Topic: Bible Myths AND THEIR PARALLELS IN OTHER EARLIER RELIGIONS I

[Prometheus]

-CHAPTER xxxrn.

WHY CHRISTIANITY PROSPERED.

We now come to the question, Why did Christianity prosper, and why was Jesus of Nazareth believed to be a divine incarnation and Saviour?

There were many causes for this, but as we can devote but one chapter to the subject, we must necessarily treat it briefly.

For many centuries before the time of Christ Jesus there lived a sect of religious monks known as Essenes, or Therapeutce/' these entirely disappeared from history shortly after the time assigned far the crucifixion of Jesus. There were thousands of them, and their monasteries were to be counted by the score. Many have asked the question, “ What became of them 1” We now propose to show, 1. That they were expecting the advent of an Angel-Mes- siah / 2. That they considered Jesus of Nazareth to be the Messiah ; 3. That they came over to Christianity in a body; and, 4. That they brought the legendary histories of the former Angel- Messiahs with them.

The origin of the sect known as Essenes is enveloped in mist, and will probably never be revealed. To speak of all the different ideas entertained as to their origin would make a volume of itself, we can therefore but glance at the subject. It has been the object of Christian writers up to a comparatively recent date, to claim that almost everything originated with God’s chosen people, the Jews, and that even all languages can be traced to the Uebrew. Under these circumstances, then, it is not to be wondered at that we find they have also traced the Essenes to Hebrew origin.

Thcophilus Gale, who wrote a work called “ The Court of the [1126]



Gentiles” (Oxford, 1G71), to demonstrate that “the origin of all

human literature, both philology and philosophy, is from the Scriptures and the Jewish church,” undoubtedly hits upon the truth when he says:

“ Now, the origination or rise of these Esseues (among the Jews) I conceive by the best conjectures I can make from antiquity, to be in or immediately after the Babylonian captivity, though some make them later.”

Some Christian writers trace them to Moses or some of the prophets, hut that they originated in India, and were a sort of Buddhist sect, we believe is their true history.

Gfrdrer, who wrote concerning them in 1835, and said that “ the

Essenes and the Therapeutue are the same sect, and hold the same views,'’ was undoubtedly another writer who was touching upon historical ground.

The identity of many of the precepts and practices of Essenism and those of the Eew Testament is unquestionable. Essenism urged on its disciples to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.1 The Essenes forbade the laying up of treasures upon earth.’ The Essenes demanded of those who wished to join them to sell all their possessions, and to divide it among the poor brethren.[1127] [1128] [1129] The Essenes had all things in common, and appointed one of the brethren as steward to manage the common hag.[1130] [1131] Essenism put all its members on the same level, forbidding the exercise of authority of one over the other, and enjoining mutual service.[1132] Essenism commanded its disciples to call no man master upon the earth.6 Esseu- ism laid the greatest stress upon being meek and lowly in spirit.[1133] The Essenes commended the poor in spirit, those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, and the peacemaker. They combined the healing of the body with that of the soul. They declared that the power to cast out evil spirits, to perform miraculous cures, &c., should be possessed by their disciples as signs of their belief.8 The Essenes did not swear at all; their answer was yea, yea, and nay, nay.’ When the Essenes started on a mission of mercy, they provided neither gold nor silver, neither two coats, neither shoes, but relied on hospitality for support.10 The Essenes, though repudiating offensive war, yet took weapons with



 



6      Comp. Matt, xxiii. 8-10.

7      Comp. Matt. v. 5; xi. 29.

8     Comp. Mark, xvi. 17; Matt. x. 8; Lake, ix. 1, 2; x. 9.

9      Comp. Matt. v. 34.

19 Comp. Matt. x. 9, 10.



them when they went on a perilous journey.1 The Essenes abstained from connubial intercourse.’1 The Essenes did not oiler animal sacrifices, but strove to present their bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which they regarded as a reasonable service.' It was the great aim of the Essenes to live such a life of purity and holiness as to be the temples of the Holy Spirit, and to be able to prophesy.1

Many other comparisons might be made, but these are sufficient to show that there is a great similarity between the two.' These similarities have led many Christian writers to believe that Jesus belonged to this order. Dr. Ginsburg, an advocate of this theory,

says :

“It will hardly be doubted that our Saviour himself belonged to this holy brotherhood. This will especially be apparent when we remember that the whole Jewish community, at the advent of Christ, was divided into three parties, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Essenes, and that every Jew' had to belong to one of these sects. Jesus, who, in all things, conformed to the Jew ish law, and who was holy, harmless, undeliled, aud separate front sinners, would therefore naturally assoc iate himself with that order of Judaism which was most congenial to his holy nature. Moreover, the fact that Christ, with the exception of once, was not heard of in public until his thirtieth year, implying that he lived in seclusion with this fraternity, aud that though he frequently rebuked the scribes, Pharisees and Sadducees, he never denounced the Essenes, strongly eon linns this conclusion.’6

The facts — as Dr. Ginsburg calls them — which confirm his conclusions, arc simply no facts at all. Jesus may or may not have been a member of this order; but when it is stated as a fact that he never rebuked the Essenes, it is implying too much. Wo know not whether the words said to have been uttered by Jesus were ever uttered by him or not, and it is almost certain that had he rebuked the Essenes, and had his words been written in the Gospels, they would not remain there long. We hear very little of the Essenes after a. ij. 40,’ therefore, when we read of the “primitive Christians,” we are reading of Essenes, and others.

The statement that, with the exception of once, Jesus was not heard in public life till his thirtieth year, is also uncertain. One of the early Christian Fathers (Irenseus) tells us that he did not begin



 



• Ginsbnrg’s Essence, p. 21.

7 “We hear very little of them after a.d. 40; and there can hardly be any doubt that, owing to the great similarity existing between their precepts and practices and those of primi[1134] tive Christians, the Essenes as a body most have embraced Christianity.” (Dr. Ginsburg. p. 27.)



to teach until he was forty years of age, or thereabout, and that he lived to be nearly fifty years old.[1135] “ The records of his life are very scanty ; and these have been so shaped and colored and modified by the hands of ignorance and superstition and party prejudice and ecclesiastical purpose, that it is hard to be sure of the original outlines. ”

The similarity of the sentiments of the Essenes, or Therapeutse, to those of the Church of Rome, induced the learned Jesuit, Nicolaus Serarius, to seek for them an honorable origin. lie contended therefore, that they were Asideans, and derived them from the Rechabites, described so circumstantially in the thirty-fifth chapter of Jeremiah; at the same time, he asserted that the first Christian monks were Essenes.[1136] [1137]

Mr. King, speaking of the Christian sect called Gnostics, says:

“ Their chief doctrines had been held for centuries before (their time) in many of the cities of Asia Minor. There, it is probable, triey first came into existence as ' Mystte,’ upon the establishment of a direct intercourse with India under the Se- leucidm and the Ptolemies. The colleges of Essenes and Megabyzae at Ephesus, the Orphies of Thrace, the Cnretes of Crete, are all merely branches of one antique and common religion, and that originally Asiatic.”*

Again:

“ The introduction of Buddhism into Egypt and Palestine affords the only true solution of innumerable difficulties in the history of religion.”*

Again :

“ That Buddhism had actually been planted in the dominions of the Seleucidse and Ptolemies (Palestine belonging to the former) before the beginning of the third century n, c., is proved to demonstration by a passage in the Edicts of Asoka, grandson of the famous Chandragupta, the Sandracottus of the Greeks. These edicts are engraven on a rock at Girnur, in Guzerat.”[1138] [1139] [1140]

Eusebius, in quoting from Philo concerning the Essenes, seems to take it for granted that they and the Christians were one and the same, and from the manner in which he writes, it would appear that it was generally understood so. He says that Philo called them “ Worshipers,” and concludes by saying :

“But whether he himself gave them this name, or whether at th ^beginning the}7, were so called, when as yet the name of Christians was not everywhere pub- lished, I think it not needful curiosity to sift out.”9

This celebrated ecclesiastical historian considered it very probable that the writings of the Essenie Tlierapouts in Egypt had been incorporated into the gospels of the New Testament, and into some Panline epistles, llis words are :

“ It is very likely Unit tlie commentaries (Scriptures) which were among them (the Essenes) were the Gospels, and the works of the apostles, and certain expositions of the ancient prophets, such as partly that epistle unto the Hebrews, and also the other epistles of Paul do contain.”[1141] [1142]

Tho principal doctrines and rites of the Essenes can be connected with the East, with Parsism, and especially with Buddhism. Ainontr the doctrines which Essenesand Buddhists had in common was that of the Angel-Mesaiah?

Godfrey Higgins says:

“ The Emne* were called physicians of the soul, or Therapeufa; being resident both in Judea and Egypt, they probably spoke or had their sacred books in Chaldee. They were Pythagoreans, as is proved by all their forms, ceremonies, and doctrines, and they called themselves sons of Jesse. If the Pythagoreans or Conobiue, as they :irc called by Jamblieus, were Buddhists, the Essenes were Buddhists. The Essenes lived in Egypt, on the lake of Parenibole or Maria, in mojiaxtertis. These arc the very places in which wc formerly found the Oym- nonophiitt*, or Bat/ianam#, or Buddhist priests to have lived ; which Gynmosophis- Uc are placed also by Ptolemy in north-eastern India.”

“ Their (the Essenes) parishes, churches, bishops, priests, deacons, festivals are all identically the same (as the Christians). They had apostolic founders ; the manners which distinguished the immediate apostles of Christ ; scriptures divinely inspired ; the same allegorical mode of interpreting them, which lui9 since obtained among Christians, and the same order of performing public worship. They had missionary stations or colonies of their community established in Korae, Corinth, Galatia, Ephesus, Phillippi, Colosse, and Thcssalonica, precisely such, and in the same circumstances, as were those to whom St. Paul addressed his letters in those places. All the fine moral doctrines which are attributed to the Samaritan Nazarite, and I doubt not justly attributed to him, are to be found among the doctrines of these ascetics.”[1143] [1144]

And Arthur Lillie says :

“It is asserted by calm thinkers like Dean Mansel that within two generations of the time of Alexander the Great, the missionaries of Buddha made their



 



the Christian era. Ililgenfeld, Mutter, Bolden, King, all admit the Buddhist iuflnence. Cole- brookc saw a striking similarity between the Buddhist philosophy and that of the Pythagoreans. Deau Jliluian was convinced that the Thera pout* sprung from the ‘contemplative and indolent fraternities ’ of India.' And, he might have added, the Rev. Robert Taylor in his “ Diegeeis," and Godfrey Higgins in his “ Anacalypsis,” have brought strong arguments to bear in support of this theory.



 



appearance at Alexandria * This theory is confirmed—in the east by the Asoka monuments—in the west by Philo. lie expressly maintains the identity in creed of the higher Judaism and that of the Gy innosophists of India who abstained from the ‘ sacrifice of living animals ’—in a word, the Buddhists. It would follow from this that the priestly religion of Babylonia, Palestine, Egypt, and Greece were undermined by certain kindred mystical societies organized by Buddha’s missionaries under the various names of Thcrapcutes, Essenes, Neo- Pythagoreans, Neo-Zoroastrians, &c. Thus Buddhism prepared the way for Christianity.’’1

The Buddhists have the “ eight-fold holy path ” (Dhammapada), eight spiritual states leading up to Buddliahood. The first state of the Essenes resulted from baptism, and it seems to correspond with the first Buddhistic state, those who have entered the (mystic) stream. Patience, purity, and the mastery of passion were aimed at by both devotees in the other stages. In the Inst, magical powers, healing the sick, easting out evil spirits, etc., were supposed to be gained. Buddhists and Essenes seem to have doubled up this eight-fold path into four, for some reason or other. Buddhists and Essenes had three orders of ascetics or monks, but this classification is distinct from the spiritual classifications.’

The doctrine of the “Anointed Angel” of the man from heaven, the Creator of the world, the doctrine of the atoning sacrificial death of Jesus by the blood of his cross, the doctrine of the Messianic antetype of the Paschal lamb of the Paschal omer, and thus of the resurrection of Christ Jesus, the third day, according to the Scriptures, these doctrines of Paul can, with more or less certainty, be connected with the Essenes. It becomes almost a certainty that Eusebius was right in surmising that Essenie writings have been used by Paul and the evangelists, Not Jesus, but Paul, is the cause of the separation of the Jews from the Christians.3

The probability, then, that that sect of vagrant quack-doctors, the Therapeutic, who were established in Egypt and its neighborhood many ages before the period assigned by later theologians as that of the birth of Christ Jesus, were the original fabricators of the writings contained in the New Testament, becomes a certainty on the basis of evidence, than which history has nothing more certain, furnished by the unguarded, but explicit, unwary, but most unqualified and positive statement of the historian Eusebius, that “ those ancient Therapeutce were Christians, and that their ancient writings were our gospels and epistles

The Essenes, the Therapeuts, the Ascetics, the Monks, the Ecclesiastics, and the Eclectics, are but different names for one and the self-same sect.

The word “JEssene" is nothing more than the Egyptian word for that of which Therapout is the Greek, eaeli of them signifying “ healer ” or “ doctor,” and designating the character of the sect as professing to be endued with the miraculous gift of healing ; and more especially so with respect to diseases of the mind.

Their name of “Ascetics ” indicated the severe discipline and exercise of self-mortiticat.ion, long fastings, prayers, contemplation, and even making of themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake, as did Origon, Melito, and others who derived their Christianity from the same school; Jesus himself is represented to have recognized and approved their practice.

Their name of “21onks ” indicated their delight in solitude, their contemplative life, and their entire segregation and abstraction from the world, which Jesus, in the Gospel, is in like manner represented as describing, as characteristic of the community of which he was a member.

Their name of “ Ecclesiastics ” was of the same sense, and indicated their being called out, elected, separated from the general fraternity of mankind, and set apart to the more immediate service and honor of God.

They had a flourishing university, or corporate body, established upon these principles, at Alexandria in Egypt, long before the period assigned for the birth of Christ Jesus.[1145]

From this body they sent out missionaries, and had established colonies, auxiliary branches, and afliliated communities, in various cities of Asia Minor, which colonies were in a flourishing condition, before the preaching of St. Paul.

“ The very ancient and Eastern doctrine of an Angel-Messiah had been applied to Gautama-Buddha, and so it was applied to Jesus Christ by the Essence of Egypt and of Palestine, who introduced (hie nets Messianic doctrine into Essenic Judaism and Es- senic Christianity.'"‘

In the Pali and Sanscrit texts the word Buddha is always used as a title, not as a name. It means “ The Enlightened One.” Gautama Buddha is represented to have taught that he was only one of a long series of Buddhas, who appear at intervals in the world, and who all teach the same system. After the death of each Buddha his religion flourishes for a time, but finally wickedness and vice



again rule over the land. Then a new Buddha appears, who again preaches the lost Dlmrma or truth. The names of twenty-four of these Buddhas who appeared previous to Gautama have been hand ed down to us. The Buddhavansa, or “ History of the Buddhas,” the last book of the Khiuldaka N'ikaya in the second Pitca, gives the lives of all the previous Buddhas before commencing its account of Gautama himself; and tile Bali commentary on the Jata- Jcas gives certain details regarding each of the twenty-four.1

An A vatar was expected about every six hundred years.3 At the time of Jesus of Xazareth an Avatar was expected, not by some of the Jews alone, but by most every eastern nation.3 Many persons were thought at that time to be, and undoubtedly thought themselves to be, the Christ, and the only reason why the name of Jesus of Xazareth succeeded above all others, is because the Essenes— who were expecting an Angel-Messiah •—• espoused it. Had it not been for this almost indisputable fact, the name of Jesus of Xazareth would undoubtedly not be known at the present day.

Epiphanius, a Christian bishop and writer of the fourth century, says, in speaking of the Essenes :

“ They who believed on Christ were called jEssaji (or Essenes), before, they were called Christians. These derived their constitution from the signification of the name Jesus, which in Hebrew signifies the same as Therapeutes, that is, a saviour or physician.”

* Rhys Davids’ Buddhism, p. 179.

8 This is clearly shown by Mr. IJiggins in his Auacalypsis. It should bo remembered that Gautama Buddha, the “Angel-Messiah,” and Cyrus, the “ Anointed ” of the Lord, are placed about sis hundred years before Jesus, the “ Anointed.’' This cycle of six hundred years was called the "great year.''' Josephus, the Jewish historian, alludes to it when speaking of the patriarchs that Jived to a great age. “ God afforded them a longer time of life,” says he, “ on account of their virtue, and the good use they made of it in astronomical and geometrical discoveries, which would not have afforded the time for foretelling (the periods of tho stars), unless they had lived nixhund) ed years • for the great year is completed in that interval.” (Josephus, Antiq., bk. i. c. iii.) “ From this cycle of six hundred." says Col. Vallancoy, "came the name of the bird Thcenix, called by the Egyptians Phemi, with the well-known story of its going to Egypt to burn itself on the altar of the Sun (at Heliopolis) and rise again from its ashes, at the end of a certain period.”
 
8 “Philo's writings prove the probability, almost rising to a certainty, that already in hie time the Essenes did expect an Angel-Messiah as one of a series of divine incarnations. Within about fifty years after Philo’s death, Elkesai the Essene probably applied this doctrine to Jesus, and it was promulgated in Rome about the same time, if not earlier, by the Pseudo-Clementines.” (Bunsen : The Angel- Messiah, p. 118.)

“There was, at this time (£. e., at the time of the birth of Jesus), a prevalent expectation that some remarkable personage was about to appear in Judea. The Jews were anxiously looking for the coming of the Messiah. By computing the time mentioned by Daniel ich. lx. 25-27), they knew that the period was approaching when the Messiah should appear. This personage, they supposed, would be a temporal prince, and they were expecting that he would deliver them from Roman bondage. It was natural that this expectation should spread into other countries(Barnes’ Notes, vol. i. p. 27.)
 

Thus we see that, according to Christian authority, the Essenes and Therapeutes are one, and that the Essenes espoused the cause of Jesus of Nazareth, accepted him as an Angel-Messiah, and be-


A pot. l, ch. sxvi.
 
came known to history as Christians, or believers in the Anointed Angel.

This ascetic Buddhist sect called Esscnes were therefore expecting an Angel-Messiah, for had not Gautama announced to his disciples that another l.uddha, and therefore another angel in human form, another organ or advocate of the wisdom from above, would descend from heaven to earth, and would be called the u Son of Love.”

The learned Thomas Maurice says :

“ From ttie earliest post-diluvian age, to that iu which the Messiah appeared, together with the traditions which so expressly recorded the fall of the human race from a state of original rectitude and felicity, them appears, from an infinite variety of hieroglyphic monuments and of written documents, to have prevailed, from generation to generation, throughout atl the nginns of the higlur Asia, an uniform belief that, in the course of revolving ages, there should arise a mend personage, a might!/ ddive rertf mankind from the thraldom of sin and of death. In fact, the memory of the grand original promise, that tlie seed of the woman should eventually crush the serpent, was carefully preserved in the breasts of the Asiatics ; it entered deeply into their symbolic superstitions, and was engraved aloft amidst their mythologic sculptures.’’1

That tin Angel-Messiah was generally expected at this time may be inferred from the followin'; facts: Some of the Gnostic sects of Christians, who believed that Jesns was an emanation from God. likewise supposed that there were several sEons, or emanations from the Eternal Father. Among those who taught this doctrine was Basilides and his followers.2

Simox Magus was believed to be “ He who should come.'’ Simon was worshiped in Samaria and other countries, as the expected Angel-Messiah, as a God.

Justin Martyr says :

" After the ascension of our Lord into heaven, certain men were suborned by demons as their agents, who said that they were gods (i.e., the Angel Messiah). Among these was Simon, a certain Samaritan, whom nearly all the Samaritans and a few also of other nations, worshiped, confessing him as a Supreme (tod.”3

llis miracles were notorious, and admitted by till. Ilis followers became so numerous that, they were to he found in all countries. In Home, in the reign of Claudius, a statue was erected in his honor. Clement of Home, speaking of Simon Magus, says that:

"lie wishes to be considered an exalted person, aud to he considered ‘the Christ.’ lie claims that he can never be dissolved, asserting that he will endure to eternity.” [1146] [1147]



Montanus was another person who evidently believed himself to be an Angel-Messiah. He was called by himself and his followers the “ Paraclete,” or “ Holy Spirit.”[1148]

Socrates, in his Ecclesiastical History, tells us of one Buddhas (who lived after Jesus):

“"VYLo afore that time rvas called Terebynthus, which went to the coasts of Babylon, inhabited by Persians, and there published of himself many false wonders : that ho was born of a virgin, that he was bred and brought up in the mountains, etc.”*

He was evidently, one of the many fanatics who believed themselves to be the Paraclete or Comforter, the “Expected One.” Another one of these Christs was Apollonius. This remarkable man was born a few years before the commencement of the Christian era, and during his career, sustained the role of a philosopher, religions teacher and reformer, and a worker of miracles. lie is said to have lived to be a hnndred years old. From the history of his life, written by the learned sophist and scholar, Philostratus, we glean the following :

Before his birth a god appeared to his mother and informed her that he himself should be bom of her. At the time of her delivery, the most wonderful things happened. All the people of the country acknowledged that he was the “ Son of God.” As he grew in stature, his wonderful powers, greatness of memory, and marvelous beauty attracted the attention of all. A great part of las time was spent, when a youth, among the learned doctors; the disciples of Plato, Chrysippus and Aristotle. When he came to man’s estate, he became an enthusiastic admirer and devoted follower of Pythagoras. Ills fame soon spread far and near, and wherever lie went he reformed the religions worship of the day. He went to Ephesus, like oiirist Jesus to Jerusalem, where the people flocked about him. While at Athens, in Greece, he cast out an evil spirit from a youth. As soon as Apollonius fixed his eyes upon him, the demon broke out into the most angry and horrid expressions, and then swore he would depart out of the youth. He put an end to a plague which was raging at Ephesus, and at Corinth he raised a dead maiden to life, by simply taking her by the hand and bidding her arise. The miracles of Apollonius were extensively believed, by Christians as well as others, for centuries after his time. In the fourth century Hierocles drew a parallel between the two Christs—Apollonius md Jesus — which was answered by Eusebius, the great champion



of the Christian cliurch. In it he admits the miracles of Apollonius, but attributes them to sorcery.

Apollonius was worshiped as a god, in different countries, as late as the fourth century. A beautiful temple was built in honor of him, and he was held in. high esteem by many of the Pagan emperors. Eunapius, who wrote concerning him in the fifth century, savs that- his history should have been entitled “ The Descent oj a (loti upon l'larth.” It is as Albert Reville says:

*? The universal respect in which Apollunius was helil by the whole pagan world, testified to the deep impression which the life of this Suprrnnturut lit iny had left indelibly lixed in their minds : an expression which caused one of his contemporaries to exclaim, [1149] [1150] He Aore a (lull tiring among us.’ ”

A Samaritan, by name Menander, who was contemporary with the apostles of Jesus, was another of these fanatics who believed himself to he the Christ. lie went about performing miracles, claiming that he was a Saviour, “sent down from above from the invisible worlds, for the salvation of mankind’'' He baptized his followers in his own name, llis influence was great, .and continued for several centuries. Justin Martyr and other Christian Fathers wrote against him.

Manes evidently believed himself to he “ the Christ,’’ or “he who was to come.'1 His followers also believed the same concerning him. Eusebius, speaking of him, says:

“ He presumed tn represent the person of Christ ; he proclaimed himself to be the Comforter and the Holy Ghost, and being puffed up with this frantic pride, chose, as if he were Christ, twelre partners of his new-fonnd doctrine, patching into one heap false and detestable doctrines of old, rotten, and rooted out heresies, the ichirh he brought out of Persia.” [1151]

The wurd Manes, says Usher in his Annals, has the meaning of Paraclete or Comforter or Saviour. This at once lets us into the secret — a new incarnation, an Angel-Messiah, a Christ — born from the side of his mother, and put to a violent death — flayed alive, and hung up, or crucified, by a king of Persia.3 This is the teacher with his twelve apostles on the rock of Gualior.

Du Perron, in his life of Zoroaster, gives an account of certain prophecies to be found in the sacred books of the Persians. One of these is to the effect that, at successive periods of time, there will appear on earth certain “Sons of Zoroaster,” who are to be the result of immaculate conceptions. These virgin-bom gods will come upon earth for the purpose of establishing the law of God. It is also asserted that Zoroaster, when on earth, declared that in the “ latter days ” a pure virgin would conceive, and bear a son, and that as soon as the child was born a star would appear, blazing even at noonday, with undiminishcd splendor. This Christ is to be called Sosiosh. lie will redeem mankind, and subdue the Devs, who have been tempting and leading men astray ever since the fall of our first parents.

Among the Greeks the same prophecy was found. The Oracle of Delphi was the depository, according to Plato, of an ancient and secret prophecy of the birth of a “Son of Apollo,” who was to restore the reign of justice and virtue on the earth.[1152]

Those who believed in successive emanations of ./Eons from the Throne of Light, pointed to the passage in the Gospels where Jesus is made to say that he will be succeeded by the Paraclete or Comforter. Mahotnmed was believed by many to be this Paraclete, and it is said that he too told his disciples that another Paraclete would succeed him. From present appearances, however, there is some reason for believing that the Mohammedans are to have their ancient prophecy set at naught by the multiplicity of those who pretend to be divinely appointed to fulfill it. The present year was designated as the period at which this great reformer was to arise, who should be almost, if not quite, the equal of Mahommed. Ilis mission was to be to purify the religion from its corruptions; to overthrow those who had usurped its control, and to rule, as a great spiritual caliph, over the faithful. According to accepted tradition, the prophet himself designated the line of descent in which his most important successor would be found, and even indicated his personal appearance. The time having arrived, it is not strange that the man is forthcoming, only in this instance there is more than one claimant. There is a “ holy man ” in Morocco who has allowed it to be announced that he is the designated reformer, while cable reports show that a rival pretender has appeared in Yemen, in southern Arabia, and his supporters, sword in hand, are now advancing upon Mecca, for the purpose of proclaiming their leader as caliph within the sacred city itself.

History then relates to us the indisputable fact that at the time of Jesus of Nazareth an Angel-Messiah was expected, that many persons claimed, and were believed to be, the “Expected One,” and



that the reason why Jesus wa3 accepted above all others was because the Essencs — a very numerous sect — believed him to be the true Messiah, and came over to his followers in a body. It was because there were 60 many of these Christs in existence that some follower of Jesus— but no one knows who — wrote as follows :

“ If any man shall say to you, Lo, here is Christ, or, lo, he is there; bclievo him not; for false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall show signs and wonders to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect.

The reasons why Jesus was not accepted as the Messiah by the majority of the Jews was because the majority expected a daring and irresistible warrior and conqueror, who, armed with greater power than Caesar, was to come upon earth to rend the fetters iu which their hapless nation had so long groaned, to aveuge them upon their haughty oppressors, and to re-establish the kingdom of Judah ; and this Jesus — although he evidently claimed to be the Messiah —did not do.

Tacitus, the Roman historian, says :

’’ The generality had a strong persuasion that it was contained in the ancient writings of the priests, that at that very time the east should prevail : and that some one, who should eome out of Judea, should obtain the empire of the world ; which ambiguities foretold Vespasian and Titus. But the common people (of the Jews), according to the influence of human wishes, appropriated to themselves, by their interpretation, this vast grandeur foretold by the fates, nor could be brought to change their opinion for the true, by all their adversities. ”

Suetonius, another Roman historian, says:

“ There had been for a long time all over the east a constant persuasion that it was recorded in the fates (books of the fates, or foretellings), that at that time some one who should eome out of Judea should obtain universal dominion. It appears by the event, that this prediction referred to the Roman emperor ; but the Jews, referring it to themselves, rebelled.”

This is corroborated by Josephus, the Jewish historian, who says:

“ That which chiefly excited them (the Jews) to war, was an ambiguous prophecy, which was also found in the sacred books, that at that time some one, within their country, should arise, that should obtain the empire of the whole world . For this they had received by tradition, that it was spoken of one of their nation ; and many wise men were deceived with the interpretation. But, iu truth, Vespasian’s empire was designed in this prophecy, who was created emperor (of Rome) in Judea."

As tho Rev. Dr. Geikie remarks, the central and dominant characteristic of the teaching of the rabbis, was the certain advent of a groat national Deliverer — tlie Messiah — but not a God from heaven.

For a time Cyrus appeared to realize the promised Deliverer, or, at least, to be the chosen instrument to prepare the way for him, and, in his turn, Zerubabel became the centre of Messianic hopes. In fact, the national mind had become so inflammable, by constant brooding on this one theme, that any bold spirit, rising in revolt against the Roman power, could find an army of fierce disciples who trusted that it should be he who would redeem Israel.[1153]

The “ taxing” which took place under Cyrenius, Governor of Syria (a. d. 7), excited the wildest uproar against the Roman power. The Hebrew spirit was stung into exasperation ; the puritans of the nation, the enthusiasts, fanatics, the zealots of the law, the literal constructionists of prophecy, appealed to the national temper, revived the national faith, and fanned into flame the combustible elements that smoldered in the bosom of the race. The Messianic hope was strong in these people; all the stronger on account.of their political degradation. Born in sorrow, the anticipation grew keen in bitter hours. That Jehovah would abandon them could not be believed. The thought would be atheism. The hope kept the eastern Jews in a perpetual state of insurrection. The cry “ Lo here, lo there!” was incessant. Claimant after claimant of the dangerous supremacy of the Messiah appeared, pitched a camp in the wilderness, raised the banner, gathered a force, was attacked, defeated, banished, or crucified; but the frenzy did not abate.

The last insurrection among the Jews, that of Bar-Cochba — Son of the Star ” — revealed an astonishing frenzy of zeal. It was purely a Messianic uprising. Judaism had excited the fears of the Emperor Hadrian, and induced him to inflict unusual severities on the people. The effect of the violence was to stimulate that conviction to fury. The night of their despair was once more illumined by the star of the east. The banner of the Messiah was raised. Potents, as of old, were seen in the sky; the clouds were watched for the glory that should appear. Bar-Cochba seemed to fill out the popular idea of the deliverer. Miracles were ascribed to him; flames issued from his mouth. The vulgar imagination made haste to transform the audacious fanatic into a child of David. Multitudes flocked to his standard. The whole Jewish race throughout the world was in commotion. The insurrection gained head. The heights about Jerusalem were seized and occupied, and fortifi-

cations were erected; nothing but the “host of angels” was needed to insure victory. The angels did not appear; the Roman legions did. The “ Messiah,” not proving himself a conqueror, was held to have proved himself an impostor, the “son of a lie.”[1154] [1155]

The impetuous zeal with which the Jews rushed to the standard of this Messianic impostor, in the 130th year of the Christian era, demonstrates the true Jewish character, and shows how readily any one who made the claim, was believed to bo “He who should come.” Even the celebrated Rabbi Akiba sanctioned this daring fraud. Akiba declared that the so-called prophecy of Balaam,—“ a star shall rise out of Jacob,"—was accomplished. Hence the impostor took his title of Bar-Cochabas, or Son of the Star; and Akiba not only publicly anointed him “King of the Jews,” and placed an imperial diadem upon his head, but followed him to the field at the head of four-and-twenty thousand of his disciples, and acted in the capacity of master of his horse.

Those who believed on the meek and benevolent Jesus — and whose number was very small — were of that class who believed in the doctrine of the Angel-Messiah,[1156] first heard of among them when taken captives to Babylon. These believed that just as Buddha appeared at different intervals, and as Vishnu appeared at different intervals, the avatars appeared among the Jews. Adam, and Enoch, and Noah, and Elijah or Elias, might in outward appearance be different men, but they were really the self-same divine person successively animating various human bodies.3 Christ Jesus was the avatar of the ninth age, Christ Cyrus was the avatar of the eighth. Of the hero of the eighth age it is said : “ Thus said the Lord to his Anointed (i. e., his Christ), his Messiah, to Cyrus,



 



Enoch, supposed to have been written at various intervals between 111 and 120 (b. c.) and to have been completed in its present form in the first half of the second century that preceded the advent of Jesus, the figure of the Messiah is invested with superhuman attributes. lie is called •‘The Son of God," “ whose name was spoken before the Sun was madewho existed from the beginning in the presence of God," tlrnt is, was pre-existent. At the same time his human characteristics are insisted on. He is called “Son of Sian,” even •?Sou of Woman," "The Anointed” or “ The Christ," “ The Righteous One,” ifcc. (Fruthingham : The Cradle of the Christ, p. 20.)

8 This is clearly seen from the statement made by the Matthew narrator (xvii. 9-13) that the disciples of Christ Jesus supposed John the Baptist was Elias.



whose right hand I have holden to subdue nations.”1 The eighth period began about the Babylonish captivity, about six hundred years before Christ Jesus. The ninth began with Christ Jesus, making in all eight cycles before Jesus.

‘‘ What was known in Judea more than a century before the birth of Jesus Christ cannot have been introduced among Buddhists by Christian missionaries. It will become equally certain that the bishop and church-historian, Eusebius, was right when he wrote, that he considered it highly probable that the writings of the Es- senic Therapents in Egypt had been incorporated into our Gospels, and into some Pauline epistles.”2

For further information on the subject of the connection between Esscnism and Christianity, the reader is referred to Taylor’s Diegesis, Bunsen’s Angel-Messiah, and the works of S. F. Dunlap. We shall now speak of another powerful lever which was brought to bear upon the promulgation of Christianity ; namely, that of FRAUD.

It was a common thing among the early Christian Fathers and dints to lie and deceive, if their lies and deceits helped the cause of their Christ. Lactantius, an eminent Christian author who flourished in the fourth century, has well said :

?‘Among those who seek power and gain from tlieir religion, there will never be wanting an inclination to forge and lie for it.”3

Gregory of Xazianzus, writing to St. Jerome, says:

“A little jargon is all that is necessary to impose on the people. The leas they comprehend, the more they admire. Our forefathers and doctors have often said, not what they thought, hut what circumstances and necessity dictated.”4

The celebrated Eusebius, Bishop of Caisaeea, and friend of Constantine the Great, who is our chief guide for the early history of the Church, confesses that he was by no means scrupulous to record the whole truth concerning the early Christians in the various works which he has left behind him.1 Edward Gibbon, speaking of him, says:

” The gravest of the ecclesiastical historians, Eusebius himself, indirectly confesses that he has related what might redound to the glory, and that he has suppressed all that could tend to the disgrace of religion. Such an acknowledgment will naturally excite a suspicion that a writer who has so openly violated one of the fundamental laws of history, has not paid a very strict regard to the

1 Isaiah, xJv. 1.                                        « Hieron ad Nep. Quoted Volney’s Ruins,

3 Bunsen : The Angel-Messiah, p. 17.        p. 177, note.

8 Quoted in Middleton’s Letters from Rome, 4 See his Eccl. Hist., viii. *21.

p. 51.

observance <*.' tne other ; and the suspicion will derive additional credit from the character of Eusebius, which was less tinctured with credulity, and more practiced in the arts of courts, than that of almost any of his contemporaries.'11

The great theologian. Beausobre, in his “ Histoire tie Maui- chee,” says:

“ We see in the history which I have related, a sort of hypocrisy, that lias been perhaps, but too common at all times ; that churchmen not only do not say wlml they think, but they do say the direct contrary of what they think. Philosophers in their cabinets ; out of them they are content with fables, though they w ell know they are fables. Nay, more ; they deliver honest men to I he executioner, for having uttered what they themselves know to be true. I low many atheists and pagans have burned holy men under the pretext of heresy V Every day do hypocrites consecrate, and make people adore the host, though as well convinced its I am, that it is nothing but a bit of bread.”2

M. Daillesays:

“ This opinion has always been in the world, that to settle a certain and as- Bured estimation upon that which is good and true, it is necessary to remove out of the way, whatsoever maybe an hinderance to it. Xeither ought we to wonder that even Hume of the honest, innocent, primitive limes made use of these deceits, seeing for a good end they made no scruple to forge whole books.”*

Reeves, in his " Apologies of the Fit there,” says :

“ It was a Catholic opinion among the philosophers, that pious frauds were good things, and that the people ought to be imposed on in matters of religion.”4

Mosheim, the ecclesiastical historian, says:

" It was held as a maxim that it was not only lawful but praiseworthy to deceive, and even to use tlie expedient of a lie, in order to advance the cause of truth and piety.”4

Isaac de Casauhon, the great ecclesiastical scholar, says :

“ It mightily affects me, to see bow many there were in tile earliest times of the church, who considered it as a capital exploit, to lend to heavenly truth the help of their own inventions, in order that the new doctrine might be more readily allowed by the wise among the Gentiles. These officious lies, they were •wont to say, were devised for a good end.”*



 



moi, que con’ eat qu’un morceaa de pain.’ (Tom. 2, p. 508.)

8 On the Use of the Fathers, pp. 86. 87.

* Quoted ill Taylor's Syntagma, p. 1*0.

8     Mosheim : vol. 1. p. 108.

9   “ Postremo illud quoque tne vehern liter movet, quod videain prim l* ecciesite tiinpori- bus, quain plurimos extitisse, qui faeiiuis palmarium jiidieabant, effihslem vt ritHiem. tigm- ntis suia ire adjutum, quo fac-iltus nova doctrina a gentium sapieulihus adnmtiTetnr Otliciosa hsec mendacui vooabnut bnno lino exoogitata.” (Quoted in Taylor's Dh'gesls, p. 44, and Giles' Hebrew and Christian Hec^rds vol ii. p. 19.)



The Apostolic Father, Hennas, who was the fellow-laborer of St. Paul in the work of the ministry; who is greeted as such in the New Testament; and whose writings are expressly quoted as of divine inspiration, by the early Fathers, ingenuously confesses that lying was the easily-besetting sin of a Christian. His words are:

“0 Lord, I never spake a true word in my life, but I have always lived in dissimulation, and atlirmed a lie for truth to all men, and no man contradicted me, but all gave credit to my words.”

To which the holy angel, whom headdresses, condescendingly admonishes him, that ns the lie was up, now, he had better keep it tip, anti as in time it would come to be believed, it would answer as well as truth.[1157] [1158]

Dr. Mosheiin admits, that the Platonists and Pythagoreans held it as a maxim, that it was not only lawful, but praiseworthy, to deceive, and even to use the expedient of a lie, in order to advance the cause of truth and piety. The Jews who lived in Egypt, had learned and received this maxim from them, before the coining of Christ Jesus, as appears incontestably from a multitude of ancient records, and the Christians were infected from both these sources, with the same pernicious error?

Of the fifteen letters ascribed to Ignatius (Bishop of Antioch after tii) a. i>.), eight hace been rejected by Christian writers as be- iny forgeries, having no authority whatever. “ The remaining seven epistles were accounted genuine hv most critics, although disputed by some, previous to the discoveries of Air. Cnreton. which hace shaken, and indeed almost wholly destroyed the credit and authenticity of all alike,’’[1159] [1160]

Paul of Tarsus, who was preaching a doctrine which had already been preached to every nation on earth,* inculcates and avows the principle of deceiving the common people, talks of his having been upbraided by his own converts with being crafty and catching them with guile," and of his known and willful lies, abounding to the glory of God.0

Even the orthodox Doctor Burnet, an eminent English author, in his treatise “ l)e Sta,tu Mortuorum,'' purposely written in Latin,



 



heaven ; whereof IPanI am made a minister.” (Colossiuna, i. 23.)

• “ Being crafty, I caught you with guile.” (II. Cor. xii. Id.)

6‘‘For if the truth of God had more abounded through my lie unto his glory, why yet am I also judged as a pinner.” (Romani, iii 7.)



that it might serve for the instruction of the clergy only, and not come to the knowledge of the laity, because, as he said, “ too much light is hurtful for weak eyes,” not only justified but recommended the practice of the most consummate hypocrisy, ami would have his clergy seriously preach and maintain the reality and eternity of hell torments, even though they should believe nothing of the sort themselves.[1161] [1162]

The incredible and very ridiculous stories related by Christian Fathers and ecclesiastical historians, on whom we are obliged to rely for information on the most important of subjects, show ns lmw untrustworthy these men were. We have, for instance, the story related by St. Augustine, who is styled “ the greatest of the Latin Fathers,” of his preaching the Gospel to people without heads. In his 33d Sermon he says :

I was already Bishop of Hippo, when I went into Ethiopia with some servants of Christ there to preach the Gospel. In this country we saw many men and women without heads, who had two great eyes in their breasts ; and in countries still more soutlily, we saw people who had but one eye in their foreheads.”[1163]

This same holy Father bears an equally unquestionable testimony to several resurrections of the dead, of which he himself had been an eye-witness.

In a book written “towards the close of the second century, by some zealous believer,” and fathered upon one Nicodcmns, who is said to have been a disciple of Christ Jesus, we find the following:

“We all know the blessed Simeon, the high priest, who took Jesus when an infant into his arms in the temple. This same Simeon had two sons of his own,

and ice were all preedit at their death and funeral. Go therefore and see their



 



of the rugged country (of the Scythian*), a people arc found living at the foot of lofty

mountains, who are Kind lo be all bald from their birth, botli men and women alike, and they are ilat-noeed, and have large chins.” (Ibid. ch. 23.) “ These bald men say, what to me is incredible, that men with goat's J\tt inhabit these mountains ; and when one has passed beyond them, other men ore found, who sleep six months at a time, but this I do not at all a hnit.” (Ibid. ch. 2-1.) In the countiy westward of Libya, “there are enormous serpents, anil lions, elephants, bears, asps, and asses with horns, and monsters with dog’s heads and without heads, who hare eyes in their breasts, at least, as the Libyans say, and wild men and wild women, ami many other wild beasts which are not fabulous.” (Ibid. ch. 192.)



tombs, for these are open, and they are risen ; and behold, they are in the city cf Arimnthcea, spending their time together in offices of devotion.”'[1164]

Eusebius, “ the Father of ecclesiastical history,” Bishop of Caesarea, and one of the most prominent personages at the Council of .Nice, relates tis truth, the ridiculous story of King Agbarus writing a letter to Christ Jesus, and of Jesus’ answer to the same.[1165] [1166] [1167] [1168] [1169] And Socrates relates how the Empress Helen, mother of the Emperor Constantine, went to Jerusalem for the purpose of finding, if possible, "the cross of Christ.” This she succeeded in doing, also the nails with which he was nailed to the cross.2

Beside forging, lying, and deceiving for the cause of Christ, the Christian Fathers destroyed all evidence against themselves and their religion, which they came across. Christian divines seem to have always been afraid of too much light. In the very infancy of printing, Cardinal Wolsey foresaw its effect on Christianity, and in a speech to the clergy, publicly forewarned them, that, if they did not destroy the Press, the Press would destroy them.' There can be no doubt, that had the objections of Porphyry,* Ilierocles,* Celsus,[1170] and other opponents of the Christian faith, been permitted to come down to us, the plagiarism in the Christian Scriptures from previously existing Pagan documents, is the specific charge they would have presented us. But these were ordered to be burned, by the prudent piety of the Christian emperors.

In Alexandria, in Egypt, there was an immense library, founded by the Ptolemies. This library was situated in the Alexandrian Museum; the apartments which were allotted for it were beautifully sculptured, and crowded with the choicest statues and pictures; the bnilding was built of marble. This library eventually comprised



 



people for a long while; and the Christians were not insensible of the importance of his work ; as may be concluded from the several answers made to it by Eusebius, and others in great repute for learning.” (Vol. viii. p. 158.) There arc but fragments of these fifteen books remaining, Christian magistrates having ordered them to be destroyed. (Ibid.)

e Hieivcles was a Neo-Platonist, who lived at Alexandria about the middle of the fifth century, and enjoyed a great reputation. lie was the author of a great number of works, a few extracts of which alone remain.

7 Celsus was an Epicurean philosopher, who lived in the second century a.d. lie wrote a work called “The True Word,” against Christianity, but as it has been destroyed we know nothing about it, Origen claims to give quota tions from it.



 



four hundred thousand volumes. In the course of time, probably on account of inadequate accommodation for so many books, an additional library was established, and placed in the temple of Ser- apis. The number of volumes in this library, which was called the daughter of that in the museum, was eventually three hundred thousand. There were, therefore, seven hundred thousand volumes in these royal collections.

In the establishment of the museum, Ptolemy Soter, and his son Philadelphia, had three objects in view : 1. The perpetuation of such knowledge as was then in the world ; 2. Its increase; 3. Its diffusion.

1.  For the perpetuation of knowledge. Orders were given to the chief librarian to buy, at the king’s expense, whatever books he could. A body of transcribers was maintained in the museum, whose duty it was to make correct copies of such works as their owners were not disposed to sell. Any books brought by foreigners into Egypt were taken at once to the museum, and when correct copies had been made, the transcript was given to the owner, and the original placed in the library. Often a very large pecuniary indemnity was paid.

2.   For the increase of knowledge. One of the chief objects of the museum was that of serving as the home of a body of men who devoted themselves to study, and were lodged and maintained at the king’s expense. In the original organization of the museum the residents were divided into four faculties,—Literature, Mathematics, Astronomy, and Medicine. An officer of very great distinction presided over the establishment, and had general charge of its interests. Demetius Phalareus, perhaps the most learned man of his age, who had been Governor of Athens for many years, was the first so appointed. Under him was the librarian, an office sometimes held by men whose names have descended to our times, as Eratosthenes and Apollonius Rhodius. In connection with the museum was a botanical and a zoological garden. These gardens, as their names imply, were for the purpose of facilitating the study of plants and animals. There was also an astronomical observatory, containing armillary spheres, globes, solstitial and equatorial armils, astrolabes, parallactic rules, and other apparatus then in use, the graduation on the divided instruments being into degrees and sixths.

3.  For the diffusion of knowledge. In the museum was given, by lectures, conversation, or other appropriate methods, instruction in all the various departments of human knowledge.



* Gibbon s Rome, vol. iii. p. 146.
 
There flocked to this great intellectual centre, students from all countries. It is said that at one time not fewer than fourteen thousand were in attendance. Subsequently even the Christian eliuroh received from it some of the most eminent of its Fathers, as Clemens Alexandrinus, Origen, Athanasius, &c.

