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CHAPTER XVI.

Matthew gives us to understand, that the Eastern Magi came into Jerusalem, and were inquiring of every body they met where the child was that was born King of the Jews. A most singular errand for either Arabian or Indian Philosophers! How came they to be so interested at this particular time in the affairs of Judea. Oh! but they had seen a star--a singular Who told them, that this star appeared to intimate to them, that a King ofthe Jews was born? Matthew is silent here. Did any body else see the star? Have we any account, or even any tradition of the appearance of any extraordinary star, at that time, except this of Matthew's? Did it accompany them from their homes as far as Jerusalem, and then stop until they could inquire for, and ascertain the town where this young King was? And did it then go and point out the very house where he and his mother lay? If it led them to Jerusalem, and could go to the house, what the necessity of their inquiring for the town? In order to designate a particular house, it must have been very near the earth, for, upon the well known principle of optics, were this same star no farther off than the moon, it would have appeared directly over every house, within a circle of two and four hundredths miles, and if as far as the sun, this circle would have been extended to 950 miles.

Should a stranger in the night, request you to direct him to the house of the Mayor of New York, and you should tell him, it would be under a particular star, at a certain time of the night, he would set you down as a lunatic, or a blackguard.

My object is not at this time to inquire into this wonderful tale of the visit of these wise men, bnt to ascertain whether the quotation from Micah was a prediction of Christ. It is said, that Herod, hearing of the inquiries of these Magi, asked the learned Jews, that were about his court, where Christ was to be born? and that they told him at Bethlehem, and quoted to him the 2nd verse of 5th Micah, which is in these words:

"But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be Ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been of old, from everlasting."

If this tale of these wise men, be a fiction, as every man in his senses believes, then this verse never was quoted, by the scribes of Herod as such

prediction: but I wish to show, that this scrap from Micah, was not a prediction of Jesus, and if I can do so, then it follows, that Matthew was an impostor: for here there can be no pretence of a Panglossism.

Micah, in his first verse, says, that he wrote in the time of Ahaz, yet the bulk of his seven chapters, relates to the Babylonian captivity and restoration of the Jews. Ahaz lived one hundred and seventy years before the captivity.

A single perusal of the book will convince any ingenuous mind, that it is like the one attributed to Isaiah, a piece of patch work—a pudding stonea giblet pie-printer's Pi—any thing in truth, but an entire work of a man who lived in the time of Ahaz.

I will here transcribe the 4th, and part of the 5th chapter of this wonderful book.

CHAP. IV.

But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it.

2. And many nations shall come and say, Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

3. And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

4. But they shall sit, every man under his vine, and under his fig-tree and none shall make them afraid; for the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it.

5. For all the people will walk, every one in the name of his God, and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God, for ever and ever.

6. ¶In that day, saith the Lord, will I assemble her that halteth, and I will gather her that is driven out, and her that I have afflicted;

7. And I will make her that halted a remnant, and her that was cast afar off a strong nation: and the Lord shall reign over them in mount Zion from henceforth, even for ever.

d. ¶ And thou, O tower of the flock, the strong hold of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion; the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem.

9. Now, why dost thou cry out aloud? is there no king in thee? is thy counsellor perished? for pangs have taken thee as a woman in travail.

10. Be in pain, and labor to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a wo man in travail, for thou shalt now go forth out of the city, and thou shal

dwell in the field, and thou shalt go even to Babylon; there shalt thou be delivered; there the Lord shall redeem thee from the hands of thine enemies.

11. ¶Now also many nations are gathered against thee, that say, let her be defiled, and let our eye look upon Zion.

12. But they know not the thoughts of the Lord, neither understand they his counsel: for he shall gather them as the sheaves into the floor.

13. Arise and thresh, O danghter of Zion, for I will make thy horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass; and thou shalt beat in pieces many people; and I will consecrate their gain unto the Lord, and their substance unto the Lord of the whole earth!

CHAP. V.

Now gather thyself in troops, O daughter of troops, he hath laid siege against us; they shall smite the Judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek.

2. But thou Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be Ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been of old, from everlasting.

3. Therefore will he give them up, until the time that she which travaileth hath brought forth; then the remnant of his brethren shall return unto the children of Israel.

4. And he shall stand and feed in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God; and they shall abide; for now shall he be great unto the ends of the earth.

5. And this man shall be the peace, when the Assyrian shall come into our land; and when he shall tread in our palaces, then shall we raise against him seven shepherds, and eight principal men.

6. And they shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof; thus shall he deliver us from the Assyrian, when he cometh into our land, and when he treadeth within our borders.

7. And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from the Lord, as the showers upon the grass, that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men.

