SECTON I. THE VAGUENESS AND UNINTELLIGIBLENESS OF THE PROPHECIES...
RENDER THEM INCAPABLE OF PROVING REVELATION.
Prophecy is by some thought to be miraculous, and by others to be
supernatural, and there are others, who indulge themselves in an
opinion, that they amount to no more than mere political conjectures.
Some nations have feigned an intercourse with good spirits by the art
of divination; and others with evil ones by the art of magic; and most
nations have pretended to an intercourse with the world of spirits both
ways.
The Romans trusted much to their sibylline oracles and soothsayers;
the Babylonians to their magicians and astrologers; the Egyptians and
Persians to their magicians; and the Jews to their seers or prophets;
and all nations and individuals, discover an anxiety for an intercourse
with the world of spirits; which lays a foundation for artful and
designing men, to impose upon them. But if the foregoing arguments in
chapter sixth, respecting the natural impossibility of an intercourse of
any unbodied or imperceptible mental beings with mankind, are true,
then the foretelling of future events can amount to nothing more.
than political illusion. For prophecy as well as all other sorts of
prognostication must be super-naturally inspired, or it could be no more
than judging of future events from mere probability or guess-work, as
the astronomers ingenuously confess in their calculations, by saying:
"Judgment of the weather," &c. So also respecting astrology, provided
there is any such thing as futurity to be learned from it, it would
be altogether a natural discovery; for neither astronomy nor astrology
claim anything of a miraculous or supernatural kind, but their
calculations are meant to be predicated on the order and course of
nature, with which our senses are conversant, and with which inspiration
or the mere cooperation of spirits is not intended to act as part. So
also concerning prophecy, if it be considered to be merely natural,
(we will not at present dispute whether it is true or false) upon this
position it stands on the footing of probability or mere conjecture and
uncertainty. But as to the doctrine of any supernatural agency of the
divine mind on ours, which is commonly called inspiration, it has been
sufficiently confuted in chapter sixth; which arguments need not be
repeated, nor does it concern my system to settle the question, whether
prophecy should be denominated miraculous or supernatural, inasmuch as
both these doctrines have been confuted; though it is my opinion, that
were we to trace the notion of supernatural to its source, it would
finally terminate in that which is denominated miraculous; for that
which is above or beyond nature, if it has any positive existence, must
be miraculous.
The writings of the prophets are most generally so loose, vague and
indeterminate in their meaning, or in the grammar of their present
translation, that the prophecies will as well answer to events in one
period of time, as in another; and are equally applicable to a variety
of events, which have and are still taking place in the world, and are
liable to so many different interpretations, that they are incapable
of being understood or explained, except upon arbitrary principles, and
therefore cannot be admitted as a proof of revelation; as for instance,
"it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God." Who can understand
the accomplishment of the prophecies, that are expressed after this
sort? for every day in its turn has been, and will in its succession be
the last day; and if we advert to the express words of the prophecy, to
wit, "_the last days_," there will be an uncertain plurality "_of last
days_," which must be understood to be short of a month, or a year; or
it should have been expressed thus, and it shall come to pass in the
last months or years, instead of days: and if it had mentioned last
years, it would be a just construction to suppose, that it included a
less number of years than a century; but as the prophecy mentions "_last
days_" we are at a loss, which among the plurality of them to assign for
the fulfilling of the prophecy.
Furthermore, we cannot learn from the prophecy, in what month, year, or
any other part of duration those last days belong; so that we can never
tell when such vague prophecies are to take place, they therefore remain
the arbitrary prerogative of fanatics to prescribe their events in any
age or period of time, when their distempered fancies may think most
eligible: there are other prophecies still more abstruse; to wit, "_And
one said unto the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the
river, how long shall it be to the end of these wonders? and I heard the
man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he
held up his right hand and his left hand unto Heaven, and sware by him
that liveth forever, that it should be for an time, times and an half_."
The question, in the prophecy is asked "how long shall it be to the
end of these wonders?" and the answer is given with the solemnity of
an oath, "_it shall be for a time, times and a half_." A time is an
indefinite part of duration, and so are times, and the third description
of time is as indefinite as either of the former descriptions of it;
to wit, "and an half;" that is to say, half a time. There is no certain
term given in any or either of the three descriptions of the end of the
wonders alluded to, whereby any or all of them together are capable of
computation, as there is no certain period marked out to begin or end
a calculation. To compute an indefinite time in the single number
or quantity of duration is impossible, and to compute an uncertain
plurality of such indefinite times is equally perplexing and
impracticable; and lastly, to define half a time by any possible
succession of its parts, is a contradiction, for half a time includes no
time at all; inasmuch as the smallest conception or possible moment or
criterion of duration, is a time, or otherwise, by the addition of ever
so many of those parts together, they would not prolong a period; so
that there is not, and cannot be such a part of time, as half a time,
for be it supposed to be ever so momentous, yet if includes any part of
duration, it is a time, and not half a time. Had the prophet said half
a year, half a day, or half a minute, he would have spoken intelligibly;
but half a time has no existence at all, and consequently no period
could ever possibly arrive in the succession or order of time, when
there could be an end to the wonders alluded to; and in this sense only,
the prophecy is intelligible; to wit, that it will never come to pass.
