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Jesus was born, how he passed his time, or what species of education he received during the first twelve years of his life-nor does he know when the books of the New Testament were patched up in their - present form, and carefully separated from all merely human compositions, which abounded during the first and second century. However, he subsequently assures us, on the authority of Eusebius, that the four gospels were collected during the life of St. John, and that the three first received the approbation of that divine Apostle, which Eusebius, by the way, has been loudly accused of using deceit in the composition of his Ecclesiastical History.

After being well assured by such rascally authority that the four gospels were collected during the life of St. John, and that the three first received the approbation of that divine Apostle, then Mosheim proceeds to ask "Why may we not suppose that the other books of the New Testament were gathered together at the same time?" To which supposition there can be no valid objection, though the reason given in support of its probability is rather a singular one, which is no other than the urgent necessity of its being done. "For (observes Mosheim) not long after Christ's ascension into heaven, several histories of his life and doctrines, full of pious frauds and fabulous wonders, were composed by persons whose intentions, perhaps, were not bad, but whose writings discovered the greatest superstition and ignorance. Nor was this all; productions appeared which were imposed upon the world by fraudulent men as writings of the holy Apostles." Now, we ask any candid believer in Jesus, as a man more or less inspired with the love of truth, whether he thinks it probable that immediately after the death of such an astonishing Reformer, such a multitude of forged productions could have been imposed upon the world by fraudulent men? That there were about that period innumerable apocryphal books and spurious histories, containing full, true, and particular accounts of a man called Jesus, is certain; and it is equally certain, that they must have been the fruitful cause of schism and confusion. The whole history of Jesus is a book of blunders and wonders, and it would be really more wonderful, if possible, were it any thing else; and those who wrote the four gospels, settled by pious rogues and fanatical idiots as the true gospels, wrote under the influence of inspiration, it may be safely averred that none but inspired persons can make sense of them. The four gospels contain some of the most absurd and senseless trash that ever was committed to paper; and if the apocryphal books are to be discarded by men of reflection on account of the

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nonsense they contain, surely the four gospels must speedily share the same fate.

Mosheim says the rulers of the church used all possible care and diligence in separating the books that were truly apostolical and divine from all that spurious trash; but how did Mosheim know that the early rulers of the church did this? what guarantee have we of their infallibility in book choosing? Rulers of the church are not over diligent in separating the true and good from the spurious and trashy; their diligence in these reformed times goes quite in an opposite direction, for they take much pains to conserve trash and discard truth. They are the conservators of the prejudices as well as the morals of the people; and we have shewn from Mosheim himself, that the early Christians were indifferent whether they acquired victory by artifice or plain dealing-by fraud or by violence!

It cannot be matter of wonder that Christian ministers should desire to disclaim all connection with apocrpyhal books, and get rid of them by hook or by crook-though, doubtless, if they had been wary politicians, and perfectly united among themselves, gone the whole hog-bristles included, and boldly proclaimed all that had ever been written about the Lord Jesus was genuine and divine, the apocryphal books would, at this moment, have been as firmly believed in by the faithful as are now the four gospels. Besides, the history of Jesus now wants completeness, as none of the gospels, as they stand at present, relate the actions, or occurrences of the Redeemer's youth until he was twelve years old, when, we are told, he tarried behind in Jerusalem, and Joseph and his mother knew not of it; and after three days, they found him sitting in the midst of the doctors both hearing them and asking them questions; this is the first time we hear of the Saviour's doings in the true gospels: but those books now rejected as apocryphal give, at all events, a more complete history, and satisfy the laudable curiosity all good Christians must feel to know how the boy Jesus used to amuse myself? what kind of instruction he received? what trade he followed? &c., of which these cast-aside writings furnish us with. One or two of these historical anecdotes, we shall furnish as a specimen of the kind of mental diet greedily swallowed by the early Christians. It is copied verbatim from Sike's Latin translation of the Evangelium Infantæ, published in Arabic and Latin by Henry Sike in 1627, 8vo., and re-printed in Fabricios Condex Apocryphius Novi Testamenti. We may add, the work is generally attributed to Saint Thomas :"And when the Lord Jesus had completed seven years from his

nativity, he was one day playing with some other boys of the same age, his companions; the players employed themselves in making figures of oxen, asses, birds, and others of the same kind, of mud, and each boasted of his work, and endeavoured to prove its superiority over the other figures. Then the Lord Jesus said to the boys, I will command these figures that I have made to walk. The boys then inquired if he was the Creator's son? And the Lord Jesus commanded them to walk, and they immediately walked; and when he ordered them to return, they returned. He made the figures of birds and sparrows; and when he commanded them to fly, they flew; and when he commanded them to remain stationary, they remained stationary; and if food or drink was offered, they ate and drank. When the boys afterwards went to their parents and related this to them, their fathers said to them, avoid associating with him in future, children, because he is a magician; fly and shun him, and never play with him from this moment."

