A Series of Letters, in Defence of Divine Revelation Part 13

LETTER VIII.

_Dear sir, and brother_,--The particulars contained in your ninth letter, which I have selected as the subject of this, are the following:

1st. You "do not see how the miracles of the Shakers are at all dependant on the miracles of Jesus for their imposition."

2d. You think, if Jesus had remained on the earth until now, or had appeared to every generation since his resurrection, the evidence would have been much greater; and yet not so great as to preclude the exercise of our reasoning faculties.

3d. In the supposed controversy between the Unitarians and Trinitarians, you think I have failed of making the case a parallel with my subject, not considering the great change which took place in the state of the Jews in consequence of their destruction by the Romans.

4th. The argument which you rest on the supposition, that the apostles did in reality believe in the resurrection of Jesus, when in fact the thing was not true.

5th. What you say of the necessity of miracles in some future time, to confirm the belief of those which have been.

6th. The difficulty you suggest concerning St. Paul's saying that Jesus was seen, after his resurrection, by more than five hundred brethren at once.

1st. As you object to the idea that the miracles of the Shakers depend at all on the miracles of Jesus for their imposition, it may be considered sufficient, on my part, if I show that you have fully supported the proposition which you profess not to see.

I will, however, first presume, that I am not authorised to say that the miracles of the Shakers are imposition, I have not contended that they are; the ground for which I contend is this, viz. if these or any other pretended miracles among us are impositions, they depend on the miracles of Jesus for this power, as much as counterfeit money depends on the true for its imposition. That you have given sufficient support to what I have stated, you will see at once by the following pa.s.sage quoted from your arguments on this subject: "They do not deny the miracles of Christ and his apostles any more than Christians in general deny the miracles of Moses and the prophets; but appeal to _theirs_ as being equally of divine origin, and thereby clothe their religion with the same divine authority." Is it possible that the writer of the foregoing sentence should not see, that he established the very thing which he had just said he could not see? What is that _divine authority_ with which the religion of Moses, the prophets and of Christ is clothed? Answer, _miracles_. What authority do you pretend the Shakers make use of to clothe their religion? Answer "_the same_." How does this differ from counterfeit money, on the supposition that these miracles are imposition?

It is abundantly evident that the Jews expected that the Messiah, when he came, would establish his character by miracles as Moses did his, and as some of the prophets were enabled to do. Therefore, do we read Matt. xii. 22, 23.--"Then was brought unto him one possessed with a devil, blind and dumb: and he healed him insomuch, that the blind and dumb both spake and saw. And all the people were amazed and said, is not this the son of David?"

Jesus himself saith, Luke iv. 24, 27. "Verily I say unto you, no prophet is accepted in his own country. But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land; but unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow; and many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saveing Naaman the Syrian."--See John vii. 31. "And many of the people believed on him, and said, when Christ cometh, will he do more miracles than these which this man hath done?"

By the foregoing quotations, as by many other pa.s.sages, we learn that the Jews expected the Messiah would establish his character as a prophet like unto Moses and others, and also that Jesus did in reality a mult.i.tude of miracles more than the prophets did.

Now is it not evident, that if the miracles of Jesus were supposed to be impositions, they were dependant on those of Moses and the prophets for any power to impose on the people? Just so are all miracles wrought or pretended to be wrought since Christ, dependant on his miracles for any imposing power which they possess. If our religion had not been first propagated by the means of those miracles which are recorded in the New Testament, of what use would any pretended miracles be to any sect of Christians?

2d. What you say of the greater evidence of the resurrection which would have been furnished by Christ's continuance on earth until now, or by his making his appearance in every generation since his time, appears to me to be rather wanting in its merits by which it claims a reply.--Why should you neglect to delineate some special reasons for your suppositions, by showing how wide the difference would have been from the evidence we now have, and how that difference would have recommended your scheme?--You have left me to conjecture the particular features of your argument, and if I mistake them, you will reply that I understand you incorrectly. However, this is the way I must proceed.

