It would have been as impossible to
persuade men in after-ages that they had been circumcised or baptized,
had celebrated passovers and Sabbaths under the ministration of a
certain order of priests, if it were not so, as to make them believe
they had gone through the seas dryshod, seen the dead raised, and so
forth. But without such a persuasion neither the law nor gospel could
have been received."
"Yet, methinks, if I were the founder of a new religion, and had all the
stores of Nature and Omnipotence at my command--those boasted attributes
of thy Law-giver--I would not have left it liable to doubt, to the
sneers and cavils of any one who might question my pretensions, or my
right to control their belief. The truths of Omnipotence should be clear
as the sun's beam, and unquestioned as his existence."
"'If they believe not Moses and the prophets, neither would they believe
though one should rise from the dead.' 'Tis not for lack of proof; 'tis
for lack of will. 'Tis not for lack of testimony, one tithe of which
would have gained a ready assent to any of the drivelling absurdities of
heathen mythology,--'tis for lack of inclination; 'tis a wish that these
revelations may not be true; and where the heart inclines, the judgment
is easily biassed.
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