ering, that these marvellous prophecies were not to be
found in his Hebrew bible!

There is also another well known, incontrovertible proof of the
deceit and falsehood of the leading Christians of early times, of
which every person in the least conversant with the ecclesiastical
history of those times must be convinced--their pretended power
of working miracles! On this subject I shall say nothing, but refer
the reader to the work of Dr. Middleton already mentioned, for an
ample account of their lying wonders, which they imposed as
miraculous upon the simple people.

With regard to the internal evidence for the authenticity of the
writings; composing the New Testament, it is still less satisfactory
than the external evidence. And this may be well believed, when
the reader is informed that the great Semler, after spending his life
in the study of ecclesiastical history; and antiquities, which he is
allowed to have understood better than any before him, affirmed to
his astonished coreligionists, that, except the Gospel of John, and
the Apocalypse, the whole New Testament was a collection of
forgeries written by the partizans of the Jewish and Gentile parties
in the Christian church, and entitled apostolic, in order the better to
answer their purpose. This opinion has been in part adopted in
England, by a learned and shrewd clergyman named Evanson, who
has almost demonstrated, that the Greek Gospel of Matthew was
written in the second century after the birth of Jesus by a Gentile.
For he proves that it could not be written by a Jew, on account of
geographical mistakes, and manifest ignorance of Jewish customs.
He also gives good reasons for rejecting the authenticity of some
of the epistles. In short, he has poured such a flood of light upon
the eyes of his terrified brethren, as will, ere long, no doubt enable
them to see a little clearer than heretofore.

He gives several instances of geographical blunders in Matthew. I
shall mention only one. Matthew says, in the 2nd chapter, that
when Joseph, the husband of Mary, returned from Egypt, "hearing
that Archelaus reigned in Judea, he was afraid to go thither, and
therefore turned aside, into the parts of Galilee." Now this, as will
appear from a map of Palestine, is just like saying, "a man at
Philadelphia, intending to go to the State of New York, on his route
heard something which made him afraid to go thither, and
therefore he turned aside--into Boston!"

That the a