Note.--When I received the epistle from Mr. D, a skeptic, my father was on a visit at my house. I handed it to him and requested him to write a suitable answer; with an engagement that I would write an answer without seeing his, and that his should be written without seeing mine; that we should then read them and put it to vote which should be published. When written and read, we voted them "both best," and agreed that both should be published. Accordingly, without further ceremony, I lay his before the reader. It ought to be stated that he promised to confine himself to the mere difficulties.

EDITOR.      

      SIR--In adverting to that part of your letter containing the difficulties which occurred to your mind in your re-examination of the evidences for the truth of divine revelation, with your request for a satisfactory solution; I perceive you assign me a task of no small magnitude, to the accomplishment of which two things appear indispensably necessary; viz. a competent ability on my part to propose a just and adequate solution, and on your part a capacity or state of mind competent to receive it; neither of which might be the case, and yet the difficulties not insolvable. In the mean time, however, before we attempt things so remote and apparently arduous, let us advert to things contiguous and which lie immediately before us; by this means we shall advance better prepared to encounter those huge and apparently insuperable difficulties, or they may vanish as we approach, and, like imaginary mountains upon the verge of a distant horizon, totally disappear. Two things which involve the whole are obvious and tangible; namely, the Bible and the World. The former of which corresponds as exactly to the latter as the reflection of the face in a glass answers to the face reflected. The Bible presents us with a certain description of human nature, that is, of the dispositions, conditions, conduct, and characters of mankind; and, at the same time, in connexion with this, with a correspondent display of the divine procedure towards mankind, either as approbatory or disapprobatory; on the one side proposing and conferring rewards or privileges; on the other, denouncing and executing punishments or privations. All this we find, both by our own and by universal experience, to be correct. The description exactly agrees with the thing described. The effects and consequences perfectly corresponding to the approbatory or disapprobatory annunciations, whether we trace them upon the ample and diversified page of universal history; or upon the more limited page of our actual experience and observation. We every where perceive a perfect coincidence between that which is and has been the character and condition of mankind, both individually and collectively, with the effects and consequences; and what the Bible presents us upon these topics;--the actual providence of God in the series of events perfectly corresponding to that which is written. Besides this display of facts, of which there can exist no doubt to him who will avail himself of the existing and obvious documents, the Bible further informs us of two things of which we must otherwise have remained entirely ignorant, as evidently appears from the existent state of all the nations that have not received it. Namely, how things came to be as they are; and what will be the future consequences after the termination of the present state of things. Of the truth and propriety of these two latter items of the divine testimony there are and have been great diversities of opinion, many difficulties and objections have originated to inquisitive minds, which, for aught I know, have never been, nor possibly can be resolved in this life: their truth and propriety, however, have never been attempted to be disproved by contrary testimony, and, I presume, never will. No credible witnesses ever have been, nor, I again presume, ever [296] can be produced to prove the contrary of what is recorded in the first three chapters of Genesis or in the last three of Revelations, whatever doubts may arise concerning the wisdom, the goodness or the equity of the proceedings and events therein recorded. Whereas much and satisfactory evidence has been and can be produced to evince the truth, that is, the divine authority and authenticity of these portions of the sacred record. But to come to the difficulties which you suggest, through the proper medium, let us first see how the quantum of evil, both physical and moral, which the bible and matter, of fact, or, in other words, universal experience present to our consideration, may be shown to be consistent with the attributes of prescience, goodness, and power, which the bible, and the common consent of all that receive it as a divine revelation, ascribe to God. The bible and all that receive it in its proper character, indeed all that are tolerably well acquainted with the history of the world, with the past and present condition of mankind, do and must acknowledge that a vast and almost endless variety of evils, physical and moral, vex, torment, harass, and oppress the world; and that this has been the case from the earliest ages. The bible in the meantime informing, us that the physical evils are the just and proper results and consequences of the moral; and that they are ordained by God as punishments, preventives, or correctives; and also that they shall not cease with the present state, but shall continue to afflict the wicked and impenitent during the whole course of their existence in a future state, for ever and ever. Now if penal evil be inseparably connected with moral in the constitution of things; if it be the just and settled order of the divine government, as the bible and universal experience testify, why should we suppose it to cease to afflict the wicked in a future state more than in the present: and that there will be a resurrection and future state of the wicked the bible most expressly testifies? And if it be not inconsistent with the prescience, goodness, and power of God to be the creator, preserver, and governor of such a world as this is, and has been now for near six thousand years; a very sink of moral evil, and constantly oppressed, racked, and torn to pieces with physical evil: why should we suppose it to be inconsistent with these divine perfections to continue the same for any indefinite duration? Upon what principle should we plead for its consistency with the above attributes to continue such a state of things for six thousand years, that might not as well apply, for aught that we know, to sixty thousand years? And if it be a just decision that the "wicked should travail in pain all his days," supposing him to live one thousand years; upon what principle should we show it to be an unjust decision supposing him to live one hundred thousand years? And if all the torture and torment that is and has been excruciating the human family for so many thousand years, has been compatible with the "untroubled felicity of the God of compassion;" may there not be similar or tantamount reasons that would render it compatible with his untroubled felicity, nay, with his infinite wisdom, goodness, and mercy to continue the punishment of the wicked to endless duration? Upon what principle should we suppose it? If he punish the wicked because they are wicked, from his essential and just abhorrence of their wickedness, because of its intrinsic malignity; shall we suppose he will ever change in this respect? And, should we farther suppose that the sufferings inflicted and endured in this world on account of sin are relatively useful to the purposes of the divine government; by what reason or upon what principle should we attempt to prove that the continued manifestation of the divine displeasure upon the wicked for their wickedness might not be equally useful to the purposes of the divine government in relation to a future state? In short, upon what premises soever we attempt to reconcile the present condition of the world to the revealed character of God, the same or similar premises will reconcile to the divine character the fixture state of rewards and punishments revealed in the bible.

