral certainty, is, that in one case the mind sees the object of comparison, and sees the result, which, of course, is knowledge; but in the other, derives *ts confidence from the perception of probabilities multiplied till they produce confidence, or moral certainty. On the whole, consciousness, intuition, the senses, the evidence of testimony, and analogy, |