euring it, is impertinence and laziness in the abstract; and to pray for that which God in the course of his providence, has put out of our power to obtain, is only murmuring against God, and finding fault with his providence, or acting the inconsiderate part of a child; for example, to pray for more wisdom, understanding, grace or faith; for a more robust constitutionhandsomer figure, or more of a gigantic size, would be the same as telling God, that we are dissatisfied with our inferiority in the order of being; that neither our souls or bodies suit us; that he has been too sparing of his beneficence; that we want more wisdom, and organs better fitted for show, agility and superiority. But we ought to consider, that "we cannot add one cubit to our stature," or alter the construction of our organic frame; and that our mental talents are finite; and that in a vast variety of proportions and disproportions, as our Heavenly Father in his order of nature, and scale of being saw fit; who has nevertheless for the encouragement of intelligent nature ordained, that it shall be capable of improvement, and consequently of enlargement; therefore, "whosoever lacketh wisdom," instead of "asking it of God," let him improve what he has; that he may enlarge the original stock; this is all the possible way of gaining in wisdom and knowledge, a competency of which will regulate our faith. But it is too common for great faith and little knowledge to unite in the same person; such persons are beyond the reach of argument and their faith immovable, though it cannot remove mountains. The only way to procure food, raiment, or the necessaries or conveniences of life, is by natural means; we do not get them by wishing or praying for, but by actual exertion; and the only way to ob tain virtue or morality is to practice and habituate ourselves to it, and not to pray to God for it: he has naturally furnished us with talents or faculties suitable for the exercise and enjoyment of religion, and it is our business to improve them aright, or we must suffer the consequences of it. We should conform ourselves to reason, the path of moral rectitude, and in so doing, we cannot fail of recommending ourselves to God, and to our own consciences. This is all the religion, which reason knows or can ever approve of.

Moses the celebrated prophet and legislator of the Israelites, ingratiated himself into their esteem, by the stratagem of prayer, and pretended intimacy with God; he acquaints us, that he was once admitted to a sight of his BACK-PARTS! and that "no man can see" his "face and live ;" and at other times we are told that he "talked with God, face to face, as a man talketh with his friend ;" and also that at times God waxed wroth with Israel, and how Moses prayed for them; and at other times, that he ordered Aaron to offer sweet incense to God, which. appeased his wrath, and prevented his destroying Israel in his hot displeasure! These are the footsteps, by which we may

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trace sacerdotal dominion to its source, and explore its progress in the world. "And the Lord said unto Moses, how long will this people provoke me? I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and I will make of thee a great nation, and mightier than they," but Moses advertises God of the injury, which so rash a procedure would do to his character among the nations; and also reminds him of his promise to Israel, saying, now if thou shall kill all this people as one man, then the nations, which have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying, because the Lord was not able to bring this ple into the land, which he swear unto them, therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness." That Moses should thus advise the omniscient God, of dishonourable consequences which would attend a breach of promise, which he tells us, that God was unadvisedly about to make with the tribes of Israel, had not his remonstrance prevented it, is very extraordinary and repugnant to reason; yet to an eye of faith it would exalt the man Moses, "and make him very great;" for if we may credit his history of the matter, he not only averted God's judgment against Israel, and prevented them from being cut off as a nation, but by the same prayer procured for them a pardon of their sin. "Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people," and in the next verse follows the answer," and the Lord said I have pardoned according to thy word." It seems that God had the power, but Moses had the dictation of it, and saved Israel from the wrath and pestilential fury of a jealous God; and that he procured them a pardon of their sin, "for the Lord thy God is a jealous God." Jealousy can have no existence in that mind, which possesses perfect knowledge, and consequently cannot without the greatest impropriety be ascribed to God, who knows all things, and needed none of the admonitions, advice or intelligence of Moses, or any of his dictatorial prayers. "And the Lord hearkened unto me at that time also," intimating that it was a common thing for him to do the like. When teachers can once make the people believe that God answers their prayers, and that their eternal interest is dependent on them, they soon raise themselves to opulency, rule and high sounding titles; as that of His Holiness-the Reverend Father in God-The Holy Poker-Bishop of Souls-and a variety of other such like appellations, derogatory to the honour or just prerogative of God; as is Joshua's history concerning the Lord's hearkening unto him at the battle of the Amorites, wherein he informs us, that he ordered the sun to stand still, saying, "Sun stand thou still upon Gibeon, and thou Moon in the valley of Ajalon, so the Sun stood still and the Moon stayed until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies; so the Sun stood still in the midst of Heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day;" and then adds, by way of supremacy to himself above all others, and in direct contradiction to

the before recited passages of Moses concerning the Lord's hearkening unto him, or to any other man but himself, saying, "And there was no day like that before it, or after it, that the Lord hearkened unto the voice of a man." There is not any thing more evident than that if the representation given by Joshua, as matter of fact, is true, those exhibited by Moses concerning the Lord's hearkening unto him are not though the representations of fact by Moses and by Joshua, are allowed to be both canonical, yet it is impossible that both can be true. However, astronomy being but little understood in the age in which Joshua lived, and the earth being in his days thought to be at rest, and the sun to revolve round it, makes it in no way strange, that he caught himself by ordering the sun to stand still, which having since been discovered to have been the original fixed position of that luminous body, eclipses the miraculous interposition of Joshua. Furthermore, if we but reflect that on that very day Israel vanquished the Amorites with a great slaughter," and chased them along the way that goeth to Bethoron, and smote them to Azekah, and unto Makkedah," in so great a hurry of war, clashing of arms, exasperation and elevation of mind, in consequence of such a triumphant victory, they could make but a partial observation on the length of the day; and being greatly elated with such an extraordinary day's work, Joshua took the advantage of it, and told them that it was an uncommon day for duration; that he had interposed in the system, and prescribed to the sun to stand still about a whole day; and that they had two day's time to accomplish those great feats. The belief of such a miraculous event to have taken place in the solar system, in consequence of the influence which Joshua insinuated that he had with God, would most effectually establish his authority among the people; for if God would hearken to his voice well might man. This is the cause why the bulk of mankind in all ages and countries of the world, have been so much infatuated by their ghostly teachers, whom they have ever imagined to have had a special influence with God Almighty.

