he shall cause the oblation and sacrifice to cease," and, I have only to
observe, that, from the taking of the city by Antiochus, to the absolute
forbidding Jewish worship, there elapsed about three years and a half,
or half a week, for he came to Jerusalem in the 143d year of the kingdom
of the Greeks, and the erecting of idols was in the year 145; after
which, he continued to persecute the Jews, and promote idolatry, until
the year 148. Now Antiothus attacked Jerusalem at the end of his sixth
year, to which, if we add two years and three months, we have pretty
exactly the period of half a week, or three years and a half. The
expression, "the spreading of abominations," evidently alludes to what
is said in Maccabees, chap. i. ver. 34. "Now the fifteenth day of the
month Casleu, in the 145th year, they (the followers of Antiochus) set
up the abomination of desolation upon the altar, and builded idol altars
throughout the cities of Judah, on every side." Daniel says, chap.
xii. ver. 11, speaking of his vision, "and from the time that the daily
sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that: maketh
desolate set up, there shall be (that is between the first interdict of
Antiochus, and the setting up of idols) 1290 days;" which is a little
more than three years and a half. The wonderful prophecy is then
unriddled, it becomes a contemptible piece of history in an affected
style. I trust the explanation which I have given, after Marsham, will
appear satisfactory. I challenge Bishop Watson to produce a plausible
explanation of the passage according to the sense of the church. It
may not be improper to observe, that Clemens Alexandrinus, many of
the fathers, Calmet, and other persons of great knowledge, have flatly
denied the application of the weeks of Daniel to Jesus. Those who
espouse your cause lose sight of the context of Daniel, they forget
chronology, and evince to what a pitch of delusion their minds have
arrived.
This is the famous prophecy that silenced the Jewish rabbins of Venice;
it is of a pattern with Daniel's four beasts; the fourth is also a story
of Antiochus Epiphanes and Judas who slays the beast. Judas is the son
of man coming in clouds; he is the person of whom the prophets speak,
and who has most ridiculously been distorted to Jesus Christ. This
farrago of prophecies seems to have been the production of Esdras
or some very late writer; and I am not sure, but the doctrine of the
Pythagorean millennium gave rise to some of the expressions in both
writers, about the beasts: they seem to have sprung from the same origin
with those of the Apocalypse; and with the four Indian horses, they
crept among the Jews, together with many other Chaldean mythological
ideas: the Ancient of Ancients appears in his fiery car as Osiris
triumphant, or Chreeshna conquering Chiven; the books are opened before
him, as his kingdom is everlasting, like that of Vishnu with the
Vedams. But visions so ridiculous as that of Daniel deserve not our
consideration; whatever be their source they are but reveries, and may
serve to amuse idle people in their ridiculous speculations about the
world's end. Like Swedenburgh, men may dream, and interpret their own
dreams, and like him have the mortification to be laughed at for the
non-accomplishment of their predictions. We have had of late another
Daniel in Mr. Brothers; he too saw beasts, and, what is more, he
understood their meaning; but unfortunately we are not Jews, and he is
cruelly imprisoned in a madhouse.
I have now followed your animadversions on the objections of Thomas
Paine upon the Old Testament; and I trust I have shown that you have in
no degree been a more successful labourer in the cause of Judaism than
your predecessors; even your wonderful prophecy of Daniel is converted
into a mere historical tale, and the application Jesus Christ makes of
it to himself is accordingly proved to be ridiculous, the more so, as
it comes from the Son of God. I have a few more observations to make,
before I leave this book. I cannot pass in silence the gross blunder you
have committed, when you refer Mr. Paine to Ferguson for an astronomical
proof of the miracle of the total darkness at the crucifixion of Jesus.
An odd conceit, upon my word! You might know that the event is omitted
by all the authors of eminence who wrote at that time; that even Pliny
passes it unnoticed. Lest you should mislead the reader with your
groundless assertions, I shall state the matter as it stands in reality.
