THE DIEGESIS
NOTES
1 This thought is Dr. Whitby’s; who after publishing his voluminous
Commentary on the Scriptures, published this among his "Last Thoughts."
2 "The geography of Palestine lies
in a narrow compass. It comprises a tract of country nearly 200 miles in length,
in its full extent, from the river of Egypt south of Gaza to the furthest bounds
towards Damascus, and perhaps of more than 100 in breadth, including Perea, from
the Mediterranean eastward to the desert Arabia."—ELSLEY.
3 Being, as was supposed, the son of Joseph, Luke iv. 23. It
was no matter of supposition that his mother had yielded to the embraces of [Hebrew]
Gabriel; that is, literally, the man of God, Luke i. 38.
4 It must never be forgotten, that
we have no testimony of Celsus, but only the testimony which Origen has fathered
on him : which is a very different thing.
5 Even the heathen Prince Cyrus,
is called, by Isaiah, the Christ of God—Isaiah xlv. 1.
6 This is not the usual sense given to these words, but it is borne
out by his questions to the pharisees, "What think ye of Christ? whose son is
he?" Matt. xxii. 42. A mode of speaking that no man could use with reference to
himself.
7 It wants only the addition of the name JESUS. It is however hardly
likely that two claimants of the name Christ, should have been crucified under
the same governor.
8 "Jasiusque Pater, genus a quo
principe nostrum." And father Jasius, from which Prince our race is descended.—VIRGIL
9 Vol. I. p. 16. 8vo. Ed.
10 Mosheim, Vol. I. Chap. 1.
11 All the inferior deities in
Homer, are represented as thus addressing the supreme Jove
"Oh first and greatest, GOD ! by gods adored,
We own thy power, our father and our lord."—Iliad.
12
Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire. vol. i. chap. 2. p. 46.
13 Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the
Roman Empire, vol. i. p. 49, 50.
14 Their religion had not made
fools of them.
15 Who that wished to be a thriving wooer, ever hesitated to drop on
his knee and adore his mistress? "With my body I thee worship."—Matrimonial Service.
16 "Quamvis
plurali numero legeretur inscriptio [Greek] recte de Deo Ignoto, locutus est
Paulus. Quia plurali numero continetur singularis."—Cleric. H.G.A. 52. p.
374. There is sufficient evidence, however, that Paul read the inscription
correctly ; so that the commentator's ready quibble is not called for.
The various translations given of this text,
make a good specimen of the difficulty of coming at the real sense of any
ancient legends.
THE GREEK
[Greek]
THE LATIN
Stans autem Paulus in medio Areopagi, ait, Viri Athenensis, per omnia quasi superstitiones vos aspicio.
1. DR. LARDNER'S TRANSLATION.
"Paul, therefore, standing up in the midst of the Areopagus, said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that ye are in all things very religious."
2. UNITARIAN VERSION.
"Then Paul stood in the midst of the court of Areopagus, and said, Ye men of
Athens, I perceive that ye are exceedingly addicted to the worship of demons"
3 ARCHBISHOP NEWCOMB'S VERSION.
"Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are somewhat too religious"
4. COMMON VERSION.
"Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious."
These various translators, however, did not
mean exactly to discover, that religion and superstition were convertible terms—Six, is one thing, and half a dozen is another.
17 Judges xi. 24.
18 Joshua x. 42.
19 Judges i. 19. And note well, that this Chemosh, called in
I Kings xi. 7. The abomination of Moab, is none other than the Christian
Messiah, or Sun of Righteousness, of Malachi iii. 20, or iv. 2.
20
Porrum et cepe nefas violare et frangere morsu.
O sanctas gentes, quibus hæc nascuntur in hortis
Numina!—Juvenal Sat. 15. lin. 9. 11.A sin, forsooth, to violate and break by biting the leek and onion.
A holy people, in whose gardens these divinities are born!
21 His works, vol. 4. p. 262,
22 Shaw's Travels, p. 356.
23 Daniel iv. 26. "Thy kingdom shall be sure
unto thee after that thou shalt have known that THE HEAVENS do rule," i. e.
that GOD, i.e. that the MOST HIGH, above our heads, doth rule. By
the heavens, says Parkhurst, are signified the true Aleim, or persons of
Jehovah.—Heb. Lex. p. 741. l.
24 Matt. xxi. 25.—Mark xi. 30, 31. Luke xv. 18. xx. 4, 5.—John iv. 27.
[Greek] The kingdom of the heavens and the kingdom of God [Greek] are throughout
Matthew and Luke interchangeable
25[Greek] which is the source of the
Æolic dialect, or Latin DEUS, from [Greek], currere, to run
as do the planets.
26 John i. 17.
27 Galat. ix.
28 Acts xv. 10.
29 John x. 8.
30 [Greek]
Antiq. lib. 19. c. 8. sect 2
31 [Greek]
Euseb. Ec. His. lib. 2. c.9. B.
32 The only reward proposed for obedience to the law of God, was,
that attached to the fifth, which is called by the Apostle, the first
commandment with promise—"that thy days may be long in the land."
33 Vetus ille mos Gallorum occurrit, (says
Valerius Maximus, l. 2. c. 6. p. 10.) quos memoria proditum est, pecunias mutuas
dare solitos quæ his, apud inferos redderentur.
34 It is better for thee to enter halt into
life, than having two feet to be cast into hell. It is better for thee to enter
into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes, to be cast into hell
fire.—Mark ix. 45. 47. Here was no idea of heaven, or the state of the
blessed, above a hospitable of incurables.
35 Gibbon, ch. 16.
36 The destruction of this celebrated library gave safety to the
evidences of the Christian religion.
37 See the decrees quoted in my Syntagma, p. 35.
38 [Greek]
See this expose in my Syntagma, p. 116.
39 It will be seen that I have largely availed myself of my friend’s
printed but unpublished work on Deisidemony.
40 Quoted in the pseudo-Plutarchean treatise, de placitis philos. B.
1, Ch. 7.
41 Dr. Isaac Vossius, when asked what had
become of a certain man of letters, answered bluntly, " he has turned country
parson, and is deceiving the vulgar." —see Desmaiseaux’s Life of St.
Evremond.
42 August. de Civ. Dei B. 4.
43 2 Corinth. xii 16.
44 Romans iii. 7.
45 1 Corinth. i. 27.
46 l Peter ii. 2. 1 Thess. ii. 7, "Even as a nurse cherisheth her
children."
Compare also 2 Corinth. xi. 23, where Paul says, "I speak as a fool,
which he need not have said.
47 De carne Christi Semleri, Edit. Halæ
Magdeburgicæ, 1770, vol. 3, p. 352. Quoted in Syntagma, page 106.
48 Dr. Mandeville’s Free Thoughts, page 152.
49 See History of England, almost any one.
50 Evans’s Sketches.
51 Ecclesiastical History, Cent. 4, part 2, chap. l, sec. 5,
p. 346.
52 In the year 1444, Caxton published the first book ever printed in
England. In 1474, the then Bishop at London, in a convocation of his clergy,
said, " If we do not destroy this dangerous invention, it will one day
destroy us." The reader should compare Pope Leo the Tenth’s avowal, that
"it was well known how profitable this fable of Christ has been to us:" with
Mr. Beard's Apology for it, in his third letter to the Rev. Robert Taylor, page
74, and Arch-deacon Paley’s declaration, that " he could not afford to have a
conscience."—See Life of the Author attached to his work on the
Evidences of Christianity, p. 11, London 12mo. edit. 1826.
53 Mosheim, Cent. l.
54 Mosheim, Cent. 1. Ch. l.
55 Our author means any time about or near
the era of Augustus.
56 [Greek]
57 [Greek]
58 Beware, lest any man spoil you through
philosophy and vain deceit.—Coloss. ii. 8. Avoiding profane and vain
babblings, end oppositions of science, falsely so called.—1 Tim. vi. 20.
59 The Magi or wise men of the east, (Matthew ii. 1,) i. e.
Brahmins, who first got up the allegorical story of CHRISHNA.
60 STEPHEN, a name of the same order as
Nicodemus, Philip, Andrew, Alexander, &c., entirely of Grecian origin, ascribed
to Jews, who never had such names, nor any like them.
61[Greek] Clemens Alex. Strom.
62 [Greek]
Orig. ad Cels. Bib. 6.
63 Quod si extitisset aliquis qui veritatem sparsam per singulos, per
sectasque diffusam colligeret in unum, ac redigeret in corpus, is profecto non
dissentiret a nobis."—Lactant, lib. 7.
64 So quoted and translated by Tindal, in
his " Christianity as Old as the Creation," p. 397.
65 Ea est nostris temporibus Christiana religio, quam cognoscere ac
sequi securissima et certissima salus est: secundum hoc nomen dictum est non
secundum ipsam rem cujus hoc nomen est: nam res ipsa quæ nunc Christiana religio
nuncupatur erat et apud antiquos, nec defuit ab initio generis humani, quousque
ipse Christus veniret in carne, unde vera religio quæ jam erat cæpit appellari
Christiana. Hæc est nostris temboribus Christiana religio, non quia prioribus
temporibus non fuit, sed quia posterioribus hoc nomen accepit —Opera Augustini, vol. 1, p. 12. Basil edit. 1529.
66 Quid ergo, nihil ne illi (philosophi) simile præcipiunt? Immo
permulta et ad veritatem frequenter accedunt. Sed nihil ponderis habent ila
præcepta, quia sunt humana, et auctoritate majori id est divina, illa carent.
Nemo igitur credit; quia tam se hominem putat esse qui audit, quam est ille qui
præcipit.—Lactant lib. 3, ut Citat Clarke, p. 301.
67 [Greek]—Hier. 26, n. 16, p. 98, D.
68 [Greek]—Fabricius, tom. 1, p. 354.
69 Si me tamen audire velis, mallem te pænas has dicere indefinitas
quam infinitas.—Sed veniet dies, cum non minus absurda, habebitur et odiosa
hæc opinio quam transubstantiatio hodie. —De Statu Mort. p. 304.
70 Lardner, vol. 4, p. 524.
71 "Postremo illud quoque me vehementer movet, quod videam primis
ecclesiæ temporibus, quam plurimos extitisse, qui facinus palmarium judicabant,
cælestem veritatem, figmentis suis ire adjutum, quo facilius nova doctrina a
gentium sapientibus admitteretur. Officiosa hæc mendacia vocabant bono fine
exeogitata. Quo ex fonte dubio procul, sunt orti libri fere sexcenti, quos illa
ætas et proxima viderunt, ab hominibus minime malis, (nam de hæreticorum libris
non loquimur) sub nomine etiam Domini Jesu Christi et apostolorum aliorumque
sanctorum publicatos."—Casaubon, quoted in Lardner, vol. 4, p. 524.
72 Mosheim treats these holy forgers with the same tenderness, "they
were men, (he says) whose intentions were not bad."—Eccl. Hist. vol. 1, p.
109.
73 The words of the text are, "Now thou hearest, take care from
henceforth, that even those things which thou hast formerly spoken falsely, may
by thy present truth, receive credit. For even those things may be credited; if
for the time to come, thou shalt speak the truth, and by so doing, thou mayst
attain unto life."— Archbishop Wake's Genuine Epistles of the Apostolic
Fathers, in loco. See this article, where HERMAS occurs in the regular
succession of apostolic fathers, in this DIEGESIS.
