|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 4
The Author has been earnestly dissuaded from making public the
contents of this volume on account of apprehended mischievous
consequences. He thought, however, that the age of pious frauds
ought to be past, and their principle discarded, at least in Protestant
countries. Deception and error are always, sooner or later,
discovered; and truth in, the long run, both in politics, and religion,
will never be ultimately harmful. If what the Book states is true, it
ought to be known, if it is erroneous; it can, and will, be refuted.
The Author therefore makes it public, for these reasons,--because
he thinks, that the matter contained in the book, is true, and
important,--because he wished, and found it necessary to justify
himself from contemptible misrepresentations uttered behind his
back; and to give to those who know him, good and sufficient
reasons for past conduct, of which those to whom he is known,
cannot be ignorant; and finally, he thought it right, and proper, and
humane, to give to the world a work which contained the reasons
for the unbelief of the countrymen of Jesus; who for almost
eighteen hundred years have been made the unresisting victims of,
as the reader will find, groundless misrepresentation, and the most
amazing cruelty; because they refused to believe what it was
impossible that they should believe, on account of reasons their
persecutors did not know, and refused to be informed of.
If the arguments and statements contained in this volume should be
found to be correct, he believes that every honest and candid man,
after his first surprise that they should not have been made known
before, will feel for the victims of a mistake so singular and so
ancient as the one which is the subject of the following pages; and
will think with the author, that it is time, high time, that the truth
should be known, and justice be done to them.*
There is not in existence a more singular instance of the
mischievous mistakes arising from taking things for granted which
require proof, than the case before the reader. The world has all
along been in total error with regard to the reasons and the motives
which have prevented the Hebrew nation from receiving the
system of the New Testament. They have been successfully
accused of incorrigible blindness and obstinacy; and while
volumes upon volumes have been written against them, and the
arguments therein contained, supported and enforced by the power
of the Inquisition, and the oppressions of all Christendom, these
unfortunate people have not been willingly suffered to offer to the
world one word in their own defence. They have not been
allowed, after hearing with patience both arguments, and �railing
accusations� in abundance, to answer in their turn; but have been
compelled, through the fear of confiscation, persecution, and death,
to leave misapprehensions unexplained, and misrepresentations
unrefuted.
Is it then to be wondered at, that mankind have considered their
adversaries as in the right, and that deserted by reason, and even
their own Scriptures, they were supported in their opinion only by
a blind and pertinacious obstinacy, more worthy of wonder than
curiosity? Alas! the world did not consider, that nothing was more
easy than to confute people whose tongues were frozen by the
terror of the Inquisition!! But, thanks to the good sense of this
enlightened age, those times are past and gone. There is now one
happy country where freedom of speech is allowed, where every
harmless religious opinion is protected by law, and where every
opinion is listened to that is supported by reason. The time, I trust,
is now come when the substantial arguments of this oppressed,
and, in this respect, certainly calumniated, people, may be
produced and their reasons set forth, without the fear of harm, and
with, and with the hope of hearing from the intelligent and the
candid. They, we believe, will be fully convinced, that their
adversaries have for so long a time triumphed over them without
measure, only because they have been suffered to do so without
contradiction.
The reader is assured, that, notwithstanding the subject, he will
find nothing in this volume but what is considered by the author to
be fair and liberal argument; and such no honest man ought to
decline looking in the face. He has endeavoured to discuss the
important subject of the book in the most inoffensive manner; for
he has no wish, and claims no right, to wound the feelings of those
who differ from him in opinion. There is not, nor ought there to be,
a word of reproach in it, against the moral character of Jesus, or the
twelve Apostles; and the utmost the author attempts to prove is,
that their system was founded, not upon fraud and imposture, but
upon a mistake. After the deaths of Christ and his Apostles, it was
indeed aided and supported by very bad means; but its first
founders, the author believes, were guilty of no other crime than
that of being mistaken; a very common one indeed.
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|