* See on this subject the Treatise of Plutarch respecting Isis and Osiris.
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to be noticed by their G.o.d; manifesting by this, that they alone wish and are able to persuade the ign.o.ble, the insensate, slaves, stupid women, and little children and fools.
"We may see in the forum infamous characters and jugglers* collected together, who dare not show their tricks to intelligent men; but when they perceive a lad, and a crowd of slaves and stupid men, they endeavour to ingratiate themselves with such characters as these.
"We also may see in their own houses, wool-weavers, shoemakers, fullers, and the most illiterate and rustic men, who dare not say any thing in the presence of more elderly and wiser fathers of families; but when they meet with children apart from their parents, and certain stupid women with them, then they discuss something of a wonderful nature; such as that it is not proper to pay attention to parents and preceptors, but that they should be persuaded by them. For, say they, your parents and preceptors are delirious and stupid, and neither know what is truly good, nor are able to effect it, being prepossessed with trifles of an unusual nature. They
* Celsus, as we are informed by Origen, compares the Christians with men of this description.
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add, that they alone know how it is proper to live, and that if children are persuaded by them, they will be blessed, and also the family to which they belong. At the same time likewise that they say this, if they see any one of the wiser teachers of erudition approaching, or the father of the child to whom they are speaking, such of them as are more cautious defer their discussion to another time; but those that are more audacious, urge the children to shake off the reins of parental authority, whispering to them, that when their fathers and preceptors are present, they neither wish nor are able to unfold to children what is good, as they are deterred by the folly and rusticity of these men, who are entirely corrupted, are excessively depraved, and would punish them [their true admonishers]. They further add, that if they wish to be instructed by them, it is requisite that they should leave their parents and preceptors, and go with women and little children, who are their playfellows, to the conclave of women, or to the shoemaker"s or fuller"s shop, that they may obtain perfection [by embracing their doctrines].
"That I do not however accuse the Christians more bitterly than truth compels, may be conjectured from hence, that the criers who call men to other mysteries proclaim as follows: "Let him approach,
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whose hands are pure, and whose words are wise." And again, others proclaim: "Let him approach, who is pure from all wickedness, whose soul is not conscious of any evil, and who leads a just and upright life."
And these things are proclaimed by those who promise a purification from error. Let us now hear who those are that are called to the Christian mysteries. "_Whoever is a sinner, whoever is unwise, whoever is a fool, and whoever, in short, is miserable, him the kingdom of G.o.d will receive_." Do you not therefore call a sinner, an unjust man, a thief, a housebreaker, a wizard, one who is sacrilegious, and a robber of sepulchres? What other persons would the crier nominate, who should call robbers together?
"G.o.d, according to the Christians, descended to men; and, as consequent to this, it was fancied that he had left his own proper abode.
"G.o.d, however, being unknown among men [as the Christians say], and in consequence of this appearing to be in a condition inferior to that of a divine being, was not willing to be known, and therefore made trial of those who believed and of those who did not believe in him; just as men who have become recently rich, call on G.o.d as a witness of their abundant and entirely mortal ambition.
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"The Christians have a.s.serted nothing paradoxical or new concerning a deluge or a conflagration, but have perverted the doctrine of the Greeks and barbarians, that in long periods of time, and recursions and concursions of the stars, conflagrations and deluges take place; and also that after the last deluge, which was that of Deucalion, the period required, conformably to the mutation of wholes, a conflagration*.
This the Christians, however, have perverted by representing G.o.d as descending with fire as a spy.
"Again, we will repeat and confirm by many arguments, an a.s.sertion which has nothing in it novel, but was formerly universally acknowledged. G.o.d is good, is beautiful and blessed, and his very nature consists in that which is most beautiful and the best. If therefore he descended to men, his nature must necessarily be changed. But the change must be from good to evil, and from the beautiful to the base, from felicity to infelicity, and from that which is most excellent to that which is most worthless. Who, however, would choose to be thus changed? Besides, to be changed and transformed pertains to that which is naturally mortal; but an invariable
* See Taylor"s translation of Proclus on the Timaeus of Plato, Book I.
