tradiction, I will endeavour to destroy it completely by the production of some unexceptionable prophecies; in which neither time nor circumstance can be misunderstood.

The first remarkable prophecy that we meet with in the Bible, is that immediately consequent to the fall of man; in which God declared, that "the woman's seed should bruise the serpent's head." This prophecy, as the event it predicted approached its fulfillment, was more expressly developed in the following terms. "Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace; of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end to establish it with judgment from henceforth even for ever." These prophecies were literally fulfilled in the person of our blessed Redeemer, Jesus Christ, who was "the woman's seed only," "the son of a Virgin," "who bruised the serpent's head;" for he put down the dominion of death; and "the government of all mankind is upon his shoulder;" and he is truly called "Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace; all these appellations are his proper titles; and "of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end." Attach any consistent meaning to the words of these prophecies, and deny the fulfillment of them in the character of Jesus Christ, and there is no other individual whose life is recorded in History, to whom they can with propriety be applied; whereas they all concur in Him; as well as many others of a particular, and most extraordinary nature; two or three of which, I will take the liberty of introducing in this place. "He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. And he made his grave with the wicked, and the rich in his death." "Thou wilt not suffer thy holy one to see corruption." "They shall look on him whom they pierced &c. &c. &c." All

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these remarkable prophecies were not referred to different events, or persons, living at remote periods from each other, but all met together in one individual; he who was "the woman's seed," was also "the Prince of Peace, the Almighty God;" and he who " was bruised for our iniquities; was the same that was numbered with transgressors, and made his grave with the rich,"

There is but one other Prophecy to which I shall allude in this work. I mean the prophecy of Jacob, whom Mr. Paine has said, was not called a Prophet. It is as follows. "The sceptre shall not pass from Judah, nor a Lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall be the gathering of the people." This prophecy was delivered nearly seventeen hundred years before the birth of our Saviour; during which interval the theocratic sceptre did not depart from Judah, not even during the Babylonish captivity; nor until the appearance of Jesus Christ, when it was wrested from them. Amongst the most striking particulars of this prophecy, are, first, a declaration, that the sceptre should not pass from a particular tribe, at that time without an existence; much less an existence likely to perpetuate a government for so long a period as seventeen hundred years. Secondly, that this government was to cease upon the appearance of a certain individual; and that the office of that individual wasto be "the gathering of the people," (the gentiles.) The first part we have already said was literally fulfilled, in the person of Jesus Christ; and not less literally was the second fulfilled on his appearance; for one of the purposes of our Lord's coming was to gather together the Gentiles, as the following more explicit prophecies declare. " And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising; all they gather themselves together &c. because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee; the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee." Here, then, we have not only one most remarkable coincidence (viz.) that the sceptre should pass away from a nation upon the birth of a particular person; a

circumstance which no effort of human speculation could foresee; and, especially seventeen hundred years before it took place; but also, another still more remarkable concidence, namely, that he who was the occasion of the loss of this sceptre, was to be the Herald also to summons all the nations of the earth to receive a new Religion. Each of itself is miraculous, and, unitedly, most astonishingly so; and, both, as have been mentioned, were strictly and unequivocally fulfilled in the person of our Saviour. This, therefore, like the last prophecy, was "point blank" prophecy: neither of them admitting of prevarication: and happily those that most interest man have this character. Mr. Paine's objection, that God is improperly supposed" to repent himself," upon any occasion, will have weight with those only who consider Him as a Being invested with faculties and passions such as belong to man; it is the inadequacy of human knowledge, that compels us thus to speak of Him, who is eternal and immutable; "in whom there is no variableness nor shadow of turning.'

