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A Series of Letters, in Defence of Divine Revelation: In Reply to Rev. Abner Kneeland's Serious Inquiry into the Authenticity of the Same. To Which is Added, a Religious Correspondence, Between the Rev. Hosea Ballou, and the Rev. Dr. Joseph Buckminster and Rev. Joseph Walton, Pastors of Congregational Churches in Portsmouth, N. H.Ballou, Hosea

Religion

A Series of Letters, in Defence of Divine Revelation: In Reply to Rev. Abner Kneeland's Serious Inquiry into the Authenticity of the Same. To Which is Added, a Religious Correspondence, Between the Rev. Hosea Ballou, and the Rev. Dr. Joseph Buckminster and Rev. Joseph Walton, Pastors of Congregational Churches in Portsmouth, N. H.

Name: A Series of Letters, in Defence of Divine Revelation: In Reply to Rev. Abner Kneeland's Serious Inquiry into the Authenticity of the Same. To Which is Added, a Religious Correspondence, Between the Rev. Hosea Ballou, and the Rev. Dr. Joseph Buckminster and Rev. Joseph Walton, Pastors of Congregational Churches in Portsmouth, N. H.
Author: Ballou, Hosea

Ballou, Hosea

Revelation; Universalism -- Doctrines

"I have nothing to object to the picture which you have given of the
life and religion of Mahomet; and as to what I have said in regard to
the conversion and influence of Constantine, in giving a particular
tone to the christian religion, you are not disposed to disagree with
me: and at the same time you are 'by no means certain that a proper
attention to the pretended miracles of the Shakers might not issue in
assigning a natural cause for them.' Of all this I have no doubt. But,
that these miracles are believed by the Shakers, you do not undertake
to deny; nor that their religion, their faith in Ann, as being Christ
in his second coming, and that their present mode of worship are all
predicated upon them. They do not deny the miracles of Christ and his
apostles any more than Christians in general deny the miracles of
Moses and the prophets; but appeal to _theirs_ as being equally of
divine origin, and thereby clothing their religion with the same
divine authority. Now, unless these things can be accounted for 'in a
rational way,' which you seem to think may be the case, though you do
not attempt it, they certainly raise a query in the mind at least
whether the miracles recorded in scripture rest upon any better
foundation.

"If a thing is absolutely known or believed to be miraculous, it is
miraculous; (at least to those who thus believe) and whether any thing
can be justly argued from the inferiority or superiority of a miracle,
I know not. In the raising of Lazarus, it is true, though the effect
was the same, we discover as great a miracle, and perhaps greater,
than in the raising of a son of the Shunamite by Elisha the prophet; 2
Kings iv. 34, 35, but the miracle of the resurrection of Jesus can
hardly be said to have been wrought either by Jesus or by his
apostles, and therefore that was not particularly referred to in the
comparison of miracles; neither do I know that the comparison, in any
sense, has much weight. Whether Lazarus ever died again or not we are
not informed: neither do I recollect of ever hearing an opinion on the
subject; but, if he died, it seems that his resurrection must have
been very different from the resurrection of Jesus; i.e. to an
immortal state, so that he 'dieth no more.'

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.