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"But Rabshakeh said, hath my master sent me to thy master and thee to speak these words? hath he not sent me to the men that sit upon the wall, that they may eat their own dung, and drink their own piss with you."

A very decent story this for a holy book! I have before asserted that the Bible is chiefly a record of vices and filthy expressions.

In the thirty-seventh chapter. I find a verse which corroborates my assertion, that the Jews borrowed their notion of the Majesty and splendour of their God from the Persian or Assyrian monarchs: it is thus:

"O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, that dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth: thou hast made heaven and earth.”

The dwelling between the cherubims cannot be mistaken, it must allude to the ornaments of a throne, or whoever opposes my assertion, must admit that there are winged bulls in his heaven!

"Then the angel of the Lord went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five thousand and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses."

In the latter part of the same chapter there is a curious affair as follows: this is like getting up of a morning and finding one's throat cut, as the saying is! They arose and found themselves dead corpses! Whatever was meant by it, this is the literal reading. Some accounts say that this army was discomfitted, by a multitude of mice who gnawed their leather belts and tresses, while the army slept, so that when they awoke in the morning they could not gird on their arms! They were in the habit of sleeping soundly in those days. Saul and his followers slept whilst David and another entered his tent and took away his sword and jug of water! Those tales give the lie to themselves? Can we for a moment imagine that ever an army of men, in a strange country, went all to sleep without any watch, guard, or picquets?—In the next chapter we have the repetition of the sun's course being stopped by Isaiah to amuse Hezekiah!

There is nothing further worth notice until we come to the grand trick which was played upon Cyrus by introducing his name into this book, and making him believe it a prophecy. The whole of it is contained in the last verse of the 44th chapter, and the four first verses of the 45th, it is not at all

connected with the former part of the former chapter nor the latter part of the latter, it is thus:

"That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure even saying to Jerusalem, thou shalt be built; and to the temple, the foundation shall be laid. Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut; I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron: and I will give thee the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that 1, the Lord which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel. For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even cailed thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me."

The success of the trick has given it importance, and its consequences have been great indeed! But for this incident, the Jews would have remained captive until they had been lost sight of among the Persians, for they mingled among them very different to what they do in other countries: and but for this incident, the Christian religion would have been, where it ought to have been for the peace and welfare of mankind,-in oblivion. It was this incident that gave importance to the Jews it gave them a name and habitation, which they scarcely ever possessed before. In fact, this incident, this forgery, might have been considered the most important event that ever occurred among the human race, considering its consequences.

I think nothing can be more clear than that this was a trick upon Cyrus: the very manner in which the words are introduced into the book without being connected with the surrounding matter, is a proof of interpolation. I do not mean to say that some person of the name of Isaiah did not write a portion of this book, it is evidently a collection of scraps; but I am firmly of opinion that Ezra or some of those who learnt to write at Babylon laid this trap for Cyrus, which we find succeeded so well. It was an admirable trick on the part of the Jews, and shews they were then what they are to this day, men who delight in cunning and artifice. The 46, 47, and 48th chapters are as many proofs that they were written either during or subsequent to the Babylonish captivity. In the 47th chapter we have an allusion to the Babylonian astrologers, and star-gazers, and monthly prognosticators, as the Jews call them: it is in the following manner :

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"Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee, Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame: there shall not be a coal to warm at, nor fire to sit before it."

It is well known that the Babylonians made a considerable progress in astronomy at a very early period, and as the Jews were ignorant of every thing of the kind, we see the fanatical notions they had of it. It was subversive of every idea and doctrine among them, and like modern fanatics they could do no more nor less, than cry it up as odious, as blasphemous, and as wicked. The science of astronomy overthrows every thing in the book of Genesis relative to the supposed creation, and it is astonishing that so many eminent men, should from motives of feer and interest, have silently tolerated such an impious fraud. The only allusion to astronomy in the Bible, except the present, is the mention of different planets in the book of Job, and as that book will not be disputed to be the work of the Jewish people, it forms a proof that the above mention of astrology, &c. was written at Babylon, or after the return of the Jews. It could not have been written by Isaiah according to the data of the Bible. The Jews were as ignorant of the planetary systems as the cattle they sacrificed, in short, they had no ideas superior to their cattle, but in point of brutality, they exceeded all other animals.

