h, is founded. The Epistles are dependant upon those, and must
follow their fate; for if the story of Jesus Christ be fabulous, all
reasoning founded upon it, as a supposed truth, must fall with it.

We know from history, that one of the principal leaders of this church,
Athanasius, lived at the time the New Testament was formed; [Athanasius
died, according to the Church chronology, in the year 371--Author.] and
we know also, from the absurd jargon he has left us under the name of
a creed, the character of the men who formed the New Testament; and we
know also from the same history that the authenticity of the books of
which it is composed was denied at the time. It was upon the vote of
such as Athanasius that the Testament was decreed to be the word of God;
and nothing can present to us a more strange idea than that of decreeing
the word of God by vote. Those who rest their faith upon such authority
put man in the place of God, and have no true foundation for future
happiness. Credulity, however, is not a crime, but it becomes criminal
by resisting conviction. It is strangling in the womb of the conscience
the efforts it makes to ascertain truth. We should never force belief
upon ourselves in any thing.

I here close the subject on the Old Testament and the New. The evidence
I have produced to prove them forgeries, is extracted from the books
themselves, and acts, like a two-edge sword, either way. If the evidence
be denied, the authenticity of the Scriptures is denied with it, for it
is Scripture evidence: and if the evidence be admitted, the authenticity
of the books is disproved. The contradictory impossibilities, contained
in the Old Testament and the New, put them in the case of a man who
swears for and against. Either evidence convicts him of perjury, and
equally destroys reputation.

Should the Bible and the Testament hereafter fall, it is not that I
have done it. I have done no more than extracted the evidence from
the confused mass of matters with which it is mixed, and arranged that
evidence in a point of light to be clearly seen and easily comprehended;
and, having done this, I leave the reader to judge for himself, as I
have judged for myself.

CHAPTER III - CONCLUSION

IN the former part of 'The Age of Reason' I have spoken of the three
frauds, mystery, miracle, and Prophecy; and as I have seen nothing in
any of the answers to that work that in the least affects what I have
there said upon those s