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years after the death of Christ, the humane Pliny laments the magnitude of the evil which he vainly attempted to eradicate. In his very curious epistle to the emperor Trajan, he affirms that the temples were almost deserted, that the sacred victims scarcely found any purchasers, and that the superstition had not only infected the cities, but had even spread itself into the villages and the open country of Pontus and Bithynia."*

Mr. Volney, whose philosophy elevated him above all vulgar prejudices in favor of historical testimony, and with whom the well known laws of moral evidence had no weight, lays it down as a clear case, that no such person as Jesus Christ ever lived in this world; and on that position framed a theory, which, on the pain of being ridiculed as a generation of credulous dupes, his readers were forthwith required to adopt. It is, that the Divine personage whom Christians, during the space of eighteen centuries, have ignorantly revered as their crucified Redeemer, is neither more nor less than the sun in the firmament; that the Virgin Mary is one of the signs of the zodiac, viz. the constellation Virgo: and that the crucifixion of Christ by Pontius Pilate, and his resurrection from the dead on the third day, are nothing more than the sun's declension to the winter solstice, and his subsequent return to the summer solstice, through the vivifying season of spring. This absurd theory has been adopted, defended, and extensively propagated by Mr. Robert Taylor of London, formerly a minister of the Church of England, whose malevolence and scurrility, are only equalled by his utter disregard of truth and destitution of moral principle.

This man's great parade of learning and authority, and his ostentatious references to the titles of books, to chapters, pages, and passages, marked as quotations, when in fact the books and passages referred to, say no such thing as he imputes to them, but the very contrary; while the professed quotations are grossly falsified, are admirably calculated to deceive the unwary, and justify the conclusion that he is a wilful and malicious deceiver.

The positions of this man will be better understood, from the following manifesto published in London some years ago.

"Our reverened orator, a regular and canonically ordained clergyman of the established church, hath publicly challenged all ministers and preachers (and hereby repeats the challenge) to come forward and show, if they can, the contrary of the four grand propositions, which

Gibbon's His. of the Decline and Fall, vol. 2. chap. xv. p. 357.

in the society's manifesto, " to all clergymen, ministers, and preachers of the gospel," are declared to have been, as far as to us appeared, fully and unanswerably demonstrated. The propositions are,

I. That the Scriptures of the New Testament, were not written by the persons whose names they bear.

II. That they did not appear in the times to which they refer.

III. That the persons of whom they treat, never existed.
IV. That the events, which they relate, never happened.
Of these propositions, the proofs are-

I. That the Scriptures of the New Testament were not, &c.— Because it cannot be shown, by any evidence, that they were "written by the persons whose names they bear ;" and, because it can be shewn by evidence, both external and internal, that they were written by other persons. By evidence external-In the formal acts and edicts of Christian emperors, bishops, and councils, issued from time to time, for the general alteration, or total renovation of these Scriptures, according to their own caprice. [Note-Such were those of the emperors Constantine and Thodosius, and this of the emperor Anastasius: "When Messala was consul, (that is in the year of Christ, 506,) at Constantinople, by order of the emperor Anastasius, the Holy Gospels, as being written by illiterate evangelists, are censured and corrected."-Victor Tununensis, an African bishop, quoted by Lardner, vol. 3, p. 97. See also an account of a general alteration of these Scriptures," to accommodate them to the faith of the orthodox," by Lan Franc, archbishop of Canterbury, as recorded by Beausobre.-Historie de Manichee, vol. i. p. 343.] And in the admissions of the most learned critics and divines, as to the alterations which these Scriptures have, from time to time, undergone. [Note -Admissions of the most learned critics. 1st, "There were in the manuscript of the New Testament, one hundred and thirty thousand various readings."-Unitarian New Version, p. 22. 2nd, “The manuscripts from which the received text was taken, were stolen by the librarian, and sold to a sky-rocket maker, in the year 1749."-Herbert Marsh, bishop of Peterborough, vol. ii. p. 441. 3rd, For the most important passage in the book of Revelation, there was no original Greek at all, but "Erasmus wrote it himself in Switzerland, in the year 1516."-Bishop Marsh, vol. 1, p. 320.] By evidence internal-In the immoral, vicious, and wicked tendency of many passages therein remaining, and by the insertion of others, whose only drift is to enhance the powers of kings and priests. [Note-Immoral, &c. See Romans iii. 7.; Epistle John ii. 10.; Hebrews xii.

29.; Hebrews xiii. 17.; Romans xiii.; 1 Peter ii. 13.; Luke xiv. 26., &c.]

II. That they did not appear in the times to which they refer, is demonstrable, By evidence, external-In the express admissions of ecclesiastical historians, of their utter inability to show when, or where, or by whom, this collection of writings was first made. [Note-See Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History; Jones on the Canon, &c., passim.] And in the admissions of the most learned critics, as to the infinitely suspicious origination of the present Received Text. [Note-Received Text, &c. "The Received Text rests on the authority of no more than twenty or thirty manuscripts, most of which are of little note."-Unitarian Version, Introduction 10. "It was completed by the Elzevir edition of 1634;" ib. Mark well! the retaining therein, and circulating as the word of God, with consent or connivance of all parties, several passages known and admitted by all, to be forgeries and lies; 1 John, ver. 7.; 1 Tim. iii. 16.-Excellent morality this!!] By evidence internal-In innumerable texts therein contained, betraying a comparatively modern character, referring to circumstances, which did not exist till later ages, and quoting other Scriptures, which had previously formed the faith of the first Christian churches, but which, without any assignable reason, or alleged authority, have since been rejected. [Note-Comparatively modern, &c. See 2 Epist. John 9.; 1 Tim. iii. 3.; James v. 14.; Matt. xviii. 17.; 1 Corinth. xv. 7. 32.; 1 Peter iv. 6.]

