It not only deprives us of those inestimable blessings, held forth to us in those books, but it draws us, imperceptibly, to the brink of a dangerous precipice, whence, if what you say be true, we can have no chance of escaping, but a sure and certain doom of falling headlong into an abyss of endless torment; as it is written, that, he that believeth not, shall be damned. But, if this reason be carnal, and unable to comprehend the things which are spiritual, why does your spiritual God invite us to come and reason with him, and to bring forth all our strong reasons, if he knew that the reasoning powers which we possess, were not sufficient to comprehend him?

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The Priests, we find, although they make pretensions of holding familar intercourse with their God, and ascribe to him certain attributes and qualities, which they pretend to expound, by the aid and assistance of his holy spirit, nevertheless cannot agree among themselves, in any one of their dogmas. Yet they will all concur, in drawing their subsistence from the labour of the poor. How is this? Are they not composed of the same elements, and organized like ourselves? Are they not, likewise, subject to the same calamities, and infirmities, even the dissolution of their bodies, as other men? What natural claim can they have, then, to the fruits of our labour? Is it to their abstemious and moral conduct, that we are to ascribe their "right divine ?" No; we find them, in general, the most lascivious and voluptuous, whenever the veil of reverence is drawn aside, and all their "hidden man" exposed. To what purpose, then, are they employed? Is it to expound the word and will of a God of infinite wisdom, as though he were not competent to make himself understood, without an interpreter? If so, which, among them all, are we to believe, seeing, that so many different explanations of it are given by them? And, if this be the word of God, cannot we read it and judge for ourselves, without employing another to do it for us? Surely, it is time, then, that they were driven to some more useful employment than that of decorating

their persons with long robes, in which, for a show, they make long prayers, telling us that only, which we might easily know by ourselves. That time, I trust, is fast approaching. The eye of reason, having detected the imposition, and discovered their utter uselessness, the "Age of Reason" is now exposing them. The spell of superstition is broken. The walls are tottering. And though the "powers that be," aided by prejudice and interest, are endeavouring to support them, yet, having no other foundation, but sophistry and ignorance, fall they must before the "unsophisticated voice of Reason." We see that the "gangs," which have been raised in their behalf, are now scattered; and those who have conducted their numerous prosecutions have experienced little else than shame and disgrace-still, should they have the temerity to proceed further, they will find, when too late for them, that their conduct has only hastened, the downfall of superstition.

I have been induced to say thus much, by way of introduction; in order that I might be perfectly understood, before I commence with the body of the work that I have proposed to examine. My intention is to show you that the internal evidence of those books, called Old and New Testaments, will not warrant our assent to their genuineness and authenticity. Also, that their style and composition prove them, instead of emanating from an all wise and perfect being, to have been the production of the most ignorant and depraved of all civilised human beings. In so doing, I shall endeavour, as much as possible, to confine myself to the books themselves; and draw from them my conclusions. As it is written, "by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned."

JOHN CLARKE,

GIFT OF IRVING LEVY

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW.

CHAP, I.

Verse 1. "The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham."

Prithee, Doctor, what would you think of that historian, who, whilst writing the genealogy of King George, should say "George, the son of James the first, the son of Henry the seventh ?" Here, vou see, is only a hop, and then a jump to the top! But the next verse, we shall find bringing him down again, step by step.

Verse 2. "Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat Judas and his brethren.'

I cannot see, why the brethren of Judas should be introduced, into this genealogy of Jesus, more than the brethren of David, Solomon, and the rest. Were they such an honour to the holy child, Jesu? No, surely; for we find, that they were all a gang of murderers. Read Gen. xxxvii. 5. and you will there learn, that they hated their brother Joseph, whom they attempted to destroy; and you know, that John says, he that hateth his brother is a murderer. Even while they were mere boys, some of them thought nothing of slaying all the men in the city, in the most treacherous and barbarous manner." 7 And I would also ask you, who are so well acquainted with history, whether you ever heard of a more unfeeling and despotic monster, than Joseph is represented to have been? When but a child, he was continually sowing discord among his brethren, by telling them his idle dreams; which conduct, Solomon says, is an abomination to the Lord. 8 When a servant, he disturbed the peace of the family, by his misogyny and vanity, because, forsooth! he was a goodly person and well favoured. While in prison, he made his fellow prisoners miserable, through his pretensions to fortune-telling. 10 And, after having ingra

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tiated himself into favour with the King of Egypt, he disturbed the peace of the whole nation, by predicting a seven years of famine;1 а circumstance which could not possibly occur, without making God a liar for he had formerly promised, that, while the earth remained, seed-time and harvest should not cease; 12 which was impossible for him to have forgotten, because he set his bow in the cloud, to remind him of it!13 Again, observe the manner in which this Joseph sported with the feelings of his brethren and parent. 1 4 And, it is moreover, evident, that if they had not come to him, he would never have sent for them; although he had had the command of the whole land of Egypt, for seven years prior to their coming. Besides, what greater tyranny could ever be practised by the most execrable tyrant that ever existed, than by this monster; who, not satisfied with monopolizing all their money, their cattle, and their lands, must exact the fifth part of the future produce of their labour for ever?15

Verse. 3. “And Judas begat Phares and Zara of Thamar."

If you suppose, that any person were ever inspired, by an "all wise," and "all powerful God," to communicate these words to men, would it not, necessarily, have followed, that the words, so communicated, would have been written in a language, understood by all mankind, if he willeth that all men should be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth ?16 Or should we admit, that the foolishness of God 17 once confounded the

language of all men,1 18 still it would be necessary that the words, so communicated, if required to be translated for the benefit and salvation of all men, should be attended by the same divine inspiration and teaching, in order to prevent any error or inaccuracy, which unavoidably happens, through the fallibility of men translating one language into another. Would it not be also requisite, and absolutely necessary, that every transcriber, and printer, with all their assistants, even the very devil,* should be divinely inspired, so

* Printer's Devil.

that there should be no need of altering, revising and correcting the words of this God, which are so essential to be made known and understood? We read that he has done such things, when it was far less important or necessary than in the present case. Has he not Inspired men to cut and carve timber and stones, and to do all sorts of cunning workmanship, such as making of lamps, candlesticks, and snuffers ?19 Isaiah says, that he, moreover, condescended to instruct the ploughman and farmer. 20 Yet this book, in which we are told to search for eternal life, 21 needs correcting in every page, and in almost every verse; besides, being full of contradictions, and of things incomprehensible to every human being. But I cannot discover wherein this book (the Bible) layeth claim to the title of being called the word of God. Neither does its matter require that it should be so denominated; as it contains the history, chronology, words, actions, and dreams of men, as well as the supposed messages from God; which, alone, would convince every reflecting being, that it could not have been written by divine inspiration. For why should God trouble himself to inform us that Paul had a cloak and some parchment, which he left at Troas, along with Carpus ?22 are none the better for his cloak: neither does it concern us, whether Samson slept upon the knees or breast of Delilah, while he was being shaved!23 So that when the nature of the book is so clearly seen, we can no longer hesitate in saying, that it was written, not by men inspired with any degree of superior wisdom, but by some of the most illiterate and depraved of the human species; whose design was to sport with the credulity of their fellow creatures, and subsist upon the fruits of their labour.

We

I grant that the mistake of a letter, in the name of a man, is not sufficient authority to warrant the condemnation of any book; but when we find it in almost every name, some having two, three, four, and more letters, omitted, inserted and transposed, no confidence can be placed in any name, place, or words of