You avoid learned disquisitions to be intelligible, but you ought not
to have been so deficient of authority, where it is most needed. Besides
the gospels, the darkness is not mentioned in any author; but divines
have attempted to prove the event from a supposed passage of Phlegon,
related by Eusebius; it is in the following words: "In the fourth year
of the two hundred and second Olympiad, there was the greatest eclipse
ever seen; it was night at six, and even the stars could be seen." This
passage has long been disregarded by men of knowledge; it alludes to an
eclipse, not to a miraculous darkness. Both Mr. Ferguson and you have
blundered in chronology and astronomy. It is certain, in the year of
Christ's crucifixion, according to the common chronology, there could
have been no eclipse of the sun visible at that time at Jerusalem;
Ferguson, therefore, concludes it a miracle. But you ought to have
known, that the fourth year of the two hundred and second Olympiad, is
not the year of the crucifixion in any system of chronology; that there
was an eclipse of the sun, in the year mentioned by Phlegon, in the
month of November, which, however, was not central; and you know that
Jesus is said to have died at the time of the full moon in March, or in
the beginning of April. Besides, had even such a darkness taken place,
are you ignorant of the existence of comets, and would not one passing
between the earth and the sun eclipse that luminary? Have not such
miracles taken place if we credit historians? The death of Caesar
was preceded by wonderful prodigies, and a comet made its appearance
immediately after. The supposed miraculous influence of comets, and
their being prophetic signs, was once an article of faith throughout
all Europe, and the ancient history of every country records many events
which the authors maintain arose from comets.
Your reflections on prophets I cannot pass unnoticed. You pretend to
make a distinction between dreamers, and impostors, and true prophets.
You acknowledge the number of soothsayers and fortunetellers among the
Jews; but you maintain that they were altogether distinct from the
true prophets, and appeal to Jeremiah, who puts the Jews on their guard
against false prophets. Does not every quack, every impostor, do the
same, and caution the world to beware of counterfeits? You might have
saved a great deal of trouble, had you condescended to produce your
proofs of the genuineness of the writings of the prophets; and then we
might enquire concerning the works of these augurs. You pretend that a
sure mark of the reality of a prophet is his predicting bad things, for
a fortune-teller always prophecies good. Pardon me if I suppose you a
follower of Mr. Brothers. For surely the destruction of London was not
a most desirable event. It is in vain you attempt to turn Mr. Paine
into ridicule for his definition of a prophet. He most justly calls them
strolling-poets, fortune-tellers; being in Judea what the gipsies, the
augurs, and the astrologers have been in other nations. The Hebrew word
_Navi_ signifies nothing but an orator, a public speaker, and is by
the Jews applied, in a forced way, to soothsayers and diviners. It is
incontrovertible that they existed among the Jews in colleges, and were
brought up to the business. Their chief employment was to write
the chronicles of the times. The name prophet is given in the Bible
indiscriminately with that of holy man. Among the Hebrews, the first
book of Kings was called the prophecy of Samuel. Abel is called
repeatedly in the New Testament a prophet, (see Matth. chap. xxiii.
ver. 31 and 35, and Luke chap. xi. ver. 50 and 51), although we have no
account of his having predicted any. Among the Jews there certainly were
fortune-tellers, necromancers, and witches, all of which you rank
among the impostors. But had not the witch of Endor a real power of
incantation? Did she not most wonderfully raise up the spirit of Samuel?
Or are we to look upon the story of the witch of Endor in the same
light as those of modern witches? That the prophets of the Jews were
repeatedly deceived, we cannot have the smallest doubt when 400 of
these gentlemen told a downright lie to Ahaz. But you have a very easy
expedient in all these cases. When a prophet tells a lie, you may, as
was done in this particular case, attribute it to a design of God to
cheat the person who consults his oracles, just as Jupiter did of old to
Agamemnon when he sent him the false dream.
You reproach Thomas Paine for want of candour. He has not, you say,
examined the general design of the Old Testament There he would find
the benevolence of the God of the Jews, and his infinite goodness in
selecting them from among the nations, in preserving them from idolatry.
