Read Ebook: Watson Refuted Being an Answer to the Apology for the Bible in a Series of Letters to the Bishop Of Llandaff by Francis Samuel W Samuel Ward

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You now come to Samuel. You are candid enough to acknowledge with Hartley, that he could not have been the author of the second book, nor of most of the first that go under his name, yet this has been the opinion of the church; and I know of no direct proofs that he wrote the remainder: by what logic do you or Hartley conclude, that Samuel wrote any part of the books ascribed to him? An author is proved not to have written most part of a work ascribed to him, who then would, without direct proofs, proclaim him the writer of some small passage, or any particular part of the work? Who but a clergyman would build a system upon a mutilated, spurious, and insignificant collection of absurdities and wonders? It is, I allow, probable that Samuel wrote something: your quotations prove no more; but what this was, we are, I presume, equally unacquainted with. That the scribes also composed some records of the lives of their kings, I will not deny. The question is, what degree of credit does the mutilated, contradictory, and fabulous collection, said to be made out of these records, deserve?

But if the unity of God be the only gracious belief in the eyes of the Creator, I do not see that Christians are entitled to his favour, because they make him three. What was the belief of the Jews? Had they any very refined ideas of their God? They thought him corporeal, incessantly speaking and moving among men, jealous, revengeful, powerful, whose angels ate with Abraham, who himself strove to kill Moses in a public house; they imagined him repenting of his deeds; and, in all respects, a poor contemptible being, the offspring of Jewish fancy. He is throughout the Bible an Asiatic Sultan, who, like the merciful God of Mahomet, puts to the sword, and smites with plagues thousands, as a tribute to his infinite mercy. I refer the reader to the collection of extracts from the Bible, in a subsequent letter, for proofs of my assertions. The Jews admitted, besides other gods, such as Chemosh, several beings subordinate to God, but superior to man, as the serpent which tempted the mother of mankind. They had exterminating angels and cherubims, the Elohim or Genii that made the world, &c. But why dwell upon such topics, when it is evident that all the Jewish mythology is of Chaldean origin, and our theology a copy of that of Plato?

You proceed in your attempt to reconcile the justice of God with his goodness, and, in the height of your reverie, you imagine that the sufferings of the Jews were parts of a grand scheme for the general good of mankind. What, and when are we to see the good effects of their barbarities? We may see reason counteracting the evil of superstition, rendering men humane; but I apprehend, that, if your reasoning was generally adopted, every highwayman would be much inclined to think himself sent by Providence for good and wise purposes, and if chance should bring about a happy event at the end of his career, which he thought the consequence of his deeds, he would triumph in his crimes, and, like Moor in the Robbers, exclaim, "If for ten I have destroyed, you make but one man blest, my soul may yet be saved!" This has been the language of persecutors. They destroy mankind to make them happy in the next world--tortures, burning, and beheading, are but purifications. The worst is, that the famous divine scheme of general good, has never been one jot more advanced than when the Jews were enduring the greatest calamities, and committing atrocities. I count not the effects of reason, for faith is alone the godly faculty; reason destroys it. I close my observations upon this subject with repeating the old question of Epicurus, which your brethren have as yet left unanswered; either God can prevent evil and does not choose it, or he chooses it and wants power to avert calamities from his creatures. In the first instance, he is a malevolent despot, a character we ought to abhor; in the second, we see him an impotent and secondary being, which raises our contempt. Reconcile this with his infinite power, wisdom, and goodness, and show us that he is not formed after the image of man, or else let unbelievers hold their opinions in peace.

You next proceed to show the propriety of the angel ordering Moses to pull off his shoes, which you say is a mark of reverence to God. Is it then by such ridiculous customs that you reconcile your omnipotent and all-wise God? Too long have men substituted rites for morality. O superstition! that makes the Asiatics eat the excrements of the lama, the Papists devour their God; that persuades all Christians that water washeth away sin; and, that if a child happens to die before his face is sprinkled, he must inevitably suffer everlasting torments: led by this, men despise society, and tremble at ceremonies invented by their priests.

I shall not go at great length into the particular contradictions which are found in the enumeration of the families that returned from Babylon. There certainly are great mistakes in the sums; and where precision was to be expected more than in any thing preserved in the record of the people of God, we find them committing the most gross errors, even when they attempt to be peculiarly exact. It is curious, that the individual sums are altogether different in the different accounts, and, therefore, that there must have been a much greater number of errors than you would persuade your readers.

