There is one further observation upon the nature of this prophetic passage, which is, that after declaring that Emanuel should eat butter and honey, and the reason that is offered for this, is, that he might know how to refuse the evil and choose the good-as if the way to dis criminate with correctness between moral and immoral principles, was to live upon butter and honey. It is probably true that such a mode of living, rendered habitual, would be favourable to the moral temperament of man, and that the use of animal food makes him savage and ferocious. It ought not, however, to have been mentioned as a principal cause of distinguishing between good and evil. This is the work of the moral and mental faculties of our existence, and some men might eat honey during their whole lives, and die at last totally ignorant of moral principle. This passage of holy writ, in its real nature and character, does not deserve the least comment or observation; but when Christian theology has made mole hills into mountains, it is a duty which we owe to the cause of truth, to strip the film from off the eye, that nature may appear correct and without distortion. When prophecies are expressed in such a loose and unmeaning manner, they lose all their character and credit, and can never be cited as a proof of the divinity of that religion in which they are found. Whoever wishes to be more fully convinced that scripture prophecies are destitute of all certitude, is referred to the perusal of a work, entitled, Christianity as old as the Creation, in which numerous passages of this kind are called up to view, and the reader is furnished with chapter and verse in various places of the Old and New Testament. In the second place, that prophecies do not prove the truth of the Christian religion, is evident from the consideration, that some of those which are most clear and explicit, have absolutely failed in their accomplishment. The twentyfourth chapter of Matthew is adduced to prove the present assertion; in that chapter Christ foretelleth the -destruction of Jerusalem and the end of the world; the inquiry being made, when shall these things be accomplished, the answer is, that this generation shall not pass away till all these things be fulfilled. But it is necessary

to quote the whole passage, to shew that this prophecy, which is as clear and definite as any one contained either in the Old or New Testament, has not been fulfilled; that the time of its fulfilment expired long ago, even in that generation in which it was spoken; and that this of itself ought to destroy the validity of all Christian prophecies, because, when detected in one positive and absolute falsehood, the veracity of Testament writers is for ever afterwards to be suspected. (Ver. 29th) "Immediately after the tribulation of those days, shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. And then shall appear the sign of the son of man in heaven; and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory; and he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. Now learn a parable of the fig-tree; when his branches are yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh; so likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. Verily, I say unto you, this generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away."

The things predicted in this passage have not come to pass. The sun has not been darkened, nor has the moon ceased to give her light; the stars still shine in brilliant splendor, they glisten in the expansive firmament, they still hold their stationary predicament in the regions of space, and are expressive of the majestic grandeur and resplendent glory of the Creator. There is no Christian that can contend that this prophecy has been fulfilled every thing contained in it was to have taken place before that generation should pass away; but not only that generation, but many others have passed away: eighteen hundred years have elapsed, and the things spoken of are not yet accomplished; there is a complete failure-the prophecy is false, and this falsifies the book in which it is contained. A single detection of this kind is enough to

destroy the credit and authority, the pretended divinity and celestial origin of the New Testament. If God the Creator had inspired the men who wrote it, they would have written nothing but truth; for it is impossible that he should have inspired them with lies. There are many other places in the New Testament which speak of the day of judgment, and the final termination of the world, as if it were expected that those events would actually have taken place during the life-time of the apostles or immediate followers of Jesus. (See Cor. x. 11. Heb. ix. 21. 1 John, ii. 18.) If those men, who pretended to be inspired, were nevertheless so grossly deceived, what confidence can the human race now repose in their writings. It is evident, that the end of the world was expected as an event that must shortly happen, and that the apostles waited for it with trembling anxiety, frequently im pressing on each other the importance of being prepared for the opening of such a terrific scene.

Nature, which is constant, stable, and uniform, has given the lie to all these predictions, and taught man a lesson of impressive science, that God is just, immutable, and eternal-that he regards with parental benevolence, the creation which he has made, and that he will not wantonly destroy it to gratify the imaginary whims of a blind and bigoted fanaticism. But there is still a more weighty charge, a more important accusation_lying against the Bible prophecies. They charge the Creator of the world with a want of veracity-that one part of his business has been to deceive his own prophets, and to infuse into their minds falsehood and lies. The Bible represents him as copartner in human guilt, and exhibiting, on many occasions, a departure from the rules of moral excellence, which departure, in itself, would be deroga. tory to the character of any individual of the human race. In the 2d Chronicles, chapter xviii. we shall find matter to verify what has been said. The passage is as follows: "And the Lord said, who shall entice Ahab king of Israel, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead? And one spake saying after this manner. Then there came out a spirit and stood before the Lord, and said, I will entice him, and the Lord said unto him, wherewith?

