A Series of Letters In Defence of Divine Revelation

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"3. When I acknowledged that there are evidences in favour of divine
revelation, I did not suppose it necessary to state what those
evidences are; because some of them, to say the least, are very
apparent. The bare report of any thing, I conceive to be evidence of
the report's being true; and would be sufficient to acquire belief
should nothing arise in the mind to counterbalance it: and as I had
repeatedly promised to give you the reasons for my doubts I expected
to have been indulged a little longer before I should have been again
faulted on this subject. But as it respects this matter I am all
patience and submission, if it may be so that truth shall finally come
to light.

"Under this article you have gone into a very lengthy discussion to
shew that the evidence by which the apostles believed in the
resurretion could not be counterbalanced, &c. And if I understand what
you have written it amounts in my mind to about the following, viz.
the apostles could not have been convinced of the fact of the
resurrection by any evidence short of the fact itself. 2dly. If the
fact did exist there is no evidence which can conterbalance it.
_Ergo_. As the apostles were convinced of the truth, the fact did
exist. This is pretty much like saying, if the fact were _true_, it
could not have been _false_! But I spoke of the evidence in relation
to _ourselves_ rather than the _apostles_: we believe or disbelieve
for ourselves, and by such evidence as _we_ have. You think if twelve
men should testify in favour of a resurrection, and the body could not
be found, 'various opinions would result from such evidence.' If so,
some might believe the account true; and they might persuade others to
believe it; and only let it be reported and believed that some one had
died for the truth of it, and it would make no difference after this,
as it respects the influence of faith, whether the account was true or
false.

"You will excuse me for making no further remarks on what you have
written under this article till you have answered my seventh number,
and also given me a more clear definition of _divine inspiration_.

"4. What you have written under the fourth article, generally
speaking, is satisfactory, till I come to the last sentence; and even
with that I have not much fault to charge you with. It is true we may
be mistaken as to our ideas of the eternity or immutability of any
thing; but then, as it respects argument, it is just as well as though
we were correct, as no one can prove us otherwise; no, nor even raise
a reasonable doubt on the subject. But even if it could be
demonstrated that there is not a rational being now in the universe
who existed two centuries ago, or one who will exist two centuries
hence, I conceive, as the fact could not, so the knowledge of the fact
ought not to make any difference in the relation, dependence and moral
obligation between man and man. Man learns by his own experience, as
well as from the experience of others; and _vice versa_; hence we
profit by the experience of those who have gone before us.

"When man shall universally learn this great moral truth that much of
his happiness is inseparably connected with the happiness of his
fellow beings, which is one of the immutable principles of moral
nature, then each individual will strive to the utmost to promote the
general welfare; for in so doing he increases his own individual
happiness, and also the happiness of posterity.

"5. What you have said under the fifth article, for reasons already
given, will be considered in my next number, when I hope I shall he
furnished with more light on the subject.

"I will only observe here that a miracle, as I conceive, must be
performed agreeable to, or else it must be a violation of the laws of
nature. If the former, whatever it might be to others, to those who
understood the means of its operation, it could be, strictly speaking,
no miracle; and if no miracle, no evidence, to them, of divine
inspiration: but if the latter, and those who performed the same were
ignorant of the power by which they were performed, I do not see how
that the performance of a miracle could give them any knowledge of
futurity. And if not, what did give it to them, and in what way was it
given?

"It will still be recollected that I do not admit the existence of
miracles, although I speak of them as though they were true, merely to
shew that even if they were true I should still have my difficulties
respecting the truth of divine revelation.

"6th. Your remarks under the sixth article are satisfactory, though
they have not convinced me of the incorrectness of my opinion; because
that which is founded in _truth_ is, after all the only thing that is
'good and nourishing' to the understanding. The sound mind pants only
after truth; and as he knows eternal truth is unalterable, he is not
foolish enough even to desire, it should be what it is not. The reason
why we often desire that which we cannot have is because, not knowing
the whole truth, we do not know but that we may have the things we
desire.