The library in the museum was burned during the siege of Alexandria by Julius Caesar. To make amends for this great loss, the library collected by Eumenes, King of Pergainus, was presented by Mark Antony to Queen Cleopatra. Originally it was founded as a rival to that of the Ptolemies. It was added to the collection in the Serapion, or the temple of Serapis.'

It was not destined, however, to remain there many centuries, as this very valuable library was willfully destroyed by the Christian Theophilns, and on the spot where this beautiful temple of Serapis stood, in fact, on its very foundation, was erected a church in honor of the “ noble army of martyrs,” who had never existed.

This we learn from the historian Gribbon, who says that, after this library was destroyed, “ the appearance of the empty shelves excited the regret and indignation of every spectator, whose mind was not totally darkened by religious prejudice.”3

The destruction of this library was almost the death-blow to free-thought — wherever Christianity ruled —- for more than a thousand years.

The death-blow was soon to be struck, however, which was done by Saint Cyril, who succeeded Theophilus as Bishop of Alexandria.

Hypatia, the daughter of Theon, the mathematician, endeavored to continue the old-time instructions. Each day before her academy stood a long train of chariots; her lecture-room was crowded with the wealth and fashion of Alexandria. They came to listen to her discourses on those questions which man in all ages has asked, but which have never yet been answered : “ What am I ? Where am I % What can I know ?”

Hypatia and Cyril; philosophy and bigotry; they cannot exist together. As Hypatia repaired to her academy, she was assaulted by (Saint) Cyril’s mob — a mob of many monks. Stripped naked in the street, she was dragged into a church, and there killed by the club of Peter the Reader. The corpse was cut to pieces, the flesh was scraped from the bones with shells, and the remnants cast into a fire. For this frightful crime Cyril was never called to account. [1171]


It seemed to he admitted that the end sanctified the means. Sc ended Greek philosophy in Alexandria, so came to an untimely close the learning that the Ptolemies had done so much to promote.

The fate of Ilypatia was a warning to all who would cultivate profane knowledge. Henceforth, there was to be no freedom for human thought. Every one must think as ecclesiastical authority ordered him ; a.d. 414. In Athens itself philosophy awaited its doom. Justinian at length prohibited its teaching and caused all its schools in that city to be closed.1

After this followed the long and dreary dark ayes, but the sun of science, that bright and glorious luminary, was destined to rise again.

The history of this great Alexandrian library is one of the keys which unlock the door, and exposes to our view the manner in which the Hindoo incarnate god Crishna, and the meek and benevolent Buddha, came to be worshiped under the name of Christ Jesus. For instance, we have just seen :

1.   That, “ orders were given to the chief librarian to buy at the king's expense whatever hooks he could."

2.   That, “ one of the chief objects of the museum was that of serving as the homo of a body of men who devoted themselves to study.”

'A. That, any books brought by foreigners into Egypt were taken at once to the museum and correct copies made.”

4.   That,’‘there flocked to this great intellectual centre students from all countries.”

5.   That, “ the Christian church received from it some of the most eminent of its Fathers.”

And also:

Ci. That, the chief doctrines of the Gnostic Christians “ had been held for centuries before their time in many of the cities in Asia Minor. There, it is probable, they first came into existence as ‘ Mystic,’ upon the establishment of a direct intercourse with India under the Seleucidse and the Ptolemies.”

1. That, “the College of Essen es at Ephesus, the Orphics of Thrace, the Curctcs of Crete, are all merely branches of one an- tirpic and common religion, and that originally Asiatic."

S. That, ‘‘ the introduction of Buddhism, into Egypt and Pales• [1172]



tine affords the only true solution of innumerable difficulties in the history of religion"

9.    That, “ Buddhism, had actually been planted in the dominions of the Seleucidfe and Ptolemies (Palestine belonging to the former)

before the beginning of the third century b. c., and is proved to demonstration by a passage in the edicts of Asoka.”

10. That, “ it is very likely that the commentaries (Scriptures) which were among them (the Essenes) were the Gospels.”

11. That, “ the principal doctrines and rites of the Essenes can be connected with the East, with Parsism, and especially with Buddhism'''

12. That, “among the doctrines which the Essenes and Buddhists had in common was that of the AngehMessiah."

13.  That, “they (the Essenes) lmd a nourishing university or corporate body, established at Alexandria, in Egypt, long before the period assigned for the birth of Christ.”

14.  That, “ the very ancient and Eastern doctrine of the Angel- Messiah had been applied to Gautama Buddha, and so it was applied to Jesus Christ by the Essenes of Egypt and Palestine, who introduced this now Messianic doctrine into Essenic J udaism and Esseuic Christianity.”

15. That, “ we hear very little of them (the Essenes) after a.d. 40; and there can hardly be any doubt that the Essenes as a body must have embraced Christianity.”

Here is the solution of the problem. The sacred books of Hindoos and Buddhists were among the Esseties, and in the library at Alexandria. The Essenes, who were afterwards called Christians, applied the legend of the Angel-Messiah—“ the very ancient Eastern doctrine,” which we have shown throughout this work — to Christ Jesus. It was simply a transformation of names, a transformation which hail previously occurred in many cases.' After this came additions to the legend from other sources. Portions of the legends related of the Persian, Greek and Homan Saviours and Redeemers of mankind, were, from time to time, added to the already legendary history of the Christian Saviour. Thus his-



 



been done in the case of almost every other member qf the great company of the gods" (Aryan Mythology, vol. ii, p. 130.) These words apply to the case we have before ns. Jesus was simply attributed with the qualities or powers which had been previously attributed to other deities. This we hope to be able to fully demonstrate in our chapter on “ Explanation."



 



tory was repeating itself. Thus the virgin-born God and Saviour, worshiped by all nations of the earth, though called by different names, was but one and the same.

In a subsequent chapter we shall see who this One God was, and hmo the myth originated.

[Prometheus]

Albert lleville says:

“ Alexandria, the home of Philonism, and Xeo Platonism (and we might add Misenivn), was naturally the centre whence spread the d/>yina of the deity of Jesus Christ. In that city, through the third century, flourished a school of transcendental theology, afterwards looked upon with suspicion by the conservators of ecclesiastical doctrine, but not the less the real cradle of orthodoxy. It was still the Platonic tendency which influenced the speculations of Clement, Origeo and Dionysius, and the theory of the Logos was at the foundation of their the- ology.”1

Among the numerous gospels in circulation among the Christians of the first three centuries, there was one entitled ‘‘The Gospel of the Egyptians.” Epiphanins (a. d. 3S5), speaking of it, says :

“Jinny things are proposed (in this Gospel of the Egyptians) in a hidden, myshrious manner, ashy our Saviour, as though he had said to his disciples, that the Father was the same person, the Son the same person, and the Holy Ghost the same person.”

That this was one of the “Scriptures ” of the Essenes, becomes very evident when we find it admitted by the most learned of Christian theologians that it was in existence "before either of the canon leal Gospels," and that it contained the doctrine of the Trinity, a doctrine not established in the Christian church until a. d. 327, hut which was taught by this liuddhist sect in Alexandria, in Egypt, which has been well called, ‘‘ Egypt, the land of Trinities.”

The learned Dr. Grabe thought it was composed by some Christians in Egypt, and that it was published before either of the canonical Gospels. Dr. Mill also believed that it was composed before either of the. canonical Gospels, and, what is more important than all, that the authors of it were Essenes.


These *' Scriptures " of the Essenes were 'undoubtedly amalgamated with the “ Gospels " of the Christians, the result being tlte canonical Gospels as we now have them. The Gospel of the Hebrews,” and such like, on the one hand, and the “ Gospel of the Egyptians,” or Essenes, and such like, on the other. That the “ Gospel of the Hebrews ” spoke of Jesus of Nazareth as the son of Joseph and Mary, according to the flesh, and that it taught nothing about His miracles, his resurrection from the dead, and other such prodigies, is admitted on all hands. That the “ Sciiptures ” of the Essenes contained the whole legend of the Angel-Messiah, which was afterwards added to the history of Jesus, making him a Christ, or an Anointed Angel, is a probability almost to a certainty. Do we now understand how all the traditions and legends, originally Indian, escaping from the great focus through Egypt, were able to reach Judea, Greece and Rome (

To continue with our subject, “ why Christianity prospered,” we must now speak of another great support to the cause, i. e., Persecution. Ernest de Bunsen, speaking of Buddha, says :

“ His religion lias never been propagated by the sword. It has been effected entirely by the influence of peaceable and persevering devotees.”

Can we say as much for what is termed “ the religion of Christ V' No! this religion has had the aid of the sword and firebrand, the rack and the thumb screw. 11Persecution ” is to be seen written on the pages of ecclesiastical history, from the time of Constantine even to the present day.1 This Christian emperor and saint was the first to check free-thought.

“ We seareli in vain,” (says M. Renan), “ in the collection of Roman laws before Constantine, for any enactment aimed at free thought, or in the history of the emperors, for a persecution of abstract doctrine. Not a single savant was disturbed. Men whom the Middle Ages would have burned—such as Galen, Lucian, Plotinus—lived in peace, protected by the law.”1

Born and educated a pagan, Constantine embraced the Christian faith from the following motives. Having committed horrid crimes, in fact, having committed murders,* and,

1 Adherents of the old religion of Russia havo been persecuted in that couutry within the past year, and even in enlightened England, a gentleman has been persecuted by government ofllcials because ho believes iu neither a personal God or a personal Devil.

“ Utoinu, Ilibbort Lectures, p. 22.

3 The following are the names of his vio
 
lins :

Maximum, Hi- wife’s futher. a i>. 310 Bassianus,                              His sister’s hnsband,        a.d. 314

Licinius,             His nephew,                          a.d. 319

Fausta,                His    wife,                              a.d. 320

Sopater,              His   former friend,           a.d. 321

Licinius.             His   sister’s husband,      a.d. 325

Criepus,             His   own eon,                      a.d. 326

Dr. Lardner, in speaking of the          murders
 
committed by this Christian saint, is constrained to say that: “ The death of Criepus is altogether without any good excuse, so likewise is the death of the young Licinianus, who could not have been more than a little above eleven years of age, and appears not to have been charged with any fault, and could hardly be suspected of any.”

4 The Emperor Nero could not be baptized aud be initiated into Pagan Mysteries—as Constantine was initiated into those of the Christians—on account of the murder of his mother. And he did not dare to compel— which he certainly could have done — the priests to initiate him.

3  Zosimus, in Socrates, lib. iii. ch. xl.
 

“ When he would have had his (Pagan) priests purge him by sacrifice, of these horrible murders, and could not have his purpose (for they answered plainly, it lay not in their power to cleanse him)4 he lighted at last upon an Egyptian who came out of Iberia, and being persuaded by him that the Christian faith was of force to wipe away every sin, wTere it ever so heinous, he embraced willingly at whatever the Egyptian told him.”5



Mons. Dupuis, speaking of this conversion, says :

“ Coustantine, soiled with all sorts of crimes, aud stained with the blood of his wife, after repeated perjuries aud assassinations, presented himself before the heathen priests in order to be absolved of so many outrages lie had committed, lie was answered, that amongst the various kinds of expiations, there was none which could expiate so many crimes, and that no religion whatever couhl offer efficient protection against the justice of the gods ; and Constantine was emperor. One of the courtiers of the palace, who witnessed the trouble aud agita tion of his mind, torn by remorse, which nothing could appease, informed him, that the evil he was suffering was not without a remedy ; that there existed in the religion of the Christ iaus certain purifications, which expiated every kind of misdeeds, of whatever nature, and in whatsoever number they were: that one of the promises of the religion was, that whoever was converted to it, as impious and as great a villain as he might be, could hope that his crimes were immediately forgotten.[1173] [1174] From that moment, Constantine declared himself the protector of a sect which treats great criminals with so much lenity.[1175] [1176] [1177] [1178] [1179] lie was a great villain, who tried to lull himself with illusions to smother his re [1180]morse.”[1181]

By the delay of baptism, a person who had accepted the true faith could venture freely to indulge their passions in the enjoyment of this world, while they still retained in their own hands the means of salvation; therefore, wo find that Constantine, although he accepted the faith, did not get baptized until he was on his death-bed, as he wished to continue, as long as possible, the wicked life he was leading. Mr. Gibbon, speaking of him, says:

"The example and reputation of Constantine seemed to countenance the delay of baptism. Future tyrants were encouraged to believe, that the innocent blood which they might shed in a long reign would instantly be washed away in the waters of regeneration ; and the abuse of religion dangerously undermined the foundations of moral virtue.”*



 



cross which he had seen, and to wear it In his banner when he went to battle with his enemies. (See Eusebius’ life of Constantine, lib. 1, ch. xxiii. See also, Socrates : Eccl* Hist., lib. 1, cb. ii.)

*    Dupuis, p. 405.

*   Gibbon’s Rome, vol. ii. p. 873. The Fathers, who censured this criminal delay, conld not deny the certain and victorious efficacy even of a death-bed baptism. The ingenious rhetoric of Chrysostom (a.d. 347-107) could find only three arguments against these prudent Christians. 1. “ That we should love and pursue virtue for her own sake, and not merely for the reward. 2. That we may be surprised by death without an opportunity of baptism. 3. That although wc shall be placed in heaven, we shull only twinkle like little stars, when compared to the suns of righteousness who have run their appointed course with labor, with success, and with glory.” (Chrysostom in Epiet. ad ilebrsos. Ilomil. Quoted in Gibbon’s “ Rome,” ii. 272.)



Eusebius, in his “ Life of Constantine,” tells us that •

“When he thought that he was near his death, he confessed his sms, desirixg pardon for them of God, and was baptized.

“Before doing so, he assembled the bishops of Nicomedia together, and spake thus unto them:

“ ‘ Brethren, the salvation which I have earnestly desired of God these many yearn, I do now this day expect. It is time therefore that we should be sealed and signed with the badge of immortality. And though I proposed to receive it in the river Jordan, in which our Saviour for our example was baptized, yet God, knowing what is fittest for me, hath appointed that I shall receive it in this place, therefore let me not be delayed.’ ”

“And so, after the service of baptism was read, they baptized him with all the ceremonies belonging to this mysterious sacrament. So that Constantine was the first of all the emperors who was regenerated by the new birth of baptism, and that was signed with the sign of the cross.”[1182] [1183] [1184] [1185] [1186]

When Constantine had heard the good news from the Christian monk from Egypt, he commenced by conferring many dignities on the Christians, and those only who were addicted to Christianity, he made governors of his provinces, &c.a He then issued edicts against heretics,—i. e., those who, like Arins, did not believe that Christ was “of one substance with the Father,” and others— calling them “ enemies of truth and eternal life,” “ authors and councillors of death,” &c.s lie “ commanded by law ” that none should, dare “to meet at conventicles,” and that “all places where they were wont to keep their meetings should be demolished,” or “ confiscated to the Catholic church and Constantine was emperor. “By this means,” says Eusebius, “ such as maintained doctrines and opinions contrary to the church, were supprcss6d.,,''

This Constantine, says Eusebius :

“ Caused his image to be eDgraven on liis gold coins, in the form of prayer, with his hands joined together, and looking up towards Heaven.” “And over divers gates of his palace, he was drawn praying, and lifting up his hands and eyes to heaven.”[1187]

After his death, “ effigies of this blessed man ” were engraved on the Roman coins, “sitting in and driving a chariot, and a hand reached down from heaven to receive and take him up.’”

The hopes of wealth and honors, the example of an emperor, his exhortations, his irresistible smiles, diffused conviction among



 



Plato places the ferocious tyrauts in the Tartarus, such as Ardiacus of Paniphylia, who had slain his own father, a venerable old man, also an elder brother, and was stained with a great many other crimes. Constantine, covered with similar crimes, was better treated by the Christians, who have sent him to heaven and tainted him besides.



the venal and obsequious crowds which unsually fill the apartments of a palace, and as the lower ranks of society are governed by example, the conversion of those who possessed any eminence of birth, of power, or of riches, was soon followed by dependent multitudes. Constantine passed a law which gave freedom to all the slaves who should embrace Christianity, and to those who were not slaves, he gave a white garment and twenty pieces of gold, upon their embracing the Christian faith. The common people were thus purchased at such an easy rate that, in one year, imelee thousand men were baptized at Home, besides a proportionable number of women and children.1

To suppress the opinions of philosophers, which were contrary to Christianity, the Christian emperors published edicts. The respective decrees of the emperors Constantine and Theodosius,’ generally ran in the words, “that all writings adverse to the claims of the Christian religion, in the possession of whomsoever they should be found, should be committed to the fire,” as the pious emperors would not that those things tending to provoke God to wrath, should be allowed to olfend the minds of the piously disposed.

The following is a decree of the Emperor Theodosius of this purport:

"We decree, therefore, that all writings, whatever, which Porphyry or any one else hath written against the Christian religion, in the possession of whomsoever they shall be found should be committed to the tire ; for we would not suffer any of those things so much as to come to men’s ears, which teud to provoke God to wrath and offend the minds of the pious.”3

A similar decree of the emperor for establishing the doctrine of the Trinity, concludes with an admonition to all who shall object to it, that,

“ Besides the condemnation of divine justice, they must expect to suffer the severe penalties, which our authority, guided by heavenly wisdom, may think proper to inflict upon them.”4

1 Gibbon's Rome, vol. ii. p. 274.

9 “ Theodosius, though a professor of the orthodox Christian faith, was not baptized till 380, and his behavior after that period stamps him as one of the inost cruel and vindictive persecutors who ever wore the purple. His arbitrary establishment of the Nicenc faith over the whole empire, the deprivation of
 
civil rites of all apostates from Christianity and of the Eiuiomiaiis. the sentence of dentil on the Mauicheans, and Quart o-decimans, all prove this." (Chambers's Eucyclo., art Theodosius.!

* Quoted in Taylor's Syntagma, p. M.

* Gibbon’s Rome, vol. iii. p. 81.
 

This orthodox emperor (Theodosius) considered every heretic (as he called those who did not believe as he and his ecclesiastics professed) a rebel against the supreme powers of heaven and of


earth (he being one of the supreme powers of earth), and each of the powers might exercise their peculiar jurisdiction over the soul and body of the guilty.

The decrees of the Council of Constantinople had ascertained the true standard of the faith, and the ecclesiastics, who governed the conscience of Theodosius, suggested the most effectual methods of persecution. In the space of fifteen years he promulgated at least fifteen severe edicts against the heretics, more especially against those who rejected the doctrine of the Trinity '

Arius (the presbyter of whom we have spoken in Chapter XXXV., as declaring that, in the nature of things, a father must be older than his son) was excommunicated for his so-called heretical notions concerning the Trinity. His followers, who were very numerous, were called Arians. Their writings, if they had. been permitted to exist,2 would undoubtedly contain the lamentable story of the persecution which affected the church under the reign of the impious Emperor Theodosius.

In Asia Minor the people were persecuted by orders of Constantins, and these orders were more than obeyed by Macedonius. The civil and military powers were ordered to obey his commands ; the consequence was, he disgraced the reign of Constantins. “The rites of baptism were conferred on women and children, who, for that purpose, had been torn from the arms of their friends and parents ; the mouths of the communicants were held open by a wooden engine, while the consecrated bread was forced down their throats; the breasts of tender virgins were either burned with red- hot egg-shells, or inhumanly compressed between sharp and heavy boards.”[1188] The principal assistants of Macedonius — the tool of Constantius—in the work of persecution, were the two bishops of Nicomedia and Cyzicus, who were esteemed for their virtues, and especially for their charity.4

Julian, the successor of Constantius, has described some of the theological calamities which afflicted the empire, and more especially in the East, in the reign of a prince who was the slave of his own passions, and of those of his eunuchs: “ Many were imprisoned, and persecuted, and driven into exile. Whole troops of those who are styled heretics were massacred, particularly at Cyzicus, and at Samosata. In Paphlagonia, Bithynia, Gallatia, and in many



other provinces, towns and villages were laid waste, and utterly destroyed.”[1189] [1190] [1191]

Persecutions in the name of Christ Jesus were inflicted on the heathen in most every part of the then known world. Even among the Norwegians, the Christian sword was unsheathed. They clung tenaciously to the worship of their forefathers, and numbers of them died real martyrs for their faith, after suffering the most cruel torments from their persecutors. It was by sheer compulsion that the Norwegians embraced Christianity. The reign of Olaf Tryggvason, a Christian king of Norway, was in fact entirely devoted to the propagation of the new faith, by means the most revolting to humanity. Ilis general practice was to enter a district at the head of a formidable force, summon a Thing' and give the people the alternative of fighting with him, or of being baptized. JVIost of them, of eourse, preferred baptism to the risk of a battle with an adversary so well prepared for combat; and the recusants were tortured to death with ffend-likc ferocity, and their estates confiscated.’

These are some of the reasons “ why Christianity prospered.”



 



striking their shields with their drawn swords.

3 See Mallet's Northern Antiquities, pp. ISO, 351, and 470.



 



Note.—The learned Christian historian Pagi endeavors to smoothe over the crimes of Constantine. He says : “As for those few murders (which Eusebius says nothing about), had be thought it worth his while to refer to them, he would perhaps, with Uuroniiis himself have said, that the young Licinius (his infant nephew), although the fact might not generally have been known, had most likely been an accomplice in the treuson of his father. That as to the murder of his son, the Emperor is rattier to be considered as unfortunate than as criminal. And with respect to his putting Ins wife to death, he ought to be pronounced rather a just und righteous judge. As for his numerous friends, whom Eutropius informs us he put to death one after another, we are bound to believe that most of them deserved it, and they were found out to have abused the Emperor's too great credulity, for the gratification of their own inordinute wickedness, and insatiable avarice ; and such no doubt was that Sopater the philowpher, who was at last put to death npou the accusation of Adlabius, and that by the righteous dispensation of God, for his having attempted to alienate the mind of Constantino from the true religion.” {Pagi Ann. 334, quoted in Latin by Dr. Lardner, vol. iv. p. 371, in his notes for the benefit of the tearntii reader, but gives no rendering into English.)



 

 

 

 

[Prometheus]

CHAPTER XXXYIII.

THE ANTIQUITY OF PAGAN RELIGIONS.

We shall now compare the great antiquity of the sacred books and religions of Paganism with those of the Christian, so that there may he no doubt as to which is the original, and which the copy. Allusions to this subject have already been made throughout this work, we shall therefore devote as little space to it here as possible.

In speaking of the sacred literature of India, Prof. Honier Williams says:

“ Sanskrit literature, embracing as it does nearly every branch of knowledge is entirely deficient in one department. It is wholly destitute of trustworthy historical records. Hence, little or nothing is known of the lives of ancient Indian authors, and the dates of their most celebrated works cannot he fixed with certainty. A fair conjecture, however, may bo arrived at by comparing the most ancient with the more modern compositions, and estimating the period of time required to effect the changes of structure and idiom observable in tire language. Iu this manner we may be justified in assuming that the hymns of the Veda were probably composed by a succession of poets at different dates between 1500 and 1000 years Ji. c.”[1192]

Prof. Wm. D. Whitney shows the great antiquity of the Yedic hymns from the fact that,

“The language of the Vedas is an older dialect, varying very considerably, both in its grammatical and lexical character, from the classical Sanscrit.”

And M. de Coulangos, in his “ Ancient City,” says :

“We learn from the hymns of the Vedas, which are certainly very ancient, and from the laws of Manu,” “what the Aryans of the east thought nearly thirty-five centuries ago.”[1193] [1194] [1195]

That the Vedas are of very high antiquity is unquestionable; but however remote we may place the period when they were written, we must necessarily presuppose that the Hindostanic race had

already attained to a comparatively high degree of civilization, otherwise men capable of framing such doctrines could not have been found. Now this state of civilization must necessarily have been preceded by several centuries of barbarism, during which we cannot possibly admit a more refined faith than the popular belief in elementary deities.

We shall see in our next chapter that these very ancient Yedic hymns contain the origin of the legend of the Virgin-born God and Saviour, the great benefactor of mankind, who is finally put to death, and rises again to life and immortality on the third day.

The Geetas and Puranas, although of a comparatively modern date, are, as we have already seen, nevertheless composed of matter to be found in the two great epic poems, the llamayana and the Mahalharata, which were written many centuries before the time assigned as that of the birth of Christ Jesus.[1196] [1197] [1198]

The Pali sacred books, which contain the legend of the virgin- born God and Saviour — Sommoua Cadom—are known to have been in existence 31G b. c.’

We have already seen that the religion known as Buddhism, and which corresponds in such a striking manner with Christianity, has now existed for upwards of twenty-four hundred years.’

Prof. Iihys Davids says :

“ There is every reason to believe that the Piiakas (the sacred books which contain the legend of ‘ The Buddha ’), now’ extant in Ceylon, are substantially identical with the books of the Southern Canon, as settled at the Council of Patna about the year 3'>0 n. c.[1199] As no works would have been received into the Canon whicli were not then believed to be very old, the Piiakas may be approximately placed in the fourth century b. c., and parts of them possibly reach back very nearly, if not quite, to the time of Gautama himself.”[1200] [1201] [1202]

The religion of the ancient Persians, which corresponds in so very many respects with that of the Christians, was established by Zoroaster—who was undoubtedly a Brahman[1203]—and is contained



 



Siam to the borders of Mongolia and Siberia, Like bis Christian prototype Constantine, he was converted by a miracle. After his conversion, which took place in the tenth year of hie reign, he became a very 2ealous supporter of the new religion. He hiinseif built many monasteries and dagabas, and provided many monks with the necessaries of life; and ho encouraged those about his court to do the same. He published edicts throughout hii empire, enjoining on all his subjects morality and justice.

•     Rhys Davids’ Buddhism, p. 10.

•     See Chapter VTI.



in the Zend-Avesta, their sacred book or Bible. This book is very ancient. Prof. Max Muller speaks of “ the sacred book of the Zoroastrians ” as being “ older in its language than the cuneiform inscriptions of Cyrus (b. c. 560), Darius (b. o. 520), and Xerxes (b. c. 485) those ancient Kings of Persia, who knew that they were kings by the grace of Auramazda, and who placed his sacred image high on the mountain-records of Behistun.”[1204] [1205] That ancient book, or its fragments, at least, have survived many dynasties and kingdoms, and is still believed in by a small remnant of the Persian race, now settled at Bombay, and known all over the world by the name of Parsees."

“ The Babylonian and Phenician sacred books date back to a fabulous antiquity ;”[1206] [1207] and so do the sacred books and religion of Egypt.

Prof. Mahaffy, in his “ Prolegomena to Ancient History,” says:

“ There is indeed hardly a great and fruitful idea in the Jewish or Christian systems which has not its analogy in the Egyptian faith, and all these theological

conceptions pervade the oldest religion of Egypt.”*

Tite worship of Osiris, the Lord and Saviour, must have been of extremely ancient date, for he is represented as “Judge of the Dead,” in sculptures contemporary with the building of the Pyramids, centuries before Abraham is said to have been born. Among the many hieroglyphic titles which accompany his figure in those sculptures, and in many other places on the walls of temples and tombs, are, “ Lord of Life,” “ The Eternal Baler,” “ Manifester of Good,” “ Kevealer of Truth,” “ Full of Goodness and Truth,” etc.

In speaking of the “ Myth of Osiris,” Mr. Bonwick says:

“ This groat mystery of the Egyptians demands serious consideration. Its antiquity—its universal hold upon the people for over live thousand years—its identification with the very life of the nation—and its marvellous likeness to the creed of modern date, unite in exciting the greatest interest.'’[1208]



 



Their religion prevented them from making proselytes, and they never multiplied within themselves to any extent, nor did they amalgamate with the Hindoo population, so that even now their number only amounts to about seventy thousand. Nevertheless, from their busy, enterprising habits, m which they emulate Europeans, they form an important section of the population of Bombay and Western India.

3     Movers : Quoted in Dunlap's Spirit Hist.,

p. 261.

4     Prolegomena, p. 417.

6     Bonwick’s Egyptian Belief, p. 162.



This myth, ami that of Isis and Horns, were known before the Pyramid time.1

The worship of the Virgin Mother in Egypt—from which country it was imported into Europe’—dates back thousands of years ». o. Mr. Bon wick says:

“ In all probability she was worshiped three thousand years before Moses wrote. ‘ Isis nursing her child Ilonts, was represented,’ says Jlariette Bey, ' at least six thousand years ago.’ We read the name of Isis on monuments of the fourth dynasty, and she lost none of her popularity to the close of the empire.”

“ The Egyptian Bible is by far the most ancient of all holy books.” “ Plato was told that Egypt possessed hymns dating back ten thousand years before his time.”8

Bunsen says :

“ Tlie origin of the ancient prayers and hymns of the ‘ Book of the Dead,’ is anterior to Menes; it implies that the system of Osirian worship and mythology was already formed.”1

And, says Mr. Bomvick :

“ Besides opinions, we have facts as a basis for arriving at a conclusion, and justifying the assertion of Dr. Birch, that the work dated from a period long anterior to the rise of Ammon worship at Thebes.’’[1209]

How, “this most ancient of all holy books,” establishes the fact that a virgin-born and resurrected Saviour was worshiped in Egypt thousands of year before the time of Christ Jesus.

P. Le Page Benouf says :

“ The earliest monuments which have been discovered present to us the ver%- same fully-developed civilization and the same religion as the later monuments. .  .               . The gods whose names appear in the oldest tombs were worshiped down

to the Christian times. The same kind of priesthoods which are mentioned in the tablets of Canopus and Rosetta in the Ptolemaic period are as ancient as the pyramids, and more ancient than any pyramid of which we know tlie date. "•

In regard to the doctrine of the Trinity. Wo have just seen that “ the development of the One God into a Trinity” pervades the oldest religion of Egypt, and the same may he said of India. Prof. Monier Williams, speaking on this subject, says :

“It should be observed that the native commentaries on the Veda often allude to thirty-three gods, which number is also mentioned in the Rig-Veda. This is a multiple of three, which is a sacred number constantly appearing in the Hindu religious system. It is probable, indeed, that although the Tri-murtl is not named in the Vedic hymns,[1210] yet the Yeda is the real source of this Triad of personifications, afterwards so conspicuous in Hindu mythology. This much, at least, is clear, that the Vedic poets exhibited a tendency to group all the forces and energies of nature under three heads, and the assertion that the number of the gods was thirty-three, amounted to saying that each of the three leading personifications was capable of eleven modifications.”[1211]

The great antiquity of the legends referred to in this work is demonstrated in the fact that tlu-y were found in a great measure on the continent of America, by the first Europeans who set foot on its soil. Isow, how did they get there? Mr. Lundy, in his “ Monumental Christianity,” speaking on this subject, says :

“ So great was the resemblance between the two sacraments of the Christian Church (viz., that of Baptism and the Eucharist) and those of the ancient Mexicans ; so many other points of similarity, also, in doctrine existed, as to the unity of God, the Triad, the Creation, the Incarnation and Sacrifice, the Resurrection, etc., that Herman Witsius, no mean scholar and thinker,was induced to believe that Christianily had been preached on this continent by some one of the apostles, perhaps St. Thomas, from the fact that he is reported to have carried the Gospel to India and Tartary, whence he came to America.”[1212] [1213] [1214]

Some writers, who do not think that St. Thomas could have gotten to America, believe that St. Patrick, or some other saint, must have, in some unaccountable manner, reached the shores of the Western continent, and preached their doctrine there." Others have advocated the devil theory, which is, that the devil, being jealous of the worship of Christ Jesus, set up a religion of his own, and imitated, nearly as possible, the religion of Christ. All of these theories being untenable, we must, in the words of Burnouf, the eminent French Orientalist, “ learn one day that all ancient traditions disfigured by emigration and legend, belong to the history of India”

That America was inhabited by Asiatic emigrants, and that the American legends are of Asiatic origin, we believe to be indisputable. There is an abundance of proof to this effect.[1215]

In contrast to the great antiquity of the sacred books and religions of Paganism, we have the facts that the Gospels were not written by the persons whose names they bear, that they were written many years after the time these men are said to have lived, and that they are full of interpolations and errors. The first that



 



ship of the three members of the Tri-murti, Brahmil, Vishnu and Siva, is to be found in the period of the epic poems, from 500 tc 300

B.      c. (Ibid. pp. 109. 110, 115.)

3 Williams’ Hmdnism, p. 25.

3    Monumental Christianity, p. 890.

4     See Mexican Antiquities, vol. vi.

5     See Appendix A.



 



wo know of the four gospels is at the time of Ireiuens, who, in the second century, intimates that he had received four gospels, as authentic scriptures. This pious forger was probably the author of the fourth, as we shall presently see.

Besides these gospels there were many more which were subsequently deemed apocryphal; the narratives related in them of Christ Jesus and his apostles were stamped as forgeries.

“ The Gospel according to Matthew ” is believed by the majority of biblical scholars of the present day to be the oldest of the four, and to be made up principally of a pre-existing one, called “ The Gospel of the Hebrews.” The principal difference in these two gospels being that ''The Gospel of the Hebrews” commenced with giving the genealogy of Jesus from David, through Joseph “ according to the flesh." The story of Jesus being born of a virgin was not to be found there, it being an afterpiece, originating cither with the writer of “ The Gospel according to Matthew f or some one after him, and was evidently taken from “ The Gospel of the Egyptians.” “ The Gospel of the Hebrews ” — from which, we have said, the Matthew narrator copied—was an intensely Jewish gospel, and was to be found—in one of its forms — among the Ebionites, who were the narrowest Jewish Christians of the second century. “The Gospel according to Matthew” is, therefore, the most Jewish gospel of the four; in faet, the most Jewish book in the New Testament, excepting, perhaps, the Apocalypse and the Epistle of James.

Some of the more conspicuous Jewish traits, to be found in this gospel, are as follows :

Jesus is sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. The twelve are forbidden to go among the Gentiles or the Samaritans. They are to sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. The genealogy of Jesus is traced back to Abraham, and there stops.[1216] The works of the law are frequently insisted on. There is a superstitious regard for the Sabbath, &c.

There is no evidence of the existence of the Gospel of Matthew, — in its present form — until the year 173, a. d. It is at this time, also, that it is first ascribed to Matthew, by Apollinaris, Bishop of Hierapolis. The original oracles of the Gospel of the Hebrews, however.—which were made use of by the author of our present



3 See Ibid, under “ Luke
 
Gospel of Matthew,—were written, likely enough, not long before the destruction of Jerusalem, but the Gospel itself dates from about A. d. 100.‘

“ The Gospel according to Luke ” is believed to come next — in chronological order — to that of Matthew, and to have been written some fifteen or twenty years after it. The author was a foreigner, as his writings plainly show that lie was far removed from the events which he records.

In writing Iris Gospel, the author made use of that of Matthew, the Gospel of the Hebrews, and Marcion’s Gospel. lie must have had, also, still other sources, as there are parables peculiar to it, which arc not found in them. Among these may be mentioned that of the “Prodigal Son,"1 and the “Good Samaritan.” Other parables peculiar to it are that of the two debtors ; the friend borrowing bread at night; the rich man’s barns ; Dives and Lazarus ; the lost piece of silver; the unjust steward ; the Pharisee and the Publican.

Several miracles are also peculiar to the Luke narrator’s Gospel, the raising of the widow of Nain’s son being the most remarkable. Perhaps these stories were delivered to him orally, and perhaps he is the author of them, — we shall never know. The foundation of the legends, however, undoubtedly came from the ‘?‘?certain scriptures” of the Essenes in Egypt. The principal object which the writer of this gospel had in view was to reconcile Paulinism and the more Jewish forms of Christianity.’

The next in chronological order, according to the same school of critics, is “The Gospel according to Mark.” This gospel is supposed to have been written within ten years of the former, and its author, as of the other two gospels, is unknown. It was probably written at Rome, as the Latinisms of the author’s style, and the apparent motive of his work, strongly suggest that he was a Jewish citizen of the Eternal City. He made nse of the Gospel of Matthew as his principal authority, and probably referred to that of Luke, as he has things in common with Luke only.

The object which the writer had in view, was to have a neutral go-between, a compromise between Matthew as too Petrine (Jewish), and Luke as too Pauline (Gentile). The different aspects of Matthew and Luke were found to be confusing to believers, and provocative of hostile criticism from without; hence the idea of writing a shorter gospel, that should combine the most essential elements of both. Luke was itself a compromise between the op
posing Jewish and universal tendencies of early Christianity, but Mark endeavors by avoidance and omission to effect what Luke did more by addition and contrast. Luke proposed to himself to open a door for the admission of Panline ideas without offending Gentile Christianity; Mark, on the contrary, in a negative spirit, to publish a Gospel which should not hurt the feelings of either party. Hence his avoidance of all those disputed questions which disturbed the church during the iirst quarter of the second century. The genealogy of Jesus is omitted ; this being offensive to Gentile Christians, and even to some of the more liberal Judaizers. The supernatural birth of Jesus is omitted, this being offensive to the Ebonitish (extreme Jewish) and some of the Gnostic Christians. For every Judaizing feature that is sacrificed, a universal one is also sacrificed. Hard words against the Jews arc left out, but with equal care, hard ?words about the Gentiles.[1217] [1218] [1219] [1220]

We now come to the fourth, and last gospel, that “ according to John,’' which was not written until many years after that “according to Matthew."

“It is impossible to pass from the Synoptic[1221] Gospels," says Canon Westcott, “to the fourth, without feeling that the transition involves the passage from one world of thought to another. FTo familiarity with the general teachings of the Gospels, no wide conception of the character of the Saviour, is sufficient to destroy the contrast which exists in form and spirit between the earlier and later narratives.”

The discrepancies between the fourth and the Synoptic Gospels are numerous. If Jesus was the man of Matthew’s Gospel, lie was not the mysterious being of the fourth. If his ministry was only one year long, it was not three. If he made but one journey to Jerusalem, he did not make many. If his method of teaching was that of the Synoptics, it was not that of the fourth Gospel. If he was the Jew of Matthew, he was not the Anti-Jew of John.5



 



to the composition of the three first Gospels, is no longer tenable.”

9 “ On opening the Xew Testament and comparing the impression produced by the Gospel of Matthew or Mark with that hy the Gospel of John, the observant eye is at once struck with as salient a contrast as that already indicated on turning from the Mactefh or Othello of Shakespeare to the Comas of Milton or to Spenser's Faerie Q-teene.” (Francis Tiffany.)

“ To learn how far we may trust them (the Gospels) we must in the first place compare tl.cm with each other. The moment we do so



 



Everywhere in John we come upon a more developed stage of Christianity than in the Synoptics. The scene, the atmosphere, is different. In the Synoptics Judaism, the Temple, the Law and the Messianic Kingdom are omnipresent. In John they are remote and vague. In Matthew Jesus is always yearning for his own nation. In John he has no other sentiment for it than hate and scorn. In Matthew the sanction of the Prophets is his great credential. In John ins dignity can tolerate no previous approximation.

“ Do we ask,” says Francis Tiffany, “ who wrote this wondrous Gospel ? Mysterious its origin, as that wind of which its author speaks, which hloweth where it listeth, and thou liearest the sound thereof and canst not tell whence it coineth or whither it goetli. As with the Great Unknown of the book of Job, the Great Unknown of the later Isaiah, the ages keep his secret. The first absolutely indisputable evidence of the existence of the book dates from the latter half of the second century.”

The first that we know of the fourth Gospel, for certainty, is at the time of Irenseus (a. n. 179).1 We look in vain for an express recognition of the four canonical Gospels, or for a distinct mention of any one of them, in the writings of St. Clement (a. d. 96), St. Ignatius (a. d. 107), St. Justin (a. d. 140), or St. Polycarp (a. d. 108). All we can find is incidents from the life of Jesus, sayings, etc.

That Irenseus is the author of it is very evident. This learned and pious forger says :

“John, the disciple of the Lord, wrote his Gospel to confute the doctrine lately taught by Cerinthus, and a great while before by those called Nicolaitans, a branch of the Gnostics ; and to show that there is one God who made all things by his WORD: and not, as they say, that there is one the Creator, and another the Father of our Lord : and one the Son of the Creator, and another, even the Christ, who descended from above upon the Son of the Creator, and continued impassible, and at length returned to his pleroma or fulness.”[1222]

we notice that the fourth stands quite alone, while the first three form a single group, not only following the same general course, but sometimes even showing a verbal agreement which cannot possibly be accidental.” (The Bible for Learners, vo). ii. p. 27.)

1 “ Irenfeus is Hie first person who mentions the four Gospels by name.” (Bunsen ; Keys of St. Peter, p. 328.)

“Iremens, in the second century, is the first of the fathers who, though he has nowhere given us a professed catalogue of the books of the New
 
Testament, intimates that he had received four Gospels, as authentic Scriptures, the authors of which he describes.” (Rev. R. Taylor : Syntagma, p. 109.)

“The authorship of the fourth Gospel has been the subject of much learned and anxious controversy among theologians. The earliest, and only very important external testimony we have is that of Iren^us (a.d. 179.)”              (W. R,

Grey : The Creed of Christendom, p. 159.)

8 Against Heresies, bk. I d. ch. xi. sec. 1.
 

The idea of God having inspired four different men to write a history of the same transactions—or rather, of many dif-



4f>9

ferent men having undertaken to write sucli a history, of whom God inspired four only to write correctly, leaving the others to their own unaided resources, and giving us no test by which to distinguish the inspired from the uninspired—certainly appears self-confuting, and anything but natural.

The reasons assigned by Irenaeus for their being four Gospels are as follows:

“ It is impossible that there could be more or los :'i:ui four, For there are four climates, and four cardinal winds ; but the Gospel is the pillar and foundation of the church, and its breath of life. The church therefore was to have four pillars, blowing immortality from every quarter, and giving life to mail."'

It was by this Irenteus, with the assistance of Clement of Alexandria, and Tortullian, one of the Latin Fathers, that the four Gospels were introduced into general use among the Christians.

In these four spurious Gospels, and in some which arc considered Apocryphal—because the bishops at the Council of Laodieea (a. n. 3(55) rejected them—wo have the only history of Jesus of Nazareth. Now, if all accounts or narratives of Christ Jesus and his Apostles were forgeries, as it is admitted that all the Apocryjdial ones were, what can the superior character of the received Gospels prove for them, but that they are merely superiorly executed forgeries ? The existence of Jesus is implied in the New Testament outside of the Gospels, but hardly an incident of his life is mentioned, hardly a sentence that he spoke has been preserved. Paul, writing from twenty to thirty years after his death, has but a single reference to anything he ever said or did.

Beside these four Gospels there were, as we said above, many others, for, in the words of Moshcim, the ecclesiastical historian :

“Not long after Christ’s ascension into heaven, several histories of his life and doctrines, full of pious frauds and fabulous wonders, were composed by persons whose intentions, perhaps, were not had, hut whose writings discovered the greatest superstition and ignorance. Nor was this all ; productions appeared, which were imposed upon the world by fraudulent men, as the writings of the holy apostles.”1

Dr. Conyers Middleton, speaking on this subject, says :

“There never was any period of time in all ecclesiastical history, in which so many rank heresies were publicly professed, nor in which so many spurious books were forged and published by the Christians, under the names of Christ, and the Apostles, and the Apostolic writers, as in those primitive ages. Several of these forged books are frequently cited and applied to the defense <f Christianity, by the most eminent fathers of the same ages, as true and genuine pieces."1 [1223] 8



Archbishop Wake also admits that:

“ It would be useless to insist on all the spurious pieces which were attribu ted to St. Paul aloue, in the primitive ages of Christianity.”[1224] [1225]

Some of the “ spurious pieces which were attributed to St. Paul,” may be found to day in our canonical New Testament, and are believed by many to be the word of God.’

The learned Bishop Paustus, in speaking of the authenticity of

the Pew Testament, says:

“ It is certain that the Xew Testament was not written by Christ himself, nor by his apostles, but a long while after them, by some unknown persons, who, lest they should not he credited when they wrote of affairs they were liillo acquainted with, affixed to their works the names of the apostles, or of such as were supposed to have been their companions, asserting that what they had written themselves, was written according to these persons to whom they ascribed it.”[1226]

Again he says :

“Many things have been inserted by our ancestors in the speeches of our Lord, which, though put forth under his name, agree not with his faith ; especially since—as already it has been often prated—these things were not written by Christ, nor his apostles, but a long while after their assumption, by I know not what sort of half Jews, not even agreeing with themselves, who made up their tale out of reports and opinions merely, anil yet, fathering the whole upon the names of the apostles of the Lord, or on those who were supposed to follow the apostles, they mendaciously pretended that they had written their lies and conceits according to them.”[1227]

What had been said to have been done in India, was said by these “ half-Jews” to have been done in Palestine : the change of names and places, with the mixing tip of various sketches of the Egyptian, Persian, Phenician, Greek and Homan mythology, was all that was necessary. They had an abundance of material, and with it they built. The foundation upon winch they built was undoubtedly the “ Scriptures,'” or Diegesis, of the Esscnes in Alexandria in Egypt, which fact led Eusebius, the ecclesiastical historian—“without whom,” says Tillemont, “we should scarce have had any knowledge of the history of the first ages of Christianity, or of the authors who wrote in that time”—to say that the sacred writings used by this sect were none other than “ Our Gospels.”



 



partial apoetolorum, partim coram qui npoa- tolos socuti viderentar nomiim scriptornra suorum frontibus indideront, asseverantes se* cundum cos, se scripsiese qu® scripscnmt." (Faust, lib. 2. Quoted by Rev. R. Taylor: Diegesis, p. 114.)

4 “ Malta onim a majoribns vestris, eloquiU



 



We offer below a few of tlie many proofs showing the Gospels to have been written a long time after the events narrated are said to have occurred, and by persons unacquainted with the country ol which they wrote.

“ lie (Jesus) came unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the coasts of Deeapolis,” is an assertion made by the Mark narrator (vii. 31), when there were no coasts of Deeapolis, nor was the name so much as known before the reign of the emperor Nero.

Again, “ lie (Jesus) departed from Galilee, and came into the coasts of Judea, beyond Jordan,'’ is an assertion made by the Matthew narrator (xix. 1), when the Jordan itself was the eastern boundary of Judea, and there were no coasts of Judea beyond it.