And he said, I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And the Lord said, thou shalt entice him, and thou shalt also prevail; go out and do even so. Now, therefore, behold the Lord hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of these thy prophets, and the Lord hath spoken evil against thee." Here God is posi tively charged with having put a lying spirit into the mouth of his prophet; and this, if true, would completely destroy his moral character; if it be not true, the assertion in the Bible is false, and of course destroys the divine authenticity of the book. In either alternative, the believer is involved in equal difficulty; the truth of the book or the character of God must be sacrificed. Another example of this kind of prophesying, is found in the 18th chapter of Deuteronomy." When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously, thou shalt not be afraid of him." The prophet Jeremiah says, "O Lord, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived; thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed. Wilt thou be altogether unto me as a liar, and as waters that fail?" And in another prophet, the Lord says, "the days are prolonged, and every vision fails;" and though the Lord adds, "thus shall none of my words be prolonged any more, but the word which I have spoken shall be done;" yet he afterwards says, if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, "I the Lord have deceived that prophet." And if the prophet is deceived, must not the people who rely on that prophet be deceived? And does not the prophet Jeremiah say, "Ah! Lord God, surely thou hast greatly deceived this people!" (See Tindall, page 220.)

It is not the intention, nor is it necessary in a work of this kind, to examine all the pages of the sacred writings of the Christians, in proof of their falsehood or immorality; a few specimens are sufficient to substantiate the principle which is placed in opposition to the character and doctrine of revealed religion. God cannot lie; he is incapable of deception; and a book which charges him with these crimes is false upon the very face of the record.

This charge, which has been exhibited in the quotations which are made above, furnishes a strong ground of belief, that those who wrote the scriptures, were unac. quainted with the nature of moral principles, and that they had no correct idea of the nature of Theism. Lying prophets, a lying book, and a God that coincides with such detestable principles, are circumstances irreconcileable, inconsistent, unjust, and destitute of all truth. A prophet who tells lies himself, and then attributes these lies to the Creator of the world, is a character which reason ought to abhor. This impious connection between earth and heaven-this pretended combination for the purposes of fraud and deception, is calculated only to disgust an innocent mind, and produce an implacable hatred against all religion. It would be more consistent with the true interest of man, that he should be destitute of all theological ideas, than that he should yield to the reception of such incoherent and unjust opinions of the divine character. Atheism is far preferable to that theology which includes folly, cruelty, and ferocious fanaticism. A God that inspires people with lies, is worse than no God at all; and such is the character of the Bible God, if the passages of scripture cited above are to be credited. Prophecy has nothing to do with the order of nature; it is not in conformity to it—it is a wild and injurious effect of the most extravagant superstition. It appears, from the preceding enquiry, that many of the scripture prophecies are vague and indefinite, that they prove nothing in regard to the supernatural origin of revealed religion; in other cases, the prophetic spirit has not hit the mark, and the prophecy has completely failed of accomplishment; in others, the lies and deception incorporated with these celestial predictions, annihilate at once all the vestiges of truth, and leave the moral world in a state of mental decrepitude, ignorance, and superstition. To assert, therefore, that the evidence drawn from prophecies is sufficient to substantiate the divinity of the Christian religion, is a complete abandonment of all the laws and principles by which nature is governed; it is a surrender of intellect to the capricious and extra. vagant operations of a cruel and superstitious opinion;

it is substituting conjecture for truth, and making the imagination more correct and powerful than reason. It is not possible that the intellectual powers of human nature can ever reach an exalted state of improvement, till they rise above all the degrading impressions of theological superstition, and rest with confidence upon the basis of their own energy.

CHAP. XI.

That the Immorality of the Christian Religion proves that it is not of Divine Origin.

It is extraordinary, that among other sources of evidence to which Christians have resorted, for the purpose of proving their religion divine and supernatural, they have yielded to a belief, that in point of moral excellence the Bible is superior to all other books. If all external evidence were swept away, it would nevertheless appear, by the internal purity of this system, that it is divine. Its morality is declared to be pure, excellent, and celestial; that it rises above the earth, and partakes of the nature of heaven; that its maxims are sublime, its doctines holy, its moral precepts universally unexceptionable; and that the mind that does not perceive in the Christian religion indubitable marks of its divinity, must be blind to that blaze of internal evidence which shines with refulgent splendor through this revealed system. Such in substance is the opinion, such the sentiments and feelings of the Christian believer. It is certainly of the highest import ance that every system of religion should be immaculate in its moral principles; and in deficiency of this, its pretended claim to divinity sinks into nothing, and merits absolute contempt. All the miracles in the world can never prove that religion to be true, whose internal max. ims are immoral and destructive. Purity of rules and principles must be fundamental in every ethical treatise; the nature of our existence demands it; our powers bear a constant relation to the production of moral effects, and our happiness cannot be secured by any other means. A