74 Christiani doctores non in vulgus
prodebant libros sacros, licet soleant plerique aliter opinari, erant tantum in
manibus clericorum, priora per sæcula— Dissertat. In Tertul. 1. § 10. note 57.
75 Cum animadvertisset Gregorius quod ob corporeas delectationes et
voluptates, simplex et imperitum vulgus in simulacrorum cultus errore permaneret— permisit eis, ut in memoriam et recordationem sanctorum martyrum sese
oblectarent, et in lætitiam effunderentur, quod successu temporis aliquando
futurum esset, ut sua sponte, ad honestiorem et accuratiorem vitæ rationem,
transirent."
76 The head of the Jupiter Olympius of Phidias, carved in the
mahogany transept, officiates it this day, as locum tenens for God
Almighty, in the chapel of King's College, Cambridge.
77 Nyssen, in Vita Greg. Thaumat. cit.
Middleton, Letter from Rome, 236. The good nature of Gregory is the more
commendable, inasmuch as it was a grateful return of the like degree of
indulgence as had been shown to himself. He was taken in to the Christian
ministry, and consecrated a bishop of Christ, and wrought miracles, even while
he continued a Pagan, and was entirely ignorant of the Christian doctrine.
78 Epist. 1. 9, c. 9.
79 See Bishop Stillingfleet's Defence
of the charge of Idolatry against the Romanists, vol. 5 of his Works, p. 459,
where the reader will find the charge demonstrably proved against the church of
Rome.
80 "Non imperio ad fidem adducto, sed et imperio pompa ecclesiam
inficiente. Non ethnicis ad Christum conversis, sed et Christi religione ad
Ethnicæ formam depravata."—Orat. Academ. De Variis Christ. Rel. fatis.
81 See vindication of his character, in the Lion, vol. 1, No. 18. 12th
Letter from Oakham.
82 How must every ingenuous and virtuous sensibility in man's nature,
have smarted under the distress of being obliged to use language like this. I
know the man who hath preferred the fate of felons, and would rather still, pass
only from the prison to the tomb, than he would use the like.
83 "Tanta fuit primis sæculis fingendi licentia tam prona in
credendo facilitas, ut rerum gestarum fides exinde graviter laboraverat. Neque
enim orbis terrarum tantum, sed et Dei ecclesia de temporibus suis mysticis
merito quæratur."—Fell, Bishop of Oxford, quoted by Lardner and Tindal.
84 Vol. I, p. 247.
85 See similar mystical senses of the
epithets, Christ and Chrest, under the articles Serapis, and Adrian’s Letter.
86 "On voit dans l’histoire que j’ai rapportee,
une sorte d’hypocrisie, qui n’a peut-etre ete que trop commune dans tous les
tems. C'est que des ecclesiastiques, non seulement ne disent pas ce qu’ils
pensent, mais disent tout le contraire de ce qu’ils pensent. Philosophes dans
leur cabinet, hors dela, ils content des fables, quoiqu’ils sachant bien que ce
sont des fables. Ils font plus ; ils livrent au bourreau des gens de biens pour
l’avoir dit. Combiens d’athees et de prophanes ont fait bruler de saints
personnages, sous pretexte d’heresie ! Tous les jours des hypocrites, consacrent
et font adorer l’hostie, bien qu’ils soient aussi convaincus que moi, que ce
n’est qu’un morceau de pain."—Ibid.
87 Michaelis, vol. 4, p. 79.
88 It is admitted by Dr. Lardner.
89 Matthew ii. 23. "That it might be
fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene;" that
is (as we see from Epiphanius), a Therapeut. It is certain that none of
the Jewish prophets had so said. Some other equally sacred writings are referred
to. Though their accomplishment by the mere resemblance of the name of the city
in which Jesus is said to have resided, to that of the order of monks to which
he was believed to have belonged, is a most miserable pun. The Jews, however,
who think it reasonable to admit that such a person as Jesus really existed,
place his birth near a century sooner than the generally assumed epoch.—Basnage
Histoire des Juifs, 1. 5, c. 14, 15.
90 From the Greek [Greek] exercise, discipline, study,
meditation, signifying also self-mortification.
91 " To another the gifts of healing, by the
same Spirit. Have all the gifts of healing?" 1 Cor. xii.—Query. How did he
spend three years in Arabia, but in a course of study for the ministry?
92 [Greek]—Eccl. Hist. lib. 2, c. 17, A.
93 Galat. i. 17.
94 "Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting." Matt.
xviii. 21.
95 The above most important passage of all ecclesiastical records, is
in the 2d book, the 17th chapter, and 53d and following pages of his History.
The title of a whole chapter (the fourth of the first book) of this work is,
THAT THE RELIGION PUBLISHED BY JESUS CHRIST TO ALL NATIONS IS NEITHER NEW NOR
STRANGE.
96 Credibility, vol. 2, 4to. p. 361.
97 Observe well, the phrases,—"the philosophy—our
philosophy," and the "true philosophy," occur throughout the Fathers,
in a hundred passages for one, where "Christianity" should have been the
word.
98 Mosheim, vol. i. p. 169.
99 Ibid. p. 37.
100 Admission No. 10 in the chapter of Admissions.
101 In chapter 15.
102 "Multa enim a majoribus vestris, eloquiis Domini nostri inserta
verba sunt, quæ nomine signata ipsius, cum ejus fide non congruant, præsertim,
quia, ut jam sæpe probatum a nobis est, nec ab ipso hæc sunt, nec ab ejus
apostolis scripta, sed multo post eorum assumptionem, a nescio quibus, et ipsis
inter se non concordantibus SEMI-JUDÆIS, per famas opinionesque comperta sunt;
qui tamen omnia eadem in apostolorum Domini conferentes nomina, vel eorum qui
secuti apostolos viderentur, errores ac mendacia sua secundum eos se
scripsisse mentiti sunt."—Faust. lib. 33, c. 3.
103 "And there be eunuchs, which have made
themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able to receive
it, let him receive it." Matt. xix. 12.
104 "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." John
xvii. 16. "I pray not for the world." Ibid. 9. Surely, the world ought to be
much obliged to him!
105 [Greek]—Euseb. Ec. His. Lib. 2, c. 16. fol ed. Coloniæ Allobrogum, 1612, p. 60,
ad literam D, linea 6.
106 Acts iv.
107 Nota bene.
108 Nota bene.
109 Nota bene.
110 Nota bene.
111 Nota bene.
112 Nota bene.
113 Nota bene.
114 Nota bene.
115 [Greek]
continence, temperance, abstinence, from whence their name Encratites, or
Abstainers.
116 Nota bene.
117 Nota bene.
118 "Which things are an allegory."—Gal iv. 24.
119 For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost,
and to us, to lay upon you no greater burthen than these necessary things: that
ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things
strangled, and from .... from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well"—Acts xv. 29.
120 "For they that have used the office of a deacon well, purchase to
themselves a good degree." —1 Tim. iii. 13.
121 [Greek]—Ibid.
122 [Greek]—Ecc. Hist. lib. 2, c. 4.
123 [Greek]—Lib. 2, c.15.
124 See Chapter 16.
125 In these Corollaries, be it observed, we respect the wide
distinction between his testimony to miracles; in which he speaks as a divine,
from whom therefore truth is not to be too rigidly expected; and his testimony
as an historian, from whom nothing but truth is to be endured.
126 Basnage, Histoire des Juifs. 1. 2, c.
20, et seq.
127 Could any jibe be keener than his remark on the convenience
of the time fixed on by divine providence, for the introduction of Christianity;
when the Pagan philosophers, and the Pagans generally, were become quite
indifferent to the old forms of idolatry:—"Some deities of a more recent and
fashionable cast, might soon have occupied the deserted temples of Jupiter and
Apollo, if in the decisive moment, the wisdom of providence had not interposed a
genuine revelation."—Chap 15. How honest must the Pagan priests have been,
to have owned that their revelations were not genuine!
128 See Manifesto of the Christian Evidence
Society.
129 This very ingenious and interesting work, as published by one who
was a preacher in the Unitarian connection, and who professes himself to be a
disciple of Jesus Christ, is another, added to the many instances we meet with,
of the correct and even powerful acting of the mind, in most able criticism, in
deep research, and shrewd discernment, while yet labouring under an insanity,
with respect to some particular modifications of thought, so egregious as to
betray itself even to the observance of a child. Mr. Evanson rejected the
gospels of Matthew, Mark, and John, and very many parts of' St. Luke; he
rejected the Epistles to the Romans, to the Ephesians, to the Philippians, to
Titus, and the Hebrews, the two Epistles of Peter, the three of John, and the
Revelations; each of which he convicts of evident interpolation, and strong
marks of forgery; yet, he believed in the resurrection of Christ, and "in all
the obvious and simple, but important truths of the new covenant of the
gospel,"—Page 289, (the last.)
130 Bretschneider's work has been answered, but very ridiculously, by
the learned professor STEIN, of Brandenburgh, in a work entitled, Authentia
Evangelii Johannis Vindicata, in which Stein throws himself on the
unanswerable argument, of having felt that gospel so particularly
comfortable to his soul; as a proof of its genuineness.
131 Yes, at first! at first! Before the disciples were called
Christians at Antioch—before the name of Jesus of Nazareth had been heard of at Jerusalem.
132 St. Peter put Ananias and Sapphira to death, for not giving him all
the money he wanted.—Acts v. St. Paul ordered the Corinthian "to be
delivered to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, for having overlooked the
rules of the Therapeutan college, in a love affair."—1 Corinth. v. The power
of the church could never have been more fully established than when such
outrageous injustice was above all responsibility.
133 Quoted in the Principles of the Cyprianic Age, p. 19. A very rare and curious work (by J. S. that is, John Sage,
a Scottish bishop, 1695,) preserved in Sion College library, from whence lent to
my use, by the Rev. Dr. Gaskin, Secretary of the Society for Promoting Christian
Knowledge.
134 But what if Mark himself, as well as his colleagues, were really
no Jews at all, but native Egyptians, and bishops of this pre-existent
Therapeutan church; the words of Eusebius may present a different sense to the
eye of faith, they admit of no other rational understanding.
[Greek]—i.e. "But
this Mark, they say, first betook himself into Egypt, and preached the gospel,
that which he also wrote, and first established the Churches of Alexandria; and
such a multitude, both of men and women, were assembled upon his first attempt,
on account of his more philosophical and severe asceticism, that Philo held it
worthy to commit to writing an account of their exercises and assemblies, their
meals, and their whole discipline of life." Such is the whole of the 15th
chapter of the second book of Eusebius’s Ecclesiastical History, discovering to
us, the now demonstrated and indisputable fact, that monkery or asceticism, was
the first and earliest type of Christianity; that its first preachers were
monks; and that not only the doctrines, but that the gospels which contain them,
were already extant in the world, many years before the epoch assigned to the
birth of Christ.
135 The first verse of St. Luke's Gospel, if Gospel-readers could but
see whet was under their nose, would prevent their ever more pretending that the
Gospels were original compositions. "Forasmuch as many had taken in hand to
set the DIEGESIS in order," which was the original from which the
Apocryphal Gospels were taken, and afterward, the improved versions
ascribed to Matthew, Mark, and Luke, which obtained final approbation, and so
caused not only the previous versions, but the DIEGESIS itself, from which they
were all taken, to be laid aside.
