Revelation and Hearsay

[A]dmitting, for the sake of a case, that something has been revealed to a certain person, and not revealed to any other person, it is revelation to that person only. When he tells it to a second person, a second to a third, a third to a fourth, and so on, it ceases to be a revelation to all those persons. It is revelation to the first person only, and hearsay to every other, and, consequently, they are not obliged to believe it.

--Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason: Being an Investigation
of True and Fabulous Theology , 1794-1807 

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