III. That the persons of whom they treat, never existed; because demoniacs, devils, ghosts, angels, hobgoblins, [Note-Hobgoblins. See Acts xix. 15.] persons who had once been dead, who could walk on water, ride in the air, &c., such as Satan and Jesus Christ, are the persons of whom these Scriptures treat; and that such persons never existed is demonstrable: 1st, From the utter incongruity of such figments with the immutable laws of sound reason. 2nd, From the total absence of all historical reference to their existence; and 3rdly, From innumerable passages of these Scriptures themselves, which fully admit the merely visionary Hypostases of their fabulous hero. [Note-Visionary Hypostases. See Luke ix. 29.; Mark ix. 2.; Luke xxiv. 31.; 1 John v. 6, and innumerable other passages, in perfect accordance with the true and genuine gospels of the most primitive Christians, which taught that he was ninety-eight miles tall, and twenty-four miles broad; that he was not crucified at all; that he was never born at all; that by faith only are we saved, &c.; all equally indicative that Christianity had no evidence at all, but

was a matter of mere conceit, fancy, or superstition, from first to last.]

IV. That the events which they relate never happened, is demonstrable (further than as a consequence of the preceding proposition,) from the fact that some, many, or all of these events, had been previously related of the gods and goddesses of Greece and Rome, and more especially of the Indian idol Chrishna, whose religion, with less alterations, than time and translators have made in the Jewish Scriptures, may be traced in every dogma, and every ceremony of the Evangelical Mythology."

These shameful misrepresentations and unblushing falsehoods, uttered with such dogmatical assurance, were promptly met and most triumphantly refuted by talented ministers of the Gospel in England. But although in this country, the writings of this basest of all Infidels have been extensively circulated, and are held in high esteem by a certain class of his fellows: so far as the writer's knowledge extends, no attention has been paid to his allegations.

To the first and second propositions, "That the Scriptures of the New Testament were not written by the persons whose names they bear," and, "That they did not appear in the times to which they refer," it is in order here to reply. And we have the most satisfactory evidence that the books of the New Testament were written at the time which they intimate, and by the persons to whom they are attributed. It is true that several of them do not bear any name in the beginning or body of the composition itself; but for these as well as the others, the evidence of genuineness is very satisfactory. The intelligent reader need scarcely be told that the titles, at the head of each book, were prefixed, not by the authors, but by early transcribers. That circumstance, however, instead of constituting a proof that the books are forgeries, as some Infidels assert, involves a proof of the general belief and notoriety that those books were the genuine productions of the writers whose names were familiarly attached to them.

There are in existence a number of well known books, written by heathen authors, some belonging nearly to the period of the New Testament, and others to times long anterior; and no rational man doubts that they were the genuine productions of the persons to whom they are attributed. But the question arises, how do we know that the works attributed to Thucydides, Xenophon, Demosthenes, Cicero, Ceasar and Livy, are their genuine writings? By the only evidence applicable to such cases, and with which the common sense of

mankind is universally satisfied; PUBLIC NOTORIETY, transmitted to the successive generations of men by their predecessors, up to the epoch in each case referred to, and this transmitted knowledge often attested by the allusions or quotations of subsequent authors. In this way the whole of literary history is continued down to our own days; and it is upon such evidence as this, that we regard the books composing the New Testament as genuine and authentic; that is, they stand on the ground of public notoriety, reaching back to the times to which they belong.

The present generation of Christians received these writings as a most precious deposit from those under whose guardianship they were in infancy and youth, and they from theirs, and so on; each generation receiving them from the one which preceded it, till we ascend without interruption, from the present time to the age in which the writers themselves lived, at the same time tracing the distinct proofs and testimonies in each period; and all Christians, in all nations and all ages, and of all languages, do and have done the same. It is a matter of history well attested by contemporary writers, Jewish, Christian and Heathen, that these were the genuine writings of the persons to whom they are attributed. In the sharpest opposition of heretics in the church, and of Jews and heathens out of it, until very lately, it was never denied that these books were the genuine writings, containing the original documents of the Christian religion.

Hundreds of manuscripts now exist, and some of them bearing date within a few centuries of the time of Christ. Many institutions have arisen, and national usages have been established in consequence of the facts recorded in them, and on the ground of the belief of their genuineness, and on no other, from the apostolic age to the present time. For these reasons, Christians believe the books to be the genuine writings of the Apostles and Evangelists of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the historical fact, that the New Testament contains the writings of the persons to whom they are ascribed is as well established, as that the Declaration of American Independence is the production of Thomas Jefferson, or that the Westminster Confession of Faith, or the liturgy of the Church of England, or the Magna Charta, or the Institutes of Justinian, or the writings of Seneca, are the genuine writings of those persons to whom they are respectively attributed; and the same kind of testimony is appealed to in the one case as in the other. Indeed the challenge may be fearlessly made, to produce any writings at all approaching to the same professed an

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