set the woman before the Lord, and the priest shall execute upon her all this law. Then shall the man be guiltless from iniquity, and this woman shall bear her iniquity."

Where is the man of virtue and benevolence who can contemplate such a law without abhorrence. Let me ask seriously if there be a member of the church denominated Freethinking Christians that would consent thus to place his own wife under the influence of the priest? Is there a member of your assembly who would not view with abhorrence the conduct of any man who should attempt to introduce such a law in the British Legislature? Would you not consider such an individual worthy the execration of all mankind? Yet this is one of the laws of Moses! This is supposed to be derived from a just Deity, the Governor of the universe, the father and the friend of mankind. Here is a law which placed the whole of the female population under the immediate controul of the priest; a law which would render the whole female population spies over the conduct of their husbands, as it made the reputation and even the life of every female in the nation depend upon humouring and indulging a tyrannical priesthood. Yes, this law made the life and reputation of every woman depend upon the caprice of the priests, who are never at a loss for the means of raising scandalous reports: a liquid drank at the hands of the priest is to determine her guilt or innocence, and upon his caprice it depended whether he would give her a poisonous compound or a little harmless water.

Gentlemen, I appeal to you as men of humanity, I ask you if such power be fitting to be placed in the hands of any set of men, much Jess in the hands of priests? Think freely. Place yourselves in the situation of the unfortunate Hebrew woman, who might offend the priest by refusing to communicate the private concerns of her husband, then tell me your opinion of the Jewish Legislator. The above law is sufficient to show the intention of the Jewish lawgiver of subjecting the people to the most abject slavery under the dominion of the priests. I will now bring forward another law founded upon an ignorance of human anatomy and I will leave my readers to judge of its moral tendency. Perhaps it may be urged that the Jews not being a scientific people, the ignorance of human anatomy manifested in the following law can be no objection. But was the God of the Jews, who is represented as the Creator of the human species, so wretchedly ignorant of the construction of the creatures he had made, as to institute a law which should subject a young and innocent female to death, because she might happen to give offence to an ignorant and clownish fellow destitute of every principle of humanity? The law is as follows, Deut. xxii. 13. If any man take a wife and go in unto her, and hate her, and give occasions of speech against her, and bring up an evil report upon her, and say, I took this woman and when I came to her i found her not a maid. Then shall the father of the damsel and her mother take and bring forth the tokens of the damsel's virginity unto the elders of the city in the gate; and the damsel's father shall say unto the elders of the city, I gave my daughter unto

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this man to wife and he hateth her; and so he hath given occasions of speech against her, saying, I found not thy daughter a maid; and yet these are the tokens of my daughter's virginity. And they shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city. And the elders of that city shall take that man and chastise him, and they shall amerce him in an hundred shekels of silver, and give them unto the father of the damsel, because he hath brought up an evil report upon a virgin of Israel and she shall be his wife, he may not put her away all his days. But if this thing be true, and the tokens of virginity be not found for the damsel, then they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones that she die; because she hath wrought folly in Israel, to play the whore in her father's house; so shalt thou put evil away from among you."

According to the best of my recollection some of our modern travellers say, that a law of this description is actually in force at the present day amongst some of the savage tribes of Africa; the writer of the account appears at a loss to find language sufficiently strong to express his indignation at such a piece of glaring injustice; but he appears entirely to have forgotten that it is a law of the Bible. :

I shall not enter into the contests that have existed amongst anatomists upon this subject, but simply state that it is the opinion of the most able anatomists that, according to the Jewish legislator, all the healthful portion of our females must be stoned to death, unless they would condescend to use some kind of deception to produce a bloody cloth on the marriage night, a trick that none would think of, but those who were conscious of criminality. Let me ask you, Gentlemen, or at least such of you as are fathers, what you would think of a man who should attempt to put such a law in force with your own daughters.

