The Treatise of Prochorus. The Books of St. Linus. The Treatise of Abdias. The Acts of the Passion of St. Andrew. Books full of errors, almost all of them lost. The Gospel of St. Peter. The Gospel of Barnabas. The Gospel of Truth by the Valentinians. The Gospel of Eve by the Gnosticks. A Book concerning the infancy of Jesus Christ. A Treatise concerning the birth of our Saviour, the virgin Mary, and her Midwife. A Treatise concerning the virgin's lying-in, and the questions she asked. A Treatise of the Nativity of the virgin Mary, cited by St. Jerome. The Apocryphal Treatise of the life of the Virgin, cited by St. Gregory Nyssene. Another Apocryphal Book on the Virgin, cited by Faustus. The writings of Jesus Christ about Miracles. The Acts of St. Peter. The Acts of St. Paul. The Acts of St. Andrew. The Acts of St. John. The Acts of St. Thomas. The Doctrine, Preachings, and Itinerary of St. Peter. The Rapture of St. Paul. The Memoirs of the Apostles. The Lots of the Apostles. The Itinerary of the Apostles. 1 The Treatise concerning the Priesthood of Jesus Christ. The Apostolical Tract. The Treatise of the death and assumption of the Virgin. The Apocalypses or Revelations of St. Peter. The Revelations of St. Paul. The Revelations of St. Thomas. The Revelations of St. Stephen. The Revelations of the Great Apostle. The Revelations of Abraham. The Revelations of Seth. The Revelations of Noriah. Thus have I laid before your lordship, a catalogue of the whole of the works that have been attributed to the Deity by Jews and Christians. Now the question is, which of these books are we to receive as the word of God, and which are we to reject? Here am I, for instance, just come into the world, and I am told that the Deity has revealed certain things to his creatures, contained in certain books, and that unless I believe in these books, without doubt I shall be damned. I inquire what these books are; and the catalogue is given to me, just as I have transcribed it. What! I exclaim, has the Deity written all these books? No, says your lordship, only about a tenth part of them; the whole of the others are forgeries and fictions invented by wicked men. then go back to the first ages of the Christian religion, and inquire of the various sects that then existed, which books are the genuine productions of the Deity? Every sect tells me different books, and each sect denies the genuineness of the books of every other sect. What then am I to do? Who am I to believe ? Such is the position that a man is placed in, who inquires into the truth of the Christian religion. I Does this not show your lordship's unreasonableness, in abusing people because they hesitate in believing in the Bible ? How can they believe it? Does the evidence of one sect not neutralize that of the other, and render it impossible for a man to believe in the evidence of any; for how can a man believe in opposite and contradictory testimonies ? Your own evidence then, my Lord, is sufficient of itself to determine the point at issue, that the Bible is not the word of God. And are we to believe that the Deity left his creatures in this condition? Are we to believe that he wrote certain books, for the instruction and guidance of his creatures, and that he left these books without any marks or signs wherewith to distinguish them from the forgeries of men? The Church of Rome, for instance, at this day, enumerates about a dozen books as the word of God which the Protestant Church declares are spurious; and so with every other Church, some receiving what another rejects, and rejecting what another receives; and so it has been from the very beginning of the Christian Church. Are we then to believe that the Deity left his creatures in this bewildered condition; without any knowledge to distinguish the genuine from the spurious; to discriminate between those books, the belief of which can alone secure our happiness hereafter, and those which are forged by men? To suppose that the Deity had no more regard for his creatures, is to impeach the attribute of infinite goodness which Christians themselves ascribe to him. Had the Deity written any books necessary to the eternal happiness of his creatures, he would have impressed upon them marks whereby his creatures could not mistake them; but since he has not done this, since none of the books enumerated in the above catalogue, present these marks, because his creatures do mistake them, it follows that the Deity has written none of them, but that they are the forgeries of men, used as an engine to draw out of the pockets of the people means whereby the few may live in idleness at the expense of the many. And to show further the absurdity of believing that the devoted every minute of his time to the giving of the people that information necessary to their salvation, and the fact of his not doing this, is proof sufficient for me that he was no more the Son of God than Simon Magus, or any of the other bewildered mortals that figured at that time. Only think of the wrangling and fighting in the world, for the want of information respecting Jesus Christ; and yet when Christ had an opportunity of giving this information, he wasted his time in working as a carpenter. But where is Christ now? An orthodox Christian will tell us that he is sitting on the right hand of God, waiting for the day of judgment. It is useless sacrificing one's rationality to the ignorance, and bigotry, and priestcraft of the age, I should say that if Christ be there, he would be much better employed were he to come down upon the earth, and endeavour to relieve the people from some of their sufferings. If he be there, he must know that the human race have been fighting and quarrelling for nearly two thousand years for want of information respecting him, and seeing that he neglected to give this information when he was upon the earth, it is not unreasonable to wish him to give that information now. We value human beings in proportion to the amount of good they do to their fellow-creatures, and I see no reason for not valuing Jesus Christ in the same manner. If, therefore, Christ be sitting at the right hand of God, it argues a want of feeling on his part, to sit there contented, seeing the people suffer, without interposing a hand to relieve them. I know that were I in a situation to relieve the people from their sufferings, my finite benevolence would induce me to do it, and if Christ's infinite benevolence has not the same stimulating power, it only shows that infinite benevolence is less benevolent than finite benevolence. My argument, my Lord, in relation to the disagree ment amongst Christians is not yet complete. In this Letter, we have only seen their disagreement in relation to the nature and character of Jesus Christ: we have yet to see their disagreement in relation to those books which they call the word of God; and this I propose to show your lordship in my next Letter; wherein Ĩ shall insert the whole of the works that have ever been attributed to the Deity, as being revelations of his will, comprising some hundreds, and which have been owned by the various sects of Jews and Christians from the days of Moses up to the present time. Hulme, May 28th, 1841. I remain, &c. C. J. HASLAM. The remaining 4 Letters, which will complete this work, will be published in four weeks. LETTERS TO THE CLERGY OF ALL DENOMINATIONS. The whole of these Letters are now re-printed, and may be had of the usual Booksellers. For the convenience of parties situated in towns where the Letters cannot be obtained from the Booksellers, I beg to state that I will forward by post either a complete set, or odd numbers, to any party who may send me an order to that effect. C. J. H. PRINTED BY C. J. HASLAM, HULME. |