_Dear Sir, and Brother_,--As I have not the opportunity of presenting
your third number to our mutual friend and brother, to whom it most
properly belongs to reply, I have thought it no more than reasonable
that I should acknowledge the receipt of your favour accompanying this
acknowledgement with some observations on the most essential parts of
what you have suggested.
You wish us to take it for granted, that those parts of our
communications to which you make no reply, are at least, generally
speaking, satisfactory to your mind. Respecting this particular, you
will suffer me to point out, what appears to me, a very material
defect in your proposed method.
Suppose, sir, an argument be laid down on which much depends, in the
opinion of the writer, and out of a proper reply to which, he
anticipates great advantages; he waits for a reply--No reply comes to
this particular, but the very same query which the argument was
designed to answer is still urged; is it not easy to see that much
labour may be in vain in consequence of this method? If you answer to
a question, stating with great seeming earnestness, viewing the
question of importance in the mind of him who states it, you would not
only expect, but you might really need to be informed what effect your
reply was allowed to have in the mind of your opponent. And as he
might not anticipate the use which you had designed to make of his
answer, you would not judge it advisable to submit to him whether he
should reply or not.
You have finally put the dispute about the necessity of retaining the
dead languages at issue on the question relative to a future state, in
the following words; "If the opinions recorded in scripture relative
to a future state of existence are to be relied on, as being dictated
by God himself, and in a way too, that was not mistaken; and that the
writers of the scriptures being thus inspired, have written nothing
but the truth, then I admit," &c. Now from this your own statement you
will see the importance of retaining those languages until it be fully
discovered that no credit is due to these writings which we have been
in the habit of believing to be divinely inspired. Your discernment
will at once discover that it would be imprudent in the extreme, to
obliterate, without first knowing that what was to be defaced was of
no utility. A child, ever so old, who should utterly deface his
father's last will and testament, which had made ample provisions for
his future wants, merely because he had not a perfect understanding of
it, or on suspicion that there were some possible defects in it, could
not be considered prudent in so doing. But if the will should finally
fail, and prove invalid, no loss would be sustained even if it were
committed to the devouring element. To say, the will may be destroyed
until it has been proved, would be absurd.
In your further remarks on our brother's communication, you find
occasion to suggest a difference between the subject of revelation and
the discoveries which have been made by men in the powers and
properties of nature. But when you have contended successfully for
this (which by no means has any power to refute his argument) you seem
not to realize that there must be as great a difference in the
evidences by which these different subjects are communicated to the
mind, as there are in the subjects themselves. It is acknowledged,
without controversy, that we cannot demonstrate by any mathematical or
chemical process that there ever was such an emperor in Rome as
Augustus Caesar, or such a governor in Judea as Pilate, or such a man
as Jesus; but then we are not, on this account, or any other, unable
to find such kind of evidence as the nature of the case admits, and
such as is sufficient to satisfy the candid mind. Should any one now
pretend to deny that Louis XVIth. was beheaded, and allege as proof
that no such thing was to be credited, because it had never been
discovered as the result of a chemical process, would you hesitate to
fault his reasoning?
Should it occur to your mind that you have contended that the evidence
of revelation is as different from the evidence required in natural
discoveries, as the subjects themselves are different, you are
reminded that you have contended for this only with a view to _weaken_
the force of the former, and in a way to disallow its validity. At the
same time you state that you do not undertake to deny a special
revelation from God, but "wish only to take a review of the evidences,
and see if they are such that it is _impossible_ it should be false."
Of these evidences you speak thus; "Although ever so clear at first,
and ever so well supported by facts, concerning which the witnesses
had the clearest evidences, yet the evidences being of such a nature
as to preclude a repetition, like those respecting a vision of the
night or any other phenomenon, are liable to suffer by passing from
one to another," and finally "lose all their strength." Here it seems
you pretend to state the character of the evidences of a divine
revelation, which evidences you wish to review. Permit me to ask, dear
brother, if it would not have appeared more consistent with piety and
candor to have reviewed before you fixed the character of the
evidences?--There is a proper order in which every thing should be
conducted. All our researches should be kept from the embarrassments
of prejudice. Though I feel much reluctance in entering on so great a
subject as the vindication of the truth of divine revelation, fearing,
I should fail in doing that honour to the subject which I am confident
it deserves, I am inclined to suggest a few things which I think are
worthy of some notice. As you speak of a vision of the night, the
evidences of which were clear to the person and satisfactory at the
time, those evidences would naturally lose their force when
communicated to others and finally lose their strength. Let us suppose
a case. A man shall have a vision of the night, in which it shall be
revealed to him that some time before the present generation shall
leave the stage of life, the kingdom of Great Britain will be overcome
by the power of France; that very many of the flourishing cities of
England will be destroyed in a very awful manner; that London will be
laid level with the ground; that the distress of the inhabitants
during the siege will be extreme; that for some time before this great
event, there will be wars and rumors of wars among the nations, and
certain signs very wonderful will be seen in the heavens. This man
tells his vision very circumstantially and several persons write it
down. Now suppose as the time passes away, these events, one after
another, should take place, all in the same order in which the vision
represented them; do you feel willing to say that the evidences of the
truth of this vision, are all the time losing their force? No surely
they are not; they are all the time gaining strength and waxing
brighter. Whether I am able to satisfy you that the above case is a
fair representation of the evidences of divine revelation, or not, it
discovers in some degree the ground on which, in my mind, revelation
is established.
Compare, if you please, the prophesy of Jesus recorded in the 24th of
Matthew, with the history of the events of which the divine messenger
spake.
Yours, &c.