The revelation of St. John the divine, involves the subject of time, if
possible, in still greater inconsistencies, viz: "_And to the woman
was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the
wilderness, into her place: Where she is nourished for a time, and times
and half a time." "And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon
the earth lifted up his hands to heaven, and sware by him that liveth
forever and ever, who created heaven and the things that therein are,
and the earth and the things that therein are, and the sea and the
things which are therein, that there should be time no longer._" Had
this tremendous oath been verified there could have been no farther
disputations on the calculation of "_time and times and half a time_,"
(or about any thing else) for its succession would have reached its last
and final period at that important crisis when time should have been "no
longer." The solar system must have ceased its motions, from which we
compute the succession of time, and the race of man would have been
extinct; for as long as they may be supposed to exist, time must of
necessary consequence have existed also; and since the course of nature,
including the generations of mankind, has been continued from the time
of the positive denunciation of the angel to this day, we may safely
conclude, that his interference in the system of nature, was perfectly
romantic.
The apostle Peter, at the first Christian pentecost, objecting to the
accusation of their being drunk with new wine, explains the prophecy of
the prophet Joel, who prophesied of the events which were to take place
in the last days, as coming to pass at that early period; his words are
handed down to us as follows: "_But this is that which is spoken by the
prophet Joel, and it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God,
that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your
daughters shall prophecy, and your young men shall see visions, and your
old men shall dream dreams_."
The history of the out-pouring of the spirit at the Pentecost,
admitting it to have been a fact, would have been very inadequate to the
prophetical prediction, viz: I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh;
the most favorable construction is that the prophet meant human flesh,
_i. e._ all human flesh; but instead of a universal effusion of the
spirit, it appears to have been restricted to a select number, who were
collected together at Jerusalem, and the concourse of spectators thought
them to be delirious; It may however be supposed, that St. Peter was a
better judge of the accomplishment of the prophecy than I am: well then,
admitting his application of the prophecy of the last days to take place
at the first pentecost; it being now more than seventeen hundred years
ago, they consequently could not have been the last days.
Still a query arises, whether every of the prophecies, which were
predicted to be fulfilled in the last days, must not have been
accomplished at that time; or whether any of the prophecies thus
expressed are still to be completed by any events which may in future
take place; or by any which have taken place since those last days
called pentecost; or whether any prophecy whatever can be fulfilled more
than once; and if so, how many times; or how is it possible for us, out
of the vast variety of events (in which there is so great a similarity)
which one in particular to ascribe to its right prediction among the
numerous prophecies?
Furthermore, provided some of the prophecies should point out some
particular events, which have since taken place, there might have been
previous grounds of probability, that such or such events would in the
ordinary course of things come to pass; for instance, it is no ways
extraordinary, that the prophet Jeremiah should be able to predict that
Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, should take Jerusalem, when we consider
the power of the Babylonish empire at that time, and the feebleness
of the Jews. "_The word, which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, when
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army, and all the kingdoms of
the earth of his dominion, and all the people fought against Jerusalem,
and against all the cities thereof, saying, thus saith the Lord the God
of Israel, go and speak unto Zedekiah king of Judah, and tell him thus
saith the Lord, behold, I will give this city of Jerusalem into the
hand of the king of Babylon._" No politicians could at the time of the
prediction be much at a loss respecting the fate of Jerusalem. Nor would
it be at all evidential to any candid and ingenious enquirer, that God
had any manner of agency in fabricating the prophecies, though, some
of them should seem to decypher future events, as they might, to human
appearance, turn out right, merely from accident or contingency. It
is very improbable, or rather incompatible with human nature, that the
prophecy of Micah will ever come to pass, who predicts that "they,"
speaking of mankind, "_shall beat their swords into plough-shares, and
their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against
nation, neither shall they learn war any more_." Some of the
prophecies are so apparently contradictory, that they contain their own
confutation; as for instance, the prophecy of Micaiah contained in the
book of Chronicles, which probably is as absurd as any thing that is to
