we had been in the days of our
fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of
the prophets." These _holy_ men were sure that they were much better
than their fathers who persecuted the prophets; they had no
disposition to persecute; all the wealth in the world could not have
tempted these _godly saints_ to kill a prophet of God. However, St.
Paul writing to the Thessalonians, says, "For ye, brethren, became
followers of the churches of God, which in Judea are in Christ Jesus:
for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as
they have of the Jews; who both killed the Lord Jesus and their own
prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are
contrary to all men." But the Jews would not have put Jesus to death
if he had been a pharisee, and had not departed from their traditions
and superstitions. But he was not a pharisee, nor did he adhere to
their superstitions; and for this cause he was to them "a root out of
dry ground." To them, he had no form nor comeliness, no, nor had he
any beauty that they should discern him. Say, brother, is not this the
superstition which you are urging as unfavourable to the evidences of
christianity? And does not the passage above quoted from Thessalonians
go to prove what all ecclesiastical history as well as the New
Testament proves, that the Christians were persecuted by the Jews and
by the Gentiles? Did any thing but superstition ever persecute? It
surely does not aim to build up that which it persecutes: and
therefore in room of its being evidence against the genuineness of
what it opposes, is justly admitted as a valid evidence in its favour.
It is well known that our Christian doctors, clergy, and laity have
been long persuaded that a glorious day of universal peace and gospel
light is not only promised, but fast approaching; and if their prayers
have any influence, it is evident that the time is hastened by their
means. All this looks very well, and a man would be thought to be
impious, if not insane, who should intimate that these saints were
superstitous or illiberal, or that they possessed the spirit of
persecution.--But what has been their spirit for, say, twenty-five
years past towards a doctrine which teaches universal peace on earth
and good will towards man? Is there any thing bad which they have not
spoken against this doctrine? Have they not treated its preachers with
all the contempt and even ridicule of which they were capable? Have
they not used all their influence to keep the doctrine from being
preached in their meeting houses, and have they not dealt with church
members who have believed this benign doctrine of love, with
excommunications attended with as many aggravations as they could
invent? In a word, is there one bitter herb in all the ground which
was cursed for man's sake, that has not been used against what is
called the poison of this abominable heresy? If they had the power of
the pope, if the inquisition were at their command, would they let
such power lie dormant for want of zeal? Balaam smote his ass with a
_staff_, but said: "I would there were a _sword_ in mine hand, for now
would I kill thee."

But after all that has been said and done against this doctrine of
universal benevolence and grace, its progress confounds its enemies,
encourages its friends, and calls to mind the parable of the mustard
seed. Suppose for a century to come it should continue its advances
according to what it has gained for the twenty-five years above
mentioned, is it not evident that the knowledge of God would cover the
earth as the waters cover the sea? But would any body then, being
acquainted with the history of these times, think of making use of the
superstition of our clergy to oppose the evidences of this doctrine?
Would such a one say, it is probable that in those times of
superstition, the clergy who had great influence with the common
people, might alter many passages of scripture, and in room of using
the word _elect_, interpolate the words _all men_? If I understand
your argument, this is the use you make of superstition. But, sir, I
am satisfied that the superstition of our times will be sufficient
proof to future ages, that the scriptures which so abundantly prove
the doctrine of universal salvation, were not the production of a
superstitious clergy who were known to oppose this doctrine with all
their learning and influence.

Now if you please, you may indulge in strengthening your hypothesis,
and prove by the faithful histories of different nations, that Jews,
Greeks, and Romans were most stupidly superstitious. Also that India,
Turkey, and Arabia are now groaning under the ponderous weight of this
vanity. Go on and enlarge on all that you have said, and point out all
the superstitions of which we read or know; show how powerful this
superstition is in the human heart; how it renders its votaries blind
to reason and the principles of moral truth; show how hard it is to
break in upon this almost invincible phalanx; but consider, sir, the
blacker you represent this cloud, the brighter you render the
evidences of the religion of Jesus.

You need not be informed, what the Christian world all knows, that the
doctrine of Jesus Christ, founded on the miracles recorded in the four
Evangelists and in the Acts of the Apostles, was propagated among Jews
and Gentiles, whose superstitions, though various, rendered them both
hostile to this new religion, and incited them to persecutions which
subjected the "weak and defenceless disciples of the meek and lowly
Jesus" to trials and sufferings, fears and temptations of which we can
have but a faint conception.--The grand hypothesis on which the gospel
was advocated, and by which it succeeded in obtaining vast multitudes
of Jewish as well as Gentile converts, was the resurrection of Jesus,
who was publicly executed on a cross by the Roman authority instigated
by the rulers of the Jews. All this must be accounted for in a
rational way. The facts are as well attested as any thing of which
history gives any account. The four gospels have been commented on,
and quoted, and adverted too by a greater number of controversial
writers, than any other book of which we have any knowledge. The
epistles of St. Paul when compared with the Acts and with each other
have all the necessary characteristics of being genuine, and of
relating nothing but realties.