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sameness of subsistence is the prerogative of an immortal nature. Hence G.o.d could never receive a mutation of this kind*.
"Either G.o.d is in reality changed, as the Christians say, into a mortal body,--and we have before shown that this is impossible; or he himself is not changed, but he causes those who behold him to think that he is, and thus falsifies himself, and involves others in error. Deception, however, and falsehood are indeed otherwise evil, and can only be [properly] employed by any one as a medicine, either in curing friends that are diseased or have some vicious propensity, or those that are insane, or for the purpose of avoiding danger from enemies. But no one who has vicious propensities, or is insane, is dear to Divinity.
Nor does G.o.d fear any one, in order that by wandering he may escape danger**.
* See a most admirable defence of the immutability of Divinity, by Proclus, in Taylor"s Introduction to the Second and Third Books of Plato"s Republic, in vol. i. of his translation of Plato"s Works. See also Taylor"s note at the end of vol. iii. of his translation of Pausanias, p. 235.
** The original of this sentence is, [--------] the latter part of which, [--------], is thus, erroneously translated by Spencer, "ut imposture opus habeat ad evadendum periculum."
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"The Christians, adding to the a.s.sertions of the Jews, say that the son of G.o.d came on account of the sins of the Jews; and that the Jews, punishing Jesus and causing him to drink _gall_, raised the _bile_ of G.o.d against them."
Celsus after this, in his usual way deriding both Jews and Christians, compares all of them to a mult.i.tude of bats, or to ants coming out of their holes, or to frogs seated about a marsh, or to earthworms that a.s.semble in a corner of some muddy place, and contend with each other which of them are most noxious. He likewise represents them as saying, "G.o.d has manifested and predicted all things to us; and deserting the whole world and the celestial circulation, and likewise paying no attention to the widely-extended earth, he regards our concerns alone, to us alone sends messengers, and he will never cease to explore by what means we may always a.s.sociate with him." He likewise resembles us to earthworms acknowledging that G.o.d exists; and he says that we earthworms, i. e. the Jews and Christians, being produced by G.o.d after him, are entirely similar to him. All things too are subject to us, earth and water, the air and the stars, and are ordained to be subservient to us*. Afterwards
* This reminds me of the following beautiful lines in...
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these earthworms add: "Now because some of us have sinned, G.o.d will come, or he will send his son, in order that he may burn the unjust, and that those who are not so may live eternally with him." And Celsus concludes with observing that "such a.s.sertions would be more tolerable if they were made by earthworms or frogs, than by Jews or Christians contending with each other."
Celsus, after having adduced, from the writings of the heathens, instances of those who contended for the antiquity of their race, such as the Athenians, Egyptians, Arcadians, and Phrygians, and also of those who have a.s.serted that some among them were aborigines, says, that "the Jews being concealed in a corner of Palestine, men perfectly in-erudite, and who never had previously heard the same things celebrated by Hesiod and innumerable
...Epistle I. of Pope"s Essay on Man, in which Pride is represented as saying:
"For me kind nature wakes her genial power, Suckles each herb, and spreads out every flower; Annual for me the grape, the rose, renew The juice nectarious and the balmy dew.
For me the mine a thousand treasures brings: For me health gushes from a thousand springs; Seas roll to waft me, suns to light me rise, My footstool earth, my canopy the skies."
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other divine men, composed a most incredible and inelegant narration, that a certain man was fashioned by the hands of G.o.d, and inspired by him with the breath of life; that a woman was taken from the side of the man; that precepts were given to them by G.o.d; and that a serpent was adverse to these precepts. Lastly, they make the serpent to frustrate the commands of G.o.d: in all this, narrating a certain fable worthy only of being told by old women, and which most impiously makes G.o.d to be from the first imbecile, and incapable of persuading one man fashioned by himself to act in a way conformable to his will.
