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Romance" for the imaginary founder of the Therapeutan college. What had been said to have been done in India, could be as well said to have been done in Palestine. The change of names and places, and the mixing up of various sketches of the Egyptian, Phœnician, Greek, and Roman mythology, would constitute a sufficient disguise to evade the languid curiosity of infant scepticism. A knowledge within the acquisition only of a few, and which the strongest possible interest bound that few to hold inviolate, would soon pass entirely from the records of human memory. A long continued habit of imposing upon others would in time subdue the minds of the impostors themselves, and cause them to become at length the dupes of their own deception, to forget the temerity in which their first assertions had originated, to catch the infection of the prevailing credulity, and to believe their own lie.

In such, the known and never-changing laws of nature, and the invariable operation of natural causes, we find the solution of every difficulty and perplexity that remoteness of time might throw in the way of our judgment of past events.

But when, to such an apparatus of rational probability, we are enabled to bring in the absolute ratification of unquestionable testimony,-to show that what was in supposition more probable than any thing else that could be supposed, was in fact that which absolutely took place, we have the highest degree of evidence of which history is capable; we can give no other definition of historical truth itself.

The probability, then, that that sect of vagrant quackdoctors, the Therapeuta, who were established in Egypt and its neighbourhood many ages before the period assigned by later theologians as that of the birth of Christ, were the original fabricators of the writings contained in the New Testament; becomes certainty on the basis of evidence, than which history hath nothing more certain-by the unguarded, but explicit-unwary, but most unqualified and positive, statement of the historian Eusebius, that "those ancient Therapeute were Christians, and that their ancient writings were our Gospels and Epistles." * The wonder with which Lardner quotes this astonishing confession of the great

*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.

pillar of the pretended evidences of the Christian religion,* only shows how aware he was of the fatal inferences with which it teems.

It is most essentially observable, that the Essenes or Therapeuts, in addition to their monopoly of the art of healing, professed themselves to be Eclectics; they held Plato in the highest esteem, though they made no scruple to join with his doctrines, whatever they thought conformable to reason in the tenets and opinions of the other philosophers.

"These sages were of opinion that true philosophy,† the greatest and most salutary gift of God to mortals, was scattered, in various portions, through all the different sects; and that it was, consequently, the duty of every wise man to gather it from the several corners where it lay dispersed, and to employ it, thus re-united, in destroying the dominion of impiety and vice." The principal seat of this philosophy was at Alexandria; and "it manifestly appears," says Mosheim,§ "from the testimony of Philo the Jew, who was himself one of this sect, that this (Eclectic) philosophy (of this Essenian or Therapeutan sect) was in a flourishing state at Alexandria when our Saviour was upon earth."-Eccl. Hist. Cent. 1, p. 1.

1. We have only to collate the admission of the orthodox Lactantius, that Christianity itself was the Eclectic Philosophy, inasmuch as that "if there had been any one to have collected the truth that was scattered and diffused among the various sects of philosophers and divines into one, and to have reduced it into a system, there would indeed be no difference between him and a Christian :"|| 2. To compare the various tenets and speculations of the different philosophers and religionists of antiquity with the strong and particular smatch of the Platonic philosophy, which we actually see pervading the New Testament and to add the weight in all reason and fairness due to the positive testimony of that unquestionably learned and intelligent Manichæan Christian and bishop, Faustus, that "it is an undoubted fact, that the New Testament was not written by Christ himself, nor by his * Credibility, vol. 2, 4to. p. 361.

+ 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.

Mosheim, vol. i. p. 169.

§ Ibid. p. 37.

|| Admission No. 10 in the chapter of Admissions.

apostles, but a long while after their time, by some unknown persons, who, lest they should not be credited when they wrote of affairs they were little acquainted with, affixed to their works the names of apostles, or of such as were supposed to have been their companions, and then said that they were written according to them."Faust. lib. 2.

