face of it, the same
kind of story as that of Jupiter and Leda, or Jupiter and Europa, or any
of the amorous adventures of Jupiter; and shews, as is already stated
in the former part of 'The Age of Reason,' that the Christian faith is
built upon the heathen Mythology.

As the historical parts of the New Testament, so far as concerns Jesus
Christ, are confined to a very short space of time, less than two
years, and all within the same country, and nearly to the same spot, the
discordance of time, place, and circumstance, which detects the fallacy
of the books of the Old Testament, and proves them to be impositions,
cannot be expected to be found here in the same abundance. The New
Testament compared with the Old, is like a farce of one act, in which
there is not room for very numerous violations of the unities. There
are, however, some glaring contradictions, which, exclusive of the
fallacy of the pretended prophecies, are sufficient to show the story of
Jesus Christ to be false.

I lay it down as a position which cannot be controverted, first, that
the agreement of all the parts of a story does not prove that story
to be true, because the parts may agree, and the whole may be false;
secondly, that the disagreement of the parts of a story proves the whole
cannot be true. The agreement does not prove truth, but the disagreement
proves falsehood positively.

The history of Jesus Christ is contained in the four books ascribed to
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.--The first chapter of Matthew begins with
giving a genealogy of Jesus Christ; and in the third chapter of Luke
there is also given a genealogy of Jesus Christ. Did these two agree, it
would not prove the genealogy to be true, because it might nevertheless
be a fabrication; but as they contradict each other in every particular,
it proves falsehood absolutely. If Matthew speaks truth, Luke speaks
falsehood; and if Luke speaks truth, Matthew speaks falsehood: and as
there is no authority for believing one more than the other, there is no
authority for believing either; and if they cannot be believed even
in the very first thing they say, and set out to prove, they are not
entitled to be believed in any thing they say afterwards. Truth is an
uniform thing; and as to inspiration and revelation, were we to admit
it, it is impossible to suppose it can be contradictory. Either then the
men called apostles were imposters, or the books ascribed to them have
been written by ot