Again, lint when he (Joseph) beard that Archelans did reign in Judea, in the room of his father Herod, lie was afraid to go thither, notwithstanding, being warned of God in a dream, he turned aside into the parts of Galilee, and he came and dwelt in a city called .Nazareth ; that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophets, he shall be called a Nazarene,” is another assertion made by the Matthew narrator (ii. 22. 23), when—1. It was a son of Herod who reigned in Galilee as well as Judea, so that he could not be more secure in one province than in the other; and when ?—2. It was impossible for him to have gone from Egypt to Nazareth, without traveling through the whole extent of Archolaus’s kingdom, or making a peregrination through the deserts on the north and east of the Lake Asphaltites, and the country of Moab; and then, either crossing the Jordan into Samaria or the Lake of Gennesareth into Galilee, and from thence going to the city of Nazareth, which is no better geography, than if one should describe a person as turning aside from Cheapsidc into the parts of Yorkshire ; and when—3. There were no prophets whatever who had prophesied that Jesus “ should, be called a Nazarene,.”

Domini iiostri insortn verba aunt ; qnre nomine Bigmitu ipsiiin, cum ejus fide non eonsrruant, pnesertim, quia, ut jam stepe probatmn a nobis ost. nec nb ipso base sunt. lire ab ejus apostoli* scripta, sed inulto post eorum nssump- tiouem, a nescco quibus, et ipsis inter se non concordautibus sbmi-Jvd^eis, per famas opin-
 
ionesque eomperta sunt ; qui tamon omnia eadcin in apostolormn Domini conferences nomina vel eorum qui secuti apostolos vidorentur, errores ac mendacia sua secundum eos se scripnsse mentiti sunt." (Faust.: lib. 33. Quoted in Ibid. p. 66.) i Taylor's Diegesis.
 

The Matthew narrator (iv. 13) states that *? He departed into Galilee, and leaving Nazareth, came and dwelt in Capernaum,” as if he imagined that the city of Nazareth was not as properly in Galilee as Capernaum was ; which is much such geographical accuracy, as if one should relate the travels of a hero, who departed into Middlesex, and leaving London, came and dwelt in Lombard street.1



There are many other falsehoods in gospel geography beside these, which, it is needless to mention, plainly show that the writers were not the persons they are generally supposed to be.

Of gospel statistics there are many falsehoods; among them may be mentioned the following:

“ Annas and Caiaphas being the high priests, the word of God came unto John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness,” is an assertion made by the Luke narrator (Luke iii. 2); when all Jews, or persons living among them, must have known that there never was but one high priest at a time, as with ourselves there is but one mayor of a city.

Again we read (John vii. 52), “ Search (the Scriptures) and look, for out of Galilee arisetli no prophet,” when the most distinguished of the Jewish prophets—Nahum and Jonah—were both Galileans.

See reference in the Epistles to “ Saints,” a religious order, owing its origin to the popes. Also, references to the distinct orders of “Bishops” “ Priests," and “ Deacons” and calls to a monastic life; to fasting, etc., when, the titles of “ Bishop,” “ Priest,” and “ Deacon ” were given to the Essenes—whom Eusebius calls Christians—and, as is well known, monasteries were the abode of the Essenes or Therapeuts.

See the words for “ legion,” “ aprons,” “handkerchiefs,” “ centurion, i' etc., in the original, not being Greek, but Latin, written in Greek characters, a practice first to be found in the historian Herodian, in the third century.

In Matt. xvi. 18, and Matt, xviii. 17, the word “ Church ” is used, and Mb papistical and infallible authority referred to as then existing, which is known not to have existed till ages after. And the passage in Matt. xi. 12:—“ From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suflereth violence,” etc., could not have been written till a •very late period.

Luke ii. 1, shows that the writer (whoever he may have been) lived long after the events related. His dates, about the fifteenth year of Tiberius, and the government of Cyrenius (the only indications of time in the New Testament), are manifestly false. The general ignorance of the four Evangelists, not merely of the geography and statistics of Judea, but even of its language,—their egregious blunders, which no writers who had lived in that age could be conceived of as making,—prove that they were not only no such persons as those who have been willing to be deceived have taken them to be, but that they were not Jews, had never been in Palestine, and neither lived at, or at anywhere near the times to



which their narratives seem to refer. The ablest divines at the present day, of all denominations, have yielded as much as this.[1228] [1229]

The Scriptures were in the hands of the clergy only, and they had every opportunity to insert whatsoever they pleased ; thus we find them full of interpolations. Johann Soloino Sender, one of the most influential theologians of the eighteenth century, speaking of this, says:

“ The Christian doctors never brought theirsacred books before the common people ; although people in general have been wont to think otherwise ; during the first ages, they were in the hands of the clergy only.”[1230]

Concerning the time when the canon of the New Testament

was settled, Mosheim says:

“ The opinions, or rather the conjectures, of the learned concerning the time when the books of the New Testament were collected into one volume ; as also about the authors of that collection, are extremely different. This important question is attended with great and almost insuperable difficulties to us in these later times.”[1231]

The Rev. 13. F. Westeott says:

" It is impossible to point to any period as marking the date at which our present canon was determined. When it first appears, it is presented not as a novelty, but as an ancient tradition.”[1232] [1233] [1234] [1235]

Dr. Lardner says:

11 Even so late as the middle of the sixth century, the canon of the New Testament had not been settled by any authority that was decisive and universally



 



Gospels did not go to work as independent writers And compose their own narratives out of the accounts they had collected, but simply took np the different stories or pets of stories which they found current in tin* oral tradition or already reduced to writing, adding here and expanding there, and so sent out into the world a very artless kind of composition. These works were then, from time to time, somewhat enriched by introductory matter or interpolations from the hands of later Christians, and perhaps were modified a little here and there. Our first two Gospels appear to have passed through more than ouu such revision. The rhird, whose writer says in his preface, tha ‘many had undertaken to put together a narrative (Gospel),’ before him. appears to proceed from a single collecting, arranging, and modifying hand.” (Ibid. p. 20.)

8 ** Cliristiani doctores non in vulgus prode- bant libros sacros, licet solcant pleriqne aliter- opinari, erant tan turn in manibus clericorum, priora per etecula.” (Quoted in Taylor’s Die- gesis, p. 48.)

3     Mosheim: vol i. pt. 2, ch. li.

4     General Survey of the Canon, p. 463.



acknowledged, but Christian people were at liberty to judge for themselves concerning the. genuiness of writings proposed to them as apostolical, and to determine according to evidence.”[1236] [1237]

The learned Mi el tael is says:

“No manuscript of the New Testament now extant is prior to the sixth century, and what is to be lamented, various readings which, as appears from the quotations of the Fathers, were in the text of the Greek Testament, are to be found in none of the manuscripts which tire at present remaining.”[1238]

And Bishop Marsh says:

“It is a certain fact, that several readings in our common printed text are nothing more \\mn alterations made by Origcn, whose authority was so great in the Christian Church (a. d. 230) that emendations which he proposed, though, as he himself acknowledged, they were supported by the evidence of no manuscript, were very generally received.”3

Ill his Ecclesiastical History, Eusebius gives us a list of what books tit; that time (a. d. 815) were considered canonical. They are as follows:

“The four-fold writings of the Evangelists,” “ The Acts of the Apostles,” “ The Epistles of Peter,” “ after these the first of John, and that of Peter,” “All these are received for undoubted." “ The Revelation of St. John, some disavow.”

“Titc books which are gainsaid, though well known unto many, are these : the Epistle of .Tamos, the Epistle of Jude, the latter of Peter, the second and third of John, whether they were John the Evangelist, or some other of the same name.”*

Though Irenfcus, in the second century, is the first who mentions tlie evangelists, and Origen, in the third century, is the first who gives ns a catalogue of the books contained in the New Testament, Mosheim’s admission still stands before us. We have no grounds of assurance that the mere mention of the names of the evangelists by Ircmeus, or the arbitrary drawing np of a particular catalogue by Origcn, were of any authority. It is still unknown by whom, or where, or when, the canon of the New Testament was settled. But in this absence of positive evidence we have abundance of negative proof. We know when it was not settled. We know it was not settled in the time of the Emperor Justinian, nor in the time of Cassiodorus; that is, not at any time before the middle of the sixth century, “by any authority that was decisive and universally acknowledged ; hut Christian people were at liberty to judge for themselves concerning the genuineness of writings pioposed to them as apostolical.”



Wo cannot do better than close this chapter with the words of Prof. Max Muller, who, in speaking of Buddhism, says :

“ We lmve in the history of Buddhism an excellent opportunity for watching the process by which a canon of sacred books is called into existence. We seo here, as elsewhere, that during the life-tiine of the teacher, no record of events, no sacred code containing the sayings of the Master, was wanted. Ilis presence was enough, and thoughts of the future, and more particularly, of future greatness, seldom entered the minds of those who followed him. It was only after l’.uddha had left the world to enter into Nim'uui, that his discipRs attempted to recall the sayings and doings of their departed friend and master. At that time, everything that seemed to redound to the glory of Buddha, however extraordinary and incredible, was eagerly welcomed, while witnesses who would have ventured to criticise or reject unsupported statements, or to detract in anj' way from the holy character of Buddha, had no chance of ever be>ug listened to. And when, in spite of all this, differences of opinion arose, they were not brought to the test by a careful weighing of evidence, but the names of ‘ ?unbeliever ’ and ‘heretic’were quickly invented in India an elsewhere, and bandied backwards and forwards between contending parties, till at last, when tiu» doctors disagreed, the help of the secular power had to be invoked, and kings and emperors assembled councils for the suppression of schism, for the settle ment of an orthodox creed, and for the completion of a sacred canon.”'

T1 iat which Prof. Muller describes as taking place in the relig ion of Christ Buddha, is exactly what took place in the religion ol Christ Jesus. That the miraculous, and many of the non-miracu- lous, events related in the Gospels never happened, is demonstrable from the facts which we have seen in this work, that nearly all of these events, had been previously related of the gods and goddesses of heathen nations of antiquity, more especially of the Hindoo Saviour Crishna, and the Buddhist Saviour Buddha, whose religion, with less alterations than time and translations have made in the Jewish Scriptures, may be traced in nearly every dogma and every ceremony of the evangelical mythology. [1239]

[Prometheus]

CHAPTER XXXIX.

EXPLANATION.

After what we have seen concerning the numerous virgin- born, crucified and resurrected Saviours, believed on in the Pagan world for so many centuries before the time assigned for the birth of the Christian Saviour, the questions naturally arise : were they real personages ? did they ever exist in the flesh '( whence came these stories concerning them ? have they a foundation in truth, or are they simply creations of the imagination ?

The historical theory—according to which all the persons mentioned in mythology were once real human beings, and the legends and fabulous traditions relating to them were merely the additions and embellishments of later times—which was so popular with scholars of the last century, has been altogether abandoned.

Under the historical point of view the gods are mere deified mortals, either heroes who have been deified after their death, or Pontiff-chieftains who have passed themselves off for gods, and who, it is gratuitously supposed, found people stupid enough to believe in their pretended divinity. This was the manner in which, formerly, writers explained the mythology of nations of antiquity ; but a method that pre-supposed an historical Crishna, an historical Osiris, an historical Mithra, an historical Hercules, an historical Apollo, or an historical Thor, was found untenable, and therefore, does not, at the present day, stand in need of a refutation. As a writer of the early part of the present century said :

“We shall never have an ancient history worthy of the perusal of men of common sense, till we cease treating poems as history, and send back such personages as Hercules, Theseus, Bacchus, etc., to the heavens, whence their history is taken, and whence they never descended to the earth.”

The historical theory was succeeded by the allegorical tliory, which supposes that all the myths of the ancients were allegorical and symbolical, and contain some moral, religious, or philosophical [466j



truth or historical fact under the form of an allegory, which came in process of time to be understood literally.

In the preceding pages wo have spoken of the several virgin- born, crucified and resurrected Saviours, as real personages. We have attributed to these individuals words and acts, and have regarded the words and acts recorded in the several sacred books from which we have quoted, as said and done by them. But in doing this, we have simply used the language of others. These gods and heroes were not real personages; they are merely per- sonljications of the Sun. As Prof. Max Muller observes in his Lectures on the Science of Religion :

“ One of (he earliest objects that would strike and stir the miud of man, and for which a sign or a name would soon be wanted, is surely the Sun.[1240] [1241] [1242] [1243] It is very hard for us to realize the feelings with which the first dwellers on the earth looked upon the Sun, or to understand fully what they meant by a morning prayer or a morning sacrifice. Perhaps there arc few people who have watched a sunrise more than once or twice in their life ; few people who have ever known the meaning of a morning prayer, or a morning sacrifice. But think of man at the very dawn of time. . . . think of the Bun awakening the eyes of man from sleep, and his mind from slumber I Was not the sunrise to him the first wander, the first beginning of all reflection, all thought, all philosophy ? Was it not to him the first revelation, the first beginning of all trust, of all religion? ....

“ Few nations only have preserved in their ancient poetry some remnants of the natural awe with which the earlier dwellers on the earth saw that brilliant being slowly rising from out of the darkness of the night, raising itself by its own might higher and higher, till it stood triumphant on the arch of heaven, and then descended and sank down in its fiery glory into the dark abyss of the heaving and hissing sea. In the hymns of the Veda, the poet still wonders whether the Sun will rise again ; he asks how he can climb the vault of heaven ? why ho does not fall back ? why there is no dust on his path f And when the rays of the morning rouse him from sleep and call him back to new life, when he sees the Sun, as he says, stretching out his golden arms to bless the world and rescue it from the terror of darkness, he exclaims, ‘ Arise, our life, our spirit has come back 1 the darkness is gone, the light approaches.”

Many years ago, the learned Sir ’William Jones said :

“We must not be surprised at finding, on a close examination, that the characters of all the Pagan deities, male and female, melt into each other, and at last into one or two ; for it seems as well founded opinion, that the whole crowd of gods and goddesses of ancient Rome, and modern VarSnes, mean only the powers of nature, and principally those of the BUN, expressed in a variety of ways, and by a multitude of fanciful names.”[1244]



 



which nourishes (Pflshna), the Creator (Tvash- tar), the master of the sky (Divaspati), and so on." (Rev. S. Baring-Gould: Orig. Relig. Belief, vol. i, p. 150.)

a Asiatic Researches, vol. i. p. 267.



See Appendix B.
 
Since the first learned president of the Royal Asiatic Society paved the way for the science of comparative mythology, much has been learned on this subject, so that, as the Rev. George W. Cox remarks, ‘‘ recent discussions on the subject seem to justify the conviction that the foundations of the science of comparative mythology have been firmly laid, and that its method is unassailable.”[1245]

If we wish to find the gods and goddesses of the ancestors of our race, we must look to the sun, the moon, the stars, the sky, the earth, the sea, the dawn, the clouds, the wind, &c., which they personified and worshiped. That these have been the gods and goddesses of all nations of antiquity, is an established fact.2

The words which hud denoted the sun and moon would denote not merely living things but living persons. From personification to deification the steps would be but few; and the process of disintegration would at once furnish the materials for a vast fabric of mythology. All the expressions which had attached a living force to natural objects would remain as the description of personal and anthropomorphous gods. Every word would become an attribute, and all ideas, once grouped around a simple object, would branch off into distinct personifications. The sun had been the lord of light, the driver of the chariot of the day; lie had toiled and labored for the sons of men, and sunk down to rest, after a hard battle, in the evening, lint now the lord of light would be Phoibos Apollon, while Helios would remain enthroned in his fiery chariot, and his toils and labors and death-struggles would be transferred to Her- cnles. The violet clouds which greet his rising and his setting would now be represented by herds of cows which feed in earthly pastures. There would be other expressions which would still remain as floating phrases, not attached to any definite deities. These would gradually be converted into incidents in the life of heroes, and be woven at length into systematic narratives. Finally, these gods or heroes, and the incidents of their mythical career, would receive each “a local habitation and a name.” These would remain as genuine history, when the origin and meaning of the words had been either wholly or in part forgotten.

For the proofs of these assertions, the Yedic poems furnish indisputable evidence, that such as this was the origin and growth of Greek and Teutonic mythology. In these poems, the names of many, perhaps of most, of the Greek gods, indicate natural objects which, if endued with life, have not been reduced to human per- [1246]
sonality. In them Daphne is still simply the morning twilight ushering in the splendor of the new born sun ; the cattle of Ilelios there are still the light-colored clouds which the dawn leads out into the fields of the sky. There the idea of Hercules has not been separated from the image of the toiling and struggling sun, and the glory of the life-giving Helios has not been transferred lo the god of Delos and Pytlm. In the Vedas the myths of Endviuion. of Kephalos and Prokris, Orpheus and Eurydike, are exhibited in the form of detached mythical phrases, which furnished for each their germ. The analysis may be extended indefinitely: but the conclusion can only be, that in the Vedic language we have the foundation, not only of the glowing legends of Hellas, but of the dark and sombre mythology of the Scandinavian and the Teuton. Doth alike have grown up ehieliy from names which have been grouped around the stm ; but the former lias been grounded on those expressions which describe the recurrence of day and night, the latter on the great tragedy of nature, in the alternation of summer and winter.

Of this vast mass of solar myths, some have emerged into independent legends, others have furnished the groundwork of whole epics, others have remained simply as floating talcs whose intrinsic beauty no poet has wedded to his verse.'

“ The results obtained from the examination of language in its several forms leaves no room for doubt that the general system of mythology has been traced to its fountain head. We can no longer shut our eves to the fact that there was a stage in the history of human speech, during which all the abstract words in constant use among ourselves were utterly unknown, when men had formed no notions of virtue or prudence, of thought and intellect, of slavery or freedom, but spoke only of the man who was strong, who could point the way to others and choose one thing out of many, of the man who was not hound to any other and able to do as he pleased.

“ That even this stage was not the earliest in the history of language is nowagrowing opinion among philologists; but for the comparison of legends current in different countries it is not necessary to carry the search further back. Language without words denoting abstract qualities implies a condition of thought in which men were only awakening to a sense of the objects which surrounded them, and points to a time when the world was to them full of strange sights and sounds, some beautiful, some bewildering, some terrific, when, in short, they knew little of themselves beyond 1 the vague consciousness of their existence, and nothing of the pho nomena of the world without. In such, a state they could hut attribute to all that they saw or touched or heard, a life which was like their own in its consciousness, its joys, and its sufferings. That power of sympathizing with nature which we arc apt to regard as tire peculiar gift of the poet was then shared alike by all. This sympathy was not the result of any effort, it was inseparably bound up with the words which rose to their lips. It implied no special purity of heart or mind ; it pointed to no Arcadian paradise where shepherds knew not how to wrong or oppress or torment each other. We say that the morning light rests on the mountains ; they said that the sun was greeting his bride, as naturally as our own poet would speak of the sunlight clasping the earth, or the moonbeams as kissing the sea.

“ We have then before us a stage of language corresponding to a stage in the history of the human mind in which all sensible objects were regarded as instinct with a conscious life. The varying phases of that life were therefore described as truthfully as they described their own feelings or sufferings; and lienee every phase became a picture. But so long as the conditions of their life remained unchanged, they knew perfectly what the picture meant, and ran no risk of confusing one with another. Thus they had but to describe the things which they saw, felt, or heard, in order to keep up an inexhaustible store of phrases faithfully describing the facts of the world from their point of view. This language was indeed the result of an observation not less keen than that by which the inductive philosopher extorts the secrets of the natural world. Nor was its range much narrower. Each object received its own measure of attention, and no one phenomenon was so treated as to leave no room for others in their turn. They could not fail to note the changes of days and years, of growth and decay, of calm and storm ; but the objects which so changed were to them living things, and the rising and setting of the sun, the return of winter and summer, became a drama in which the act</rs were their enemies or their f riends.

“ That this is a strict statement of facts in the history of the human mind, philology alone would abundantly prove ; but not a few of these phrases have eome down to us in their earliest form, and point to the long-buried stratum of language of which they are the fragments. These relics exhibit in their germs the myths which afterwards became the legends of gods and heroes with human forms, and furnished the groundwork of the epic poems, whether oj~ the eastern or the western world.

“ The mythical or mythmaking language of mankind had no partialities; and if the career of the Sun occupies a large extent of the horizon, we cannot fairly simulate ignorance of the cause. Men so placed would not fail to put into words the thoughts or emotions roused in them by the varying phases of that mighty world on which we, not less than they, feel that our life depends, although we may know something more of its nature.

“Thus grew up a multitude of expressions which described the sun as the child of the night, as the destroyer of the darkness, as the lover of the dawn and the dew—of phrases which would go on to speak of him as killing the dew with his spears, and of forsaking the dawn as ho rose in the heaven. The feeling that the fruits of the earth were called forth by his warmth would find utterance in words which spoke of him as the friend and the benefactor of man; while the constant recurrence of his work would lead them to describe him as a being constrained to toil for others, as doomed to travel over many lands, and as finding everywhere things on which he could bestow his love or which he might destroy by his power. His journey, again, might be across cloudless skies, or amid alternations of storm and calm ; his light might break fitfully through the clouds, or be hidden for many a weary hour, to burst forth at last with dazzling splendor as he sank down in the western sky. Ho would thus be described as facing many dangers and many enemies, none of whom, however, may arrest his course ; as sullen, or capricious, or resentful; as grieving for the loss of the dawn whom lie had loved, or as nursing his great wrath and vowing a pitiless vengeance. Then as the veil was rent at eventide, they would speak of the chief, who had long remained still, girding on his armor ; or of the wanderer throwing off his disguise, and seizing his bow or spear to smite his enemies ; of the invincible warrior whose face gleams with the flush of victory when the fight is over, as he greets the fair-haired Dawn who closes, as she had begun, the day. To the wealth of images thus lavished on the daily life and death of the Sun there would be no limit. lie was the child of the morning, or her husband, or her destroyer; he forsook her and he returned to her, either in calm serenity or only to sink presently in deeper gloom.

“ So with other sights and sounds. The darkness of night brought with it a feeling of vague horror and dread ; the return of daylight cheered them with a sense of unspeakable gladness; and thus the

Sun who scattered the black shade of night would be the mighty champion doing battle with the biting snake which lurked in its dreary hiding-place. But as the Sun accomplishes his journey day by day through the heaven, the character of the seasons is changed. The buds and blossoms of spring-time expand in the flowers and fruits of summer, and the leaves fall and wither on the approach of winter. Thus the daughter of the earth would be spoken of as dying or as dead, as severed from her mother for five or six weary months, not to be restored to her again until the time for her return from the dark land should once more arrive. But as no other power than that of the Sun can recall vegetation to life, this child of the earth would be represented as buried in a sleep from which the touch of the Sun alone could arouse her, when he slays the frost and cold which lie like snakes around he.1 motionless form.

“ That thesephrases would furnish the germs <>/ myths or legends teeming with human feeling, as soon as the meaning of the phrases were in part or wholly forgotten, was as inevitable as that in the infancy of our race men should attribute to all sensible objects the same hind of life which they were conscious of possessing themselves.’'

Let us compare the history of the Saviour which we have already seen, with that of the Sun, as it is found in the Vedas.

We can follow in the Vedic hymns, step by step, the development which changes the Sun from a mere luminary into a “ Creator,” “ Preserver,” “ Ruler” and “ Rewarder of the World”—in fact, into a Divine or Supreme Being.

The first step leads us from the mere light of the Sun to that light which in the morning wakes man from sleep, and seems to give new life, not only to man, but to the whole of nature. He who wakes us in the morning, who recalls all nature to new life, is soon called “ The Civer of Daily Life.”

Secondly, by another and bolder step, the Giver of Daily Light and Life becomes the giver of light and life in general. lie who brings light and life to-day, is the same who brought light and life on the first of days. As light is the beginning of the day, so light was the beginning of creation, and the Sun, from being a mere light- bringer or life-giver, becomes a Creator, and, if a Creator, then soon also a Bulcr of the World.

Thirdly, as driving away the dreaded darkness of the night, and likewise as fertilizing the earth, the Sun is conceived as a “ Defender” and kind '‘Protector” of all living things.

© ©

Fourthly, the Sun sees everything, both that which is good and that which is evil; and how natural therefore that tlie evil-doer should be told that the sun sees what no human eye may have seen, and that the innocent, when all other help fails him, should appeal to the sun to attest his guiltlessness!

Let us examine now, says Prof. Midler, from whose work we have quoted the above, a few passages (from the llij- Veda) illustrating every one of these perfectly natural transitions.

“In hymn vii. we find the Sail invoked as ' The P,"lector of everything that mores or stands, of alt that exists.”’

“ Frequent allusion is made to the Sun’s power of seeing everything. The stars llee before the all-seeing Sun, like thieves (R. V. vii.). lie secs the right ami the wrong among men (Ibid.), lie who looks upon the world, knows also all the thoughts in men (Ibid.).”

“As the Sun sees everything and knows everything, lie is asked to forget and forgive what he alone has seen and knows (It. V. iv.).”

“ The Sun is asked to drive away illness and bad dreams (It. V. x.).”

“ Having once, and more than once, been invoked as the life-bringer, the Sun is also called the breath or life of all that moves and rests (K. V. i.) ; and lastly, he becomes the maker of all things, by whom all the worlds have been brought together (It. V. x.), and . . . Lord of man and of all living creatures.”

“ He is the God among gods (It. V. i.) ; he is the divine leader of till the gods (It. V. viii.).”

?' He alone rules the w hole world (R. V. v.). “ The laws which he has established are linn (It. V. iv.), and the other gods not only praise him (R. V. vii.),

but have to follow him as their leader (It. V. v.).”1

That tlie history of Christ Jesus, the Christian Saviour,— “the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world,”[1247] [1248]

—     is simply the history of the Sun — the real Saviour of mankind

—     is demonstrated heyond a doubt from the following indisputable fticts :

1. The birth of Christ Jesus is said to have taken place at ear/.;/ dawn3 on the 25th day of December. Now, this is the Sun's birth- dag. At the commencement of the sun's apparent annual revolution round the earth, lie was said to have been born, and, on the first moment after midnight of the 24th of December, all the heathen nations of the earth, as if by common consent, celebrated the accouchement of the “Queen tf Heaven," of the “Celestial Virgin of the Sphere," and the birth of the god Sol. On that day the sun having fully entered the winter solstice, the Sign of the Virgin was rising on the eastern horizon. The woman’s symbol of this stellar sign was represented first by ears of corn, then with a newborn male child in her arms. Such was the picture of the Persian sphere cited by Aben-Ezra:

“ The division of the first decan of the Virgin represents a beautiful virgin with flowing hair, sitting in a chair, with two ears of corn in her hand, and suckling an infant called Iesos by some nations, and Christ in Greek.”[1249]

This denotes the Sun, which, at the moment of the winter solstice, precisely when the Persian magi drew the horoscope of the new year, was placed on the bosom of the Virgin, rising licliacally in tile eastern horizon. On this account lie was figured in their astronomical pictures under the form of a child suckled by a chaste virgin.[1250]

Thus we sec that Christ Jesus was born on the same day as Buddha, Mithras, Osiris, Horns, Hercules, Bacchus, Adonis and other person ifications of the Sun.[1251]

2. Ohrid Jesus was born of a Virgin. In this respect he is alsc the Sun, for 'tis the sun alone who can be born of an immaculate virgin, who conceived him without carnal intercourse, and who is still, after the birth of her child, a virgin.

This Virgin, of whom the Sun, the true “ Saviour of Mankind,” is born, is either the bright and beautiful Dawn,1 or the dark Earth? or Night." Hence we have, as we have already seen, the Virgin, or Virgo, as one of the signs of the zodiac.’

This Celestial Virgin was feigned to be a mother. She is represented in the Indian Zodiac of Sir William Joues, with ears of corn in one hand, and the lotus in the other. In Kircher’s Zodiac of Hermes, she has corn in both hands. In other planispheres of the Egyptian priests she carries ears of corn in one hand, and the infant Saviour Ilorus in the other. In Human Catholic countries, she is



 



fix the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Higgins : Anacalypsis,vol. i. p. 314, and Bonwick : Egyptian Belief, p. 147.)

” We have iu the first decade the Sign of the Virgin, following the most ancient tradition of the Persians, the Chaldeans, the Egyptians, Ilcrmes and ZEscnlapius, a young woman called in the Persian language, Seclinidos d* Darzama; in the Arabic, Aderenedesa—that is to say, a chaste, pure, immaculate virgin, suckling au infant, which some nations call Jesus {i. e., Saviour), but which wc in Greek call Christ." (Abulinazer.)

” In the first decade of the Virgin, rises a maid, called in Arabic, [1252] [1253] [1254] [1255] Aderenedesa,' that is :

‘ pure immaculate virgin,’ graceful in person, charming in countenance, modest in habit, with loosened hair, holding in her hands t'vo ears of wheat, sitting upon an embroidered throne, nursing a boy, and rightly feeding Mm in the place called Ilebraea. A boy, I say, names Iessus by certain nations, which signifies Issa, whom they also call Christ in Greek.” (Klrcher, (Edipus .Egyptians.)



generally represented with the child in one hand, and the lotus or lily in the other. In Yol. II. of Montfaueon’s work, she is represented as a female nursing a child, with ears of corn in her hand, and the legend iao. She is seated on clouds, a star is at her head. The reading of the Greek letters, from right to left, show this to be very ancient.

In the Yedic hymns Aditi, the Dawn, is called the ‘?'•Mother of the (toils." She is the mother with powerful, terrible, with royal sons." She is said to have given birth to the Sun.' “ As the Sun and all the solar deities rise from the east" says Prof. Max Muller, “ we can well understand how Aditi (the Dawn) came to bo called the ‘ Mother of the Bright Gods.’

The poets of the Yeda indulged freely in theogonic speculations without being frightened by any contradictions. They knew of Indra as the greatest of gods, they knew of Agni as the god of gods, they knew of Yanina as the ruler of all; but they were by no means startled at the idea that their Indra had a mother, or that Varnna was nursed in the lap of Aditi. All tins was true to nature ; for their god was the Sun, and the mother who bore and nursed him was the Dawn.[1256] [1257] [1258] [1259] [1260]

We find in the Vishnu Parana, that Dcvaki (the virgin mother of the Hindoo Saviour Crislma, whose history, as we have seen, corresponds in most every particular with that of Christ Jesus) is called Aditi' which, in the Pig- Veda, is the name for the Dawn. Thus we sec the legend is complete. Devaki is Aditi, Aditi is the Dawn, and the Dawn is the Yirgin Mother. “ The Saviour of Mankind ” who is born of her is the Sun, the Sun is Crishna, and Crislma is Christ.

In the Mahahharata, Crishna is also represented as the “’Son of Aditi.As the hour of his birth grew near, the mother became more beautiful, and her form more brilliant.6

Indra, the sun, who was worshiped in some parts of India as a Crucijied God, is also represented in the Vedic hymns as the Son of the Dawn. lie is said to have been born of Dahana, who is Daphne, a personification of the Dawn.7

The humanity of this solar god-man, this demiurge, is strongly



 



rose in the dawn of Devaki. to cause the lotus petal of the universe (Crishna) to expand. On the day of his birth the quarters of the hori* zon were irradiate with joy," &c.

5    Cox : Aryan Myths, vol. iii. pp. 105, and 130, vol. ii.

• Ibid. p. i33. See Legends iu Chap. XVI.

7 Fiske : Myths aud Mythmakers, p. 113.



insisted on in the Rig- Veda. He is the son of God, but also the son of Aditi. He is Purusha, the man, the male. Agn; is frequently called the “ Son of man.” It is expressly explained that the titles Agni, Indra, Mitra, &c., all refer to one Sun-god under “ many names.” And when we find the name of a mortal, Yama, who once lived upon earth, included among these names, the humanity of the demiurge becomes still more accentuated, and we get at the root idea.

Jfor us, the Egyptian Saviour, was the son of the virgin Isis. Now, this Isis, in Egyptian mythology, is the same as the virgin Devaki in Hindoo mythology. She is the Dawn.' Isis, as we have already seen, is represented suckling the infant Ilorus, and. in the words of Prof, ltenouf, we may say, “ in whose lap can the Sun be nursed more fitly than in that of the Dawn?”[1261] [1262]

Among the goddesses of Egypt, the highest was Neith, who reigned inseparably with Amun in the upper sphere. She was called “ Mother of the gods,” “Mother of the sun.” She was the feminine origin of all things, as Amun was the male origin. She held the same rank at Sais as Amun did at Thebes. Her temples there are said to have exceeded in colossal grandeur anything ever seen before. On one of these was the celebrated inscription thus deciphered by Champollion :

‘'I am all that has been, all that is, all that will be. No mortal has ever raised the veil that conceals me. My offspring is the Sun."

She was mother of the &m-god Ra, and, says Prof. Eenouf, “is commonly supposed to represent Ileaven; but some expressions which are hardly applicable to heaven, render it more probable that she is one of the many names of the Dawn?”

If we turn from Indian and Egyptian, to Grecian mythology, we shall also find that their Sun-gods and solar heroes are born of the same virgin mother. Theseus was said to have been born of Aithra, “ the pure air” and CEdipus of Iokaste, “ the violet light of morning.” Perseus was born of the virgin Danae, and was called the “ Son of the bright morning S' In 16, the mother of the “sacred bull,”6 the mother also of Hercules, we see the violet-tinted morning from which the sun is born ; all these gods and heroes being, like Christ Jesus, personifications of the Sun?



“ T1 ic Saviour of Mankind ” was also represented as being born of the “dusky mother," which accounts for many Pagan, and so- called Christian, goddesses being represented Hack.1 This is the dark night, who for many weary hours travails with the birth of her child. The Sun, which scatters the darkness, is also the child of the darkness, and so the phrase naturally went that he was horn of her. Of the two legends related in the poems afterwards combined in the “ Hymn to Apollo,” the former relates the birth of Apollo, the Sun, from Leto, the Darkness, which is called his mother.2 In this case, Leto would be personified as a “ black virgin,” either with or without the child in her arms.

The dark earth was also represented as being the mother of the god Sun, who apparently came out of, or was born of her, in the East,3 as Minos (the sun) was represented to have been bom of Ida (the earth).'

In Hindoo mythology, the Earth, under the name of Prithivi, receives a certain share of honors as one of the primitive goddesses of the Veda, being thought of as the “kind mother.” Moreover, various deities were regarded as the progeny resulting from the fancied union of the Earth with Dyaus (Heaven).'

Our Aryan forefathers looked up to the heavens and they gave it the name of Dyaus, from a root-word which means “to shine." And when, out of the forces and forms of nature, they afterwards fashioned other gods, this name of Dyaus became Dyaus pitar, the Heaven-father, or Lord of All; and in far later times, when the western Aryans had found their home in Europe, the Dyaus pitar of the central Asian land became the Zeupater of the Greeks, and the Jupiter of the Romans, and the first part of his name gave us the word Deity.

According to Egyptian mythology, Isis was also the Earth.* Again, from the union of Seb and Nut sprung the mild Osiris. Seb is the Earth, Nut is Heaven, and Osiris is the Sun.'

Tacitus, the Roman historian, speaking of the Germans in a. d. 98, says :

“ There is nothing in these several tribes that merit attention, except that they all agree in worshiping the goddess Earth, or as they call her, Herih, whom they consider as the common mother of all.”[1263]

These virgin mothers, and virgin goddesses of antiquity, were also, at times, personifications of the Moon, or of Nature.[1264] [1265]

Who is “ God the Father,” who overshadows the maiden ? The overshadowing of the maiden by “ God the Father,” whether he be called Zeus, Jupiter or Jehovah, is simply the Heaven, the Sky, the “ All-fatherlooking down upon with love, and overshadowing the maiden, the broad flushing light of Dawn, or the Earth. From this union the Sun is born without any carnal intercourse. The mother is yet a virgin. This is illustrated in Hindoo mythology by the union of Pritrivi, “Mother Earth” with Dyaus, “Heaven.” Various deities were regarded as their progeny.[1266] [1267] [1268] In the Vedic hymns the Sun—the Lord and Saviour, the Redeemer and Preserver of Mankind—is frequently called the “ Son of the Sky.”[1269]

According to Egyptian mythology, Seb (the Earth) is overshadowed by Nut {Heaven), the result of this union being the beneficent Lord and Saviour, Osiris.[1270] The same thing is to be found in ancient Grecian mythology. Zeus or Jupiter is the Sky," and Danae, Leto, lokaste, Io and others, are the Dawn, or the violet light of morning.''



 



in the Chinese classics for the Supreme Power, ruling and governing all the affairs of men with an omnipotent and omniscient righteousness and goodness.” (James Leggc.)

In one of the Chinese sacred hooks—the Shu-king—Heaven awl Earth are cal led “ Father and Mother of all things.” Heaven being the Father, and Earth the Mother. (Taylor: Primitive Culture, pp. 294-29(1.)

The “God the Father” of the Indians is Dyaus, that is, the Sky. (Williams’ Hinduism, p. 24.)

Ormuzd, the god of the ancient Persians, was a personification of the sky. nerodotns, speaking of the Persians, says: “ They are accustomed to ascend the highest part of the mountains, and offer sacrifice to Jupiter (Ormuzd), and they call the whole circle cf the heavens by the name of Jupiter.'1'1 (Herodotus, book 1, ch. 131.)

In Greek iconography Zeus is the Heaven. As Cicero says : “ The refulgent Heaven above is that which all men call, unanimously, Jove.”

The Christian God supreme of the nineteenth century is still Dyaus Pilar, the “ Heavenly Father.”

8 Williams’ Hinduism, p. 24,

4 Muller ; Origin of Religions, pp. 261, 290.

*    Renouf: Hibbert Lectures, pp. 110, 111.

6     See Note 2.

*  See Cox; Tales of Ancient Greece, pp. xxxl. and 82, and Aryan Mythology, vol. i. p. 229.



“ The Sky appeared to men (says Plutarch), to perform the functions of a Father, as the Earth those of a Mother. The sky was the father, for it cast seed into the bosom of the earth, which in receiving them became fruitful, and brought forth, aud was the mother.”1

This union lias been sung in the following verses by Virgil:

“ Turn pater omnipotcns fecundis imbribis sot her Conjugis in grcnium loetae descendit.”           (Geor. ii.)

The Phenician theogony is founded on the same principles. Ileaven and Earth (called Quran os and Ghe) are at the head of a genealogy of aeons, whose adventures are conceived in the mythological style of these physical allegorists.’

In the Samothracian mysteries, which seem to have been the most anciently established ceremonies of the kind in Europe, the Ileaven and the Earth were worshiped as a male and female divinity, and as the parents of all things'

The Supreme God (the Alfader), of the ancient Scandinavians was Odin, a personification of the Heavens. The principal goddess among them was Erigga, a personification of the Earth. It was the opinion among these people that this Supreme Being or Celestial God had united with the Earth (Erigga) to produce “ Bal- dur the Good” (the Sun), who corresponds to the Apollo of the Greeks and Romans, and the Osiris of the Egyptians.4

Xiuletl, in the Mexican language, signifies Blue, and hence was a name which the Mexican gave to Ileaven, from which Xiuleti- cvtli is derived, an epithet signifying “ the God of Heaven,” which they bestowed upon Tezcatlipoca, who was the “ Lord of All,” the “ Supreme God.” He it was who overshadowed the Virgin of Tula, Chimelmau, who begat the Saviour Quetzalcoatle (the Sun).

3.    Ills birth was foretold by a star. This is the bright morning star—

“ Fairest of stars, last in the train of Night,

If better, thou belongst not to the Dawn,

Sure pledge of day, that crown’st the smiling mom With thy bright circlet ” —

which heralds the birth of the god Sol, the benificent Saviour.

A glance at a geography of the heavens will show the “chaste, pure, immaculate Virgin, suckling an infant,” preceded by a



 



Occanus, Hyperon, Iapetne, Cronos, and other gods.” (Phallic Worship, p. 2G.)

• Squire : Serpent Symbol, p. 64.

4 See Mallet's Northern Antiquities, pp. 80, 93, 94, 406, 510, 611.



Star, which rises immediately preceding the Virgin and her child. This can truly be called “ his Star,” which informed the “ Wise Men,” the “ Magi ” — Astrologers and Sun-worshipers—and “ the shepherds who watched their flocks by night” that the Saviour of Mankind was about to be born.

4.     The Heavenly Host sang praises. All nature smiles at the birth of the Heavenly Being. u To him all angels cry aloud, the heavens, and all the powers therein.” “ Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men.” “ The quarters of the horizon are irradiate with joy, as if moonlight was diffused over the whole earth.” “ The spirits and nymphs of heaven dance and sing.” “ Caressing breezes blow, and a marvelous light is produced.” For the Lord and Saviour is bom, “ to give joy and peace to men and Devas, to shed light in the dark places, and to give sight to the blind.”1

5.      lie was visited Ity the Magi. This is very natural, for the Magi were Sun-worshipers, and at early dawn on the 25th of Dec- ceinber, the astrologers of the Arabs, Chaldeans, and other Oriental nations, greeted the infant Saviour with gold, frankincense and myrrh. They started to salute their God long before the rising of the Sun, and having ascended a high mountain, they waited anxiously for his birth, facing the East, and there hailed his first rays with incense and prayer.[1271] The shepherds also, who remained in the open air watching their flocks by night, were in the habit of prostrating themselves, and paying homage to their god, the Sun. And, like the poet of the Veda, they said :

“ Will the powers of darkness be conquered by the god of light t "

And when the Sun rose, they wondered how, just born, he was so mighty. They greeted him:

“Hail, Orient Conqueror of Gloomy Night.”

And the human eye felt that it could not bear the brilliant majesty of him whom they called, “ The Life, the Breath, the Brilliant Lord and Father.” And they said :

“ Let us worship again the Child of Heaven, the Son of Strength, Arusha, the Bright Light of the Sacrifice.” “ He rises as a mighty flame, he stretches out his wide arms, he is even like the wind.1’ “ Ilis light is powerful, and his (virgin) mother, the Dawn, gives him the best share, the first worship among men,”[1272] [1273]

6.      lie ious born in a Cave. In this respect also, the history of



Christ Jesus corresponds with that of other Sun-gods and Saviours, for they are nearly all represented as being horn in a cave or dungeon. This is the dark abode from which the wandering Sun starts in the morning.[1274] As the Dawn springs fully armed from the forehead of the cloven Sky, so the eye first discerns the blue of heaven, as the first faint arch of light is seen in the East. This arch is the cave in which the infant is nourished until he reaches his full strength—-in other words, until the day is fully come.

As the hour of his birth drew near, the mother became more beautiful, her form more brilliant, while the dungeon was tilled with a heavenly light as when Zeus came to Danae in a golden shower.[1275]

At length the child is born, and a halo of serene light encircles his cradle, just as the Sun appears at early dawn in the East, in all its splendor. His presence reveals itself there, in the dark cave, by his first rays, which brightens the countenances of his mother and others who are present at his birth.'

G. lie was ordered to be put to death. All the Sun-gods are fated to bring ruin upon their parents or the reigning monarch.' For this reason, they attempt to prevent his birth, and failing in this, seek to destroy him when born. Who is the dark and wicked lvansa, or his counterpart Ilcrod? He is Night, who reigns supreme, but who must lose his power when the yoimg prince of glory, the Invincible, is born.

The Sun scatters the Darkness / and so the phrase went that the child was to be the destroyer of the reigning monarch, or his parent, Night/ and oracles, and magi, it was said, warned the latter of the doom which would overtake him. The newly-born babe is therefore ordered to be put to death by the sword, or exposed on the bare hillside, as the Sun seems to rest on the Earth (Ida) at its rising.'



 



•“The exposure of the child in infancy represents the long rays of the morning sun resting on the hill-side.” (Fiske: Myths and Mythmnkers, p. 108.)

The Sun-hero Paris is exposed on the slopes of Ida, Oidipous on the slopes of Kithairon, and dEsculapitis on that of the mountain of Myitles. This is the rays of the newly-born sun resting on the mountain-side. (Cox : Aryan Myths, vol. i. pp. 04 and 80.)

In Sanscrit Ida is the Earth, mid so we have the mythical phrase, the Sun at its birth *a exposed on Ida—the hill-side. The light of the sun must rest on the hill-side long before it reaches the dells beneath. (See Cox: to). i. p. 221, and Fiske : p. 114.)



In oriental mythology, the destroying principle is generally represented as a serpent or dragon.[1276] [1277] Now, the position of the sphere on Christmas-day, the birthday of the Sun, shows the Serpent all but touching, and certainly aiming at the woman —-that is, the figure of the constellation Virgo — who suckles the child Iessus in her arms. Thus we have it illustrated in the story of the snake who was sent to kill Hercules, when an infant in his cradle ;a also in the story of Typhon, who sought the life of the infant Saviour Horns. Again, it is illustrated in the story of the virgin mother Astrea, with her babe beset by Orion, and of Latona, the mother of Apollo, when pursued by the monster.[1278] [1279] And last, that of the virgin mother Mary, with her babe beset by Herod. But like Hercules, Horns, Apollo. Theseus, Romulus, Cyrus and other solar heroes, Christ Jesus has yet a long course before him. Like them, he grows up both wise and strong, and the ‘‘old Serpent” is discomfited by him, just as the sphynx and the dragon are put to flight by others.

7.    lie teas lenqded by the devil. The temptation by, and victory over the evil one, whether Mara or Satan, is the victory of the Sun over the clouds of storm and darkness." Growing up in obscurity, the day comes when he makes himself known, tries himself in his



 



warmth of the Father of Life, the Creator, the

Sun.

Bnddlia, the Lord and Saviour, was described as a superhuman organ of light, to whom a superhuman organ of darkness, Mara, the Evil Serpent, was opposed, lie, like Christ Jesus, resisted the temptations of this evil one, and is represented sitting on a serpent, as if its conqueror. (Sec Bunsen’s Angel-Messiah, p. 39.)

Crishna also overcame the evil one, and is represented “ bruising the head of the serpent,” and standing upon it. iSce vol. i. of Asiatic Researches, and vol. ii. of Higgins* Anacalypsis.)

In Egyptian Mythology, one of the names of the god-£>m was lid. He had an adversary who was called Apap, represented in the form of a serpent. (See Rollout's Hibbert Lectures, p. 109.)

llorus, the Egyptian incarnate god, the Mediator, Redeemer and Saviour, is represented in Egyptian art us overcoming the Evil Serpent, and standing triumphantly upon him, (See Bomvick’s Egyptian Belief, p. 158, and Monumental Christianity, p. 402.)

