There are matters in that book, said to be done by the
express command of God, that are as shocking to humanity,
and to every idea we have of moral justice, as any thing
done by Robespierre, by Carrier, by Joseph le Bon, in
France, by the English government in the East Indies, or
by any other assassin in modern times. When we read in
the books ascribed to Moses, Joshua, etc., that they (the
Israelites) came by stealth upon whole nations of people,
who, as the history itself shews, had given them no offence;
that they put all those nations to the sword; that they spared
neither age nor infancy; that they utterly destroyed men,
women and childreu; that they left not a soul to breathe;
expressions that are repeated over and over again in those
books, and that too with exulting ferocity; are we sure
these things are facts? are we sure that the Creator of man
commissioned those things to be done? Are we sure that
the books that tell us so were written by his authority?

It is not the antiquity of a tale that is any evidence of
its truth; on the contrary, it is a symptom of its being fab-
ulous; for the more ancient any history pretends to be, the
more it has the resemblance of a fable. The origin of every
nation is buried in fabulous tradition, and that of the Jews
is as much to be suspected as any other.

To charge the commission of things upon the Almighty,
which in their own nature, and by every rule of moral justice,
are crimes, as all assassination is, and more especially the
assassination of infants, is matter of serious concern. The
Bible tells us, that those assassinations were done by the
express command of God. To believe therefore the Bible to
be true, we must unbelieve all our belief in the moral justice
of God; for wherein could crying or smiling infants offend?
And to read the Bible without horror, we must undo every
thing that is tender, sympathising, and benevolent in the
heart of man. Speaking for myself, if I had no other evi-
dence that the Bible is fabulous, than the sacrifice I must
make to believe it to be true, that alone would be sufficient
to determine my choice.

But in addition to all the moral evidence against the

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