Rudge had told us any thing relative to Jesus Christ, he should first have proved the existence of such a person, instead of which he assumes the fact, the same as in the case of Adam, Methusalah, &c. and tells us, that " these fuller and more glorious revelations, the immediate disciples of Jesus were enjoined to commit to writing, and to preach to all the world. The book in which they were written is called the gospel,-an appropriate name, since it signifies the good news and glad tidings of a richer and more merciful dispensation, which it is the means of conveying to a lost and rebellious world." But how could Dr. Rudge expect any thing else but a "lost and rebellious world," when, though the Jews had had their revelations for above 4000 years, their God Jehovah, nor their prophets, could never disseminate them further than among the Jewish people, so that according to Dr. Rudge, all the other parts of the world, must be lost, but how was it, that the Jews after being made the vehicle, for "these fuller and more glorious revelations," rejected them. If the deity intended them for the benefit of all the world, sure the Jews were included. But it seems the Jews were tired of so many revelations, finding what they had got so vague and uncertain, and instead of being thought the depositaries of the divine will, they were only held in contempt and abhorrence by surrounding nations. The Bishop of Landaff, in his "Apology for the Bible," says the Jews are the root, we (meaning the Christians) the branches, grafted in among them, to them pertain, the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises, whose are the fathers, and of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever." It seems by this that Jehovah was only making more fools of the poor Jews, or just making them a sort of stepping stone, to the dear Christians, whom he sent his only son to redeem, the foolish Jews not believing in this Messiah (or son) we may suppose was the reason the revelation was transferred to the Christians. But what benefit has this "lost and rebellious world," gained by this richer and more merciful dispensations?"--I contend, nothing but priestcraft, superstition, and fanaticism, and had it not been for the progress of the arts, and sciences, we should still have been in the grossest ignorance, for we now see, that though Jesus Christ (being God as they affirm) condescended to come down from heaven, to establish it, and Dr. Rudge, and all other reverend gentlemen, back to the Apostles, have been well paid for preaching this gospel or good tidings, for 1800 years, that the faithful,' who have embraced this religion, are the most credulous, and besotted of mankind. But I may say to you, Sir, as Lady Wortley Montague, in her twentieth letter, says, but I cannot fancy that there is any thing new in letting you know that priests will lie, and the mob believe, all the world over."— As Christianity, when it was first planted, depended in a great measure on miracles, how was it, that it was not miraculously diffused over this "lost and rebellious world," instead of which, even now, as Paine says, that not a twentieth part of the people of the earth know any thing of it, and among those who do, the wiser part do not believe it." The wiser part are of course, called infidels by the christians, but I believe it is generally allowed, even by our opponents, that the deistical writers, were most of them very learned and wise-men, though they attribute their infidelity to pride. As Europe has become nearly all Christians of one sort or other, we may conclude that the Hindoos and Otaheitans are the lost and rebellious part, as they are sending out missionaries to convert them; before they had done this, they should prove its divinity to us infidels at home, but they find it easier to impose their doctrine on an ignorant and bar barous people. I agree with you, Sir, where you say to the Rev. W. Wait," you may make Christians of the present generation! but send them the printing press, and I have no fear of the future." You could not have introduced any thing better into your paper, than the extract from the work of the celebrated Gibbon, as it shews how Christianity was first promulgated, as opposed to its supposed divinity. Though there has always been a great controversy on the point; whether there ever was such a person as Jesus Christ, or, that he is only an imaginary character, cannot at this distance of time be proved, but must rely solely on the evidence that can be adduced in its favour, as there is no account on record concerning the birth of Jesus (the first two chapters of St. Matthew, and the first two of Luke, having been long since exploded, by what are called rational christians.) All the account we have by those who wrote of him, commences wher he was about 30 years of age, except one passage in Tacitus, (who was not contemporary with Jesus) there is no account of the crucifixion or resurrection of this person, to be found in the writings of any historian, either jewish or pagan, but entirely depends on the testimony of St. Matthew alone, the other writers (viz.) Mark, Luke, and John, appear to me, to be only other editions, with additions, and alterations suited to the people, and the times in which they wrote, which is what Dr. Rudge calls the "Gospel or Good News." I deny that they prove the existence of Jesus Christ, for if what is there related of him were true, we should have heard of it from other sources. Allowing that Jesus Christ did exist, and that he did propagate a doctrine till then unknown, for proof of the truth of the divine interpositions, and miraculous occurrences, said to have taken place at his death, (and on them alone rests the idea of his divinity) where should we look, but in the works of cotemporary writers, and such as were not all interested in the affair. Let us suppose, that the Jews or Romans had no idea of the miraculous interference on the part of the deity, in behalf of this man, as the Messiah, and not thinking the Christian religion, would establish itself, they would have been constrained to have recorded it in their histories, of which I will only state one instance: St. Matthew says, ch. 27, 51 v." And behold the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom, and the earth did quake, and the rocks reut." The passage in Tacitus is suspected to be au interpolation →→→ EDITOR. If an earthquake had happened in Jerusalem, about the time as is related by St. Matthew, so as to rend the rocks, in and about the city, it must have been noticed by the Romans, who had at that time the entire command of the place, and according to Josephus, the en tire temple was built on a rock, consequently, if the veil were rent by the effect of the earthquake, it is most likely it would have thrown down some of the towers contiguous to it. It is rather singular Josephus takes no notice of this earthquake, and its destructive ravages, though he is very particular in describing that which happened in the reign of Herod the Great, which must have been some years prior to this one of St. Matthew, which he says, took place at the crucifixion of Jesus. Whoever will take the trouble to read Josephus, will find in his history of the jewish war, that he relates every thing which befel the temple with peculiar feeling and distress, and according to his own history, was born only 5 years after this event is said to have taken place, and being himself a priest, consequently had always access to the temple. As he has given a description of this veil, (os curtain) he would have been constrained to have mentioned its being rent, though he might have, attributed it to another cause, than that to which St. Matthew has. The Christian always exults in the miraculous conversion of St. Paul, and tells us it is a sure proof of the divinity of Christianity,-it might be a fact, that Paul was converted to Christianity,-we have many modern Pauls, among the methodists, who have received the instantaneous converted call, they no doubt believe the system to be divine, and may be as sincere in their belief as Paul was. The Bishop of Llandaff says on 1st. Cor., 2 ch., v. 4.