The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 6 (of 9): Being His Autobiography, Correspondence, Reports, Messages, Addresses, and Other Writings, Official and PrivateJefferson, Thomas
History
The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 6 (of 9): Being His Autobiography, Correspondence, Reports, Messages, Addresses, and Other Writings, Official and Private
Jefferson, Thomas
United States -- Politics and government -- 1775-1783; United States -- Politics and government -- 1783-1865
DEAR SIR,--I owe you a thousand thanks for your favor of August 22d and
its enclosures, and for Dr. Priestley's doctrines of Heathen Philosophy
compared with those of Revelation. Your letter to Dr. Rush and the
syllabus, I return enclosed with this according to your injunctions,
though with great reluctance. May I beg a copy of both?
They will do you no harm; me and others much good.
I hope you will pursue your plan, for I am confident you will produce
a work much more valuable than Priestley's, though that is curious, and
considering the expiring powers with which it was written, admirable.
The bill in Parliament for the relief of Anti-Trinitarians, is a great
event, and will form an epoch in ecclesiastical history. The motion was
made by my friend Smith, of Clapham, a friend of the Belshams.
I should be very happy to hear that the bill is passed.
The human understanding is a revelation from its Maker which can never
be disputed or doubted. There can be no scepticism, Pyrrhonism, or
incredulity, or infidelity, here. No prophecies, no miracles are necessary
to prove the celestial communication.
This revelation has made it certain that two and one make three, and
that one is not three nor can three be one. We can never be so certain
of any prophecy, or the fulfilment of any prophecy, or of any miracle,
or the design of any miracle, as we are from the revelation of nature,
_i. e._, Nature's God, that two and two are equal to four. Miracles or
prophecies might frighten us out of our wits; might scare us to death;
might induce us to lie, to say that we believe that two and two make
five. But we should not believe it. We should know the contrary.
Had you and I been forty days with Moses on Mount Sinai, and been admitted
to behold the divine Shekinah, and there told that one was three and
three one, we might not have had courage to deny it, but we could not
have believed it.
The thunders, and lightnings, and earthquakes, and the transcendent
splendors and glories might have overwhelmed us with terror and amazement,
but we could not have believed the doctrine. We should be more likely to
say in our hearts whatever we might say with our lips,--This is chance.
There is no God, no truth. This is all delusion, fiction, and a lie, or
it is all chance. But what is chance? It is motion, it is action, it is
event, it is phenomenon without cause.
Chance is no cause at all, it is nothing. And nothing has produced all
this pomp and splendor. And nothing may produce our eternal damnation
in the flames of hell-fire and brimstone, for what we know, as well as
this tremendous exhibition of terror and falsehood.
God has infinite wisdom, goodness and power. He created the universe.
His duration is eternal, a parte ante and a parte post.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account