Concerning the utility of prayers, and the tendency of those of the Jews, I shall say nothing. It is a certain fact, that Solomon, the wisest of men, and who made excellent prayers, killed his brother; while many of those heathen tribes, abhorred by the Jews, had no other crime than to adore images; and, if superstition among them sometimes produced the abominable practice of human sacrifices, they never carried their piety so far as to exterminate whole nations. Besides, the Jews had not even a pretence to despise their neighbours for offering human sacrifices. The case of Jephtha shows plainly that this barbarity was common among God's people. I am utterly surprised at your misplaced exclamations upon the morality of the heathens. Far be it from me to stand forward as the patron of heathenish superstition; it is the mother of ours, and I abhor the common stock; but, my Lord, you ought not to confound the rites of the Greeks with their morals. The Athenians possessed virtues which we in vain look for among the despicable Jews. They possessed knowledge, and their philosophers had more sense than to believe the tales of the priests. Epicurus taught peaceably, and was revered by all, while the vulgar of his country firmly believed their mythology. Such an instance never happened among the Jews. Jehovah would quickly have sent a plague among Epicurus and his followers, or ordered his priests "to kill every one his neighbour and his friend, and hang them up before the sun." Your holy brethren would think nothing of a burning match on the occasion; if it were in your power, atheists would not exist long. But you talk so confidently of the adoration of images among the Gentiles, that we would imagine the Jews were all philosophers. Do you forget their reverence to the holy of holies, which none could approach; the ark of the covenant, and the calves? Or has the story of the five golden mice, for looking at which fifty thousand and three score and ten Israelites were smote by the Lord, escaped you?

Your rhapsody upon the sublimity of Bible composition, and its superiority to all profane writers, is a proof of the strength of early imbibed prejudice. I lament to see a man of your learning think so much like an old woman. The proverbs, to be sure, are wonderful compositions, and prove the great gift of wisdom bestowed by God upon Solomon! What indeed can be more sublime than the following, which I beg leave to add to the specimens given by your Lordship! "The horse leech hath two daughters, crying, Give, give. There are three things that are never satisfied, yea four things say not it is enough; the grave, and the barren womb, the earth that is not filled with water, and the fire that saith not it is enough."--"There be three things which are too wonderful for me, yea four which I know not; the way of an eagle in the air, the way of a serpent upon the rock, the way of a ship in the midst of the sea, and the way of a man with a maid."--"There be three things which go well, a greyhound, an he-goat also, and a king."--"It is the glory of God to conceal a thing, but the honour of kings is to search out a matter."--"When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee, and put a knife to thy throat if thou be a man given to appetite."--"Buy the truth, and sell it not."--"A whore is a deep ditch, and a strange woman is a narrow pit."--Excellent Solomon! Hear also this wise king in Song of Songs. "How beautiful are thy feet with shoes, O prince's daughter! The joints of thy thighs are like jewels, the work of the hands of a cunning workman; thy-navel is like a round goblet which wanteth not liquor; thy belly is like a heap of wheat set about with lilies; thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins; thy neck is as a tower of ivory; thine eyes like the fish pools in Heshbon, by the gate of Bath-rabbim; thy nose is as the tower of Lebanon, which looketh towards Damascus." Whether this alludes to one of Solomon's concubines, or our mother, the church of Jesus Christ, the expressions are equally applicable, beautiful, and simple; they are worthy of a man "wiser than Ethan the Ezrehite, and Heman, and Chalcol, and Darda, the sons of Mehol," who, I dare say, were wise men. Upon the whole, I agree with you, that Solomon, the illustrious offspring of the man after God's own heart and the virtuous Bathsheba, was not "a witty jester." As to what you call his "sins and debaucheries," these holy books were certainly not written with a view to make us avoid them. Solomon is set before us as a pattern of wisdom and goodness; and the number of his wives and concubines is exultingly recorded as a proof of his greatness, as much as his treasures, which exceed all conception, and the number of his horses, which exceed all belief.

But we have more reasons to declare the pretended clear prophecies of the Bible to be fables. In many instances they are so accurate, and so unlike these passages which we know to have been written previous to the events to which they are applied, or those which are not yet fulfilled, that no philosopher can pronounce them to have been written historically. Thus, we find Jacob announce to his twelve sons, the heads of the twelve tribes of Israel, the fate of their posterity; the situation of the district to be occupied by the Israelites in the land of Canaan, two hundred years before Joshua parcelled out this land in lots to the Israelites; the kind of life the different tribes would lead; the small number of the posterity of Reuben, Simeon, and Levi, as well as the power of Judah; all which are related as exactly as if the patriarch had seen the throne of David and Solomon with his own eyes. Some of the supposed predictions of Isaiah and Daniel, are even more minutely correct. You have treated the question of the genuineness and date of works very lightly; you think it is of no great consequence to ascertain the genuineness of the different books of the Bible. Let us for a moment suppose, that by some accident, the age of Virgil had been forgotten, or the sixth book of his AEneid been ascribed to a writer of the age of AEneas; would not the Romans be entitled to regard, as a most wonderful prophecy, the lively representation given by Anchises of the future heroes of the republic, the two Caesars, and the young Marcellus?

