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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.'

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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 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, chap. vii. ver. 3.

In this perilous situation of things, Isaiah addressed 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

*Chron. chap. xxxviii. ver. 1st. Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he 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 captive of their brethren two hundred thousand women, sons and daughters.

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.

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, v. 2, "And Itook 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 Iand the children whom the Lord hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel.”

It may not be improper here to 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 ver. of the 7th chap. 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 original; 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, chap. ii. ver. 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 Bethhelem, "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. 5. ver. 2.

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I pass over the absurdity of seeing and following a star in the day-time, as a man would a Will with the wisp, or a candle and lantern 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, in must be in the west to them. confine myself solely to the passage called a prophecy of Jesus Christ.

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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 ver. " 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-v. 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."

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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.

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 v. of 2d chap. of Matthew.

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 seek "the life of the young child to destroy him. When he arose be "took the young child and his mother by night and departed into Egypt-and was there until the death of Herod, that it might be "fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, "Out of Egypt have I called my son."

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This passage is in the book of Hosea, chap. xi. ver. 1. The words are. "When Israel was a child then I loved him and called "my son out of Egypt-As they called them, so they went from "them, they sacrificed unto Baalam and burnt incense to graven "images.

This passage, falsely called a prophecy of Christ, refers to the children of Israel coming out of Egypt in the time of Pharoah, and to the idolatry they committed afterwards. To make it apply to Jesus Christ, he must then be the person who sacrificed unto Baalam and burnt incense to graven images, for the person called out of Egypt by the collective name, Israel, and the persons committing this idolatry, are the same persons, or the descendants of them. This then can be no prophecy of Jesus Christ unless they are willing to make an idolator of him. I pass on to the fourth passage called a prophecy by the writer of the book of Matthew.

This is introduced by a story, told by nobody but himself, and scarcely believed by any body, of the slaughter of all the children under two years old, by the command of Herod. A thing which it is not probable should be done by Herod, as he only held an office under the Roman government, to which appeals could always be had, as we see in the case of Paul.

Matthew, however, having made or told his story, says, chap. “ ii. v. 17.—“ Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jere"my, the prophet, saying,-In Ramah was there a voice heard, la"mentation, weeping and great mourning; Rachael weeping for "her children, and would not be comforted because they were not."

This passage is in Jeremiah, chap. xxxi. ver. 15, and this verse, when separated from the verses before and after it, and which explains its application, might with equal propriety be applied to every case of wars, sieges, and other violences, such as the Christians themselves have often done to the Jews, where mothers have lamented the loss of their children. There is nothing in the verse taken singly that designates or points out any particular application of it, otherwise than it points to some circumstances which, at the

time of writing it, had already happened, and not to a thing yet to happen, for the verse is in the preter or past tense. I go to explain the case, and shew the application of the verse.

Jeremiah lived in the time that Nebuchadnezzar besiged, took, plundered, and destroyed Jerusalem, and led the Jews captive to Babylon. He carried his violence against the Jews to every extreme. He slew the sons of king Zedekiah before his face, he then put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and kept him in prison till the day of his death.

It is of this time of sorrow and suffering to the Jews that Jeremiah is speaking. Their temple was destroyed, their land desolated, their nation and government entirely broken up, and themselves, men, women, and children, carried into captivity. They had too many sorrows of their own, immediately before their eyes, to permit them, or or any of their chiefs, to be employing themselves on things that might, or might not, happen in the world seven hundred years afterwards.

It is, as already observed, of this time of sorrow and suffering to the Jews that Jeremiah is speaking in the verse in question. In the two next verses, the 16th and 17th, he endeavours to console the sufferers by giving them hopes, and according to the fashion of speaking in those days assurances from the Lord, that their sufferings should have an end, and that their children should return again to their own land. But I leave the verses to speak for themselves, and the Old Testament to testtfy against the New.

Jeremiah, chap. xxxi. ver. 15.—" Thus saith the Lord, a voice was heard in Ramah (it is in the preter tense) lamentation and bitter weeping: Rachel, weeping for her children because they were not."

Verse 16." Thus saith the Lord, refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears; for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the Lord, and THEY shall come again from the land of the enemy."

Verse 17.-" And there is hope in thine end, saith the Lord, that thy children shall come again to their own border."

By what strange ignorance or imposition is it, that the children of which Jeremiah speaks (meaning the people of the Jewish nation, scripturally called children of Israel, and not mere infants under two years old), and who were to return again from the land of the enemy, and come again into their own borders, can inean the children that Matthew makes Herod to slaughter? Could those return again from the land of the enemy, or how can the land of the enemy be appplied to them? Could they come again to their own borders? Good heavens! How has the world been imposed upon by Testament-makers, priestcraft, and pretended prophecies. I pass on to the fifth passage called a prophecy of Jesus Christ.

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