"7th. As it respects 'not even deserving a future existence,' I was
not fully understood. I only meant an _anxious_ desire, as I expressed
a little before, and as also I expressed _anxious concern_ a little
after; that is a desire which is incompatible with reconciliation to
truth whether that truth gives us little or much. Had not truth been
favourable to our existence we certainly should not have existed; and
I can see no reason to fear a truth which has been so favourable as to
give us being. It is true, a desire to exist as long as we can enjoy
life seems to be inseparably connected with our moral nature; and yet
I can see no terror in that which takes away our sensibility, whether
it be for a night, for ages, or for eternity. I should just as soon
think of being terrified at the idea of a sound and sweet sleep. If
the truth be what I suspect it is, I see no good reason why it should
be revealed to us, any more than the hour of our death! This truth is
wisely concealed from us.

"8th. You have seen me so long in the dark that I begin to doubt
whether you would be willing to own me correct, even if I should come
fully into the light; i. e. according to your understanding. Is it
possible sir, that you should suppose me capable of writing so great a
solecism as the following, viz.: If a revelation were ever necessary,
it was necessary only to convince mankind that a revelation is not
true! But it seems that such must have been your construction, or very
near it, or else you could not have found the error of so great
magnitude, of which you speak. Although I did not express my idea so
full and explicit as I might, and perhaps ought to have done, yet I
can assure you that, by reconciling man to his present state, I meant
nothing less than what you have expressed in a former letter; and I
meant to include all for which you have contended in the article now
under consideration. For 1st. If divine revelation were necessary, the
thing revealed is undoubtedly true. 2d. If true, I am fully satisfied
with your views on the subject.

"9th. Your explanation relative to what you suggested in a former
letter (i. e. _that I must mean that the apostles stated falsehood_)
is satisfactory; though what you now say you meant, as I have already
informed you, was not exactly my meaning. The fact is, I did not mean
to express any opinion as to the truth or to the falsity of the
apostles' testimony. I very readily grant, however, that, if I 'do not
_believe_ that they stated the truth' 'I must believe that they stated
falsehood;' unless (which would be very extraordinary) the weight of
evidence be so exactly balanced in my mind that it is impossible for
me to form an opinion on the subject.--But supposing I disbelieved
their testimony altogether; what could I do more than to give my
reasons for not believing it? Would it be reasonable to call on me to
prove their testimony false? It is a very hard thing to prove a
negative!

"You will have already perceived by my seventh number that I have no
idea that the facts on which the Christian religion is said to have
been founded can now be proved false. No, whatever might have been the
case in the time of it, they were neglected too long before any
attempt of this kind was made, though the accounts should have been
supposed ever so erroneous as to promise any success in their
refutation. And I am inclined to think that one century _then_ would
involve facts in as much obscurity as five centuries would _now_. But
I have already expressed my doubts whether the facts on which the
religion of the _Shakers_ is said to be predicated, although not half
a century standing, can now be proved false; and yet if they are true
they are nothing short of miraculous.

"The Christian religion therefore, true or false, undoubtedly will
stand, in some shape or other, and be believed more or less, as long
as man remains upon the earth. For if it was introduced without any
violations of the laws of nature, i. e. without miracles, which
probably was the case, if false, we cannot expect any such violations
for the sake of destroying it; and without such violations I do not
see how it could be destroyed, because the believers of it,
invariably, believe it to be established on such mysterious
supernatural principles; and I expect but very few, comparatively,
will ever have sufficient strength of mind to throw off the mystic
veil.

"Yours, &c.

A. KNEELAND."

* * * * *

LETTER VII.

_Dear sir, and brother_--Desiring to bring our present correspondence
to a close as soon as the merits of its subject will admit, I propose
in replying to your 8th number, to remark only on the most essential
particulars, taking no particular notice of two classes contained in
your communication, viz. that which seems to grow out of a
misconstruction of my arguments and that in which you appear to agree
with them. Indulging in this liberty, the subjects to which I will
endeavour to confirm myself are the following.

1st. Your method of accounting for the absence of the crucified Jesus,
from the sepulchre where it was laid and guarded by the Roman
soldiers.

2d. What you suggest respecting the divine mission of Christ and his
apostles, the miracles which were wrought by them in attestation of
the Messiah, and the credibility of their testimony regarding a future
state.