The next law to which I particularly wish to call your attention is Exodus xxi. 20. If a man smite his servant or his maid with a rod and he die under his hand, he shall be surely punished; notwithstanding if he continue a day or two he shall not be punished, for he is his money." On this law I make no observations. It stands itself a record of the manner, in which the Jewish legislator proportioned the punishments to the crimes. Upon a candid review of the Jewish penal code, it appears to be more barbarous than that of any other nation either ancient or modern. The number of crimes to be visited with the punishment of death exceeds those in the sanguinary code of Britain. Many of the crimes are trivial, and some cannot possibly be considered crimes, whilst the master who murdered his servant, if the servant did not die of a day or two, was to be free from punishment. The manner of inflicting the punishment of death by throwing stones according to Bible law, surpasses in cruelty every invention of torture both ancient and modern, whilst the execution of the sentence would drive away every noble feeling of the heart. The humane and benevolent of the present day, consider that the great object of legislation ought to be to prevent

crime, rather than the punishment of the criminals. Every Freethinking Christian with whom I have yet conversed upon this subject, has given it as his opinion that it is unjust to make laws to take away the life of any man, unless for the crime of murder: and some distinguished members have professed to agree with me, that it would be a more rational mode of proceeding, to confine the murderer in such a manner as should prevent the possibility of his committing future mischief, and to devote the remaining part of his life to labour either for the benefit of the friends of the murdered individual, or for the benefit of the state. But how do principles like these agree with Bible legislation? They are as much opposed to each other, as light is to darkness.

Crime is in fact, a mental disease, the produce of ignorance; but neither Judaism nor Christianity proposes any rational remedy. Experience teaches us that vicious habits are most easily corrected by removing temptation, by mildness, by promoting the happiness of the individual to be corrected, and by a careful cultivation of the mind; but religion neglects these, and endeavours to restrain the passions by the fear of death, and hell fire.

Will Christophilus, or any other member of your society, after this, say, “I consider that revealed religion, as contained in the Bible is one of the greatest blessings that the Deity ever confered on his creature man: that it is every way worthy of God's desire, and of man to receive that it corresponds with all the wishes and all the wisdom, that the wisest and the best of men have ever had." For my part I say that if the laws to which I have already called your attention, and the sanguinary and barbarous penal code of the Jewish legislator, form parts of the best gifts of the Deity, it would be well for man if the Deity would keep his gifts to himself.

I have shown the nature of the morality taught in the books ascribed to Moses, or rather I have shown the detestable injustice and the demoralizing effects of some of those laws which the writer pretends were immediately derived from the Deity. 1, as well as Christophilus, think it is of very little importance who was their author, but I think it of some importance to shew that the law of Moses was either totally unknown or entirely disregarded during the time of most of the Kings of Israel. The temple of Solomon and its ornaments were made in direct opposition to the injunctions of the Mosaic law. During the times of the Judges, and the time of their great prophet Samuel, the time of David and Solomon, and indeed of all the early Kings, the great annual ceremony of the passover, which was to be kept in commemoration of their delivery from Egypt, is never noticed. In the time of Josiah, the book of the law is represented as being found by Hilkiah the priest, then they keep the passover. These points, in my opinion, are sufficient to show that the Mosaic religion is not of greater antiquity than the days of Josiah. But I think if any individual compare the book of Ezekiel with the books of Moses, he can scarcely fail coming to a conclusion that they are all the work of the same man. To me, however, it is of

very little importance who was the author of these books, whether they were the work of Ezekiel, or of Ezra, or of Moses, or of any other man, their contents are sufficient to show them to be founded upon the basest imposture: their general principles are slavish, degrading, and demoralizing:-Customs repugnant to every principle of humanity are sanctioned, and their penal code is a monument of barbarous cruelty.

I shall pass very slightly over the other books contained in the Bible as I do not find many observations upon them necessary for my present purpose. I will just observe that the book of Psalms, so much admired by modern religionists, is a specimen of the breathings of one of the most malignant beings that could possibly disgrace the human form. Where will you find the expressions of feelings more vindictive? Where will you find cruelty and revenge maintained in such a manner as in the Psalms of David? Amongst the books said to be written by Solomon, Christophilus enumerates the Song of Solomon, and he says of these books: "They possess intrinsic excellency of composition, and very good morals." On this point I should only like to know, if Christophilus would recommend the morality of the Song of Solomon as a pattern for the imitation of his own daughters.

