We find nothing more divine in the morality of Jesus Christ than what
can be drawn from the works of ancient authors; for this reason,
perhaps every text in his code of morals is either borrowed from
their's or is an imitation of it. St. Augustine [50] acknowledges that
in one of the so-called heathen writers, he discovered the whole of
the commencement of the gospel according to St. John. We must remark
also, that this apostle was so much accustomed to plunder others,
that he has not scrupled to pillage from the prophets their enigmas
and visions, for the purpose of composing his Apocalypse. Again,
whence arises that agreement between the doctrines of the Old and
New Testament and those of Plato, unless the Rabbis and others who
composed the Jewish Scriptures had stolen from that distinguished
man. The account of the creation of the world given in his Timaeus,
is much more satisfactory than that recorded in the book of Genesis;
and it will not do to say that Plato, in his tour through Egypt, had
read the books of the Jews, since, by the confession of St. Augustine,
king Ptolemy had not ordered them to be translated till long after
the philosopher had left the country.
The landscape which Socrates describes to Simias (Phæton,) possesses
infinitely more beauty than the Paradise of Eden: and the fable of
the Hermaphrodites [51] is beyond comparison a better invention than
that which we read of in Genesis, where we are told that one of Adam's
ribs was taken from him for the purpose of creating a female out of it.
Can any more plausible account of the overthrow of Sodom and
Gomorrah be given, than that it was caused by Phaeton? Is there no
resemblance between the fall of Lucifer and that of Vulcan, or of
the giants struck down by the thunderbolts of Jove. How close the
resemblance between Sampson and Hercules; Elijah and Phaeton; Joseph
and Hypolitus; Nebuchadnezzar and Lycaon; Tantalus and the rich man
in torment; [52] the manna in the wilderness and the ambrosia of the
gods! St. Augustine, [53] St. Cyril, and Theophilactus, compare Jonah
with Hercules, called Trinoctius, because he had been three days and
three nights in the belly of a whale.
The river which Daniel speaks of in chap. vii, v. 10, of his
Prophecies, is palpably drawn from that Pyriphlegethon to which
Plato alludes in his dialogue on the immortality of the soul. The
idea of "Original Sin" is taken from the account of Pandora's box;
and the interrupted sacrifices of Isaac and of Jephtha's daughter are
borrowed from that Iphigenia, in whose room a hind was offered up. What
we read of concerning Lot and his wife, is nearly the same as that
which fabulous history informs us occurred to Bancis and Philemon. The
histories of Perseus and of Bellerophon are the foundation of Michael
and the demon whom he vanquished. In short, it is abundantly manifest
that the authors of the Scriptures have copied the works of Hesiod,
Homer, and some other ancient writers, almost word for word.
§ 18.
With respect to Jesus Christ himself, Celsus, by appealing to his
opponent Origen, shows that he had taken some of his most approved
apothegms from Plato--Such as this: "It is easier for a camel to go
through the eye of a needle, than a rich man to enter into the kingdom
of God." [54] It was owing to the sect of the Pharisees, to which he
belonged, that his followers believed in the immortality of the soul,
the resurrection, and the torments of hell; and also in the greater
part of his morality, [55] the whole of which I find in Epictetus,
Epicures, and a few others. This last mentioned philosopher was
referred to by St. Jerome, as a man whose virtues ought to put the
best Christians to the blush; and whose mode of life was so temperate
that a morsel of cheese, with bread and water constituted his highest
repast. Leading a life so frugal, this philosopher, heathen as he
was, declared that it was far better to be unfortunate and gifted
with reason, than to be rich and opulent without it; adding, that
wealth and wisdom were rarely found united in the same individual,
and that it was impossible to enjoy happiness or contentment unless
our conduct were guided by prudence, justice and honesty, which are
the qualities whence flow all true and lasting enjoyments.
As to Epictetus, I do not believe that there ever existed a man,
not even excepting Jesus Christ, more firm, more self-denying,
more equable, or who at any time gave forth to the world a more
sublime system of morality. Were it not that I should exceed the
limits which I have prescribed to myself in this treatise, I could
recount many beautiful traits in his character; but the reader must be
contented with one example. When a slave to Epaphroditus, a captain of
Nero's guards, his master took the brutal fancy to writhe his limbs,
Epictetus, perceiving that it gave the monster satisfaction, said with
a smile, that he saw clearly that the joke would not end until he had
broken one of them, which happened accordingly. The philosopher with
the same equanimity and the same smile, merely said, "Did I not tell
you that you would certainly break the limb?" Where is there on record
another instance of like firmness? How would Jesus Christ have acted
in the circumstances?--he who wept and trembled at the least alarm,
and who in his last moments exhibited a pusillanimity altogether
contemptible, and which was never shown by the martyrs for his faith.