"The Christians are most impiously deceived and involved in error, through the greatest ignorance of the meaning of divine enigmas. For they make a certain being whom they call the Devil, and who in the Hebrew tongue is denominated Satan, hostile to G.o.d. It is therefore perfectly stupid and unholy to a.s.sert that the greatest G.o.d, wishing to benefit mankind, was incapable of accomplishing what he wished, through having one that opposed him, and acted contrary to his will. The son of G.o.d, therefore, was vanquished by the devil; and being punished by him, teaches us also to despise the punishments inflicted by him; Christ at the same time predicting that Satan would appear on
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the earth, and, like himself, would exhibit great and admirable works, usurping to himself the glory of G.o.d. The son of G.o.d also adds, that it is not fit to pay attention to Satan, because he is a seducer, but that himself alone is worthy of belief. This, however, is evidently the language of a man who is an impostor earnestly endeavouring to prevent, and previously guarding himself against, the attempts of those who think differently from and oppose him. But, according to the Christians, the son of G.o.d is punished by the devil, who also punishes us in order that through this we may be exercised in endurance. These a.s.sertions, however, are perfectly ridiculous. For it is fit, I think, that the devil should be punished, and not that men should be threatened with punishment who are calumniated by him.
"Further still: If G.o.d, like Jupiter in the comedy, being roused from a long sleep, wished to liberate the human race from evils, why did he send only into a corner of the earth this spirit of whom you boast?
though he ought in a similar manner to have animated many other bodies, and to have sent them to every part of the habitable globe. The comic poet indeed, in order to excite the laughter of the audience in the theatre, says that Jupiter, after he was roused from his sleep, sent Mercury to the Athenians and Lacedaemonsians:--but do not
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you think that it is a much more ridiculous fiction to a.s.sert that G.o.d sent his son to the Jews?
"Many--and these, men whose names are not known,--both in temples and out of temples, and some also a.s.sembling in cities or armies, are easily excited from any casual cause, as if they possessed a prophetic power.
Each of these likewise is readily accustomed to say, "I am G.o.d, or the son of G.o.d, or a divine spirit. But I came because the world will soon be destroyed, and you, O men! on account of your iniquities will perish.
I wish, however, to save you, and you shall again see me, returning with a celestial army. Blessed is he who now worships me; but I will cast all those who do not, into eternal fire, together with the cities and regions to which they belong. Those men also that do not now know the punishments which are reserved for them, shall afterwards repent and lament in vain: but those who believe in me I will for ever save."
Extending to the mult.i.tude these insane and perfectly obscure a.s.sertions, the meaning of which no intelligent man is able to discover,--for they are unintelligible and a mere nothing,--they afford an occasion to the stupid and to jugglers of giving to them whatever interpretation they please.
"Again, they do not consider, if the prophets of
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the G.o.d of the Jews had predicted that this would be his son, why did this G.o.d legislatively ordain through Moses, that the Jews should enrich themselves and acquire power; should fill the earth with their progeny; and should slay and cut off the whole race of their enemies, which Moses did, as he says, in the sight of the Jews; and besides this, threatening that unless they were obedient to these his commands, he should consider them as his enemies;--why, after these things had been promulgated by G.o.d, did his son, a Nazarean man, exclude from any access to his father, the rich and powerful, the wise and renowned? For he says that we ought to pay no more attention than ravens do, to food and the necessaries of life*, and that we should be less concerned about our clothing than the lilies of the field. Again, he a.s.serts, that to him who smites us on one cheek we should likewise turn the other**. Whether, therefore, does Moses or Jesus lie? Or, was the Father who sent Jesus forgetful of what he had formerly said to Moses? Or, condemning his own laws, did he alter his opinion, and send a messenger to mankind with mandates of a contrary nature?
* Luke xii. 24.
** Luke vi. 29.
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