If he chose this people he has certainly exposed them to continual
sufferings, and all for no other purpose than to teach mankind that
idolatry is the greatest of crimes; that to avoid it, murder, plunder,
the crusades, the inquisition, persecution, may all be laudable means
for the preservation of the faith of nations. Thus, the cherished
people, who were most intimate with their God, committed the most
enormous crimes, under the pretence of preserving pure their adoration
of the implacable God Jehovah. Did not all the endeavours of Jehovah to
rescue nations from idolatry prove fruitless? This despicable creature
man has been able to effect what mighty Jehovah never accomplished.
Science is the only antidote against all kinds of superstition. Did
Cicero adore stocks or stones? Or did ever any learned man among the
heathens humble himself before idols? Has not the principal branch of
the church of Christ been notorious idolaters? But what avails all
this? Have you proved that the Heathens "emulated in the transcendent
flagitiousness of their lives, the impure morals of their gods?" You
assert it; but unluckily it is one of the many unsupported and assumed
propositions in your pamphlet. Did nations necessarily imitate the
conduct of their gods, I would tremble at being among the followers
of the bloody Jehovah. The heathens were certainly dreamers in their
adoration of the planets; we are taught by science, that these bodies
resemble our earth in the general laws that govern them. It was natural
for rude men to gaze at the sublimity of the stupendous fabric, the
refulgency of the sun; the blessings derived from his genial influence
could not be contemplated without admiration by the amazed and fearful
savage. Idolatry is ridiculous: but have you proved that Jehovah
deserves more to be revered than the Great Whole of nature, whether
called Pan, or otherwise disguised in emblems, than the harmony of the
planets designed by symbols, the generative powers by Venus, or the
vivifying light emanating from the bright orb of Apollo? Confess at
least, that the allegorical adoration of nature could only deceive
the multitude who were kept in ignorance by their priests. If you are
candid, you must acknowledge, that the Polytheists were tolerant, that
the Atheists or Deists lectured close, to the temple. They did not
exterminate nations, establish inquisitions, murder unbelievers as the
Jews, and the Christians; although, as you observe, they received the
gift of God through Jesus Christ, and were made alive by the covenant of
grace.
In what consists the superiority of the Jewish or Christian notions
of God? Jehovah is a being incomprehensible; he is a jealous and a
revengeful God, he hardens men's hearts, and sacrifices whole nations to
a particular people, who, in their turn, are sacrificed for the boasted
scheme of general good, which is never the nearer being accomplished.
He must be adored and revered, and yet he does not make himself known
to man. He does not even show himself face to face to any but Moses.
You pay no great compliment to his omnipotence, when you observe, that
"probably he could not give to such a being as man a full manifestation
of the end for which he designs him, nor of the means requisite for that
end;"--and, "that it may not be possible for the Father of the universe
to explain to us, infants in apprehension, the goodness and the wisdom
of his dealings with the sons of man." Jehovah, in short, equally the
offspring of fancy with the Heathen Jupiter, is as cruel as Moloch,
and, like other productions of the brain, an invisible phantom, to which
priests give the passions of a tyrant; and, in their desire that he
should reign alone, that men should not worship other deities, his
ministers have preached up this God, and the multitude, eager to admire
what they cannot comprehend, have followed the mandates of the pretended
interpreters of his will. Still, however, the greatest number of
ignorant men are, and will ever be, idolaters; in vain their spiritual
guides preach up incomprehensible and ideal beings in an unintelligible
jargon; man will always seek to satisfy his senses. Even the immediate
presence of Jehovah, and his horrid massacres, could not prevent the
favourite nation from following other gods. Even the inspired, the wise,
the royal Solomon forsook "the God of Israel, holy, just, and good," for
"the impure rabble of heathen Baalim."
According to your nations, according to the doctrines of the Jewish and
the Christian churches, the sole aim of God has been to be exclusively
adored, and jealousy is his prominent feature. It is not in the pursuit
of knowledge, or in the practice of morality that he delights. The
precepts of social virtue occasionally scattered through the Old, as
well as the New Testament, can make little impression when contrasted
with the vindictive cruelty of the Deity. The Jewish Jehovah requires
nothing of his followers but their compliance in executing his bloody
commands against nations whom he calls impious, because he has not
revealed himself to them. The man after his own heart, is the murderer
of thousands of innocent people. Christ orders his followers to despise
the reason he has given them, to avoid pleasure, to hate the world,
and to love pain, to pray, and to spend their lives in continual
mortification, and in gazing over unintelligible mysteries to acquire
his kingdom. If they fail to believe in him, whether from ignorance or
from conviction, he punishes them with eternal damnation, or as _Saint_
Athanasius emphatically expresses it in his celebrated creed, "Whosoever
believeth in these things shall be saved; and whosoever believeth not
shall be damned."