136 And what goes with the story of the
Apostles, meeting with such ill success as to have to lay down their lives for
their testimony? It is not only not true, but not conceivable to be true;
it out-herod’s Herod, and out-lies the consistency of romance itself.
137 [Greek]—living in common.
Acts iv. 32. [Greek]—"they had all things in common."
138 Mr. Higgin’s testimony is the more valuable, as it is that of a
witness averse to the conclusions to which he marshals us the way. His splendid
work, instructive and interesting as it is in the highest degree, though
superfluously orthodox, has delightfully beguiled the tedium of many of my
prison-hours!
139 This phrase, the kingdom of God,
and all its synonyms, was peculiarly characteristic of the monkish fraternity of
Egypt—the dynasty of priests, as paramount to that of kings.
140 Quoted in Marsh’s Michaelis, and hereafter in this DIEGESIS.
141 He is recognized only in the 2d Epistle of Peter, chap. iii. verse
14, as a beloved brother, which itself is no style, or designation of
apostleship, even if authenticity of this epistle, in which it is contained,
were indisputable, which it is not—See Marsh’s Michaelis, in loco.
142 That is, "they were the ECLECTIC Philosophers, who
rejected the evil, and chose the good, out of every system of religion or
philosophy that had been propounded to mankind, and who had a flourishing
university already established at Alexandria when our Saviour was upon earth."—Mosheim.
143 [Greek]—Bell. Jud. lib.
2, s. 4.
144 Michaelis, in his Introduction to the New Testament, by Herbert
Marsh, now Bishop of Peterborough, vol. 4, p. 84.
145 Pugio Fidei. v. 3, dis. 3, cap. 16, quoted in Michaelis, vol. 4. p.
95.
146 Hom. 6, in Isaiah, fol. 106. D.
147 Comment. on 2 Kings, c. 7.
148 Questiones ad Antiochum. tom. 2. p. 357, D
149 Acts i. 15. This Cephas was one of the
70, a wholly different personage from the Peter of the Gospels: to this
assurance, we have the positive assertion of Eusebius.
150 See the Table of the Times and Places of Writing, &c.
151 See the Table of the Times and Places of Writing, &c.
152 They joined themselves to Baal-Peor, and ate the
offerings of the dead.—Psalm. The reader is to make what use he pleases of this
conjecture.
153 There are innumerable other passages to the like effect; such as
the wild man John preaching in the wilderness: A voice crying in the
wilderness: the miraculous fasting of the old woman Anna: the
pass-word of the vigilant monks, Watch and pray! &c. &c. whose
further tractation would detain me too long from worthier matter. Let the reader
glance his eye over the New Testament with this observance.
154 Every Scribe instructed unto the kingdom of heaven, is like unto a
man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure, things new
and old.— Matt. xii. 52—i.e. he practices the art of deceiving
the people.
155 Nec ab ipso scriptum constat, nec ab ejus apostolis sed longo post
tempore a quibusdam incerti nominis viris, qui ne sibi non haberetur fides
scribentibus quæ nescirent, partim apostolorum, partim eorum qui apostolos
secuti viderentur nomina scriptorum suorum frontibus indiderunt, asseverantes
SECUNDUM eos, se scripsisse quæ scripserunt.—Quoted by Lardner, vol. 2,
p. 221.—See Chapter 7, p. 66, of this DIEGESIS.
156 By all persons, understanding strictly all parsons,
for the common people were nobody, and never at any time had any voice,
judgment, or option, in the business of religion, but always believed, that
which their godfathers and godmothers did promise and vow that they should
believe. God or devil, and any scriptures their masters pleased, were always all
one to them.
157 "Almost from the apostolic age!"
Why the text itself, if it prove any thing, proves that such forged writings
were in existence absolutely in the apostolic age, and among the apostles
themselves.
158 Omnia quæ Christianismo conducere putabant bibliis suis
interseruerunt.—Tindalio citante.
159 See Bishop Marsh's Surrender, quoted in
chapter 17.
160 Si forte accidisset, ut Johannis Evangelium per octodecim secula
priora prorsus ignotum jacuisset, et nostris demum temporibus, in medium
productum esset omnes haud dubie uno ore confiterentur Jesum a Johanne
descriptum longe alium esse ac illium Matthæi, Marci, et Lucæ, nec utramque
descriptionem simul veram esse posse.—Carol. Theoph. Bretschneider Probab.
Lipsiæ, 1820.
161 Here it is. "Messala V. C. consule,
Constantinopoli, jubente Anastasio Imperatore, sancta evangelia, tanquam ab
idiotis evangelistis composita, reprehenduntur et emendantur."—Victor
Tununensis, Cave’s Historia Literaria, vol. 1. p. 415—i.e. "The
illustrious Messala being Consul; by the command of the Emperor
Anastasius, the holy Gospels, as having been written by idiot evangelists, are
censured and corrected."—Victor, Bishop of Tunis in Africa.
162 See Beausobre, quoted in the Manifesto of the Christian Evidence
Society; and this, and the preceding extract vindicated, in the author’s Syntagma, against the vituperations of the evangelical Dr. John Pye Smith, in
locis.
163 Bishop Marsh's Michaelis, vol. 3, part
2, p. 170.
164 Quidni credamus tria hæc evangelia partim petita esse ex
similibus, aut iisdem fontibus.—Le Clerc, Hist. Crit. in loco.
165 "They commit the same things with a
different fate: one hath borne the mitre as the price of his exploit—the
other, the cross.
166 [Greek]—Hæres 51. 6.
167 [Greek].
168 Jam si fides habenda est patrum
auctoritate antiquissima extitit de vita Jesu Christi narratio, in usum eorum,
qui e Judæis Christiani facti erant, Palæstinensium imprimis scripta.
169 Hæc narratio variis nominibus insignitur, quo pertinent
Evangelium duodecim Apostolorum, Hebræorum, Nazaræorum, secundum Matthæum:
eademque, nisi me omnia fallunt, pro fonte habenda est, e quo reliqua id
genus scripta tanquam rivuli originem suam duxerunt.
170 Cum vero contineret hic liber, de quo quærimus Apostolorum de
vita Christi narrationes, non modo propter argumenti gravitatem credibile est,
ejus exemplaria in plurimorum christianorum manibus fuisse, quorum maxime
debabat interesse divinam magistri sui imaginem intueri, verum etiam singulis
exemplaribus ea, quæ quisque aliunde de Christo comperta haberet, tanquam
auctaria adscripta esse: ita quidem ut vel Apostolorum ævo, plures extiterunt
horum memorabilium recensiones.
Quod si sumitur; multa facillime explicari possunt, quæ, sublata ista
hypothesi, admodum obscuras reddunt evangeliorum nostrorum origines. Primum
intelligitur consensus Matthæi, Marci, Lucæ, per plures evangeliorum suorum
partes, non modo in rerum quas tractunt similitudine, verum etiam verborum
conspiratione perspicuus: Fac centum homines ejusdem facti fuisse testes; Fac
centum ipsos quod viderint mandasse literis: Consentient re, different verbis :
nec quisquam casu factum esse judicabit, si vel tres aut quatuor ex eorum numero
rem ita narraverint, ut per plurimarum periodorum seriem, verbum verbo
respondeat. Hoc vero quis ignorat sexcenties observari in evangelistarum
commentariis? Atqui hoc mirum non est. Nempe ex eodem hauserunt fonte.
Memorabilia Christi et dicta et facta Hebraice scripta, in usum Græce loquentium,
Græca fecerunt.
Qui vero factum est, ut Lucas alium sequeretur rerum ordinem, quam Matthæus;
ut in Marco plura desiderentur, in Matthæo, cujus vestigia premere videtur obvia?
Ut in singulis partibus, alter altero verbosior, in observandis rebus minutis,
diligentior reperiatur? Quoniam, ut diximus, mira fuit exemplarium, quæ
ista Apostolorum. [Greek]
complectebantur diversitas. Deinde, quoniam liberum fuit iis, qui istis
Commentariis sua evangelia con cinnabant, addere quæ sibi aliunde innotuissent,
resecare quæ vel sublestæ fidei, vel minus utilia lectoribus, et a suo scribendi
consilio remota judicarent.
171 The German title is Allgemeine Bibliothek der Biblischen Literatur; a periodical publication.
172 "Il faut mettre à la tête de la premiére classe deux Evangiles
... Le
plus ancien de tout est à mon avis, l’Evangile selon les Hebreux, que les
Nazareenes prétenoient être l’original de S. Matthieu. Il commençoit par ces
mots [Greek]
--- ap. Epiph. Hær. 30 ... Il parait, par les fragmens, qui nous en ont
été conservez qu’il ne contenoit aucune hérésie, et qu’à quelques circonstances
prés l’Histoire de Notre Seigneur y étoit rapportés fidélement.
C’est dans cet Evangile qu’on lisoit l’histoire de la femme surprise en
adultere laquelle est racontée au Chap. viii, de S. Jean. Et comme elle n’etoit
pas dans plusieurs exemplaires de ce dernier Evangile, quelques-uns conjecturé,
qu’elle avoit été prise de l’Evangile des Nazaréens ; et insérté dans S. Jean.
Si cela est vrai c’est un temoignage que les Anciens rendent a l’Evangile des
Nazaréens; et si cette histoire a été originairement dans S. Jean, c’est une
autre preuve de la vérité de leur Evangile.
Celui, que l’on a nommé selon les Egyptiens est de la même antiquité,
Origene en a fait mention. Clement d’Alexandrie l’avoit déjà
allégué en quelques endroits. Et si Seconde Epitre de Clement Romain est
de lui, cet Evangile auroit un témoignage plus ancien que celui de ces deux
Docteurs. On a aussi, dans la Bibliothéque des Péres, un Commentaire sur S. Luc
qu’on attribute à Tite de Bostres, dans lequel cet Evêque semble mettre
l’Evangile selon les Egyptiens au rang de ceux que S. Luc a indiquez, et par
conséquent antérieurs au sien. Comme les Encratites le citoient pour défendre
leur Erreur sur le Marriage, les Bêres n’en ont point rejetté absolument les
témoignages. Ils ont tâché de les expliquer dans un sens orthodoxe ; ce qui
montre, que ce Livre avoit une sorte d’autorité, et qu’on ne le soupçonnet pas
même d’avoir été supposé par des Hérétiques. Quand j’ai consideré, qu’il étoit
reçu par les Chrétiens d’Egypte, je n’ai pû me defendre de la pensée, qu’il
avoit été écrit par des Esséniens, qui avoient crû en J. Christ. La Religion de
ces Gens là tenoient beaucoup de la Religion Chrétienne. L’Evangile des
Egyptiens étoit plein de mystique, de paraboles, d’énigmes, d’allegories. On
attribue cela à l’esprit de la Nation; pour moi, je l’attribuerois plutôt à
l’esprit des Esseniens. On y trouvoit des sentences, qui paroissoient
favoriser l’Encratisme. Or les Esseniens vivoient dans la continence, et dans
l’abstinence. Il est donc bien vraisemblable, que des personnes de cette Secte,
Judaique, la seule que J. Christ n’ait jamais censurée, s’attachérent au Fils de
Dieu, le suiviren; et que, s’étant retirez en Egypte aprés sa mort, ils y
composérent une Histoire de sa Vie et de sa Doctrine, qui parut en Egypte, et
qui fut appellée à cause de cela, l’Evangile selon les Egyptiens."—Beausob, Manich. Tom. 1, p. 455, 456.
