Thoughts on a RevelationJerram, S. J. (Samuel John)
Religion
Thoughts on a Revelation
Jerram, S. J. (Samuel John)
Revelation
What has been said in reference to an examination, instituted by persons
living at the time when a professed revelation was made, is obviously
applicable, in many respects, to those who should live in later times,
and also to the original recipients themselves. With regard to evidence
in later times, it may be added that the original believers in the
record, and their followers in each succeeding age, would naturally be
subjected to an examination, as to their truthfulness and intelligence,
and thus a chain of evidence would be continually kept up. The larger,
too, the number, and the more intelligent the character of those who
believed in it, the greater would be the presumption in its favour. If
the record were received generally by any nation, the _onus probandi_
would in that case lie with those who impugned it. The record itself
also would, from time to time, be submitted to such fair rules of
criticism as apply to other documents, the fact however being remembered,
that it professed to be the word of God, and, therefore, that evidence of
its authenticity, rather than of its exact coincidence with human reason,
was to be mainly looked for.
We have now indicated, although very briefly and imperfectly, a few
points for consideration, as to the transmission of a recorded
revelation, and what might constitute sufficient grounds for accepting it
as true; and we trust that what has been said will suffice to show that
there would be no great difficulty in so handing it down, as that it
should convey to the candid inquirer, in each succeeding age, reasonable
evidence of its reality.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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