Letter to James Arlington Bennet, 13 November 1843
Source Note
JS, Letter, , IL, to , , New Utrecht, NY, 13 Nov. 1843; handwriting of ; dockets in handwriting of and ; nine pages; JS Collection, CHL. Includes dockets.
very well one question, or problem is solved by figures. Now let me ask one for facts: was there ever such a place on the earth, as Egypt? Geography says, yes; ancient history says, yes, and the bible says, yes, so three witnesses have solved that question. Again: lived there ever such a man as Moses in Egypt? The same witnesses reply, certainly. And was he a prophet? The same witnesses <or a part,> have left an record, that Moses predicted in Leviticus, that if Israel broke the covenant they had made, the Lord would scatter thence among the nations till the land enjoyed her sabbaths: and subsequently <these witnesses> have testified of their captivity in Babylon and other places in fulfilment. But to make assurance doubly sure, Moses prayes that the ground might open and swallow up Korah and his company for transgression, and it was so: And he endorses the prophecy of Balaam, which said, Out of Jacob shall come, he that shall have dominion and shall destroy him that remaineth of the city; And JudetheApostleof Jesus Christ fifteenhundredyearsafter,as “as him that had dominion,” came about fifteen hundred years after, in accordance of <with this and> the prediction of Moses, David, Isaiah and many others, came, saying Moses wrote of <me;> declaring the dispersion of the Jews and the utter destruction of “the city” and the Apostles were his witness <unimpeached> especially Jude, who not only endorses the facts of Moses “divinity,” but <also the> events of Balaam and Korah with many others, astrue!* <*Besides these tangible facts so easible proven and demonstrated by simple rules and testimony unimpeached, the art <(now lost)> of embalming (now lost) human bodies and preserving them in the catacombs of Egypt, whereby men, women, and children, ormummies, after a lapse of near 3500 years, came forth among the living and although Dead the papyrus which has lived unharmed in their bosoms, speaks for them in language like the sound of an earthquake—— Ecce veritas! Ecce cadaveros! Behold the truth! Behold mummies!> Oh my dear sir, the sunken Tyre and Sidon, the melancholly dust of <where> <“theCity” of> Jerusalem, <on[c]e was> and the mourn[i]ng of the Jews among the nations, together with such a “cloud of witness”, if you had been as well acquainted with your god and bible as with your purse and pence table, the “divinity” of Moses would have dispelled the fog of five thousand years and filled you with light: for facts, like diamonds, not [p. [3b]]