We will suppose then that Jesus, in room of ascending into heaven, had remained on earth. Would this have done any good, unless he had made himself known to all the people? Well, we will suppose he had made himself known after his resurrection, to the whole house of Israel, would the people not have believed? They would have believed most a.s.suredly, or his making himself known to them would have done no good. If they had all believed they would not have persecuted the religion of Christ, all would have embraced it at once being convinced by their eyes, that Jesus who was crucified, had actually rose from the dead, and was not subject to death any more. All this would have been as evident to the Roman government as to the Jewish hierarchy, and the whole would have been christianized at once. How long would all this remain a wonder? Jesus remains on earth from generation to generation. How long ago would the conjecture have arisen, that this man who has lived through so many ages, had always been here on earth, and that the tradition of his once having been mortal like other men, was nothing but a superst.i.tion gotten up in some age of antiquity beyond our reach? There would have been no occasion of preserving any records of the wonderful works of Jesus in the days of his flesh, for as the whole would become immediately connected to christianity, there would have been no necessity nor excitement to write and preserve the accounts we have in the gospel, or if they had been written, they could have had no support now but ancient tradition. Not one martyr, not one instance of persecution, not a Celsus in the second, a Porphyry in the third, nor a Julian in the fourth centuries to oppose the truth, and thereby bear testimony to the antiquity of the christian history.

This immortal man would be here on earth, and the sun and the moon and the stars would be in the heavens, the mountains and the rivers here on earth; and the same mind that would conjecture that all these visible things were from everlasting to everlasting, would make no exception of this man Christ Jesus. But now you are called on to prove your christian tradition; and what have you to convince the Deist with? Will you say my conjectures are by no means correct? Well, I expected it would turn out so. You mean then that Jesus should not only remain on earth, but that he should continue the evidences of his having been mortal, of his having died, and of his resurrection as clear as they were when they convinced the world in the first place.--Would there, in this case, be any room for any inquiry? any for doubts? Would there be as many denominations of christians as there are now? Should we get at this religion by reasoning? Perhaps you would prefer your second proposal, and have Jesus manifested in every generation. But this would have been a regular return of the same event, and would have been placed among the phenomena of nature, and the Deist would say that there never had been any beginning to this regular operation, it has always been so from time beyond date.

Thus far, but no more. The evidences of our religion are like the religion itself, infinitely superior to any thing ever contrived by human wisdom. And it is an opinion in which I am the more confirmed, the more I examine it, that if the wisest set of philosophers which ever lived on earth had been a council to contrive a method by which christianity could have been perpetuated in the world, that scheme which they would have projected, would of itself defeated the object.

The wisdom of this great scheme corresponds with the divine power which has been manifested in it. What set of impostors, either wise or simple, learned or unlearned would ever have thought of such an undertaking as that of which we have an account in the four evangelists? Would they be likely to find one who would be their leader, the one to die, and leave the rest to make the people believe that he arose from the dead? Could a man be found now who would be willing to undertake such a piece of madness and folly? If we pretend to reason shall we not keep to human nature, and reason according to those laws by which ourselves and others are governed?

Do you believe, sir, that a man could be found who would undertake to lead a party, whose object should be to impose on the people by a pretended resurrection, and consent himself to be the hero of this imposture?

You answer, no. But then ask; if this wonderful story was not written some considerable time after that period to which the dates of the writings are a.s.signed, and such large additions made that the whole appears entirely different from what was really true?

This brings me to consider the third particular selected for consideration, out of your epistle.

3dly. In allusion to the supposed controversy between the Unitarians and Trinitarians, you think I ought to have considered the circ.u.mstance of the destruction of the Jews by the Romans, as giving a favourable opportunity for the fabricating the books of the evangelists, and of giving them success in the world, as the old pharisees and rulers of the Jews were princ.i.p.ally cut off in that awful destruction of their nation and city.

You will observe that by your suggestion you leave the first section of the argument to which you refer, in which no book or books were used, and notice only the last section in which you were indulged, for sake of the argument, in the supposition that the gospels were not written until after the destruction of Jerusalem, nor propagated on the miracles on which the gospels have founded it. Here, sir, have I not an occasion of some little complaint? If you really thought that the gospels were, none of them, written in the life time of the apostles, and considered it safe to predicate an argument on this ground, why should you withhold the proof of this fact? Why did you not inform me of the authority by which your argument is supported in your own mind? And furthermore, why do you try to get away from the argument as stated in its first form, without showing its want of force, or without allowing its merit? By conducting arguments in this way, in room of converguing them to some definite point of conclusion, they are diverged indefinitely, and the mind seems bewildered without an object.

However, I am disposed to follow you, and will now endeavour to shew the probability of the gospel's having been written even before the destruction of Jerusalem.