be met with in story: "And when he was come unto the king, the king said
unto him, Micaiah, shall we go to Ramoth Gilead to battle, or shall I
forbear? and he said go ye up and prosper, and they shall be delivered
into your hand, and the king said unto him, how many times shall I
adjure thee, that thou shalt tell me nothing, but that which is true in
the name of the Lord? then he said I did see all Israel scattered upon
the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd, and the Lord said, these
have no master, let them return, therefore, every man to his house in
peace: and the king said unto Jehoshaphat, did not I tell thee, that
he would prophecy no good concerning me, but evil?" "Again he said,
therefore, hear the word of the Lord--I saw the Lord sitting upon his
throne, and all the host of Heaven standing on his right hand and on his
left, and the Lord said who shall entice Ahab, King of Israel, that he
may go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead, and one spake saying after this
manner, and another saying after that manner; then there came out a
spirit and stood before the Lord, and said I will entice him, and the
Lord said unto him wherewith? And he said I will go forth and be a lying
spirit in the mouth of all his prophets, and the Lord said thou shalt
entice him and thou shalt prevail; go out and do even so. Now therefore,
behold the Lord hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of these thy
prophets and the Lord hath spoken evil against thee." It is observable
that the prophet at first predicted the prosperity of Ahab, saying,
"go ye up and prosper, and they shall be delivered into your hand,"
but after a little adjurement by the king, he alters his prediction and
prophecies diametrically the reverse. What is more certain than that the
event of the expedition against Ramoth Gilead must have comported with
the one or the other of his prophecies? Certain it was, that Ahab would
take it or not take it, he must either prosper or not prosper, as there
would be no third way or means between these two; and it appears that
the prophet was determined to be in the right of it by his prophecy
both ways. It further appears from his prophecy, that there was a great
consultation in Heaven to entice Ahab King of Israel to his destruction,
and that a certain lying spirit came and stood before the Lord, and
proposed to him to go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of the
king's prophets. But what is the most incredible is, that God should
countenance it, and give him positive orders to falsify the truth to the
other prophets. It appears that Micaiah in his first prophecy, viz: "Go
up to Ramoth Gilead and prosper, and they shall be delivered into your
hand," acted in concert with the lying spirit which stood before the
Lord, but afterwards acted the treacherous part by prophecying the
truth, which, if we may credit his account, was in direct opposition to
the scheme of Heaven.
SECTON II. THE CONTENTIONS WHICH SUBSISTED BETWEEN THE PROPHETS...
RESPECTING THEIR VERACITY, AND THEIR INCONSISTENCIES WITH ONE ANOTHER,
AND WITH THE NATURE OF THINGS, AND THEIR OMISSION IN TEACHING THE
DOCTRINE OF IMMORTALITY, PRECLUDES THE DIVINITY OF THEIR PROPHECIES.
Whoever examines the writings of the prophets will discover a spirit
of strife and contention among them; they would charge each other
with fallacy and deception; disputations of this kind are plentifully
interspersed through the writings of the prophets; we will transcribe a
few of those passages out of many: "Thus saith the Lord to the foolish
prophets that follow their own spirit, and have found nothing, they have
seen vanity and lying divination, saying the Lord saith, and the Lord
hath, not sent them, and they have made others to hope that they
would confirm the word." And in another place, "I have not sent these
prophets, yet they ran; I have not spoken unto them, yet they prophecy."
Again, "I have heard what the prophets said, that prophecy lies in my
name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed, yet they are the prophets
of the deceit of their own hearts." And again, "Yea, they are greedy
dogs, which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot
understand; they all look to their own way, every one for his gain from
his quarter." It being the case that there was such a strife among
the prophets to recommend themselves to the people, and every art
and dissimulation having been practised by them to gain power and
superiority, all which artifice was to be judged of by the great vulgar,
or in some instances by the political views of the Jewish Sanhedrim,
how could those who were cotemporaries with the several prophets,
distinguish the premised true prophets from the false? Much less, how
can we, who live more than seventeen hundred years since the last of
them, be able to distinguish them apart? And yet, without the knowledge
of this distinction, we cannot with propriety give credit to any of
them, even admitting there were some true prophets among them. Nor is
it possible for us to know but that their very institution was merely
a reach of policy of the Israelitish and Judaic governments, the
more easily, implicitly and effectually to keep their people in
subordination, by inculcating a belief that they were ruled with special
directions from heaven, which in fact originated from the Sanhedrim.
Many other nations have made use of much the same kind of policy.
