condly, that the Jewish nation would receive him as such; but of all the false Christs, who appeared amidst the final wars and calamities of Judea, there was not one who did not pretend to come with the authority of God, and to be able to evince it, by working miracles ; and though each was followed by more or fewer of the common people, yet the Jewish nation in general, who rejected our blessed Saviour, from that time to this, have never received any man as their expected Messiah.

In chapter viii. v. 51, our Lord is represented, as saying, "verily, verily if a man keep my saying, he shall never see death," or, as it is repeated in the next verse, “

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"shall

never taste of death" and again, c. xi. v. 25 and 26, he not only says "he who be"lieveth on me, though he were dead, yet "shall he live," but also," whosoever liveth "and believeth in me, shall never die." What meaning could the writer have, in such absurd and groundless predictions as these? Paul, as well as daily experience, assures us, that in Adam, in our human nature, all men die, and we know, that our Lord himself, his Apostles, and all his most faithful disciples, died, or, in the words of the author, have seen or tasted of death; and if we should suppose

that he only intended to insinuate that, on account of the certainty of the resurrection of his disciples, their natural death was not to be accounted dying; yet still, according to this author himself, the quibble would hold as truly of the most profligate unbeliever as of those who believed on him; for, c. v. v. 28 and 29, he says, "the hour is coming "in which all that are in the graves shall hear "the voice of the Son of God, and shall come "forth, they that have done good unto the re"surrection of life, and they that have done "evil unto the resurrection of damnation."

In chapter xiv. v. 16, &c. our Lord, in the style peculiar to this writer, is made to promise his disciples, after his death, the spiritual comfort and assistance of divine inspiration; but this is an event, which had taken place long before the earliest date allotted for the composition of this pretended Gospel.

In chapter xvi. v. 32, Jesus, in his last discourse, says to his disciples, "Behold the ❝hour cometh, yea is now come, that ye shall "be scattered, every man to his own home, " and shall leave me alone:" and according to this writer, they not only deserted him at his apprehension, but after his death and resurrection; and even after his giving them the

Holy Ghost, they went every one to his own home in Galilee, and recommenced their former occupations: but, unhappily for the au thor's credit, this is not only repugnan: tò reason and probability, but irreconcilably contradictory to both the histories of Luke. These, and two or three more sentences such as these, to be picked out of the long, valedictory conversation of Jesus, said to be held with his disciples immediately preceding his crucífixion, make up the whole of the internal testimony of the spirit of prophecy to be met with in this scripture, so long injuriously attributed to the prophetic Apostle John.

CHAPTER VII.

THE EPISTLES.

HA

SECTION I

TTAVING thus stated, what to me appear contradictions absolutely irreconcilable; and submitted to the public, the reasons which have long induced me to reject three of the four generally received Gospels, as spurious fictions of the second century, unnecessary, and even prejudicial, to the cause of true Christianity, and in every respect unworthy of the regard which so many ages have paid to them; I have accomplished all that I at first proposed. Leaving every reader, therefore, to judge for himself, as I have done, and to criticise my reasoning with the same unreserved freedom, with which, though a sincere convert to the Gospel Cos venant, I have found it necessary for my own rational conviction to scrutinize the respective authenticity and credibility of these import

ant scriptures, it was my original intention, here to have closed the present disquisition. But, because the same train of investigation hath led me to reject likewise several of the canonical Epistles, upon the sole authority of which, several fundamental doctrines of the orthodox Church, and of various sects of professed Christians, are confidently taught the people, for doctrines of the Gospel of Christ, I think it my duty, to add briefly my reasons for expunging also out of the volume of duly authenticated scriptures of the New Covenant, the Epistles, to the Romans-to the Ephesians-to the Colossians-to the Hebrews of James-of Peter-of John-of Jude-and, in the book of the Revelation, the Epistles to the seven Churches of Asia.

Of these, whosoever is at all acquainted with the history of the constitution of the present canon of the Christian scriptures, well knows that the Epistles to the Hebrews, of James, second of Peter, second and third of John and of Jude, were rejected as spurious by many Churches, from the first of their appearance; and not universally received as genuine writings of the authors whose names they bear, till the fifth century, when a majority of votes in the Council of Carthage,