mistake by any, had they attended in what lofty and bold figures the entire ruin and fubversion of states and kingdoms is foretold by the Jewish prophets, such as, the fun's being darkened, and the luminaries of heaven ceafing to give their light, &c. Compare Ifaiah, xxiii. 10. xxxiv. 4. 10. Ezek. xxxii. 7. 8. Amos, viii. 9. &c. Had they observed farther, that the original word turned earth occurs frequently, not for the terraqueous globe, but for a particular country, or region in it, as Gen. xiii. 9. 1 Sam. xiii. 3. Jerem. iv. 20. viii. 16. Luke, iv. 26. to which I hesitate not to add, in all probability, Matt. xxvii. 45. with the parallel places in the gofpels of Mark and Luke, though many have concluded thence, that the darkness at Chrift's paffion was spread over our hemifphere, and appealed to the * fabulous legendary tale of Dionyfius's exclamation in Egypt in proof of it.-And, finally, had they confidered, that the Greek term tranflated in our Bibles there angels, fignifies no more than meffengers, and accordingly is the name, by which the preachers of the gofpel are fometimes called, 2 Cor. viii. 2 3. Revel. ii. 1. &c. It is even amazing, that any Chriftian commentators should ever have maintained another sense, who did not suppose that Jefus himself (concerning whom far be the thought from us!) was himself under the influence of a spirit of error and delufion about the fpeedy end of the world, fince he hath added, by way

I call it fo without any fcruple; fuch is my judgment of it, upon an examination of the evidence, into which I was led by seeing my late learned and candid friend Dr Lardner, in his Jewish and Heathen Testimonies, reject it so peremptorily, without entering into a detail of his reafons for it.

of caveat against such interpretation, this declaration, That this generation fhall not pafs away, 'till all these things, which he had before spoken of, be fulfilled;" for the only natural sense here is, that that race of men, which was then upon the earth, fhould not be fwept away from it by death, till all these things which he had predicted had come to pafs. To explain it to fignify, that the Jewish nation fhould continue a diftinct people through all ages, inftead of being blended with, and loft in other nations, like the Affyrians, Greeks, and other people famous of old, though it may be to build on them a propofition true in itself, is to offer force and violence to the term generation, which according to its uniform acceptation, denotes what we call, a race of men, who come into the world and die out of it within a certain period, nor this of very great extent.

There is therefore no fufficient reafon for this imputation, which Mr. Voltaire throws upon Paul and Luke, that they foretold the end of the world would be in their time; nor, by confequence, for alleging, as fome have done, that they allured perfons to Christianity, by the false and deceitful hope of being taken up alive without tafting death, to the glories and felicities of heaven, like Enoch and Elijah, and that they engaged them to fuffer chearfully the lofs of worldly goods, and facrifice their earthly fubftance for its fake, by poffeffing them with the vain conceit, that, in the revolution of a few years, all these things would perifh in an univerfal conflagration, and be irrecoverably loft.

SECTION XXVIII.

Of his faying, in the Ignorant Philofopher, that Chrift's words, Matth. xviii 17. were the cause of all perfecutions among Christians.

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I SHALL only take notice of another mifreprefentation of the sense of Scripture; and it is in his Ignorant Philofopher. But it is not the paffage where he afferts, That the Holy Scripture,' where it introduces God faying, " He will require the blood "of mens lives at the hand of every beast," manifeftly fuppofes in beafts a knowledge of, and acquaint'ance with good and evil.' For I think I may safely leave his conclufion to be judged of by every man's own unaffisted fagacity. The paffage I would examine, is in the article entitled, The Effects of the 'Spirit of Party and Fanaticism.' After obferving, there is room for mutual reproaches among Papifts and Proteftants, on account of religious cruelties, he goes on thus, Compare fects, compare times, you will every where find for one thousand fix hundred years, nearly an equal proportion of abfurdity and • horror every where amongst a race of blind men, 'who are destroying each other in the obscurity which furrounds them. What book of controverfy is there written without gall? And what theological dogma has not been the cause of spilling blood?' and then adds, This was the neceffary ' effect of these fenfible words Whomfoever liftens σε not to the church, fhall be looked upon as a Pa* Article, Of Beasts, p. 18, Glasg. edit. p. 145. † Page 145.

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gan, and a publican.' Each party pretended to be 'the church, each party has therefore conftantly · faid, We abhor the officers of the customs, we are enjoined to treat whoever differs from us in opinions, as the smugglers treat the officers of the cuftoms when they have the fuperiority. Thus, the 'firft dogma every where established was hatred.'

Here, every one fees, he pronounces the perfecutions, which the different fects and parties of Chriftians have carried on against one another, even to the deftruction of life, the effect of Jefus's words, Matt. xviii. 17. and not the cafual or accidental effect of them, through their abuse by the paffions, and their perverfion by the weakness and folly of men, but the neceffary effect of them.-By confequence, he places them all to the charge of our Saviour himself, as the author and adviser thereof.

But what can be more injurious than fuch a reflection founded on this text? Indeed, I am not able to recollect, that it hath ever been pleaded by any of the patrons and advocates of feverities for difference of opinion, as much as they have tortured and wrested fome paffages of the New Teftament to justify the fame.

They have argued from Chrift's command to Peter to feed his fheep, that this must convey a power to his fucceffors to kill heretics, fince fhepherds have a power to kill wolves, and other beafts of prey, which feek to devour their flocks; thus building a doctrine, which we shall fee to be moft oppofite to Scripture, as well as to reafon, on a figurative expreffion. They have urged the order, which Chrift in his parable represents the lord, who made a great fupper,

but whose invitation to partake of it had been flighted by great multitudes, to have given to his fervants when he fent them into the highways and hedges; 'Compell them to come in, that my house may be 'filled.' As if our Saviour had meant, they were to employ force and violence for procuring a fufficient number of guests; when the occafion fhews, as well as the application of the word tranflated compel elsewhere, that only perfuafion, importunity, follicitation, and fuch methods could be intended.Henry Stephen even intimates, in his preparatory treatise to his apology for Herodotus, that fome of the Papifts, who have been the uniform and avowed friends of perfecution for confcience fake, had recourse to the expreffion in the Vulgate verfion, 'Haereticum devita,' Titus, iii. 1o. and contended, although it fignifies in truth only, 'fhun or avoid an 'heretic,' that it was an injunction to hurry him out offlife. But amidst all the strange pretences that have

*This is a book, which hath undergone more than twelve editions. It was written by him, on occasion of the artifices used by the monks to depretiate Herodotus as a historian, who abounded in incredible stories, after he had printed that book at great charge; and its intention was, to expose them for imposing on the world tales equally or more improbable, for their ftupid ignorance, and grofs vices.

As Henry Stephen hath been blamed for exceeding the truth, in his representations of the Papifts, it may not be improper to observe, that Schoelhorne, in a book whose title in the German tongue fignifies, Amoenitates Hiftoriae Ecclefiafticae, or, Pleafantries of Church Hiftory, hath given us a letter written by Ferdinand king of Arragon in 1415. to Sigifmund, the emperor of Germany, which was never before printed, wherein he exhorts him to put to death John Hus, maintains that no faith was to be kept to heretics, and fhews it was neceffary to destroy their lives, by these words of St. Paul, Haereticum