With regard to the numerous prophecies concerning Christ, which are said to be contained in the Old Testament, I must say that after the most careful search I am not able to find one which bears the most distant relation to any such character. Indeed taking the prophecies at large, they are a piece of complete jargon, a good deal resembling the language of our modern fortune-tellers.

I know that you will be ready to say, How do you account for the present extraordinary situation of the Jews, their dispersion amongst the different nations of the earth, and their continuance as a separate and distinct people? The situation of the Jews in my opinion requires no supernatural aid to account for it, and very little consideration will show, that the pretended prophecies quoted by Christophilus, from Deut. xxviii. are not by any means applicable. Those pretended prophecies relate to the whole body of the Israelitish nation, whilst the people now known under the name of Jews consist almost entirely of two families out of the twelve, the other ten families, or tribes, who, according to Bible history, abandoned the Mosaic law, are swallowed up amongst the rest of mankind, so that no traces of their existence can be found. This fact at once belies the prophecy, and gives us one of the principal reasons why the Jews continue a separate and distinct people: namely, because the Mosaic institutions are tended to make them the enemies of all mankind. Why should Christophilus attempt to prove the existence, the power, and the interference of a supernatural being, by the dispersion and present situation of the Jews, when there are other causes so much more rational that will account for their situation? The prejudices instilled into the minds of the Jews, are of themselves sufficient to keep them separate and distinct from all other

people. They are induced to believe that the God whom they worship was the Creator of all things, and the only true God, and that the Gods of all other nations are destitute of power; they have been induced to believe, that they are the peculiar favourites of this God, whilst all other nations are either disregarded or held in abhorrence by him. To a Christian, these principles may appear incapable of producing any great effect, yet to the man who studies human nature, for the purpose of discovering the causes of human actions, they present the clue for discovering the cause of that system of delusion which has filled the earth with blood.

The ideas of the Jews, that they were the peculiar favourites of heaven, and that the Deity had condescended in a peculiar manner to reveal his will to them, and to select them for his peculiar people, whilst he rejected all the rest of mankind and left them in a state of ignorance, were sufficient to fill them with pride, to make them suppose they were wiser than all the rest of mankind, and to cause them to disregard or despise all the rest of the human race. The laws which forbid all intercourse with other nations, and those which commanded them to destroy all who worshipped any other God, tended to make them a band of religious savages, hating all the rest of mankind, and only prevented by their want of power from exterminating all the rest of mankind from the face of the earth.

The haughty, overbearing and tyrannical disposition of the Jews towards the people of other nations, must of necessity have caused them to be despised and hated by the rest of mankind. If a period ever existed when the barbarous and detestable penal code of the Jews was in force, is it to be wondered at that they should be despised and hated by all nations, and that great outrages should occasionally have been committed against them, and that sometimes different nations should even attempt to exterminate them. In speaking thus of the Jews I am aware that they are composed of the same materials as other men, but I am now speaking of them as beings whose minds have been poisoned by one of the most detestable systems of superstition: a system hostile to every principle of justice and humanity, a system in which every ordinance, and almost every law, has evidently been designed for the purpose of rendering the people the passive slaves of the priest: a system which placed the reputation and even the lives of all the female part of the population at the absolute disposal of the priest, (Numb. v.) a system which clears the man who murdered his servant from punishment, but orders that the man who gathered sticks on the seventh day of the week should be stoned to death (Exod. xxi. 20. Numb, xv. 32). It is the Mosaic law which says, thou shalt not suffer a witch to live (Exod. xxii. 18. Lev. xx. 6).

It is the Mosaic law which says, He that sacrificeth unto any God, save the Lord, shall be utterly destroyed (Deut. xiii. and xvii. 2). It is the Mosaic law which says, Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day shall be to you an holy day, a sabbath of rest, whosoever doth work thereon shall be put to death: ye shall kind'e no fire throughout your habitations on the sabbath day (Exod.