In the 22d chapter of Genesis, we have a history of a very extraordinary
command from God to Abraham, and of a very unnatural attempt of his
to obey it. "And it came to pass after these things that God did tempt
Abraham, and he said unto him, Abraham, and he said behold here I am,
and he said take now thy son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee to the
land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the
mountains which I will tell thee of;" "And they came to the place which
God had told him of, and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood
in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the
wood; and Abraham stretched forth his hand and took the knife to slay
his son." Shocking attempt! Murder is allowed by mankind in general to
be the most capital crime that is possible to be acted among men; it
would therefore be incompatible with the divine nature to have enjoined
it by a positive command to Abraham to have killed his son; a murder
of all others the most unnatural and cruel and attended with the most
aggravating circumstances, not merely from a prescribed breach of the
ties of parental affection, but from the consideration that the child
was to be (if we may credit the command,) offered to God as a religious
sacrifice. What could have been a more complicated wickedness than the
obedience of this command would have been? and what can be more absurd
than to suppose that it came from God? It is argued, in vindication
of the injunction to Abraham to kill his son, that it was merely for a
trial of his obedience, and that God never designed to have him do it;
to prevent which an angel from heaven called to him and gave him counter
orders, not to slay his son; but to suppose that God needed such an
experiment, or any other, in order to know whether Abraham would be
obedient to his commands, is utterly incompatible with his omniscience,
who without public exhibitions understands all things; so that had the
injunction been in itself, fit and reasonable, and also from God,
the compliance or non-compliance of Abraham thereto, could not have
communicated any new idea to the divine mind. Every part of the conduct
of mankind is a trial of their obedience and is known to God, as well as
the particular conduct of Abraham; besides in the canonical writings,
we read that "_God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any
man_." How then can it be, "_that God did tempt Abraham?_" a sort of
employment which, in scripture, is commonly ascribed to the devil. It
is a very common thing to hear Abraham extolled for attempting to comply
with the supposed command of sacrificing his son; but it appears to me,
that it had been wiser and more becoming the character of a virtuous
man, for Abraham to have replied in answer to the injunction as follows,
to wit, that it could not possibly have come from God; who was the
fountain of goodness and perfection, and unchangeable in his nature, who
had endowed him with reason and understanding, whereby he knew his duty
to God, his son, and to himself, better than to kill his only son, and
offer him as a religious sacrifice to God, for God would never have
implanted in his mind such a strong affection towards him, nor such a
conscious sense of duty to provide for, protect and succor him in all
duties, and to promote his happiness and well being, provided he
had designed that he should have laid violent hands on his life. And
inasmuch as the command was, in itself, morally speaking, unfit, and
altogether unworthy of God, he presumed that it never originated from
him, but from some inhuman, cruel and destructive being, who delighted
in wo, and pungent grief; for God could not have been the author of so
base an injunction, nor could he be pleased with so inhuman and sinful a
sacrifice.
Moses in his last chapter of Deuteronomy crowns his history with the
particular account of his own death and burial. "So Moses, the servant
of the Lord, died there, in the land of Moab, according to the word
of the Lord, and he buried him in a valley, in the land of Moab, over
against Bethpeor, but no man knew of his sepulchre unto this day; and
Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died, his eyes were
not dim, nor his natural force abated, and the children of Israel wept
for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days." This is the only historian
in the circle of my reading, who has ever given the public a particular
account of his own death, and how old he was at that decisive period,
where he died, who buried him, and where he was buried, and withal of
the number of days his friends and acquaintances mourned and wept for
him. I must confess I do not expect to be able to advise the public of
the term of my life, nor the circumstances of my death and burial, nor
of the days of the weeping or laughing of my survivors.
Part of the laws of Moses were arbitrary impositions upon the tribes
of Israel, and have no foundation in the reason and fitness of things,
particularly that in which he inculcates punishing the children for the
iniquities of the father; "visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon
the children, and upon the children's children unto the third and fourth
generation." There is no reason to be given, why the iniquity of the
father might not as well have involved the fifth, sixth and seventh
generations, and so on to the latest posterity in guilt and punishment,
as the first four generations; for if it was possible, that the iniquity
of the father could be justly visited upon any of his posterity, who
were not accomplices with him in the iniquity, or were not some way or
other aiding or accessary in it, then the iniquity might as justly be
visited upon any one of the succeeding generations as upon another, or
upon the generation of any indifferent person: for arbitrary imputations
of iniquity are equally absurd in all supposable cases; so that if we
once admit the possibility of visiting iniquity upon any others than
the perpetrators, be they who they will, we overturn our natural and
scientifical notions of a personal retribution of justice among mankind.
It is, in plain English, punishing the innocent for the sin of the
guilty. But virtue or vice cannot be thus visited or imputed from the
fathers to the unoffending children, or to children's children; or which
is the same thing, from the guilty to the innocent; for moral good or
evil is mental and personal, which cannot be transferred, changed or
altered from one person to another, but is inherently connected with its
respective personal actors, and constitutes a quality or habit, and is
the merit or demerit of the respective agents or proficients in moral
good or evil, and is by nature inalienable, "The righteousness of the
righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be
upon him." But as we shall have occasion to argue this matter at large
in the twelfth chapter of this treatise, where we shall treat of the
imputed sin of Adam to his posterity, and of imputative righteousness,
we will discuss the subject of imputation no farther in this place.
However, the unjust practice of punishing the children for the iniquity
of the father having been an ordinance of Moses, was more or less
continued by the Israelites, as in the case of Achan and his children.
