_Dear sir, and brother_,--In replying to your seventh number, I
propose taking the advantage which you have favoured me with, by the
division of your subject. I hope by this, to be able to compress my
remarks on your reasoning, and avoid any unnecessary protraction of
this epistle.
You allow, that a "general view of the whole ground" on which the
scriptures seem to rest, would be sufficient to support the truth of
divine revelation, were it not for the following considerations.
1. Mankind, in all ages of the world, have been, and still are prone
to superstition.
2. It cannot be denied, but that a part of mankind, at least, have
believed, and still are believing in miracles and revelations which
are spurious.
3. The facts on which revelation is predicated, are unlike every thing
of which we have any positive knowledge.
If I rightly apprehend your meaning of "the whole ground" in which the
scriptures seem to rest, a general view of which would be sufficient
to support a belief in revelation, were it not for the three
considerations above quoted; it occupies, at least, prophecies
concerning a Messiah and the fulfillment of those prophecies by a
Messiah, according to the account which we have in the New Testament.
As it will serve to circumscribe the bounds of our present reasoning,
it is thought best to direct our inquiry to the consideration of the
facts recorded in the New Testament, presuming if these be admitted,
the prophecies will not be denied.
But have I not occasion, sir, to be surprised to find your first
proposition adduced as evidence unfavourable to the christian
scriptures? Was there ever a time when the world of human kind, both
Jews and Gentiles, was more deeply involved in the darkness and
stupidity of superstition than when the Messiah entered on his public
ministry? If the doctrine of Jesus had been pleasing to the
superstitious Jews, if it had accorded with the idolatrous notions of
the Gentiles, (which was impossible) if his Messiahship had been
espoused by both, and by their consent and influence had been handed
down, and declared to have been evidenced by all the miracles recorded
in the four Evangelists, do you not see that your first proposition
would be of Herculean strength against this religion? On the contrary,
it being well established, from unquestionable authority, that as St.
Paul observed, Christ crucified was a stumbling block to the Jews, and
to the Greeks foolishness, the whole force of Jewish and Greek
superstition, as it opposed, serves to strengthen the evidences of our
faith.
Will you be so good as to read the account which is recorded of the
miracle which Jesus wrought in giving sight to the man who was born
blind, and inquire carefully from beginning to end for any thing that
looks in the least as if the writer was endeavouring to write a
falsehood in a way to have it deceive the reader. This request might,
as I humbly conceive, be made in respect to any of the other miracles;
but what I had in view, particularly when this subject came to my
mind, was the following words, spoken by the pharisees to him who had
been blind; "Thou art his disciple: but we are Moses' disciples. We
know that God spake unto Moses; as for this fellow we know not from
whence he is." Is it not plain from this as well as from many other
scriptures, that in the same degree that the pharisees' superstition
run in favour of Moses, it operated against Jesus? I know the objector
may say, the Jews expected a Messiah; but then they did not expect
such a character as was Jesus. They also expected Elias to come first,
but they did not expect such a character as John. You, and all the
world know that the protestant clergy in Europe and America used to
pray for the downfall of the Pope; but when he was humbled, they all
joined in fervent prayer to set him up again. How did this
inconsistency happen? Answer: The way in which it pleased God to
humble the Pope, was not the way which clerical wisdom and prudence
had planned; and we all see now, that they are better pleased with the
Pope and the Inquisition, than they were to have him lose his power in
a way which endangered their own. Now, sir, if liberal principles do
obtain, and if the cause of civil and religious liberty should finally
triumph, in spite of popish and protestant clergy with monarchy
united, do you believe that this triumph will ever be imputed to the
superstition of king-craft and priestcraft? On the ground of your
first proposition this would be your conclusion. The pharisees and
those who adhered to them, built the sepulchres of the prophets, whom
their fathers killed, and said; "If we had been in the days of our
fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of
the prophets." These _holy_ men were sure that they were much better
than their fathers who persecuted the prophets; they had no
disposition to persecute; all the wealth in the world could not have
tempted these _godly saints_ to kill a prophet of God. However, St.