173 I particularly wish the reader to observe the superior honesty of
Beausobre: he alone has the moral courage to utter the name of the original,
from which our gospels are derived, the GOSPEL ACCORDING TO THE EGYPTIANS. All
the rest, aware of the mighty argument with which it teems, seem to say, "Take
any shape but that, and our firm knees should never tremble!"
174 [Greek]—Luke i. 1.
175 Such a work seems to be designated under various titles in the
Epistles of Paul, as the Form of Sound Words, the Doctrine, the
Words of our Lord Jesus Christ, &c."—1 Tim vi. 3. The Doctrine
According to Godliness, &c.—See Syntagma, p 74.
176 Vol. 3, p. 315.—Matthew, Mark, and Luke, it seems, had but
indifferent memories, even with the Holy Ghost to jog 'em, and John's memory has
corrected some of the Holy Ghost's blunders.
O Sant Esprit! La voila ton ouvrage.
177 In his work on the Dissonance of the Four Evangelists, published 1792,
p. 222.
178 Jesus, quem depinxit, quartum evangelium, valde diversus est a Jesu
in prioribus evangeliis descripto—nec utraque descriptio simul vera esse
protest— Evangelista, nec ea quæ facta esse tradidit, ipse videt, sed e
traditione aut scripta aut non scripta, hausit—nec Palæstinensis nec Judæus
fuit.—Bretschneider in Ordine Argumentorum.
179 Evanson, p. 169.
180 Similar pleonasms, nor without considerable beauty,
are—
''God is not a man, that he should die, nor the son of man, that he should
repent."—Numb, xxiii. 19.
"Shall rise up as a great lion, and lift up himself as a young lion."—Numb.
xxiii. 21.
"Lord, what is man, that thou art mindful of him, or the Son of man, that thou
so regardest him?"—Psalm.
181 Chap. xix. 7. Ubi auctor vocem
[Greek] falso interpretatur per [Greek]
et ex errore [Hebrew]
missus, pronuntiavit [Hebrew] Emissio, scil. aquarum
Ejusmodi error vero, nec Joanni Apostolo, neque alii cuidam scriptori Judæo
accidere potuisset. Codicum auctoritate prorsus genuina judicanda sunt ista
verba. —Bretschneider.
182 We say not the Old Testament, though the Bible is a
term that comprehends both; the Old Testament will never be vindicated, and
ought not to be attacked by any man.
183 This attribute of being angry for ever, is peculiar to the
Christian God, and has become, in consequence, peculiarly characteristic of
Christians.
184 No wonder, then, that such a power was not allowed to be held in
separation from the imperial dignity itself. The Jewish Messiah, or Christ,
united in his own person the several offices of prophet, priest, and king. The
figures of Romulus, the founder of Rome, represent him as clad in the trabea, a
robe of state, which implied an ecclesiastical as well as a secular
dignity. The lituus, or staff of augury in his hand, is still retained as
the crosier of our Christian bishops. "This latter mark of distinction (the
episcopal crosier) usually attends the representations of the heads of Julius
Cæsar in old gems and medals, in signification that he was high-priest and king,
by the same right as Romulus had been."—Bell’s Pantheon in loco quo.
Augustus, Vespasian, Verus, &c. are in like manner accompanied with the insignia
of augury. So sacred were these holy orders, that none who had once been
a member of the sacred college, could ever be degraded: the commission of the
greatest enormity was not held competent to effect their indefeasible
sanctity of character, or to forfeit their title of THE REVEALED which their
descendants still retain, in a never-interrupted succession of inheritances from
their pagan ancestors.
185 "Rex Anius, Rex idem hominum, Phœbique Sacerdos."—Virg. Æn.
3, v. 80.
186 The leech will not drop from your skin till it is
full of blood.—Horace.
187 Gibbon, vol. 3, p. 499.
188 Bell's Panth. vol. 1, p. 19.
189 Lardner, vol. 4, p. 455.
190 Tollite, tollite securi, sacratissimi Imperatores, ornamenta
templorum. Deos istos, aut monetæ ignis, aut metallorum coquat flamma. Donaria
universa ad utilitatem vestram, dominiumque transferte, (p. 59.) Sed et vobis,
Sacratissimi Imperatores, ad vindicandum et puniendum hoc malum necessitas
imperatur, et hoc vobis Dei summi lege præcipitur, ut severitas vestra idolatriæ
facinus omnifarium presequatur. Audite et commendate sanctis sensibus vestris
quid de isto facinore Deus jubeat. Nec filio jubet parci, nec fratri, et per
amatam conjugem quæ est in sinu tuo, gladium vindicem ducit: amicum quoque
sublimi severitate persequitur, et ad discerpenda sacrilegorum corpora, omnis
populus armatur. Integris etiam civitatibus, si in isto fuerint facinore
deprehensæ, decernuntur excidia. Misericordiæ suæ vobis Sacratissimi Imperatores,
Deus summus præmia pollicetur.—Facite itaque quod jubet, camplete quod
præcipit, (p. 63.)—De Errore Prof. Rel.
191 Epistle 730, p. 349, Lardnero, citante
in loco quo.
192 See Origenes Christiana, 18th Letter in "The Lion,"
vol. 1.
193 Citante in loco, Lardnero.
194 "The righteous:" who could that be but the orthodox
clergy?
195 Ergo ubi fatidicos concepit mente
furores
Incaluitque Deo, quem clausum pectore habebat
Aspicit infantem. Totique salutifer orbi
Cresce puer dixit, tibi se mortalia sæpe
Corpora debebunt: Animas tibi reddere ademptas
Fas erit. Idque semel Dîs Indignantibus ausus
Posse dare hoc iterum flammâ prohibebere avitâ
Eque Deo corpus fies exangue; Deusque
Qui modo corpus eras, et bis tua fata novabis.
Ovid, Met. Lib. 2, lin. 640.
196 A far more specific prediction than any that
theology can pretend, occurs in the Medea of Seneca, which seems in the age of
Nero, to have foretold the future discovery of America, by Christopher Columbus,
an event which occurred not till 1400 years after the publication of the
prophecy. This it is—
"Venient annis sæcula seris,
Quibus Oceanus vincula rerum.
Laxet, et ingens pateat tellus
Tethysque novos detegat orbes
Nec sit terris Ultima Thule."
"The times will come in late years, when ocean may relax the chain of things,
and a vast continent may open; the sea may uncover new worlds, and Thule, cease
to be the last of lands."
197 Dem. Evan. quoted, translated and
commented on, in the author's Syntagma, p. 116.
198 Mount of Myrtles—why not Mount of Olives?
199 Aristhenes—why not Joseph?
200 Goatherd —why not Shepherd?
201 Thus all Christian painters have depicted the infant Jesus.
202 Heaven-born child,—
Equally applicable to Æsculapius as to Jesus, is the divine doggerel annexed,
Veiled in flesh, the Godhead, He—
Hail th’ incarnate Deity!
Mild he lays his glory by,
Born that man no more might die;
Born to raise the sons of earth;
Born to give them second birth!
203 The serpent is prime agent in the story
of human redemption; and the cock really bears a very important character
in the Gospel, in rebuking Peter for cursing and swearing.
204 The good Saviour, which was the express title of
Æsculapius, is given by Eusebius, in the mouth of his fabricated personage,
Abgarus, to the no less fabricated Jesus:
[Greek]—Lib. 1. c. 13, lit. D. Eccl. Hist. "Abgarus,
toparch of Edessa, to Jesus, the good Saviour, who hath shone forth in
Jerusalem—greeting!"
205 I preserve so much of the original text as is
essential to the proof of the matter before us:—
[Greek]—Quoted in Lardner, vol. 4, p. 410.
206 The ancient form, fortisan; "Our Father, which art in
heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth, as it
is in heaven," &c.
207 See the Chapter on Justin Martyr, in
this DIEGESIS.
208 Both Bacchus, and Jupiter also, was distinguished by the epithet
OUR SAVIOUR. Sir John Marsham had a coin of the Thasions on which was the
inscription [Greek], of HERCULES THE SAVIOUR.—Bryant’s Annot. vol. 2. 406. 195. The name
of Christ, as we have seen (Definitions, p. 7,) was ridiculously common,
and extended even to every individual of the Jewish race:—
[Hebrew]
"Touch not my Christs, and do my
fortune-tellers no harm."—Psalm cv. 14.
209 P. 520.
210 Who verily foreordained before the foundation of the world, but
was manifest in these last times for you.
211 And the Desire of all nations shall come.
212 See Parkhurst's Hebrew Lexicon, under the word [Hebrew]
PROTECTORS, from the root [Hebrew],
Strength, or Vigour, p. 520. But what is this whole strain of argument, but the
open and avowed ECLECTIC Philosophy, and a virtual admission that Christianity
and Paganism are perfectly synonymous?
213 Utiles esse opiniones has, quis negat, cum intelligat quam multa
firmentur jurejurando; quantæ salutis sint fœderum religiones, quam multos
divini supplicii metus a scelere revocarit, quamque sancta sit societas civium
inter ipsos, Diis immortalibus interpositis tum testibus.—De Legibus, lib.
2, 7.
214 There are no Quakers among them;
and there can be no villany where Quakers are not.
215 The nearest approach to the exact
pronunciation of this sacred word will be produced by suspending the action of
all the organs of articulation, and making only that convulsive heave of the
larynx, by which the bronchal vessels discharge the accumulated phlegm; it is
enunciated with the most eloquent propriety in the act of vomiting, and
perhaps on this account has been called the unutterable name.—Consult
Rabbi Ben Herschel, and his beard! The God JEHOVAH, the most hideous of the
whole mythology, was well known to the Gentiles; he was the JONN of the ancient
Tuscans, and Latinized into the JANUS of the Romans.
216 See the Oxford Encyclopedia, under the head Adonists; and
my own further investigations of this curious subject, in my Syntagma of the
Evidences of the Christian Religion, published during the earlier months of my
still continuing unjust imprisonment, for the conscientious exposure of the
errors and ignorance on which that religion is founded. p. 96.
217 Parkhurst’s Hebrew Lexicon, under the head [Hebrew]
3.
218 [Hebrew]
219 The Hebrew has no adjectives:
Sun of Righteousness is their idiom for the Righteous Sun.
220 See the plate of him in Parkhurst, and his convincing arguments
in proof that the beast with four faces and four wings, standing like a cock
upon a hen roost, on one leg, "must be referred to Jehovah only," under the head [Hebrew]
340—4.
