"Permit me therefore to state again, that whatever might have been my opinion respecting the writings of the apostles, I did not mean to suggest, and much less to affirm in that sentence 'that they stated that which is not true!'--Neither did I mean to acknowledge in that sentence that they had stated 'no more' than what is true, at least in _substance_; but I did mean this, and this only, that admitting those things were true, all would admit that the design of the apostles was nothing _more_ than to state the truth of those things in _substance_; because all would acknowledge that they were not careful to be correct as to every _minutiae_. But as this makes nothing either for or against the main point, I wish to add no more respecting it, than simply to remark, that even if the apostles had gone on the opposite extreme of what I meant I should not think them 'deserving of _no credit_.' Supposing they had descended into _minutiae_, and related, to an exact nicety, every particular circumstance (which is exactly the reverse of what I mean to state), would they on this account have been deserving of _no credit_? I think not. Considering the time, however, which had elapsed after the facts are said to have taken place, before a history of them was given in writing, I think the evangelists are entitled to _more credit_, on the whole, than what they would have been if their testimony had borne the complexion last mentioned. "To close this letter, which perhaps is already too long, I would here acknowledge that as I have expressed doubts in the subject of divine revelation, you have a right to hear my reasons for doubting. These I promised to give you (as I thought) at the close of my fourth number. You have informed me, verbally, that I promised to give you my _doubts_ only. If I did so, it was only a slip of the pen, to which I am too prone; it was my _reasons for doubting_, which I meant to have promised you; and in my next I shall endeavor to fulfil that promise. "Yours, &c. A. KNEELAND." * * * * * LETTER V. _Dear sir, and brother_,--Your fifth and sixth numbers were received together, and will be noticed in the order in which they came to hand. You observe that you know of no better evidence that "there ever was such a story reported among the Jews, in the days of the apostles, than there is to prove the actual resurrection of Jesus," &c. This suggestion leads to the following queries. 1st. Was there in the days of the apostles, such a man known in the country of the Jews, as Jesus Christ? 2d. Was this man put to death, as the four evangelists and others testify? 3d. Did the apostles declare to the people who put him to death, that they knew that he had arisen from the dead? 4th. If the Jews who put Jesus to death could go to his sepulchre and show his dead body to the people, would the story of the resurrection ever have gained any credit among the Jews?