3d. What you contend for respecting the _utility_, or _inutility_ of
the christian hope of future felicity.

4th. Something on the instructions of Jesus to his disciples
respecting their conduct toward their enemies.

5th. What you suggest respecting Jesus' not being known to the two
disciples, &c.

6th. Your criticism on my argument respecting the evidences of the
resurrection, &c.

1st. You propose to account for the absence of the body of Jesus, by
supposing, that some persons by frightening the guards were enabled
thereby to convey the body away, which they did being willing that
Jesus should be thought to have risen from the dead, whereby he would
be deified, according to the notions of the Greeks respecting deifying
men after they were dead, &c. Those who thus stole the body were not
the disciples of Jesus, but some persons who were desirous thereby to
punish the Jews for so cruelly putting Jesus to death.

Here you have proposed two subjects as forming the cause, in the mind
of those who stole the body, of their undertaking so hazarduous an
enterprise, neither of which appears to me to wear the necessary marks
of probability.--1st. If they wished to have Jesus deified according
to the notions of the Greeks, there was no need of establishing the
belief of his having rose from the dead. This was not the case with
those who among the Greeks were deified after their death. The tombs
of their heroes whom they placed among the gods, remained among the
people.

2d. Who that then lived in Jerusalem or its vicinity could look on the
crucifixion of Jesus as an act of cruelty? Others than Jews would not
feel very much interested in this affair, as Jesus had confined his
ministry to the Jews, and directed his disciples not to enter into any
of the cities of the Gentiles, this matter was a case which seemed to
concern the Jews only. Now look at the case. The Jews expected a
Messiah, a deliverer, one who should become their prince, and deliver
them from the bondage of the Romans. Jesus pretended to be sent of God
as their Messiah of whom the ancient prophets had spoken; he pretended
to work miracles in confirmation of his divine mission; but in room of
delivering the Jews from the Roman yoke, he prophecied of their
destruction by the Romans. Now, sir, if Jesus made all these
pretensions without divine authority for so doing, if he caused to be
reported that he wrought miracles when he never wrought one in his
life, if he kept the people in a continual uproar driving about the
country from one extreme of Palestine to another all by his frauds and
fascinating deceptions; and in order to quiet the people, and have
things go on in a regular order, those who were charged with the
public concerns brought about the crucifixion of this impostor, who
knowing all these things, being a Jew would think of accusing these
godly pharisees and rulers of cruelty for so doing? If Jesus did not
do the works which he pretended to do, he certainly was an impostor,
and it is in vain to attempt to save him from such a charge. And if he
were such a _blasphemous_ impostor as to pretend to work miracles by
the power of God, when he knew he had no such power, it appears very
plain that he deserved to die according to Jewish customs. If the
miracles of Jesus had been of a different description, there might
have been some deception. That is, if such miracles had been pretended
as you state of the Shakers; in such a case nobody would trouble their
heads about the matter. Some would say, the good woman perhaps was
badly hurt, and she thought her ribs were broken, when in fact they
were not, and with a little good nursing she was able to join the
dance; others might be extravagant enough to suppose that something
marvelous had taken place, but who would know? Or, I will add, who
would care? But will you undertake to argue that the most learned and
artful could impose on people by pretending to have power from God to
open the eyes of the blind, to heal all manner of diseases with a
word, and to raise the dead from their graves? No, sir, if Jesus did
not perform the miracles which he pretended to perform, there is no
propriety in believing that any body was disposed to charge the Jews
with cruelty for ridding community of such an impostor. But after all,
even allowing your proposed method of accounting for the absence of
the body, which by no means is half as probable a story as that
reported by the Jews, as this does not account for the disciples'
believing that Jesus had actually arose from the dead. What is to be
done with this circumstance? Are we to suppose that as soon as the
disciples found that the body was missing, they took it into their
heads that he had actually arose from the dead without any further
evidence? Well if they really believed it they could honestly state
their belief to the people. You will remember that you have agreed
that the apostles were honest men. But then the apostles go further,
they assert that they were certified of the real resurrection of Jesus
by many _infallible_ proofs, that they saw him, conversed with him,
ate with him, heard his discourses in which he expounded the
scriptures of the law, of the prophets, and of the psalms which
respected his passion and resurrection. Will you allow these men to
have been honest men, and still suppose that somebody stole the body
of Jesus from the sepulchre? The boldness of the disciples in
declaring the resurrection, their willingness to suffer all manner of
persecutions for the name of Jesus, show plainly that they did believe
in his resurrection. Here I refer you to my former arguments in which
I have attempted to make it appear that the disciples could not have
been deceived.

