The verses that follow those I have quoted, are the words of the writer of the book of Matthew. "Now (says he) all this (that is "all this dreaming and this pregnancy) was done that it might be "fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying.

"Behold a Virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, "and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which, being interpreted, "is God with us."

This passage is in Isaiah, chap. 7, v. 14. and the writer of the book of Matthew endeavours to make his readers believe that this passage is a prophecy of the person called Jesus Christ. It is no such thing; and I go to shew it is not. But it is first necessary that I explain the occasion of these words being spoken by Isaiah. The reader will then easily perceive that so far from their being a prophecy of Jesus Christ, they have not the least reference to such a person, nor to any thing that could happen in the time that Christ is said to have lived, which was about seven hundred years after the time of Isaiah. The case is this,

On the death of Solomon the Jewish nation split into two monarchies; one called the kingdom of Judah, the capital of which was Jerusalem; the other the kingdom of Israel, the capital of which was Samaria. The kingdom of Judah followed the line of David, and the kingdom of Israel that of Saul; and these two rival mo narchies frequently carried on fierce wars against each other.

At the time Ahaz was king of Judah, which was in the time of Isaiah, Pekah was king of Israel; and Pekah joined himself to Rezin, king of Syria, to make war against Ahaz, king of Judah, and these two kings marched a confederated and powerful army against Jerusalemn. Ahaz and his people became alarmed at the danger, and " their hearts were moved as the trees of the wood arë "moved with the wind." Isaiah chap. 7, v. 2.

In this perilous situation of things Isaiah addresses himself to

Ahaz, and assures him in the name of the Lord, (the cant phrase of all the prophets) that these two kings should not succeed against him; and to assure him that this should be the case (the case however was directly contrary,*) tells Ahaz to ask a sign of the Lord. This Ahaz declined doing, giving as a reason that he would not tempt the Lord; upon which Isaiah, who pretends to be sent from God, says, v. 14, "Therefore the Lord himself shall give you

a sign, behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son---Butter and honey shall he eat that he may know to refuse the evil and chuse "the good---For before the child shall know to refuse the evil and "chuse the good, the land which thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings," meaning the king of Israel and the king of Syria who were marching against him.

Here then is the sign, which was to be the birth of a child, and that child a son; and here also is the time limited for the accomplishment of the sign, namely, before the child should know to refuse the evil and chuse the good.

The thing therefore to be a sign of success to Ahaz must be something that would take place before the event of the battle then pending between him and the two kings could be known. A thing to be a sign must precede the thing signified. The sign of rain must be before the rain.

It would have been mockery and insulting nonsense for Isaiah

* Chron. chap. 28. v. 1st. Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalemn, but he did not that which was right in the sight of the Lord.-v. 5. Wherefore the Lord his God delivered him into the hand of the king of Syria, and they smote him, and carried away a great multitade of them captive and brought them to Damascus, and he was also delivered into the hand of the king of Israel, who smote him with a great slaughter.

v. 6. And Pekah (king of Israel) slew in Judah an hundred and twenty thousand in one day.-v. 8. And the children of Israel carried away captive of their brethren two hundred thousand women, sons and daughters.

to have assured Ahaz as a sign that these two kings should not prevail against him, that a child should be born seven hundred years after he was dead, and that before the child so born should know to refuse the evil and choose the good, he, Ahaz, should be delivered from the danger he was then immediately threatened with.

But the case is, that the child of which Isaiah speaks was his own child, with which his wife or his mistress was then pregnant, for he says in the next chapter, v. 2, " and I took unto me faith"ful witnesses to record, Uriah the priest, and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah, and I went unto the prophetess and she conceived and "bear a son," and he says at 18 v. of the same chapter, “Behold I " and the children whom the Lord hath given me are for signs and for "wonders in Israel."

It may not be improper here to observe that the word translated a virgin in Isaiah does not signify a virgin in Hebrew, but merely a young woman. The Tense also is falsified in the translation. Levi gives the Hebrew text of the 14 v. of the 7th chapter of Isaiah and the translation in English with it---" Behold a young woman "Is with child and beareth a son." The expression, says he, is in the present tense. This translation agrees with the other circumstances related of the birth of this child which was to be a sign to Ahaz. But as the true translation could not have been imposed upon the world as a prophecy of a child to be born seven hundred years afterwards, the christian translators have falsified the original; and instead of making Isaiah to say behold a young woman is with child and beareth a son, they have made him to say, Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son." It is, however, only necessary for a person to read the 7th and 8th chapters of Isaiah and he will be convinced that the passage in question is no prophecy of the person called Jesus Christ. I pass on to the second passage quoted from the old testament by the new as a prophecy of Jesus Christ.

Matthew chap. 2. v. 1st. "Now when Jesus was born in Be"thleham of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold there *came wise men from the east to Jerusalem,--saying, where is he

that is born king of the Jews for we have seen his star in the "East and are come to worship him---When Herod the king heard "these things he was troubled, and all Jerusalemn with him,--" and when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the "people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be "born--and they said unto him in Bethlehem in the land of Judea; "for thus it is written by the prophet---and thou Bethlehem, in the "land of Judea art not the least among the princes of Judah, for out "of thee shall come a Governor that shall rule my people Israil.”This passage is in Micah chap. 5, v. 2.

I pass over the absurdity of seeing and following a star in the day time as a man would a will with the whisp, or a candle and lanthron at night; and also that of seeing it in the east when themselves came from the east; for could such a thing be seen at all to serve them for a guide, it must be in the west to them. I confine myself solely to the passage called a prophecy of Jesus Christ.

The book of Micah, in the passage above quoted, chap 5. ver. 2. is speaking of some person, without mentioning his name, from whom some great atchievements were expected; but the description he gives of this person at the 5th v. proves evidently that it is not Jesus Christ, for he says at the 5th verse, "And this

man shall be the peace when the Assyrian shall come into our "land, and when he shall tread in our palaces, then shall we raise "up against him (that is, against the Assyrian) seven shepherds "and eight principal men.—v. 6.-And they shall waste the "land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod "on the entrance thereof; thus shall He (the person spoken of "at the head of the second verse) deliver us from the Assyrian

when he cometh into our land, and when he treadeth within our borders."

This is so evidently descriptive of a military chief, that it cannot be applied to Christ without outraging the character they pretend to give us of him. Besides which, the circumstances of the times here spoken of, and those of the times in which Christ is said to have lived, are in contradiction to each other.. It was the Romans, and not the Assyrians, that had conquered and were in the land of Judea, and trod in their palaces when Christ was born, and when he died, and so far from his driving them out, it was they who signed the warrant for his execution and he suffered 'under it.

Having thus shewn that this is no prophecy of Jesus Christ, I pass on to the third passage quoted from the Old Testament by the New as a prophecy of him.

This, like the first I have spoken of is introduced by a dream. Joseph dreameth another dream, and dreameth that he seeth another Angel. The acconnt begins at the 13th v. of 2d chap. of Matthew.

"The angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise and take the young child and his mother and "flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: "For Herod will seek the life of the young child to destroy him.

-When he arose he took the young child and his mother by "night and departed into Egypt-and was there until the death "of Herod, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the "Lord by the prophet saying, Out of Egypt have I called my " son."

This passage is in the book of Hosea, chap. xi. ver. 1. The words are, "When Israel was a child then I loved him and called

my son out of Egypt-As they called them so they went from