"And Joshua and all Israel with him took Achan the son of Zorah, and
the silver and the garment, and the wedge of gold, and his sons, and his
daughters, and his oxen, and his asses, and his sheep, and his tent, and
all that he had, and brought them to the valley of Achor, and all Israel
stoned him with stones, and burned them with fire, after they had stoned
them with stones, and they raised over him a great heap of stones unto
this day; so the Lord turned from the fierceness of his anger." "_Fierce
anger_" is incompatible with the divine perfection, nor is the cruel
extirpation of the innocent family, and live stock of Achan, to be
accounted for on principles of reason. This flagrant injustice of
punishing the children for the iniquity of the father had introduced
a proverb in Israel, viz: "The fathers have eaten sour grapes and the
children's teeth are set on edge." But the prophet Ezekiel in the 18th
chapter of his prophecies, has confuted Moses's statutes of visiting the
iniquities of the father upon the children, and repealed them with the
authority of thus saith the Lord, which was the manner of expression
by which they were promulgated. But the prophet Ezekiel did not repeal
those statutes of Moses merely by the authority of thus saith the Lord,
but over and above gives the reason for it, otherwise he could not
have repealed them; for Moses enacted them as he relates, from as high
authority as Ezekiel could pretend to in nullifying them; so that had
he not produced reason and argument, it would have been "thus saith the
Lord," against "thus saith the Lord." But Ezekiel reasons conclusively,
viz: "The word of the Lord came unto me again, saying, what meat ye that
ye use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, the fathers
have eaten sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge; as I
live, saith the Lord God, ye shall not have occasion any more to use
this proverb in Israel. Behold all souls are mine, as the soul of the
father so also the soul of the son is mine; the soul that sinneth it
shall die, the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither
shall the father bear the iniquity of the son, the righteousness of the
righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall
be upon him, therefore, I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one
according to their ways saith the Lord God." It is observable, that the
prophet ingeniously says, "Ye shall not have occasion any more to use
this proverb in Israel," implicitly acknowledging that the law of Moses
had given occasion to that proverb, nor was it possible to remove that
proverb or grievance to which the Israelites were liable on account of
visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children, but by the
repeal of the statute of Moses in that case made and provided; which was
effectually done by Ezekiel: in consequence whereof the administration
of justice became disencumbered of the embarrassments under which it
had labored for many centuries. Thus it appears, that those laws,
denominated the laws of God, are not infallible, but have their
exceptions and may be dispensed with.
Under the dispensation of the law a breach of the Sabbath was a capital
offence. "And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they
found a man that gathered sticks on the Sabbath day, and the Lord
said unto Moses, the man shall surely be put to death, and all the
congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp; and all the
congregation brought him without the camp and stoned him with stones,
and he died, as the Lord commanded Moses." The very institution of
the Sabbath was in itself arbitrary, otherwise it would not have been
changed from the last to the first day of the week. For those ordinances
which are predicated on the reason and fitness of things can never
change: as that which is once morally fit, always remains so, and
is immutable, nor could the same crime, in justice, deserve death in
Moses's time (as in the instance of the Israelite's gathering sticks),
and but a pecuniary fine in ours; as in the instance of the breach of
Sabbath in these times.
Furthermore, the order of nature respecting day and night, or the
succession of time, is such, as renders it impossible that any
identical part of time, which constitutes one day, can do it to all the
inhabitants of the globe at the same time, or in the same period. Day
is perpetually dawning, and night commencing to some or other of
the inhabitants of the terraqueous ball without intermission. At the
distance of fifteen degrees of longitude to the east of us, the day
begins an hour sooner than it does with us here in Vermont, and with us
an hour sooner than it does fifteen degrees to the westward, and thus
it continues in succession round the globe, and night as regularly
revolving after it, succeeding each other in their alternate rounds;
so that when it is mid-day with us, it is mid-night with our species,
denominated the Periaeci, who live under the same parallel of latitude
with us, but under a directly opposite meridian; so likewise, when it
is mid-day with them, it is mid-night with us. Thus it appears that
the same identical part of time, which composes our days, compose their
nights, and while we are keeping Sunday, they are in their midnight
dreams; nor is it possible in nature, that the same identical part of
time, which makes the first day of the week with us, should make the first
day of the week with the inhabitants on the opposite side of the globe.
The apostle James speaks candidly on this subject, saying, "Some esteem
one day above another, others esteem every day alike, let every one be
fully persuaded in his own mind," and keep the laws of the land. It was
unfortunate for the Israelite who was accused of gathering sticks on the
Israelitish Sabbath, that he was convicted of it; for though by the law
of his people he must have died, yet the act for which he suffered was
no breach of the law of nature. Supposing that very delinquent should
come to this world again, and gather sticks on Saturday in this country,
he might as an hireling receive his wages for it, without being exposed
to a similar prosecution of that of Moses; and provided he should gather
sticks on our Sunday, his wages would atone for his crime instead of
his life, since modern legislators have abated the rigor of the law for
which he died.