      Upon the whole, the investigation of this subject, if duly considered, has a powerful tendency to impress our minds with two important conclusions. The one is, as the bible happily expresses it, "Who by searching can find out God? Who can know the Almighty to perfection? It is high as heaven, what can you do? It is deeper than hell, what can you know? The measure thereof is wider than the earth; it is broader than the sea. How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out?" The other is, How heinously malignant the nature, and how dreadful the consequences of sin! What a world of misery, what an infinity of evil has its introduction occasioned! To what a stretch of condescension and goodness has God vouchsafed to condescend, in sending his only begotten Son into the world, that we might be saved through him, from this deadly evil!

T. CAMPBELL.      

[The Christian Baptist, January 1, 1827, pp. 296-297.]

      Thomas Campbell's "To Mr. D, a Sceptic.--Replication No. V." was first published in The Christian Baptist, Vol. IV, No. 6, January 1, 1827. The electronic version of the letter has been produced from the College Press (1983) reprint of The Christian Baptist, ed. Alexander Campbell (Cincinnati: D. S. Burnet, 1835), pp. 296-297.

      D.'s letter "To the Editor of the Christian Baptist" appears in The Christian Baptist, Vol. IV, No. 2, September 7, 1826, pp. 270-271. Alexander Campbell's four-part response to the letter appears in No. 2, September 7, 1826, pp. 271-272; No. 3, October 2, 1826, pp. 273-275; No. 4, November 6, 1826, pp. 281-282; No. 5, December 4, 1826, pp. 288-289.

      Pagination in the electronic version has been represented by placing the page number in brackets following the last complete word on the printed page. I have let stand variations and inconsistencies in the author's (or editor's) use of italics, capitalization, punctuation, and spelling in the letter.

      Addenda and corrigenda are earnestly solicited.

Ernie Stefanik
Derry, PA

Created 8 January 1998.
Updated 7 July 2003.