er like old locks
and pick-lock keys. The story foolishly enough told of Eve and the
serpent, and naturally enough as to the enmity between men and serpents
(for the serpent always bites about the heel, because it cannot reach
higher, and the man always knocks the serpent about the head, as the
most effectual way to prevent its biting;) ["It shall bruise thy head,
and thou shalt bruise his heel." Gen. iii. 15.--Author.] this foolish
story, I say, has been made into a prophecy, a type, and a promise to
begin with; and the lying imposition of Isaiah to Ahaz, 'That a virgin
shall conceive and bear a son,' as a sign that Ahaz should conquer,
when the event was that he was defeated (as already noticed in the
observations on the book of Isaiah), has been perverted, and made to
serve as a winder up.

Jonah and the whale are also made into a sign and type. Jonah is Jesus,
and the whale is the grave; for it is said, (and they have made Christ
to say it of himself, Matt. xii. 40), "For as Jonah was three days and
three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of man be three days
and three nights in the heart of the earth." But it happens, awkwardly
enough, that Christ, according to their own account, was but one day
and two nights in the grave; about 36 hours instead of 72; that is, the
Friday night, the Saturday, and the Saturday night; for they say he was
up on the Sunday morning by sunrise, or before. But as this fits quite
as well as the bite and the kick in Genesis, or the virgin and her son
in Isaiah, it will pass in the lump of orthodox things.--Thus much for
the historical part of the Testament and its evidences.

Epistles of Paul--The epistles ascribed to Paul, being fourteen in
number, almost fill up the remaining part of the Testament. Whether
those epistles were written by the person to whom they are ascribed is
a matter of no great importance, since that the writer, whoever he was,
attempts to prove his doctrine by argument. He does not pretend to
have been witness to any of the scenes told of the resurrection and the
ascension; and he declares that he had not believed them.

The story of his being struck to the ground as he was journeying to
Damascus, has nothing in it miraculous or extraordinary; he escaped with
life, and that is more than many others have done, who have been struck
with lightning; and that he should lose his sight for three days, and be
unable to eat or drink during that time, is nothing m