-" With what alacrity would the faction at Corinth, which opposed the Apostle Paul, have laid hold of this and similar declarations in the letter, had they been able to have detected any falsehood in them,and if Paul's epistles be both genuine and authentic, the Christian religion is true,"-by the word true, the Bishop means that it is divine; this is what is denied.-Suppose I were to admit that the epistles of Paul were genuine and authentic, what would it prove? Suppose I were to admit they proved the existence of Christianity at the time he wrote, the same as I might admit the existence of Mahomet, and Mahometanism. What then? It does not prove, that either were divine, because they have existed. Paul's letters may prove that he believed Christianity to be divine, the same as the evidences, of Paley, Campbell, Jenyn's, and Thompson; but they only prove its existence now, the same as Paul's did when he wrote, but no deist denies the existence of it, it is the divine origin of it they deny,-and neither Paul, Paley, Campbell, Jenyns, or Thompson, can prove it to be divine. My Christian opponents teil me, that because Sir I. Newton, Lord Bacon, Locke, Lord Lyttleton, and other great men believed christianity to be true, it is a proof of its divinity, I think quite the contrary; to me it is only a proof they were credulous men. I do not hesitate to say, that there are men at present, as great scholars as the above mentioned, who believe in Christianity. Possession of learning, does not exclude credulity. Dr. Rudge is a scholar no doubt, but still if he believes in what he professes, he is a very credulous man. The Judge, Attorney-General, and Jury, on your trial, were I believe all professing Christians. We find some of the most learned men from the earliest of time to the present, possess a great share of superstition and credulity, even that great scholar, Dr. Johnson, believed in ghosts and apparitions, and I am told Judge Hale believed in witchcraft. Is it because such men believed in Christianity. it is a proof of its divinity? I remain, Sir, with respect, yours truly, Brick-Lane, Whitechapel. P. S. I hope the Dr. will soon publish the "very extensive notes" he has made, on every "false assertion" he has discovered in the Age of Reason, as nothing would give me more pleasure than to read them. Whether christianity is believed to be true or not by the great body of its professors, we never found that individual amongst them, that was bold enough and willing to have it put to a fair trial. By a fair trial we mean, to allow its opponents to publish their unbiassed opinions of it, without the fear of punishment, or loss in a secular point of view. The infidel to christianity has scarcely need to retort any other argument than this on his calumniators, and not only calumniators but his murderers in many senses of the word. We have thrown down the gauntlet against all religions, and we durst engage the champions of any of them, if they dare meet us on equal terms. We are obliged now to measure our steps whilst writing from a prison, and having no other publisher than a wife. We could put our observations into very different language if we could once stand on an equality with our adversaries. What an impression, or rather a draw back it is on the mind of a man, when he considers that every sentence he writes on this subject might cause some unoffending individual two or three years imprisonment. Not only a man' energies, but his ideas are either lost or enervated under such circumstances. We again repeat our challenge, give us fair play and we will annihilate all existing systems of religion within seven years, and shew you more virtue, morality, and good manners, in the country, than has existed in it at any given period before. We should not then hear the complaint which we now hear, that our Royal Society for the progress of the Arts and Sciences dwindles. It is superstition that makes it dwindle. EDITOR CONTINUATION OF REPLY TO THE REV. THOS. HARTWELL HORNE'S PAMPHLET, ENTITLED, "DEISM REFUTED," &c.—From p. 324. Another circumstance is altogether improbable, and that is the time Moses is said to have been absent, altogether forty days, but then we found in former chapters, that he went up and down the mount Sinai, communicating occasionally to the people what his brother God had told him; and we are told in a former chapter, that a deputation of the elders of the people went up unto the mount with Moses, and that they saw the glory of their God, and were hospitably received on the pavement of sapphire, and that they eat and drank there. Amidst this frequent and extensive communication of what was going on in the mount, can it be believed that the Israelites would have fallen into a doubt, and even admitting they had, in what period of the forty days is it likely that they could come to Aaron and express those doubts so as to give him time to deprive them of their gold, and to make this golden calf? According to the Bible, we are led to infer that each of those Israelites were what we now call " Jacks of all trades." Aaron is a statuary, a founder, one who works with the gravingtool and chisel as well as melt and cast a golden calf, and practice the art of legerdemain. According to the present mode of doing things of this kind, this calf could not have been finished in a day or scarce a month so as to be fit for worship, and it is not at all probable that Jehovah would lend a miraculous hand to set up his rival, or that without the aid of Moses and Jehovah, Aaron could get through the job quicker than in the ordinary and usual way; for we have not been told that Aaron could perform miracles alone. He not only set up the calf, but he built an altar before it, and, like Nebuchadnezzar, made a proclamation that all the people should come and worship it. This we find they do without hesitation, and with apparent pleasure; for they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and sat down to a feast and rose up to play. I am indebted to Dr. Adam Clarke for the explanation of this (6 rising up to play." Bruce, in his travels into Abyssinia, says, that it is a custom with the people of that country, to this day, to indulge themselves in the most licentious habits at their feasts, and that sexual intercourse is openly and commonly practised at such moments. He has furnished us with |