To resume our subject: I remind you of the passage already quoted from Bellarminus, that it was the opinion of the fathers of the church, that the Prophets, among other books, had been collected and arranged by Esdras. I have also stated the selection of genuine works by the synagogue, during the reign of the Maccabees, when the Talmud says that the forgeries of Daniel, Esdras, &c. were prodigious. The destruction by Antiochus Epiphanus of the already broken Jewish books, written by Esdras, may be collected from what is said in Maccabees, chap. i. ver. 56 and 57. "And when they had rent in pieces the books of the law which they found, they burnt them with fire, and whosoever was found with any of the books of the Testament, or if any consented to the law, the king's commandment was, that they should put him to death."

We will not relinquish our reason in obedience to the despotic mandates of the credulous.

You allow that the miracles of the Jews fall to the ground, if the history of that nation is proved false. I beg you to observe, that if it is true, it does not follow that the miracles are. If you can believe that the history of the Jews is well authenticated, and without numerous contradictions, and if you can exculpate the writers from bad motives, and a desire to deceive, and if you can rely upon their wisdom, you then will really prove yourself a Christian, a man of uncommon faith. The history of the Jews, every where confused, containing prodigies, deserves no more credit than their antedeluvian tale. Even Chinese history, supported by astronomical observations, is beyond a certain period rejected by all men, from the fables it contains. If you are disposed to believe, I advise you to read the fabulous history of China and of Hindostan, in the holy books of the respective nations, which are adopted by whole nations, and are, at least, more beautiful than the Jews.

I have purposely omitted to speak of Ecclesiastes. I find here several Epicurean notions, a disbelief of a future life, the propriety of enjoying themselves in this life, and other sensible remarks; which prove that the writer enjoyed more common sense than most of his countrymen.

You begin your sixth letter by attempting to disprove the arguments of Thomas Paine upon Jeremiah. You acknowledge the disorder that prevails in the writings of this prophet; and you modestly assure us, that you do not know the cause; no more do I: and whatever incidents might have occasioned it, I am certain that, as it stands, it deserves no degree of credit. In a former part of your pamphlet you grant, that the history of the Jews is so connected with the prophetical part, that if the former was done away the latter could not stand; and now you inform us, "that prophecy differs from history, in not being subject to an accurate observance of time and order." This you think a matter of no importance, but, in my opinion, it is very material to know if a prophecy is written after the events it alludes to. I shall not follow far, either your Lordship or Mr. Paine, in proving several of the prophecies of the Bible false; but if they are not prophecies, why should we trouble ourselves with disproving them. If they are scraps of history, we know that of the Jews to be so contradictory, imperfect, so completely without order, that one historical extract, of prophecy, will often contradict another; but much more generally these prophecies are strict enough, being copied from history, and embellished with a little of the figurative style of prophecy. As to Jeremiah, the works that go under his name, as well as those of Isaiah, appear on the face of them to be a collection of extracts from different historians.

While we know so little of the history and genuineness of these writings, we cannot possibly draw any conclusion concerning them, except that they are in the utmost disorder, and that when writers intermingle history with prophecy, we are at a loss to know which is which. I cannot forbear to mention the ludicrous story of Elisha, the children, the bears that devoured the children of men, as you are pleased to call them. Whether Elisha did this as a prophet, I cannot but declare my abhorrence at your approbation of such abominable cruelty, to murder individuals because they bestowed the appellation of Baldhead on another. According to the laudable custom of the church, you appeal to a miracle, and conclude, that if God wrought a miracle it must have been just. I suppose this comparatively as when he destroys whole cities for the sins of a few; but this is the very ground on which every crusader supported his massacres; and every man may imitate the conduct of Ahod, the treacherous murderer, patronised by Jehovah, without incurring the blame of a Bishop. Whether the ridiculous tale which you take for a sign of God, most probably of his cruelty, converted any person, is not known; but as the event most undoubtedly never happened, you may suppose what you please. To murder them is not the way to ingratiate ourselves with our fellow-citizens. If any person set a few bull-dogs on some children, and pretended to do so by authority from heaven, he would most undoubtedly be taken up by our officers of justice. In what respect do these brutal prophets differ from Mahomet, who decided all disputes by the sword? Their business was to exterminate and murder by the direct commands of God.