Paul writing to the Thessalonians, says, "For ye, brethren, became
followers of the churches of God, which in Judea are in Christ Jesus:
for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as
they have of the Jews; who both killed the Lord Jesus and their own
prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are
contrary to all men." But the Jews would not have put Jesus to death
if he had been a pharisee, and had not departed from their traditions
and superstitions. But he was not a pharisee, nor did he adhere to
their superstitions; and for this cause he was to them "a root out of
dry ground." To them, he had no form nor comeliness, no, nor had he
any beauty that they should discern him. Say, brother, is not this the
superstition which you are urging as unfavourable to the evidences of
christianity? And does not the passage above quoted from Thessalonians
go to prove what all ecclesiastical history as well as the New
Testament proves, that the Christians were persecuted by the Jews and
by the Gentiles? Did any thing but superstition ever persecute? It
surely does not aim to build up that which it persecutes: and
therefore in room of its being evidence against the genuineness of
what it opposes, is justly admitted as a valid evidence in its favour.
It is well known that our Christian doctors, clergy, and laity have
been long persuaded that a glorious day of universal peace and gospel
light is not only promised, but fast approaching; and if their prayers
have any influence, it is evident that the time is hastened by their
means. All this looks very well, and a man would be thought to be
impious, if not insane, who should intimate that these saints were
superstitous or illiberal, or that they possessed the spirit of
persecution.--But what has been their spirit for, say, twenty-five
years past towards a doctrine which teaches universal peace on earth
and good will towards man? Is there any thing bad which they have not
spoken against this doctrine? Have they not treated its preachers with
all the contempt and even ridicule of which they were capable? Have
they not used all their influence to keep the doctrine from being
preached in their meeting houses, and have they not dealt with church
members who have believed this benign doctrine of love, with
excommunications attended with as many aggravations as they could
invent? In a word, is there one bitter herb in all the ground which
was cursed for man's sake, that has not been used against what is
called the poison of this abominable heresy? If they had the power of
the pope, if the inquisition were at their command, would they let
such power lie dormant for want of zeal? Balaam smote his ass with a
_staff_, but said: "I would there were a _sword_ in mine hand, for now
would I kill thee."
But after all that has been said and done against this doctrine of
universal benevolence and grace, its progress confounds its enemies,
encourages its friends, and calls to mind the parable of the mustard
seed. Suppose for a century to come it should continue its advances
according to what it has gained for the twenty-five years above
mentioned, is it not evident that the knowledge of God would cover the
earth as the waters cover the sea? But would any body then, being
acquainted with the history of these times, think of making use of the
superstition of our clergy to oppose the evidences of this doctrine?
Would such a one say, it is probable that in those times of
superstition, the clergy who had great influence with the common
people, might alter many passages of scripture, and in room of using
the word _elect_, interpolate the words _all men_? If I understand
your argument, this is the use you make of superstition. But, sir, I
am satisfied that the superstition of our times will be sufficient
proof to future ages, that the scriptures which so abundantly prove
the doctrine of universal salvation, were not the production of a
superstitious clergy who were known to oppose this doctrine with all
their learning and influence.
Now if you please, you may indulge in strengthening your hypothesis,
and prove by the faithful histories of different nations, that Jews,
Greeks, and Romans were most stupidly superstitious. Also that India,
Turkey, and Arabia are now groaning under the ponderous weight of this
vanity. Go on and enlarge on all that you have said, and point out all
the superstitions of which we read or know; show how powerful this
superstition is in the human heart; how it renders its votaries blind
to reason and the principles of moral truth; show how hard it is to
break in upon this almost invincible phalanx; but consider, sir, the
blacker you represent this cloud, the brighter you render the
evidences of the religion of Jesus.
You need not be informed, what the Christian world all knows, that the
doctrine of Jesus Christ, founded on the miracles recorded in the four
Evangelists and in the Acts of the Apostles, was propagated among Jews
and Gentiles, whose superstitions, though various, rendered them both
hostile to this new religion, and incited them to persecutions which
subjected the "weak and defenceless disciples of the meek and lowly
Jesus" to trials and sufferings, fears and temptations of which we can
have but a faint conception.--The grand hypothesis on which the gospel
was advocated, and by which it succeeded in obtaining vast multitudes
of Jewish as well as Gentile converts, was the resurrection of Jesus,
who was publicly executed on a cross by the Roman authority instigated
by the rulers of the Jews. All this must be accounted for in a
rational way. The facts are as well attested as any thing of which
history gives any account. The four gospels have been commented on,
and quoted, and adverted too by a greater number of controversial
writers, than any other book of which we have any knowledge. The
epistles of St. Paul when compared with the Acts and with each other
have all the necessary characteristics of being genuine, and of
relating nothing but realties.
