BT 127 .55 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1839, by GROSH AND HUTCHINSON, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Northern Dis trict of New-York. C. C. P. GROSH, PRINTER 2504 61 PREFACE. In presenting the following pages to the public, it may be proper to state that one of the principal motives of the wri ter, was to exhibit what he deemed the immediate causes of Infidelity. This, he was not aware, had ever been done. From nearly all who had written in defence of divine revelation, no such view of the subject was to be expected; as it involved the principles of their faith. And those, whose general views accord with those of the writer, had in their respective and excellent works, omitted to take this particular into consideration. In the second part of the work, it was not intended to urge what had been so often and so ably done by many others. The principal object was to condense a series of proofs of a revelation, from sources not usually appealed to-and some of which were known to be regarded by unbelievers as entirely indefensible. The dispassionate reader will determine how far we have succeeded in repelling and turning back the assaults of Infidelity on those parts of the Bible. It may not be improper to state here, what the reader will find repeated, that we have not always given authorities. We have, however, quoted none that we have not read-but sometimes from memory alone. And while we would render "honor to whom honor" is due, it was deemed unnecessary to make reference to every sentiment imbibed from others, when the language was our own. Such as the work is, it is presented to an intelligent public, to which the author feels deeply indebted for many tokens of charitable indulgence, in various ways—with the fervent prayer that it may aid in removing the doubts of some, and in strengthening the faith of others, in divine revelation. Albany, N. Y., June, 1839. S. R. SMITH. |