It will be observed that the first three verses of the 4th chapter, are an exact copy of the 2nd, 3d, and 4th of the 2nd Isaiah, and has reference to the return of the Jews from captivity. Does not this identity of verses prove conclusively, that this book is a compilation—a piece of patchwork? Does any one pretend to say, that two men would write three verses of this length, in precisely the same words. The truth is, that neither Isaiah or Micah wrote them, for there can be no doubt, that when taken in connection

with the three following verses in this 4th chapter of Micah, they relate to the Babylonian captivity. The author, whoever he my have been, was speaking of the captivity as then existing. The Jews were to return, and the Lord was to reign over them in Mount Zion, from henceforth, even forever.

Here is another proof, that the dispersion of the Jews at this day, is in direct contradiction to the whole drift of prophecy.

At the 8th verse commences another scrap from some other author on the same subject. Something is here personified, and what is it? He calls it the tower of the flock--highly poetical, no doubt, because perfectly unintelligible; but he explains, and tells us, he means a strong hold, that is a fort—strong hold of what? or what strong hold? O! the daughter of Zion. What does he mean by the daughter of Zion? Probably he means Jerusalem. So this strong hold was the fort on the hill of Zion. Dominion was to come to it as at the first, that is, it was to be as strong, and as well manned as in David's time.

I can go no further.

There are too many daughters here, for me to supply with mothers. First, there is the strong hold of the daughter of Zion, then the daughter of Jerusalem, and then again, the daughter of Zion. Now what was the daughter of Zion? If you say Jerusalem, then we want to know, what was the daughter of Jerusalem? What instruction can be gathered from such a confusion of metaphor? One of these daughters is not only to travail, but to travel as far as Babylon, and there lie in. The notion of a fort travailing, and travelling, and lying out in the fields, and finally being delivered at her journey's end, is too absurd to be ridiculous.

By the expression, "daughter of Zion,” in the tenth verse, fourth chapter, the author must mean, the Jews in captivity. But this daughter was to go out of the city. You ask what city? I answer, any city or town in the great empire, in which any Jew might reside. They were to go to Babylon, and from that city be sent home to Jerusalem. Where is the close of this bombast? O! here it is, poor stray thing! away out of its place, immediately after the prophecy in question. Yes, the third verse of the 5th chapter, should have been the 11th of the 4th.* "Therefore will he give

*This is not the only instance of the misplacing of verses, or their removal from their proper places, in the prophetical books. The 6th verse of the 9th of Isaiah, that contains that famous prediction of a son already born, that was to called by so many wonderful names, should follow the 18th verse of the previous chapter. The two would read thus:

"Behold, 1 and the children whom the Lord hath given me, are for signs and wonders in Israel from the Lord of hosts, which dwelleth in mount Zion,

دو

them up.' Whom? Why the enemies of the daughter. By the expression, will give them up, the writer means, will let them alone. The remainder of this verse is easily understood, after being restored to its proper place, from which it has been long removed, by the ignorance, carelessness, or knavery of the compiler.

The 11th verse of the 4th chapter, is a matter of history, and has relation to the invasion of Judah, by Pekah and Rezin, the Kings of Samaria and Syria, in the time of Ahaz, and might have been written by Micah. The 12th verse is a prediction, that these Kings will be discomfitted; and the last verse of this chapter, and the first of the fifth, are an exhortation to the people of Judah, to rally around their King, and repel the invaders, assuring them victory.

He calls Judah, the daughter of troops, alludes to the invasion of his country by the King of Israel, calls upon his countrymen to gather themselves in troops, that is, enroll themselves, and lastly, assures them, that they will smite this King with a rod upon the cheek. All this was very patriotic in Micah, but his anticipations, like those of many other patriots, were not realized: for we are told in Chronicles, that the King of Israel smote Ahaz with a terrible slaughter.

After this patriotic appeal to the Jews, follows the prophecy which Matthew puts into the mouth of Herod's scribes. Now, I appeal to the good sense and candor of the reader, if there be the least connection whatever, between this verse, and the one preceding it. I have already shown, that there can be none between it and the succeeding verse, as this third verse should succeed the tenth verse of the previous chapter. If the King spoken of, in the 4th, 5th and 6th verses, be the ruler of the second verse, then the writer could uot have alluded to Christ: for Jesus never defended

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son to given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called, Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace."

The connexion is now manifest. The writer in 8th, 18th, states, that he and his children are for signs and for wonders, and in this 9th, 6th, which should follow it, he tells us, what he means, or how his chilren are to be for signs and for wonders, namely, by receiving significant or wonderful names. I have already shown, (pages 94 and 5) that this verse has no connection whatever, with the one that now stands before it. You will ask, what I will do with the one (9th, 7th,) that follows it. I will place that after the 5th of the 11th chapter, where it properly belongs. Let the student read aud judge for himself. I ask no one to swear in my words. Many of these mislocations, are to be attributed, no doubt, to the ignorance, or carelessness of the compiler, but these two verses were removed from their proper places, and put in juxta position, with design, and for the purpose of imposition.

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