and would have justly deserved
it. Yet this is the evidence, and these are the books, that have been
imposed upon the world as being given by divine inspiration, and as the
unchangeable word of God.

The writer of the book of Matthew, after giving this account, relates
a story that is not to be found in any of the other books, and which is
the same I have just before alluded to. "Now," says he, [that is, after
the conversation the women had had with the angel sitting upon the
stone,] "behold some of the watch [meaning the watch that he had said
had been placed over the sepulchre] came into the city, and shawed unto
the chief priests all the things that were done; and when they were
assembled with the elders and had taken counsel, they gave large money
unto the soldiers, saying, Say ye, that his disciples came by night, and
stole him away while we slept; and if this come to the governor's ears,
we will persuade him, and secure you. So they took the money, and did as
they were taught; and this saying [that his disciples stole him away] is
commonly reported among the Jews until this day."

The expression, until this day, is an evidence that the book ascribed
to Matthew was not written by Matthew, and that it has been manufactured
long after the times and things of which it pretends to treat; for
the expression implies a great length of intervening time. It would be
inconsistent in us to speak in this manner of any thing happening in our
own time. To give, therefore, intelligible meaning to the expression,
we must suppose a lapse of some generations at least, for this manner of
speaking carries the mind back to ancient time.

The absurdity also of the story is worth noticing; for it shows the
writer of the book of Matthew to have been an exceeding weak and foolish
man. He tells a story that contradicts itself in point of possibility;
for though the guard, if there were any, might be made to say that the
body was taken away while they were asleep, and to give that as a
reason for their not having prevented it, that same sleep must also have
prevented their knowing how, and by whom, it was done; and yet they are
made to say that it was the disciples who did it. Were a man to tender
his evidence of something that he should say was done, and of the manner
of doing it, and of the person who did it, while he was asleep, and
could know nothing of the matter, such evidence could not be received:
it will do well enough for Testam