CHAPTER VII.

SECTION I.

The vagueness and unintelligibleness of the Prophecies, render them incapable of proving Revelation.

Prophecy is by some thought to be miraculous, and by others to be supernatural, and there are others, who indulge themselves

in an opinion, that they amount to no more than mere political conjectures. Some nations have feigned an intercourse with good spirits by the art of divination; and others with evil ones by the art of magic; and most nations have pretended to an intercourse with the world of spirits both ways.

The Romans trusted much to their sibyline oracles and soothsayers; the Babylonians to their magicians, and astrologers; the Egyptians and Persians to their magicians; and the Jews to their seers or prophets: and all nations and individuals, discover an anxiety for an intercourse with the world of spirits; which lays a foundation for artful and designing men, to impose upon them. But if the foregoing arguments in chapter sixth, respecting the natural impossibility of an intercourse of any unbodied or imperceptible mental beings with mankind, are true, then the foretelling of future events can amount to nothing more than political illusion. For prophecy as well as all other sort of prognostication must be supernaturally inspired, or it could be no more than judging of future events from mere probability or guess-work, as the astronomers ingenuously confess in their calculations, by saying; "Judgment of the weather, &c." So also respecting astrology, provided there is any such thing as futurity to be learned from it, it would be altogether a natural discovery; for neither astronomy or astrology claim any thing of a miraculous or supernatural kind, but their calculations are meant to be predicated on the order and course of nature, with which our senses are conversant, and with which inspiration or the mere co-operation of spirits is not pretended to act a part. So also concerning prophecy, if it be considered to be merely natural, (we will not at present dispute whether it is true or false) upon this position it stands on the footing of probability or mere conjecture and uncertainty. But as to the doctrine of any supernatural agency of the divine mind on ours, which is commonly called inspiration, it has been sufficiently confuted in sixth chapter; which arguments need not be repeated, nor does it concern my system to settle the question, whether prophecy should be denominated miraculous or supernatural, inasmuch as both these doctrines have been confuted; though it is my opinion, that were we to trace the notion of supernatural to its source, it would finally terminate in that which is denominated miraculous; for that which is above or beyond nature, if it has any positive existence, it must be miraculous.

The writings of the prophets are most generally so loose, vague and indeterminate in their meaning, or in the grammar of their present translation, that the prophecies will as well answer to events in one period of time, as in another; and are equally applicable to a variety of events, which have and are still taking place in the world, and are liable to so many different interpretations, that they are incapable of being understood or explained, except upon arbitrary principles, and therefore

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cannot be admitted as a proof of revelation; as for instance, "it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God." Who can understand the accomplishment of the prophecies, that are expressed after this sort? for every day in its turn has been, and will in its succession be the last day; and if we advert to the express words of the prophecy, to wit, "the last days," there will be an uncertain plurality of last days," which must be understood to be short of a month, or a year; or it should have been expressed thus, and it shall come to pass in the last months or years, instead of days: and if it had mentioned last years, it would be a just construction to suppose, that it included a less number of years than a century; but as the prophecy mentions "last days," we are at a loss, which among the plurality of them to assign for the fulfilling of the prophecy.

Furthermore, we cannot learn from the prophecy, in what month, year, or any other part of duration those last days belong; so that we can never tell when such vague prophecies are to take place, they therefore remain the arbitrary perogative of fanatics to prescribe their events in any age or period of time, when their distempered fancies may think most eligible: There are other prophecies still more abstruse; to wit, "And one said unto the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, how long shall it be to the end of these wonders? and I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto Heaven, and sware by him that liveth forever, that it should be for a time, times and an half." The question in the prophecy is asked "how long shall it be to the end of these wonders?" and the answer is given with the solemnity of an oath," it shall be for a time, times and a half." A time is an indefinite part of duration, and so are times, and the third description of time is as indefinite as either of the former descriptions of it; to wit," and an half;" that is to say, half a time. There is no certain term given in any or either of the three descriptions of the end of the wonders alluded to, whereby any or all of them together are capable of computation, as there is no certain period marked out to begin or end a calculation. To compute an indefinite time in the single number or quantity of duration is impossible, and to compute an uncertain plurality of such indefinite times. is equally perplexing and impracticable; and lastly, to define half a time by any possible succession of its parts, is a contradiction, for half a time includes no time at all; inasmuch as the smallest conception or possible moment or criterion of duration, is a time, or otherwise, by the addition of ever so many of those parts together they would not prolong a period; so that there is not, and cannot be such a part of time, as half a time, for be it supposed to be ever so momentous, yet if it includes any part of duration, it is a time, and not half a time. Had the prophet said half a year, half a day, or half a