New Testaments could not have been received at the time they were
written, if they had not been true, because the priesthoods of Levi and
of Christ,--the observance of the Sabbath, the passover, and
circumcision,--the ordinances of baptism and the eucharist, are there
represented as descending by uninterrupted succession from the time of
their respective institution. 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."

"True, 'as the fool thinks.' The proverb is somewhat stale. I marvel
thou findest not its application to thine own bias, perdie!"

"At any rate, if I am fooled, I am none the worse for my belief, if my
creed be not true; but if man, as thou wouldest fain hope, is like the
beasts that perish, I am still at quits with thee. And if this dream of
thine should prove but a dream, and thou shouldest awake--to the horrors
of the pit, and the torments of the worm that dieth not!"

"Peace, thou croaker! I did not send for thee to prophesy, but to prove;
I would break a lance and hold a tilt at thine argument. Now, I have a
weapon in reserve which shall break down thy defences--the web of thy
reasoning shall vanish. The fear of punishment, and the hope of future
reward, held out as a bait to the cowardly and the selfish,