The writings of Ezekiel are considerably truncated. The very beginning of his prophecies shows it. The conjunction and texture of the whole work refers to something that ought to have preceded it. He begins saying, "That in the 30th year the heavens opened, and he saw visions of God." And in ver. 5, he adds, "That the Lord had inspired him often in Chaldea," which refers to some prophecies written in that period. Besides, Josephus's work, book 10, chap. ix. of the Jewish antiquities, says, "That Ezekiel had prophecied that Zedekiah should never see Babylon." This is no where found in Ezekiel, but, on the contrary, in chap. xi. and xii. he says, "That the king would be carried a prisoner to Babylon."

As to Daniel, I have already noticed the great similarity between the first book of Esdras and his, and the probability that they came from the same author. The seven first chapters, except the first, were written in Chaldean, and are by the most learned thought to be taken from Chaldean chronologists. It is also thought by men of great learning, that the books of Esdras, Daniel, and Esther, were altered a long time after Judas Maccabeus, because it appears evident that Esdras could not have written the whole of them, since Nehemiah carries the genealogy of Jesuhga, the sovereign Pontiff till Jaddua, the sixteenth in number, who after the defeat of Darius went to meet Alexander. And Nehemiah, ver. 22, "The Levites, in the days of Eliashib, Joiadah, and Johanan, and Jaddua, were recorded chief of the fathers; also the priests, to the reign of Darius the Persian." We have no reason to believe that Esdras or Nehemiah could survive fourteen kings of Persia, Cyrus having been the first who gave the Jews permission to rebuild the temple, from whom to Darius there are 230 years.

I now come to the famous prophecy of the seventy weeks of Daniel, which you exultingly mention as the most wonderful, and, at the same time, the most incontrovertible prediction in existence, one which never can fail to confound the most perverse unbeliever. If I prove, that so far from being the surprising prophecy you pretend, it has altogether a different meaning, and can nowise apply to the coming of Christ, I shall think myself fully excused, if I do not go through every individual prediction in the Bible. The passage alluded to is in Daniel, chap. ix. ver. 24, to 27, as follows: "Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people, and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision, and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy. Know, therefore, and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem, unto the Messiah, the prince, there shall be seven weeks; and threescore and two weeks the streets shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself; and the people of the prince that shall come, shall destroy the city, and the sanctuary, and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And he shall confirm the covenant with many, for one week; and, in the midst of the week, he shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease; and for the overspreading of abominations, he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate."

In the first place, we confidently assert that Dr. Prideaux followed his fancy, not the original Hebrew, when he altered the punctuation. He is, however, justified in the alteration of half of a week; but, granting all, let us see how it applies. Did the Messiah come after seven weeks from the commandment of Ar-taxerxes Longimanus? The explanation only says, that Nehemiah finished the work which Ezra began. What has this to do with the Messiah coming at the end of the first seven weeks? The prophet says, that after threescore and two weeks, the street and the wall shall be built. Again, and previously, that after the commandment for the city to be built, the Messiah shall come in seven weeks. The learned divine, on the contrary, makes Daniel say, that John the Baptist began to preach the kingdom of the Messiah sixty-nine weeks after the commandment, and in the first seven weeks he talks of nothing but building the temple. Again, how does the oblation cease in half a week? In fact, the same objection occurs here, as to the passage as it is written in our Bibles. Daniel speaks quite clear, when he says, that "from the going forth of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem, unto the Messiah, the Prince, shall be seven weeks." If we find, in whatever explanation of the prophecy, that Christ did not come forty-nine years after this commandment, and that he did not live four hundred and thirty-four years afterwards, the whole must be an untruth. And, if the first period of seven weeks is united with that of threescore and two, that is, if the period of rebuilding the city, and of the coming of the Messiah be the same, then let divines inform us whether this really came to pass, and reconcile it with what follows, in ver. 26, that the city is to be destroyed at the same time. Did Christ confirm any covenant with many for seven years?