But even allowing, that the body was stolen, and that the disciples
were deceived, there is still, if possible, a greater difficulty to
account for, viz. the success of the preaching of Jesus and him
crucified. Here I wish, in a special manner, to call your attention.
The four evangelists and the acts of the apostles were written in the
life time of the disciples of Jesus; this, Paley, in his Evidences of
Christianity, fully proves. He likewise proves beyond any reasonable
doubt that they were written by the men whose names they bear. These
historians then relate all the miracles recorded in the four gospels,
and inform us that Jesus actually performed them. They give each of
them an account of the crucifixion and resurrection of their divine
master. They relate the things of which they were eye witnesses. But
supposing they were deceived, which I humbly conceive, is not
supposable, can we reasonably believe that these gospels in which such
barefaced falsehoods were recorded would ever gain credit among a
people whose religious education was to be all overthrown by coming
into the belief of those writings?

But the apostles had not these books to assist them in their ministry;
they went on in preaching Jesus and the resurrection, first in the
city of Jerusalem, and throughout all Judea, and among the Gentiles
with astonishing success before they wrote the accounts which we have.
Now, sir, on the supposition that the body was stolen will you account
for the people's being persuaded that Jesus rose from the dead?--Is it
possible to conceive of any thing to which the Jews could have been
more opposed, than to the testimony, that the man whom they had
crucified was the Messiah, and that God had raised him from the dead?
Now turn to the account given in Acts, chap. ii. and let reason and
candor have their voice in the matter under consideration. "Therefore
let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that
same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ." Can you
conceive of any thing that could have been more trying to the feelings
of the people? Observe, "whom ye have crucified." Bring the matter
home to yourself. Suppose you had been active in the prosecution of
one of your fellow creatures, and the prosecution should have
terminated in the execution of the accused, how would it try your
feelings for your neighbours to come and tell you, that you had been
the murderer of a good and innocent man? But in the case under
consideration there are circumstances that heighten the importance of
the subject. The great Messiah in which all the Jews were educated to
believe, as much as we are educated to believe in Christ; this
personage is the subject. See the account, "Now, when they heard this,
they, were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter, and to the
rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do?" Why do we
hear this exclamation? "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" Why
should the people now feel thus affected? Why do they not cry out
against the men who accuse them of having done this wickedness, as
they did against Jesus a few days before? Can you, sir, believe that
all that caused this, was the body's having been stolen from the
sepulchre, the disciples having gotten the whim into their heads that
Jesus had arose from the dead, now run about like mad men and accuse
the people of having murdered the great Messiah, the anointed of God,
affirming that God had raised him from the dead, when barely the
absence of the dead body was all the evidence on which this could be
founded? Not only did the testimony of Peter, on this occasion, which
will remain a most memorable one while the world stands, carry pungent
conviction to the very hearts of the people, but it happily issued in
the glorious triumph of faith in the risen Jesus in about three
thousand of the then present audience.

In the fore part of this chapter we have an account of the
manifestation of the mighty and miraculous power of God which was the
evident cause of the conviction of the people; and to no other cause,
I humbly conceive, can we impute such consequences.

Permit me to remark here, that all that ingenuity has ever invented
about how the body of Jesus was disposed of, can have no weight at all
against the doctrine of the resurrection which the apostles
propagated. The body's being absent from the sepulchre never convinced
one reasonable being in the world, of the fact of the resurrection. It
did not convince those who first saw the sepulchre empty.

"Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping; and they (the angels)
say unto her, woman, why weepest thou? She saith unto him, because
they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.
And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus
standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus saith unto her, woman,
why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou? She supposing him to be the
gardner, saith unto him, sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me
where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. Jesus saith unto
her, 'Mary.' She replied, 'RABBONI!'" How naturally is this account
given. In what an artless manner is the story told. I so much admire
the sincerity and unaffected love of Mary to her master that the
following reflections demand a place here. The person who but three
days before was crowned with thorns, was reviled and spat upon, was
most ignominiously crucified between two thieves and laid in the
sepulchre is so much the object of Mary's affection that she appears
solicitous for the body. I cannot doubt the truth of Mary's being
here, for the story is told without any design. But why is Mary here?
If Jesus was an impostor she never knew of his working a miracle in
her life. But if Jesus was in fact what he pretended to be and if he
wrought those miracles which are recorded of him, all is explained.
But it is evident that Mary had not thought of Jesus' having been
raised from the dead, when she saw that he was absent from the
sepulchre. When Jesus spake to her, and called her by name as he had
frequently done before, she knew him. When this Mary and the other
women that were with her went to the eleven, and told them the story,
they did not believe it, nor does it appear that Peter believed in the
resurrection, even after Mary and others had certified him, and he had
been himself to the sepulchre and found it empty; but he went away
"wondering in himself at that which was come to pass."

The evidences by which the disciples believed in this all-important
truth were equal to its importance and to its extraordinary character.
These evidences have been noticed.

2d. The mission of Christ and his apostles, the miracles wrought by
them in attestation of that mission, and the credibility of their
testimony respecting a future state may now receive some notice.

You are disposed to call on me to inform you what I mean by this
mission, to which I reply; I mean a divine appointment to act in a
certain official character, accompanied with certain powers by which
they were _enabled to evince_, by miracles, this their appointment.

Jesus was appointed by God himself to reveal the divine character,
nature, and will of the Father to the world, by his preaching, by his
miracles of mercy, by his sufferings, by his death and resurrection.
The apostles were sent by Jesus Christ on the same mission, on which
Jesus himself was sent. See his prayer, John xvii. "As thou has sent
me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world."
Those who believed in Jesus, and acknowledged him to be the Messiah,
believed on account of the miracles which he wrought, and as I have
before argued, Jesus never required of any a belief in him, barely on
his testimony of himself, but on the evidence afforded by the works
which he did in his Father's name. So likewise, those who believed on
Jesus through the ministry of the apostles, never were called on to
believe but by the authority of as great wonders as were wrought by
Christ himself. I need not say much on this particular, as you must
know that the ground on which I have here placed this subject, is the
ground on which the New Testament places it.

The absurd notions which have been erroneously adopted by Christian
doctors and councils concerning the mission of Christ to appease the
divine wrath, to reconcile God to man, to suffer the penalty of the
divine law, &c. &c. which have rendered the gospel a mystery and a
mist, in room of a high way for the ransomed of the Lord to return to
Zion in, is chargeable to the enemy who sowed tares among the wheat.
These opinions with a multitude of studied inventions about a
mysterious work of sovereign elective grace wrought in certain
individuals, in an unknown way and frequently in an unknown time all
which is to be followed by a system of mysterious sanctification,
connected most mysteriously with final perseverance, together with all
the intricate unknown items set down in the Westminister Catechism,
have only served to perplex some, puff others up with spiritual pride
and exalt them in the kingdom of spiritual wickedness in high places,
to drive some to despair, and to disgust reason and common sense in
others. There is not a word of all the above jargon in the sacred
scriptures, which give us a most rational account of the great object
of the gospel ministry. This object is the redemption of mankind from
moral darkness, which is the whole occasion of moral evil, and to
produce that improvement in the religious world which science is
designed to effect in the political. It is to bring truth to light, to
commend the character of God to man, to lead all men into the true
knowledge, spirit, and temper of the divine nature. Thus we discover
in Jesus no partialist, no sectarian, no friend to any one
denomination, more than another. And when he had accomplished, by his
sufferings, what the prophets had foretold, he then sent his gospel of
the love and mercy of God to the whole world. His divinely inspired
apostles followed the examples of their leader and preached the
universal, impartial goodness of God to all men, and confirmed their
mission by similar miracles to those wrought by Jesus.

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