Osiris, Ormuzd, Mithras, Apollo, Bacchus, Ilercules, Indra, CEdipus, Quetzalcoatle, and many other Sun-gods, overcame the Evil One, and are represented in the above described manner. (See Cox's Tales of Ancient Greece, p. xxvii. and Aryan Mythology, vol. ii. p. 129. Barhig-Gonld's Curious Myths, p. S56. Bul- fiinch's Age of Fable, p. 34. Bunsen's Angel- Messiah, p. x,, and KingsborouglTs Mexican Antiquities, vol. vi. p. 17G.)



first battles with his gloomy foes, and shines without a rival. lie is rife for his destined mission, but is met by the demon of storm, who runs to dispute with him in the duel of the storm. In this struggle against darkness the beneficent hero remains the conqueror, the gloomy army of Mara, or Satan, broken and rent, is scattered ; the Apearas, daughters of the demon, the last light vapors which float in the heaven, try in vain to clasp and retain the vanquisher; he disengages himself from their embraces, repulses them; they writhe, lose their form, and vanish.

Free from every obstacle, and from every adversary, he sets in motion across space his disk with a thousand rays, having avenged the attempts of his eternal foe. lie appears then in all his glory, and in his sovereign splendor; the god has attained the summit of his course, it is the moment of triumph.

8.    lie %oas put to death on the cross. The Sun has now reached his extreme Southern limit, his career is ended, and he is at last overcome by his enemies. The powers of darkness, and of winter, which had sought in vain to wound him, have at length won the victory. The bright Sun of summer is finally slain, crucified in the heavens, and pierced by the arrow, spear or thorn of winter.[1280] Before he dies, however, he sees all his disciples — his retinue of light, and the twelve hours of the day, or the twelve months of the year — disappear in the sanguinary melee of the clouds of the evening

Throughout the tale, the Sun-god was but fulfilling his doom. These things must be. The suffering of a violent death was a necessary part of the mythos; and, when his hour had come, lie must meet his doom, as surely as the Sun, once risen, must go across the sky, and then sink down into his bed beneath the earth or sea. It was an iron fate from which there was no escaping.

Crishna, the crucified Saviour of the Hindoos, is a personification of the Sun crucified in the heavens. One of the names of the Sun in the Vedie hymns is Vishnu* and Orishna is Vishnu in human form.1



 



of Mclengros dying as the torch of doom is burnt out, of Buldur, the brave and pure.smitum by the fatal mistletoe, and of Crishna and others being crucified.

In Egyptian mythology, Sot, the destroyer, triumphs in the HVsf. lie is the personification of Darkness and Water, and the Sun-god whom lie puts to death, is Ilorus the Saviour. (See Renouf’s Ilibbert Lectures, pp. 112-115.)

a “ In the liig- Veda the god TIshnu is often named as a maniflestation of the Solar energy, or rather as a form of the Sun.” (Indian Wisdom, p. 332.)

•Crishna says: “I am Vishnu, Brahma,



In the hymns of the Rig-Veda the Sun is spoken of as “ stretch iny out his arms’' in the heavens, “ to bless the world, and to rescue it from the terror of darkness.''

India, the crucified Saviour worshiped in Nepal and Tibet,1 is identical with Crislma. the Sun.3

The principal Phenician deity, El, which, says Parkhnrst, in his Hebrew Lexicon, “was the very name the heathens gave to their god Sol, their Lord or Ruler of the Hosts of Heaven,” was called •'The Preserver (or Saviour) of the World,” for the benefit of which he offered a mystical sacrifice

The crucified Iao (“Divine Love” personified) is the crucified Adonis, the Sun. The Lord and Saviour Adonis was called lao.*

Osiris, the Egyptian Saviour, was crucified in the heavens. To the Egyptian the cross was the symbol of immortality, an emblem of the Sun, and the god himself was erucified to the tree, which denoted his fructifying power.1

llorus was also crucified in the heavens. He was represented, like Crislma and Christ Jesus, with outstretched arms in the vault

of heaven.'

The story of the crucifixion of Prometheus was allegorical, for Prometheus was only a title of the Sun, expressing providence or foresight, wherefore his being crucified in the extremities of the earth, signified originally no more than the restriction of the power of the Sun during the winter months.’

}ndra> and the source as well as the destruction of tilings, the creator and the annihilator of the whole aggregate of existences. (Cox : Aryan Mythology, vol. ii. p. 131.)

1 See Chap. XX.

8 Tndra, who was represented as a crucified god, is also the Sun. No sooner is he born than he speaks to his mother. Like Apollo and all other Sun-gods he has golden locks. and like them he is possessed of an inscrutable wisdom, lie is also born of a virgin—the Dawn. Crishna ami Indra are one. (See Cox : Aryan Mythology, vol. i. pp. 88 and 341; vol. ii. p. 131.)

3  Wake : Phallism, &c., p. 55.

4  See Cox : Aryan Mythology, vol. ii. p. 113.

3 Ibid. pp. 115 and 123.

? See Bonwick’s Egyptian Belief, p. 157.
 
’ Knight: Ancient Art and Mythology, p. 88.

A great number of the Solar heroes or Sun- gods are forced to endure being bound, which indicates the tied-up power of the sun in winter. (Goldzhier : Hebrew Mythology, p. 400.)

0 The Sun, ns climbingthe heights of heaven, is an arrogant being, given to making exorbitant claims, who must be bound to the fiery cross. “ The phrases which described the Snn as revolving daily on his four-spoked cjvss, or as doomed to sink in the sky when his orb had reached the zenith, would give rise to the stories of Jxion on Ills flaming wheel.” (Cox : Aryau Mythology, vol. ii. p. 27.)

3 *? So was Ixion bound on the fiery wheel, and the sons of men see the flaming spokes day by day as it whirls in the big:. neaven.'
 

\\ ho was I.rion, bound on the wheel l lie was none other than the god Sol, crucified in the heavens.” Whatever be the origin of the name, Irion is the "Sun of noondayerucified in the heavens, whose four-spoked wheel, in the words of Pindar, is seen whirling in the highest heaven.8


Tlie wheel upon which Ixion and criminals were said to have been extended was a cross, although the name of the thing was dissembled among Christians; it was a St. Andrew’s cross, of which two spokes confined the arms, and two the legs. (See Fig. No. 35.)

The allegorical tales of the triumphs and misfortunes of the N«m-gods of the ancient Greeks and Romans, signify the alternate exertion of the generative and destructive attributes.

Hercules is torn limb from limb : ami in this catastrophe we see the Hood red sunset which closes the career of Hercules.[1281] The Sun-god cannot rise to the life of the blessed gods until he has been slain. The morning cannot come until the Eds who closed the previous day has faded away and died in the black abyss of night.

Achilleus and Melea<jros represent alike the short-limi San, whose course is one of toil for others, ending in an early death, after a series of wonderful victories alternating with periods of darkness and gloom.1

In the tales of the Trojan war, it is related of Achilleus that he expires at the Skaian, or western gates of the evening. lie is slain by Paris, who here appears as the Pani, or dark power, who blots out the light of the Sun from the heaven.1

We have also the story ol Adorns, born of a virgin, and known in the countries where he was worshiped as •• The Saviour of Mankind,’’ killed by the wild hoar, afterwards "rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven.’’ This Adonis, Adonai—in Hebrew “ My Lord ”—is simply the Sun. lie is crucified in the heavens, put to death bv the wild boar, i.e., Winter. " Pabylon called Tvphon or Winter the hour ; they said he killed Adonis or the fertile Sun." '

The Crucified Dove worshiped by the ancients, was uuie other than the crucified Sun. Adonis was called the Dove. At the ceremonies in honor of his resurrection from the dead, the devotees said, "Hail to the Dove! the Restorer of Light.” 1 Fig. No. 35 is the " Crucified Dove ’’ as described by Pindar, the great lyric poet of Greece, born about 522 n. c.





 



the stoutest champions of Homeric unity.*1 (Rev. G. \V. Cox.)

4 See Muller's Science of Religion, p. 186.

6     See Calmet's Fragments, vol. ii. pp. 21, 22.



“We read in Pindar, (says the author of a learned workentitlel “Nimrod,”) of the venerable bird lynx bound to the wheel, and of the pretended punishment of Ixion. But this rotation was really no punishment, being, as Pindar saith, voluntary, and prepared by himself and/or himself; or if it was, it was appointed in derision of his false pretensions, whereby he gave himself out as the crucified spirit of the world.” “ The four spokes represent St. Andrew’s cross, adapted to the four limbs extended, and furnish perhaps the oldest profane allusion to the crucilixion. The same cross of St. Andrew was the Taw, which Ezekiel commands them to mark upon the foreheads of the faithful, as appears from all Israelilish coins whereon that letter is engraved. The same idea was familiar to Lucian, who calls T the letter of crucifixion. Certainly, the veneration for the cross is very ancient. lynx, the bird of Mautic inspiration, bound to the fourlegged wheel, gives the notion of Ditine Love crucified. The wheel denotes the world, of which she is the spirit, and the cross the sacrifice made for that world.”[1282] [1283]

This “ Divine Love," of whom Nimrod speaks, was “The First- begotten Son ” of the Platonists. The crucifixion of “Divine Love'’’ is often found among the Greeks. Ionali or Juno, according to the Iliad, was bound with fetters, and suspended in space, between heaven and earth. Ixion, Prometheus, Apollo of Miletus, (anciently the greatest and most flourishing city of Ionia, in Asia Minor), were all crucified.’

Semi-Rainis was both a queen of unrivaled celebrity, and also a goddess, worshiped under the form of a Dove. Her name signifies the, Supreme Dove. She is said to have been slain by the last survivor of her sons, while others say, she flew awaj' as a bird—a Dove. In both Grecian and Hindoo histories this mystical queen Scmiramis is said to have fought a battle on the banks of the Indus, with a king called Staurobates, in which she was defeated, and from which she flew away in the form of a Dove. Of this Nimrod says :

“ The name Staurobates, the king by whom Semiramis was finally overpowered, alluded to the cross on which she perished,” and that, "the crucifixion was made into a glorious mystery by her infatuated adorers.”[1284]

Here again we have the crucified Dove, the Sun, for it is well known that the ancients personified the Sun female as well as male.

We have also the fable of the Crncified Rose, illustrated in the jewel of the Dosicrucians. The jewel of the Rosicrncians is formed



 



8 These words aiiplyto Christ Jesus, as well as Scnrramis, aecoiding to the Christian Father Ignatius. In his Epistle to the Church at Ephesus, he says: “ Now the virginity of Mary, and he who was born of her, was kept in secret from the prince of this world, as was also the death of our Lord : thiee o the mysteries the most sixiken of throughout the world, yet don* in secret by God



a Ibid.
 
of a transparent red stone, with a red cross on one side, and a rec rose on the other—thus it is a crucified rose. “ The Rossi, oi Rosy-crucians’ idea concerning this emblematic red cross,” says Hargrave Jennings, in his History of the Rosicrucians, “ probably came from the fable of Adonis—who was the Sun whom we have so often seen crucified—being changed into a red rose by Venus.”[1285]

The emblem of the Templars is a red rose on across. “When it can be done, it is surrounded with a glory, and placed on a calvary (Fig. Xo. 30). This is the Xaurutz, Matsu-, or Rose of Isuren, of Tamul, or Sharon, or the Water Rose, the Lily Padma, Pena, Lotus, crucified in the heavens for the salvation of man?

Christ Jesus was called the Rose—the Rose of Sharon—of Isuren. lie was the renewed incarnation of Divine Wisdom. lie was the son of Maia or Maria. He was the Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the Valley, which bloweth in the month of his mother Maia. Thus, when the angel Gabriel gives the salutation to the Virgin, he presents her with the lotus or lily; as may be seen in hundreds of old pictures in Italy. We see therefore that Adonis,

“ the Lord,” “ the Virgin-born,” “ the Crucified,” “ the Resurrected Dove,” “ the Restorer of Light,” is one and the same with the “ Rose of Sharon,” the crucified Christ Jesus.

Plato (429 b. c.) in his Pimceus, philosophizing about the Son of God, says:

“ The next power to the Supreme God was decussated or figured in the shape of a cross on the universe. ”

This brings to recollection tlie doctrine of certain so-called Chris- tian heretics, who maintained that Christ Jesus was crucified in the heavens.

The Chrestos was the Logos, the Sun was the manifestation of the Logos or Wisdom to men ; or, as it was held by some, it was his peculiar habitation. The Sun being crucified at the time of the winter solstice was represented by the young man slaying the Dull (an emblem of the Sun) in the Mitliraie ceremonies, and the slain lamb at the foot of the cross in the Christian ceremonies. The direst was the Logos, or Divine Wisdom, or a portion of divine
wisdom incarnate; in this sense he is really the Sun or the solai power incarnate, and to him everything applicable to the Sun will apply.

Fig. No. 37, taken from Mr. Lundy’s £< Monumental Christianity,” is evidently a representation of the Christian Saviour crucified in the heavens. Mr.Lundy calls it “Crucifixion in Space,” and believes that it was intended for the Hindoo Saviour Crishna, who is also represented crucified in space (See Fig. No. 8, Ch. XX.). This

(Fig. 37) is exactly in the form of a Homisli crucifix, bid not fixed to a piece of wood, though the legs and feet are put together in the usual way. There is a glory over it, coming from, above, not shining from the figure, as is generally seen in a Homan crucifix. It has a pointed Parthian coronet instead of a crown of thorns. All the avatars, or incarnations of Vishnu, are painted with Ethiopian or Parthian coronets. For these reasons the Christian author will not own that it is a representation of the “ True Son of Justice,” for he was not crucified in space; but whether it was intended to represent Crislma, Wittoba, or Jesus,[1286] it tells a secret: it shows that some one u as represented crucified in the heavens, and undoubtedly has something to do with “ The next power to the Supreme’God,” who, according to Plato, “ was decussated or figured in the shape of a cross on the universe.’’'

Who was the crucified god whom the ancient liomans worshiped, and whom they, according to Justin Martyr, represented as a man on a cross ? Can we doubt, after what we have seen, that lie was this same crucified Sol, whose birthday they annually celebrated on the 25th of December ?

In the poetical tales of the ancient Scandinavians, the same legend is found. Frey, the Deity of the Sun, was fabled to have been killed, at the time of the winter solstice, by the same boar who put the god Adonis to death, therefore a boar was annually offered
to him at the great feast of Yule.[1287] “ Baldur the Good,” son of the supreme god Odin, and the virgin-goddess Frigga, was also put to death by the sharp thorn of winter.

The ancient Mexican crucified Saviour, Quctzalcoatle, another personification of the Sun, was sometimes represented as crucified in space, in the heavens, in a circle of nineteen figures, the number of the metonio cycle. A serpent (the emblem of evil, darkness, and winter) is depriving him of the organs of generation.1

We have seen in Chapter XXXIII. that Christ Jesus, and many of the heathen saviours, healers, and preserving gods, were represented in the form of a Serpent. This is owing to the fact that, in one of its attributes, the Serpent was an emblem of the Sun. It may, at first, appear strange that the Serpent should he an emblem of evil, and yet also an emblem of the beuelicent divinity ; but, as Prof. Iienouf remarks, in his Hihbert Lectures, “ The moment we understand the nature of a myth, all impossibilities, contradictions, and immoralities disappear.” The serpent is an emblem of evil when represented with his deadly stiny; he is the emblem of eternity when represented casting off his shin;’ and an emblem of the Sun when represented with his tail in his mouth, thus forming a circle.* Thus there came to be, not only good, but also bad, serpents, both of which arc referred to in the narrative of the Hebrew exodus, but still more clearly in the struggle between the good and the bad serpents of Persian mythology, which symbolized Ormuzd, or ilithra, and the evil spirit Ahriuiand

As the Dove and the Pose, emblems of the Sun, were represented on the cross, so was the Serpent.’ The famous “ Brazen Serpent,” said to have been "set up " by Moses in the wilderness, is called in the Targum (the general term for the Aramaic versions of the Old



 



calendar stone is entwined by serpents bearing human heads in their distended jaws.”

“The annual passage of the Sun, tlnough the signs of the zodiac, being in an oblique path, resembles, or at least the ancients thought so, the tortuous movements of the Serpent, and the facility possessed by this reptile of casting off his skin and producing out of itself a new covering every year, bore some analogy to the termination of the old year and the commencement of the now one. Accordingly. all the ancient spheres—the Persian, ludian. Egyptian. Barbaric, and Mexican— were surrounded by the figure of a serpent holding Us tail xn its mouth ” (Squire : Serpent Symbol, p. 249.)

3 Wake : Phallism, p. 12.

fl See Cox : Aryan Mytho., vol. ii. p. 128.



Testament) the Saviouk. It was probably a serpentine crucifix, as it is called a cross bjr Justin Martyr. The crucified serpent (Fig. No. 38) denoted the quiescent Phallos, or the Sun after it had lost its power. It is the Sun in winter, crucified on the tree, which denoted its fructifying power.' As Mr. Wake remarks, “There can be no doubt that both the Pillar (Phallus) and the Serpent were associated with many of the Sun-gods of antiquity.’”

This is seen in Fig. No. 39, taken from an ancient medal, which represents the serpent with rays of glory surrounding his head.

The Ophites, who venerated the serpent as an emblem of Christ

 
 i?«
 
 JP%;
 
c
 
 
 
 
 
 V
 
 <J®
 
Fi ff.3 6
 
 Tig. 39
 

 
 



 

Jesus, are said to have maintained that the serpent of Genesis— who brought wisdom into the world — was Christ Jesus. The brazen serpent was called the Word by the Chaldee paraphrast. The Word, or Logos, was Divine Wisdom, which was crucified; thus we have the cross, or Linga, or Phallus, with the serpent upon it. Besides considering the serpent as the emblem of Christ Jesus, or of the Logos, the Ophites are said to have revered it as the cause of all the arts of civilized life. In Chapter XII. we saw that several illustrious females were believed to have been selected and impregnated by the Holy Ghost. In some cases, a serpent was supposed to be the form which it assumed. This was the incarnation of the Logos.



 



death of Winter. In the brazen Serpent of the Pentateuch, the two emblems of the Cross and Serpent, tho q

[Prometheus]

CHAPTER XL.

CONCLUSION.

We now come to the last, but certainly not least, question to be answered; which is, what do we really know of the man Jesus of Nazareth ? How much of the Gospel narratives can we rely upon as fact ?

Jesus of Nazareth is so enveloped in the mists of the past, and his history so obscured by legend, that it may be compared to footprints in the sand. We know some one has been there, but as to what manner of man he in a}' have been, we certainly know little as fact. The Gospels, the only records we have of him,[1332] have been proven, over and over again, unhistorical and legendary; to state anything as positive about the man is nothing more nor less than assumption ; we can therefore conjecture only. Liberal writers philosophize and wax eloquent to little purpose, when, after demolishing the historical accuracy of the New Testament, they end their task by eulogizing the man Jesus, claiming for him the highest praise, and asserting that he was the best and grandest of our race ;a but this manner of reasoning (undoubtedly consoling to mway) facts do not warrant. We may consistently revere his name, and place it in the long list of the great and noble, the reformers and religious teachers of the past, all of whom have done their part in bringing about the freedom we now enjoy, but to go beyond this, is, to our thinking, unwarranted.

If the life of Jesus of Nazareth, as related in the books of the New Testament, be in part the story of a man who really lived and suffered, that story has been so interwoven with images borrowed



 



thought him, at moments, beside himself;” and that, “ his enemies declared him possessed by a devil,” says: ‘-The man here delineated merits a place at the summit of human grandeur.” “This is the Supreme man, a sublime personage;” “to call him divine is no exaggeration.” Other liberal writers have written ill the same strain.



from myths of a bygone age, as to conceal forever any fragments of history which may lie beneath them. Gautama Buddha was undoubtedly an historical personage, yet the Sun-god myth has been added to his history to such an extent that we really know nothing positive about him. Alexander the Great was an historical personage, yet his history is one mass of legends. So it is with Julius Cesar, Cyrus, King of Persia, and scores of others. “ The story of Cyrus' perils in infancy belongs to solar mythology as much as the stories of the magic slipper, of Charlemagne and Barbarossa. His grandfather, Astyages, is purely a mythical creation, his name being identical with that of the night demon, Azidaliaka, who appears in the Shah-Namch as the biting serpent.”

The actual Jesus is inaccessible to scientific research. Ilis image cannot be recovered. He left no memorial in writing of himself; his followers were illiterate; the mind of his age was confused. Paul received only traditions of him, how definite we have no means of knowing, apparently not significant enough to be treasured, nor consistent enough to oppose a harrier to his own speculations. As

H.      Ilenan says : “ The Christ who communicates private revelations to him w a phantom of his own making /” “it is himself he listens to, while fancying that he hears Jesus.”'

In studying the writings of the early advocates of Christianity, and Fathers of the Christian Church, where we would naturally look f jr the language that would indicate the real occurrence of the facts of the Gospel — if real occurrences they had ever been — we not only7 find no such language, but everywhere find every sort of sophistical ambages, rainblings from the subject, and evasions of the very business before them, as if on purpose to balk our research, and insult our skepticism. If we travel to the very sepulchre of Christ Jesus, it is only to discover that he was never there: history seeks evidence of his existence as a man, but finds no more trace of it than of the shadow that flits across the wall. “ The Star of Bethlehem ” shone not upon her path, and the order of the universe was suspended without her observation.

She asks, with the Magi of the East, “ Where is he that is horn King of the Jews t” and, like them, finds no solution of her inquiry, but the guidance that guides as well to one place as another; descriptions that apply to Aesculapius, Buddha and Crislma, as well



 



evolved from his own feeling and imagination, and taking on new powers aud attributes from year to year to suit each new emergency.” (John W. Chadwick.)



as to Jesus; prophecies, without evidence that they were ever prophesied ; miracles, which those who are said to have seen, are said also to have denied seeing; narratives without authorities, facts without dates, and records without names. In vain do the so-called disciples of Jesus point to the passages in Josephus and Tacitus in vain do they point to the spot on which he was crucified; to the fragments of the true cross, or the nails with which he was pierced, and to the tomb in which he was laid. Others have done as much for scores of mythological personages who never lived in the flesh. Did not Damis, the beloved disciple of Apollonius of Tyana, while on his way to India, see, on Mt. Caucasus, the identical chains with which Prometheus had been bound to the rocks? Did not the Scythians'[1333] [1334] [1335] [1336] say that Hercules had visited their country ? and did they not show the print of his foot upon a rock to substantiate their story V Was not his tomb to be seen at Cadiz, where his bones were shown V W as not the tomb of Bacchus to be seen in Greece V Was not the tomb of Apollo to be seen at Delphi ?* Was not the tomb of Achilles to be seen at Dodona, where Alexander the Great honored it by placing a crown upon it ?’ Was not the tomb of JEs- culapins to be seen in Arcadia, in a grove consecrated to him, near the river Lusins ?e Was not the tomb of Deucalion—lie who was saved from the Deluge—long pointed out near the sanctuary of Olympian Jove, in Athens?’ Was not the tomb of Osiris to be seen in Egypt, where, at stated seasons, the priests went in solemn procession, and covered it with flowers?10 Was not the tomb of Jonah—he who was “swallowed up by a big fish”—to lie seen at Nebi-Yunus, near Mosul ?" Are not the tombs of Adam, Eve, Cain, Abel, Seth, Abraham, and other Old Testament characters, to be seen even at the present day ?,a And did not the Emperor Constantine dedicate a beautiful church over the tomb of St. George, the warrior saint ?13 Of what value, then, is such evidence of the existence of such an individual as Jesus of Nazareth ? The fact is, “the records of his life are so very scanty, and these have been so shaped and colored and modified by the hands of ignorance and superstition





 



? See Dupuis, p. 204.

7 See Beil's Pantheon, vol. 1. p. 7. ® See Ibid. vol. i. p. 27.

® Ibid.
 
Ibid. vol. I. p. 2, and Bonwick, p. 155.

13      See Chambers, art. “Jonah,”

13 See Bible for Learners, vol. i. p. 152, and Goldzhier, p. 280,

*• See Curious Myths, p. 2G4.



and party prejudice and ecclesiastical purpose, that it is hard to be sure of the original outlines.”

In the first two centuries the professors of Christianity were divided into many sects, but these might be all resolved into two divisions—one consisting of Nazarenes, Ebionites, and orthodox ; the other of Gnostics, under which all the remaining sects arranged themselves. The former are supposed to have believed in .Jesus crucified, in the common, literal acceptation of the term ; the latter —believers in the Christ as an JEon—though they admitted the crucifixion, considered it to have been in some mystic way—perhaps what might bo called spiritual'iter, as it is called in the Revelation : but notwithstanding the different opinions they held, they all denied that the Christ did really die, in the literal acceptation of the term, on the cross.[1337] The Gnostic, or Oriental, Christians undoubtedly took their doctrine from the Indian crucifixion? (of which we have treated in Chapters XX. and XXXIX.), as well as many other tenets with which we have found the Christian Church deeply tainted. They held that:

“ To deliver the soul, a captive in darkness, the ' Prince of Lighi.,’ the ‘ Genius of the Sun,’ charged with the redemption of the intellectual world, of which the Sun ia the type, manifested itself among men ; that the light appeared in the darkness, but the darkness comprehended it not; that, in fact, light could not unite with darkness ; it put on only the appearance of the human body ; that at the crucifixion Christ Jesus only appeared to suffer. Ills person having disappeared, the bystanders saw in his place a cross of light, over which a celestial voice proclaimed these words ; ‘ The Cross of Light is called Logos, Christos, the Gate, the Joy.’ ”

Several of the texts of the Gospel histories were quoted with great plausibility by the Gnostics in support of their doctrine. The story of Jesus passing through the midst of the Jews when they were about to ctist him headlong from the brow of a hill (Luke iv. 2D, 30), and when they were going to stone him (John iii. 59; x. 31, 39), were examples not easily refuted.

The Mauiehean Christian Bishop Faustus expresses himself in the following manner:

“Do you receive the gospel ? (ask ye). Undoubtedly I do 1 Why' then,



 



he had little or no contact with their corporeal nature.” (A. Ueville : Uist. of the Dogma of the Deity of Jcsns.)

3 Epipbanius says that there were twenty heresies before Christ, and there cau be no doubt that there is much truth in the observation, for most of the rites and doctriucs of the Christians of all sects existed before the time of Jesus of Nazareth,



you also admit that Christ was born ? Not so ; for it by no means follows that in believing the gospel, I should therefore believe that Christ was born I Do you then think that he was of the Virgin Mary ? Manes hath said, ‘ Far be it that I should ever own that Our Lord Jesus Christ... etc.[1338] [1339]

Tortnlliaii’s manner of reasoning on the evidences of Christi- anitjT is also in the same vein, as we saw in our last chapter.“

Mr. King, speaking of the Gnostic Christians, says :

“ Their chief doctrines had been held for centuries before(their time)in many of the cities in Asia Minor. There, it is probable, they first came into existence as Mystic, upon the establishment of direct intercourse with India, under the Se- leueida; and Ptolemies. The college of Essenes and Megabym at Ephesus, the Orpldesoi Thrace, the Carets of Crete, are all merely branches of one antique and common religion, ami that originally Asiatic.''[1340] [1341]

These early Christian Mystics are alluded to in several instances in the INow Testament. For example :

“ Every spirit that eonfesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God ; and every spirit that eonfesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God.”1 For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh.”5

This is language that could not have been used, if the reality of Christ Jesus’ existence as a man could not have been denied, or, it would certainly seem, if the apostle himself had been able to give any evidence whatever of the claim.

The quarrels on this subject lasted for a long time among the early Christians. Hernias, speaking of this, says to the brethren:

" Take heed, my children, that your dissensions deprive you not of your lives. How will ye instruct the elect of God, when ye yourselves want correction ? Wherefore admonish one another, and be at peace among yourselves ; that I, standing before your father, may give an account of you unto the Lord.”5

.Ignatius, in his Epistle to the Smyrnaeans, says

“ Only in the name of Jesus Christ, I undergo all, to suffer together with him ; he who was made a perfect man strengthening me. Whom some, not knowing, do deny ; or rather have been denied by him, being the advocates of death, rather than of the truth. Whom neither the prophecies, nor the law of Moses, have persuaded ; nor the Gospel itself even to this day, nor the sufferings



 



itself a shameful thing—I maintain that the Son of God died: well, that is wholly credible because it is monstrously absurd. I maintain that after having been buried, he rose again: and that I take to be absolutely true, because it ivas manifestly impossible."

      King's Gnostics, p. 1.

      I. John, iv. 2, 3.

      II. John, 7.

      1st Book Hennas: Apoc , oh. ill.

      Chapter II.



of any one of us. For they think alto the tame thing of us ; for what docs a man profit me, if he shall praise me, and blaspheme my Lord; not confessing that he was truly made man t ”

In his Epistle to the Philadelphians he says :*

“I have heard of some who say, unless 1 find it written in the originals, I will not believe it to be written in the Gospel. And when 1 said, It is written, they answered what lay before them in their corrupted copies.”

Polycarp, in his Epistle to the Philippians, says

“ Whosoever does not confess that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, he is Antichrist : and whosoever does not confess his sufferings upon the cross, is from the devil. And whosoever perverts the oracles of the Lord to his own lusts ; and says that there shall neither be any resurrection, nor judgment, he is the first-born of Satan.”

Ignatius says to the Magnesians :*

"Be not deceived with strange doctrines ; nor with old fables which are unprofitable. For if we still continue to live according to the Jewish law, we do confess ourselves not to have received grace. For even the most holy prophets lived according to Jesus Christ. . . . Wherefore if they who were brought up in these ancient laws came nevertheless to the newness of hope ; no longer observing Sabbaths, but keeping the Lord’s Day, in which also our life is sprung up by him, and through his death, whom yet some deny. By which mystery we have been brought to believe, and therefore wait that we may be found the disciples

of Jesus Christ, our only master........ These things, my beloved, I write

unto you, not that I know of any among you that be under this error ; but as one of the least among you, I am desirous to forewarn you that ye fall not into the snares of vain doctrine.”

After reading this we can say with tlpe writer of Timothy,* “ Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness.”

Beside those who denied that Clirist Jesus had ever been manifest in the flesh, there were others who denied that he had been crucified.* This is seen from the words of Justin Martyr, in his Apology for the Christian Religion, written a. d. 141, where he says :

“ As to the objection to our Jesus’s being crucified, I say, suffering was common to all the Sons of Jove.”*

' Chapter II.                              a Chapter HL

, * chapter m.

* I. Timothy, ilL 16.

6 Ircnseus, speaking of them, says : u They hold that men ought not to confess him who was crucified, but him who came in the form of man, and teas supposed to be crucified, and was called JesQS.” (See Lordnerj vol. vliL p.
 
353.) They conld not conceive of “ the first* begotten Son of God beiug pat to death on a cross, and suffering like an ordinary being, so they thought Simon of Cyrene mast have been substituted for him, as the mm was substituted in the place of Isaac. (See Ibid, p. S57.)

• Apoi. 1, ch. Til.
 

This is as much as to say: “ You Pagans claim that your incarnate gods and Saviours suffered and died, then why should not w>e claim the same for our Saviour ? ”


1 Koran, eh. iv.

   Chapter XX.

   Chapter II.
 
The Koran, referring to the Jews, says :

“They liavo not believed in Jesus, and have spoken against Mary a grievous calumny, and have said : ‘ Yerily we have slain Christ Jesus, the son of Mary ’ (the apostle of God). Tel they slew him not, neither crucified, him, hut he was represented by one in his likeness. And verily they who disagreed concerning him wf in a doubt as to this matter, and had no sure knowledge thereof, but followed only uu uncertain opinion."'

This passage alone, from the Mohammedan Bible, is sufficient to show, if other evidence were wanting, that the early Christians “disagreed concerning him,” and that “ they had no sure knowledge thereof, but followed only an uncertain opinion.”

In the books which are now called Apocryphal, bnt which were the most quoted, and of equal authority with the others, arid which were voted not the word of God—for obvious reasons—and were therefore cast out of the canon, we lind many allusions to the strife among the early Christians. Bor instance; in the “First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians,”3 we read as follows :

“ ‘Wherefore are there strifes, and anger, and divisions, and schisms, ana wars, among us ? . . . Why do we rend and tear in pieces the members of Christ, and raise seditions against our own body ? and are come to such a height of'madness, as to forget that we are members one of another.”

In his Epistle to the Trallians, Ignatius says :s

“I exhort you, or rather not I, but the love of Jesus Christ, that ye use none but Christian nourishment ; abstaining from pasture which is of another kind. I mean Heresy. For they that are heretics, confound together the doe- 1rine of Jesus Christ with their own poison ; whilst they seem worthy of belief.

.   . . Stop your cars, therefore, as often as any one shall speak contrary to

Jesus Christ, who was of the race of David, of the Virgin Mary. Who was truly bora, and did eat and drink; was traly persecuted under Pontius Pilate; was truly crucified and dead; both those in heaven aDd on earth, and under the earth, being spectators of it. . . . But if, as some who are atheists, that is to say, infidels, pretend, that he only seemed to suffer, why then am 1 bound ? Why do I desire to fight with beasts ? Therefore do I die in vain.”

We find St. Paul, the very first Apostle of the Gentiles, expressly avowing that he was made a minister of the gospel, which had already been preached to every creature under heaven,[1342] [1343] and preaching a God manifest in the flesh, who had been believed on in the world ' therefore, before the commencement of his ministry/ and who could not have been the man of Nazareth, who had certainly not been preached, at that time, nor generally believed on in the world, till ages after that time.* We find also that:


        This Paul owns himself a deacon, the lowest ecclesiastical grade of the Therapeutan church.

        The Gospel of which these Epistles speak, had been extensively preached and fully established before the time of Jesus, by the Therapeuts or Essenes, who believed in the doctrine of the Angel-Messiah, the ^Eon from heaven.’

Leo the Great, so-called (a. d. 440-4C1), writes thus:

" Let those who with impious murmurings find fault with the Divine dispensations, and who complain about the lateness of our Lord’s nativity, cease from their grievances, as if what was carried oat in later ages of the world, had not been impending in time past. .         .                                                     .

" What the Apostles preached, the prophets (in Israel) had announced before, and what has always been (universally) believed, cannot be said to have been fulfilled too late. By this delay of his work of salvation, the wisdom and love of God have only made us more fitted for bis call ; so that, what had been announced before by many Signs and Words and Mysteries during so many centuries. should not be doubtful or uncertain in the days of the gospel. .                        . God has not pro

vided for the interests of men by a new council or by a late compassion; but he had instituted from the beginning for all men, one and the same path of salvation."J

This is equivalent to saying that, “ God, in his ‘ late compassion,’ has sent his Son, Christ Jesus, to save us, therefore do not complain or ‘ murmur ’ about ‘ the lateness of his coming,’ for the Lord has already provided for those who preceded us; he has given them ‘(he same path of salvation? by sending to them, as lie has sent to us, a Redeemer and a Saviour.”

Justin Martyr, in his dialoguo with Typho,’ makes a similar confession (as we have already seen in our last chapter), wherein he says that there exists not a people, civilized or semi-civilized, who have not offered up prayers in tlio name of a crucified Saviour to the Father and Creator of all things.

Add to this medley the fact that St. Irenseus (a. d, 192), one of the most celebrated, most respected, and most quoted of the early Christian Fathers, tells us on the authority of his master, Polycarp, who had it from St. John himself, and from all the old people of Asia, that Jesus was not crucified at the time stated in the Gospels, but that he lived to be nearly fifty years old. The passage which, most fortunately, has escaped the destroyers of all such evidence, is to be found in Irenasus’ second book against heresies,* of which the following is a portion :



" As the chief part of thirty years belongs to youth, and every one will ecnfe:a him to he such tilt the fortieth year: but from the fortieth year to the fiftieth he declines into old age, which our Lord (Jesus) having attained he taught us the Gospel, and all the elders who, in Asia, assembled with John, the disciple of the Lord, testify ; and as John himself had taught them. And ho (John ?) remained with them till the time of Trajan. And some of them saw not only John but other Apostles, and heard the same thing from them, and bear the same testimony to this revelation

The escape of this passage from the destroyers can be accounted for only in the same way as the passage of Minucius Felix (quoted in Chapter XX.) concerning the Pagans worshiping a crucifix. These two passages escaped from among, probably, hundreds destroyed, of which wo know nothing, under the decrees of the emperors, yet remaining, by which they were ordered to be destroyed.

In John viii. 56, Jesus is made to say to the Jews: “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it and was glad.” Then said the Jews unto him: “Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham ?”

If Jesus was then but about thirty years of age, the Jews would evidently have said : “ thou art not yet forty years old,” and would not have been likely to say: “ thou art not yet fifty years old,” unless he was past forty.

There was a tradition current among tne early Christians, that Annas was high-priest when Jesus was crucified. This is evident from the Acts' Now, Annas, or Ananias, was not hiyh-jpriest until about the year 4S a. d. therefore, if Jesus was crucified at that time he must have been about fifty years of age but, as we remarked elsewhere, there exists, outside of the New Testament, no evidence whatever, in book, inscription, or monument, that Jesus of Nazareth was cither scourged or crucified under Pontius Pilate. Josephus, Tacitus, Plinius, Philo, nor any of their contemporaries, ever refer to the fact of this crucifixion, or express any belief thereon.4 In the Talmud—the hook containing Jewish traditions —Jesus is not referred to as the “ crucified one,” but as the “ hanged one,”6 "while elsewhere it is narrated he was stoned to death; so that it is evident they were ignorant of the maimer of death which he suffered.'



 



* According to Dio Cassius, Plntarch, Strabo and others, there existed, in the time of Herod, among the Roman Syrian heathens, a widespread and deep sympathy for a “ Crucified Ki*ig of the Jezosfi’ This was the youngest Bon of Aristobul, 'the heroic Maccabee. In the year 43 b. c., we find this young man—Anti- gonus—in Palestine claiming the crown, Ids cause having been declared just by Julius Caesar. Allied with the PaTthians, he main*



In Sanhedr. 43 a, Jesus is said to have had five disciples, among whom were Mattheaus and Thaddeus. lie is called “ That Man,” “The Nnzarinc,” “The Fool,” and “ The Ilung.” Thus Aben Ezra says that Constantine put on his hdtarum “ a figure of the hung;” and, according to It. Becliai, the Christians were called ‘‘Worshipers of the Hung.”

Little is said about Jesus in the Ta'hiud, exet pt that he was a scholar of Joshua .lien 1‘eraohinh (who lived a century before tin- time assigned by the Christians lor the b.rtu of Jesus), aeeotupanicii liim into Egypt, there learned magic, and was a seducer of rim people, and was finally put to death by being stoned, and then hung as a blasphemer.

“ The conclusion is, that no clearly defined traces of the personal Jesus remain on the surface, or beneath the surface, of Christendom. The silence of Josephus anti other secular historians may be accounted for without falling back on a theory of hostility or contempt.[1344] [1345] The ChristAAca. cannot be spared from Christian development, but the personal Jesus, in some measure, can be.”

“The person of Jesus, though it may have been immense, is indistinct. That a great character was there may be conceded ; but precisely wherein the character was great, is left to our conjecture. Of the eminent persons who have swayed the spiritual destinies of mankind, none has more completely disappeared from the critical view. The ideal image which Christians have, for nearly two thousand years, worshiped under the name of Jesus, has no authentic, distinctly visible, counterpart in history.”

“ Ilis followers have gone on with the process of idealization, placing him higher and higher ; making his personal existence more and more essentia!; insisting more and more urgently on the necessity of private intercourse with him ; letting the Father subside into the background, as an ‘ effluence,’ and the Holy Ghost lapse from individual identity into impersonal influence, in order that he



 



tained himself in his royal position for six years against Herod and Mark Antony. At last, after n heroic life and reign, he fell in the hands of this Homan. “ Antoni/ now gave the kingdom to a certain Ilerod, and, having etretched Antigonus on a cross and scourged him. a thing never done before to any other king by the Homans, he put him io death," (Dio Cassius, book xlix. p. 405.)

The fact that all prominent historians of those days mention this extraordinary occurrence, and the manner they did it, show that *t was considered one of Mark Antony's worst



might be all in all as Regenerator and Saviour. From age to age the personal Jesns has been made the object of an extreme adoration, till no-w faith in the living Christ is the heart of the Gospel; philosophy, science, culture, humanity are thrust resolutely aside, and the great teachers of the age are extinguished in order that his light may shine."’ But, as Mr. Frothingham remarks, in “The Cradle of the Christ ” : “In the order of experience, historical and biographical truth is discovered by stripping oil layer after layer of exaggeration, and going back to the statements of contemporaries. As a rule, iigures are reduced, not enlarged, by criticism. The intlueuce of admiration is recognized as distorting and falsifying, while exalting. The process of legend-making begins immediately, goes on rapidly and with accelerating speed, and must be liberally allowed for by the seeker after truth. In scores of instances the historical individual turns out to bo very much smaller than he was painted by his terrified or loving worshipers. In no single case has it been established that he was greater, or as great. It is, no doubt, conceivable that such a case should occur, but it never has occurred, in known instances, and cannot be presumed to have occurred in any particular instance. The presumptions are against the correctness of the glorified image. The disposition to exaggerate is so much stronger than the disposition to underrate, that even really great men are placed higher than they belong of toner than lower. The historical method works backwards. Knowledge shrinks the man.”[1346]



 



sought solitude ; he spent hours and days in meditation and prayer, after the true manner of all accredited saints, and was soon repaid by the visits of angels. One of these came to him when he was but eighteen years old, and the house in which he was seemed filled with consuming fire. The presence—he styles it a personage—had a pace like lightning, and pro claimed himself to be an angel of the Lord lie vouchsafed to Smith a vast deal of highly important information of a celestial order. Ho told him that his (Smith’s) prayers had been heard, and his sins forgiven ; that the covenant which the Almighty had made with the old Jews was to be fulfilled ; that the introductory work for the second coming of Christ was now to begin ; that the hour for the preaching of the gospel in Its purity to all peoples was at hand, and that Smith was to be ail instrument in the hands of God, to further the divine purpose in the new dispensation. The eelestial stranger also furnished him with a sketch of the origin, progress, laws and civilization of the American aboriginals, and declared that the blessing of heaven bad finally beeu with-



As we are allowed to conjecture as to what is true iu the Gospel history, we shall now do so.

drawn from them. To Smith was communicated the momentous circumstance that certain plates containing tin abridgment of the records of the aboriginals mid ancieut prophets, who had lived on this continent, were hidden in a hill near Palmyra. The prophet was counseled to go there and look at them, and did eo. Not being holy enough to possess them as yet, he passed some months in spiritual probation, after which the records were put into his keeping. These had been prepared, it is claimed, by a prophet called Mormon, who had been ordained by God for the purpose, and to conceal them until he should produce them for the benefit of the faithful, and unite them with the Bible for the achievement of his will. They form the celebrated Book of Mormon—whence the name Mormon—and are esteemed by the Latter-Day Saints as of equal authority with the Old and New Testaments, and as an indispensable supplement thereto, because they include God’s disclosures to the Mormon world. These precious records were sealed up and deposited a.d. 430 in the place where Smith had viewed them by the direction of the angel.

The records were, it is held, in the reformed Egyptian tongue, and Smith translated them through the inspiration of the angel, and one Oliver Cowdrey wrote down the translation as reported by the God-possessed Joseph. This translation was published in 1830, and its divine origin was attested by a dozen persons—all relatives and friends of Smith. Only these have ever pretended to see the original plates, which have already become traditional. The plates have been frequently called for by skeptics, but all in vain. Naturally, warm controversy arose concerning the authenticity of the Book of Mormon, anddisbelievers have asserted that they have indubitable evidence that it is, with the exception of various unlettered interpolations, principally borrowed from a queer,
 
rhapsodical romance written by an eccentric ex-clcrgyman named Solomon Spalding.

Smith and his disciples were ridiculed and socially persecuted; but they seemed to be ardently earnest, and continued to preach their creed, which was to the effect that the millennium was at hand; that our aboriginals were to be converted, and that the New Jerusalem— the last residence and home of the saints—was to be near the centre of this continent. The Vermont prophet, Inter on, was repeatedly mobbed, even shot at. His narrow escapes were construed as interpositions of divine providence, but he displayed perfect coolness and intrepidity through all his trials. The Church of JesUB Christ of the Latter-Day Saints was first established in the spring of 1830 at Manchester, N. Y.; but it awoke such fierce opposition, particularly from the orthodox, many of them preachers, that Smith and his associates deemed it prudent to move farther west. They established themselves at Kirtland, 0„ and won there many converts. Hostility to them Btill continued, and grew so fierce that the body transferred itself to Missouri, and next to Illinois, settling in the latter state near the village of Commerce, which was renamed Nauvoo.

The Governor and Legislature of Illinois favored the Mormons, but the anti-Mormons made war on them in every way, and the custom of “ sealing wives,” which is yet mysterious to the Gentiles, caused serioiiB outbreaks, and resulted in tbe incarceration of the prophet and his brother Hiram at Carthage. Fearing that the two might be released by the authorities, a band of ruffians broke into the jail, in the summer of 1844, and murdered them in cold blood. This was most fortunate for the memory of Smith and for his doctrine?. It placed him in the light of a holy martyr, and lent to them a dignity and vitality they had never before enjoyed.
 

The death of Herod, which occurred a few years before the time assigned for the birth of Jesus, was followed by frightful social and political convulsions in Judea. For two or three years all the elements of disorder were abroad. Between pretenders to the vacant throne of Herod, and aspirants to the Messianic throne of David, Judea was torn and devastated. Revolt assumed the wildest form, the higher enthnsiasm of faith yielded to the lower fury of fanaticism; the celestial visions of a kingdom of heaven were completely banished by the smoke and flame of political hate. Claimant after claimant of the dangerous supremacy of the Messiah appeared, pitched a camp in the wilderness, raised the banner, gathered a



force, was attacked, defeated, banished or crucified / but the frenzy did not abate.

The popular aspect of the Messianic hope was political, not religious or moral. The name Messiah was synonymous with King of the Jews/ it suggested political designs and aspirations. The assumption of that character by any individual drew on him the vigilance of the police.