To understand the real meaning of this pretended prophecy, the reader will remember, that Daniel mourned for the 70 weeks of captivity prophesied by Jeremiah; the vision of Daniel took place in the first year of Darius, King of Chaldea, that is, in the year 162 of Nebuchadnezzar; but, in chap. x. of Daniel we learn, that he ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh and wine into his mouth, till three whole weeks were fulfilled. Now, the term weeks is used in the Bible indiscriminately for weeks of years, or of days; here it appears clear it signifies the former, particularly as the whole relates to the 70 years of Jeremiah; and the angel, in chap. x. ver. 14, tells Daniel, in the same figurative style, "Now I am come to make thee understand what shall befall thy people in the latter days, for yet the vision is for many days." If then Daniel wept three weeks of years, or 21 years, from the destruction of the temple, in the year 141 to the time of the vision in 162, , it is easy to see what Daniel means. Jeremiah had prophesied a captivity of 70 years, of these, three weeks or 21 years were past; therefore Daniel, after entreating God to tell him "how many more years were wanting," received for an answer what follows, "At the beginning of thy supplications, the commandment came forth, and I am come to show thee."--"Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people to seal up the vision and prophecy," that is to complete the prophecy of Jeremiah; and we find,-therefore, that from the issuing the commandment to restore the Jews, and to build Jerusalem, or more properly from the revelation of the angel, , promising that Jerusalem should be rebuilt, ver. 23, to the coming of the Messiah, the prince, or Cyrus, who freed the Jews from the captivity, there were to be seven weeks, or 49 years, which, added to the three weeks already past, made the 70 years of Jeremiah. Cyrus is by Isaiah called the Lord's anointed: "Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him for Jacob my servant's sake." Cyrus gave, at that time, liberty to the Jews, as the reader may see in Ezra. It is evident, that the word commandment cannot mean any express order to build Jerusalem, for the angel says, just before he reveals the prophecy, "at the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth we know that Daniel began to address prayers unto heaven, at a time when there was no order to build the temple, on the contrary, the Jews were in captivity.

This is the most difficult part of the pretended prophecy, the remainder is plain. There shall be 62 weeks till the rebuilding of the wall. The writer alludes here to the building of the first temple under Zerubbabel and Jeshua, and then to the rebuilding of the wall, and restoration of the temple by Judas Maccabeus, after its profanation by Antiochus Epiphanes. The period of this last event is by the prophecy made to extend to 63 1/2 weeks, or 444 years. Let us see if chronology confirms this supposition. The temple was destroyed in the 141st year of Nabuch, or 4107 of the Julian period; add to this 444 years, or 63 weeks and a half, and we have the year 4551, or the second year of Judas Maccabeus, according to Josephus; who also informs us, that having conquered his enemies, he then built a wall about Sion, which is clearly meant in the words, "the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times," 1 Maccab. chap. iv. ver. 60. At that time also "they builded up the mount Sion with high walls," &c. Troublous the times certainly were; the Jews were fighting against the cruelty of Antiochtis Epiphanes. It is certain then, that after 343 years, or 69 weeks, the wall should be built, and although it was not really completed till about ten years after, it is presumable that the loose historian, or prophet, did not choose to alter the beautiful idea of 70 Weeks. We know how superstitiously the Jews respected not only the number 7, but all its different affections. We are besides informed, in the first book of Maccabees, that after the first depredation of Antiochus, the people rebuilt the city of David, and made walls and forts; this happened some years before the building of the wall by Judas, and brings the prediction nearer to historical accuracy.

The next part of the prophecy is, "And after threescore and two weeks shall sacrifices cease;" this means in the course of the week that succeeds the 62. And, no doubt, Antiochus Epiphanes abolished them in the seventh year of his reign, as we read in I Maccab. chap. i. "And the people of the prince that shall come, shall destroy the city and the sanctuary." This Antiochus most certainly did, "and went up against Israel and Jerusalem with a great multitude, and entered proudly into the sanctuary, and took away the golden altars, also he took the hidden treasures, and there was great mourning in Israel," 1 Maccab. J. "And the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined." The coming of Antiochus into Jerusalem is pompously detailed in the first book of Maccabees: the Jews compared a great calamity, or an invading and irresistible army, to a flood. Let us proceed with the remainder: "And he shall confirm the covenant with many for a week," this alludes to the first seven years of the reign of Antiochus, during which he did not interfere with the worship of the Jews, although he gave liberty to those who chose to be heathens to follow their respective worship: it was in the end of the sixth, and in the beginning of his seventh year that he attacked the Jews, destroyed the temple, plundered it of its riches, and made himself the tyrant of Judea.

