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    No one can have a higher opinion of the-iea-rning ^ candour and diligence of D r * Lardner in the investigation of scriptural truths than I have \ and so

    much light do the events which have occurred , shicethe time of his writing , throw upon the prophecies of Daniel and John , that I persuade myself were he bow alive he would not find them

    so unintelligible as he seems to have done ; and from the important information they afford ^ would have learnt better to appreciate the worth of that evidence whidli he so laboriously studied to deduce frotn the writings of those first corrupters of the genuine

    doctrines of Christ ' gospel , the fathers of that apostate church which was afterwards established by Constantine . But , however that might have been , surely , my dear Sir , " jurare in verba magistri" is much more unbecoming a Christian , than the Roman poet

    thought it of a Pagan philosopher , unless that master be Christ , whose dictates the Apocalypse claims to he . If the passages I have quoted from St . Paul's Epistles , can have any rational meaning , without supposing them to refer to the visions of the Apocalypse *

    it would give me inexpressible satisfaction to see that meaning explained , for it is not in my power to find it out . If they do really refer to these prophetic visions , of which I have no

    doubt , I am as certain that the only book containing them must have been "written in the reign of Claudius * or at least of Nero , as I am when I see characters aod passages in Terence ' s Comedies referred to in Cicero ' s Ora »

    lions , though the dramatic poet be not named , that Terence wrote them before the Dictatorship of Julius Caesar * , If your hypothesis , indeed , could be maintained , that the same series of

    prophetic visions which were revealed to John , at a later period , had been before revealed to Paul , my conclusion would not be just . But I can see no

    more reason why such an extraordinary series of emblematic visions , under the New Covenant , should have * This certainly was not my meaning- , but merely that some of the events might liaye been supernaturally communicated to Paul , whic'h were afterwards represented more fully and in a regular series of visions to John .

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    been communicated to moire than one of the apostles * than that Daniel ® visions of the same kind * should have been vouchsafed also to another prophet under the Old . I aim not inclined to believe , that any miraculous interpositions ever occur in the course of the

    Divine Providence , except such as are absolutely necessary to answer some great and beneficial purpose ,. Therefore ? I can hardly think you mean seriously to advance such a

    supposition , which not only seems highly improbable in itself , but is entirely unwarranted by any thing that St . Paul has said himself , or by any other document whatsoever .

    With respect to the queries you put towards the close of your obliging letter , I fancy they will not in the least invalidate my position , that without understanding these prophecies , it is not possible to discriminate rightly the plain essential truths of the gospelP from the superstitious doctrines of the

    antichristian apostacyo The situation of the generality of the professors of the Christian faith must remains , till these prophecies are generally understood , just what you yourself must acknowledge it to have been , from the period of the formation of the Gothic kingdoms in the South of Europe to the time of the Reformation , and I

    think to the present hour ; and suchD indeed , as these visions predict , it will remain till the apostate church is destroyed . At present , my dear Sir * do you know one single religious society , who , for fear of receiving as the word of God , the unfounded doctrines

    of erring men , have well discriminated the spurious from , the authentic books and passages of the received canonical Scriptures ? Or one in which even the Lord ' s Prayer , given by Luke , is taught or used , according to what Griesbach and Archbishop Newcome have shewn to be the true and ofisrinal

    form in which our Saviour taught it ? Such subjects , however , are too copious for epistolary correspondence , and 1 beg pardon for having detained you so long . I remain , Dear Sir , With sincere'respect , Your faithful humble servant , ¦ EDWARD EVANS 0 N-

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    10 Letter from the late Mev * Edward Evanson to the Mew . Thomas Howe *

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1818, page 10, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2472/page/10/