To resume our subject: I remind you of the passage already quoted from Bellarminus, that it was the opinion of the fathers of the church, that the Prophets, among other books, had been collected and arranged by Esdras. I have also stated the selection of genuine works by the synagogue, during the reign of the Maccabees, when the Talmud says that the forgeries of Daniel, Esdras, &c. were prodigious. The destruction by Antiochus Epiphanus of the already broken Jewish books, written by Esdras, may be collected from what is said in Maccabees, chap. i. ver. 56 and 57. "And when they had rent in pieces the books of the law which they found, they burnt them with fire, and whosoever was found with any of the books of the Testament, or if any consented to the law, the king's commandment was, that they should put him to death."
It is without reason that you triumph at the application which Thomas Paine makes of the prophecy of Isaiah, in chapters xliv. and xlv. No man that reads the passage can hesitate for a moment to declare it a narrative of the deliverance of the Jews by Cyrus, after the seventy years captivity. Cyrus is mentioned by name, as well as his command to rebuild Jerusalem, and his victories over the nations, above one hundred years before the event. Will you then, without any proofs of Isaiah having written this book, insist upon calling it a prophecy? And have not sceptics been justified in their disbelief of the genuineness of such books? Mr. Paine, however, has overlooked a more remarkable prophecy in this book, which has been tortured into an application to Christ. This is contained in chapter lxiii. ver. 1. "Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in. righteousness, mighty to save." And again, in chap. ii. (talking of the supposed Christ) Isaiah says, "And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people; and they shall beat their swords into plough-shares."--"And the idols he shall totally abolish." Can this possibly allude to Christ? Did he come from Edom in mighty power, in rich garments? Was his march so terrible? Was he the man who trampled all in his fury; who with his own arm brought salvation to himself, and was upheld by his fury; as also mentioned in chap. lxiii.? Do not these pretended prophecies also apply to Judas Maccabeus, who delivered the Jews from the tyranny of Antiochus Epi-phanus? And is it not also a proof of the mutilated state of the works of the prophets to see details about Cyrus intermingled with others applying to Judas Maccabeus? I say nothing of Daniel, for his _prophecy_ I shall consider particularly afterwards, and show its true meaning; at present, it may be sufficient to say, that the similarity between the book of Ezra and Daniel proclaim them to be from the same hand; but both have evident marks of having been considerably mutilated. When philosophers cannot ascertain the age of pretended predictions, they consider their clearness as a demonstration of their being histories. Who tells you that the books which the synagogue, like the Nicene council, chose, were not either altogether written, or considerably interpolated, to adopt them to the times? The great question is always, what authority had the synagogue to decide, and whether their decision ought to influence men of sense, any more than the determination of the Popish councils.