It has been shown in a former part of this work, that the original meaning of the words prophet and prophesying has been changed; and that a prophet, in the sense is now used, is a creature of modern invention; and it is owing to this change in the meaning of the words, that the flights and metaphors of the Jewish Poets, and phrases and expressions now rendered obscure by our not being acquainted with the local circumstances to which they applied at the time they were used, have been erected unto prophe cies, and made to bend to explanations at the will and whimsical conceits of sectarics, expounders, and commentators. Every thing unintelligible was prophetical, and every thing insignificant was typical. A blunder would have served for a prophesy, and a dishclout for a type."

How it has been shown, that "the original meaning of the words prophet and prophesying has been changed," may be seen by a reference to pages 116-120, where it incontestibly appears, that the same meaning was applied to them at least eighteen hundred years ago, that is applied to them now; and, therefore, Mr. Paine's assertion, that

they are "creatures of modern invention," is obviously false. And that the Jewish Prophets were nothing else than Poets, is equally fallacious, as is evident from what has been said. See pages 113-119. Mr. Paine is also a little unhappy in ascribing this conjectured perversion to "sectaries, expounders, or commentators;" for sectaries do not interest themselves in giving interpretations to prophesy; but, explanations to subjects of doctrine; and how expounders and commentators happened to mistake poetry for prophesy, and poets for prophets, or when the mistake originated, and why the same accident did not happen to the Poets of Greece or Rome, or any other nation, is left as Mr. Paine has left every other conclusion without a tittle of evidence or illustration. But "every thing unintelligible, he says, was prophetical, and every thing insignificant was typical. A blunder would have served for a prophecy; and a dishclout for a type." Perhaps he considered the prophecies alluded to in the comments upon the last paragraph as "unintelligible blunders." If they were, they were most miraculous blunders; they were such blunders as the history of no other nation contains; they. are blunders that most happily confirm a religion which the moralist must consult for the purity and authority of its precepts, and the philosopher for an explanation of the origin, the condition and the end of man. But, that they were not " unintelligible," is certain, from the testimony. of Tacitus, who says, that about the time of our Saviour's. appearance, the Jews were looking for his advent; and who, therefore, must have understood the prophecies concerning him: and that they were not blunders, is obvious from the harmony which prevails throughout a very great number of them, see page 297, 301-303. And when it is told,. that the types and prophesies were reciprocally illustrative of each other, it will remain for deistical insensibility to conclude, that so complex a scheme could be without a design, or, in other words, that a multitude of types and prophecies, all fulfilled in one individual, should be the work of "blunder," and that all those blunders for nearly

two thousand years before their fulfillment, should be the foundation upon which a whole nation had raised their hopes of temporal and eternal felicity. But this subject will be resumed in the comments upon the following paragraph.

"If by a prophet we are to suppose a man to whom the Almighty communicated some event that would take place in future, either there were such men or there were not. If there were, it is consistent to believe that the event so communicated, would be told in terms that could be understood, and not related in such a loose and obscure a manner as to be out of the comprehension of those that heard it, and not so equivocal as to fit almost any circumstance that might happen afterwards. It is conceiving very irreverently of the Almighty, to suppose that he would deal in this jesting manner with mankind; yet all the things called prophecies, in the book called the Bible, come under this description."

This paragraph exhibits, the first appearance of regular logical method, that I remember to have met with in this pamphlet, and strange to observe, this ends in abortion. It is not only incomplete as a dilemma, but false in its assumptions. Mr. Paine evidently wished it to be inferred, that the prophecies were delivered in "so loose and obscure a manner, as to be out of the comprehension of those that heard it, and so equivocal as to fit almost any circumstance that might happen afterwards;" but what proof has he given us that such was the case? none. There was none to give. That the prophecies were well understood, and so specific in their application, that they could not suit any circumstance, admit of very satisfactory evidence. First, then, that they were neither "loose nor obscure," is apparent from the authority of Tacitus just mentioned; for had they been either "loose or obscure," the Jewish people could not have indulged in a particular hope, such as that of the advent of a king at a particular moment. Secondly, the conditions of his birth, so far from being "loose and obscure," they are singularly peculiar, and strikingly descriptive; "he was to be the wo