Psalm 53:1-3 The fool has said in his heart, There is no God. Corrupt are they, and have done abominable iniquity: there is none that does good.… In Scripture the fool and the sinner often mean the same person, and infidelity is therefore usually found connected with great depravity. Its progress is gradual; it begins by opposing those doctrines that impose restraint upon a man's favorite vices, and from denying these it proceeds to deny others, and, finally, all the rest. This subject is very important to the age in which we live, Europe being deluged with impiety. What, then, are the causes of infidelity? And we name — 1. Vice. It is not the difficulties of Scripture, but its forbidding of their sin that men dislike. All experience proves this. At first conscience remonstrates, but, unable to secure obedience, conscience is soon silenced, and the sinner seeks to justify those propensities which he declares himself unable to subdue. For it is necessary that men should reconcile their conduct to their opinions, or else there will be continual misery through self-reproach. And they soon succeed in the endeavour, for when a man studies to deceive himself he always can do so. His wishes, not his reason, decide upon the truth. The libertine hates the purity of religion; the dissolute, its temperance; the proud, its meekness; the gay worldling, its piety. But if they cannot get rid of the authority of religion, the thought of the future will make them tremble. Hence they labour to destroy that authority, so that conscience may have no more ground for her reproaches. They represent death as an eternal sleep, and, that men may indulge unrestrainedly the passions of brutes, they labour to show that his end is as theirs. Another proof that infidelity springs from vice is that it usually keeps pace with the passions. When these are strong it is strong. It flourishes in prosperity, but loses its confidence in adversity. Many instances might be adduced in proof that to the infidel the approach of death is terrible. Such is one chief source of infidelity. (S. Smith, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: {To the chief Musician upon Mahalath, Maschil, A Psalm of David.} The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. Corrupt are they, and have done abominable iniquity: there is none that doeth good. |
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