verse of his 5th Chapter, meant to say, that Jesus not seeing any body, went down into the plain, and when he stood up, his disciples departed from

him.

Matthew was so determined, that every act and movement of Christ, should be in fulfilment of some prophecy, that he has not only pressed historians into his service, but actually misquoted them. He says, that Christ was taken to Nazareth; that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, "He shall be called a Nazarene." No Jewish poet, prophet, or historian, ever used these words, or words conveying the same meaning. The angel, according to the anonymous work, entitled the book of Judges, told the mother of Samson, that her son should be a Nazarite. A Nazarite was one of a religious order among the Jews; he was to abstain from wine and strong drink, and not to suffer a razor to come upon his face or head. For more particulars on this subject, see 6th Numbers. A person can be a Nazarite and live any where, but a Nazarene is one whose domicil is the town of Nazareth. You may call this a small matter, but it is sufficent for the condemnation of the whole book. What! an author, chosen by God himself, to give a true history of his son, resort to such low and petty tricks as this!

As the major part of these quotations have the same introductory words, viz: "that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet:" who, I ask, authorised your doctors to say, which were predictions, and which were not? By what rule are we to determine? They ought to furnish us with some unerring standard, by which we may determine with certainty. This they cannot do. This Panglossism was a very happy discovery, for when driven from the position of prophecy, you mount upon it, and exclaim: "here we are safe-our authors cannot be accused of misinterpreting, or misapplying the prophecies, for they do not quote them as actual predictions, but merely to show a singular coincidence or consimilarity of circumstances; all which is equivalent to this; that the writings of the pro phets, quoted by the evangelists as prophecies, are not predictions.

No Bishop in Christendom, twenty years ago, dared to have hinted, that the quotations from Isaiah, respecting the conception by a virgin, was not an actual prediction of Jesus. There are some references to the prophets to which this consimilarity principle cannot apply. The first in Matthew, is found in his 3d chapter, respecting John the Baptist. He is there said to be "the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight." And in his 11th chapter, he tells us, that he is also the person of whom it is written: "Behold I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee." The first of these quotations is from Isaiah, XL. 3d, the other from Malachi, III. 1.

As Isaiah is the most unintelligible of all the writers of either the New, or the Old Testament, except Micah; and as Matthew has told us that these prophets referred to the same person in the passages quoted, it will be only necessary to ascertain to whom Malachi had an allusion. And if I can shew, that he did not allude to John the Baptist, it will follow, that Isaiah did not.

In the first place, let me notify the reader, that Malachi, if our present translation be correct, is misquoted. His words are, as James' Bishops translated them, "Behold I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me," The prophet continues: "and the Lord, whom you seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts.

2. But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when

he appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers soap:

3. And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord, an offering in righteousness.

4. Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord, as in the days of old, and as in former years."

According to Matthew's translation, God was to send some one before, to prepare the way for another. Admitting Matthew to be correct, the question now comes up, who was this messenger? and who was this Lord that was to come to his temple. I answer, that Zerubbabel was the messenger or Messiah, and Ezra was this Lord. Ezra did not return from Babylon to Jerusalem, until the temple had been rebuilt by Zerubbabel. He (Ezra) was the messenger of the covenant, He was to instruct the people, and did instruct them in the covenant, or law, (called Moses' law,) for "he had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments." (See Ezra, VII. 10.) And he was authorised by king Darius, to execute judgment, even unto death, upon all those who would not obey the law or covenant. (See his 7th chapter, and 8th Nehemiah.) He was to be like a refiner's fire, and fullers soap, and to purge the Levites.

I will here quote the 9th, and part of the 10th chapter of Ezra, that the reader may be satisfied, that Ezra is alluded to by Malachi, as the Lord who was to come to his temple, and to be the purifier of the Levites, and that Zerubbabel was his fore-runner.

CHAP. IX.

Now, when these things were done, the princes came to me, saying, the people of Israel, and the priests, and the Levites, have not separated themselves from the people of the lands, doing according to their abominations,

even of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites.

2. For they have taken of their daughters for themselves, and for their sons; so that the holy seed have mingled themselves with the people of those lands: yea, the hand of the princes and rulers hath been chief in this tresspass.

3. And when I heard this thing, I rent my garment and my mantle, and plucked off the hair of my head, and of my beard, and sat down astonished.

4. Then were assembled unto me, every one that trembled at the words of the God of Israel, because of the transgression of those that had been carried away; and I sat astonished until the evening sacrifice.

5. ¶And at the evening sacrifice I arose up from my heaviness; and having rent my garment and my mantle, I fell upon my knees, and spread out my hands unto the Lord my God,

6. And said, O my God, I am ashamed and blush, to lift up my face to thee, my God; for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our tresspass is grown up into the heavens.