The last part of the passage is as follows: "And in the half of a week he shall cause the oblation and sacrifice to cease," and, I have only to observe, that, from the taking of the city by Antiochus, to the absolute forbidding Jewish worship, there elapsed about three years and a half, or half a week, for he came to Jerusalem in the 143d year of the kingdom of the Greeks, and the erecting of idols was in the year 145; after which, he continued to persecute the Jews, and promote idolatry, until the year 148. Now Antiothus attacked Jerusalem at the end of his sixth year, to which, if we add two years and three months, we have pretty exactly the period of half a week, or three years and a half. The expression, "the spreading of abominations," evidently alludes to what is said in Maccabees, chap. i. ver. 34. "Now the fifteenth day of the month Casleu, in the 145th year, they set up the abomination of desolation upon the altar, and builded idol altars throughout the cities of Judah, on every side." Daniel says, chap. xii. ver. 11, speaking of his vision, "and from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that: maketh desolate set up, there shall be 1290 days;" which is a little more than three years and a half. The wonderful prophecy is then unriddled, it becomes a contemptible piece of history in an affected style. I trust the explanation which I have given, after Marsham, will appear satisfactory. I challenge Bishop Watson to produce a plausible explanation of the passage according to the sense of the church. It may not be improper to observe, that Clemens Alexandrinus, many of the fathers, Calmet, and other persons of great knowledge, have flatly denied the application of the weeks of Daniel to Jesus. Those who espouse your cause lose sight of the context of Daniel, they forget chronology, and evince to what a pitch of delusion their minds have arrived.

This is the famous prophecy that silenced the Jewish rabbins of Venice; it is of a pattern with Daniel's four beasts; the fourth is also a story of Antiochus Epiphanes and Judas who slays the beast. Judas is the son of man coming in clouds; he is the person of whom the prophets speak, and who has most ridiculously been distorted to Jesus Christ. This farrago of prophecies seems to have been the production of Esdras or some very late writer; and I am not sure, but the doctrine of the Pythagorean millennium gave rise to some of the expressions in both writers, about the beasts: they seem to have sprung from the same origin with those of the Apocalypse; and with the four Indian horses, they crept among the Jews, together with many other Chaldean mythological ideas: the Ancient of Ancients appears in his fiery car as Osiris triumphant, or Chreeshna conquering Chiven; the books are opened before him, as his kingdom is everlasting, like that of Vishnu with the Vedams. But visions so ridiculous as that of Daniel deserve not our consideration; whatever be their source they are but reveries, and may serve to amuse idle people in their ridiculous speculations about the world's end. Like Swedenburgh, men may dream, and interpret their own dreams, and like him have the mortification to be laughed at for the non-accomplishment of their predictions. We have had of late another Daniel in Mr. Brothers; he too saw beasts, and, what is more, he understood their meaning; but unfortunately we are not Jews, and he is cruelly imprisoned in a madhouse.

I have now followed your animadversions on the objections of Thomas Paine upon the Old Testament; and I trust I have shown that you have in no degree been a more successful labourer in the cause of Judaism than your predecessors; even your wonderful prophecy of Daniel is converted into a mere historical tale, and the application Jesus Christ makes of it to himself is accordingly proved to be ridiculous, the more so, as it comes from the Son of God. I have a few more observations to make, before I leave this book. I cannot pass in silence the gross blunder you have committed, when you refer Mr. Paine to Ferguson for an astronomical proof of the miracle of the total darkness at the crucifixion of Jesus. An odd conceit, upon my word! You might know that the event is omitted by all the authors of eminence who wrote at that time; that even Pliny passes it unnoticed. Lest you should mislead the reader with your groundless assertions, I shall state the matter as it stands in reality. You avoid learned disquisitions to be intelligible, but you ought not to have been so deficient of authority, where it is most needed. Besides the gospels, the darkness is not mentioned in any author; but divines have attempted to prove the event from a supposed passage of Phlegon, related by Eusebius; it is in the following words: "In the fourth year of the two hundred and second Olympiad, there was the greatest eclipse ever seen; it was night at six, and even the stars could be seen." This passage has long been disregarded by men of knowledge; it alludes to an eclipse, not to a miraculous darkness. Both Mr. Ferguson and you have blundered in chronology and astronomy. It is certain, in the year of Christ's crucifixion, according to the common chronology, there could have been no eclipse of the sun visible at that time at Jerusalem; Ferguson, therefore, concludes it a miracle. But you ought to have known, that the fourth year of the two hundred and second Olympiad, is not the year of the crucifixion in any system of chronology; that there was an eclipse of the sun, in the year mentioned by Phlegon, in the month of November, which, however, was not central; and you know that Jesus is said to have died at the time of the full moon in March, or in the beginning of April. Besides, had even such a darkness taken place, are you ignorant of the existence of comets, and would not one passing between the earth and the sun eclipse that luminary? Have not such miracles taken place if we credit historians? The death of Caesar was preceded by wonderful prodigies, and a comet made its appearance immediately after. The supposed miraculous influence of comets, and their being prophetic signs, was once an article of faith throughout all Europe, and the ancient history of every country records many events which the authors maintain arose from comets.

