7 Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. 8 Remember the sabbath-day, to keep it holy.

9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work.

10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates.

11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

12 Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

13 Thou shalt not kill.

14 Thou shalt not commit adultery.

15 Thou shalt not steal.

16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbours.

18 And all the people saw the thunderings, and lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off.

16 And they said unto Moses, speak thou with us, and we will hear but let not God speak with us lest we die.

20 And Moses said unto the people, fear not; for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin

not.

21 And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was.

22 ¶ And the Lord said unto Moses, thus thou shalt say unto the children of Israel. Ye have seen that I have talked with you from heaven.

23 Ye shall not make with me gods of silver, neither shall ye make unto you gods of gold.

24 An altar of earth thou shalt make unto me, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt-offerings, and thy peace-offerings, thy sheep and thine oxen; in all places where I record my name, I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee.

25 And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not built it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it.

26 Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar, that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon."

This chapter contains what is commonly called the decalogue, or ten commandments, which is evidently an abstract of the Jewish laws, and was not known until they had formed themselves into a nation. The four first commandments are

paltry and ridiculous, and although they grace all our churches in England, and in other parts of Christendom for what I know, they are by no means applicable to the Christian religion, or to the Christian idea of a spiritual and omnipotent God or Gods. It is worthy of notice, that in this chapter they are separated from the last six, which form a distinct paragraph. The last six commandments are moral and unobjectionable; adapted to all societies of men: but I cannot help thinking, that, that which says, Thou shalt not steal, must have come with a very bad grace from Jehovah to the Israelites, whom he had just before instructed to steal whatever they could come at from the Egyptians. The chapter concludes with a caution that no silver gods are to be made, and if an altar be built, it must not be of hewn stone nor with steps, lest in going up the steps, the nakedness of the priest be seen. Surely this is a most important caution for a god to communicate to his people.

I shall not insert any more chapters, until we arrive at the thirty second, as the intermediate chapters consist entirely of maxims of the Jewish law, the form of the ark, and the tabernacle, said to have been given to Moses whilst he was on Mount Sinai with Jehovah, but a candid reading will convince any rational and unprejudiced mind, that such a statement is an impudent forgery. I shall make a few selections and observations on those chapters, and the reader must turn to his bible, if he keeps such rubbish and waste paper by him, for a fuller reading of the chapters 21 to 31.

Some of the Jewish laws are evidently on a moral foundation, others of them are quite ridiculous; for instance, where slavery is inculcated in the 21st chapter, "if a man love his master and would rather serve him than be free, the master is instructed to bring him to the door post, and bore his ear through with an awl, and he is then to serve him for ever. This is a very pretty law surely for the great Jehovah to give out of Mount Sinai: besides, the sceptic might hint, that the Israelites could have no door posts in the wilderness. Again in the 22nd chapter it is said, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." The existence of witches is not now believed even in our courts of law, where every antiquated opinion is reverenced as sacred, and here we find the Great Jehovah, the God of Armies, conniving to destroy witches. Our modern priests to get over this difficulty have said, that it is more than probable, there were witches formerly, but that evil spirits have ceased to impart this power. No, priests: there never

did exist any witches or evil spirits either, but such as were and are comprehended in your persons. Many a poor old woman has been burnt, and drowned, and buffeted, to enable ye to keep up your delusion about the Devil and evil spirits: but again I say, the printing press has been the charm to dispel them, and it will I hope finally compel ye to go to the plough or get an honest living by some other means.

In the 24th chapter, we have the following paragraph: Then went up Moses, and Aaron, Nadab and Abihur, and seventy of the elders of Israel: And they saw the God of Israel and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his 'clearness. And upon the nobles of the children of Israel ' he laid not his hand: also they saw God, and did eat and 'drink.' Is there any thing half so impious as this in Mahomet's saying, that when he accompanied the angel Gabriel to heaven, he did not see God, but God put his finger on his shoulder, and he felt a particular sensation from it. In my opinion, it is not half so impious. These elders of Israel saw God and ate and drank with him. In this same chapter, we have an account of Moses sprinkling the blood of an ox upon the people, as a confirmation of the covenant between them and their God. There was a practice among the Pagans very similar to this. At Rome at the ordination of one of their priests or pontiffs, he had to go into some place where an ox was killed up over him, so that the blood might descend on the new priest as through a shower bath; he then came forth and exhibited himself to the people, dripping with the reeking blood of the ox. There is not a jot to choose between the religion of the Bible and the old Pagan religion. There was much more virtue, morality, and honesty, extant under the latter.

I would have the reader turn to the 25th and a few following chapters; and after carefully reading them, to ask himself, whether it was at all probable, that the Israelites, who had but a few months escaped the Egyptian bondage, could have possessed such articles as are there enumerated, and whether they had the means of manufacturing such an Ark and Tabernacle, as are there represented, in a wilderness. It is really laughable to read of the Great Jehovah describing to Moses how many loops and taches there should be, and what their dimensions should be for the Tabernacle. He appears to have improved himself greatly in his business of a tailor, since he made the coat and breeches for Adam and Eve!

However, to try to be serious on this subject, it is evident, that the Israelites must have been in the height of their prosperity at the time, if ever they followed the instructions of those chapters, and made such articles, of such materials, as are there described. We are told, that Jehovah inspired two persons to do the work, but no mechanic can swallow such a tale as this. The whole account is a refinement on splendour and luxury; and I, for my part, doubt, whether ever the Jews, in their best days, had such an Ark, and Tabernacle, and such expensive modes of worship; much less in the wilderness, where the common necessaries of life were not to be obtained.

I must go back to notice one important circumstance, in the form and ceremony of sacrificing to Jehovah: it is in the twenty-ninth chapter, verses 19 and 20. And thou shalt 'take the other ram; and Aaron and his sons shall put their 'hands upon the head of the ram. Then shalt thou kill the ram, and take of his blood, and put it upon the tip of the 'right ear of Aaron, and upon the tip of the right ear of his sons, and upon the thumb of their right hand, and upon the great toe of their right foot, and sprinkle the blood upon the 'altar round about. Really this is too bad! Can such ribaldry as this lay claim to our respect? This same chapter abounds with much similar nonsense; but me thinks I hear the reader exclaim, "You have quoted enough; it is sufficient to convince any human being, that it is a system of imposture throughout."

I pass on to the thirty-second chapter :

"And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.

2 And Aaron said unto them, break off the golden ear-rings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me.

3 And all the people brake off the golden ear-rings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron.

4 And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, these be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.

5 And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, to-morrow is a feast to the Lord. 6 And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offer

ings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.

7¶ And the Lord said unto Moses, go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves:

8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, these be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.

9 And the Lord said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people:

10 Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them and I will make of thee a great nation.

11 And Moses besought the Lord his God, and said, Lord, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand?

12 Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, for mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people.

13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swearest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever.

14 And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.

15¶And Moses turned, and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand: the tables werè written on both their sides; on the one side and ou the other were they written.

16 And the tables were the work of Gcd, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables.

17 And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said unto Moses, there is a noise of war in the camp.

18 And he said, it is not the voice of them that shout for mastery, neither is it the voice of them that cry for being overcome: but the noise of them that sing do I hear.

19¶ And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing: and Moses' anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount.

20 And he took the calf which they bad made, and burnt it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and strewed it upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it.

21 And Moses said unto Aaron, what did this people unto thee, that thou hast brought so great a sin upon them?

22 And Aarou said, let not the auger of my lord wax hot: thou knowest the people, that they are set on mischief.