The Correspondence of Thomas Jefferson
By Subject
MORAL PRINCIPLES / AND RELIGION
An eloquent preacher of your religious society, Richard Motte, in a
discourse of much emotion and pathos, is said to have exclaimed aloud
to his congregation, that he did not believe there was a Quaker,
Presbyterian, Methodist or Baptist in heaven, having paused to give
his hearers time to stare and to wonder. He added, that in heaven, God
knew no distinctions, but considered all good men as his children, and
as brethren of the same family. I believe, with the Quaker preacher,
that he who steadily observes those moral precepts in which all
religions concur, will never be questioned at the gates of heaven, as
to the dogmas in which they all differ. That on entering there, all
these are left behind us, and the Aristides and Gatos, the Penns and
Tillotsons, Presbyterians and Baptists, will find themselves united in
all principles which are in concert with the reason of the supreme
mind. Of all the systems of morality, ancient or modern, which have
come under my observation, none appear to me so pure as that of Jesus.
He who follows this steadily need not, I think, be uneasy, although he
cannot comprehend the subtleties and mysteries erected on his
doctrines by those who, calling themselves his special followers and
favorites, would make him come into the world to lay snares for all
understandings but theirs. These metaphysical heads, usurping the
judgment seat of God, denounce as his enemies all who cannot perceive
the Geometrical logic of Euclid in the demonstrations of St.
Athanasius, that three are one, and one is three; and yet that the one
is not three nor the three one. In all essential points you and I are
of the same religion; and I am too old to go into inquiries and
changes as to the unessential.
to William Canby, 18 September 1813
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