You reproach Thomas Paine for want of candour. He has not, you say, examined the general design of the Old Testament There he would find the benevolence of the God of the Jews, and his infinite goodness in selecting them from among the nations, in preserving them from idolatry. If he chose this people he has certainly exposed them to continual sufferings, and all for no other purpose than to teach mankind that idolatry is the greatest of crimes; that to avoid it, murder, plunder, the crusades, the inquisition, persecution, may all be laudable means for the preservation of the faith of nations. Thus, the cherished people, who were most intimate with their God, committed the most enormous crimes, under the pretence of preserving pure their adoration of the implacable God Jehovah. Did not all the endeavours of Jehovah to rescue nations from idolatry prove fruitless? This despicable creature man has been able to effect what mighty Jehovah never accomplished. Science is the only antidote against all kinds of superstition. Did Cicero adore stocks or stones? Or did ever any learned man among the heathens humble himself before idols? Has not the principal branch of the church of Christ been notorious idolaters? But what avails all this? Have you proved that the Heathens "emulated in the transcendent flagitiousness of their lives, the impure morals of their gods?" You assert it; but unluckily it is one of the many unsupported and assumed propositions in your pamphlet. Did nations necessarily imitate the conduct of their gods, I would tremble at being among the followers of the bloody Jehovah. The heathens were certainly dreamers in their adoration of the planets; we are taught by science, that these bodies resemble our earth in the general laws that govern them. It was natural for rude men to gaze at the sublimity of the stupendous fabric, the refulgency of the sun; the blessings derived from his genial influence could not be contemplated without admiration by the amazed and fearful savage. Idolatry is ridiculous: but have you proved that Jehovah deserves more to be revered than the Great Whole of nature, whether called Pan, or otherwise disguised in emblems, than the harmony of the planets designed by symbols, the generative powers by Venus, or the vivifying light emanating from the bright orb of Apollo? Confess at least, that the allegorical adoration of nature could only deceive the multitude who were kept in ignorance by their priests. If you are candid, you must acknowledge, that the Polytheists were tolerant, that the Atheists or Deists lectured close, to the temple. They did not exterminate nations, establish inquisitions, murder unbelievers as the Jews, and the Christians; although, as you observe, they received the gift of God through Jesus Christ, and were made alive by the covenant of grace.

In what consists the superiority of the Jewish or Christian notions of God? Jehovah is a being incomprehensible; he is a jealous and a revengeful God, he hardens men's hearts, and sacrifices whole nations to a particular people, who, in their turn, are sacrificed for the boasted scheme of general good, which is never the nearer being accomplished. He must be adored and revered, and yet he does not make himself known to man. He does not even show himself face to face to any but Moses. You pay no great compliment to his omnipotence, when you observe, that "probably he could not give to such a being as man a full manifestation of the end for which he designs him, nor of the means requisite for that end;"--and, "that it may not be possible for the Father of the universe to explain to us, infants in apprehension, the goodness and the wisdom of his dealings with the sons of man." Jehovah, in short, equally the offspring of fancy with the Heathen Jupiter, is as cruel as Moloch, and, like other productions of the brain, an invisible phantom, to which priests give the passions of a tyrant; and, in their desire that he should reign alone, that men should not worship other deities, his ministers have preached up this God, and the multitude, eager to admire what they cannot comprehend, have followed the mandates of the pretended interpreters of his will. Still, however, the greatest number of ignorant men are, and will ever be, idolaters; in vain their spiritual guides preach up incomprehensible and ideal beings in an unintelligible jargon; man will always seek to satisfy his senses. Even the immediate presence of Jehovah, and his horrid massacres, could not prevent the favourite nation from following other gods. Even the inspired, the wise, the royal Solomon forsook "the God of Israel, holy, just, and good," for "the impure rabble of heathen Baalim."

Genesis, chap. iii. ver. 1. "Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord had made; and he said unto the woman, yea hath God said," &c.

This Mr. Serpent would make a fine figure in AEsop's fables. They say it means the Devil, but how does that appear?

In ver. 22. and 23. "And behold the Lord said, the man is become one of us, , to know good and evil, And now lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever; therefore, the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken."

Ib. chap. xxxii. ver. 24. "And Jacob was left alone, and there wrestled a man with him, until the breaking of the day; ; and when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh : and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him. And he said, let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, unless thou bless me. And he said unto him, what is thy name? And he said, Jacob. And he said, thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel; ; for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed. . And Jacob called the name of the place Penial: for I have seen God face to face." This passage requires no comment.

Ib. ver. 14. "And God said unto Moses, I am that I am; and he said, thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I am hath sent me unto you."

Divines hold this passage to be a great instance of sublimity!!!