The barbarous zeal of the prophet Samuel in hewing Agag to pieces after
he was made prisoner by Saul, king of Israel, could not proceed from a
good spirit, nor would such cruelty be permitted towards a prisoner
in any civilized nation at this day. "And Samuel hewed Agag to pieces
before the Lord in Gilgal." The unmanly deed seems to be mentioned with
a phiz of religion, viz: that it was done before the Lord; but that
cannot alter the nature of the act itself, for every act of mankind,
whether good or evil, is done before the Lord, as much as Samuel's
hewing Agag to pieces. The orders which Samuel gave unto Saul, (as
he says by the word of the Lord) to cut off the posterity of the
Amalekites, and to destroy them utterly, together with the cause of
God's displeasure with them, are unworthy of God as may be seen at large
in the 15th chapter of the Book of Samuel, "Spare them not, but slay both
man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass."
The ostensible reason for all this, was, because the ancestors of the
Amalekites, as long before the days of Samuel as when the children
of Israel came out of Egypt, which was near five hundred years, had
ambushed and fought against Israel, in their passage from thence to
the land which they afterwards inhabited. Although it appears from the
history of Moses and Joshua, that Israel was going to disposess them of
their country, which is thought to be a sufficient cause of war in these
days. It is true they insinuate that the Lord had given the land to the
children of Israel, yet it appears that they had to fight for it and get
it by the hardest, notwithstanding, as is the case with nations in these
days, and ever has been since the knowledge of history.
But be the old quarrel between Israel and Amalek as it will, it cannot
on any principle be supposed, the successors of those Amalekites, in the
days of Samuel, could be guilty of any premised transgressions of their
predecessors. The sanguinary laws of Moses did not admit of visiting the
iniquities of the fathers upon the children in the line of succession,
farther than to the fourth generation, but the Amalekites against whom
Samuel had denounced the wrath of God, by the hand of Saul, were at a
much greater remove from those their progenitors, who were charged with
the crime for which they were cut off as a nation. Nor is it compatible
with reason to suppose, that God ever directed either Moses or Joshua to
extirpate the Canaanitish nations. "And we took all his cities at that
time, and utterly destroyed the men and the women, and the little ones
of every city, we left none to remain." There is not more propriety in
ascribing these cruelties to God, than those that were perpetrated by
the Spaniards against the Mexican and Peruvian Indians or natives of
America. Every one who dares to exercise his reason, free from bias,
will readily discern, that the inhumanities exercised towards the
Canaanites and Amorites, Mexicans and Peruvians, were detestably
wicked, and could not be approbated by God, or by rational and good men.
Undoubtedly avarice and domination were the causes of those abounding
cruelties, in which religion had as little to do as in the crusades of
the holy land (so called.)
The writings of the prophets abound with prodigies, strange and
unnatural events. The walls of Jericho are represented to have fallen
to the ground in consequence of a blast of ram's horns; Balaam's ass to
speak to his master, and the prophet Elijah is said to have been carried
off bodily into heaven by a chariot, in a whirlwind. Strange stories!
But other scriptures tell us, "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the
kingdom of God." The history of the affront, which the little children
of Bethel gave the prophet Elisha, his cursing them, and their
destruction by the bears, has the appearance of a fable. That Elisha
should be so exasperated at the children for calling him _bald head_,
and telling him to _go up_, was rather a sample of ill breeding; most
gentlemen would have laughed at the joke, instead of cursing them,
or being instrumental in their destruction, by merciless, wild and
voracious beasts. Though the children were saucy, yet a man of any
considerable candor, would have made allowance for their non-age,
"for childhood and youth are vanity." "And he went up from thence unto
Bethel, and as he was going up by the way, there came forth little
children out of the city and mocked him, and said unto him, go up thou
bald-head, go up thou bald-head, and he turned back and looked on them,
and he cursed them in the name of the Lord, and there came forth two
she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them."
It seems by the children's address to Elisha, that he was an old
bald-headed man, and that they had heard, that his mate, Elijah, had
gone up a little before; and as it was an uncommon thing for men to kite
away into the air, and leave the world after that sort, it is likely
that it excited a curiosity in the children to see Elisha go off with
himself in the same manner, which occasioned their particular mode of
speech to him, saying, "go up bald head." The writings of Solomon, Song
of Israel, must needs have been foisted into the canonical volume
by some means or other, for no one passage therein gives the least
intimation of inspiration, or that he had any immediate dictation from
God in his compositions, but oh the contrary, he informs us, that he
acquired his knowledge by applying himself to wisdom, "to seek and to
search out concerning all things that are done under the sun. This sore
travail," says he, "has God given to the sons of men to be exercised
therewith." And since Solomon never pretended to inspiration, others
cannot justly claim his writings to have been anything more than natural
reasonings, for who can, with propriety stamp his writings with divine
authority, when he pretended no such thing, but the contrary? His song
of songs appears to be rather of the amorous kind, and is supposed to
have been written at the time he was making love to the daughter of
Pharaoh, King of Egypt, who is said to have been a princess of exquisite
beauty and exceeding coy, and so captivated his affections that it made
him light headed and sing about the "_joints of her thighs_," and her
"_belly_."