That Jesus of Nazareth assumed the character of “Messiah,” as did many before aud after him, and that his crucifixion[1347] was simply an act of the law on political grounds, just as it was in the case of other so-called Messiahs, we believe to be the truth of the matter.*

“ He is represented as being a native of Galilee, the insurgent district of the country/ nurtnred, if not born, in Nazareth, one of its chief cities; reared as a youth amid traditions of patriotic devotion, and amid scenes associated with heroic dreams and endeavors. The Galileans were restless, excitable people, beyond the reach of conventionalities, remote from the centre of power, ecclesiastical and secular, simple in their lives, bold of speech, independent in thought,





 



modes in which the Homans crucified their slaves and criminals. (See Chapter XX , on the Crucifixion of Jesos.)

     According to the Matthew and Mark narrators, Jesus1 head was anointed while sitting at table in the house of Simon the leper. Now, this practice was common among the kings of Israel. It was the sign and symbol of royalty. The word “ Messiah11 signifies the “ Anointed One,[1348] and none of the kings of Israel were styled the Messiah unless anointed. (See The Martyrdom of Jesns of Nazareth, p. 421



 



thoroughgoing in the sort of radicalism that is common among people who live ‘ out of the world,’ who have leisure to discuss the exciting topics of the day, but too little knowledge, culture, or sense of social responsibility to discuss them soundly. Their mental discontent and moral intractability were proverbial. They were belligerents. The Komans had more trouble with them than with the natives of any other province. The Messiahs all started oat from Galilee, and never failed to collect followers round their standard. The Galileans, more than others, lived in the anticipation of the Deliverer. The reference of the Messiah to Galilee is therefore already an indication of the character he is to assume.”

To show the state the country must have been in at that time, we will quote an incident or two from Josephus.

A religious enthusiast called the Samaritans together upon Mount Gerizim, and assured them that he would work a miracle. “ So they came thither armed, and thought the discourse of the man probable; and as they abode at a certain village, which was called Tirathaba, they got the rest together of them, and desired to go up the mountain in a great multitude together: but Pilate prevented their going up, by seizing upon the roads by a great band of horsemen and footmen, who fell upon those who were gotten together in the village ; and when it came to an action, some of them they slew, and others of them they put to flight, and took a great many alive, the principal of whom, and also the most potent of those that lied away, Pilate ordered to be slain.”1

!STot long before this Pilate pillaged the temple treasury, and used the “ sacred money ” to bring a current of water to Jerusalem. The dews were displeased with this, “and many ten thousands of the people got together and made a clamor against him. Some of them used reproaches, and abused the man, as crowds of such people usually do. So he habited a great number of his soldiers in their habits, who carried daggers under their garments, and sent them to a place where they might surround them. So he bade the Jews himself go away; but they boldly casting reproaches upon him, he gave the soldiers that signal which had been beforehand agreed on ; who laid upon them with much greater blows than Pilate had commanded them, and equally punished those that were tumultuous, and those that were not; nor did they spare them in the least: and since the people were unarmed, and were caught by men prepared for what they were about, there were a great number of them slain by this means, and others ran away wounded. And thus an end was put to this sedition.”[1349]

It was such deeds as these, inflicted upon the Jews by their oppressors, that made them think of the promised Messiah who was to deliver them from bondage, and which made many zealous fanatics imagine themselves to be “ He who should come.”[1350] [1351]

There is reason to believe, as we have said, that Jesus of Nazareth assumed the title of “ Messiah.” His age was throbbing and bursting with suppressed energy. The pressure of the Homan Empire was required to keep it down. “ The Messianic hope had such vitality that it condensed into moments the moral result of ages. The common people were watching to see the heavens open, interpreted peals of thunder as angel voices, and saw divine potents in the flight of birds. Mothers dreamed their boys would be Messiah. The wildest preacher drew a crowd. The heart of the nation swelled big with the conviction that the hour of destiny was about to strike, that the kingdom of heaven was at hand. The crown was ready for any kingly head that might assume it

The actions of this man, throughout his public career, we believe to be those of a zealot whose zeal overrode considerations of wisdom ; in fact, a Galilean fanatic. Pilate condemns him reluctantly, feeling that he is a harmless visionary, but is obliged to condemn him as one of the many who persistently claimed to be the “ 1Messiah,” or “King of the Jews” an enemy of Caesar, an instrument against the empire, a pretender to the throne, a bold inciter to rebellion. The death he undergoes is the death of the traitor and mutineer,[1352] [1353] [1354] [1355] [1356] the death that was inflicted on many such claimants, the death that would have been decreed to Judas the Galilean,4 had he been captured, and that was inflicted on thousands of his deluded followers. It was the Romans, then, who crucified the man Jesus, and not the Jews.



 



of the teaching of the Rabbis, was the certain advent of a great national Deliverer—the Messiah. . . . The national mind had become so inflammable, by constant brooding on this one theme, that any bold spirit rising in revolt against the Homan power, could find an army Of fierce disciples who trusted that it should be he who would redeem Israel.'" (Geikie : The Life of Christ, vol. i. p. 79.)

< “ The penalty of crucifixion, according to Roman luw and custom, w as inflicted on slaves, and in the provinces on rebels only.'" (The Martyrdom of Jesus, p. 96.)

8 Judas, the Gaulonite or Galilean, as Josephus calls him, declared, when Cyrenlus came to tax the Jewish people, that “this taxation was no better than an introduction to



“In the Roman law the State is the main object, for which tho individual must live and die, with or against his will. In Jewish law, the person is made the main object, for which the State must live and die ; because the fundamental idea of the Roman law is power, and the fundamental idea of Jewish law is justice.”1 Therefore Cmapluts and his conspirators did not act from the Jewish standpoint. They represented Home, her principles, interest, and barbarous caprices.'' Not one point in the whole trial agrees with Jewish laws and custom.3 it is impossible to save it; it must be given up as a transparent and unskilled invention of a Gentile Christian, who knew nothing of Jewish law and custom, and was ignorant of the state of civilization in Palestine, in the time of J esus.

slavery,” and exhorted the nation to assert their liberty. IK* therefore prevailed upon Ins countrymen to revolt. (See Josephus : Antiq., b. xviii. ch. i. 1, and Wary of the Jews, b. ii. ch. viii. 1.)

i The Martyrdom of Jesus of Nazareth, p.

30.

* “ That the High Council did accuse Jesus, I suppose no one will doubt; and since they could neither wish or expect the lloman Governor to make himself judge of their sacred law, it becomes certain that their accusation was purely political, and took such a form as this :

* lie has accepted tumultuous shouts that he is the egitimate and predicted King of Israel, and tn this character has ridden into Jerusalem with the forms of state understood to be toyal and sacied ; with what purpose, we ask, if not to overturn our institutions, and your dominion r If Jesns spoke, at the crisis which Matthew represents, the viruleut speech attributed to him (Matt, xxiii.), we may well believe that this gave a new incentive to the rulers; for it is such is no government in Europe would over
 
look or forgive; but they are not likely to have expected Pilate to care for any conduct which might be called an ecclesiastical broil. The assumption of royalty was clearly the point of their attack. Even the mildest man among them may have thought his conduct dangerous and needing repression.” (Francis W. Newman, “What is Christianity without Christ ?”)

According to the Synoptic Gospels, Jesns was completely innocent of the charge which has sometimes been brought against him, that he wished to be considered as a God come down toearth. llis enemies certainly would not. have failed to make such a pretension the basis and tne continual theme of their accusations, if it had beeu possible to do eo. The two grounds upon which he was brought before the Sanhedrim were, first, the bold words he was sup- loosed to have sj>oken about the t< mple; and. secondly and chiefly, the fact that he claimed to be the Messiah, i. e., “ The King of the Jews." (Albert Reville : ** The Doctrine of the Dogma of the Deity of Jesns,” p. 7.)

1 See The Martyrdom of Jesue, p 30.
 

Jesus had been proclaimed the “ Messiah,” the “ lluler of the Jews,” and the restorer of the kingdom of heaven. No Roman ear could understand these pretensions, otherwise than in their rebellious sense. That Rontius Pilate certainly understood under the title, “ Messiah,” the king (the political chief of the nation), is evident from the subscription of the cross, “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews,” which he did not remove in spite of all protestations of the Jews. There is only one point in which the four Gospels agree, and that is, that early in the morning Jesus was delivered over to the Homan governor, Pilate; that he was accused of high- treason against Home—having been proclaimed King of the Jews —and that in consequence thereof he was condemned first to be


scourged, and then to be crucified; ali of which was done in hot haste. In all other points the narratives of the Evangelists differ widely, and so essentially that one story cannot be made of the four accounts; nor can any particular points stand the test of historical criticism, and vindicate its substantiality as a fact.

The Jews could not have crucified Jesus, according to their laws, if they had indicted on him the highest penalty of the law, since crucifixion was exclusively Romm.[1357] If the priests, elders, Pharisees. Jews, or all of them wanted Jesus out of the way so badly, why did they not have him quietly put to death while he was in their power, and done at once. The writer of the fourth Gospel seems to have understood this difficulty, and informs us that they could not kill him, because he had prophesied what death he should die ; so he could die no other. It was dire necessity, that the heathen symbol of life and immortality—the cross’—should be brought to honor among the early Christians, and Jesus had to die on the cross (the Homan Gibbet), according to John3 simply because it was so proplbesied. The fact is, the crucifixion story, like the symbol of the crucifix itself, came from abroad.4 It was told with the avowed intention of exonerating the Romans, and criminating the Jews, so they make the Roman governor take water, u and wash his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person ; see ye to it.” To be sure of their case, they make the Jews say : " Ills blood be on us, and on our chiklren.,,i

'? Another fact is this. Just at the period of time when misfortune and ruination befell the Jews most severely, in the first post-apostolic generation, the Christians were most active in making proselytes among Gentiles. To have then preached that a crucified Jewish Rabbi of Galilee was their Saviour, would have sounded supremely ridiculous to those heathens. To have added thereto, that the said Ilabhi was crucified by command of a Roman Governor, because he had been proclaimed ‘ King of the Jews,’ would have been fatal to the whole scheme. In the opinion of the vulgar heathen, where the Roman Governor and Jewish Rabbi came in conflict, the former must unquestionably be right, and the latter decidedly wrong. To have preached a Saviour who was justly condemned to die the death of a slave and villain, would certainly have proved fatal to the whole enterprise. Therefore it was necessary to exonerate Pilate and tlie Romans, and to throw the whole burden upon the Jews, in order to establish the innocence and martyrdom of Jesus in the heathen mind.'’

That the crucifixion story, as related in the synoptic Gospels, was written (throat/, and not in the Hebrew, or in the dialect spoken by the Hebrews of Palestine, is evident from the following particular points, noticed by Ifr. Isaac M. Wise, a learned Hebrew scholar:

The 2lark and Matthew narrators call the place of crucifixion “ Got (jot ha/' to which the Mark narrator adds, ‘‘ which is, being interpreted, the place of skulls.” The Matthew narrator adds the same interpretation, which the John narrator copies without the word “ Golgotha.” and adds, it was a place near Jerusalem. The Luke narrator calls the place of crucifixion “ Calvary,” which is the Latin Calraria, viz., “ the place of hare skulls.” Therefore the name does not refer to the form of the hill, hut to the hare skulls upon it.' Now “ there is no such word as Golgotha anywhere in Jewish literature, and there is no such place mentioned anywhere near Jerusalem or in Palestine by any writerj and, in fact, there was no such place; there could have been none near Jerusalem. The Jews buried their dead carefully. Also the executed convict had to be buried before night. No bare skulls, bleaching in the sun, could he found in Palestine, especially not near Jerusalem. It was law, that a bare skull, the bare spinal column, and also the imperfect skeleton of any human beiny, make man tin clean by contact, and also by having either in the house. Man, thus made unclean, could not eat of any sacrificial meal, or of the sacred tithe, before he had gone through the ceremonies of purification ; and whatever he touched was also unclean (Maimonides, Ilil. Tumath Meth., iii. 1). Any impartial reader can see that the object of this law was to prevent the barbarous practice of heathens of having human skulls and skeletons lie about exposed to the decomposing influences of the atmosphere, as the Romans did in Palestine after the fall of Botliar, when for a long time they would give no permission to bury the dead patriots. This law was certainly enforced most rigidly in the vicinity of Jerusalem, of which they maintained “Jerusalem is more holy than all other cities surrounded with walls,” so that it was not permitted to keep a dead body over night in the city, or to



 



skull-like, and therefore a mound or hillock," but, if It means ** the place Qf bare fkulln" no each construction as the above can be put to the word.



transport through it human hones. Jerusalem was the place of the sacrificial meals and the consumption of the sacred tithe, which was considered very holy (Maimonides, Ilil. Beth Habchirah, vii. 14); there, and in the surroundings, skulls and skeletons were certainly never seen on the surface of the earth, and consequently there was no place called “ Golgotha,” and there was no such word in the Hebrew dialect. It is a word coined by the Mark narrator to translate the Latin term “ Calvariawhich, together with the crucifixion story, came from Rome. But after the Syrian word was made, nobody understood it, and the Mark narrator was obliged to expound it.’'[1358]

In the face of the arguments produced, the crucifixion story, as related in the Gospels, cannot be upheld as an historical fact. There exists, certainly, no rational ground whatever for the belief that the allair took place in the manner the Evangelists describe it. All that can be saved of the whole story is, that after Jesus had answered the first question before Pilate, viz., “Art thou the King of the Jews ?” which it is natural to suppose he was asked, and also this can be supposed only, he was given over to the Homan soldiers to be disposed of as soon as possible, before his admirers and followers could come to his rescue, or any demonstration in his favor be made, lie was captured in the night, as quietly as possible, and guarded in some place, probably in the high-priest’s court, completely secluded from the eyes of the populace; and early in the morning he was brought before Pilate as cautiously and quietly as it could be done, and at his command, disposed of by the soldiers as quickly as practicable, and in a manner not known to the mass of the people. All this was done, most likely, while the multitude worshiped on Mount Moriah, and nobody had an intimation of the tragical end of the Man of Nazareth.

The bitter cry of Jesus, as he hung on the tree, “ My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” disclosed the hope of deliverance that till the last moment sustained his heart, and betrayed the anguish felt when the hope was blighted; the sneers and hooting of the Homan soldiers expressed their conviction that he had pretended to be what he was not.

The miracles ascribed to him, and the moral precepts put into his mouth, in after years, are what might be expected ; history was simply repeating itself; the same tiling had been done for others. “ The preacher of the Mount, the prophet of the Beatitudes, does but repeat, with persuasive lips, wliat the law-givers of his race proclaimed in mighty tones of command.

The martyrdom of Jesus of Nazareth has been gratefully acknowledged by his disciples, whose lives ho saved by the saerilicc of his own, and by their friends, who would have fallen by the score had he not prevented the rebellion ripe at Jerusalem.2 Posterity, infatuated with Pagan apotheoses, made of that simple martyrdom an interesting legend, colored with the myths of resurrection and ascension to that very heaven which the telescope lias put out of man’s way. It is a novel myth, made to suit the gross conceptions of ex-heathens. Modern theology, understanding well enough that the myth cannot he saved, seeks refuge in the greatness and self-denial of the man who died for an idea, as though Jesus had been the only man who had died for an idea. Thousands, tens of thousands of Jews, Christians, Mohammedans and Heathens, have died for ideas, and some of them were very foolish. Cut Jesus did not die for an idea, lie never advanced anything new, that we know of, to die for. lie was not accused of saying or teaching anything original. Nobody has ever been able to discover anything new and original in the Gospels, lie evidently died to save the lives of his friends, and this is much more meritorious than if he had died for a questionable idea. But then the whole fabric of vicarious atonement is demolished, and modern theology cannot get over the absurdity that the Almighty Lord of the Universe, the infinite and eternal cause of all causes, had to kill some innocent person in order to bo reconciled to the human race. However abstractly they speculate and subtilize, there is always an undigested bone of mail-god, god- man, and vicarious atonement in the theological stomach. Therefore theology appears so ridiculous in the eyes of modern philosophy. The theological speculation cannot go far enough to hold pace with modern astronomy. However nicely the idea may be dressed, the great God of the immense universe looks too small upon the cross of Calvary; and the human family is too large, has too numerous virtues and vices, to be perfectly represented by, and dependent on, one Rabbi of Galilee. Speculate as they may, one way or another, they must connect the Eternal and the fate of tho human family with the person and fate of Jesns. That is the very thing which deprives Jesus of liis crown of martyrdom, and brings [1359] religion in perpetual conflict with philosophy. It was not the religious idea which was crucified in Jesus and resurrected with him, as with all its martyrs; although his belief in immortality may have strengthened him in the agony of death. It was the idea of duty to his disciples and friends which led him to the realms of death. This deserves admiration, but no more. It demonstrates the nobility of human nature, but proves nothing in regard to providence, or the providential scheme of government.

The Christian story, as the Gospels narrate it, cannot stand the test of criticism. You approach it critically and it falls. Dogmatic Christo! ogg built upon it, lias, therefore, a very frail foundation. Most so-called lives of Christ, or biographies of Jesus, are works of fiction, erected by imagination on the shifting foundation of meagre and unreliable records. There are very few passages in the Gospels which can stand the rigid application of honest criticism. In modern science and philosophy, orthodox Christology is out of the question.

“This 1 sacred tradition ’ has in itself a glorious vitality, which Christians may unblameably entitle immortal. But it certainly will not lose in beauty, grandeur, or truth, if all the details concerning Jesus which are current in the Gospels, and all the mythology of his person, be forgotten or discredited. Christianity will remain without Christ.

“This formula has in it nothing paradoxical. Bightly interpreted, it simply means : All that is lest in Judceo-Christian sentiment, moral or spiritual, will survivewithout Rabbinical fancies, cultured ly perverse logic / without huge piles of fable built upon them: 'without the Oriental k'ulan, a formidable rival to the throne of God j without the Ragan invention of Hell and Devils.'’’’

In modern criticism, the Gospel sources become so utterly worthless and unreliable, that it takes more than ordinary faith to believe a large portion thereof to be true. The Eucharist was not established by Jesus, and cannot be called a sacrament. The trials of Jesus are positively not true: they are pure inventions.1 The crucifixion story, as narrated, is certainly not true, and it is extremely difficult to save the bare fact that Jesus was crucified. What can the critic do with books in which a few facts must be ingeniously guessed from under the mountain of ghost stories,11 childish mira-

1 It what is recorded in the Gospels on the could fail to have noticed it, but instead of this tnbject was true, no historian of that day there is nothing.

      See Matthew, xxvii. 51-53.



cles,[1360] ;ind dogmatic tendencies V It is absurd to expect of liim to regard them as sources of religious instruction, in preference to any other mythologies and legends. That is the point at which modern critics have arrived, therefore, the Gospels have become books for the museum and archaeologist, for students of mythology and ancient literature.

The spirit of dogmatic Christology hovers still over a portion of civilized society, in antic organizations, disciplines, and hereditary forms of faith and worship; in science and philosophy, in the realm of criticism, its day is past. The univei’sal, religious, and ethical element of Christianity has no connection whatever with Jesus or his apostles, with the Gospel, or the Gospel story; it exists independent of any person or story. Therefore it needs neither the Gospel story nor its heroes. If we profit by the example, by the teachings, or the discoveries of men of past ages, to these men we are indebted, and are in duty bound to acknowledge our indebtedness ; but why' should we give to one individual, Jesus of .Nazareth, the credit of it all? It is true, that by selecting from the Gospels whatever portions one may choose, a common practice among Christian writers, a noble and grand character may be depicted, but who was the original of this character? We may find the same individual outside of the Gospels, and before the time of Jesus. The moral precepts of the Gospels, also, were in existence before the Gospels themselves were in existence.’ Why, then, extol the hero of the Gospels, and forget all others?



 



Do mean to suggest that Christianity has, /<?' :he first time, revealed to the world the existence of a set of self-sacrificing precepts—that here, for the first time, man has learned that he ought to be meek, merciful, humble, forgiving, sorrowful for sin. peace* able, and pure iu heart? The proof of fuch a statement would destroy Christianity ifseif, for an absolute original code of precepts would be equivalent to a foreign language. The glory qf Christian morality is that it is not original-that its words appeal to something which alreaeJy exists within the human heart, and on that account have a meaning to the human ear : no new revelation can be made except through the medium of an old one. When we attribute originality to the ethics of the Gospel, we do so on the ground, not that it has given new precepts, but that it lias given us a new impulse to obey the moral iu* stincta of the soul. Christianity itself claims on the field of morale this originality, and this alone—1 A new commandment give I unto you, that you love one another/ ” (St. Giles



As it was at the end of Homan Paganism, so is it now: the masses are deceived and fooled, or do it for themselves, and persons of vivacious fantasies prefer the masquerade of delusion, to the simple sublimity of naked but majestic truth. The decline of the church as a political power proves beyond a doubt the decline of Christian faith. The conflicts of Church and State all over the European continent, and the hostility between intelligence and dogmatic Christianity, demonstrates the death of Christology in the consciousness of modern culture. It is useless to shut our eyes to these facts. Like rabbinical Judaism, dogmatic Christianity was the product of ages without typography, telescopes, microscopes, telegraphs, ami power of steam. “ These right arms of intelligence have fought the titanic battles, conquered and demolished the ancient castles, and remove now the debris, preparing the ground upon which there shall be the gorgeous temple of humanity, one universal republic, one universal religion of intelligence, and one great universal brotherhood. This is the new covenant, the gospel of humanity and reason.”

“------ Hoary headed selfishness has felt

Its death-blow, and is tottering to the grave :

A brighter morn awaits the human day ;

War with its million horrors, and fierce hell,

Shall live but in the memory of time,

Who, like a penitent libertine, shall start,

Look back, and shudder at his younger years.”

[Prometheus]

APPENDIX A.

Among the ancient Mexicans, Peruvians, and some of the Indian tribes of North and South America, were found fragments of the Eden Myth. The Mexicans said that the primeval mother was made ont of a man's bone, and that she was the mother of twins.'

The Cherokees supposed that heavenly beings came down and made the world, after which they made a man and woman of clay." The intention of the creators was that men should live always. But the Sun, when ho passed over, told them that there was not land enough, and that people had better die. At length, the daughter of the Sun was bitten by a Snake, and died. The Sun, however— whom they worshiped as a god—consented that human beings might live always. Ho intrusted to their care a box, charging them that they should not open it. However, impelled by curiosity, they opened it, contrary to the injunction of the Sun, and the spirit it contained escaped, and then the fate of all men was decided, that they must die.'

The inhabitants of the New World had a legend of a Deluge, which destroyed the human race, excepting a few who were saved in a boat, which landed on a mountain.* They also related that birds were sent out of the ark, for the purpose of ascertaining if the flood was abating.*

Tho ancient Mexicans had the legend of the confusion of tongues, and related the whole story as to how the gods destroyed the tower which mankind was building so as to reach unto heaven.*

The Mexicans, and several of the Indian tribes of North America, believe in the doctrine of Metempsychosis, or the transmigration of souls from one body into another.’ This, as we have already seen,* was universally believed in tho Old World.

The legend of the man being swallowed by a fish, and, after a



 



203. Higgins : Anacalypsls, vol. ii. p. 27.

       Ibid.

       Brinton : Myths of the New World, p. 204.

       See Chapter V.

      See Ibid, and Chambers's Encyclo., art 14 Transmigration''1



three days’ sojourn in his belly, coming out safe and sound, was found among the Mexicans and Peruvians.[1361] [1362]

The ancient Mexicans, and some Indian tribes, practiced Circumcision, which was common among all Eastern nations of the Old World.’

They also had a legend to the effect that one of their holy persons commanded the sun to stand still.[1363] [1364] [1365] [1366] [1367] This, as we have already seen,* was a familiar legend among the inhabitants of the Old World.

The ancient Mexicans were fire-worshipers ; so wore the ancient Peruvians. They kept a fire continually burning on an altar, just as the fire-worshipers of the Old World were in the habit of doing.* They were also Sun-worshipers, and had “ temples of the Sun.’”

The Tortoise-myth was found in the New World.’ Now, in the Old World, the Tortoise-myth belongs especially to India, and the idea is developed there in a variety of forms. The tortoise that holds the world is called in Sanscrit Kura-mraja, “ King of the Tortoises,” and many Hindoos believe to this day that the world rests on its back. “ The striking analogy between the Tortoise- myth of North America and India,” says Mr. Tyler, “is by no means a matter of new observation ; it was indeed remarked upon by Father Lufitau nearly a century and a half ago. Three great features of the Asiatic stories are found among the North American Indians, in the fullest and clearest development. The earth is supported on the back of a huge fioating tortoise, the tortoise sinks under the water and causes a deluge, and the tortoise is conceived as being itself the earth, floating upon the face of the deep.”[1368] [1369] [1370] [1371]

We have also found among them the belief in an Incarnate God born of a virgin the One God worshiped in the form of a Trinity ;‘° the crucified Black godthe descent into hell the resurrection and ascension into heaven,1* all of which is to be found in the oldest Asiatic religions. We also found monastic habits— friars and nuns.14



 



the summit stood a sumptuous temple, in which was the image of the mystic deity (Quetzal- coatle), with ebon features, unlike the fair complexion which he hore upon earth." And Kenneth It. H. Mackenzie says (in Cities of the Ancient World, p. 180): “From the woolly texture of the hair. I am inclined to assign to the Buddha of India, the Fuhi of China, the Sommonacom of the Siamese, the Xaha of the Japanese, and the Quetzalcoatle of the Mexicans, the same, and indeed an African, or rather .Nubian, origin.” is See Chapter XXII.

18 See Chapter XXIII,

“ See Chapter XXVI.



 



The Mexicans denominated their high-places, sacred houses, or “Houses of God.” The corresponding sacred structures of tho Hindoos are called “ God's House.”'

Many nations of the East entertained the notion that there were nine heavens, and so did the ancient Mexicans.3

There are few things connected with the ancient mythology of America more certain than that there existed in that country before its discovery by Columbus, extreme veneration for the Serpent.3 Now, the Serpent was venerated and worshiped throughout the East.3

The ancient Mexicans and Peruvians, and many of the Indiaii tribes, believed the Sun and Moon not only to be brother and sister, but man and wife ; so, likewise, among many nations of the Old World was this belief prevalent.3 'The belief in werc-wolves, or man- wolves, man-tigers, man-hyenas, and the like, which was almost universal among the nations of Europe, Asia and Africa, was also found to be the case among South American tribes.3 The idea of calling the earth “ mother,” was common among the inhabitants of both the Old and New Worlds.3 “In the mythology of Finns, Lapps, and Esths, Earth-Mother is a divinely honored personage. It appears in China, where Heaven and Earth are called in the Shaking—one of their sacred books—“ Father and Mother of all things. ”

Among the native races of America the Earth-Mother is one of the great personages of mythology. The Peruvians worshiped her as Mama-Phaclia, or Earth-Mother. The Caribs, when there was an earthquake, said it was their mother-earth dancing, and signifying to them to dance and make merry likewise, which they accordingly did.6

It is well-known that the natives of Africa, when there is an eclipse of the sun or moon, believe that it is being devoured by some great monster, and that they, in order to frighten and drive it away, beat drums and make noises in other ways. So, too, the rude Moguls make a clamor of rough music to drive the attacking Arachs (Palm) from Sun or Moon."

The Chinese, when there is an eclipse of the Sun or Moon, proceed to encounter the ominous monster with gongs and bells.10

1 Squire : Serpent Symbol, p. 77.

   Ibid. p. 109.

8 See Ferguson’s Tree and Serpent Worship, and Squire's Serpent Symbol.

   See Ibid.

   See Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. 1. p. 261, and Squire's Serpent Symbol.
 
• Primitive Culture, vol. 1. p. 280, and Squire’s Serpent Symbol.

                   Primitive Culture, vol. i. p. 294, and Squire’s Serpent Symbol.

   Tylor: Primitive Culture, vol. i. pp. 295, 296.
 
• Ibid. p. 300.
 
9 Ibid.
 
" Ibid. p. 301.
 

The ancient Romans flung firebrands into the air, and blew trumpets, and clanged brazen pots and pans.11 Even as late as the


seventeenth century, the Irish or Welsh, during eclipses, ran about beating kettles and pans.1 Among the native races of America was to be found the same superstition. The Indians would raise a frightful howl, and shoot arrows into the sky to drive the monsters off.* The Caribs, thinking that the demon Maboya, hater of all light, was seeking to devour the Sun and Moon, would dance and howl in concert all night long to scare him away. The Peruvians, imagining such an evil spirit in the shape of a monstrous beast, raised the like frightful din when the Moon was eclipsed, shouting, sounding musical instruments, and beating the dogs to join their howl to the hideous chorus.3

The starry band that lies like a road across the sky, known as the milky way, is called by the Basutos (a South African tribe of savages), “The Way of the Gods ;” the 0jis (another African tribe of savages), say it is the “ Way of Spirits,” which souls go up to heaven by. North American tribes know it as “the Path of the Master of Life,” the “ Path of Spirits,” “the Koad of Souls,” where they travel to the land beyond the grave.4

It is almost a general belief among the inhabitants of Africa, and was so among the inhabitants of Europe and Asia, that monkeys were once men and women, and that they can even now really speak, but judiciously hold their tongues, lest they should be made to work. This idea was found as a serious matter of belief, in Central and South America.4 “The Bridge of the Dead,” which is one of the marked myths of the Old World, was found in the New.’

It is well known that the natives of South America told the Spaniards that iuland there was to be found a fountain, the waters of which turned old men back into youths, and how Juan Ponce de Leon fitted out two caravels, and went to seek for this “Fountain of Youth.” Now, the “Fountain of Youth” is known to the mythology of India.7

> lylor; Primitive Caltare, vol. i. p. 801. »Ibid. p. 296.

•Ibid.

   Ibid. p. 234.

   Ibid. p. 239 and 343.
 
    Early Hist. Mankind, pp. 357 and 361.

    Ibid. p. 361.

The legend of the “Elixir of Life” of the Western World, was well-known in China. (Buckley : Cities of the Ancient World, p. 167.)

    Ibid. p. 118, and Squire’s Serpent Symbol.
 

The myth of foot-prints stamped into the rocks by gods or mighty men, is to be found among the inhabitants of Europe, Asia, and Africa, Egyptians, Greeks, Brahmans, Buddhists, Moslems, and Christians, have adopted it as relics each from their own point of view, and Mexican eyes could discern in the solid rock at Tlanepantla the mark of hand and foot left by the mighty Quetzal coatle.8


The Incas, in order to preserve purity of race, married their own sisters, as did the Kings of Persia, and other Oriental nations.[1372] [1373] [1374] [1375]

The Peruvian embalming of the royal dead takes us back to Egypt; the burning of the wives of the deceased Incas reveals India; the singularly patriarchical character of the whole Peruvian policy is like that of China in the olden time : while the system of espionage, of tranqnillity, of physical well-being, and the iron-like immovability in which their whole social frame was cast, bring before us Japan—as it was a very few years ago. In fact, there is something strangely Japanese in the entire cultus of Peru as described by all writers.'

The dress and costume of the Mexicans, and their sandals, resemble the apparel and sandals worn in early ages in the East.'

Mexican priests were represented with a Serpent twined around their heads, so were Oriental kings.* The Mexicans had the head of a rhinoceros among their paintings/ and also the head of an elephant oil the body of a man." Xow, these animals were unknown in America, but well known in Asia ; and what is more striking still is the fact that the man with the elephant’s head is none other than the Ganesa of India ; the God of Wisdom. Humboldt, who copied a Mexican painting of a man with an elephant's head, remarks that “it presents some remarkable and apparently not accidental resemblances with the Hindoo Ganesa.”

The horse and the ass, although natives of America,’ became extinct on the Western Continent in an early period of the earth’s history, yet the Mexicans had, among their hieroglyphics, representations of both these animals, which show that it must have been seen in the old world by the author of the hieroglyph. When the Mexicans saw the horses which the Spaniards brought over, they were greatly astonished, and when they saw the Spaniards on horseback, they imagined man and horse to be one.

Certain of the temples of India abound with sculptural representations of the symbols of Phallic Worship. Turning now to the temples of Central America, which in many respects exhibit a strict correspondence with those in India, kg find precisely the same symbols, separate and in combination.*

We have seen that many of the religious conceptions of America are identical with those of the Old World, and that they are em-






todon, and other animals, near Puiiin, in South America, all of which had passed away before the arrival of the human species. This native American horse was succeeded, in after ages, by the countless herds descended from a few introduced with the Spanish colonists. (See the Andes and the Amazon, pp. 154, 155.)

      Serpent Symbol, p. 47.



bodied or symbolized under the same or cognate forms; and it is confidently asserted that a comparison and analysis of her primitive systems, in connection with those of other parts of the globe, philosophically conducted, would establish the grand fact, that in all their leading elements, and in many of their details, they are essentially the same.[1376]

The architecture of many of the most ancient buildings in South America resembles the Asiatic. Around Lake Titicaca are massive monuments, which speak of a very ancient and civilized nation.[1377]

R. Spence Hardy, says :

“ The ancient edifices of Chi Chen, in Central America, bear a striking resemblance to the topes of India. The shape of one of the domes, its apparent size, the small tower on the summit, the trees growing on the sides, the appearance of masonry hero and there, the style of the ornaments, and the small doorway at the base, are so exactly similar to what I had seen at Anuradhapura, that when my eye first felt -upon the engravings of these remarkable ruins, 1 supposed that they were presented in illustration of the ddgobas of Ceylon.”[1378] [1379]

E. G. Squire, speaking of this, says :

“ The Bud’hist temples of Southern India, and of the islands of the Indian Archipelago, as described to us by the learned members of the Asiatic Society, and the numerous writers on the religion and antiquities of the Hindoos, correspond, with great exactness, in all their essential and in many of their minor features, with those of Central America."*

Structures of a pi/ramitlal style, which are common in India, were also discovered in Mexico. The pyramid tower of Cholula was one of these.2

Sir R. Kir Porter writes as follows :

‘1 What striking analogies exist between the monuments of the old continents and those of the Toltecs, who, arriving on Mexican soil, built several of these colossal structures, truncated pyramids, divided by layers, like the temple of Belus at Babylon. Whence did they take the model of these edifices t Were they of the Mongolian race ? Did they descend from a common stock with the Chinese, the Hiong-nu, and the Japanese f3

The similarity in features of the Asiatic and the American race is very striking. Alexander de Humboldt, speaking of this, says :

“There are striking contrasts between the Mongol and American races.”’ “ Over a million and a half of square leagues, from the Terra del Puego islands to the River St. Lawrence and Behring’s Straits, we are struck at the first glance with the general resemblance in the features of the inhabitants. We think we perceive that they all descended ftorn the same stock, notwithstanding the enormous diversity of language which separates them from one another.”*





 



       See Ibid.

       Travels in Persia, vol. ii. p. 280. 7 New Spain, vol. i. p. 136.

® Ibid. p. 141.



" This analogy is particularly evident in the color of the skin and hair, in the defective beard, high cheek-bones, and in the direction of the eyes,”1

Dr. Morton says :

“ In reflecting <m the aboriginal races of America, we arc at once met by the striking fact, that, their physical characters are wholly independent of all climatic or known physical influences. Notwithstanding their immense geographical distribution, embracing every variety of climate, it is acknowledged by all travellers, that there is among this people a prevailing type, around which all the tribes—north, south, east and west—duster, though varying within prescribed limits. Willi trilling exceptions, all our American Indians bear to each other some degree of family resemblance, quite as strong, for example, as that seen at the present day among full-blooded Jews.”[1380] [1381]

James Orton, the traveler, was also struck with the likeness of the American Indians to the Chinese, including the flatted nose. Speaking of the Zaparos of the Xapo River, he says :

“The Zaparos in physiognomy somewhat resemble the Chinese, having a middle stature, round face, small eyes set angularly, and a broad, flat nose.”3

Oscar Paschel says :

“The obliquely-set eyes and promiuent cheek-bones of the inhabitants of Veragua were noticed by Monitz Wagner, and according to his description, out of four liayuno Indians from Darieu, three laid thoroughly Mongolian features, including the flatted nose.”

In I8U0, mi officer of the Sharpshooter, the first English man- of-war which entered the Parana River in Brazil, remarks in almost the same words of the Indians of that district, that their features vividly reminded him of the Chinese. Burton describes the Brazilian natives at the falls of Cachauhy as having thick, round Kalmuck heads, flat Mongol faces, wide, very prominent cheek bones, oblicjue and sometimes narrow-slit Chinese eyes, and slight mustaches.

Another traveler, J. ,1. Von Tschudi, declares in so many words that he has seen Chinese whom at the first glance he mistook for Botoeudos, and that since then he has been convinced that the American race ought not to bo separated from the Mongolian. Ilis predecessor, St. Hilaire, noticed narrow, obliquely-set eyes and broad noses among the Malali of Brazil. Reinhold Hcnsel says of the Coroados, Hint their features are of Mongoloid type, due especially to the prominence of the cheek-bones, but that the oblique position of the eyes is not perceptible. Yet the oblique opening of the eye, which forms a good though not an essential characteristic of the Mongolian nations, is said to bo characteristic of all the Guarani tribes in Brazil. Even in the extreme south, among the



 



   Quoted in Ibid.

   Quoted in Ibid. p. 94.
 
Hiullitches of Patagonia, King saw a great many with obliquely set eyes. Those writers who separate the Americans as a peculiar race fail to give distinctive characters, common to them all, which distinguish them from the Asiatic Mongols. All the tribes hare stiff, long hair, cylindrical in section. The beard and hair of the body is always scanty or totally absent. The color of the skin varies considerably, as might be expected in a district of 110° of latitude; it ranges from a light South European darkness of complexion among the Botocudos, of the deepest dye among the Aymara, or to copper red in the Sonor tribes. But no one has tried to draw limits between races on account of these shades of color, especially as they are of every conceivable gradation.[1382] [1383]

Charles G. Leland says :

The Tunguse, Mongolians, and a great part of the Turkish race formed originally, according to all external organic tokens, as well as the elements of their language, but one people, closely allied with the Esquimaux, the Skraling, or dwarf of the Norseman, and the races of the New World. This is the irrefutable result to which all the more recent inquiries in anatomy and physiology, as well as comparative philology and history, have conduced. All the aboriginal Americans have those distinctive tokens which forcibly recall their neighbors dwelling on the other side of Behring’s Straits. They have the four-cornered head, high cheek-bones, heavy jaws, large angular eye-cavities, and a retreating forehead. The skulls of the oldest Peruvian graves exhibit the same tokens as the heads of the nomadic tribes of Oregon and California.”’ It is very certain that thousands of American Indians, especially those of small stature or of dwarfish tribes, bear a most extraordinary likeness to Mongols.”’

John D. Baldwin, in his “Ancient Americasays :

“ I find myself more and more inclined to believe that the wild Indians of tha North came originally rom Asia, where the race to which they belong seems still represented by the Kordhs and Cookehees, found in that part of Asia which extends to Behring’s Straits.”4

Hon. Charles D. Poston, late commissioner of the United States of America in Asia, in a work entitled, “ The Parsees,” speaking of an incident which took place “ beyond the Great Wall,” says :

“A Mongolian came riding up on a little black pony, followed by a servant on a camel, rocking like a windmill. He stopped a moment to exchange pantomimic salutations. He was full of electricity, and alive with motion; the blood was warm in his veins, and the fire was bright in his eye. I could have sworn that lie was an Apache ; every action, motion and look reminded me of my old enemies and neighbors in Arizona. They' are the true descendants of the nomadic Tartars of Asia and preserve every instinct of the race. He shook hands friend- lily but timidly, keeping all the time in motion like an Apache.”5


That the continents of Asia .and America were at one time joined together bv an isthmus, at the place where the channel of Behring’s straits is now found, is a well known fact. That the severance of Asia from America was, geologically speaking, very recent, is shown by the fact that not only the straits, but the sea which bears the name of Behring, is extraordinarily shallow, so much so, indeed, that whalers lie at anchor in the middle of it.1 This is evidently the manner in which America was peopled.1

During the Champlain period in the earth’s history the climate of the northern portion of the American continent, instead of being frigid, and the country covered with sheets of ice, was more like the climate of the Middle States of the present day. Tropical animals went North, and during the Terrace period—which followed the Champlain—the climate changed to frigid, and many of these tropical animals were frozen in the ice, and some of their remains were discovered centuries after.

It was probably during the time when the climate in those northern regions was warm, that the aborigines crossed over, and even if they did not do so at that time, we must not be startled at the idea that Asiatic tribes crossed over from Asia to America, when the country was covered with ice. There have been nations who lived in a state of nudity among ice-fields, and, even at the present day, a naked nation of fishermen still exist in Terra del Fuego, where the glaciers stretch down to the sea, and even into it.*

Chas. Darwin, during his voyage round the world in II. M. S. Beagle, was particularly struck with the hardiness of the Fuegians, who go in a state of nudity, or almost entirely so. He says :

“Among these central tribes the men generally have an otter-skin, or some small scrap, about as large as a pocket-handkerchief, to cover their nakedness, which is barely sufficient to cover their backs as low down as their loins.’’4

   Paschelj Races of Man. pp. 400, 401.

8 To those who may think that the Old World might have been peopled from the new, we refer to Oscar Paschel’s “Races'of Man,” p. 32. The author, in speaking on this subject, says : “ There at one time existed a great continent, to which belonged Madagascar and perhaps portions of Eastern Africa, the Maldives and Laccadives, and also the Island of
 
Ceylon, which was never attached to India, perhaps even the island of Celebes in the far East, which possesses a perplexing fauna, with semi-African features.” Oil this contineut, which was situated in the now Indiau Ocean, mnst we look for the cradle qf humanity.

• Paschel : Races of Man, p. 31.

4 Darwin's Journal, p. 213.
 

One day while going on shore near 'Wollaston Island, Mr. Darwin’s party pulled alongside a canoe which contained six Fuegians, who were, he says, “quite naked, and even one full-grown woman was absolutely so. It was raining heavily, and the fresh water, together with the spray, trickled down her body. In another harbor not far distant, a woman, who was suckling a recontly-born child, came one


day alongside the vessel, and remained there out'of mere curiosity, whilst the sleet fell and thawed on her naked bosom, and on the skin of her naked baby !”‘

This was during the winter season.

A few pages farther on Mr. Darwin says that on the night of the 22d December, a small family of Fuegians—who were living in a cove near the quarters—“ soon joined our party round a blazing fire. We were well clothed, and though sitting close to the fire were far from too warm ; yet these naked savages, though further o£E, were observed, to our great surprise, to be streaming with perspiration at undergoing such a scorching. They seemed, however, very well pleased, and all joined in the chorus of the seamen’s songs; but the manner in which they were invariably a little behind was quite ludicrous.”[1384] [1385] [1386]

The Asiatics who first crossed over to the American continent were evidently in a very barbarous stage, although they may have known how to produce fire, and use bows and arrows.* The tribe who inhabited Mexico at the time it was discovered by the Spaniards was not the first to settle there ; they had driven out a people, and had taken the country from them.[1387]

That Mexico was visited by Orientals, who brought and planted their religion there, in a comparatively recent period, is very probable. Mr. Chas. G. Leland, who has made this subject a special study, says :

“ While tlie proofs of the existence or residence of Orientals in America are extremely vague and uncertain, and while they are supported only by coincidences, the antecedent probability of tbeir having come hither, or having been able to come, is stronger than the Norse discovery of the New World, or even than that of Columbus himself would appear lo be. Let the reader take a map of the Norlhern Pacific; let him ascertain for himself the fact that from ICamt- sehatka, which was well known to the old Chinese, to Alaska the journey is far less arduous than from China proper, and it will be seen that there was in all probability' intercourse of some kind between the continents. In early times the Chinese were bold and skillful navigators, to whom the chain of the Aleutian Islands would have been simply like stepping-stones over a shallow brook to a child. For it is a well ascertained fact, that a sailor in an open boat might cross from Asia to America by the Aleutian Islands in summer-time, and hardly' ever



 



ively followed each other from the north to the 60Uth always murdered, hunted down, and subdued the previous inhabitants, and formed in course of time a now social and political life upon the ruins of the old system, to be again destroyed and renewed in a few centuries, by a new invasion of barbarians. The later native conquerors in the New World can, of course, no more be considered in the light of original inhabitants than the present races of men in the Old World.”



be out of sight of land, and this in a part of the sea generally abounding in tish, as is proved by the fishermen who inhabit many of these islands, on which fresli water is always to be found.”[1388] [1389] [1390]

Colonel Barclay Kennon, formerly of the U. S. North Pacific surveying expedition, says :

“From the result of the most accurate scientific observation, it is evident that the voyage from Chinn to America can be made without being out of sight of land more titan a few hours at any one lime. To a landsman, unfamiliar with long voyages, the mere idea of being 'alone on the wide, wide sea,’ with nothing but water visible, even for an hour, conveys a strange sense of desolation, of daring, and of adventure. But in truth it is regarded as a mere trifie, not only by regular seafaring men, bill even by tile rudest races in all parts of the world ; anil 1 have no doubt that from the remotest ages, and on all shores, fishermen in open boats, canoes, or even coracles, guided simply by tlie stars and currents, have not hesitated to go far out of sight of land. At the present day, natives of many of tliu South Pacific Islands undertake, without a compass, and successfully, long voyages which astonish even a regular Jack-tar, who is not often astonished at anything. If this can be done by savages, it hardly seems possible that the Asiuttc-Amcricun voyage was not successfully performed by people of advanced scientific culture, who laid, it is generally believed, the compass, and wlio from an early age were proficient in astronomy.”4

Prof. Max Muller, it would seem, entertains similar ideas to our own, expressed as follows :

“In their (.the American Indians') languages, as well as in their religions, traces may possibly still be found, before it is too late, of pre-historic migrations of men from the primitive Asiatic to the A me r lean Continent, either aero** the stepping-stones of the Ateutic bridge in the A'orth, or lower South, by drifting with favorable winds from island to island, till the hardy canoe mis landed or wrecked on the American coast, never to return again to the Asiatic home from which it had started."*

It is very evident then, that the religion and mythology of the Old and .Now Worlds, have, in part, at least, a common origin. Lord Kiugsborough informs us that the Spanish historians of the 10th century were not disposed to admit that America hadovor been colonized from the West, “chiefly on account of the state in which religion was found in the new continent.”*

And Mr. Tylor says :

“ Among the mass of Central American traditions . . . there occur certain passages in the story of an early emigration of the Qtiichfi race, which have much the appearance of vague and broken stories derived in some way from high Northern latitudes.”6

Mr. McCulloh, in his “ Ilesearches,” observes that :





 



< Mexican Antiq., vol. vi. p. 181. * Early Hist. Mankind, p, 807.



