In the first place, this passage hath not the least relation to the purpose for which it is quoted.

Matthew says, that the Pharisees held a council against Jesus to destroy him-that Jesus withdrew himself-that great numbers followed him that he healed them-and that he charged them they should not make him known.

But the passage Matthew, has quoted as being fulfilled by these circumstances, dos not so much as apply to any one of them. It has nothing to do with the Pharisees, holding a council to distroy Jesus with his withdrawing himself—with great numbers following him with his healing them-nor with his charging them not to make him known.

The purpose for which the passage is quoted, and the passage itself, are as remote from each other, as nothing from something. But the case is, that people have been so long in the habit of reading the books called the Bible and Testament with their eyes shut, and their senses locked up, that the most stupid inconsistencies have passed on them for truth, and imposition for prophecy. The all wise creator hath been dishonoured by being made the author of Fable, and the human mind degraded by believing it.

In this passage, as in that last mentioned, the name of the person of whom the passage speaks, is not given, and we are left in the dark respecting him. It is this defect in the history, that bigotry and imposition have laid hold of, to call it prophecy.

Had Isaiah lived in the time of Cyrus, the passage would discriptively apply to him. As king of Persia, his authority was great among the Gentiles, and it is of such a character the passage speaks, and his friendship to the Jews whom he liberated from captivity, and who might then be compared to a bruised reed, was extensive. But this discription does not apply to Jesus Christ, who had no authority among the Gentiles; and as to his own coun

trymen, figuratively described by the bruised reed, it was they who crusified him. Neither can it be said of him that he did not cry, and that his voice was not heard in the street. As a preacher it was his business to be heard, and we are told that he travelled about the country for that purpose. Matthew has given a long sermon, which (if his authority is good, but which is much to be doubted since he imposes so much,) Jesus preached to a multitude upon a mountain, and it would be a quibble to say that a mountain, is not a street, since it is a place equally as public.

The last verse in the passage (the 4th,) as it stands in Isaiah, and which Matthew has not quoted, says, " He shall not fail nor "be discouraged till he have set judgment in the Earth and the

Isles shall wait for his law." This also applies to Cyrus. He was not discouraged, he did not fail, he conquered all Babylon, li berated the Jews, and established laws. But this cannot be said of Jesus Christ, who, in the passage before us, according to Matthew, withdrew himself for fear of the Pharisees, and charged the people that followed him not to make it known where he was; and who, according to other parts of the Testament, was continu ally moving from place to place to avoid being apprehended.*

* In the second part of the Age of Reason, I have shewn that the book ascribed to Isaiah is not only miscellaneous as to matter, but as to authorship; that there are parts in it which could not be written by Isaiah, because they speak of things one hundred and fifty years after he was dead. The instance I have given of this, in that work, corresponds with the subject I am upon, at least a little better than Matthew's introduction and his quotation

Isaiah lived, the latter part of his life, in the time of Hezekiah, and it was about one hundred and fifty years from the death of Hezekiah to the first year of the reign of Cyrus, when Cyrus published a proclamation, which is given in the first chapter of the book of Ezra, for the return of the Jews to Jerusalem. It cannot be doubted, at least it ought not to be doubted, that the Jews would feel an affectionate gratitude for this act of benevolent justice, and it is natural they would express that gratitude in the customary stile, bombastical and hyperbolical as it was, which they used on

But it is immaterial to us, at this distance of time, to know who the person was: It is sufficient to the purpose I am upon, that of detecting fraud and falsehood, to know who it was not, and to shew it was not the person called Jesus Christ.

I pass on to the ninth passage called a prophecy of Jesus Christ.

Matthew, chap. 21, v. 1. "And when they drew nigh unte “Jerusalem, and were come to Bethphage, unto the mount of "Olives, then Jesus sent two of his disciples-saying, unto them, " go into the village over against you, and straightway ye shall "find an Ass tied, and a colt with her, loose them and bring them

extraordinary occasions, and which was, and still is, in practice with all the eastern nations.

