lived five hundred years before the time of Christ, saysAcknowledge thy benefits by the return of benefits, but never revenge injuries."

The whole article is divided into three paragraphs, with the last I have already dispensed; the first is the writing of the Archbishop, and if there be any blasphemy in that, it ought to have been prosecuted a century ago: the second is the main paragraph for me to defend; and of that the first sentence is alone necessary to be defended, the other cannot be attacked; so that of all this fuss, the pamphlet is not charged as possessing more than one hundred disagreeable words, which are as follow:

"But the case was, that as the Church had picked out several passages from the Old Testament which she most absurdly and falsely calls prophecies of Jesus Christ, (whereas there is no prophecy of any such person, as any one may see by examining the passages and the cases to which they apply,) she was under the necessity of keeping up the credit of the Old Testament, because if that fell the other would soon follow, and the Christian system of faith would soon be at an end."

Now Mr. Paine, in another work, has examined and compared those passages, and I feel it a duty I owe to myself and the author of the article persecuted, to produce that examination and comparison; and if the statement alleged to be a blasphemous libel, can be proved to have its foundation in truth, I shall claim a verdict of Not Guilty at your hands, Gentlemen of the Jury; because, if you well and truly try, as you have sworn to do, you cannot find me guilty of any malicious intention in publishing this pamphlet; and without my prosecutors can prove the malicious intention charged, their Indictment cannot be legally sustained. Now I am quite willing to rest my case upon the defence I can now make as to the truth or falsehood of this statement in the first sentence of the second paragraph.

An Examination of the Passages in the New Testament, quoted from the Old, and called Prophecies of the coming of Jesus Christ.

"THE passages called Prophecies of or concerning Jesus Christ in the Old Testament, may be classed under the two following heads:

"First, those referred to in the four books of the New Testament, called the four Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Secondly, Those which translators and commentators have, of

their own imagination, erected into prophecies, and dubbed with that title at the head of the several chapters of the Old Testament. Of these it is scarcely worth while to waste time, ink, and paper upon; I shall therefore confine myself chiefly to those referred to in the aforesaid four books of the New Testament. If I shew that these are not prophecies of the person called Jesus Christ, nor have reference to any such person, it will be perfectly needless to combat those which translators or the Church have invented, and for which they had no other authority than their own imagination. "I begin with the book called the Gospel according to St. Matthew.

"In the first chap. ver. 18, it is said, 'Now the birth of Jesus Christ was in this wise; when his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together SHE WAS FOUND WITH CHILD BY THE HOLY GHOST.'-This is going a little too fast; because to make this verse agree with the next, it should have said no more than that she was found with child: for the next verse says, Then Joseph her husband being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily.'Consequently Joseph had found out no more than that she was with child, and he knew it was not by himself.

"Ver. 20. And while he thought of these things (that is, whether he should put her away privily, or make a public example of her) behold the Angel of the Lord appeared to him IN A DREAM (that is, Joseph dreamed that an angel appeared unto him) saying, Joseph thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son and call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins.'

"Now, without entering into any discussion upon the merits or demerits of the account here given, it is proper to observe, that it has no higher authority than that of a dream; for it is impossible for a man to behold any thing in a dream but that which he dreams of. I ask not, therefore, whether Joseph (if there was such a man) had such a dream or not; because, admitting he had, it proves nothing. So wonderful and irrational is the faculty of the mind in dreams, that it acts the part of all the characters its imagination creates, and what it thinks it hears from any of them, is no other than what the roving rapidity of its own imagination invents. It is therefore nothing to me what Joseph dreamed of; whether of the fidelity or infidelity of his wife. I pay no regard to my own dreams, and I should be weak indeed to put faith in the dreams of another.

"The verses that follow those I have quoted, are the words of the writer of the book of Matthew. 'Now (says he) all this (that is, all this dreaming and this pregnancy) was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the Prophet, saying,

"Behold a Virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a

son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.'

"This passage is in Isaiah, chap. vii. ver. 14, and the writer of the book of Matthew endeavours to make his readers believe that this passage is a prophecy of the person called Jesus Christ. It is no such thing-and I go to shew it is not. But it is first necessary that I explain the occasion of these words being spoken by Isaiah: the reader will then easily perceive, that so far from their being a prophecy of Jesus Christ, they have not the least reference to such a person, or to any thing that could happen in the time that Christ is said to have lived-which was about seven hundred years after the time of Isaiah. The case is this:

"On the death of Solomon the Jewish nation split into two monarchies; one called the kingdom of Judah, the capital of which was Jerusalem; the other the kingdom of Israel, the capital of which was Samaria. The kingdom of Judah followed the line of David, and the kingdom of Israel that of Saul; and these two rival monarchies frequently carried on fierce wars against each other.

"At the time Ahaz was king of Judah, which was in the time of Isaiah, Pekah was king of Israel: and Pekah joined himself to Rezin, king of Syria, to make war against Ahaz, king of Judah; and these two kings marched a confederated and powerful army against Jerusalem. Ahaz and his people became alarmed at the danger, and their hearts were moved as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind.' Isaiah vii. 3.