The divine legation of Moses and the prophets is rendered questionable
from the consideration that they never taught the doctrine of
immortality, their rewards and punishments are altogether temporary,
terminating at death; they have not so much as exhibited any speculation
of surviving the grave; to this is ascribed the unbelief of the
Sadducees of the resurrection of the dead, or of an angel or spirit,
as they strenuously adhered to the law of Moses, for they could not
imagine, but that their great prophet and law giver would have apprised
them of a state of immortality had it been true; and in this the
Sadducees seem to argue with force on their position of the divine
legation of Moses. For admitting the reality of man's immortality,
it appears incredible to suppose, that God should have specially
commissioned Moses, as his prophet and instructor to the tribes of
Israel, and not withal to have instructed them in the important doctrine
of a future existence.
SECTON III. DREAMS OR VISIONS UNCERTAIN AND CHIMERICAL CHANNEL...
FOR THE CONVEYANCE OF REVELATION; WITH REMARKS ON THE COMMUNICATION OF
THE HOLY GHOST TO THE DISCIPLES, BY THE PRAYERS AND LAYING ON OF THE
APOSTLES HANDS, WITH OBSERVATIONS ON THE DIVINE DICTATIONS OF THE FIRST
PROMULGATORS OF THE GOSPEL, AND AN ACCOUNT OF THE ELECT LADY, AND HER
NEW SECTARY OF SHAKERS.
It appears from the writings of the prophets and apostles, that part of
their revelations were communicated to them by dreams and visions, which
have no other existence but in the imagination, and are defined to
be "the images which appear to the mind during sleep, figuratively, a
chimera, a groundless fancy or conceit, without reason." Our experience
agrees with this definition, and evinces that there is no trust to be
reposed in them. They are fictitious images of the mind, not under the
control of the understanding, and therefore not regarded at this day
except by the credulous and superstitious, who still retain a veneration
for them. But that a revelation from God to man, to be continued to the
latest posterity as a divine and perfect rule of duty or law, should be
communicated through such a fictitious and chimerical channel, carries
with it the evident marks of deception itself, or of unintelligibleness,
as appears from the vision of St. Paul. "It is not expedient for me
doubtless to glory, I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord;
I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, whether in the body I
cannot tell, or whether out of the body I cannot tell, God knoweth such
an one caught up to the third heavens. And I knew such a man, whether in
the body or out of the body I cannot tell, God knoweth how that he was
caught up into Paradise and heard unspeakable words which it is not
lawful for a man to utter." That God knoweth the whole affair, will not
be disputed, but that we should understand it is impossible, for the
apostle's account of his vision is unintelligible; it appears that he
was rather in a delirium or a stupor, so that he knew not that whether
he was in or out of the body: he says he heard "_unspeakable words,_"
but this communicates no intelligence of the subject-matter of them to
us; and that they "_were not lawful for a man to utter_," but what they
were, or wherein their unlawfulness to be uttered by man consisted, he
does not inform us. His revelation from his own story was unspeakable
and unlawful, and so he told us nothing what it was, nor does it compose
any part of revelation, which is to make known. He is explicit as to his
being caught up to the third heaven, but how he could understand that is
incredible, when at the same time he knew not whether he was in the body
or out of the body; and if he was in such a delirium that he did not
know so domestic a matter as that, it is not to be supposed that he
could be a competent judge whether he was at the first, second, third,
or fourth heaven, or whether he was advanced above the surface of the
earth, or not.
That the apostles in their ministry were dictated by the Holy Ghost,
in the settlement of disputable doctrines, is highly questionable.
"Forasmuch as we have heard that certain, which went out from us have
troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying, ye must be
circumcised and keep the law, to whom we gave no such commandment, for
it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no other
burden than these necessary things." Acts 15. And after having given a
history of the disputations concerning circumcision, and of keeping the
law of Moses, and of the result of the council, the same chapter informs
us, that a contention happened so sharp between Paul and Barnabas, "that
they parted asunder the one from the other." Had the Holy Ghost been the
dictator of the first teachers of Christianity, as individuals, there
could have been no disputable doctrines or controversies, respecting the
religion which they were promulgating in the world or in the manner of
doing it, to be referred to a general council of the apostles and elders
held at Jerusalem, for had they been directed by the Holy Ghost, there
could have been no controversies among them to have referred to the
council. And inasmuch as the Holy Ghost neglected them as individuals,
why is it not as likely that it neglected to dictate the council held
at Jerusalem or elsewhere? It seems that the Holy Ghost no otherwise
directed them in their plan of religion, than by the general council of
the apostles and elders, the same as all other communities are governed.