“In analyzing many parts of their (the ancient Americans’) institutions, especially those belonging to their cosmogonal history, their religious superstitions, and astronomical computations, we have, in these abstract matters, found abundant proof to assert that there has been formerly a connection between the people of the two continents. Their communications, however, have taken place at a very remote period of time; for those matters in which they more decidedly coincide, are undoubtedly those which belong to the earliest history of mankind.”

It is unquestionably from India that we have derived, partly through the Persians and other nations, most of our metaphysical and theological doctrines, as well as our nursery talcs. Who then can deny that these same doctrines and legends have been handed down by oral tradition to the chief of the Indian tribes, and in this way have been preserved, although perhaps in an obscure and imperfect manner, in some instances at least, until the present day ? The facts which we have before us, with many others like them which are to be had, point with the greatest likelihood to a common fatherland^ the cradle of all nations, from which they came, taking these traditions with them.

APPENDIX B.

Commencing at the farthest East we shall find the ancient religion of China the same as that which was universal in all quarters of the globe, viz., an adoration of the Sun, Moon, Stars and elements.[1391] That the Chinese religion was in one respect the same as that of India, is seen from the fact that they named successive days for the same seven planets that the Hindoos did.1 The ancient books of the Chinese show that astronomy was not only understood by them at a very early period, but that it formed an important branch of state policy, and the basis of public ceremonies. Eclipses are accurately recorded which occurred twenty centuries before Jesus; and the Confucian books refer continually to observations of the heavenly bodies and the rectification of the calendar. The ancient Chinese astronomers seem to have known precisely the excess of the solar year beyond 365 days. The religion of China,



 



personifications that the real objects worshiped became unknown. At first the real Sun, Moon, Stars, *&c., would be worshiped, but as soon as man personified them, other terms would be introduced, and peculiar rites appropriated to each, so that in time they came to be considered as so many different deities.



 



under the emperors who preceded the first dynasty, is an enigma. The notices in the only authentic works, the King, are on this point scanty, vague, and obscnre. It is difficult to separate what is spoken with reference to the science of astronomy from that which may relate to religion, properly so called. The terms of reverence and respect, with which the heavenly bodies are spoken of in the Shoo- King, seem to warrant the inference that those terms have more than a mere astronomical meaning, and that the ancient religion of China partook of star-worship, one of the oldest heresies in the world.[1392]

In India the Sun, Moon, Stars and the powers of Nature were worshiped and personified, and each quality, mental and physical, had its emblem, which the Brahmans taught the ignorant to regard as realities, till the Pantheon became crowded.

“ Our Aryan ancestors learned to look up to the sky, the Sun, and the dawn, and there to see the presence of a living power, half- revealed, and half-hidden from their senses, those senses which wore always postulating something beyond what they could grasp. They went further still. In the bright sky they perceived an Illuminator, in the all-encircling firmament an Embracer, in the roar of the thunder or in the voice of the storm they felt the presence of a Shouter and of furious Strikers, and out of the rain they created an Indra, or giver of rain.”''

Prof. Monier Williams, speaking of “ the hymns of the Veda,” says :

“ To what deities, it will be asked, were the prayers and hymns of these collections addressed ? The answer is: They worshiped those physical forces before which all nations, if guided solely by the light of nature, have in the early period of their life, instinctively bowed down, and before which even the most civilized and enlightened have always been compelled to bend in awe and reverence, if not in adoration.”8

The following sublime description of Night is an extract from the Vedas, made by Sir William Jones :

“ Night approaches, illumined with stars and planets, and, looking on all sides with numberless eyes, overpowers all meaner lights. The immortal goddess pervades the firmament, covering the low valleys and shrubs, the lofty mountains and trees, but soon she disturbs the gloom with celestial effulgeuce. Advancing with brightness, at length she recalls her sister Morning; and the nightly shade gradually melts away. May she at this time be propitious! She, in whose early watch we may calmly recline in our mansions, as birds repose upon the trees. Mankind now sleep in their towns; now herds and flocks peacefully slumber, and the winged creatures, swift falcons, and vultures. O Nightl



avert from us the she-wolf and the wolf; and, oh I suffer us to pass thee in soothing rest! Oh, morn! remove in due time this black, yet visible overwhelming darkness, which at present enfolds me, as thou enablest me to remove the cloud of their dells. Daughter of lleacen, I approach thee with praise, as the cow approaches her milker; accept, O Night 1 not the hymn only, but the oblation of thy suppliant, who prays that his foes may be subdued.”

Some of tlie principal gods of the Hindoo Pantheon are, Dyaus (the Sky), Indra (the Rain-giver), Sflrya (the Sun), the Marnts (Winds), Aditi, (the Dawn), Parvati (the Earth,)[1393] and Siva, her consort. The worship of the Sun is expressed in a variety of ways, and by a multitude of fanciful names. One of the principal of these is Crishna. The following is a prayer addressed to him :

“Be auspicious to my lay, O Chrishna, thou only God of the seven heavens, who swayest the universe through the immensity of space and matter. O universal and resplendent Sun 1 Thou mighty governor of the heavens ; thou sovereign regulator of the connected whole; thou sole and universal deity of mankind; thou gracious and Supreme Spirit; my noblest and most happy inspiration is thy- praise and glory. Thy- power I will praise, for thou art my- sovereign Lord, whose bright image continually- forces itself on my attention, eager imagination. Thou art the Being to whom heroes pray in perils of war; nor are their supplications vain, when thus they pray; whether it be when thou illuminest the eastern region with thy orient light, when in thy meridian splendor, or when thou majestically descendest in the West.”

Crishna is made to say :

“I am the light in the Sun and Moon, far, far beyond the darkness. I am the brilliancy in flame, the radiance in all that’s radiant, and the light of lights.”[1394] [1395]

In tlie Maha-bharata, Crishna, who having become the son of Aditi (the Dawn), is called Vishnu, another name for the Sun.’ The demon Putana assaults the child Crishna, which identifies him with Hercules, the Sun-god of the Greeks.[1396] In his Solar character he must again be the slayer of the Dragon or Black-snake Kulnika, the “ Old Serpent ” with the thousand heads.[1397] Crishna's amours with the maidens makes him like Indra, Phoibus, Hercules, Samson, Alpheios, Paris and other Sun-gods. This is the hot and fiery Sun greeting the moon and the dew, or the Sun -with his brides the Stars.’

Moore, in his Hindu Pantheon, observes ;

“ Although all the Hindu deities partake more or less remotely of the nature and character of Surya, or the Sun, and all more or less directly radiate from, or merge in, him, yet no one is, I think, so intimately identified with him as Vishnu; whether considered in his own person, or in the character of hie most glorious Avatara of Ciushna.”



 



and 130.

       Ibid. p. 135.

       Ibid. p. 137

      See Ibid. p. 88, and Moor's Hindu Pan* theon, p. 63.



 



The ancient religion of Egypt, like that of Hindostan, was founded on astronomy, and eminently metaphysical in its character. The Egyptian priests were far advanced in the science of astronomy. They made astronomy their peculiar study. They knew the figure of the earth, and how to calculate solar and lunar eclipses. From very ancient time, they had observed the order and movement of the stars, and recorded them with the utmost care. Ramses the Great, generally called Sesostris, is supposed to have reigned one thousand five hundred years before the Christian era, about coeval with Moses, or a century later. In the tomb of this monarch was found a large massive circle of wrought gold, divided into three hundred and sixty-five degrees, and each division marked the rising and setting of the stars for each day.' This fact proves how early they were advanced in astronomy. In their great theories of mutual dependence between all things in the universe was included a belief in some mysterious relation between the Spirits of the Stars and human souls, so that the destiny of mortals was regulated by tlie motions of the heavenly bodies. This was the origin of the famous system of Astrology. From the conjunction of planets at the hour of birth, they prophesied what would be the temperament of an infant, what life ho would live, and what death he would die. Diodorus, who wrote in the century preceding Christ Jesus, says :

“They frequently foretell with the greatest accuracy what is about to happen to mankind; showing the failure or abundance of crops, and the epidemic diseases about to befall men or cattle. Earthquakes, deluges, rising of comets, and all those phenomena, the knowledge of which appears impossible to common comprehensions, they foresee by means of their long continued observation.”

P. Le Page Renonf, who is probably the best authority on the religion of ancient Egypt which can be produced, says, in his Hib- bert Lectures

“The Lectures on the Science of Language, delivered nearly twenty years ago by Prof. Max Mtiller, have, I trust, made us fully understand how, among the Indo-European races, the names of the Sun, of Sunrise and Sunset, and of other such phenomena, come to be talked of and considered as personages, of whom wondrous legends have been told. Egyptian mythology not merely admits, but imperatively demands, the same explanation. And this becomes the more evident when we consider the question how these mythical personages came to lie invested with the attributes of divinity by men who, like the Egyptians, had so lively a sense of the divine.”

Kenrick, in his “ History of Egypt,” says :

“We have abundant evidence that the Egyptian theology had its origin in the personification of the powers of nature, under male and female attributes, and that this conception took a sensible form, such as the mental state of the people required, by the identification of these powers with the elements and the heavenly bodies, fire, earth, water, the sun and moon, and the Nile. Such appears enerytchcre to be the origin of the objective form of polytheism; and it is equally' evident among the nations most closely allied to the Egyptians by position and general character—the Phenicians, the Babylonians, and in remote connection, the Indians on the one side and the Greeks on the other.”

The gods and goddesses of the ancient Persians wore also personifications of tiie Sun, Moon, Stars, the elements, &c.

Ormuzd, “ The King of Light,” was god of the Firmament, and the “Principle of Goodness” and of Truth. He was called “The Eternal Source of Sunshine and Light,” “ The Centre of all that exists,” “The First-born of the Eternal One,” “The Creator,” “The Sovereign Intelligence,” “The All-seeing,” “The Just Judge.” He was described as “ sitting on the throne of the good and the perfect, in regions of pure light,” crowned with rays, and with a ring on his finger—a circle being an emblem of infinity; sometimes as a venerable, majestic man, seated on a Bull, their emblem of creation.

“ Mithras the Mediator ” was the god-Sun. Their most splendid ceremonials were in honor of Mithras. They kept his birth-day, with many rejoicings, on the twenty-fifth of December, when the Sun perceptibly begins to return northward, after his long winter journey ; and they had another festival in his honor, at the vernal equinox. Perhaps no religious festival was ever more splendid than the “ Annual Salutation of Mithras,” during which/or/?/ days were set apart for thanksgiving and sacrifice. The procession to salute the god was formed long before the rising of the Sun. The High Priest was followed by a long train of the Magi, in spotless white robes, chanting hymns, and carrying the sacred fire on silver censers. Then came three hundred and sixty-five youths in scarlet, to represent the days of the year and the color of fire. These were followed by the Chariot of the Sun, empty, decorated with garlands, and drawn by superb white horses harnessed with pure gold. Then came a white horse of magnificent size, his forehead blazing with gems, in honor of Mithras. Close behind him rode the king, in a chariot of ivory inlaid with gold, followed by his royal kindred in embroidered garments, and a long train of nobles riding on camels richly caparisoned. This gorgeous retinue, facing the East, slowly ascended Mount Oroutes. Arrived at the summit, the High Priest assumed his tiara wreathed with myrtle, and hailed the first rays of the rising Sun with incense and prayer. The other Magi gradually joined him in singing hymns to Ormuzd, the source of all blessing,



by wlioin I lie radiant Mithras had been sent to gladden the earth and preserve the principle of life. Finally, they all joined in one universal chorus of praise, while king, princes and nobles, prostrated themselves before the orb of day.

The Hebrews worshiped the Sun, Moon, Stars, and “all the host of heaven.”1 El-Shadilai was one of the names given to the god Sun. Parkhurst, in his “Hebrew Lexicon,” says, “ El was the very name the heathens gave to their god Sol, their Lord or Ruler of the hosts of heaven.-’ El, which means “the strong one in heaven ”—the Sun, was invoked by the ancestors of all the Semitic nations, before there were Babylonians in Babylon, Phenicians in Sydon and Tyrus, before there were Jews in Mesopotamia or Jerusalem.3

The Sun was worshiped by the Hebrews under the names of Baal, Moloch, Chemosh, &c.; the Moon was Ashtoreth, the “Queen of Heaven.”3

Tlie gods of the ancient Greeks and Romans were the same as the gods of the Indian epic poems. We have, for example : Zeu- pitor (Jupiter), corresponding to Dyaus-pitar (the Heaven-father), Juno, corresponding to Parvati (the Mother Goddess), and Apollo, corresponding to Crishna (the Sun, the Saviour).' Another name for the Sun among those people was Bacchus. An Orphic verse, referring to the Sun, says, “ he is called Dionysos (a name of Bacchus) because he is carried with a circular motion through the immensely extended heavens.”3

Dr. Prichard, in his “Analysisof Egyptian Mythology,”' speaking of the ancient Greeks and Romans, says :

“That the worship of the powers of nature, mitigated, indeed, and embellished, constituted the foundation of the Greek and Roman religion, will not be disputed by any person who surveys the fables of the Olympian Gods with a more penetrating eye than that of a mere antiquarian.”

M. De Goulanges, speaking of them, says :

“The.Saa, whieli gives fecundity; the Earth, which nourishes; the Clouds, by turns beneficent and destructive,—such were the different powers of which they could make yods. But from each one of these elements thousands of gods were created; because the same physical agent, viewed under different aspects, received from men different names. The Sun, for example, was called in one place Hercules (the glorious); in another, Phasbus (the shining); and still again, Apollo (he who drives away night or evil); one called him/fypmo/i.(ihe elevated being); another, Alexicacos (the beneficent); and in the course of time groups of men, who lmd given these various names to the brilliant luminary, no longer saw that i/tey had the same god."'

Richard Payne Knight says •

“The primitive religion of the Greeks, like that of all other nations not enlightened by Revelation, nppears to have been elementary, and to have consisted in an indistinct worship of the Sun, the Moon, the Stars, the Earth, and the Waters, or rather, the spirits supposed to preside over these bodies, and to direct their motions, and regulate their modes of existence. Every river, spring or mountain had its local genius, or peculiar deity; and as men naturally endeavored to obtain the favor of their gods by such means as they feel best adapted to win their own, the first worship consisted in offering to them certain portions of whatever they held to be most valuable. At the same time, the regular motions of the heavenly bodies, the stated returns of summer and winter, of day and night, with all the admirable order of the universe, taught them to believe in the existence and agency of such superior powers; the irregular and destructive efforts of nature, such as lightnings and tempests, inundations and earthquakes, persuaded them that these mighty beings had passions and affections similar to their own, and only differed in possessing greater strength, power, and intelligence.”1

When the Grecian astronomers first declared that the Sun was not a person, but a huge hot ball, instantly an outcry arose against them. They were called “blaspheming atheists,” and from that time to the present, when any new discovery is made which seems to take away from man his god, the cry of “Atheist ” is instantly raised.

If we turn from the ancient Greeks and Romans, and take a look still farther West and North, we shall find that the gods of all the Teutonic nations were the same as we have seen elsewhere. They had Odin or Woden—from whom we have our Wednesday—the Al- fader (the Sky), Frigga, the Mother Goddess (the Earth), “Baldur the Good,” and Thor—from whom wo have our Thursday (per* Bonifications of the Sun), besides innumerable other genii, among them Freyja—from whom we have our Friday—and as she was the “ Goddess of Love,” we eat fish on that day.’

The gods of the ancient inhabitants of what are now called the “British Islands” were identically the same. The tbwra-god worshiped by the Ancient Druids was called Hu, Beli, Budd and Buddu-gre.a

The same worship which we have found in the Old World, from the farthest East to the remotest West, may also be traced in America, from its simplest or least clearly defined form, among the roving hunters and squalid Esquimaux of the North, through every intermediate stage of development, to the imposing systems of Mexico and Peru, where it took a form nearly corresponding that which it at one time sustained on the banks of the Ganges, and on the plains of Assyria.4



Father Acosta, speaking of the Mexicans, says :

“Next to Vinicoclia, or their Supreme God, that which n'.oat commonly they have, and do adore, is the Sun ; and after, those things which are most remarkable in the celestial or elementary nature, as the Moon, Stars, Sea, and Land.

“Whoso shall merely look into it, shall find this manner which the Devil hath used to deceive the Indians, to be the same wherewith he hath deceived the Greeks and Romans, and other ancient Gentiles, giving them to understand that these notable creatures, the Sun, Moon, Stars, and elements, had power or authority to do good or harm to men.”1

We see, then, that the gods and heroes of antiquity were originally personifications of certain elements of Nature, and that the legends of adventures ascribed to them are merely mythical forms of describing the phenomena of these elements.

These legends relating to the elements of Nature, whether they had reference to the Sun, the Moon, the Stars, or a certain natural phenomenon, became, in the course of time, to be regarded as accounts of men of a high order, who had once inhabited the earth. Sanctuaries and temples were erected to these heroes, their bones were searched for, and when found—which was always the ease— were regarded as a great source of strength to the town that possessed them all relics of their stay on earth were hallowed, and a form of worship was specially adapted to them.

The idea that heavenly luminaries were inhabited by spirits, of a nature intermediate between God and men, first led mortals to address prayers to the orbs over which they were supposed to preside. In order to supplicate these deities, when Sun, Moon, and Stars were not visible, they made images of them, which the priests consecrated with many ceremonies. Then they pronounced solemn invocations to draw down the spirits into the statues provided for their reception. By this process it was supposed that a mysterious connection was established between the spirit and the image, so that prayers addressed to one were thenceforth heard by the other. This was probably tlio origin of image worship everywhere.

The motive of this worship was the same among all nations of antiquity, i. e., fear, They supposed that these deities were irritated by the sins of men, but, at the same time, were merciful, and capable of being appeased by prayer and repentance; for this reason men offered to these deities sacrifices and prayers. How natural that such should have been the case, for, as Abbe Dubois observes : “ To the rude, untutored eye, the ‘ Host of Heaven,’ clothed in that calm beauty which distinguishes an Oriental night, might well appear to bo instinct with some divine principle, endowed with consciousness, and the power to influence, from its throne of unchanging splendor on high, the fortunes of transitory mortals.”



APPENDIX 0.

All the chief stories that we know so well are to be found in all times, and in almost all countries. Cinderella, for one, is told in the language of every country in Europe, and the same legend is found in the fanciful tales related by the Greek poets ; and still further back, it appears in very ancient Hindoo legends. So, again, does Beauty and the Beast j so does our familiar tale of Jack, the Giant-Killer j so also do a great number of other fairy stories, each being told in different countries and in different periods, with so much likeness as to show that all the versions came from the same source, and yet with enough difference to show that none of the versions are directly copied from each other. ‘•'Indeed, when wo compare the myths and legends of one country with another, and of one period with another, we find out how they have come to be so much alike, and yet in some things so different. Wo see that there must have been one origin for all these stories, that they must have been invented by one people, that this people must have been afterwards divided, and that each part or division of it must have brought into its new home the legends once common to them all, and must have shaped and altered these according to the kind of place in which they came to live : those of the North being sterner and more terrible, those of the South softer and fuller of light and color, and adorned with touches of more delicate fancy.” And this, indeed, is really the case. All the chief stories and legends are alike, because they were first made by one people ; and all the nations in which they are now told in one form or another tell them because they are all descended from this one common stock, the Aryan.

From researches made by Prof. Max Muller, The Eev. George W. Cox, and others, in England and Germany, in the science of Comparative Mythology, we begin to see something of these ancient forefathers of ours ; to understand what kind of people they were, and to find that our fairy stories are really made out of their religion,

The mind of the Aryan peoples in their ancient home was full of imagination. They never ceased to wonder at what they saw and heard in the sky and upon the earth. Their language was highly figurative, and so the things which struck them with wonder, and which they could not explain, were described under forms and names which were familiar to them. “ Thus, the thunder was to them the bellowing of a mighty beast, or the rolling of a great chariot. In the lightning they saw a brilliant serpent, or a spear shot across the sky, or a great fish darting swiftly through the sea of cloud. The clouds were heavenly cows, who shed milk upon the earth and refreshed it; or they were webs woven by heavenly



?women who drew water from the fountains on high and poured it down as rain.” Analogies which are but fancy to ns, were realities to these men of past ages. They could sec in the waterspout a huge serpent who elevated himself out of the ocean and reached his head to the skies. They could feel, in the pangs of hunger, a live creature gnawing within their bodies, and they heard the voices of the hill-dwarfs answering in the echo. The Hun, the first object which struck them with wonder, was, to them, the child of .Night ; the Dawn etune before he was born, and died as he rose in the heavens. lie strangled the serpents of the night ; ho went forth like a bridegroom out of his chamber, and like a giant to run his course.[1398] [1399] lie had to do battle with clouds and storms.'1 Sometimes his light grew dim under their gloomy veil, and the children of men shuddered at the wrath of the hidden Sun.[1400] Sometimes his ray broke forth, only, after brief splendor, to sink beneath a deeper darkness; sometimes he burst forth at the end of his course, trampling on the clouds which had dimmed his brilliancy, and bathing Ins pathway with blood.* Sometimes, beneath mountains of clouds and vapors, he plunged into the leaden sea.3 Sometimes he looked benignly on the face of his mother or his bride who came to greet him at his journey’s end.[1401] [1402] [1403] [1404] Sometimes he was the lord of heaven and of light, irresistible in his divine strength ; sometimes lie toiled for others, not for himself, in a hard, unwilling servitude.’ His light and heat might give light and destroy it.[1405] His chariot might scorch the regions over which it passed, his Hauling lire might burn up all who dared to look with prying eyes into his dazzling treasure-house.' He might be the child destined to »lay his parents, or to be united at the last in an unspeakable peace, co the bright Dawn who for a brief space had gladdened his path in the morning.1,1 He might be the friend of the children of men, and the remorseless foe of those powers of darkness who had stolen away his bride." lie might be a warrior whose eye strikes terror



 



evening sky, plangcd Into the sea.

• This would give us the story of Hercules and his bride Idle, or that of Christ Jesus and his mother Mary, who were at their side at the end of their career.

7 This would give us the story of the labors of Hercules.

“This is the Sun as Seva.

     Hero again we have the Snn as Siva the Destroyer.

      lien* we have Apollo, Achillcns, Bellero- phon and Odysseus.

       This would give us the story of Samson, who was “ the friend of the children of men, and the remorseless foe of those powers of darkness” (the Philistines), who had stolen away his bride. (See Judges, ch. xv.)



into his enemies, or a wise chieftain skilled in deep and hidden knowledge.[1406] [1407] [1408] Sometimes he might appear as a glorious being doomed to an early death, which no power could avert or delay.’ Sometimes grievous hardships and desperate conflicts might he followed by a long season of serene repose.’ Wherever he went, men might welcome him in love, or shrink from him in fear and anguish.[1409] [1410] [1411] He would have many brides in many lands, and his offspring would assume aspects beautiful, strange or horrible.’ His course might be brilliant and beneficent; or gloomy, sullen, and capricious.’ As compelled to toil for others, he would be said to fight in quarrels not his own; or he might for a time withhold the aid of an arm which no enemy could withstand.[1412] [1413] He might be the destroyer of all whom he loved, he might slay the Dawn with his kindling rays, he might scorch the Fruits, who were his children; he might woo the deep blue sky, the bride of heaven itself, and an inevitable doom might bind his limbs on the blazing wheel for ever and ever.’ Nor in this crowd of phrases, all of which have borne their part in the formation of mythology, is there one which could not be used naturally by ourselves to describe the phenomena of the outward world, and there is scarcely one, perhaps, which has not been used by our own poets. There is a beauty in them, which can never grow old or lose its charm. Poets of all ages recur to them instinctively in times of the deepest grief or the greatest joy; but, in the words of Professor Max Muller, “ it is impossible to enter fully into the thoughts and feelings which passed through the minds of the early poets when they formed names for that far East from whence even the early Dawn, the Sun, the Day, their own life seemed to spring. A new life flashed up every morning before their eyes, and the fresh breezes of the Dawn reached them like greetings wafted across the golden threshold of the sky from the distant lands beyond the mountains, beyond the clouds, beyond the dawn, beyond the immortal sea which brought us hither! The Dawn seemed to them to open golden gates for the Sun to pass in triumph; and while those gates were open, their eyes and their minds strove, in their childish way, to pierce beyond the limits of this finite world. That silent aspect wakened in the human mind the conception of the Infinite, the Immortal, the Divine; and the names of the Dawn became naturally the names of higher powers.’



 



bound maidens, who sleep for years.

4 This is Hercules and his counterparts.

® This again is Ilercules.

      This would depend upon whether his light was obscured by clouds, or not.

7 This again /s Ilercules.

6 This is Apollo, Siva and Ixion.

       Rev. G. W. Cox.



 



“ This imagery of the Aryans was applied by them to all they saw in the sky. Sometimes, as we have said, the clouds were cows ; they were also dragons, which sought to slay the Sun ; or great ships floating across the sky, and casting anchor upon earth ; or rocks, or mountains, or deep caverns, in which evil deities hid the golden light. Then, also, they were shaped by fancy into animals of various kinds—the bear, the wolf, the dog, the ox ; and into giant birds, and into monsters which were both bird and beast.

“ The winds, again, in their fancy, were the companions or ministers of India, the sky-god. The spirits of the winds gathered into their host the souls of the (.load—thus giving birth to the Scandinavian and Teutonic legend of the Wild Horseman, who rides at midnight through the stormy sky, with his long train of dead behind him, and his weird hounds before.1 The Bibhus, or Arblius, again, were the sunbeams or the lightning, who l'orged the armor of the gods, and made their thunderbolts, and turned old people young, and restored out of the hides alone the slaughtered cow on which tire gods had feasted.”*

Aryan myths, then, were no more than poetic fancies about light and darkness, cloud and rain, night and day, storm and wind ; and when they moved westward and southward, the Aryan race brought these legends with it; and out of these were shaped by degrees innumerable gods and demons of the Hindoos, the devs and jiuns of the Persians ; the great gods, the minor deities, and nymphs, and fauns, ami satyrs of Greek mythology and poetry; the stormy divinities, the giants, and trolls of the cold and rugged North ; the dwarfs of the German forests ; the elves who dance merrily in the moonlight of an English summer ; and the “ good people ” who play mischievous tricks upon stray peasants among the Irish hills. Almost all, indeed, that we have of a legendary kin

[Prometheus]

APPENDIX D.

We maintain that not bo much as one single passage purporting to be written, as history, within the first hundred years of the Christian era, can be produced to show the existence at or before that time of such a person as Jesus of Nazareth, called the Christ, or of such a set of men as could be accounted his disciples or followers. Those who would be likely to refer to Jesus or his disciples, but who hare not done so, wrote about:

A. D. 40 Philo.[1433] [1434] [1435]

40 Josephus.

79 C. Plinius Second, the Elder.’ 1

69 L. Ann. Seneca.                              > Philosophers.

79 Diogenes Laertius.                        )

| Geographers.
 
79 Pausanias.

79 Pompon Mela.

79 Q. Curtius Ruf.

79 Luc. Flor.

110 Cornel Tacitus.

> Historians.
 
123 Appianus.

               Justinus.

               yElianus.

Out of this number it has been claimed that one (Josephus) spoke of Jesus, and another (Tacitus) of the Christians. Of the former it is almost needless to speak, as that has been given up by Christian divines many years ago. However, for the sake of those who still cling to it wo shall state the following :

Dr. Lardner, who wrote about a.d. 1700, says :

          It was never quoted by any of our Christian ancestors before Esuebius.

        Josephus lias nowhere else mentioned the name or word Christ, in any of his works, except the testimony above mentioned,[1436] and the passage concerning James, the Lord’s brother.[1437] [1438]

          It interrupts the narrative.

          The language is quite Christian.

        It is not quoted by Chrysostom,[1439] [1440] though he often refers to Josephus, and could not have omitted quoting it, had it been then, in the text.





 



The Rev. Dr. assumes that these ” wonderful events ” really took place, hut, if they did not take place, of conrse Philo’s silence on the subject is accounted for.

3 Both those philosophers were living, and must have experienced the immediate effects, or received the earliest information of the existence of Christ Jesus, had such a person as the Gospels make him out to be ever existed. Their ignorance or their willful silence on the the subject, is not less than imi/robable.

3 Antiquities, bk. xviii. cli. iii. 3.

      Ibid. bk. xx. ch. ix. 1.

      John, Bishop of Constantinople, who died



      It is not quoted by Photius, though he has thite articles concerning Josephus.

      Under the article Justus of l’iberius, this author (Photius) expressly states that this historian (Josephus), being a Jew. has not taken the least notice of Christ.

      Neither Justin, in his dialogue with Typho the Jew, nor Clemens Alexau- driuus, who made so many extracts from ancient authors, nor Origeu against Celsus, hace even mentioned this testimony.

      But, on the contrary, Origen openly affirms (ch. xxxv., bk. i., against Celsus), that Josephus, who had mentioned John the Baptist, did not acknowledge Christ.[1441] [1442]

In the Bible for Learners,” wc read as follows :

“ Flavius Josephus, the well-known historian of the Jewish people, was born in A. D. 37. only two years after the death of Jesus; but though his work is of inestimable value as our chief authority for the circumstances of the limes in which Jesus and his Apostles came forward, yet he does not seem to have ever mentioned Jesus himself. At any rale, the passage in his ‘Jewish. AntiyuiUe*' that refers to him is certainly spurious, and was inserted by a later and a Christian hand. Tile Talmud compresses the history of Jesus into a single sentence, and later Jewish writers concoct mere slanderous anecdotes. The ecclesiastical fathers mention a few sayings or events, the knowledge of which they drew from oral tradition or front writings that have since been lost. The Latin and Greek historians just mention his name. This meager harvest is all we reap from sources outside the Gospels.”[1443]

Canon Farrar, who finds himself compelled to admit that this passage in Josephus is an interpolation, consoles himself by saying :

"The single passage in which he (Josephus) alludes to Him (Christ) is interpolated, if not wholly spurious, and no one can doubt that his silence on tho subject of Christianity was as deliberate as it was dishonest.”[1444] [1445]

The Rev. Dr. Giles, after commenting on tiiis subject, concludes by saying :

“ Kusebius is the first, who quotes the passage, and our reliance on the judgment, or even the honesty, of this writer is jwt so great as to allow of our considering everything found in his works as undoubtedly genuine.”*

Eusebius, then, is the first person who refers to these passages.* Eusebius, “ ivhone honesty is not so great as to allow of our considering everything found in his works as undoubtedly genuine.” Eusebius, who says that it is lawful to lie and cheat for the cause of Christ.* This Eusebius is tho sheet-anchor of reliance for most wc know of the first three centuries of the Christian history. What then must wc think of the history of the first throe centuries of the Christian era ?



 



proper to use falsehood as a medium for il.e benefit of those who require to be deceived and he closes his work with these words : *• I have repealed whatever may rebound to iho glory, and suppressed all that could tend to tho disgrace of our religion.’*



The celebrated passage in Tacitus which Christian divines—and even some liberal writers—attempt to support, is to be found in his Annals. In this work he is made to speak of Christians, who “ had their denomination from Christus, who, in the reign of Tiberius, was put to death as a criminal by the procurator Pontius Pilate.”

In answer to this we have the following :

       This passage, which would have served the purpose of Christian quotation better than any other in all the writings of Tacitus, or of any Pagan writer whatever, is not quoted by any of the Christian Fathers.

       It is not quoted by Tcrtullian, though he had read and largely quotes the works of Tacitus.

       And though his argument immediately called for the use of this quotation with so loud a voice (Apol. ch. v.), that his omission of it, if it had really existed, amounts to a violent improbability.

        This Father has spoken of Tacitus in a way that it is absolutely impossible that he should have spoken of him, had his writings contained such a passage.

        Tt is not quoted by Clemens Alexandrinus, who set himselj entirely to the work of adducing and bringing together all the admissions and recognitions which Pagan authors had made of the existence of Christ Jesus or Christians before his time.

        It has been nowhere stumbled upon by the laborious and allseeking Eusebius, who could by no possibility have overlooked it, and whom it would have saved from the labor of forging the passage in Josephus ; of adducing the correspondence of Christ Jesus and Abgarus, and the Sibylline verses ; of forging a divine revelation from the god Apollo, in attestation of Christ Jesus’ ascension into heaven ; and innumerable other of his pious and holy cheats.

        Tacitus has in no other part of his writings made the least allusion to “Christ'” or “Christians.”

       The use of this passage as part of the evidences of the Christian religion, is absolutely modern.

       There is no vestige nor trace of its existence anywhere in the world before the 15 th century.[1446]



 



of the chief writers of antiquity, on aconnt of the Popes, in their efforts to revive learning, giving money rewards and indulgences to those who should procore MS. copies of any of the ancient Greek or Roman authors. Manuscripts turned up as if by magic, in every direction ; from libraries of monasteries, obscure as well as famous ; the most out-of- the-way places,—the bottom of exhausted wells, besmeared by snails, as the History of Velleius Paterculus, or from garrets, where they had been contending with cobwebs and dust, as the poems of Catullus.



           No reference whatever is made to tins passage by any writer or historian, monkish or otherwise, before that time,[1447] [1448] which, to say the least, is very singular, considering that after that time it is quoted, or referred to, in an endless list of works, which by itself is all but conclusive that it was not in existence till the fifteenth century ; which was an age of imposture and of credulity so immoderate that people were easily imposed upon, believing, as they did, without sufficient evidence, whatever was foisted upon them.

           The interpolator of the passage makes Tacitus speak of “ Christ,” not of Jesus the Christ, showing that—like the passage in Josephus—it is, comparatively, a modern interpolation, for

           The word “ Christ ” is not a name, but a title ;s it being simply the Greek for the Hebrew word “Messiah.” Therefore,

           When Tacitus is mado to speak of Jesus as “Christ,” it is equivalent to my speaking of Tacitus as “ Historian,” of George Washington as “General,” or of any individual as “Mister,” without adding a name by which oither could be distinguished. And therefore,

            It has no sense or meaning as ho is said to have used it.

           Tacitus is also mado to say that the Christians had their denomination from Christ, which would apply to any other of the so-called Christs who were j>ut to death in Judea, as well as to Christ Jesus. And

           “ The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch ” (Acts xi. 2-G), not because they were followers of a certain Jesus who claimed to be the Christ, but because “ Christian” or “ Chrestian,” was a name applied, at that time, to any good man.[1449] And,



 



(Abbott and Conant; Die. of Relig. Knowledge, art. “Jesus Christ")

In the oldest Gospel extant, that attributed to Matthew, we read that Jesus said unto bis disciples, “Whom say ye that I am f” where* npon Simon Peter answers and says : “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. . . . Then charged he his disciples that they shonld tell no man that he was Jesus tub Christ." (Matt. xvi. 15-20.)

This clearly shows that “ the Christ" was simply a title applied to the man Jesus, therefore, if a title, it cannot be a name. All passages in the New Testament which speak of Christ as a name, betray their modern date.

* “This name (Cbristiau) occurs but three times in the Now Testament, and is never used by Christians of themselves,only as spoken by or coming from those without the Church, The general names by which the early Christians called themselves were * brethren,’ * disci* pies,’[1450] believers.’ and4 saints.’ The presumption is that the name Christian was originated by the Heathen." (Abbott and Conant: Die. of Relig. Knowledge, art. “ Christian.*’)



          The worshipers of the Sun-god, Serapis, were also called “ Christians,” and his disciples “ Bishops of Christ.”1 So much, then, for the celebrated passage in Tacitus.



 



“We are called Christians (not, we call ourselves Christians). So, then, we are the beet of men (Christians), and it can never be just to hate what is (Christ) good and kind [or, “ therefore to hate what is Ghrestian is unjust.11] (Justin Martyr: Apol. 1. c. iv.)

“Some of the ancient writers of the Chnrch have not scrupled expressly to call the Athenian Socrates, and some others of the best of the heathen moralists, by the name of Christians" (Clark: Evidences of Revealed Relig., p. 284. Quoted in Ibid. p. 41.)

“Those who lived according to the Logos, (t. e., the Platonists), were really Christians." (Clemens Alexandrinus, in Ibid.)

“Undoubtedly we are called Chfistians, for this reason, and none other, than because we are anointed with the oil of God." (The- ophilus of Antioch, in Ibid. p. 399.)

“Christ is the Sovereign Reason of whom

the whole human race participates. AU those who have lived conformably to a right reason* havebeen Christians, notwithstanding that they have always been looked upon as Atheists.” (Justin Martyr: Apol. 1. e. xlvi.)

Lucian makes ft person called Tricphon answer the question, whether the affairs of the Christians were recorded in heaven. “All nations are there recorded, since ChrSetus exists even among the Gentiles.”

1 “ Egypt, which you commended to me, my dearest Servianus, 1 have found to be wholly fickle and inconsistent, and continually wafted about by every breath of fame. The worshipers of Serapis (here) are called Christians, and those who are devoted to the god Serapis tl find), call themselves Bishops of Christ(The Emperor Adrian to Servianus, written a.d. 134. Quoted by Dr. Giles, vol. ii. p. 86.)



 



Note.—Tacitus says—according to the passage attributed to him—that “those who confessed [to be Christians] were first seized, and then ou their evidence a huge multitude (Ingens Multitudo) were convicted, not so much on the charge of incendiarism as for their hatred to mankind." Although M. Kenan may say (Ilibbert Lectuies, p. 70) that the authenticity of this passage “ cannot be disputed,” yet the absurdity of “ a huge multitude ” of Christians being in Home, in the days of Nero, A. D. 64—about thirty years after the time assigned for the crucifixion of Jesus—has uot escaped the eye of thoughtful scholars. Gibbon—who saw how ridiculous the statement is—attempts to reconcile it with common sense by supposing that Tacitus knew so little about the Christians that he confounded them with the Jews, and that the hatred universally felt for the latter fell upon the former. In this way he believes Tacitus gets his “ huge multitude," as the Jews established themselves in Rome as early as 60 years B. C., where they multiplied rapidly, living together in the Traslevere—the most abject portion of the city, whore all kinds of rubbish was put to rot—where they became “ old clothes ” men, the porters and hucksters, bartering tapers for broken glass, hated by the mass and pitied by the few. Other scholars, among whom may be mentioned Schwegler (Nachap Zeit., ii. 229); KOstlin (Johann- Lehrbegr472); and Baur (First Three Centuries, 1.188); also being struck with the absurdity of the statement made by some of the early Christian writers concerning the wholesale prosecution of Christians, said to have happened at that time, suppose it must have taken place daring the persecution of Trajan, A. D. 101. It is strange we hear of no Jewish martyrdoms or Jewish persecutions till we come to the times of the Jewish war, and then chiefly in Palestine! But rabies must be made realities, so we have the ridiculous story of a •' huge multitude ” of Christians being put to death in Rome, in A. D. 61, evidently for the purpose of bringing Peter there, making him the first Pope, and having him crucified head downwards. This absurd story is made more evideut when we find that it was not until about A. D. 50—only 14 years before the alleged persecution—that the first Christians—a mere handfnl—entered the capitol of the Empire. (See Renan’s Hibbert Lectures, p. 55.) 'They were a poor dirty set, without manners, clad in filthy gaberdines, and smelling strong of garlic. From these, then, with others who came from Syria, we get our *• huge multitude ” in the space of 14 years. The statement attributed to Tacitus is, however, outdone by Orosius, who asserts that the persecution extended “ through all the provinces.” (Orosius, ii. 11.) That it was a very easy matter for some Christian writer to interpolate or alter a passage in the Annals of Tacitus may be seen from the fact that the >is. was not known to the world before the 15th ceutury, and from information which is to be derived from reading Daille On the Right Use of the Fathers, who shows that they were accustomed to doing such Business, and that these writings are, to a large extent, unreliable.

[Prometheus]

[1]               The idea that the sun, moon and star? were set in the firmament was entertained by most nations of antiquity, hut, as strange as it may appear, Pythagoras, the Grecian philosopher, who flourished from 540 to 510 b. c.—as well as other Grecian philosophers—taughtthat theenn was placed in the centre of the universe, with the planets roving round it in a cir?

[2] Inasmuch as the physical construction of the serpent never could admit of its moving in any oilier way, and inasmuch as it does not eat dud, does not the narrator of this myth

[3] “ Our writer unmistakably recognizes the existence of many gods; for lie makes Yah-

wch pay: ‘ Sec, the man has become as one op i:s, knowing good and evil;1 and so he evidently implies the existence of other similar beings, to whom he attributes immortality and insight into the difference between good and evil. Yuhweh, then, was, in his eyes, the god of gods, indeed, but not the only god.” (.Bible for Learners, vol. i. p. 51.)

[5]               In his memorial sermon, preached in Westminster Abbey, after the funeral of Sir Charles Lyell. lie further said in this address:—

“It is well known that when the science of geology first arose, it was involved in endless schemes of attempted reconciliation with the letter of Scripture. There was, there an perhaps still, two modes of reconciliation of Scripture and science, which have been each in

>° Gen. ii. 7, 8,15, 22.

[7]    Gen. ii. 4-25.

[8]    Gen. iii.

12 Gen. i. 1-ii. 3.

[10] Gen. iii. 1,3, 5.

16 The Pentateuch Examined vol. ii. pp. 171— 173.

>• Com. on Old Test. vol. i. p. 59.

[13] ThoRelig. of Israel, p. 186.                                         8 Lenormant: Beginning of llist. vol. i. p. 61.

a Von Bohlcn: Intro, to Gen. vol. ii. p. 4.                    < See Ibid. p. 64; and Legends of the

Patriarchs, p. 31.

[16]                                                                                                      “ The Etruscans believed in a ereation of 8 Quoted by Bishop Colenso: The Penta-

six thousand years, and in the successive pro- teuch Examined, vol. iv. p. 115.

duction of different beings, the last of which                   3 Intro, to Genesis, vol. ii. p. 4.

was man.” (Dunlap: Spirit Hist. p. 357.)                          * Com. on Old Test. vol. 1. p. 63.

» The Pentateuch Examined, vol. iv. p. 153.

[21] See Chapter xi.

9 Mr. Smith says, “Whatever the primitive

acconnt may have been from which the earlier

part of the Book of Genesis was copied, it is evident that the brief narration given in the

explanations—for instance, as to the origin of

Pentatcnch omits a number of incidents and

[27] Marray'ti Mythology, p. 208.

[28] Goldziher: Hebrew Mythology, p. 87.                       TJfc' bedsit immortal.ty.” dJomvick: Eiryp’ an

1  Com. on the Old Test, vol. i. p. 70.                       Belief, p. 2-tOo

• Ibid. *                                                                                               MniHf:irr'-r. ? T.“Antiquin' Expl.qnee,

[31] Ibid. “The fruit and pap of this * 'I'm of vol. i. p. 211. and i i <-N.\xiii.

[32]              Faber: Origin Pagan Idolatry, vol. i. p. 443; in Anacalypeds, vol. i. p t337.

[33]               Tree arid Serpent Worship, p. 13.

[34]               Prog. Rejig. Ideas?, vol. i. p. 159.

[35]               See Bunsen’s Keys of St, Peter, p. 414.

[36] See Wake: Phallism in Ancient Religions,

pp, 46. 47; and Maurice: Hist, liindostau, vol. 1. p. 408.

[38] Hardwick : Christ and Other Masters, p. 215.

8 See Jacolliot’s “Bible in India,” which John Fisk calls a “ very discreditable performance,” and “a disgraceful piece of charlatanry” (Myths, &c. p. 205). This writer also states that according to Hindoo legend, the first man and woman were called “ Adiraa and Heva,” which is certainly not the case. The

[39]              See Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. pp. 2m>-210. The Pentateuch Examined, vol. iv. pp, 152, 153. and Legends of the Patriarchs, p. 38.

[40]               Legends of the Patriarchs, p. 31.

[41]      Quoted by Muller: The Science of Relig.,

p. 302.

[43]              Sir William Jones, the first president of the Royal Asiatic Society, saw this when he said : “ Either the first eleven chapters of Oenesis. all doe allowance being made for a figurative Eastern style, are true, or the whole fabric of oar religion is false.” (In Asiatic Researches, vol. i. p. 235.) And so also did the

[44]              The above extract* arc quoted by Bishop Coienso, in The Pentateuch Examined, vol. ii. pp. 10-1$. from which we take them.

[45]   CoKmiVfomj is the title of a volume lately written by Prof. Thomas Mitchell, and published by the American News Co., in which the author attacks all the modern scientists in

[46]              See “The Delude in the Light of Modern Science,” by Prof. Win. Denton: J. P. Mcn- dmn, Poston.

[47]               “ There wore giants in the earth in those days.” It is a scientific fact that most races of men, in former ages, instead of being larg</\ were smaller than at the present time. There is hardly a suit of armor in the Town- of Lon* don, or in the old castles, that is large enough for the average Englishman of to-day to put on.

Man has grown in stature as well as intellect, nrnl there is no proof whatever in fact, the op- po-iie is certain —tlmt there ever was a race of what might properly be called glints, inhabiting tile earth. Fossil remains of large animals having been found by primitive man. and a legend invented to account for them, it would naturally be that: “There were giants in the earth in those days.” As an illustration we may mention the story, recorded by the traveller James Orton, vve believe (in “The Andes and the Amazon”), that, near Pnnin, in Sonth America, was found the remains of an extinct

[49]                                                      Gen. iv.                2 <jen. v\ j_3. Athyr (Nov. 13th), the very <lay and month on

3  See chapter xi.                                                              which Noah is said to have entered his ark.

4              The image of Osiris of Egypt was by the (See Bonwlck’s Egyptian Belief, p. 1G5, and priests shat np in a 6acred ark on the 17th of Bunsen’s Angel Messiah, p. 22.)

[51] Gen. viii.

[52]            See chapter xi.