"In this perilous situation of things, Isaiah addresses himself to Ahaz, and assures him, in the name of the Lord (the cant phrase of all the prophets) that these two kings should not succeed against him; and to assure him that this should be the case (the case was however directly contrary*) tells Ahaz to ask a sign of the Lord. This Ahaz declined doing, giving as a reason, that he would not tempt the Lord: upon which Isaiah who pretends to be sent from God, says ver. 14. Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign, behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son-Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil and chuse the good-For before the child shall know to refuse the evil and chuse the good, the land which thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings,'-meaning the king of Israel and the king of Syria, who were marching against him.

*Chron. xxviii. 1. "Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem, but he did not that which was right in the sight of the Lord.- -ver. 5. Wherefore the Lord his God delivered him into the hand of the king of Syria, and they smote him, and carried away a great multitude of them captive and brought them to Damascus: and he was also delivered into the hand of the king of Israel, who smote him with a great slaughter.

Ver. 6. "And Pekah (king of Israel) slew in Judah an hundred and twenty thousand in one day.-ver. 8. And the children of Israel carried away oaptive of their brethren two hundred thousand women, sons, and daughters.

"Here then is the sign, which was to be the birth of a child, and that child a son: .and here also is the time limited for the accomplishment of the sign, namely, before the child should know to refuse the evil and chuse the good.

"The thing, therefore, to be a sign of success to Ahaz must be something that would take place before the event of the battle then pending between him and the two kings could be known. A thing to be a sign must precede the thing signified. The sign of rain must be before the rain.

"It would have been mockery and insulting nonsense for Isaiah to have assured Ahaz as a sign, that these two kings should not prevail against him; that a child should be born seven hundred years after he was dead; and that before the child so born should know to refuse the evil and chuse the good, he, Ahaz, should be delivered from the danger he was then immediately threatened with.

"But the case is, that the child of which Isaiah speaks was his own child, with which his wife or his mistress was then pregnant; for he says in the next chapter, ver. 2, And I took unto me faithful witnesses to record, Uriah the priest, and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah; and I went unto the prophetess, and she conceived and bear a son;' and he says at ver. 18 of the same chapter, Behold I and the children whom the Lord hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel.'

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"It may not be improper here to observe, that the word translated a virgin in Isaiah, does not signify a virgin in Hebrew, but merely a young woman. The tense also is falsified in the translation. Levi gives the Hebrew text of the 14th verse of the 7th chapter of Isaiah, and the translation in English with it- Behold a young woman is with child and beareth a son.' The expression, says he, is in the present tense. This translation agrees with the other circumstances related of the birth of this child, which was to be a sign to Ahaz. But as the true translation could not have been imposed upon the world as a prophecy of a child to be born seven hundred years afterwards, the Christian translators have falsified the orginal; and instead of making Isaiah to say, behold a young woman is with child and beareth a son-they make him to say, behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son. It is, however, only necessary for a person to read the 7th and 8th chapters of Isaiah, and he will be convinced that the passage in question is no prophecy of the person called Jesus Christ. I pass on to the second passage quoted from the Old Testament by the New, as a prophecy of Jesus Christ.

"Matthew ii. 1. Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judah, in the days of Herod the king, behold there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem-saying, where is he that is born king of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him. When Herod, the king, heard these things

he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him-and when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born, and they said unto him, in Bethlehem, in the land of Judea; for thus it is written by the prophet-and thou Bethlem, in the land of Judea, art not the least among the Princes of Judea, for out of thee shall come a Governor that shall rule my people Israel.' This passage is in Micah, chap. v. ver. 2.

66 I pass over the absurdity of seeing and following a star in the day-time, as a man would a Will with the whisp, or a candle and lanthorn at night; and also that of seeing it in the east, when themselves came from the east; for could such a thing be seen at all to serve them for a guide, it must be in the west to them. I confine myself solely to the passage called a prophecy of Jesus Christ.

"The book of Micah, in the passage above quoted, chap. v. ver. 2, is speaking of some person, without mentioning his name, from whom some great achievements were expected; but the description he gives of this person at the 5th verse proves evidently that it is not Jesus Christ, for he says at the 5th verse, • And this man shall be the peace when the Assyrian shall come into our land, and when he shall tread in our palaces, then shall we raise up against him (that is, against the Assyrian) seven shepherds and eight principal men.-ver. 6. And they shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod on the entrance thereof; thus shall He (the person spoken of at the head of the second verse) deliver us from the Assyrian when he cometh into our land, and when he treadeth within our borders.'

"This is so evidently descriptive of a military chief, that it cannot be applied to Christ without outraging the character they pretend to give us of him. Besides which, the circumstances of the times here spoken of, and those of the times in which Christ is said to have lived, are in contradiction to each other. It was the Romans, and not the Assyrians, that had conquered and were in the land of Judea, and trod in their palaces when Christ was born, and when he died, and so far from his driving them out, it was they who signed the warrant for his execution, and he suffered under it.

66

Having thus shewn that this is no prophecy of Jesus Christ, I pass on to the third passage quoted from the Old Testament by the New, as a prophecy of him.

This, like the first I have spoken of, is introduced by a dream. Joseph dreameth another dream, and dreameth that he seeth another angel. The account begins at the 13th verse of the 2d chapter of Matthew.

6

The angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: For Herod will

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