The instance to which I refer, and which is given in the second part of the Age of Reason, is the last verse of the 44th chapter and the beginning of the 45th-in these words; "That saith of Cyrus "he is my shepherd and shall perform all my pleasure: even saying "to Jerusalem thou shall be built, and to the Temple, thy foundation "shall be laid. Thus saith the Lord to his anoi'ed, to Cyrus, whose " right hand I have holden to subdue nations before him; and I will "loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two leaved gates and "the gates shall not be shut."

This complimentary address is in the present tense, which shews that the things of which it speaks were in existance at the time of writing it; and consequently, that the author must have been at least one hundred and fifty years later than Isaiah, and that the book which bears his name is a compilation. The proverbs called Solomon's and the Psalms called David's, are of the same kind. The two last verses of the second book of Chronicles, and the three first verses of the first chapter of Ezra, are word for word the same; which shew that the compilers of the Bible mixed the writings of different authors together, and put them under some common head.

As we have here an instance in the 44 and 45 chapters of the introduction of the name of Cyrus into a book to which it cannot belong, it affords good ground to conclude, that the passage in the 421. chapter, in which the character of Cyrus is given without his name, has been introduced in like manner, and that the person there spoken of is Cyrus.

* unto me,—and if any man say ought to you, ye shall say, the "Lord hath need of them, and straightway he will send "them.

"All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken "by the prophets, saying. Tell ye the daughter of Zion, behold thy king cometh unto thee meek, and setting on an Ass, and a colt the "foal of an Ass.”

Poor Ass! let it be some consolation amidst all thy sufferings, that if the heathen world erected a Bear into a constellation, the christian world has elevated thee into a prophecy.

This passage is in Zechariah, chap. 9. v. 9. and is one of the whims of friend Zechariah to congratulate his countrymen who were then returned from captivity in Babylon and himself with them, to Jerusalem. It has no concern with any other subject, It is strange that apostles, priests, and comentators, never permit, or never suppose, the Jews to be speaking of their own affairs. Every thing in the Jewish books is perverted and distorted into meanings never intended by the writers. Even the poor ass must not be a jew-ass but a christian-ass. I wonder they did not make an apostle of him, or a bishop, or at least make him speak and prophesy, He could have lifted up his voice as loud as any of

them.

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Zechariah, in the first chapter of his book, indulges himself in several whims on the joy of getting back to Jerusalem. He says at the 8th verse, "I saw by night (Zechariah was a sharp sighted seer) and behold a man setting on a red horse (yes reader, a red "horse) and he stood among the myrtle trees that were in the "bottom, and behind him were red horses, speckled and white.” He says nothing about green horses, nor blue horses, perhaps be cause it is difficult to distinguish green from blue by night, but a christian can have no doubt they were there, because "faith is "the evidence of things not seen.”

Zechariah then introduces an angel among his horses, but he does not tell us what colour the angel was of, whether black or white, nor whether he came to buy horses, or only to look at them as curiosities, for certainly they were of that kind. Be this however as it may, he enters into conversation with this angel on the joyful affair of getting back to Jerusalem, and he saith at the 16th verse Therefore, thus saith the Lord, I AM RETURNED "to Jerusalem with mercies; my house shall be built in it saith the "Lord of hosts, and a line shall be stretched forth upon Jerusalem." An expression signifying the rebuilding the city.

All this, whimsical and imaginary as it is, sufficiently proves that it was the entry of the Jews into Jerusalem from captivity, and not the entry of Jesus Christ seven hundred years afterwards, that is the subject upon which Zechariah is always speaking.

As to the expression of riding upon an ass, which commentators represent as a sign of humility in Jesus Christ, the case is, he never was so well mounted before. The asses of those countries are large and well proportioned, and were anciently the chief of riding animals. Their beasts of burden, and which served also for the conveyance of the poor, were camels and dromedaries. We read in Judges chap. 10. v. 4. that "Jair, (one of the judges of Israel "had thirty sons that rode on thirty ass-colts, and they had thirty cities." But commentators destort every thing.

There is besides very reasonable ground to conclude that this story of Jesus riding publicly into Jerusalem, accompanied, as it is said at the 8th and 9th verses, by a great muttitude, shouting and rejoicing and spreading their garments by the way, is altogether a story destitute of truth.

In the last passage called a prophesy that I examined, Jesus is represented as withdrawing, that is, running away, and concealing himself for fear of being apprehended, and charging the people that were with him not to make him known. No new circums