Bible, I will, in the progress of this work, produce such other
evidence as even a priest cannot deny; and shew, from that
evidence, that the Bible is not entitled to credit, as being
the word of God.

But, before I proceed to this examination, I will shew
wherein the Bible differs from all other ancient writings
with respect to the nature of the evidence necessary to
establish its authenticity; and this is the more proper to be
done, because the advocates of the Bible, in their answers
to the former part of The Age of Reason, undertake to say,
and they put some stress thereon, that the authenticity of
the Bible is as well established as that of any other ancient
book: as if our belief of the one could become any rule for
our belief of the other.

I know, however, but of one ancient book that authorita-
tively challenges universal consent and belief, and that is
Euclid's Elements of Geometry; ^* and the reason is, because
it is a book of self-evident demonstration, entirely indepen-
dent of its author, and of every thing relating to time, place,
and circumstance. The matters contained in that book
would have the same authority they now have, had they
been written by any other person, or had the work been
anonymous, or had the author never been known; for the
identical certainty of who was the author makes no part
of our belief of the matters contained in the book. But it is
quite otherwise with respect to the books ascribed to Moses,
to Joshua, to Samuel, etc.: those are books of testimony,
and they testify of things naturally incredible; and there-
fore the whole of our belief, as to the authenticity of those
books, rests, in the first place, upon the certainty that they
were written by Moses, Joshua, and Samuel; secondly,
upon the credit we give to their testimony. We may
believe the first, that is, may believe the certainty of the
authorship, and yet not the testimony; in the same manner
that we may believe that a certain person gave evidence

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