"I acknowledge it does not; neither do I expect to disprove them. I admit that revelation, and of course the christian religion may possibly be founded in truth, notwithstanding the truth of all that I have as yet urged, or shall urge against it. But I call on you, sir, to disprove the miracles and revelation which I have mentioned, of a more modern date, or else acknowledge their truth. If you acknowledge the truth of those miracles, I shall expect you will conform to the religion predicated upon them; and of course forsake your bosom companion (which I presume would be a much greater cross than ever you have yet taken up,) and also your darling offspring (or else take them with you) and go and live with the Shakers!!! But if you prove them false, it will only be that people may become so infatuated as to believe in miracles which are spurious.
"For notwithstanding the smallness of the numbers of this people, which by the way, are considerable; and notwithstanding the contemptible view in which they have been, and still are held by the world; yet, you may find it more difficult to prove the falsity of their pretended miracles than at present you are aware; for they are very well attested; and some of the witnesses are still living, or were so when their testimony was first published; as also, if I recollect right, some of the persons on whom the miracles were said to have been wrought; who, no doubt, would still testify to the same things. If they testify falsely, who can help it?—Although thousands may believe to the contrary; many of whom being too in situations, probably to have known these things, if true; yet I believe it would be difficult, and very difficult indeed, to find any who could absolutely say that those things did not take place.
"And if there is a people now existing among us, in different parts of the country, and in different, but large extensive families, whose manners, customs, and worship are all very different from ours, and who believe in miracles on which their religion is said to have been founded; and if those miracles, although not founded in truth, cannot now be proved false, notwithstanding they are said to have taken place in our own country, and ever since we were born, I would ask, ought any one to be censured for not giving full credit to miracles said to have been wrought, all of them nearly two, and most of them above three thousand years ago; and among a people too, of which we know but very little? I say, ought any one to be censured for doing this, although he should not be able to prove any of those miracles false?
"I conclude I shall not be censured for not believing in the miracles said to have been wrought by the Shakers; but let the government undertake to annihilate that blind and superstitious class of people: let them increase their numbers by persecution, which, like the effects of all other persecutions, undoubtedly they would; let them, in the course of two or three centuries, get the reins of government into their own hands;[3] let them then follow the example of Constantine in demolishing the temples of the heathen gods; let them demolish every steepled meeting-house, and introduce an entire new order of things; let them also remake their scriptures, change in some degree their mode of worship and manner of living, and fix every thing to the policy of the state; let the old opposition be entirely extinguished, and new sects spring up among themselves; let this be the order of things for a number of centuries, and then let a man call in question the truth of Shaker miracles or Shaker revelation, and he must do it as his peril! It would undoubtedly cost him his life!
[Footnote 3: Were it not for other causes besides that of
Christianity, I should think this full as likely as it was that
Christianity should ever get the reins of government, judging from
what Christianity was when it had existed no longer than the Shakers.]
"I might also mention here another person now living in the western part of the state of New-York, who also makes pretensions to be Christ in his second coming, and in imitation of him has chosen twelve as immediate apostles, and who has a considerable number of followers. But as this person is still living, and it is uncertain whether the sect will take much root, I choose to pass it over in silence.
"I shall only call your attention to one circumstance more, and then dismiss my second proposition.
"You very well recollect, I presume, the account given by Mrs. A——, of W——, N. H. in which she affirms that she saw and conversed with her husband, Mr. John A——, for about an hour and a half, who appeared to her some considerable time, I believe about three months, after he had been dead! This is no fiction. Mrs. A—— is still living, and still affirms to the truth of what she has testified; which account you know was published by two respectable witnesses who took it down, for that purpose, from her lips.
"It is true, there has been but very little said in the world respecting this matter, and I presume, for this plain and obvious reason; the account did not correspond with the views of what is termed orthodoxy in Christianity. If if had, i. e. if he had brought as much tidings concerning the supposed hell in another world, as he did respecting the supposed heaven, the account would have been published in every magazine, in every religious tract, and in every periodical work throughout the globe! Why not so, as well as many accounts which were similar in other respects? But as this account did not favour such views, it is left to die in oblivion.
"As the particulars of this account, however, make nothing either in favour or against my present purpose, I shall not occupy time and room to relate it. Suffice it only to say, if there were no mistake or deception in the matter, this account can be nothing short of a revelation from God; as much so as any revelation which has ever been made from God to man.