ives, and associated with
companions equally careless and irreligious; not by force of study and
reflection, but rather by the lapse of time, they at length attained to
their infidel maturity. It is worthy of remark, that where any are
reclaimed from infidelity, it is generally by a process much more
rational than that which has been here described. Something awakens them
to reflection. They examine, they consider, and at length yield their
assent to Christianity on what they deem sufficient grounds.

From the account here given, it appears plainly that infidelity is
generally the offspring of prejudice, and that its success is mainly to
be ascribed to the depravity of the moral character. This fact is
confirmed by the undeniable truth, that in _societies_, which consist of
individuals, infidelity is the natural fruit, not so much of a studious
and disputatious, as of a dissipated and vicious age. It diffuses itself
in proportion as the general morals decline; and it is embraced with
less apprehension, when every infidel is kept in spirits, by seeing many
around him who are sharing fortunes with himself.

To any fair mind this consideration alone might be offered, as
suggesting a strong argument against infidelity, and in favour of
Revelation. And the friends of Christianity might justly retort the
charge, which their opponents often urge with no little affectation of
superior wisdom; that we implicitly surrender ourselves to the influence
of prejudice, instead of examining dispassionately the ground of our
faith, and yielding our assent only according to the degree of evidence.

In our own days, when it is but too clear that infidelity increases, it
is not in consequence of the reasonings of the infidel writers having
been much studied, but from the progress of luxury, and the decay of
morals: and, so far as this increase may be traced at all to the works
of sceptical writers; it has been produced, not by argument and
discussion, but by sarcasms and points of wit, which have operated on
weak minds, or on nominal Christians, by bringing gradually into
contempt, opinions which, in their case, had only rested on the basis of
blind respect and the prejudices of education. It may therefore be laid
down as an axiom, that _infidelity is in general a disease of the heart
more than of the understanding_. If Revelation were assailed only by
reason and argument, it would have little to fear. The literary opposers
of Christianit