LETTER VII.
I now bring under review a few passages from _Holy Writ_, which I leave
to your Lordship to explain, and which scoffers pretend to say are
undeniable proofs of the stupidity of the Jews, and gross ideas they
had of God. I shall follow the order of the books without attempting an
arrangement.
Genesis, chap. iii. ver. 1. "Now the serpent was more subtle than any
beast of the field which the Lord had made; and he said unto the woman,
yea hath God said," &c.
This Mr. Serpent would make a fine figure in Æsop's fables. They say it
means the Devil, but how does that appear?
In ver. 22. and 23. "And behold the Lord said, the man is become one of
us, (i. e. one of us Gods), to know good and evil, And now lest he put
forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for
ever; therefore, the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to
till the ground from whence he was taken."
This shows strongly that boasted attribute of God, Jealousy. Is it
consistent with a Deity to punish this pair, and all their progeny, for
their attempt to know good from evil? We here find that the priests have
made God expressly after their own image. God's selfishness prevented
men from eating of the other tree, which would make him live for ever.
_Queritur,_ then, at what period of the world did the soul of man become
immortal? Was it not till Jesus Christ came? And was this tree a type of
him, as the bread and wine are at this day? It appears also, that it was
not one, but two trees, that were prohibited!
Ib. chap. xxxii. ver. 24. "And Jacob was left alone, and there wrestled
a man with him, until the breaking of the day; (this shows the antiquity
and high authority of sparring); and when he saw that he prevailed not
against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh (Mendoza like): and the
hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him. And
he said, let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let
thee go, unless thou bless me. And he said unto him, what is thy name?
And he said, Jacob. And he said, thy name shall be called no more Jacob,
but Israel; (which, in Chaldee signifies seeing God); for as a prince
hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed. (Or, as the
Vulgate more correctly translates, for if thou hast been to oppose the
Lord, how much more shall thou prevail against men). And Jacob called
the name of the place Penial: for I have seen God face to face." This
passage requires no comment.
Exodus, chap. iii. ver. 4. "And when the Lord saw that he (Moses) turned
aside to see, God called unto him out of the bush, and said, Moses,
Moses. And he said, here am I." This is a pretty play at bo-peep.
Ib. ver. 14. "And God said unto Moses, I am that I am; and he said, thus
shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I am hath sent me unto you."
Divines hold this passage to be a great instance of sublimity!!!
Ib. ver. 21. "And I will give this people favour in the sight of the
Egyptians, and it shall come to pass, that when ye go away, ye shall
not go empty, but every woman shall borrow of her neighbour, jewels of
silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment: and ye shall put them upon your
sons, and your daughters, and ye shall spoil the Egyptians."
Here the Jews made God after their own image; and the dealings of that
nation in silver, gold, and clothes, at this day, show that they have
not forgotten their God. It is not easy for divines to reconcile this
with God's other precept in the eighth commandment.
Ib. chap. iv. ver. 24. "And it came to pass by the way in the inn, (by
the way, were there inns then in Egypt?) that the Lord met him (Moses)
and sought to kill him!!! Then Zepporah took a sharp stone, and cut off
the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet."
This business of the circumcision is brought in rather by the head and
the shoulders, and the cause of it is not quite clear; but it is very
evident that the Lord could not kill Moses.
Ib. chap. xxxii. ver. 27. "And he (Moses learning that the Jews had made
a golden calf), said unto them, (the sons of Levi, i.e. the priests,)
thus saith the Lord God of Israel, put every man his sword by his side,
and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every
man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his
neighbour; and the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses,
and there fell of the people that day about three thousand."
Ib. chap. xxxiii. ver. 9. "And it came to pass, as Moses entered into
the tabernacle, the pillar descended, and stood at the door of the
tabernacle, and the Lord (who was in the pillar) talked with Moses."
