And he says, "ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times ?" that is to say, "if ye can discern the face of the sky, why can ye not discern that I am the Son of God?" Christ was an extraordinary logician, here he draws the inference that because a man can see the truth of one proposition, therefore he can see the truth of every proposition. Christ says, in his sermon on the mount,—

"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.

"For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened." Mat. ch. vii. vs. 7, 8.

I will not suppose that your lordship is so short of discernment as not to see Christ's inconsistency here. Here he tells people to ask, and it shall be given them. Did the Pharisees and Sadducees not ask for evidence ? and what did he give them? He gave them "O ye hypocrites." And he says, seek, and ye shall find. Did the Pharisees and Sadducees not seek? and what did they find? They found, "O ye hypocrites." And he says, knock, and it shall be opened unto you. Did the Pharisees and Sadducees not knock ? and what was opened unto them? His mouth was opened, and he gave them, "O ye hypocrites." Is this your Son of God, my Lord ? Inasmuch as Christ falsifies in his conduct every sentence of the above citation, I cannot believe that he was any other than a very inconsistent and irrational man. He again says,—

"Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?

"Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? Mat. ch. vii. vs. 9, 10.

Christ was the man himself, who, when asked by the Pharisees and Sadducees to give them evidence that he was the Son of God, gave them "O ye hypocrites; " exhibiting in practice the very character

he here supposes, and which he expected was not to be found amongst his audience. He gave them a stone instead of bread, and a serpent instead of fish.

And yet Christ says, "he that believeth and is bap tized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned," (Mark, ch. xvi. v. 16); that is to say, because men cannot believe without evidence, therefore they are to be damned. Christ, on numerous occasions, exhorts his disciples to be perfect "even as their Father which is in heaven is perfect," and this, I suppose, is a manifestation of that perfection. And he says, in his ser

mon on the mount,

"Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets." Mat. ch. vii. v. 12.

Does Christ himself practice this precept, when he damns people because they cannot believe without evidence? If he could not believe without evidence, would he like to be damned? I solemnly declare that I cannot believe that Christ was the Son of God; and yet, he says, if I do not, I will be damned; and he exhorts his disciples to imitate this character of his, because it is perfect. Perfection, it seems, consists in absurdity and brutality. Christ again says,—

"But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil." Luke, ch. vi. v. 35.

Christ's talk is so full of absurdities, that one hardly knows which to take first. Here he says, that the Highest "is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil; and yet he tell us, that unless we believe that he was the Son of God, we are to be damned, although it is not in our power to believe it. And, in his description of the day of judgment, he says,

"Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand,

depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." Mat. ch. xxv. v. 41.

Very kind this to the unthankful and to the evil! "Depart from me, ye cursed," sounds very like kindness! And Christ says too, that "it must needs be that offences come; so that although "it must needs be" that people should be wicked, because they afe wicked they are to be doomed to "everlasting fire; and this is being kind to the unthankful and to the evil! Were there ever such absurdities ?

Christ again discovers inconsistency and absurdity in the following passage:

"The Son of man goeth as it is written of him: but woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! it had been good for that man if he had not been born." Mat. ch. xxvi. v. 24.

Christ here alludes to Judas Iscariot; and it seems in betraying Christ, he committed an enormous sin. Now who was it that excited Judas Iscariot to betray Christ? Christ informs us as follows::

"For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.' Mat. ch. x. v. 20.

This was addressed to Judas Jscariot and the other eleven apostles; so that it was the "Spirit of his Father' that induced Judas Iscariot to go to the chief priests, and say, "What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you?" And yet Christ says, woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! Why "woe unto him" when it was not him that did it? Besides does Christ not say often enough that the "Scripture must be fulfilled?" Why then" woe unto the man who fulfils the Scripture? And would mankind have been saved from their sins had Judas Iscariot not betrayed Christ? Why then "woe unto him" for betraying him?

I have now, my Lord, said enough to convince any mind the least approaching to rationality, that Jesus

Christ was an inconsistent being, and therefore he could not be the Son of God. This is the point that I pledged myself to establish at the commencement of this Letter, and having now established it, I call upon you, or any priest in this country, to show the fallacy of the reasoning I have employed. I demand, my Lord, that you either answer this Letter, or give up your present office in the Church. As an honest man you are bound to do either the one or the other; for if my arguments cannot be refuted, or my position invalidated, your religion is false, and to continue to preach it to the people, without answering the arguments I have adduced against it, is an evidence of a meanness of spirit and a dishonesty of principle that ought to degrade a man even in the estimation of himself. With every hope, my Lord, that you will answer this Letter, and not sink yourself lower in the estimation of the people of this country than you really are,

Hulme, June 16th, 1841.

I remain, &c.

C. J. HASLAM.

I beg to state that it is my intention, as soon as this work is completed, of commencing a small Periodical, the particulars of which I shall give hereafter.

The whole of LETTERS TO THE CLERGY are now in print, and may be had of the usual Booksellers.

PRINTED BY C. J. HASLAM, HULME.

LETTER XXIII.

TO THE BISHOP OF EXETER:

CONTAINING

MATERIALS FOR DECIDING THE QUESTION,

WHETHER OR NOT

THE BIBLE IS THE WORD OF GOD?

PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY THE AUThor, 65, STOTT-STREET, HULME, MANCHESTER.

MY LORD,

Price one Penny.

Having established my position that Jesus Christ was an inconsistent being, and therefore he could not be the Son of God, I now come to the other position, which is, the false assumption upon which your religion is founded, namely, that man can believe as he pleases.

That your religion is founded upon this assumption, I need only refer to the following declaration of Jesus Christ:

"He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned." Mark, ch. xvi. v. 16.

Here Christ makes man responsible for his belief, and unless man could believe as he pleased, it would be