You, sir, allow that the authority on which this religion rests, would
be sufficient to support it, if it were not for the consideration of
your three propositions, the first of which, I trust, you will
acknowledge stands in its vindication.

Your second proposition may now be noticed.

That part of mankind have believed and still are believing in miracles
and revelations which are spurious, we have no interest in denying,
but we feel under no obligation to admit this fact as any evidence
against Christianity, or of any force to counterbalance the evidences
which stand in its favour. What would you think of such kind of
reasoning as should contend, that as it is evident that many have
been, and still are imposed on by counterfeit money, it justifies
serious doubts whether there ever was any true money in the world?
Would you not reply, that as the counterfeit is entirely dependent on
the true for its imposition, in room of being evidence that there is
no true money, it demonstrates that there is?

It being well known, nor ever doubted by the friends or enemies of
Christianity, that its founder and his apostles proved the divinity of
their missions by miracles alone, it was nothing more than might be
rationally expected, that impostors would rise up under those sacred
pretensions, with a view to establish themselves. But if this religion
of Jesus Christ, had not at first been built upon this foundation,
impostors would never have thought of imposing on people with such
pretensions. Impostors, therefore, together with all their deceptions,
cannot, as I humbly conceive, be admitted as evidence _against_ the
genuineness of the gospel, but in _favour_ of it.

As to Mahomet of whom you speak, I have always understood that he made
no pretensions to miracles. He pretended to hold correspondence with
the angel Gabriel, and to receive revelations from God in this way;
but he never attempted to sanction his divinity by miracles; and
indeed there was no need of this, for he declared he was commissioned
from heaven to propagate his religion by the sword, and to destroy the
monuments of idolatry. His kingdom was of this world, therefore did
his servants fight; but they did not fight always alone, for he fought
at nine battles or sieges in person, and in ten years achieved fifty
military enterprizes. He united religion and plunder, by which he
allured the vagrant Arabs to his standard. He asserted that the sword
was the key of heaven and hell; that a drop of blood shed in the cause
of God, a night spent in arms are of more account than two months of
fasting and prayer. He assured those who should fall in battle, that
their sins should be forgiven at the day of judgment, that their
wounds would be resplendant as vermillion and odoriferous as myrrh,
and that the loss of limbs should be supplied by the wings of angels
and cherubim. But what you can find in Mahometism which in the least
militates against the evidences of Christianity I know not. It is
affirmed by writers, that he collected his ideas of God and of morals
from the Hebrew and Christian scriptures.

From Mahomet you go to the conversion of Constantine, taking
particular notice of the account given of his seeing the sign of a
cross in the sun, &c. And as we are now on the subject of miracles, we
must not forget the miracles of the _Shakers_ which seem to _shake_
your faith! Two _notable_ miracles you have honoured with a place in
your epistle, or honoured your epistle with them, which, I shall not
undertake to determine. A bridge fell with a horse on it, which fell
with the bridge; the rider was a woman; by the fall several of her
ribs were broken, and she was otherwise bruised; but she was
miraculously recovered so as to be able to dance in one evening. A boy
cut his foot, the wound bled profusely; the boy was miraculously
healed in a few hours. These are the miracles; but whether mother Ann,
or some of her elders performed these miracles you do not inform me.
It seems to be allowed that _most_ of these Quaker miracles are
inferior to the miracles recorded in the New Testament, but not more
inferior to them, than they are to the miracles of Moses.

Doctor Priestley, with his usual candor, endeavours to assign a
natural cause for what Constantine saw, and you are inclined to his
opinion, to all of which I have no objections to make; and I am by no
means certain, that a proper attention to the pretended miracles of
the Shakers, might not issue in assigning a natural cause for them.
But however this may be, I cannot see how the matter affects our
belief in Jesus Christ. Do you not discover a difference too wide
between the case of Jesus and his doctrine, and Ann Lee and her
principles to admit of the comparison which you seem inclined to make?
You have also mentioned the case of Mrs. A----'s seeing her husband
and talking with him after he was dead, which you would draw into the
same comparison. That Mrs. A---- may have satisfactory evidence of her
having seen and conversed with her husband since his death, I am not
at all disposed to dispute; but here the matter ends. God has not seen
fit to endue her with the power of working miracles. If this woman
should come into a public assembly and work astonishing miracles
before all the people as an attestation of her having seen her
husband, and you and I should be present, and see these marvellous
things with our own eyes should we doubt the woman's testimony?

I have already, in a former communication shown that the declaration
of the apostles of the resurrection of Jesus, until it was accompanied
with power from on high, was never even communicated to the public, or
ordered to be communicated. But in fact the disciples were strictly
commanded to tarry at Jerusalem until the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Constantine would have had no occasion to depose under the solemnity
of an oath, concerning the sign of the cross, &c. if he had had power
to evidence his declaration by miracles. If Ann Lee's disciples will
heal the sick, restore the lame, and raise the dead in so public a
manner that the people at large may know these facts, then, sir, they
will no longer need to purchase poor children in order to increase
their societies. And if God should see fit to call me from my wife and
children by such evidences as these, I hope I should not disobey his
divine mandate.

But will you reply,