7257. RELIGION, Reason and.—
Dispute
as long as we will on religious tenets,
our reason at last must ultimately decide, as
it is the only oracle which God has given us
to determine between what really comes from
Him and the phantasms of a disordered or
deluded imagination. When He means to
make a personal revelation, He carries conviction
of its authenticity to the reason He
has bestowed as the umpire of truth. You
believe you have been favored with such a
special communication. Your reason, not
mine, is to judge of this; and if it shall be
His pleasure to favor me with a like admonition,
I shall obey it with the same fidelity
with which I would obey His known will in
all cases.—
To Miles King. Washington ed. vi, 387.
(M.
1814)