221 Aliud etiam symbolum proponamus, ut conamine cogitationis, scelera
revelentur; cujus totus ordo dicendus est, ut apud omnes constet divinæ
dispositionis legem, perversa Diaboli imitatione corruptam. Nocte quadam
simulacrum in lectica supinum ponitur, et per numeros digestis fletibus
plangitur. Deinde cum se ficta lamentatione satiaverint, lumen infertur. Tunc a
Sacerdote omnium qui flebant, fauces unguntur, quibus perunctis, sacerdos lento
murmure susurrat:
[Greek]
Literally, "Trust ye communicants the God having been saved, there shall be
to us out of pains, salvation." Godwyn, who seems not to have discovered the
metre of the original, renders it, "Trust ye in God, for out of pains,
salvation is come unto us."
222 Dei tui mors nota est, vita non comparet; nec de resurrectione
ejus divinum aliquando respondit oraculum, nec hominibus se post mortem ut sibi
crederetur, ostendit, nulla hujus operis documenta promisit, nec se hoc facturum
esse præcedentibus monstravit exemplis.—De Errore prof. Relig. p. 45.
223 Firmicius, quotes this Christian forgery
under the title [Greek].—Eusebius, avails himself of it, as [Greek].—Macknight and Doddridge
strove mightily to enlist it into the service of the Church Militant; but it
would not do.
224 [Hebrew]
Thou art handsome, beyond the sons of Adam,
love is diffused in thy lips for the sake of which, God is enamoured of thee for
ever,—Psalm 45.
225 Habet ergo Diabolus Christos suos, p. 46.
226 Aliud est unguentum quod Deus pater unico tradidit filio, &c. p.
46.—See in its place, under the name Christ, what serious though slippery,
arguments the Fathers build on ointment or pomatum.
227 See the chapter of admissions in this DIEGESIS; and Jones on the
Canon, vol. 1. p. 12.
228 "For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily."—2
Colossians, 9.
229 Rev. Mr. Beard's Third Letter to the
Author, p. 87.
230 Rev. Dr. John Pye Smith, in Answer to the Author, p. 54. A truly
sublime specimen of' evangelical malignity. This holy Parthian throws his stone,
and protects himself under pretence of treating his adversary with contempt!
231 He was satisfied, it seems, before he began to inquire—a
pretty good security to ensure that the result of his inquiry would be
satisfactory. He who is in possession of what he pretends to seek for,
before he commences his search, will be sure to know when and where to find it.
232 Aye, to be sure! to be sure! they
pointed the wrong way!
233 O fortunate fellow! I'd have sworn he would have met with it!
234 Ecclesiastical History, vol. 1, p. 53.
235 In his Bibliograph. Antiquar, cap. 7, sect. 10, p. 187.
236 Mr. Higgins must forgive my hoping, that
his false way of spelling Chrishna (which is certainly Chrishna, and not
Krishna,) may not be an exception against his ingeniousness. It was very natural
that he should endeavour to bring his Christ out of the scrape as well as he
could, and save his Saviour! But Krishna, or Chrishna is fatal to Christ, spell
him e’en as you will!
237 See Vol. 2, and Vol. 4.
238 These "laborious calculations," are Dr. Bentley's wretched
shifts to save Christianity.
239 This sarcasm is very severe, but it is
from the pen of Christian Mr. Higgins, a believer in divine revelation.
240 In his Travels, pp. 393, 394.
241 Maurice’s Indian Antiquities, vol. 2, p. 361, quoted by Mr.
Higgins, p. 127. Celtic Druids.
242 Or shining forth.—A Christian
poet will best instruct us what star that was. It was none other than Venus, the
star of the God of day,
Fairest of stars, last in the train of night,
If better, thou belong not to the dawn—
Sure pledge of day, that crown'st the smiling morn
With thy bright circlet !—Morning Hymn.
243 Apolinem, aliud nihil esse quam Solem,
omnes consentiunt, quippe cui illa quæ Apollini vulgo tribuuntur, mire
conveniunt.—Cic. 3. De Natura Deo.
244 It can only be ascribed to a momentary
suspension of the divine influence which guided the pen of the Evangelist, that
one of the epithets of Apollo— Didymus, should have been left in the possession of an apostle of
Jesus Christ.—John xx. 24.
245 "He descended into hell."—Apostles'
Creed. "That he went down into hell, and also did rise again."—Baptismal Service. "By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in
prison."—1 Pet. iii. 19.
246 See the apocryphal gospel of Nicodemus.
247 Mosheim's Eccl. Hist. vol. 1, p. 171.
248 [Greek]—Euseb. præp. Evan lib. xi. C. 19. Citante Lardnero, tom. 4, p.
200.
249 [Greek]
250 "For whom two or three are
gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."—Matt. xviii.
20.
251 YESUS.—Volney has shown that YES was one of the names of
Bacchus which, with the Latin termination, is nothing else than Yesus, or Jesus.
252 [Greek]
Anacreon.
253 Orpheus, who for the most part is
followed by Homer, was the great introducer or the rites of the heathen worship
among the Greeks, being charged with having invented the very names of the gods.
He wrote, that all things were made by One Godhead with three names, and
that this God is all things.—Hebrew Lexicon, 347.
254 Bacchum, Orpheus vocat [Greek] hoc est Moses et [Greek]—Legislatorem, et eidem tribuit [Greek] quasi duplices legis tabulas.—Porney. Panth. Mythicum, p. 57.
255 From
[Hebrew] to draw out or
forth.—"Because she said, [Hebrew]—I drew him out.—Exod. ii 10.
256 [Greek]—Bacchi cognomen.
257 Iliad. 48.
258 In Achais.
259 Or Potter’s beautiful translation of it, of which I here avail
myself.
260 The cross referring to the attitude of
the sufferer, Prometheus may be called [Greek] or [Greek] as well as Jesus.
261 "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.
262 His answer to Celsus, chapter 27. What other than this is the sense
of those words of the apostolic chief of sinners, "O foolish Galatians, who hath
bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes
Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth crucified among you?"—Gal. iii.
1. Surely, it was not in the country of the Galatians that Christ was crucified;
nor could he have been set forth before their eyes, and evidently,
otherwise than by a picture, or in a theatrical representation!
263 This appendix commences in the 13th chapter, where we find Saul in
the mission at Antioch, and preaching again, one of the sermons which had been
before ascribed to Peter.
264 Acts xvii. 18.
265 See the original in Eschenbachius's edit. p. 110. Compare also my
learned and amiable friend's edition in original Greek inscription types, cast
at his own expense.
266 'The three similar epithets, "Various of Counsel," "Various
in design," "Tortuous in counsel," would justify the doctrine, that
the whole Trinity was comprehended in this "Prometheus the power of God, and
Prometheus the wisdom of God." (1 Cor. i. 24.) "His name shall be called,
Wonderful Counsellor, the mighty God." (Isa. ix. 6.) Lactantius admits,
that though what the poets delivered concerning the creation of man was
corrupted, it was not different in effect from the truth as held by Christians;
for in that they have asserted that man was created out of clay by PROMETHEUS,
they were not wrong as to the fact, but only as to the name of the Creator.—Lactant.
Instit. lib. ii. c. 10.—Kortholto Pagano Obtrectatore, Citante p
34.
267 Reeves's Apologies of the Fathers, &c. vol. I, p. 139. This
Reverend Mr. Reeves is unquestionable authority for the text of the orthodox
Fathers: in which he could not be wrong. We may be allowed however to question
his authority, where he would persuade us that, all the heretics ate children.
268 Skelton's Appeal to Common Sense, p. 45.
269 In Epistola quadam ad Servianum cos. Imperator Hadranus prodidit,
coluisse ipsos in Ægypto Serapidem, sive numen illud Ægyptiorum præcipuum, quod
sub bovis specie eos fuisse veneratos, nemo ignorat. Illi ait qui
Serapin colunt, CHRISTIANI sunt, et devoti sunt Serapi, qui se
CHRISTI Episcopos dicunt.— Kortholti Pagan. Obtrect. de
Serapidolatria, lib. 2, c. 5, p. 324.—See this article at length in the
chapter that adduces the testimony of the emperor Adrian.
270 Kortholt in codem loco.
271 Socrates Schol. lib. 1, c. 14.
272 Socrates Schol. lib. 5, c. 16.
273 We see at this day, without any countenance of Scripture, the
letters I.N.R.I. engraved in all our idolatrical representations of the
crucifixion. It is obvious that they would bear any other reading as well as
that which Christian conceit may give them.
274 [Greek]—Socrat. Eccl. Hist. lib. 5,
c. 17.
275 [Greek]—Lib. 2, cap. 15.
276 Lib. 5, c. 18, p. 348. London Ed. anno
1649.
277 Porney, De Diis Indiget, p. 268.
278 Quoted in Lardner's Credibility, vol. i, p. 594.
279 Quasi [Greek].
280 The man after God's own heart exhibits himself as an awful instance
of the vengeance of Venus on one who turned the grace of God (for Venus was
addressed, "Be thou God," or Goddess) into lasciviousness: "My wounds stink and
we are corrupt, through my lasciviousness; neither is there any rest in my
bones, by reason of my sin."—Psalm xxxviii.
281 "Our sufficiency is of God, who also hath made us able ministers of
the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the spirit; for the letter killeth,
but the spirit giveth life."—2 Cor. iii. 6.
282 [Greek]—"Art thou the he that
should come?"—John xi. 3. [Greek], the Advent, or coming,
from the common root.
283 Mosheim, vol. 1, p. 204.
284 The editors of the Unitarian New Version of the New Testament, who
very modestly wish to shovel all these spurcities and salacities out of
the sacred text, have the impudence to tell us, in a note, that they were
interpolated to lessen the odium attached to Christianity, from its founder
being a crucified Jew, and to elevate him to the dignity of the heroes and demi-gods
of the heathen mythology. So then, the argument of the primitive Christians with
their Pagan opponents was good-natured enough—If you won't adopt our
religion,—why, we'll adopt yours.
285 [Greek], the transmigration of the soul
out of one body into another, from [Greek] and [Greek],
the life, the breath, the wit, the soul, the je-ne-sais-quoi.
286 The Metempsychosis overthrows the doctrine of the everlasting
torments of hell-fire; and, on that account, is less congenial to Christian
dispositions.
287 Our English of the words [Greek]—"Except a man be born of
water and of the spirit," (John iii. 5,) and of the words [Greek]—"So is every one that is born of the spirit." (John iii. 8,) is a
jesuitical imposition upon the simplicity of the mere English reader. The real
rendering is, "born of the WIND, or PUFF." So the Holy GHOST should be
rendered the Holy PUFF. Note, nothing makes a man so spiritually-minded
as wind at the stomach.
288 Observe how evidently this is the language of quotation. Some
word of God, or from some sacred scripture which had reported his word,
before either the New or Old Testament had been imposed upon human credulity.
289 His religious respect or antipathy to beans, were the
circumstance divested of Christian exaggeration, or we were possessed of the
clue, might admit of as rational an unravelling as the Egyptian worship of
onions. See this DIEGESIS, p 23. Aristoxenus assures us that Pythagoras would
often eat beans, his religious conceits notwithstanding.
290 Imo fuere qui Nazaratum Pythagoræ præceptorem idem hic est cum
Zabrato, ipsum esse Ezechelem prophetam tradiderunt. Ex populo Judæorum genus
duxisse Pythagoram, plerosque arbitrare scribit Ambrosius.—Kortholli
Pagan. Obtrect. p. 48. [Greek]—Theodoritus Therapeut. lib 3.