In this manner modern goddesses stop their carriages at shop-keepers'
doors at this day.
Ib. ver. 90. "And he (God) said, thou canst not see my face, for there
shall no man see me and live." God must here have forgotten his dialogue
with Adam and Eve, his wrestling with Jacob, and conversations with
Moses. In Numbers, chap. xii. ver. 6 and 8, he says, "Hear now my words:
If there be a prophet among you, I, the Lord, will make myself known
to him in a vision, and will speak to him in a dream," but, "with thee
(Moses) will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark
speeches, and the similitude of the Lord shall you behold."
Ib. chap. xxi. ver..5. "And the people spoke against God, and against
Moses, wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the
wilderness, for there is no bread, neither is there any water, and our
soul loatheth this light bread." No wonder the Jews tired of living upon
manna without water, but the Lord taught them not to grumble. "And the
Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, and
much people of Israel died." When God was tired of making his serpents
bite the poor devils, he said unto Moses, "Make thee, a fiery serpent,
and set it upon a pole, and it shall come to pass, that every one that
is bitten when he looketh upon it shall live." This is below all the
tricks of necromancers.
Ib. chap. xxv. "And the people began to commit whoredom with the
daughters of Moab. And Israel joined himself unto Baal-peor: and the
anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. And the Lord said unto
Moses, take all the heads of the people, and hang them up before the
Lord against the sun, that the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned
away from Israel. And Moses said unto the judges, slay every one of
these men who were joined unto Baal-peor. And behold one of the children
of Israel came, and brought unto his brethren a Midianitish woman, in
the sight of Moses, &c. And when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son
of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose from among the congregation, and
took a javelin in his hand; and he went after the man of Israel into the
tent, and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the
woman through her belly, so the plague was stopped from the children of
Israel, and these that died in the plague were 24,000." As a reward for
this, the Lord gave Phinehas the everlasting priesthood, "because he was
zealous for his God, and made an atonement for the children of Israel."
Ib. chap. xxvi. Dathan, Korah, and Abirim strove against Moses and
Aaron, and the earth swallowed them up, and the fire devoured 250 men.
lb. chap. xxxi. ver. 16, there was a plague among the congregation of
the Lord, on account of the tres pass against the Lord, when he ordered
thus, "Now, therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill
every woman that hath known man by lying with him; but all the
women children that hath not known man by lying with him, keep for
yourselves." For the observation on this passage, I refer my reader to
Bishop Watson, and the former part of this work.
The following ought to be the fate of all idolatrous people, and has
been happily practised in the discoveries made by most European
nations. Deuteronomy chap. xiii. ver. 13. "Thou shalt surely smite
the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it
utterly, and all that is therein, and the cattle thereof, with the edge
of the sword."
Joshua, chap. vi. v. 21. "And they utterly de-, stroyed all that was
in the city, (Jericho), both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and
sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword. And they burnt the city with
fire, and all that was therein: only the silver, and the gold, and the
vessels of brass, and of iron, they put it into the treasury of the
house of the Lord."
Chap. x. Joshua being attacked by five kings, and they having taken
shelter in a cave, he caused great stones to be rolled to the mouth of
the cave, till he followed and destroyed the people, then he ordered the
five kings to be brought out from the cave, "And it came to pass, that
when they brought out those five kings unto Joshua, that Joshua called
for all the men in Israel, and said unto the men of war, come near, put
your feet upon the necks of these kings, and they came near, and put
their feet upon the necks of them. And afterwards Joshua smote them,
and slew them, Joshua took Makdekah, and smote it with the edge of the
sword, and the king thereof he utterly destroyed, them, and all the
souls that were therein; he let none remain." And so he did in all to
31 kings, as related in this and the following chapters, and all this
by the express command of God, who made the sun and the moon both stand
still to witness these unprovoked atrocities. But this was just; God
having given that country to his chosen people the Jews, as in latter
times his vicegerent the Pope gave America to the Portuguese and
Spaniards, who, Joshua-like, exterminated the kings and people, because
they were not Christians. This, as you say, serves the general scheme of
God's benevolence towards mankind.