To shew the ridiculous character of the Jewish prophets, I insert the following lines, although I passed them at their proper place.

"At the same time spake the Lord by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, go and loose the sackcloth from off thy loins, and put off thy shoe from thy foot. And he did so, walking naked and barefoot. And the Lord said, like as my servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and wonder upon Egyyt and upon Ethiopia; so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptian prisoners, and the Ethiopians captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, even with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt."

Here we see Isaiah running about naked for three years! Why should we require a further proof of madness? His prophetic powers could not excuse him now-a-day, he would be well whipped for an indecent exposure of person.

(To be Continued.)

Printed and Published by J. CARLILE, 55, Fleet Street.

The Republican.

No. 7, Vol. 4.] LONDON, FRIDAY, OCT. 13, 1820. [PRICE 6D.

MOCK TRIAL OF MRS. CARLILE ANTICIPATED.

The Vice Society gave Mrs. Carlile notice about a fortnight since that they had set down the cause against her for trial on the 5th inst: it was then put off to the 7th, and now the post of the 10th brings me no intelligence on the subject, so that I must anticipate it, whether it comes on or not. In the first place I must beg leave to say in my own behalf, and that of Mrs. C. that whatever be the verdict, we shall receive it with equal composure and indifference. As the Vice Society have the whole influence of a vicious and corrupt government to aid them in packing a júry,' it matters not what defence Mrs. Carlile has, or whether she even makes any, if it was not for the sake of exciting discussion on the subject in the public mind. I am satisfied that she has an ample defence for an honest jury, but if the jury are packed the defence with them is no consideration. I would put Sherwin's Life of Paine into the hands of any honest man, whatever might be his opinions on matters of religion, and trust to him to say whether the volume should or should not be suppressed. In the annals of prosecution for libels, there has never yet been so ill-founded a charge as has been made on this volume, and the base malignity of coupling it with a pamphlet that is more calculated to excite prejudice cannot fail to be seen through. If I was the author of this volume I would not submit to the verdict of a Jury, as to suppressing it, but by a motion for a new trial I would make the Judges of the Court of King's Bench say whether the passage selected was sufficient to cause its suppression. To shew my contempt for all their indictments, and informations, and libel law, I will quote the passage: it is in the first place a quotation from the Age of Reason, and no doubt has excited Vol. IV. No. 7.

Printed by JANE CARLILE, 55, Fleet Street.

the malignity of the Vice Society because Mr. Sherwin has accompanied it with some very able and convincing reasoning in support. The quotation is thus: 'It is only in the CREATION that all our ideas and conceptions of a word of God can 'unite. The creation speaketh an universal language, inde'pendently of human speech or human language, multiplied ' and various as they be. It is an ever existing original, which 6 every man can read. It cannot be forged; it cannot be 'counterfeited; it cannot be lost; it cannot be altered; it can"not be suppressed. It does not depend upon the will of man whether it shall be published or not: it published itself from one end of the earth to the other. It preaches to all nations and to all worlds; and this word of God reveals to man all 'that is necessary for man to know of God.' Now ye base hypocrites of the Vice of Society, what have you to say against this quotation, can you raise an argument against its propriety? I speak candidly and sincerely when I say, that I do not think the Star Chamber would have complained of such a paragragh. Is it not a perversion of all that is desirable in society to attempt to suppress a book with nothing in it more objectionable than the above quotation?

I must confess that the passage in the Republican is more pointed and more calculated to excite the ire of a bigot, but it is such, that no honest man need be ashamed of, either to write, to read, to print, or to publish: he may believe or disbelieve the expression just as he likes and there is an end to the

matter.

I can assure the Vice Society that I smile to myself, and have the most agreeable feelings, when I reflect how much 'they have contributed to strengthen my attack on the common fraud of religion. I feel that I am quite another being to what I should have been, had I been left unnoticed and not prosecuted. My wife and sisters are now fully alive to the advantages of prosecution, and Mrs. Carlile will receive a sentence for imprisonment with a promised composure; and my sister will fill her place with a similar composure, and challenge them to the attack again. It is a business which can be opened any where, and with half-an-hour's preparation, so that I defy the Vice Society, and the corrupt government united, to stop the discussion.

It might have been expected that the Vice Society would have been ashamed to institute or carry on another prosecution after their coadjutors had deluged the country with such a horrid mass of obscenity, as has been done in the attempt to

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