If the work which Arian wrote concerning the life and death of our
philosopher had been preserved, I have no doubt that we would have
been in possession of many more examples of his equanimity than we
have at present. I know that the priests will speak of the example
which I have instanced, as they speak of the virtues of philosophic
minds in general, and assert that it is based on vanity, and that
it is by no means what it appears to be; but I know also, that those
people are accustomed to speak ex cathedra whatever suits their purpose
and to think they sufficiently earn the money which is given them for
instructing the people, by declaiming against every man who knows what
sober reason and real virtue are. Nothing in the world can be less in
congruity with the actions of these superstitious men who decry them,
than the manner of the truly learned. The former, having studied for
no other end than to obtain a place to give them bread, become vain,
and congratulate themselves when they have obtained it, as if they had
arrived at the state of perfection; whereas it is nothing else to them
than a state of idleness, pride, voluptuousness, and licentiousness,--a
condition in which the great majority of them hold in no respect
whatever the maxims of that religion which they profess. But we will
leave these men, who have not the remotest conception of real virtue,
and examine the evidences for the divinity of their master.
§ 19.
Having considered the politics and the morality of Jesus Christ,
wherein we find nothing so useful or so sublime as we find in the
writings of the ancients, let us now consider if the reputation which
he acquired after his death be a proof of his divinity.
The generality of mankind are so much accustomed to what is irrational,
that it is astonishing to find people endeavouring to draw a rational
inference from their conduct. Experience teaches us that they are
always running after shadows, and that they neither do nor say anything
betokening common sense. These fanatical notions on which they found
their belief will always be in vogue, in spite of the efforts of the
learned who have invariably set themselves against them. So rooted are
their follies that they had rather be crammed with them to repletion
than make any effort to be rid of them.
It was to no purpose that Moses boasted that he was the interpreter
of God, and attempted to prove his mission and his authority by
extraordinary signs. If he absented himself for a short time (as he
did occasionally, to hold conference with the Divinity, by his account,
and as in like manner did Numa Pompilius and many other legislators),
it was only to find on his return strong traces of the worship of the
gods whom the Hebrew people had seen in Egypt. It was in vain that
he had led them for forty years through the desert, that they might
lose recollection of the divinities which they had left behind. They
had not forgot them, and they always wished for some visible symbol
to precede them, which, if they had got, they would have worshipped
obstinately, at the risk of being exposed to extreme cruelty.
The pride-inspired contempt alone which led them to the hatred of
other nations, made them insensibly forget the gods of Egypt, and
attach themselves to that of Moses. They worshipped him for some time
with all the outward observance of the law; but with that inconstancy
which leads the vulgar to run after novelty, they deserted him at
last to follow the God of Jesus Christ.
§ 20.
The most ignorant alone of the Hebrews followed Moses--such also
were they who ran after Jesus Christ; and their name being legion,
and as they mutually supported each other, it is not to be wondered
at if this new system of error was widely circulated. The teaching of
these novelties was not without danger to those who undertook the task,
but the enthusiasm which they excited extinguished every fear. Thus,
the disciples of Christ, miserable as they were in his train, and
even dying of hunger--(as we learn from the necessity under which they
were, together with their leader, of plucking the ears of corn in the
fields to sustain their lives)--these disciples never despaired till
they saw their master in the hands of his executioners, and totally
incapable of gifting them with that wealth, and power, and grandeur,
which he had led them to expect.
After his death, his disciples being frustrated in their fondest hopes,
made a virtue of necessity. Banished as they were from every place,
and persecuted by the Jews, who were eager to treat them as they had
treated their master, they wandered into the neighboring countries; in
which, on the evidence of some women, they set forth the resurrection
of Christ, his divinity, and the other fables wherewith the gospels
are filled.
It was their want of success among the Jewish people which led to
the resolution of seeking their fortune among the Gentiles; but as
a little more knowledge than they possessed was necessary for the
accomplishment of their design--the Gentiles being philosophically
trained, and consequently too much the friends of truth and reason
to be duped by trifles--the sectaries of Jesus gained over to their
cause a young man [56] of ardent temperament and active habits,
somewhat better instructed than the illiterate fishermen of Galilee,
and more capable of drawing audiences to listen to his talk. He being
warned from heaven (miraculously of course), leagued himself with
them, and drew over some partizans by the threat of "fabled hell,"
(a plagiarism from the ancient poets), and by the hope of the joys of
paradise, into which blessed abode he was impudent enough to assert
that he had at one time been introduced.
These disciples then, by strength of delusion and lying, procured
for their master the honor of passing for a god--an honor at which,
in his life-time, Jesus could never have arrived. His destiny was
no better than that of Homer, nor even so good; inasmuch as seven
cities which had despised and starved the latter in his lifetime,
struggled and fought with each other, in order to ascertain to which
was due the merit of having given him birth.
§ 21.
It may be judged now, from what has been advanced, that Christianity,
like every other religion, is only a complicated imposture--the success
and progress of which would astonish the inventors themselves, could
they revisit this world. Without bewildering ourselves, however, in
a labyrinth of error and contradiction, such as we have alluded to,
we go to Mahomet, who founded his law on maxims entirely opposite to
those of Jesus Christ.
§ 22.