[53]              Josephus, the Jewish historian, speaking of the flood of Noah (Antic]., bk. 1, ch. iii.), says :

••All the writers of the Babylonian histories make mention of this flood and this ark.”

[55]              Chaldean Account of Genesis. pp. 28ri. 28G.

[56]               Volney : New Researches, p. 119; Chaldean Acct. of Genesis, p. 290 ; Hist. Hindustan, vol, i. ]). 417, and Dunlap’s Spirit Hist. p. 277.

[57]               Ibid.

1 Legends of the Patriarchs, pp. 109,110.

6 Gen. vi. 8.

* The Hindoo ark-preserved Menu had

three sons ; Sama. (Jama, and Pra-Jupnti. (Faber: Orig. Pagan Idol.) The Bhattins, who live between Belli and the Panjab, insist that they are descended from n certain king called Salivahana, who had three sons, Bhot, Maha and Thamaz.” (Col. Wilford, in vol. ix. Asiatic Researches.) The Iranian hero Thmctona had three sons. The Iranian Sethite Lantech had three sons, and Ilellen, the son of Deucalion, during whose time the flood is said to have happened, had three sons. (Bunsen : The

Angel-Messiab, pp. 70,71.) Ail the ancient na

tions of Europe aUo describe their origin from the three sons of some king or patriarch. The

priest places an image of himself there during his life-lime ; the priests, therefore, reckoning them and showing them to me, pointed out that each was the son of his own father; going through them all, from the image of him who died last until they had pointed them all out.” (Herodotus, book ii. chs. 142,143.) The discovery of mummies of royal and priestly personages, made at Deir-el-Bahari (Aug., 1881), near Thebes, in Egypt, would seem to confirm this statement made by Herodotus. Of the thirty- nine mummies discovered, one—that of King Raskcnen— is about three thousand seven hundred years old. (See a Cairo [Aug. 8th,] Letter to the London Times.)

[65]              Owen : Man’s Earliest History, p. 28.

[66]              Bonwick 2 Egyptian Belief, p. 185.

[67]            Ibid. p. 411.

[68]              Owen: Man’s Earliest History, pp, 27,

28.

0 Goldzhier : Hebrew Mytho. p. 319.

11bid. p. 320.

[71] Translated from the Bhagavat by Sir Wm,          2 See Prog. Rclig. Idea?, vol. i. p. 55.

Jones, and published in the fir6t volume of the           * Sec Thornton's Ilist. China, vol. i. p. SO.

Maurice: Ind. Ant. il. 277, et eeq., and Prof.             p. 41.

Max Mflller’s Hist. Ancient Sanskrit Litera* 4 Priestley, p. 42. ture, p. 425, et seq.

[74]              Bunco : Fairy Tales, Origin and Meaning,

P. 1 5.

[75]               Thu oldest Greek mythology, however, has no such idea; it cannot be proved to have been known to the Greeks earlier than the (Ith century B. C. (See Goldzhier : Hebrew Mytho., p. 319.) This could not have been the case had there ever been a universal deluge.

[76]      Tales of Ancient Greece, pp. 72-74. “ Apol-

lodorus—a Grecian mythologist, born 140 b.

[78] Huxley : Man’s Place in Nature, p. 184.                  6 We know that many legends have origin-

[79] Paschel : Races of Man, p. 30.                               ated in this way. For example, Dr. Robinson,

1 Tylor : Early History of Mankind, p. 328. in his “ Travels in Palestine ” (ii. 580), men-

[81] Ibid. pp. 329, 330                                                       tions a tradition that a city had once stood in a

[82] The Pentateuch Examined, vol. iv. p. 208.

[33]

[83] Ibid. p. 268. See also Bible for Learners, vol. i. p. DO.

* Myths and Myth-makcre, p. 72. See also

Encyclopaedia Biitannica, art. Babel.”

*3 “There wen '.giants in the earth in those

days.” (Genesis vi. 4.)

[88] “ Diodorus states that the great tower of

the temple of Bolus was used by the Chaldcaus as an observatory." (Smith's Bible Dictionary, art. “ Babel.”)

9 The Hindoos had a sacred Mount Meru, the abode of the gods. This mountain was supposed to couslst of seven stages, increasing in sauctity as they ascended. Many of the

Ilindoo temples, or rather altars, were “ studied transcripts of the sacred Mount Meruthat Is, they were built, like the tower of Babel, in

[92] Ibid. p. 148. The ancient Scandinavians 4 Encyclopaedia Britannica, art. “Babel.”

had a legend of a somewhat similar tree. “ The            6 Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 27.

Mnndane Tree,” called Yggdrasill. was in the               • Brinton : Myths of the New World, p.

centre of the earth ; its branches covered over 804.

the surface of the earth, and its top reached to 7 Ilumholdt: American Researches, vol. i.

the highest heaven, (See Mallet’s Northern p. 96.

[98] Encyclopaedia Britannica, art. “ Babel.”               •Ibid, and Brinton: Myths of the New

8 Eathonia is one of the three Baltic, or so- World, p. 204. called, provinces of Russia.                 •• The Pentateuch Examined, vol. iv. p. 272;

1 Quoted by Bishop Oulenso: The Pema- p. 97. Lord Kingsborough: Mexican Antlqnl- teuch Examined, vol. iv. p, 272.  ties.

[100] Ilumhoidt: American Kesearcbes, vol. i. • Com. on Old Test. vol. i. p. 196.

[101]           See Milller’s nist. Sanscrit Literature; and * See Inman’s Ancient Faiths, vol. it. p.

Williams' Indian Wisdom, p. 29.                                 104.

[102]     Quoted by Count de Volney: New Re- ‘ Prog. Reiig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 302.

searches in Anc’t Hist., p. 144.

[104] See Chambers’s Encyclo., art. “Transmi- 3 Ibid. Ernest de Bunsen says : “ The first gration.”                    traces of the doctrine of Transmigration of

a Chambers’s Encyclo., art. “ Transmigra- souls is to be found among the Brahmins and

[106]                                                                                              See The Religion of Israel, p. IS.                      * See Bonwick: Egyptian Belief, p. 78.

[107]                                                                                              Malachi iv. 5.          * Faber: Orig. Pagan Idol, vol. iii. p. 613;

* Matthew xvii. 12,13.                                                 in Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 210.

* Indian Antiqities, vol. ii. p. 262.

[110]         Dupuis: Origin of Religious Beliefs, p. 844.

7  Volney's Ruins, p. 147, note.

8  See Child's Prog Relig. Ideas, vol.». pp. 160. 162.

[111]             Genesis xxviii. 12,13.

3  Genesis xxviii. 18, 19.

8 “Phallic,” from “Phallus,” a representation of the male generative organs. For further information on this subject, see the works of B. Payne Knight, and Dr. Thomas Inman.

[114]     Bible for Learners, yoL, i. pp. 175, 276.

See, also, Knight: Ancient Art and Mythology;

and Inman: Ancient Faiths, vol. i. and ii.

[117] Bible for Learners, vol. i. pp. 177, 178, 317, 321, 322,

8 Indian Antiquities, vol. ii. p. 366.

* Ibid.

[120] We read in Bell’s “ Pantheon of the Gods and Demi-Gods of Antiquity,” under the head of Baelylion, Baelylxa, or Baetylos, that they are “ Anointed Stones, worshiped among the Greeks, Phrygians, and other nations of the East;” that “these Baetylia were greatly venerated by the ancient Heathen, many of their idols being no other;” and that, “in reality no sort of idol was more common in the East, than that of oblong stones erected, and hence termed by the Greeks jrillars." The Rev. Geo. W. Cox, in his Aryan Mythology

(vol. ii. p. 113), says: “The erection of these stone columns or pillars, the forms of which in most cases tell their own story, are common throughout the East, some of the most elaborate being found near Ghizni.” And Mr. Wake (Phallism in Ancient Religions, p. 60), says: “ Kiyun, or Kivan, the name of the deity said by Amos (v. 26), to have been worshiped in the wilderness by the Hebrews, signifies God op the pillar."

[122] We find that there was nothing gross or immoral in the worship of the male and female

[123]             Exodus 1. 14.

[124]             Exodus ii. 24, 26.

[125]             See chapter x.

? Exodus ii. 12.

6 The Egyptian name for God was “ Kuk- Pa-yuk” or “I am that I am.” (Bonwick : Egyptian Belief, p. 393.) This name was found

on a temple in Egypt. (Higgins • Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 17.) “41 am’ was a Divine name

[129] Exodus xiv. 5-13.

8 Orpheus is said to have been the earliest poet of Greece, where he first introduced the rites of Bacchus, which be brought from Egypt. (See Roman Antiquities, p. 134.)

[131]             The Hebrew fable writers not wishing to

be outdone, have made the waters of the river

Jordan to be divided to let Elijah and Elisha

[134] Knight: Anc t Art aud Mythology, p. 89,  cleanliness of the Egyptian priests was extreme.

[135]            Bell’s Pantheon, vol. i. p. 122; and Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 19.

[136]            Ibid, and Dupuis : Origin of Religious Be* lief, p. 174.

[137]            Taylor's Diegesis, p. 190 ; Bell’s Pantheon, vol. 5. under “ Bacchus;” and Higgins: Anaca- lypsis ii. 19.

* Exodus ii. 1-11.

[139] Taylor's Diegesis, p. 191 ; Bell’s Pantheon,

vol. i. under “Bacchus;” and Higgins : p. 19,

vol. ii.

1 Tacitus : Hist, book v. ch. iii.                                and Kenrick'a Egypt, vol. I. p. 447. “ The

[143] The Religion of Israel, pp. 31,33.

8  Jewish Antiq. bk. ii. ch. xvi.

9  Ibid. note.

“It was said that the waters of the Pamphylian Sea miraculously opened a passage for the army of Alexander the Great. Admiral Beaufort, however, tells us that, * though there arc no tides in this part of the Mediterranean, considerable depression of the sea is caused

[144] Exodus six.

* Exodus xxxi. 18.

8 Exodus xxii. 19.

[147] Exodus xxxiv.

6 Ibid.

It was a common belief among ancient Pagan nations that the gods appeared ami conversed with men. As an illustration we may cite the following, related by Herodotus, the Grecian historian, who, in speaking of Egynt and the Egyptians, says : “ There is a large city

[148] Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, had ten commandments. 1. Not to kill. 2. Not to steal. 3. To be chaste. 4 Not to bear false witness. 5. Not to lie. 6. Not to swear. 7. To avoid impure words. 8. To be disinterested. 9. Not to avenge onc's-self. 10. Not to be superstitious. (See line's Travels, p. 328, vol. i.)

* Exodus xx. Dr. Oort says : “ The original ten commandments probably ran as follows : I Yahwah am your God. Worship no other gods beside me. Make no image of a god. Commit no perjury. Remember to keep holy

1  Judges, xvi.                                                                        8 Hebrew Mythology, p. 2*18.

[150] Perhaps that of Izdubar. See chapter xi. 4 Manual of Mythology, p. 248. The Age of

Fable, p. 200.

[151] Bulfincli: The Age of Fable, p. 200.

3 Murray: Manual of Mythology, p. 240.

*Roman Antiquities, p. 124; and Mont- faucon, vol. i. plate exxvi.

* Murray: Manual of Mythology, p. 249.

*       See Ibid, Greek and Italian Mythology, p.

129, and Montfaucon, vol. i. plate exxv. and exxvi,

* Manual of Mythology, p. 247.

[158] Steinthal: The Legend of Samson, p. 398.         3 Quoted by Count de Volney: Researches

See, also, Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 240, in Ancient History, p. 42, note. and Volney: Researches in Anc’tHistory,p,42.                      * Volney : Researches in Ancient History,

[160] Ibid.                                                                               p. 42.

[161] Yolney: Researches in Anc’t History, pp. 41,43.

Tn Bell's “Pantheon of the Gods and Demi- Gods of Antiquity,” we read, under the head of Ammon or Ilammon (the name of the Egyptian Jupiter, worshiped under the figure of a    that: “ Bacchus having subdued

Asia, and passing with his army through the deserts of Africa, was in great want of water; but Jupiter, his father, assuming the shape of a liamy led him to a fountain, where he refreshed himself and his army; in requital of which favor, Bacchus built there a

[162] Monumental Christianity, p. 390.

5 (Ed. Jod. p. 300, in Auacalypsis, vol. I. p. 239.

*“ Rien de plus connu dans la fable que see amours avec Omphale ct lole."—L’Antt quite Expliquee, vol. i. p. 224.

* The Legend of Samson, p. 404.

t Vol. I. plate cxxvii.

•“Samson was remarkable for his long hair, The meaning of this trait in the original myth is easy to guess, and appears also

1 Hebrew Myttao., pp. 137,138.                                       4 The Legend of Samson, p. 408.

3 Cox : Aryan Myths, vol. i. p. 84.                                  * Cox: Aryan Mytho., vol. ii. p. 72.

[166] Tales of Ancient Greece, p. xxix.

[167] The Legend of Samson, p. 400.

8 See Higgins: Anacalypsis. vol. i. p. 237. Goldzhicr: Hebrew Mythology, p. 22. The Religion of Israel, p. Cl. The Bible for Learners, vol. i. p. 418. Volnev's Ruins, p. 41, and Stanley: History of the Jewish Church, where he says: “His name, which Josephus interprets in the sense of ‘ strong,’ was still more characteristic. He was ‘the Sunny*— the bright and beaming, though wayward, likeness of the great luminary.”

[168] Vol. v. p. 270.

1 Maurice: Indian Antiquities, vol. il. p. 155.

* Steinthal: The Legend of Samson, p. 996.

[171] Buckley: Cities of the World, 41, 42.

[172] See Mallet’s Northern Antiquities, pp. 94, 417, and 514.

* Sec Cox: Aryan Mythology.

*              See vo). i. of Aryan Mythology, by Rev. G. W» Cox.

[175] See Tylor’s Early Hist. Mankind, and and note ; and Tylor : Primitive Culture, l. 802. Primitive Culture, vol. i.

1 Tylor: Early Hint. Mankind, pp. 344, 345.              3 Bouchet: Hist, d’Animal, in Anac., vol. i.

1 Tales of Ancient Greece, p. 296.                                 * Chambers’s Encyclo., art. Jonah.

a See Hebrew Mythology, p, 203.                                  * See Fiske : Myths and Myth Makers, p. 77,

[178]         Goldzhier: Hebrew Mythology, pp. 102,103.

*              This is seen from the following, taken from Pictet: “Du Quite des Carabi," p. 104, and quoted by Higgins: Anac., vol. i. p. 650 : “ Valiancy (lit que Ionn etoit le memo que Baal. En Gallois Jon, le Seigneur, Dien, la cause premiere. En Basque Jawna, Jon, Jona, &c., Dieu, et Seigneur, Maitre. Les Scandinavee appeloient le Soleil John. . . . Une des inscriptions de Uruler montre ques les Troyens adoroient le mime astre sous le nom de Jona. En Persan ie Soldi est appele Jawnah." Thus we see that the Sun was called Jonah, by different nations of antiquity.

* See Goldzhier : Hebrew Mythology, p. 146. 4 See Tylor: Early History of Mankind, p.

345, and Goldzhier: Hebrew Mythology, pp. 102, 103.

[179]            See Goldzhier’s Hebrew Mythology, p. 198, et seq.

[180]             See Maurice : Indian Antiquities, vol. ii. p. 277.

[181]            See Isis Unveiled, vol, ii, p. 259. Also, Fig. No. 5, next page.

[182]            Hist. Hindostiiii, vol. i. pp. 418-419.

6  See Prichard's Egyptian Mythology, p. 190.

Bible for Learners, vol. i. p. 87. Higgins:

Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 640. Cory's Ancient

Fragments, p. 57.

[187]            See Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, and ogy” (vo). ii. p. 201), speaking of the mystical

Chambers's Encyclo., art. “Dagon " in both. nature of the name John, which is the same as

[189] SeeBaring-Gould's Curions Myths.               Jonah, says : “ The prophet who was sent upon

* See Cox : Aryan Mythology, vol. ii, p. 26. an embtt>sy to the Xinevites, is styled lonas:

* Ibid, p. 38.                                                                   a title probably bestowed upon him as a mes*

* Curious Myths, p. 372.                                          senger of the Deity. The great Patriarch who

•Since writing the above we find that Mr. preached righteousness to the Antediluvians,

Bryant, In his “Analysis of Ancisnt Mythol- is styled Oan and Oann$st which la the sanu

a* Jonah."

[190]                                                                                               From Maurice : Hist. Hindostan, vol.            * See the chapter on “ The Trinity,” in

p. 495.                                                                                       part eecond.

[191]             Higgins : Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 634. See * * See Higgins: Anacalypele, toI. L p. 640. also, Calmet’B Fragments, 2d Hundred, p. 78.

[192] Giles : Hebrew and Christian Records, vol. 1. p. 249.

9 Genesis, xvii. 10.

1 Giles : HebrewandChristian Records, vol. I. p. 251.

* Mr. Herbert Spencer shows (Principles of Sociology, pp. 290, 295) that the sacrificing of a part of the body as a religious offering to their deity, was, and is a common practice among savage tribes. Circumcision may have origin

[193]            Orton : The Andes and the Amazon, p. 322.

[194]            This was done by cutting off the clytorls.

8 Orton : The Andes and the Amazon, p.

822. Gibbon’s Rome, vol. iv. p. 5G3, and Bible for Learners, vol. i. p. 319.

“At the time of the conquest, the Spaniards found circumcised nations in Central America, aud on the Amazon, the Tccuna and Manaus tribes still observe this practice. In the South Seas it has been mot with among three different races, but it is performed in a somewhat different manner. On the Australian continent, not all, but the majority of tribes, practiced circumcision. Among the Papuans, the inhabitauts of New Caledonia and the New Hebrides adhere to this enstom. In his third voyage, Captain Cook foond It

1 See Beal: Hist. Buddha, p. Ill, etseq.                             Ancient Art and Mytlio., p. 178, and Bulflnch:

[199] Bell's Pantheon, under “PerseusKnight:                     Age of Fables, p. 161.

[200] Bell’s Pantheon, vol. i. p. 118. Taylor’s Diegeeis, p. 190. Higgins : Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 19.                      4 Ibid.

8 Bell’s Pantheon, vol. i. p. 122. Dupuis : Origin of Religious Belief, p. 174. Goldziher :

Hebrew Mythology, p. 179. Higgins : Anaca- lypsis, vol. ii. p. 19.

[203]Bell’s Pantheon, art. “Osiris;” and Bnl-

finch; Age of Fable, p. 891.

[205] See Goldzhier : Hebrew Mythology, p. 430,

and Bulflnch i Age of Fable, 440.

[207]             Chapter xxii.

1 See Smith's Chaldean Account of Genesis,

p. 133, et seg,

* See Frog. lielig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 823.

•  See Higgins : Anacalypeis, vol. ii. p. 19.

[212] “ Septuagint.”—The Old Greek version of

the OM Testament.

[214] Vulgate.”—The Latin version of the Old

Testament.

3 The Pentateuch Examined, vol. ii. pp. 186, 287.

[215]            The Religion of Israel, p. 9.

4 Besides the many other facts which show that the Pentateuch was not composed until long after the time of Moses and Joshua, the

following may be mentioned as examples;

[218] Chambers's Encyclo., art. “Jews.” The Religion of Israel, pp. 10, IX.

[219]                    The Religion of Israel, p. 11.

8  See Ibid, pp. 120,122.

* See Ibid, p. 122.

[222] The account of the Jfruftnp of this book by

1  The Rcligioo of Israel, pp. 186,187.                         * See Chambers's Encyclo., art. “ Bible.”

[224] “ Talmud."—The books cootaioiog the « The Religion of Israel, pp 240, 241. Jewish traditions.

[225] The Religion of Israel, p. 11.

9  The Pentateuch Examined, vol. ii. p. 173. 8 The Religion of Israel, p. 241.

[226] “ What 1b the Bible,” by J. T. Sunderland.

“The Bible of To-day," by J. \V. Chadwick.

“Hebrew aud Christian Records.” by the Rev.

Dr. Giles, 2. vols. Prof. W. R. Smith’s article

on “ The Bible,” in the last edition of the En

cyclopaedia Britannica. “Introduction to the

Old Testament,” by Davidson. “The Penta

teuch and the Book of Joshua Examined,” by

[234] Ibid, pp. 29, 100. Also, Assyrian Discov

eries. p. 397.

1 Tree and Serpent Worship, pp. 0, 7.

[237] See Appendix, o.

9 See Wcstopp & Wakes, “Phallic Worship.*'

* In chap. ii.

[240] See Assyrian Discoveries, pp. 167,168, and Chaldean Account of Genesis.

[241] Chambers’sEncyclo., art. “Deucalion.”

* See chapter ii.

1 Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 185, and Maurice : Indian Antiquities, yoI. ii. p. 277.

[244] Chapter ii.

•  See Dunlap’s Son of the Man, p. 153, note.

[246]          Chaldeau Account of Genesis, pp. 27, 28. a Sec Note, p. 109.

* See Inman : Ancient Faiths, vol. 11. p. 685.

*“ Targwn."—The general term for the Aramaic versions of the Old Testament.

[247] The Religion of Israel, p. 49.

a Bell's Pantheon, vol. i. p. 122. Higgins: vol. ii. p. 19.

• In claiming the ‘‘mighty man ” and “ lion* killer ” as one of their own race, the Jews were simply doing what other nations had done be

[250] See Knight: Ancient Art and Mythology,

pp. 92, 93.

[252] Chaldean Account of Genesis, pp. 168 aDd

174; and Assyrian Discoveries, p. 1G7.

1 Chaldean Account of Genesis, p. 168.

[255] The Science of Religion, p. 40.

[256] See the Bible for Learners', vol. i. pp. 317, 418 ; vol. li. p. 301. Dunlap's Soil of the Man, p. 3, and his Spirit Hint,, pp. OS and 1S2. Inman : Ancient Faiths, vol. ii. pp. 782, 783; and Goldziher : Hebrew Mythul.. pp. 227, 240, 242.

3The Bible for Learners, vol. i. p. 317. Dunlap's Son of the Man, p. 3 ; and Spirit Hist., p. 08. Air- ». Goldziher: Hebrew Mythol.. p.159.

8The Bible for Learners, vol. i. p, 20, and 317 ; vol. ii. p. 301 and 328. Dunlap's Son of the Man. p. 3. Dunlap's Spirit llist., 08; Mytderie* of Adoni pp. xvii, and 108 ; and The lteligioi Oi'Israel, p. 38.

4  Bunsen . Keys of St. Peter, pp. 101, 102.

6 The Bible for Learners, vol. i. pp. 175-178, 317, 322, 448.

« Ibid. 115.

^ Ibid. i. 23, 321 ; ii. 102, 103, 100, 264, 274. Dunlap's Spirit Hist., p. 108. Inman : Ancient Faiths, vol. i. p. 438 ; vol. ii. p. 30.

0 The Bible for Learners, vol. i. pp. 88, 318 ; vol. ii. pp. 102, 113, 300. Dunlap: Sou of the Man, p. 3; ami Mysteries of Adoni, p. xvii. Muller : The Science of Religion, p. 261.

9The Bible for Learners, vol. i. pp. 21-25, 105, 301 ; vol. ii. pp. 102, 136-138. Dunlap : Sou of the Man, p. 3. Mysteries of Adoni, pp. 108, 177. Inman : Ancient Faiths, vol. ii. pp. 782, 783. Bunsen : The Keys of St. Peter, p. 91. MQUer : The Science of Religion, p. 181. Bal, Bely or Belus was an idol of the Chal

> Matthew, i. 18-25.                                                     recorded in the Koras, which Bays that Gabriel

[258] The Luke narrator tellB the story in a dif- appeared nnto Mary in the shape of a perfect ferent manner. HiB account is more like that man, that Mary, upon seeing him, and seeming

ferent ways, such as Krishna, Khrislina, Krishnu, Chrisua, Cristna, Christna, &c. We have followed Sir Wm. Jones’s way of spelling it, and shall do so throughout.

[260] See Asiatic Researches, vol. i. pp. 359-275.

* Ibid. p. 2U0. We may say that, “ In him

dwelt the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” (Colossians, U. 9.)

[263] Hist. nindoBtan, vol. ii. p. 327.

a Ibid. p. 329.

the mystery, which was kept secret since the

* Vishnu Purana, p. 502.

[267] Ibid. p. 440.

*       u Now to him that is of power to establish

you according to my gospel, and the preaching

of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of

[271]           Tree and Serpent Worship, p. 212,

[272]            King : The Gnostics and their Remains, p. 1G8, and Hist, nindostan, vol. ii. p. 485. R. Spence Hardy says: *• The body of the Queen was transparent, and the child could

be distinctly seen, like a priest seated upon a

throne in the act of saying bnna, or like a golden image enclosed in a vase of crystal;

bo that it could be known how much he grew every succeeding day.1’ (Hardy • Manual of

[276] See Asiastic Res., vol. x., and Anac., vol.

1. p. 062.

a Davis : Hist. China, vol. I. p. 161.

[279] “The ‘toe-print made God1 has occa

sioned much speculation of the critics. We may simply draw the conclusion that the poet meant to have his readers believe with him that the conception of his hero was supernatural.” (James Legge.)

a The Shih-King, Decade ii. Ode 1.

* See Thornton’s Eist. China, vol. i. pp. 199, 400, and Buckley's Cities of the Ancient World,

[283] Bonwick: Egyptian Belief, p. 407.

a Renouf : Relig. of Anct. Egypt, p. 103.

* See Herbert Spencer's Principles of Sociology, vol. i. p. 4M0.

[286] Kenrick's Egypt, vol. i. p. 431.

[287] Roman Antiq., p. 124. Boll’s Panth., i. 328. Dupuis, p. 258.

a Tales of Anct. Greece, p. 55.

* Greek and Italian Mytho., p. 81. Bell’s Panth., i. 117. Roman Antiq., p. 71, and Mur* ray's Manual Mytho., p. 118.

[290] L’Antiquite ExpliqnSc, vol. i. p. 229.

•Euripides: Bacchae. Quoted by Dunlap;

[292] Auol. 1. ch. ttH.

3              Bell's Pantheon, vo). ii. p. 67. Bulflnch : The Age of Fable, p. 19.

5  Bell's Pantheon, vol. i. p. 25.

[295]           Ibid, p. 74, and Bulflnch : p. 248.

* Tacitus : Annals, iii. Ixi.

[297]           Tales of Anct. Greece, p. 4.

[298]            See Middleton's Letters from. Rome, pp. 37, 38.

• * See Religion of the Ancient Greeks, p. 81, and Gibbon's Rome, vol. t. pp. 8-1, 85.

* Draper : Religion and Science, p. 8.

•  Draper : Religion and Science, p. 17.

[302] Socrates • Eccl. Ilist. Lib. 8, ch. xix.

[303] Draper : Religion and Science, p. 8. Compare Lnke i. 25-35.

'* pJiUostrutus. p. o.

9  See the chapter on Miracle??.

[306] See Higgins : Auacalypsis, vol. i. p. 151»

1 Eusebius : Eccl. Hist., lib. 2, ch. xtii.     vl. ICO and 175-6.

a Ibid. ch. xiii.                                            5 Ibid.

[309]                                                              See Mallet's Northern Antiquities.         * See Kingsborough : Mexican Antiquities,

4 See niggins : Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 32, vol. vl, p. 170.

Klageborough:  Mexican Antiquities, vol. 1 Ibid. p. 175.

[310]

[311]        See King&borougb : Mexican Antiquities, vol. v) p. 176.

[312]        lbffl. p. 166.

* Brinton : Myths of the New World, pp.

180, 181.

[315] Squire : Serpent Symbol, p. 191.

»Ibid.

• Ibid.

• Ibid, p. 102.

• “ U we seek, in the first three Gospels, to know what hie biographers thought of Jesus,

we find his true humanity plainly stated, and if

[321]             Mark, xiii. 32.

3 Mark, x. 40.

1 Sec The Bible for Learners, vol. iii. p. 57. gated this subject in his Christ of Paul,” !•

[324] Eusebius : Eccl. Hist., lib. 3, ch. xxiv.                Which the reader is referred.

• Mr. George Reber has thoroughly investi- 1 See Gibbon's Rome, vo). i. pp. 515-517.

1 Gibbon's Gome, vol. iv. pp. 488, 489.

[326] See Lardner’s Works, vol. viii. pp, 895, 896.

i Eusebius; Eccl. Hist., lib. 5, cb. xxv.                           * L&rdner : vol. viii. p. 404.

[328] Ireuaeue: Agaiust Heresies, bk. i. c. xxiv.

[329]        See Gibbon's Rome, vol. iv. p. 516

[330] Matthew, ch. ii.

[331] See Knight: Ancient Art and Mythology, p. 53.

[332] Allen's India, p. 456.

* See Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 221.

[334] See Bnnsen’s Angel-Messiah, pp. 32,33,33.

9 See Beal; llist. Buddha, pp. 33, 33, 33.

9 See Bunsen's Angel-Mestiah, p. 36.

[337] Willtams’e Indian Wisdom, p. 347.

* See Hist, nindostan, ii. 336.

4 See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 561.

For that of Crishna, see Vishnu Purana, book v.

[341] Baring-Gould : Legends of the Patriarchs, p. 149.

9 Calraet's Fragments, art. “ Abraham."

1 Farrar's Life of Christ, p. 52.

[344] Tacitus: Annals, bk. xiv. ch. xxii.

1 Life of Christ, to] 1. p 144.                                         * See Thomas Scott'a English Life of Jtsoa

[346] Matthew ii. 2.                                                        for a fall investigation of this subject.

[347] Luke, II. 8-13.

3 Translated from the original Sanscrit by E. II. Wilaou, M. D., F.R.S.

[349] All the virgin-born Saviours are born at midnight or early dawn.

[350]            See Tales of Ancient Greece, p. 55.

1 See Beal: Ilist. Buddha, pp. 43, 55, 56,                                    * See Prichard's Egyptian Mythology, p. 56,

and Bunsen’s Angel-Messiali, p. 35.                                         and Kenrick's Egypt, vol. i. p. 408.

8 Sec Amberly : Analysis of Religious Be- 6 Bomvick: Egyptian Belief, p. 484, and lief, p. 8i.          Kenrick’s Egypt, vol. i. p. 408.

[352] Davis : Ilistory of China, vol. ii. p. 48. See a See Tales of Aucient Greece, p. 4. also Thornton : Hist. China, i. 152.

[353] “ The original word here is ‘ Jragoi,' from which comes our word ‘ Magician.' . . . The persons /ure denoted were philosophers, priests, or astronomers. They dwelt chiefly in Persia and Arabia. They were the learned men of the Eastern nations, devoted to astronomy. 150

[354] Higgins : Anacalypsis, vol. i. pp. 129, 130,

and Maurice . Hist. Hindostan, vol. ii. pp. 236,

257 and 317. Also, The Vishnu Purana.

a Oriental Religions, pp. 500, 501. SeSilso, Ancient Faiths, vol. ii. p. 353.

• Asacaljpeis, vol. i. p. 157.

[359]            Bunsen's Angel-Messiah, p. 36.

* See Amberly’s Analysis, p. 231, and Ban* ten's Angel-Messiah, p. 36.

8  Beal: Hist. Buddha, p. 58.

[362]            Oriental Religions, p. 491.

* See Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. 1. p. 200.

'Taylor's Diegesis, p. 150. Roman Anti- * Beil’s Pantheon, vol. It p. 218. qnities, p. 136, and Bell's Pantheon, Yol. i. p. 4 Ibid. vol. t p. 47.

[365]                                                                * Ibid. p. 20.

? Matthew, it,                                                                             » Eusebius's Life of Constantine, lib. 3, ck*

[367] Luke, ii,                                                                         xl., xli. and xlii.

[368]             Aryan Myths, vol. ii. p. 107.

[369]             Sec Amberly's Analysis, p. 220.

[370]          Protevangelion. Apoc. chs. xii., xiii., and xiv., and Lily of Israel, p. 05.

3  Sec Higgins: Auacalypsis, vol. ii. pp. 08,

00.

*Farrar's Life of Christ, p. 38, and note. See also, Hist. Hindostan, ii. 311.

1 Inman : Ancient Faiths, vol. ii. p. 460.                       * See Higgins : Anncalypsis, vol. i. p. 322,

3 Cos : Aryan Mythology, vol. H. p. 133.           and Dupuis : Origin of Rclig. Belief, p. 119.

Higgins : Anacalypsis. vol. i. p. 130. See also,              * Tales of Anct. Greece, p. xviii.

Vishnu Furana, p. (502, where it says:                              • Bell’s Pantheon, vol. i. p. 27. Roman An*

“ No ]>crson could bear to gaze upon Devaki tiquitic?, p. 136. from the light that invested her.”                    1 Inman : Ancient Faiths, vol. ii. p. 460.

[372] Sec Beal: Hist. Buddha, pp. 43, 46, or Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 649.

Bunsen’s Angcl-Messiah, pp. 34, 35.                              6 See Hardy: Manual of Buddhism, J>. 145.

1 Bunsen : The Angel-Meesiah, p, 84.       See              1 As we saw in Chapter XII.

also, Beal: Hist. Buddha, p. 32, and     Lillie ;               4 Higgins ; Anacalypsis, vol, I, p, 150,

Buddha and Early Buddhism, p. 73.                                * See Rhys David's Buddhism, p. 28.

[374] Thornton t Hist. Chiaa, I. 138.                             • See Cox j Aryan Myths, vol, ii. p. 21.

[375] That is, a passage in the Old Testament was construed to mean this, although another and more plausible meaning might be inferred. It is when Abraham is blessed by the Lord,

1G0

[376]            Scott’s English Life of Jesos.

[377] Matthew, xiii. 54; Luke, iv. 24. a Mark, ii. 35.

8 “There is no doubt that the authors of the genealogies regarded him (Jesus), as did hie countrymen and contemporaries generally, as the eidest son of Joseph, Mary's husband, and that thsy had no idea of anything miraculous connet ted with his birth. All the attempts •f the old commentators to reconcile the in

[378] See Higgins: Anacalypsie, vol. 1. p. 130. Asiatic Researches, vol. i. p. 239, and Allen's

India, p. 379.

a Hist. Hindostan, li. p. 310.

•        See Higgins : Anacalypsis, vol. i, p. 157.

Bunsen : The Angel-Messiah. Davis: Hist.of

China, vol. ii. p. 80, and Hue's Travels, vol. 1.

p. 327.

* Allen's India, p. 379.

[386] A heavenly voice whispered to the foster*

father of Jesus, and tcld him to fly with the child into Egypt, which svas immediately done. (See Matthew, ii. 13.)

[388] Life and Reiig. of the Hindoos, p. 184.

[389] See Prog. Rclig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 61.

3 See Uiggius : Anacalypsis, vol. i. 130, 13 .

and Maurice: Indian Antiquities, vol. i. pp.

112, 113, and vol. iii. pp. 45, 95.

[393] Bonwick: Egyptian Belief, pp. 153 and 133.

* Indian Antiquities, vol. i. pp. 112, 113,

1  The Shih-king. Decade ii, ode 1.

[396] In the Apocryphal Gospel of the Birth of

Mary and *• Protuvangelion.”

[398] Sue Bell’s Pantheon, vol. L p. 9. Cox:

Aryan Mythology, vol. ii. p. 58, and Bulfinch :

The Age of Fable, p. 101.

* Bell's Pantheon, vol. i. p. 27. Cox : Aryan

? Cox: Aryan Mytho. ii. p. 81.                                        ‘Boll’s Pantheon, vol. i. p. 188. Cox:

[403]                                                                                        Ibid. p. 84.                        Aryan Mytho. vol. ii. p. 296.

• Ibid. p. 150.                                                                        5 Uerodotns: bk. v. ch. 92.

[404]         Bible for Learners, vol. iii. pp. 71-74.

1 See Farrars Life of Christ, p. GO.                         Christian art of the flight of the Holy Family

[406] Bonwick : Egyptian Belief, p. 368.                     into Egypt. (See Mounmental Christianity, p.

* There are no very early examples in 239.)

[408]        See lloaomeoUl Christianity, p. 238.

1 Matthew, iv. 1-11.                                                     ford, Eogland.

* See Lardner’s Works, vol. viii. p. 491.                   4 The Bishop of Manchester (England), Jn

[410]         Words of the Rev. E. Garbett, M. A., in a the “ Manchester Examiner and Times.” sermon preached before the University of Ox- 6 See Lillie's Buddhism, p. 100.

1 Pp. 44 and 172, 173.                                                    39. Beal: Hist. Buddha, pp. xxviii., zxiz.,

8 Translated by Prof. Samuel Beal.                          and 190, and naidy: Buddhist Legends, p.

[412] See also Bunsen's Angel-Messiab, pp. 38, xvii.

1 Dnpnis: Origin of Religions Belief, p. 240.             4 Life nod Relig. of the Hindoos, p. 134.

* Chambers's Enclyclo. art.44 Zoroaster.”                     • Baring-Goold: Orig. Relig. Belief, yoI. L

[414]         See Kingsboroogb: Mexican Antiquities, p. 341.

?ol. yi. p. 200.                                                                         • Ibid.

[415] Acosta: Hist. Indies, vol. ii. p. 339.

5 Exodus, xxiv. 28.

1 Dent. ix. 18.

* 1 Kings, xix. 8.

nights11 at the time of the flood.

1 See Kingsborough’s Mexican Antiquities, toI. vi. p. 223.

* Bonwick’s Egyptian Belief, p. 370.

[421] Brinton : Myths of the New World, p. 94.

* Max MQller’B Chips, vol. ii. p. 279.

* Brinton ; Myths of the New World, p. 94.

*        Ibid. According to Genesis, vii. 12, “ the

rain was upon the earth forty days and forty

11. Kings, xi. 42.                                                                     • See Higgins1 Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 70S;

[427]                                                                                       I, Samuel, xvii. 16.      vol. ii. p. 402.

1  Gen. vii. 12.                                                                          * See Ibid. vol. ii. p. 70S.

[428]        Exodus, xxiv. 18—xxxiv. 28.

[429] Monier Williams : Hinduism, pp. 38-40.

1 Monler Williams: Hinduism, p. 86.                                    2 See Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. 1. p. 803.

[431] Kenrlck’s Egypt, vol. 1. p. 443.

[432]        Pages 274 and 612.

[433]        “On rcconte fort diversement lamortde Crishna. Une tradition remarquable et avdree le fait perir sur un bois fatal (un arbre), ou il fut cloud d'un coup de fldche.” (Quoted by Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 144.)

[434] Sec Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 499, and Mre. Jameson's “History of Our Lord in Art,” ii. 317, where the cross is called the “accursed tree.”

s Chap. xxi. 22, 23 : “If a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be to be put to death, and thon hang him on a tree : his body shall not remain all night npou the tree, but thon shalt In any wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged Is accursed of God;) that thy land be not defiled, which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.”

* Galatians, iii. 13.

[437] See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 146, and Iuman's Ancient Faiths, vol. i. p. 402.

1 Monumental Christianity, p. 128.                                             4 Vasudeva means Cod. Sec Vishnu Purana,

* Ancient Faiths, val. i. p. ill.                                             p. 274.

[439]                                                                                              Luke, sxili. 89-43.       6 Vishnu Purana, p 612.

[440] See Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 72. a ‘ Si ita sc res habet, ut ezietimat Beau- sobrlus, IndU et Budutce quorum religio, eadem est ac Tibctana. nonoisi a Manicliatis nova base deliriorum portenta accepcrunt. Ilie- namquo Rentes prsscrtiin in urbe Nepal, Luna XII. Budr bcu Bhadon Anrju-di mensis, dies feBtoa auspientune Dei India, erignut ad illins

[441] “ II? conviennent qu’il a repandu eon sang

pour le saint du genre hnmain, ayant ete perce

de clous par tout eon corps. Quoiqu'iU ne

disent pas qu’il a eouHert le supplicc de )a

croix, ou on trouve pourtant la figure dans leurs

livrcs.” (Quoted in Higgins’ Anacalypsis, vol.

ii, p. 118.)

9 ‘'Although the nations of Europe have changed their religions during the past eighteen

very partially. . . . The religious creeds, rites, customs, and habits of thought of the

Hindoos generally, have altered little since the

days of Manu, 500 years b. c.” (Prof. Mooier Williams : Indian Wisdom, p. iv.)

* See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. pp. 147,

centuries, the Hindoo has not done so, except

[454]          Quoted in Anacalypsis, vol. 11. p. 118.

3  Bunsen's Angcl-Messiah, p. 20.

* Beal: Uiet. Buddha, p. 33.

4  Hue’s Travels, vol. 1. pp. 320, 327.

* Mtlller : Hist. Sanscrit Literature, p. 80.

1 See Maurice: Indian Antiquities, vo). v. p. 95, aud Williams : Hinduism, p. 214.

7  "Ue in mercy left paradise, and came down to earth, because he was filled with com* passion for the sins aud miseries of mankind. He sought to lead them into better paths, and took their sufferings upon himself, that he might

[455] Quoted in Preg. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 211.

8 Ibid.

8See Renouf : Religions of Ancient Egypt, p. 178.

[458] Bonwick : Egyptian Belief, p. 155.

• Murray: Manual of Mythology, p. 348.

[460]          Dupuis : Origin ot Religious Belief, p. 235.

* Vol. ii.

*Lactant. tnst., div. iv. chap. xiii. in Anac- alypsis, vol. i. p. 544.

[461] Chambers's Kncyclo., art. “Prometheus.” 5 “ Prometheus has been a favorite subject with the poets. Ho is represented as the friend of mankind, who interposed in their behalf when Jove was incensed against them.” (Bul- finch : The Age of Fable, p. 32.)

“ 111 the mythos relating to Prometheus, he always appears as the friend of the human race, suffering in its behalf the most fearful tortures.” (John Fiske: Myths and Myth- makers, pp. 64, 65.) “ Prometheus was nailed to the ro:ks on Mount Caucasus, with arms

[462] Petneus was an interchangeable synonym >f the name Occanus.

a “ Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying: Be it far from thee. Lord ; this shall not be unto thee.” (Matt. xvi. 22.)

*    And there followed him a great company of people, and of women, which also bewailed and lamented him.” (Luke, xxiil. 27. >

[465] See Taylor’s Dicgcsis, pp. 103, 104, or Pot

ter’s ASschylus.

*       ** They say that the god (Bacchus), the off

spring of Zeus and Dcmeter, wa9 torn to

pieces.” (Diodorus Siculus, in Knight, p. 156,

note.)

*       See Knight: Anct. Art and Mythology, p.

Ob, note, Dupuis : Origin of Religious Belief,

253. niggius: Anacalypsis, vol, ii. p. 102.

’ Knight: Ancient Art and Mythology, p.

[475] See Taylor’s Diegesis, p. 153.

3  See the chapter on “Miracles of Jesus.”

8 See Dupuis : Origin of Religious Belief, p. 204.

[478]             See Monumental Christianity, p. 186.

6 See Higgins : Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 15.

[480]            Sec Giles : Hebrew and Christian Records, vol. ii. p. 86.

[481]     See Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 15, and our

chapter on Christian Symbols.

K This subje?t will be referred to again in

[484] Prog. Itelig. Ideas, vol. i. pp. 258, 250.

*       Maicom : Ilist. Persia, vol. i. Ap. p. 494 ;

Nimrod, vol. ii. p. 31. Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 649.

* Col. i. 26.

* See Bonwick : Egyptian Belief, p. 102.

*       See Dunlap’s Son of the Man, p. 39, mar-

fflnal note.

*       “ In the beginning was the Word, and the

Word was with God. and the Word was God.”

(John, 1.1.)

[494] See Bunsen’s Bible Chronology, p. 5. Keys of St. Peter, 125. Volney's Ruins, p. 168.

a Giles : Hebrew and Christian Records, p. 64, vol. ii.

8Ibid. p. 86, and Taylor's Diegesis, pp. 203, 20o, 407. Dupuis : p. 267.

[497] Eusebius : Ecel. Hist., lib. 1, ch. iv.

6  See Dunlap’s Son of the Man, p. 78.

* See Ibid. p. 39.

[500] Ganesa la the Indian God of Wisdom. (See Asiatic Researches, vol. i.)

s The Ring and circle was an emblem of god, or eternity, among the Hindoos. (See Lundy : Monumental Christianity, p. 87.)

* The Cobra, or hooded snake, Is a native of the East I

[Prometheus]

[620]                                                                                          Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 68.       Travels, &c.

• Hist. Ilindostan, vol. ii. p. 269.                                      5 Hardy : Buddhist Legends, pp. xxi. xxii.

8  See Hardy's Buddhist Legends, and East* 8 The Science of Religion, p. 27.

1 Beal: Ilist. Bmldha, pp. 246, 247.                        det, pp. 186 aud 192. Bournouf : Intro, p.

[624]            Dhammapada, pp. 47, 50 aud 90. Bigan- 150. In Lillie's Buddhism, pp. 139, 140.

[625]            Hardy : Manual of Buddhism.

[626]             See Prog. Helig. Ideas, vol, i. p. 229.

[627]             See Tylor : Primitive Culture, vol. i. p. 135, and Hardy : Buddhist Legends, pp. 98,126,137.

* See Tylor : Primitive Culture, vol. i. p. 135.

[628]            Thornton s Hist. China, vol. i, p. 341.

[629]             Quoted by Baring-Gould : Orig. Relig. Belief, vol. i. p. 897.

[630]            See Prichard's Mythology, p. 347.

s See Bonwick’s Egyptlau Belief, p. 404.

[632]            See Dupuis : Origin of Religious Belief, 258, and Anacalypsis, vol. il. p. 102. Compare John, Li. 7.

A Grecian festival called thtia was observed by the Gleans in honor qf Bacchus, The priests conveyed three empty vessels into a chapel, in the presence of a large assembly, after which the doors were shut and sealed.

[634] Bell’s Pantheon, vol. i. p. 28.

2 Eusebius: Life of Constantine, lib. 3, cb. fiv.

“ JSsculaphts, the son of Apollo, was endowed by bis father with such skill in the healing art that be even restored the dead to life.” (BulQnch : The Age of Fable, p 24(i.)