"Paul having passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus, and
finding certain disciples, he said unto them have ye received the Holy
Ghost since ye believed? and they said unto him we have not so much as
heard whether there be any Holy Ghost; and when Paul had laid his hands
upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them, and they spoke with tongues and
prophesied."
The spirit of God is that which constitutes the divine essence, and
makes him to be what he is, but that he should be dictated, or his
spirit be communicated by any acts or ceremonies of the apostles, is by
no means admissible; for such exertions of the apostles, so far as they
may be supposed to communicate the holy spirit to their disciples, would
have made God passive in the premised act of the gift of the spirit; for
it must have been either the immediate act of God or of the apostles,
and if it was the immediate act of the one, it could not have been the
immediate act of the other.
To suppose that the act of the gift of the spirit was the mere act of
God, and at the same time the mere act of the apostles, are propositions
diametrically opposed to each other, and cannot both be true. But it may
be supposed that the gift of the spirit was partly the act of God and
partly the act of the apostles; admitting this to have been the case the
consequences would follow, that the act of the gift of the spirit was
partly divine and partly human, and therefore the beneficence and glory
of the grant of the gift of the spirit unto the disciples, would belong
partly to God and partly to the apostles, and in an exact proportion to
that which God and they may be supposed to have respectively contributed
towards the marvellous act of the gift of the spirit. But that God
should act in partnership with man, or share his providence and glory
with him, is too absurd to demand argumentative confutation, especially
in an act which immediately respects the display or exertion of the
divine spirit on the spirits of men.
Such delusions have taken place in every age of the world since history
has attained to any considerable degree of intelligence; nor is there
at present a nation on earth, but what is more or less infatuated with
delusory notions of the immediate influence of good or evil spirits on
their minds. A recent instance of it appears in the Elect Lady (as she
has seen fit to style herself) and her followers, called Shakers; this
pretended holy woman began her religious scheme at Connestaguna; in the
northwestardly part of the State of New York, about the year 1769,
and has added a new sectary to the religious catalogue. After having
instilled her tenets among the Connestagunites, and the adjacent
inhabitants, she rambled into several parts of the country, promulgating
her religion, and has gained a considerable number of scattering
proselytes, not only in the State of New York, but some in the New
England States. She has so wrought on the minds of her female devotees,
respecting the fading nature, vanity and tempting allurements of their
ornaments (which by the by are not plenty among her followers,) and the
deceitfulness of riches, that she has procured from them a considerable
number of strings of gold beads and jewels, and amassed a small
treasure; and like most sectaries engrosses the kingdom of heaven to
herself and her followers, to the seclusion of all others. She gives out
that her mission is immediately from heaven, that she travails in pain
for her elect, and pretends to talk in seventy-two unknown languages,
in which she converses with those who have departed this life, and says,
that there has, not been a true church on earth since the apostles days
until she had erected hers. That both the living and the dead must be
saved in, by, and through her, and that they must confess their sins
unto her and procure her pardon, or cannot be saved. That every of the
human race who have died since the apostle's time, until her church
was set up has been damned, and that they are continually making
intercession to her for salvation, which is the occasion of her talking
to them in those unknown tongues; and that she gathers her elect from
earth and hell. She wholly refuses to give a reason for what she does
or says: but says that it is the duty of mankind to believe in her, and
receive her instructions, for they are infallible.
For a time she prohibited her disciples from propagating their
species, but soon after gave them ample license, restricting them,
indiscriminately, to the pale of her sanctified church, for that she
needed more souls to complete the number of her elect. Among other
things, she instructs those who are young and sprightly among her
pupils, to practise the most wild, freakish, wanton and romantic
gestures, as to that of indecently stripping themselves, twirling round,
extorting their features, shaking and twitching their bodies and limbs
into a variety of odd and unusual ways, and many other extravagancies
of external behavior, in the practice of which they are said to be very
alert even to the astonishment of spectators, having by use acquired an
uncommon agility in such twirling, freakish and romantic practices. The
old Lady having such an ascendancy over them as to make them believe
that those extravagant actions were occasioned by the immediate power of
God, it serves among them as a proof of the divinity of her doctrines.
A more particular account of this new sectary has been lately published
in a pamphlet by a Mr. Rathburn, who, as he relates, was for a time, one
of her deluded disciples, but after a while apostatised from the faith,
and has since announced to the world the particulars of their doctrine
and conduct.
Probably there never was any people or country, since the era of
historical knowledge, who were more confident than they that they are
acted upon by the immediate agency of the divine spirit; and as there
are facts now existing in a considerable tract of country, and are
notoriously known in this part of America, I take the liberty to mention
them, as a knowledge of these facts, together with the concurrent
testimony of the history of such deceptions in all ages and nations,
might induce my countrymen to examine strictly into the claim and
reality of ghostly intelligence in general.