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ants are unawares at variance with one another, or themselves wavering, as to these pervading principles of evidence.--I regard my fifth period to come to an end with the decision of this question. Nevertheless, many other important lines of inquiry were going forward simultaneously. I found in the Bible itself,--and even in the very same book, as in the Gospel of John,--great uncertainty and inconsistency on this question. In one place, Jesus reproves[1] the demand of a miracle, and blesses those who believe without[2] miracles; in another, he requires that they will submit to his doctrine because[3] of his miracles. Now, this is intelligible, if blind external obedience is the end of religion, and not Truth and inward Righteousness. An ambitious and unscrupulous _Church_, that desires, by fair means or foul, to make men bow down to her, may say, "Only believe; and all is right. The end being gained,--Obedience to us,--we do not care about your reasons." But _God_ cannot speak thus to man; and to a divine teacher we should peculiarly look for aid in getting clear views of the grounds of faith; because it is by a knowledge of these that we shall both be rooted on the true basis, and saved from the danger of false beliefs. It, therefore, peculiarly vexed me to find so total a deficiency of clear and sound instruction in the New Testament, and eminently in the gospel of John, on so vital a question. The more I considered it, the more it appeared, as if Jesus were solely anxious to have people believe in Him, without caring on what grounds they believed, although that is obviously the main point. When to this was added the threat of "damnation" on those who did not believe, the case became far worse: for I felt that if such a threat were allowed to operate, I might become a Mohammedan or a Roman Catholic. Could I in any case rationally assign this as a ground for believing in Christ,--"because I am frightened by his threats"--? Farther thought showed me that a question of _logic_, such as I here had before me, was peculiarly one on which the propagator of a new religion could not be allowed to dictate; for if so, every false system could establish itself. Let Hindooism dictate our logic,--let us submit to its tests of a divine revelation, and its mode of applying them,--and we may, perhaps, at once find ourselves necessitated to "become little children" in a Brahminical school. Might not then this very thing account
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