Facts and Questions
Dec 10th, 2008 by David
Facts and Questions, by John Leland, is excerpted from Miscellaneous Essays in Prose and Verse, published around 1810.
Jews, Christians, and Deists, all believe in the unity of God. Jews have Jehovah, Christians have Immanuel, and Deists have their Deity. The Jews believe in Jehovah, and receive the Old Testament as a revelation from God; but do not believe that Christ was the promised Messiah, nor that the New Testament is of divine inspiration. The Christians believe in Jehovah, and in the divinity of the Old Testament; they also believe in Immanuel, as Jehovah incarnate, and receive the New Testament as divinely authentic. The Deists believe neither in the God of Moses, nor in the God of Christians; but (borrowing language from the Bible, a book which they detest,) speak very sublimely of Deity.
Query. Is there a man on Earth, (where the gospel of Christ is known,) who gives any evidence, by the temper of his mind and his external conduct, that he loves the Supreme Deity and rejoices in his government; who, at the same time will satirize the Christians’ God, and reprobate the New Testament? I believe not. And if my faith is well founded, infidelity takes its rise in the baseness of the heart.
Again. If a company of men had a vast and valuable inheritance, secured to them by a writing as well authenticated as the Bible, would they not feel well satisfied with their charter? The inheritance of pardon of sin and a resurrection to eternal life, is chartered in the scriptures, and no where else. The light of nature and the laws of nations—philosophy and state policy—have no concern in it.