examination of the four books ascribed to
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John; and when it is considered that the whole
space of time, from the crucifixion to what is called the ascension, is
but a few days, apparently not more than three or four, and that all the
circumstances are reported to have happened nearly about the same spot,
Jerusalem, it is, I believe, impossible to find in any story upon record
so many and such glaring absurdities, contradictions, and falsehoods, as
are in those books. They are more numerous and striking than I had any
expectation of finding, when I began this examination, and far more
so than I had any idea of when I wrote the former part of 'The Age of
Reason.' I had then neither Bible nor Testament to refer to, nor could I
procure any. My own situation, even as to existence, was becoming every
day more precarious; and as I was willing to leave something behind me
upon the subject, I was obliged to be quick and concise. The quotations
I then made were from memory only, but they are correct; and the
opinions I have advanced in that work are the effect of the most clear
and long-established conviction,--that the Bible and the Testament are
impositions upon the world;--that the fall of man, the account of Jesus
Christ being the Son of God, and of his dying to appease the wrath
of God, and of salvation by that strange means, are all fabulous
inventions, dishonourable to the wisdom and power of the Almighty;--that
the only true religion is deism, by which I then meant and now mean
the belief of one God, and an imitation of his moral character, or the
practice of what are called moral virtues;--and that it was upon this
only (so far as religion is concerned) that I rested all my hopes of
happiness hereafter. So say I now--and so help me God.

But to retum to the subject.--Though it is impossible, at this distance
of time, to ascertain as a fact who were the writers of those four books
(and this alone is sufficient to hold them in doubt, and where we doubt
we do not believe) it is not difficult to ascertain negatively that
they were not written by the persons to whom they are ascribed. The
contradictions in those books demonstrate two things:

First, that the writers cannot have been eye-witnesses and ear-witnesses
of the matters they relate, or they would have related them without
those contradictions; and, consequently that the books have not been
written by the persons called apostles, who are suppos