The following pa.s.sages are quoted from Paley's evidences from page 106 and on--

From the epistle of Barnabas, to which I have before alluded; "Let us, therefore, beware lest it come upon us, as it is written, there are many called, few chosen." Our author justly adds: "From the expression, '_as it is written_,' we infer with certainty, that, at the time when the author of this epistle lived, there was a book extant, well known to christians, and of authority among them, containing these words--'Many are called, few chosen.'" For the authority of this epistle I refer unto Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Eusebius, and Jerome, noticed in a former communication. If Clement were liable to mistake the author, it seems hardly probable that he would be deceived concerning the time when this epistle, purporting to have been written by Barnabas, was written; as it is no later than A.D. 194 that he quotes this epistle as an ancient work. It may be proper to remark, that although authors differ respecting the genuineness of this epistle, both Dr. Priestly and Paley acknowledge and maintain its antiquity, and place it very near to the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, which gives it all the authority for which it is here quoted; for the thing now to be proved is, that it is probable that the gospel of Matthew was written before the destruction of the Jewish hierarchy. Now as this epistle of Barnabas was written soon after this destruction, and refers to the gospel of Matthew in the manner above quoted, as refering to what was an acknowledged writing of scripture authority, it seems reasonable to infer that St.

Matthew's gospel had been written long enough before, to obtain its establishment among Christian churches, which fairly throws its antiquity anterior to the destruction of Jerusalem. Sir, I see nothing to forbid this conclusion from being highly probable, and this, I expect to show, is all that is necessary to be made out in this case.

"Of Polycarp," who was appointed bishop of Symrna by the apostles themselves, says our author, "we have one undoubted epistle remaining.

And this, though a short letter, contains nearly forty clear allusions to books of the New Testament; which is strong evidence of the respect which christians of that age bore for those books." It appears from this account, that, as Polycarp was a contemporary of the apostles, and referred to the books of the New Testament in his writings, as to books of established authority, these books must have been written as early as the time in which their reputed authors lived, which places their date prior to the destruction of Jerusalem; as it is not pretended that any of the evangelists continued until after the destruction of that city except St. John who is supposed to have lived to a very great age.

One more from our author: "Papias, a hearer of John, and companion of Polycarp, as Irenaeus attests, and of that age, as all agree, in a pa.s.sage quoted by Eusebius, from a work now lost, expressly ascribes the respective gospels to Matthew and Mark, and in a manner which proves that those gospels must have publicly borne the names of these authors at that time, and probably long before." All this appears perfectly consistent with the idea that these gospels were written by the evangelists themselves, and proves together with the following considerations the probability of its being correct. Further considerations to be taken into the foregoing account are the following. St. Matthew, St. Luke and St. Mark, all speak of the prophesy of Jesus respecting the destruction of Jerusalem, but do not even hint that this prophesy had been fulfilled. In St. John's gospel no mention is made of this prophesy, and it is reasonable enough to suppose that this omission was on account of the prophesy's having been fulfilled before his gospel was written.

Again, if the gospels had not been written by these reputed authors, nor in the time that the evangelists lived, but some time after the destruction of Jerusalem, and these had been fabricated by designing men, they would certainly have been exposed as a fraud by the Gnostics who held many opinions so very contrary to the scriptures of the New Testament. So very contrary were some of the early heresies to the writings of the evangelists that they erased many things from them that they might the better maintain their own notions. Now this would never have taken place if these Gnostics could have proved that these Gospels were frauds, which they certainly could have done, for they existed as early as these writings are supposed to have been written.

Furthermore, if the gospels had been forged books, written after the destruction of Jerusalem, it would have been an easy task for Celsus to have exposed the whole fraud. He certainly would never have admitted the truth of the miracles of Jesus if he could have proved that the books in which they were recorded were forgeries. But this neither he nor the learned Porphyry attempted to do.

I have suggested, that, if the probability of the gospel's having been written before the destruction of Jerusalem and by the evangelists themselves be proved it is sufficient for our present argument. And so, I think, it will appear to you, when you combine with this probability two more important considerations.

1st. That the internal evidences contained in the books of the New Testament, of their genuineness, are sufficient of themselves to establish their character as such; and:

2d. That the above probability of itself is to be relied on even from external evidence if no external proof can be proved against it, which is not pretended.

It should be kept in mind, that the writings of the evangelists are guarded by the early attacks of the enemies of christianity, who ever treated them as being, what they pretended to be, a faithful history of the origin of the religion they inculcated; and also by the opposition of the early sects who arose from the church, who would have demolished their foundations if they had been spurious.

4th. The argument you rest on the supposition that the apostles did, in reality, believe in the resurrection of Jesus, when in fact the thing was not true, may now be noticed.--As you would naturally expect, I shall by no means allow either your premises or conclusions.

