Produced by Charles Klingman
A
Letter
To the
Reverend Mr. Channing
Relative to
His Two Sermons
On
Infidelity
By George Bethune English, A.M.
Boston
Printed for the Author
1813
LETTER, &c.
Rev. Sir,
Your eloquent and interesting Sermons on Infidelity, I have read withthe interest arising from the nature of the subject you have discussed,and the impressive manner in which you have treated it.
As it is understood that the appearance of those Sermons was owing to aBook lately published by me, I request your pardon for a liberty I amabout to take, which in any other circumstances I should blush topresume upon-it is sir, with deference, and great respect, to expressmy sentiments with regard to some of the arguments contained in them,where the reasoning does not appear to me so unexceptionable as thelanguage in which it is enveloped, is eloquent and affecting. Thereare also some opinions of yours relative to matters of fact, in thosediscourses, to which I would respectfully solicit your attention.
It afforded me much pleasure, though it caused me no surprise, toperceive you to say in your introductory remarks, that these Sermonswere designed to procure for the arguments for Christianity "a serious,and respectful attention" and, that if you should "be so happy as toawaken candid and patient enquiry," your "principal object will beaccomplished" you wish, "that Christianity should be thoroughlyexamined," you do "not wish to screen it from enquiry." It would cease,you observe to be your support were you not "persuaded that it is ableto sustain the most deliberate investigation."
In considering Christianity as a fair subject for discussion, you dojustice to the cause you so eloquently defend for Christianity itselfhonestly, and openly professes to offer itself, to the belief of allmankind solely on account of the reasons which support it; and sinceits learned, and liberal advocates always announce, and recommend itfrom the Pulpit as reasonable in itself and confirmed by unanswerablearguments; no one who believes them sincere can doubt, that they areperfectly willing to have its claims openly discussed and thinkthemselves amply able to give valid reasons, "for the faith that is inthem," and which they so earnestly invite all men to receive.
You observe, p. 13, that the writings of Infidels, "have been injuriousnot so much by the strength of their arguments, as by the positive, andcontemptuous manner In which they speak of Revelation, they abound insarcasm, abuse, and sneer, and supply the place of reasoning, by witand satire." If so sir, it is all in favor of the cause you defend; forthe tiny weapons of wit, and ridicule, will assuredly fly to shiversunder a few blows from the solid, and massy club of sound logic. Theman who attacks any system of Religion merely with wit, and ridicule,can never, I conceive, be a very formidable antagonist.
The mental imbecility of the man who could touch such a subject asreligion in any shape with no other arms, would render him a harmlessadversary, and the intrinsic weakness of such shining but slenderweapons, when encountered with something more solid, would eventuallyrender him a contemptible one, I therefore cannot help doubting, thatwit and ridicule alone, and unsupported by reasoning, and goodreasoning too, could ever have been very successfully wielded againstsuch a thing as the Christian Religion, by its opposers.
No man it appears to me of common understanding will ever resign hisreligion on account of a few jokes,