You, sir, allow that the authority on which this religion rests, would
be sufficient to support it, if it were not for the consideration of
your three propositions, the first of which, I trust, you will
acknowledge stands in its vindication.
Your second proposition may now be noticed.
That part of mankind have believed and still are believing in miracles
and revelations which are spurious, we have no interest in denying,
but we feel under no obligation to admit this fact as any evidence
against Christianity, or of any force to counterbalance the evidences
which stand in its favour. What would you think of such kind of
reasoning as should contend, that as it is evident that many have
been, and still are imposed on by counterfeit money, it justifies
serious doubts whether there ever was any true money in the world?
Would you not reply, that as the counterfeit is entirely dependent on
the true for its imposition, in room of being evidence that there is
no true money, it demonstrates that there is?
It being well known, nor ever doubted by the friends or enemies of
Christianity, that its founder and his apostles proved the divinity of
their missions by miracles alone, it was nothing more than might be
rationally expected, that impostors would rise up under those sacred
pretensions, with a view to establish themselves. But if this religion
of Jesus Christ, had not at first been built upon this foundation,
impostors would never have thought of imposing on people with such
pretensions. Impostors, therefore, together with all their deceptions,
cannot, as I humbly conceive, be admitted as evidence _against_ the
genuineness of the gospel, but in _favour_ of it.
As to Mahomet of whom you speak, I have always understood that he made
no pretensions to miracles. He pretended to hold correspondence with
the angel Gabriel, and to receive revelations from God in this way;
but he never attempted to sanction his divinity by miracles; and
indeed there was no need of this, for he declared he was commissioned
from heaven to propagate his religion by the sword, and to destroy the
monuments of idolatry. His kingdom was of this world, therefore did
his servants fight; but they did not fight always alone, for he fought
at nine battles or sieges in person, and in ten years achieved fifty
military enterprizes. He united religion and plunder, by which he
allured the vagrant Arabs to his standard. He asserted that the sword
was the key of heaven and hell; that a drop of blood shed in the cause
of God, a night spent in arms are of more account than two months of
fasting and prayer. He assured those who should fall in battle, that
their sins should be forgiven at the day of judgment, that their
wounds would be resplendant as vermillion and odoriferous as myrrh,
and that the loss of limbs should be supplied by the wings of angels
and cherubim. But what you can find in Mahometism which in the least
militates against the evidences of Christianity I know not. It is
affirmed by writers, that he collected his ideas of God and of morals
from the Hebrew and Christian scriptures.
From Mahomet you go to the conversion of Constantine, taking
particular notice of the account given of his seeing the sign of a
cross in the sun, &c. And as we are now on the subject of miracles, we
must not forget the miracles of the _Shakers_ which seem to _shake_
your faith! Two _notable_ miracles you have honoured with a place in
your epistle, or honoured your epistle with them, which, I shall not
undertake to determine. A bridge fell with a horse on it, which fell
with the bridge; the rider was a woman; by the fall several of her
ribs were broken, and she was otherwise bruised; but she was
miraculously recovered so as to be able to dance in one evening. A boy
cut his foot, the wound bled profusely; the boy was miraculously
healed in a few hours. These are the miracles; but whether mother Ann,
or some of her elders performed these miracles you do not inform me.
It seems to be allowed that _most_ of these Quaker miracles are
inferior to the miracles recorded in the New Testament, but not more
inferior to them, than they are to the miracles of Moses.
Doctor Priestley, with his usual candor, endeavours to assign a
natural cause for what Constantine saw, and you are inclined to his
opinion, to all of which I have no objections to make; and I am by no
means certain, that a proper attention to the pretended miracles of
the Shakers, might not issue in assigning a natural cause for them.
But however this may be, I cannot see how the matter affects our
belief in Jesus Christ. Do you not discover a difference too wide
between the case of Jesus and his doctrine, and Ann Lee and her
principles to admit of the comparison which you seem inclined to make?
