13. And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt iir Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast in the borders of Zabulon and Nepthalim.

14. That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias, the prophet, saying

15. The land of Zabulon and the land of Nepthalim by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles.

16. The people which sat in darkness saw a great light, and unto them which sat in the regions and shadow of death, light is sprung up.

Isaiah viii. 22. And they shall look unto the earth and behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish, and they shall be driven to darkness. ix. 1. Never

theless, the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation, when at the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulon and the land of Napthali, and afterwards died, more grieviously afflict her, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan in Galilee of the nations.

2. The people that walked in darkness saw a great light; they that dwelt in the land and shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.

It is necessary to remark here, that the Assyrians had, a little before the time in which the prophet speaks, captured Napthali Galilee, a part of Zebulon and Damascus. What is meant by the second verse quoted by the evangelist, I pretend not to know.

Matthew, xiii. 14. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias which saith by hearing ye shall hear and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive. But Isaiah speaks, more probably, of the Jews of his own time. If they had understood his prophecies, and changed their conduct, the Lord, according to his promise, could not have led them into captivity. But his purpose requiring this, he orders their hearts to be made fat, and their ears heavy, lest

they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts and convert and be healed. John, ix. 36. For these things were done that the scriptures might be fulfilled. A bone of him shall not be broken.

In Exodus, Chap. xii. and Numbers, Chap. ix. Moses, speaking of the lamb to be used at the passover, orders, that a bone of him. shall not be broken.

Acts, iii. 23. For Moses truly saith unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you, of your brethren, like unto me, him shall ye hear in all things, whatsoever he shall say unto you.

Deut. xviii. 15. The Lord thy God, says Moses, will raise unto thee a prophet, from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me, unto him ye shall hearken.

Some understand this prophecy to relate to Joshua, some to later prophets, some to a succession of prophets, and some to Christ.

There is so great an analogy between a prophet and a ruler, that the latter is sometimes intended by the former word. It is the business of the ruler to direct such acts as will produce beneficial effects; this he cannot do unless he possesses some knowledge of the future. His office is to prophesy, or foretell the evils which will arise from one course of conduct, and the benefits that will arise from another; he may therefore well be called a prophet. But if we admit that a ruler may be meant by the word prophet, in this passage, the meaning of Moses is manifest. The Lord will raise thee up a prophet; that is the Lord will raise thee up a ruler like unto me. 'Israel shall never be destitute of a ruler, of sufficient wisdom to rule the people.

The Lord repeats this promise in his own word, verse 18, and adds: I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak all that I command him. This is said because the rulers of Israel derived their power and

laws from God, whose commands they delivered to the people.

It is not my intention to enter into a close examination of the prophecies relating to Christ. Enough of them, for my purpose, have already been noticed. The reader, however, who chooses to pursue the examination further, will find the other propecies to be of the same character. It must be acknowledged that they do not point so directly to the mission and deeds of Christ, as to remove the doubts of the sceptical. I should regret that the slightest refuge was here left for infidelity, if these defects in the prophecies, as well as those in the other evidences of Christianity, did not enable us to prove that it is not the work of Satan.

But before I take leave of this subject, I must notice one hypothesis to which the infidel may yet cling; with the hope of doing away the effects of the apparent want of application of the prophesies to the mission of Christ. This hypothesis is that though christianity was from satan, the prophecies were from God, and related to other events; that these being given, before the infernal monarch laid the foundation of his religion, he could only take them such as they were. He might torture and twist their meaning, so as to make them apply to the events he wished, but he could not alter their words; and if those words were not so suitable to his purpose as he could wish, there was no remedy. Infidels may even be so stubborn as to affirm that the nonapplication of the prophecies to the events which they were designed (as is said by the evangelist) to foretell, proves that christianity, and the prophecies were not both from God, because we might presume that if both were from the same author, they would better agree.

These argments of the infidels, at first view, appear plausible; but if satan had been the founder of christianity, he might doubtless have sent on earth, previous

to the establishment of that religion, prophets of his own, who might be foretelling the events to come, have prepared man for its reception, satan would not have left untried, an expedient from which so great hopes might be entertained.

I have done with the prophecies. The defecte in them, as well as in the other evidence of christianity, prove that that religion must have been established by a being who had very little interest in its success. It is singular that most of these defects, have the appearance of arising from human imperfection; some of them appear to have arisen from attempts to improve the evidence of our religion, by pious frauds, which are not executed with sufficient art to ensure success. Among these may be numbered the second chapter of Matthew, and the story of the guard, which was placed by the Jews at the sepulchre of Christ.

Some philosophers have formed an opinion, from the imperfections of this world, that it was not created by the Almighty himself, but by some subaltern God, to whom the work was entrusted. We may conclude with greater safety, from the imperfections in christianity, and in the evidence on which it rests, that its establishment was entrusted not to subaltern Gods, nor to the angels, but to the weaker, if not more humble, ministers of the supreme being, the saints and primative christians. In the choice of these ministers, God seems to have regarded the success of his religion, so far as to choose men who were very little scrupulous in the means they employed to effect their object; but he searched not much for wisdom, nor did he think it worth his labor to cleanse the gospels from the effects of their folly so little for his own benefit was the religion which he gave us.

Q

SPIRITUAL MUSTARD POT:

PART THIRD.

AN ESSAY ON THE ORIGIN OF RELIGION,

CHAPTER I.

OF NATURAL RELIGION.

'We can, in no manner, defend a religion more successfully, than by exposing the errors in the doctrines of its enemies; for when men are convinced that the principles of those who oppose it are false, 'they will ever be inclined to receive its tenets, without even the labor of an examination. It is the nature of man, when he deserts the standard of one party, to enlist under that of its foes. This was perhaps the cause, next to the assistance of heaven, which enabled the christians to rise, in so short a time, from the obscurity of their origin, to the command of the world. They refuted the doctrines of their enemies, and the people received their own, without imposing upon them the trouble of proving their truth. They showed men the pernicious tendency of their superstitious customs, the absurdity of their traditions, the defects and vices in the character of their Gods, and the people abhoring their former superstitions, went over to its enemies, without enquiring the character of the religion which they adopted. Thus it happened, that the heathen religion contributed, in a two fold manner, to the success of christianity: first, as I have