Ib. ver. 21. "And I will give this people favour in the sight of the Egyptians, and it shall come to pass, that when ye go away, ye shall not go empty, but every woman shall borrow of her neighbour, jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment: and ye shall put them upon your sons, and your daughters, and ye shall spoil the Egyptians."

Here the Jews made God after their own image; and the dealings of that nation in silver, gold, and clothes, at this day, show that they have not forgotten their God. It is not easy for divines to reconcile this with God's other precept in the eighth commandment.

Ib. chap. iv. ver. 24. "And it came to pass by the way in the inn, that the Lord met him and sought to kill him!!! Then Zepporah took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet."

This business of the circumcision is brought in rather by the head and the shoulders, and the cause of it is not quite clear; but it is very evident that the Lord could not kill Moses.

Ib. chap. xxxii. ver. 27. "And he , said unto them, thus saith the Lord God of Israel, put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbour; and the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses, and there fell of the people that day about three thousand."

Ib. chap. xxxiii. ver. 9. "And it came to pass, as Moses entered into the tabernacle, the pillar descended, and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses."

In this manner modern goddesses stop their carriages at shop-keepers' doors at this day.

Ib. ver. 90. "And he said, thou canst not see my face, for there shall no man see me and live." God must here have forgotten his dialogue with Adam and Eve, his wrestling with Jacob, and conversations with Moses. In Numbers, chap. xii. ver. 6 and 8, he says, "Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I, the Lord, will make myself known to him in a vision, and will speak to him in a dream," but, "with thee will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches, and the similitude of the Lord shall you behold."

Ib. chap. xxi. ver..5. "And the people spoke against God, and against Moses, wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness, for there is no bread, neither is there any water, and our soul loatheth this light bread." No wonder the Jews tired of living upon manna without water, but the Lord taught them not to grumble. "And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, and much people of Israel died." When God was tired of making his serpents bite the poor devils, he said unto Moses, "Make thee, a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole, and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten when he looketh upon it shall live." This is below all the tricks of necromancers.

Ib. chap. xxv. "And the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab. And Israel joined himself unto Baal-peor: and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. And the Lord said unto Moses, take all the heads of the people, and hang them up before the Lord against the sun, that the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned away from Israel. And Moses said unto the judges, slay every one of these men who were joined unto Baal-peor. And behold one of the children of Israel came, and brought unto his brethren a Midianitish woman, in the sight of Moses, &c. And when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose from among the congregation, and took a javelin in his hand; and he went after the man of Israel into the tent, and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her belly, so the plague was stopped from the children of Israel, and these that died in the plague were 24,000." As a reward for this, the Lord gave Phinehas the everlasting priesthood, "because he was zealous for his God, and made an atonement for the children of Israel."

Ib. chap. xxvi. Dathan, Korah, and Abirim strove against Moses and Aaron, and the earth swallowed them up, and the fire devoured 250 men.

lb. chap. xxxi. ver. 16, there was a plague among the congregation of the Lord, on account of the tres pass against the Lord, when he ordered thus, "Now, therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him; but all the women children that hath not known man by lying with him, keep for yourselves." For the observation on this passage, I refer my reader to Bishop Watson, and the former part of this work.

The following ought to be the fate of all idolatrous people, and has been happily practised in the discoveries made by most European nations. Deuteronomy chap. xiii. ver. 13. "Thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, and all that is therein, and the cattle thereof, with the edge of the sword."

Joshua, chap. vi. v. 21. "And they utterly de-, stroyed all that was in the city, , both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword. And they burnt the city with fire, and all that was therein: only the silver, and the gold, and the vessels of brass, and of iron, they put it into the treasury of the house of the Lord."

Chap. x. Joshua being attacked by five kings, and they having taken shelter in a cave, he caused great stones to be rolled to the mouth of the cave, till he followed and destroyed the people, then he ordered the five kings to be brought out from the cave, "And it came to pass, that when they brought out those five kings unto Joshua, that Joshua called for all the men in Israel, and said unto the men of war, come near, put your feet upon the necks of these kings, and they came near, and put their feet upon the necks of them. And afterwards Joshua smote them, and slew them, Joshua took Makdekah, and smote it with the edge of the sword, and the king thereof he utterly destroyed, them, and all the souls that were therein; he let none remain." And so he did in all to 31 kings, as related in this and the following chapters, and all this by the express command of God, who made the sun and the moon both stand still to witness these unprovoked atrocities. But this was just; God having given that country to his chosen people the Jews, as in latter times his vicegerent the Pope gave America to the Portuguese and Spaniards, who, Joshua-like, exterminated the kings and people, because they were not Christians. This, as you say, serves the general scheme of God's benevolence towards mankind.

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