You have also mentioned the case of Mrs. A----'s seeing her husband
and talking with him after he was dead, which you would draw into the
same comparison. That Mrs. A---- may have satisfactory evidence of her
having seen and conversed with her husband since his death, I am not
at all disposed to dispute; but here the matter ends. God has not seen
fit to endue her with the power of working miracles. If this woman
should come into a public assembly and work astonishing miracles
before all the people as an attestation of her having seen her
husband, and you and I should be present, and see these marvellous
things with our own eyes should we doubt the woman's testimony?
I have already, in a former communication shown that the declaration
of the apostles of the resurrection of Jesus, until it was accompanied
with power from on high, was never even communicated to the public, or
ordered to be communicated. But in fact the disciples were strictly
commanded to tarry at Jerusalem until the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Constantine would have had no occasion to depose under the solemnity
of an oath, concerning the sign of the cross, &c. if he had had power
to evidence his declaration by miracles. If Ann Lee's disciples will
heal the sick, restore the lame, and raise the dead in so public a
manner that the people at large may know these facts, then, sir, they
will no longer need to purchase poor children in order to increase
their societies. And if God should see fit to call me from my wife and
children by such evidences as these, I hope I should not disobey his
divine mandate.
But will you reply, that miracles having ceased, we have no right to
expect them? In return it may be asked, how we are assured that
miracles are not now necessary as they were twenty or thirty years
ago? Will you retort this question and ask why miracles are not now as
necessary to evince the truth of christianity as in the days of Jesus
and his apostles? To this we reply: the miracles on which the gospel
was founded, or propagated, were of the most extraordinary kind; they
were of extensive publicity, and of ocular notoriety; they were vastly
numerous, extending to the infirmed of all descriptions; and they were
continued long enough to answer the purpose for which they were
intended.
You will feel satisfied that the _enemies_ of Jesus and his apostles
knew for certainty, that those miracles wrought by them were
realities; and that they, in room of imputing them to the divine
agency, violated their own reason, by referring to an evil agent such
power and acts of goodness; I say you will feel satisfied of all this,
if you will set down and read all the accounts relative to this
subject, in the four gospels, carefully regarding this question: Do
these writers discover any marks of deception or fraud?
In no instance do the evangelists betray the least anxiety for fear
what they relate will not be credited. Even when they pen the
astonishing miracles of which they pretend to be eye witnesses, they
make no pause to clear up any thing; but tell the whole as if the
whole was publicly known. In a word, this history, this sacred
testimony, carries its own competent evidence within itself.
It has been noticed by those who have written on this subject, as
evidence that Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were the real authors of
those books which bear their respective names, that a great many
passages are alluded to or quoted from the evangelists, exactly as we
read them now, by a regular succession of Christian writers, from the
time of the apostles down to this hour; and at a very early period
their names are mentioned as the authors of their respective gospels;
which is more than can he said of any other historian whatever. See
Lardner and Paley. I will not call up Ann Lee in this place, but I
will suppose an attempt should be made now in New-England to convince
Trinitarians of the error of supposing there are three persons in the
Godhead. This shall be undertaken by men who are wicked enough to
attempt to deceive by pretended miracles. One is selected as a leader,
and the others to the number of twelve profess to be his followers.
The leader pretends to a revelation from God, the substance of which
is, that Jesus Christ is a created being and dependent on the Father.
This doctrine he preaches and directs his followers to go into every
town in New-England and proclaim this truth to the people, and exhort
them to repent of their former doctrine and turn to God. This impostor
pretends to work miracles in confirmation of his divine mission; and
also pretends to give his disciples power to work miracles. He informs
his friends that he is to lose his life and that they must lose
their's, in order to establish this doctrine. Stop, we have come to an
absurdity. Who would undertake to deceive their fellow creatures for
no other reward than the loss of their lives? But let us pursue on.
