here the apophthegm of the profound Machiavel, that "empires are preserved by the same means whereby they are established." It was by dint of meekness, patience, and precaution, that the disciples of Jesus succeeded in establishing Christianity. Their successors have employed violence; but not until they found themselves supported by devout tyrants. Since then, the gospel of peace has been the signal of war; the pacific disciples of Jesus have become implacable warriors ;"have treated each other as ferocious beasts; and the church has been perpetually torn by dissensions, schisms, and factions. If the primitive spirit of patience and meekness does not quickly return to the aid of religion, it is to be feared that it will become the object of the hatred of nations, who begin to feel that morality is preferable to obscure dogmas, and that peace is of greater value than the holy frenzy of the ministers of the gospel,

We cannot, therefore, with too much earnestness exhort them, for their own sakes, to moderation. Let them imitate their divine Master, who never employed his Father's power to exterminate the Jews, of whom he had so much to complain. He did not make the armies of heaven descend, in order to establish his doctrine; he chose rather to surrender to the secular arm than give up the infidels, whom his prodigies and transcendent reasoning could not convince. Though he was the depositary of the power of the Most High; though he was inspired by the Holy Spirit; though he had at his command all the annals of Paradise; we do not find that he has performed any great miracles on the understandings of his auditory. He suffered them to remain in their blindness, though he had come on purpose to enlighten them. We cannot doubt, that a

conduct so wise was intended to make the pastors of his church (who are not possessed of more persuasive powers than their master), sensible that it is not by violence they can reconcile the mind to incredible things; and that it would be unjust to force others to comprehend what, without favour from above, it would be impossible for themselves to comprehend; or what, even with such favour, they but very imperfectly understand.

But it is time to conclude an introduction, perhaps, already too long to a work which, even without preamble, may be tiresome to the clergy, and irritate the temper of the devout, particularly of female devotees. The author does himself the justice to believe, that he has written enough to be allowed the privilege of expecting to be attacked by a cloud of writers, obliged, by situation, to repel his blows, and to defend, right or wrong, a cause wherein they are so much interested. He reckons that, on his death, his book will be cruelly calumniated; his reputation torn; and his arguments taken to pieces or mutilated. He expects to be treated as impious-a blasphemer-as antichrist; and to be loaded with all the epithets which the pious are in use to lavish on those who disquiet them. He will not, however, sleep the less tranquil for that; but as his sleep may prevent him from replying, he thinks it his duty to inform his antagonists before hand, that injuries are not reasons. He does more he bequeaths them charitable advice, to which the defenders of religion do not usually pay sufficient attention. They are then apprised, that if, in their learned refutations, they do not resolve completely all the objections brought against them, they will have done nothing for their cause. The infallible defenders of a re

ligion, in which it is affirmed, that every thing is divinely inspired, are bound not to leave a single argument behind, and ought to be convinced that answering to an argument is not always setting it aside. They should please also to keep in remembrance, that a single falsehood, a single absurdity, a single contradiction, or a single blunder, fairly pointed out in the gospels, is sufficient to render suspected, and even to overturn, the authority of a book which ought to be perfect in all its parts, if it be true, that it is the work of an infinitely perfect Being. An incredulous person, being but a man, may sometimes reason wrong; but it is never permitted to a God, or his instruments, either to contradict themselves, or to talk nonsense.*

• They shut our mouths, says Mirabaud, by asserting, that God himself hath spoken, and thus made himself known to men. But when, where, and to whom hath he spoken? Where are the divine oracles? An hundred voices raise themselves at the same moment; an hundred hands exhibit them to me in absurd and discordant collections. I run them over, and, through the whole, I find that the God of wisdom has spoken an obscure, insidious, and irrational language; that the God of goodness has been cruel and sanguinary; that the God of justice has been unjust, partial, and ordered iniquity; that the God of mercies destines the most unhappy victims of his anger, to the most hideous punishments. Many obstacles, besides, present themselves when men attempt to verify the pretended precepts of a divinity, who has never literally held the same language in any two countries; who has spoken in so many places; at so many times; and always so variously, that he appears every where to have shown himself, only with the determined design of throwing the human mind into the most strange perplexity.—l'ide System of Nature, vol. iii. p. 126.

ECCE HOMO!

OR,

4 CRITICAL ENQUIRY INTO THE HISTORY OF

JESUS CHRIST.

CHAP. I.

ACCOUNT OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE AND THEIR PROPHETSENQUIRY INTO THE PROPHECIES RELATING TO JESUS.

HOWEVER slightly we cast our eyes over the history of the Jews, such as it is transmitted in their sacred books, we are forced to acknowledge, that this people were at all times the blindest, the most stupid, the most credulous, the most superstitious, and the silliest that ever appeared on the earth. Moses, by dint of miracles, or delusions, succeeded in subjugating the Israelites.* After having liberated them from

* Justin Martyr informs us, that Moses was the grandson of a great magician, who communicated to him all his art. Maneton and Chereman, Egyptian historians, respecting whom testimonies have been transmitted by Joseph the Jew, state that a multitude of lepers were driven out of Egypt by king Amenophis; and that these exiles elected for their leader a priest of Heliopolis, whose name was Moses, who formed for them a religion and a code of laws. Joseph. contra Ap

the iron rod of the Egyptians, he put them under his own. This celebrated legislator had evidently no other intention than to subject the Hebrews for ever to his purposes, and, after himself, to render them the slaves of his family and tribe. It is indeed obvious, that the Mosaical economy had no other object than to deliver up the people of Israel to the tyranny and extortions of priests and Levites. These the law, which was promulgated in name of the Eternal, authorised to devour the rest of the nation; and crush them under an insupportable yoke. The chosen people of God were, in short, destined solely to be the prey of the priesthood; to satiate their avarice and ambition; and to become the instrument and victim of their passions.

the

Hence, by the law and policy of the priests, the people of God were kept in a profound ignorance; in an abject superstition; in an unsocial and savage pion, lib. i. c. 9, 11, 12.--Diodorus Siculus also relates the history of Moses; vide translation of Abbe Tanasson.--From the Bible itself it appears, that Moses began his career by assassinating an Egyptian, who was quarrelling with a Hebrew ; after which he fled into Arabia, and married the daughter of an idolatrous priest, by whom he was often reproached for his cruelty. Thence he returned into Egypt, aad placed himself at the head of his nation, which was dissatisfied with King Pharoah. Moses reigned very tyrannically. The examples of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, show to what kind of people he had an aversion. He at last disappeared like Romulus, no one being able to find his hody, nor the place of his sepulture. The author of The Three Impostors, a translation of which we understand is preparing for the press, states that Moses concealed himself in a cave, or pit, which he had found in his solitude, where he retired from time to time, under pretence of holding conference with his God; and which he had for a long time destined for his grave, in order that the people, not finding his body, might persuade themselve, it had been carried to heaven.