Hume’s outlook made it impossible for him to sort out what caused that attitude within the complex phenomena of social and religious history. As a result he could not see that spiritual discipline, informed by Christ’s message and example, is in essence and reality opposed to the evils now historically associated with their abuses. He could not understand that those very evils were themselves attributable, not to the practice of the spiritual disciplines, but to the failure to practice them or to practice them rightly. So how could he see that such discipline rightly practiced is the
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