This leader pretends to give sight to blind people, to heal the sick
with a word, and to raise the dead. It is reported all round the
country that many such cases have actually taken place; that the blind
do receive their sight, the sick are raised to health at once, and one
man in particular who was dead four days, has been called out of his
grave. People now are waked up; many believe the reports; thousands
are flocking from place to place to hear this man and to see his
miracles. In this case who would be most likely to place themselves
very near to this pretender? Who would one expect to find near his
person? Answer, some of the Trinitarians; chosen ones too; men of
sound judgment, and who could be depended on as able to detect any
fraud. How long is it reasonable to suppose these pretensions could
possibly continue with any success? It may be asked likewise, whether
all honest, reasonable, and candid Unitarians would not express their
abhorrence of such pretensions? Are you, sir, of opinion that such a
fraud could possibly be managed in a way to insure success? A moment's
reflection is sufficient to put the question to rest.
But we will still pursue our supposition. The Trinitarians enter a
complaint against this teacher, to the authorities, alleging that he
is guilty of treason; he is arrested, convicted, and publicly
executed. At the time of his arrest his disciples all forsake him, and
one being found near him denies that he knows the man. All is over
now, and people go about their common avocations; once in a while a
word or two may be dropped on the subject of the impostor, but the
thing is dying away, till all at once the twelve disciples of him who
was executed came boldly before the public and proclaim the
resurrection of their leader, charge the rulers of the people of
having murdered him, and declare that God has raised him from the
dead, and appointed them to be witness of this to the people, and to
preach Unitarianism. What would be thought of these men? Would the
doctrine of the divine unity be likely to triumph over its opposite,
the Trinity, by the preaching of the twelve? Would there be any
attention paid to these men, except by authority, to disperse them and
cause them to desist from such madness, and go about some honest
business? But now they pretend to work miracles in confirmation of the
truth of the resurrection! Enough. Suppose, sir, I should tell you
that I believe such pretensions might be so managed as to succeed
completely, would you not reply, that the success of such pretensions
being altogether a fraud, would itself be as great a miracle as is
recorded in scripture, with the addition of absurdity? You will
remember that you suggested that it would require a miracle to
dissuade me from my belief; and I hope you will see that you must
believe in a miracle in order not to believe with me!
Will you say that the foregoing does not come to the difficulty, that
the question is, was not the account we have of those things in the
gospels, forged long since the days in which they are represented to
have taken place? Then, sir, in room of the above supposed fraud,
undertaken to propagate _Unitarianism_, you may take the supposition
of a forged book published by the friends of that doctrine, in which
just such a story is told of the first propagations of the sentiment
as is told in the New Testament of Jesus and his apostles--and the
Trinitarians shall be made to act the part of the old pharisees. Can
you, sir, conceive that the book would meet with any better success
than the impostors themselves? Would our learned doctors of the
Trinitarian school be silent while such a book was in circulation?
Would they suffer it to be handed down to posterity unanswered and
unrefuted? Would they see their churches imposed on in this way, their
doctrine sat at nought, and this most extravagant imposture obtain
credit? Ask likewise on the other side; would honest Unitarians pay
any attention to such a book? Would they impose on their fellow
creatures in this way? Would they instruct their children to believe
what they knew to be a lie?
It should be kept in mind that when the gospels were written and for
more than two hundred years afterwards, christianity was hated and
persecuted beyond what we can easily conceive, by the emperors of Rome
and their wicked governors, who being authorized by special edicts for
that purpose put to the most cruel tortures and horrid deaths the
followers of Jesus. The superstitious priests of heathen idols, were
constantly active with all possible inventions calculated to excite
jealousies and sharpen the edge of persecution against a doctrine that
was calculated to subvert their order and demolish their temples. It
was not until A. D. 311, that Maximin Galerius, who had been the
author of the heaviest calamities on the christians, published a
solemn edict, ordering the persecution to cease, which his
indescribable horrors and painful sickness compelled him to do. The
next year Constantine, and his colleague Licinius granted to the
christians a full power of living according to their own laws and
institutions.
For nearly three hundred years then the gospel ministry, founded on
miracles, which, if not real, were as easily detected as any falsehood
whatever, was oppressed by cruel edicts acted upon by the bitterest
enemies. Where was all the boasted learning of this learned age? Where
was all the sagacity of the sagacious? Could not a priesthood, for
ages improved in scarcely any thing but imposition and fraud, succeed
in detecting pretensions, which, if not real, were too grossly absurd
to impose on the most artless?