To this important passage, of which I reserve the original text for my next occasion of quoting it,* I here subjoin what the same high authority objects, if possibly with still increasing emphasis, against the arguments of St. Augustine :-"For many things have been inserted by your ancestors in the speeches of our Lord, which, though put forth under his name, agree not with his faith; especially since, as already it has been often proved by us, that these things were not written by Christ, nor his apostles, but a long while after their assumption, by I know not what sort of HALF-JEWS, not even agreeing with themselves, who made up their tale out of reports and opinions merely; and yet, fathering the whole upon the names of the apostles of the Lord, or on those who were supposed to have followed the apostles; they mendaciously pretended that they had written their lies and conceits, according to them." The conclusion is irresistible.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE CHRISTIAN SCRIPTURES, DOCTRINES, DISCIPLINE, AND ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY, LONG ANTERIOR TO THE PERIOD ASSIGNED AS THAT OF THE BIRTH OF CHRIST.

FROM the more general account of that remarkable sect of philosophical religionists, the Egyptian Therapeuts, which we have collected from the admissions of the most

* In chapter 15.

"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. 83, c. 3.

strenuous defenders of the evidences of the Christian religion; we pass into the more immediate sanctuary of the sect itself, to learn from the unquestionable authority of one who was a member of their community, all that can now be known of what their scriptures, doctrines, discipline, and ecclesiastical polity, were.

On the threshold of this avenue, we only pause to recapitulate for the reader's admonition, the certainties of information already established; which, carrying with him through the important discoveries to which we now approach, he shall with the quicker apprehension discern, and with the easier method weigh and appreciate the value of the further information to which now we tend.

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

2. The word Essene is nothing more than the Egyptian word for that of which Therapeut is the Greek, each of them signifying healer or doctor, and designating the character of the sect as professing to be endued with the miraculous gift of healing; and more especially so with respect to the diseases of the mind.

*

3. Their name of Ascetics indicated the severe discipline and exercise of self-mortification, long fastings, prayers, contemplation, and even making of themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake, as did Origen, Melito, and others, who derived their Christianity from the same school; and as Christ himself is represented to have recognised and approved their practice.

4. Their name of Monks indicated their delight in solitude, their contemplative life, and their entire segregation and abstraction from the world: which Christ, in the Gospel, is in like manner represented, as describing as characteristic of the community of which he himself was a member.t

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

6. Their name of Eclectics indicated that their divine

* "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.

"They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." John xvii. 16. "I pray for them, I pray not for the world.” Ibid. 9. Surely, the world ought to be much obliged to him!

philosophy was a collection of all the diverging rays of truth which were scattered through the various systems of Pagan and Jewish piety, into one bright focus-that their religion was made up of "whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report-if there were any virtue, and if there were any praise," (Phil. iv. 8,) wherever found; alike indifferent, whether it were derived from "saint, from savage, or from sage-Jehovah, Jove, or Lord."

7. They had a flourishing university, or corporate body, established upon these principles at Alexandria in Egypt, long before the period assigned to the birth of Christ.

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

9. Eusebius, from whom all our knowledge of ecclesiastical antiquity is derived, declares his opinion, that "the sacred writings used by this sect, were none other than our Gospels, and the writings of the apostles; and that certain DIEGESES, after the manner of allegorical interpretations of the ancient prophets; these were their epistles."*

10. It is certain, that the Epistles and Gospels, and the whole system of Christianity, as conveyed to us upon the credit of the fathers; do at this day bear the character of being such an Eclectic epitome or selection from all the forms of religion and philosophy then known in the world, as these Eclectic philosophers professed to have formed.

11. It is certain that our three first Gospels were not written by the persons whose names they bear, but are derived from an earlier draft of the evangelical story, which was entitled the DIEGESIS.

With these lights in thy hand, enter reader, on the stupendous vista that I unlock for thee, by the best translation I could make, and better than any that I could find ready-made, of the most important historical document in the whole world: whichever be the second in importance.

* Ταχα δ' εικος α φησιν αρχαιων παρ αυτοις ειναι συγγράμματα, ευαγγελια, και τας των αποστολων γραφας, ΔΙΗΓΗΣΕΙΣ τε τινας κατα το εικος των παλαι προφήτων ερμηνευτικάς-επιστολαι, ταυτα ειναι.—Euseb. Ec. His. lib. 2, c. 16. fol. ed. Coloniæ Allobrogum, 1612, p. 60, ad literam D, linea 6.

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