291 Constantine's Oration, c. 9.
292 Soleo admirari quod cum Pythagoras et postea, Plato amore indagandæ
veritatis accensi, ad Ægyptios et Magos, et Persas usque penetrassent, at earum
gentium ritun et sacra cognoscerent—ad Judæos tantum non accesserint, penes
quos tunc solos erat, et quo facilius ire potuissent—Divin. Inst.
lib. 4, cap. 2.
293 For the "Life of Archbishop Tillotson," see Wadsworth's
Ecclesiastical Biography. An Essay on his Character and Writings, constitutes
the fifteenth of the author's fifty LETTERS FROM OAKHAM, and will be found in
the 21st number of the 1st volume of THE LION.
294 The characteristic distinction between
Archbishop Tillotson and other archbishops and bishops, those of our own times
more especially, is, that he was foolish enough to commit himself by public
preaching, which our modern bishops, on the principle "least said soonest
mended," know better than to do; and that though he was withal a very
bishop, he was an honester man than any of them; and, God knows, that's no
compliment.
295 The reader will observe, that the hyphen, thus,
-, is inserted,
to indicate that the sentence is relieved or its prolixity: not a syllable is
added, nor one omitted, that in the least degree could qualify the sense.
296 Which is, being interpreted—All that has been said in answer to the objections, has been very jejune and
unsatisfactory.
297 Which is, being interpreted—It is considering men who
are the infidels.
298 Which is, being interpreted—Much ado about nothing.
299 Which is, being interpreted, "Shut your eyes, and open
your mouth, and see what God will send you."
300 This might have been fair play, provided God himself was not
able to enlarge or improve their capacity.
301 Which is, being interpreted—The Christian religion,
even as to the main and substance of it, is full of nonsense and barbarity, and
only suited to the brutal apprehensions of savages and fools.
302 Good God! could a bishop in stronger significancy discover his heartfelt hatred of Christianity. He held Christians
to be more hard-hearted than the Jews themselves, and so God suited his religion
to their hard-heartedness.
303 Compare with the chapter Eleusinian Mysteries, and with
Admissions of Christian Writers, p. 52, No. 51, in this DIEGESIS.
304 O spirit of Voltaire! Was ever sarcasm on earth more sarcastic?
Was it in plainer language that an Archbishop of Canterbury could have told us,
that the Christian religion was the oddest, the lewdest, and the bloodiest that
ever was upon earth, "beyond all dispute, and beyond all comparison?"
305 This was the Spaniard Cortes's way of converting the Mexicans,
when he throw down their image of the SUN, and unfurled a picture of the Virgin
Mary in its stead, with a—"There, you dogs, an' you must have something to
worship, worship that!"—History of America.
And thus in the original Acts of the Apostles, written by Abdias
Bishop of Babylon, who professes to have been ordained by the Apostles
themselves, we have it related, that the blessed Saint Philip the Evangelist,
preaching to the Scythians, exclaimed, "Throw down this Mars and break him,
and in the place in which he seem to stand fixed, set up the Cross of my Lord
Jesus Christ, and worship that."—Dejicate hunc Martem et confringite, et
in loco in quo fixus videtur stare, crucem Domini mei Jesu Christi affigite, et
hanc adorate. Fabricii Cod. Apocryp. tom. 2, in hac re.
306 That is, God was pleased to approve and sanction human
sacrifices. And what was the difference between this God and Moloch? His
Grace, however has the most explicit texts (if the New Testament on
his side, (and no rational man will ever have a word to say against the Old
Testament): "For if the blood, of bulls and goats, and the ashes of an heifer
sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh, how much more
shall the blood of Christ," &c.? Heb. ix. 13.—The force of the whole
argument is,—the more monstrously horrible, the more cruel, barbarous, and
bloody, the man sanctifying efficacy in the sacrifice, and the more acceptable
to this HORRID GOD.
307 Perhaps this is the severest irony, the
most caustic sarcasm; that was ever couched in words. It is the "Shew ’em in
here," and "All alive O!" of Bartholomew Fair. It is—"Our
tricks beat theirs!" It is—"The fools! the idiots! nothing can be too
gross for ’em."
308 This is good, honest, downright materialism. "Bone of our
bone, and flesh of our flesh," must involve our ways of making and sustaining
bone and flesh. Here is no skiey and cloudy work, and no room to
rail at Mahomet's terrestrial paradise.
309 In the most splendid chapel of the Methodists (Queen Street,
Lincoln’s Inn), the altar stands in a druidical alcove, upon which the
light descends through yellow glass, to give to the countenance of their priests
such a death-like tinge, as might make them seem to be standing under the
immediate illapses of inspiration, "Creatures not of this earth, and yet being
on it."
310 See the Table of Ecclesiastical
Revenues.
311 Lactant. De fals. Relig. 1. 4.
312 Qui grege liniger circumdatus et grege
calvo.—Juv. 6.3.
313 Nunc Dea linigerâ colitur celeberrima turbá.—Ovid.
Met.
1. 746.
314 —[Greek]
315 —[Greek]
316 [Greek]—Just. Mart. Apol. 1,
91, p. edit. Thirlb.
317 Ah minium faciles qui tristia crimina cædis.
Flumineâ tolli posse putetis aquâ—Ovid. Fast. 2. 45.
At animi labes nec diuternitate evanescere nec ullis amnis elui potest.—Cicero.
318 Impruneta, a small town six miles from Florence.
319 Image breakers.
320 Si nel rivoltare il profuno culto de
gentili nel sacro e vero, osservarono i fedeli qualche proportione, qui la
ritrovarono assai conveniente nel dedicare a Maria virgine un tempio, ch'era
della Bona Dea.—Rom. Med. Gior. 2. Rion di Rissa, 10.
321 The inscription of course is in Latin, and this
it is—
Martyrii gestans virgo Martina coronam
Ejecto hinc Martis numina Templa tenet
PANTHEON, &c.
AB AGRIPPA AUGUSTI GENERO
IMPIE JOVI, CÆTERISQUE MENDACIBUS DIIS
A BONIFACIO IIII. PONTIFICE
DEIPARÆ ET S. S. CHRISTI MARTYRIBUS PIE
DICATUM,
&c.
323
1. Mercurio et Minervæ, Diis 1. Marie et Francisce, Tutelares
Tuteltarib. mei.
2. Dii qui huic templo præsident. 2. Divo Eustorgio, qui huic templo
præsidet.
3. Numini Mercurii, pollenti, potendi, 3. Numini Divi Georgii, pollenti,
invicto. potenti, invicto.
4. Diis Deabas que cum Jove. 4. Divis præstitibus juvantibus, Georgio
Stephanoque, cum Deo Opt. Max.
Gruter's Inscriptions. Boldoniuss Epigraphs.
"And the times of this ignorance God winked at."—Acts
xvii, 30."Dove-like, sat brooding on the vast abyss,
And made it pregnant."—Paradise Lost, Book i.
And as it might seem in relation to this adorable mystery, the prophet Isaiah
asks, "Who shall declare his generation?" Ch. liii. v. 8. I abhor no impiety
more affectionately than that of our Unitarian divines, the most inconsistent,
the most egregious, the most absurd of all sophists, who hesitate not at the
most audacious blasphemies upon the mystical incarnation, and persist in
representing Christ as a mere man, though unable to produce so much as
one single proof, either scriptural or historical, that any such mere man
ever existed at all.
491 Lardner, vol. iv. p. 114.
492 Dupin, Bibl. Origines, p. 142.
493 Lardner, vol. I. p. 243. I punctiliously
give the words of Lardner, that the reader may see with what a grace this
rational Socinian grapples with miracles which he cannot believe, and
dare not deny.
494 This philosophy, which we
meet with at every turn, as always constituting the basis of the
Christian religion; this Alexandria, always the centre and nursery of
this philosophy; these congresses of lazy pedants in universities, where young
men are to be trained, and broken in to the business of becoming
impostors themselves in their turn, are matters, at the least infinitely
suspectable. Honesty never needed them! Compare p. 314 and 319, in this DIEGESIS. Justin, Melito, & c. all professors in like manner of this Eclectic
philosophy.
495 His writings are not to be disparaged,
since they afford the clearest evidence of the genuineness of his miracles, by
proving that he was no conjuror.
496 See DIEGESIS, p. 48.
497 Socrates Scholast. lib. 4, c. 22.
498 The constitution of every particular church in those
times was a well-tempered monarchy. The bishop was the monarch, and the
presbytery was his senate."—Principles of the Cyprianic age, by
John Sage, a Scottish bishop, 1695, p. 32. "Cyprian carried his spiritual
authority to such a pitch, as to claim the right of putting his rebellious and
unruly deacon to death."—Ibid. p.33. Surely here was cause enough to
induce any government to call such a traitor to some sort of reckoning!
499 Lardner’s Credibility, vol. ii. p. 327.
500 Socrates Scholasticus, bib. i. c.
26.
501 See my 14th letter from Oakham
published in the 1st. and 2d. volumes of the Lion.
502 "Whether Helena was the lawful wife of
Constantius Chlorus, or only his concubine, is a disputable point."—Lardner,
vol. ii. p. 322.
503 What has that to do with it?
504 Vol. i. p. 345.
505 Socrates Sch. Eccl. Hist. lib. ii.
c. 2.
506 Socrates, lib. i. c. 6.
507 Evagrius, lib. iii. c. 41.
508 The learned reader will find I take some
liberties with the text, never departing, however, from its sense—but, "an
inimitable example for all men to follow," which is the literality, is Irish
rather than English panegyric.
509 Life of Constantine, lib. iv. c. 63.
510 Ibid. lib. iv. c. 75.
511
His slaughter bill, methodically arranged, runs thus:—
Maximian His wife’s father A. D. 310 Bassianus His sister Anastasia’s husband 314 Licinianus His nephew, by Constantina 319 Fausta His wife 320 Sopater His former friend 321 Licinius His sister Constantia’s husband 325 Crispus His own son 326
Religio peperit scelerosa atque impia facta.—Lucret. lib. 1, v. 84.
Lardner, vol. 2, p. 342.I n that time, when the great Judge shall come, E arth shall sweat; the Eternal King from’s throne S hall judge the world, and all that in it be, U nrighteous men and righteous, shall God see S eated on high with saints eternall—E E. C ompassed, which in the last age have been H ence shall the earth grow desolate again R egardless statues and gold shall be held vain I n greedy flames shall burn earth seas and skies, S tand up again dead bodies shall, and rise, T hat they may see all these with their eyes. C leansing the faithful in twelve fountains, He R eign shall for ever unto eternitee, V ery God that he is, and our Saviour too, X hrist that did suffer for us—and I hope that’ll do!
538 Or Theophany, that is, "the
shining forth of God," a conceit, which conceit itself could hardly have
dreamed of, as a definition of the life and adventures of the son of a frail
girl of Nazareth—the hero of the gimlet, "O, it out Herod’s Herod!" All
other divines endeavour to subdue our reason,—the asserters of the humanity
of Christ insult it.
539 Like our own Archdeacon Paley, "he
could not afford to have a conscience." See his Life prefixed to his
Evidences of Christianity.
540 Like our Archbishop Magee, "he might have believed it in the
lump, without believing it in the particular."—See his Evidence before the
House of Lords.
