Experimental investigation of the spirit manifestations, [electronic ...

ON THE MORALS OP CHRISTIANS. 217bo massacroil in cold blood. Yet it is on such witnesses as this bloodthirsty,blasphemous bigot, that orthodoxy relics for assuniini^the Pentateuchto be the word of God, censuring, if not persecuting, allconcur with it.who do not1141. The intercourse with the angel Cabricl rests upon the evidenceof Mary alone, who was interested immensely to make her child a god,instead of being her illegitimate offspring. Of the dream of Joseph therecan be no witness besides himself. I3ut would a dream be now admittedas testimony in any court of justice.1142. The diversity of opinion existing between Romanists and Protestants,arc briefly exhibited in the subjoinedquotations from the controversybetween Archbishop Hughes and the Rev., Mr. Ereckinridge.Theyhave already been cited by me in a pamphlet on the better employment ofthe first day of the week.Here are the opinions of two men highly qualifiedto judge. In one, we have an eminent champion of Ilomanism ; inthe other, a no less able champion of Calvinism. To the latter belongsthe distinction ofhaving persecuted the Quakers and witches, and of havingroasted Servetus; to the former, putting some hundreds of thousandsto death or torture by the sword, the rack, or the fagot.1143. Agreeing with each of the parties that the other is in the wrong,I, of course, assume that they are both in error. Taken together, theymay be considered as proving that there is no evidence in favour of Christianity,which I have not the authority of eminent Christians for rejecting.In the 29th page of the controversy between himself and Breckinridge,Bishop Hughes speaks as follows :1144. ^^ My fourth argument was, that the Protestant rule of faith actuallyundermines the authority of the Scriptures, by extinguishing theproofs of theirin moral suicide.autlienticiUj and inqnratlon, and consequently terminatesJust imagine to yourself an ordinary will or testament,written but twenty years ago, purporting tobe the last will and testamentof a wealthy deceased relative, and designating you as liclr, but withouteither signature or probate, and ask yourself what it would be worth ?Could such a document establish its own authenticity? And yet this isprecisely the situation to which the Protestant rule of faith reduced theScriptures, by which, and hij which alone, their authenticity could havebeen established. St. Augustine, of whom Presbyterians are sometimeswont to speak with respect, declared that it was the testimony of the churchwhich moved him to believe in the Scriptures. But now the order ofbelief is' reformed.' Men pick up (pardon the phrase) the sacred volume,as they find it floating on the sea of two thousand years, and by onegreat but gratuitous act of belief, which flings all intermediate church authorityand tradition to the winds, they say ' the Bible is the Bible, andwe are its interpreters, every man for himself.' "1145. It seems not to have occurred to the right reverend champion