1st. Why should I allow your premises? You have brought no argument, nor attempted to bring any to disprove what I contended for, viz. that the apostles could not have been persuaded to believe the resurrection with any evidence short of that recorded in the evangelists. "Here,"

you say "lies the mistake if there be any;" and to this I agree. Where then is your argument against mine, on which so much depends? You have attempted to bring none. But you say: "only suppose the resurrection to have been actually believed, by any evidence, or circ.u.mstance whatever, no matter what." What argument is there sir, in this "_only suppose_?" I contend the thing is not supposable. It was as true in that age of the world, that a fact naturally incredible requires indubitable evidence to substantiate it, as it is now. I would allow that it is supposable, that one man might, in a sort of a delirium, which generally throws the brain into a situation, by which, what only exists in the mind, appears a reality to the sense of sight, might think he saw Jesus after his crucifixion, when in fact he did not. But I cannot allow it to be a supposable case that the whole eleven apostles should all become delirious at once and with them a number more, and all be persuaded against the prejudices of their minds, that they saw Jesus, and that at a number of times, and in diverse manners, when there was no such thing. But:

2d. Even allowing your supposition, your consequences would be very unlikely to follow. You surely would not suppose that the apostles could believe they saw Jesus when they did not, if they had the use of their reason properly. We must suppose them to have been insane then.--What then would have been the consequences? Would the authority have put these mad-men to death? Would they have been persecuted at all for their misfortune? But these mad-men preached Jesus and the resurrection to the people, and so convinced them of the fact, that mult.i.tudes believed them, and on this supposition we are now to _suppose_ our religion was first established in the world! If we may suppose such things, there are no absurdities that we may not suppose.

You must suppose it to be a very dangerous thing to try a man for his life by a jury of twelve men, for if the man was innocent of the murder for which he was indicted and no evidence was produced to convict him on, these men might all be made to believe, some how, by some circ.u.mstance, "no matter what," that they all saw the murder committed by this very innocent person on trial.

5th. I thought of saying something on your suggestion of the necessity of miracles in some future time to convince the Jews that Jesus is the Messiah, but being a little more careful, than at first, I find you seem to give up this matter. You say: "considering the prejudices of the Jews, as a people, I cannot suppose that they will ever believe in Jesus, as their promised Messias short of being convinced of its truth by a miracle; and should they return to the land of Palestine, and there rebuild their temple, at Jerusalem, it would be such a clear fulfilment of the prophesy of Ezekiel, that it would be equal to a miracle, and do as much towards corroborating the truth of all the other prophecies." If the return of the Jews, etc. be equal to miracles, then it may preclude their necessity. But as this particular does not immediately concern our general subject it is dismissed.

6th. As none of the evangelists have been particular respecting the meeting in Galilee, and as this was an appointment even before the crucifixion, as well as afterward, it is fairly within the reach of probable conjecture, that this meeting was sufficiently numerous to justify St. Paul's words. He does not speak of this matter as of a subject with which his acquaintance was small, for he says; "he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep." He no doubt, had seen many of this great number and had been informed of the circ.u.mstances of the occasion, and of the time when this mult.i.tude was favoured with this sight.

To conclude; I heartily join with you in grateful acknowledgements, to the Almighty disposer of events, for the manifestations of his universal benevolence to his creatures, and especially unto man whom he hath seen fit to induce with the attributes of his own nature, and const.i.tuted him an heir of life and immortality. In view of this, I can be thankful for any faithfulness discoverable in those who publish the word of life, and endeavour to defend it in the spirit of meekness and Christian love.

And I will further add, that I feel a peculiar pleasure in finding your mind to be somewhat divested of its inc.u.mberances, and that your doubts of the grounds of your precious faith, are dispersing more and more from your mind, while the evidences of divine truth find a sincere reception in your understanding.

Let us endeavour to cherish, not only the evidences of truth, but truth itself in our afflictions, and in room of being idlers in the markets, go early into our Lord's vineyard trusting the words of him who saith; "whatsoever is right, ye shall receive."

Yours, &c.

H. BALLOU.

EXTRACTS No. X.

"_Dear sir and brother_--In remarking on your reply to my 8th number, as in a former case I shall follow the arrangement which you have made; taking up the articles in the same order.

"1st. I did not suppose but that the method which I proposed to account for the absence of the body of Jesus would be liable to serious objections; and these objections are increased by connecting with them, circ.u.mstances which, if the resurrection be false, must be considered equally false. Because, if the resurrection of Jesus was not a truth, whatever was the truth on which that belief was founded, must be now all mere conjecture.