[635] “ And when Jesus departed thence, two blind men followed him, crying and saying s

thou son of David, have mercy on ns. . , . And Jesus said unto them: Believe ye that I am able to do this ? They said unto him, Yea>

Lord. Then touched he their eyes, saying *

According to your faith be it unto you,

[639] See Middleton’s Letters from Rome, p. 76. 8 “Nunc Dea, nunc succurre mihi, nam posse medcri

Picta docet temples mnlta tabella tuie.” (Horace:          Tibull. lib. 1, Eleg. iii. In

Ibid.)

[641]             Chambers's Encyclo.. an. “JEsculapius.”

[642]             Murray : Manual of Mythology, p. 180.

6  Apol. 1, ch. xxii.

[644] Deane: Serp. Wor. p. 304. See also, Bell's

[645]            Aryan Mytho. vol. ii. p. 238,

[646]            Herodotus: bk. vi. ch. 61.

8 See Philostratus: Vied'Apo.

Gibbon, the historian, says of him : “ Apol

lonius of Tyana. born about the same time as

Jesus Christ. Ilis life (that of the former) is

related in so fabulous a manner by his disci

ples, that we are at a loss to discover whether

[653] Compare Matt. ix. 18-25. “There came a certain ruler and worshiped him, saying :

* My daughter is even now dead, but come and lay thy hand upon her, aud she shall live,' And Jesus arose and followed him, and so did

his disciples. . . . And when Jesus came into the ruler’s house, and saw the minstrels and the people making a noise, he said unto them:

‘Give peace, for the maid is not dead, but eleepeth.* And they laughed him to scorn. But when the people were put forth, he went

[657]            See Mosheim. vol. i. pp. 137, 140.

[658]            See Prog. Reiig. Idea?, rol. ii. pp. 241, that belong to God.” (See “ Son of the

242.                                                                                            Man,” p. 67.)

[659]     According to Hieronymus (a Christian 8 See Prog. Reiig. Ideas, vol. ii. p. 316, and

Father, bom a. d. 346), Simon Magus applied Middleton’s Free Inquiry, p. 62.

to himself these words : “ I am the Word (or                   4 Eusebius : Ecc . Hist., lib. 3, ch. xif*

Logos) of God ; I am the Beautiful, I the Ad-                  • Middleton’s Works, v->l. i. p. 54.

vocate, I the Omnipotent; I am all things

[664] Middleton1* Works, vol. i. p. 54.

* Prog, ltelig. Ideas, vol. ii. p. 312, and Middleton’s Works, vol. i. p. 10.

[666]             “ The Egyptians call all men * barbarians' who do not speak the same language as themselves.” (Herodotus, book it. ch. 158.)

“ Hy ‘ barbatnans' the Greeks meant all who were not sprung from themselves—all foreigners.” (Heury Cary, translator of Herodotus.)

The Chinese call the English, and all foreigners from western countries, ""western barbarians •” the Japanese were called by them the "eastern barbarians." (See Thornton's History of China, vol. i.)

The Jews considered all who did not belong to their race to be heathens and barba* Hans.

[670] Geikie : Life of Christ, vol. i. p. 75.

3  Jewish Antiqiities, bk. viii. ch. ii.

* Middleton’s Works, vol. i. p. fiS.

1 ’? And he coineth to Bcthsaida, and they

bring a blind man unto him, and besought him

to touch him. And he took the blind man by the hand . . . and when he had spit on his eyes, ... lie looked np and said : ‘ 1 see

1 Sec Chambers’s Encyclo., art. “ Tacitus.”               5 See The Bible of To-Day, pp. 873, 278.

[677] See Gibbon’s Rome, vol. i. pp. 539-541.

[678]            Middleton’s Letters from Home, p. 102 See also, Bell’s Pantheon, vol. i. p. 16.

[679]             Dionysius of llalicamassus, one of the most accurate historians of antiquity, says: “ In the war with the Latins, Castor and Pollux appeared visibly on white horses, and fought

[680] See Prefatory Discourse lo vot. Hi. ilid* 2 See Origen: Contra Cdus, bk. l, ch. Ixviii

dleton’s Works, p. M.

[682] See Origen: Contra Celsus, bk. 1, ch. ix.

a Ibid bk. iii. ch. xliv,

* Ibid.

[685]                    Ibid. bk. 1, ch. Ixviii.

«Ibid.

fl Ibid.

[688] Dial. Cum. Typho. ch. lxix.

1Sec King's Gnostics, p. 145. Monumental Hi at. of Our Lord. vol. I. p. 16. Christianity, pp 100 and 402. and Jameson's                     *                      Monumental Christianity, pp.         403-405.

Hist, of Our Lord in Art. rol. i. p. 16.                                 4 Middleton’s Works, vol. i. p.   10.

[690]             See Monumental Christianity, p. 403, and *         See Taylor’s Diegesis, p. 58,

[691] Gibbon's Rome, vol. i. p. 588. An eminent heathen challenged his Christian friend Theophilus, Bishop of Antioch, a champion of the Gospel, to show him but one person

who had been raised from the dead, on the

U. The Christian bishop was unable to give

condition of turning Christian himself upon

[695] Contra CcUu-s bk. 1, cli. ix. x.

* Sec Middleton's Works, pp. 62, 63, 64.

[697]1. Corinthians, i. 22, 23.                                        Matt. xxiv. 29, 30; Acts, ii. 19, 20; Revela

*                                                                                            Matt. xii. 29.                 tlons, vi. 12,13; xvi. 18, et teq,

* Sec, for example, Joel, ii. 10, 31; iii. 15 ;

* The writers of the Gospels were “ I know not what sort of half Jews, not even agreeing with themselves.” (Bishop Fanatus.)

[700] It is also very evident that the history of

Crishna—or that part of it at least which has a

Crishna of qualities or powers belonging to the other deities is a mere device by which his devotees sought to supersede the more ancient gods, the answer must he that nothing is clone in his case which has not been done in the case of

almost every other member of the great company of the gods, and that the systematic adoption

religious aspect—is taken from that of Buddha. Crishna, in the ancient epic poems, is simpiya great hero, and it is not until about the fourth century b. c., that he is deified and declared to be an incarnation of Vishnu, or Vishnu himself in human form. (See Monier Williams’ Hinduism, pp. 103, 103.)

” If it be urged that the attribution to

[706] Vlshnn Purana, p. 502.

[707]             See ch. xvi.

4 Protevangelion, Apoc., chs. xli. and xiii.

[708]             Hist. Hiudostan, vol. ii. 811.

7  Luke, it. 13.

* See eh. xvi.

[711] Hist. Hindostan, vol. ii. p, 311. See also,

chap. xvi.

• Infancy, Apoc., ch. i. 2, 8.

[714] Asiatic Researches, vol. i. p. 259. Hist.

Hindostan, vol. ii, p. 310.

8  See the Genealogies in Matt, and Luke.

•  Matt. ii. 13.

•Matt. ii. 16.

Researches, vol. i. p.259.

acalypsis, vol. i. p. 130. Savary : Travels in

1 Hist. Hindostan, vol. ii. p. 317. Asiatic

8  See ch. xviii.

•  See ch. xviii.

•        Introduc. to Infancy, Apoc. Higgins: An-

[725] Infancy, Apoc., ch. xx. 1-8.

3  Hist, Hindostan, vol. ii. p. 321.

8 Hint. Hindostan, vol. ii. p. 343.

8 Infancy, Apoc., ch. xviii. 1-8.

• Infancy, Apoc., ch. xviii.

8 Hist. Hindostan, vol. H. p. 340. Iryan

Mytho., vol. ii, p. 136.

[732]           Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 71.

[733]           See ch. xx.

[734]            John, xix. 31.

6  See Vishnu Puraua, p. 61-2.

[736]            See ch. xxiii.

[737]             See ch. xxiii.

[738]             See ch. xxiv.

13  See Oriental Religions, p. 504.

[740]            Matt. xxii. Luke, xxviii.

* Luke, xxiii. 13.

[742]            See ch. xxii.

e See Ibid.

[744]             Mutt. xxviii.

[745]              Sec Acts, i. 9-11.

[746]             See passages quoted in ch. xxiv.

14  Malt. xxiv. 31. Rom. xiv. 10.

,T See ch. xxvi.

[749]             See eh. xxvii.

a According to the New Testament.

8 See lihaguvat Gccta.

[752]             John, xiii. 23.

•  Ibid. p. 210.                          7 Matt. xvii. 1-6.

though represented as sporting amorously, when a youth, with cowherdcsscs. Accordiug to the pure Vaisbuava faith, however. Cristina's love for the Gopis, and especially for his favorite Uildhii, is to be explained allegorically, as symbolizing the longing of the human soul for the Supreme. (Prof. Monicr Williams: Ilin- duism, p. 144.) Just as the amorous ''Song of Solomon” is said to be allegorical, aud to mean '‘Christ’s love for his church.”

[755]             See Indian Antiquities, iii. 46, and Asiatic Researches, vol. i. p. 273.

[756]            Vishnu Parana, p. 492, note 3.

I. Timothy, iii. 16.

»* Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva. CrUhna w Yiehnu inhuman form. “A more personal,

8  Williams' Hinduism, p. 215.

19 John, xiii.

[761]            Williams' Hinduism, p. 211.

* Williams1 Hinduism, p. 212.

6  Williams' Hinduism, p. 213.

* John, i. 3.

[765]             Williams' Hinduism, p. 213.

[766] 1. Cor. x. 31.

9 John. viii. 12.

* Williams’ Hinduism, p. 213.

[769]            Matt. vi. 6.

[770] *“ Alexander the Great made his expedition to the banks of the Indus about 327 b. c., and to this invasion is due the first trustworthy information obtained by Europeans concern* ing the north-westerly portion of India and the region of the five rivers, down which the

Grecian troops were conducted in ships by

Nearchue. Megaethenea, who was the embas

sador of Selenkos Nikator (Alexander’s succes

sor, and rnler over the whole region between

the Euphrates and Indus, b. c. 313), at the court of Caudra-gupa (Sandrokottus), in Pataliputra

[776] In speaking of the antiquity of the Bhagavad-gita. Prof. Monier Williams soys: •‘The author was probably a Brahmau and nominally a Vishnava, bnt really a philosopher whose utind was cast in a broad and comprehensive mould, lie is supposed to have lived

in India during the first and second century of our era. Some consider that he lived as late as the third century, and some place him even later, but with these I cannot agree." (Indian Wisdom, p. 137.)

* In order that t he resemblances to Christian Scripture in the writings of Roman philosophers may be compared, Prof. Williams refers the

[779]            Indian Wisdom, pp. 153, 154. Similar 6 Williams’ Hinduism, pp. 119-110. It was

sentiments are expressed in his Hindnism, pp. from these sources that the doctrine of incar- 212-220.  nation was first evolved by the Brahman.

[780]                                                                                          Indian Wisdom, p. iv.        They were written many centuries b. c. (Sea

* Ibid. p. 131.

•  Cox: Aryan Mythology, yol. 11. pp. 137,138. Ibid.)

[783]            Maya, and Mary, as we have already seen,

are one and the same name.

[785]            See chap. xii. Buddha la considered to be an incarnation of Vishnu, although he preached againr-t the doctrines of the Brahmans. The adoption of Buddha as au incarnation of Vishnu was really owning to the desire of the Brahmans to effect a compromise with Buddhism. (See Williams’ Hinduism, pp. t>2 and 108.)

•?Buddha was brought forth not from the matrix, but from the right side, of a virgin.’" (De Guigncs: Uist. dee Huns. tom. i. p. 224.)

“Some of the (Christian) heretics maintained that Christ was born from the side of hie mother.” (Anacalypsis, vol. I. p. 157.)

“ In the eyes of the Budd hist?, thi9 personage is sometimes a man and sometimes a god, or rather both one and the other, a divine incarnation, a man-god ; wbo came into the world to enlighten men, to redeem them, and to indicate to them the way of safety. This idea of redemption by a divine incarnation is eo gen-

19

[787] “As a spirit in the fourth heaven he resolves to give up all that glory iu order to be born in the world tor the purpose of rescuing all men from their misery and every

future consequence of it: he vows to deliver all men who are left as iiwere without a /Saviour." (Bunsen: The Augcl-Messiah, p. 20.)

Manual of Buddhism, p. 144.

“ On a painted glass of the sixteenth cen

tury, found in the church of Jouy, a little

village in France, the Virgin is represented

standing, her hands clasped in prayer, and the

naked body of the child in the same attitude

appears upon her stomach, apparently sup

body of the mother. M. Drydon saw at Lyons

on their mothers’ stomachs, were also saluting each other. This precisely corresponds to

[798]            See King's Gnostics, p. 16S, and Hardy’s

* See chap. xii. note 2, page 117.

posed to bo seen through the garments and

a Salutation painted on shutters, in which the

two infant6 (Jesus and John) likewise depicted

[803]            R. Spence Hardy, in Manual of Buddhism.

[804]             “Mam" is the “Author of Evil,” the “King of Death,” the “ God of the World of Pleasure,” &c., i. the Devil. (See Beal ; Hist. Buddha, p. 86.)

1 See ch. six.

• See ch. xix.

[807]             See chap. xvii.

[808]            Matt. iv. 1-18.

[809] This 1ms evidently an allusion to the Trinity. Buddha, as an incarnation of Vishnu, would be one god and yet three, three gods and yet one. (See the enapteron the Trinity.)

8bee Bum-su’s Angel-Messiah, p. 45, and Beal: llist. Buddha, p. ITT.

8 See ch. xxvii.

Iamldidnis, the great Xeo-Tlatonic mystic, was at one time transjigvred. According to the report of his servnuts, while in prayer to the gods, his body and clothes were changed ton beautiful gold color, but after lie ceased from prayer, his body became aa before. He then returned to the society of hie followers. (Primitive Culture, i. 130, 137.)

8 See that recorded in Matt. viii. 28-34.

8 See ch. xxiii.

8 Bunsen's Angel-Measiah, p. 43.

[815]             See Matt xxviii, John, xx,

[816]                                             See chap, xxiii.           • See Acts, I. 9-12.

18 See ch. xxiv.                    11 See Ibid.

18 See ch. xxv. >8 Matt. xvi. 27; John, v. 22.

[819] Bunsen : The Angel-Messiah, pp. x. and 39.

3  “ That was the true light, which lighteth

* Matt. iv. 1; Mark, i. 13 ; Luke, iv. 2.

Just as the Samaritan woman wondered that

Jesus, a Jew, should ask drink of her, one of

a nation with whom the Jews had no dealings,

approach a monk. And as Jesus continued,

nevertheless, to converse with the woman, so

Ananda did not shrink from this outcast damsel.

every man that cometh into the world.” (John, i. 9.)

And as the disciples *• marvelled ” that Jesus

should have conversed with this member of a

* Muller: Science of Religion, p. 140.

[832]            Matt. v. 17.

8 Muller: Science of Religion, p. 243. See alf^o, Bunsen’s Angel-Messiah, pp. 47, 48, and Amherly's Analysis, p. 285.

[833]            John, iv. 1-11.

so this young Matangi warned Ananda of her

caste, which rendered it unlawful for her to

despised race, so the respectable Brahmans and

[837] Miiller : Science of Religion, p, 27.

* Hardy : Eastern Monachism, p, 230.

9 “Then certain of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, .Master, we would see a sign from thee.” (Matt. xii. 38.)

* Mark, xxviii. 18-20.

Buddha at one time said to his disciples :

“ Gautama Buddlia is said to have announced to his disciples that the time of his departure had come : ‘ Arise, let us go hence, my time is come.’ Turned toward the East and with folded arms tie prayed to the highest spirit who inhabits the region of purest light, to Maha timhrna, to the king in heaven, to Devaraja, who from his throne looked down on Gautama, and appeared to him in a self-chosen personality." (Bunsen : The Augel-Messiah. Compare with Matt. xxvi. 33-17.)

[842]             See Matt, xxiv; Mark, viii. 31; J.ake, ix,

18.

“Go ye now, and preach the most excellent law, expounding every point thereof, and un

[845] Beal : Hist. Buddha, p. x. note.

8  Matt. iv. 17.

[847]            i. eto establish the dominion of religion. (See Beal: p. 244, note.)

[848]     The Jerusalem, the Rome, or the Mecca

of India.

This celebrated city of Benares, which has a population of 200.000, out of which at least 25,000 are Brahmans, was probably one of the first to acquire a fame for sanctity, and it has always maintained its reputation as the most sacred spot in all India. Here, in this fortress of Ilindooism, Brahmanism displays itself in all its plontitude and power. Here the degrding effect of idolatry is visibly demonstrated as it is nowhere else except in the extreme south of India. Here, temples, idols, and symbols, sacred

wells, springs, and pools, are multiplied beyond all calculation. Here every particle of gronndis

believed to be hallowed, and the very air holy.

The number of temples is at least two thousand, not counting innumerable smaller shrines. In the principal temple of Siva, called Visves- vara, are collected in one spot several thousand

idols and symbols, the whole number scattered throughout the city, being, it is thought, at jeast half a million.

Benares, indeed, must always be regarded

[856] Rhys Davids' Buddhism, p. 138.

1. Corinth, vii. 1-7.

[858] Rhys Davids’ Buddhism, p. 103.

This is tin.- doctrine of transmigration clearly taught. If this man was born blind, as punishment for some sin committed by him, this sin must have been committed in some former birth.

[860]             Hardy : Buddhist Legends, p. 181.

8 See the story of his conversation with the woman of Samaria, (John, iv. 1.) And with the woman who was cured of the “bloody issue.” (Matt. ix. 20.)

[861]             MQUer: Science of Religion, p. 2-15.

® Hardy : Buddhist Legends, p. 131.

* John, ix. 1, 2.

•  Matt. v. 29.

[865]             Matt. xxi. 1-9.

Bacchus rode in a triumphal procession, on approaching the city of TKelts.              “Pan-

theus, the king, who had no respect for the uew worship (instituted by Bacchus; forbade

[866] Gautama Buddha left behind him no written works, but the Buddhists believe that he composed works w hich his immediate disciples learned by heart iu his life-time, und which were hauded down by memory in their original state until they were committed to writing. This is not impossible: it is known that the Vedas were hauded down in this manner for many hundreds of years, and none would now dispute the enormous powers of memory to which Indian priests and monks attained, when written books were not invented, or only used as helps to memory. Even though they are well acquainted with writing, the monks in Ceylon do not use books in their religious services, but, repeat, for instance, the whole of the rcUimokkka on Uposatba (Sabbath)

[867] Bunsen : The Angel-Messiah, p, 41.

9  “ He joined to his gifts as a thinker a prophetic ardor and missionary zeal which prompted him to popularize his doctrine, and to preach to all without exception, men and women, high and low, ignorant and learned alike.” (Rhys Davids’ Buddhism, p. 53.)

* Bunsen : The Angel-Messiah, p. 45.

* Ibid. p. 40.

*              “ The success of Buddhism was in great part dne to the reverence the Buddha inspired by his own personal character. He practiced honestly what he preached enthusiastically.

[870] It should be understood that the Buddha of this chapter, and in fact, the Buddha of this work, Is Gautama Buddha, the Sakya Prince. According to Buddhist belief there have been many different Buddlms on earth. The names of twentyfour of the Bnddhas who appeared previous to Gautama have been handed down to us. The Buddhavansa or “ History of the Buddhas,1* gives the lives of all the previous Buddhas before commencing the account of Gautama himself. (See Rhys Davids1 Badd* hism, pp. 1T9,18v>.>

3“lhe date asually fixed for Buddha's death is 543 b. 0. Whether this precise year for one of the greatest epochs fn the religions history of the human raco con be accepted is doubtful, bat it Is tolerably certain that Badd*

[871]             Bunsen's Angcl-Mcssiah, p. 50.

*Quoted by Prof. Beal: Hist. Buddha, p. vlJt.

* Rhys Davids' Buddhism, p. 88.

* 6ciencc of Religion, p. 213.

* Rhys Davids’ Buddhism.

«Ibid. p. 1&4.

** It ie surprising,” says RhyB Davids, “ that, like Romans worshiping Augustus, or Greeks adding the glow of the sun-myth to the glory at Alexander, the Indians should have formed

[872] Matt. xxvi. 26. Sec also, Mark, xiv. 22.

9 At the heading of the chapters named in the above note may be seen the words : “ Jesus keepeth the Pa8sover(and) insliluteik the Lord's Supper.”

9 According to the Iloman Christians, the Eucharist is the natnral body and blood of Christ Jesus vertet realiter, bnt the Protestant sophistically explains away these two plain words verily and indeed, and by the grossest abase of language, makes them to mean sffirit. ually by grace and efficacy. “ In the sacrament 20

[873]            “ Leur grand Lama cblebre unc espece de sacrifice avec du pain et du vindont ilprend une

petite qimntito, et distribue le reste aux Lamas presens & cctte ceremonie.” (Quoted in Anac- ulypsls, vol. il. p, 118.)

p. 401.

[876] Viscount Amberiy’s Analysis, p. 46.

8 Baring-Gould : Orig. Relig. Belief, vol. i.

[878] Dr. Grabcs’ Notes on Ircureus, lib. v. c. 2, in Anac., vol. i. p. GO.

8 Quoted in Monumental Christianity, p. 370.

8 See Prog. Rolig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 3G9.

“The Divine Presence called his angel of mercy and said unto him : ‘Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set the mark of Tan (T, the headless cross) upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations thutaredouo in the midst thereof.' “ (Buusen ;

[879]         In the words of Mr. King: “ This expression shows that the notion of blessing or consecrating the elements was as yet unknown to the Christians.”

2 Apol. 1. ch. ixvi.

•  Ibid.

4 lie Prtescriptione Hsercticornm, ch, xi. Tertullian explains this conformity between Christianity and Paganism, by assorting that the devil copied the Christian mysteries.

6 be Tilictioue. de oblatione panis, et de imagine resurrectionis. viileatur dnetiss, de la Cerda ad ea Tertulliani loca nbi de hiseerebus ngilur. Gentiles eitra Christum, talia cele- hra.limt Mithriaca qu:e videbantnr cum doc- trina . lidiaritUn' ct resurrectionis ct aliis l’itibus

[880]                    Keel. Hist. cent. ii. pt. 2, sec. v.

[881]                    Bell’s Pantheon, vol. i. p. 282.

[882] Bell's Pantheon, vol. i. p. 282.

8 Episcopal Communion Service.

[884]            Quoted in Mexican Antiquities, vol. vi. p.

221.

[886]            Acosta : Hist. Indies, vol. ii. chs. xiii, and xiv.

8 According to the “ John ” narrator, .Jesus

ate do Paschal meal, but was captured the evening before Passover, and was crucified

[889]          For further observations on this subject, see Dr. Isaac M. Wise's .Martyrdom of Jesus

of Nazareth,“ a valuable little work published at the office of tlie American Israelite, O’ncin- nati, Ohio.

[891] See Gibbon’s Koine, vol. v. pp. 399, 40!). Calvin, after quoting Matt. xxvi. 20, 2?, says: * There is no doubt that as soon ns these words are added to the bread and the wine, the bread aud the wiue become the true body and the true blood of Christ, so that the substance of bread and wine is transmuted mto the true bn I^ and blood of Christ. lie who denies Hi - (nils the omnipotence of Christ in question,

[892] The Rev. Dr. Geikie makes the assertion

that: “ With the call to repent, John united a

iigniticunt rite for all who were willing to own

their sins, and promise amendment of life. It

was the new and linking requirement of bap

tism, which John had been sent by divine ap• pointrnent to introduce.’’ (Life of Christ, vol.

[898] “Among all nations, and from the very earliest period, water has been used as a species of religious sacrament. . . . Water

was the agent by means of which everything was regenerated or born again. Hence, in all

nations, we find the Dove, or Divine Love, operatiug by means of its agent, water, and all nations using the ceremony of plunging, or, as we call it, baptizing, for the remission of sine, to introduce the candidate to a regeneration, to a new birth unto righteousness.” (Higgins : Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 529.,)

“ Baptism is a very ancient rite pertaining to heathen religious, whether of Asia, Africa, Europe or America.” (Bonwick : Egyptian Belief, p. 410.)

“ Baptism, or purification by water, was a

[903] Baring-Gould : Orig. Relig. Belief, vol. i.

p. 391.

[905] *• Holy Water "—water wherein the person is baptized, in l he name of the Father, and the Son. and of the Iloly Ghost. (Church of England Catechism.)

3See Taylor's Dicgcsis. pp. 333,334, and nigsins' Anacalypsis, ii. p. 65.

[906]            See Taylor's Diegesis, pp. 80 and 232, and Bariug-Gould'H Orig. Relig. Belief, vol. i. p. 891.

•* De la-vint. qne pour dewnir capable d'entendre les secrets de la creation, reveles

[908]                                                               See Mallet’s Northern Antiquities, pp. 306,              4 Sir George Grey : Polynesian Mytho,, p.

313, 3-20, 36G. Baring-Gonld's Orig. Relig. 32, in Baring-Gonld : Orig. Relig. Belief, vol. 1. Belief, vol. i. pp. 892, 393, and Dupuis, p. 242. p. 392.

[909]                                                                Mallet: Northern Antiquities, p. 206.      0 See Viscount AmberJy’s Analysis Relig

8 Baring-Gould : Orig, Relig. Belief, vol. i. Belief, p. 59.

p.393. Iliggins : Anac., vol. ii. p. 07, and 4 Vol. i. p. 64.

*Monumental Christianity, pp. 389, 390.                4 Ibid. p. 361.

[912]       Kingsborongh: Ilex. Autiq., vol. vt p. * Ibid. p. 369.

114.                                                                                               * Monumental Christianity, p. 890.

1  Hist. Indies, vol. ii. p. 369.                                           7 Bonwick : Egyptian Belief, p. 416.

[913] That man is born in original sin seems to have been the belief of all nations of antiquity, especially the Hindus. This souse of original corruption is expressed in the following prayer, used by them:

1 See Bonwick’s Egyptian Belief, p. 115, aod              * See Higgins : Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 540.

Monumental Christianity, pp. 206 and 226.                    6 See Taylor’s Diegesis, p. 135.

a Inman : Ancient Faiths, vol. i. p. 159.                        * St. Jerome eaye : “ It is-handed down as

[915] See Williams’ Hinduism.                                    a tradition among the Gymnosophists of India,

[916] Bonwick’S Egyptian Belief, p. 141. a See The Lily of Israel, p. 14.

* Kenrick’s Egypt, vol. i. p. 425.

*              See Draper’s Science and Religion, pp. 47, 48 and Higgins’ Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 304.

* Pagan and Christian Symbolism, p. 50.

1  Bonwick’s Egyptian Belief, p. 143.                               6 Inman's Ancient Faiths, vol. i. p. 59.

a Ibid. p. 115.                                                                           • See Monumental Christianity, p. 211, and

•  Quoted in Ibid. p. 115.                                                Ancient Faiths, vol. ii. p. 350,

[918]                                                                                              Ibid., and Kenrick’s Egypt.      T Ancient Faiths, vol. i. p. 218.

[919] Jeremiah, xllv. 16-22.

8 See Colcnso’s Lectures, p. 297, and Bon- wick's Egyptian Belief, p. 14S.

8 See the Pentateuch Examined, vol. vl. p. 115, App., and Bomvick's Egyptian Belief, p. 14,S.

[922] See King's Gnostics, p. 91, and Monumental Curislianity, p.224.

•SceDnpuis: Origin of Relig. Belief, p. 237.

[924]            It wouid scorn more than chauce that so

many of the virgin mothers and goddesses of

antiquity should have the same name. The

mother of Bacchus was Myrrha; the mother of

Mercury or Hermes was Myrrha or Maia (See

Ferguson's Tree and Serpent Worship, p. ISC, and Inmnu’s Ancient Faiths, vol. ii. p. 253); the mother of the Siamese Saviour—Sommona Ca- dom—was called Maya Maria, i. e., “ the Great Mary the mother of Adonis was Myrrha

[930] Anacalypsis, vol. ii. pp. 109,110.                     Celtic Druids, p. 163, and Taylor’s Diegesis, p.

8  See Knight’s Anct. Art and Mytho., p. 21,          184.

* See Prog. Kelig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 374, and 1 See Celtic Druids, p. 163, and Dupuis, p.

Mallet: Northern Antiquities.                                          237.

[933] Knight: Anct. Art and Mytho., p. 147.                    8 Ancient Faiths, vol. i. p. 100.

4 See Mallet’s Northern Antiquities.                            9 See Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 33, and Mer*

•  See Higgins : Anacalypsis, vol. ii. pp. 108, ican Antiquities, vol. vl. p. 176.

109, 259. Dupuis : Grig. Kelig. Belief, p. 257.

[937]                    Ibid.

8 Ibid.

[939] Higgins : Anacalypfds, vol. i. p. 304.

* Ibid. vol. ii. p. 82.

[941]                    Mexican Antiquities, vol. vl. p. 170.

1 Higgins ; Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 138-                                       9 Ancient Faiths, vol. i. p. 401.

[943]                                                                                                      Bambino—a term in art, descriptive of the 4 Higgins : Anacalypsis, vol. i. d.

twaddled figure of the infant Saviour.                                             * Letters from Rome, a 84

[945]            Monumental Christianity, p. 208.

[946]             See Ibid. p. 2:29. and Moore's Hindu Pantheon, Inman's Christian and Pagan Symbolism, Higgins’ Anncalypsis. rol. li.. where the figures of Crishna and Devaki may be seen, crowned, laden with jewels, and a ray of glory

eurroundiug their heads.

8 Monumental Christianity, p. 227.

* Ibid.

[950]            Ancient Faith*, vol. ii. p. 7137.

•In King’s Gnostics and their Remains, p. 109, the author gives a description of a procession, given during the second century by Apuleins, in honor of Isis, the “ Immaculate Lady.”

[951] The Pentateuch Examined, vol. vi. p. 113.

1 Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, p. 141. “ Black               * Ancient Faiths, toI. ii. p. 264.

is the color of the Egyptian Isis.” (The Rose-                  * Quoted in Bonwick’s Egyptian Belief, p.

crucians, p. 154.)                                                                     142.

[953]            Ancient Faiths, vol. i. p. 159. In Monte- * Notes 3 and 4 to Tacitus1 Manners of the 'ancon, vol. i. plate xcv., may he seen a rep- Germans, seentation of a Black Venus.

1 Monumental Christianity, p. 14.                                             •   Ibid. vol. iii. p. 47.

[955]                                                                                          Curious Myths, p. 301.      lypsis, vol. i. p. 223.

4  Ibid. p. 302.                                                                            8   Buddha and Early Buddhism, p.               227.

6  Maurice ; Indian Antiquities, vol. ii.                        p.           9 Inman : Ancient Faiths,                       vol.     i. p.  409.

359.                                                                                             Higgins: Anac., vol. i. p. 230.

[956] Carious Myths, p. 287.

* Socrates: Eccl, Hist., lib. v. ell. xvii.

*       Quoted by Rev. Dr. Giles: Hebrew and

Christian Records, vol. ii. p. 86, and Rev. Robert

Taylor: Diegesis, p. 202.

[961] Bonwtck: Egyptian Belief, p. 218, and

Smith's Chaldean Account of Genesis, p. 54.

9 Egyptian Belief, p. 218.

8  Bonomi: Ninevah and Its Palaces, in

Curious Myths, p. 287.

* Curious Myths, p. 287.

1 Cnricms Myths, p. 290.                                                    * See Illastration in Anacalypsis, vol. L p.

• Knight: Anct. Ait and Mytho., p. 31.                      224.

[968] Baring-Gould : Cartons Myths, p. 291.

1 Anct. Art and Mytho., p. 30.

[970] Curious Myths, pp. 230, 231.

• Ibid. pp. 231, 282.

[972]             Stephens : Central America, vol. ii. p. 846,

in Curious Myths, p. 208.

* Curious Myths, p. 293.

* Kicmm Kulturgeachichte, ?. 1*2, In Curl*

[976]            See Ibid, and Monumental Christianity, pp. 15, 92, 123, 126, 127.

*£ec Celtic Droids, p. 101. Anacalypeie, Yol. i. p. 220. Indian Antiq., ii. 68.

*              See Celtic Droids, p. 101. Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, p. 103.

[979] See Celtic Druids, p. 127, and Taylor's Diegcsia, p. 201.

* See Celtic Druids, p. 127.

4 See Bonwick’s Egyptian Belief, p. 216.

T See Cox: Aryan Mythology, vol. ii. 115.

[980]                    See Isis Unveiled, vol. ii. p. 81.

[981]                    Knight: Anct. Art and Mytho., p. 196.

[982]                    Bonwick’s Egyptian Belief, p. 213.

[983]                    Ancient Faiths, vol. i. p. 328.

[984] See Bonwick’s Egyptian Belief, p. 342.

8 See Inman’s Pagan and Christian Symbolism, p. 30.

8 Sec Williams’ Hinduism, p. 99.

[987] See Myths of the British Drnids, p. 44s!.

J Monumental Christianity, pp. 130, 182, 138. A Knight : Anct. Art and Mytho., p. 111.

[989] Indian Wisdom, p. 329.                               6 Lillie : Buddha and Early BuddhiBm, p.

9  Inman : Anct. Faiths, vol. i. pp. 528, 529 ,           227.

and Muller : Science of Relig., p. 315.

[992]             Quoted in Monumental Christianity, p.

134.

[994]            Fergnsson : Tree and Serpent Worship, p. 9.

[995]            Wake : Phallism in Ancient Iteligs,, p. 72.

8 Williams’ Hinduism, p. 169.

[997] Knight : Anct. Art and Mytho., p. 16, and

Fergueson : Tree and Serpent Worship.

1 Knight's Ancient Art and Mythology, p. Priapus, and the other works of Dr. Thomas 170.             Inman.

[1000] See also, K. Payne Knight’s Worship of

[1001] Hebrew and Christian Records, p. 194.

3 Life of Christ, vol. i. p. 659.

* Barnes’ Notes, vol. ii. p. 403.

[1004]       Eusebius : Eccl. Hist., lib. 1, ch. yl.

9 Bible for Learners, vo!. Ui. p. 56.

*              See Chambers’s Encyclo., art. 44 Christmas."

* See Bible for Learners, vol. iil. p. 60.

* “By the iiftli century, however, whether

[1008] See Monier Williams : ninduiem, p. 181.

8 See Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 126.

«Ibid. 216.

* Sec Bunsen : The Angel-Messiah, pp. x.-

25, and 110, and Lillie : Buddha and Buddhism, p. 73.

Some writers have asserted that CrUhna is

said to have been born ou December 25th, but

this is not the case. His birthday is held in Jnly-Angnet. (See Williams’ Uindnism, p. 183,

[1016]            "Adytum the interior or sacred part of a heathen temple.

[1017]            "Bambino"—a term used for representations of the infant {Saviour, Christ Jesus, in swaddlings.

* B<>nwick‘s Egyptian Belief, p. 157. See also. Dupuis, p. 237.

[1019] Deinccps Egyptii Pauituham VrnciXEM

magno m honore habuerant; quin soliti sunt

puerum effingere jacentem in prseeepe, quali

[1022]           Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 99.

* The Heathen Religion, p. 287; Dupuis, p. 283.

* Bnlflnch, p. 21.

[1025].8ee Bible for Learners, vol. iii. p. 67, aud

1 Dupuis, 160 ; Celtic Druids, and Monu- 8 Hist. Indies, vol. ii. p. 354. mental Christianity, p. 167.    * See Middleton's Works, vol. i. p. 80.

[1027] Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 99.                                                  * Knight: Anct. Art and Mytho., p. 33.

*  See the chapter on “Paganism In Christianity.”

[1029]    Bible for Learners, to. ill. p. 67.

[1030] “ The notion of a Triad of Supreme Powers is indeed common to most ancient religions.” (Prichard’s Egyptian Mytho., p. 286.)

** Nearly all the Pagan nations of antiquity,

in their various theological systems, acknowl

edged a trinity in the divine nature.” (Maur

ice : Indian Antiquities, voi. vi. p. 35.)

” The ancieuts imagined that their triad of

gods or persons, only constituted one god.”

(Celtic Druids, p. 197.)

[1038]      The three attributes called Brahma, Vishnu and Siva, are indicated by letters corresponding to our a. u. m., generally pronounced om. This mystic word is never uttered except in prayer, and the sign which represents it in their tem-

[1039] Indian Antiquities, vol. 1. p. 127.

8 Higgins : Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 14.

The following answer is stated by Manetho, an Egyptian priest, to liavo been given by an Oracle to Sesostris : “ On his return through Africa he entered the sanctuary of the Oracle, saying: ‘ Tell me, 0 iliou strong in lire, who before me could subjugate all things ? and who shall after me V But the Oracle rebuked him, saying, ‘ First, God; then the Word ; and with them, the Spirit.' " (Nimrod, vol. i. p. 119, in Ibid. vol. i. p. 805.)

Ilcro we have distinctly enumerated God, the Logos, and the Spirit or Holy Ghost, in a very early period, long previous to the Christian era.

[1041] Bonwick’s Egyptian Belief, p. 404.

«Ibid.

* Ibid.

* Ibid. p. 28.

* Frothingham’s Cradle of the Christ, p. 112.

[1042]          See Indian Antiquities, vol. lv. p. 333, and Taylor’s Diegesis, p. 139.

* See Chambers’sEncyclo., art. “Orpheus.”

* Ibid., art. “Plato.”

* John, i. 1.

[1043] See Fiskc : Myths and Myth-makers, p.

205. Cetsus charges the Christians with a re

coinage of the misunderstood doctrine of the

Logos.

[1047]           See Higgins1 Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 105.

8  See Indian Antiquities, vol. iii. p. 158.

* Sec Indian Antiquities, vol. vi. p. 346.

Monumental Christianity, p. 65. and Ancient

Faiths, vol. ii. p. 819.                   6 Ibid.

[1052] Isis Unveiled, vol. ii. p. 48.

* Knight: Anct. Art and Mytho., p. 169.

1 Squire: Serpent Symbol, pp. 179, 180.

Mexican Ant., vol. vi. p. 104.

* Kingsborough : Mexican Antiquities, vol.

[1057] Draper: Religion and Science, pp. 53, 54.

[1058]                                                            Athanasius, tom. i. p. 803.     Quoted in frankly pronounced it to be the work of *

Gibbon's Home, vol. ii. p. 310.                                                    drunken man. (Gibbon's Home, vol. iii. p. 665,

Gennadius, Patriarch of Constantinople, was note 114.) so much amazed by the extraordinary compo- 3 Gibbon's Home, vol. iii. p. 87. sition called “ Athanasius' Creed." that he * Ibid. pp. 91, 92.

1A)I their writings were ordered to be destroyed, and any one found to have them In his possession was severely punished.

[1059] See Chap. XXII.

9  See Chaps. XXII. and XXXIX., for Resur

rected Saviours.

9  See Ibid.

* See Clmp. XXIV., and Chap. XXV.

[1064]            See Chap. XII., and Chap. XXXV.

*That is, the holy tme Church. All peoples who have had a religion believe that theirs was the Catholic faith.

[1065]            There was no nation of antiquity who did not believe in ‘'the forgiveness of sins.” especially if some innocent creature mlesmed them by the shedding of Ins blood isee ('hap. IV., and Chap. XX.). and as far ns confession of sins is concerned, ami thereby being forgiven. this too is almost as old as humanity. Father Acosta found it even among the Mexicans. and said that “the father of lies tthc Devil) counterfeited the sacrament of confession. so thin he might be honored wiih ceremonies very like the Christians.” iSeo Acosta, vol. ii. p. 300.)

[1066]          “ No doctrine except that of ft supreme

1 Rev. xi. 7-9.                                                                          < Jude, 6.

[1068]                                                                                        S. Baring-Gould : Legends of Patriarchs, a S. Baring-Gould : Legends of Patriarchs, P 25.           p. 16.

* n. Peter, ii. 4.

1 S. Baring-Gould : Legends of Patriarchs, Dupuis : Origin of Relig. Beliefs, p. 73, and P- 17.             Baring-Go aid’s Legends of the Prophets, p. IS.

* Indian Wisdom, p. 83.                               ‘ S. Baring-Oonld's Legends of Patriarchs,

[1070]    See Renonf's Hibbert Lectures, p. 105. p. 19.

[1071] Priestley, p. 35.

a Sec Bonwlck's Egyptian Belief, p. 411.

[1073] See Inman’s Ancient Faiths, vol. ii. p. 819. Taylor's Diegesis, p. 215, and Dupuis : Origin

of Kelig. Beliefs, p. T3.

[1075] This subject is most fully entered into by Mr. Herbert Spencer, in vol. i. of ** Principle* of Sociology.”

[1076] See Mallet’s Northern Antiquit'cs, p. 429.

[1077] See Fiske, pp. 104-107.

1 Williams1 Hinduism, pp. 182, 183.                            * * See Mailet’s Northern Antiquities, p. 111.

* See Prog Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 216.               4 See Kenrick’e Egypt, vol. i. p. 466.

[1078] “The Seventh duy was sacred to Saturn throughout the East/’ (Dunlap's Spirit Hist., pp. 35, 30.

“ Saturn's day was made sacred to God, and the planet is now called coclmb ehabbath, ‘The Sabbath Star.’

“ The sanctification of the Sabbath is clearly connected with the word Shabmi or Shebft, t. e., seven.1" tinman's Anct. Faiths, vol. ii. p. 504.) “The Babylonians, Egyptians, Chinese, and the natives of India, were acquainted with the seven days' division of time, as were the ancient Druids.'* (Bonwiek'x Egyptian Belief, p. 112.) “With the Egyptians the Seventh day was consecrated to God the Father.1' (1 Did.) “ Hesiod, Herodotus, Philostrntns, Ac., mention that day. Homer, Callimachus, and other ancient writers coll the Seventh day the Holy One. Eusebius confesses its observance

[1081] Rev. M. J. Savage.

[1082] Bonwick: Egyptian Belief, p. 182.                      Gibbon's Rome, vol. iii. pp. 142, 143.

a See Eusebius’ Life of Constantine, lib. iv. * See Taylor’s Diegesis, p. 233, and Gib chs. xviii. and xxiii.      bon’s Rome, vol. iii. pp. 142, 143

* See Taylor's Diegesis, p. 237.                                       * Higgins’ Anacalyp?is, vol. i p. 137.

[1085]           See Bell's Pantheon, vol. i. p. 187, and T Ibid. p. 307.

[1086] Moaheim, Cent. ii. p. 202. Quoted in Taylor's Diegesis, p 48.

* Grater's Inscriptions. Quoted in Taylor’s lor’s Diegesis, p. 48, and Middleton’s Letters

Diegesis, p. 237                                                                   from Rome.

*Boldonins’ Epigraphs. Quoted in Ibid.                   < Baring-Gould’s Curious Myths, p. 436.

[1088]       See Bell's Puutheon, vol. ii. p. 237. Tay-

[1089] Sec Higgins’ Anacalypsis.

8  Jones on the Canon, vol. i. p. 11.

Diegesie, p. 49.

8 Compare “Apollo among the Mnscs.” and “The Vine and its Branches” (that is, Christ Jesus and his Disciples), in Lnmly's Jlonvmen- tal Christianity^ pp. 141-143. As Mr. Lundy says, there is so btriking a rcscrablauce be* tween the two, that one looks very much like a copy of the other. Apollo is also represented as the “ Good Shepherd" with a lamb upou his back, just exactly as Christ Jesus is represented in Christian Art. (See Lundy's Mon*

[1090]           Frothingham: The Cradle of the Christ, office is not hereditary, but, like the Pope of

p. 179,                                                                                       Rome, he is elected by the priests. (Inman's

[1091]                                                                                        See Hardy's Eastern Monachism.                         Ancient Faiths, vol. ii. p. 203. Sec a’so, Bell's

Inman’s Ancient Faiths, vol. ii. p. 203, and 1 Davis: Hist China, vol. il. pp. 105.106. Isis Unveiled, vol. i* p. 211.              * GatzlafTs Voyages, p. 800.

[1093]                  See Taylor’a Diegesis, p. 34.

[1094] Ibid. p. 338.

[1095] Hue's Travels, vol. 1. p. 329.

3  See Hardy’s Eastern Monachlsm, p. 163.

[1097] Ibid.

• Ibid.

•“Vestal Virgins,” an order of virgins

consecrated to the goddess Vesta.

1 Acosta, vol. ii. p, 830. 9 Ibid. p. 336.

[1102] Bonwick’s Egyptian Belief, p. 241.

* See Lardner’s Works, vol. viii. pp. 375,376.

[1104]            Renouf \ Ilibbert Lectures, p. 191.

[1105]            Kenan : Ilibbert Lectures, p. 83.

[1106]           See Taylor’s Diegesis, p. 232.

* “At their entrance, purifying themselves

by washing their haude in holy ivater> they

were at the same time admonished to present

[1110]         Edward Gibbon: Decline and Fall, vol. 111. p. 161.

Draper : Science and Religion, pp. 46-49.

[1111]           “ En est nostris temporibns Christiana religio. quani cognoscore ac ecqui seenrissima et certissima sains est: secundum hoc nomen dictum est non secundum ipsaui rem cujus hoc nomen est: nam res ipsa quae nunc Christiana religio nunciipatur oral, et apud antiquos, 110c defuit ah initio generis humani. quousque ipso Cliristus veniret in came, mule vera religio qnaj jam eratesepit appellari Christiana. Ihec est nostris temporibns Christiana religio, non quia prioribus temporihus non fuit, sod quia posterioribns lioc nomen acccpit.*’ (Opera Au- gusttni, vol. i. p. 12. Quoted in Taylor’s Die- gesis, p. 42.)

[1112]           See Eusebius : Ecc). Hist., lib. 2, ch. v.

* “Cum animadvertisset. Gregorius quod ob

1 Gibbon’s Rome, vol. iii. p. 163.                                 4 Justin: Apol. 1, ch. lix»

[1115]                                                                                                 Quoted by Draper : Science and Religion, 6 Octavius, ch. si.

p. 48.                                                                                            “SeeOrigen: Contra Celsns.

* See Taylor’s Diegesis, p. 829.

[1118] Apol. l, ch. xx, xxi, xxii

3 See Taylor’s Diegesis, p M3.

[1120] See Taylor’s Diegesis, p. 338.                                 6 See Middleton’s Letters from Home, p.

*                                                                                         Matt. xix. 12.                   33$; Moebeim, vol. i. cent. 2, pt. 2. rh. 4.

*                                                      &