The Writings of Solomon Spalding

Proved by Aron Wright Oliver Smith John Miller and others

The testimonies of the above Gentlemen are now in my possession

D P HURLBUT

Annexed to the foregoing are three pages of manuscript, in the same hand writing, apparently unconnected, and expressing the writer's sentiments as to revealed religion. The following is a literal copy:

But having evry reason to place the highest confidence in your friendship & prudence I have no reluctance in complying with your request in giving you my sentiments of the christian Religion— & so far from considering the freedom you took in making the request, impertinence, I view it as a mark of your [high esteem for me] affectionate solicitude for my happiness. In giving you my sentiments of the christian religion you will perceive [that I am not tramelled with traditionary & vulgar prejudice] That I do not believe certain facts [& certain facts] & certain propositions to be true merely because that my ancestors believed them — & because they are popular. — In forming my creed I bring everything to the standard of reason — [that intellectua] This is an unerring & sure guide in all matters of faith & practice. Having divested myself therefore of traditionary & vulgar prejudice & submiting to the guidance of reason it is impossible for me to have the same sentiments of the christian religion which its advocates consider as orthodoxy — It is in my view a mass of contradictions & an heterrogeneous mixture of wisdom & folly — nor can I find any clear & incontrovertable evidence of its being a revelation from an infinite benevolent & wise God. It is true that I never have had the leisure nor patience to read [the elaborate & learned productions of divines in its vindication] evry part of it with very critical attention or to study the metaphissical jargon of divines in its vindication — It is enough for me to know that propositions which are in contradiction to each other cannot both be true & that doctrines & facts which represent the Supreme Being as a barbarous & cruel tyrant can never be dictated by infinite wisdom. Whatever the clergy say to the contrary can have no effect in altering my sentiments. — I know as well as they that two & two make four & that three angles of a triangle are equal to two right ones. — But notwithstanding I disavow any belief in the divinity of the Bible & consider it a mere human production designed to enrich & agrandize its authors & to enable them to manage the multitude — yet casting aside a considerable mass of rubbish & fanatical rant, I find that it contains a system of ethicks or morals which cannot be excelled on account of their tendency to ameliorate the condition of man, & to promote individual social & public happiness, & that in various instances it represents the Almighty as possessing attributes worthy his trancendent character. Having a view therefore to those parts of the Bible which are truly good & excellent I sometimes speak of it in terms of high commendation—& indeed I am inclined to believe that notwithstanding the mischiefs & miseries which have been produced by the bigoted zeal of fanaticks & interested priests yet that such evils are more than counterbalanced in a christian land, by the benefits which result to the great mass of the people by their believing that the bible is of divine origin & that it contains a revelation from God. — Such being my view of the subject I suffer my candle to remain under to remain under, nor make no exertions to dissipate their happy delusions.

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