You, sir, are entirely right in saying you cannot prove this christian
revelation and the miracles on which it was founded, false. For if
this could ever have been done, there can be no reasonable doubt that
it would have been by its enemies in its first rise; but the day is
past for the detection of this fraud, if it be one; for the age in
which all the means of detection were in possession of its enemies,
has long since passed away and those means are lost. The imposition,
possessed at first of no solidity, might have been blown into the air
with a breath of common sense, has magnified and petrified till it
promises to fill the whole earth, and is as hard as an adamant.
We hear of no writer's undertaking to disprove Christianity till about
one hundred years after the apostles' day, when Celsus wrote a violent
work against the Christians, who were, at the same time, suffering
severe persecutions. But this author, though a bitter enemy to Christ,
allows his miracles; but like the old pharisees imputes them to a
different power from that of God. Why should this enemy of Jesus, his
religion, apostles and followers allow those miracles?--It seems that
there can be no good reason for this unless they were realities. You
say, "that no miracles or revelations that have come down to us are
supported by so good authority as those recorded in the New Testament,
I admit." But how can you conceive of _any good evidence_ of such
miracles as are recorded in this book? We have no account of any
testimony under oath that they were realities. And even if we had,
could the solemnity of an oath be admitted as good evidence? I think
not. Indeed there was no authority that would allow the apostles to
depose in favour of the resurrection of Jesus; but there were no
authorities that could prevent their bearing a mere convincing
testimony. I have endeavoured heretofore, to show that there can be no
good evidence of such a fact as the resurrection, which is capable of
being refuted; and I will here add, of admitting reasonable doubts of
the fact, in the mind. It is a question which properly belongs to this
subject, and which should be often called up, whether the evidences of
the resurrection were not as strong as they could have been, both to
the disciples and to those who believed on Jesus through their
testimony; and furthermore, whether we can conceive how the evidences
could have been stronger on which we believe, without perpetual
miracles, which not only seems an absurdity, but would, if as powerful
as they were at first, preclude the exercise of our reasoning
faculties and the necessity of investigation, which is one of the most
rational enjoyments of which we are capable.
I grant, if the vulgar error, that our eternal salvation depended on
our being correctly acquainted with this subject, were true, it would
follow, of course, that the least difficulty in the way of our knowing
the whole matter, might be attended with fatal and awful consequences.
And for myself, should I adopt the popular opinion that those who go
out of this world not understanding the doctrine, or believing in
Jesus Christ, must hereafter be forever excluded from the blessed
immortality which is brought to light through the gospel, it would be
difficult for me to account for the least obscurity nameable, and much
more difficult would it be to account for the limited circle in which
divine truth has been caused to shine. But I have before intimated
that the consequences of our unbelief here, can with no more propriety
be carried into an eternal state, than the consequences of our
ignorance of any science. It is derogatory to the sacred loveliness of
divine truth, either to promise any further reward to those who seek
and find her than the enjoyment she brings to the soul in her own
native sweetness, or to threaten those who neglect so divine a
treasure with any other inconvenience than the loss of such felicity
during their foolish neglect.
It becomes the philosopher and perhaps more the christian to exercise
patience, but patience is sometimes tried with the bigotry and
nonsense of the self-righteous, self-wise, and self-knowing, who
profess the religion of Christ, yet stand tiptoe, like James and John,
to call fire from heaven to consume all who do not receive their
master. But the true spirit of our religion rebukes such blind zeal
and foolish arrogance, by showing that such a disposition is the
malady which the gospel is designed to cure. While the Christian
clergy have spent their breath and wore out their lungs in
anathematising with eternal vengeance, those whom they call infidels,
have been worse than infidels, and brought a greater stigma on the
name of Jesus, than his open enemies from _Celsus_ down to T. Paine. I
would by all means except from the above remark a goodly number who
have done honour to our religion by treating its opposers, as its
spirit dictates, with candor and sound argument well mingled with
divine charity.
Indeed I think I see much reason to look on what is called infidelity,
with a charitable disposition for this plain reason, it has greatly
contributed to enlighten the Christian commonwealth, by calling into
action the very best of human abilities and directing them to search
for the true grounds on which our faith securely rests.
