passage 15 of 20 · Letter > Book of Hermas an inspired Scripture as much as he did the four gospels, and that Tertullian contended stoutly for the inspiration of the ridiculous book of Enoch, one of the most stupid forgeries that ever was seen,) the quotations and supposed allusions in the earlier fathers are uncertain, since it is acknowledged by Dodwell, and also by others, that it cannot be shown with any certainty, whether these quotations and allusions belong to ours or to apocryphal gospels. And to conclude, would you not require as much evidence for the authenticity of the gospels, which relate supernatural events, as we have for most of the classics, and yet if you examine the subject closely, you will be satisfied to your astonishment that we have not so much as we have for the works of Virgil or Cicero; and that we have not by a great deal so much testimony for the miracles of Jesus, which were supernatural events which require at least as great proof as natural ones as we have for the deaths of Pompey and of Julius Caesar, though you seem from your note to think otherwise. As to Celsus, Porphyry, and (8/13)
I have made this statement and representation, sir, on two accounts.
- In order to repel the shocking and groundless imputation which I
understand that some pains have been taken to fix upon me, I do not mean by you, sir, for you know the contrary that the object of my late publication was to aim at destroying all religion, and the annihilation of the publick worship of God, a charge which I reject with horror, and also with bitter indignation, that it should ever have been attributed to me. God forbid! that the publick worship and stated reverence which all ought to pay to the Great and Tremendous Being from whom we receive life and its every blessing; and to whose Providence we are subject; and by whose goodness we are sustained, should ever be caused to be neglected, or forgotten, by any man, or by the subvertion of any opinions whatever. The propriety of the publick worship of God stands independent and without need of support from the peculiar doctrines of any sect. And the idea that this great duty would be superceded by the dismission of the New Testament is so utterly groundless and absurd: that to make it appear so, any man has only to recollect that the public worship of the Supreme existed before the New Testament was written or thought of; and to look round the world and see millions of men worshipping God in houses of prayer, who know nothing about the New
Testament except by report. I regard, sir, the imputation I have spoken of, as either a gross mistake of the simple, or a cunning and deliberate calumny of the crafty. I have made this statement and representation to show, that it does not follow, that in giving up the
New Testament Christians will be deprived of all religion. For in retaining the Old Testament they would adopt nothing new, and would retain nothing but what they now acknowledge as containing a divine revelation; and in giving up the New Testament they would not, as I
think has been shown, give up a jot of what had ever any right to the name of Scripture.
Whether however, people give up both, or retain one, or both, is their concern. I have stated what I have merely to show, that in giving up the New Testament they would not necessarily give up more than a part of their bibles, or any part of their bible, except that whose authenticity cannot be proved; nor any more of their faith, than that part of it which for almost eighteen hundred years has produced interminable disputes among themselves and misfortunes, and causeless reproach to others.
"With great regard, and the most respectful esteem, I subscribe myself,
Reverend Sir, Your obliged and humble servant
GEO. BETHUNE ENGLISH.
NOTE
HKB