541 But surely this lying by proxy, is but
a more sneaking and cowardly way of lying: he knew that the falsehood was
asserted, and profited by the falsehood. He lent his influence to it, and
subscribed it with the consent of a criminal silence!
542 Lardner, Vol. 2, p. 363.
543 Lardner’s Credibility, Vol. 4, p. 91.
544 Tertullian De An. c. 51, quoted by Evanson, p. 15.
545 The relics of this truly Christian
DOG are preserved in the parish church of San Andres, near Valladolid, to this
day. His soul is with Jesus. We may laugh at this in England; but he would be a
brave man who laughed at it in Spain. See Catholic Miracles, p. 43.
546 Galatians ii. 14; Acts xv. 39;
Philippians iii. 2; Phil. i. 15, &c.
547 1 John iv. 3.
548 Let any man only read the Preface to the
Rev. J. R. Beard’s Historical Evidences of Christianity Unassailable, and
imagine if he can, how either God or Pope could ever have thundered with more
audacious Godhead.
549 Mosheim, Vol. 1, p. 136.
550 Quoted in Lardner, vol. 4, p. 512.
551 Quoted in Lardner, vol. 4, p. 628.
552 Syntagma, p. 101.
553 Apostolis adhuc in sæculo
superstitibus apud Judæam Christi sanguine recente, et PHANTASMA corpus Domini
asserebatur.—Cotel. Patres Apostol, tom. 2, p. 24.
554 Luke xxiv. 39. "Handle me and see;
for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as you see me have." The Marcionite
reading was,—&c. "a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see that I have
NOT."—[Greek].
555 Non novem mensium cruciatu deliberatus,
non subita dolorum concussione per corporis cloacam effusus in terram, nec
molestus uberibus din infans, vix puer, tarde homo sed de cœlo expositus, semel
grandis, semel totus, statim Christus, Spiritus et Virtus et Deus tantum.—Adv. Marcion, 601.
556 [Greek]
557 See pp. 65, 66, and 114, in this
DIEGESIS.
558 Accipis evangelium? Et maxime.
Proinde ergo et natum accipis Christum? Non ita est. Neque enim sequitur ut si
evangelium accipio, idcirco et natum accipiam Christum. Ergo non putas eum ex
Maria Virgine esse? Manes dixit, Absit ut Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum per
naturalia pudenda mulieris descendisse confitear.—Lardner, ita, vol.
4, p. 20.
559 Toland’s Nazarenus, Letter I. Chap. 5,
p. 17.
560 Acts xv. 39. "And the contention
was so sharp between them, that they departed asunder one from the other."
We never hear of their being reconciled again—but that is not extraordinary—no beast in nature is so implacable as an offended saint.
561 See the Koran, C. iii v. 53, and C. iv.
v. 156, of Maracci’s edition.
562
[Greek].
563 Docet autem circumcidi et
sabbatizare et Christum nondum resurrexisse a mortuis sed, resurrecturum
annunciat.—Lardner, vol. 4, p. 368.
564 [Greek]—Eur. Magazine.
565 Decline and Fall, chap. 15, ad calcem.
566
[Greek].
567 Cum audisset (Augustus) inter pueros
quos in Syria, Herodes rex Judæorum intra bimatum jussit interfici, filium
quoque ejus occisum, ait, "Melius est Herodis porcum esse quam filium."—Macrobius,
lib. 2. c. 4.—Clarke 355.
568 Eccles. Hist. lib. 1, c. 9.
569
[Greek]
570 Not I!
571 Let the Jew Apelles believe!
572 Surely this professed Christian had
not the fear of OAKHAM before his eyes.
573
Reverend Edward Evanson’s Dissonance of the Gospels. Ed. Ipswich 1792, p. 126.
574 All our pictures of the handsome Jew,
present the closed family likeness to the Indian Chrishna, and the Greek and
Roman Apollo. Had the Jewish text been respected, he would rather have been
exhibited as hideously ugly: "his visage was so marred more than any man, and
his form more than the sons of men."— Isaiah lii. 14. But this would have
spoiled the ornaments of the church as well as of the theatre, and been fatal to
the faith of the fair sex.—Who could have believed in an ugly son of God?
575 Temporibus Octaviani Cæsaris,
Publius Lentulus Procos. in partibus Judæa, et Herodis Regis, Senatoribus
Romanis, hanc epistolam scripsisse fertur, quæ postea ab Eutropio reperta est in
annalibus Romanorum.—Fabricii Cod. Apoc. tom. 1, p. 302.
576 Hoc tempore vir apparuit, et adhuc
vivit vir præditus potentia magna, nomen ejus Jesus Christus: Homines eum
prophetam, potentem dicunt, discipuli ejus, filium Dei vocant. Mortuos vivificat,
et ægros ab omnis generis ægritudinibus et morbis sanat. Vir est attæ staturæ
proportionate, et conspectus vultus ejus cum severitate, et plenus efficacia, ut
spectatores amare eum possint et rursus timere. Pili capitis ejus, vinei coloris
usque ad fundamentum aurium, sine radiatione et erecti, et a fundamento
aurium usque ad humeros contorti, ac lucidi, et ab humeris deorsum pendentes,
bifido vertice dispositi in morem Nazaræorum. Frons plana et pura, facies ejus
sine macula quam rubor quidam temperatus ornat. Aspectus ejus ingenuus et gratus.
Nasus et os ejus nullo modo reprehensibilia. Barba ejus multa, et colore pilorum
capitis bifurcata: Oculi ejus cærulei et extreme lucidi. In reprehendendo et
objurgando formidibilis, in docendo et exhortando blandæ linguæ et amabilis.
Gratia miranda vultus, cum gravitate. Vel semel eum ridentem nemo vidit, sed
flentem imo. Protracta statura corporis, manus ejus rectæ, et erectæ, brachia
ejus delectabilia. In loquendo ponderans et gravis, et parcus loquela.
Pulcherrimus vultu inter hominos satos."
577 Euseb. Eccles. Hist. lib. 1, c. 14.
578 The name Veronica, occurs in
the Gospel of Nicodemus, as that of the lady who came behind Jesus and touched
the hem of his garment. "Veronica, ista videter literis transpositis,
nata ex vocabulis duobus, vera icon. Certum est, imaginem ipsam Christi,
a scriptoribus non paucis, dici Veronicam."—Fab. tom. 1, p. 252.
579 [Greek] lib. 2. c. 2.
580 Matthew xxvii. 52, 53.
581
[Greek]—In addendis ad
Fabricii Codic. Tom. 2, p. 97.
582 Acts ii. 19.
583 [Greek]
584
[Greek]
585
[Greek]
586
[Greek]—Ibid.
587
[Greek]
588
[Greek]
589
[Greek]—Ibid.
590 Lardner, vol. 2, p. 255.
591 Exutus at corpore, quod in exiguâ
sui circumferebat parte, postquam videri se passus est, cujus esset aut
magnitudinis sciri, novitate rerum exterrita mundi sunt elementa turbata, tellus
mota contremuit, mare funditus refusum est aër globis involutus est tenebrarum,
igneus orbis solis tepefacto ardore diriguit.—p. 32.
592
[Greek]
593 [Greek]—Sequenti commate.
594 Decline and Fall, chap. 16.
595 I have published these arguments in my
Forty-fourth, and also at my Ninetieth Oration, delivered before the Areopagus
of the Christian Evidence Society, a few weeks before the commencement of the
persecution which has afforded me leisure for these researches.
596 In his Vindiciæ Flavianæ, or a
Vindication of the Testimony given by Josephus concerning our Saviour Jesus
Christ, 1777.
597 Life of Dr. Lardner, by Dr. Kippis,
p. 23.
598 Ibid. 23.
599 His Answer to Dr. Chandler.
600 Ibid.
601 John, Bishop of Constantinople, who
died A. D. 407, was called St. Chrysostom, or Golden-mouthed, from the charms of
his eloquence—the author of the last prayer in our Liturgy.
602 Lardner, vol. iii. p. 609.
603 Je ne puis m’empecher d’observer que Cyriac d’Ancone fut le premier
qui publia cette inscription, et que c’est de lui que les autres l’ont tirée;
mais comme la foi de cet Ecrivain est suspecte au jugement de tous les sçavans,
que d’ailleurs il n’y a ni vestige ni souvenir de cette inscription, dans les
places on l’ont dit qu’elle s’est trouvée, et qu’on ne scait on la prendre a
present, chacun peut en porter le jugement qu’il voudra.—Histoire
generale d’Espagne, tom. 1, p. 192.
604 Gibbon, chap. 16.
605 "Sed non ope humanâ, non largitionibus Principis, aut Deûm
placamentis, decedebat infamia, quin jussum incendium crederetur. Ergò abolendo
rumori Nero subdidit reos, et quæsitissimis pœnis adfecit, quos per flagitia
invisos, vulgus Christianos appellabat. Auctor nominis ejus CHRISTUS,
Tiberio imperitante, per procuratorem Pontium Pilatum supplicio adfectus erat.
Repressaque in præsens exitiabilis superstitio rursus erumpebat non modò per
Judæam, originem ejus mali, sed per Urbem etiam, quò cuncta undique atrocia, aut
pudenda, confluunt, celebranturque. Igitur primò correpti qui fatebantur, deinde
indicio eorum, multitudo ingens, haud perinde in crimine incendii, quàm odio
humani generis, convicti sunt. Et pereuntibus addita ludibria, ut ferarum tergis
contecti, laniatu canum interirent, aut crucibus affixi, aut flammandi, atque
ubi defecisset dies, in usum nocturni luminis urerentur. Hortos suos ei
spectaculo Nero obtulerat, et Circense ludicrum edebat, habitu aurigæ permixtus
plebi, vel curriculo insistens. Unde quamquam adversùs sontes et novissima
exempla meritos, miseratio oriebatur, tamquam non utilitate publicâ, sed in
sævitiam unius absumerentur."
606 In his celebrated Apology, Tertullian
is so hot upon the scent of this passage, that his missing it had it been in
existence, is almost miraculous. In Chapter 5 of this Apology, he says, "Consult
your histories, there you will find that Nero was the first to draw the bloody
and imperial sword against this sect then rising at Rome." Yet even here, he
stumbles not on this famous passage.
607 After other quotations from the writings of Tacitus, Tertullian
continues his argument: "And indeed that same Cornelius Tacitus, that most
prating of all liars, in the same history relates ‘At enim Cornelius Tacitus
sane ille mendaciorum loquacissimus in cad. Hist. ref. &c.’"—Citat.
Kortholt, p. 272.
608 Judæos impulsore Chresto, assidué
tumultuantes Româ expulit.
609 Afflicti suppliciis Christiani, genus
hominum superstitionis novæ et maleficœ.
610 Percrebuerat Oriente toto, vetus et
constans opinio, esse in fatis, ut eo tempore Judeâ profecti rerum potirentur.
Id de Imperatore Romano, quantum eventu postea patuit, predictum Judiæ ad se
trahentes rebellârunt. Cap. 4.
611
[Greek]—Jos. de Bell.
l. 6, c. 5, sect. 4.
612 [Greek]—Justini Apol.
613 [Greek]—lib. 1, Ab Autolycum.
614
[Greek]—Ibidem.