I hardly know how I ought to reply to what you say about the
persecution of Stephen, &c. At one time you write as if you would
doubt the authenticity of those New Testament accounts; then again you
advert to them for assistance. But why should you go over such ground,
on which so much depends, as if you did not realize that the subject
was worthy of a pause for consideration?
When you advert to the martyrdom of Stephen by a mob, (which by the
way was _the council_), you take no notice of the cause of his being
arrested, accused or condemned.
Let reason and candor look at the account. "And Stephen full of faith
and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people. Then there
arose certain of the synagogue, which is called the synagogue of the
libertines, and Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and of them of Celicia
and of Asia, disputing with Stephen. And they were not able to resist,
&c. Then they suborned men, which said, we have heard him speak
blasphemous words against Moses, and against God. And they stirred up
the people, and the elders, and the scribes, and come upon him, and
caught him, and brought him to the council, and set up false
witnesses, which said, this man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words
against this holy place, and the law: for we have heard him say, that
this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place, and change the
customs which Moses delivered us. And all that sat in the council,
looking stedfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an
angel. Then said the high priest, are these things so?" Here follows
that admirable speech of Stephen before the grand council of his
nation, which defies all conjecture of forgery, and enraged his
enemies against him. And they stoned him for pretended blasphemy. The
concluding clause of this speech is particularly worthy of notice.
"Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? And they have
slain them which shewed before of the coming of the just one; of whom
ye have been now the betrayers and murderers; who have received the
law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it." Now, sir, is
there any more evidence for believing that there was such a man as
Stephen stoned according to the above account, than for believing that
he was stoned by the authority of the council, and for what is here
set forth?
This council which put Stephen to death, was the same before which
Peter was arraigned on account of the miracle wrought on the impotent
man; which according to Dr. Hammond was the Sanhedrim.
But you seem much engaged to prove that martyrdom does not prove the
truth of a belief for which the martyr dies. Here you have not been
careful to distinguish cases. A _Papist, who has been brought up to
believe in the divine presence_, might perhaps suffer death rather
than renounce it; and yet we should not consider this sufficient to
prove the doctrine of _transubstantiation_; but no candid person would
doubt the _sincerity_ of the martyr. But why should we hesitate to
believe the doctrine for which he suffered? Answer, the doctrine is
not a subject of which he could have positive knowledge. He could not
be eye nor ear witness of the fact. But the testimony for which the
disciples of Jesus suffered, was a testimony concerning a matter of
fact, of which their eyes and ears could take proper cognizance; and
if their sufferings are allowed to prove their sincerity, then it is
granted that they believed in the resurrection of Jesus. If the entire
unbelief of the disciples in the resurrection could be overcome, and
they brought to believe that they saw Jesus and talked with him, and
ate with him, and were frequently in his company after his
resurrection, for forty days; and if they were willing to suffer
persecution and death rather than desist from troubling the people
with this testimony, it appears to me that reason will allow that this
is, at least, some evidence of the truth of this astonishing fact;
though this was not the evidence which carried conviction to so many
thousands of the Jews as well as of the Gentiles. This we have before
shown was the manifestation of the mighty power of God in the
miraculous wonders which God wrought by the apostles.
You speak of the honour, which was no doubt attached to the martyrdom
of Stephen, as being an inducement to others to submit to this
example, &c. You hereby allow that the testimony for which he suffered
was surely believed, otherwise no honour could attach to those who
suffered for it. Why then do you not attempt to show the probable
ground on which this testimony was erroneously believed?
I humbly conceive that your observations which regard to the
uprightness of the apostles are too indefinite. You say, "This much,
however, I believe, and of this much I have no doubt, that Paul and
the other apostles were convinced of the truth and the salutary
effects of the moral precepts which had been taught and preached by
Christ; and they were willing to preach and enforce them by all the
means in their power, even at the risk of their lives," &c. And this
you think, "constituted them wise and good men." Here, sir, do you not
leave room for the notion that the apostles would enforce their moral
doctrine with the testimony of the resurrection of Jesus and their
pretensions to miraculous powers, when they had no belief in the
former, and knew the latter to be an imposition? If these men
endeavoured to enforce any principles by practicing such impositions,
however pure those principles were, these men were vile impostors, and
merited all their sufferings. I solemnly protest against the wisdom or
goodness of any man who is an impostor.