Observing that the priest was really in earnest, and apparently of sane mind, he would parley with him, asking where he procured his book from; who were the very holy parties who had been inspired to write it; when and where they lived; and who knew anything about them: in short he would demand from the unctions one his credentials before believing such an astounding assertion as that god wrote a book. The replies would be after this fashion. The book was derived in the first instance from a publisher’s shop, where it had been printed with lead type and black ink, from another printed copy, which had been printed from another copy, and so on back to the first printed edition, which was copied from a translation of various Hebrew and Greek ‘originals.’ It was about two thousand years, he would say, since some of these ‘originals’ were written, and the remainder were supposed to be of much earlier date; but who the actual writers were he could not tell, although it was beyond doubt they were guided by god’s inspiration, for it was so declared in the writings themselves, which had never yet been doubted, except by a few naughty men who were now in hell. Do you think this would be good enough for the stranger? Of course not. Then, in the name of common sense, why should we accept these Bible books without enquiry? To accept any anonymous writings in blind faith as being the production of particular individuals, without corroborative evidence, is the act of a fool, not of a wise man. A sensible person will make some enquiry about them before accepting them.