615 Cum perperam Christianus
pronunciatur, (puta Chrestianus) de suavitate vel benignitate compositum nomen
est.—Terbul.
616 Quia apud Græcos, [Greek]
utrumque sonat. Virtus est lenis blanda tranquilla et omnium bonorum consortio.—Hieronym in Gal. v. 22.
617
[Greek].—Clementis
Strommat.
618 Solenne est mihi, Domine, omnia de
quibus dubito, ad te referre: quis enim potest melius vel cunctationem meam
regere, vel ignorantiam meam instruere. Cognitionibus de Christianis interful
nunquam: ideo vel quid vel quatenus aut puniri soleat aut quæri, nescio. Nec
etiam hæsitavi mediocriter, sitne aliquod discrimen œtatum, an quamlibet teneri
nihil a robustioribus differant: deturne pœnitentiæ venia, an ei qui prorsus
Christianus fuit, desîsse non prosit: nomen ipsum, etiamsi flagitiis careat, an
flagitia cohærentia nomini puniantur. Interim in iis qui ad me tanquam
Christiani deferebantur, hunc sum sequutus modum. Interrogavi ipsos, an essent
Christiani: confitentes iterum ac tertiò interrogavi, supplicio minatus ;
perseverantes duci jussi. Neque enim dubitabam, qualecunque esset quod
faterentur, pervicaciam certè, et inflexibilem obstinationem debere puniri.
Fuerunt alii similis amentiæ: quos, quia cives Romani erant, annotavi in urbem
remittendos. Mox ipso tractu, ut fieri solet, diffundente se crimine, plures
species inciderunt. Propositus est libellus, sine auctore, multorum nomina
continens, qui negarent so esse Christianos, aut fuisse; quum, præeunte me, deos
appellarent, et imagini tuæ, quam propter hoc jusseram cum simulacris numinum
afferri, thure ac vino supplicarent ; præterea maledicerent Christo: quorum
nihil cogi posse dicuntur qui sunt reverâ Christiani. Ergo dimittendos putavi.
Alii ab indice nominati, esse se Christinaos dixerunt, et mox negaverunt: fuisse
quidem, sed desîsse, quidam antè triennium, quidam antè plures annos, non nemo
etiam antè viginti quoque. Omnes et imaginem tuam, deorumque simulacra venerati
sunt; ii et Christo maledixerunt. Affirmabant autem, hanc fuisse summam vel
culpæ suæ, vel erroris, quòd essent soliti stato die ante lucem convenire;
carmenque Christo, quasi Deo, dicere secum invicem; seque sacramento non in
scelus aliquod obstringere, sed ne furta, ne latrocinia, ne adulteria
committerent, ne fidem fallerent, ne depositum appellati abnegarent: quibus
peractis morem sibi discedendi fuisse, rursusque coëundi ad capiendum cibum,
promiscuum tamen, et innoxium: quod ipsum facere desîsse post edictum meum, quo
secundùm mandata tua hetærias esse vetueram. Quo magis necessarium credidi, ex
duabus ancillis quæ ministræ, dicebantur, quid esset veri et per tormenta
quærere. Sed nihil aliud inveni, quàm superstitionem pravam et immodicam.
Ideoque, dilatâ cognitione, ad consulendum te decurri. Visa est enim mihi res
digna consultatione, maximè propter periclitantium, numerum. Multi enim omnis
ætatis, omnis ordinis, utriusque sexûs etiam, vocantur in periculum, et
vocabuntur. Neque enim civitates tantùm, sed vicos etiam atque agros
superstitionis istius contagio pervagata est: quæ videtur sisti et corrigi
posse. Certè satis constat, prope jam desolata templa cœpisse celebrari, et
sacra solennia diu intermissa repeti: passimque vænire victimas quarum adhuc
rarissimus emptor inveniebatur. Ex quo facile est opinari, quæ turba, hominum
emendari possit, si sit pœnitentiæ locus,—Plinii Epistolar. Lib 70,
Epist. 97.
619 If this letter be genuine, these nocturnal meetings were what no
prudent government could allow; they fully justify the charges of Cæcilius in Minutius Felix, of Celsus in Origen, and of Lucian, that the
primitive Christians were a skulking, light-shunning, secret, mystical,
freemasonry sort or confederation, against the general welfare and peace of
society.
620 Neue Versuche die Kirchen historie der
ersten Jahrunderte inehr aufzuklaren: by Jo. Salom. Semler, Leipsic, 1788, Fesc.
1, pp. 119-246.
621 Beytragi zur Beforderung des versmuftigew Denkens in der
Religion.
622 Vertheidigung der Plinischen Brife uber die Arristen gegen die
Einwendungen der H. D. Semler, Gottingen, 1788.
623 Gierig, in his edition of the Letters or C. Plinius Secund.
Leipsic, 1802.—Gierig acknowledges the meritorious diligence and fidelity of
Semler, in examining the credibility of the monuments of Antiquity. The German
divines have almost the exclusive merit of the faculty, of being just and civil
to their theological opponents; but their orthodoxy is proportionably
suspicious.
624 "Origen actually embodied fraud into a system, practiced it with
the approbation of his fellows, and gave it the technical name of ECONOMIA, by
which it has gone ever since."—Higgin’s Celtic Druids.
625 "Quo cuncta undique atrocia aut pudenda confluunt celebranturque!"
626 Extat etiam in Historia Christi, Persice scripta ab Hieronymo
Xaverio, Epistola Pilati ad Imp. Tiberium, quam confinxisse videtur Xaverius e
loco celebri qui de Christo legitur, lib. 18. Antiquitatum Josephi, c. 4.
Nallius est epistola hæc vel fidei vel autoritatis.—Fabricii Codex
Apocryphus, tom. L. p. 301. A. D. 1703, Hamburgi.
627 This distich, in Greek verse, is
generally attached to the portals of this ornament of the human race.
628 [Greek].
629
Pone Tigellinum, tæda lucebis in illa
Qua stantes ardent, qui fixo gutture fumant
Et latum media sulcum deducis arena.—Juv. Sat. 1. v. 155.
630 Adrianus Aug. Serviano Cos. S. "Ægyptum quam, mihi laudabus
Serviane carissime, totam didici levem, pendulam et ad omnia famæ momenta
volitantem. Illi qui Serapim colunt, Christiani sunt: et devoti sunt Serapi,
qui se Christi episcopos dicunt. Nemo illic Archisynagogus Judæorum, nemo
Samarites, nemo Christianorum presbyter,—non Mathematicus, non Aruspex,
Aliptes. Ipse ille patriarcha, quum in Ægyptum venerit ab aliis Serapidem
adorare, ab aliis cogitur Christum .... Unus illis Deus est hunc Judæi, hunc
omnes venerantur et gentes.
631 See the Chapter on Constantine.
632 See the passage, p. 205 in this DIEGESIS.
633 [Greek]
634 Pistor ille qui, pessimam et
ante cunctas mulieres longe deterrimam sortitus conjugem, pœnas extremas tori
larisque sustinebat ; scœva sœva, vitiosa, ebriosa pervicax, pertinax, in
repinis turpibus avara, in sumptibus turpibus profusa, inimica fidei, hostis
pudicitiœ. Tunc spretis atque calcatis divinis numinibus in vicem certæ
religionis mentita sacrilega præsumptione Dei quem prædicaret unicum conflectis,
observationibus vanis fallens omnes homines, et miserum maritum decipiens,
matutino mero, et continuo stupro corpus Mancaparat. Talis illa mulier miro me
persequebatur odio nam et ante lucano recubans adhuc subjungi machinæ novitium
clamabat asinum."—Ita citat Lardnerius, Tom. 4. p. 107.
635 Univ. Mag. 1778. p. 134.
636 [Greek].
637 Compare the testimony of Plutarch in this DIEGESIS.
638 This Parenthesis is actually found in the Latin version of
Kartholt.
639 2 Corinth. 12. 2.
640 [Greek]—Pro auctoritate
Kortholtus, p. 142.
641 2 Corinth. 12. 7; 4 Galet. 13; 1 Coloss. 24; 2 Corinth 11.
6;—1 Corinth. 2. 3.; 2 Corinth. 5. 13; 2 Corinth. 10. 10.
642 [Greek].
643 This passage is quoted before in the chapter on Æsculapius. I
have also before quoted the TESTIMONY OF LUCIAN, p. 376, as satisfactorily
proving the identity of St. Paul, distinctively from this testimony to the
character of Christianity.
644 [Greek]—those who cast away every thing.—Dio Prus.
645 [Greek]—like the Galileans.—Arrian.
646 [Greek]—to the impious people in Palestine.
647 Both those philosophers were living, and must
have experienced the immediate effects, or received the earliest information of
the existence of Jesus Christ, had such a person ever existed; their ignorance
or their wilful silence on the subject, is not less than outrageously
improbable. Whatever might be their dispositions with respect to the doctrines
of Jesus; the miraculous darkness which is said to have accompanied his
crucifixion, was a species of evidence that must have forced itself upon their
senses. "Each of these philosophers in a laborious work, has recorded all the
great phenomena of nature, earthquakes, meteors, comets, and eclipses, which his
indefatigable curiosity could collect; neither of them have mentioned, or even
alluded, to the miraculous darkness at the crucifixion"—Gibbon. Alas! the
Christian is constrained to own that omnipotence itself, is not-omnipotent.
648 Were common sense consulted in matters
of biblical criticism, what would it say to the supposition that an Epistle to
the Romans should be written in a language of which the Romans were utterly
ignorant? or to the fact, of the many words in the Greek Testament which are
nothing more than Latin words written in Greek characters, and such as no Greek
writer of those times would either have used or known the use of?
649 He first introduced the present division of the
text of the New Testament into verses.—Michaelis, vol. 2, pt. I, p. 527.
650 The number of the various readings is admitted to be at least
one hundred and thirty thousand ; the total number of words is one hundred and
eighty one thousand two hundred and fifty-three.
651 Yet these propagandists, propagating in God’s name what they know
to be a—would, to be sure, pass themselves off for honest men—aye, as
honest as the clippers and coiners who pay their way with a great deal of really
good money, only clipping in, here and there, a known dump. If, in our own time,
all our bishops, and clergy, and all religionists, of all sorts, still concur in
circulating or countenancing that as truth, which they know to be false, what
chance, think we, had truth in the struggle, in olden time?
652 Romulus commenced the building of Rome
about 751 years before the Christian æra.
653 Antiquate. 18, 3.
654 Tertullian, adv. Judæos, c. 8.
655 John ii. 18.
656 [Greek]—Apol. 1, p. 49.
657 [Greek]—And John, who leaned on the Lord’s bosom, who having become a priest wore a petalon.—Euseb. Lib. 3. C. 25.—Popish trumpery so soon in fashion
!
658 [Greek]
659 Senator and Compiler of the
Tripartite History, i.e. the Ecclesiastical Histories of Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret united.—See this argument handled in my Syntagma
p. 68. Published from this prison in refutation of the infinite vituperations of
the Christian Instruction Society.
660 Quoted thus in Evans’s Sketches, 15th
ed. p. 5.
661 Evans’s Sketches, 15th ed. Pref. xv.
662 Pastoral Letter from the Scottish Presbytery 1827, p. 39.