If it ends in a belief that there is no God, you will find incitements to virtue in the comfort and pleasantness you feel in its exercise, and the love of others which it will procure you. Do not be frightened from this inquiry by any fear of its consequences. Keep in your eye the opposite pretensions: 1, of those who say he was begotten by God, born of a virgin, suspended & reversed the laws of nature at will, & ascended bodily into heaven and 2, of those who say he was a man of illegitimate birth, of a benevolent heart, enthusiastic mind, who set out without pretensions to divinity, ended in believing them, and was punished capitally for sedition, by being gibbeted, according to the Roman law, which punished the first commission of that offence by whipping, & the second by exile, or death in fureâ. It is the history of a personage called Jesus. Is this arrest of the earth's motion, or the evidence which affirms it, most within the law of probabilities? You will next read the New Testament. On the other hand you are astronomer enough to know how contrary it is to the law of nature that a body revolving on its axis as the earth does, should have stopped, should not by that sudden stoppage have prostrated animals, trees, buildings, and should after a certain time have resumed its revolution, & that without a second general prostration. The pretension is entitled to your inquiry, because millions believe it. Examine therefore candidly what evidence there is of his having been inspired. But it is said that the writer of that book was inspired. Were we to read that fact in Livy or Tacitus we should class it with their showers of blood, speaking of statues, beasts, &c. For example in the book of Joshua we are told the sun stood still several hours.
Examine upon what evidence his pretensions are founded, and whether that evidence is so strong, as that its falsehood would be more improbable than a change in the laws of nature, in the case he relates.
Here you must recur to the pretensions of the writer to inspiration from God. But those facts in the Bible which contradict the laws of nature, must be examined with more care, and under a variety of faces. The testimony of the writer weighs in their favor, in one scale, and their not being against the laws of nature, does not weigh against them. The facts which are within the ordinary course of nature, you will believe on the authority of the writer, as you do those of the same kind in Livy and Tacitus. Read the Bible, then as you would read Livy or Tacitus. You will naturally examine first, the religion of your own country. Question with boldness even the existence of a God because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear.
Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion.
shake off all the fears & servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. In the first place, divest yourself of all bias in favor of novelty & singularity of opinion. Your reason is now mature enough to examine this object.
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