7. Since the days of our fathers have we been in a great tresspass unto this day; and for our iniquities have we, our kings, and our priests, been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, and to a spoil, and to confusion of face, as it is this day.

8. And now for a little space grace hath been showed from the Lord our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a nail in his holy place, that our God may lighten our eyes, and give us a little reviving in our bondage

9. For we were bond-men; yet our God hath not forsaken us in our bondage, but hath extended mercy unto us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to give us a reviving, to set up the house of our God, and to repair the desolations thereof, and to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem.

10. And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? for we have forsaken thy commandments,

11. Which thou hast commanded by thy servants, the prophets, saying, the land, unto which ye go to possess it, is an unclean land with the filthiness of the people of the lands, with their abominations, which have filled it from one end to another with their uncleaness.

12. Now therefore, give not your daughters unto their sons, neither take their daughters unto your sons, nor seek their peace or their wealth forever; that ye may be strong, and eat the good of the land, and leave it for an inheritance to your children forever.

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13. And after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds, and for our great tresspass, seeing that thou our God, hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and hast given us such deliverance as this;

14. Should we again break thy commandments, and join in affinity with the people of these abominations? wouldest not thou be angry with us till thou hadst consumed us, so that there should be no remnant nor escaping? 15. O Lord God of Israel, thou art righteous: for we remain yet escaped, as it is this day, behold we are before thee in our tresspasses, for we cannot stand before thee because of this.

CHAP. X.

Now, when Ezra had prayed, and when he had confessed, weeping and casting himself down before the house of God, there assembled unto him out of Israel a very great congregation of men, and women, and children; for the people wept very sore.

2. And Shechaniah the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, answered and said unto Ezra, we have tresspassed against our God, and have taken strange wives of the people of the land; yet now there is hope in Israel concerning this thing.

3. Now therefore let us make a convenant with our God, to put away all the wives, and such as are born of them, according to the counsel of my Lord, and of those that tremble at the commandment of our God; and let it be done according to the law.

4. Arise; for this matter belongeth unto thee; we also will be with thee: be of good courage, and do it.

5. Then arose Ezra, and made the chief priests, the Levites, and all Israel, to swear that they should do according to this word: and they

sware.

6. Then Ezra rose up from the house of God, and went into the chamber of Johanan the son of Eliashib; and when he came thither, he did eat no bread, nor drink water; for he mourned because of the transgression of them that had been carried away.

7. And they made proclamation throughout Judah and Jerusalem unto the children of the captivity, that they should gather themselves together unto Jerusalem;

9. ¶ Then all the men of Judah and Benjamin gathered themselves together unto Jerusalem within three days; it was the ninth month, and the twentieth day of the month: but all the people sat in the street of the house of God, trembling because of this matter, and for the great rain.

10. And Ezra the priest stood up, and said unto them, ye have transgressed, and have taken strange wives, to increase the tresspass of Israel.

11. Now therefore make confession unto the Lord God of your fathers, and do his pleasure: and separate yourselves from the people of the land, and from the strange wives.

12. Then all the congregation answered, and said with a loud voice, As thou hast said, so must we do.

13. But the people are many, and it is a time of much rain, and we are not able to stand without, neither is this a work of one day or two: for we are many that have transgressed in this thing.

14. Let now our rulers of all the congregation stand, and let all them which have taken strange wives in our cities come at appointed times, and with them the elders of every city, and judges thereof, until the fierce wrath of our God for this matter be turned from us.

15. Only Jonathan the son of Asahel, and Jahaziah the son of Tikvah. were employed about this matter; and Meshullam, and Shabbethai the Levite helped them.

16. And the children of the captivity did so. And Ezra the priest, with certain chief of the fathers, after the house of their fathers, and all of them by their names, were separated, and sat down in the first day of the tenth month to examine the matter.

17. And they made an end with all the men that had taken strange wives by the first day of the first month.

18. ¶ And among the sons of the priests there were found that had taken strange wives: namely of the sons of Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and his brethren: Maaseiah, and Eliezer. and Jarib and Gedaliah.

19. And they gave their hands that they would put away their wives; and being guilty, they offered a ram of the flock for their tresspass.

The prophecy next quoted by Matthew, is found in his 4th chapter.He is responsible, although he makes the devil quote it. The words of his devil are: "If thou (Jesus) be the Son of God, cast thyself down (from the temple) for it is written, he shall give his angels charge concerning thee, and they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone." I shall not permit you to resort to your consimilarity principle, for Matthew tells us directly, that some writer in the Old Testament had recounted a conversation between God Almighty and his son, in which the Father tells the son, that he would give his angels charge concerning him, when he should send him into the world on the great errand of reformation and salvation. So every reader understands him, though not one in ten thousand ever looked back into the Old Testument, to ascertain who was the reporter of this pretended conversation.

A great majority of this enlightened community will swallow a whale, rather than be at the trouble of a few minutes search in order to ascertain

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