66 'Joseph took the Lord Jesus with him when he went round the city; and when he was called by men to exercise his trade, by making doors, or milk-pails, or sieves, or chests, the Lord Jesus was with him wherever he went; and as often as Joseph had any thing to make longer or shorter, broader or narrower, the Lord Jesus extended his hand towards it, and immediately it became as Joseph wished; so that every thing he did was done in a most excellent manner."

"One day the Lord Jesus went out into the street to play, and saw boys who had assembled for playing, and mixed with the crowd. And when they saw him they concealed themselves, and caused him to look for them. And Jesus arrived at the door of a house and inquired of women who stood there, where the children were gone? And when none there replied, the Lord Jesus again said, what see ye in the furnace? what are they? And they answered, kids three years old. And the Lord Jesus cried out and said, come hither O kids! to your shepherd. And immediately the children came out in the form of kids, and leaped around; and when the women saw this they were greatly astonished and seized with fear and trembling; they, therefore, directly adored the Lord Jesus, and prayed to him, saying, O our Lord Jesus, son of Mary, thou art truly the good shepherd of Israel, have mercy on thy handmaids who stand before thee; for thou, O our Lord! camest to heal, not to destroy!" No Christians now consider these tales worthy of credit; while, in the orthodox gospels, we are left without the shadow of informa

tion as to the period of the life of Jesus stretching from his birth till, at the age of twelve years, we read of him conversing in a most extraordinary manner with the Jewish doctors in the temple at Jerusalem, where " All that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers;" but we are totally left in the dark by Luke as to the manner in which he became possessed of such an amount of knowledge as to confound and astonish the learned Jews and the same apocryphal work from which we quoted above, declares that one of the Jewish philosophers, who greatly excelled in medicine and the natural sciences, inquired if the Lord Jesus had studied medine? When he, in reply, explained physics and metaphysics, hyperphysics and hypophysics, the powers and humours of the body, and their effects-the number of the members and bones, veins, arteries, and nerves-temperaments, hot and dry, cold and humid, and what arose from them-the operations of the soul in the body, and its sensations and powers, &c. &c., which is, indeed astonishing, and redounds so much to the honor of the infant Jesus, that it is a pity it cannot be believed! What a delicious gobe-mouche for the faithful followers of the Lamb-if they could but get it down! Besides, it would be satisfactory to complete the history of the Saviour-beginning with the miraculous conception; then to follow, in due order, the equally miraculous bringing-forth; then an account of the miracles that the infant wrought; how he played at pic-a-back, and amused himself by frightening the lads of the village, by mud-larking; then would come a flaming account of his wonderful dexterity in making deal-boards out of sawdust, which boards had all the hardness of beech, with more than the pliability of India-rubber; then would follow the conversations in the Jewish temples, and other places, about physic, metaphysics, hyperphysics, hypophysics, &c. &c. &c., up to the glorious resurrection!—a chain of historic truth, having a beginning, a middle, and an end-its beginning a miracle, its middle a miracle, and its end a miracle-in short, a miracle altogether! which it would be quite miraculous for any one to understand.

The mental advancement of a people for whose edification such crude absurdities were written, must have been small indeed; and yet, that was the period when the gospels, upon which our faith in the existence of Jesus hangs, were written. Who with any pretension to reason would rely upon such history?

London: H. Hetherington; A. Heywood, Manchester; and all Booksellers.. J. Taylor, Printer, 29, Smallbrook Street, Birmingham.

EXISTENCE OF CHRIST

AS A HUMAN BEING,

DISPROVED!

BY IRRESISTIBLE EVIDENCE, IN A SERIES OF LETTERS,

FROM A GERMAN JEW,

ADDRESSED TO CHRISTIANS OF ALL DENOMINATIONS.

LETTER 25.

WEEKLY.

ONE PENNY.

"I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel. Before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am the Lord, and besides me there is no Saviour."--ISAIAH XLIII. 3, 10, 11.

CHRISTIANS,

Our work is fast drawing to a close; and it is now necessary to retrace our steps, and, as it were, measure and examine the ground already passed over. In early numbers it has been shewn that in ancient times the worship of Nature was universal, and that the Sun appearing to the eyes of mortals, the most splendid and useful of its parts or agents was the object of special love and adoration. Streams of heat and light seemed to pour from that brilliant luminary as from an eternal and inexhaustible reservoir; and, as without heat (called the principle of life) and light (called the first being), our globe, with its endless varieties of vital existences,-from the monad (a secret to the naked eye) which forms the base of vegetable matter, flying the light of the Sun and taking refuge in the shade-to the enormous whale, roaming the mighty deep,-from the butterfly, with wings of gold and azure, basking in the solar rays-to the majestic Condor which wings high its daring flight, proudly towering above the snow-capped mountain's summit, leaving far behind the mightiest hills that convulsed earth seems to have vomited from her bosom,-from the yellow gently-waving ears of corn, moving so gracefully and sportively in harmony with the passing breeze-to the gnarled oak, carrying upon its massive trunk the marks of many ages, standing in calm dignity, as though, like Ajax, it defied the

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